This one was a bit of a cheating item, I guess. When I wrote about the life and times of Battleska Galactica, I mentioned that a girl called Hannah Beatton had started a Facebook petition to get the band to play a reunion gig.
For some reason that I am still unaware of, she had put a 6-week deadline on it which was never going to happen as it would have taken me longer than that to remember how to play guitar.
Everyone in the band got on board the idea quite quickly and we planned the gig for December 21st, with four rehearsals scheduled for the two months prior to this. After some discussions around venue, support bands and the like, we ended up playing Stripes with T.A.R, my favourite local band – 3dbs Down – and 7 Day Conspiracy.
We had almost as many drummer issues as Spinal Tap. Pierre has been abroad for what now seems like an eternity and Motown was up for it but as he is making a living out of music and touring and all that exciting stuff, he was unavailable to practice. In place, we called up Baxter – one time former SuperPartyFunTimes drummer (more on that another time) and currently drumming in Battleska offshoot Call Me Malcolm. Motown and his amazing moustache did make it back to play on one hastily rehearsed during soundcheck version of Skank Away Your Heartache which was a nice touch.
We all dressed up in Christmas-related costumes with reindeers, angels, snowmen and Mr and Mrs Santa. However Lewis being Lewis hadn’t arranged his outfit until the day of the gig. He phoned me up and asked what everyone else was doing. After telling him, he managed to forget what I had told him and came as Santa. Which was my costume. I even said “Well this is embarrassing. One of us is going to have to change,” but he didn’t get the hint. I don’t miss Lewis.
Just like in the olden days, Trev’s attendance at the gig was seemingly random. This time he was genuinely gutted about missing out due to an ear infection. Back in the day, Trev used to play both for us and Kingskin and we always knew that they were his first love and we were his bit on the side.
For the reunion show he was the most excited about it. I received a text from him which unfortunately has disappeared from my phone now. I had asked the band whether they would be able to make the gig on a certain date and his reply was something along the lines of: “Why don’t we play next week? And the week after? And the week after that?”
Filling out Stripes again, like it was in the olden days, was pretty cool. I had an awesome night, got drunk and got upset that it all went so quickly. The gig itself was incredible. It was just like the olden days and it made me miss playing regularly.
For some reason, they had put a mic in front of me which – after a brief experiment shortly after I joined the band – was never allowed. This I found to be incredible. I could shout whenever I wanted and talk drunken crap into the mic. It made my day. Being aware that I am not the best of singers and that I don’t know many of our lyrics despite writing a number of them (although to be fair, Luke doesn’t either) I turned the mic around and allowed Dan Light and Emma Gresswell to shout/sing into it as much as they wanted.
For about the past 50,000 years, Skid has been jokingly (I think it was jokingly anyway) trying to kick me out of the band and take my place. I ended up in front of him in the crowd during My Brother Thom and inspiration hit me. I handed him my pick and told him to start strumming. It took him a while to work out what he was doing as I am left handed and he’s right handed, but it sort of worked. He has later told me this was the best moment of his life. I think he needs to get out more.
I don’t remember playing well. I was quite drunk. At the same time I don’t remember playing badly. I do remember that for some reason the amp I was borrowing decided it was going to feedback a lot which was quite annoying although I hope I managed to counter that reasonably well by muting my guitar when I wasn’t playing. Apologies to anyone there if I didn’t manage it well.
I also managed to accidentally break my crowdsurfing virginity. During an unscheduled and underrehearsed version of Sexual Walking, I put down my guitar as I finish playing before everyone else and fell forward into the crowd as I was off balance and exhausted. Somehow this resulted in me getting lifted up and making it half-way through the crowd. I am so accidentally rock’n’roll.
We donated all of the money we received for the gig from the door or some specially made t-shirts and hoodies and sales of some CDs we found we had left over to the Folkestone Winter Shelter. The shelter attempts to provide food accommodation for homeless people in local churches during the winter running from December to February. It’s a great cause and if you have a few pennies spare, I would recommend you donate to them. All in we managed to donate £220 to them which hopefully helped out the great cause.
After the gig, Luke managed to not give me a lift home as had been previously discussed so I had to carry all my gear back to my flat. Fortunately I managed to find a couple of helpers so it wasn’t too bad. We then tried to make it into Chambers but we unable to so I ended up wandering around town drunk and checking out all the amazing messages that had been posted on Facebook from people saying how much they enjoyed the gig and walking home with a smile on my face. It was easily the best thing I did in 2012.
A good friend of mine who was involved in organising the May the Forth celebrations in Folkestone had actually asked me before the December gig whether we would play at the event. I had told him that it would depend on how well that one went but that we were all enjoying ourselves so it was likely we would.
After it was done, I text the band to gauge interest and managed to get everyone on board. I am using that to count that as succeeding in this bucket list item.
The gig was at the Bar Below the View and was maybe a bit less memorable for me. It took a lot more organisation on my part. For the Stripes gig, we had basically let Chester from T.A.R. do the large part of the organisation. For this one, I had to get a bit more involved and also had to do a lot more organising of the band for rehearsals as people were busier this time. It reminded me of how difficult it was to get eight people in the same place at the same time on a regular basis.
Luke was keen for everyone to wear onesies on stage. I’m surprised he didn’t go with the Star Wars theme
and suggest everyone dressed up as characters so that he could be Princess Leia. I happened to have a Chewbacca costume which apparently counted as a onesie so I was able to combine the two. I really wish I hadn’t. I’m generally a bit of a sweaty man but this was ridiculous. I swear I was pretty close to fainting. I was so incredibly drained by the end of it but the gig was worth it as a whole.
For some reason, I decided to do the big fish little fish cardboard box dance instead of playing my solo during Skank Away Your Heartache. I’m not entirely sure why. It definitely seemed like a good idea at the time though.
Most importantly, Luke finally gave me a lift to and from a gig. It was only about 10 years coming.
Again, it was entirely a charity event and all the proceeds went to the Rainbow Centre which runs that Winter Shelter among other projects.
The conclusion from all of this is that I’m too old to do this on a regular basis. On top of that, everyone is so far apart now and grown up and busy for it to be logistically feasible to do this on a regular basis. It was nice to resurrect the band briefly and it made me miss playing music but at the same time made me realise that it is a chapter of my life that is now closed.
If you need a Battleska-esque fix, then please check out Call Me Malcolm who are effectively Battleska 2.0 with Luke on guitar, Lewis’s alter-ego on trombone, Trev on bass and Baxter on the beats.
The band are a natural progression from BSG, with songwriting pushed up slightly to the next level and arrangements simplified (trying to get 8 instruments onto one song at times could be a bit messy). Where in Battleska we were trying to combine The Ataris and Reel Big Fish, Call Me Malcolm sounds more like they are trying to combine Pendulum and Desmond Decker.
So, for now, RIP Battleska Galactica.
Photos borrowed/stolen from Leif Wildman and Kate Wintie/GIGglepics