THE HISTORY OF
A MONTHLY TR P THROUGH
MUSIC'S GOLDEN YEARSTHIS ISSU 1979

KEITH
RICHARDS"I don't regret nothint"
STARRING...

BLONDEJOY DIVISIONTHE CLASH
TOM WAITS
KATE BUSH
DAVID BOWIETHE SPECIALSPRETENDERSIALKINti HEADS
B52s GARY HUMAN WHO THE JAM HUMAN LEAGUE LED ZEP

1979YOMTNB'I MONTN

Billy Joel:booze. brawls
and ballads

"

=,

'imam

mod

r1:2:

Welcometo 1979
THERE ARE THOSE who think that the death of Sid Vicious in

New York of a heroin overdose at the start of the year also
signals the death of punk. Perhaps it was a passing fad, as
rock'n'roll itself was once thought to be.
In many ways, however, punk continues to proliferate. There
are tawdry elements to this - the faintly sleazy exploitationindustry around Sid and the Pistols; the McLaren/Lydon litigation, to name two- but there is also evidence of more positive activity.
New, self -determined music is being made by bands like Joy Division and The
Human League - both emboldened by new liberties and new technologies.
Elsewhere, the likes of Blondie, The Undertones, the Pretenders and The Jamturn their revolution into pop. A tour by two bands, The Specials and Madness,meanwhile, effortlessly brings a charmed cultural harmony to the mix.
This is the world of The History Of Rock, a monthly magazine that follows eachturn of the rock revolution. Whether in sleazy dive or huge arena, passionate
and increasingly stylish contemporary reporters were there to chronicle events.

This publication reaps the benefits of their understanding for the reader
decades later, one year at a time. Missed one? You can find out how to rectify
that on page 144.

In the pages of this 15th edition, dedicated to 1979, you will find verbatim
articles from frontline staffers, filed from the thick of the action, wherever it may
be. Watching Lou Reed slapping David Bowie around the head in a restaurant.
Looking on astonished as Jerry Dammers attempts to placate a furious feminist
by inviting her to a party. Witnessing the domestic upheavals of Keith Richards
and Anita Pallenberg.
"Sid thinks he done it just because he woke up with the knife in his hand..."says Keith of punk's lead story.
"...Silly boy."It's the kind of hard-won wisdom that might keep a man alive for awhile yet.

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 13

THE HUMAN LEAGUE

1979

MON H 6(MON1H

Contents

6News
Sid Vicious RIP. Rod Stewart

Live

he Mekons

28 Saluting the magic of the

4g One ofthe more art

is sued, several times. The
Bee Gees plan their return.
Introducing a new bandfrom Crawley, The Cure.

Pretenders. Also appearing live:
The Cure and Generation X.

minded and oddball scionsof punk state their position.

12The'The Jam record a new
album, and debate the relevance of
their evolving music, and of punk.

retail outlet of punk. But
there's more afoot within Geoff
Travis' burgeoning empire of"dynamic confusion".

"Once you're over 20," says Paul
Weller. "You've had it, mate."

3A Rotten vs McLaren18"A silly boy."

24

The Pop Group
An ideologicaldiscussion (and gig) with
the Bristol avant-gardists.

LP

3n Rough Trade

ti Inside the dominantfrom hiding in France to discuss
his considerable legal woes.

BARRE' STATE Huminhil-"It's social music,"

IT Malcolm McLaren emerges
Keith Richards"Shut up, darling". An
amusing audience with a hardly
penitent Keith Richards -andvarious interruptions from
Anita Pallenberg. Sid Vicious?

i

BLUES GIANTS
SWELL MAPSPRETENDERS

IWO

they explain.
The

50 Undertones
The Derry band
announce their arrivalwith songs about theirteenage lives -and notabout the troubles inNorthern Ireland.

SR Blondie
3R The Human League

V A meeting with the

Sheffield band, working on a setof electronic torch songs.
Roxy MusicA stealth mission to Sweden
to observe the returning Roxy.
"Don't tell Bryan you're here..."42u At home with

Debbie Harry andChris Stein. Chris
does the business,
Debbie sees to theroast dinner.
News

64 The Canadiangovernment is still
not finished with
Keith Richards.

Introducing
The Specials. The
Clash playa benefit
show. Ex-Bonzo Viv Stanshall tomake a film.
LouReedA ringside seat for one of theoddest bust -ups in rock history.
Lou Reed attacks David Bowie inu
68

a London restaurant. Allan Jonesis there to report.
Tom Waits
IL A spirited trip to79

Scandinavia with the deadbeat
poet. Riffs on beat culture as
Waits bids for a breakthrough.
76Tubeway Armyu The disarming Gary Nu man
reveals his inspirations andhis magpie talent for making

MADNESSAMERICANS IN PARIS
THE TALKING HEADS THAT

ATE MONTMARTRE

10-4

futuristic hits. His mum cuts
his hair, you know.

8n Albums

ti David Bowie's Lodgergiven

the once-over, track by track.
B -52's

82 The Georgian band write"nonsense songs", they claim- but are winning over crowds
from New York to London.

8a Liveu The Jam continue their

mission in the United States.
A hard battle against long odds
yields some rewards.

80 Letters
ILF The demise of Sid Vicious,

farewell Sandy Denny and othervaledictions from the mailbag.
News

90 Heavy rock, heavy
manners... Knebworth provescontentious. RIP Lowell George.
Dylan wants Capital Radio to doa favour. What ails ChazJankel?

The Damned
You want anarchy?"Fighting talk in the USA from the94

reconstituted original punk band.
Pretenders
On an occasionallyrevelatory tour with the country's
hottest new band.

98

AlbumsThe new Led Zeppelin
album gets a rough ride.

104

via NewYork and Africa, under
the auspices of Brian Eno...

The Who tocontinue their
US tour, despite a tragedy.

114

Joy Division
A meeting with theearnest Manchester band as
they record new work. "Each time
we go one step forward," says
guitarist Bernard Albrecht.

120 Ian Dury and Keith andLiveRonnie's New Barbarians perform.

OY DIVISION -FACTORY- IULYI

126 An enjoyable meetingwith a star who has retained her
down-to-earth candour.

130 Post Quadrophenia(the film), The Who play Brighton-their spiritual home.

1311 Albums
PiL deliver Meta/ Box.

uGang Of Four's Entertainment!
under close examination.
The Clash

140 The band enjoy thetriumph of London Calling.

Talking Heads
Visions of how wewill live in the future from chief
Head David Byrne. In Paris,

106

122 News
U2 come to London.
Richard Branson defends
posthumous Pistols releases.

13, 2 -Tone
A riotous countrywide
trip with The Specials, Madness
and the occasional skinhead.

Letters
Final thoughts fromthis year's mailbag...

145

Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, 3rd Floor, Blue Fin Building, iio Southwark St, London SE1 OSU I EDITOR John Mulvey, whose favourite song from 1979 is
She Is Beyond Good And Evil by The Pop Group DEPUTY EDITOR John Robinson In A Rut by The Ruts ART EDITOR Lora Findlay Outdoor Miner by Wire

PRODUCTION EDITOR Mike Johnson The Message by Punishment Of Luxury ART DIRECTOR Marc Jones Transmission by Joy Division
DESIGNER Becky Redman My Sharona by The Knack PICTURE EDITOR George Jacobs Since You've Been Gone by Rainbow COVER PHOTO Janette Beckman/ Getty (UK); Michael Putland / Getty (USA) THANKS TO Helen Spivak, James Hanman MARKETING Charlotte Treadaway SUBSCRIPTIONS Letitia Barry
GENERAL MANAGER Jo Smalley GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR Paul Cheal COVERS AND TEXT PRINTED BY Wyndeham Group I WWW.UNCUT.CO.UK

Time Inc.

Subscription rates: One year (12 issues) including p&p: UK £119.88; Europe 179.40; USA and Canada $203.88; Rest of World £155.75. For
enquiries and orders please email help@magazinesdirect.com. Alternatively, from the UK call 0330 333 1113, or overseas +44 330 333 1113
(lines are open Monday -Friday GMT, 8.3oam-5.3opm ex. Bank Holidays). Back issues enquiries: Tel: 01733 688 964. www.mags-uk.com°recycle

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 15

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1979

REN
WINNERJANUARYS

KEITH RICHARDS, THE
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A Jekyll andHyde personality
NME FEB 10 IIP, Sid Viciou,(may i0, 1951

- February 2, 1979)

jOHN SIMON RITCHIE, better known as Sid
Vicious, died in New York last week after taking
an overdose of heroin at a party held tocelebrate his release from jail on $50,000 bailpending his trial on a charge of murdering his
girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, some four months ago.
The party was held at the flat of Sid's current
girlfriend Michelle Robinson, and among thosepresent was his mother, Mrs Anne Beverley, who
had been campaigning for his release since theSpungen death.
Following his arrest for murder, Sid was initiallyreleased -on $50,000 bail and conditions which
included treatment for his heroin addiction -but hewas arrested again after an assault on Patti Smith'sbrotherTodd in a New York disco. This time heserved 55 days.
While in prison Sid was put on a detoxification
course to "clean out" his addicted system. Withoutthe "tolerance" built up by regular usage of heroin,even Sid's normal dose was potentially fatal.
The precise circumstances of t he lethal dose are
not known. What is evident is that around midnight
Sid was given heroin at the party and that shortly
afterwards he collapsed and went into a seizure, hisskin and lips taking on the blue/grey tinge
associated with heroin overdose.
He was covered with blankets and his pulse
checked until some 40 minutes later he revived.
Guests spoke of seeing him walking around at thispoint. Around 3am the party finished and Sid andMichelle retired to bed. Mrs Beverley stayed thenight on the couch in the front room.
The following morning she went into the bedroom
to wake the couple and discovered her son dead,naked and lying outside the covers while his
girlfriend slept on the bed beside him, unaware ofhis death. The police were called. Patrolman Robert
Zink, the first to arrive, discovered "a syringe, aspoon and what is probably residue near the body".
Later, Dr Michael Baden, who performed the
autopsy, said that Sid "died much like a drowningperson. There was an accumulation of fluid in thelungs characteristic of heroin.",...
There remains some dispute,
however, on the origin oft he dose that1979
actually killed him. Mrs Beverley,
February 2,
once a registered addict herself,
admitted in an interview with the
DailyExpress that on the night of Sid's
death she had been holding his
heroin supply, but claimed that after
the seizure Sid "didn't have any
more that night because I had thepacket in my pocket".
.:=7:::::
S:==-.7-. --_.:She did agree, however, that the= - -- .75, i rs-Ez::r-:7. -.=-:::. ...:
heroin he had taken had been
unusually pure: "He knew the x.

Mav 10 1957

SID

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 I 7

lq

1979
JANUARY-*KM

smack was pure and strong and took a lot lessthan usual."
The view held by some people is that Sid had
another source of heroin and may have taken
an additional dose after his mother andMichelle Robinson were asleep. If this wasindeed the case, then the overdose may havebeen tantamount to suicide.
The product of a broken home, London's East
End and Clissold Park School, Sid started his
rock'n'roll career with the Sex Pistols. As aformer crony of Johnny Rotten- the two wereat a further education college together- he
was one of the small faithful coterie of friends/
fans who followed the Pistols' early gigs fromlate '75 onwards.
It was during this time that he acquired thename Sid Vicious, apparently inherited from
Rotten's pet hamster. Later he was to declarethat he hated the name, but at the same time
did little to shake it off. He was fond of carrying
a bike chain as a weapon and was sometimes
in evidence at the occasional eruptions ofviolence at early punk gigs.
Sid was not a "hard man" -not constantly
or determinedly aggressive -but there wasaviolent streak in him. Sometimes this wasturned against other people and at times
against himself in fits of self -mutilation.
Friends and associates spoke of a Jekyll/Hydedisposition. "He seemed to have a lot of demonsin his head," said one. "He was tormented."
Whatever, the name stuck.
Sid's first public performance was at the
Punk Festival at London's 100 Club in
September '76, when he played drums forthe hurriedly arranged debut gig of Siouxsie
And The Banshees. Later he took up bass andhoped to play with the Banshees, but this came
to nothing.
Following Glen Matlock's departure in spring'77 he joined the Pistols as bassman in time tosign with A&M Records and face the sound andfury that accompanied the eventual release of"God Save The Queen" in the Jubilee summer.
His playing was strictly rudimentary but heseemed to learn and practise. All the Pistols
agree that fora time his playinggot better.
A major change in Sid's life took place when
he met Nancy Spungen, a 20 -year -old New
York groupie who had followed Jerry Nolan

ofThe Heartbreakers to this country andseemed determined to "pull" one of the Pistols.
She got Sid.

had talked to NME's Nick Kent about
premonitions of his death.
Talk of an explicit "suicide pact" at the time ofNancy's death may have been exaggerated but
there is little doubt that, via their mutual
fascination for hard drugs, knives and violence,
the two were on a "death trip" together. There
could be only one outcome.
Ten days after the slaying, Sid slashed hisarms and wrist in an apparent suicide attempt,
and was treated in hospital. Then came thedisco attack and he was back in custody.
Inevitably will be repercussions from Sid's
death, and already there is talk of who was"responsible" for it. Malcolm McLaren, Sid's
manager has -with some justification -laid
the blame directly on whoever gave Sid theheroin at the party.
Others will doubtless

All agree that Spungen was a bad, if notdisastrous, influence on him. His weak
character was easy prey for her aggressive,
vampish ways. She instigated dissent
between him and the other Pistols, and more
importantly, introduced him to heroin.
Nonetheless the couple had an obvious liking
for each other, and when Nancywas threatenedwith deportation, Sid falsely testified that they
were married to gain her a visa extension.
Once Sid became involved with heroin his
self -destructiveness and self -mutilation
gained momentum, and by the time of the
Pistols' tour ofAmerica at the beginning of '78,
he was taking the stage with his torso covered
in self-inflicted lacerations.
He also indulged in someugly scuffles with theattribute the responsibility
Ten days after
Pistols' American
to McLaren himself as theaudiences, kicking andNancy's slaying, Sid progenitor of the punk role
using his bass as a cudgel.
Sid acted out.
slashed his wrists
He was also taking
Others still will blame theincreasingly large amounts
whole ethic of punk rockin anand seek to draw moralof the drug, alienating
himself from the rest of theconclusions about theband and contributing tomusic as a whole from Sid's
their decision to split.
tragedy. Again, some will
Following the Pistols' final gig in San
point a finger at the media that played up andFrancisco he had to be rushed from New Yorkglorified the Pistols and Sid -which must
airport to hospital for emergency treatment
include the music press and NME -claiming
following an overdose.
that his death is the inevitable outcome of
Back in London things did not improve. He
elevating a nobody to undeserved heights.
and Nancy were remanded for possession ofSome might also point to the late Nancy
amphetamines, but the case was never heard.
Spungen as the person who gave Sid his fatal
Attempts to start his own band with thefascination for heroin in the first place.
remainder ofThe Heartbreakers -either as
Probably there is an element of truth in all of
The Flowers Of Romance or, more brutally,
these accusations, but the simple fact remains
The Junkies -were a failure.
that it was heroin that killed Sid Vicious; a drug
The couple then moved to New York, whereand not a person, a drug that he took of his own
Sid hoped he would find a new career (he felt
freewill. That is, in as much as junkies can be
his ex -Pistols status gave him more credibility
said to have a freewill.
there), but he never got further than the
Certainly on the night of his death Sid Vicious
methadone clinic and a few abortive gigs at
was not under any compulsion from physical
CBGB with old friends helping out.
addiction to take more of the drug; his
Shortly after the CBGB gigs came Nancy
detoxification is the guarantee of that.
Spungen's death, the grisly secrets of which
Finally, his death is mostly a warning about
will probably follow Sid into the grave. Whether
the futility and ultimate fatality of heroin
Vicious killed her or not, once she had gone it
addiction, and the responsibility for that
seemed only a matter of time before Sidcannot be laid at the door of punk rock, justfollowed. Even before the Pistols' US tour, heas the death of Charlie Parker cannot be
blamed on jazz or the death of Janis Joplin
on '60s rock.
September1978:with
In fact, there are far, far fewer hard -drug
NancySpungenat ausers in punk rock circles -at least in thisgig inMax'sKansas
City.NYC.whereSid
country -than among the echelons of rock's
appeared with New
so called "old guard".
York Dolls Jerry
Nolan and Arthur
Ultimately Sid's death has far more to do
Kane as the Music
with organised international crime and its
Industry Casualties
traffic in heroin than rock'n'roll. What rockmust not do is to propagate heroin addiction-something which, alongside acclaimed
radical literati like William Burroughs, it has
sometimes been guiltyof in the past.
The equation that Heroin = Death has
been enacted enough times for it to be
obvious to all. Neil Spencer

apparent
suicide attemptGrahamNashandDavid Crosby atWoodstock1969

Woodstock II
January 23.1979:
Bee Gees Robin,

C.

BarryandMaurice
GibbposeinLA"They would like to play"MM

A year on from Saturday Night Fever, newly

minted megastars the Bee Gees plan a return to UK stages.
concentrate on the major town theatresand halls like Hammersmith Odeon andthat will mark the brothers' first
GlasgowApollo.
professional return to Britain since their
In the meantime, the new Bee Gees'
super -star renaissance following Saturday
album, Spirits HavingFlown, is released
Night Fever. No definite dates have beenin Britain on February 9. The record wasbooked, and the band's
produced by the Beerecord company, RSO, isGees, Karl Richardson
being cagey about any
and Albhy Galuten, and
They
will
try
to
precise plans, but ais the group's firstspokesman did say, "It is
avoid huge venues standard studio album
hoped that the Bee Gees
since Children Of The
will tour Europe at somelike Wembley Arena World in 1977. In between
point this year. We know
the brothers have focused
they would like to play inon soundtrack LPs with
Europe and the UK later in the year. It would
Saturday Night Fever,which has sold aboutcertainly be the latter half of the year, rather
18 million copies worldwide since its releasethan before summer."in November 1977, and Sgt Pepper's Lonely
It is understood that when the Bee Gees
Hearts Club Band. A single taken from thefinalise their plans they will try and avoid
new album, "Tragedy" backed by "Until",the huge UK venues like WembleyArena andis released on the same day.
THE BEE GEES are working on plans fora series of UK shows later in the year

Relaunch with lasers
MM MAR 31 Tax exiles Pink Floyd are at work on their new long -player.
pINK FLOYD ARE expected to return to active service with concerts and a new album
around next September. The band are currently recording tracks in studios in Britain
and on the Continent, and as Roger Waters spent most of last year writing, it is said
they have enough material fora double album.
On Monday, Harvest Records, the Floyd's label, told the MM: "We haven't heard any of
their work yet, but they have been re-recording some stuff that was done last year."
Floyd may relaunch with a brand-new stage presentation involving a special stage andlaser beams. They will have to spend most of this year abroad for tax reasons, and as a result
will finish recording at a studio in France, near Nice. This week, lead guitarist Dave Gilmour
was in a London studio producing an album with ex -Pretty Things singer Phil May.

Floyd
Reactivated

NME liAR 72 A rerun for thelegendary rock festival?
AN AMBITIOUS PLAN to stagea replica of the world's most
famous rock festival, the near legendary Woodstock event in1969, wasrevealed in New York this week. The idea
is to hold Woodstock II on the lothanniversary of the original event - August
21 this year- on the same site and using as
many of the original artists as possible.
The festival would again be filmed forworldwide cinema distribution, and there
would be at least two live albums released.
NME understands that the farmland
on which the first Woodstock was held
has now passed into other hands, but
negotiations are well advanced with thenew owners fora repeat festival. Althoughsome of the original artists have since died
(Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin amongthem), and several groups have disbanded,they would be replaced in the new eventby a number of today's top bands.
There are plans for some acts no longer
in existence - including Crosby, Stills,
Nash & Young, Creedence Clearwater
Revival and Mountain -to come together
again specially for Woodstock II. And
there is a strong probability that The
Band, who quit the concert platform in a
blaze of publicity last year, would rescind
their decision to perform at the festival.
Approaches have already been madeto many of the original acts involved including Blood Sweat & Tears, Joe
Cocker, Jefferson Airplane (nowStarship), Grateful Dead, Johnny Winter,Paul Butterfield, Joan Baez, plus several
others. And it's on the cards that The
Who, one of the stars of the original
event, could make their US debut with
their new -look lineup at Woodstock.
There are many complications still to
be overcome, not the least of which isthe contractual problems involving therecording of the various bands. But thiswas also a problem in1969, and it was
eventually overcome. Indications are that
all interested parties are reacting to theproject favourably, and that it will goahead in Upstate New York in August possibly attracting even more than the
450,000 who attended the original event.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 19

TheCureinearly
1979:(1-r)Michael
Dempsey, Robert
Smith andLolTolhurst

DISAPPOINTING. LIKE we
66 EVERYTHING'S
expected the MM office to be
an impressive edifice and it isn't. It's a Nissen
hut." The worst -kept secret in the world has
finally been exposed.
The Cure react to most things with this kindof light cynicism. They may only be nudging
into their twenties, but experience has
already made them wry and wary. Aftera succession of names which ranged from
Malice to Easy Cure, the band started inearnest in late '76. Robert Smith (vocals/
guitar) and Mike Dempsey (bass) had justfinished school, while drummer Lol Tolhurst
gave up trying to be a chemist.
Forthwith they entered a talent -searchcompetition organised by the newly
burgeoning Ariola-Hansa label, and won
a recording contract -which proved,
however, to be more of a millstone thanan open door to stardom.
Lol: "They'd give us the money to do demos
and suggest a couple of things for us to do they suggested we do a couple of Bowie tunes,
for instance. We'd do that, and put on aboutfour or five songs of our own as well. They'd
get past the first one and say, 'This is horrible not even people in prison would like this!' Thenwe wouldn't hear from them again."So 1977 turned into a year of
benevolent neglect. On thepositive side, the trio
scored a new PA, lived
off a reasonableretainer and learned
about thethemachinations of thecuremusic biz. They also
finalised their lineup,
which had yo-yoed
between a three-, four Lao4r
4).
and five -piece. On the
4vast,4stnegative side, they never
10

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

actually
managed torelease any
product.
The clash ofinterests was sogreat that the
five-year contract was mutually terminated at
the end of '77. There followed sporadic gigs
around Crawley, their home town, and, more
importantly, a loan from an old mate thatallowed them to cut some demos of their own
songs. Twenty tapes were duly mailed out tothe record companies, but the only
favourable reaction came from Chris Parry,
then Polydor's A&R man. Parry was about toleave Polydor to set up his own label, Fiction,
and was sufficiently impressed to make theband his first signing.
At the moment he's acting as their
godfather, handling everything from press tocarting the equipment around and mixing thelive show. He also set up a one-off single deal
with Small Wonder. The band had begun toplay London dates and, to help whip up someinterest, they released "Killing An Arab"/"10:15 Saturday Night" through this interim
arrangement. The strategy worked: not only
did the single get glowing reviews, but thehouse -full signs started going up.
Inevitably, "Arab", has elicited the
odd misguided charge of racism.
The group knew that this could
happen, and at one stage
toyed with the idea of putting
a disclaimer on the picture
cover, but in the end
FICSOOI

cticalDoprocthey didn't. Mike: "There's no reason why
we should have to. If people aren't
bothered to listen to it properly, we don't
really care about them anyway."
In fact the song takes an incident from
Camus' novel The Stranger and distills itwith surprisingly evocative compactness.
The general effect is eerily atmospheric,from the taut bassline to the brittle guitar
slaps. As "Hong Kong Garden" used a
simple Oriental -styled riff to striking
effect, so "Arab" conjures up edginessthrough a Moorish -flavoured guitar
pattern. This kind of inventive economy
characterises their whole approach.
They don't see being a three-piece as inany way limiting.
Robert: "That broadens rather thanlimits us. You can do much more with lessinstruments. That's why the single sounds
different. If someone else had done it,they would probably have thought itneeded a keyboard or a rhythm
guitar playing along with the bass.
Because it hasn't got that, it makes
people think, 'Ah, there's somethinga bit wrong because it sounds
slightly unbalanced.'"Dempsey invariably plays morelead solos on his bass than Smith
does on his guitar. Robert added,"It'snot that I dislike playing lead, but it's
very hard to do things that aren'tcliched. Playing lead on the bass is,as yet, relatively unexplored."Mike took up the point: "Thereason I play bass and he plays lead isthat he knew more chords than I did. I always
approached the bass from the angle of thelead or rhythm guitarist, so I tend to play the
melody and follow the line he's singing."
Their practical pop is matched by a distinct
discomfort with the notion of image. The
stage act is pared down to absolute
essentials, which can give punters a few
qualms. They once supported Generation X
on a few dates and, the contrast was marked.
Gen X were all carefully cued drama, while The
Cure settled for the natural stage lighting.
Robert smirked: "We used to just walkon, which unnerved a lot of people in theaudience. They would immediately takea stand against us."Mike draws a distinction between pretence
and presentation: "Pretence is presenting
yourself in a way that you don't like, or thatyou find over the top. Presentation, on theother hand, is just the way you are. I'd like tothink that we have a little more integrity, alittle more honesty to present ourselves theway we are rather than present an image.
We're our only yardstick."
The band don't reject the past, but borrowshrewdly from the traditions of '605 pop -rock.
They aren't trying to reactivate '77 punkthrash, but do respond to its home -brewed
drive and complete control. They aren't
slipping into the current trap of ersatz
modernity (the shambolic bleeps and burpsthat are fast becoming cliches), but areexperimenting with sounds and structures.
The Cure won't change your world, butthey should keep you smiling... despite thatcynicism. Ian Birch

MUM - IWO

979"Resist any claim"

A conman acting
as a promoter has

MM MAR 31 iod Stewart faces

hoodwinked 200

two allegations of plagiarism.

Ian Dury fans into

spending £800 on
tickets for a hoax
concert at Hastings.
The fake promoter
was professionalenough to convince
the management of

ROD STEWART AND his company,

Riva, are at the centre of two disputes,
claiming that songs recorded andco -written by Stewart are unnaturally
close to material written by othermusicians. Brazilian singer Jorge Ben has
filed a writ in America claiming that the
melody line of "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" istaken from his song "Taj Mahal", andScottish group Slippery Dick are trying
to find enough money to fund a legal
claim against Stewart and co -writer
Gary Grainger that "I Was Only
Joking" is uncannily close to a song

RodStewart:
tusslingwith
Slippery Dick
anda Brazilian

they wrote three years ago,rand are negotiating fora
A 17
"Paradise Found".
1\ settlement. Riva have also resisted
The Ben case has been
the claims from Slippery Dick, andk
45 rimcomplicated by the fact that Stewart
have now said that if the group/stTA'
rid SEM
and Carmen Appice, who is credited1.
continue their allegations that
4.71'.1,11;
with the music of "Sexy", donated theq`..7< It" Arth AN+
Stewart or Grainger heard a demo tapeNirt,11,wr
th" T
copyright and royalties of the song toof "Paradise Found" and somehow
160 11/4.4 ttt
006.
UNICEF, and they have replied to Ben's writ"borrowed" the tune, then Riva will sue.
that while they deny any deliberate
The group has had an extensive analysis anduse of part of anyone else's song, any
comparison made of the two songs by a music specialist
attempt to challenge copyright andfrom Edinburgh University, who found identical chord
claim royalties would go againstchanges and "a similarity in sound patterns". Slipperythe gift of the song to UNICEF,
Dick's John Simpson said they have taken legal advice
and "it is Stewart's attitude toover the last year, but cannot afford the cost of a court
resist any claim in order tocase to test their claims against Stewart and Grainger.
cicensure that the needy children
Riva told MMthey consider the group to be out for
110 oIIIof the world are not deprived
publicity, and that any suggestion that Stewart had
kPl 1917
of the generous offer he madecopied their song was totally denied. "If Rod wants to use
tc, 1978by donating this song".
siEREO
someone else's song, as he has done occasionally in the
It is Riva's understanding that
past, he uses it and credits them. If this group continue
55
KIN6
with their allegations we will sue them for serious
Ben and his publishers are having
Oittl
/t1
liskS
second thoughts about the case,defamation against Rod and Gary."
Olit

/

g

the Hastings Pier
Pavilion that he had
Dury available for aconcert on March 9,
and the Pavilion had
the show down as a
firm booking. The"promoter -thendistributed anumber of tickets toshops in the
Hastings area, andon Wednesday last

week went roundthe shops collecting
the money fortickets sold -only a
few hours before
the police rumbled
him. MM MAR 3c

5 r.Pm*

110U a 10,,cs'd,toddb,`An element of control'
MM MAR 10

vtor

rin9th end the legal disputes, what will hPPMT1P of the Cpy !NO* film?

THE FUTURE OF the Sex Pistols film, The GreatRock 'n'RollSwindle, will be clearer by the end of
this week when they receiver for the group's
affairs will be shown a rough edit. Executives of Virgin
Records, the Pistols' label, andlawyers for Johnny Rotten, who
won his case to get a receiverappointed, will also be present.
The movie still needs another£150,000 to be completed,
and Richard Branson, the headof Virgin, is one of several
potential backers.
"We've been asked if we'd
put the money up and we'reconsidering it," Branson told
the MM on Monday.

Glitterbest, the Pistols'
management company, say thatthe film requires a further two or
three weeks of editing. Although
uncertain of their own future,
Glitterbest employees aremaintaining their involvement with the film and its
soundtrack, which is currently number 17 in the Melody
Maker album charts.
"We want to try and keep an element of control,"said Jamie Reid, assistant for
Malcolm McLaren, the Pistols'
former manager.
McLaren will be returning forthe film's showing from Paris,
where he has been recording andproducing. The MM understands
that he has produced aFrenchwoman singing "The
Lambeth Walk". He is due to beon The Russell Harty Show, whichstarts a new series this weekend.
Paul Cook and Steve Jones,
the remaining Pistols, arecontinuing their association with
Virgin, it seems. This week they
are recording a single at Wessex
Studios to be released within thenext six weeks.

> The Slits,
recently signed byIsland Records, arerecording their firstsingle, a version of
the old Motown /Marvin Gaye hit"I Heard It Through
The Grapevine", atRidge Farm Studios
in Dorking. Dennis"Blackbeard"
Bovell, who recently
produced The Pop
Group's first album
and Linton Kwesi
Johnson's second,isat the controls.
MM MAR 3>- The Human
League, who havejust signed apublishing deal
with Virgin Musicand are set to playa series of British
gigs in February,
are having theirmusic offered tofilmmakers withsoundtrack scoresin mind. Virgin feelthe band's talent
could be usedeffectively in thefilm world. MM JAN 20

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 111

1979
4"
JANUARYt.

"We've set our1979

JANUARY -MARCH

gigs, to his hotel and girlfriend. The image, they maintain, is a trifle
exaggerated, although essentially accurate.
ALL IN ALL, it was really quite a painless operation.
"People started sayin' things like, 'Are you separated?'... and I suppose
The "moody", "difficult" Paul Weller is in
we are -we've gone more our own ways recently -but it works out evenapproachable form, willing even to volunteer
better," Foxton says. "There is a separation socially, but there's no
the theme of The Jam's (tentative) new single.
separation on stage, where it all works.""Like, y'know all this stuff that's goin' on now aboutJohn Weller mercifully interrupts the conversation to announce that
UFOs an' that?! 'ave one of 'em landin' on Earth, takin'Paul has finished, and could he have these two down to the studio toa quick look about the place an' getting out fast." He pauses for a second.
do some work? Buckler and Foxton are relieved that their bit of t he
"Christ, can you blame 'em?"interview has been abbreviated.
The story reflects Weller's new-foundWeller, I'd been told, is something of an
intellectual aspirations. He has, he feels,
unpredictable character, recently not given togrown out of teenage anthems ("Time For
talking much. When he did, he seemed prone
Truth", "In The Street Today", "Standards"). It
to the occasional pretentious banality -likesounds absurd, but at 20 - he agonises over thereferring to The Jam's music as "pop art".
passing of teens -Weller thinks he's "too old".
"I read something on some of the pop
RAK Studio, oddly sited in the middle ofartists," he explains. "It was verysimilar towhat we are doin'. They were just takin'a Hampstead estate, is currently The Jam's
favourite. This is where they recorded All Mod
everyday things, like washing machines,
Cons (which has sold over 150,000 copies,
an' turnin' it into art. That is just basicallyqualifying for Silver) and it's where they're
what I feel that I'm doin' really, the same as
going to put down three or four new songs, one
Poly Styrene, takin' a situation like a tubeof which (they hope) will come out as a single instation ["Down In The Tube Station At
mid -February. "Strange Town", the one they'reMidnight"' -takin' an everyday experience
working on now, is their first choice.
and turnin' it into art.""I can smell gold already," producer Vic Smith
There is a rather dramatic line in The Modern
THE JAMdeclares as Paul Weller emerges from the recording
World:"I've learned to live by hate and fearIIt's mybooth having put down a guitar track. As the band
inspiration drive." I ask him how true that is.
have barely finished the backing track, one can"I was talkin' about the mental hate that a lotta
only stand back in awe of Smith's spectacularpeople suffer at school," he says. "The only thingsense of smell.
I learned at school was to hate people an' be really
The Jam unconvincingly assert later that they're
bitter with people, like teachers. An' the more bitter
not too concerned with hit singles. Drummer Rickyou are, the easier it is to write."
Buckler toes the partyline and announces that he
Is it still an inspiration?
doesn't think they would like a No 1 single.
"Nah. Now I suppose I have to take a more open view
"Once you get a No 1, what do you do next?" heof things. I'm tryin' not to feed off that initial thing,plaintively enquires. The answer seems simple'cos I'd just bewritin' the same old songs over an'
enough: try to get another. "You end up writing forover again. My inspiration now is just by lookin' out
STRANGE TOWN
the public at large." He requests that I speak to Paulthe window every day."about that.
In the studio a couple of minutes later, Paul Weller
Weller upholds Buckler's view. He'd much rather have a No 1 album.
makes a dramatic entrance, and -as if to assert his superiority- positions(Wouldn't they all?) "I don't care about singles," he shrugs.
himself casually on a desk, chewing gum and dragging a fag. Buckler and
There is a certain amount of apprehension about my presence;
Foxton sit meekly side by side on a settee across the room. A fraught apparentlyThe Jam felt that the Melody Maker had been sanctioning
looking Weller immediately launches himself into conversation. Shy?
against them. A long history of downers, in fact. We were the paper
You must be kidding.
which slammed All Mod Conswhen everybody else was proclaiming"The trouble is that this All Mod Cons has proved to be... dunno...
it a contemporary masterpiece. And whileAllMod Cons featured highly
proved to be a bit of an albatross round our necks, typafing. I get paranoidin critics' favourite albums for '78 in the other papers (NMEplaced it
now when I write songs, 'cos I think, 'That's not up to standard', so I throw
No 2 behind Bruce Springsteen's Darkness On The Edge Of Town), only
the song away. To me, like, the standard of songs on that album is so highSimon Frith and yours truly, out of 27 people, picked it as one of our 10.
that I throw a couple of songs away that maybe would be OK. Everyone's
They had grounds, then, for supposing that they weren't exactly thepraisin' us and saying, 'Great album, but can they follow it?' -so I do tend
darlings ofMM.
to get paranoid about it.
The attitude was further illuminated recentlywhen Weller reviewed"I think the best thing for us is to go backthe singles for us, adding in a brief note to the editor: "When are you
to doin' something reallybastards gonna do a proper serious feature on us?" You soon find that
simple, even more
Weller has a mania about being taken seriously.
simplistic than we've
done in the past, towards
SO HERE WE are. Manager and dad ("'Course I call 'im 'Dad-)the old R&B roots of theJohn Weller is scooting about the studio attempting to find a
stuffwe was doin'."

MELODY MAKER JANUARY 20"You can't
suppress a
progression.
I wouldn't, 'cos
it's pointless"location for our interview, eventually securing an upstairs office.
To save time, he suggests that it might be wise to talk with Buckler andbass player Bruce Foxton while Paul is working on guitar overdubs.
The brief encounter with Buckler and Foxton serves only to emphasise
the notion that The Jam is almost entirely Paul Weller's ballgame,
although Foxton has risen to challenge Weller's authority occasionally.
He wrote two songs on This Is The Modern World ("London Traffic" and"Don't Tell Them You're Sane") but failed to makeAll Mod Cons, althougha couple of his tunes were recorded.
"When we played them back, they were pretty boring, plus we've set ourstandards higher now. I was a bit put out, but !realised it was for the
benefit of the group." Foxton admits to not being very prolific.
There is a general view of Buckler and Foxton as the fun -loving pair in
the group, as opposed to the more introvert Weller, who retreats, after
14 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

But why go back? If the

progression is natural,
shouldn't it be followed?
"Well, to me, takin' a reallyobject ive view ofAll Mod
Cons, I would say that our

next step is to advance evenmore, you know, which
could be a bit silly really.
We could end up soundin'
like Genesis or somebody
in three years' time. I wanna
keep it simple all the time.
But you're right, too. You can't

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Mae"Thereisa separationsocially, but there's noseparationonstage":
TheJamshoot apromo film,1979

suppress progression. I wouldn't suppress nothin', cos it's pointless."
I mention the obvious progressions onAllMod Cons and how it waspractically a concept album. Weller agrees, informing me that there wasa vague idea to string all the songs together, but seeing as The Who did itwith Quadrophenia, he'd rather come up with something original.
"I'd like to do a concept album. The term has an awful sorta sound to it. It
makes you think ofJethro Tull an' that, but I'd like to do something in that
direction. I've been thinkin' ofdoin' a 45, you know... a concept single,
havin' an A -side andthen turn it over tothe B-side and havea continuation.""Down In The itthe
Station At Midnight"
was, in a sense, a
IMO 21. ISM
14 *au,vs,concept single.
VAN'S TOUR IS ON
4"It was more likea little play really.
The words to it werelike a poem, you
know. I write a lotta
stuff apart from
actual song lyrics.
That was a poem, andThere were a lot of characters on All Mod Cons, people like "David
Watts" and "Billy Hunt". The situations you portray in songs are more
complex now.
"Yeah, but it's just that I think my songs have been takin' more ofa general view. I mean, I can't write any more kids' anthems now, 'cos
I'm 20 years old and you can't go on doin' that."
But 20 isn't old, I persist. Weller's retort is uncharacteristically emotional.
"It is tome, man, fuckin"ell. Once you're over 20, mate, you've had it.
I can't go on writin' those type of songs. That'd just be lyin'."Do you really believe that?
"Yeah, I mean, Ifeltthe change, you know. I just felt so much older.
You're not a kid anymore. All the time you were under 20, like youwere one of the kids an' it's great... but one has to face up to thesethings. I think that everybody must feel that, but they just don't wantto admit it.
"It doesn't really bother me. Not too much. But now I've got to take amore general view, you know. I really like youth songs, really old classic
youth songs, but I mean, it's just a lie to carryon writ in"em."That, I supposed, was the main difference between This Is TheModern
World and All Mod Cons.ModemWorklwas full of blatant "statements".
"That ['The Modern World'] was a misunderstood song anyway, anda lot of the other songs were very personal. This one [All Mod Cons] isvery much more general. I think you can get different age groups relating
to 'em."I put it to music. When
we first started doin' it,

Misunderstood?
"That whole song was about all these sorta creeps who said that The Jam
were derivative and 'not part of the contemporary scene' an' all that shit,
so it's just a statement sayin', you know, 'We're just as much entrenched in
the '70s as anyone else.'"

MelodyMaker***.....,,

I
,

I
47

11(

7 JOHN ORM

A

MAT:534rz
M.14.4

I was thinkin' about

1°4

makin' it like a TV
theme, like a Sweeney.
I was goin' to make itinto like a vinyl play."

If 174

Ailiobb

Nt

Farewell to
Mingus (p. 17)
by Brian Case, Max Harrison,
Richard Williams, Valerie Wilmer.

That brought us to a subject I was intending to raise: it's 1979, already,and The Jam are still thought of as a '60s group. x.

What
"

tro

is

THIS?

I

gm. ant 111111/21081.11.
. v . .7...;

III aeaili.. =,..... ...
-HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 I 15

1979
JANUPR1-OH"Whenitallstartedoff,everybodywaspluggin'
everybodyelse": Weller
plugs little -know Bristol
punk bandTheNumbers"But you can't name one artist who's been
totally original, you know. We was talking about
it the other day and I could only think of one
band that was totally original, an' that was the
Pistols. An' then I thought about the 'In The City'
riffwhich they nicked from us, for 'Holidays In
The Sun'. So, you see, everybody steals.
Everything's been done before, you know.
"How much further can you go?All thistechnical stuff today: The Beatles an' Pink Floyd
were doin' that typafing in '67. As far as I'mconcerned, the songs I write are about today,
so that always pisses me off. Still does. The
clothes I wear has nothin' to do with it. I dig
these clothes, so that's it."
We talk a while about how Weller got into the mod image. He was eight
years old when it was all happening, but maintains that he's into the"collective imagery of it all, the clothes and the music. People think I'mtryin' to put on some sorta front when they ask me about it." He wore theclothes to look different, but surely the clock has turned full circle again?
It's not so flamboyant now to wear mod gear. In some cases, it's the norm.

"Probably, yeah," he offers. "But it's notgonna affect me... I was here first. People put
us down for being '60s revivalists, but we was
doin' them clubs the same time as all the otherbands, you know. I can use any chord sequence,no matter what period it comes from. No one's
got a copyright on 'em, you know.
Most of the people who champion The Jam's
cause refer constantly to the '60s link.
"Yeah, that's true. I think that Charlie Murray,
his review of the last LP in the NMEwas about
the best piece of journalism we've had done onus, 'cos it was the first time that somebody hadtaken our lyrics seriously, which pleased mea lot. That was more important than any front
we had in the past. But when it all boils down to it, it's the kids thatbuy our records and come an' see us that's really important.
"I thin k we're still representative of the kids. We still understand thekids, and vice versa. What I'm sayin' is that I can't go round writin' songs
like 'I'm StillYoung' cliches and get awaywith it. Yeah, well, I don't think
I'd ever do that. Like, we've dropped 'In The City' an"All Around The"I was pissed

off that theother bands
were into thiscosy left wing"

16

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

THE JAM

World'. I don't

wannabea
greatest -hitsband. That's
a deception. Our
songs are still gonna
be representative, andthere are a lotta fans that are still
gonna relate to 'em, like everyone
related to 'Tube Station', but
those early songs are now downon plastic for that period, likelittle vinyl photographs, andhopefully we'll have othergreatest hits coming along totake their place."
I mention the early Jam image:the suits, the Union Jack on stage, the occasional
rumblings of conservatism and monarchy, allcombined to give them a right-wing identity.
"Nah! It wasn't right-wing. I never thought it
was right-wing."
That was the impression.
"If that impression came across, it wasn't
meant to, 'cos I've got no allegiance to any
fuckin' party. I hate all of 'em. I made that silly
comment about votin' Conservative, right, andthat was quite funny. It was all a bit of a joke. I
was very annoyed, 'cos there's a lotta kids who
hang onto your every word, so you're influencing'em -an' that's a bad thing, so I wouldn't makethat type of statement again.
"I was just pissed off that the other bands were into this cosy thing of,you know, strict sorta left wing an' all that bullshit. I wanted to cause a bitof trouble between ourselves and other bands. An' I did. We received
telegrams an' that. That's all we done it for, to get up their nose.
"The only reason the Union Jack was involved was 'cos it looks great onstage. That's the only reason I put it up there. The colours. You've got all
the black and white, very negative, an' then you've got this flash of colour."
Influence is a power that is inevitable when a band is in an elevatedposition.
"Yeah, but all I'm sayin' is that I would use that power more wisely now.
I think more about what I gotta say. I don't reallywanna cram things
down people's throats.
"The main reason that someone picks up a guitar is not to get acrossa political message. I don't ever believe that. That's a lie. You can do it, but
it's not the prime motive. The main reason you pick up a guitar is that you
wake up one morning and you don't wanna go
and work infactory. An' you can pickup more birds ifyou play in a group. That's thereal truth of the matter. Anyone who says any
different is a liar.
"You get a lot of these bands who moan about
everything, but I regard myself in a lucky
position, you know. I'd hate to be stuck in afactory from 8.30 till 5.30. This sounds corny,
but I think it's good that kids who're stuck inthat position have got some release with a band
like us -or any other band."is it?... oh yeah, the 'demise' of the newwave, an' in some ways it died as soon as
all the bands got signed up. It was deadfrom that moment onwards."
It was inevitable that they would besigned up. But did the newwave have to die
as a result?
"I don't think it had to happen, but that's
when it did die. The moment you stick yourname down on the contract, the wholething's blown anyway. Everyone was tryin'
to lie an' say, 'We're not gonna get suckedin', but that's not the point.
"Even now, things could be a lot better.
'fall the bands got together and said, 'I'll
put some bread in and you put some breadin an' we'll start a club, we'll start a label'-but instead of that, everyone just wants
to boost their creditability by sayin', 'Look, I've
done this first. Look, kids, I've stuck to my word',which is bullshit. That's not what it's about.
It's about unity."
Would you be willing to do something like that?
"Yeah. I'd do it tomorrow. IfSt rum mer orsomeone came up and said, 'Yeah, let's do this',I'd do it. I'd love to do it. That would make it somuch more meaningful. But no one's prepared
to do that."
What sort of th ing would you envisage?
"Well, a good club would make a difference,
you know. There's nowhere really. Or a goodrehearsal room for bands. I'd like to do a lotta things, but I ain't got enoughbread to do it on me own. That's what it should've been about.
"There were too many egos, I suppose. I experienced that myself, when
we made our first record. There was competition to get records into thecharts, an' when somebody like the Buzzcocks or Sham went in you
thought, 'You bastards.' That's the reason why people slag off otherbands, 'cos they're scared of 'ern. They're scared of competition.
"It's all down to prestige. I remember when it all started off, everybody
was pluggin' everybody else. I remember when we was trying to get a deal
with EMI about two years ago, I was sayin' to the bloke, 'You should go an'
see The Clash', when we was there tryin' to get a deal. I'd've loved him tosign The Clash an' sign us an' sign all the bands. That's the sort of thing
I'm talkin' about, but we all went to separate companies an' started doin'
our own thing."
All this amounts to a confession from The Jam, as well as an indictmentof all the other bands who failed to live up to the new -wave spirit.
"I'm not excludin' us. I've always said that I hopethat new bands come up and give as a hard time,
but there's a lack of bands... Or rather there's loads
of bands goin' around but the record companies
are too scared to take the plunge any more, 'cos
they realise they can't make any more moneyout of promot in' bands as 'punk rock'. They're
waitin' for the next big thing an' they've got a longfuckin' wait.
"There's some great bands about but nobody'll
take a chance on them, like The Nipple Erectors
an' the Gang Of Four an' The Vipers. It all stems
from the companies an' us, the top bands, doin'nothin' for 'em, not makin' enough room for 'em."
It sounds as if you're fed up with the routine.
"Me? Fed Up? Nah. I've never enjoyed it more.
The last tour was the first time I've enjoyed playin'since the 100 Club and Red Cow days; the firsttime I've reallygot a charge off playin'. The only
thing I'm pissed off about is that it could've been
so much better. I'm not really talkin' about The
Jam, 'cos I'm really happy with The Jam, but justgenerally. I mean, we could become the biggest
band in the world, but it won't mean much really.
There could've been something much more
purposeful than that." Harrypoherry"The newwave died assoon as all the
bands got
signed up"

a poxy.

/AGREE WITH WELLER. One quickly
became fed up with all those new bravetpeople endlessly moaning and preaching
but offering no solid alternative.
"Well, we done a lot of that as well, which wasreally stupid lookin' back, bitchin' about silly
little things. I was thinkin' about this the otherday, you know... all the bands that started off, oncethe competition thing started, slaggin' each otheroff. We done it -I'm not sayin' we didn't -an' really
if all the bands had stuck together, it couldn't(could've?' been so much bigger and so much more
important. Everybody's talking now about... what

Is

it

"Nah.
still an inspiration? takeathavt toHISTORY OF ROCK 1979 I 17

"I don't

regretnothing"
In London, KEITH RIG"

offersopinions on Margaret Trudeau, Sid Vicious
and how his teeth grew back. And drugs?
"In all fairness to the poppy," he says,"never once did I have a cold."

'.

1979

JANUARY -MARCHMELODY MAKER JANUARY 13-

UP AT THE Ritz Hotel in Piccadilly, the air of

19th -century opulence and grandeur extends to theelevators, which are panelled in polished wood. On
the surface of the lift that carried me to the fourth
floor, someone had scratched "Rolling MOSS!" It
was a petty piece of vandalism which hinted at thedark conspiracies that still seem to surround the Rolling Stones.
Who, on this freezing January night, would know that one of the last folk
heroes of rock'n'roll was in residence? Who would inscribe strange
messages for him -friend or foe?
Outside the double doors of Keith's suite, one could hear the familiarsound of a rock band in occupation of expensive territory: phones
ringing, a tape machine relaying insidious reggae, girlish cries, andrepeated clamours for room service.
It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't interviewed Keith Richards
since 1966. And that was in a hotel room too, with Mick Jagger, talking
about Between The Buttons. The weird thing was, Keith seemed to think it
had been only yesterday.
Keith, not long freed by a Canadian court on drug charges, a one-time
heroin addict who now keeps life at bay with hearty draughts ofvodka, isan extraordinarily charming man, possessing infinite patience. While
his speech and thoughts are sometimes held in check by the flow ofsoporifics and stimulants holding their own press conference inside hishead, his acerbic wit and hard-bitten worldly wisdom remain intact.
Roaming the suite were Barbara Charone, theAmerican journalist, justcompleting her forthcoming book on Keith's life, and the remarkable
Anita Pallenberg, Keith's lady, who is described in Anthony Scaduto's
book on Jagger as "a very wicked lady, not human, extra -human". I had
a taste of the alleged wickedness when Anita set about systematicallydestroying the interview.
But even Anita, at her most irritating, was often very funny, and the
dialogue between the pair was often more illuminating than the polite
record of intentions. Another member of this strange little circle was
Marlon, Keith and Anita's nine -year -old son, a bright, good-looking kid
who seemed more together than any of us. He'll make a fine tour manager
one day.
Despite the inroads on his stamina made by the vodka, Keith was keen
to talk about anything. It was not until a few
hours had elapsed that one realised that hehad been packing away enough liquor to fella fair-sized ox.
"I don't want no tea, or coffee," he told
Barbara at one point. "I just want this bottle."
KEITH: All right, leave me to it, you've heard
it all before.
ANITA: I haven't heard it all before.

them existed. The Palladium in NewYork was great. That was the lastplaying we did, apart from a thing at the Bottom Line with Nick Lowe,
which was to celebrate my freedom. What I'm doing here is taking a lookat the old country. It's two years since I've been here, and I couldn't standthe idea of having anotherAmerican Christmas... You know, there's
nothing more disturbing than two chicks whispering to each other.
(Keith looked crossly towards Barbara and Anita, ensconced on the couchand giggling.)
ANITA: Oh, Just throw me out. Don't mind it. I mean... y'know... all thatabout the Palladium, that's OLD stuff.
MM: We were just recapping.
ANITA: Keith -he's got future plans, I tell you.

