Gerry

My wife and best mate for life is Mo we met in 1979 and married in 1981. yip it was our 27th wedding ani this year.We travel world wide for gigs/shows and have met loads of interesting people and a few dickheads hahaha.We support the punk movement and have done since 1976 hey enjoy life its too short.
PUNK ROCK IN SCOTLAND THE STORY SO FAR… BY GERRY ATTRICK OF “FIRE EXIT”How did you get involved in music Gerry ………..?I suppose it all started about late 1972 , my brother Billy followed and listened to bands all the time mostly rock bands like Slade / Mott the Hoople / Lou Reed Nico&The Velvet Underground & Alice Cooper,so its fair to say he got me into it.
I remember watching “The Old Grey Whistle Test” that was an opportunity to see bands from around the globe some were utter shit but a few diamonds did appear on the odd occasion like The New York Dolls / Iggi Pop & The Stoogies /Patti Smith /The Ramones and home grown guys “The Sensational Alex Harvey Band”(SAHB)Who lived up every bit to their name. If I ever had a hero it was Alex and I wanted to do that.. I made a point in the 70..s to see them as often as I could at the Glasgow Apollo and they also played at Parkhead supporting The Who but they stole the show…… In 1979 “Fire Exit” played at the Ally Pally in London with the Angelic Upstarts and Guess who..Alex Harvey.
When I was watching the bands I kept saying I could do that, that’s what I wana do So I fuckin did I started a band called “The Invaders” we were all local Renfrew & Paisley area we found it hard to get somewhere to practice (see news cutting) a guy called Alex Fergusson (who went on to play with ATV & PTV ) helped us out get a hall to rehearse ,we became great mates. We got about 10 number together and started to gig but we only lasted about 6 months as our music was too drastic for the venues.(so the old bastards said)
I then started a band called “The Pencils” and we stated gigging after 3 weeks our first gig was The Christmas Ball/Party at Paisley Collage Of Technoligy which I was asked to organize...that was a laugh...I had Bikers ( ANGELS) for bouncers they were all wrecked they did..nt want money just drink and other stuff.mmmm I booked “The Heavy Metal Kids” (Gary Holton (RIP.) the punk from AUF Vederson Pet ) “The Shock “ (Big Frank from Bearsden band and a Glasgow Stanklifter) [ the Stanklifters were about 50 punks & punkettes from Glasgow ,Paisley, Renfrew, Bellshill all over the central area of Scotland who followed bands everywhere, usually meeting at Bruces record shop then going drinking down the Clydeside band stand watching bands like The Zips/ Fire Exit / The Shock you get the idea]. Anyway back to the gig The Nu-Sonics/ The Subhumans /The Backstabbers and of course The Pencils..I smashed a pigs head up on stage The next day I was sleeping on the couch when me maw shouted for me to look at “Reporting Scotland & Nationwide” news programme I was on it defending myself why a Punk Rock gig (they called it riot ) all went wrong because Big Frank smashed a grand piano, Wee Denis (stanklifter) was swinging from curtains, Wee Rev Volting From the Backstabbers was going loopy setting off fire extinguishers so what went wrong we Were all into having a laugh and we did , some people might not have found it funny tuff shit we did we had a RIOT..hahaha….
Anyway “The Pencils” had a great wee following and after quite a while the band broke up I wanted to gig all over and they were quite happy gigging local, the band recorded a song I wrote called “Radio Mania” on a Paisley 7” EP they called themselves “The Sneex “ quite appropriate but still good guys. but the fuckers could have given me a mention.
The final line up of “The Pencils” were Gerry – Throat affects, Pincil-Guitar, Silk Vynal (Flemmy) -Drums, Linda-Bass.. Linda joined us after we placed an add in local paper (see cutting) She died in a car accident in Amsterdam she was only about 19, she used to nick her dads bass gear coz he played in a country western band and she would be playing with us he had to borrow or hire coz she nicked it a true star (stargazer).
