SCAVS AT ALICE'S

Rip It Up, Issue 13, 1 July 1978, Page 4

SCAVS AT ALICE'S

“We like playing here,” Johnny Volume, the Scavengers’ guitarist, said before the band played the last of three nights at Wellington’s Slack Alice nightclub. “It’s like the old days,” he said, presumably referring to the Scavengers' days at Moody Richards in Auckland. “They hate us." Punk rock is still new to Wellington and people there have never been eager to accept Auckland rock bands. Even before the Scavengers began playing the reaction was predictably divided. The resident band, Itchycoo Park, had shown a policy of playing anything that made people dance, from Van Morrison to Uriah Heep’s “Free Me ”. Most of the audience stayed to dance to the Scavengers. Some people jeered. Some threw ice. The band played on while a few people threw tomatoes. Volume spat at the audience on request and threw his drink out over the dance floor. The nightclub’s management decided to call the band off but the Scavs looked set to play on. Someone took the opportunity to throw a glass at Volume, cutting open his forehead. In the ensuing scuffle someone smashed Volume’s guitar, throwing it to the floor and breaking it at the neck. Volume was taken to hospital, refusing to press charges.