[Originally written August 1986]

At last, at last. The day to leave for Finsbury Park had come. I check my bag making sure everything’s there… clothes (including autographed t-shirt to pose with!!), camera (which as with the Flashgig, I couldn’t be bothered using), money (well-hidden of course) and a multitude of everyone’s favourite Damned zine (Sugar & Spite you fool).
While risking my life getting a lift up to Edinburgh from a maniac driver I made sure I had all my tickets… gig tickets have a habit of being forgotten when I’m going to see the Damned. Along with these I made sure I had my train ticket… a half-fare, HA HA British Rail, I ripped you off!! I amazingly made it to Edinburgh in one piece and met up with my friends, a Finn and a bear. The bear was under the effects of alcohol so I spent the time we had to wait on the train being amused by this. 
When at last we got the train we made sure no-one had chevved our seats. Luckily for once, no-one had. We settled back for the seven hour journey, though I found it very difficult as I was being drawn towards to the buffet like a magnet to metal. As most people know, you don’t buy anything from British Rail buffet’s unless you have very large amounts of money on your person. When I bought as sandwich and was asked by the person behind the counter if I had my cheque book I though he was joking. But when my £50 in cash wasn’t enough I soon saw what he meant!
No matter how hard I tried I just could not sleep on the train so passed the time by mentally playing every Damned song I’ve ever heard about 30 million times. As the train went through London we passed Finsbury Park station. I looked out of the window expecting to see a giant big circus tent, but alas nothing was seen.
At 6:30am we arrived in London and I stumbled off the train feeling fucking knackered. Now I know what it feels like to be zombie! 
We had arranged to meet two more friends outside the Virgin megastore in Oxford St at 7:30 so we reckoned we’d have enough time to walk there (and save 50p!!). We proceeded to walk in the wrong direction, which all in all wasn’t really a clever thing to do. We were well and truly lost but were saved by finding a tube station. We could’ve still been there today if that station hadn’t been there! 
We finally got to Oxford St. and met our friends who had got the bus to London (AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!). Amazingly theye were still able to move about, which after sitting in a bus seat for about nine hours is quite something! 
After a breakfast of soggy pancakes we went to our accommodation to dump our stuff. After that we trailed along to “one of London’s main record fairs”. It turned out to be crap. They had absolutely no good Damned stuff, having only crappy bootleg albums which are just a rip-off. 
Time was getting on so we decided to head out to Finsbury Park. As we got nearer and nearer, more and more punky people appeared. It definitely looked like it was gonna be a sell out. 
Any of you who have ever tried to the chocolate machines in tube stations will know that you never actually get anything out of them unless you’re very, very lucky. Unfortunately one of my friends fell into the trap and inserted money into the slot. When no bar of chocolate appeared he became addicted to the goddamn machines and couldn’t stop trying to succeed in actually getting a bar of chocolate out. Throughout the trip, more and more 30p’s were piled into the machines in the faint hope that they’d work. Well, did he ever succeed? Read on and find out… 
By the time we reached Finsbury, the tube was packed full of Damned people, so we followed the crowds and hoped they knew where they were going. 
While strolling along the road I bumped into fellow fanzine writer Count Jamesy of the great Total Beal. He kindly offered to help sell some of my zines to crowd of Damned-ites. Off we went with the famous line “wanna buy a fanzine?” It wasn’t too hard to get rid of them all, but considering the number of people that were there it should’ve been much easier. I never understand why people are willing to pay £1 for a can of beer, but won’t pay 35 bloody pence for a fanzine [I do now- alcoholic Ed. 2002] 
After flogging all the zines I had to find my friends again. This proved to be pretty difficult but I eventually found them and proceeded to try and find a shop that sold cans of beer for under a pound. A lot of nearby shops had totally sold out but luckily we were saved by s supermarket type place. After buying our favourite poisons we headed back to the park. 
The park itself was packed with punky people and the ground was littered with empty cans. There were several very dubious people about who had obviously had too much to drink. The best one was this old guy who kept crawling about on the ground as if he was some sort of soldier or something. Every so often he’d get up and shout something about “English bastards” and kept wanting to fight people. At this point he’d swing a few punches and collapse on the ground!! I sat amused by his antics for ages! 
Since neither Electric Bluebirds or Restless promised to be very good, we never bothered to enter the gig area ‘til after they had finished. From what I heard from the outside, both bands were very uninteresting. 
