Clubhouse, Paisley, July '90 and Paisley Arts Centre
The first official gig came in February 1990 (about 2 rehearsals
later) at the Clyde Cavern in Glasgow. They supported Hugh Reed (a really
nice guy according to the band) and The Velvet Underpants (bloody musos) - Hugh couldn't
believe that there were actually (then) youngsters playing this stuff. Anyway
the band turned up gassed (Grant asking the bar staff to a bottle opener
for his bottle of wine which he drunk on stage), blew some amps (which
they paid for with the money their pal Susan stole from the takings) and
played a 15 minute version of What Goes On, with an unrehearsed Dave Hill
on keyboards, while Grant went up and bought them drinks. They got off
15 minutes before the place had to close. Following this, the band
changed their name to The Tombstones. The Clyde Cavern closed down
not long after and has not reopened to this day.
The next gig at the Clubhouse in Paisley proved to be highly
successful - hundreds of people despite being Sunday night/The World
Cup Final/the night prior to the Stones playing in Glasgow. The Glasgow
Goth squad were a great help - thanks guys, where the hell are you all now?
Also they were supported by their now to be partners in noise - The
Surfin' Gnomes - The Munsters were also due to play but whatever happened
to them? The Clubhouse survived - for a little while. These two gigs
which
were the ultimate Tomstones blast just wouldn't have been the same if
it hadn't been for the Clydebank squad.
The Tomstones were now causing a stir and influencing
many other bands to get into the same sound (many very inferior and
I should know), but being popular and ideas of musical granduer soon got to MAD, who
was all of a sudden playing in four bands. She then settled on the most
commercial one who seemed to have the greatest chance of being signed -
needless to say that was not The Tombstones. One last great gig with
MAD followed when they played at a 21st in a flat (for which Campbell wrote
the eternal Rock 'n' Roll Kitchen - well that's where the best parties end up). The whole block
ended up turning up. Who says "The Kids from Fame" (and Leroy's packet) are unrealistic - they were even dancing on cars outside the tenament. The band were spared a good kicking (not for the first time) as the moron neds there believed that "I'm Free" was a
Soup Dragons song - the neds loved them even when they rubbed it in by
encoring with six Stones songs.
In the Hamilton Arms after putting The
Swee (Girvan) out of business
More of this crap