On 15th march 2009, Toxik Ephex played their 30th Anniversary gig at Cafe Drummond in Aberdeen.
A good six weeks after the actual anniversary of 3rd Feb, due to difficulties securing a date in a town with a healthier number of bands than venues .... or perhaps indicative of our diminished status even in our own home turf? ...remains to be seen, but never forget ..old farts never die! ... They just fart louder to make up for being heard less often!

So,March 15th it was. A Sunday? We'll take it! And after 4 superb support bands, we haul our sad old arses up on stage. Dod has a can of Irn Bru in his hand to deflect attention from the bottle of Buckfast down by the bassdrum, most of which is down his neck already. I place my umpteenth pint on a stable horizontal surface a safe distance from my multeffects pedal .. cos I remember only too well what happened last time! Dave and Frankie are both on rhythm guitar.... normally its one or the other, but what the hell? ...more guitars means more racket! New bassist Ross is rarin to go as we casually plug our shit in, make some noises, wind up the audience as they do likewise to ourselves, and Chiz twizzles and tightens bits of metal whilst regarding every part of the kit with disdain and suspicion (and if a kit could talk, it would tell you it would rather be hit than suffer the scorn of our Chiz! )

So off we go, and what unfolds is a series of events which make the rehearsal of some days previous as conducive to the performance as Barry Fergusons prep for the Scotland v Iceland game! ... but it works! We dont know why, it just does! A blend of melody and mayhem, fury and fun, cameraderie and chaos, entertainment and intoxication, politics and bollotics! Its a typical Toxik Ephex party! The audience dont know what's gonna happen next ... I dont know whats gonna happen next ... the rest of the band dont know whats gonna happen next ... and even Dod... most often the guy who is gonna dictate that next unplanned and eagerly anticipated 'what the fuck' event ... doesn't know whats gonna happen next! ... but its gonna happen! ... whatever it is! Why does it work? Perhaps because to the uninitiated onlooker there is no difference in terms of effort, interaction, input, output, and entertainment between the guys with the guitars and mics, and the rest of the party other than the differential in altitude that a stage imposes.