“Pincil” was in Gregorys Girl hes the guy with the bowl cut trying to get to Carakus /.Karacus.. emm Cerakus hitch a lift….
Silk Vynal (Flemmy) What a laugh we had with this guy he was only 16 and he used to boot polish His bumfluff to kid on he was older , we were refused gigs cause he only looked 12 the handsome wee bastard..
The whole punk scene was fuckin amazing you would be in Paisley one day watching Defiant Pose or The Mental Errors and the next you Would be in London with Crass and the UK Subs.meeting people all the time. I ran around with a guy called Johnny Grant from Johnstone who ended up in London singing with The Straps (Jock Strap) wonder where he is now ?.Last time I saw him he was supporting The Damned at the Glasgow Apollo in oh 1980?.. *Update to this is I met Johnny & The Straps at Morcambe in the summer 2005, we both played the Wasted festival and also DennisBoy put on a gig in Glasgow November 2005 a benefit for the Glasgow Homeless both The Straps & Fire Exit played at it..is..nt life strange..both The Straps and Fire Exit payed at the 100 club with Sham in 2006,in 2007 we met again at Rebellion festival in BLACKPOOL
It would be great to remember everyones name but fuck me that was two decades ago and drink & things make you forget. eh what was I saying.oh,...bands would tour the country and a handful of Stanklifters and others would follow them , even do the guest lists for the bands.I remember Parky (The Dialectics) asking me who we should put on the UK Subs list at the mens Union in Glasgow and we gave Franks wee sister Carol & her mate Mo (Morag who is now my wife & best mate for life ,were now married 25 years) to make up the list the students president was fuckin levitating hahaha it was great..Then the time Crass were playing at The Plaza in Glasgow asked me to do a guest list coz they did not know anyone so we put 40 people on it, this included my 3 year old nephew hahaha !!! they got into shit for that…. Think of all the gigs and there were never any fighting, if you wanted that you go to a football match / disco....that’s still the fuckin case and the councils banned us all over were having the last laff …They said Punk will not last hahaha…Punk wont Die..
Some of the regular venues ..shit here goes ..Apollo, The Burns Howff, Paisley Tech, Glasgow Tech, Glasgow Collage of Art (art school) The Mars Bar (watch you don’t get sued) Arkleston Inn TUC Club Paisley, Astoria Edinburgh, The Lemon Tree Aberdeen, The Abercorn, Gordies (Paisley),Night Moves, The Hole in the Wa, Renfrew Town Hall, Chievagos, The Wigen Peg , Hope n Anchor, Fulham Greyhound, Adam n Eve, Elder Park ,Robertson Park, The three horse shoes (was our local)The Bungalow Bar,(Stags Head) , The Cellar Bar, The Amphoria , Saint n Sinners, Tiffanies Satalite City, The Red Cow , The Rat Cub , Fulham Funhouse , The Railway Club, if I remember more you..ll see them later on…But not forgetting The Silver Thread (thanx to disco Harry he brought most of the bands into Scotland ask Arthur (The Lurkers) they did their first tour here just coz Harry had the balls to put the bands on, and coz Paisley was outside the Glasgow duristiction he could do it..and he did…Hat off top man.. We also had Arthur from Bruces that used to run buses to gigs We all went to Balloch Loch Lomond to see the Sex Pistols ,billed as The Spots.Three 3 bus loads only to be sent packing with the polis So we went to a Hotel near the venue and got rat arsed, someone set Fire extinguishers off threw the bench outside into the Loch and nearly got us all nicked.
If you were to name a city or town to Arturo (Lurkers /999) he will name you someone from there, coz he still plays in every corner of the country and talks to the people in the crowd Charlie Harpers (UK Subs) & T.V Smiths (Adverts) are the same as Tim says “its great being in a punk rock band”, not a truer word.