MM: I'm surewe'Il get to that.
KEITH: Now I've gotta think of something.
ANITA: Throw me out ifyou want to. (She clings firmly to the sofa.)
KEITH: I don't want it to get that far. I was saying, I came home to see myfolks, which I haven't done yet. I still have a house here, at Redlands, but
due to the quirks of the IRS [Inland Revenue Service!, I'm not allowed tostay in it. I can look over the fence, and say, "Oh what a nice house, I wish
I could go in there." I'm allowed 90 days a year in the country. I thought if
you stayed away two years you could have 180 days the third year, but it

doesn't work like that.

MM: What have you missed about England?
KEITH: I missed the sarcastic coppers... I'm probably a little out of touchwith the music here, but most of the stuff that's happening here has lost
touch with itself anyway. It's back to fads. One minute it's Bay City Rollers,then it's punk rock, then it's power pop or new wave, then that'sfinished... People are back to sticking labels on things. Elvis Costello. I've
'eard his stuff. I'd sooner see him live, that's all I care about. I don't careabout album production. I like Ian Dury, he's down to the bone. As long as
there's somethinghappening here, that's all that really matters.
"Where they went wrong with the punk thing was they were trying to
make four -track records on 32 -track. We were trying to do the same thing
in a way. We tried to make 1964 sound like 1956, which wasn't possible
either. But we did end up with something that was our own. The gap
between '76 and '62, as far as recording technology was concerned, wastoo big. I think punk rock was great theatre, and it wasn't all
crap. But at the beginning I saw the Sex Pistols on TV trying tothink of a few extra swearwords in front ofGrundy, and I
thought their vocabulary was rather limited. But I've no doubt
they've learnt a few words since then. The music was all
incidental, like background music. You just had to see it.
ANITA: Mumble, mumble.
KEITH: Look, darling, who's doing this interview?
ANITA: I am!

KEITH: The problem is, if two people talk at once, you don't

hear anything.
MM: Can we turn the music
down a little bit?

(Anita's noisy demands thatthe conversation should turnto future plans were now
impossible to ignore.)

KEITH: Sure!

(The conversation begins, butthere is a flowofinterruption
from Anita, as we talk cursorily
about last year's American tour.
Eventually Keith betrays
impatience, as Pallenberganswers
yet another question for him.)

August19,1979:
Anita Pallenberg
at a Peter Toshconcertat Xenon,

in New York City

KEITH: Look, darling, will you
please shut up!
(His remonstrance has little effectand she keeps up a heavy barrageofAnglo-German mutterings.)
KEITH: Back to my train ofthought. That was a really good
tour, especially the small

theatres. We didn't know hallo'
20 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

Keith and
Anita's children
Dandelion andMarlon in1979

MM: Are you planninga solo album?
KEITH: It just so happens that
I've met a few people during thepast year or so, and we've got
together and put some stuff ontape. That's as far as it goes, andwhether it comes out or not isanother thing. They've put asingle out in the States of "Run,Run Rudolph" with "The Harder
They Come", and... er... no one
likes it. It's the first time I've put arecord out, and it was cut at Islandin Hammersmith two years ago.
It hasn't been released here; we'reletting theAmericans suffer first.

ANITA: I find thatvery significant.
KEITH: Jolly good.

MM: But are you hoping
to get a solo album out?
ANITA: Yes.

KEITH: No... certain
executives are. I don't givea shit. I've got some stuff,
but I don't know if roots reggae is what people
want to hear from me.
That's most of the stuff
I've done while playing
with Tosh's band in
Kingston. Either I cut
some more to makeenough for an album or I
leave it in the warehouse.
I dunno -I can't think
about an album until I'ver

Richardswith Peter
Tosh, whose Bush Doctor
album was co -producedby the Glimmer Twins,in Jamaica in 1978

got thewholethingin
front of me. The only thing that stops me is that...
ANITA: The only thing that stops me is that I need thewhole thing infront of me...
KEITH: Look, go and read your scripts. When I've got an album's worthof material in front of me, then I'll think about it. I've got Robbie
Shakespeare on bass, Sly Dunbar on drums, plus two percussion men,Ansel Collins on organ, Robert Lynn on piano and Big Mao on guitar.

MM: Do you get the same satisfaction from reggae that you got from
R&B back in the '60s?
KEITH: Yeah, I find that I'm drawn to it for the same reasons, and because
there's nothing happening in blackAmerican music. There's probably
more happening in wh ite American music at the moment. They're going
through the formula disco phase, and of course it's very popular, so it's
no wonder people are drawn to it. The temptation to make those records
is so strong.

MM: Do Rastafarians accept you, as a white musician playing reggae?
KEITH: As far as I'm concerned, I'm not white and they're not black.
It's just something you don't think about. They make me feel very
comfortable when I'm on their turf and I do the best to make them feelthe same.

(The conversation mysteriously got on to the subject of the toothless whoresof Kingston, and we mentioned that until recently Keith had beenconspicuous by his deficiencies in the molar department.)

KEITH: Miraculously, due to abstinence and prayer, my teeth grew back!
I think I was just late developing. Nothing an expensive operation
couldn't prolong. Considering all the thumping hearts of the last year,
I feel quite good: But I don't feel that a great weight has been lifted frommy mind. They've put in an appeal in Canada, so we're back to squareone. I don't have to go through the whole case again, but if the appeal
judge says the trial judge was wrong, then I'm back where I started. But
I never thought much about it anyway, not until I had to go to Canada
and stand in the dock.
It was very boring having to sit there and listen to it all. 1 thought thejudge was fair and that the Canadians knew enough to leave well alone.
Now they've turned it into a stupid internal squabble. It's Canada vs the
Rolling Stones. The trial judge did his best to please everybody. I don't
have to make any more appearances, only in concert in front of the blind.
How can you appear in front of the blind? But whoever I have to play for,the blind, deaf or bubonic plague vicitims, I'll do what I've always done
anyway. I'm leaving it all to the people who set shows up, but I guess it'll
end up in Maple Leaf Gardens. We'll do it,probably with the Stones, and Peter Tosh.

"I didn't screw

MM: Do you have to adapt your style muchto play reggae?
KEITH: Not much, I've been going to Jamaica forover 10 years. Sixty-seven was the first visit, andin '72 we lived there for a whole year. Ever sincethen I've had a house there. We lived on thebeach for a long while before we realised it's thedumb thing to do. Everything goes rusty fromthe salt, from your guitar strings to the Range
Rover. The hip thing to do is live on the other sideof the road, on top of the cliff where you get abreeze even when it's really hot. People may say,"Oh, now he's doing his reggae bit." I'll go thewhole way with it or just record it for fun and put
it in the vaults, until it's acceptable to everybody. Five years ago there
were people who said they could never get behind reggae...
ANITA: Like Keith Richard.
KEITH: Thank YOU darling... OK, fuck off.
ANITA: You baam claat man.

ANITA: Sid Vicious will be the next.
KEITH: Sid -yeah. He's been a silly boy. Just

Margaret
Trudeau. But
in that casebecause he woke up with a knife in his hands,
he thinks he done it. I have a feeling he didn't.
It was probably some very sharp New Yorkdealer. Nobody deserves a trial, whether it's inCanada or New York. I mean, I didn't screw
Margaret Trudeau.Ah, hah! But in that case-who did? Who ripped the flimsy bathrobe
aside? I end up feeling that I have to pay for therape of Canada. But I didn't have nuthin' to dowith it. And as far as I could see they were after
Trudeau anyway, because you've got a civil war
brewing there. Both sides were trying to use me
as part of their internal conflict.
But they're the bastards that make us all-important. It's not as if I, or
anybody involved with us, has ever gone around saying, "Oh, it's great to
be on dope. Everybody should do it." Whatever my lifestyle is, or whatever
my problems, I don't encourage others to follow me.
Thinking about the bust, what disappointed me was that not one ofthem was wearing a proper Mounties uniform when they burst into myhotel room. They were all in anoraks with droopy moustaches and bald
heads. Real WEEDS, the whole lot of 'em, all just after their picture in thepaper. Fifteen of 'em, round me bed, trying to wake me up. I'd have woken
up a lot quicker if I'd seen the red tunic and Smokey Bear hat. I was taken
down to the jail and I asked them to give me a couple of grams back, just to
tide me over.

- who did?"

MM: What DOES that mean?
KEITH: It was a cloth that they used to mop up the blood after whippinga slave.
MM: Good grief.
KEITH: That's one interpretation, but every other Rastafarian will tell
you another.

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 121

/I

1979

JANUARY -MARCH

ApriI22,1979:with Ronnie
Wood in The New Barbarians,

supporting the Stonesduring
one of two benefit showsfor
the blind at the Oshawa Civic
Auditorium, Ontario. The gigs
fulfil a condition of Richards'
probation af ter his drugs trial in

Toronto the previous October

MM: Do you ever regret starting to take drugs?
KEITH: No, I don't regret nothin'. I just got bored with it [heroin] it
would take more than the Mounties to turn me off something, if I
really wanted to stayon it. Because I knowdamn well that in thosepens [penitentiaries], you can get as much as you want. The first day
in Wormwood Scrubs, during the first exercise period, I was tapped on
the shoulder and some geezer said, "Want some hash?" I said, "Layoff!
I wanna get out of here!"That was years ago. Can you imagine what it's like now?All you've gotta
do is bend over twice or have the right amount of tobacco, and you've got
whatever you want. I still remember that fucking screw at the Scrubs,
when Mick picked me up in me Bentley -which was a bit much, he shouldhave used a minicab -I remember the screw shouting at the gates, "You'll
be back, we'll get ya!"
You were in Rome doing Barbarella, darlin' (Keith addressed Anita, still
keeping up her monologue from the sofa), while I was doing time.
ANITA: Na, na, na, na, na.
KEITH: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes -wewon't talk about that any more. We'llargue about that later.
MM: Do you feel healthier now?
KEITH: Different. I suppose you could say healthier, although I must say,in all fairness to the poppy, that never once did I have a cold. I'm gonna
blurt it out now, right?The cure to the common cold is there -but, ofcourse, they daren't let anybody know because you'd have a nation fullof dope addicts. This winter I've had two colds. But I don't recommend
drugs to anybody. What's really wrong is 12 -year-old kids on the street
scoring dope that's got strychnine thrown in, to give you extra flash forfun. That's wrong, because it retards you. I know one junkie in London
who started at 14, and kicked the habit when he was 20. And then his voicebroke. It slows down the metabolism. The worst thing is the ignorance ofpeople taking things without knowing what they're doing.

MM: And you need the appropriate lifestyle and freedom to beable to indulge.
KEITH: I don't know if it's that. Half the reason I got drawn into it was
because I didn't have a lot of freedom and time off. If I'd have had thefreedom and time, I could have dragged myself off to somewhere remote
for three months and cleaned myself up and pulled myself together. But
in this business, you find there's always something that has to be done,a new tour or whatever, and before you know it, five years has gone.
22 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

MM: Did coming offdrugs affect the way you play or write?
KEITH: I would like to say... hum... actually, after watching stuff I've
done when I know I was out of my brain, and don't even remember theshow, da da dum... not really. I mean, I'd like to say it did, to encourage
anybody to get off it, but the only difference, now I'm off it, is I enjoy what
I do much more. Also I can remember enjoying it. One show was just like
another... it was like a tunnel that got smaller and smaller.
Keith ruled out the possibility ofhis doingshows on his own outside ofthe
Stones, and talked about his working relationship with Mick Jagger

KEITH: For what I do and for what the rest of the band does, I don't
think I could do it any better elsewhere, in a different set-up. Sometimes
I might do the odd song alone, and that's the way we've always worked.
Mick might say, "Your rough tape has got the best feel, why don't you dothat one?" But we still work closely on songs. We enjoyed making Some
Girls, it was the most immediate album we'd done in ages, and you can't
argue with seven million sales, as far as acceptance goes.
I don't think there's that much between it and Black And Blue or Goats
Head Soup. It's just that suddenly the timing clicks. That's the thing in thislark, it's the timing. It could just as easily have bombed. "Miss You" wasn't
specifically recorded as a disco single, it was just another track for Some
Girls. "Hot Stuff" was disco-ish too, and so were some others if you want
to dig down. All that really matters is that it took off, at the right period in
the band's evolution.
MM: The bass riff on "Miss You" had a lot to do with its success.
KEITH: Bill is leaping ahead. Charlie is so magnificent, you expect him
to go on getting better, and if it doesn't get better at a session you sorta
moan at him, "Why aren't you better than last time, 'cos you always are!"Bill tends to go more in cycles, and in the last couple of years I haven't
seen him so happy and playing so well. Something like "Miss You"
proves it.

MM: What's the origin of the Glimmer Twins pseudonym for you
and Mick?
KEITH: Glimmerlwins came from the infamous cruise from Lisbon to
Rio in Christmas '68, with Mick and Marianne, Anita and myself. We met
this very vivacious woman. When she got drunk, all she would ever say
was, "Who are you? Won't you give us a glimmer?" I just loved the way she
said it, so we became the Glimmer Twins.

KEITH RICHARDS

MM: Whatever happened to Nanker and Phelge?
KEITH: That included the whole band, it wasn't just me and Mick. Phelge
was the name of a guy that lived with us in Edith Grove at World's End,
who was one of the most disgusting people that I've ever known. I've
forgotten his real name, but he was known as Phelge and he was the sortof guy who would meet you on the stairs ofyour slum with his streaked
Y -fronts on his head, and nothing else, and he'd say, "This is Phelgewelcome home. Unfortunately I haven't made enough money this week
to help chip in with the rent, so instead I'll entertain you and be as
disgusting as possible for the whole week."
He was the sort of guy who would nail up the john while you're in there
and lower a tape recorder in through the window and capture themoment when the victim couldn't get the door open. He ended up witha whole reel of tape and every time it got to the bit where they flushed thetoilet you'd hear a roar of applause. It was a great tape -unfortunately
nobody kept it.

get the sound across. It just sounds like endless feedback. But I know wewere playing good at Earl's Court, and I'm the first to say when we're
playing bad, I'll tell ya. I have the tape from Earl's Court and those shows
were some of the best on the tour.

MM: And Nanker, who was he?
KEITH: One of Brian's inventions and deserves to stay with him.
ANITA: (Censored interruption in which she revealed that Brian Jones had
once done something very peculiar to a chicken.)
KEITH: He was always verygood with his hands.

MM: Is he that bad, Keith?
KEITH: Oh, maybe that was a bit extreme. But I listened to that single Rod
put out, and I look at the peroxide hair, and I like the guy, I always havedone, but I feel like saying, "Now look, cunt, you don't need it." I was justthinking there isn't a band left from when we started that has still got theoriginal lineup, now that Moony has kicked the bucket. Ashes to ashes.
ANITA: That was the best comment of the whole interview.

MM: Do you still get a kick out of playing?
KEITH: Look, this is the sort of band that, if it didn't get a kick out of it,
would retire the next day. There's nobody in this band you can persuade
to do something, unless they wanted to. Charlie hates going on the road,but he likes it enough to still pack his suitcase. He only ever carries aholdall with a change of clothes in it, because he likes to pretend he's
going home the next day.
ANITA: Not like Rod Stewart. His suitcases have got wheels.
KEITH: Rod cancelled that Lyceum show, didn't he? That was a cheap
trick. The diplomatic excuse was that the band had got laryngitis. But
how manyshows can you do with Billy Peek without puking?

MM: Do you still enjoy playing R&B tunes like "King Bee"?
KEITH: If we have a session suddenly come up, to warm up we do the old
Richmond set, just to get the chops together. We do "Route 66" and "KingBee". I'd playyou a tape of us jamming, but unfortunately it went up in the
Hollywood fire. Don't ask me what happened -I was asleep.

(The waves of verbal static from Anita increased to such a pitch at this pointthat Keith was eventually goaded into asking her to vacate the premises, aninvitation she gracefully declined. Meanwhile we turned to the barriers inoutrage, which have been finally smashed asunder.)
MM: You do seem to have a lot of dramatic events in your life. Do you
get the feeling someone is following you around?
KEITH: Mmmmmm... not really. I've had two or three houses burnt down.
Redlands burned down once -the roofwent with the whole top floor.

MM: Is it possible for the Rolling Stones to shock people anymore?
ANITA: They can't, they're past it.
KEITH: We never did anything consciously to shock people. All weever
did was answer the call of nature.

MM: That was two fires. What was the third?
KEITH: Londonderry Hotel. I should have got a medal for that one.

ANITA: Oh, gosh.

KEITH: It's true. Ifyou're consciously trying to shock people, you might
as well forget it. The comparison between Malcolm McLaren and the
Pistols, and Andrew Oldham and the Stones -well, it was just too obvious.
Too obvious to work, and it didn't work. I'm sure Johnny Rotten sussed it
was a set-up and went along with it, and the others couldn't think ofenough swearwords to keep it going. "You, you, b -b -bastard."
ANITA: So, they'd got a speech defect, so what.
KEITH: I didn't say they had speech defects -I said they couldn't
curse properly.

ANITA: Keith! Keith! It's Marlon.

KEITH: Here's my man, he's the one who straightened me out. (Andnine -year -old Marlon came in armed with Action Man toys, anxious thatthe mysterious conference should come to an end and that Dad should takehim down to Redlands. Keith and Marlon embraced and the boy turned
away from the photographer.)
KEITH: Marlon, now look at the camera.
MARLON: No! (Meanwhile, Anita fixed me with a steely gaze.)
ANITA: Chris, you are a star. Ho, ho, ho. (She mimics my deprecatory mirth.
The constant barrage is becoming unnerving, but unfortunately there are no
blunt instruments to hand.)

MM: Are the Stones going to play in Englandthis year?
KEITH: We gotta. We gotta play England andEurope this year. Fuck movies. There's nothing
concrete, and I can't say when or where.
Originally wewere going to come to Europe lastyear, but it was big mouths in Paris that blew thewhole deal. We were going to play the Palace,which I like very much. When you read about it
they always say it's Paris' attempt at a Studio 54;
in fact it's a real theatre and holds about 2,000. In
New York they ruined a perfectly good theatre
by filling it with faggots in boxing shorts waving
champagne bottles in front ofyour face.

MM: The last time you played in England you got
criticised because of the bad sound.
KEITH: Well, when we were playing at Earl's Court it
wasn't until the last night they realised that thebalcony there was solid steel, behind the plaster, andthat's where the weird echo was coming from. It
helps a band like Pink Floyd, when you want a very
spacey sound, but for a band like us that uses a lot of
middle and bottom -forget it, there's no way you can(Keith discussed further the perils ofSid Vicious, and mentioned that
he used to stay at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, where the murder ofNancy Spungen took place.)"Phelge was
the sort who'dnail up thejohn while youwere in there"
KEITH RICHARDS/L,1 i2,4doco. /2,4

KEITH: There was a guy called Zimmermanon the floor above making a fucking row witha guitar all day, and next door there was thisNico with a harmonium, with a hole in her
windbag. If you let the maid in to clean yourroom, everything would begone. You had tobe a certified dealer to get a job as a bellboy.
(Marlon increased his demands to be taken
down to Redlands. Keith tottered towards
the tape machine and played some Stones
demos and jams.)

MM: What's the next Stones album goingto sound like?
KEITH: You're talking to the wrong man! I'll write itin the studio when we get there. This is all pure bluff.
Keith disappeared, and for an hour or so we satlistening toAnita chatter gaily about her modelling
career. Marlon re-entered the room, announced that
Keith had gone to sleep. I found him lying on a bed,
Marlon keeping watch.
"Goodnight, Keith," I whispered. Chris Welch
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

wt,

I

23

-0"

1979
JANUARY

THE POP GROUP"How it's

supposed
to be"
A band on the precipice,

are ill
at ease between punkand art. Contradictionsand violent audiences
aside, the question
remains. Are they
the new Velvet
Underground.
Or just the next
Ultimate Spinach?

MELODY MAKER " THE POP GROUP are: 1) Leadersof that pack which has taken

advantage of the possibilities
opened up by the newwave,
progressing into the era of
Afterpunk by the applicationof ideas from exterior, "exotic" sources. Or: 2)
More middle-class Bohemians with an incurable
urge towards eclecticism which will eventually
undermine every thing the new wave stood for.
So: are they Velvet Underground, or merely
Ultimate Spinach?At the core of The Pop
Group's problem is the desire to reconcile theircomplex, subtle and "difficult" music with apositive distrust of the line that separates theperformer from the audience. It's an easy task toaccomplish when the performers play the basic
two -chord 4/4 thrash; more difficult when themusicians are interested in applying ideas
learned from the likes of James Brown, Charles
Mingus, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare,
Ornette Coleman, George Clinton, King Tubby
and Han Bennink.
How can you really break the stage -front

barrier when your performance includes
carefully aimed spotlights, when you put

TO AZ.

SEE MVSIC NATIONALS(MAY 5"4 friAN<HE4TEX,("iv Ee4ITY)
6,005 toicti maws k

Won"

EcLAcK
woroS WHICH MAkE

WanTrItTiEPAAkEw
The A IR mEE(SCREAM 4F- my

HEAK-rg.EA-r-

on a "show" which is "staged"?
During the course of a long, rambling
conversation at a band -member's flatin Bristol, The Pop Group attempted to
explain some of their beliefs, against
a soundtrack of King Tubby Meets The
Upsetter At The Grass Roots Of Dub andOrnette Coleman's Free Jazz.
The cover of their forthcoming album wasstuck to a mirror: it's a striking photograph,
by Don McCull in, of the Mud People of
Papua, New Guinea, and its relevance liesin the group's desire to make theirperformance -in their own word -"tribal",
to attain a state ofgracewherein theaudience becomes one with the musicians.

itr::

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 125

1979

JANUARI-WH

They would like it, they say, if the audience brought their own

instruments -whistles, perhaps, or percussive devices. "There's nothing
we can do that you can't do" would seem to be the message, although
individual members of The Pop Group have attained considerable
mastery of their instruments in a relatively short space of time. (It's noaccident that newcomers to their music are invariable first attracted bythose uptempo songs on which the rhythm section locks into a jagged but
relentless groove reminiscent of mid -period James Brown -a groove thatdemands a degree of expertise.) When confronted with the argumentthat plainly theyare creative artists with ideas above the imaginings ofthe audience, which is why people come to see them rather than staying

at home making their own music, The Pop Group simply deny it.
There's a serious contradiction, too, in their scathing attitude tocommercial enterprise. After all, don't they have acontract with Radar Records, which is funded anddistributed by WEA Records, which is owned by
the KinneyCorporation, which is one of themultinational pillars propping up the edificeof Western capitalism?
Well, yes, they agree. They're not happy
about their affiliations. But it took in theregion of £30,000 to get them in shape
NME APR 28 'le rap uroup s mscrutathe moat.
(equipment, roadies and so on), and where else
was that kind of money going to come from?
The Pop Group
RADAR
like the folk devils
And, after all, they want their music to be heard
The Pop Group. An enigmatic name. Not so
depicted on the album'sby the largest number of people possible, and atmuch ironic as is often claimed, more plain
striking cover, their own impenetrable
the time they signed to Radar, Rough Trade's
cheeky. The Pop Group have nothing if notrhyme and reason. The words screamlabel operation was hardly fledged...
a lot of nerve. They dare to play a kind ofout with the weight of conviction but,
They told me that they don't want to have any
music that owes nothing to the rockagain, their language is self-contained,
copyright on t heir songs. They don't want tomainstream, yet they're convinced they can
inscrutable - like the primitive hieroglyphics"own" the compositions - theywould likeappeal to a rock mainstream audience. They
painstakingly carved onto the cave wall.
anybody to be able to "use" the songs in anyway,
make no concessions to the machinery of
But your interpreter is at a loss to decipher
without payments of royalties or licensing fees.
rock success, but they wouldn't deny thatthe meanings. He has to resort to theThis is plainly at odds with the attitude of any
they hoped for a hit single with "She Is
printed lyrics, which he is loathe to do, sincecommercial record company. Indeed, the man
Beyond Good And Evil".
he feels that a song is a song: meant to beat Radar giggled rather nervously when I
Are they brave, noble and foolhardy, orsung not read. The lyrics come printed on
mentioned it, and said he hadn't heard of thejust pretentious? They're not pretentious
a poster covered in images of fright andplan. They have, though, already been inin the arrogant, conceited manner of thedeprivation. The Clash got no end of stickdispute with Radar about one copyrightBanshees, but they do constantly aim higher
for something similar. A cheap holiday inmatter: they want to enclose with the album
than they are capable of achieving -making
other people's misery?
a lyric -poster featuring various photographs
them, according to my dictionary,
The Pop Group are sincere enough,they've collected over the years. Radar pointed
pretentious. So be it.
and sometimes so earnest that they seemout that clearances would have to be obtained
The dangerous thing is that they should be
po-faced. They want to point at worldwide
for the photographs, and fees paid; the groupjudged on how high they have aimed rather
spiritual and mental drudgery. If the lyrics
have been thinking of getting around thethan on what they actually achieve -which
are too nebulous to convey this, then the
problem by bootlegging the poster. (So what
has been their fate in the hands of the critics
angst -ridden, tortured tone of the vocals
about the rights of the original photographers?)
so far. It's a disservice not least to The Pop
and iconography of the poster will have
It's easy to stand back, examine theGroup, since it might discourage themto suffice.
arguments, and demolish them as so muchfrom actually trying harder, and actively
Yet it's really the music that puts it acrossmiddle-class return -of -the -hippies jive encourage their indulgence.
best at this stage, by simply exemplifying
talking. After all, The Pop Group's career isAnd boy, can they indulge. Not frivolously
the opposite of drudgery: liberation... It'sgoing wonderfully. Like Roxy Music in theirso - as was the case with the Public Image
literally bursting with spontaneous free earliest days, the boys from Bristol have madealbum - but determinedly so. They won't let
jazz invention, and often overreaches itself
all the right moves to become the darlings ofanything come between them, their muse,in its enthusiasm, like a horn player straining
the contemporary avant-garde smart set.
and the pure creative expression of same.
for that final perfect resolution.
Is all this idealism merely intended to
The buggers.
Imagine a cross between Miles Davis'
establish the right kind of credentials, along
This insularity on their part - which helped
On The Corner and John Lennon's first solo
the lines of Ferry's calculated use of Eno's
breed the startlingly original sound they
album (go on, try) and you'll have some idea
radical tendencies? Are they playing benefits
possess - is a potential trap. They ought toof what The Pop Group have aimed for. Not
forAmnesty International simply to give
let something come between them andas harrowingly personal as Plastic Ono Bandthemselves cosmetic treatment, before
their muse, something called the audience.
and not as fiercely wired as Miles' output,
effortlessly cashing in their campaign
They can, you know. But increasingly of latebut similarly both primal and electrifying.
medals for royalty cheques?
they seem to have been taking the easy way
That they've missed the mark is no great
Is their overwhelming optimism unshakeable
out of playing difficult music: playing to theirdisaster, and let's just hope the boys withas long as it's in the abstract, and what willcamp followers, a converted coterie in on thethe balance sheets weren't looking
for any quick overnight returns.
angst. I want to see The Pop Group support
The Members on tour. Then I want to see
Whatever you felt about The Pop
Group's "Beyond Good And Evil"them come back and make another album.
Because (he said, removing the kid gloves)single will be amplified listening tothis. But anyone buying Yon thethis, their debut album, will not spark the soulof anyone who hasn't already seen them live,
strength of the single will - aside
from the whole of "We Are Time"and will probably dishearten many who have.
It sounds like it was made in an hermeticallyand scattered moments elsewherePrimal and electrifying

sealed vacuum, with ideas bouncing freely

around the five members of The Pop Groupand Dennis Bovell at the controls, but notrebounding off anything outside.
It actually sounds like it was made in acave. The instruments swell and ring in the
cavernous, reverberating mix; they pursue,

26 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

when The Pop Group do explain
themselves to the groping listener- feel disappointed.
A brave failure. Exciting but
exasperating.
Why? Z. See what I mean?
Paul Rcunbalt

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happen when their ideals are really put to the test?
Did a new era- paralleling that of the early '70s,
when albums were the currency and college
students were the audience- begin the day The
Pop Group compromised and signed their contract
with Radar?

00. AMMO PULL TIM PP .11
NCM1111 VT UT 7111

4.1 TO SLUE

Gareth, normally abrupt and ironic, appeared
shell-shocked. "I don't ever want that to happenig

It AEI Ill CMS 11111 LL TEAMIMO VIAL 0111 le TIM 1WTI

again," he said.
in70r1 TO
armorsJohn Waddington, slumped in a chair, looked evenpaler than usual: "It was like a Sham 69 gig.". *TT 7071. 07471,
Mark Stewart seemed to have worriedhimself into utter bemusement. But Mark,WO WEEKS AGO, in Portsmouth,
don't you want people to join in? Don't you
The Pop Group's chickens came homeencourage them to participate?
to roost. They were opening a short"Yes... but not like that."
tour, organised to celebrate the release of
Well, how then?
their first single, at the Locarno, a chicken -in "We did a film the other day, for our single,
a -basket discotheque embedded in the side
and we had people dancing round the stage...
of a modern shopping mall.
little kids, friends... it was fantastic. That's how
The audience was of the heterogeneous
it's supposed to be."But you were on a stage tonight, three feetvariety you tend to get at such events outside
London: the local avant-garde mixed up withhigher than the audience, with clever lighting
backdated White Rioters, confused but eager
and a stage act of sorts. How do you expect thehippies, and a fair sprinkling of don't -knows. A
audience to see you as anything other thanfar cry, indeed, from the Covent Garden stylists
stars?Aren't all those devices putt ing you at
who turn up at their London appearances.
a distance from the audience? How can theyMark Perry'sAlternativeTVopened the evening with a typicallybe expected to cross that space and meet you in the way you want,courageous, typically "unsuccessful" set: Perry finds it difficult to locate
without hyping themselves up to disrupt and destroy?
the targets of his derision (the audience? Its parents? The government? Its
There's no answer.
servants?) and finishes up irritating everybody, most notably himself.
He's more than willing to confront his own artistic impotence, but
LAST SATURDAY, THE answer turned up. It's simple: you play toseemingly unable to treat it.
your own kind, those who understand what you're doing and can
The Pop Group, then, took the stage in an atmosphere of mingled
make the correct responses out of a shared attitude towards "art".
dissension and expectancy. Their set was prefaced by a tape ofAfrican
The Pop Group played at St Paul's Church, Covent Garden, more usually
drumming, presumably to create the appropriate "tribal" feeling, andknown as "TheActors' Church". It may have been a typically unusual
they began with their single, the pop -funk -disco -dub mix of"She Is
move, but it was where they belong: in a bohemian community which
Beyond Good And Evil", ending neatly and sweetly on the resounding
relishes the arcane reference, the frisson of the avant-garde.
guitar -chord triplets that comprise the song's Top 40 hook, andThey played well, the church's natural acoustics amplifying the heavy
continuing through a rather perfunctory version of "Don't Call Me Pain",dub -style echo of their own PA (particularly on a songwhich very
featuring Gareth Sager's semi -competent saxophone playing.
effectively featured two bass guitars) and were joined, for "We Are Time",
Following that was their most problematic song, "Don't Sell Yourby a crowd ofyoungstylists, dancing in various modern modes, "making
Dreams", a loose, drawn-out "ballad" with a lyric and a melodramaticthe scene". (I even spotted a junior Baby Jane Holzer, mane flying, doing
delivery which most clearly bears the mark of singer Mark Stewart's
the Frug '79 in front of a guitar stack.)
affection for the French Romantic poets.
It was an elite gig for elite music, perfect in almost every detail -justThe rest of the set is so hard and so sharp that the placement of thislike their last London appearance, at the Electric Ballroom last October,song is vital: its meandering structure and improvised, impressionistic
in front of a similar audience. "Tribal" it was, if that's also what you'd callbackground allows the tension to drop, and the occasional quiet periods
a hunt ball.
invite a restless audience to assert its dissatisfaction.
During the days between the Portsmouth and the Covent Garden
In Portsmouth, response was swift. As the song dragged on, a youth inconcerts, I encountered a WEA employee. We fell to talking about The
what looked like a Seditionaries T-shirt took the stage and helped himself
Pop Group. He asked me how I thought his company should go about
to the microphone. Joined by several of his friends, including a couple ofmarketing the group. Radar and WEA, he said, seemed to feel that they
punkettes, he proceeded to bellow through the PA.
had a majorgroup on their hands, but WEA's staff couldn't agree on how"What a load of crap!" he shouted "What a load of crap!What a load ofto handle them.
crap!" And then: "ANARCHY! ANARCHY! ANARCHY!""The radio pluggers don't feel that theycan take the single up to the
The punks and punkettes danced, strummed the guitars, and took overRadio One producers," he said, "and the sales reps aren't very happy..."the drums. The musicians' attitudes were markedly different. Mark
Don't market them at all, I suggested. After all (and here I entered into
Stewart appeared to welcome the intruders, giving up his mic andthe cynicism of the conversation), they haven't made many mistakes yet.
encouraging them to bash along on the instruments; bassist Simon
They've played the right gigs, and not too many of them; they've made theUnderwood and guitarist John Waddington played along as best theyright friends; they've had a couple of front pages in the weeklies; they've
could; Gareth Sager picked up his saxophone, clarinet and guitar andmade a terrific record; they've organised their own imaginative andmade as if to carry them to safety.
appropriate artwork... Why worry? Just let them be.
It became obvious that the intruders had not arrived in a spirit of
He continued to fret, and I left him to it.
community. They had not been moved to participation by the nature of
The Pop Group's album will be released next month. It will cost £4.39,
the music. They simply wanted to interrupt, to take over, and to impose
which is Radar/WEA's regular price, and its label will bear the words
themselves on the occasion. What they wanted was a two -chord 4/4"Copyright Control" -which is a method of protecting the composer's
thrash: they would have been happy with The Members, delighted bycopyright of songs which are not assigned to a publishing company.
theAngelic Upstarts.
It has been produced byThe Pop Group in collaboration with the
Eventually, gently, they were removed (with the exception of thebrilliant Dennis Bovell, and has been created with no compromises:
punkettes, who stayed to pogo), and the band resumed their positions
nothing has been done to make the songs "accessible"; all of theto play "WeAre Time", their most direct song, with a vivid rock'n'roll
participants' creativity has been expended with great artistic courage.
ferocity that indicated that they had not been unmoved by the
The album ought to be received as the first work of the most fully
experience. As it ended, drummer Bruce Smith threw down his sticks
realisedAfterpunk group of the time, whose potential is virtuallyand rushed for the stage exit, followed by his colleagues.
limitless. Yet they deserve better than an uncritical response.
The set had lasted for about 30 minutes, including the interruption.
If they have the courage of their convictions, if they're prepared to start
When it was over, the feeling in the hall was that nothing had actuallylooking for the key to making what they do genuinely "tribal" (as opposed
to playing tapes ofAfrican drumming before their sets, and then acting
been concluded.
When the audience had gone home, and the roadies were packing away,
upset when people take them literally), they could make the next couple
the band filtered out from the dressing room.
ofyears very interesting. RichardWilliams
IMILILL ma

TPITOCIIITLIIMCI

A youth helped
himself to themic: "What aload of crap!

ANARCHY!"HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 127

1979

February 25,1979:
heading a billwith UK
Subsand The Fall.
Generation X playthe firstof two shows
at London's Lyceum

JANUAW(-OHFEBRUARY 27-

Poise and confidenceSound", and driving along "Ready, Steady,Go" and their hit,"King Rocker".
Billy, too, has matured, looking great, likea young David Bowie, in slightly more sober
MM MAR 3 -King hocKer" hitmaKers veneration X face down a rowdy crowd.
attire than last time around. Naturally enough,he seemed worried by the tense atmosphere,
MEDALS FOR BRAVERY should be
the crowd or on to the photographers inengendered by a mixture of punks and skins,
but it says much for his courage and tenacity
struck for Billy Idol and his mates infront of the stage), there were many more
Generation X. Would you, dear
who just wanted to dance and enjoy
that he managed to calm things down with apowerful version of "Kiss Me Deadly".
reader, like to stand on a stage, blinded bythemselves; a sharp reminder to all who've
spotlights, peer out into Stygian darkness,
attempted to write off the band just how
It's a shame, in many ways, that Generation
X have to live out theirand be pelted with an endless stream of beerhugely popular they havecans and glasses? And, while prancing like abecome. The Lyceum wasyouth in the late '70s.
They would have enjoyedwounded bear in a medieval baiting pit, you
packed to overflowing, andBilly seemed
are expected to retain enthusiasm for the task
Gen X blasted into a muchthemselves more in the.60S, the era in which theirof entertaining your tormentors with jolly,
more polished andexuberant rock "n"roll.
professional set than wasmusic and stance arerooted. The most they
was astonished that Billy could keep his
evident only a year ago.
cool and battle on regardless at the Lyceum
Then they were a raw,
would have to worry aboutengendered by awould have been a lot ofon Sunday. And I was more astonished thatyoung band, strong onkids who queue up and pay to see theimage but weak on
screaming and mobbing.
band should then want to inflict pain anddelivery. Now they have
They would have loved
humiliation on the poor mug booked tothat poise achieved
being on Ready, Steady,bring something remotely stimulating into
through a growing confidence in their ability.
Go! in the days when pop was fun.
apparently empty lives.
Mark Laff is one of the best new hard -rock
In fact, what they need now is a Ready,Yet, despite those who armed
percussionists; he can lead the band from
Steady, Go! audience, and there is a hint ofthemselves with a supply of missiles to hurl
the rear, instilling explosive pyrotechnics
hope for them in that direction. Among theindiscriminately (many bounced back into
to stompers like "Running With The Bossfans on Sunday was Hayley Mills. Chris WelchI

worried by thetense atmospheremixof punks and skins

28 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

LIVE!
MOONLIGHT CLUB- LONDON

Appealing

Transfixing
MM FEB10

choppiness
MM JAN 27 he Cure give '60s
stomas some post -punk drive.
ASTHE COUNTRY slips into a non -operative stasis, here comes somegood news. The subject of thebulletin is The Cure, a brand-new
three-piece from
Crawley. Last
Wednesday, Robert
MOONLIGHT CLUBLONDONLIVE!
17 -Smith (guitar/
vocals), Mike
Dempsey (bass)and Lol Tolhurst(drums) playedwhat I'm going
JANUARY
to describe asmodern pop. Don't
groan - t his is one ofthose occasions when
the handle fits. All three members are in
their late teens, and evince the kind ofapprehensive excitement of discovery
that makes for interesting andinvigorating sensations.
Of course, I'm not saying that t hey
are ready-made saviours. There arerough patches (a new PA backline
caused some nervy moments), andthey need to work on projecting theiract, but despite these teething troubles
they showed a glorious potential.
Tolhurst is sturdy, while Dempsey andSmith manage to be both rhythmicallysound and melodically inventive.
Smith's voice is a lot stronger than it
appears to be on their current single

on Small Wonder, "KillingAn Arab"(a sort of distillation of Camus' novel
The Stranger) coupled with "10:15
Saturday Night" (which should havebeen the top -side).
At the moment, though, their real
strength lies in the material, which is
generally co -written by the trio. The
plundering of classic '60s pop -rockwith post -punk economy and drive.
The effect is tight and open-ended,considered but on the right side of rough.
Take a songlike "Boys Don't Cry", forexample: reminiscent in structure ofa Beatles' flipside around '64/'65, its
appealing choppiness and ebullient
angularity meet contemporary needs
prettywell dead on. Mix in someimaginative lyrics (often tersely
evocative narratives) and the experienceshould be far from unpleasant.
Don't let them pass you by. lan Birch

KILLER
into asis, herevs.

The

is theCURE

fetenders

inake mimic history.

N0 APOLOGIES FOR following
Mark Williams' review of The
Pretenders at the Moonlight last
week with an instant replay. Now is the time
to catch them, before success (which isinevitable) and the consequent expectations
modify them in any way.
Last Friday night's event had the edge thatfeels like minor history being made: lots ofinterested faces from unexpected quarters,
jammed into the Railway Arms' small room,
lent a vibrancy to the atmosphere, and The
Pretenders delivered.
I thought they'd goofed when they opened
with "The Wait", the B-side of their Real
Records single, the best thing of its kind I've
heard since the MC5's "Looking At You". They
hadn't, though: almost every subsequentsong was its equal (and, in at least one case,its superior). It was one of those sets whichbuild to the point where, when it's over,
you're cursing the fact that you didn't havea cassette machine in your bag and a
microphone up your sleeve, because youwant to hear it all over again, right away.
Chrissie Hynde deals with rock'n'roll likeno woman I've ever seen. She avoids the
pop nuances of Debbie Harry while, unlike
Siouxsie Sioux or Poly Styrene, making an
instrumental contribution (on rhythm guitar)of a weight equal to any of the three men in

July 28,1979:

ChrissieHynde
fronts The
Pretenders at
Friars,Aylesbury

I

FEBRUARY 2'11111111

the group. Although she looks tuff (by Keith
Richards out of Veronica Bennett), there's
an uncondescending charm about her
introductions and asides which establishes

the performer/audience rapport at a very
interesting and constructive pitch.
She also happens to be the best new
singer in ages: razor -phrasing abets a pushy
delivery, and she doesn't have to stop
playing while she sings (or vice versa). She
can spit out The Wait" or drawl a Lou Reedsoundalike song about anonymous phone
calls (better than anything Reed's written
in years), and she transfixes the listenerboth ways.
The band matches her extraordinary
power, most notably on "Married Life",
the only decent white reggae song I've
ever heard, and they cope beautifully withthe dense pop textures of Ray Davies'"StopYour Sobbing" (the A -side). Some of theoriginals have quite complex rhythmic
substructures: I think it was "I Can't Control
Myself" which had alternating bars of 4/4 and7/8 in the verses, attacked very confidently by

the rhythm section.
Anyway, the theme of this message is See
Them Now. Maybe in Northampton tomorrownight (Friday), where the "House Full" notice
will doubtless go up early again. But, pretty
soon, it won't even be that easy. Richard Williams

1979

ROUGH TRADE

aan a_.4,11ISS

Ull ICI Gamy. I

distribution. Thei
everyone. "Islancompany before
says one employ

90 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979...

'EEZE

Geoff Travisin1mat
thefirstRoughTrado
shop on Kensington

ATION

X

ParkRoad,Notting
Hill. West London

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 I 3140,11,!.-1979

JANUARI-WH

MELODY MAKER FEBRUARY 10-"They go to Rough Trade to buy Siouxsie And
The BansheesIThey heard John Peel played it
just the other night" (from "Part Time Punks"
by Television Personalities)
VERY NEW MUSICAL

F,

movement creates its own
rallying points. Psychedelia
did it in the '60s with oases like
One Stop Records, Musicland,
Indica Books, Middle Earth,
Granny Takes A Trip, John Peel's Perfumed
Garden and the Arts Lab.
Punk, of course, is no exception. Throughout

Travis(left) being
filmed at Rough Tradein1977:-The shop was
set upto have in it thekind of recordsthat we'77, its blueprint rapidly emerged. The Pistols
became the band, Malcolm McLaren the
manager, SEX the boutique, Peel (yet again)
felt were worthwhilethe DJ, do-it-yourself the style and Rough Tradethe record shop. They were among the first to
suggest alternatives to the mainstream, newsolutions to age-old problems.
But as time drags on, as the word spreads and the ranks swell, they run
the risk of becoming institutions themselves. When the mass media
began to adopt Mark Perry as the token punk spokesperson, he fled into
the avant-garde and Alternative TV.
Television Personalities are equally aware of the dangers: "Part TimePunks" isn't condemning Rough Trade, or the Banshees, or Peel, but it
criticises the kind of unthinking acceptance that people can adopt
towards figureheads.
And, anyway, early '79 sees some of these reference points collapsing.
Some have turned sour -but others have gone from strength to strength.
Among the latter is Rough Trade.
GEOFF TRAVIS AND Ken Davidson opened their shop in
February '76, although Davidson left after a few months fora new life in Amsterdam. The timing turned out to be perfect.
The first stirrings of punk were emerging in London's clubland, andTravis loved not only the new music but also the attitudes that went with
it. His aim was (and still is) to establish a place which would not be a retail
outlet where records are treated strictly as product, but a meeting -point
where information and ideas are exchanged.
Hence the shop, deliberately installed in a slightly out-of-the-way
location, was one of the first to stock all the punkzines and to have a kind ofself-help noticeboard that has become a wonderfully haphazard amalgamof musicians' ads and current playlists ofanyone who wants to contribute.
"It was the idea that ourgeneration had something to call their own,
where they could go and feel part of it and not feel instantlyalienated... tobreakdown the relationship between the consumers and those that werebeing consumed. Rough Trade has that chance to provide an important
middle ground.
"What you have is people who are doing interesting things, making
music, struggling to be heard on one level, and there's not many places forthem to go. Traditionally, they just go in that very small funnel towards
stardom. What's important, obviously, is to get rid of the idea that it's
important to be a star, and to make the funnel wider, so as to include as
many people and ideas as possible."
Such a notion clearly invites many problems. You want to giveeveryone a chance to be heard, you want to break down the barriers
between the business, the artists and the audience. Geoff had to devise
a workable solution.
"Say your best friend writes a novel, and you think it's absolute rubbish,and you set yourself up as a publishing company. What do you do? It'sa very difficult problem, a continuing responsibility of Rough Trade,that when someone comes to you with something that they've done, youwant to be able to act, to make sure that what they've done concerns you,too. But at the same time you want to be able to say, 'We don't think thisis worthwhile orgood enough.'"The shop was set
up to have in it thekind of records that
32

I

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

we felt were worthwhile - not only aesthetically but also in the
motivation that lay behind them. I don't ever want to see, or like to see,music simply existing in some kind of artistic void. It's always been tome part of a social relation, and we try to set something up which would,
if possible, tip the balance towards what we saw as being worthwhile.
And, obviously, that has put us in a very dangerous position, but it's one
that we felt we wanted to tackle."

The results of this attitude have already been made manifest. They
stopped selling Stranglers records over a year and a half ago, not only
because they didn't like the music, but also because critic Jon Savage
was beaten up by Jean -Jacques Burnel "for writing a review that wascompletely non -personal in its criticism".
But doesn't this process of selection close much -needed doors to many
new bands? Rough Trade again wouldn't stock the first single by Raped,
and it was this kind of action that, the group claim, forced them to change
their name to CuddlyToys.
Richard Scott, a former manager ofThird World, who joined RoughTrade 18 months ago, and has since become a lynchpin, thinks thecriticism is fair.
"I think the only chance Rough Trade has is if there are other people
doing the same kind of thing -all we're asking people is to be honest.
If somebody calls in and says, 'Should I buy this? Is it any good?' and if
we sayyes and that relationship works, well, then it's fine. If not, we hopethat there are other people that they can go to and have the same kind of
relationship. One of the problems at the moment is that there are too few
people, in our opinion, doing this too."In this way they view the shop as part ofa growing and necessary
network of small but determined independent units like Fast, Small
Wonder, Good Vibrations (in Belfast) and Faulty Products.
Although their ideologies don't present a united front (Richard:"I wouldn't expect that, and in a way it would be a shame if there wasone"), they do work comfortably together and, indeed, Rough Trade havealready released singles in conjunction with other labels. Radar shared
the credits on "Hysterie Connective" by Metal Urbain, while Stiff Little
Fingers' "Alternative Ulster" came courtesy of Rough Trade and the
band's own Rigid Digits concern.
It's very tempting, then, to see Rough Trade in terms ofan "alternative
system". Their success, albeit minor in megabuck terms, has given themthe opportunity and confidence to expand and diversify. In fact, it's beena very logical progression. A mail-order service started because they wereaveraging about 20 letters a day, requesting records that just weren't
available in local stores. Then the local stores cottoned on and, as a result,they set up a wholesale service.
Musicians began sending in tapes, asking Rough Trade to release them,and the outcome was their own label. When you have a roster ofartists,
the next stage is to think about finding them gigs -promotion, in a word.

ehumanesellarit

to many

bands? Rough Trade

ROUGH TRADE

And this is already under way witha 15 -date package tour that includes
Stiff Little Fingers, The Normal,
Robert Rental and Essential Logic,
many of whom aren't even on RoughTrade Records.
So many angles are being
covered that it might seem thatthey have set up that alternative
scene. Geoff and Richard don't
see it that way.
Geoff: "I really had no ideaof what was going to happen.

of "Alternative Ulster" have topped 35,000.
The living warning of the large record moguls acts
as a constant reminder of what could happen.
Richard: "The worst thing is that the whole record"It's some wayof being able

to create thesystem, set up
a new model"

It wasn't consciously planned atall. It was only planned in that I
thought I'd do it for five years andsee what happened. We've had
three of those years now; we've
got two of them to go. It might benice to go out one evening andthrow the key away. I don't know.
"What we do next is a continual problem, one we face
everyweek. Do we want to continue to try and expand our
distribution to sell as many records as Warner Brothers?That's one point.
How seriously devalued is the content of any work that is actually boughtby that many people? Is it devalued to the point where what is trying to beconveyed loses nearly all its meaning? How important is meaning in any
kind of cultural artefact?
"I always argue very vehemently against the idea -which many, manybands have -that the thing to do is to get inside the system and become
very big, and then manipulate. I haven't seen anybody who has ever done
that. It's a very fundamental mistake. It's very fashionable also to say,
'I don't want anything to do with the hippy notion that what we aretrying to do is to set up an alternative.' That's almost a banned word in
our language at the moment, so I suppose we mustn't say it!"What, then, is that middle area that Rough Trade represents?
"It's not an alternative which keeps itself alive by avoiding the outside
world. I mean, what happens in most alternative societies is that you
create a self-sufficient situation, and you pretend at some level that whatgoes on outside is nothing to do with you. It's 'leave me alone' as long as
you don't harm anybody else. And I don't think that's true.
"Ifyou're going about not harming anybody else, you're using very littleof your actual energy in doing other people good, as it were. And mostalternative cultures are parasitical. I'm saying that we want to avoid
being parasitical and that we want to confront the reality of the outside
world. It's some way of being able to create the system and set up a newmodel and a process of attrition of what exists, and I think it comes froma lot of hard work. That's why it's really important to have that marriage
between theory and what you're actually doing."
Theory grounded in practical hard graft and, to use Richard's words,"testing your reality against your expectations every day." Expansion has
consequently brought as many advantages as obstacles. For instance,
they have a very ambiguous attitude towards the record label.
Geoff explained: "We really don't know how seriously we want tobecome a record label and set ourselves up in a conventional way to build
a career fora band. After all, it is important that bands do have a career
and are not just an accessory for some Rough Trade hobby. It's important
for them to know that we can follow through for them, and we don't know
yet whether or not we are capable of dealing with that.
"Bob Last [of Fast Records] has the same problem. His solution is tode -accelerate the output, when everyone else is looking for more records.
He decided that he didn't really want to go on just releasing singles andis going to do a mail-order thing, a magazine, withrecords inside it."Nevertheless, with Stiff Little Fingers a
ROUCH
solution has been found. Both parties hit on
TRADE
an arrangement whereby they would work
together for about six months, after which
cr
the Stiffs would sign to a major label (it was
to be Sire, but that link -up seems to have'r004 h4C ps
dissolved). Geoff and Mayo (Red Crayola)
GO NG/ Ts,,cor9m
co'Nirci:),e"Thompson have already co -produced
45 I PIi the group's debut album, while the sales
04 II 143,)

ALTERNATIVEULSTEli".,c.c..,s Ili
fl gilt FINGERS

If WED to 5641....

