}
OH702 Interview with Angela Stewart-Gentle (Bristol Wild Dayz)
I’m Angela Stewart now generally known to everybody else as Angie Stewart. I’m from Bristol, born and bred; I grew up, initially in the St Paul’s area of Bristol. My family subsequently moved on to Eastville, Robertson Road where I spent most of my adolescent years. My connections with Beezer started early, we ended up going to the same school, St Mary Redcliffe and it was quite interesting times in those days in the early kind of mid 70’s early 80’s there wasn’t many black students or pupils that went to school at that time. I was one of three I believe at St Mary Redcliffe.
I kind of got an affinity with Beezer at that point because Beezer always lived in the flats opposite our school. Beezer’s a bit younger then me I was born in 1960. After leaving school I didn’t have any contact with Beezer at that time, it was when I started going to the Dug Out we reconnected, I never thought we had actually that have much in common at that stage but we did and that was really through music, and also being in that kind of club scene if you like. My first introductions to the dug out that’s where I can clearly remember my days which was growing up and living on Robertson Road, and having neighbours immediately next door to me. For me as a 17 year old they were quite interesting, quite different, quite funky, one of those persons being Safire I know most people know Safire as the flamboyant, black, gay of Bristol, who introduced me to another character called Roger, Roger Pomphreys anyway these guys were just so great that I became quite fascinated by them and one evening I decided that I was going to sneak out of my house and go off to Park Street with them. I pretended I was much older then I was, I was probably just 17. We ended up going to the Dug Out and it was, well it was absolutely fantastic, one of the other things that was also interesting about them, because I also liked clothes and fashion I was always drawn by there funky mohair jumpers, and also got introduced to what was paradise Garage down on the under pass in the city of Bristol.
Going back to the dug out it was there that I actually came into contact with a lot of other people that I am in contact with now. It had everything going for it, it was fashion it was clothes it was music it was diverse, you knew the bouncers by name, you know, the 50p to get in. They had nurse’s nights and student nights when it was cheap. And you kind of felt that it became a second part of your home I also started working there when I was working locally as a sectary working for agencies and still manage to go out 3 or 4 times a week and still be able to get up in the morning and be fresh as a daisy.
In terms of the music I particularly had an interest in the music and met a number of people and actually did some dabbling in singing myself, kind of hung out with people like Tony rafters, Mark Stewarts various people of that ilk and was encouraged to do some backing singing, Jimmy Galvin who lived in Clifton and we started a band called The Birth Of Sharon and did quite a lot of gigs there and Tony Rafters as well we were called Vital Excursions we did John Pill sessions It was a crazy, crazy time everybody went out with everybody it became quite sensuous actually, you know connections with Nelly Hooper Andy Vining Marcus Vining, Kosta you name it, they were all there, Sandra grant lee.
The good thing about those days, the best thing about those days was that we generally felt safe you know, you could just… always know if you only had 50p in your pocket you would always get a drink. No sense of Violence or fear. You wore what you wanted, everyone looked after each other, if you couldn’t get home there was the dug out boss, there was times where they expanded a bit and you could go watch films. There was a period in my life when I actually moved to Paris that was in 1980. I went over there to start a new life and ended up being an o pair and would travel around with various other language student because I was also learning French and studying French at the a school there. We would go out clubbing in Paris and we stumbled across people who actually knew of the Dug Out, I introduced quite a few French people for long weekends we would travel over specifically to go to the Dug Out because it was cheap when the Dug Out came to an end it was like, a massive loss it was like real grief nothing was ever going to replace the Dug Out.
Then came Tropics, and that never quite had the same feel to it, but it was better then nothing it kind of tried its best to kind of fill that void of the Dug Out nothing being there but it never was ever quite the same again. Until we got the Moon club, and the Moon club I guess in the very early days, probably the closed you can describe what the dug out was, and again we had all the crews following suit and going there, and fantastic DJ’s, Music, Gratly, Claud, Miles everybody it was great Djing, I cant remember what they were called Wild bunch! Wild bunch days you know, we followed them everywhere it was just something that we all did. When I tried explaining to my children now, I mean I’m a grandmother now but when I tried to explain what it was like then compared to now they don’t quite get it you know, I think that our time was extremely special, extremely safe. It was much more caring and you felt that you belonged you know. I don’t have brothers and sisters and didn’t have much in terms of my parents around me and my friends became my family. It was really, really important that they were there for us, and part of that sharing was growing up together and experiencing different things and really exciting times.
