The Enid play The Pier, Colwyn Bay

The Dixieland Showbar on the Pier in Colwyn Bay was a very regular stopping off point for touring bands, including The Enid, who played there in the late seventies, but gigs were also marred with crowd trouble, as regular attendee Roy Highton recalls, ‘The Enid played and a group of lads from the Wirral turned up, intent on causing trouble. They started off throwing a mop bucket full of disinfectant into the crowd, then it all kicked off. I remember seeing Ted Lloyd from Penmaenmawr getting a good beating by one of these lads so I smashed a chair over his back, and some other poor lad from Denbigh was kicked to a pulp, and I mean really badly, a hospital job. There was a convoy of ambulances outside.’
Such was the extent of this poor guy’s injuries that The Enid soon returned to the Bay to play a fund-raiser for him.

Daven from Ruthin also explains, ‘This was the first time I saw the band where an 80 strong stag party from Ellesmere Port decided to have some “fun.” Half an hour later two people were being carried out on stretchers, the band having had to abandon the stage. When things had cooled down Robert came back and said that there was a piece they particularly wanted to play. The management insisted the remainder of the audience were seated, so we all arranged the chairs, sat down and were treated to a rather nervous rendition of Fand. A couple of weeks later the band came back to play a benefit for the people hurt in the fracas. This endeared them greatly to the locals and they played several more times at the pier.’

Alan Holmes points out, ‘ I was at the Motorhead (77) gig and also The Enid one the same year, which to this day remains the most violent gig I’ve ever been to. I’m surprised that the report says that 2 people were carried out on stretchers – I remember counting 11 ambulances outside the venue! It was truly scary.’