Y.

'

i

company business thing is structural in such awaythat it's so rapacious of anything that's going on.
It's actually extremely sophisticated in the waythat it swallows up anything which is a threat.
Any kind of way, it's just in therewith money.
Over something like distribution it's so easy to
go to somebody and say, 'Give me money.' Then
you're back with the same old problems like lackof control and so on.
"We consciously decided that we would stay
independent, even if it meant the end of RoughTrade. Interestingly, we haven't had many
offers. That's actually largely because ourattitude, I think, is very well known." Island
tried at the very outset. "They wanted ourrecord company before we had a record out. It
was ludicrous." No deal.

Still, financial considerations apart, wouldn't a distribution deal witha major mean that a lot more people would hear worthwhile music?
Richard: "Then think of the pressures on the band. 'You can't use thatsleeve', 'That record isn't fast enough for Radio One', all sorts of otherconstraints and levels of compromise that going further upmarket isgoing to entail. It's a very complicated formula. And all we're trying to dois broaden the base of the kind of operation that we can offer these people,
so that it can better suit their particular needs."
This attitude, however, hasn't stopped Woolworths approaching RoughTrade with a mind to distributing the Stiffs' forthcoming album.
Richard responded, "We don't have time to deal with people like
Woolworths. We have been looking for people who can do that on ourbehalf. We're not entirely happy that we'll find anybody who can, but wedon't want to start up another section of Rough Trade to promote to thatarea of the market. We don't have the time and we don't want to expand."
Geoff: "We haven't set up an operation to try and get a No 1 record, andwe seriously don't know how important it is to sell what quantity of what
record and how that will affect what we do. It does seem that what
happens is when people start, they put out records furiously, because
they're not really worried about the commercial criteria. Then t hey get
one or two hits and t hey start to build into their psychology what they see
as an understanding of what is successful -and that is one of the mostobvious traps. I don't think any of us have been tempted into that."
Rough Trade certainly have not been tempted into using their "hipness"
as a source of extra sales. They won't have anything to do with gimmicks
like coloured vinyl, 12-inchers, limited editions or whatever. When aRough Trade single appears in a picture bag, it always appears in a picturebag. They loathe the idea of being arbiters of taste. As Richard said, "We'renot worried about Rough Trade's image and all that kind of thing. We
don't conscientiously try to present an image in art form..."However corny it might sound, the coil -spring behind Rough Trade(which is now up to 10 employees in toto) is pure, fan -derived excitement,
not only about music but also about the present community of ideas
between new bands. Geoff cites the example of Mayo Thompson, whose
Red Crayola has effectively been dormant since the late '60s.
"The fact that Mayo feels he can make music again, after all those years,
is only because he feels a climate of social relations exists in this country,
where what he does can be understood. The fact that, say, Mayo talks to
Scritti Politti and Scritti talk to Genesis (P-Orridge) is very important.
"Ifwe stop finding people that we felt some kind of commun ity with,there'd be no point in doing it. That's the only thing that really keeps us
alive. And when we stop meeting those bands, then we'll just go home!"
Ironically, Richard brings up the single by Television Personalities.
"It's a fantastic sense of excitement getting a TV Personalities single inon a Tuesday or Wednesday, talking to a guy in Australia and knowing it's
going to be on his counter on the Friday or Saturday and the guy sells it."But don't fora moment imagine that Rough Trade, despite theirescalating success rate, have all the answers.
Richard: "You construct a certain model around your confusion, to kindof dissipate the confusion. But ifyou really get into enjoying the confusion,and start to address it, then you're really in a dynamic situation. Dynamic
doubt as opposed to static certainty." Ian Birch
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 I 33

1979
JANUPR1-OH"Not

finished"

The toxic fallout of the SEX PISTOLS continues,

and Malcolm McLaren is locked in legal combat
with the band. "I bear enormous anger when I
think of Rotten and Branson," he says, from exile
in Paris. "The swindle has come round on me."-MELODY MAKER FEBRUARY 24-

AS JOHNNY ROTTEN savours his first victory in the LydonGlitterbest case, Public Image Ltd prepare to record a second

album with a new drummer, the remaining members of the
Sex Pistols ponder their future, and Malcolm McLaren has
gone to Paris to cut a single, "Je Ne Regrette Rien". Meanwhile,the fate of the Pistols' film, The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle, hangs

in the balance, although its soundtrack has been rush -released both in Britain
and France.
After a seven-day hearing, High Court judge Mr Justice Browne -Wilkinson orderedlast Wednesday (February 14) that a receiver be appointed to safeguard the assets of
Glitterbest, the Pistols' management company, and to exploit the film and related
records. The judge said that the Pistols had earned £880,000 in their brieflife, but it
transpired that only £30,000 remained in Glitterbest's bank accounts. A total of£343,000 had been invested in the movie, the MMunderstands.
The case is by no means over. The announcement that an accountant, Mr Russell
Hawkes, is to assess and apportion the band's finances is merely a hiatus in what could
be a long and expensive litigation.
Although the judge has recorded that the partnership of the Sex Pistols ended in
January 1978, the time of their first and last American tour, Rotten is still seeking tohave his five-year management contract with Glitterbest, signed in September 1976,
declared void. Should he win this ruling, Glitterbest would receive as earnings, forexample, not what was stipulated in their contract with him but what the court
regarded as fair. The ownership of the name Sex Pistols also has to be resolved, anapparently complicated issue. When the receiver has sorted out all the finances, thenboth Rotten and Glitterbest will decide what will be their next course of action. *34 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

Malcolm McLaren:"I don't mind being
sold down the river,but I'm not gonnadrown in it, too"

.24
_

1. '
-?*

cl

ROTTEN v.
rilicLARENNO WINNER
by MICHAEL WATTS

vic
his
first
ROTTENsavours
AS JOHNNY
in NIP Lvdon-Glitterbest c;.zse, Public

Oundtrec/vertu,.

^w tracts_

IN CLASSIC ROCK -BUSINESS.

fashion, what arose
spontaneously out of a groupof disaffected kids has ended up
amidst the sober atmosphere of thelaw court. It may be too much toclaim that the Pistols case marks
the death knell of punk rock, but
certainly it exposes the financial
realities that any style of successful
musician ultimately has to face. At
the crunch, the Sex Pistols hearing
has in essence been no different
from The Beatles suing Allen Klein:
it was a question of money.
As with the Beatles break-up, great rancour
has also been generated. Rotten and his lawyers
are now free to view The Great Rock'n'Roll
Swindle, which is apparently being edited, andhe has said he is not considering preventing thefilm's release; after all, through the film andsoundtrack he could make a lot of money. But,
should the film include scenes detrimental toN 11

C11111:3044"Glitterbest
fucked up...
But they canbe proud ofthemselves"him, he could try and stop it. He may also
continue to feel bloody-minded towards
Malcolm McLaren, his former manager.
There is no doubt that the case has gone very
badly against McLaren. Depicted by M r John
Wilmers, QC for Rotten, as "a Svengali" whom
the film script (with its references to JackThe Ripper, Moors murderess
Myra Hindley and the Cambridge Rapist) showed to be of a dubious moral
character, McLaren emerges as a businessman who handled in a cavalierfashion the lives and money oft he Sex Pistols. Guitarist Steve Jones anddrummer Paul Cook were represented as toeing the line on his many
projects, particularlyon the notorious trip to Brazil to film and record with
Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs. Rotten, patently, had ideas ofhis own.
The future of Glitterbest at least looks decidedly shaky. According to
McLaren, who flew off in some bitterness to Paris as soon as the verdict
was heard, it maygo into liquidation. He estimates he has liabilities ofbetween £50,000 and £60,000, and should he be pressed by his creditors,
the receiver appointed by the court could apply fora liquidation order.
His problem is that, although ownership of the Sex Pistols has yet to besettled, he is not allowed to raise money on their name, which would go
towards paying off his debts. He has moved his operations, therefore, toBarclay Records in Paris, who distribute the Pistols records, to try andmake money on his own efforts. Barclay, it seems, were impressed byhis version of the Max Bygraves song
"You Need Hands", which is on the
Pistols soundtrack album.
"They think I've got a great voice,"
McLaren told me on Monday, speaking
from the Barclay offices. "It's got to be
total exploitation on my part from now
on, because if I have to go to court again
I'm going to need £100,000 to cover thatand the last hearing.
"I suppose I feel if anything can beprostituted now it's myself, so I'm gonna
do everything -acting, too, if I have to.
I'm not finished by any means, though
I suppose it was the end of one career inthat court. The irony is that the swindle
has come round on me."
McLaren's reference is to what he sees
as a conspiracy, by the music business,
especially Virgin Records and, to a lesser
extent, Warner Brothers (the Pistols'
record company in America) to stop him
working in the rock industry. While
stressing that he has tried to be rational
about his feelings, he says that six
months ago he was told by people in the
36 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

music business that there wereelements out to get him for "rocking
the boat" when he started with the
Pistols three years ago: "I guess the
comeuppance was the court."
He declares that Virgin, to whom hesigned the Sex Pistols 18 months ago,considered him a nuisance and haveused the court case to clip his wings.
He suggests that since Rotten
supposedly has no money, Virgin had
funded his prosecution. "He was thepawn because he had a big grudge."
During the case, he goes on, Richard
Branson, the head ofVirgin, made"incredible efforts" to turn Cook and Jones
against him by offering them money which
subsequently was not fort hcoming.And that
Branson, while attempts were being made tosettle out of court, wanted McLaren to sign apiece of paper saying he would stay out of themusic business for five years.
"I bear enormous anger when I think ofJohnny Rotten and Branson, and I'm notbeing overly suspicious. I think Branson has
been enormously clever. I know now that it
was a hoax on Branson's part to say that we
could all go to Miami and record, because
he knew about that trial coming up. And I justwasn't prepared for that trial. I was thrownby Sid's death and all that.
"You see, the next case may not come up for three months, and they're
all of the opinion that if McLaren doesn't have the money, by then, thenthere'll be no trial and all my assets will be wound up. First they takeaway every means ofyou making a living and then they send you into
the bankruptcy court. I just think my number has come up on this case.

It was writ there after the second day. I knew then I'd lost. I saw how it was
all set up."
The judge had suggested that McLaren be appointed as a sub -manager
to help the receiver sell the film, but McLaren informed me that, although
he wanted the film to be finished, he did not currently feel that he wanted
to assist someone who had forced him to leave the country. Rather thanworking for himself, hewould then be acting for the court, the Sex Pistols

partnership and Virgin Records.
"I don't mind being sold down the river, but I'm not gonna drown in it,
too. It's like wiping your face in your own shit. The facts are that without
me that group wouldn't've existed, and I feel that if I couldn't spend thatmoney on the projects that I thought
were right, then they should've thrownme out years ago."
CLAREN'S VIEW OF thecase and his relationshipwith Virgin Records is
supported, rather controversially,by one John Varnom, who has been
associated with Virgin since its
beginnings in a Bayswater crypt in
London eight years ago. Varnom has
designed ads for the record label, andfor almost nine months last year washead of marketing at Virgin until he
was made a director of Virgin Leisure
Division in September. Then, at theend of this January, he was fired forwhat he describes as "passing
information to the enemy".
This entailed, in effect, swearingout an affidavit in Glitterbest's favour-an affidavit, however, of which only
parts were read out in court. "Other
parts were considered too heinous,"
Varnom himselfallows.

Sections of his statement, it appears, detailed highly
personal opinions of Rotten. But the gist is that when
Rotten went to Jamaica shortly after returning from theAmerican tour, it was an inducement on Virgin's part tokeep him "out of the clutches" of McLaren, with whom
relations by then had become fraught. Varnom evenstates that Virgin held a meeting in January 1978 inwhich the notion of taking action against McLaren andthe other Pistols was discussed; ultimately, however, it
was rejected as having possible repercussions on thelabel. However, he says that the idea of Rotten suing wasconsidered a satisfactory substitute.
Another affidavit from a former Virgin employee,
Rudy Van Egmond, a record plugger who actually
travelled to Jamaica with Rotten, also supports thetenor of some remarks by McLaren. This, too, though,was not heard in court.
Varnom, who was held by many people at Virgin to bea highly creative but wayward figure, had, in fact, got toknow McLaren very well by the time of his sacking. He isjust completing a book about the history of the Pistols,
to be rushed out first in France, for which he was offereda £3,000 advance by McLaren. He says, however, it was
rejected as having possible repercussions on the label.
However, he says that the idea of Rotten suing wasconsidered a satisfactory substitute.
He told me: "After weighing up the merits of each sidein the case, I decided that the rights lay with the Sex
Pistols and Glitterbest. Since it was likely that Rotten
would win the case from the first, Virgin backed him.
"I think McLaren is a very trustworthy person, and tosay he has mismanaged the Sex Pistols is probably themost absurd thing I can think of. But his viewall along
was that Glitterbest would be wound up and Richard[Branson] would get the assets for much less than what
February 8.1979:Johnthey're worth."
Lydon on hiswaytothe HighHe went on to explain that the relationship between
Courtin London, seeking
Branson and McLaren had always been highly charged;
an injunctionagainst
Malcolm McLaren's
both were men of some panache. When Branson had
Glittarbestcom ansigned the Pistols, he felt an underlying motivation
had been to succeed where EMI and A&M had
previously failed.
"Richard thought he could handle the Pistols. He loves
a good game. In fact, he's a bit of a fucking loony, when it comes to games.""In the end," he says guardedly, "one or two people may have decided it
Varnom, it should be added, continues to have an association withwas better to go to the receiver after all."
Virgin. He still drives around a companyAlfa Romeo, and he has designed
Denying the allegation that Virgin was trying to muscle in on Rotten's
the ad for the forthcoming Sid Vicious single. This is a ViciousAction Man
management by whisking him off to Jamaica, he said that, on thedoll shown in a coffin with the heading of "From Beyond The Grave".
contrary, they wanted to keep the Pistols together: "We had a No 1 record"Sid loved Action Men," he says.
at the time [presumably "Cosh The Driverl There was no waywe wanted
to see the Sex Pistols break up." And McLaren's view that he was being
ElRANSON HAS REFUTED the allegations made against Virginindustry -bashed, including the remark that Branson wanted him to signby McLaren and Varnom, and was particularly disturbed byhimself out of the business, he thought preposterous.
what Varnom has to say. In tones of regret, he said that he had"I don't believe that we've ever actually wronged Malcolm," he gently
fired him because for the last three months he had hardly turned up
reproved. "I think he's a brilliantly creative person who didn't tie up thefor work (Varnom concedes that his attitude was "obstructive"), wasloose ends as he went along.
uncooperative with other employees, and frequently spent too much
"He believed that what he was doing would work out in the end best formoney on advertising campaigns. "He once spent £20,000 on the Pistols
all concerned, but he didn't stick by the contract. He went ahead andwhen it was budgeted for £10,000," he said.
made records and films in the hope that he'd be able to settle whateverBranson seemed pained by the breakdown of relations with Glitterbest
came up. He felt he utterly controlled the situation, I think.
and said that, far from siding with Rotten and paying his legal costs,"So, admin istratively Glitterbest fucked up. They didn't organise their
Virgin had done its best to try and stay out of the dispute: "Before the caseaffairs correctly. But they can be proud of themselves. They've done
we tried to get it settled out of court, and then, when Rotten's lawyers said
brilliant things."
it had to be done counsel to counsel, McLaren got upset and got John
With McLaren retired hurt to France and pursuing his personal ends,[Varnom] to do an affidavit. He asked us, too, and we refused."
and Rotten entering the studio soon for a second PiL album, what
Branson says that a big attempt was again made to settle the issue
happens to Cook and Jones, all that's left of the old Sex Pistols? Especiallyduring the middle of the case. McLaren proposed to him that £100,000 be
now no one is at the helm.
paid byVirgin to Rotten in full settlement of all his claims, to which heBranson says they have six more albums to do for Virgin. "I thinkagreed. But then the finances became more tangled.
Malcolm can offer an awful lot to them if he continues with them."
It appeared that another £100,000 would have to be paid to Jones, Cook
McLaren: "I suppose they'll have to serve their time on Virgin."and Vicious' estate, and £75,000 to finish the movie. In return, McLaren
Jones, who has always been the Pistol closest to McLaren and hiswould give Virgin 35 per cent of the movie and Rotten five percent. Then,
partner Vivienne Westwood, may well stick by him. And then Cook has
however, there were tax complications over the movie, and Vicious'
always stuck close to Jones.
lawyers were not there to agree to the new finances.
But that's the Money -go -round. An old story. Michael Watts.

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 137

1979
JAHHlHVOH`Anyonecan beweird"
That's not the aim of THE HUMANLEAGUE. Computer boffins pursuinguemocratic, people's music, theSheffield band are on a principled
pop mission. "If we get a thousandpeople in a hall, we try and impress
every one of them. It's the floating
vote we're trying to capture."-

MELODY M' "r" FEBRUARY 24-

ISUPPOSE YOU COULD trace it back to the earlydays of Stiff. Taking a cue from Beserkley, theworld's once -most -flexible record label developed

an inspired approach to marketing. Their
brilliant throwaway graphics, advertising
campaigns, publicity stunts and catchph rases
trod a new line between dastardlydisrespect and loving
expertise. What's more, it worked.
The art of clever packaging had surfaced. People would
onlybuy singles if theywere 12 -inch collector's items inpicture bags. Nevertheless, in '77 the gimmick was still
generally regarded as, first and foremost, fun. However,come '79, the emphasis has shifted. it's nowbecoming - toborrow a nifty line from Fast Records -"difficult fun".
The reasons are several."New wave" is almost three years
old and its initial impulse to attack the sieepyold x.
38

HISIORY OF ROCK 1979

1979JANUARI-WH

corporations has decidedly ebbed away. The
musicians are older and a great deal wiser toboardroom tactics. Many of them now want to bepart of the star system that they once reviled. Internal
jealousies revolve less around getting a contract andmore around how much money their label backers arewilling to lavish on that first trip to the States. Complete
control is less a stand against being amanipulated pawn and more a carefullyplotted policy to ensure maximum business.
This increased awareness amongst the firstflush of bands has naturally filtered through toboth the hopefuls waiting in the wings and thenewer contenders still associated withvanguard subversion. As a result, the latter (let's
take as examples The Mekons, the Gang Of
Four, and -our men of the moment -The
Human League) are almost preternaturally
wary of rock's mechanics. They not only want to
be involved at every stage of the process, theyalso want to be responsible for every stage of them. In addition, they want
to expand on all the packaging possibilities that have been hitherto
available, introducing a kind of DlYmultimedia blitz.
The three bands I mentioned are all on Bob Last's Edinburgh -based
Fast label, which is trying to be less a record label than an audio-visual
attack (appropriately, The Human League see themselves as "an audiovisual team").
As well as releasing singles, to date Last has issued what I can only
call packaging projects. Fast's generic umbrella is TheQuality0fLife.
The latest package, Sexex, is a plastic folder of xeroxed consumer images(for example, a lonely toothbrush in a glass tumbler beside which is
inscribed "sexy").
Getting confused? Well, the covering note to Sexexshould help
elucidate. It explains how information can only be mass-produced via
packaging, and rather than get upset about this, one should consider the
positive aspects. For instance, more people can get in on the act. The
letter concludes that this isn't a new gimmick, but "just rearranging anddisarranging what's already there".

classified in lazy journalistic pigeonholes alongsideother new electronic combos like Throbbing Gristle,
Cabaret Voltaire, Scritti Politti and PragVec.
Ian explains the contradiction: "They use
electronics to treat standard acoustic instruments,
whereas we use synthesizers as synthesizers."
Phil Oakey simply sings, whileAdrian Wright remains
unseen as he operates a projector. Every
number is accompanied by a slide show
which complements the music and lyrics,
with varying degrees of obviousness. The
overall effect is one of science-fict ion romance:
NewScientistdiagrams cheerfully collide withshots from FirebnIIXL5, Hammer horror
movies and Sunsilk-shampoo-styled erotica.
The band certainly don't want theirpresentation to stop at that point. They haveplans for video, incorporating computers into
their act (in an "organisational" rather than"creative" sense, you understand), and perhaps
even selling inexpensive copies of the slides they use at gigs. Whenvideodiscs hit, they'll surely be panting.

"We always
try to realise

there's anotherviewpoint"-1"-OT SURPRISINGLY, THE Human League work hand -in -glove

with this notion. Their advance publicity includes an...4,_" Electronically Yours" sticker, catchphrases like "beware ofsugar-coated bullets", a computer print-out of the band's, er, worldview, and a demonstration tapethat splices music and selfsati rising commentary.
The multi -media blitz emerges

THE GROUP STARTED at the tail -end of '77. Ware and Marsh,

both computer operators, had toyed around with a possibility
called The Future. It was primarily orientated towards
instrumentals. There was a third member, but in the cryptic
terminology of that computer hand-out, he was "deleted due tomalfunction". Enter Oakey, a hospital porter, who opened up the vocal
dimension. None of them are trained musicians, in any sense of theword; their uniting factor was a keen interest in electronics.
They played some gigs in Sheffield, their home town, and then met
Bob Last, through Paul Bower, who edits the local fanzine, Gunrubber,in-between playing with his own band, 2.3. In June last year they released
their first single, "Being Boiled"/"Circus Of Death" on Fast. (John Rotten
promptly denounced them as "trendy hippies"- a silly remark.)
After the single, Wright -who had dropped out ofart school and was
driving an ice-cream van -joined the ranks, and opened up the visual
dimension with the help of his dad's camera. Sporadic gigs followed,
a tour with Siouxsie And The Banshees took place, the word spread, andrecently Virgin signed them to a publishing deal. They gave up their jobs
and are currently shopping around for that major record contract.
Polydor have made vigorous overtures.
If you're beginning to think that
all this talk about packaging and therock process and sequenced backing
tracks means that The Human
League area kind of fashionably

THE HUMAN LEAGUE

more forcibly in their stage act,
where modern technology has a ballwith pulp culture from the previous
two decades. Very much thedescendants of glitter rock, Bowie,
Roxy Music, The Velvet Undergroundand other innovative bands like
Kraftwerk, Can and Faust, they are
fascinated by the power of images,"noise", and 20th -century hardware.
Punk provided the impetus and thecottage -industry confidence.
Consequently, they don't use
the conventional rock lineup.
Drums, bass and guitars havebeen jettisoned in favour of two
synthesizers, controlled by Ian
Marsh and Martyn Ware. Becauseof this, they have been repeatedly

dehumanized bunch ofaesthetic
cybernauts, then breathe again. They
are adamantly anti -elitist, repeatedlyemphasising their desire to appeal as
popular entertainment on the widest

REAR

scale possible.
Martyn: "Anyone can sit aroundand be weird. The very early stuff wedid, we wouldn't even consider letting
people listen to it now, but it would
compare favourably with a lot of theoutput of those other bands that havebeen compared with us, because it
was more overtly experimental.
"Are people into that? I don't believe
they are. It's a matter of discipline.
What we're aiming for is to be
professional. People are going to
be moreimpressed if

Lyric
RandomAn
The Cyclic
SystemOrganisation
to W,Cr totheythinkalot
of work hasgone into

somethingthan ifyou
ref room tar

want to betics Many of them now that they
part of the star cystern
7e111111,1,,,,,,rt,e re% led Iiltt tIshamble on stage and do somethingthat you self-consciously think is very
valid and arty, and tell them they caneither take it or leave it. We're notinterested in that.
"If we get a thousand people in a hall,
we'd like to try and impress everyoneof them -not just the few at the front
who're really into it. I think it's thefloating vote we're trying to capture,
rather than just the fanatics." Beneaththe modernistic trappings lies anold-fashioned cardiac pump.
Referring once again to thatoriginal computer print-out, it reads:"Interested in combining the bestof all worlds, the League would liketo positively affect the future byclose attention to the present,
allying technology with humanity
and humour." They set self -parodyand quirkily stylised humouralongside commitment andgentle experimentation.
Martyn: "Half the time we're stating
something forcibly, and half the time there's the
opposite viewpoint, somehow. We always try torealise that there is another viewpoint... Oh God,
we're so fair!" Multiple interpretations are almost
a biological necessity in a band that "has massive
arguments about everything all the time".
Another angle on their deliberate accessibility is
the inclusion of evergreens in performances. At
the moment they do deliciously sparse replicas
of Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll" and The Righteous
Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" a pound to a penny that Polydor will want thatas their first single if the group sign the dotted line.
They want to do more cover versions, and have already earmarked two
Walker Brothers songs -"Make It Easy On Yourself" and "No Regrets" -forserious consideration.
Martyn: "Basically, we love ballads, torch songs." By relocating this typeof song in an electronic context, they can neatly show how apparently
mechanoid combos can be as emotive as, er, Jimmy Pursey.
HE SLIDE SHOW, which pans between two different screens,
also offers huge potential for increased entertainment andpersonal interpretation. Quite often, the individual membersof the group don't know the significance of certain slides. Adrian, an
inveterate pulp fan who is currently compiling a book about '50s sci-fi
movies, will slip in images that had not been originally planned.
During the interview he explained to theothers, for the first time, what two slides
contributed to "Zero AsA Limit", an enactmentof an emotional tussle that results in a car crash.
"There are pictures of Lolita because I'm trying
to tie up sex with cars."
They are beginning to put the actual song
titles on slides, which inevitably militatesagainst the idea of a frontman. That
responsibilitywould traditionally devolveon Phil, as the singer, but he refuses to haveany part of it.
"I can't do it," he says. "That was one of thereasons we had slides right from the start. I can't
dance." Ian continued, "Ifyou can't dance,
there's no point in trying, because you just lookstupid. There are too many people around who do dance and shouldn't."
An obvious future step is to start making their own films for use onstage. They'll do it as soon as finances permit. Martyn: "I think we'remore influenced by films and TV than by rock. I'd much rather go and see
a good film than a good rock band. You see a film and you're caught up.
For that period of time you're not a person sitting in a cinema; you're partof that experience. Whereas, watching a rockband, it's just some guys up on stage."
But what about communication; a rock gig
is essentially a live experience. The celluloid
experience is trapped, immovable. That turns
out to be exactly what they like about movies.
Phil: "You stand more chance of having
accidents on stage. With a film they've got exactly
what they wanted to put out. It's correct."
So they don't think, then, that accidents can bebeneficial sometimes?
Phil: "Well, they can be."Martyn: "We've always done that in ourcompositional technique anyway. Like the way we composed 'Circus Of
Death' was a complete freak."That song, in fact, grew out of an attempt to cover Iggy Pop's"Nightclubbing". Martyn: "We had the echo unit doubling the beat andcreating another beat, and we decided this is too good to use for'Nightclubbing', we'll use it fora track of our own. We do have anabnormal compositional technique. It's only myself and Ian who canactually play instruments, and we usuallystart off with some rhythm.
It all builds up from there. So we're more or less using studio techniques
to create the songs we playlive."
Ian agreed: "The more natural state for us is in the studio, and the
difficult thing is playing live -which is the reverse of most bands."
This technique is one of "select ion". They have countless snippets ofmusic on tape, which are either developed individually or patched
together in a kind ofjigsaw assembly line. Thereis also a communal wire basket where lines or
isolated words are collected (Bowie's use of
Burroughs' cut-up method springs to mind).
Indeed, in their early days they used a systemcalled CARLOS, or the CyclicAnd Random Lyric
Organisation System -which, to put it briefly,
was a sort of home-made fruit machine that
substituted words or phrases for the normal
fruits. The more words/phrases that they fed
in, the greater the number of resulting
permutations. Weirdness at the pull ofa handle!
The experiment was, however, short -I ived.
Apart from saying that they lost faith in thesystem and that it "had a tendency to makethings over -staccato", they (or rather Phil)
weren't sure why CARLOS slipped away into the night.
Nevertheless, ifyou can imagine a Phil Spector production stripped
down and translated into a digital delay system by an apprentice Giorgio
Moroder, besotted by late-nite American TV, with only a synthesizer
in the studio, you're in the right frame of mind for The Human League.

"I think we're
more
influenced byfilms and TV
than by rock"
Ian Birch

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 141

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"Why did you
have toturn up?"Clr--1-1 in secrecy,

ROXY MUSIC aeturn.

The media, they explain,

have historically causr 'them problems Tony
Parsons once interviewed
them in a restaurant,
informally dressed.
"How dare he interview us
in a vest?" says Andy
McKay. "It's a wonder hewasn't mistaken for
one of the cooks."--mrtnny ItfiftKrE' MARCHS-ERE COMES THE weekend; and with it, a beckoning wave
from Sweden. I fly into Stockholm's balmy Friday night
feeling vaguely like the world's most travelled hack, alreadyafflicted by that sense of personal dislocation provoked bybeing so suddenly transferred from the comfortable andfamiliar to an alien and foreign environment. You know: one
minute you're enjoying a pint in the Rose & Crown, the next you're skating
across the tundra. All right for some, hey?
The airport rolls away behind the inevitable snow drifts. Eyes are peeled, alert
now to any possible evidence of the presences of Roxy Music, whose tail we arechasing here.The Roxy Reunion charabanc will tumble into action tomorrownight in Stockholm; but don't ask me where yet.
Roxy, inevitably sensitive and perhaps not a little paranoid, have offered no
specific information about either their exact whereabouts or their definite
intentions -indeed their resident media consultant Simon Puxleyhad onlydays
before been insisting with a rare determination that the Roxy Euro tourwould
open not in Stockholm, but Berlin.
We rumbled that one straight off the bat.
One could understand their apprehension. There lingered, still, an aura of
cynical suspicion about the individual motives for reviving their career -didBryan really need the extra crackers a reunion would bring? Was Phil's bankbalance, after the expense of financing the commercially ill-fated 801 projects,
a little thin? Was Andyfinally tired of Rock Follies?Whatever the reasons, it wasmade clear by Puxley's attitude that Roxywould not violentlyencourage thepresences of this paper (nothing personal- theywereofferingawelcoming
hand to no one else, either) at the opening night of their tour.
Still... once there, theycould hardlyhave us deported.
I check into the Sheraton.
Investigations at the desk fall to draw anypositive response. No, there are noreservations in the names I mentioned. No Ferry, no Manzanera, no Mackay, no
Paul Thompson, no Dave Skinner (Eddie Jobson's replacement), no GaryTibbs(the most recent bass enlistment). No Simon Puxley, either.
I attempt to compile some kind of list of alternative hostelries, with the
Intention of trackingdown our elusive targets. The Sheraton switchboard barks
back at mein Swedish (a language Lou Reed, with whom I had last visited thecountry, once likened to a tongue disease). I understand not a single word; x.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 43

1979

JANUARY -MARCH

though I have the uneasy feeling that I am for some reason being dictatedthe results of that afternoon's chariot -racing in Gothenburg. Something
like that, anyway.
I retire to the Sheraton bar, occupying a vantage point opposite themain entrance in the faint hope of confronting the group arriving. I am
quietly excited by the idea of Ferry driving up in some sleek carriage,
swathed in furs and Cossack boots, a pack of Borzoi hounds barking
about his heels.
It was not to be. I learn later that at this time Roxy were, in fact,
rehearsing frantically some last-minute addition to their projectedconcert repertoire at ABBA's studio, where they will be hard at it until 3am.
I settle back on this unlikelyguard duty, surrounded by jabbering
Swedes. At 2.30 I feel that I have, for one night at least, done enough.
I relinquish my post, hoping that the morning will bring its own reward
for such patient dedication to duty.

AND INDEED, SATURDAY morning brings with it a minor
breakthrough. Roxy Music are residents, I am thrilled to learn,of the Grand Hotel, a handsome establishment on the Sodra
Blasieholmen, overlooking the harbour.
There are groups of pubescent Swedes in anoraks and ski boots clusteredaround the hotel's doors, clutching copies of Roxy albums and waiting forautographs and a glimpse of the chaps. Photographers and journalists
wander through the lobby, confirming my informant's disclosure that
Roxy are here. I had heard that there might be a press conference at one
o'clock, or perhaps individual interviews. Awoman from Polydor's Swedish
office approaches and addresses me in Swedish. I
bewildered!
"English?" she asks.
"Yes.""Are you from a paper?""The Melody Maker.""You would like an interview with Bryan Ferry?""Uh... yes.""I am afraid they have been cancelled now. Perhaps you can do it later.
The group is having to go to the soundcheck. We are having to rearrange
the interviews... perhaps later this afternoon; we can arrange it...""Fine," I say, eagerly.
"They are expecting you?" she then asks anxiously.
"Probably not...""Aaaaaah," she says. "Then perhaps you
should speak to Simon Puxley.""Yes, perhaps I should."
Puxley is sitting at a tablewith another Polydor
rep. He looks characteristically harassed, likean unmade bed in a state of some panic.
"Hello, Simon.""Hi..." He looks up. "Oh, no. I thought they
were joking. Oh, dear... Oh dear..."If he hadn't been sitting, I think he might havecollapsed, or not to wax too dramatic about all
this -at least staggered a little.
"I wish," he says, "that I could just hide you forthe rest of the day. Bryan... Bryan doesn't know
you're here, does he?

Not, I think, unless, he's recently been blessed with powers of telepathy.
"Perhaps," says Puxley, distracted, "I should tell him you're here...

Mmmmmmmm... Maybe I'll leave it for the moment... Mmmmmmm...
Ha, oh dear. Why did you have to turn up? I hope you're prepared for
Bryan to throw a punch at you later on.""Everybody else has thrown one," I reply.
"I don't know why everyone's so worried," says Tibbs. "Some fucker wasbound to turn up."
Phil Manzanera arrives at the bar.
"Allan Jones," he says. "Well, well... don't tell me you happened to bepassing and just dropped in. You know," he continues, "that we'll have totie you up, gagyou and lock you in a wardrobe until after the gig.""He thinks we're joking," says Puxley. He looks out onto the harbour.
"There's a vast expanse ofwater out there. Do you think anyone'll
miss him?""Send someone for the concrete overcoat," Manzanera suggests.
"Or, perhaps, we could arrange a quick mob lynching.""Mr Jones...""...Mr Ferry.""So -this explains the excess baggage I had to fork out for yesterday.
I was wondering where the extra weight had come from."
He turns to Puxley. "I'm going back to bed, Doctor. I've had enoughshocks for one morning..."
He walks away. "Where did he come from?" asks Puxley.
"There's no one else coming, is there? You haven't arranged anymore
little surprises, have you?"
I mention quickly that I've heard that Tony 'n' Julie are on their way
and are likely at any moment to wander hand -in -hand through therevolving doors.
"I think I'd shoot myself," says Puxley. ("Tony Parsons," Andy Mackay
will later recall. "He interviewed Bryan and I in an Italian restaurant.
He was wearing a vest, I remember. How dare he interview us in a vest?
It's a wonder he wasn't mistaken for one of the cooks.")
The photo session completed, the group is settled into their limos.
Ferry is accompanied by a brace of local journalists, who have been
persuaded to conduct their interviews in the back of the car on theway
to the soundcheck.
"Anyone else going to the gig?" someone shouts. "We've got room forone more."
I take a tentative step in the vague directionof the limo.
"NO!" shouts Puxley. "No one else."
We walk back into the hotel.
"I suppose," says Puxley, wearily, "that you
want to come to the concert.""Yes -I already have a ticket.""You have a ticket... fuck," Puxley swears.
"Then you'll just have to get through thesecurity cordon we've arranged. They'll all
get copies of your photograph and explicit"I wish I could
just hide you...
Bryan doesn't
know you're
here, does he?"instructions about how to deal with you if
you try to get in."

HE JOHANNESHOV ISSTADION isabout the size of the Wembley Arena.
When Liza Minnelli appeared here,
they crammed in more than 9,000 people. Rod
Stewart attracted a similar audience.
Tonight there are 5,000 ardent Swedes clomping
about the premises, in anticipation of Roxy Music's
first public appearance since the autumn of 1975,
when they announced the temporary suspensionof their activities as a group. The air almost physicallycrackles with tension and excitement. ("YOU were
nervous?" Andy Mackay
will say later. "I canbarely stand.")Wirewill be supporting
Roxy on most of their
European tour, but
Sweden, it transpires,
does not encourage theappearance of support

ROXY MUSIC

bands at rock gigs. The authorities, it
seems, are convinced that audiences
will become too excited by the interval
and are likely to lay waste to thesurrounding environment insteadof sitting comfortably in their seatswith cartons of ice cream and jugsof Kia-Ora orange juice. So Wire
are off tonight's bill (though Puxley,
I remember, has insisted they would
play -in an attempt, perhaps, todissuade me from turning up on time
and thus causing me to miss most of
Roxy's opening salvo).
The curtains slowly draw back as thelights dim; Roxy's new stage set, which
has been designed byAnthony Price (who's more usually responsible forFerry's wardrobe), is revealed.
Three massive pyramid structures retreat in dramatic perspective on
either side of the stage; a painted black cloth, behind Paul Thompson's
drum -rise, continues the perspective (from where I'm sitting it's difficult
to see where all this finally leads). The general effect is very Nuremberg-one searches the balcony for Leni Riefenstahl directing a remake of
Triumph Of
Will -very stark and austere. ("It wasn't too Pearl & Dean,
I hope," Anthony Pricewill say after the gig. Ferry will think it lookedperhaps too cramped: "It's meant to look epic.")
It successfully reflects the dramatic quality of much of the new Roxymusic; especially the opening opus, "Manifesto", the dark introductory
chords of wh ich are introduced by a sombre keyboard drone over which
Manzanera dribbles thick clusters of notes. Thompson and Tibbs provide
a resonant rhythm, the tempo unflagging as Mackay's oboe strays acrossthe viscous surface of the music. Manzanera leads the group into a moreclearly defined theme as Ferry, whose entrance has been delayed until
this suitably dramatic juncture, strolls into a cold -blue spotlight.
The audience is at once upon its feet, eager to discover just what sartorial
image Ferry has selected for this tour. They might be disappointed that hehas elected for nothing as extreme as the notorious gaucho ensemble of
the Country Life tour, or the GI Blues chic of the Siren jaunt.

No -it's more a case of another tour, another suit. He is wearing asharkskin suit, similar to the one he wore the last time he appeared at theAlbert Hall during the In YourMindconcerts.
Indeed, the more cavalieraspects of Roxy Music's visual appearance
have largely been abandoned: their appearance is sober, dark suits anda hint of Chinese militia- in Mackay's threads, of course- are the orderof the day, here. The lighting scheme concentrating for the most part on
harsh chiaroscuro effects, with very little colour being deployed.
The sound, at this point, is less than satisfactory. There is an echo
bouncing back from the rear of the hall so thick you could eat your dinner
off it -plates of sound, it says in my notebook. Ferry's vocals are also
suffering; the lyric content of "Manifesto" is therefore comprehensively
obscured. I can mention only that if its opening reminded me of Bowie's"Station To Station", its climax aspired to the epic sweep of "I n Your Mind".
The subsequent version of "Trash" is lively, with the Thompson -Tibbs
rhythm axis thundering with a potent urgency (the sheer muscularity ofThompson's playing has not diminished during his absence from theboards). "Thank you -it's great to be here again in Stockholm," Ferry
announces after "Trash"; it's the most voluble statement he will makeduring the evening.
Thompson kicks into another volatile rhythm, and Ferry begins acurious little dance, his arse poking out beneath the hem of his jacket, hisknees locked together. He remains an awkward, inelegant mover andreminds me suddenly of those occasional newsreels we see of PrinceCharles attempting the Watusi with maidens in grass skirts somewhereon the shores ofAfrica.
The number evolves into a slightly modified reading of "Out OfThe
Blue"- the only substantial innovations to the original being thediscoficat ion of the bass/drums duet and an extended solo from
Manzanera, during which Ferry leaves the stage and the guitarist andAndy Mackay combine in a sonic assault on the senses. It's quite delirious
stuff, and the sound is becoming clearer as the engineers begin to
overcome the acoustic deficiencies of the stadium.
My doubts about the pertinence of the Roxy reunion are alreadybeginning to melt in the heat of the sheer enjoyment to be derived fromthe conspicuous thrill of the music;
by the end of the next number they
have evaporated completely.
The version of "Mot her Of Pearl",which quickly succeeds "Out OfThe
Blue", is simply terrific; Manzanera
gallantly leads the opening attack,his guitar assault falling away as
Skinner's florid piano introduces
the section of the song (his playing
here recalling Roy Bittan's work on"Station To Station", incidentally).
The piece begins to grow, building
to a glorious climax. Its final slow
fade is rather abruptly terminated as
the group heave into "A Song For
Europe" with an awesome weight, of a density and propulsion that noother group has really been able to achieve. The song's mood of lurid
despair may seem ludicrously exaggerated now, but it still retains aconsiderable emotional impact.
The stranglehold on the audience is cleverly relaxed with two new songs
from Manifesto, both lighter in tone than the two songs we have just heard
from Stranded.
"Cry, Cry, Cry" is by comparison almost flippantly infectious -though
the lyrics I could decipher sounded jaundiced, with a venomous edge;
musically it had something of the vintage thrust of, say, "Serenade",though it lacked, perhaps, verbal felicity.
"Still Falls The Rain" proved even more impressive; its intro slow andseductive, with Manzanera playing a discreetly haunting melody behind
Ferry's falsetto vocal. Mackay adds briefstabs of saxophone and thenumber ends with a long solo from Manzanera, who seems more eagerly
disposed to grabbing his share of the spotlight than ever before.
There followed a number -again from Manifesto, I supposed -which
denied any attempt at identification. I'm afraid my notes refer only toa brutal solo from Manzanera, Mackay's chilling oboe and Skinner's
ethereal keyboard contributions. Whatever, the piece gave way
eventually to Mackay's striking introduction to one of Roxy's mostingenious creations: "Ladytron". Thompson's galloping drummingurges the performance to an exciting, breathless climax, the fascinating
fade which graced the original production replaced here by a smashing,feverish race to a hysterical conclusion.
Another of Roxy's principal masterpieces- perhaps their greatest eversong- "In Every Dream HomeA Heartache", follows; a model entirely
faithful to the recording, its eerie eroticism perfectly intact, Ferry's role as
the detached voyeur brilliantly defined. Masterfully, it's succeeded by
the acerbic bitterness of "Casanova"; a violent, tortured reading which
ends with Ferry smashing a fist down upon one ofThompson's cymbals.
Another new number is briefly featured: "Ain't That So", which might
have appeared on the first side of In Your Mind.
The guy next to me introduces himself over the opening chords of"Love Is The Drug". He is the president of The Runaways' Swedish fan
club. He also idolises Kiss. "I am a hard -rock freak," he announces. "Thisis sending me to sleep."
The effect of the music upon the rest of the audience is clearly less thansoporific, though. "Both Ends Burning" is thrown out to the hungry mass.
"Re-Make/Re-Model" -boisterous, knockout stuffhere, with screechingsax a nd pounding drums and Ferry at his most raucous -brings down the
curtain; the audience in the stalls clamber upon their seats.
Clearly Roxy will return for the obligatory encores. I put my moneyon "Virginia Plain", followed by either "Street Life" or "Do The Strand",maybe both.
Ferry leads out the group. They play "Virginia Plain" -marvellous tohear it again; nostalgia be damned -and "Do The Strand". Manzanera
fluffs the guitar part on "Strand" (see- theyare human!), while Ferry
performs a strange little dance which makes him look as if he's riding
an imaginary horse. A final wave and they are gone.
"What did you think?" asks Andy Mackay, back at the hotel bar.
I tell him that I enjoyed it.
"But what are you going to write?" he counters.
I tell him to buy next week's paper.
"We'll have it flown out," says Puxley. "And if it's a bad review the hit
squad will be around in the afternoon."
Such drama! Allan Jones
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 145

is
not
strn
of
mercy
qualitySreat charm.
ey'll make itEveryone- but theye less sure.
"Most ofthe
Dogs are aboutsocial life,"says Mark
Mekon. Things
like sitting inpubs..."The Mekons

at theMarquee. London,in
January1980:
Andy Corrigan, 0-r)

White,Hark
TomGreenhalgh

1979

JANUARY -MARCH-NME MARCH 3-"No one is better than III know I'm just an average guy"0

NCE UPON A time there was a rag -tag gang of Fine Arts

students at Leeds University. They huffed and they
puffed with a youthful enthusiasm that was tempered,wisely, by the wits they kept about them. But the housethey would tear down was of a more complex
construction than they had anticipated, its
foundations deeper than they could have foreseen...
The tale ofThe Mekons isn't overyet. In fact, if my guess is correct, it hasbarely begun. But The Mekons' fairytale has come down to earth with theproverbial thump.
Prefacing this piece was a quote, adm ittedly out of context, from Little
Stevie Wonder's '60s R&B smash "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" whichin its own eloquent way explains what The Mekons are about - or at any
rate the feeling! get from them -more readily than any amount of
reasoned, or even impassioned, polemic. There is also the small matter ofan unconscious- meaning effortless, spontaneous, uncont rived dance -tune sensibility that Stevie Wonder once had at his fingertips, andwhich The Mekons, in a similarly unconscious way, can at the right timeand in the right place deliver.
It's an earthy, natural pop joy and you can find it on
The MEKONS
one side of their second Fast Product single, "Where
Were You?", or go and see them live for proof proper.
But it's that sentiment that is at the heart of thematter; that expression of pride and humility thatsays, "I'm great, I can do anything, but I'm nothing
special. You could do anything too."Ifyou've been paying attention you'll know that
there were once any number of Mekons but now
there are basically six, and they began their band
life byaccident -sneaking in and making the mosthorrendous din on their mates' equipment while
the latter -Gang Of Four as it
happens -were having theirtea break.
Serious intentions were thelast thing on their minds -if
someone had dared to suggest
in a year's time they'd be a moreor less stable entity with asecond single that had soldnearly 20,000 copies, The
Mekons would have laughedthat person out of the room. But
if there were no real ambitions,
there was still an underlying
approach, attitude, ideology
even, that very soon crystallised
Kevin Mekon, who plays guitar(a battered old Burns, the resultof a self-imposed budget of£10)
spells it out thus: "That anybody
could do it; that we didn't want
to be stars; that there was no
set group as such, anybody
could get up and join in and"It just wasn't practical to do that," explains vocalist Andy Mekon. "Ifwe
wanted to foster that kind of spirit in other people... Basically we have toplay some kind of music that people will actually pay money to come andsee, and with the best will in the world, not many people will pay money
to come and see things like that.""A lot of the things we started out saying," admits the other Mekons
guitarist, Tom Mekon, "...we didn't ever think we'd be in a position of
having to rethink or to live with them. We just said them off the top of ourheads. If someone had said, 'Think about the possibilities of what you
might become'..."
Kevin recounts a "protracted discussion" they had with a writer who,
after tiring of accusing them of being "commies", went on to accuse
them of compromising their original ideas -compromise and commie
being dirty words to his specious brand of dogma (which, curiously, stillfinds plenty of time for The Clash).
"We tried to explain to him that it's not a question of compromise.
All the time you have new information coming along, and that's boundto change the conclusions you make. You can't have these sets ofideas that you put on a pedestal. They become like articles of faith,
which is ridiculous."
An admirably clear-headed analysis of the situation. Idealism basedon a sound measure of pragmatism is the surest way to avoid gettingcaught in your own hypocritical trap. Ideals have tobe practical; otherwise they are simply irrelevant.
dd.
"IfThe Mekons had stuck to their original ideas,
we would have become like ATV, playing to 20 people

IIPOIM

1.141

FM IGOR 10 11140 IINal ION MIT 01.11

in a field.""We wouldn't even have done that. We'd have justplayed one gig and that would have been it."
"There was a time," says Tom, "when people
thought, or seemed to imply, that there wassomething wrong with becoming a big group; that
there was some sort of moral dilemma involved in
becoming successful.""There's nothing morally wrong with becoming
a working band," comments
Jon, The Mekons' hard-working
drummer, "doing a job of work
like playing or entertaining,
and actually getting enoughmoney to live on out ofit.""The point is" -Tom again "you are inevitably, or as luck
would have it, going to getbigger. And when that happens
I don't think you should

immediately turn aroundand say, 'Right, that's it. Timeto knock it on the head.The Mekons' approach punk, if you want to call itthat -which is not exclusive
to them but for which they
have become a kind of
figurehead, is perfectly
commendable. But to notfollow it through would be ina way a cop-out. If you adopt
a certain way of doing things,
there's almost an obligation tosee how far you can take thatway of doing things.
"But if what ended up,"argues Mark Mekon, the otherhalf of the vocal team, "wasa group that used whateverideas we had -the way webehave on stage, what we say
here, any of the things we holddear -and it just became thisrather tatty piece of image

instruments would be swappedaround; that there'd be no
distance between the audienceand the band; that we were
nobody special.""But they were very quickly
shattered," adds bass player
Mary Mekon.
Inevitably, the first to go was
the anybody -can -have -a -bash
dictum, which at an earlygig

precipitated a horrible uproarof guitar solos and impromptu

they carted around... totally
meaningless... The Mekons

versions of "White Riot".
48 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

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THE MEKONS

show... Then I think we should stop -if it became just a selling point
know of a reputable lawyer (which, incidentally, I don't). They complain,rather than the real justification."with good reason, about the lack of reliable and available information"But I think," saysAndy, "that it would be very hard for us to decide whenabout the biz. And how certain professional classes protect their selfit did become like that!"interest by maintaining a mystique about what they do- something"I think," says Mary, "that we've just reached a stage where it's
found in all strata of everyday life, no less in the business of music.
beginning to be like that!"
Jon: "A lot of those early punk bands wereAnd that, dear reader, is theverycrux of theputting across a message that anybody
problem. It's also a rare insight into the heart of
could do it."a band, something you're not likely to hear
Kevin: "That's the part that has been cleaned
admitted so frankly in a long, long while.
up the fastest. Just read the reviews. Words
The Mekons have come all the way to the fair
like 'musicianship' and 'professionalism'
city of Dublin to participate in a 24 -hour punkand 'craftsmanship', which weren't aroundmarathon, the inaugural gig of the Project Artsa year or so ago, are coming back again."Centre, a whitewashed warehouse partitioned
And there I was thinking the value of ideas
off into two stage areas and a disco.
and energy over mere technique had been wellBands play simultaneously and incessantly
and trulyestablished... On reflection, though,throughout the night, too many and too diverse
it was inevitable that as the punk bands play
to tally, to crowds that don't seem to give a hootmore, so t hey become more technically
about the makeshift organisation and field -tent
proficient, with all the dangers that holds.
toilets. They party and pogo all the way into the
And as they become more famous and more
next morning. The shoot punks, don't they?
polished, so they become less accessible -thePublic Image and Throbbing Gristle arepotential rebellion point fora new generation ofscheduled. The former pull out because theirmalcontents.
leader is in court and they're drummerless; theAndy: "You go that route when you startlatter -so word has it - because it's too cold. But
putting yourself on stage. We had these ideas
The Mekons show up, braving iced -over roads andabout having no photographs, no personalities.
bitter winds, lugging their amps and drums andIt's obvious that personalities do start to emerge
guitars by hand on the Liverpool -to -Dublin ferry.
as soon as you go on stage. It would be very easy
They're being paid well for the gig, and need theto say we're going to be more honest, we're goingmoney to bring the band kitty back in the black.
to be our real selves. That's absolute shit... but"It doesn't make sense," says Mark, as we wh ile
we can try.
away the seven -hour ferry ride, "but now that
"And yet an important constituent of pop
It I I tiprriKiRYNAWNWRECKS
we're playing more gigs and usually getting paid
music is the personalities that make it. There's
more for them, we seem to actually have lessno getting away from that. But there must be
money. I don't understand it, but it's true."
a way of presenting personalities that are
The Mekons, despite persisting rumours, are still unsigned. fhey've
complementary to what we are musically, and aren't insulting to people's
had offers, and the interest has been met by some exacting demands on
intelligence, aren't condescending."
their part. They openly admit their perplexity about the "biz", yet
Kevin: "And also aren't implying to people that that is a desirable
acknowledge thator later, one way or another, they will have topersonality to be."come to terms with it. Independence is a fine thing. The Mekons are able
Andy: "That's what I mean by condescending."
to be autonomous at present because they live on their student grants.
Kevin: "A group can suggest ways of acting without being so oppressive
Most of them will be taking their finals later this year.
that you haven't got any way of making up your own mind about how to
So why, with all these factors conspiring to corrupt their original
do things."
motivation, do they do it?
Tom: "We were saying the other day that it's nice to see people actually
Seeing them live answers that question. The first time I saw them I
smiling at groups, which is what they tend to do to us, when they're nothated it. Confronted with the vastness of London's Electric Ballroom,
actually pissing themselves laughing! I can't see how we could ever be
The Mekons seemed to be playing for themselves, projecting none of theidolised in anyway."
warm, amateurish charm that is their infectious trademark.
But they could, of course. Just as they could never have foreseen Bob
It took a second exposure in more amenable circumstances to unearth
Last's offer to make a record with them after their first gig with the band
the quality of theirsongs -simple, quite irresistible songs, like "Hongmore or less as it is now, how can they foresee the circumstances they
Kong Garden" or some Buzzcocks material, music that invites yourmight find themselves in, beyond a few shrewd guesses?
surrender. The titles: "What Are We Going To Do Tonight", "LonelyAnd
Maybe it would have been better that The Mekons had called it quits
Wet", "Like Spoons No More", "Trevira Trousers", "Rosanne", "DanceAnd
after that first gig. Maybe it would have been better if these pages were
Drink With The Mekons".
left blank, and then you, dear reader, could have been true to the spirit"Most of the songs are about social life," says Mark, who should know
ofThe Mekons and filled them in with a few words about yourself andsince he write the words. "Things like sitting in pubs... with the emphasis
your thoughts.
on clothes and behaviour patterns and everything else that's supposed to
But there is a certain momentum that develops in these affairs that is
make up the real you," he adds disparagingly.
outside any individual's control. The six average, intelligent, goodThe Mekons go on stage in Dublin at 3.30 on Saturday morning. They
humoured members ofThe Mekons are aware of the dangers of losing
had set out for the gig a full day and a half earlier, but whatever strain thatsight of their founding goals -which, in case the point has been missed,
might entail vanishes the moment they start playing. They smile andis much more involved than a simple question of whet her to sign or notlaugh a lot and dance incessantly. The fun theyare having is tangible to sign. Their awareness of these potential traps naturally puts them inthey really can foster that spirit that Andy mentioned.
a better position to deal with them.
"Vulnerable," says one onlooker. "Innocent," says another. "Aw, comeSo maybe this time they -and by implication you -won't get fooled
on," says a third. "I could do that."again. PaulRambali"There was no
set group as
such - anybody
could get up
and join in"
The MEKONS

la`sooner,rilHE MEKONS SAY their evolution

has reached the point where
they are just about to crawl outof the water. Their guiding line when
faced with a decision of any material
consequence used to be "giggle andrun". But now Mark is asking me if I

FELL
WHO
THE GROUP
EARTH
TOMEKONS step down
THE

face
and
come
idealism
ship
of
space
to face with Rock Reality.

