By Mark (Dism)
Serannon and myself made the rather odd decision to move to one of Scotland’s western Isles a year ago. As a joke we would pester our friends in bands to “Come to Millport, man!”. Then we realised we actually could get a bunch of bands over and have a big party with our friends. Now, I’ll make no secret that we tried to keep it umm, a bit secret, as we live in a very small community and a sudden influx of hundreds of punks could be a major issue.
After a whole number of potential venues being booked and then cancelled, we settled on using our own back garden to host the event. With some amazing people from London and Australia arriving early to provide much needed help, we got the place ready to rock: marquee up, barbecue, bar, you name it. Luckily, it was a sunny day and Brian Curran (ex-Quarantine/Ruin/Disaffect) opened proceedings with a set of (gulp) acoustic punk. Bobby and the Boys followed, but at this time the Police showed up and shut us down – at 2.30 in the afternoon! After some negotiation, it was agreed we could carry on, but out of “town”. Somehow, we got ourselves a generator (up the punx!) and moved all the gear and people to a field right at the north of our island.
From there on it all got pretty sick, with everyone relishing not being shut down by noise complaints and enjoying all the bands. Sadly, Mark Ayling chose not to play, but we enjoyed sets by Clocked Out (Glasgow HC), Scragfight ( Anarcha-Feminist punk), Thisclose, Headless Kross (HEEEAVVVY), Atomgevitter ( REAL hardcore), Contort (Irish noise lords) and Filthpact (All the way from Aberdeenshire with their blackened crust-violence).
Some people camped out at the site, some came back for an “after party”. Everyone got together on the Sunday for for a big vegan brunch, before going on their merry way.
This was a total triumph of the DIY hardcore punk spirit. We faced adversity and conquered it and everybody (all 50 of us) had a brilliant, life affirming time. It has been so nice to hear people’s positive feedback on the event (we have a long history of putting on gigs, but never anything like this) and our eternal thanks go out to everyone, especially KK (Glory Hole), Jeeves (legend) all the London/Scumfest crew and too many more to mention.
Remember, we can do what we want, when we want!
Don’t let anyone try to stop you.
New Comments