A cover of an unreleased Wedding Present song at Champagnes night club in Horsham 1989.
The Gits – Lay Off
Champagnes
Where indiependent music happened in Horsham in the mid to late 1980s on a Tuesday or Wednesday night. Knocked down to build a supermarket.
Der Anfang vom Ende
On 2nd February 1989 the Gits in a rare headlining slot were joined for a benefit concert in aid of Greenpeace by The Perfect Shade and former Ever guitarist Pete Whittick who, if I remember correctly, counted himself in aloud on every number despite being solo.
As Ben put it in a preview article a couple of weeks before,
Seriously, if you are going to rape the environment, you are going to rape your children. I made that up myself
This was the first gig of Chris Morris’ short tenure with the band before I idiotically ousted him for not wanting us to play at a gig he’d organised. Though we hadn’t peaked yet that decision might well be seen as the beginning of the end for the band.
This happened:
This will play. You get a blank playlist thumbnail if you’re not connected to the YouTube API.
And what would be £500 today was raised.
We got the usual review,
If audience reaction alone is a good indicator of a band’s ability then the Git’s were excellent, for they had a large section of the audience boogying wildly. But it must be said The Gits did seem to know a lot of their audience personally.
So knowing quite a lot of the audience in your home town and actually deigning to interact with them rather than act as untouchable rock gods counted against us, as did people enjoying the gig. It’s lucky the same reviewer never had to suffer the Beatles at the Cavern. Strangely the same audience turning up to see the people they knew in other locals bands never warranted a mention.
In Local News…
Willie Austen will be appearing at the Limeburners on Wednesday 15th February 1989.
If you missed that one you will be pleased to know that as of August 2014 he still plays there regularly.
And Then There Were Three
With Jason heading to RADA and Matt to Oxford University (I forget which College) the “new streamlined “Thatcherite’ Gits” took to the stage of Champagnes night club in Horsham just before Christmas 1988 to support Crawley’s Bobby Scarlet who would later morph into Spitfire and achieve a modicum of success. Perhaps significantly they wore leather trousers.
Also on the bill were Groove City 5 about whom I remember nothing, which is still more than the Internet reveals.
In the West Sussex County Times the week before Ben put the readers minds at rest.
In the past, people have thought our songs were about James’ problems but they are observations of other people. He is not going to kill himself after the show.
Joining our heroes on bagpipes for a rendition of Bottle Of Delight was Alistair Adams of Test Department about which Ben remembers thus:
After the bagpipe gig, Al Adams said. “that was great, I’ve not played with a normal band before”. Only time I’ve heard us called that!
I did have a recording of this performance but unfortunately / thankfully it’s gone missing so here is an example of Test Department’s oeuvre.
And one featuring bagpipes.
This would have been Alistair Adams second performance in Horsham that year if Union issues hadn’t prevented him touring with a production of Macbeth that played at the local Arts Centre. I only have vague recollections of the gig but that piece of trivia I remember with clarity. It’s a funny thing memory.
A Heady Whirl
The first Gits gig at Champagnes on Tuesday 9th February 1988 where we supported Whirl.
The local West Sussex County Times review read thus,
Headliners Whirl were their usual boisterous selves. A Mad rush of guitar noise and a couple of catchy melodies characterised their brief set.
With a BBC session, a single and a tour in the near future things could be rosy for the Brighton popsters.
The Gits UK garnered this praise,
With two of three undeniably good songs to their credit there are real signs of talent in this unassuming four-piece.
And some memories of that from Rob,
We just about salvaged the gig by finishing with a song me and Matt had come up with a couple of weeks before, Eventually. I remember this as Jim’s amour of the time laughed heartily at it when I played them the demo. I believe she may have got her comeuppance in some later lyrics.
In Local News…
A vandal proof musical toilet could replace Cowfold’s present lavatories.
What was possibly the only Whirl information on the web has disappeared. If I have the blog post somewhere I’ll upload for posterity.