Ticket
The Apollo
14th October 1980

Another case in point; this time at a Siouxsie gig.For this particular affair the security stripped everyone of any studded jackets , belts and other assorted paraphernalia you wouldn’t be surprised to find at such an occasion. Well I had on this bullet belt thing (the one I did a summersault in on a dancefloor onetime without any thought of the consequences of my actions, and which left me semi paralysed for a week or two.....it wasn’t big or a clever thing to do!). As I was handing it over I had the affront to ask how I was going to get it back amongst all the other piles of regalia they had stacked in the kiosk and I was told, don’t worry, you will. Well I thought that sounds a bit skewiffy, so I wrote me name and address on a bit of paper, rolled it up and stuck it in one of the cartridge things before handing it in. I’d always been a big fan of the boy scout motto "Be Prepared" as well as being a big fan of Siouxsie, and this was the “Ju Ju” album tour I think. As with times before she was great. Altered images were good too and I think had just released “Dead Popstars” , a sub Siouxsie, sinister ,gothy murder ballad kind of a thing before they morphed into the live popstar, catchy ditty kind of band they truly were.
At the end of the gig there was the usual mad dash to try and get to Picadilly before the last busses went and so everyone who’d had to deposit their cherished personal effects with security were frantically trying to get them back .Of course amidst the chaos a near riot ensued. We were told to wait outside the entrance in the pissing rain while it got sorted, with people clambering and banging on the glass. Next thing we were told to go round the back for our stuff and this was a large mob of people, so everyone charged round the back only to be told a few minutes later to go back round the front. Well this happened a couple of times and of course everyone was drenched by then, probably missed their buses and were well wound up. Also logistically you couldn’t see how they were possibly going to give everyone their stuff back as there was no way of knowing. Anyway at one point when we’d all rushed round the front again and everyone was shouting, banging the glass etc, at the bouncers stood smugly on the other side, the next thing the bouncers took to pushing open the doors just enough for their companions in arms to take pot shots at whoever was up the front; very professional indeed! Meanwhile me with me black dyed hair oh so tastefully spiked up with soap ,(I’d stopped using boot polish by then as it played havoc with the bed linen and I wasn't in possession of a washing machine at that particular juncture in time ..), had dye and suds streaming down my face in the lashing rain, stinging me eyes and probably making me look like an understudy for a future Robert Smith ,who hadn’t quite taken to his trademark look just yet. Just remembered seeing them at The Apollo round this time as well...That man needs a complete makeover!
Well to make this long sorry saga less longer, eventually the security took to just throwing piles of jackets, belts etc, out the door and people just left with what they could grab, some with a couple of jackets, others with nothing, including me. There is a happy ending though .A week or so later I was re-united with me belt as one of those nice bouncers lived in Wythenshawe and recognised my address and so dropped it round my mam’s when I was at work; there’s always one good apple.....After that I took to wearing beige and pink, braces instead of belts etc., just so such an unsavoury and traumatic incident didn’t occur again...
Right that'll do for me Apollo whinge; a good bit of therapy after all these years....