07/09/78 The Rocket, Crawley
"Mourning The Departed" gig
Robert explained, "Whenever we played, we all thought it was awful - there was loads of feedback and you could never hear anything
but Porl's guitar. That's the only reason we kept getting rebooked, because he became the local guitar hero!"
The band's music was getting starker and more minimal.
The other members had decided that Porl's flashy feedback sounding guitar
did not fit with the new direction they were going. Robert asked Porl to play chords, but he didn't like that.
The situation got even more complicated
when Porl started dating Robert's younger sister Janet. The band would rehearse at Robert's parent's
house when his parents were gone and Porl was always off somewhere with Robert's sister.
Robert, Lol, and Michael decided not
to rehearse for a couple of weeks and when they started up again they just wouldn't tell him. Porl was
out!
After Porl was gone, a lot of people were asking Robert to bring Porl back, because there weren't any guitar solos anymore.
So the band put on this concert where they used a backing tape Robert made at home using an organ,
drum machine, and Church music. They had a 40 minute mock religious ceremony they called "Mourning The Departed."
They had a seance right in the club.
Robert nailed a piece of wood to the neck of his guitar to make it in to a crucifix and he wore a
priest's outfit.
Porl arrived in disguise, and they didn't know he was in the audience until they had just finished
playing, he walked up on stage and poured a pint of beer on Lol's head! Robert exclaimed, "Suddenly we were friends again!"
The set list is unknown.