In 1995 Darren & Jennie Russell- Smith (what a fucking long name) put a gig on in Blackpool like You’ve never seen before it was amazing it was billed as “Holidays in the sun” and they had over 100 punk bands on it, UK SUBS / 999 / EATER / LURKERS /SHAM 69 / GBH / EXPLOTIED SICK BOY FEDERATION / T V SMITH (Ex- Adverts) / A.T.V / SPLODGEANESSABOUNDS MDN./ INSTANT AGONY/ EXTERNAL MENACE/.The DAMNED Bla bla bla the list goes on… It worked it took off and some of the people who had not played for years got back into it SLF were meant to be on but did not appear however SLF fans were definatley not disappointed Coz Glasgow boys “HANX” played (SLF Cover band) and they were more lively than the real thing.after the gig we met up with them and became good friends with Alan, Steph, Ewan, Alan They later became “The Red Eyes” and are still gigging doing their own material. In fact Mo & me were at Alan & Karen..s wedding not long ago……
Any fuckinway “Holidays in the Sun” became an annual event moving to Morecambe then back to Blackpool than back to Morecambe it is now “Wasted” The Global Punk festival with over 150 bands over 3 sometimes 4 days. with a pre show and after show gigs it becomes a week of pure punk rock..Bands from the USA. Like…The Briefs / The Dickies / US Bombs / Cheap Sex / Midnight Creeps, New York Relex…Texas Terrie… Again Bla Bal Bla.
“Fire Exit” have played on a few and the response is great…best for me yet is Morecambe 2004 Dome. We had a full hall and great laff & drunk a bit much though …Punk & Oi in the Uk web site gave us A top review (thanx Rebecca) Also Fire Exit 2005 Wasted was captured on DVD by Chris Cripple, Chris is in a wheelchair and lives life to the full.. Listen to “Wheelchair Outa Control” off our “We..re Just Punks” cd.
Its different now coz we go all over the world for gigs like Holidays in the sun San Fansisco Hoildays in the sun Bagarra (Northern Spain the Bastards would not serve us food ,you had Ritchie(MDM) ,Hockey (Instant Agony) Watford Jon (ARGY BARGY), Mo & me living on Baguettes (and drink) for 5 days Bastards).Wasted Amsterdam (were on that too). “Punk Aid” ,Prague, don’t mention the trams Captain hahaha private joke oh fuck it Ill tell you. You see Captain Sensible is a public transport anorak and he was sitting waiting on a tram in Prague me and Mo dawners up to him and he is sitting with this map saying oh don’t take that one follow me ,So we did and were heading back towards Glasgow..hahaha we were going the wrong way it ended well with a swally in a boozers at some fuckin tourist square, great weekend best we..ve seen The Damned ever.
“Holidays in the sun” CBGB..s New York ..don’t piss in the sink, fuck you’ve got Junkies in the venue and yours truly got chibbed for nearly pissing in a sink coz you cant get into the bogs for folk smoking dope or ciggies cause they have a cigarette ban you cant smoke in the venue… They sit on the pan and blow the smoke down it ,how enjoyable eh Mo…wasted is no longer, the festival is now called REBELLION FESTIVALS...check it out!
“Punk aid” is another annual festival run by Tim,Onagh, Captain , TV Smith and a load of other of Santas little helpers….they move venue most of the time but who would have thought Punks would be welcome at Bultins & Pontins Yes campers that’s where its at, you pay a weekend ticket and you get digs ,and entry to the venue and you don’t miss transport home coz your there..