1979
JANUiRY-WM

i

Puffin'on theanti-style"Real punks
not posers"
THE UNDERTONES

nit from hire -purl'
Northern Irelan,
1nlan tour. lye w
Iexplainsge

Sptmber 1979:
The Undertones
visit the USAfor the
first time. playing
support to TheClashateight shows

TOR

Of ROCk 19191 51

1979
JANUARY--0)11MELODY MAKER
THE FACTORY RESEMBLES the scene of a fully fledged

riot. Smashed bottles and glasses lie strewn across thefloor. Worn-out bodies are slumped in corners,
searching for the second wind that will take them into
the night and home. A group called The Undertones are
the provocateurs of this carnage but remain unaware of
their influential role.
"We keep waitin' for somebody from Sire [their record company] tocome up after seein' us play and say, 'What the fuck did we sign you lot for?
You're useless.' We don't understand any of this at all."Manchester is the location for the second gig ofThe Undertones'
12 -date British tour. Having become accustomed to playing perhaps one
gig a week at home (Derry, N Ireland) for the previous two years, this little

jaunt around the mainland assumes monumental, and- for the band horrific, proportions.
"Two down, only 10 to go. God, that's an awful longtime to be away.
We're all feelin' kinda homesick at the moment. We don't like to be awayfrom Derry for too long."
The tour opened the night before at the Norwich Boogie House. It was,by all accounts, quite an evening, a more frantic and hysterical reaction
even than Manchester -which, I'll tell you, takes some doing. Such was
the excitement in Norwich that one fan suffered a broken leg, anothercouple fainted in the heat, and the policewere eventually called by the

management to bring a semblance of normality back to the proceedings.
The Factory- normally a West Indian social club -is set in Manchester's
notorious Hulme estate (highest suicide rate in GB). The Undertones areinterested in the news that high-rise flats in the area are held up to theworld of architecture as an example of how notto build multi-storey dwellings.
"They should go to the Rossville Street flats in
Derry," The Undertones observe. "They're
falling apart, far worse than these."
By the day, The Undertones -all of them under
21 -are living and learning. Their provincial
naivety, so often lacking in the personalities ofthe more image -afflicted English bands, ismore a strength than a weakness.
Everything they do, from travelling in a minibus to sleeping in cheap hotels to playing on
stage, is touched by their bubbling enthusiasm
for the novelty of it all, an attitude exaggerated
even more by their sheltered home life. This is sovastly different from anything they've ever experienced that almost
every little incident is marked by their incredulity
At the same time, they're no fools, and they react to the everyday routineof gigging with a professionalism that should be noted by moreestablished bands. They turn up for soundchecks on time. When they're
told to be on stage at lOpm, they'll be launching into the opening number
on the dot, and afterwards their dressing room is an open house foranybody who wants to pop in and say hello.
They have very little time, too, for fashion, turning out in their street
gear. The audience looks more like stars than they do, but that's anotherpart ofThe Undertones' charm.
"We're just not used to this sorta thing," says singer Fergal Sharkeywhen
we talk about the drastic change in pace from one gig a week to a constantrun of shows. "It's very different. We're startin' to get a bit used to it now...
but it's not as good. This really knackers us, although it's not as t iring as thetour we did support in' The Rezillos. Christ, that was the first we'd everplayed three nights on the trot. I was runnin' around permanently asleep.""The days seem longer now," Bradley interjects. "We weren't used toplayin' every night, y'know. The weeks seemed to fly when we played
once a week in Derry. Now, everyday is like a week. We're just sittin'around all the time, doin' nothin'."
The Undertones aren't too enamoured of life on the road. Their attitude,
in fact, contrasts with that of probably every other new -wave band. They
don't see any fun at all in hauling their young bodies around the British
club circuit and, at the moment, certainly don't have any plans toundertake tours that take them away from home for more than two weeks.
"If we get through it," Sharkey cautiously replies when the brevity of thistour is pointed out. "We might just decide to go back home one day." Andyou know he's not joking. "Touring like this takes the fun out of it for us,
particularly when you're playin' the same setnight after night. After four nights, you just start
thinkin', 'Here we go again.' It's really hard work
to keep the thing fresh. It can get a bit boring.
"We never toured before, so we didn't knowwhat it would be like. Touring to us is just...
ah...necessary evil, I suppose."John O'Neill is the chief songwriter in The
Undertones. He's quiet and distant, but when
he does speak his comments are concise andto the point. He is particularly disenchantedwith touring. "It's a very serious situation," hesuggests. "It's not actually being away fromhome that gets us. It's being away fromgirlfriends." So they don't believe in a rock'n'rolllife of da booze, broads andbrawls? "That's a myth," hedrably replies.
Surely, though, in forminga band, the intention was tobreak out of the confined local
environment, where, after all,they were hard put to find justone gig a week, and into a morelucrative and fulfilling circuit?

"Days seemlonge r now.
We weren't

used to playin'
every night"

FeargalSharkey

onstage:"After
four nights,
youjust start

thinkin','Herewego again-.war"Naw, not really," O'Neillconsiders. "All we wanted to do
was make records. I mean, we

never thought anything would
happen anyway. I mean, if I
hadda had the hindsight I havenow, I wouldn't have signed up
at all to Sire. Why? 'Cos it means
being away from home an' all.
"We coulda had records out
on Good Vibrations [a local

label] and that would've done,
as long as we had records out.
Mind you, I probably would've
got fed up just being on Good
Vibrations, too, puttin' out
records and nobody sayin'anything about them. I'dprobably just quit."

THE UNDERTONEs

ERRY CITY IS situated in the northwest corner of Ireland, 90 miles from
Belfast and 200 miles from Dublin.
Politically, it is also known as Londonderry(a legacy from the London Society's
involvement with the city) and has one of
the highest unemployment levels in the UK.
It's more widely known as the centre where

the current Northern Ireland troubles
originated with a civil rights march on
October 5, 1968, and has since been thelocation of many significant events in the
North's recent turbulent decade. Set in an
inspiring and beautiful landscape of valleys,
the city is bisected by the River Foyle, andalthough Derry has never had Belfast's

Blitzkrieg pop
MM MAY 5 The
WilG6IMMO I P has hooks to spare.
The Undertones The Underte
SIRE
For some reason, this album
reminds me of a scene in Kate
Bush's live show, the part where
she plays a rifle -toting troubleshooter on "James And The ColdGun", pumping bullets mercilessly
into the writhing bodies of threegunslingers/dancers. It strikes me that
this album could be the rifle; the14 tracks
are the bullets.
Except that this isn't so much a single -shot
Winchester as a Sten gun with the clip on
repeat. The Undertones blitz their way
through the two sides, and by the time the14th track -a brief shot of "Casbah Rock" fades, you half expect to find the walls behind
you peppered with bullet holes. So you put the album
on again and try to grasp
some essentials this time.
And still you can't
recognise whether it's
important or irrelevant. So
you play it again. And finally
you decide that it's both, analbum that is as disposable
as it is essential, depending on the mood of the
moment. Not an album to discard carelessly,
but one to leave on permanent stand-by.
The Undertones themselves exude thattake -it -or -leave -it attitude. The sleeve istacky, with virtually no group information,
not even who plays what, not even who's
who. There's an ominous epitaph printed
roughly inside that suggests a brief futurein the music business."Puttin' On The
Anti -Style" - the MM headline a monthago -couldn't have been truer.
Once more, then, the Undertones are
Fergal Sharkey (vocals), John O'Neill (guitar),
Damian O'Neill (guitar), Michael Bradley(bass) and Billy Doherty (drums). Power-pop
is far too tame a description of what theyplay. Let's call it Blitzkrieg -Pop. They play inthe direct style of the Ramones, with a hint ofconcentration of sectarianism, the North Bankis dominated by a Catholic population and theSouth by a Protestant community.
Derry is the home that means so much to The
Undertones. They come from the Rosemount,
Creggan and Bogside districts, all ofwhichhave seen their fair share of incidents since
the troubles started. I mention this as a
background to the environment that the groupgrew up in, since they were all aged about 10
when it all started and their teenage years cameand went with shootings, bombings and riots.
The troubles, though, have an overt influenceon the group's music. If anything, The
Undertones' link with the Derry troubles is thatthey are the antithesis of those depressing
years. Their music islively and poppy, areaction against their surroundings. I can't
believe the group when they say that they werecompletely unaffected by events. I used to live
there, and I was affected.
The lack of entertainment, a by-product of thetroubles, was probably the most influential
factor in the formation ofThe Undertones.
Derry, three years ago, offered little in the wayof fun to the energetic 16 -year-old. The local
bands churned out carbon copies of hard -rockclassics; ifyou didn't like hard rock, then yourlistening habit was curtailed even further.
It was against this backdrop that The
Undertones wrote their own little undergroundplay. The title came from Billy Doherty and wasintended as a parody of country & western
showband names.
The idea of forming a group came from John
O'Neill and his younger brother Vincent. That
they didn't have a clue how to play wasn't aconsideration at the time; the object of theexercise was purely to keep themselves
amused. They contacted school friends Billy Doherty and Mickey
Bradley, which led them directly to singer Fergal Sharkey, Doherty's
classmate at school. When another O'Neill, this time youngest brotherDamian, bought an electric guitar- the others had been learning on
acoustics- he was drafted in to take Vincent's place.
None of the band was interested in an academic life. John got boredwith the discipline of St Columb's College, found a job as an apprenticecompositor, missed school holidays, went back to school at the Derry
Technical College, and quickly became bored again. Damian left St
Columb after 0 -levels and Bradley and Doherty quit school at St Peter's
Christian Brothers Secondary after the same examination.
Sharkey, late of St Peter's, found a job repairing televisions shortly
after forming the band. The Undertones would act as a diversion frommundane everyday life.
With the lineup complete, the band bought equipment through a mailorder catalogue, each paying E1 a week for two years to clear off that debt.
When the gear arrived, they started learning in earnest, copying from theStones' Get YerYa-Ya's Out until they had six songs off by heart.

the subtler textures of the
Buzzcocks; but it's in the perfected quiver of
Sharkey's voice contrasted to sweet backing
harmonies that they find their own identity.
The songs are short and to the point.
Perhaps it's a reflection of their Northern
Irish background that the tunes are usuallyformed around a slogan like "Keep it in thefamily" (in "FamilyEntertainment"), "I wanna
be a male model" ("MaleModel"), or "We're theeachjump boys" ("Jump Boys").
The hooks are hypnotic,
as a
as we've alreadydiscovered from the earlier
singles, "Teenage Kicks"
and "Get Over You",
neither of which reappear on this album. You
can't help but assess each track as a potential
single, and in doing so you pick "FamilyEntertainment", "Jump Boys", "Here Comes
The Summer", "True Confessions" and "I
Know A Girl" as certain hits.
"True Confessions", in fact, is the album's
most fascinating track. Presumably
prompted by producer Roger Bechirian,
The Undertones prove that they can be as
artsy-fartsy as the next band. A variation on
the original arrangement which appearedon the flip side of "Teenage Kicks", this one
almost verges on disco, relying on a heavy
percussive backbone, a jabbing guitar chord,a synthesizer heartbeat, and lots of studioeffects on the vocals.
At last, then, a competitor for Abba's"You can't help
but assess

track
potential hit"

Greatest Hits. Harry Doherty

When they decided that they were ready to go out into the world, theboys found that all the routes were blocked off. Derry wasn't quite readyfor a new -wave band. The Undertones weren't part of the new wave in thecity. They were the new wave, and as such, felt the full backlash of the hard rock community, which had the pub circuit fairly well sewn up. "All thegroups in Derry had interchangeable members," O'Neill recalls. "It was aclique. They all knew each other. They were all over 21" - an indictment.
Bradley: "We always thought, 'We're gonna make records and be a realgroup.' I don't think any of the other groups in Derry thought that. They
were just content to play part-time. Most of them were married and only
wanted to make a couple of pounds on the side. That was about the heightof it for them.
"All those other bands thought we couldn't play. They thought that it was
all a bluff, 'cos we weren't playin' the heavy-metal stuff, but we were neverinterested in playin' all that. We thought we could do somethin' reasonable,
and then we surprised ourselves when it actually sounded OK."
"And even for Derry, what we were playin' at the start was a change,"

Sharkey interrupts. "None of the other bands were doin' anything like
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 53

1979

JANUARY -MARCH

that. We were doin' someth in' different from the word go anyway. The
other bands were payin' no attention to us at all- it was a laugh to them.
We weren't 'musicians', part of their wee clique, so they were sniggerin'
and laughin' behind our backs. We were like Derry's token punks.""...an' they were all sayin' things like, 'What areyou gonna do whenpunk dies?'" Bradley adds, a hint of triumph in his tone.
Did they consider themselves punks?
"Aye," O'Neill anxiously asserts. "Real punks. Punk in that we were
tryin' to be different, 'cos that's what punk is, not like some of the posers
you get over here. We still try to be different."
Despite the animosity, The Undertones battled on, making their stage
debut at a school concert on St Patrick's Day, March 17, 1976. They played
their rejuvenated Rolling Stones standards, and by that time had also
fastened onto the R&B textures of Dr Feelgood, nicking "Back In The
Night" from them. Theywere encouraged to continue.
From personal experience, I know that it couldn't have been too easy
being outside the mainstream in Derry. Every form of entertainment isgeared towards the majority, and ifyou didn't like the hard -rock pub
bands, then the only alternative was the showbands in ballrooms over theborder in Donegalifyou didn't care for either, then you were in trouble.
Having played only three gigs in 1976, The Undertones got wind of the
new -wave explosion across the Irish Sea, but the inadequacy of local
record stores, who sold nothing but chart material, prevented the bandfrom pursuing the interest. They did manage, however, to borrow a New
York Dolls album, and eventually got their hands on the first Ramones
album. They were sources of inspiration to the beleaguered punks.
"We had more or less agreed that if we hadn't made a record by last
October, we were gonna pack it in. There's no point in messin' around,"Sharkey says.
With that in mind, the boys hired a four -track studio usually used for
local radio discussions in the city's Magee University. That session
included two songs called "Teenage Kicks" and "Get Over You", and theband proudly sent their tape off to Stiff, Chiswick, Radar and John Peel.
In the meanwhile, they had been spreading the net slightly to take in theoccasional gig in Dublin and Belfast, with a couple of pub appearances,at a place called the Casbah, in their hometown. There was no reaction
from the record companies at all to their efforts.
The band, too, were somewhat annoyed that John Peel was reeling off
names of Belfast bands on his programmes without the slightest nod to
Derry's pioneering Undertones. Billy Doherty phoned Peel to complain,
and Peelie was taken by the 'Tones to such an extent that he kept his ear
firmly to the turntable when their name was mentioned.
At the same time, the independent Good Vibrations label was giving
Belfast bands the chance to record, and The Undertones once again felt
left out. A friend, Bernard McAnaney, knew the label's founder, Terry
Hooley, from art school, and offered to take their demo tape to him. That
was when The Undertones' fortunes started to change.
"Our ambitions changed at different stages," Bradley says. "The firstambition was to actually play a song. Once we did that, we wanted towrite a good song, then to play in a pub for an hour, then to make a record
and then to get signed up...""And then to breakup," O'Neill ominously adds. "We used to break up
all the time. We were really fed up beating our heads against a brick wall.
We had nothin'. We'd get slagged off walkin' the streets.
"Then, after last August, we started gettin' our own followin' and thatwas what kept us together. If it hadn't been for those people com in' to see

PINGLAND, AND PARTICULARLY

London, holds no fascination for
J -r he Undertones. They won't worry
it they go no further than this, headlining at
places like the Factory in Manchester and
Eric's in Liverpool.
They've achieved all their ambitions. They've
formed a group. They've put out an EP on Good
Vibrations, the leading track being "Teenage
Kicks". They've signed to a major label, Sire.
Their session for John Peel, their guardianangel, has been featured four times on Radio
One. They've been on Top OfThe Pops. In Derry,
they're heroes, and there's nothing like making
it at home. They could go back home tomorrow, turn their backs on
rock'n'roll and the glamour, and not be bothered by it.
"If it came down to it, and we had to move to England," Fergal Sharkey
argues, "London would be the last place we'd go to. London's just totally
crazy, as far as we can make out. They're all just 'Bleep, bleep, bleep'. Look
after number one. They don't care about anyone."
Bradley picks up the theme: "But we'd never leave Derry anyway, 'cos
we'd never let the group takeover that much. Jesus, it's not that importantthat we have to uproot everything and move off to England just because
that's supposed to be where everything's happ'n in'. It's good being here, aslong as we knowwe can get back to Derry. That's all we care about, really."
The Undertones forcibly maintain, too, that the Derry troubles haveexerted no influence on them, and looking at their music and lyrics, it's
impossible to disagree with them, except to suggest, as I did earlier, that
their material itself is a reaction.
O'Neill: "The Radiators [from Dublin] thought it would be a good idea
for us to write songs about the troubles. We thought, 'No way.' That would
be tryin' to cash in on the troubles. There was no way we could do that, so
I suppose we ki nda deliberately steered away from it."O'Neill, in fact, once wrote a song about the local situation,
called "TalkTalkTalk" (on the subject of politicians), but saysthat he was so aware of the subject matter and where it camefrom that he refused to use it. It was the first and last politicalsong he wrote.
"It sounded so corny," O'Neill flinchingly remembers. "Stiff
Little Fingers are so corny. I mean, they're a group that's donethat sorta thing. They've done some good songs, but their words
are so corny. I mean, the words on their LP just state the obvious.
As well as that, it can't be too good for them to say, 'We wereadvised by a journalist to write songs about the troubles.'"We were never under any pressure to become involved in
the troubles at home. I don't know how people get involved,
although I know a lotta boys who are in it, but that's their choice.
A couple of years ago, when it first started, we were younger andprobably didn't have an opinion. Now we have an opinion, like

FRIIIRN 11111IMELLBEIWIIMOEELW
giTI

us, we would never
have stuck it out."
O'Neill, surly at thebest of times, becomes
decidedly melancholyat the memory of
home: "Friday nights
used to be really great when we played at theCasbah. People used to come, not just to seeus, but to meet other people, to be a part... It
definitely had something of a community spirit
about it. We met most of our friends in Derry
through the group. Last summer was great.
"I know that couldn't have lasted forever.
Lookin' back it seems great, but we werebreakin' up all the time anyway, so it couldn't
have been that good. But it'll never be as goodas that again, no matter what. Never. We could
get to No 1 now and it still wouldn't be as good.
I mean, I even doubt if we were hated by thoseother Derry rock groups. It was probably all in
our heads that they hated us, just to giveourselves somet h in' to think about."

THE

SET. MAY. 26
TIIEUNDERTONESTHE KACKTHE Cliimpgase

Althith',Undertores:(1-;)
9.1'

DamianO'Neill.Billy
Doherty.JohnO'Neill,
MichaelBradleyand
Feargal Sharkey

I resent the British Army being in Ireland. But
we were so used to the troubles that it neveroccurred to us to write about them.
"And that leads to another thing. We're always
put in the category ofbeing a pop group, andbeing a pop group is as contrived as being apolitical group.
"We're just a group. We don't think about what
we are. We just listen to records and then try to
do one of our own that's as good. The songs area lot more personal than just commenting on
a general situation like the troubles.
"What Stiff Little Fingers do seems very
contrived tome. But we're just jealous thatthey're gett in' all the publicity and we're not.
"It is a very obvious way of gettin' publicity, isn't it? I don't really knowwhat they're tryin' to do- are they tryin' to tell people in England about it,or are they tryin' to tell people in Ireland? If they're tryin' to tell people inEngland about the troubles, then they haven't a hope.
"They come out with statements like somebody came up to them andcried when he heard 'Wasted Life' and he changed his mind and didn't
join a paramilitary group. That sounds so corny. I find it hard to believethat a song could do that to somebody, to anybody. All we want our songs
to do is to be listened to and enjoyed."
Bradley: "It could be true, like, 'cos they're from Belfast and Belfast is...
er... strange.""Writing
about thetroubles would
be tryin' tocash in on it"

O'Neill: "Aye. I suppose that's true."

Saturday is Liverpool and The Undertones are playing, for the first time
ever, two shows in one night. The first is a matinee at 6.30 pm for kids
under 18. The idea appeals to the band, who seem chuffed that they'll beplaying to an audience that is younger than them.
This audience is also conquered byThe Undertones' fresh, baby -faced
approach, and the uninhibited reaction to the band's raw power once
again emphasises that the group represents an alternative attitude
vastly different from English bands, and even at variance with other Irish

bands from more cosmopolitan centres like
Dublin (The Boomtown Rats) and Belfast(Stiff Little Fingers).
They have a power that they haven't yet foundout about. It's in the songs, and it's in the band.

John O'Neill's compositions are perfect pop.
Songs like "I KnowA Girl", "Listening In", "MarsBars" and particularly "Family Entertainment"
will all be clocked as minor classics when thegroup's first album comes out in April.
The hard rhythm machine of the O'Neills'
guitars, Doherty's drums and Bradley's bass
will challenge the Ramones' wall of sound.
Fergal Sharkey has already been noted as oneof the best new singers around.
The band, meanwhile, remain oblivious to all this. They don't
understand any of it. They don't understand why Melody Maker is writing
about them.
"We don't think we're interestin' enough for somebody to write about,"
O'Neill contends. "Like when we heard the record company wasinterested in us, we laughed. An' then we're on Top OfThe Pops. We
couldn't do anything but laugh. When John Peel thought the record was
great, we thought there must be something wrong. 'Why is he sayin' that?
Is it because we come from Northern Ireland and he's sympathisin' withus 'cos we're war babies?'"Ifwe broke up next year, it'd be cat [Derry term for 'lousy'], 'cos wewouldn't have a nice easyjob with plenty of money, but we still wouldn't
care. We've no ambitions to become stars. It would be good to have themoney, but to become stars we'd have to do more than we're doin' now,
an' there's not much chance of that.
"We're just not prepared to tour all the time. The group isn't the allimportant thing. It's secondary. I thinkwe'd like to become a studio group.
I'd love to build a studio in Derry. That would solve a lotta problems."
The Undertones may do just that, become studio buffs. Derry's own
Phil Spectors. HarryDoherty
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 155

11979

3'ICAMMilgra

410

62.4111111.

a"It's
t3IhsY:nchicrd*

BLO DIEds for dinner. Chris Steinbbie Harry roasts
the bird. Life-size plaster nuns, a feud with
Tony Parsons, "underground videos" it's
all in a day's work for the increasingly hugeband. "The record company mint me to sell
my body again..." shrugs Harry.
does u--mr MARCH 3-

EW YORK, SUNDAY: Picture this (if you can):Deborah Harry, pin-up Empress of the Lipstick Vogue,
stands alone in the kitchen of the modest penthouseapartment she shares with friend and business associate
Chris Stein. She wears a bright -red sweater and abewildered look.
She seems to be studying intensely some form ofliterature.A closer
examination reveals that she grips an empty pumpkin pie tin in her left hand
while perusing a volume titled The Joys OfCooking.
"Aw... shit!" Debbie sounds mildly irritated." It doesn't say if it should beserved hot or cold."
She moves towards the cooker, where a pumpkin lies in a pot. She adds
a pint of milk. I examine the result and fail to suppress a brief chuckle.
"I wouldn't laugh," she snaps. "You're gon nabe eating this."
The blonde head with the black streak stoops. Debbie opens the ovendoor to reveal a roast duck. She stabs it in the breast. "D'you think it's ready?"
But before an opinion is offered, the bird is cooling on the sideboard.
"Right," she mutters. "I got ta go out an' look at some clothes." She puts
on her Supergirl outfit and slips out into the New York cold. Dinner will beserved when she returns.
I mean, can you picture this?
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 157

1979

JANUARY -MARCH

SATURDAY: REALISINGHARRY and Stein's

modThe
coupleI. 7, I. .1

preoccupation with psychic phenomena("sometimes we don't have to speak to know what
the other's thinking"), I was sure that they'dappreciate that "Heart Of Glass" is playing, loudand proud, on the radio in the cab which ferries
me from La Guardia Airport into New York.
"Phone us soon as you get in," Chris Stein had
instructed me, and Debbie's voice welcomes me
when I check in.
"Hold on a minute. I'm just scrubbing the bath."
This introduction to the domestic Debbie Harry
comes as a shock. It seems interestingly at variancefrom our usual vision of the lady photographed
licking a record on the sleeve of Picture This.
Subtitle this: breaking down the walls of fantasy.
Debbie summons her mate to the phone. He has,
she tells me, risen from his bed this minute. Overthe next couple of days, Stein's attachment to themattress becomes very apparent. "C'mon over,"he drowsily blurts. "Dunkley'll be here too."Dun kley?The way he says it implies myknowledge of the person. [Renowned British DJ
and Hawkwind MCI Andy Dunkley?The Living
Jukebox? Nah, couldn't be.
I jot down the address and hit the streets of
NewYork, aiming for the Harry/Stein residence
on Seventh Avenue.
4.30pm: I enter the apartment. I don't knowwhat I expected (it being a penthouse "suite"
and this being Seventh Avenue), but what I saw
persuaded me that "penthouse" does notnecessarily equal "deluxe". Luxurious this was"There's so muchto
do":C hris Stein andnot. Comfortable and homely it is.
Debbie H arry at their
On the left is a neat, compact kitchen -theapartment on Seventh
Avenuein Manhattan
tidiest room in the house, in fact. It would havelooked perfectly normal, were it not for a five-footstatue of a nun ominously lurking in a corner.
"Uh? Oh, that. Chris bought it somewhere for$10," Debbie explains. "See those marks on it? What
happened was that we used to share a place with Tommyand Dee DeeRamone, and they were so freaked by the presence of the nun that they
kept attacking it with daggers, trying to kill it. Eventually Chris had tocover the thing with a blanket."
Next to the kitchen is the living room, which isn't really the living room
because it doubles as Chris and Debbie's music room. Papers, books andtapes are thrown about the place. A battery of reel-to-reel and cassettemachines is flanked by two guitars, a Fender bass and a six -string, on
their marks and ready for action should Stein and Harry wish to record
demos for the next Blondie album. With studio time booked for the next
week, the music room has been used a lot recently.
No, if you want the living room you must advance to the bedroom,
which, apart from serving as the sleeping quarters, is transformed in thedaytime into Chris Stein's office.
Stein's business acumen has increased considerably in the past year,
following management mistakes in the early part of Blondie's career. So
as often as not he's holed up in the bedroom, telephone to ear, conducting
conversations with record -company promoters, management, publicist
and whoever. Occasionally he even conducts business meetings in theroom. In the evening, it reverts to the role of leisure room, where friends
from a very tight circle meet to talk and watch television.
Again, the sparseness of material effects is striking: the furniture isconfined to a couple of chairs, a double bed and, ofcourse, the TV- the main source of entertainment
in the household.
So this is the home of Blondie's celebrated
sweethearts, an unassuming pad which employs
a double lock to hold the madness of the musicbusiness at bay, and to ensure that t hey stay out of thein -crowd. It was once occupied by Hollywood actress
Lillian Roth, during a particularly heavydrinking
spell in the '30s. Its present occupants are very
58 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

different. In a rare unguarded moment Debbie will express a wish formore of this life. "I'd like to spend more time fixing up the place. There's somuch to do. But we just don't have that kind of time yet."
The relationship between Stein and Harry is an intimate kinship thattouches whatever they become involved in. Stein has unselfishly
accepted that his partner will always hog the limelight and understands
the reasons why, to the degree that he is constantly seeking new avenues
to explore her strengths and potential. Rock music was an obvious choice
to exploit both the voice and the looks. Now he's encouraging a parallel
career for Debbie in movies. For her part, Harry is forever hinting that it'sa joint venture; beyond question, she realises that her fortunes turned
when she struck up a relationship with Chris.
"That's 'cos there's nowhere to hangout any more," Stein will reply
when I suggest that his life with Debbie in New York seems somewhat
reclusive. "We used to hang out in places like Max's and CBGB's, but now
all we see there is strangers. Also, we got all these people pestering us all
the time. But we don't just sit around. Most of our free time is spentworking on side projects. Boredom is what causes a lot of hanging out."
WHEN I ARRIVE, Debbie is soaking in the bath, preparing fora photo session later in the evening with Mick Rock. Chris,as is his wont, is prostrate on the bed. Sure enough, perchednext to him like an attentive psychiatrist, is Andy
Dunkley. Dunkley has dropped into New York enroute to South America fora month -long holiday.
Somebody must be pumping more than Sp into thislivin' jukebox.
Stein, meantime, insists on demonstrating theversatility of his TVset by flipping through a string ofchannels via a remote -control unit on a bedsidecabinet. America is famous for its multi -channelled
television system, but Stein gets double the normal

BLONDIE

number ofstat ions because he subscribes to Manhattan Cable Television.
This afternoon, though, it's pretty boring fare, so, in an unprecedented
burst of energy, he struggles off the bed and opens a cupboard to show
Dunkley and me a couple of pieces of art. The first exhibit is rolled up likea poster, but Chris calls it "the only real piece of art we have in the place".
He unfurls the roll to reveal anAndyWarhol copy. Not an original, mind
you. A copy. What I see there is a cow, just like any cow. Except that this cow
was photographed byAndy Warhol, who has signed it with a dedication to
Chris and Debbie. Dunkley-and I don't care what he says -looks as dumband apathetic as me. "Great, ain't it?" Stein enthuses. "Yeah," Dunkley
tentatively agrees. "Great." I maintain a dignified silence.
The second exhibit is a rough of the album sleeve Stein has photographedand designed for the new Robert Fripp release -"a supernatural album".
Stein and Harry have built a solid friendship with Fripp since theex -King Crimson figure made his home in New York two years ago, andwere probably instrumental in reactivating the guitarist at a time when
all sorts of stories about his withdrawal from public life were sailing
across theAtlantic. He's jammed with Blondie a couple of times, andmade a guest appearance on Parallel Lines, with an
off-the-wall solo on the album's strangest track,"Fade AwayAnd Radiate".
Stein is justifiably satisfied with his stab at graphic
design on the Fripp cover, especially as it looks certainthat it'll see the light of day. He had a couple of dummies
drawn up for the last Blondie album, but they never got
past the planning stage. The graphics and photography
are part of the "side projects" he referred to earlier.
"Photography is easy to pursue because I'm alreadyset up to do that" he says. "And I went to art school andstudied graphics too, so I'm just utilising what's at mydisposal. My mother was a beatnik painter; I've beenaround artists all my life."
As Chris collects his scraps and puts themaway, Debbie makes her first appearance of theday, resplendent in kimono and dripping hair.
She is frantically waving a note allegedly
carrying a personal message from Gene
Simmons of Kiss.
"Meet me fora drink and talk," Gene pines in
the note. The girl of his dreams does a crude
parody of h is vile tongue -wagging role in Kiss.
"A phone number for the black book," shemumbles through a rolling laugh. Chris takes
it a little more seriously. "You'd better not callhim... or else." The number goes into the book
all the same.
By early evening, the Harry -Steins are

Bowie, speeds about the place organising the set, having earlier
despatched his juniors to collect as many old radios as they could find.
The changing room looks like Take Six in Oxford Street, the boys in theband having brought along their Sunday best. Nigel Harrison has
resurrected clothes from his glitter days with Silverhead. "Mark mywords," he warns in a suave English accent, "glitter is returning."
After primping and preening, the members of Blondie look so smartthat they could pass for models in Freeman's Catalogue. "Heart Of
Glass"can be heard on the radio. Clem Burke loses no time in pointing out
to me, "Hear this?This is NewYork's number -one disco station."
The significance of that, of course, is that "Heart Of Glass" has attained
credibility with the disco buffs. Who, a year ago, would have dreamed
that a new -wave band would have a No 1 disco single?
The song was written by Stein and Harry, and was born out of theirfondness for R&B and soul material -plus the influence of the disco
phenomenon itself. "To us, it sounds like Kraftwerk," Debbie maintains.
"It's certainly influenced by them. It's just a syncopated sound. It's disco,
yet at the same time it's not disco. It's neither. We really like Donna
Summer and you don't make a big political deal
outta it.""With me, it's a psychic thing," Stein continues.
"It has to do with the beat. The 4/4 rhythm has acalming effect on the listener. It's that heartbeat
beat. That's why it's so popular, whereas rock,which has an erratic offbeat, creates excitement.
It's a physical thing. It's biological.
"I like some disco songs, and I don't like otherdisco songs. It's sorta like an alternative to punkrock. It's a gut emotion. I can't really see disco as
being the death knell of live music. Not at all. I think
what people object to about disco is the dumb
straight people in suits makin' out that they'reJohn Travolta, goin' to discos, listenin' to disco
muzak and thinkin' they're hip. I find that very
distasteful, but that side of it is just bullshit andhas nuthin' to do with it. I mean, peoplewere
doin' that to Jefferson Airplane too..."Listen out for another couple of disco orientated tracks on the next Blondie album.
The session completed, Debbie and Chris, notusually noted for painting the town red, decideto leave for home; Frank Infante heads for Max's
Kansas City, where the Heartbreakers arestaging yet another comeback (or is it farewell?)gig; Burke and Jimmy Destri are Broadway
bound to see their former buddy Gary Valentine
play at a relatively new NY club, Hurrah's.
Hurrah's has been acquiring a healthy
reputation with kids and bands alike. It merges rock with disco so subtly
that neither audience loses credibility by hanging out there. Its trendy
mirrored architecture makes it a safe place for the more fashion -affected
kids to visit, while the wide range of bands -The OnlyOnes made their
New York debut there -attracts the earthier audiences.
It wasn't a particularly inspiring night for Gary Valentine, though. One
wonders why he ever left Blondie in the first place. This gig proved that heis neither a guitarist nor a singer, but there were a couple of good songs thata singer of Debbie Harry's style could have done justice to. You may recall
that Valentine wrote "Touched By Your (Presence Dear)". You wouldn't if
you heard him sing it. If Gary would realise that his vocation is writing
songs, and not performing them, he might find a more fulfilling path.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Harry later agreed. "There were a lot of
ego clashes with Gary, within the band, and that's what led to him
leaving. He was always wanting to change things. The difference
between us is that I know how to sell a song.""Disco's sorta
like analternative topunk rock. It'sa gut emotion"

preparing for the photo session. Decisions,decisions. Debbie is having a furious argument with herself over what towear, but eventually settles on a beige mini-dress/maxi-jumper, withmatching wool tights and black heels. Chris has his suit ready, and pulls
on a pair of boots that might be described as hobnails without the nails.
Debbie is wide-eyed with disgust.
"Jesus, Chris, you're not wearing them, are you?" she screams, staring
at his feet in horror.
Chris, lethargic as ever, remains unruffled. "Sure. He's not shooting
our feet.""I hope not," sighs an exasperated Ms Harry, and we set off downtown
to Mick Rock's studio.
It's a strange sensation, standing with Debbie Harry in a main
thoroughfare in Manhattan. Stars should not be ignored in the street,
but that's what's happening here. In the freezing cold, Debbie shuffles
towards the shelter of a shop front, seeking warmth. Meanwhile Chrisis stranded out in the iced road, fruitlessly waving for a cab. They motor
past. There are a few close things, but Chris loses out every time.
Debbie is fed up and barks, "C'mon, Chris, for Chrissakes."
Stein explains his predicament, but Debbie remains unsympathetic.
"Ya gotta be aggressive. That's the only way you'll get a cab. Be fuckin'aggressive." A few minutes later, a cab isdriving us towards the photo session.
The rest of the group, plus girlfriends, arealready at Mick Rock's studio by the time we
make it. Rock, who used to work for DavidSUN DAY, 4.30PM: DEBBIE is sweating over the cooker while

Chris conducts a business meeting- in the bedroom, of course-with a representative from Shep Gordon's office. Gordon is v

frying
of
Fear

1979

JANUARI-IAVM

interested in taking over Blondie's vacant management.

Something special
MM JUL 7 Blondie stick to pure pop for

their first big US tour.
BLONDIE'S US TOUR should
provide some interesting
results when it ends in eightweeks' time. It could, forinstance, determine just how
willing American audiences areto participate in the gradualadvance from formula FM rockto a more interesting, pop based new wave.
In the past year there havebeen many new and different
bands, from Dire Straits to The
Cars to The Police to Elvis
Costello. But, although they
have bought the records, itremains to be seen whether US
audiences are willing to shun
the gross showbusinessovertones of "coliseum rock".
Enter Blondie. Blondie are
the new -wave band that got a
No1 with a disco record ("Somepeople are under the impression that
we are an English disco group," it saysin the US concert programme).
Blondie's album Parallel Lines hasachieved platinum status in America.
That, of course, means that they havea major home audience to play to,which isn't quite as simple as it sounds.
Blondie's American tour - their firstreal major jaunt around the country is interesting in that it has the twinedge of posing botha challenge ("Take us
for what we are...")
and a threat ("But bewarned, we're

different") to

debut power -pop album, which isliterally unknown in America; ignored
most of the second, Plastic Letters,
the music on which is geared more
towards American FM; and, of course,
picked freely off Parallel Lines.
The audience were bemused as theband swept through a slick set. But
they knew that in Debbie Harry they
were seeing a star. Blondie played 17
songs in little over an hour. Three of
those were from

"Slow Motion",with a very strong
Motown influence,

audiences there.
Kiss, Boston,Foreigner, Kansas,
etc, give Americans
what they want, ie,straight -ahead,
uncomplicated, pretty rock. Blondie
offers contrasts. Blondie offers pop.
This Connecticut audience was areasonable sample of a mainstream
US rock audience. They didn't know
how to react.
Shelton, the first gig of the tour, isa backwater district of Connecticut.
The Pinecrest Country Club sounds
grand but is actually open-air, a fieldwith a stage at a one end, and locatedbehind a nightclub. Two thousand
turned up to see Blondie.
The most surprising facet of the gig
was that Blondie stubbornly refused
to compromise to suit any trends. Ifanything, they have become more
poppy than on any of their British
tours. They played almost all of theirwas particularly
impressive

60 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

the forthcoming
album, tentatively
called Eat The Beat.

"Dreaming"and "Slow Motion"
follow in theBlondie traditionof pure pop. "Slow
Motion", with a verystrong Motown

influence, isparticularly impressive. The third was"Underground Girl", the encore,sung and written by Frank Infante andDebbie Harry and a progression on
their last collaboration,"I Know But
I Don't Know". "Pretty Baby" is one
of Blondie's finest songs but on stage
lacks the Spectoresque chill of therecorded version. "Heart Of Glass",though, lost none of its charm,working round a keyboard riff andneatly utilising bland disco lights.
It was a good show but it will
test the endurance of American
audiences. I imagine that theConnecticut crowd woke up lastThursday morning and finally realisedthat they had witnessed something
very special. HarryDoherty

He has a lot of clout in the States, but Stein is being very
cool. Twice bitten, he's third time shy.
Back in the kitchen, waiting for the duck to roast,
Debbie pulls out a few Polaroids from the previous night's
session with Rock. They look impressive, the boys bunchedaround their singer in their high -street suits, holding theradios that the photographer had liberated from market
shelves, all set against a striking red background.
"At least we've already got a cover for the next album
from that session," Debbie says, noting her own sensuous
pose in the shot. "Get out the cheese board! The record
companywants me to sell my body again."
While she batters the living daylights out of the
pumpkin pie, Debbie reveals that she, too, is working ona "secret project," and then is slightly taken aback when
I tell her that I know it's a film -and it's notAlphaville.
The project is, indeed, shrouded in secrecy, and both
Stein and Harry are unwilling to divulge too muchinformation about it. As the day wears on, I learn that it'sa psychological thriller, that it's a low -budget production,that it will only take a week to make (which was
instrumental in Debbie's decision to accept the part),
that shooting starts the next day... and that she will playa "tortured housewife."
She has, it appears, been offered a host of movie roles.
She turned down ("Thank God!") a part in Stigwood's Sgt
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and is frequently pliedwith scripts. This one was accepted because of the briefschedule, and because it had an exceptional script thatappealed to both Stein and Harry. They also see theventure as a comfortable introduction to acting, which willserve her wellwhen it comes to filmingAlphaville, probably
some time later this year.
TheAlphaville project has come to a temporary standst ill,
after the introductory blaze of publicitysparked off by an
MMfront page picturing Harry and co-star Robert Fripp.
Stein and Fripp had used the publicity to attract financial
backers, and now they're considering the offers. It hadn't,
however, originated as a movie project. Stein, having
secured the rights to the book, wanted to record an album
based around it until a close friend, former Intervieweditor
Glenn O'Brien, persuaded him to go a step further and put iton celluloid.
While Stein views the move into films as an exciting new
frontier, his other half remains sceptical about her future
under the lights until she feels the temperature.
"It's a whole different sense of timing and pace of working,"
she muses. "I guess it's much drier, and it's certainly more
personal. You don't need to have an audience response. You
just do it, and if you do it good, you get turned on. It's that
personal. The director is there, and the crew, but everybody
is, like, busy, busy, busy.
"I haven't really done any acting before... just a couple ofunderground videos. Not like this, not like... ah... official.
An' it's really complex. You have to choreograph. You have totime. It's the same thing with music -but with music, youhave the music to carryyou. It's a challenge, and I'm looking
forward to it.
"It's so different from rock'n'roll. There's a lotta things
about rock'n'roll that I don't like. I love being on stage, andI love the excitement, but I don't like the business that much.
For some reason, the rock business hasn't dignified itself.
"After the movie industry was around for 20 years, it was
dignified. They forced themselves to become dignified.
They were protected. They could work in certain ways.
"In rock'n'roll, a lotta people get misused physically -anda lotta times mentally. The movie industry has all these
unions, like the ScreenActors' Guild. Those things are verystrong. Your working conditions have to be of a certain
calibre. But in rock'n'roll you get constantly faced withvery fuckin' wild conditions, y'know. Like, for me a lotta
times t hey seem really rugged - freezin' cold theatres,

BLONDIE

to discover what all the fuss is about. He lethargically
returns and flops on the bed, casually reporting, "Shewants to sue Tony Parsons."
After a few minutes' thought, he returns to Debbie in
the kitchen. She will not be placated.
"I didn't say those fuckin' things," she cries. "He'stellin' lies."
Stein's voice is so soft and controlled that I can't hear
his reply. Debbie is outraged by his diplomacy, andattempts a more direct approach to stir his anger.
"Did you see what he said about your fuckin'photographs? He said you're a lousy photographer!"
Chris is stirred, but only because Debbie's outburst isirritating him,
"So what? I don't give a fuck what he says."
Stein again returns to the bedroom, giving no clue ofthe proceeding battle. "Some fuckin' friend that was on
the phone," he murmurs.
The incident emphasises Harry's mistrust andsuspicion of the press. She is loath, these days, to be
roped into an interview, and though shewas usually
the picture of charm in New York, she became
decidedly cagey and unsettled if a discussion moved
towards any seriousness. Blondie's relationship withthe papers, and particularly the British papers, has
deteriorated rapidly over the last year, the rot ironicallycoinciding with the band's outstanding success in
Britain. Stein, for instance, puts the recent rumoursof a split down to "one of our enemies spreading
malicious gossip. A lot of stuff that's written about us
has a high percentage of inaccuracy."
Nevertheless, Stein is the more tolerant of the two,showing an implicit appreciation of the power of themedia, and an anxiety to exploit it whenever possible.
"Some of them have obviously turned on us 'cos
we're too successful. We're outta the grasp of power August 9,1979:
mad critics. It makes them very nervous when they
preparingfora showat the Aladdin
know they can't make or break you any more. The bigger
Theatre in Las Vegas,
you get, the more imaginative the lies they'll print.
where Badfinger
appear as Blondie's"It isn't that we get misquoted a lot. It's just that it's"guest artists"taken out of context. It's different here, though. The
American press is less opinionated, on the whole, andmore musically analytical."stuff like that. I dunno if that happens to actors or not. Anyway, this isDebbie cools down, and while carving the duck doubtless thinks only
my first experience of doing a movie. If I like it I like it. If I don't, I'll knockof Tony Parsons.
it on the head."
During the evening, it should be reported, Debbie's hair changes colour-from blonde to light brown with the first rinse, to slightly darker brown
WITH DINNER ALMOST ready, Debbie excuses herself towith the second. For the movie, you understand. Stein is impressed.
pop out and check out her wardrobe for the impending"Hey, that's really good," he raves. "It makes you look younger."seven days on the film set. Which leaves me in the company
Debbie doesn't know what to make of that one.
of Mr Stein, who has now completed his informal talks with theaspiring manager.
MONDAY 7.30AM: "MAKEUP call for Ms Harry."
Stein is content to spend a lazy afternoon waiting for dinner -a full-scale
7.30pm: at the home of Debbie Harry and Chris Stein.
meal of this sort doesn't happen too often in this household -watching
Harry: "Nervous?Th is morn in' I was scared shit less. I was
TV, this time switching between sport and films on the cable channel.
gonna call you up. I was almost in tears."
On the bed lies a copy of UFO, the magazine, which brings up a discourse
Stein: "Why? D'you thinkyou couldn't do it?"on one of Chris' many eccentric theories. For instance, he believes that the
Harry: "Yeah, I thought, 'Oh shit. Here I am. I can't do it.' Like, I was
CIA (who else?) have extraterrestrial beings captive in the White House,really freakin' out. That was it. I was really fucked up."an opinion encouraged by an article in this month's copy of UFO.
Stein: "An' what happened? You did it, didn't you?""The CIA have been involved in so many weird cover-ups," Chris will
Harry: "Well, y'know, I would feel how freaked out I was and then I
argue earnestly. "I wouldn't put it past them."
would just say to myself, 'You can't let this happen! You gotta do it. What're
While on the subject of radical theories, it's worth adding that Steinyou gonna do? Quit?' An' I just had to talk myself back into doin' it."believes that Crosby, Stills & Nash were planted on an unsuspecting
Stein: "So then what happened? Didn't you do it? Whadda you
population by the government in the early '70s to calm the increasing
worryin' about?"political consciousness and activities of the '60s. And who'd argue
Harry: "So then in the afternoon I just beat the words into my head.
with that?
I just studied the script."
It turns into an amusing afternoon ofTVand Stein philosophies. The
Stein: "What couldn't you do? Remember the lines?" x.
peace is shattered, though, soon after Debbie returns, when
she receives a call from a friend who's just finished reading
Tony Parsons' and Julie Burch ill's The Boy Looked AtJohnny
and wishes to point out the observations made by this otherodd couple concerning Stein and Harry. Debbie calmly puts
the phone on the receiver and explodes. Chris wanders out

Fripp
ebbie
sensationa screen

1?:is itrr(he'syntiDeguitarist

1979

Blondie bythe Hudson rivernear Union City,NewJersey:(rear 1-r )Nigel Harrison,
Chris Stein, Clem Burke andJimmy Destri;(front)FrankInfante and Debbie Harry

Harry: "Yeah. Like, I was havin' terrible
trouble. I couldn't choreograph the words an'
the movin', put the endin's at the right time or
the beginnings. I was so fucked up."
Stein: "You were a little nervous. What's thebig deal?"
Harry: "Dennis (Lipscomb, actor( could do itright away."
Stein: "Well, he's done movies before."
And it goes on.