While waiting in the queue to get in I heard the security men shouting that no cans or bottles would be allowed inside (this was probably more to do with the fact that no-one would pay £1 for a can otherwise, than the danger of people throwing them). I watched highly amused as people in the queue tried to down large amounts of alcohol in a matter of seconds. 
When we got inside, what greeted us was a large bit of stony ground with a circus tent at one end. At the other end was what possibly could be called a bar, with millions of people crowded round. Dr. & The Medics were just coming on so we went down to try and get as view of them. I couldn’t see much, and I can’t really remember much about them due to the state I was in. The Doctor was really good and repeatedly thanked the Damned for helping the Medics get where they are now, eg. Tour supports. At one point he apologised for “having a hit record.” The offending song, Spirit In The Sky was then played at the “correct speed”. I really cannot stand that song, it’s sooooo boring!! Yawn yawn. After that they played Black Sabbath’s anthem Paranoid. Give me the Dickies version any day!! 
For most of the Medics show I was wandering around trying to find somewhere to stash my bag, which contained all my friends coats, my camera and lots more valuable stuff that I didn’t really want to lose. I thought under the bogs would be a pretty safe place (after all, who goes looking for people’s bags under toilets?!!) but when I saw them I quickly forgot that idea. Anyone that was at Finsbury Park and saw the bogs will know exactly why!! After much persuasion, one of the geezers behind the bar took it for me which was a great relief. 
A lot of people were going down the front now so we thought we’d better join them. Not being very big I didn’t have too much trouble getting a good position. Now all I had to do was wait… 
Finally, the intro tape started… the soundtrack to the film Plan 9 From Outer Space I’ve since heard. This merged into an orchestrated version of Plan 9 Channel 7 ; a really great version it was too, definitely equal to the previous live versions (which I may add, makes it very good indeed). The crowd went totally mental as soon as the drums came in. I was catapulted from side to side whilst concentrating on not falling over and singing along. 
After Plan 9, the new single Anything Is Better Than This was aired. Much of the crowd was also singing along with this, obviously having heard it on the radio gig. 
As the crowd moved forward and back, loads of people were falling over, but luckily most of them got picked up okay. I eventually got toppled over. There were about four people underneath me, and another three on top. I must say it wasn’t a very pleasant experience! Amazingly enough, my mate who’d disappeared before we got in the gate was one of the geezers I’d landed on top of. He wasn’t very happy about it!! 
A speedy version of Neat Neat Neat followed, the Stranger On The Town which was dedicated to “all the geezers from Glasgow”. What about Edinburgh ya Welsh git?! 
The beginning of Is It A Dream signaled drink time and I pushed my way out of the crowd and paid my 50p for a tiny bottle of juice. After Is It A Dream was a new song from the forthcoming LP. I took the time to actually listen to it. Called A Girl Goes Down, it’s definitely yet another change in style, reminding me more of Temptation and Beat Girl than anything of Phantasmagoria. It is really good though, but not quite as good as Anything Is Better Than This (which is a classic). 
“The man standing next to you might be Captain Sensible” said Roman. I highly doubt it I thought to myself… unless of course he’s shrunk, dyed his hair black and red and spiked it about a foot up in the air. Anyway, Wait For The Blackout was played and Roman’s guitar stopped working half way through which seemed to amuse Bryn. 
The absolutely brilliant Limit Club was, as usual, dedicated to Malcolm Owen (RIP) and it was a great version too with some good guitaring and keyboard playing. Really cosmic man. The Electric Prunes’ I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night was dedicated to Dr. & The Medics, the Annadin Brothers and “the motley crew at Alice In Wonderland. Watch out for the bad acid”. 
Another new one followed, Restless it was called, and again it was a lot different to the kind of stuff on Phantasmagoria. It had some great drumming from Rat Scabies in it. 
Shadow Of Love was followed by Eloise which the few pop kids that were there enjoyed. The Damned can’t really lay Eloise well live but this version didn’t have any noticeable mistakes (unlike the one at the Town & Country Club).
Eloise went straight into Street Of Dreams which I’m beginning to go off now as they always play it and not any of the other non-single tracks on Phantasmagoria. It had a different bit in the middle which made it a bit more interesting. Also the drums at the end were a bit different, but I’d still prefer them to play Eighth Day or There’ll Come A Day.
