Band face gigs ban as fans trash Highbury Garage

    ONE MINUTE SILENCE face a ban from London venues after a near riot at their London Highbury Garage gig on October 3.
    Trouble started at the show when the band were wrongly informed that fans were being thrown out of the venue then beaten up by security staff.
    "Bassist Glen Diani started chanting, 'Wreck the joint! Wreck the joint!'," says Kerrang! writer Ray Zell, who was at the gig. "Then all hell broke loose."
    Fans of the band pulled a cigarette machine off the wall, ripped out overhead fans and threw chunks of ceiling into the crowd. Several people were injured -- most suffering head wounds -- but there were no reports of anyone requiring hospital treatment. The police were called to The Garage but made only one arrest -- a member of the audience trying to make off with a broken fan!
    A spokeman for the Mean Fiddler, who own The Garage, told Kerrang!: " The band were clearly egging the crowd on, and this has put a strain on our relationship with them. I doubt if One Minute Silence will be playing at any of our venues in the foreseeable future. I can't tell you the total cost of the damage yet, but we will obviously have to sort things out with the band."
    The Garage was forced to close for 48 hours while repairs were carried out. As a result of this incident, One Minute Silence lost their support slot with Anthrax at London's Astoria on October 13 (they were replaced by Stimulator). A headlining date at the Lomax in Liverpool on October 11 was also cancelled.
    "This has been a lesson for us", says One Minute Silence drummer Eddie Stratton. "We never realised how much people might take what we say literally. We have to tone down what's said on stage. Let me say that this band does not condone smashing up other people's property. All we can do is apologise to everyone.
    "If we do get banned by the Mean Fiddler, then we have no complaints. It's up to us now to make sure that this sort of thing never happens again."
    One Minute Silence fans have leapt to the band's support.
"They're an amazing band and really give a shit about their fans," insists Jeremy Shere from London. "The show was sold out and I didn't have enough money to buy a ticket off a tout. But Glen Diani actually got my ticket for me when he found out. And that show was the best I've ever seen."