"We always

CBGB and Max's Kansas City.

"Producing him is great, because there are no
preconceptions whatsoever and there are noreferences to music or anything else that I can thinkof, except to jazz, and that isn't deliberate. It's sorta
like psychedelic jazz. It has a good sense of humour,
too, which appeals to me. It satisfies my desire for
abstraction. Blondie's music is much moreregimented and mapped out carefully.
"I should say, too, that there's a definite trend
now towards free -form rock and jazz in NewYork.
82 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

backlash against the regimentation of punk rock.
It's like you play faster and faster -and finallyyou
can't play any faster, so you just play erratically."
Other members of Blondie, too, have been
involving themselves in solo projects. Jimmy
Destri has been producing an excellent local
band called the Student Teachers, as well asworking on his own material, while Clem Burke
was recently playing with Chris Spedding.
Within the framework of Blondie, Stein sees it
as a very healthy practice.
"It's easier for me to create things now,
because I feel like there is really an audienceand people will look or listen to whatever I do. We always wanted Blondie
to be a multimedia commune. It's not supposed to be just a band.
Actually, we're gonna go into religion pretty soon.
"We view it as a long-term thing. You see, if I'm bald I can't appear on analbum cover, but I can still produce records and stuff. All the boys in theband are worried about their hair. I'll bet Joe Strummer would worry if
he was bald. Some people can pull it off, like Eno can do it gracefully.
Actually, Debbie should shave her hair off. That'd be great."
Framing Harry and Stein within Blondie can be a delicate matter,
especially when the issue of internal conflict is raised. They argue thatmost of the problems have been eradicated now that the various
members have settled into their own apartments,
and now that they are looking for a new manager.
They claim to be in complete control of the situation.
But I'd guess that there's still a certain amount offriction within the band. In some ways, Harry andStein have a different outlook on rock'n'roll than therest of the band. For instance, some of the band areanxious to get out on the road gigging, while Steinand Harry are reluctant to drag their bodies acrossthe United States.

wantedFilondie to be amultimedia
commune"IN THE COURSE of the evening, with
Debbie completely exhausted after a hard
day's work, we talk more about the "sideprojects". Debbie says that she was interested
in producing a group, the B -Girls, but the plan was abandoned when
the lead singer and guitarist had a fight. Movies now take care of
Debbie's spare time.
Stein, however is takingon as much as he can handle. Apart fromphotography and graphics, he's also been producing an album for a friend,
violinist and electronic musician Walter Steding, and at the mention ofhis
name heads for the tape deck to playa result of the collaboration. It's arather far-fetched version of "Hound Dog", with a solo by Robert Fripp.
Steding, according to Stein, is the antithesis of Blondie's pure pop. They
first met a couple of years ago, when he supported Blond ie at places like

Even the B -52's, who play tight, have these weird
abstractions on top of the driving rhythms. It's aBLONDIE

They don't deny that there are problems. "All these projects
act as a valve and give us a lot ta satisfaction," Debbie says.
"There are so many strong personalities within the bandthat you have to find a channel to release the rest of theenergy, otherwise you get a lotta bickerin'."
Stein once stated, in a RollingStone interview, that touring
is "for morons".
"That was misconstrued. What I meant is that if a band has
to tour incessantly, it's not really for morons but it's just, forpeople who don't have the right kind of hook that can be
grabbed by the media. Bands like Kiss and Rush have to tour

constantly, because they can't get the right type of media
coverage. That doesn't necessarily mean it's moronic, but
it's a lifestyle that we don't adhere to. We want to use themedia -which is there to be used, after all.
"Being on stage is great. What I don't like about touring is
the rest of the day. You spend an hour having a good time,and you spend 22 hours sleeping or lazing about a bus. That's
a real drag. I mean, you're never not tired on a tour. You'realways tired because you always gotta get up too early."
Maybe they didn't like the lengthy tours because theirrelationship is one which doesn't allow for participationin the on -the -road raving that many bands maintainkeeps them sane.
"Well, it makes it a lot easier when you have somebody tobounce off. Now that we have a little more money, when we
do tours of the States the boys take their girlfriends withthem, too. It's more fun. It's a better atmosphere."
Many bands think that it's taboo to take girlfriends on tour.
"Yeah," Stein says. "But everybody has cool girlfriends
in Blondie."

REFORE I LEAVE, Stein has one more treat in store,

a visit to an underground television programmethat's beamed on cable TV. He's genuinely excitedby the prospect. TV Party, as it's called, goes out every
Monday right at 11pm, and is masterminded by GlennO'Brien. It is, truly, Alternative TV.
Chris explains that it's a sort of communityventure andthat the studio, off East 53rd Street, can be hired for $40 an
hour. It's available to any crank who has some message forthe nation; one night therewas a woman so in love with her
goldfish that she acquired the studio to tell Manhattan about
them. She had a potential audience of half a million.
A couple of weeks back, Debbie -who decides tonight torest at home -went on TV Party and gave lessons on pogodancing. It's that sort of programme.
When we arrive at the studio, the audience and artists aremingling. They come in all shapes, colours and sizes -thelunatic fringe, Stein calls them. As the hour approaches, thestudio is a scene of unrelenting chaos, with the calm O'Brien
presiding, but when the clock strikes 11, a loose band of
Stein, Walter Steding, a bassist, a percussionist, a sax player
and a singer play and sing the first thing that comes into
their head. So this is free -form jazz.
O'Brien launches into his introductoryspiel. Michael
Aspel he is not. "Cold enough for ya? Welcome to the stationthat doesn't say, 'Cold enough for ya?'"
And on it goes, with spontaneous anecdotes and a guest
appearance by Peter Ham mill, who looks as if
he's just stepped into another planet (which, ofcourse, he has). Stein is called upon by O'Brien to
give a fewwords. He imparts his theory of ext raterrest rial beings at the White House. Steding
calls for more venues in NewYork, mentioningthat CBGB has gone downhill (an opinion withwhich the audience vociferously agrees).
The hour flies by, and Stein dismantles his
equipment in a corner of the studio.
"You were asking about the people we
hangout with," he says, casting an eye over
his eccentric court.
"Well, these are our friends." HarryDoherty
1

Fulfilling a fantasy
NME SEPT 22

Are slick pop andock on Blondie's fourth LP
Blondie .at To The P -A CHRYSALISBlondes have more fun. They also
sometimes sell more records. Thisputs our subject in a rather invidiousposition. The temptation to sneer at
Blondie's rise from trash pop pariahs
to bona fide teenybop idols has notbeen widely resisted. That's what you
get for making it all look so easy.
The fact that Blondie are merely
fulfilling the fantasy they were firstrooted in has been widely overlooked.
They make good singles, it isgrudgingly acknowledged. They makealbums that contain good singles;that will be bought by many andremembered mostly for the singles.
This is no exception. Come
Christmas, with by then perhaps
two more hits to their name,grandparents all over the country
will enter record shops and say thatname. Blondie are that close to beinga genuine pop phenomenon.

I don't want to belittle their labours
by harping on the phenomenon's
foremost aspects, but it's hard not to.
As an album, Eat To The Beat ranks

ahead of its immediate predecessors-a varied, rounded, more confident
display of the things they do well andthose they insist on doing regardless.
But as a rock band Blondie cut little
ice. Catching them live on their first
tour supporting Television proved
a big mistake. Debbie Harry's frailpresence could hardly even front anarmy of toy soldiers, never mind alive jiving rock division (should she
have one to front). But it's just thispresence that's been exploited sowell in other ways. Her slight voice,too timid for rock, has the perfect coy
quality for pop, especially the pop
Mike Chapman produces.
That his brand of guileless teeny
pop (Mud, Suzi Quatro, lest weforget) is back might have been
anticipated. All part of the richly
disposable tapestry of the early '7osthat feels uncannily near right now.

If The Knack are The Sweet, Gary
Numan is David Bowie, Spizz might
yet be Marc Bolan, and even Sparks
are back in the charts, then what canthat make Blondie? All I know is thecover of Eat To The Beat already looks
like a page in Smash Hits. So, let's
forget the thesis and take a stroll
around the contents. They assimilate

quickly. The title track, "Victor" and"Accidents Never Happen" follow the
band's infatuation with modish rock,not the most rewarding avenue. The
first four cuts lead straight to theheart of their appeal: "Dreaming", thesingle, adds the lilt of "Sunday Girl" tothe rumble of "X Offender", but what
Richard Gottehrer made sound like aroller -rink, Chapman adapts for an
English church hall youth club disco.
"The Hardest Part", redolent ofearly Bowie/Alomar collaborations,replays their favourite Cold War
foreign -movie theme in stop -frame
bursts. "The hardest part of thearmoured guard/ The man of steel
behind the steering wheel/Need tofeel some hardened steel..." shesqueals. Bear in mind that Lois Laneis in fact a brunette.
"Union City Blue" is another"Sunday Girl" or "Presence Dear",relating to the movie Union City that
Debbie stars in, while "Shyla" is pure
dream candy; the cotton -wool soundof "Going Back" as once rendered by
Dusty Springfield.
The first four cuts on the other sidefind the Blondies at play: throwaway
reggae ("Die Young Stay Pretty"),some Motown locomotion ("Slow
Motion"), a throwaway lullaby("Sound Asleep") and a fail-safe Eurodisco extension of something you may
well have heard somewhere before.
If you're planning a move to Tibet
then by all means buy this album, but
if not you're going to hear the best of
it in the circumstances best suited toit anyway. One more thing. Debbie
Harry has a past that belies her glossy
image, and that disturbs
certain people. But she's
never tried to hide it, andI like her for that.
As (I'm not)"Living In The
Real World" (no more), theBritpunk sprint that finishes
the album attests, she's notquite what popular myths
have assigned, and Jayne
Mansfield sealed, about
du... (cops) blondes. Her

tongue is pretty certainly
in her cheek. Paul Rambalt

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 163

TOM WAITS, THE JAM,
B -52'S, GARY NUMAN,
DAVID BOWIE AND MORE

"Government
plans to appeal"
MM APR 28 Jas Keith Richards' sentence toolenient? The Canadian government insists so...
WITHIN 24 HOURS of playing two concerts for theblind in Toronto, Keith Richards was handed formal

notification that the Canadian government plans toappeal against the sentence imposed on him for drugs
offences. The government has protested that the sentence- probation plus the two concerts - was far too light for theoffences, and wants harsher penalties. Richards received
official notification of the intention to appeal on Monday,
less than a day after the concerts.

.,

64

I

He played one show with the Rolling Stones, and one with
the New Barbarians, the touring band put together by Ron
Wood for his solo tour. The concerts received prominent
attention from the British press on Monday, with headlines
like "Stones Charity Fiasco" focusing on claims that a blind
charity would lose money because of the hire of the hall, but
a Stones spokesman in London said that Richards had only
been ordered to give the concerts -which he did for free and not to make money for the charity.
ilThe New Barbarians' lineup, which is now touring
America and is planning to tour Britain in the summer,
possibly including a festival appearance, is Ron Wood,
Keith Richards, Stanley Clarke (bass), The Meters' Joseph"Zigaboo" Modeliste (drums), Ian McLagan (keyboards)
and Bobby Keys (tenor sax).

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

Apri122,1979: theStones play one of

two fundraisingconcertsfor
The Canadian

National Institute
For The Blind in

Oshawa, Ontario,.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 165

Four of the sevenSpecials on stage
in 1979:(l -r) John

Bradbury. Neville
Staple. Sir Horace
Gentleman andRoddy Radiation"It's acialv

Introducing the Specials, a band whose mixed -race lineup is not a policy

again, because this time round it won't seemso incredible. It's actually happening to us."
pumping out fast body rhythms, rock
The speaker is Sir Horace Gentleman,energy fuelling an urgent, irresistible package
a van driver by day and bass player with The
of ska roots, bluebeat blood and modern fireSpecials by choice.
that hits the audience in the hips. Delirium on"I'm still incredulous about it - it's amazing
the dancefloor.
that it's happening to us," he continued.
Back from the dancers, a phalanx of record While its certainly the dream of mostcompany talent scouts and executive bigwigs
aspiring bands to be pursued by thestand shoulder -to -shoulder, absorbing theheavyweights of the rock biz, includingmusic and assessing its effect on the
personal attendances by the likes of Jagger,
audience, trying to imagine
Horace and The Specials
them in a studio, possibly
are reacting with a caution
seeing the first album
that borders on reserve.
cover, calculating sales
The hunters are headed
chances and breakthroughby Chrysalis, and strong
potential. To their right,
runners include Warnermore people press forwardBros, Island, CBS andto see the band over theVirgin, with Arista and A&M
still in the field. Temptation
heads of the furiously
seem
skanking dancers. Amongfor any band, but The
on OK"
Specials know what they
the observers is Mick
Jagger, in town trying towant out of a record deal,
and they aren't going toorganise his divorce on his
home territory. His face shows a relaxed but
compromise for less. A distribution deal for
their 2 Tone label is the plan, with the freedom
definite interest in the group on stage.
The band finish their last encore, theto record as they want and sign other groupsof their choice.
record -biz folk gather in huddles, knowing
the battle is hotting up and the auction is
The Specials' emergence as one of theleading lights in the resurgence of ska as
on as various meetings with the group arearranged. One company is recognised asa popular live music shows themstanding at the crossroads of athe leading contender, but the others
express quiet confidence in the size of theirfascinating mix of musical and social
forms. The seven -man Coventry bandchequebooks. Fade.
Back to reality and the scene is still thewas formed out of the musical fire ofpunk and heavy reggae - the tension
same - only it's not part of a scriptwriter's
fantasy. The pub was London's Greyhoundbetween the two is still evident in the
striking power of the band on stage - andin Fulham, the date was Tuesday last week
and the band was The Specials, also known
the last couple of months have seen thegrowing of a devoted column of London
as The Special AKA.
"I find it all a little incredible - it's just likeskinheads who crowd the front of every
Specials show and throw up a barrage ofRock Follies. In fact, I'd like to see that seriesROCK FOLLIES, SERIES 3. Scene:a London pub. The band is on stage,"The Rolling Stones
used black music

to start off, andtheyto havegot- just a way of life.

"rude boy" chants. The two-tone ethnic lineupof the band also gives a vivid but natural
example of racial unity, a theme extended
in a song like "Doesn't Make It Alright" "He may be black, / may be white/But that
doesn't mean we have to fight."
Questions to the band about the racial mix
surprise them - they live it, don't analyse it and the frontline of Terry Hall (cropped hairand street -kid vocal power) and Neville Staples(dancing force) consolidates any doubts about
the intensity of the band's existence.
The Specials were formed in mid -1977,
when keyboard -player and chief songwriter
Jerry "General Dankey" Dammers, rhythm
guitarist Lynval Golding and Horace teamedup after acquaintance at college, followed by
the arrival in early1978 of guitarist Roddy
Radiation, from a punk outfit called Roddy
Radiation & The Wild Boys; Terry Hall from
Squad, a second -generation new -wave band;and Neville. Drummer John "Brad" Bradbury
joined just after Christmas, initially just to playon the sessions for their debut single.
Much mouth work got the band the
support spot on last summer's Clash tour
and a meeting with Bernie Rhodes, thenClash manager. He impressed the bandwith his ability to converse, but a potential

BLUEBEAT & SKA: 1

5
0

z

oc

The new
Skinhead

66 HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

Moonstompmanagement agreement was neverconcluded. "The Clash, Bernie's number -onesons, were in the process of breaking awayfrom him and he sent us to Paris for a club
residency. It was dreadful, the wholething, like a Peter Sellers disaster movie,"
Horace explained.
Since then the band have been managing
their own affairs, with financial help froma Coventry businessman after Christmas
to finance the single. Now publicist Rick
Rogers is helping with management and thegroup is looking at its future every night.
"We started playing punk rock and heavy
reggae because they were the elementsin the band at the time, but it didn't work,"said Horace.
"Both sides have compromised, and thelogical step is into ska and bluebeat. Ska hasthat offbeat that the mods used to dance to,then it got slowed down and became rock steady, and then reggae. Ska started in New
Orleans, broadcast from the radio stations
that were picked up in Jamaica.
"It seemed fitting that New Orleans is
also where R&B started, and that gave riseto the British rock'n'roll scene. The Rolling
Stones used black music to start off, and they
seem to have got on OK. Now we're trying
to find our own direction from the ska andbluebeat roots."
Some of the traditional ska materialfeatured in the band's set - such as "Guns
Of Navarone" and "Skinhead Moonstomp"- is culled from their early listening days. Or
as Horace put it, "I've been beaten up manytimes to the sound of "Liquidator" and"Long Shot".
Mention of being beaten up brought theconversation around to the band's new
skinhead following.
"It started a couple of months back. We
played the Lyceum with The Damned and the
UK Subs, and the Subs have a skin following,
who now come to see us.
"They've been great, but before we
realised they were OK I was a bit scared.
There's been that thing that's happened with
the Sham Army - I would hate to be in Pursey's
position. I think that the nice thing with The
Specials, apart from the fact that there's noviolence in our music, is that we don't live in
London, and we have nothing to do with theterritorial hierarchy that dominates the skinthing. One of the skins told me that what theyneeded was a band from outside."
Now that The Specials have found both anaudience and a responsive industry, they'rekeen to develop their 2 Tone label.
"Once that's established, we want tostart recording other bands who complementus, people like Dexys Midnight Runners andMadness, the two or three bands in the
country who are playing the same sortof music.
"That way it'll come over as more of amovement, which it is, and I think people
are more interested in a movement thana particular group. suppose I could be
pessimistic and say the interest in this sort ofmusic is coming about because there's
nothing left to revive, but really that isn't it.
The reason for us is solely our involvement inblack and white mu S.C." John OrmeIi

The showwill consistof a brick wall
Roger Waters:
the mortar in
Pink Floyd's next
album,The Wall

MM MAY 19 The new Pink Floyd

album has a heavy concept.
THE PINK FLOYD, who are

currently recording their new
album under utterly punishingconditions in Nice, have settle upon a novel
concept for the accompanying stage show.
The album, the whisper goes, is called"Bricks" (oh, well -it's only taken them two
years). It's being produced by Bob Ezrin,
whose presence will have done little to curb
their exaggerated grandeur.
The stage show, continuing the kind ofmodest presentations favoured by the
Floyd (as they are affectionately known
by their fans), will consist of a brick wall,
which will be erected along the front of thestage. Through this remarkable edifice, theaudience will be able to see only the hands
and the instruments of the internationallyacclaimed combo. At the conclusion of the
set's third song (three -and -a -half days into
the performance), the wall will EXPLODE!
O0000h! The audience will be showeredwith bricks.
We presume the "bricks" will be
manufactured from expanded Polystyrene
or loose portions of Roger Waters' brain. Or
something similarly soft and harmless.
Typical, really, of tax exiles to be able tospend so much time designing such
exciting theatrical distractions.

Preparing to film
MM APR 7 Ex-Bonzo readies Sir
Rawlinson for big screen.

lilt 'Ili?

Joe Strummerof The ClashA special
benefitMM

The Clash plan a

gig for arrested gig -goers.
THE CLASH, WHO turned up
at Saturday's punk protest
at the closure of London'sBeaufort Market, but did not play,
are considering playing a benefit
show for them() or so protesters
arrested during the demo.
Stallholder and demo organiser
Jack McDonald said the band had
verbally agreed to play a special
benefit to help those charged withvarious offences, from assaulting
police to criminal damage. Among
those arrested were McDonald's
two brothers.
The Clash were due to headline
a series of bands playing at Beaufort
Market, in Chelsea's Kings Road,but backed off in the face of a writserved by the police.

$

VIVIAN STANSHALL IS preparing
to film a 90 -minute version of his
creation Sir Henry At Rawlinson
End, and will present his last live
performance this year of the Rawlinson
End saga in a fortnight at London's Theatre
Royal. The feature film will be shot in Julyand August, and will be based on the album
that brought Stanshall back into therecording scene last year.
Stanshall's Theatre Royal performance ison April 18, and the support act will be Bert
Jansch's band Conundrum, which features
Martin Jenkins (violin, mandocello), Polly
Bolton (vocals) and Nigel Smith (bass).
Tickets are priced £4, £3.50, £3 and£2 from Harvey Goldsmith's box officeand the theatre.
Stanshall is currently in a studio in
Gloucestershire recording a follow-up
album to Sir Henry At Rawlinson End anda single, and among the musicians involved
is Steve Winwood.

VivStanshall:hisSir
Henry charactergosback to the
Bonzo Dog Band's
1972 LP Let's Make

UpAndBe Friendly

19790APR"Don't you
ever saythat to me!
After a triumphant' -Ion show by

LOU REED umbers of
the press are invited tojoin him at a restaurant.
There, an unseemly
spectacle unfolds,
as Reed scrape "thformer patron DAVIDBOWIE. What was said?
"Ask fucking Lou," says
a battered Bowie.

APRIL 21-

THE WORD WAS that Lou Reed wanted
to see me back stage after the show.
He also wanted to see Giovanni
Dadomo, a freelance writer who
had recently contributed to Time Out
an enthusiastic preview of his solitary
London engagement.
Howard Harding, the Arista press officer who had been
dispatched with the invitations, led us backstage. We
lingered awhile in the bar, to allow Lou a minute or too
to cool down after his performance. We had a drink andlingered. There was no sign of Louis. We had another drink
and lingered. There was still no sign of Louis. We lingereda while longer. Harding went off to find Lou.
He returned five minutes later.
"Aaah," he said, "Lou'sgone."
Bloody typical, we all agree.
"I'll try to find out where he is," Howard Harding

promises.
Lou, he informs us upon his return, is having dinner at
a restaurant in South Kensington. He is with David Bowie.
"He says he wants us to go over," Howard tells us.
Dinner with Lou and the Thin White Duke seems anattractive proposition. Howard notes our enthusiasm
and agrees to drive us to the restaurant -the Chelsea
Rendezvous in SydneyStreet. x.
68 1 HISIORY 01 HOCK 1979

HaY1979: following
dates in Europe -andafiery encounter withDavid Bowie -Lou
Reed's The Bells Tour
hitsSan Francisco forfive shows at the city's

Old Waldorf Theatre

WEEK
THE
OF
FIGHT

Hope
White

The Great
Duke
White
Thin
The
versus

1979
APR

1k

"They'll be on the pudding by time we arrive,"
Giovanni Dadomo reflects.
Lou and David are huddled together at the head of
their tablewhen we arrive. Lou has his arm around
David's shoulder. David is smiling. Lou is laughing,slapping the table. David seems content to playa
supporting role. Lou talks. David listens, hands
cupped together, elbows on the table.
We are shown to our table. Howard presents
himself to Lou, tells him that Giovanni and I have
Bowie: kickedover somearrived.
pot plants"Lou says to go over," Howard tells us.
Giovanni leads the way. Lou takes him firmly by
the hand. I play gooseberry.
Bowie looks up.
"Allan," he says, extending a hand.
"David," I say, taking it.
"Nice to see you," says David. "How are you?" Bowie's charm isoverwhelming.
"Allan," roars Lou.
"Lou," I reply, less raucously.
He clasps my hand, nearly breaking a finger in the process. He yanks
me across the table. I almost end up sprawled in David's lap. I have anelbow in the remnants of Lou's dinner.
"Do you knowAllan?" Lou asks Bowie.
"We meet occasionally," he tells Lou.
"Did you see the show tonight?" asks Lou.
"I'm still recovering," I tell him.
"Good," says Lou. "What did you think of it?""I felt like I was being given a good pistol-whipping.""You probably deserved it," Lou snaps.
I decided to leave them to t heir supper.

opinions, he's obviously repeated. The fool. Lou isbeside himself with rage and rains down slaps
upon Bowie's head before anyone can drag him off.
"I told you NEVER to say that," Lou screeches,
fetching the hapless Bowie another backhander;another flurry of blows follows in hot pursuit. Lou
is batting David about the top of his head. David
cowers; Lou looks like an irate father boxing theears of a particularly recalcitrant child for pissing in
his slippers. He gets in a few more whacks before
the minders haul him away from Bowie. He will not
calm down. He tussles and struggles, tries tolaunch himself again at Bowie.
The silence that follows is ghastly. Lou's party
decide to leave. Lou is escorted from the restaurant by an especially large
fellow. He has his arm around Lou's shoulders; less in support thanrestraint. Lou has a look of ferocious blankness; his face is set in a fierce
scowl. His eyes looked dead. He leaves with his party.
"Good Lord -what happened?" asks Howard Harding.

BOWIE IS LEFT at the head of the table. It's a desolate scene. The
table is covered with the debris of the meal and overturnedwine bottles.
He is joined by two friends (a man and a woman; they are neversuccessfully identified). Bowie sits with his head in his hands. He appears
to be sobbing. He seems to be trying to explain what had happened
between him and Lou.
I decided to play the fearless reported and went over.
"I've just come to say goodn ight," I said.
"Oh," says Bowie. "Why don't you join us?"
"There isn't a chair," I tell him.

"Yeah," says Lou. "Go."Igo. Lou turns back to David. They get their heads down. The oldpals' act well under way.
Lou gets up and waddles down the restaurant to talk to somepeople at a table adjacent to ours. He deposits some dirty dishes
on the floor, grabs a chair for Bowie who's followed him. There isa considerable amount of mutual backslapping, good times
remembered. They exchange dates; contemplating some joint
project in the near future, it appears.
Lou orders Irish coffee.
It is delivered.
Lou and David raise their glasses in a toast.
"To friends."
It is a touching scene.
They return to their original places, resume their conversation.
Five minutes later, the place is in uproar.
Bowie has said something to Lou. Lou is not entirely enamouredof the comment. He fetches David a smart crack about the head;fists are flying. Most of them are Lou's and they're being aimed inviolence at Bowie. David ducks, arms flying up above his head.
Lou is on his feet, screaming furiously at Bowie, still lashing out.
"Don't you EVER say that to me!" he bellows hysterically. "Don't
you EVER fucking say that to ME!"
About nine people pile on Lou, wrestle him away from Bowie,
drag him away from the table. There's an arm around his throat.
He continues to spit insults at Bowie, who sits at the table staring
impassively, clearly hoping Lou will go away. Lou shrugs off his
minders (or are they Bowie's?). There's a terrible silence. People
are watching open-mouthed in incredulity. Howard Harding
looks as if he might die.
Lou sits down next to Bowie. They embrace. There is a massive
sigh of relief. They kiss and makeup. We wonder what on earth
provoked the argument and Lou's fit of violence.
"Perhaps," suggests Giovanni Dadomo, "David tried to pinch
Lou's Bakewell tart."
Meals are resumed. More wine is brought to the tables.
It looks as if the tiff has blown over.
The next thing I know, Lou is dragging David across the tableby the front of his shirt and fetching him a few more smart slaps
about the face. The place explodes in chaos again. WhateverDavid said to precipitate the first frank exchange of conflicting
70 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

April 22.1978: Melody
Maker's Allan Joneswith Reed a year

before the restaurantrow, backstage after
a show at the Passaic

Theatre, New Jersey

"Then sit on the table," he replies a little
testily. I sit of the table.
I tell him that I'm sorry that his reunionwith Lou seems to have ended so disastrously.
"I couldn't hear what was going on... Lou
seemed very upset..." I mutter.
"Yes," says Bowie, wearily. He seems close
to tears.
"It was nothing. It's all over," says his female

A desire todisappointcompanion.

a WilillerdWe on album nine

"It isn't," says Bowie, hands clenched, eyes
glaring.
"If it hadn't been for the heavies, they would
have bloodied each other's noses and it would
have been all over and they'd have been all
right," his companion says.
The idea of Bowie bloodying anyone's nose
seems remote.
"Are you a reporter?" somebody asks.
"Yes," I admit. "But don't worry- you won't
see any of this on the front page of the Daily
Express in the morning."
This is intended as a feeble joke. No one isamused.
"You'd better go," I am told.
"David's just invited me to stay," I protest
quietly. "I was just wondering what

happened."
This does it. Bowie leaps to his feet.
"Fuck off," he shouts. He means me. "Ifyou
want to know what happened you'll have to ask
Lou Reed. Don't bother me with your fucking
questions. Ask fucking Lou. He knows whatfucking happened. He'll tell you.""But he's already gone," I remind Bowie.
Bowie, angry, with tears in his eyes, turns on
me. He grabs me by the lapels and shakes meand shakes me. I fear he might rip my jacket(recently worn on stage by M ike Old field in
Berlin, it is of considerable sentimental value).
"Hey," I protest eloquently.
"Just fuck off," Bowie swears, shoving me
back. "You're a journalist-go and fuckin' findhim. Ask him what happened. I don't know."
He pushes me again, turns away, knocking
over a chair. I am grabbed from behind anddragged away. I return to my table.
"I think you've upset the Thin White Duke,"

remarks Giovanni Dadomo.
"I think perhaps I have," I reply.
Bowie sits down again. Then he stands up,
furniture starts to fly.
"Aaaah fuck" he declares.
He pushes his way down the restaurant,
chairs are kicked out of the way. He begins toclimb the stairs to the street. Most of the steps
on the stairway are decorated with potted,

ou tries playing

NME APR 28

Lou Reed The Bells ARISTA

Ah the bells, the bells... Somehow
I don't think this is what Victor Hugo
had in mind all those years ago.
However, what Slick Vic had in mind iscurrently of academic interest only, whereas
what Lou Reed has in mind is, as ever, open
to conjecture. Reed is possibly the mostinfuriating Major Artiste in rock'n'roll: so
often his work demonstrates either aseemingly total creative bankruptcy or else
an almost perverse desire to disappoint.
Almost every album he releases makes me
swear never to bother to subject myself toanother clapped -out insult of a Lou Reedalbum; every casual play of an old Velvets
album makes me realise that this man
cannot be written off no matter how lame heseems to get, which is plenty.
Oh well. Lou clearly ain't making records for
us duffers who're too stupid to appreciate histitanic talents; he's making them for the hip,aware folks who think he's the Dostoevskyof the overdose: the people who live in theworld he describes and thereby substantiatethat he knows whereof he sneers, and theones who don't live there but like to go
slutting by dropping in on Reed's freakshow.
The Bells is a delusion disguised as analbum: I'm not entirely sure whether Reed is
attempting to delude his listeners orwhether he is himself deluded. Its mostimmediately notable feature is that our
protagonist has for the nonce unilaterally discarded his "Lou Reed" voice,the dry, cracking streetwise sneer that gavea certain credibility to even the duffest of
lyrics and chunes. Naturally that isn't why heused it or why he's now dropped it. He now
sounds as if he's having a go at Real Singing:a more demonstrative, expressive andblack -influenced style. Unfortunately, thequavering, simpering result is reminiscent of
someone attempting an impression of David
Bowie and failing. Bowie's Reed impression
is considerably better than Reed's Bowie
no wonder they came to blows.
The songs mostly attempt to be jolly and--"Families", Lou casts himself in the role ofa prodigal phoning home to explain why hedoesn't come back much, why he can't takeover the family business, why he nevermarried. It's oddly affecting (mostly
because Reed is making no attempt tosound tough) and by far the best song on thealbum. The other best cut is "Disco Mystic",a throwaway modern instrumental with thetitle chanted in a deep, mock -impressive
voice. Light, small fun.
The overall instrumental sound is heavy,
turgid, synth -laden, indigestible, lumpy. The
overall vocal sound is quavery, unstable,
unsteady, insubstantial. On the opener"Stupid Man" -co -written by Nils Lofgren,
who is evidently overdue for a check-up
Reed just sounds as if he's burbling. The word
"ninny" ought to fit in here somewhere, too.
Elsewhere Reed appears as soulful
seducer on "I Want To Boogie With You",
desperate carouser on "All Through The
Night" and bass -voice goon on the Chaplin
tribute "City Lights". Finally, he falls flat on
his face with the title track, on which thebrilliant trumpeter Don Cherry is hauledinto the operation to blow his soul out andgets rewarded by being mixed so far downthat Reed might as well have played the parthimself on synthesizers for all the audible
difference it would have made.
The Bells are alive with the sound ofchanging faces. Reed is no longer playing
the part of Lou Reed (you know "Lou Reed":that sneering, mirror -shaded purveyor ofAmphetamine Gothick), but he's still stuckwith that character's limitations. He's traded"Lou Reed's" derision and damnation fora jerky vulnerability that would almost be
charming if it wasn't for (a) the lamentable
quality of most of the material and (b) thefact that it's Lou Reed and I don't trust thebugger an inch. After all, Lou Reed
pretending to be a Nice Person is almost-

plants and small shrubs, and a palm tree or
two. Bowie smashes most of them on his way
out. He kicks a few, up -ends the others. There isa most terrible mess on the stairs.
vulnerable: two qualities not particularly
associated with Lou's past work. On
inconceivable. Isn't it? Charles Sham Murray
The remaining guests are speechless at
this further outburst. The waiters look on,astonished. We share their amazement.
The damage, it turns out, is not expensive. I discover later on in thesaid to have demanded one thing before committing himself to theweek from the manager of the Chelsea Rendezvous that Bowie has sent
project: that Lou clean himself up, and get himself together. If Lou didn't"a bodyguard" to the restaurant to pay for replacement of the demolishedclean up his act, David would refuse to work with him.
plants; a cost of about £50.
Lou, perhaps, was outraged at the suggestion that he was too
untoget her ("Don't you ever say that to me," he yelled, remember), andThe cause of the altercation, however, remains obscure. Lou flew out
early the next morning to Dublin, cancelling all engagements, including
replied by belting David. The bully!
A further irony is added to the tale the following morning when it isa photo session.
The most popular explanation suggests that Bowie had been discussing
announced that Bowie's new single is called "Boys Keep Swinging".
with Lou the possibility of producing his next album. Bowie, though, is
Oh, how we laughed. Allan Jones

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 171

SO

1979
APR

"I twist

whateverI see"-

MAY 5-"Now the dogs are barking
And the taxi cabs parking,
A lot they can do forme."-"TomTrauberes Blues (Four Sheets To The Wind In Copenhagen)"

ORE OF A flounder out of water

than the Little Mermaid
herself, Tom Waits hunches
against the canal wind on anintersection of the Old City
quarter of Copenhagen verdigris green spi res and turrets and palaces, one
upright heritage - and flags at the passing cabs witha deuce of lunch -hooks no burgher would let near
the Lurpak, accompanying each signal failure witha gesture copped - guess I'm guessing here, soldier- from some 37 -year -old knock -nutty pug stillindelibly inked as The Kid, while the smart money inthis town rides on Danny Kaye, fare, tip and anthem.

TOM WAITS is in

Copenhagen, a citywhere, as MM's man
puts it, "they know
an eighter from
Decatur from a baked
potater", and where
the singer's deadbeat
persona is doing
very good business.
"I don't care who I
hafta step on," Waits
sighs, "on my way
back down."

It is a diligently disseminated no -secret that Tom
Waits resembles a freightcar arrival and frightwig, oneof those collar -up shiverers atop the spine of atranscontinental B&O, who yet feels the iron jolt of
unofficial locomotion deep in the tendons of his righthand, and broods upon a new -leaf future ofpanhandling with his left. Copenhagen ain't buying,and delivers the back of the neck.
"Mmugh- cabbie!" he roars, as dairymaids churnby on bicycles, and hausfraus and hubbies snug inreindeer -mot ifknitwear with the pewter clasps
stride a wide berth. "Mmugh -taxi!" Hell, maybe it

doesn't translate...
A curious joint to open a tour, and he has Vienna, thePalladium, Dublin and Australia yet to come, all ofwhich sounds more like a B Traven predicament thana tilt at the stars. A tricky talent to place, undoubtedly,
but this itinerary recalls the Palookaville Scenic, nooffertory boxes or blood -bank credit accepted.
"Trying to cut down onna road because everything
gets run down. I get run down. Lotta travelling. No
sleep. Bad food. Get tired of myself, usually wanna get
12 hours of sleep and some 12 -year -old Scotch.
"Huh -huh. Trying to get healthy. Doing push-ups
now. In the hotel room. All by myself. Feel kinda
stoopid. Hafta do something." x.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

73

1979
APR

He ducks under his elbow a nd chafes
the back of his head like a man rotating abowling -alley ball to try the fingerholes.
Heavy, everything's heavy, and the white
black delivery just about manages to swat
the trigger words -road, hotel room, sleep,
Scotch -before dipping before thebarometric pressures.
He prowls the thickets of his voice -box,
somewhere near the threshold of speech,
and it's like watching a pair of six -ounce
Everlast gloves pickup a nickel fromthe canvas.
The '50s marketed two extremes ofstyle,and Tom commutes between both. The
Aprill979: Waitsoutside
method boxers, Brando as Terry Malloy,
Copenhagen's famous
Newman as Rocky Graziano, dumped us
Montmartrejazzclub
with the premise that illiterate spells
integrity, and Stallone-with whom Tom
Waits collaborated on Paradise Alley -is
mumbling out a retread for the '70s, so don't ah worry 'bout a t'ing, Ma.
The beat poets took the opposite route to the same righteous end,
Kerouac in particular loosening the lexical sphincter and pulling thecritical verdict from Norman Podhoretz that "what you get in these books
is a man proclaiming that he is alive and offering every trivial experience
he has ever had in evidence". We have been here before, and then some.
IN THE LOBBY, we talk across the tables and chainsmoke. Didn't
Ann Charters' biography of Kerouac prick the myth, the king of thebeats spending much of his life in his mother's parlour?
"No. I actually'd prefer to see the other side. He wasn't a hero who could
do no wrong. He saw a lot, got around. He wasn't nearly as mad andimpetuous as Neal Cassady. Fact, after Neal died, Kerouac would not
admit that he was gone. 'Neal's coming- Neal'll be here', you know. Neveradmitted that he was dead. Kept him alive.""Jack was sittin' poker faced with bullets backed with bitches/Neal hunchedat the wheel puttin' everyone in stitches."-Jack &Neal

Tom drew an ace in a beer puddle on the tabletop. "Ace is a bullet,
bitches is queens. He died in St Petersburg. I was in St Petersburg, played
a concert, thought a lot about Kerouac."
He retreated back into a cloud of tobacco smoke. There was a longsilence while he rummaged among his wreaths.
"Emmett Kelly just died," he announced. "Famous American clown. Sad
clown. Sarasota, Florida. S'where all the old carnies live in the off-season.
Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey circus. Yeah, he died. He was taking
the garbage out. Just fell down on the lawn, died. He was old vaudeville."
American heroes. He is collaborating with Rock Dreams artist Guy
Peellaert on a book of heroes from Meyer Lansky to Lenny Bruce. He
loves lists, hip lists and shit lists, tends to brandish them as credentials,
or to rope off the stand from the squares. It's that kind of era: no originals,
wide readers.
"I don't know how I'm looked upon in the context ofAmerican culture.
It has to do with how longyou stay around. How longyou're allowed tostay around."We climb into the hotel lift, a phone -booth -sized creaker with a vestigial
mezzanine memory, falling short or overshooting the designated floor bya foot or two. Maybe Tom brought it with him.
He utters a cloud of smoke. "I'm trying to do an R&B album when I gethome. Trying to do something a little more- uh - mix -it -up. Trying to finda way to combine it, because I don't get played on the radio. Ever. Marcel
Marceau gets more airplay than I do. I heard myself once in North
Dakota, that's all. I was in Michigan somewhere and I was listening to theradio, and I called the disc jockey, I said, 'Listen -I just played a concert,sold out a twenty -five -hundred auditorium and I'm bust in' my chops,
would ya mind, you know?' He said, 'Who is this?' I said, 'My name is Tom
Waits.' He said, 'No it isn't.' Hung up on me.
"I'd like to make some kind of breakthrough. When I get home, I've got
two months to write an album and I've got no idea of what I'm gonna
come up with. I'm waiting for it to drop on me. I usually go to a room andI stay there until I'm done, and that's where my real rewards are. It's a little
74 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

difficult for me in the studio. I don't feel comfortable. It's like soantiseptic, you know. I pull away from anybody who's tried to give me any
sort of d irection, never had anybody look over my shoulder, tell me what
to do. I don't turn it into a party or anything.
"I don't wanna play beer bars for another seven years. In the States I'm
starting to play auditoriums now, old movie theatres. I like that fine."
The lift gulped to a halt, and we clambered down to the carpet. Hewent
off to his room to rest. "How can I miss ya ifya won't go away?" he said.

HE HAS MADE six albums since Herb Cohen heard him at
an audition night at the Troubadour, Los Angeles, in 1972.
Back then, Tom Waits was scuffling as a dishwasher, toilet

attendant, fireman, ice-cream truck driver, bartender and doorman,summed up for him in the phrase "a jack -off of all trades". He sang
Ray Charles material before getting his track on 4am and his pipes
have grown harsher and heavier since his debut on Closing Time.
"Uh- they're ALL low notes now. Don't like to listen to my first coupla
albums. Sound like a little kid."
Fact or fiction, he is trapped in his own image now, can't extend beyond
the hip coterie without endangering both. Last Christmas he wrote ascreenplay called Why Is The Dream So Much Sweeter Than The Taste?
about a used -car dealer in downtown LA.
"It's about a guywho's a success at being a failure, and a guywho's afailure at being a success; and it all takes place on NewYear's Eve. Hopeit's as good as I think it is. Never done anything that large before."

There's a Super 76 petrol pump on stage at the Montmartre, from thepainting Gas, 1940, by Edward Hopper, painter of The Great American
Loneliness: Night -hawks, Automat, The Barber Shop, Corner Saloon,
DrugStore, The El Station, Four Lane Road, Freight Cars, Hotel By A
Railroad, Two On The Aisle, Second Story Sunlight. There's also ha If a

Buick in the wings, unattributed, but the beat photographer RobertFrank, who directed Pull My Daisy, might have titled it US 90, Texas.
None of this seems to bed down too well in the Montmartre, Denmark's
premier jazz club, which for some reason is done up like a home for volesand riverbank folk, with tree roots and plaster boulders and elves' -picnic
gingham tablecloths all working outta the Kenneth Grahame bag.
"Anybody know where I can buy a silver dining service set?" asks Herb
Hardesty, from a stool on stage, which wouldn't be anybody's first -choicecharacterisation for Fats Domino's original tenorman. "Everything I've
seen has been too dear.""Ya wanna get married, Herb," says Tom from the piano. "Get given
one for free." He fools with a little blues, veryAvery Parrish, half -a -yardof jawbone canted back like the shank of a violin. The band leans into
"Gee Baby".

They take a break, and Tom goes behind the bar for a beer. It could
be better. No brass rail, no pretzel bowl, no sawdust, no bartender'shorsecock equaliser, no spitoons. It's nothing like Nelson Algren's Tug &Maul Bar, which carried the shingle over the counter: "I've been punched,kicked, screwed, defaulted, knocked down, held up, held down, lied
about, cheated, deceived, conned, laughed at, insulted, hit on the headand married. So go ahead and ask for credit; I don't mind saying NO".
Tom drinks from the bottle, handling it as he handles everything, withthe mannered gawkiness of a newsie's first foray without the fingerless

TOM WAITS

gloves. Mismatched halves of a black suit, tongue of tie hanging below thevest, hair springing strongly from his head like a Sov-Art inspirational
sculpting, billy goat gruff goatee.
"Where I live, Tropicana Hotel, Santa Monica Boulevard, guy in a
rockabilly band has had Eddie Cochran songs tattooed all over his arms.
He's committed. When I first played the Roxy with Jimmy Witherspoon,
all the lights fused along Sunset Boulevard. I dunno.""Frying Cody Jarrett on Alcatraz?" I ventured. What was his obsession
with gangsters? "Small change got rained on with his own .38.""Where I live it takes all you can muster up just to drown out the sirens
every night. No, when I don't hear them, I get nervous. I write a lotta
homicide stories."
Did he get "Burma Shave" from the Nick Ray movie, They Live By Night,
from 1948?
"Yeah. That's the one. In fact, that's a great story. Very sad at the end

where he gets mowed down at the motel. Farley Granger does soap operas
now, I think. He was in Minneapolis and this woman disc jockey played itfor him and he got a real kick out of it. He always played the baby -faced
hood. He don't work much any more. I guess Sal Mineo got most of hisroles. Yeah, I used that. I kept coming back to that movie image.
"Also, I have a lotta relatives in this little town called Marysville, and acousin, her name is Corrine Johnson, and every time I'd go up there from
Los Angeles in the summers, she was always
like, you know, 'Christ, man -1 gotta get outta
this fucking town. I wanna go to LA.' She finallydid. She hitch -hiked out and stood by thisFoster Freeze on Prom Night, got in a car witha guy who was just some juvenile delinquent,and he took her all the way to LA where she
eventually cracked up. Burma Shave was ashaving cream company. Abandoned in thelate '50s. Useta advertise all along the highway.
I always thought it was the name of a town."
He took a slug of beer, backed away fromfurther definition. "I twist whatever I see, you
know. Most of my writing is a metaphor forsomethin' else. This buddy of mine, Paul Hampton, he married thismillionaire, got in tight with her old man, and he was like in charge of all
the money. He came home one night and caught his wife in bed with thechambermaid and he pulled out a .38, put it in her ear and -then stopped.
"Hewas writing at the time, so he wrote this real strange story called
Two Hour Honeymoon, which is about an automobile accident. It starts
with the sound of a car crash, and then - 'AAAGH -don't move me!' -you
know, all that, and in the background is a screaming arrangement sounds
like 'Harlem Nocturne'. I would never have made the connection
between him and his ex-wife and an automobile accident, you know." He
set fire to another cigarette. "So... there's always something underneath."
Who chose clarinet for "Potter's Field"?
"It was a collaboration between myself and Bob Alciver. All I had was thestory and a bassline, so I came in and we managed to stretch it a little
further. I was gonna do it with tenor and upright bass, but he said no. So
we took it in sections, divided the whole story into sections. Clarinet was
like the opening of 'Rhapsody In Blue'. That was what I had in mind."
What I had in mind was Widmark on the prow of a barge, bringing
Thelma Ritter's coffin back from the paupers' burial ground of Potter's
Field in a grey dawn: Pickup On South Street, Sam Fuller, 1953. Why theidentification with losers? Or was that just LA, where every second cat isa failed something -or -other?
"Yeah, it's kinda sad. The girls still come from like Nebraska and stuff, go
out there and, you know, wanna be in pictures. Where I live, I hear a lotta
them stories. They end up on their backs in one of the rooms. Yeah, there's
a lotta sadness. I see a lot from where I'm living. I don't see much hope.
Can't go any further west."
But hewasn't a loser, and he still came on romantic about failure?
"I guess so. Two impostures, huh? I don't care who I hafta step on on myway back down."
And if the career runs out of gas?
"I BEG your pardon? Are you looking as ifyou're predicting the future?
OK -you mean IF it all comes down. U h. I'll move out to Palmdale
somewhere, live in a trailer, raise a family,
dunno..." He turns to the stage crew.
"Hey-wadda we gonna do with the
pump? Leave it draped? Uh-huh."

SOMEWHERE IN COPENHAGEN there must be a couple of cats
who know an eighter from Decatur from a baked potater,
because the Montmartre packs solid for the show, wall-to-wallskimmers and stubble, and Herb Cohen finally breaking cover withthe kinda expression that reads Stick -Wit h -Me -Kid -And -You -Can End -Up -Wearing -St ripes.
Tom Waits holds the mic stand like a rum-dum adhering to railings,
stands on one leg, and rubs the back of his head. On stage, the gesture,
which is habitual, takes on the dumb wonder of thewino who wakes onan all -alley -cat audience. He shields his eyes from the light, releases a
cloud of cigarette smoke, and staggers. Choreographically, he ain't shit,
but he does occasionally get a row together that would not be disowned
by, say, Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, the Lord of the Ring. In the lights, he ispavement -coloured.
He lurches into a frowsty "One That Got Away", Greg Cohen's bass
walking sweetly, Arthur Richard's guitar whining and withering on thestem, Big John Thomassie's drums- now tamped down with a cushion in
the bass drum- cracking them out.
He does "Step Right Up", psufferin' psuccotash delivery, all confidential
snake -kiss sibilants and birth -flesh cavernous eversions catch one wordin five. "Jitterbug Boy" slides into "New Orleans", Waits' mission -hallpiano clinging to nostalgia, times gone, loves lost, like convolvulus onna
bumsite. For "Sweet Bullet" he beats a guitar,
fitting as neatlyas a grifter in a sandwich board. He does "Muriel", dedicated to Ernie
Kovacs' widow, dons a stingy-brim for "Pasties&AG -String", and it's here we go down 'n' dirty
for the step, right up Little Egypt bump 'n' grind.
The spotlights drill for the grainy black -and white old movie stock finish. A few numbers
come dunked in hellish red or a cold Spears&
Jackson midnight mortuary blue, and there's
a bandage -yellow beam that would look goodon a gum -shield. Smarter'n a shit -house rat,
got th'ole experience, you betcha, Tom Waits
plays it for the house percentage, milking"Summertime" for "Burma Shave", "Waltzing Matilda" for "TomTraubert's Blues", and leaving the audience with that flush of familiaritythat breeds contentment.