Another of the new ones followed Street Of Dreams, LA Woman which I don’t think sounds as good with keyboards. The one played on Whistle Test was better, but I’ll have to wait and hear the LP version. 
For the whole day I felt sure Captain was gonna turn up so when after LA Woman they went off I was certain they’d come back on with ol’ Sensible. But alas no Captain appeared. Rat did make a pleasant little speech though. He thanked everyone who’s followed the Damned for ten years, in places like Australia and America as well as Britain. He finished up with saying “thanks a lot for paying my wages you bunch of tossers”. What a wanker!!! I think the crowd agreed as the familiar chant of Scabies Is A Wanker rose up around the tent. 
A great version of Smash It Up followed, which again saw me getting knocked over and trampled in the mental crowd. There wasn’t any time to rest before it was into Love Song. I was still hoping Captain was gonna come on, but it was getting more and more unlikely. It turns out that the Captain was there, and so was Lemmy, but neither of them wanted to play. I’m glad I found that out after the Sunday gig and not after the Saturday ‘cos I would’ve been dead pissed off.
Off went the Damned again after Love Song, returning after much chanting by the crowd to play Dr. Jekyll And Mr Hyde, which isn’t the best song for an encore (although it’s really good). It did at least give me time to have a break from all the jumping about. It wasn’t much rest mind you ‘cos the next song was up was New Rose, to which everyone went crazy again. I wondered if I was gonna live to tell how great a gig it was. 
The final song, Iggy Pop’s Lust For Life was dedicated to Rat’s brother. Minutes later it was all over. The first night of the Tenth Anniversary Tea Party was over… and Captain hadn’t played. I’ve since decided that Captain didn’t play because I was sure he would. The next day I made a point of only hoping he’d turn up… did it work? 
The tent emptied pretty quickly after the Damned finished. There were still loads of people wandering around looking for money and lost valuables though (needless to say, I joined in). One geezer looking for his watch found it totally flattened which I laughed at. He gave me a dirty look so I moved away quick in case he took out his anger on me.
After reclaiming my bag I joined with the flocks of people trying to get out the gate. Most of the people seemed to think it was a great gig, though it was a pity that Captain hadn’t played. 
I finally got out and met up with my pals. We followed the crowds out of the park and headed for where we were staying the night. Somehow we’d managed to lose the key to our room so we had to return to Finsbury Park and look for it with bits of burning paper!! We never found the key but we did manage to burn down half of London. 
The next day I planned to get to Finsbury a bit earlier so we could get to the front of the queue, but too much time was spent eating so that idea was buggered. 
While in the tube station waiting on the train (well what else do you do in a tube station?… no, don’t tell me, I’d rather not know!) my friend continually tried to get a bar of chocolate out one of the rip-off vending machines. Completely pointless I told him, but he was hooked. The success of getting a pack of chewing gum wasn’t enough, it had to be a bar of chocolate. Various techniques were tried, but none of them worked. A sledgehammer may have helped but unluckily there wasn’t one hanging around. We even watched other people to see if they knew the secret, but no-one at all managed to get a bar of chocolate out the bastard. After yet more goes it was decided it should be given up for the moment. After all, there were more important things to do… like see the Damned for example, and what’s more important than that? 
Again, as we got nearer Finsbury the train started filling up with Damned people (and a few Fall fans… recognisable ‘cos they look real pricks). For the second day running we moved with the crowds, and for the second day running we dodged the t-shirt sellers. The scene that greeted us was the same as the day before… thousands of punks walking about or lying on the grass drinking. 
Unlike the day before we never joined the masses in consuming large amounts of alcohol… I was too busy trying to flog my zine to crowds of wankers who “don’t buy fanzines”. I went down the queue of people waiting to buy tickets for the gig. Anyone that didn’t buy I cursed with not getting a ticket. It seemed to work as many of them never got in. Serves them right. If they had any brains they would’ve got their tickets well in advance… like all true Damned fans! After getting rid of all the zines I joined my pals and went inside. It looked just as packed as the Saturday, maybe even more. 
After finding a suitable space where we could (just about) see the stage, we waited for Pete Shelley to appear. After a short wait, on he came, playing a selection from his new LP, plus a few older ones. The best one of his that played was Homosapien but his encore of Something’s Gone Wrong Again was by far the best thing he played. 
