"Farewell to Fownes"

The hand coloured poster (part of) for the special gig in Brighton on Wednesday night. I nabbed it off the pub wall (The Prince Albert, Trafalgar St), where the gig took place, on my way past a spewing Eighties Matchbox fan on my way out, only to bump into another fan pissing up the wall of someones house. Lovely!

O.I.B Records Presents...

The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster.
A Special Intimate Show... Ghoulish Horror Punk Rock Up Close & Personal.

With Scissors.
Blinding Hardcore Carnage. Think Converge & The Locust In A Fist Fight.

From the safety of my stage height bench, over looking the small, cramped, instrument strewn stage, I was only yards away from the psychobilly boys from Brighton. It was hot in there and probably even more so being nearer to the ceiling. At least I had a lone mirror ball to keep me company. I must have had the greatest view of the stage and crowd alike from where I was perched. I was well propped up on that bench for on one side I had my best friend Jac and the other the lady drummer from Breakneck Static.
Although it was Eighties Matchbox headlining, the whole evening was mainly, and understandably so, focused on a certain Mr Fownes, lead guitarist both with With Scissors and Eighties Matchbox. He has himself a new job see. Something to do with some nails of the nine inch variety. He must feel very privileged to be invited to join the American industrial rockers, who began Nine Inch Nails when Rich was just five years old!

After an interesting band (first of three) called Breakneck Static fronted by the tiniest (as in small, not tinny) and screechiest of Japanese girls, and rather cute to boot, on came Rich with his other band With Scissors. A hardcore, psychedelic, experimental (their words, not mine) band from Brighton. The red headed lead singer of which spent most of the performance screaming his lyrics in amongst the crowd. Very loud, fast and aggressive to say the least! I stood through their whole set wondering how on earth they manage to remember the tracks for each gig! Very complicated (to me anyway). You gotta see it to believe it! Awesome stuff!! Rich is one of the most animated guitarists that I have seen! You can just tell that he absolutely Loves it up there. It seems this might have been Rich's, also of Eighties Matchbox, last performance with With Scissors for some time too.

With trusty glitter ball still spinning madly and the rest of With Scissors already gone, Rich seemed to hang around alone on stage and for a while I thought he might just stay there and wait for the rest of Eighties Matchbox (his other band) to join him and begin his last ever gig with them. But after sticking up on his speaker stack the set list for his next performance, then he was gone too. They all came on together about fifteen minutes later to the sound of cheers and claps, mostly wishing Rich well. With the rest admiring Guys new haircut (when I read With Scissors on the poster stuck on the outside of the pub, I didn't think they meant literally;) and over sized, shoulder padded plaid jacket. When did he chop off all that hair? The last time I saw them was at the New Years Evil gig. He looks good though. Toms hair seems to have gone the other way as my friend Jac pointed out and as she also pointed out, as she does every time we see these guys, Marc Norris looks more and more like a Cenobite from Clive Barkers "Hellraiser". I think he'll be happy with that comparison;)

After an audience aimed, semi retarded (in a good way) 'Hellooo' from Rich, the psychobilly Brighton band began with their first track "Mister Mental" (remember Shaun of the Dead?) with that screeching, piercing intro that I absolutely Love! They continued through fifteen tracks in total (see track list below) including an encore that saw Rich walk away from the stage after an absolutely fucking rocking performance of "Presidential Wave". Quite fitting really, since he will be off to the USA soon.

Their set, as was the venue, pretty good! Excellent in fact! Downstairs is a normal pub and upstairs just a small room with a small stage and an even smaller bar. Most of the band were down in the pub when Jac & I arrived, drinking and having a smoke and everything else normal people do. Except, where was Guy? He never seems to hang around with the others and always seems to turn up last all on his oddy nocky. Probably still in the barbers ten minutes before the gig;)
The lighting on stage was fantastic too, so my camera could pick up the band. There were (as usual) a few problems with Guys mic, which meant he had to steal Rich's mic (as usual). The speaker stack next to Rich got knocked over and someone threw a plastic glass across the small crowded room and it walloped me in the neck. I didn't even blink! And for some reason, since reading the posts from Sheik-Yerbouti over on the EMBLD Forum, I was convinced there was going to be some sort of clash between the Sheik and Symren (bass). The main reason being because there was this guy in the audience who looked like it might have been him! Travis Bickle seemed like a puppy in comparison to the way this guy just stared at our band from near to the middle......just under that glitter ball! And, if I'm not mistaken, did I see a real life Gingerbread Man stage dive into the crowd? I know he's a big fan of EM and has supported them in the past (New Years Evil...I was there), so it might have been.

Anyway, there were no head butts, no more plastic cups and all seemed to finish rather well, with Guy hugging Rich just before laying into "Giant Bones" and saying thank you for everything he has done for them over the past two years. Quite a Lovely moment! And Rich even taking time to introduce his little mum who was there up at the front proudly cheering on her son. Eighties Matchbox left the room and Rich went off (I presume) to celebrate with his mother;)

So, what does this mean for the future of Eighties Matchbox? Disaster or the beginning of another new line-up with even more mental tunes, superb live shows and even shorter hair-do's, where Guy is concerned? I for one, know for a fact that I would be absolutely gutted if they split up now Rich has left. But they say that ain't happening and are already auditioning for a new lead guitarist. I really hope that they will go on to bigger and better things. I Love this band and will stick by them whatever! Since the early days when Mr Huxley was around and the last few years with Mr Fownes, I just haven't been able to get enough of them!

Thanks for a truly memorable gig guys!

Good luck with NIN Rich and good luck Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster!


Track List;

Mister Mental
I Could Be an Angle
Charge of the Guns
In The Garden
Mission From God
I Rejection
Love Turns to Hate
Under My Chin
Chicken
Man for All Seasons (Missing from my videos)
Psychosis Safari
Celebrate Your Mother
Giant Bones

Encore...

Horses Can Swim
Presidential Wave

I managed to capture most of the gig on video. Check out my Youtube link at the top right corner of this page. Unfortunately, I had to delete "Man for all Seasons" as my poxy 2gb memory card was running out! There are a couple of With Scissors tracks on there too.



Jason








(C) JPT 2008.........