Adam & The Ants
 Birmingham. Digbeth Civic Hall 14.7.79

It was the 2nd night of the Zerox tour, having played Retford Porterhouse the night before. I was intending to go home after the Retford gig as funds were low, and catch up with the tour in a couple of days, but as soon as I got to Retford and bumped into the old Ants crew I was like an addict needing a fix. I just knew I would be at Birmingham the next day.

The 'Parisians' tour finished in Feb and they had only played at the Lyceum in April since then. Adam had a new look. out went the Kabuki makeup, green army mac, shirt and leather tie, and sash look, and now he had a camouflage face make up, cowboy style shirt, leather trousers, black kilt and black sandals with white soles. The Retford gig was great, but not much happened except I was thrown out for sniffing glue, and nearly didn't get back in. Some punks from London introduced me to it. It was also the 1st time I met Dean Parko from Cleethorpes, who as been a great friend ever since.

Johna

Eventually the doors opened around 7.30.I got my name ticked off the quest list and made straight for the bar where everyone else was. I noticed that all the security were Hells Angels from Wolverhampton, which we thought was a bit strange, but we ignored them. We all sat in the bar, it was like a private party as there where no punks from Brum there. Then this girl, I had seen at a couple of Ants gigs turned up. It also turned out she was from Brum. She had turned up with another guy from Bradford. Barry Jepsom (who would later become the bass player for Southern Death Cult) She said we could stop at her house after the gig things were just getting better. She told us that that the skinheads had told the Brum punks not to turn up because they were going to attack the London Ants crew, and anyone who was there was libel to get attacked if they were not skinheads. The skinhead issue became the main talking point from then on. The Ants crew were getting a bit of a reputation for being a bit handy in a fight as Ants gigs were quite violent to visually , but this was just the way people danced to the Ants, it was unlike any other punk gig.

Suddenly someone shouted "there here" we al rushed over to the window to look. Outside, there were about 200 skinheads walking down the middle of the main road , blocking all the traffic. They stopped outside the gig and started shouting abuse up at the Ants crew. The ant's crew returned the taunts. The Hells Angels wouldn't let the skinheads in the gig , probably because they knew what was going to happen. Some of the skinheads climbed up the drainpipes and climbed in through the windows but were dealt with immediately. There seemed to be a lull in proceedings so we concentrated on the gig , thinking that because the skinheads couldn't get in they had gone away.

We were sat in the bar then the Gary Glitter song "Hello, hello I am back" again", came on and every body started singing along The Ants played this before every gig to let everyone know they were coming on stage. The Ants hit the stage to the usual frenzy of delight. The atmosphere was electric. The Ants were about to start singing their 4th song, "Animals & Men" Then all of a sudden we heard this loud noise and turned round. To our amazement there were the skinheads. They were spread out all across the hall with arms linked, goose stepping slowly towards us, as to box us in near the stage. And make sure that know one could get past. Adam started the intro '1, 2, 3, 4' to start the song and I noticed the skinhead leader Had a Manchester United shirt on. So as they charged forward, I went straight for the guy with the Manchester United shirt on (being a Leeds fan he was an obvious target).

I shoved these two Millwall skinheads [who followed the Ants] out of the way and whacked the Manchester United fan straight in the face. To my amazement this had no effect on him at all. He didn't see who hit him, so I jumped back out of the way and started helping out others who were getting attacked. The fighting seemed to go on for what seemed ages. Adam was on stage saying "I'm sick of you lot, you travel all over the country to see us and just end up fighting" then walked off the stage. The Hells Angels were on our side, together we managed to get the skinheads out and own the stairs and eventually out of the venue.. They locked the doors.

We went back in the gig and Adam came back on the stage and the gig was finished in peace. The Ants were great as usual. With Adam being annoyed with what had happened earlier the music seemed to reflect Adam's anger. They were loud, energetic, and aggressive. With everybody on a high on adrenaline from fighting the skinheads everybody seemed to be dancing in a state of frenzy.

At the end of the gig I went back stage to speak to the band. Adam was really pissed off so I went back outside to sort our sleeping arrangements out. I met up with Gary and Paul, then Barry came up and said that that girl from Brum had changed her mind about us stopping at her house and that there had been a mix up, so we made our way outside. When we got out side there were loads of police everywhere. We were told we would be getting a police escort to the train station, as that was how most of the Ants crew had come up from London. Has the police marched us back to the station the skinheads tried to attack the front of the escort [It's an old football hooligan tactic to get all the weaker ones in the middle of the escort, so you can protect the front and the back] Me, Gary, Popey and a few others went to the back of the escort as that's the most vulnerable part of the escort, as the police will protect the front but your more open to attack from the back , that's if your attackers have any brains. So far the skinheads weren't showing any. They continued to attack the front, and the police kept them at bay. The skinheads then split into two groups. They kept probing at the front of the escort, throwing bottles, but keeping their distance so they didn't get nicked and to occupy the police.. Eventually the police had enough and charged the skinheads down the road. Leaving us with no protection.

