Reminiscences of youthful folly.

I, like many others am part of one or two Facebook discussion groups. They range from trying to organise a reunion for my old school to one reminiscing the Heavy Metal scene of the 80s and 90s in Sheffield that revolved around clubs with names like "Wappentake" and "Rebels". There was a recent post on one asking if people looked back at the music from those days with fondness or horror.

I'm pasting my reply here verbatim because I'm willing to bet that minus the specifics (I doubt many other places were up flights of stairs) the intent behind the reply will strike a chord. There's bound to be those places we went to in our youth that when remembered give us a sort of warm glow. Rebels is definitely one for me and like I say below, it only takes those opening guitar notes and I'm back inside those purple walls, swigging cheap Newcastle brown ale and watching nicotine dissolved in sweat drip off the light rig onto the bodies below while some fool runs into one of the pillars and brains themself yet again.

Ah, good times, good times. \m/

There's stuff from the 80s and 90s I still listen to, mainly the usual, the cult, the mission, the sisters, ac-dc, motorhead, the occasional foray into Lawnmower Deth and Acid Reign if i'm feeling silly. A lot of the old stuff I look back at with equal parts fondness and bewilderment thinking "did I really listen to that shite?" but then that's the... shall we say... less talented end of the scale. Anyone else remember a band called Sarcofago? Oh god I hope not!

The likes of Rebels and the music played in there are relics of our youth, like my mother and her photos of herself in the Haight / Carnaby Street and her Bob Dylan and early ("out of our heads" era) Stones and Beach Boys records.

We'll remember the good bits and blank out the bad... it's what people do. At least, until we hear that opening riff from "She sells sanctuary" and then we're back in skin tight jeans, bottle of newky brown in hand, playing frogger around the vomit as we run down those stairs to get to the manky burger van and stagger off into the night.