"Most of mywriting is a
metaphor forsomethin' else"

BACKSTAGE IN THE bar, he sits dumped and despairing. He
stank, he says. He didn't even come up, he says, to his own snuff.
He looks as self -recriminatory as Wallace Beery waking with ahangover and his boots on in a Wendy House. It's not like back home,he says, where his father turns up at his performances with a bunch of
good loud buddies to heckle him.
The memory cheers him up. "Well... huh. He always tells me, if it'sdifficult -do it. And tell ya kids the same thing. Not that anyone'd marryya. Hafta be crazy."
We sit at the bar.
"Y'ever see this?" he says, unslips his tie, drapes it outside his collar withan end in each hand. "Guy I see in Amsterdam, blue-collar workingman,wearing a tie to work. I asked this girl, why does he do that? She said, 'He'san alcoholic. Shakes all the time. Can't hold a glass, so..." Tom winds thetie around two fingers and grips his beer, draws on the other end like apulley to hoist the hooch to his mouth.
I trade him the story of the Durham miners' wives. They buy butcher's
hooks, decorate them with sequins, stab them into the bar counter as
hangers for their handbags on Ladies Night Out.
"I kinda like that," he says.
"I kinda knewyou would," I tell him, but therewas a better Tom Waits
story waiting for me and Tom Sheehan out in 4am Copenhagen. In the
onlybar they'd forgotten to dust, we hit on an All -Woman Eskimo Chapterof the Hell'sAngels and one solitary Mancunian drunk. Copenhagen wasa great place, he said. He'd been there two years, slinging hash in a pizza
house. Before that, he'd been slinging hash in a Torquay pizza house in
the holiday season. He had fallen in lovewith the summer's sunburned
blondes from Scandinavia, couldn't get them out of his mind through thewinters, so he'd pulled up stakes and moved direct to source. Copenhagen
was where it was at, he said, waving his
Carlsberg in the general direction of theEskimo Chapter, and he came here every
night. Soldier, you got it made. Brian Case

Wry & Danish
to go

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 175

1979
APR

SANE

"Statements
about
GARY NUMAN

arts 1979 with
two nit singles. A Bowiepi
and a bit of an oddball, hemakes dystopian electronic

OW"

pop with support fron
mum and dad. "When I was
at school, they sent me toa psychologist" he says.
"The psychologists were
stupid. It was a load of cock."

JUNE 9ET THIS FOR a set of contradictions:this man has an abnormal, tearful
distrust of people, yet wants toentertain them; loathes large

crowds, yet wants to play for them;and now has a hit singlewhere his
mentors -slash -heroes Ultravox failed.
The man around whom these contradictions
revolveis Gary Numan, leader and occasional
embodiment ofTubewayArmy, the entitywhich has inspired in critics
a surprisinglyvirulent loathing.
Not often seen or heard, because of his professed
reluctance to play live, Numan seemed to attract flackprompted by the glam pose he adopted on the current
Replicasalbum sleeve. Suddenly, though, with asurprising chart entryin "Are 'Friends' Electric?", at
No 27 and rising (predicted a Beggars Banquet man
happily), the aforementioned writers- or their patrons,
at least -had to take notice of him. If only to dig out an
explanation for its success.
Thus this meeting has been arranged, in a backroomof Beggars Banquet Earls Court record
store -above, itwould seem, the tube line, so conversation ispuncturedby the persistent passing of trains.
Twenty-one and nervous, Numan is strikingly
different in appearance from the blond black -cladmannequin of the albu m sleeve. His hair now dyed
black to replenish its health after all that bleaching,
he's just returned from a photo session. Far
removedfrom the studied poses of the album picture and his
TV appearances, he slips easily
into conversation,
cracking little jokes, beginning byoffering probablereasons for the rise of"Are 'Friends' Electric?".
"It was a picture disc, to start with, and I'msure that
got it off the ground. It had already got to 48 by thetime

we got to do The Old Grey Whistle Test.

"Maybewewere just luckywith the timing, but thepress coverage, or the ads at least, did help and thepicture disc helped it sellenough to get us on Top Of
The Pops. We thought wemight get onto Old Grey x.

Alone in a crowHas Gary Numon's-

acute Paranoia

doominden

pf01,1110.

observaitons.ahr,ychoolwit,m1

to

leave

see

1979APRtWhistle Test, but we never thought we'd get onto Top Of The Pops..."Released on May4, the single's rise has been phenomenally fast. If its

Faultless inanity
NME SEPT 8
Gary Numan
BEGGARS BANQUET

And people seethe at theGolden Boy. Let's forget thethreadbare rock'n'roll bitchthat it's all been done before by"proper" artists - Bowie this,Kraftwerk that - because
although the groundwork waslaid down by lots of clever folk
long ago, nobody has done what
Gary Numan is doing right now.
Outside of Moroder,electronic music has always
avoided commercial successwith its accent on extended
aural think pieces (hi,TangerineDream), or indulgent student
pranks (hey, OMD).
But Numan is knocking out abunch of important -sounding
Moog anthems that neverthreaten to stray from ABC
pattern, gives them a
traditional rock backline andstammers through the mostobvious of "futuristic babble"

lyrics -andthus lulls thepunter to
believe that
their musicaltastes aretaking leaps

intellectual earwig by anyone's
standards, which is what gives
him the bottle to be free fromall yearnings of "criticalrespect" that all rock/pop
crossover acts so desperately
try to maintain. He sincerely
believes in that 7984/Modern
Man pantomime and his
introduction of riffing synths
has tapped a very, ah, rich vein.
The Pleasure Principle is pure
Big Brother Status Quo. The
lyrics are rarely more thanduosyllabic and, by picking out
the middles of sentences, they
try hard to remain obscure
not that they are about much in
the first place. I imagine Garywould love to be the subject of"in-depth" features where hecould be quizzed as to What It
All Means, and then he could beeven more tight-lipped andspin his bluff out even further.
But at the moment he seems
to have forgotten that it isa bluff at all. Like, National
Lampoon
couldn't have
got together a-

The lyr ics are
rarely more thanSimply, Numan is making

intelligent music for people
who aren't intelligent. Thisoutlook I have confirmed by theamount of people, mainly boys,
who will trot up to my DJ
podium and ask for somethingby "The Tube". When I have todecline their requests, they
invariably step back and withthe look of a conqueror on
their face say, "What, is he too
weird for this place?" thenstride away with the air of aperson of great discernment.
And Gary is their Hero. I think
Numan is harmless enough.
I certainly don't believe theman himself is overly smart,which is probably his biggest
selling point. After all, anyone
with a bit of suss would shrink
from penning anything asembarrassing as 90 per centof the lyrics here. Example:"These are nofaces/ This is
my complex... Am la photo// can't remember..."No, the signs point to
old Gal being a bit of an"fpose"er sleeveuture-than this. No,
our Gary is justa ham with asynthesizer and, by God, theBritish public does love a ham.
The music is easy andlistenable - albeit not for too
long - and the production - by
Gazza himself - is excellent.
Only "Metal" is as good as "Are'Friends' Electric?", but it
will certainly be a No
record; its faultlessinanity is irresistible.
It seems to me thatthe instant Numan
wises up - well, that's
when he stops sellingrecords. Danny Baker

duosyllabic

forward.

78 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

bettsuccesses surprise Gary, that's only because, in his master -scheme, thenext one ("Cars") was scheduled to be The Hit. Obviously he's notdeterred by his upset plans.
Why he's made it, while his acknowledged foremost influence
Ultravox failed, he puts down to the efficiency of their respective record
companies. Coming under the umbrella ofWEA, Beggars Banquet haveat their disposal the machinery to make it. The company has a provenrecord of breaking acts through picture discs. But after its initial flurry ofsales, when all the pretty pictures are gone, its success is ultimately down
to whether people like the record or not.
Ultravox's failure saddens and mystifies Numan, who displays what isbordering on reverence for the band. He makes no bones, either, about
how much he actually got from them, once admitting that most of
Replicas is based on their music. "Are 'Friends' Electric?", though, owes
less than other tracks.
"I prefer to listen to 'Slow Motion' [an Ultravox single] to my single, butwhether it's better or not I don't know. I'm obviously too close to my own
music to make any value judgements about it."
What sets him apart from most other plagiarists is that he admits andacknowledges his sources, pre-empting criticism. Whether that makes
you want to listen to his music, rather than to its source, of course
depends on you.
Because of Ultravox's perennial unpopularity, Numan claims that
nobody even noticed his debt to them until he pointed it out. Writers
previously related his music to David Bowie's, although the latter's
influence is minimal -or so he says, despite an earlier assertion thatwhen he was 16 he did his own private version of Ziggy Stardust, basing
each of his songs on those from the album.
His regard for Bowie doesn't rise above fan status- David is, he says,
up there with Ultravox and Human League in the short list of people hewould swallow his fear of gatherings to go see. His music and Bowie's isprobably more genuinely linked by common sources, insofar as he was
led to writers such as William Burroughs by Bowie's constant references.
Burroughs and science -fiction writers like Philip K Dick provide theacknowledged basis of many of his songs. The Gary Numan writing
technique goes something like this: "I don't listen to stuff as a fan; I listen
to stuff to get ideas from. I listen to what other people are doing with tones
with synthesizers, with rhythms, the way they use structural ideas andthe way they link things up. The words I get from writers like Burroughs,
Philip Dick and... who's that other guy's name? Oh, Vonnegut, but I didn't
get a lot out of him, though it was a good book. Breakfast Of Champions. It
was funny.
"It was Bowie who got me into Burroughs. There was so much talk about
him that I read him to see what all the fuss was about. And it was good; I
could see why Bowie relies on him quite a lot well. I don't know, maybe hedoesn't. I think Bowie relies on him for actual technique, whereas I relyon him more for words and structures.
"But I don't do anything like cut -ups. I take a line out of a book,and I'd have a lot of lines written down in a notebook. So when

- -I write a song I go through all the lines I have got, I've got
pages and pages of them written down, until I find one
which is what the song is about and then I cross it out, so
ALBUMS
I don't use the same line twice. I use thoselines to spark
offlines of my own."
His reliance on others for material obviously gives his
work a distracting second-hand feel. But he hopes his
doom -laden observations will provoke thoughts in1979others, as did his sources with him. His thirdalbum, set for autumn release, will have alighter feel, he says, related more to h imself thanGARY NUMAN
PRINCIPLE
THE PLEASURE
the previous two, with their sci-fi connotations.

EVIEW.41114A.,"The next one is more statements about
things now. Well, not things, but me now.
There's a song called 'Observers', which isabout when Igo out. I don't go up to people
and chat away; I'll just stand in corners andobserve people. Basically it's about the factthat I just don't talk to people."
You don't like talking to people?
"Well, yeah, I don't mind talking to people-it's just really weighing people up, deciding

Numan and his live

band in1979:(I-r)Paul
Gardiner. Billy Currie,
Cedric Sharpley,Trevor
Grant and Chris Payn

whether they are worth me getting to know or not. It's
a position I've maintained more in the past fewyears
than when I was younger...
"When I was at school, they sent me to a psychologist,
because they thought I was a bit random. One day I'd betalking happily, then another I'd be dead quiet, then anotherI'd fight. I didn't think there was anythingwrong with me.
"The psychologists were stupid. The first one was obviously convincedthat it was me mum and dad, that there was friction at home and it wasaffecting me at school and everything. It was a load of cock...
"My mum and dad are great. They're so into it. Me dad sometimes
roadies for us. He road ied for us on the Whistle Test, humped away thegear. He's put thousands of pounds, all his life -savings, into us. He drives
us to gigs and if there's any trouble at them, he sorts it out. It's fantastic thewayhe gets behind us. And me mum, she cuts me hair and things like that.
"Before that, they wanted me to have an education, but when I kept
getting kicked out of schools and that, they went behind me in this. I was
expelled from grammar school and asked to leave secondary school andcollege because I didn't have enough hours. Well, I did go but never got
past the common room. Table football, whoo!
"I used to read books, but they were the wrong
ones, the teachers said. My teacher caught mereading Mickey Spillane, and she hit the roof.
I thought it was great, but she went really overfor someone to hit. They don't get drunk and want
to do something nice." (Numan doesn't drink.)
Then why did he choose to start his career ina new -wave band?A quick backtrack:
Numan's first band was a more conventional punk affair
in which he played guitar and sang, taking an increasingly
dominant role. Eventually it evolved into TubewayArmy.
"I did that because it was the only way to get a contract at the time.
Anyway, punk and new wave wasn't violent until the press started towrite about trouble. That's when it got violent, when people who weren't
punks started going just for trouble."
He handled occasional outbursts of fights by playing right throughthem, hoping that most people would carryon watching them and not
notice the trouble.
About getting his contract: "If I'd started by playing the stuff I'm doing
now, I'd never have got anywhere. So I started by playing the stuff they
were doing then. Get signed, and then you're in and can do what you
like. I enjoyed what I was doing at the time. It served its purpose and it
was good fun, but what I really wanted to do was always in the back of
my mind."
With his general contempt "for the race asa whole", why does he bother to try reachingpeople through music?
"It's very hard to explain. You read all thesethings and see the fighting, and you really hateit. But then you see something like a little old
man and an old woman driving in their Morris
Minor, and they've been in love for 60 years, andyou think it's really nice. Then you think, Ahhh,
it's not so bad', but as a whole it's pretty shitty."
Yet he's now preparing to put himself back infront of people whatever he thinks of them,with a new band. He wants to go straight to larger halls, colleges anduniversities, for which he's preparing a lavish stage set - provid ing,ofcourse, he can get the finances or know-how together in time for a
projected 12 dates in September.
"Well, it is show business. You go on stage so that people can see you.
If they just want to listen to you, they can stay at home and listen torecords. I'd rather go and see somebody on stage with big lights and little
robots moving about than somebody in jeans and an old mac in the backof a pub.
"I think I'll be giving people what they haven't had in a longtime byputting on a good show. People seem to have been brainwashed into
thinking that putting on a show is very... just isn't on, you know. So, I'll
put on a show and see how it goes. If they don't like it, I'll stop doing live
work again." ChrisBohn"If there's
any trouble atgigs, my dad
sorts it out"

the top. She said it was disgusting. She said I
must have been raised in the gutter.
"But I've always read books, especially big
books -Lord OfThe Rings, stuff like that. I've justread The Magus, and that was baaad. I've always
been distrustful of people, and that book justabout finished me off. I'm not that bad, really,
but I don't trust people at all. It's: 'Why do theywant that?Why do they want to talk to me? What is it about me that makes
them want to get friendly with?'"It's completely the opposite of them thinking that I'm important.
It's very hard to explain. They must be after something, not that it's
important, but... now that I've been on the telly... it's not easy. I'm noteasy to get on with.
"I don't like crowds at all. I'd rather not walk down the high street or go
into restaurants when there's a lot of people about. I don't like being incrowds where you're so close to people that, if anything happened, you
can't get away. I don't like being in situations where you're restricted, justin case something happens. I like to see who's near me, so I can look atthem and decide whether they're going to do anything or not."He begins to talk about how disgusting he thinks people are: "I don't
think much of people, do you?They have two pints and they're looking

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 179

'I

1978
APR

M

it

AV,

"My natural response to disco"
MAY 19 Swahili. German pilots. Hawkwind's violinist and "All The Young Dudes" played
backwards... Track by track through David Bowie's latest album, his 13th, Lodger.
IN RECENT WEEKS, when he's not beingslapped around by Lou Reed, David
Bowie has returned to something hedoes rather well, if infrequently - ie, giving
interviews. They are all in a good cause, ofcourse - ie, himself.
Next week he releases the third album inthe trilogy he has made with Brian Eno. Lodger
is his jokey way of describing himself in one of
his chief occupations of the last few years,
travelling around the world, which has
furnished him with so much song material.
As he told radio station WPLJ in New York,his biggest influence now was his environment
rather than other artists (like Lou Reed):"I have to pick a city with friction in it," heexplained. "It has to be a city that I don't
know how it works. I've got to be at odds with
it. As soon as I feel comfortable, I can't write
any more. You can look back on my albums
and tell which city I was in merely by justlistening to them.
"Each album was fairly successful at
illustrating the particular era, or sort of80

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

photographing the time I was in. It was amusical time photograph. I'd like to look backat my albums through the '70s and think that
I had a little set of photographs of time
capsules about what each year was like."
Bowie also had some comments on punk forinterviewer Jimmy Fink. He compared it to'60s conceptual art: "One could theorise it,
but it was very hard to experience it. And it
seems to be a similar situation at the moment."
But movements worried him. It was the old
elitism: "I don't like collections of people,
whether it be politically, socially or artistically.
I've always tried to ridicule those factors.
"I slammed out at rock'n-roll when it gotvery cliquey, and have been known to slamout at politics in a similar exaggerated,
cartoonist fashion. Gangs of people
frighten the hell out of me. I think it cancrucify what's called a movement if it's
made into a group of people. I much preferto call them a group of individuals.
"I think the most defeating part of punkis that there are a lot of bands and artists

who havevery good
individual
ideas in musicalexpression that
may be blinkering
themselves by being
too willing to be accepted
as part of a punk -rock movement - they are
grabbing for the security of an umbrella
category before they've actually had time toevaluate their own writing."
Travel was the only movement thatinterested him -a statement that hereiterated in an interview with London'sCapital Radio on Monday evening. Talking
about Lodger, he told Nicky Horne that thealbum could have been aptly titled "Travel
Along With Bowie", although there had beenother suggestions, such as "Look Back In
Anger","Planned Accidents" and "Despite
Straight Lines"; in fact, he and Eno might stillwork on a purely instrumental album called"Planned Accidents".

not in time, that's it. If you have
30 seconds silence, your whole
career is over. The most absurd
thing about this is that I was withJohn Cale in New York and I
played his viola on stage at
Carnegie Hall. He called me andasked me to play at a benefit fora radio station in New York. I had
never played viola in my life
before, but I learned four noteson it and it sounded great. I may
learn another four and play it on
my next album."
Look Back In Anger "I had thisHe ran through eachtrack as follows:

starting out with one thing, putting anotherthing on top of it, and taking away the number
you first thought of."

Fantastic Voyage "Well, thatOft&

is definitely pop. What'sinteresting about that is
the logistics. We played
the same chord sequence
four different ways and thesame thing exactly occurs
elsewhere on the album.
You've got to spot it.
wanted to put some sort ofpoint of view forward thatwas in the narrative fashionright at the front of thealbum. It starts veering
off to the obscure after
this, but it's a prettyIstraightforward song
about how I feel, in a very
old-fashioned romantic
fashion. One feels

David Bowie on

the set ofJustA
Gigolo, releasedin the UK on

Move On "This, of course, is blatantly romantic.

The interesting thing about this one is in the
middle section: I was playing through some
old tapes of mine on a Revox and I accidentally
played one backwards and thought it was
beautiful. Without listening to what it was
originally, we recorded the whole thing notefor note backwards, and then I added vocal
harmonies with Tony Visconti. If you play it
backwards you'll find that it's All The Young
Dudes. I did this in New York, which is a very
enjoyable city at the moment. It's very exciting
there and is probably having its heyday as far
as the arts are concerned.
The whole arts thing in New
York is extraordinary, much
more exciting than London,
which is a bit patchy.

"'Fantastic

Voyage' could quite
easily have turned
up on Hunky Dory"

constantly that so manythings are out of our own
control and it's just thisinfuriating thing that you
don't want to have theirdepression ruling your life
or dictating how you will
wake up each morning.""I'm so pleased that theconclusion of these threealbums has been so up. You
never know until you comeout of the studio exactly
what you've done, and I
think it would have been terribly depressing if
the third one had been down. At least this one
has a kind of optimism."

African Night Flight "You will,

Yassassin "That's Simon House on violin. He

February 4,1979

of course, have noted theuse of Swahili. Translated, that meant hello,
goodbye. That came together because in
Kenya, especially in Mombasa, in many of thebars, you will find these German ex -pilots who
hang out wearing most of their pilot's gear.
They are always saying they have been there
for17 years and really must go back toGermany. You've got a good idea why they are
there in the first place, but they live strange
lives flying about in their little Cessnas overthe bushland, doing all kinds of strange things.
"They're very mysterious characters,
permanently plastered and always talking
about when they are going to leave. The songcame about because I was wondering exactly
what they are and what they are doing andwhat their profession is and why they flyaround. This track is very interesting. What we
did was to take the basic idea of 'Suzie Q' andplay it backwards. Then Brian decided to put
prepared piano on it. He put pairs of scissors
and all kinds of metal things on the strings ofthe piano. Then we took out the main band so
you just had the piano left. It was a case ofthought about angels and Angels of Death,
which is the character that is most revered.
But this one is about a tatty Angel of Death.
We did one thing on this track which was a lotof fun but terribly frustrating for themusicians. Brian and I came up with a seriesof cards with chords on. We stuck them ona blackboard and we had all the musicianssitting on chairs in front of the blackboard.
Then Brian and I just pointed at the one to playnext. It got very intense, and the more intense
it got the better it got. We did that for 30
minutes and kept yelling out the style to playin. Fortunately, I'm with guys who are very
receptive to what I want to do. They get angry,
of course, but only if they're not fully awareof what is going on. Often I can't help themmuch because I'm not surewhat's going to come outof it either."

was with Hawkwind. He understood thenotation immediately, even though he hadno experience with Turkish music before.
This song is about the kind of character you
find in coffee bars in Turkey. An interesting
thing about this track was putting two ethnic
sounds together. We used the Turkish thingsand put it against a Jamaican backbeat.
They're both parallel."
Red Sails "Here we took a German new -music feel and put against it the idea ofa contemporary English mercenary -cum swashbuckling Errol Flynn, and put him in
the China Sea. We have a lovely crossreference of cultures. I honestly don't knowwhat it's about."
DJ "This is somewhat cynical,
but it's my natural response to
disco. The DJ is the one who
is having ulcers now, not theexecutives, because if you

do the unthinkable thing of
putting a record on in a disco

Boys Keep Swinging "What
we did on this one was tohave everybody play the
instruments they didn't
usually play. Suddenly we
had Carlos Alomar, who is
the rhythm guitarist, on
drums and Dennis Davis on bass. What was
extraordinary was the enthusiasm that camefrom musicians who weren't playing theirusual instrument. They became kids
discovering rock'n'roll for the first time again.
"Boys..." has exactly the same chord sequenceas "Fantastic Voyage".
Repetition "This is about wife beating something you are faced with in theAmerican newspapers all the time. I think
my voice sounds rather like it did five years
ago. 'Fantastic Voyage' could quite easily
have turned up on Hunky Dory. This album
seems to contain things from lots of different
areas of my career."
Red Money "This song, I think, is about

responsibility. Red boxes keep cropping
up in my paintings, and they represent
responsibility there." Michael Watts

Bowie's 'Lodger':where new rnuzik
meets Errol Flynt,

1979
AM

SE

"We were

the neatest
thinFrom Athens, Georgia,

comes a technicolour
pop band of the new wave,

Theirs is anavowedly simple, upbeat
proposition, but it has
converted sceptical
crowds. "When we went.

to New York theysaid people don't
dance," says Kate
Pierson. "But weplayed and they

started dancing."

TheE1-52'sin

1979:(1-r)Fred
Schneider. Kate
Pierson. Cindy
Wilson, Keith
Stricklandand
RickyWilson

--yJUNE 9-'ALL WANT GUMBO?" Kate Pierson peers

around the kitchen door, tea cloth slung acrossa sunbu rnt shoulder. Her deep Southern accent
tells us that her deep Southern dish is ready.

Ricky is asleep on the sofa, Keith is reading, Fredis upstairs resting his back, Cindy is drying herhair and gazing at the ocean. The ocean is not responding. The Bahamas lie
on a latitude that's almost tropical, where dusk falls still and the evening air
subdues the citizens. Nobodyeven stirs.
The bright, modish furnishings of the Delaporte Beach house where The
B -52's have been staying for the past threeweeks are conspicuously tidy.
On the table are copies of National Enquirer, OMN/and a book of Dylan* Thomas' stories, offering between them: frontier technology, mystical.

anointment and the real truth behind Charlie'sAngels. Piled in the corneris some black snorkelling equipment, and some pink snorkelling
equipment; a big gaudy beach ball is slowing deflat ing on the sideboard.
The only casualty is the sofa, which has collapsed at one end, and the only
luxury is Keith's portable compact tape system, still going strong.
Native African Top 40 music beats out a tattoo in the night. Headystuff. Kate and Cindy both agree that this is one of Keith's best tapes. The
mode -black church music -is familiar, but the drums and the patois are
strange and hypnotic.
I let mybare feet rub the deep pile in appreciation.
One more time...
"Y'all want some gumbo?" Here it is. x.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

83

1979 °APR

KATE WAS BORN at 9.30 on a Tuesday in Hackensack, New

Jersey, and grew up in a house whose senior offspring dug thefolk protest scene: Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger. They gave her
a Bob Dylan album for her 14th birthday. On her 18th birthday she left
New Jersey for the first time ever, to go to college, a fruitless episode,followed by a two-year odyssey in Europe, sampling life in theunderbelly, working menial jobs for the thrill of new experience.
Nowadays she lives in a tenant house on a farm outside Athens in
Georgia, a rough homestead she shares with two goats, Angie andSappho. "I had to build a drip -tank to catch rainwater on the roof, because
I grew tired of fetching my water from the well everyday."
Kate is resourceful, petite, polite, but secretly very sharp. She sings andplays organ, keyboard bass and second guitar with the B -52's, a neotericpop group. She likes to dance and swim, and apart from African Top 40
and James Brown records, she is also fond ofYma Sumac, Nino Rota andmusic of the upperAmazon. She hopes The B -52's get to tour SouthAmerica so she can visit the (vanishing) equatorial rain forests.
Her favourite sound is the sound of "insects at dusk". She remembers"dreaming I was terrorised by the Jolly Green Giant as a small child".
Cynthia Leigh Wilson also lives in Athens. She is bongo player andvocalist with The B -52's. Born, bred and educated in Georgia, Cindy
possesses the kind of sassy Southern lilt that adds "h"s rather than drops
them, a complement to her blonde -belle looks and vivacious personality.

Her hobbies are raising chihuahuas, dancing and improving her
posture. The place she would most like to be found is in a bathtub in thetropics. Cindy likes James Brown too, but her favourite record is theJackson Five's Greatest Hits.
Says Cindy, "When I was a kid I saw two hairy beings walk down the hall.
At the time I thought they were the famous Boogie Men... Now I don't
know what they were."
Keith Strickland, sometimes known as Barn Barn, plays the drums withThe B -52's. His parents run the Greyhound bus station in Athens, where
Keith used to work with Cindy's brother Ricky, The B -52's' soft-spoken,

self-effacing guitarist.
Keith, in contrast, is robust and cheerful. It was he who named the group.
"We thought for months about what we were going to call ourselves, andfinally I suggested B -52's because that's the name of a bouffant hairdo andthe girls had started goingon with their hairall teased up."
Then there's Frederick W Schneider III. Fred sings and plays toy
percussion with The B -52's. Without the moustache, his features
resemble an anaemic Kenneth Williams, and like that comic his tone ispermanentlydry, almost despondent and unwittingly funny.
Hewas born in Newark, New Jersey, and went toAthens to attend the
University Of Georgia, more or less, he admits, as a means of evading thedraft. "It obviously didn't do me any good, I almost had a nervous
breakdown. But I met my friends and I learned a lot after dropping out."
Since when he has worked fora meals -for -the -elderly service, which hequit because of the low standards involved, and was also a waiter at the El
Dorado vegetarian restaurant. Otherwise... "a career of loafing, so to
speak". He mostly likes just soul and Tamla, and his all-time favourite
record is "Dancing In The Street". Fred, the eldest of t he group, is adamant
when he says that the '60swere more alive than the '70s. The others aren't
so sure, but they all seem to share the legacy he carries from that decade ofa strong ecological awareness. Nukes and "bad attitudes" provoke his ire.
"When that Harrisburg thing happened, most Americans just didn't
realise what was going on. They think you can put a blanket around ababy's head and that will keep radiation away. In Philadelphia there were
official warnings to close windows to keep the radiation out. Close
windows? That's the sort of level of awareness."
His favourite film stars are Jayne Mansfield and Wilma Flintstone. Oneof his hobbies is comparative grocery shopping and he remembers once
shaking hands with Pope Paul.
"Ah jus' love gumbo." Cindy wipes
her bowl clean.
"Mmm-hmm." Keith is too busy
eating to talk.
Gumbo is a Creole regional special:rice, sweetcorn and okra cooked intomatoes and hot peppers.
"I just love tomatoes, " Kate declares,"anything with tomatoes. And they'reso easy to grow. I grow them all thetime back home."
84 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

Tomatoes are easy to grow. They are also, incidentally, the third biggest
industry in the Bahamian islands, to which the B -52's have come tomake their debut album. The second biggest is fishing and the biggest is
tourism. These figures exclude any offshore banking business facilities
this tax haven might have to offer. Not that The B -52's are in any position
to benefit...
To come to Nassau, the capital, on a small island seven miles wide by 20
miles long, they had to pool all the money they had between them, a total
of $600. It is only the second time that The B -52's have ever been inside a
studio. Nine months ago they spent a dayand a half recording two of theirsongs, "Rock Lobster" and "52 Girls", because a friend of Kate's offered tolend them the money and it seemed like a good idea. The album they aremaking with Chris Blackwell and Robert Ash at Blackwell's Island Records
studio will eventually cost the group somewhere around 10 grand.
Now, in Nassau, as at all resorts, there is a curious sense of ennui: amood of abstract boredom created by the desperate pleasure -seeking of
tourist life rubbing up against the slow, even measure of the island's real
lifewhile the hot sun burns down on the dry scrubland.
You can hear it in the way people here greet each other; a jive -talk "wa's
happen in'?" answered in kind but never directly. The question just hangs
there, like the heat dancing on the roads. "Heey! Wa's happenin'?"

HE B -52'S. THAT'S what. Ask any rock culture vulture the news
and they'll tell you The B -52's. They might even add that theybought "Rock Lobster", oh, ages ago, before they'd read
anything about them, and isn't it great? One of the best singles of lastyear... Aside from which, The B -52's are an unknown commodity,
assigned hot property and so hip that it hurts.
At the end ofluly, or perhaps in August, Island will release their firstalbum, the contents of which will promptly eclipse "Rock Lobster" (reallyone of their lesser songs) and will generally surprise everybody with its
wit, style and variety. Then they will tour. That is certain.
Beyond that... There is a great deal of confidence. The B -52's seem tohave inspired the people around them. The producers' faces beam witha kind of conspiratorial pride as the rough mixes are slowly worked into
their proper shape.
"I'm looking for something I can sell all
the world," states Blackwell,talking about the difference between cult and mass appeal.
The B -52's?

"Obviously. I don't think I would have signed them otherwise..." But
I think he would. So would a lot of other companies, given the chance,
because though the B -52's are by no means a straight commercial
gambit, they do have something.
"We had offers from all over," recalls Kate. "All these people from thecompanies were taking us out to dinnerat expensive restaurants. Chrisjust came backstage after one of our shows looking like a playboy who had
just stepped offa yacht. He said, 'I'd like to make you an offer.' Simple asthat. I think it was his smile that did it.""Are you all sure you're happy with that?" Blackwell scrutinises thefaces gathered in the air-conditioned, hermeticallysealed studio control
room. Astudio, to the layman, is like a hotel bedroom: once insideyou
could be anywhere. The B -52's glance anxiously at each other... "Because
if you aren't happy, now is the time to speak up. Once the record is made,it'll be too late. That's it. It will always be The B -52's' first album."Kate, who takes the most diligent interest in the protracted anddistracting mixing process, pipes up first: "Do you thinkyou could push
Cindy's voice up a little at the end? When she slides up the register on the'red hot lava' harmony... the effect is kinda lost."
Keith also applied himself, ensuring that none of the group's tightness is
submerged. He wants to hear the guitar brought up a little. Or something.
So a new mix is made of"Hot Lava", a wickedly lascivious song equating
love with lava, and featuring Ricky's experimental guitar tunings. Ricky
has been playingguitar since he
was in high school and now has an
old Epiphone and two Mosrite"Ventures" models tuned to exotic
chords and also minus certain
strings. But it's a secret.
"Lotsa guitarists do it," he says.
"And they won't tell either."He enjoys a chaotic relationshipwith his guitars; which, being
somewhat warped and decrepit,

THE B -52's

often tend to go out of tune. "And sometimes, when ! get real excited,
I turn around to change guitars between songs and I can't evenremember which one to pickup!"
Ricky likes the new mix. Fred, meanwhile, is still wrestling with aconundrum. He thinks his voice sounds like a chipmunk. Nobody else
does, mind you. He looks dejected, as if he'd just become the butt of his
own joke. Fred writes most of the words to the songs, while Ricky and
Keith concoct the music, and the girls supply the icing. His themes tend
towards the offbeat. "Hot Lava", for instance, is an extended metaphor
involving lines like "Turn your lava lamp on!" and "Don't let yourlava turn to stone".
"Well," offers Fred, "I was looking at the 'V' volume of anencyclopaedia, and I saw volcano and had an idea."
Other songs- "Dance This Mess Around","6060-842", "There's A Moon In The Sky" -are lesswhimsical. They are essentially about people anddesires and the distress that sometimes results.
There's nothing ponderous about them; theywould
be non-starters in any intellectual sweepstakes. But
they are very sly, though, full of double-entendres andlittle snares to make your imagination do a double take.
It's no great surprise to find that Fred admires Captain
Beefheares ability to conjure so vividly withwords. He is, however, overly diffident about
his own achievements.
"They're just nonsense songs," he demurs.
Not quite. IfThe B -52's didn't bring theirsongs alive so well theywould long ago havebeen dismissed as a novelty, a downhome
Bonzo Dog Band. Yet clearly Fred has lost somesleep over how the songs will be received,
especially the more risque sections.
"We often wondered whether things in oursongs would cause problems, but we justfigured... so what? Lyrics like '6060-842' are just,well, funny, whatever, but people are always
looking for intent or message.
"And rock'n'roll lyrics have always been sorta
suggestive," adds Kate. "Yeah, you know, puns and so forth. On theother hand, we aren't consciously trying to load our songs withhidden meanings."
But they do seem to feel the innuendo, which is heightened by the sexy
vocalese of the two girls as they trade off Fred's croaking deadpan.
Cindy's voice is strong and abrasive, seething with emotion, like early
Patti Smith. Kate's is more controlled, able to deftly characterise. She says
"6060-842" is just... "another dirty little song".
"It's not dirty." Fred is taken aback by this suggestion.
"I never thought of it as dirty, I thought it was another moon song," muses
Cindy, more than a little mysteriously. "Heey. Maybe churches and schools
will try to stop people from playing it!" She quite relishes the thought, andits historical precedent. Rock'n'roll would always rather be the devil.

Richard and Wilson Pickett were born there. The records played atthese parties were "lotsa dance music; soul, people like Junior Walker
and James Brown.
"When the first Ramones album came out, everybody heard it andstarted to 'pony' intensely. It was a whole different thing of course, but it
was very popular at the time. So was Patti Smith's first album."
The B -52's never really gave a thought becoming the B -52's back in
February '77. According to Cindy, "we just jammed. It was for parties.
It was this girl's Valentine's party at an old rented country club -a dance
party -and we just thought it'd be fun."So Ricky and Keith made a backing tape ofguitar anddrums and everybody jammed. "I hid behind thecurtains. Ricky played with his back turned. We alltalked between songs. Once the tape came unplugged.
But people thought we were the neatest thing. They
were fascinated. They didn't care."A few parties and six months or so later they
discarded the backing tapes and went live, though
they still use tapes for rehearsing and for sharpening
up their superior song arrangements, honing themto the bone.
Because, make no mistake, they play for dancers.
And everybody, these days, wants to dress up
and jump back. Why?
"Seems like people would always be in themood to dance if there was something there todance to," Kate conjectures. "Except if it was
really out of vogue and they were afraid.""There was a time when dancing really went
out," adds Fred, "but I guess it's because there
wasn't much to dance to. It's hard for us to playat places where people can't move around.
We're a dance band basically. We always try tohave a dancefloor. When we went to New Yorktheysaid people don't dance up there and I justcouldn't picture it."
"But we played and they started dancing."
Their reputation precedes them. In the yearthat they've been playing the US clubs they've accrued a fanaticalfollowing. People like to get down low and do a lot of scream ingwhen"It's hard for
us to play atplaces where
people can't
move around"

rr0 UNDERSTAND THE B -52's' relative cultural position and thefactors which have singled them out so swiftly from the hopefulhordes requires certain background knowledge.
Like the fact that Athens is primarily a college town, with a large student
population and an inevitable reputation for revelry. A few years ago,
Playboyvoted its university the wildest campus in the US. Animal Housewas due to be filmed there until the administration decided it wouldn't
exactly boost the image of a place that still holds the all-time mass
streaking record.
"And after that, nothing happened." Fred doesn't know why. "It'sbecome very conservative in the fraternities and sororities."
Another section of the town's society, meanwhile, had different ideas.
Before The B -52's became The B -52's, they and their friends operated
some sort of loose alliance called the Bon -Vivant Society, dedicated tomost of the usual vices and sub -divided in to small mobile units...
"There was The Waitress Club, The Waiters Club, The Roller -SkatingSociety, The Laundry Club... There was a laundromat that had a jukebox
and everybody could get together and go dancing while they did theirlaundry. There was a liquor store nearby too."It appears that the primary form of social action in Athens is the "dance
party". Dig this: James Brown and RayCharles grew up in Georgia; Little

The B -52's get into town.

"And dancing too... It's impossible not to dance at some places when
it's really packed, because everyone else is moving around so much," saysa friend of the band. "And they're completely different on stage -not at all
the relaxed people they are off it."As a group of people The B -52's seem to enjoy a cordial existence. As aband they are remarkably indivisible.
"It's strange," thinks Chris Blackwell, "but they don't have an obvious
leader. Most bands have someone who seems to become the spokesman.
But not them."
You can hear it in the music. There's no slack at all. Everybody
contributes as much as each other, though perhaps in different ways, andthe sum of the parts has given some pundits problems -they've had tofind them a brand new bag.
"I think it's because people don't know exactly what we are," opines
Kate. "It's hard for five people to identify... to put their finger on the samething. We do have a certain image -what we do on stage- but it's not easy
to translate that into the mass media.""We were lucky, though," Fred admits. "All the companies said they'd let
us do whatever we want. We wouldn't work any other way.""We were worried that they might want to change the arrangements
and things," says Ricky. But if anything is going to sell The B -52's it's going
to be themselves. It would be foolish to tamper. "We didn't know if they'drealise that. They might have wanted to make us a bit less unusual.""Or try to build up an image and sell it," interrupts Fred. "We sort ofdread being the next camp band; being blown up into something awful
and artificial.
"I try not to be a ham. It would kill me ifl ever thought I was a ham. I'dstop playing."
Then what would you do?
"I'd probably get another job."
And Kate?
"I'd go jump in the ocean." PaulRambali
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 185

1979
APR

PALLADIUMNEW YORK-APRIL 14

MM APRIL 28 British Invasion! The Jam undertake a US tour. Sheer commitment wins out over auivau t.y1111111111Pirand P(1111 -fluent trouble, just about. "In the end we gotta break through. Everybody's gotta win in the end."
IT WAS ONLY as we drove into
Philadelphia that realisation struck.
"Isn't this near where they had that
nuclear accident?" gasped Angela, Polydor's
ultra -efficient press person.
Of course it was! How could we have been
so stupid as not to make the connection? How
could we have been so stupid as to, er, come...?
I instantly studied the cityscape. That bubbleof radioactive gas was lodged in the power
plant at Three Mile Island, which is just outside
Harrisburg, which in turn is just a thyroid glandor two away from Philadelphia. On the atomic
scale, 90 miles is a drop in the ocean. Civil
disorder had to be round the next corner.
However, everything looked so normal. The
headlines screamed panic and talked in termsof the worst nuclear disaster ever. Farmers
were apparently worried about contaminatedmilk supplies; engineers fretted over infectedwater. So where were the thousands fleeing
to safety? Why wasn't there a military curfew
to prevent looting? Where were the hucksters
peddling overpriced Geiger -counters?
All apocalyptic fantasies vanished when the
only evidence of any public concern turned
out to be a couple of trestle tables manned byprotesting students and a downtown cinema
showing The China Syndrome.
86

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

And, obviously, the cinema was notconcerned with making any heavy-duty
political statement. It was simply cashing inon the current "meltdown" obsession witha thriller that depicts a near -catastrophe ata plant outside LA. As someone remarked
when the film was over: "I go to the movies tofind out what's happening in the papers."
In fact, nothing much was happening in
Philadelphia as we kicked our heels waiting
for The Jam to arrive and play the celebrated
Tower Theatre. At almost exactly the sametime last year they had played the Tower,
supporting the Ramones and Runaways. Now
they were headlining, and the switch in statusindicates how much ground they've coveredin the intervening 12 months.
Nevertheless, they still have a long, uphill
struggle ahead of them before they crack themassive American market. They may havetopped the bill at the Tower, but the place wasonly quarter -full. Such apathy didn't stop themputting on a superlative set. Indeed, it spurred
them to heights which, despite technicalhitches, they didn't reach the following
evening in New York when the Palladium wassardine -packed with adoring disciples.
The band's reaction is exactly what you'd
expect: they view it from a realistic historicalperspective. Paul Weller constantly refersback to the British invasion of the States
during the '60s, noting the differences andseeing the parallels.
The Beatles, he reckons, had few problems
because they were already such aphenomenon in Europe and delivered"nothing really new", whereas "all the reallyinnovative British bands like The Kinks and
The Who, it took them a long time anyway".
While you might not agree with his quality
judgements, his comparisons with The Who
and Kinks in terms of winning transatlantic
recognition is perfectly on target. This is thegroup's third trip over the water and theyknow that, barring a marketing miracle or amodern -world equivalent of something likethe Monterey Pop Festival, there are several
more such journeys in store before The Jam
become anything like a household name.
Every gig, then, means another round ofphotographs, another round of interviews
when the same questions are asked and thesame level of ignorance displayed, plus
another round of meeting the Polydor
representatives. At one point Bruce Foxton
sighed, "We should give them a tape of ouranswers. We can't keep coming up with new
answers to the same old questions."

THE JAM"What wegive iswhat we get -:The

my life', which is exactly the same thing.

Jam at the New
York Palladium,
April 14,1979"It's taken four years of hard work andbelieving in ourselves and not listening
to other people saying we're shit orsomething. It's a question of maturing,growing up fast. I tell you... a great quote
saw in the paper the other day comesfrom Stevie Wonder's song 'Uptight'.
The line says, 'No one is better than I/
But I know rrnjust an average guy.'"That really sums it up, as far as I'mconcerned. It's a question of saying we're
just the same as everyone else, but wehave our pride and self-respect and weknow we're good. As far as I'm concerned,
we're the best... but anyone can do it."At the moment The Jam are going
through a vital transitional period, which iswhen a band's tensions and contradictions
show more than ever. The band don't want
to be "big"; they crave it. In Britain theirname is made, and they know that they can
only go on to consolidate that success.
More importantly, they consider thatthey achieved this with the minimum ofcompromise, and they want to do exactly
the same in the States. It'll be an awful lot
harder; even Elvis Costello allowed CBS
to remix and add strings to "Alison"
before they put it out as the first single.
Consequently, The Jam are almost
embarrassingly grateful for every pieceof ground that they gain, and never stop
showing their determination to get more
the honest way.
For example, it was once suggested tothem that George Martin produce thenext album "in order to get the American
market". Paul sighed, "It's just like The
Clash getting Sandy Pearlman. They'realways suggesting people like that."
Bruce took up the point: "It would justbecome George Martin, or Phil Spector, orI

To be fair, The Jam really believe that they
have nothing new to say to the press. The only
aspect that matters to them is playing live andreleasing records. Paul said, "We've beentalking about this a lot recently... especiallythe press point of view. They've been trying tofind something different to write about us forgood copy... like deep meanings about what
we're about. What we're about is being on
stage and the records... just what we say in thesongs. Yet if you say that to someone it justsounds so simple, and then they say The Jam
are a bunch of thickies. It's so difficult.
"You want to be everything. You wantpeople to come and dance to us and enjoy it
and get off on that level. We want people tolisten to what we say, and make their own
minds up. We're not preaching from any
particular stance. We just strive to be theperfect group, better than any other group is.
"The only people who always get it right are
the fans. The thing is, we don't affect your life.
We're not going to change your way of
thinking. All I'm saying is that the fans are intouch. Most of the time they don't have to ask
these things, because they know. Instead ofthem coming to say, 'What's this song about?'
they say, 'I understand that song because it
meant thisor something has
happened inwhoever it is. It wouldn't be The Jam any more."
In Philadelphia, Paul barked at the audience,"Last time we said we'd be headlining when wecame back. Next time we're here, there'll befucking queues outside."
In New York, he announced, "I have to say inall honesty this place ain't really us and I'm sureit ain't you either. What we give is what weget." By this time they'd only played four
numbers, but Paul - quite
rightly - realised that theband were slack. The
prestige of a Big Apple gig

together with their fanaticalcommitment never to put
on a poor show made themeven more desperate.

After a patchy version of"We could never
get away withdoing anythingavant-garde""Strange Town", where theguitar solo was strangled and Bruce fluffed
his usually brilliant harmonies (on record
they're pallid; on stage they're rousing), Paulblurted out, "In the end we gotta breakthrough. Everybody's gotta win in the end."
But fate was cruel and the situation just got
worse. During "Down In The Tube Station At
Midnight", Paul's amp blew. He covered up by

Invasionusing his mouth as a harmonica, almost doingpermanent damage to it in the process.
Then, as a parting shot, Paul introduced"A Bomb In Wardour Street" with, "This song
we feel is very, very close to us. It may take you
three or four years. We don't know." Thesong, accompanied on stage with a battered
tenement backdrop and exploding smokebombs (they aren't above a bit of traditionalcorn) is, of course, all about the Vortex, punk's
second home after the Roxy. Predictably, theaudience went bananas.
New York is a Jam stronghold, as an incident
earlier on in the day confirmed. DJ Mark
Simone from Radio WPIX held a competition
on air to give away 50 tickets for that night's
gig. He would stand at a certain crossroads in
New York, and the first 50 people to recognise
him would get a freebie. Hundreds of fansturned up and caused a minor commotion.
The police appeared and tried to smuggle
Simone away in one of their squad cars.
But the traffic was so bad that following the
car was easy. So everyone arrived at thepolice station and started to lay siege to whatshould have been a place of safety for Simone.
A more major source of change, however, isthe band's growing musical maturity. When
All Mod Cons and the two successive singles
came out, critics noted a new depth toWeller's songwriting. He's beginning to deal
with a larger and more subtle spectrum of
emotions, embodying them as often as not ina wider array of characters. Some artists use
characters to hide their own feelings; Weller
does the opposite.
"I use characters to express the way I feel.
I'd use a character to bring myself out more.
It's easier for people to relate to, instead ofsaying, 'This is just about me and do you dig
it?' The whole thing is so ambiguous that they
can make up their own minds and inject
themselves into it."As a result, bigger and better things areconstantly expected of the band. Everyone
seems to be waiting for Weller's masterwork,and more and more Paul finds himself being
treated as an "artist" - which brings its own
dilemmas. Did he think that such elevation
would make The Jam less accessible to fans?
"That's the only drawback. Like having anidea for a song... we could never get awaywith doing anything avantgarde, or even vaguely
avant-garde... even if wewanted to, and I'm notsaying that we do.
"The whole punk thing
started because people
were alienated by crappy
music, obscure lyrics andreferences and everything.
"We don't want to get into that. That's what
everyone was fighting about. Some people
might not have meant it, but we did. But also
we don't want to suppress anything thatwants to come through naturally. We've
overcome it in the past, so maybe we can keepon doing it. It's difficult. The day that we stop
being accessible is the day we die." ianBirchof the riffsnatchers
ken

46on tt. tam The thing o' &fleet your W.

Citing< you, oaf 01 MOO

n tsw tavIna oe MAI th

The History Of Rock is a magazine series celebrating 50 yearsof the music that changed the world - starting in 1965.
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1979

Readers' letters

JANUIRI

MM JAN-JUN IIP punk, the Pretenders' golden Hynde, a reject writes and more...
Punk is deadSo Sid Vicious is dead, and withhim must go the last festering
remains of the punk movement
which, ironically, Vicious waspartly responsible for killing. Had
the true face of punk rock been
maintained - ie, setting up analternative culture and pointing
out, through that culture, thefaults of conventional society they would still be with us.
But, of course, human instincts
caused people like Vicious andvarious others to take advantageof the movement for personal
glory and commercial gain.
So many groups conned us,
by using the images created by
the Pistols (Matlock -Rotten
version) to achieve their present
position, and then selling out torecord companies in order tomaintain that position.
When I saw Sham 69 in
January '78 in Brighton, I would
have laughed at anybody who
said they would produce thecrass commercial trash they
have recently.
And what has living in a hotel
in NewYork, making massively
publicised feature films andprintingT-shirts with your face onthem, got to do with punk?About
as much as Margaret Thatcher.
DAVID JONES, Rudwicks Clout,
Felpham, Bognor Regis, West
Sussex (MM Feb 24)

Sandy: it'll take a long time
It is just over a year since Sandy
Denny died, and though I never
knew her, it still hurts.
Contrary to most of thewrite-ups following her death,
I do believe that Sandy reached
her fullpotential. How can she
have been any better? Her gracefulcombination of strength andsensitivity is an irreplaceable
loss. Perhaps it is that some of us
had not reached our full potential
as listeners.
MARIYLN BENNETT, West 16th

Street, NewYork City (MMMayi9)

Chrissie: why pretend?
So Chrissie Hynde of thePretenders doesn't want tobecome the front lady of theband. Thanks to MarkWilliams
and the MMphotographers, she's
halfway there.
In the Pretenders feature that
Williams penned for the MM, hestates, "Unfortunately the system

has a tendency to single out any
girl in an otherwise male group,
making her star of the show."
Dead right!
He continues to say that because
Chrissie is a good guitarist she's
more a part of the band than justa front for it. So what? Debbie
Harry is a good vocalist and hervoice is an integral part ofBlondie's music. Williams thenstates that Chrissie "won't let it
happen". If it is the system thatidolises females in otherwise
male groups, then how can she
stop it -split up the group?
Besides this, the majority of theinterview revolved around
Chrissie, her previous work inother groups, etc, and how long it
took her to form the Pretenders. To
complement this, Chrissie's photo
appears on the front page, titled
The Great Pretenders -despite thefact that they're not there.
On the first page of the interview
another big photo of Chrissie
appeared, again titled as thegroup's name, but they're absent- again. Anyone who merely
glanced through the Pretenders
feature would soon grasp the factthat Chrissie Hynde has a backing
group called the Pretenders.
Also, when the MMreviewed
the recent Pretenders single,
accompanying the review wasa photo of Chrissie Hynde minus
the Pretenders yet again. So
despite the fact that Chrissie
claims (via Mark Williams) thatshe doesn't want to steal the
limelight from the rest of thegroup, the MMare doi ng it for her.
JIM JACKSON, Home Farm,
Beningsbrough, York (MM Mar 3)

A Stiff talking-to
The other day I got provokedenough to write this letter: thefirst, incidentally, I have ever
penned your way. To the point:
I received a rejection letter, oneof many I collect unwittingly
from record companies. Yes, thestruggling musician trying to getsomewhere with a tape -I'm told
we are quite a species.
Anyway, I enclose a copy of thisletterjust to let your readers see
the sort of mentality our record
industryA&R (Artists andRepertoire) people have. Yes, I am
bitter, because I think that the timeit took pea -brained friends (Stiff
Records) to create this could havebeen better spent signing me up!
Well, Messrs Dury, Lovich,
Sweet, Wallis and co, what haveyou got to say in your record
company's defence? What possible
good can come ofa letter like that,created only to please the morbid
sense ofhumourwe, as musicians,
see our profession afflicted with?
You A&R people need a slap
across the wrists with a sharp
razor. People spend time and a lotof money crating demo tapes. We
don't need your time -wasting "lapof the gods" nonsense. Why notjust send the tape or cassette back

*AN*ALBUM* IS BORN**PUBLIC* * * IMAGE
***

JuSI

01.114101-433

mouspt'Thankc iYgivingrope...
enoughus

with something constructive
attached to it? Oh, I forgot, you"don't have the time to deal witheach tape individually". Bollocks;
if you don't employ more people!
I'm sure there's enough cash
floating around your well -lined
pockets to pay them.
Well, there goes my chance ofa deal. Who cares? At least I'm
still kicking.