Then those skinheads who had split off earlier came out of hiding and attacked us We got all the people to the front that could look after them selves and the weaker ones at the back. There were about equal numbers and after a while we managed to get the upper hand. It's hard to describe a free for all as you don't have that time to be an observer. Your just trying not to get hurt and concentrating on protecting yourself. The only thing I can remember is Popey picked up one of those circular metal road lamps and whacked this skinhead over the head with it, leaving him lying in the middle of the road. This had a dramatic effect on the skinhead's appetite to continue the fight and they dragged there mate to safety. The police then realised [as usual] that they had been out manoeuvred by the skinheads. The police quickly herded us into a street so as to make sure we were under their supervision again.

The skinheads had now lost their appetite for a close contact brawl but were still up for ambushing us with bricks and bottles all the way to the train station. When we finally arrived at the train station the police escorted everyone towards the the London train. We said goodbye to everyone as they got on the train, in two minutes the train had gone. All of a sudden we were stood in Birmingham train station on our own just me, Gary, Paul and the lad from Leeds, with nowhere to go and the skinheads were still outside the station. We went up to the police and told them the situation, thinking they might put us up in a police cell for the night, but they just said in no uncertain terms that they didn't care what happened to us, and that we shouldn't have come to Birmingham. This was a standard reply by the police to football fans that had been attacked on their patch. With the Ants gig resembling a football match rather then a gig we were not surprised by their attitude. We realised that if the skinheads got hold of us we would get one hell of a beating after what had happened to their mate. I didn't fancy our chances either of trying to walk back into the station itself. Luckily the skinheads thought that everyone had got on the train to London so they were not particularly looking for us. We looked around and saw a little opening at the side of the station and we saw that there were some taxi's parked there. So we made a dash for it , then one of the skinheads spotted us and they started running towards us. We just managed to get into the taxi.

We jumped in .the taxi driver got half way through "where to" and we just said "anywhere", just drive!" The taxi driver could just see all the skinheads approaching the car and he said "are they after you" we said "yes!" So he set off as fast as he could, realising his car would get smashed to bits if they caught up to us. We just about set off before they skinheads got to us . We got to the end of the short road then realised that the traffic lights were on red. We looked behind us and the skinheads had also seen that the traffic light were on red and set of in pursuit of us again. We sat there wondering what to do and praying that the traffic light would turn green. The skinheads got to within a foot of the car then the light turned green. The taxi driver, who was as scared as us just put his foot down and we were off again …phew! Everyone, including the taxi driver. We drove of into the distance and we all started to relax. We Taxi driver asked us what had happened and we told him we had been to see the Ants play. The taxi driver exclaimed "all that trouble for a concert, what's the world coming to?" We all laughed! The taxi driver asked us where we were going again. We said we had know where to go. He said we can't just drive round Brum all night" we said "I know" We counted up all the money we had between us which came to £5 We just said we want to get out of Brum centre and try find somewhere to sleep. After a few suggestions we decided to go sleep under the motorway bridge. It was July so the weather was ok , and we had a duvet so it wasn't that bad. We were just glad to have survived the night.

Johna & Gary

The next day we all woke up with the sun with a slight hangover and hungry. Because we hadn't eaten since the afternoon, the day before. As we found our bearings we realised we were about 6 miles from the city centre. We set off walking towards the centre. We had no money left for food. or bus fair back in to the centre. It took us about an hour and a half to get back to the bus station. We were really knackered, but relieved to get there. We sat down for a minute to get our breath back. Paul had his ticket for the coach back to Boro so he said farewell and left. The lad from Leeds had a train ticket so he departed to get his train. Me and Gary then went and queued to buy our tickets back to Bradford. We got there and the queue was massive, eventually after what seemed a life time we got to the front of the queue. "Two tickets to Bradford please" Certainly! Then the women behind the till asked us for our money.

We gave her our money and she said there's not enough. We said we came and asked the price the day before. She said that the prices had gone up over night. We could have died right there. We stood in front of her looking unwashed and dishevelled, starving and hung over. We explained what had gone on the night before and that we had slept on the motorway all night  I also said if I could have one wish it was to get home. I started to think of walking all the way back to the motorway and hitching home, I think at that point I just wanted to die. Gary was sat on the floor at this point in despair and I was about to join him when the women behind the till said she would pay the difference for us. I think it was about 60p each. I said "I will return the money as soon as I got home" I don't think she believed me, but she gave me her address I was just glad she took pity on us or was it the thought of having to drag our bodies up from the floor so she could carry on serving customers? I didn't care, I was going home. I think it is one of the only times I can say a was glad to be going back to Bradford. When I got back to Bradford I said goodbye to Gary and I went home and had a beautiful sleep. The next day the first thing I did was send the women the money back.

At the next Ants gig I bumped into the girl from Birmingham who was going to put us up at the Ants Brum gig. She asked us why we didn't come back to hers? We told her that Barry Jepson had come up to us and told us the you had changed your mind. She looked furious and said "wait till I see him." Obviously Barry had is own agenda and he didn't want any one else staying. so he told us that we couldn't, even though we could have been seriously hurt. Typical ! "self before others every time!