At the time, Punk was beginning to fizzle out in the rest of the world, but hey... we were in Brazil... and it was booming in the underground! So we went for it. We could barely play our instruments (except Jun), and we weren't exactly Pretty Boys, so the Punk thing was ideal. Plus, we had that two-drummer thing going that was so reminiscent of Adam & The Ants (or at least I thought so)... in our minds, we were pretty "cutting edge".

The choice was clear... The IRA was going to be a Punk band, and our debut would be a raucous Punk explosion on the virgin stages of The Escola Graduada. Stage time was limited to three songs. So we carefully examined our extensive repertoire of 4.5 tunes ("I don't want you near" & "Jack & Jill" count as 1 song... the "Peter Gunn" theme counts as half), and decided on a Sex Pistols cover ("Silly Thing") a Who song as covered by The Sex Pistols ("Substitute") and what I believe was "Johnny B Goode"... but don't quote me on that - all found on "The Great Rock 'n Roll Swindle" album. Lyrics sheets were unavailable at the time, so we did the best we could to decipher Johnny Rotten's screams... which led to some very interesting adaptations... but that's another story ("Shot-stained Suit" anybody?).

Anyway, so we had the songs... and now it was time to look Punk. Kinda hard when you consider the total unavailability of magazines or album covers - The "Swindle" tape we had was a copy of a copy of a copy... so the original Artwork was lost way before it got to us. At this point Andre and I decided to rely on his older brother's fashion knowledge - 'cause he was so cool and always got the chicks - or so Andre said! To cut a long story short, we put some "cool" threads together and were ready to kick some ass! Andre wore black 'bomber" pants, some sort of a blazer, and a 3-D T-shirt depicting a face. I had military pants and a sleeveless black T-shirt which showcased my Michael Jackson-esque physique. Jun, also wore a sleeveless T-shirt (no comment on the arms) and I forget what pants - who cares, he was a drummer... nobody could see his legs anyway! Steve's outfit completely escapes me, but I'm sure it was in total accordance with his drumming style.

"Ladies & Gentlemen... the IRA!"... and we hit the stage!

Steve, overwhelmed by his youthful exuberance, hit a cymbal waaayyy too hard... and it fell. I, in a vain attempt to hit a power chord, lost control of my only guitar pick which went flying off into space. Andre, kept his cool, and hammered away with his unique "one-fingered" bass playing style. Jun, amazingly enough, didn't miss a beat and plowed through the set with the vigor of a tranquilized hamster. In fact, as far as two-drummer bands are concerned (Allman Brothers, Adam and the Ants, Grateful Dead), our rhythm section was exceptionally sonically modest... maybe that's 'cause Jun was originally a classically trained pianist (???), and Steve just faked it from the tragic "cymbal incident" onwards! The torture continued amidst feedback screams, missed chords and dubious tempo changes... and at last, after we were done massacring the tunes, we went backstage hoping to finally get some chicks. Much to our chagrin, chicks just weren't around... but fortunately, we later hooked up with our buddy, #1 fan and road manager... Rod (a.k.a. Disco-hair Bod), who made us feel that much better by telling us how much we sucked. In our defense, I could claim that we were ahead of our times, or that the audience was simply unprepared for such a devastating sonic attack... but I won't. In retrospect, Bod was right... we sucked... but we did so in the most glorious way. We held our heads high... and the amps rigorously on 10!

The IRA's contribution to Modern Music history is as great as it is unknown. Never before had a band put aside pride, ego, family values, peer respect, decency, and chances of scoring with chicks -- all for the love of Rock 'n Roll!

Let there be no doubt about it. This legendary performance will never be forgotten by the band members, our parents, Bod, and the rest of the privileged audience.

Somewhere on this planet... someone is still laughing about it.

And that, in a nutshell, was my first on-stage experience with the world's greatest unknown Rock 'n Roll band - the IRA Mach-1... the only one that mattered!

I love you guys...

Andrea

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Dedicated to the Alumni of Associacao Escola Graduada de Sao Paulo

IRA forever!