Monday, March 19, 2018

HURRY UP HARRY: MEMORIES OF THE PUNK ERA IN BRIGG


Seeing that Brigg Town Football Club has punk band Hung Like Hanratty due to play a gig at The Hawthorns on Saturday, April 14 reminded us of the town's very own punk line-up.
So here's a picture of The Diseased strolling along Wrawby Street in 1986.
They were fresh from a performance at the Corn Exchange.
We still encounter some band members in Brigg, including guitarist Andrew Harness - better known locally as 'Arry - with whom we chatted  recently in the Dying Gladiator.
This was a fitting venue to meet up, punk band Sham 69 having had a 1978 hit with Hurry Up Harry, whose chorus included the phrase "We're going down the pub."
Back in the mid to late 1980s, The Diseased and some of their supporters always occupied the same table near the stage at Brigg Servicemen's Club.
Sometimes the 'turn' would ask for requests and the band would demand Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode.
As most of the entertainers performed old standard songs or were country and western, the lads' request for a bit of R&B usually fell on deaf ears!
The Diseased wrote their own songs, one of the most popular being entitled I Spent £4.30.
Thirty years ago that was the cost of a round of 'snakebite'- not a pint, a round!
'Snakebite' is a mix of cider and lager - sometimes served with blackcurrant and then known as 'Snakebite and Black'.

Since the punk era ended, The Diseased have re-appeared from time to time at gigs in Brigg, one of which was at the Britannia Inn  (pictured below).

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