OK look, we weren’t going to this gig. I think I'm beginning to push my luck a bit with the amount of gigging going on lately (Jon, you'll back me up on this yes?) BUT then tj announces that Yana Ya Ya is making a one off appearance at this gig and I couldn't miss that so, risking the weather conditions, divorce and foot and mouth off we headed to Chelmsford, having rather worryingly been told by the venue that hardly any tickets had been sold.

On entering the venue we found a rather motley collection of about 30 people had gathered, waiting for SOMETHING to happen. We went and had a long chat with Kathy about the old days with Yana, Kathy told us how Yana's hardly changed and seemed to slip right back into the role during the sound check. The support act were, to be honest, fucking awful and totally murdered T-Rex's 20th Century Boy, which is in itself a crime as I love T-Rex. Anyway, by the time Sputnik took to the stage the crowd had swelled to maybe 70 people. Yana led the way, dressed in this silver suit thing (look at the pics or the video as I'm terrible at describing women's clothes). Martin was wearing this wicked blue suit (which actually matched Neal's shirt) and yellow tie, Neal in a light grey suit, Tony in black bottoms and white piratespace t-shirt. "Evening" announced Martin, "so glad you could all make it" referring to the rather low turn out. It didn't matter though, they put on a storming' set.

CLOCKWORK ORANGE
SEX BOMB BOOGIE
EVERYBODY LOVES U
21ST CENTURY BOY
ALIEN CHRIST
ACCOSTIC MEDLEY
DEMON SEED
ALIEN@TION
VIRGINIA PLAIN
JAYNE MANSFIELD
SLAVE TRADE
LOVE MISSILE F1-11
REBEL REBEL
ROCKIT MISS USA

The band interacted with the crowd throughout the set, once again someone kept asking for Hack Attack which led to Neal commenting that he'd have to search for that elusive 4th chord. I've changed my mind about Virginia Plain, it really rocks and certainly went down well with the first few rows. The gig followed the same pattern as the other recent shows with one exception. You could tell it was Yana up there sequencing the effects which were absolutely wild and timed to perfection. I spoke to Martin afterwards who agreed and apparently had told Yana as soon as the set was over that he felt that the sound at this gig was the best yet. Yana also decided to go mad and ran round the stage like a headless chicken during Slave Trade which was very entertaining for us all.

Afterwards, as always, they came out for photo's and chat. Tony said that the low turnout didn't bother him at all (after all it was Chelmsford on a Monday night). He also told me to watch out for loads more gigs before the end of April. Martin introduced me to some fans as the guy who bollocks him every time he get's Alien Christ wrong. Me?? Bollock Martin Degville?? Never. All four of them signed my 21st Century Boys sleeve which was very nice of them. Tony was quite pissed off about the distribution problems with Pirate Space. He had a couple of copies with him but wouldn't part with one.

So another great show from the band, Greg, Stormrider, Lloyd, Stuart, Rick and Mick all came and said hi. Hope you all enjoyed it too (I know that's probably another one of my stupid questions).

On the way home I promised the missus that I'd forget about going to Doncaster the following Friday...........

ME, YANA YA YA, DARKSTAR AND STORMRIDER

ME WITH THE LEGENDARY SPUTNIK ROADIE ZAMMO

ME WITH LLOYD PRICE

ME, DARKSTAR AND TONY

SET LIST

21ST CENTURY BOYS INNER SLEEVE SIGNED AT THIS SHOW