The next band on were the Fall, who I must say were absolutely shit! They came on with Cruisers Creek which was good, but from there they were just boring rubbish. They seemed to play for ages, though I don’t think they did, it’s just every song was the same boring crap. During the Fall’s set I witnessed a very dubious geezer selling drugs. I thought of shouting “Drugs Squad… don’t move” but didn’t think he’d get the joke. 
New Model Army proved to be much better than I thought they’d be. The crowd seemed to enjoy them too, as much jumping around went on. The best songs were from the Vengeance LP though some of the newer ones were really good too. I’m glad to see NMA still have a sense of humour… this was shown most obviously in their cover of [a boring old “rock” song, that I can’t remember the name of!!!] New Model Army certainly went down well with the crowd, which is really great as they deserved it, unlike the Fall. 
Again we made our way down the front before the Damned came on so we could get into the main part of the crowd, away from all the people content to just stand and watch (not that there’s anything wrong with that- not everyone enjoys getting smashed about and knackered at every gig they go to). We got a good space near the front and waited for the Damned to appear. 
When I met the band at the Town & Country Club (ha!, I just thought I’d let that one slip in there!), Rat said that Captain and Brian James would be playing on the Saturday, but as neither of them did, I was hoping he’d meant Sunday. Brian James wasn’t as important as the Captain. If he turned up it really would be a gig to remember.
Suddenly the Damned were with us, Vanian coming on first, doing the great new version of Plan 9 Channel 7. 
Much the same stuff was played as the night before. Again I had to try my hardest not to get knocked over.
Throughout the gig I was watching for the appearance of Captain. I was hoping that he’d play, but didn’t want to be “sure” as I was the day before ‘cos that would mean he wouldn’t play!! 
When Is It A Dream was done I decided (like the night before) to go for a drink. I noticed a very significant change in the lyrics… instead of “I know a man, who’s really very nice, he isn’t here”, it was “I know a man, who’s really very nice, he IS here”. When I heard that I just knew that Captain was gonna play. 
Whereas the night before I was down in front of Bryn, I went to the other side to prepare for Captain. I still didn’t want to fell “sure” about him playing but I couldn’t help it! 
The first encore was Smash It Up, during Part One I watched closely for Sensible to appear. About quarter of the way through I saw a figure move through the darkness… could it be? Curly hair, mirror glasses? YES! It was SENSIBLE!! By this time the people around me had also realised that the Captain was with us. He plugged in his guitar, had a few strums and turned to face the crowd. He looked slightly different to the Captain of old… black hair, no beret, fatter! He was wearing an “Undead” t-shirt and a pair of shorts. The whole place had now seen Sensible and the noise was almost deafening! The familiar Sensible’s A Wanker chant soon started up, to which Sensible could only grin!! 
He joined in the latter half of Part One and every person inside the tent went fucking crazy!! Part Two was the same. Though Captain had seemed a bit unsure about coming on (he had to be coaxed by Roman… “he’s shy” !) once he got into it he really seemed to enjoy it. He had a massive grin on his face for most of the time, as did the rest of the band who looked glad to see him back. Of course you can’t keep the good ol’ Captain away from the mic… “FUCK OFF!” was the first thing he said, or more like shouted. “Listen to this guitar, you might learn something” he said to the chanting crowd. He also said something about “the state the countries in but wouldn’t go into it here”. 
After Smash It Up came Love Song which saw Captain doing all the lead and Roman staying mainly in the background. He also had a big grin on his face as Captain ran and jumped about the stage. 
“This one’s Looking At You” said Cappy only for the drums to New Rose to start up. He turned to look at Rat, though I think it was the Captain that made the mistake. Nevertheless he played it and really brought back the days of old when the Damned with Sensible was normal. The next song was Looking At You and it featured some excellent guitaring by Cappers. Though Roman’s a good guitarist, no-one on earth can beat the Captain. Looking At You was definitely the best song played over the whole weekend. All thanks to Caps ace guitaring. 
