The Crypt

[carolyn]

Wow Stu - you sure have been to the Crypt a lot.

Got me thinking... what has been everyones best gig down the manky dark hole we've all called home in the past?

Mine, of course, has to be Duplo - I think I cried...

Seconded by The Popguns as it was my first time. I was 15 and made up like a child whore - thinking I looked sophisticated of course.

[caroline]

My best gig at the gig would have to be Cornershop, I think, as I'd liked them for a while, and was slightly awestruck that they were playing The Crypt.

My worst (I know you didn't ask!)....um...probably The Farm.

Partly for the obvious reason that they're a bit shit, and partly because I managed to get a glass smashed in my face by an overenthusiastic reveller (entirely my own stupid fault- kids remember: don't drink and mosh. Not that this is a prime concern for any of us anymore, given our advanced years. I'm lucky if I can drink and hold a conversation without spilling it on myself now...)

Anyway, the sensation of opening your mouth and having a combination of blood and glass chunks pour out was one that has stuck with me over the years, and is why you'll usually see me in the back row at gigs, sipping nervously from a plastic glass.

This has turned into a bit of an essay, so I'll bugger off now. Anyone else care to share best and worst Crypt gigs/experiences?

[stuhuggett]

Historical note: The Farm were promoting their final album (Hullaballoo, I think it was called, aka The Album No-one Bought) that night, and the gig makes it obliquely into former Farm manager Kevin Sampson's novel Powder (Jonathan Cape/Vintage, 1999), a satire on the UK music business. p80:

"...Touring was key to the gameplan with the Grams and an agent like Mack could take a lot of the pain away. With all respect to Wheezer, the band had only scratched the surface when it came to live work. It'd all been put together through like-minded Net nerds in out-of-the-way places. The nearest the Grams had got to playing London had been Angels in Bedford and the Crypt in Hastings..."

Carolyn - yes, you did cry at the Duplo (Biker Scout) gig, though I was pre-occupied with getting it together with Karina that night, but was told about it afterwards. I don't think you looked very much like a child-whore at the Popguns gig, at least I hope not, seeing as you stayed over at my parents' house. They never asked me why I was bringing child-whores to stay anyway, which is a good sign!

I've dealt with my favourite Crypt nights over on the Gig thread, but was thinking of the music side of them. If I could tie together the sex&drugs aspects of those evenings as well, that'd affect which evenings I thought were best, but I'm too mentally shot-away through Crypt over-exposure all those years ago...

[Actually, having read that back, I ought to clarify for anyone just skimming the boards that I'm not linking any of the above people with people I've had sex with, either in The Crypt or not. It just looked like the posts might infer that! I ought to also clarify that I didn't go to The Farm gig at The Crypt either, but I saw them at The Event in Brighton when Spartacus (aka The Album Everyone Bought) came out, and had a fantastic time. Though I was sixteen. I'll shut up now]

[rashamon]

I'm amazed at how many gigs you can remember going to Stu.
I can barely remember the ones I went to last month.
I don't really remember any good gigs at the Crypt - I think I cried at the Biker Scout one as well.

[stuhuggett]

Well I started writing down every gig I went to, in the back of may address book of the time, in my final year at Uni, which is why Part One of the Gig thread is a bit sketchy. I've kept that going ever since. I'm sure with a bit of hunting around for old ticket stubs, flyers and music press listings I could get the earlier dates in proper venues more accurate, but it's the various pub, college and Uni gigs that remain lost in time. All pre-internet, of course.
I really don't remember a lot about what all those bands were actually like though. There's a lot of generic post-britpop and rock acts there.

[rashamon]

Ah. Writing things down for posterity. I never seem to do that and thats why I seem to be living my life like a goldfish. ;D

[stuhuggett]

Oh, another useful thing about keeping that record, and of hoarding so many flyers, posters, listings magazines etc, is that I'm able to draw on them when it can be of use to others (such as when I was able to replace a lot of the Smiling Hybrid and Azatzl promo stuff for Michael and Russel when their flat collapsed).
If you're interested, I've just contributed some old Crypt info to the unofficial Keane site (Guardian recommended!) at www.keane.at , just 'cos I had the knowledge to.
That Spearmint/Keane gig was one of the best too: Christmas songs! Fairy Lights! in October!
Top night out.

[the colonial]

There are gigs at the crypt? After the first time I was taken there, I came back a month later and couldn't even remember how to find the place. There were fruit machines and a really bored bouncer. Never saw a band there though - unless someone remembers something I am forgetting?!

[stuhuggett]

Did we ever take Nick to The Crypt? I can't remember what for, but yeah, there's bands there a lot of the time (if not quite as often as there used to be). But, fruit machine and bored bouncer: check.

[stuhuggett]

An unlikely appearance in the Crypt's ex-punk bookings next month:

Viv Albertine on 3rd October.

I was given the heads-up on this by a woman at the Hastings Arms when I was on the phone to them earlier. Whoever I spoke to is playing bass in Albertine's band - It could have been Katherine, I suppose, but I didn't recognise her voice if so. Unless anyone else knows who it would have been?

[carrie]

tom said something about katherine being in albertines band.