Remembering the birth ofUK punk...
(on the anniversary of the death of Sid Vicious from a heroin overdose).
OK... let's look the facts, it was a long time ago, so forgive me if I struggle with clarity and detail on this one.
Think hard! Ok, it must have been during my first year at Ravensbourne College (www.rave.ac.uk) when I witnessed the event - and I must have been around 18/19 at the time. When I think back from where I am now (working at GGS as a website designer/developer/administrator), to those heady days as an art college student in London, seeing the birth of a new revolution in music genres. Wow... that was a lifetime ago!
Our union team consisted of a pro-active bunch who were always on the look out for new ways to entertain the the student masses (us). But as luck would have it - this time they didn't have try too hard, for the band came to them, kind of cap in hand I seem to remember. A call was taken in the union office from the band's representative (I'm thinking this could well have been Malcolm McLaren) asking if it would be possible to play a gig at the college. He mentioned being friends with 'Skidmarks' who were our resident band at the time, so I guess the consensus was that he was kosher.
I was studying Graphic Communications and remember seeing a fellow course student struggling with a new brief. He was racking his brains, trying to come up with poster/flyer ideas for for a forthcoming gig at the college featuring this new band called "The Sex Pistols". He opted for a literal solution I seem to remember. Talk about spelling it out... how did we get that one passed the powers that be?!
The morning of the event saw us building the stage in the main hall. I remember a flurry of activity around us as we worked - culminating in the arrival of the band. Outside the relatively small (but fast growing) London punk scene - these guys were unknown at the time, so no one payed much attention to them. And don't forget - we're talking about an art college here, so dressing 'individually' was the rule, not the exception.
I seem to remember we ended up building the stage together... chatting and helping each other. All hands on deck as it were. The staging system was modular and went together quite easily. Consequently we were pretty much done by lunchtime. Time has taken its toll and memories blur, but I have this abiding memory of ending up in the local pub that lunchtime... us and the band. I can't remember what we were talking about exactly, probably the gig, the punk scene and college life. This must have looked pretty weird to the locals, for the college sits firmly in the 'stock broker belt' of south east London. But I hear that's all about to change with a sparkling new campus being built on the Greenwich Peninsula.
The night of the gig came and went and the place was packed. But was it memorable? Well it was for me because I was there getting involved for most of the day. Although has to be said that I don't remember much about the gig itself, other than the spitting and the obscenities. Whether it was a memorable gig depends upon the individual spectator I guess. Punk was this scary new thing with a pulse that demanded to be noticed. In time bands like The Clash would emerge with pure raw talent. Whether the slightly more 'manufactured' Sex Pistols package could ever be compared favourably is a question that has been asked many times over the years.
And so to the question asked at the beginning of this blog...
Who is this Nigel Williamson anyway?
Well, he's a well-respected article writer for The Guardian - and turns out he was there that very night. and with more clarity than I could ever muster he's recalled the event for us all to enjoy here.
OK, so he's trashed it, suggesting punk was a pile of Sh*t, but then... wasn't that the whole point?
If you're interested, I've found another link to the event - on 'The News Shopper' website here. This was (and quite possibly still is) a free-sheet newspaper for south-east London. It is at this point that I feel a confession needs to be made public here - after all these years of secrecy. For a very short while I was one of many 'paper-boys', delivering this free-sheet to the good people of Bromley to earn some beer money. It was impossible! No way could I deliver that many copies in time... before the next one came out. I was overwhelmed and my landlady (quite rightly) was taking issue with bales of 'The News Shopper' piling up on the stairs and landing. So what did I do? Well lets just say that a local church received more than one copy of 'The News Shopper' that week... and not through the letter box. I gave up that job soon after - and I'm heartened to see that 'The News Shopper' is still thriving, despite taking me on as a 'paper-boy'.
Keith Halliday
GGS
Posts
Time does indeed play funny tricks...I too was involved in this pretty closely before and on the day in December 75. I was at Ravensbourne 74-78 doing graphics and was involved with the SU after the original booking (I think by a girl named by Tracy?). The headline band was actually Fogg and McLaren had contacts with the management of any bands playing art colleges to offer as you say 'free' support gigs before the band 'went professional' after Christmas. I designed the poster and there was a typo in that I thought they were called Sex Pistol so that's what went on in a nice hand-drawn font, together with a geometric freehand FOGG that was eventually screenprinted by Tim in the graphics print room. I had McLaren's original letter until a few years ago that confirmed they'd play for free but that 'free beer for the band would be appreciated'. (As it turned out we were told by the bar steward about half way through the evening that they and their friends had already clocked up £50 behind the bar - and we could have got a regular support band for that!) Fogg being an older 'pro' rock outfit turned up on time and the Pistols were over an hour late and arrived in a yellow ex-Post Office van. Interestingly bearing in mind the stories that later circulated about stolen instruments etc., Steve Jones already had his white Les Paul Custom and the Pistols gear included Eliminator bass bins - then the holy grail of pa bottom end. As a result their speakers were used in the PA which was a great idea, until we realised that they couldn't leave until the end of Fogg's set and we would cheerfully have seen them go by then. I was running the disco from the gantry above/behind the stage and had arranged for them to give me a nod when they were ready to play. They did, and my last cued-up 45 was Woolly Bully, but unfortunately during that Glen Matlock moved his bass amp forward and pulled the mains lead out of the plug which remained in the wall socket. After a couple of hastily played tracks to cover the hiatus the plug was replaced (this was before amps with detachable leads) and they ripped into their set. Contrary to some recollections they could certainly play (I'm a guitar player too so I do know what I'm talking about) but it was all pretty rushed. At the end the singer's closing remarks to the audience were 'If you liked us thanks very much. If you didn't you can f*ck off'. For a nice middle class art college in Chislehurst this was pretty shocking stuff... Anyway I'm not sure how this sits with your recollections but I think it's pretty accurate and my oldest friend who was there too seems to think so too. Unless they were late because they were in the pub with you the chat you recall might be wrong, as would discussion of the 'punk scene' as there really wasn't one at that stage. Anyway I hope this is useful background for music historians in years to come.
ReplyDeleteInteresting read, nice blog.
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