The final song was We Love You which again saw some cosmic guitar playing by Sensible. The end of the song was really something else though… rat got off his stool, picked up one of the crash cymbal stands, raised it above his head, got Captain out the way (we didn’t want to see Captain get a stand in the gob) and SMASH!!! Right into the kit. Various other drums were picked up and smashed up. Captain joined in, reliving the days of ’79 when many a drum kit was done in. The kit ended up in bits all over the place. Roman got Captains guitar and threw that at the stage while Cap got Dave’s tambourine and lobbed it into the crowd… a real 5minutes of anarchy, chaos and DESTRUCTION!!
With the road crew buzzing around trying to get all the bits of drum kit back, the band left the stage. Captain walked off with the grin, which hardly left his face during the whole time he was on, still beaming out. 
There were a few people down the front trying to persuade the roadies to give them a bit of rat’s kit, but apart from them the place emptied pretty quickly. Well, except the scavengers… 
Again I joined with the loads of people looking for money and valuables, and lucky ol’ me found £2.53 in loose change!! On the way to the gate I was tempted to buy and ice lolly, but the price of £22.50 put me off. I had a good laugh at the fools who had forked out vast amounts of money to the rip-off merchants in return for a bit of frozen coloured water. 
It was still sinking in that I had just been to the greatest gig of my whole life. The Captain was just so fucking good that I wished it could’ve gone on forever. I sure hope he’ll be doing further guest appearances in the future. Or maybe even re-join? What would happen then I don’t know ‘cos I wouldn’t want to see the back of ol’ Roman. 
Even the fact that I had a seven hour train journey to suffer didn’t put a damper on things. As I walked out the gate (bumping into a few folk I know) all I could hear were people going on about how good the gig had been. I could still see a picture of Captain jumping around with a big grin on his face in my mind. I don’t think that picture will ever disappear. 
I met up with my pals and discussed the total brilliance of the gig. I’ve not found anyone that didn’t think the gig was bloody brilliant… and that’s something ‘cos you usually get some moaning prat that didn’t like it. 
Again we moved with the flocks of people away from Finsbury Park. This time though we managed to find the tube station without any trouble. The night before we went the wrong way and ended up going round in circles until we found the station. We also passed a very dubious house with loud music coming from inside, psychedelic lights flashing, and a geezer lying on the windowsill fucked out of his brain… well dubious guv’nor!! 
As we got further away from Finsbury the punks started to disappear and soon we were about the only ones left. Two of my friends were staying another day, and one was staying at his brothers, so we departed with a fond “fuck off and die you bastards” and made our way to Kings Cross to catch the train home. But before we went, of course there had to be a few final attempts made to get a bar of chocolate out of the specially-designed-to-rip-you-off vending machines. The money was inserted, the kind of chocolate wanted was picked… Fruit & Nut. The drawer thingy was pulled… but nothing came out. It was stuck… yet another attempt had failed dismally… My addict friend could not face defeat, so had to have another go. Again the money was inserted, the chocolate picked… Dairy Milk was chosen this time… would it work? The money clicked down… we all waited for the next move. With a sharp tug, my friend pulled the drawer… we all stared in disbelief… it had WORKED… he’d actually managed to get a bar of chocolate out!! It wasn’t impossible after all!! But just to prove to the world that it was possible, and be really alternative, he left, leaving the drawer out with the chocolate still in it! The bar wasn’t the important thing, it was the fact you could actually get some out of the fucking machines. Not bad that, a bar of chocolate that he didn’t even eat… and it only cost him about £7 in 30p’s!!! 
That really made my day. Not only had I just been to the best gig ever, not only had Captain returned to the Damned (be it only for a short while)… but I had actually witnessed someone get a bar of chocolate out one of the machines
When we got to the station we were greeted by a massive queue of people. “I bet they’re all waiting on the train we’re wanting” I thought. And of course they bloody were. Somehow we all managed to get seats, though as usual I had to sit next to some dubious old drunkard. This one kept making mental noises and talking to himself. Looks of “dubious ‘guv” were passed between me and my pal sitting opposite. 
There were quite a few people on the train that had been to Finsbury, in fact there were loads. Many a Finsbury t-shirt was to be seen as I walked to the buffet car to be severely burnt by British Rail and their “rather high” prices. 
Again, it was impossible to get to sleep, so I passed the time reliving the greatest gig ever… Finsbury Park 27/7/86. I wonder if Captain will turn up for the 20th anniversary tea party?… Long live THE DAMNED…

Picture credits: Dave Vanian - Finsbury Park, from NME and Sounds,   Captain Sensible - Tim Whittaker