I kind of got an affinity with Beezer at that point because Beezer always lived in the flats opposite our school. Beezer’s a bit younger then me I was born in 1960. After leaving school I didn’t have any contact with Beezer at that time, it was when I started going to the Dug Out we reconnected, I never thought we had actually that have much in common at that stage but we did and that was really through music, and also being in that kind of club scene if you like. My first introductions to the dug out that’s where I can clearly remember my days which was growing up and living on Robertson Road, and having neighbours immediately next door to me. For me as a 17 year old they were quite interesting, quite different, quite funky, one of those persons being Safire I know most people know Safire as the flamboyant, black, gay of Bristol, who introduced me to another character called Roger, Roger Pomphreys anyway these guys were just so great that I became quite fascinated by them and one evening I decided that I was going to sneak out of my house and go off to Park Street with them. I pretended I was much older then I was, I was probably just 17. We ended up going to the Dug Out and it was, well it was absolutely fantastic, one of the other things that was also interesting about them, because I also liked clothes and fashion I was always drawn by there funky mohair jumpers, and also got introduced to what was paradise Garage down on the under pass in the city of Bristol.
Going back to the dug out it was there that I actually came into contact with a lot of other people that I am in contact with now. It had everything going for it, it was fashion it was clothes it was music it was diverse, you knew the bouncers by name, you know, the 50p to get in. They had nurse’s nights and student nights when it was cheap. And you kind of felt that it became a second part of your home I also started working there when I was working locally as a sectary working for agencies and still manage to go out 3 or 4 times a week and still be able to get up in the morning and be fresh as a daisy.
In terms of the music I particularly had an interest in the music and met a number of people and actually did some dabbling in singing myself, kind of hung out with people like Tony rafters, Mark Stewarts various people of that ilk and was encouraged to do some backing singing, Jimmy Galvin who lived in Clifton and we started a band called The Birth Of Sharon and did quite a lot of gigs there and Tony Rafters as well we were called Vital Excursions we did John Pill sessions It was a crazy, crazy time everybody went out with everybody it became quite sensuous actually, you know connections with Nelly Hooper Andy Vining Marcus Vining, Kosta you name it, they were all there, Sandra grant lee.
The good thing about those days, the best thing about those days was that we generally felt safe you know, you could just… always know if you only had 50p in your pocket you would always get a drink. No sense of Violence or fear. You wore what you wanted, everyone looked after each other, if you couldn’t get home there was the dug out boss, there was times where they expanded a bit and you could go watch films. There was a period in my life when I actually moved to Paris that was in 1980. I went over there to start a new life and ended up being an o pair and would travel around with various other language student because I was also learning French and studying French at the a school there. We would go out clubbing in Paris and we stumbled across people who actually knew of the Dug Out, I introduced quite a few French people for long weekends we would travel over specifically to go to the Dug Out because it was cheap when the Dug Out came to an end it was like, a massive loss it was like real grief nothing was ever going to replace the Dug Out.
Then came Tropics, and that never quite had the same feel to it, but it was better then nothing it kind of tried its best to kind of fill that void of the Dug Out nothing being there but it never was ever quite the same again. Until we got the Moon club, and the Moon club I guess in the very early days, probably the closed you can describe what the dug out was, and again we had all the crews following suit and going there, and fantastic DJ’s, Music, Gratly, Claud, Miles everybody it was great Djing, I cant remember what they were called Wild bunch! Wild bunch days you know, we followed them everywhere it was just something that we all did. When I tried explaining to my children now, I mean I’m a grandmother now but when I tried to explain what it was like then compared to now they don’t quite get it you know, I think that our time was extremely special, extremely safe. It was much more caring and you felt that you belonged you know. I don’t have brothers and sisters and didn’t have much in terms of my parents around me and my friends became my family. It was really, really important that they were there for us, and part of that sharing was growing up together and experiencing different things and really exciting times.
