Bands and Live Performances I've been a part of:

#11.

Primitives, Dong Show #3, Who Knows, sometime late 1984.

By this the 3rd Dong Show, the alcoholism and associated anger amongst each and everyone present (participant, entrant, judge or audience) cast a bad vibe over the entire club.

Boy Joe, a co-worker from SE and regular performer for the Dong Shows, totally outdid himself by performing a strip-tease in drag.  In front of a capacity crowd.  I played guitar for this piece, with Young M on drums.   

Joe was gonged, but honestly this was an incredibly brave and punk performance for the times.  

Shoot, for where it took place, it would still be something today, forty-years later.

As the performers attempted  to entertain, the Judges did not seem to be enjoying themselves, it was almost like they hated being there.  Took it out on everyone trying to perform "something".  

The idea of "fun" must not have crossed their minds.  

That being said, the Primitives were back.

We were the defending People's Champions.  We practiced hardcore for weeks to get ready.  

We performed a wonderful "Do You Love Me" by the Contours.

We thought we had momentum.  The vibe was there.  Fans showed up.  We rocked and rolled.

The crowd responded "YEAH"!  We cranked high decibels.

We were performing well, and practiced regularly.  

We were tight.  Musically, Vocally and Performance Presence.

We got gonged early, which surprised and really ticked us off.  

In the end, nothing surprising.  Rumors of the "Big Fix" floated around all week leading up to the event.  Game-Day revealed a group in Halloween costumes badly dancing to Thriller on tape were rewarded with the Trophy, and subsequent cash prize.

Thinking back, if I can remember anything at all, it is that the judges acted as though they were supposed to gong everyone participating other than the predetermined "winners".  Not even giving anyone a chance to complete their act.  Sort of like there was a time-limit or something.  

It was the end of the Dong Shows, it just didn't sink in right away, and one more attempt was made but the magic was gone.