Another find in the bottom of my cupboard is a poster featuring one of Carlisle’s well known Punk bands “The Beguiled” playing a gig at Stars and Stripes, featuring as support “Every smiles A Lie” another Carlisle band (both have their individual pages on this site).

There is no date on the poster, but taking a guess I say it was 1986 (?); the price of the ticket was £2.00 so the band was not getting paid much (if at all) that night. Stars and Stripes was the main place to play, it helped bands “cut their teeth” and get their act together, but you did not get paid for any of it, if you were lucky you got a pint and if they had a good night perhaps £10 split between the band. A dole cheque for 2 weeks was about £32; so even though ticket prices were not a lot, neither was the wages.