The Night I Performed at an Iconic Venue

I gatecrashed the stage and sang, and I’m glad I did

The entrance to the Station (Photo by permission of northeast underground)

As a young man, I was heavily into the punk rock scene, and via my involvement in that, I produced a crude music fanzine called Aural Nightmares. I also attended many local gigs, starting off with mainstream acts, such as Chelsea and the Vibrators, but later branching off into the anarcho-punk sector, seeing bands like Conflict, Amebix and the Subhumans.

I also used to sometimes watch a young local band, called The Possessed, at rehearsals. They were a very good outfit, doing covers of such gems as Killing Joke’s Eighties, as well as a crop of their own material.

One of my fanzine contacts was Pete, guitarist with Political Asylum from Edinburgh. I was conducting an interview with him by post, as was the norm in those pre-Internet days. In one of his letters, he told me that his band were to play a gig at the Station in Gateshead, a music venue housed in a former police social club. There were to be five bands playing that night.

Front covers of the punk fanzine did (My own image)

That got me thinking. The Possessed, who had now changed their name to Post War, were ready for their first gig, and…