Billy Childish & the Buff Medways

Tonight is the last gig this band are ever gonna play. For Billy Childish thats not exactly a break from the norm. Over the last 27 years he's been in countless bands, the only constant being the profoundly prolific man himself. There seems to be no official figure, but he's released around 100 albums during his career, not to mention a few sidelines as a novelist, poet, and respected artist. The guy is obviously no couch potato!
The venue tonight seems to be a favorite of Billys as he's ended and begun his last couple of incarnations at this place. It makes sense, the venue is basic, a bit dirty, rough round the edges and loud, pretty much the same as Billy's music.
In testament to the legend that is Billy Childish, the support band are noneless than a female Buff Medways cover band, the Buffets, consisting, I think, of ex members of Billys ex bands. They warm the crowd up nicely. The Bassist, Nurse Julie (same name as a Medways song, not sure which came first!) is going to be replacing the current bassist in Billys new band......and yes, she does wear the uniform!!
The Buff Medways play loud punk edged 60s Garage, and they do it well. They rip through the songs like the Kinks playing the MC5. Their sound is made all the more Garagey by the equipment they're using, namely the 2 ancient 60s vertical amps they've got onstage. They play a load of their own songs, a handful of covers, theres a kinks number in there somewhere, plus a blistering version of Hendrix's 'Fire'.
All this is Punctuated by a few ramblings from Billy in his best Cockneyish Chatham accent, particularly when some old pissed up geezer almost pulls down one of the amps after drunkenly grabbing it to stay on his feet(the same old duffer had been cruising the place earlier in the evening trying to nick peoples pints!)
The set is made more captivating (and amusing) by the bands military gear and Safari get up they're wearing, plus Billy himself must along with his various other achievements be in line for the title of Britains (or at least Chathams) Biggest Moustache, It's Bloody massive. He looks like Stephen fry as Melchett from Blackadder 4!
They save their best song for the encore, 'Archive from 1959' A dirty 3 chord riff kicks off Billys' Autobiographical journey through his life in 3 minutes ...... "I'm an archive from 1959, started school in 1965". Theres a couple more songs, then off they go for the last time, sort of. The bassist is leaving and they'll be back and revamped with Nurse Julie onboard, (which can surely only be a good thing!) for the new band. The Musicians of the British Empire. Their first gig is on November the 17th,no prizes for guessing where......