Press
Mayflower Club
1981

“Hi, Ron,
Our paths must've crossed many times in the early 80s, based on your recent posts here!
Anyway, nobody likes a critic, but are you sure this is a photo of the Upstarts? It looks like UK Subs to me - and I'm not just confused by the jacket of the guy stood next to Ian of the Varicose Veins, honest!
I always remember the Angelic Upstarts as skinheads from Day One; they certainly were when I saw them in Bolton in 1981 (and saw the unpleasant side of the Longsight Skins first-hand!)
Feel free to prove me wrong - great memories!
Cheers,
Stuart”

“Its definatley the Upstarts in the photo, i remember Mensi used to wear the England football top on a regular basis.”

“It sure was the Upstarts, im in the middle of that lot somewhere!, I went to the Bolton Sports centre gig earlier in the year we had to get a coach fro Manchester Piccadilly - they were banned from Playing Manchester at the time”

“I worked at the mayflower for a short time as a goafer and equipment mover, was at this gig at the side of the stage holding up the PA stack , just out of this picture- you can see mond (blonde hair guitarists) - The upstarts did have some skinhead following, but Mensi always tried to play it down as the right wing element dogged many of thier gigs. much later in 84 they played the swinging sporron and skinheads were not allowed in and threw a metal dustbin through the window of the place - a lifetime ago

This was the height of Oi which was a punk/skin crossover and produced some great music - the enland top came around as the upstarts had rousing song on the 2,000,000 voices LP called "England" a ye old balad I seem to remember”

“buzzalife; I worked the door that night and several others and *think* I can recall you (if nothing else I'll have taken your order for the Chippy run) This gig was an absolute low for me; the on stage racist comments from Mensi created a tension and made it a pretty uncomfortable night for Neville and the boys (club owners). Unforgivable. Fortunately most of the Oi! and 'second summer of punk' bands were top sorts and that gig was an isolated event.”

“Ah those chips - they were tasty, not good for the figure now days though !!!
I did a stint on some of the afternoon under 18 gigs and also some of the grown up ones - Cyrill gave me the job- what a fanstastic way to spend a saturday, working and getting to see some damm fine bands and meeting some fine people like yourself. Gary bushell came up to one gig I think with Dennis Oi as it moved on, remember the gorton beano boys, punks asking for 2p and lots of glue sniffing had to catch the night bus back to salford.”

“Hi Ron long time no see. That is me wearing Dave Millets jacket with the UK subs on the back. Do you see any of the crew anymore?”

“Re: Upstarts gig at Bolton Sports Centre.(Friday 30th January)Supported by Infa-Riot.Probobly the scariest gig I ever went to. Just trying to get out of the place without getting killed was difficult and then sitting on the coach outside for about half an hour with the Bolton skins pelting it with bricks. Bad moments for punk things were changing.”

“Dont suppose youve any more press shots of the Mayflower. There was one in Sounds of a Crass gig I had and lost. Similar to the one youve published and I was in it with Flux of Pink Indians on my jacket. Would love to get hold of it!”

“will have to have a trawl thru my stuff sadly i chucked all my copies of sounds/nme from 77-82 out a few years back (pre ebay god dam it) - hey Mr JJ O,Reily hows you?(Ravs)”

“Angelic Upstarts, 2million voices tour. The support band was Protest. I played drums for them.
The Oi/punk/skinhead thing was a really edgy period. Bigots showed their true colours, as all of a sudden it was trendy to be an extreme right wing racist. Turned out our guitarist was one who went with the trend.”