A scan of the original of this is in the Photo Gallery section. It was written by Tony D. in March 1982.
National tragedy 23 million people still employed!
The Autonomy Centre in Wapping has now officially closed after being largely unused in its year long existence- apart from the gigs there every Sunday from November to Feb 21st (till the landlord found out). As the gigs were the Centre’s only form of income it was inevitable it had to close -£680 rent every three months, next payment would have been made on March 22nd.
Around £700 was paid into the bank from concerts, another £50 used to repair the drum kit that was used almost every week and to buy materials and keep the Centre running.
As this is written there is £89 in the Centro Iberico kitty, but there is also a list of things that are needed quickly:
Microphones , chemical toilets (what people in caravans and things use) , tape recorders, a plug board (not enough sockets in hall),paint/brushes to paint banners to decorate the place, food/tea/coffee that you eat and drink free each week (or pay a little for the food)…
This isn’t just a gig venue run by an elite clique of people. As we said in our last Sunday Supplement “A kick up the arse”, if you don’ t put energy into the centre well all get pissed off and put none in ourselves and then where will you be? The Lyceum? The Clarendon? the 100 club? Twice the cost, half the bands and bouncers = no fun. Thieves, no-one paying, no participation = no A centre. Its your centre, use it, don’t abuse it …etc.
When a new, permanent place is found that we can use during the daytime for more than just gigs, then these gigs now should have raised enough to pay for facilities and things that can be used by and for all. If you have any ideas about what should be there, come along early and discuss it.
Crass have shown interest in helping out but they don’t want to be used as a money source (the way Iris Mills and crew did in the setting up of the last place) – this place has to be financially independent…
£1 entry, doors open 4.30pm, first band on at 7pm, finish at 10.30pm
21st March 12 Cubic feet/ The Apostles/ Lack Of Knowledge/ Replaceable Heads
28th March Rubella Ballet/ Action Pact/ Dead Man’s Shadow
4th April Subhumans / Organised Chaos/ Locusts/ Hagar The Womb
11th April EASTER -no trains? no bands? probably a free mind boggling weird and wonderful day
18th April Flux/ Cold War/ Screaming Babies
25th April The Mob/ Bikini Mutants/ D-Notice
Dotted around the text are little Situ quotes:
Authority is the Negation of Creativity
Disobey your Jailors- Smash the Spectacle
All power to the imagination/ imagine no power
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act
Nic
December 13, 2007 at 2:00 pmThe Bikini Mutants are one of those bands that seem to have slipped through the cracks…
I saw one of their singles up on ebay recently which reminded me of them…
I think they were from around Wiltshire / Somerset and played concerts with The Mob quite regularly…I saw them play live in Coventry with The Mob and 1 other (possibly The Review? It was certainly a band from Somerset / Wilts) in 1980: I had a copy of the poster which had a red Jesse James screenprinted in the middle…
Penguin
December 14, 2007 at 2:34 amBikini Mutants, had in the line up Christine All The Madmen person (when it was a fanzine, before any records were released) and also Debbie Goodge, who went on to massive succcess with My Bloody Valentine in the mid eighties (the bassist and founder member of the band with Kevin Shields)
Fred Previous
January 15, 2008 at 5:13 amThe Screaming Babies now there was a band!
Luggy
January 15, 2008 at 8:26 pmCan’t remember The Screaming Babies but nice to see you’re still around, Brad. The Part-time Poseurz now there was a band!
jon.6 (formerly known as JFB)
January 16, 2008 at 9:26 pmScreaming Babies – agree with my former bandmate (hi Fred – long time…) – there WAS a band!
Nic
January 17, 2008 at 10:55 amAh, love the Yellow 6 drone, Jon…
I saw you in Birmingham a few years back…
How about some Screaming Babies information here so it can enter the continuum?
Nick Hydra
February 26, 2011 at 4:53 pmAccount of TG’s gig at the Centro..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIxXCD1y63g&feature=related
Dev
March 9, 2011 at 3:08 pmNice post Nick
History is Made at Night
April 23, 2012 at 8:06 amGrayson Perry (Turner prize winning artist) seems to have played at the Centro with naked performance art troupe Neo-Naturists:
http://history-is-made-at-night.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/grayson-perry-on-punk-and-performance.html
Cerith Wyn Evans, an artist who also did some work with TG, was apparently also part of that performance.
AL Puppy • Post Author •
April 23, 2012 at 9:09 amI must have missed that performance… can anyone else remember a group of naked artists performing at the Centro? Or was it in Brixton? This is the quote from Grayson Perry
“we were booked to do a Neo-Naturist performance in Brixton at the Spanish Anarchists Association, which was similar to a working men’s club, an extremely anachronistic place that had become somehow hip because of punk’s associations with anarchy.
As it was May Fiona though we should do a Communist, May Day-themed cabaret. Cerith [Wyn Evans], Fiona, Jen, Angela and I all had identical Communist uniforms body painted on to us with khaki paint and we decorated oursevles with big red five-pointed stars… There were around a hundred anarchists in the audience as well as some punks and they all hated it, not one of them clapped, the room was dead quiet’. “