New photos and stuff

In the last couple of weeks, some new photos concerning The Irritators have come to light. They feature Iris, our lead singer, and her mum and tour promoter/band manager Ana, a ticket and a poster variation previously unseen by myself. To say I was over the moon was an understatement, my only regret is that they weren’t available to go into the book. The first, courtesy of Pete ‘Ranga’ Ryan, shows the poster used for the last night of the tour at Belle Vue in Gorton. This was an extremely similar  poster to the Dundee Caird Hall one, with the new Manchester date professionally and seamlessly altered along the bottom. This one has a silver shadow around The Damned’s name.

The original Caird Hall poster is in the book.

Speaking of Caird Hall, this is a ticket for that gig, also courtesy of Pete, which was quite an historic event. This was the first ever gig by the remaining Ruts after Malcolm Owen’s death. Iris and Ana went to the funeral (I think) but it was Rat who cajoled Segs, Foxy, and Ruffy to get back on the horse (so to speak), and to my absolute pleasure they accepted the invitation. We were on first (obvs) then I spent the rest of the gig stage right watching 2 great bands, with 2 superb drummers, show us how it should be done. Not bad for a band (The Irritators) who were thrown together for a 3 month stint.

Whilst writing Hanging Around Musicians, my biggest disappointment was not being able to get hold of Iris, lead singer of The Irritators, or Ana, our ‘manager’ and tour promoter. I didn’t even have a photograph of her. So when I received some images of Iris and also Ana, I was made up.

First up was a live shot from the Wakefield Unity Hall gig, sent to me by Steve Forsythe. The picture was taken by Andy Cawley, who was there with Steve and is the only live photo I’ve seen of her.

She certainly held the attention of the audience, particularly the males, and left an impression on some which has stayed with them until the present day.

After I’d put this out on my FB page, I received 2 more from Elaine Gair. Elaine was a massive Damned fan and joined us for a couple (maybe more) of gigs in Scotland. This first one was taken on the tour bus; L-R Ana, Iris, Elaine. That could be my head in between Ana’s and Iris’s heads.

The second one was either taken in a hotel or in a dressing room.

I’ve got a feeling that Ana was responsible for Iris’s rather brutal, random haircut. I owe Ana a massive disservice, because in the book I portrayed her as being a bit of an old bag; Similar to Vivian’s mother in The Young Ones. When you’re 16 anyone over the age of 30 is practically a pensioner. She was feisty and funny, but didn’t take any shit. Rows were frequent. I never saw her again either. Such a shame, but I suppose I’d served a purpose. I’m not complaining.

All in all, those 3 months have stayed with me to this day, and I still regularly catch up with Ruffy and Segs at gigs around the country. Dave also did me the honour of providing a foreword for the book.

Hanging Around Musicians.