Joe, Topper, Fbul

THE UNDERT,
I

411

PETER POLYCARPOU, Broad Walk,
Winchmore Hill, London (MM Apr 4)

Wipe that smile
off your facelitECORT.,.

0, 229

DS
7,27
94°

Dear Hopefu:
As mustdecency be pretty obvious
to write
we'vesent one). a personalby now. wehaven'tlettereven gotto
If we'veyou (buttheat learit
right one.had it too
long.
original
on't worry
we apologise:one
it's probably
this lette. you sr.t
if it
in:
not thetakingthen we*ve
betterand if
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HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 I 89

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August 4.1979:back on
a British stage for the
first time since1g75,
Led Zeppelin playt he f irst of two hugeconcertsat Knebworth
House in Hertford shire

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"A considerable

number ofcomplaints"
MM AUG 18 Lep or no Lep, noteveryone is delighted about the stagingof rock concerts at Knebworth House.
"The bands played very late..."NEBWORTH, THAT MONUMENT to open-

air festivals which, over the past fortnight,
has hosted the cumbersome rebirth of rockpre -history (Led Zep) and the tired burial of aband that should have been snuffed in theumbilical stage (the New Barbiturates) is itself
on its knees waiting for the blade. The annual
haggling over whether or not the hordes of fresh air -'n' -vibes freaks exceeded the number agreed
on the licence has reached terminal proportions
after promoter Fred Bannister allegedly allowedin thousands of excess fans to the first Zep show.
The man responsible forlicensing the event,Gordon Dumelow, chairman of North
Hertfordshire Council's Environmental HealthCommittee, said on Monday that he will oppose
the renewal of the Knebworth licence next year,
and ifhis committee looks like going against
him, he will make it a matter of confidence; ifthey say yes to Knebworth at their October 18
meeting, he resigns.
"After four years of having our rules broken, it's
time to get this sorted out," he says. "Even theagreements reached two weeks before the first of
this year's events were not honoured. The bands
played very late on both occasions, and there wereother infringements of the agreements reached
between the council, the promoter and thelicensees. If the vote goes against me, I would
consider it a lack of confidence in me."Dumelow lives in Knebworth, and claims much
local backing. One of the central points in thedispute between council and promoter- thenumbers of fans on the site- nearly wrecked thesecond Zep show two days before it went ahead,and only half a day ofconfrontation and argument
between Bannister and Zep's manager Peter
Grant allowed it to continue.
Grant was concerned at reports -backed by theestimates of Du melow and his officers -that the
total attendance for Zep Mk 1 was around 150,000
which is 30,000 up on the top figures of 120,000

encore?1.
finals
knebworth1979
vvi 4/AGE
PE TER

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allowed under the

licence. As some bands
were on a percentage deal
41;of the gate, the figuresmeant money, and Grant
was not immediately

convinced by Bannister's
assertion that the attendance
45281
on the first Saturday was in
4p
fact around 100,000, well below
the licence limit.
The afternoon's discussions ended with anagreement that Grant's staff would keep an...4

at a count attended by the two sets ofaccountants. But it's not just a question of

attendance- I've had a considerable numberof complaints about the festival."
When Bannister spoke to MMafter his
lengthy meeting with Grant last week, theproximity of potential disaster was apparent.
"We've sorted something out now. It is backon, and we are all systems go," he said. "There
was a problem over numbers- the chairmanof the licensing authority said we were once
again in contempt of the licence -but that's
not the case. We did not exceed 100,000. We

eye on the gates and ticket

flow -a move Bannister
said he asked Grant tomake for the first show and Bannister has also
instituted an independent
check on the ticket stubs

Septemberrelease"There was a
problem overnumbers. We didn't

don't cheat. After our
meeting, Peter [Grant] wascool. Everything is happy."
But he did go on to saythat the problems ofkeeping the site intact fora week between concerts
was considerable: "Wehaven't had enough time
between concerts, andfor the first gig -not only
counting the tickets, but
exceed 100,000.
also putting them in order,
from number one to theexpenses have escalated
very last.
enormously in the week.
Dumelow at North Herts
I don't think I'll even do
Council will be getting a breakdown ofanother of these consecutive gigs."
attendance figures prepared by Bannister's
Meanwhile, as his costs rose, an estimatedaccountants, but he indicated that the list
60,000 to 70,000 people turned up for Zep 2 might not put an end to the attendance
about half the alleged figure for the first show.
wrangle. "We estimate that about 150,000
With Chairman Dumelow and his
people were at the first concert, and thecommittee riding him hard, and PeterGrant
promoter's accountants are currently inwith money on his mind, Freddy Bannister,
disagreement with Led Zeppelin's
currently taking a rest, needs more than theaccountants on this figure," he says.
Seventh Cavalry to come over the hill to"All the tickets will be produced, and our
ensure that August 11, 1979 was notlicensing officer will act as presiding officer
Knebworth's swansong.

We don't cheat"

Guiding
spirit ofLittle Feat
MM JUL 7
LOWELL GEORGE,THE
founder and guiding spirit ofLittle Feat, died in America last
Friday after a heart attack. George,
whose singing and guitar -playing had
been featured with Little Feat from1971 until their final split earlier thisyear, died in Arlington, Virginia, during
a tour to promote his first solo album.
Following a concert in Washington
DC on Thursday night, George woke
up in the Marriott Twin Bridges Hotel on Friday morning complaining of chest pains. His wife
called an ambulance, but George died within half an hour. He was aged 34.
George earned respect and admiration primarily as a slide guitarist, and played on
many sessions for other artists - notably Van Dyke Parks, Bonnie Raitt and Robert Palmer.
But it was through Little Feat that he found fame. Among his compositions for the band
were several songs which became rock standards, like "Willinmand "Sailin' Shoes".
The last few years of Little Feat's life had featured several well -publicised internal
disputes - but, ironically, once having made the break, George had been receiving highly
favourable reviews for the recent concerts with his own band.

Doctor.
'n'
Roll
The Rock

Bob Dylan's Slow Train
Coming debuts on British radio. Is
Bob after a DJ slot on Capital?

NME

NEVER MIND GOD moving in
mysterious ways, check this out for
weirdness. On Tuesday (June 26) Bob
Dylan's US attorney turned up, unannounced,
at the offices of London's Capital Radio withthe tape of the next Dylan album (Slow Train
Coming) and a personal message from The
Zim himself. The said attorney introduced
himself to the station's surprised
programmers, played them the master tapeof the album and stated that he'd return thenext afternoon with an un-refusable offer!
Seems that during his last visit to London
Dylan took a liking to Roger Scott's
intelligently presented afternoon show andthe gist of his personal message was that he'dbe obliged if, immediately following the
Wednesday four o'clock news break, Scottwould premiere "Precious Angel", one of the
tracks from Slow Train Coming.
An extended medium -paced strummer
based around the "Sweet Jane" riff, sung ina Blonde On Blonde voice and sounding likea [Dire Straits'] Communique outtake, itfeatures an ambiguous love lyric which could
be directed to either a woman, God or both.
However, in granting both Capital Radioand Roger Scott this world exclusive there was
one small proviso. In return Dylan asked for ataped segment of the Scott show featuring"Precious Angel", so he could personallyjudge how the track scanned within thecontext of a regular British radio programme.
That's The Zim's story as put forward by his
attorney. However, we here at Thrills reckon
the man is after Gerald Harper's Sunday
Affair slot on Capital. And just for the record,
Slow Train Coming is produced by Jerry
Wexler and features Dire Straiters Mark
Knopfler (guitar) and Pick Withers (drums)
with Barry Beckett (keyboards), Tim
Drummond (bass) plus The Muscle Shoals
Horns and a few back-up singers. It isscheduled for a worldwide September
release. Roy Carrr SLOW TRAIN COMINGBOB DYLAN

The Specials:(1-r)Roddy
Radiation. Neville Staple.
John Bradbury.Terry Hall.
Lynval Golding, Horace
Panter and Jerry Dammers

JULY -SEPTEMBER

1979
Sham 69 haveFirst releases on 2 -Tone
Coventry band The Specials turn label
impresarios, with a debut single from Madness.
MM

THE SPECIALS HAVE announced the first releaseson their own 2 -Tone record label. The debut single
is from London band Madness on August 10, called"The Prince", coupled with "Madness".
The Specials release a second single in August anda debut album in September. Their current single,"Gangsters", is now being distributed by Chrysalis.
Another signing to the label is Coventry -based band
The Selecter, who go into the studio next month to record
a single for September release.
The Specials will reopen the newly soundproofed
Electric Ballroom on July 21 with a special 2 -Tone Night.
Confirmed to appear are The Specials, Dexys Midnight

Runners, Madness
and The Selecter.
Doors will open
at 7.30pm and tickets
will be available fromagencies and Rock On
Records priced £2.
More Specials dates for August include the Bilzen
Festival, Belgium (17), Manchester Fun House (10) anda benefit for one -parent families at the Hammersmithchosen to finish
their career with aconcert in Finland
later this month.
Their Glasgow
Apollo concert last
Friday is believed tobe their last British
gig. The occasion
saw for the first timeon stage the mergerof Sham members
Jimmy Pursey andDave Treganna withformer Pistols Steve
Jones and Paul
Cook. The quartet
will be going ahead,says Sham manager
Tony Gordon, as
long as contractual
matters can besorted out. The
other half of Sham Dave Parsons andRick Goldstein -arelikely to form a new
band, he adds.
Sham's new single,"Hersham Boys", isset for mid -Julyrelease. MM JUL 7

Palais (21) with Linton Kwesi Johnson.
A major UK tour is planned for September and someextra European dates in August.

"Breathi'ng space"he's

NME AUG 18 Chaz Jankel

leaving tile Blockheads. Again.
says

The Damned, The
Ruts have London
dates at the Music
Machine (July12),
Rainbow Theatre(13)and Marquee(19). They follow up
their Virgin single

cHAZJANKEL, keyboardist/guitarist and musicaldirector with Ian Dury's Blockheads, this week revealed
that he was to quit the band at the end of the month.
Claiming that the band's music wasn't stimulating enough andwas stifling his creativity, Jankel added that he wouldn't bejoining any new band or taking on any commitments as a
producer for some time to come. His intention is to head forSouth America and then travel up through North America.
He also stated that his songwriting partnership with Ian Durywas through and all he wanted at present was a "breathing
space". Janke', who first met Dury after a Kilburn & The HighRoads gig at London's Nashville Rooms, has worked with theBlockheads for three years and was the musician mainly
responsible for providing Dury's lyrics with their musicalsettings. However, he claims his departure "doesn't mean a lot"-a sentiment echoed by Blockheads publicist Kosmo Vinyl, who
explained, "Though Chaz had always been on Ian's recordings,
we've played more live gigs without him than with him.
"He left the band for a whole year once and missed several
tours, including the American one. We didn't replace him andjust went on as a six -piece, which we could do in the future.
"Chaz doesn't like touring. He even turned down a tour with
Van Morrison once and got a job in John Lewis selling shirts
instead. Really, it's no shock -horror thing."

BLOCKHEAD
I BUSTER CHAZ!!

0- After a tour with

"Babylon's Burning"with their debut
album, to be
engineered by Mick
Glossop. MM JUL14

0,- Scritti Politti will
be releasing three
singles on the same
day in August on
their own St Pancras
label. They aregoing into thestudios on July3 forthree days to record
them and on July4
their second John
Peel session will bebroadcast by Radio
One. They play at
the University of
London Union with
Rema Rema andChaz Jankel:
plans to go to
South America

Good Missionaries
next Tuesday.
MM JUL7

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 93

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THE DAMNED`Anarchy?
You'reTHE DAMNED havere-formed, whichspells chaos as they hit
New York on a quest

for money, "boilers"and helicopters. On

stage, they destroy
everything. Off it, theybamboozle the press.
What will they do when
they get popular?
"Popular?" cries
Captain Sensible.
"Have you heard

our records?"

fucking
well goingto yet it"
MELODY MAKER JU LY r-

THE LITTLE BASTARDS aren't here.
Monday afternoon, and The Damned still haven't
arrived in New York. I've been stood up. Flight EZ99038 R
had touched down at1FK at 5.30 that morning. New York
twinkled below us. It was like landing on a pinball table.
Dawn was breaking like a hangover. A Chinese taxi driver
had agreed to drive me to the hotel only after I'd agreed to pay him double
the normal fare. I staggered into the Gramercy Park at 6.30, daylightswanning with me through the lobby.
And the bastards weren't there.
So the reporter went for a drink. There was a bar somewhere around 3rd
Avenue and East 14th Street. There was a derelict outside with a tin can
and a sign around his neck. "I AM 90% BLIND," it said. "HELP ME." I stolea couple of dimes out of his tin and fell into the bar.
By this time I was convinced that I'd been set up. It would be typical of
The Damned's contrary sense of humour- fly some helpless hack to New
York on a banger charter flight and leave him there, broke and discarded.
I imagined The Damned lounging around some swimming pool at a
Ramada Holiday Inn in California as I trekked the streets of the Bowery.
The barman brought me a beer. I imagined Vanian in his bat person threads enjoying a Tequila Sunrise beneath the West Coastsun, a muted breeze tickling the palm trees, Rat and Sensible
howling with laughter at my misfortune.
The reporter is stirred from his morbid daydreams. He is being
punched on the arm. Ah, a friendly native.
He pokes me again with stubby fingers. I can feel the bruise
already swelling on my arm. He looks like someone's recently
wrapped his face around a lamp -post. His front teeth are on x.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

117

.Vh7 W ItYw NPW WM.. WI W. SI =PIO

I

95

1979
vacation. Thith cautheth hith tongue to get thtuck in the gap. Wheneverhe thpeakth he showerth me with thpit. But I don't care; I'm not proud. I'll
talk to anybody.
"Get lost," I smile. "Yew frum outta town?" he slurs. My accent gave me
away. "Prick-athhole," he says. Charming. I turn away.
"Down' tern away frum me when I' tawken eya..." He begins tomumble. "Thith it h a grayyyt chitty -we down' need thcum like yew
heer... Cum heer with yewr fucken dungareeth and yewr long fucken hair
-who needth it, bathtid?" He spits on my leg. I protest, vigorously.
"Hey- dat's inuffa dat." It's the barman. "Get owtta heer."
The voice of decency! The oaf beside me doesn't move.
"Getja ass off dat stool," the barman said.
The great oaf still doesn't move. This is hardly surprising. The barman
isn't talking to him. He's talking to me. I protest my innocence.
"Hey," the barman says, leaning over the bar. "Dja wanna leave heerwidja lip ina sling?"
I limp into the afternoon sun on 3rd Avenue, fuming. Where the hollygo -lightly are the bloody Damned?
VERYONE THE REPORTER had spoken to over the previous
week had laughed up their sleeve at the news that he would be
FJ going to New York to see The Damned. Everyone thought thereporter mad. They reminded him of his last adventure on the road withThe Damned. And the reporter shivered involuntarily at the memory of
Captain Sensible setting fire to his hair as the Damned van slunk
through a murky November afternoon on its way to Middlesbrough.
The Damned had split up not too long after that tour. The reporter had
run into Captain Sensible at an XTC gig at the Lyceum. The Captain told
him that Brian James had dumped the boys that afternoon. The reporter
had shed no tears. He thought of all the other hacks who would now bespared the nightmare of accompanyingThe Damned on one of their
ludicrous excursions. The world was suddenly a brighter place to hang up
your hat.
Then the little bastards, minus Brian James, re-formed.
They even had the blasted temerity to score a hit record with a chunk ofnoise called "Love Song". The reporter winced. The Damned were hot
copy again. The reporter sympathised with those unfortunate scribblers
dispatched bysadistic editors to cover the devils on their British tour.
The routine read like a familiar nightmare- the journalist as martyr to
the group's violent whimsy. Sensible and Scabies seemed as
cantankerous and full of fierce mischief as ever.
The reporter twisted his way out of every invitation to join them during
their British tour. Then he was asked to join them in NewYork. A large
house brick fell on his head. He agreed.
That was when everyone started laughing up their sleeves. They
imagined the poor reporter suffering indescribable humiliations at thehands of the Captain and Rat -being dangled naked from the observation
deck of the Empire State; thrown overboard from the Staten Island ferry;being incinerated by the pyromaniac Sensible. Oh, how they laughed!
The reporter drowsed on the edge of sleep in the departure lounge at
Gatwick. He had a dream, a delirious half-conscious nightmare. He wasbeing suffocated by Captain Sensible. He was being hurled from the roofof a World Trade Centre tower. He was strapped to the Statue Of Liberty
with a stick of dynamite in his mouth... The reporter woke up, sweating.

rrHE DAMNED ARE at Hurrah's. That's where the bloody Damned
are. Hurrah's is basically an upmarket CBGB with disco decor.
The Damned don't like Hurrah's. Nothing personal; they just hateeverything to do with America. Especially Americans.
This is The Damned's second assault on the bastions of bland. They firstplayed in New York in the early months of 1977. They were the first Blighty
punk squad to hit the colony, and the Yanks were set to squabbling about
their merit.
Back home they had things pretty well stitched up. They'd played anational tour with Bolan; "New Rose" had been acclaimed as a classic,
sniffed some chart action.
The Damned were part of the punk triumvirate that included the Pistols
and The Clash. Jake Riviera brought them into America. They were living
on five dollars a day; returned broke but cheerful; played the Roundhouse
under a banner that smiled "Tax Exiles Return".
That year was alive with promise for The Damned. Then they released
their second album, MusicForPleasure, and the critics dumped on them.
Rat quit. Jake Riviera discovered Elvis Costello, left Stiff and cooled on The
Damned. Dave Robinson, left alone at the helm at Alexander Street, had
never disguised his antipathy for The Damned. He piled them into thedumper at the earliest opportunity. The group didn't last too much longer.
Sensible screws himself into a ball of disgust when there is any mentionof either Stiff, Riviera or Robinson.
"Stiff owe us thousands," he whines. "We never got a penny in royalties
off the bastards. They've got this attitude, right, that bands are just bog rolls. They just throw them away.""It was our money," Scabies protests, "that launched Ian Dury and
Costello. The prats."
When Scabies, Vanian and Sensible decided -after the fruitless
individual pursuits of last year -to reform The Damned, they went to Stiffto talk to Robinson, to plead for some kind of financial support.
"You know what he did?" Sensible asks.
I didn't.
"He sat there and laughed. Looked at us and laughed..."Yeah, I can imagine him doing that. Dave's got a marvellous senseof humour.
"...then he told us to fuck off."
The MU is currently investigating the Damned claim that Stiff owe
them royalties on their two albums.

THIS TIME AROUND The Damned are on 20 dollars a day, havea new manager- Rick Rodgers, who also has a hand on The

Specials' pulse- another hit single in Blighty, and they've
moved uptown, from the Bowery sleaze of CBGB to the rather morerefined air of Hurrah's.
The tour so far has been a success. In Washington the audience had
even gobbed at Sensible. This he considered the highlight of the tour.
"It was great," he enthuses. "Like home."
Sensible, Scabies and Al Ward (the new bass player) struggled throughthe initially meagre crowd and onto the stage. They plugged in.
The trio kicked the audience in the shins with a robust version of "Jet
Boy, Jet Girl". The audience exchanged confused looks. The audience, asboth Sensible and Scabies later tell them, are a bunch of wankers. NY
groovers, most of them, playing at being delinquent. Their studied coolwinds the Captain and Scabies up to a fierce pitch of
hostility; they decide to declare war.
'
Good old Damned: the spirit of confrontation that marked
the beat in '76 is still fighting for breath here, poking its
tongue at us and crossing its eyes...
Sensible cranks up the voltage. The big surprise is that he'sa much better guitarist than the discarded Brian James. He
spins out shuddering blocks of crazed electricity. Hardly
melodic, but it bites the balls off the audience. Vanianwhose sudden entrance takes the audience by surprise stalks the stage; all fangs and little beetle scurries. Ward juststands there: a monolithic boom blasting through the
frantic scrabble of noise. Scabies sounds like a one man airraid, rampaging around his kit as if he's taken an immense
dislike to it. Heavy-metal punk is what it is, with splashesof mutant psychedelia.
"This one's for Rod Stewart -it's called 'Stretcher Case',"the Captain informs the audience in his warm and1111511111
affectionate manner. "And I wish he was one -I wish he

r

V

I

+

T11104tt

THE DAMNED

was dead!" It's an old joke. The audience isn't
smiling, though.
"YOU SUCK, YOU ROTTEN LIMEYS!"

cries someone.
"PUNK! WE WANT PUNK!" cries someone else.

"You don't know fuck all about punk," Sensible
berates the Yanks. "It's just a fashion to you...
IfTed Nugent had short hair, you'd think hewas
a punk... It's people like you that split us up," hecries, sounding hurt. Poor darling.
"FUCK OFF!" the audience shouts.
"Shut your fucking gob," Sensible replies in themanner of Peter Ustinovgiving an after -dinnerspeech at Buckingham Palace.
Rat stands on his drum stool, bungs his sticks
up his nose and flicks snot at the audience.
Charming little monkey. They gallop through"New Rose" -prefaced by a Bad Company
burlesque. All-round entertainers, already! They
play "Suicide"- "Why dontcha? " someone asks.
Vanian leans over and bites him on the neck.
"Problem Child" jumps out of the wings and terrorises our sensibilities.
This is music to go colourfully berserk and murder the wife and children to.
"Do you think we're better than The Jam?" Sensible asks.

"Stiff owe us

thousands.
We never got
a penny inroyalties""Naaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Al Ward starts playing the riff from "In The City". This is meant to bea joke. The audience applauds. "Shut up, you shits!" Sensible quips.
"The next one's called 'Help' and you need a lot of it, 'cos you're a bunchof wankers...""Help" is duly kicked in the groin and left groaning in the gutter. "StabYour Back" is dragged out of the kitchen and beaten to a bloody pulp. The
gig begins to descend into absolute chaos... I remember the Captain and
Vanian storming off the stage shouting abuse at the audience.
Rat staggered drunkenly toward the microphone. He picked up
Sensible's guitar. He began to remind me vividly of Denis Law.
"So who's gownter plug this guitar in?" he wanted to know.
"Fuck you," someone cries tough.
"If there was half a chance you probably would," Rat grins, an evil glint
in his bloodshot eyes.
He plugs the guitar in.
"Okay, shit heads -you asked for this..."The gig has now become a fierce argument between Rat and theaudience. The Captain reappears. He's stripped down to his underpants.
"Cap," Rat shouts. "Tell you the kind of group who'd go down well over'ere...""Oozat?""Generation X.""I'd like to strangle Billy Idol..."It's like watching a music -hall double act. Sensible starts banging about
on the drums. Rat plays "Whole Lotta Love".
"You pricks!" a coffee-table NY punk shouts.
"Right, you asked for this. You want anarchy? You're fucking well goingto get it," Rat announces.
He proceeds to ravage the guitar. The decibel level is outrageous; myears are bleeding and my teeth are falling into my vodka. Scabies
swaggers around the stage, sticks his crotch in the faces of the bewilderedfaithful at the front of the stage.
Rat plays the intro to "PrettyVacant". Vanian reappears (does he keep
dropping down from a perch in the rafters?). Rat bangs someone on thehead with the neck of the guitar, looks pleased. He has a grin like an
exploding ulcer on his face. The Cap plays a drum solo. Rat grinds theneck of the guitar against the mic stand. It sounds like squirrels being
tortured backstage. Al Ward whacks his bass against the amps. Rat

swings his guitar against the speakers. Someone rushes from the sideof the stage, wrestles with him, snatches the guitar off him. Rat picks up
half the drum kit, smashes that instead into the speakers.
Al's bass is now thoroughly demolished. He topples the speakers on his
side of the stage; smashes his amp into one of the floor -to -ceiling mirrorsthat decorate the club. The mirror shatters. Sensible storms through theremains of the drum kit. Rat steams offstage followed byAl and Vanian.
The amps are screaming feedback.
Sensible hurls the top of the mic stand across the length of the club; itsmacks against the far wall, inches above the head of one of the club's

resident sound people. He's just witnessed most of
his brand-new equipment being comprehensively
trashed by this group of crazed Limeys -and thenthey have the nerve to try to kill him! He's fairly
berserk with rage...
The noise from the stage is still utterly fierce.
People are turning away, shell-shocked,
relieved that the carnage is finally over.
"Buncha fucken nuts -shoulda dragged 'em
outside an' beaten shit outta 'em," one surly
individual is telling his chums.
Hurrah's exasperated owner is still on thestage standing in the middle of the wreckage.
"Ahhhhh..." he says. "Tomorrow The
Damned will be back," he says weakly.
A bottle smashes against the stage.

CC

EY," SAYS THE interviewer

from Punk magazine. "I heard
you guys smashed the helloutta Hurrah's last night and all ended up

in the hospital.""Don't believe nuffink till you've tasted it," Scabies laughs hoarsely.
"Shut up, sit down and Pave a drink, you moronicAmerican twat."
We are at the bar at the Gramercy Park. Rat has volunteered tohandle all interviews today.
"I WANT to do them," he had announced. "I want to see my name in
the papers. I want my face everywhere. I want to be famous and rich so
I won't have to spend all my time with 'orrible little tossers like Sensible
and the Creature..." The Creature is Rat's nickname for Vanian. "I wantto have lots of money... and a helicopter."
Rat won't be as busy as he anticipated this afternoon. New York Rocker
magazine have already cancelled their interview. They thought lastnight's gig was appalling.
"Shit on their heads, I will," Rat says. "Wait till my solo album comesout and they're crawling around..."We retire to Rat's room. Sensible is there. They con him into being
interviewed. The chap from Punkwants to know why Brian James isn't
in the band.
"'Cos we didn't want him to be in the band. He's a tosser," says Rat.
"A pain to work for. One of life's great losers."
Why did The Damned reform, asks the chap from Punk.
"Money," says Rat. "Fun. Boilers."
The chap from Punk asks Rat what he thinks of Public Image.
"They're a dustbin full of shit. I love 'ern. Rotten's a gen ius. Ain't anyone
who sells shit as well as Johnny Rotten. He keeps shovelling it out andpeople keep buying it. A genius."
The conversation slides toward Sid and Nancy.
"I think he probably did it," Rat says. "He was a nasty little thug,
you know... and, like, there are drugs over here that can make you
think that cutting your arm off's a good idea. And Sid was partial tohis drugs..."Sensible, meanwhile, has agreed to be interviewed by a fellow called
Brad, from High Times magazine.
"Are you from an authentic working-class background?" he asks
the Captain.
"Well, me dad repairs street lights... 'Eee's got a truck with a tower on
the back. Sort of a crane thing. Ratty's dad was a street -lamp repairer,
too... He used to light up the old gas lamps...""So," says the fellow from High Times," there's a tradition of that inyour families...""Uhhhh... 'spose so," says the Cap. "And I'll probably end up doing it
in a couple ofyears as well if this doesn't succeed. And we DO appear to
be on a course for self-destruction...""What about the future?" Brad asks, concerned. "What ifyou actuallybecame successful?"
The Captain collapses into a laughing ball.
"Can you really see US becoming successful?" he howls. "Like, after
last night -can you see theAmerican public taking us to their hearts andnurturing us... Successful? Popular? Have you ever heard our records?"
The Captain disappears into his bedroom, still laughing raucously.
"The Damned conquerAmerica," he yelps. "Worra fucking joke."
The door slams behind him. Ai/an/ones
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 197

4

6/611008 AO AHOISIH 186

Liaquietiou!veki

pueuopuJejaiad-ubushauoHsauler

14,4
Ill

"N ow is no

the time to 4,4
be a cultnherowow/ wile trier strikes gold withTHE PRETENDERS. "I live fighting thesystem. Now, maybe, I'm married tothe system," says CHRISSIE HYNDE
of her steadfastly commercial act.
"And when I divorce it, I'm gonna
milk it for a load of alimony."

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 199

MM JULY 21-

THE PRETENDERS' TRANSITwas hurtling down the
motorway, pushing past the legal limit in the outside
land. Jimmy Honeyman-Scott was in the front seat next
to Dave, the driver. Martin Chambers was sitting behind
the guitarist. The group's manager, Dave Hill, was asleep
next to the drummer. I was nodding off in the seat behind
Hill, opposite Pete Farndon. Chrissie Hynde was curled up in the farcorner of the van, behind the bass player, absorbed in a copy of Raymond
Chandler's The Little Sister.
A soporific mood had descended upon the company, provoked by theheat and a round of early -morning drinks at the motel in Blackburn. I was
drifting off into the ozone, head bumping uncomfortably against thewindow, but otherwise at peace with the world.
Suddenly, there was a frightening explosion. It rocked me right outof the seat. The Transit was careering across three lanes and my heart
was in my mouth and racing for the lifeboats. The explosion was so loudI thought God had come screaming feet first through the bloody roof.
There was a moment of utter panic, a frantic
shower of glass and I thought we were all

remarkably free from first -night nerves and blunders. "I'm too nervous tobe nervous," Chrissie Hynde had remarked, pacing the tatty armpit ofa dressing room before the gig. Elvis had smiled, leaning against a wallwith a beer, recognising the symptoms of first -night duress.
The club was small and packed. The audience was crammed tightagainst the low stage. The heat was so intense it threatened to melt youreyeballs. There was no air to spare and the breath was wrenched fromyour lungs. I spent the evening trapped three rows from the front of thestage, surrounded by sweating, dancing bodies, feeling as if I was being
smacked continuously on the chest by a giant hammer. By the time The
Pretenders slammed on the brakes at the end of the accelerating rush of
their encore, "MysteryAchievement", I was a walking bucket ofsweat;utterly exhausted but exhilarated by the power avalanche of music that
had swept over the audience.
The rest of the evening clambered over the fence in a bewildered blur.
Tired and hungry, The Pretenders had returned to their motel in searchof calories and refreshments. The hotel was all wrapped up for the night.
A crusty old night porter directed them to the Dunkirk. He describedthe Dunkirk as an all-night restaurant. The Dunkirk turned out to bea 24 -hour truck stop.

"I can see rightheading straight for heaven's waiting room
for a premature appointment with eternity.
Goodbye world, I thought.
The Transit lurched to a shuddering stop on
the hard shoulder, brushing against the grassverge alongside the motorway asphalt. The
windscreen was completely shattered. The
inside of the van looked like an accident at a
glass-blowing factory. Jimmy and Dave were up
to their ankles in lethal fragments ofglass. The
driver's face was bleeding; the guitarist had cutson his arms. Apiece of flying glass had nicked
Chrissie Hynde's face.
There was a stunned silence as we sat, nervous
and speechless.
"What the fuck hit us?" asked Pete Farndon, brushing glass from his"Lorry Drivers Will Be Served First At All
Times", said the sign loosely tacked on the

kitchen wall. We weren't inclined to argue. The
Dunkirk was harshly lit by bright fluorescentlights; the interior was grim and garish. Pete
Farndon headed straight for the pinballmachine, an image straight out of"The Wait".
Martin Chambers played pool with a gang of
local cowboys. Chrissie leaned against thejuke -box. Willie Nelson sang "Blue Eyes Crying
In The Rain". Jimmy Honeyman-Scottwondered where he could get a drink.
We sat in the Transit waiting for Farndon andChambers. Chrissie Hynde cried tough.
"Let's fuckin' leave 'em," she scowled. "I comeall thewayfromAkron,0-fuckin'-hio and end up with a buncha hickswho
just wanna play pinball and shoot pool all the fuckin' time. It's disgusting.""Martin won't leave until he's beaten those cowboys," Dave Hill said
wearily. It was 3.30am.
"That's the trouble with these homosexuals," Chrissie growled. "Theyalways think they've gotta prove themselves."
Farndon and Chambers ambled through the night.
"It's all right," smirked Jimmy. "The Liberal Party's just coming.""Good," snapped Chrissie Hynde. "Let's sleep."Ah - the glamour of the road!

through someof these people

trying tobuild you up"

lap. "Skylab?"
We laughed uneasily.
Dave Hill tipped back his pork -pie hat. "Well," he said, "that wasvery nearly that. I really thought that was the tour over before we'deven started..."Jimmy chuckled, the colour creeping back to his face. "Well," he said
turning to me, "at least it must be good for the old story. Things were
getting a little dull."

HE PRETENDERS WERE only two days into their British tour

when they so narrowly escaped their reluctant rendezvous withthe angels. Chester and Blackburn had been scratched from thegig sheet, but there were 20 or more dates still to be crossed off. An
early retirement from the game on a stretch of Midlands motorway
might have made legends of The Pretenders, but the rock audiencewould've been denied the continued, vital presence of a band thatsome consider to be the most exciting combo on the planks andpotential heirs to the throne in the '80s.

11

It wouldn't have done much for my future, either, come to think of it.
The audience that had been so clearly thrilled byThe Pretenders at
Smartyz in Chester would have missed them, for sure. So would Elvis
Costello. The bespectacled one had zeroed in on the opening night of thetour at Smartyz and left bristling with enthusiasm, promising to write
a song for them should they need an addition to their already potent
armoury of Chrissie Hynde originals.
"A nice cat," Chrissie had said of Elvis. "An aggressive little

bastard, though."
Smartyz had not looked an auspicious venue for the
opening salvo ofThe Pretenders' present campaign.
Chester itself had seemed to be slumbering in its
own provincial inertia, a town for pensioned -off
retirement rather than rock'n'roll action. The kindof place where they bring down the shutters atsunset and roll up the pavements.
The Pretenders, though, are excitement on legs.
They could make a graveyard dance. The gig was
100 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

CONTACT WITH THE Pretenders had first been made a week
before their tour opened in Chester. They were making a promo
film of their new single, "Kid", at a funfair in Gerrards Cross.
The principals of this little adventure had tiptoed through the sunlight
to be introduced to the reporter. A curious, even sensitive time, this. The
group are wary, checking out the journalist, knowing that for the next
week he's going to be living in their back pockets. The journalist,
meanwhile, is anxious to make a good impression...
Jimmy Honeyman-Scott is first on the scene. The most obviously
extrovert of The Pretenders, he's brash, impetuous and immediately
likeable. Pete Farndon is initially a little more reserved. A darker
presence, he arrived with a swash-buckling bandana tied around hisneck, clumping across the green in heavy biker's boots.A roguishworldliness hangs about him. Martin
Chambers strikes a mediating balance
between Jimmy's raucous flash andFarndon's quiet inscrutability.
Chrissie Hynde arrives last.
She's dressed in black leather
and comes on with a brisk
impatience and a curt
acknowledgement, tousled
black hair and a briefly
intimidating glower. The
press that accompanied The
Pretenders' debut early this year
portrayed her as a somewhat

THE PRETENDERS

I turn an unpleasant shade ofgreen and promise to meetthem the following week in Chester.
HIS PAPER FIRST featured The Pretenders in our
February 3 issue. Mark Williams had seen them at
the Moonlight in West Hampstead. He returned

11with an enthusiastic report and petitioned for support.

The next week, Richard Williams followed him onto
these pages with an equally encouraging review. The
week after that, The Pretenders were on the cover andMark Williams offered us the first printed history of thegroup. Other publications followed suit.
The Pretenders were the hottest act in town -and they'd
only released one single, a cover ofThe Kinks' "Stop Your
Sobbing" (backed by the even more impressive Hynde/
Farndon collaboration, "The Wait") and played a mere
bagful ofgigs. They were overnight media sensations
with a single creeping around the arse -end of the Top 30.
And hardly anyone outside West Hampstead had everclapped eyes on them.
The sudden rush of attention could have killed them,
however well intentioned the general enthusiasm. The
British music press has a voracious appetite for novelty,
and The Pretenders were February's candidates for the-deep breath -future of rock'n'roll.
"It really pissed me off," says Chrissie Hynde, reflecting
upon the barrage of publicity that surrounded The
Pretenders in February. "But I shouldn't have been pissed
off, I should've been more hip to the press, I shoulda
understood it better...
"But, like, at that stage you don't wanna whole lotta
attention. You don't wanna lotta people looking overyour fuckin' shoulder when you're just putting
something together. You don't really want anyone
around. They sta rt giving you advice and

Me
Maker
Chrissie Hynde onstage:"Something
good comesalongand
everybody rushes in"

Exclusive!

BOSTON'S

BRITISHDATESPRETENDERS

JAllY
SACK

temperamental individual, given to flashes ofpetulance and temper. I had vaguely expected
some kind of screaming harridan, loud -mouthedand arrogant -but here she is under a fierce July sun,running through take after take of"Kid", makeup
melting in the heat for nearly three hours and nota murmur of complaint or moody shadow boxingwith her ego.
Keef, the director of the film, confers with her. She
listens, takes his advice, uses his knowledge to her
11advantage, and works pat ient ly a nd conscientiously.
She is keen for the director to feature the entire bandin the film, pushing Jimmy forward during his solos on"Kid" and later on "Tattooed Love Boys". During a break in the filming
she generously agrees to a quick photo -session with Tom Sheehan,posing with some guys from the fair.
The rest of the group seem similarly determined to enjoy the afternoon.
They don't waste time whining about having to stand about in their stage
clothes in the blistering heat. Keef suggest a sequence with them all on aswitchback carousel affair. They all clamber aboard (even the journalist
and the photographer are enlisted as extras -we weren't terribly satisfied
with our performances, though).
They spend a bone-ratt ling 30 minutes being hurled around thecircuit. Jimmy takes his guitar on board, plays his solo whistling
around the bends and dips at a ridiculous speed that has the moresensitive among us clenching our teeth and holding on grimly to thecontents of our stomachs.
"Right," Jimmy announces as we come finally to a stop. "Everyone into
the pub, drink as much as you can for20 minutes and we'll come back anddo it again."

GARY
TRB

SPLIT
4,3)

you're not asking for it.
"They start point ing you in directions, youknow, man, and you're still findingyour own
direction... And it can be, like, dangerous ifyou
start listening to them when they're, like, on thefuckin' phone and ramming themselves down
your throat...""There we were," says Dave Hill, "on our first
couple of gigs and everybody was saying, 'This is,
like, the peak of the group- this is the time to seethem -they're firing on all 10 cylinders...' And weweren't. We could really have come a cropper afterthat kind of attention coming so early.
"You know how it is- something good comesalong and everybody rushes in because they want
to be first. And that might be good for the papers,
but it isn't always good for the band."Fortunately, The Pretenders, as Hill remarks, had
the good sense to pull back from further exposure,
to resist the immediate temptation of milking themedia for quick rewards.

"I don't think anyone in the band thought, 'Whammmm!That's it,
we've made it...' It could have been more difficult with some dodgy little
band with no head for that kind of pressure. But this group knows where
it's going and they're not going to be taken in by a sudden rush ofenthusiasm... We all realised that the group hadn't done anythingyet tomatch our potential.
"I realised that as much as they did, you know. I never believed it would
just happen that quickly. The band has to make its own success... It won't
be made by all the good press in the world, as grateful as we might be forthat encouragement. People will make up their own mind when they see
the band. The band know that and they know that it's not something they
can achieve with a couple of gigs and a fewgood reviews...""We were never deluded," attests Chrissie Hynde emphatically. "I cansee right through some of these people who're trying to build you up'cos it looks good on them. You know- a new band comes out andeveryone jumps on them, someone writes about them and it's like, 'Hey
-I've discovered this hot new act!' And they discard you a few months .
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 1101

0

1979

JULY -SEPTEMBER

later after everyone else picks up on you... Fuck, man, I didn't want to
get into that one.
"I wanted these people off my back, like now. I don't dig attention when
it's not warranted. And, like, we talked with a few people -and that was it.
We did it. And at the time there was just no more to fuckin' say. So wepulled back... and you, like, say, 'Well, that's enough -let's wait this out
awhile.' Then the next thing you know they're all saying, 'O00000h,they're playing hard to get. Coming on like fuckin' stars.' But I never wentout looking for press in the first place, you know. And we ain't stars. We've
just had coupla minor hits, man. We ain't deceiving ourselves. There's
just no way you can win in the media game..."The pressure on The Pretenders at that time came not only from themedia. WEA, who distribute Hill's label, Real, insisted initially that theyquickly follow"Stop Your Sobbing" with another single.
"There was a lot of pressure from the record company," Hill says.
"Maybe if I'd been managing a group like The Damned, say, I would havemade them whack out a new single straight away. I mean, I could haverushed them into the studio to record 'Girl Don't Come' with a Nick Lowesound -alike production and maybe have got them another hit. But that's
not the way to do it. We don't need that.
"We have to do it at our own pace -so, sure, there was a great deal ofpressure, but the band comes first. Not the record company. The bandhas to feel comfortable with what they're doing. So they went into thestudio, did some songs, and when they came up with something they felt
happy with, we released it... You have to resist the temptation to race
ahead ofyourself.""Yeah," says Chrissie Hynde. "Like, the moment someone starts tellingme what to do and when to do it, man, I just pack up and walkaway."

HE PRETENDERS' TRANSIT is motoring down the hill into
Blackburn's early -evening silence. The town is dead, deserted.
Jimmy is in the back of the van showing off his new haircut.
"It's a lot better short like that," Dave Hill agrees. "I mean, when you
joined the band you looked like Bjorn Borg.""Played like him too," smirks Chrissie Hynde.

11"Thanks -a -fucking -lot," says Jimmy.
Jimmy had earlier been giving his side of the story of how he joined
The Pretenders. Something of a local hero in his native Hereford, he had
played with a series of bands whose collective contribution to rock'n'roll

was positively minimal. The nearest he had come to any kind of notablesuccess was as a member of Cheeks, the band formed by the former Mott
The Hoople keyboards player Verden Allen. Martin Chambers was thegroup's drummer. Pete Farndon, another Hereford musician, recruited
Honeyman-Scott when he and Chrissie Hynde were looking formusicians for The Pretenders.
He came to London for a rehearsal and demo recordings: "I just asked
for a couple of hundred blues and two grams of speed for the sessions."
Chrissie quickly dismissed him as a dishevelled speed -freak. Then she
heard him play and wanted him for the band. He wasn't sure, said he'dthink about it.
"I thought she was a bit of a monster," he recalled. "She wasreally aggressive and angry. I'd had enough of all that with thewhole punk thing. I wasn't into that at all." Jimmy hesitatedand stalled. Then Nick Lowe agreed to produce "...Sobbing".
Jimmy needed no more persuasion. Nick Lowe is one of
Jimmy's two real heroes. The other is Dave Edmunds.
"I was in like a shot," he smiles.
Jimmy seems to have rather
fallen for old Bash in a big way,
picking up on several of
Lowe's more obvious

mannerisms -including

rA

Nick's taste for thedemon alcohol. Thishas been a cause ofsome concern to Dave
Hill. Hill's concern isbrushed aside by Jimmy.
"I just like getting out of
it," he states.
It's a dangerous game he's
playing, though: he's
tasting success and
102 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

celebrity for the first time outside his provincial stompingground andit could get out of hand. That's what Dave Hill is worried about. Chrissie
recognises it, too.
"He'll have to work it out for himself," she tells Hill after one drunken
escapade in Hereford. "Fuck- he's young enough to grow out of it. You
shoulda seen me a coupla years ago. Let him ride it out..."CHRISSIE HYNDE, A couple of years ago, was losing out allalong
the line, so one respects her advice. 1977 found her in London,
hanging on the breadline, still trying to crystallise her ideas for a

rock'n'roll band. Her frustrations have been recorded in detail and neednot be repeated here, and as she says, she's put the various trials andtribulations into perspective now. She looks back without bitterness oranger on the disappointments and bruised hopes of that period.
"I wasn't scuffling around for that long, really... maybe a long time on
the present music scene. You know, these days, someone gets it there andthe manager makes them a big star with some gimmick and suddenly
there's a market for them and for a few months they're the hottest thing
going... But, you know, a lot of guys have been playing in bands for, like,10 years -fuck, 20 years -and they're still not known. There's a lot ofmusicians who'll do it all their fuckin' lives and still not be stars..."
The times that depression would cut the deepest were those occasions
when people she knew and met at gigs would dismiss her with "somekinda cynical little witticism" when she told them of her most recent
attempts to form a band. When she was being discarded as a loser
because people like Mick Jones, Scabies and Sensible and Dave Vanianand the Pistols -all of whom she had collaborated with -were up there on
the boards while she was left in the audience or at the bar.
"But," she says now, "the fact is, you don't get somethinggood happening,
like, overnight unless you're some kinda special fuckin' genius. It takes alongtime, you know... You gotta put in a lotta time. And all that time I knew
I wasn't ready to do anything. So I'd just go back to my room and knockout
a little riffon my own, and, like, learn what it was all about.
"I coulda been up therewith those guys. Anyone coulda been up there.
Anyone was up there. And I thought it was a gas, you know, it was fun tosee them up there. It was good to see people getting up there and fuckingaround. Even the bands that were the most brutal, musically, it was still
wildly amusing, and I don't mean that in a cynical, put-down kinda way.
Like, I used to go down to the Roxy every night. And I thought it was great.
"But I didn't want to get up therewith them. It wasn't really what I wasafter. I was into the whole scene... but... well, musically, I guess maybe
I felt kinda detached from it, I didn't have that much of a place in thatpunk scene. It wasn't anything really to do with me. Like, I'm an
American. I was maybe a coupla years older than most of those guys. Like,
most of those kids were 16, 17, 18, and it was all, 'Let's fight the system...'Some big deal. So I stood back and let them get on with the shouting...
"Fuck, man -I live fighting the system. Now, maybe, I'm married tothe system. And when I divorce it, I'm gonna milk it fora load of alimony,
you know."

HERE WAS A poster for the Pretenders'
gig at Blackburn's St George's Hall. It was,as far as we could tell, the only one in thevicinity. And it was torn and weather-beaten. It

11probably should have warned
us that the night would holdno remarkable promise.
The Pretenders' Transit
crawled around the oneway system in the centreof Blackburn; we drove
past the doors of St
George's Hall. There
was a group of kids
outside; six, maybe.,
seven of them.
"Is that the audience,
do you think?" Martin

Chambers wondered. Itvery nearly was.
"Let's invite them infor nothing," Pete
Farndon suggested.

THE PRETENDERS"Fuck that!" Chrissie Hynde declared. "Let thempay, like everyone else."
Ayoung kid stuck his head around the side of thevan and spoke to Pete Farndon.
"Hey, mister -can th'gerrus into t'gigwi' yer?""Why don't you just go and use your charm on
the man at the door?" Pete asked.
"I tried, didn't I?" said the kid.
"And?""He told us t'fook off owter it."he tells us that The Damned pulled over 1,000, one of
the largest crowds in Blackburn's history.
"Where is everyone?" asks the man from WEA.
"Oh," says the guy, "they're all on holiday."HE LIGHTS ARE down. The"Musically,

I didn't havethat much of aplace in thatpunk scene"

Pete took the kid in with him. Ahhhhh.
"Can us 'ave yer ortograff?" some young girls
asked Chrissie. Chrissie took their autographbooks, scribbled a quick message.
"You know," she said, over her shoulder, "thismakes me feel positive fuckin' heroic..."Chrissie Hynde's response to this kind of
fandom is an uncertain mixture of amusement,
surprise and concern. It reflects exactly her
reactions to the fame that most critics areconvinced awaits her.
"It's just so surprising when it happens to you, you know," she says,
trying to articulate her feelings.
"It really never occurred to me that it would happen to me. I never set
out to gain any kind of adoration and adulation, but when I look at it kinda
rationally I can understand it. I mean, I was like that about bands... Like
I'd drive a hundred miles to see The Kinks, you know. I never got involvedin music thinking, 'I wanna make the big time; I wanna be a big star.' It's
kinda worrying...
"It wasn't something I considered... I never wanted anythinglikethat out of being in music. I just do it 'cos I like it. And, like, today- if I got
booted out of the band it wouldn't mean that I'd stop doing what I'mdoing. I just like it. If someone else likes it and wants to market it or wants
to buy it or dance to it or enjoy it -then that's marvellous. That gives me
the freedom to do it as much as I want, when I want, instead of doing it
alone in my room. But, you know, if I had to, I'd do it alone in my room.
But, you know, there's different kinda fulfilment and maybe right now I'd
prefer to be out of my room.
"Like, this is a commercial business. Now is not the time to be any
kinda cult hero. It might've worked 10 years ago. But it's a different time
now. Now's not the time for underground heroes. To me the important
thing now is to make good records and get on the radio. That's what's
important. That the band is getting along and we're making goodmusic... You gotta be realistic. We've got to a certain stage and, like Davesays, we've gotta sell records. Like you gotta have a place to rehearse, andthat costs money. You gotta have gear, and that costs money, and you
gotta pay the road crew... There are certain considerations you have todeal with... you gotta get yourself organised. You gotta face the music.
"You know, you can either keep it in the basement of your parents'
house for 10 years or you can get out there and dive into it. I never really
accepted the possibility of staying in the basement. I just cut out towherever it was happening the most... Hell, why else would a girl from
Akron, Ohio, be down St George's Hall in Blackburn in 1979? I coulda
been in Akron in my parents' basement knocking out basement -spacemusic. But I'm not interested in that, I wanna live a little."

11

HE MOOD IN the Pretenders' dressing room backstage at the
St George's Hall in Blackburn is hardly euphoric. There are 152
people in the audience.

