Well, what the fuck am I doing in Happy House ? Perhaps someone can tell me, I don't know why Rick wants me to write a column for this issue ('cos you're a fucking interesting writer with a great style - Ed), but he asked me to, I promised I would, then forgot about it and thought "I guess I missed that one!", then he calls me up and says "I still want you to write something" ... that's how it goes.
I made a promise and I have to stick by that, I don't mind doing this, I just ask myself "why me?". Anyway my name is David Stuart, I'm probably older than you, you're probably smarter than me, I've been into this punk rock schlop for a long time, I'm still here going strong and I hope to be around for a little while longer.

I'm trying to write this at an un-Godly hour, I have a few cigarettes & the new DESCENDENTS CD to keep me awake, the major downpoint is that I'm outta Pepsi and have to make do with Pepsi Max which I really can't get to grips with... some say sex without love is immoral, to me, soft drink without sugar is a much more serious matter, anyway, I digress.

Ok, so what the Hell am I meant to write about then? Politics? Yawn. Punk Rock? Done it elsewhere. Sex? Does anyone care? Love? Does anyone still believe in that?

If I've got something on my mind I can write a hundred pages about it, but I'm doing pretty dandy at the moment, work's ok, mind and body are healthy, there's a shitload of great new music doing the rounds at the mo' and having an 18yr old girlfriend makes the whole world kinda shiny to this late 20's Guinness swilling fool!
I think I'll just run through one day in late September, it was a cool day for me but I'm not sure if you'll find it at all interesting, maybe you'll find it readable... that'd be a start!
So I wake up on Saturday September 28 at 6.45am. A little hungover, but I should be used to that by now.
I kinda lounge around until 9.30 and then I dig my old bicycle outta the garage and scoot off to my mate Dave's house.

When I get there he's almost set to go and has THE SMITHS cranked up on his stereo... my hangover does not need this! So he grabs his old bicycle and we make our way to the train station.
We catch the train to London and I try to grab some zzz's on the way as I'm feeling pretty lousy. Once we hit the capital we make our way to Stamford Bridge to pick up our tix for the CHELSEA vs. NOTTINGHAM FOREST match.
Once the tix are safely in our possession we head to the pub for a few pre-match drinks and run into a few CHELSEA fans from Cambridge who are surprised to see us there to say the least!

We get talking to a few CHELSEA supporters and Dave is giving it large, and showing everyone his WEST BROM footy shirt to much laughter, some guy says to me "Are you West Brom too?" and before I can answer Dave shouts out "He's fucking West Ham!" ...the whole pub turns to me and I get some rather evil stares projected my way, but they were cool about it and I just headed to the mens room to clean myself up a little.

We get to the ground and it's heaving, a sell out crowd and we make our way to our seats which are high up in the stand but the view of the pitch is excellent (I just wished I'd taken a telescope or something). The match was ok but there's so little atmosphere in the ground and CHELSEA supporters are so fucking boring anyway!
CHELSEA score first and then control the game for the most part bu then on came Jason Lee at half-time and the match swung even for a while, he was getting stick off the CHELSEA fans "He's got a pineapple off his head" (Fantasy League anyone?) but he played really well and when he stuck the ball in the net in the 90th minute Dave & myself were laughing at all the dejected blues fans (we were in the CHELSEA end) and it kinda made it all worthwhile.

After leaving the ground we headed to our next destination, a gig at the Astoria with NO FX, THE VANDALS and GOOD RIDDANCE. The queue to get inside was long and there were so many kids waiting to get in, this was an all ages show. Once inside we ran into some folks from Cambridge as well as those monkeys from GOOBER PATROL who are always good for a laugh. We catch the last 3 or 4 GOOD RIDDANCE songs and they sounded ok, but I'm not a massive fan so I was hardly gutted. THE VANDALS were great and it was pretty cool to see them at long last... I've been a big fan for over 12 years!! NO FX played all the faves as well as some nifty new tunes and I was reborn a fan... the last album sucked pretty hard but they definitely have the live set down pat.

They finished at 9.15 and that was that... pretty weird, but the kiddies gotta get home and this enabled us seasoned veterans to skip on the tube and head up to Camden to catch AVAIL playing at the Underworld.
We have a lively tube journey as Dave is pretty drunk and singing football songs to the other passengers and making us hide our faces with embarrassment (it was funny though). AVAIL were already on stage and they let us in for two quid which was fair. So we head in and sink a few brews, I run into a few more folks from Cambridge as well as a few of the guys from the healthy Southampton scene. AVAIL kick it up big time and we're all so glad we came along.
Everyone splits up outside and I lose Dave in the pub so I get some food and hang out waiting for the appearance of my mate as he's very drunk and knows London like I know Hull... not at all. I go for a wander, witness 5 white guys chasing one black guy (you know how brave these check-shirted dudes get on a Saturday night) and then run into Dave who's a bit worse for wear (and worried that I'd fucked off without him!) but more than pleased to see me again.
We pass up on a party we'd been invited to and decide to get the last train back to Cambridge. On the train we talk to some Sunderland football fans who lived in Harlow and Dave tries to chat up some girl who has come and sat next to me, I thought she looked a little "manly" and she had a voice deeper and rougher than my own... my money was on that once upon a time she was in fact a he! She got off at Harlow and we finally got to Cambridge at ten to two... it was cold, raining and I passed up on the all night bat & pool room and cycled back home.
What a day, I ate too much, drank too much and spent too much, but it was fun and totally worth it. Excellent stuff. Right, I've bored you all senseless so I'll make my excuses and leave...
I also write stuff for great mags as SUPSECT DEVICE, REAL OVERDOSE and VISION ON. So if you want to check those out please do so, I'm the worst thing in them so don't worry! I sell CD's/Records & tapes so write for the 13 page catalogue (send a couple of stamps ot something).

Thanks for reading!

David Stuart.