“…At around 9:30 I went to the toilet. Ever Fallen in Love? had just started – my all time favourite Buzzcocks song. I pushed the door open on the start of the fourth bar, zipped my fly down on the start of the first verse and let loose through the first verse and chorus. ‘Ever fallen in love,’ I sang along, spraying up and down the urinal. Luckily there was no one else there. There was a loud crash somewhere outside. I zipped myself up on the first bar of the second verse then pulled open the door on the third.
There were bits of smashed mirror-ball all over the floor. The air was tense, girls screaming, people backing into corners or crouching like over-wound springs.
Then the second chorus started and all hell broke loose.
Guys smashed stools on each other’s heads and broke glasses on each other’s faces. I looked at Ron, Steve and the others. They all seemed to know what they were doing. They hung back, only moving in when someone was getting seriously hurt. They made safe corridors for non-combatants to make their escape. They seemed to read the crowd, knowing when to move and when to stay. And they watched each other’s backs – none of them got touched – and they were all together, within a few metres of each other. But I was by myself, at the back of the bar, with no way out. The crowd seemed to ignore me; it was as if I was invisible. But as soon as I started to edge my way towards Ron and the others, they turned on me like a pack of savage dogs, kicking, punching, smashing, slashing, stamping and crushing.
I didn’t even hear the end of the song….”
Excerpt from THE ROAD BEHIND