Due to the way my ticket was torn in half I can't put a definite date on this gig, but I'm certain it was August or September 1990. This was during a brief phase when Swindon's Monkey Club became part of the circuit that also included the infamous likes of Bedford Esquires, Dudley JBs and Birmingham Edwards No 8.The Monkey Club had (or rather didn't have) one thing that the other venues didn't (or indeed, did).
A stage.
Yep, the first line of defence between the band and its audience was the lead singer's microphone stand, a fact that was not lost on guitarist Steve von Saint who told me a couple of years later that they nearly pulled this gig when they arrived and saw that the facilities weren't quite what you'd expect from any self-respecting music venue. Bless him.
I'd seen the Kill City Dragons twice before - once in a double-header at the Marquee with the far-superior Gunfire Dance, and later at the Electric Ballroom, a gig I foolishly left early and in doing so missed a guest appearance from Andy McCoy. By the time this show came round the Dragons had released their variable 'Let 'Em Eat Cake' EP and were perhaps under a little more scrutiny than when they first formed. Opening with what was far and away their strongest song (Fastest Way Down), the Dragons quickly showed that they were lacking in depth. It's not that they were a bad band, it was just that they didn't add up to the sum of their notable parts and when McCoy came knocking and took half the band away for the ill-feted Shooting Gallery project it was no great loss. Definitely a case of style over substance, but with a couple of decent tunes thrown in, something many bands fail even to achieve.
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