Punk Aid is for a very good cause children with ceriable palsy …PUNK AID in 2004 was in Hemsby, England , Marky Ramone + UK Subs+Menace+Goldblade and loads of bands were on it Get on the Punk Aid web site. & do yourself a favour.Wasted (the old Holidays in the sun crew) at Blackpool or Morecambe and tickets avalible from “holidays in the sun” or www.wastedfestivals web site. your guarented a fuckin massive hangover.and bleeding ears….If you look in the punk&oiintheuk website you will find the gig guide for not just the UK & Europe But worldwide. So next time your going your Holidays abroad check out who..s on .good idea eh. And if your staying at home get into Rockers Midland street ,Glasgow, This venue is owned By “H” guitarist with “The Red Eyes”/”The Fakes” great venue and you will see old and new talent here, Most nights there are no charge and H does let local bands play whenever he can so check it out and support local acts and keep the boozer going and Punk Alive Fire Exit have played in Rockers with UK Subs & The Vibrators + The Straps + The Zips +The Provoked Stanklifters + Sonic Junkyard ..More to follow…..
Fire Exit … How did it start ? Second time a round more like twenty seventh time around...… Fire Exit started in December 1977, Gerry met Brian and after a bottle of the holy watter Eldorado. They agreed to start a band called “Fire Exit” the name came when we looked at the nearest sign ..and that was it fuckin Punk Rock...hahaha!!! They sank the bottle agreed it would be good if they had a wee bit more swally.. Back to the off sales.. old England golden was the choice… Anyway out came the Telecaster and Brian & Gerry got into it Gerry had a book of lyrics (he still has it) and that was it 12 songs written in one night, the set was almost complete all they had to do was get a Bassist Billy Holland was the man, and a drummer, unfortunatley it was the seventies and not a lot of Punk drummers were about in the Glasgow / Paisley area. We got a guy called Doogie Maxwell he Looked like a poodle with his fuckin permed hair.. but it was..nt his hair we wanted he was a good fuckin drummer.. we practiced in Paisley & Renfrew area in houses Then we started gigging All over the place.. In collages ,Univercities and bars ( Amphoria ,Burns Howff, Mars bar), every where we could get a gig we decide to go to London to Cut a single as no studio in Scotland could record us we tried at ce-va but it did nt have the sound we wanted and we knew a shit load Of people in London. Alex (Fergusson) ATV & Sandy (Robertson) Sounds Scritty politti ,U k subs,The Vibrators..anyway we started to Gig in London and we got a new drummer on board a guy called Andy . We never did get his second name we just called him wee fuckin Andy. We stayed in the back of our Transit van for 9 months , shit was it sweaty ! In August 1979 we finally got into Waterloo studios owned by Pat Collier the Vibrators bassist at the time we recorded “Timewall / Talking bout myself” (Pat help produce & engineer it) In about 30 mins then went on a piss up for the rest of the night. We put the single out on our own record lable Timebomb Explosions Records (TBE1).. We were gigging quite a lot in London and the single done very well all sold out in about 2— 3 weeks 2500 of them. We had great radio coverage north and south with Radio Clyde & radio 1 (John Peel ,he gave us lots of plugs and let people hear our single including us it was great to hear our single getting played on the John Peel show he played it for months and gave us lots of mentions).. We met a promoter called Mike Always(later involved in Cherry Red Records)he helped us out and got us offers from record companies. We just wanted to keep it DIY and we still do…but we did nearly loose it when We signed to Decca records (Burlington music) but never released with them as they treated us like shit.. Fuckin wankers... We decide we would play Stonehenge with the Poison Girls & The Fatal Microbes so off we went in our mobile home (hahaha) whit a gig . stories to tell..Anyway The band started to drift Gerry came up to Glasgow and set up a tour And when he went back to London Brian said Andy & Billy had gone AWOL or pissed off to you ...The start of the end...
