CONTRAX: By Steve 'Mac' McLennan

Drugs, drugs, drugs & more drugs. Most vivid memories aside from Al's black
& white jump suit (sorry Al...my fault) involve a roof top gig somewhere near
the corner of King & Union Street. The house we rehearsed in (Paul & Mark lived there ??) in Wickham and the Easter weekend we played to a full house at The Cambridge.
Brian "Macca" McDermott didn't realise when he booked us that it was the Easter
weekend and when we turned up he tried to dissuade us from playing. ("There's no-one around town...its a waste of time and $$$). We dug our heels in and demanded to be allowed to play or be paid for turning up and not playing...one or the other. Macca relented........ Once we fired up the place was packed by the middle of our first set and a splendid time was had by all. We did interesting covers by The Pretenders, Alex Harvey & The Tubes as well as quirky original tunes with titles like "Bad Carrots".
My cousin Paul began his illustious road career with Contrax. He eventually
went on to log up thousands upon thousands of miles with some of the countries most enduring rock'n'rollers.
Eventually I got an offer to join The Idols and play more regularly for more
$$$$$$ (the old "Bigger & Better" theme rears its ugly head). The band continued with a drummer named Mick who was a huge Peter Criss / Kiss fan. For some reason the few times we met at gigs he made it abundantly clear that he didnt like me. Dont know what I did to upset him.......
Up to and including "Destroyer" I liked Kiss too !!!!
Oh well.