Market de Sade

Dad gave me a lift into Easterby and I got the 8.50 bus. We were soon blasting through the cold grey streets of Alverhouse, Whincliffe, Dearnelow, Ecclesley. . . .

We reached Reddings in the early afternoon and chaos reigned for the half-hour or so while the buses were in. Most seem to be leaving at three, so people milled hopelessly around the station for half-an-hour until all the buses roared out like Le Mans and the station was deserted. We were an hour late getting into Badon and I'd just managed to find Hasted and Andrew's flat at 38 Station Hill, meet his flatmate Bev, and be ushered into his room before he arrived from the Student Union hall, breathless, to drag me back. . . .

The bands were already running through their sound checks. The Steady Highs, a reggae band from Exeworthy (drummer, bassist/vocalist, balding baggy trousered saxophonist, and a guitarist), wandered around with the various members of Market de Sade, both bands occasionally breaking into heaving, thudding rhythms which I could feel in my stomach. A side room was filled with booze.

At about nineish, the expected posers and spike-haired types started to show up, baggy trousers and long dark-checked overcoats abounding, and with the drink flowing, things soon got lively. Market de Sade was a nine-piece band but were nowhere near as good as their sound checks had promised, although the Steady Highs were good, and everyone danced wildly about while I resorted to 45p pints of bright orange cider. I ended up puking in the toilets.

Suddenly, it all seemed to end, the lights flicking on, the hall empty and strewn with paper and party wreckage. I was quite drunk but helped carry band equipment to the van in between puking outside, unseen, and I ‘acquired’ a Steady Highs poster from behind the stage. We ended up at someone's house drinking coffee with Andrew’s friend Ewan.

I slept on a mattress on Andrew’s floor.