FROM THE VAULTS various records /cds /videos.= “TIMEWALL” / “TALKING BOUT MYSELF” A TIMEBOMB EXPLOSIONS PROMOTION… MADE IN SCOTLAND . (TBE 01)Band. “Fire Exit”Gerry Attrick- Throat Affect. Brian Kerr – Guitar & alcholol Billy Holland- Bass. Wee Fuckin Andy – Drums.Brian and myself had spoken about putting our own record lable together as we had read and heard So many stories about bands getting ripped off that we thought fuck it we will do it ourselves. We got in touch with Scritti Polliti they had done a DIY single, we went to see them and spent some time with the guys they were great .helped us shit loads.We went back to our mobile home (fuckin van ) and it was all systems go we recorded and released “Timewall” / “Talking bout myself” as a double A side single. within 2 weeks…. John Peel gave us shit loads of coverage and we were getting Gigs all over.. it was fun. The single came out in 1979 and was produced by Gerry, Brian and Pat Collier of The Vibrators and you can still get hold of the odd copy. We were notified that someone was sell it on e-bay, it went for £193….well fuck me we sold it for 99p ..hahaha !!!THE BAND BROKE UP SORTLY AFTER TIMEWALL WAS RELEASED.
= “SAILORS CRY / THE PYLON” A TIMEBOMB EXPLOSIONS PROMOTION… MADE IN SCOTLAND (T.B.E. 02 )Band. “The Serpents of Love”Gerry Attrick- Throat Affect. Alan Campbell – Guitar & alcholol Neil Down- Bass. Alan – Drums. Billy Rodden_ Keyboards..yip!After the band broke up the members went separate ways Brian went and toured with Captain Sensible and recorded various stuff (see next few pages) Gerry went on to keep “Fire Exit” going. I also had another band we called ourselves “The Serpents of Love” in 1986 we recorded a double A side 7” single called “Sailors Cry / the Pylon” (Big Alan Campbell who now plays with the UK SUBS was our guitarist and my brother Billy came into the band as well)..yeah it was just for fun…. .
= “The Power Of Scotland” LP A TIMEBOMB EXPLOSIONS PROMOTION… MADE IN SCOTLAND (TBE 03)Band. “The Serpents Of Love”Gerry Attrick- Throat Affect. Miki Insane – Guitar & alcholol Kane – Guitar. Paul Provan- Bass. Gerry Attrick – Drums. Billy Rodden_ Keyboards..yip!The second was an LP 12” “The Power of Scotland”(TBE 03) it was a showcase on plastic we had 2 tracks on it “Sailors Cry Part Two” and “I..m a believer “ .recorded 1991 or 92. We also had guests Hugh Reed and the Velvet Underpants on it and various other bands.
= “LIVE AT THE ARKY INN” VIDEO A TIMEBOMB EXPLOSIONS PROMOTION… MADE IN SCOTLAND (TBE VD 01)Band. “Fire Exit”Gerry Attrick- Throat Affect. Neil Down – Guitar Paul Provan- Bass. Jake Scouce – Drums.& AlchofuelThis version of “Fire Exit” were doing more gigs than the first we were playing every where It was really good fun This was Pauls first ever gig as he was still at school we had to try and make him look older and we always got away with it. Mo..s best mate Debbie was looking for a man that day we played the Arkleston Inn and it was nearly a fight between Paul and Eaddie to get her .Paul won and is now married to Debbie with 3 smashing brats..eh never a dull moment at our gigs.this was about 1985/6.. Jake & Neil were great mates and I think they still have a band going together..
