CONTRAX: By
Steve 'Mac' McLennan
Drugs, drugs, drugs & more drugs. Most vivid memories aside from
Al's black
& white jump suit (sorry Al...my fault) involve a roof top gig somewhere
near
the corner of King & Union Street. The house we rehearsed in (Paul
& Mark lived there ??) in Wickham and the Easter weekend we played
to a full house at The Cambridge.
Brian "Macca" McDermott didn't realise when he booked us that
it was the Easter
weekend and when we turned up he tried to dissuade us from playing.
("There's no-one around town...its a waste of time and $$$). We
dug our heels in and demanded to be allowed to play or be paid for turning
up and not playing...one or the other. Macca relented........ Once we
fired up the place was packed by the middle of our first set
and a splendid time was had by all. We did interesting covers by The
Pretenders, Alex Harvey & The Tubes as well as quirky original tunes
with titles like "Bad Carrots".
My cousin Paul began his illustious road career with Contrax. He eventually
went on to log up thousands upon thousands of miles with some of the
countries most enduring rock'n'rollers.
Eventually I got an offer to join The Idols and play more regularly
for more
$$$$$$ (the old "Bigger & Better" theme rears its ugly
head). The band continued with a drummer named Mick who was a huge Peter
Criss / Kiss fan. For some reason the few times we met at gigs he made
it abundantly clear that he didnt like me. Dont know what I did to upset
him.......
Up to and including "Destroyer" I liked Kiss too !!!!
Oh well.
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