Tiger Bay Brawlers Newport Take Over.

October 11, 2011

Ah Newport Centre. I spent so much time there in the 1990s seeing some of my favourite beat combos of the era, such as Supergrass, Paul Weller, Garbage and Marilyn Manson, but now it tends to only provide gigs for bands with names ending in ‘head’- most notably Machinehead and Motorhead. Seems like a bit of a niche market to me. No wonder they don’t seem to have many gigs on there anymore.

So what could possibly bring me back for the first time since 1997? Oh nothing much, just the FLIPPIN’ TIGER BAY BRAWLERS!

A month after seeing them for the first time I’ve become a little bit obsessed. I’ve finally found something that has filled the void left by the demise of the Cardiff Phoenix basketball team I used to love watching so much when I was a lot younger. If only the bouts were more often.

So on Saturday there was quite a lot of activity in the area which obviously I missed, arriving at the venue half an hour before the start. As soon as I got in I bumped into Scott Cole, a great photographer I had the pleasure of meeting at the Cardiff Big Weekend back in August. It shows how far I’ve come in photography terms that I didn’t feel too in awe or under pressure- I used to be terrible at gigs when Mei Lewis was there photographing, sometimes to the point of stopping altogether. I used to get a bit down about it and give up, and now it’s something to strive for. To be the person others respect or want to look up to is something that drives me on with my photography. I’d like to be a photographer people talk about in the same way I’ve talked (and still do talk) about others.

Anyway, enough about me. The roller derby is really exciting and the Brawlers seem to be really good from what little I know. Following a narrow defeat (I think- I can’t actually remember for sure!) for the B side against Swansea City Slayers, the A side took on the Cardiff Roller Collective (CRoC) and dealt with them accordingly. Properly showed them who’s boss. TIGER BAY BRAWLERS RULE!!