= “SHE STOLE THE GLORY / AVALANCHE” LIVE AT THE GORBALS GLASGOW VIDEO A TIMEBOMB EXPLOSIONS PROMOTION… MADE IN SCOTLAND (TBE VD 02)Band. “The Serpents of Love”Gerry Attrick- Throat Affect./Drums /Moothie Alan Campbell – Guitar Big John White- Bass. Daft Doogie – DrumsWell fuck me I forgot about this till someone reminded me…This was a scream 1980 /odd we were recording in wasteland in the Gorbals in Glasgow and all of a sudden about 100 screaming wains were around us and factories had emptied out this was mentol.. We were trying to shoot the video and kids would ask for autographs so I used to sign Jim Kerr And Daft Doogie would sign Douglas J Winterbottom future corpse.. I actually played the drums in the studio and played harmonica on this record . John was from the band “The Wiseacres” they had massive coverage in the music papers And released material on Cherry Red records and again featured Big Alan from The UK SUBS
= “TIMEWALL” / “TALKING BOUT MYSELF” A TIMEBOMB EXPLOSIONS PROMOTION… MADE IN SCOTLAND . (TBE CD 01)Band. “Fire Exit”Gerry Attrick- Throat Affect. Brian Kerr – Guitar & alcholol Billy Holland- Bass. Wee Fuckin Andy – Drums.We have new support from the younger generation of today and they did not have accesss to our Earlier material, so we thought lets just record our old single straight onto a cd (stratches an all) So this is it, no kidding 20 odd years of scratches on the plastic.listen and youll hear it! . we gave about 300 away free at our gigs in Glasgow & Morecambe in 2001. Also we gave Provoked Fanzine 200 for summer special at Wasted 2005.You can get a copy for £1 from the band.(That does include p&p in the UK). DON’T GET RIPPED OFF……………….The single came out in 1979 and was produced by Gerry Brian & Pat Collier from the Vibrators and you can still get hold of the odd copy. We were notified that someone was sell it on e-bay, it went for £193….well fuck me we sold it for 99p ..hahaha !!!Sorry the cds a quid but that’s inflation..
“FIRE EXIT” “10 WEE SMASHERS FROM “FIRE EXIT” ENJOY THEM IT..S YER FUCKIN LAST”..(well maybe) PUNK ROCK ..FROM 1977 TILL 2001…. SONGS WRITTEN..BORROWED..AND STOLEN.. WE DON’T CARE JUST ENJOY THEM.. 10 LIVE WEE SMASHERS…. = “10 Wee Smashers from Fire Exit Enjoy Its Your Fuckin Last” (well maybe) A TIMEBOMB EXPLOSIONS PROMOTION… MADE IN SCOTLAND (TBE CD 02)Band. “Fire Exit”Gerry Attrick- Throat Affect & vodcas. Brian Kerr – Guitar & alcholol Steph - Bass.& Smiles Alan – Guitar & Irn Bru. Ewan – Drums & Sunglasses.We had to record a rehearsal, Very poor quality but it let people hear what we were like , So this is it , we gave about 200 away free at our gigs in Glasgow & Morecambe in 2001. We did not feel it was right to charge people for this recording. Thanks goes out to The Red Eyes for helping us out…
“ FIRE EXIT” " “WERE JUST PUNKS” = “WERE JUST PUNKS” A TIMEBOMB EXPLOSIONS PROMOTION… MADE IN SCOTLAND . (TBE CD 04)Band. “Fire Exit”Gerry Attrick- Throat Affect. Brian Kerr – Guitar & alcholol Doogie- Bass. Joe – Drums.Well to me this is the best recording we have ever done to date and Brian agrees.We managed to get Doogie in on Bass. Doogie has played with Bladdered, Combat Rock and The Cooljerks and has fitted into the line up like a pint of cider sliding down my throat…great.. We also managed to get Joe the drummer from The Zips, Joe is the best and most powerful drummer we..ve ever played with and sounds like a fuckin express train on “Runaway”.What do you get for a fiver …you get 11 tracks including 3 covers “The First Time”-The Boys, “Whips n Firs” – The Vibrators, “Runaway” – Del Shannon, Our own numbers include ; Timewall / Talking bout Myself / Were all together / Wheelchair Outa Control / As Long As Were Alive / Daughter Of Sin / Townlife / Exterminate..Enjoy it we do!..
Gerry wants you to check out a photo on MySpace in the Oons Mum at Rebellion album
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...

%3Cimg+src%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fa126.ac-images.myspacecdn.com%2 Fimages01%2F63%2Fm_52b1ccf05036bf25baac28159d8aff45.jpg%22+a lt%3D%22+%22+%2F%3E