Post-Punk Politics. The 'Leeds' Faction 1979 - 1984. (March 2014)

The Leeds Story: 1979 - 1984

This is the panel.

Figure 1: A diagram to show members of the panel. (Left to Right; Kelvin Knight (Delta 5 Drummer), Tony Wolgarh (gig goer and journalist for the Leeds Other paper), John Keenan (Promoter), Mark Wilson (Pink Peg Slax), Paul ‘Grape’ Gregory (The Expellairs lead singer) and Steve Goulding (Drummer of The Mekons).

Ignore first impressions; all the coolest punks get old someday. Before us were not just any old men. Some thirty years ago, they were Leeds’ ‘coolest’ kids. A short film is played to set the scene, featuring clips from a BBC4 documentary titled ‘Punk Britannia’, wherein the Post-Punk movement is discussed by its pioneers, featuring Mark E. Smith, Joy Division Bandmates and the Gang of Four clan.

The host asks the panel one by one to introduce themselves and follows up with his first question. ‘What influenced the beginning of playing in bands?’, and so the discussion begins.

Kelvin Knight casually tells tales of hanging out with The Clash and letting Kurt Kobain sleep on his sofa. John Keenan reels off lists of bands he’s put on stage: Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, U2, Nirvana, The Police, Radiohead, Blur, Muse, The Stranglers, The Specials, Black Uhuru, B52s… It’s enough to rival a decade of Glastonbury line-ups.

A night at the Brudenell

t’s £2.50 to get in. We’re given a bingo ticket along with our stamp. I get a Crabbie’s ginger beer, with a pint of ice and some nuts. I’ve brought my friend Steph and my (cool) friend called Cameron along. We sit down at the front. I get my notes out, a biro and my purple notepad. On stage there is a wide, old, dark brown, battered leather sofa seating three men, each with a distinctly different appearance. There are another three chairs on the end for the remaining three men and each is handed a beer by a member of the bar staff.

These guys have ‘lived’. You can see it on their faces. Kelvin Knight, Delta 5’s drummer, who sits on the far left of the sofa, has, concealed underneath his heavy leather biker jacket, something resembling kwashiorkor. Next to him sits Tony Wolgarh, ‘gig goer’ and ex-journalist for the alternative ‘Leeds Other’ newspaper sits quietly cooped up, nervously scoping out the room - perhaps in fact very excited and keeping it under wraps. Right of him, John Keenan, Leeds’ biggest promoter of the post-punk epoch (figuratively and now literally; we are in December and Cameron makes a joke that we’ve come to Santa’s grotto by accident). On the first chair, Mark Wilson, lead singer of tongue in cheek rockabilly band ‘Pink Peg Slax’; dapper, bow-tied and doc Marten’d. On his right, Paul ‘Grape’ Gregory, lead singer of The Expellaires. And last, but certainly not least, Steve Goulding, drummer of The Mekons, looking like a healthy Kentish commuter in a suit.

This is the panel.