"Let's cancel the gig and go fora drink," says Chrissie Hynde. "I mean have we really gotta go out there and play... There's no one out there, man.""We could invite them into the dressing room," says Pete Farndon. "Itwould be more intimate..."
The gig has already been moved into the smaller Windsor Hall, from themain auditorium upstairs.
"If we'd put them on upstairs," says one of the regular staffat the hall,"that audience would've looked like a threepenny bit on thatdance floor."
They had The Members on here recently, he says. They hada crowd of around 50. This cheers up the group a little. Then

Hynde leads the group on stage. She looks
great, dressed in a scarlet and purple satin
jockey shirt, complete with hat and riding
crop. She slings on her guitar and gets down
to business.
The Pretenders hit the airwaves with "TheWait". The shuddering riff bangs a violent
shockwave through the audience. The
Pretenders pack a collective clout thatcan knock you sideways.
Farndon and Chambers are a superlativerhythm section, full of fluent grace and muscular power. Adept,confident, aggressive, inventive. Where most bands swing like a eunuch's
balls, The Pretenders ease themselves through their repertoire with aspring -heeled agility. Farndon's basslines pump out, flexible gashes in
the overall sound, taut and wiry, forever mobile, looking for new
openings. Jimmy Honeyman-Scott's guitar comes screaming in from theterraces in a windswept flurry of colliding notes. His control and timing
are a priceless asset, his versatility breathtaking. He can play, as he does
during his solos on "The Wait", with all the incendiary fury of, say, Wayne
Kramer, and with equal proficiency complement quite perfectly thecompassionate melody of "Kid".
And Chrissie Hynde?
Well, I've just never seen a woman attack rock'n'roll with such
unselfconscious vigour and determination. Indeed, you forget anyquestion ofgender. She refuses to play on her sexuality -she just gets onwith the job: flashing out demon rhythm parts, equal to the strength ofanything JHS pans out on the likes of"Up The Neck" or the violently
paced climaxes of "MysteryAch ievement".
And her voice is sheer wonder. Tender and movingly touching on "Kid",
spiced with tremulous excitement and sheer wild venom on "Tattooed
Love Boys", with her marvellously timed phrasing dazzling the ear as sheleaps across the savage riffs. She can sound utterly vulnerable on "Girl
Don't Come" and utterly malevolent in the next breath as she scats overthe fierce Bo Diddley mutations of "Cuban Slide".
For The Pretenders' version of "The Wanderer" she comes on mock
tough and doesn't blow it... but her real vocal tour -de -force comes on the
exceptional "Private Life". The song is built around a beautifully managed
reggae lope, the melody fleshed out discreetly by the guitarist. Chrissie's
lyric is emotionally savage, penetrating and abrasive, and her vocal isby turns anguished, angry, pleading, accusing. The band's collective
performance is so accomplished (and they've only been together a year
-less, perhaps -remember that) that it takes them into regions andrealms most current bands have maybe only ever thought about.
"Thanks for clapping," says Chrissie Hynde as The Pretenders wrap
it up and wave goodnight to Blackburn.
CHRISSIE HYNDE IS sitting in the bar of the Green Dragon
Hotel in Hereford, wondering what will happen to her when
The Pretenders achieve the kind of success everyone ispromising them.
"I don't know that I'm looking forward to it, you know. Personally, I justkinda want to be left alone. I want to be able to enjoy what I do. And once
you become a public figure, that becomes increasingly difficult. I'm notspeaking from personal experience, obviously -like you just have to pickup a newspaper to realise that.
"I mean, Prince Charles just has to pat a horse on the nose and the11.
next day the horse is a potential fiancee.
.
I don't like people getting into my businesstoo much, you know. And... fuck, man...
I don't wanna open the paper one day to findthat I'm getting married to some fuckin' horse."

PRETENDERSADNESS

TNT WAIT

Pretenders' taped introduction starts.
It's a tape Pete Farndon made of thesound effects on a Space Invaders slot machine affair. Very amusing. Chrissie

Allan Jones

IITERP/EW
LYCEUM DAY 29th JULY at 7 30

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 1 103

mean by head -bangers?). It's thatfunny. The two real
joybringers are thefinal songs on SideOne -"Fool In The
Rain" and "Hot Dog".
The first begins
innocently enoughwith a pleasantly
stated and oft repeated Page riff,
but then in the middle
the schlockiest Latin
piano this side of Sam
Costa starts up;
suddenly Bonham
kicks over thewardrobe, andthe whole bandstampedes throughan appalling
cucaracha before
throwing itself backinto the aforementioned motif.
If that one wasn't
meant to be funny,"Hot Dog" probably
was. This time they
picked on country &western. Plant
squeals the title
in a silly voice atthe start andthen it's abreakneckrush throughTotally out of touch:
Led Zep's Robert
PlantandJimmy Page

ALBUMS
Led Zeppelin
I ut uua. uu.i SWAN SONG

The grand illusion was popped
way back when I was taking my
0 -levels. Then Led Zeppelin II

fulfilled the noble function of
releasing all the tension built up
during a particularly fraught
period by battering it against the
awesome noise they created.
Once the four weeks were over,
only a worn-out husk of a record
remained, its severe limitations
and compromises revealed
through intense, repeatedexposure, leaving a hollow
framework upon which theirempty bravado was hung.
Unlike the real heavy-metal
masterpieces (like The Velvet
Underground's "Sister Ray"),
Led Zeppelin Il continually
deflated its own momentum withponderous, silly, inordinately
tame and pompous musicalpassages, which aimed for some
sort of symphonic grandeur andmissed wildly. I felt betrayed, got
rid of the record and neverbought another Zeppelin album
again, although people insisted
in playing me bits of theirs.

104 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

some Texan

But still the release of
a new Zeppelin album isheralded like a message from
Mount Olympus, and thus
they're given more exposure
than they warrant. This dodo
definitely doesn't deserve all theattention its gonna get throughthe Return of the Gods strategy- First gig in "X" years! Before
100,000 followers! God -damn!
New album! Wow!
Lushly packaged, you have to
break through the sealed paper
bag to get to the real cover of
In Through The Out Door(?)!
-a sepia -tinted brown bar -room
shot. It's OK. Pull out the inner
bag and you've got a treatedblack -and -whiteclose-up of table
contents. Piss on it
and it comes up in
different colours.
So far, so good.
The first play had
everyone in theoffice rollingaround laughing,splatting theirheads against thewall in an effort tocontrol mirth. (Isthis what theytale that includes
Greyhound buses
and other evocationsof Americana. A real sidesplitter; someone said that it
sounds like the Muppet band.
The widely travelled Zeps also
throw in a synthesized Middle
Eastern intro to the album
opener, "In The Evening", which
segues into an uninteresting,uninspired song based around
Plant's limited vocabulary ("Ohh,ohhh baby, ohhh yeeaaahhh"),which he chokes the most out ofin a Roger Chapman style.
The subsequent "South Bound
Saurez" approximates a lighterrock format, undermined byJohn Bonham's hamfisted

drumming ("sounds like he's
nutting them," commented
another office wag).
Side Two is the serious stuff,
we're assured. All songs begin
with bombastic pseudo -classicalkeyboards stuff, generally
followed closely by portentously
overbearing riffs. By its lengthand number of changes, I'd judge"Carouselambra" to be thealbum's intended masterpiece but again it's let down by someappalling "romantic" historicalimagery: "Dull is the armour/
Cold is the day-yay/Hard is thejourney/Dark is the way-yay."(I think that's right - Plant's
diction is not too clear.)
The one vaguely charming
piece is "All My Love", which has
a stately keyboards motif andsome pleasantly tinkly Page
guitar, but it's marred by Plant's
beefcake attempts at quiet
ecstasy, and by the chamber music middle section.
"I'm Gonna Crawl" takes theshape of a slow, moody blues inwhich Plant admits he would
crawl to his baby because she's
the apple of his eye -and, what'smore, she's his girl.
I'm not sure who's going to get
any real objective satisfaction
from In Through The Out Door.
The performances are generally
dull, Plant's macho -mannered,self-important singing is in no way
exciting, Page is often restrained
and low-key, and Bonham seems
totally at a loss on all but the loudhooligan bits. John Paul Jones
takes a larger role than before- but if his adroitly stepping
bass sometimes livens things
up a little, his keyboard worklargely contributes to therecord's sluggishness.
High up there in their own little
h(e)avens, Zeppelin are totallyout of touch. As Gods, they've
feasted too long on former
glories, their passion spent on
reliving earlier victories. Theirorgiastic wallowing in the past
(Knebworth) is contemptible.
Led Zeppelin are displaying thefirst intimations of mortality, andit's time they accepted
their fate like men. Theysqueezed their lemons
dry long ago. ChrisBohn.
MMAugnThe Tourists

ThI

LOGO

A different sort of rockalbum, this, and one thatwill perhaps confuse many
people. The Tourists havea set of values that, on
record anyway, isuntouched by any of thecontemporary trends, so if you're
expecting an album that bows arespectful head to new wave,
you're in for a disappointment.
But The Tourists' unique identity
more than makes up for that.
The Tourists hit rock musicfrom some very acute angles.
The band is formed around a
nucleus of writer and singer
Peet Coombes, singer
Ann Lennox andguitarist Dave
Stewart, whocollectively appear

1

to have an obsessive

desire to retain
their northern roots- Coombes andStewart are from
Sunderland, while Lennox
is from Aberdeen.
I've talked about this album
to friends and, we're all inagreement that The Tourists
has a strange but palpable folk
quality about it. One mentioned
Fairport Convention, which isgoing a bit far, but that's certainly
symptomatic of the response
The Tourists provoke.
There are, as see it, a couple ofpertinent reasons to explain thiscomparison. The most obvious isPeet Coombes' compositional
style. His songs have a traditional
melodic flavour about them,while his lyrical imagery is fixed
on a sort of mystic romanticism
that is, in itself, compelling. Then
there's the role of Ann Lennox infurther characterising this image.
She has a soft but forceful voicethat beautifully complements the
songs, and when she harmonises
with Coombes the traditional
overtones are just too apparent
to dismiss.
But it's when all this is placedin the overall context that thepower of The Tourists is madeplain. Inasmuch as they have(perhaps subconscious) folk
origins, there are also fascinating
links with '60s and '70s pop.
I can't help but compare themto the Mamas & Papas in that
respect. "Blind Among The
Flowers", "Don't Get Left
Behind","Deadly Kiss", "The
Loneliest Man In The World" and"He Who Laughs Last Laughs
Longest" best these aspects.
What I like most about The
Tourists, though, is that they
have an identifiable sound. It'sin the voices and in the melodies,and producer Conny Plank(of Kraftwerk fame) has
succeeded in securing a suitably
haunting setting. The result isrecommended as the start ofI

many good things. HarryDoherty,
Jul7

The undertones:
the catchier soundof alternative Ulster

SINGLESThe Undertones

Sr -ler SIRE
Simple, classy and classic tune,
worthy of a Small Faces 45 on
the Immediate label, and there's
not much catchier than that.
Those voices rejoicing about
girls on the beach all covered insand, they're infinitely moremoving and mind -jogging thatyoung people are growing up inbombed -out Belfast than any

brow -beating Fleet-Streeting
anthems from Stiff Little
Fingers about exploding
barbed-wire. SLF try too
hard for instant credibility/
sympathy/mileage, like a firsttime -caller on an LBC phone-in:"Hello, Monty, I've got no armsor legs, I'm deaf, dumb and blindand me parrot's got leprosy, so
I mustn't grumble!" Bah! The
Undertones hurt because theylook like evacuees. Superior
little beat band makes goodsingle. Sounds easy, doesn't it?
NMEAugust25

and ricochetsneatly off
the tail of

Mexicana
with someexquisite
the bass
tonsil work.
and drums.
If there wasClassic Jam,a parallel
what more canuniverse in
SLIMMERTO
co laswhich Lowell
I say? NmEAug gi""t IttE 00101.IIS
was still on the
Secret Affair
ones .4.i
hoof, I'd say thats ui ritAitiii ARISTA
the next solo album
A "new" wave, a "new" anthem,would be very promising.
something else for people too
Enough. Onwards. NNEAugn
cynical to be impressed byPeter Toshyouthful exuberance to be
Bile''mm Palacebored with, or mystified by.
ROLLING STONES
Its appeal is obvious: it's fast,
young, smart and anthemic;
Like Christ on a
the fact that the jumping
unicycle, Tosh
instrumentation and hook carryintones a paean
not one iota of originality orof praise togenuine wit matters very little.
the joys of Jah
Don't bicker about it, either buy
Music over aor ignore it. NMEAugi8
backing trackthat sounds like
Madnessthe most mediocre
The Prince 2 TONE
disco imaginable.
A tribute to Prince Buster,Makes about as much
shouted forlornly across thesense as a James Last
abyss between intention andversion of "Jailhouse Rock".

\

result. NME Aug

11

NME Aug

1

The Jamvmmr POLYDORPaul Weller continues torecreate the perfect heritage,
utilising an almost military,
stuttering beat to prove he's theundisputed boss of all thisquasi -mod stuff. The quirky useof dub to break down the riffmid -stream is amusing,and serves to tone
the listener's
reflexes forthe steely,
one -step at -a -time

guitar solothat sneaks
in the back45

DollarLowell George
WARNERS

After the eulogies have lined
the cat trays, allow me tomention my own regrets at
George's death, as he was a finechap who was not only thepossessor of a large talent but
a human who deserved
his gifts. "Cheek To
Cheek" is drawn
from the solo
album, andit's a slightbut hugely
enjoyable
gumdropof fake

Lo,,P

Pm+ A wrOrl n,,

CARRERE

It could be Mickey and Minnie
Mouse under the skirting board
enjoying a savoury bit of brie
together. Dollar were real plain
Janes in Guys 'n' Dolls - feathers
all fluffy and brown. Then theyleft and told all the dirty details
that went on behind the scenes
to the press, kept dyeing theirbarnet a tartier shade of blondeand notched up two big hits.
You are a swan! Now they've
lost their way, I fear. If they'd
exploited their assets fully they
could have been theNnme EwAMy4nah

Bird. What a waste.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

105

1979
JULY

SEPTEMBERTALKING HEADS"I et taken

over"
TALKING HEADS descend on

France, with material for
another Eno -produced
album, Fear Of Music. The
shy but intransigent
proves prescienton "ethnological" music,
computers and humour.
"I send myself up," he says.

NME JULY 28-

THE SCENE: PARIS, France, July 10. Bastille Day looms,
Talking Heads and their "guests" The B -52's have justcompleted a mini -European jaunt minus Great Britain.
Tonight they played a concert of manic stature in theultra -chic Theatre Le Palace before a packed house of
1,500 well-behaved and even better dressed Frenchrockers - now people, night people.
After the show, promoter Frederic Serfati has a party scheduled in a
massive mansion on the Left Bank, in a residential/financial/cultural
haven. The setting here on the Passage De La Visitation is pretty
impressive, even by the bourgeois and luxurious standards of Paris.
This ain't no ordinarygaff: the entrance hall alone is stuffed withenough antique treasures to furnish the dreams of the most extravagant
insolvent. Room after room reveals the splendours of a lifestyle which
may not have changed one jot since the demise of the Sun King.
Everything is renaissance, Louisian, rich and tasteful.
So what have we here, and who? Meet the president of Rolling Stones
records, Earl somebodyorother, who's holding court.
"You must, simply must meet him," one partygoer
informs the world in general.
Feeling no pressing need to hobnob with such aluminary, I stagger forward nevertheless, only to bebored stiff by the verbosity of a cannyAmericanbusinessman who fancies he's some kind of wit.
"Why is it that you British press chaps are always
criticising the Rolling Stones?" he drawls, slightly theworse for drink.
Without bothering to wait for an answer, Earl sways
benignly, then heads off. Meanwhile in the toot -up
room, or one of them, highbrow scenemakers jostle fornasal laxatives and layout their lines on 18th -century
glass -topped tables.
Now, into this divine and decadent soiree (and don't
think I didn't enjoy it, 'cos I did) stumbles one of thestars of the show. Eyes right for the entrance of David
Byrne, the lead figure in the Talking Heads
psychodrama, an everyday story of collegiate city folk.
Tonight everyone must make his/her entrance with
aplomb. Cindy, the B-52 with the "Georgia Mushroom"
hairpiece and batting, wet eyes, makes hers by x.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 1107

11979

JuLy_st,..

TalkingHeadson
stagein1979:(I-r)
Jerry Harrison. David
Byrne,ChrisFrantz
andTinaWeymouth

slouching into the walled garden slugging on a bottle of Heineken.
All around us lies the debris of the French vine, spouting vintage
champagnes, elegant bouquets of Burgundy and scented Château
Lafittes, but Cindy has her beer.
She may look decidedly unglamorous when set up beside theimmaculately haute-coutured and obscenely beautiful French belles,
but for this undying devotion to the trash aesthetic Cindy wins tonight's
star prize, a 10 -minute chat with old Earl.
Still, the grand entrance is reserved for David Byrne, who recoils fromthe attention of his hosts with that characteristic neurotic dread of
having to exchange small talk. Perhaps it's nerves then, or maybe it was
the vodka I saw David imbibing in such liberal quantities earlier on, buthere he comes, out of the door, across the path and SPLAT!
UH -OH! David Byrne just fell into a hole. His plate of goodies flies off at
an angle, covering the shrubbery with pate de foie gras and mayonnaise.
Onlookers stifle their chuckles and David is helped to his feet by umpteen
willing hands. He's slightly cut, half -cut, but the shock wears off.
Falling over gets you accepted, even in Paris, and the sight of Byrne's
lanky six-foot frame spreading its length amongst the foliage is soon
forgotten. Later on he smirks, "I felt so embarrassed, but perhaps that waswhat was expected of me, that I fall in a hole and spill food everywhere."
Byrne disappears for the rest of the evening to the kitchen, where else?
Out of the gaze he proceeds to hit the bottle with a vengeance andconverse with Kate B-52, a lovely person who can't get over "everything
bein' so old an' all. I bet this picture is real valuable, it's so pretty. Where
can I git me a glass ofwater?"David Byrne points her in the general direction of the taps and fumbles
for a lychee.
By day this man is mild mannered, polite and slightly distant.
"I'm fairly shy, yes. Not too shy- but I don't start conversations withpeople I don't know, the others are better at that than me. I guess you
could say that I meditate a lot, or just observe. Sometimes I watch TVor look out of a car window and I drift off into my world. I never was
too gregarious."

CUTTO THE final night of the Talking Heads' French sojourn.
Another party has been thrown in their honour in the Parisianniterie, an underground disco called Les Baines Douches,
formerly a public bath.
Impressions of Paris as a 20th -century throwback to the excesses ofAncient Rome are borne out by this club. Come on downstairs, where
the sound system blasts out Grace Jones and Dillinger, and the wellheeled, highbrow post -punk kids are waking up for the late shift. In one
corner the complex Heads and B -52's manager Gary Kurfirst is shooting
French pool, a bastardised billiards sans pockets, and knocking spots
off the locals. Effeminate black boys smooch around the perimeter,
blowing kisses. "Anybody wanna make some easy money?" Kurfirst iscleaning up.
A French groover approaches Byrne, who's perched on a wall,
meditating. "You want to meet some nice French girls, oui?"Byrne: "Oh, err, umm, noon. I wouldn't know what to say to them.
Thanks all the same."
Edwige, the former Queen of the Paris punks, a tall blonde with a Fred
Perry shirt, is introduced quite po-faced with her erstwhile title. "I 'ave
my own band now, eet's better than newwave."On the dance floor a wild 15 -year -old mademoiselle is frugging withtotal abandon. This is lonesco, a direct descendant of the legendary
French playwright and author. Her microskirt defies the laws of gravity
and even the cucumber -cool French lads can't remove their eyes.
My companion tells me that lonesco was once more beautiful: "Whenshe was 12, 'er mama took some photographs of 'er nekkid; perhaps now
she is a bit fat and crazy."Two people, one of indeterminate sex, have got their hooks onto David
Byrne. There's a momentary flare-up, a lovers' tiff, and whoosh, the girlpartner sulks off to watch porn movies through the hole in the wall.
Her friend stays put by the green inviting pool. "She is a transvestite,n'est ce pas," whispers my companion loudly. Maybe it's the Jack Danny,
but I'd swear she just hitched her top down. A breast pops out and iscasually tucked in again. Byrne decides this is all too much and departs
for the hotel to play

CARTE
LA
A
HEADS
LES TALKING
110*ow sei Niro inisissay is moors woo ors

primes, iiettt sin, oil imairos.

as Lesmusicalmenu
samplesthe
MAX BELL
nasty bits
out
the
and
spit
On.l.ntac fhpw
Paristapes.
his

SIRE

SPECIAL
LIMITEDEDITION

TALKING HEADS

1111
45 RPMSAM 87SIDE 1TEREOS

NoceNs Insi--

2 min 58

audience. But audiences will tire of the obviously
venue. Given that the French are hell-bent on
manipulative stuff.
LOVE GOES TpjitUlLpING ON FIRE ti
enjoying the remainder of this century while"My own perspective when I go to a show is I hate
TALKING.
that pop -star routine. I assume that our audience
they can, you have to admit that their style is something
L2919
,122S
Aradc
.....<
4.
,Dd.,
else. It's style without the revolt, punk without the punch%
wants to be treated with respect. We made it a rule
but with all the trappings fully developed, thenever to use artificial crowd responses. Thensense of occasion, the night out.
again, we try and play in decent places Maybe these kids are bored with the highcomfortable halls or clubs with good acoustics.
quality of their lives, maybe they feel guilty"Of course we don't always succeed.
about their wealth, it could be that they lack
Sometimes the venues are far from ideal. Thea sense of purpose or reality. Or have they justbouncers manhandle the audience when there
got it right?
will only be a few troublemakers on quaaludes.
The political leaders of t he western world are
Promoters tend to assume the worst. Because of
fiddling while their ideals burn, but thesea minority they mistreat the majority. I admit
people are having fun while David Byrne's.
that a lot of times we end up playing in terrible
If the edifices are crumbling, this decadence
places, but you just try your best."
is the sure sign that the basic superstructureThis particular night there's no hint of an
is fucked. But rather than worry about theaudience who've come for the hits. Instead theyconsequences, get nihilistic and spit on their
are treated to a daringset which includes thepeers, the French are out to find a real good time.
resurrected "Love Goes To BuildingOn Fire"
Even at a rock'n'roll concert there is a sense of("We dropped that for a year, then realised wecivilised frisson. Life is one big party and everyonewith a ticket gets in.
were missing it"), plus five brand-new numbers from the August Outside a few 100 stragglers fight amongst themselves, but ignore lesscheduled FearOfMusic.
flics, nasty vicious sadists with a licence to maim. Inside the temperature
The quality of the band is apparent in ensemble playing that stretches
is boiling. The B -52's have just whipped up the standing hordes to thebeyond the narrow confines of quirky rock. Jerry Harrison coaxes allstate where underarm deodorant ceases to function and now Talking
manner of weird, engrossing textures from his small arsenal of
Heads are ready to deliver their repertoire.
keyboards, conventional and synthetic. His rhythm guitar work, neverThe band has improved immeasurably over the last year. The nevermore than effectively rudimentary in the past, has taken an appreciableending journey into t he American hinterland has honed up their act andstep forward.
The innovations that the Harrison and Byrne axis have up their musical
sharpened their cynicism. Any one member of the group will admit that
touring is getting them down.
sleeve stamps the group as legitimate purveyors of a vibrant melodic
understanding. They are ready to stand comparison with the champions
Dig this schedule. Three months roadwork in the States was followed in
May by the making of their third album, FearOfMusic, with producerof any age, while possessing a custom sound as taut and delicious asprime Television.
Brian Eno, 11 tracks in 10 days. Then they left forAustralia, NewZealandand back to Europe. The day after this European trip, Talking Heads wereAnd spare a thought for the extramarital thrills oozing from the Tina
Weymouth and Chris Frantz rhythm section, funk ascloseasthis being
catching a plane back across the world to Japan, the mega yen market,
a necessary extension of the thinking rock band's itinerary.
a real rarity in normal white terms.
Pretty soon the Eastern Bloc will open its borders to the western
Before the show, Tina and a small party of the English-speaking
scourge. By 1984 there are going to be more potential concert halls in thecontingent converge on a street cafe to while away her pre -gig blues.
world than ever seemed likely in the innocent '60s.
The diminutive, blonde bassist chainsmokes her edginess into the
The Talking Heads are very much a part of this mad circus, but at the
distance, a bundle ofwiry worry and stomach -turning fear.
moment they have retained sufficient integrity and independence to stay
"Even after three years, I get physically ill before concerts. We used tooutside the soul-destroying arena circuit.
look nervous on stage, too, but that doesn't show any more- it's just the
They have just renegotiated their Sire contract, are undoubtedly
waiting that gets to you. If I ate anything now I'd be sick."comfortable, but fortunately are not complacent. Having completed
The pressure is greater tonight than usual. Talking Heads are in thea fairly lacklustre set of festivals in Belgium and Denmark, they are
invidious position of topping over a support band, B -52's, whose current
primed to deliver the goods in a proper hall.
star is so high in the critical eye that any amount of shoddiness owing to
The nucleus of their set bears testimony to months spent on perfecting
lack of match practice seems to have been completely forgiven.
each song, and suggests a capacity for improvisation. Having spent two
Ironically, Heads enjoyed a similar licence when they toured Europe
albums and three years working up the chops, Talking Heads are fastwith Mrs Ramone's favourite sons in 1977. Today the two bands are not inapproaching that magic moment when, hey presto, learning becomes andirect competition with each other, but the tension of record -company
escape from technique and the pieces fall together of their own accord.
hype lingers in the background. The Palace is chock full of B -52's posters
Tonight is a classic set, beginning with the staple diet of "Big Country",
but not one Talking Heads poster. Little things like that can sap a band's
its lazy C&Wdiatribe set off by a ludicrously funky husband -and -wife
confidence even before they've stepped on stage.
backbeat. Then the opening of the rock star's secret journal, "Warning
Talking Heads have also suffered some indignities at the hands of theirSign" combining myth and truth -"I've got tnoney
NewYork counterparts. There have been riling episodes with Sirenow, cinon baby". Ordinarily, the man wouldn't
stablemates the Ramones over bill -topping andsay boo to a goose, but on stage he's transformed,
dressing -room status, Joey Ramone allegedly
a real live wire, a nutcase, an exposer of every
proving to be a particularly obnoxious andsensational roc movementafrayed nerve ending.
paranoid individual when any threat to his ego
Byrne's own performance is staggering. It
is at stake.
encapsulates everything that seemed interesting
There again, the Patti Smith Band, once thein Bowie and Ferry all those years back and creams
doyens of the NewYork artistic clique, have done
them with a totally original approach. His thyroid
their best to sequester their position and shove it
glands are pumping towards the red zone, danger
down their peers' throats. Tina lets slip tales oflevel. What goes through his head?
snubbing at the hands of Miss Patti Lee that don't"I get taken over by the live act. The adrenalin
bear repeating.
rush for me is complete. I seem to be running
To their credit, Talking Heads are not the kindaround while everyone else is in slow motion. It'sof people to pull any such stroke on lesser -known
exciting but frightening and wonderful.
kin. The B -52's are afforded every courtesy they"The only thing that disappoints me is when
could wish for. When the audience takes them
7/214.1. 1 PM6:00 AV"
OILY
LL,./ P3M:30
a crowd shouts out for the better-known songs
to its collective heart, the headliners don't adopt
SrICEllinat *3.000-that's not likely to boost your opinion of an
the "Let's go out there and blow these novices off
Oa :**.0,111.
ET'S FLASHBACK TO the Palace. Some

\

%

.

"Even after
three years, I
get physicallyill before
concerts"

KYOTO

RIM=
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979109

stage" rap. Instead they pay credit to their guests' ability to put the crowd
in an up mood.
The band's dislike ofa cushioned reception is most obvious in theirhandling of the best-known numbers, "Thank You For Sending Me An
Angel", "Take Me To The River" and the inevitably popula r"Psycho Killer",
replete with French chorus and singalong rock'n'roll lingua franca.
It's here that the hard work and sense of adventure pays off in spades.
While it would be easier to rest on the laurels of "motions" performance,
Byrne whips himself into a state of controlled frenzy that inspires his
vocal nuance, his postured, jerky electric dance and his instrumental
expertise, which now rivals that of Tom Verlaine for inflection and attack.
He moves as if brain and voice were slightly at odds with each other...
watch him work the changes, dramatically and emotionally. Whoever
said this band were cold or premeditated must have been brought up
in the wrong rock environment. On the contrary, Talking Heads today
areas involving, intriguing and as plain danceable as any band on thisplanet. Period.
DAVID BYRNE'S HOTEL room is dominated by his closest

travelling companion -a sophisticated tape -deck stereo
system that packs into a brief case. Amongst his current
listening selection there are tapes of the new Neil Young and Bowie
albums, Steel Pulse, Ultravox and Kraftwerk, Berlin Zoo, Ennio
Morricone and, of course, Talking Heads.
Byrne's bedside reading includes Dr Hunter
S Thompson's Fear And LoathingOn The
Campaign Trail 1972, Paris Metro and Actuel, a

Of Resistance.

"Some of that stuff is difficult to listen to. It's not something you growup with. With the ethnographic records you have to concentrate to hear
what's going on, and for me it isn't always easy. But with Fela... stuff like
that, you know... just listen to it. It might be chants or something, but it'sno trouble, no sweat."
Byrne's interest in ethnic musical forms goes beyond the hip, elitist
viewpoint, being both academic and practical. The title of the album,
Fear OfMusic, was drawn from a technical book called Music And The
Brain: "It has long sections devoted to musically associated diseases.
There was a word with a long Latin title, a phobia that certain people
have, a real fear of music. Any kind of music is obnoxious to them andthey have to be sent to live in the countryside.
"It's such a contradiction of the attitude wehave to music that it appealed to me. The
album is also a bit frightening; not shocking,but spooky and melancholy. I enjoy it.
"It's my ambition to write some really sadsongs, but I haven't succeeded yet. People
assume that when you perform a sad song
you need to use some method acting to get itin the right mood. Actually it works theother way. If the song is well constructed itwill cause the emotions.
"It's true that there are hardly any songs
about relationships this time. Only 'Mind'
comes close to being a love song. It's best
to get away from them. I mean, I like a lotof of her people's love songs, but it'sa horrible thing to have to sing about every night. Eventually the
subject becomes meaningless."
I put it to Byrne that he's been damned in the past bywriters who
assume that the lyrics reflect his own viewpoint, whereas they are often
fictional devices, vehicles for all manner of contradictory statements.
It's obvious Byrne uses the stage as a platform for expressing many
opinions which he'd be too reticent to say to a person's face: "I might
express the ideas privately but not so drastically. In a song I can spout off
an idea that would sound ridiculous in a conversation."
The best example of this on More Songs... was "Artists Only", which
Byrne didn't even write. Predictably, some of our brethren took exception
to the line "I don't have to prove that I'm creative".
"A guy called Wayne Zieve wrote the lyric on that. I don't know anything
about it. He was crashing at our place [the Byrne and Harrison residence)and he used to scribble messages on bits of paper and leave 'em roundthe room. I just liked that one, so I wrote some music for it. Now hegets royalties, which spoils theeffect somewhat.
"Generally, writers
rrALK I NG HEADS
understand a bit of the band,
but they naturally focus on
FEAR OF MUSICthe lyrics, 'cos it's hard towrite more than a couple ofsentences about music there's not a lot you can say
about a guitar solo.
"As far as the band goes, they
don't mind the words toomuch. They wouldn't mind
writing, but they're goodabout it. It's hardest for Chrisand Tina when we're in thestudio. They play and that's it.

"The album's a
bit frightening.
Not shocking,but spooky andmelancholy"

French almanac for the '80s where the standardof imagery and the breadth of the articles puts
any English magazine to abject shame.
Aside from these mental relaxants Byrne
travels light. Two months' wardrobe fits into
one holdall. He makes no distinction between
on- and offstage attire, preferring his familiar
garb of sweatshirt, black trousers and sensible
shoes to anything more flashy.
Despite this conservative, college -boyclean-cut demeanour, there is one aspect of
his appearance which causes him pleasure.
David Byrne evidently sets great store by hishairstyle; his grey -flecked black straight hair is his most assertive
superficial characteristic.
Facially, Byrne modulates through stages of chronic introversion to
private, wicked thoughts and an openly sardonic cheekygrin with a hintofwolverine around the edges.
His speech is slow and checked by qualification, as if thewords werebeing weighed on a spring balance. Usually he tilts towards selfdeprecation and irony, taking every question at face value and avoiding
any hint of conceit or artistic justification.
Given the artificiality of any interview, the instant opinion and thediscretion of the journalist, Byrne is quite at odds with the picture I hadof him as a wilfully oblique person. His assertiveness is greater than his
internal solitude, even to the extent that when the interview is firstmooted and other members of the band express a desire to attend, herebuffs them firmly -"No, I want to talk separately."
While the band zip down to Montmartre to shoot a photo session, Byrne
leaves me in his room to listen to the new album, Fear Of Music, a far
remove from More Songs.... Lyrically, the material maintains Byrne's
favourite device, the third -person narrator, but the subject matter is moreadvanced, moodier and abstract.
Many of the titles are simple nouns, "Mind", "Paper", "Cities", "Air","Heaven", "Animals" and "Drugs" (formerly"Electricity"). Themes andstyles are unfamiliar, save for the now recognisable group "sound". The
move towards complex rhythmic structures and the contrast of vocal
idiosyncrasies with melodic texturing is immediately clear.
"The people who disliked what Eno did to the second album willprobably dislike this one more," Byrne mutters with a grin. He picks up
a SwissArmy knife and runs his thumb down the blade.
"See, they assume that it's all his doing. Every time they hear a weird
sound it's, 'Aah, there he is' -when a lot of time it's us, our ideas."
This sense of misunderstanding is a sore point, then?
"Well, people have missed the humour, or at least undervalued it;
especially in the singing -I send myself up a bit. I have fun with it. Some of
110 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

the quirky little things that end up on record I think are real funny -thefirst coupla times anyway. Jokes always wear off after a while. It isn't
obvious humour; there are no knee-slappers."
The first song, "I Zimbra", utilises an African rhythm, lush percussive
effects treated by some spectacular synthesizer colouration. It's the kindof deceptively simple sound that Brian Eno experimented with on
TakingTiger Mountain ByStrategyor "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", but witha more integrated, less self-conscious appeal. The vocal is a multi layered nonsense babble, African esperanto. Towards the end, Robert
Fripp contributes a fragment of a solo.
Byrne has a selection of South African music with him, notably RhythmIBrianEno(left),co-produceronthree
Talking Headsalbums
between1978and
1980,andDavid

ByrneinaDJboothin
New York City in 1979

Brian [Eno], Jerry and me play with the mixing. Chris and Tina like to bearound, but it gets boring after awhile. That frustrates them..."To avoid this inequality FearOfMusicwas recorded in a mobile studiohooked up to the Frantz family's Long Island loft. The band rehearsed for10days, working up basic tracks, then recorded half the album in two days.
Most bands in Talking Heads' position would spend three or four months
on a third album and a lot more money.
"Eno got back to London from Bangkok. I phoned him and he camestraight over. He played less on this one than before, so though it's said
he's like a fifth member, he isn't there when we record basic tracks. It was
my idea to be on our own, without a producer for a while; we did OK, we
didn't fight too much.
"We made the record in two sessions on the mobile, and it worked
better; it was more relaxing. Initially, we achieved a near -live sound.
There was none of that stuff with headphones and engineers and 'I can't

hear the drums' nonsense.
"Of course we treated it with studio care. We spent a lot of the time
sequencing tracks. I've never liked t he variety approach where a bandshow how clever they are -y'know, following a ballad with a rocker, thena lush song. We try to group them for similarities. That sounds

premeditated, though; it was an afterthought."
One of the strangest songs on the record is "Animals", whichstarts off as an oddball paean to animal characteristics "Animals are prettysmart 1 They shit in the park I They see in thedark" -until suddenly the listener realises the furries havetaken over and they're not domesticating the humans.
"That was the last song I wrote. It was a conscious attempt
to go back to the old style, but it ended up more complex; it has
a 7/4 rhythm or something... I don't understand. It's jerky,
but I can't play the guitar part and sing it live yet. I got excitedwhen I wrote it, though. There are lots of lyrics I didn't use."
Byrne takes a childlike delight in his own words,
which remove a lot of cryptic and sinister veils fromhis subconscious.
The most immediately evocative song on Fear OfMusic is
the most harrowing: "Life During Wartime", set in a fictional
future, say tomorrow -when snipers on the streets andsuburban guerilla warfare are the norm.

Byrne reckons he's ready for theinevitable: "Living in NewYork, you have to be. There will be chronic foodshortages and gas shortages and people will live in hovels. Paradoxically,
they'll be surrounded by computers the size ofwrist watches. Calculators
will be cheap. It'll be as easy to hookup your computer with a central
television bank as it is to get the week's groceries.
"I think we'll be cushioned by amazing technological development andsitting on Salvation Army furniture. Everything else will be crumbling.
It doesn't bother me too much, but it isn't something to look forward to.
Government surveillance becomes inevitable, because there's thisdilemma when you have an increase in information storage. A lot of it
is for your convenience- but as more information gets on file it's boundto be misused.
"Electronic banking, where you never meet a teller or stand in a queue,is already common, and that system can only get more prevalent.
"A funny thing is that as computers do inventories the crimes may be
fewer but are far more costly to the company. People can alter the
programme, spin money off and go undetected for years.
"I read a book about computer crimes before I left. For example, one
guy printed up a number of fake deposit slips and hid them with theblanks they keep in banks for customer's use; they all had his personal
number on. After three days in which people had been depositing hugesums of money into his account, he withdrew it and split. There was noway to catch him.
"Another person had a touch-tone phone hookup to the General
Electric master computer in Los Angeles. He was ordering vast supplies ofwire, cables, you name it, storing it in a warehouse then selling it. These
companies are so huge they don't figure anything is up. Eventually he got
too arrogant and tried to sell them their own gear back."
It's hard to know where Byrne fits into the framework of his own
subject matter. Very few Talking Heads songs feature his first -person
experience, and the lyrics tend to focus on observed relationships,
cliches and generalisations. This maybe a defence mechanism, an
extension of his diffidence, but it is also a fine way of illuminating otherpeople's foibles.
The fact that this is usually a novelistic or cinematic technique makes
the songs that much more absorbing, although it tends to polarise
listeners who recognise their own faults being mocked.
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 1111

1979
My -SEPTEMBERFor someone so shy, Byrne hasa genius for provoking a reaction:"I've tried to write songs that are far
from my usual point ofview, about
getting drunk and chasing after girls,
but they're never successful. I don't
think I can chase... See, if I use thethird person it achieves distance.
It's slightly humorous. It isn't always
very nice.
"The songs 'Heaven' and 'Mind' are
set in parties and bars, places where
people get together, except in one of'em the party is in someone's mind
and they want it to stop. Eventually
they decide they like it."
Byrne turns away to the wall,
fiddling with a Camel packet andlaughing manically to himself.
"One title, 'Drugs' is a psychedelicsong. I like those '60s numbers
where they try and describe theA

January 28,1978: Talking
Heads backstage at theRoundhouse, London,

where theytopa bill with
Slaughter&The Dogs
and Dire Straits

experience... They're stupid. There's
a big resurgence of acid in Paris
apparently. The people from the disco
where we played go on huge acid binges, hiring trains and stuff. That's
a little intense for me."DAVID BYRNE GREW up in Baltimore, Maryland, thenattended the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970, where
he met Frantz.
In those days Byrne played violin and ukulele. His first rock band was
The Art ist ics, cover -version specialists who lasted as long as his college
career. (Byrne dropped out, natch.)
He nowlives in the Ukraine neighbourhood of Manhattan, the sortof area estate agents like to call "seedy but
bursting with character".
"I'm from near Glasgow the was born there].
Baltimore was quite similar -a lot ofslums,
rough. People don't have a very nice time of it.
It's strange to go back to Glasgow... I still havea lot of aunts and cousins there- I get the feelingthat things have never been a lot better there."In the past, Talking Heads' catalogue has
been dominated not by sex or love, the usual
boy-meets-girl routine that serves as brain
fodder in the majority of popular styles, but by
the work ethic. I wondered if Byrne saw theband as a job...
"Well, I don't think about beingan artist.
People assume there's a dichotomy whereby
you either make commercial music or interesting music, but we go forboth. I like to mix cliches from love songs and office jargon...'take a week
off', 'a job well done'... I've never had an office job, actually. My
experiences were all more menial."
Byrne makes one concession to the Peter Pan mythology of rock'n'roll.
The people in his songs are always boys and girls, never men and women:"Even people older than me I never think of as men or women. I also tend
to drawstereotypes. That annoys Tina. If I say, 'Oh, girls always eat
puddings but boys prefer savouries', she goes nuts."

And for Byrne: "I'd like to be doing other things. Touring puts you in
a rut. It takes up most of theyear, and theway it's organised you waste
so much time. That bothers me more than anything else. You're there
to play, but it only takes an hour to do that."
Wherein lies the threat to any intelligent band -boredom.
Japan, Europe, t he Ant ipodes, the American wasteland... rock warfare
goes on in all of them, capturing territories, spreading the message.
Talking Heads have come out of the NewYork underground andlasted the course, the only truly new wave band from the area to do so.
Reality for the idealistic group means there is no standing still; expansion
is enforced.
When they started, Heads reckoned it
would take them five years to make an album,
just to get accepted. They were wrong, Byrne
recognises the dilemma: "The business isvery self-conscious.A lot of it is terrible, but it
could be no other way.
"Anyone who tries to be naive these days isa fool. The 'innocent' rock band that isn't
aware of the history and the mechanisms...
these people are in a dream world. I knowthat most of it is just merchandise."
Last March, Byrne contributed a shortessay to High Times magazine titled 'It Ain't
Rock And Roll But I Like It', which set about
revealing the techniques behind what we
westerners call "ethnic music".
Here are some samples you can apply to your life; they also givea fair indication of the Byrne modus operandi:"There is a Chinese legend that the emperor HuangTi 'ordered'
the invention of music in 2697 BC...""The Pima Indians of theAmerican Southwest believe that songs
already exist and that the composer's job is to 'untangle' them...""In Japan there have been a number of recent popular songs thatdeal with the bribery of government officials by the Lockheed
Corporation. A couple of titles are 'I Also Would Like to Get Peanuts'
and 'Playing Innocence'...""In Dosso, Niger, there is an oboe -like instrument called the djerma
that, when played by experts, produces sounds with phonetic
equivalents that can be decoded as a message by a skilled listener.
Sometimes these instruments are used to make fun of individuals,
without their knowledge."
Next time you listen to Talking Heads, bear this information in mind,
especially the last entry, then see ifyou can answer this simple question:
Whydid the artist cross the road?
That's right, "because it was there" is the answer. And I forgot to tell you,the best track on Fear °Music is called "Electric Guitar". Maybe David
Byrne is just fooling around after all. Max Bell"A band that's
unaware of themechanisms

is living in a
dream world"

rjrALKING HEADS IN 1979 are in an intriguing position. Theircreative and practical muse is at a peak, but the demands ontheir attention span are getting too big. Both Byrne and Frantz,
the original members, claim to have reached the watershed as far as
touring goes. For the drummer this means a tolerance of the rocklifestyle which he began by despising:"We were always anti -stardom. Where the Stones were sexy we were
frigid, where Elton John was glamorous we'd be ordinary. Now I feel
more sympathetic to those people. We didn't try to be intellectual or
smartass, but because of our college backgrounds people assumed
we were cerebral. I find a fair amount of passion in the music -it isn't
a mental exercise."

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 1113

1979

JULY -SEPTEMBER

A journey to Manchester tomeet JOY DIVISION and theircircle, aster the release of
Unknown Pleasures. "We
don't want to get diluted,
really," says singe' IAN
CURTIS. "We're free to do
Owhat we want. There'sCC.Nh

no one restricting us."security"-

AUGUST 11_

LET ME DRAW back the curtains on a probably wet and no
doubt freezing night last winter. A midweek night of no
special significance, save that Joy Division had come marching
into town.
It wasn't much of a welcome. It wasn't one of those hot jam-packed
little -league sell-outs where you can't get in for the length ofthe
guest list and where breaths are bated in anticipation of somet hing about to turnbig. Nothing of the sort. Down in the basement confines of a celebrated Islington
watering hole it was relaxed and cool.
In front ofthe intimate stage, though, a gaggle of about a dozen or so modern
boys staked out their territorial rights like there was some sort of conspiracy
afoot. Minions were dispatched to fetch the pints. The space stage -front was
jealously guarded. Their spick-and-span muted green tribal colours set themapart from the otherwise dowdy crowd.
They had come, heaven knows where from, for Joy Division. Another
Manchester Band.
The last time somebody counted, there were somewhere in the region of 72
musical aggregations in Manchester and surrounding areas. Can you believe
that? Since the Pistols played the FreeTrade Hall with the fledgling Buzzcocks,
Manchester's home-grown activity has bloomed. It's become a vital and richpart of the English music spectrum, and will be more so with the increasing
nationwide diversity of music and lifestyle.
But with the exception of passing enigmas such as Jilted John, The Fall andJohn Cooper Clarke, the main bearers of the Mancunian standard have been
the Shelley/Devoto axis. And ti nless one of the snotty, smart, toothsome pop
outfits that seem to populate the city lucks into a chart hit (most likely candidate:
The Distractions), the band that looks dead set to follow Buzzcocks out of merely
local and underground acclaim and into the wider limelight -going not least on
the rapturous critical reaction to their first album Unknown Pleasures -is called
Joy Division.
A lone overhead spot floods the centre -stage microphone and spills out onto theheads of the aforementioned gaggle of sartorial hot -shots. Heads that start to bob
furiously at the first pulse of streamlined rhythm, attached to bodies that lurch
back and forth, attached to legs that jerk up and down at the knee and arms thatswing in a loose crawl orelbows that flap madly. It's the modern dance thateverybody will be doing in the coming months- the one that has succeeded the
114 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

0%

4e.

`'.

"It'dbeeasytoknock anotherone out. But wedon't":lanCurtis
onstagein1979

mrHISTORY OF ROCK 1979 I 115
"

:

+,

*

ja

1979

JULY -SEPTEMBER

Were you to shine a torch around this subterranean scene you would
see the young, tidy faces of Joy Division and notice perhaps the ordinary,neat cut of their clothes. An unremarkable image, with the barest hintof the regimental overtones of their name in the flap -pocket shirts twoof them arewearing. You might also notice the growing excitement in
the faces of the onlookers, by now all locking into the irresistible motionof the music. Easily the strongest new music to come out of this country
this year.
It owes nothing to the after -punk cult of the amateur. If it's pop, that's
purely accidental. And if it plays with musical perimeters, it does so iningenious, never pretentious,
ways -by building carefully on
their standard rock basis andusing the sounds that can becoaxed from the instruments as
textures with which to construct
NME JULY 14 loy Division's stark, defiant debut LP is "memorably psychotic".
a song. It's a technique thatanyone who listens to the radio
Joy Division 'nt'nnum rilm"""n' FACTORY
the well -planned spookiness of a Bowie or anthese days will be familiar with,
Just when the year's vitality was threatening toOsterberg, except that Curtis' voice conjures up
from "I Feel Love" to "Public
be expunged by a non-stop parade of rehasheda withdrawal from response and an immunity to
Image", to give but two examples.
fashions, "ordinary geezers" with French Riviera
anaesthesia. There is "no room for the weak" inInsistent two/four rhythms
yachts and the acceptable face of cuddly popular
this world and no cheap pity either. Joy Divisionbait the bristlingsurface hooks,
music, the Manchester band Joy Division snuck inare solitary men, but assured and confident.
and their powerdrive isby the back door, quiet and unannounced.
All the material bears the mark of obsession andoverwhelming. Like The Stooges
Joy Division's reticent foursome - Bernard
personal experience; it's stark, alarmingly defiant.
or early Subway Sect or even Blue
Albrecht (guitar), Peter Hook (bass), Stephen
Curtis delivers his parts with dramatic flatness, as
Oyster Cult and Buzzcocks.
Morris (drums) and singer Ian Curtis - have hinted
semi -chants, matter-of-fact monologues, pushing
The themes of Joy Division's
at these "unknown pleasures" in the last 18
out the meaning in spurts. Alongside hismusic are sorrowful, painful andmonths; their contributions to1978's A Factorycompelling vocal the three instruments sift
sometimes deeply sad. Nothing
Sample were intriguingly alien to the prevalentthrough gaps on graphic frequencies, producer
as badly refracted and joylessmood. Their own 12 -inch sketch "An Ideal For
Hannett distorting the orthodox conceptions of('scuse me) as Doll By Doll Living" was more to the point - hard -faced,sound level, balance and attack. This fragmented
they're too compassionate for thatsombre, neanderthal and manic, an inverted
logic is most evident on the closing pieces,"New- but still music that gives often
shape cast in heavy metal, never conforming toDawn Fades" and "I Remember Nothing", where
harrowing glimpses of con fusion
the expected thrust of the beat.
negative stasis confronts the listener with his/herand alienation. Joy Division walk
Admirers of this new sound who managed toconception of ordered existence. At their mostalone, with their heads bowed.
check out the animal on its live patch were pleased
compelling Joy Division invite you to participate in
At least, that's my interpretation.
and maybe shocked to hear that
their journeys to the edge of
Joy Division aren't giving anybody
Joy Division weren't joking.
chance. Try the mental hangany clues. They don't agree with
Never funny peculiar, funny ha-ha
gliding of "She's Lost Control",lyric sheets, and that's something
Their music fuses
or clever -clever - the lot of most"Interzone" or "Wilderness"they are very adamant about.
all the frayed ends (a blood -pulse of a streamlinedof the bands trying to slip into the"You get people who seem tocurrent avant-garde - their musicaccount of a time traveller who
think you should put your lyrics
a new,
clearly fuses all the frayed ends
witnesses the agony on theon so you can get your message
with a new, unforced simplicity,
cross face to face).
across," says bearded bass player
a direction beyond expectancy.
In many other hands Joy
Peter Hook, with obvious disdain.
Joy Division's atmosphere is
Division's relentless litanies"They ask us what our lyrics areuncomfortably claustrophobic in meaning, but its
would appear pompous, tasteless or just plain
about and we say, 'Well they're
structures and dynamics are accessible. Althoughvicarious; the Sex Pistols, for example, turned
whatever you hear, really.'
the band and their producer Martin Hannett haveout to be all three. But Joy Division are treading"We've said to people, 'Haven't
constructed something memorably psychotic, I'da different tightrope; what carries their
you ever been listening to a record
hesitate to linger on their background of mental
extraordinary music beyond despair is its quality
where you've been singing
institutions and the vocabulary of the psychologistof vindication. Without trying to baffle
a certain line and when you- for fear of encouraging images of contrived
or overreach itself, this outfit step intofind what it really is you feel letbanshee rant and postured metal machinea labyrinth that is rarely explored withdown?' But they just won't admit
any smidgeon of real conviction.
thrashing, all of which has its place but is not thethat at all. They still wanted
guiding experience here.
By the time they experiment withto know what our lyrics
the dialogues of schizophrenia
Joy Division music worries and nags like thewere about.
ALBUMS
early excursions of the better known German
on "I Remember Nothing",
they have you convinced ofexperimentalists. Investigate these confined
spaces, these insides of cages, this outside of
their credentials.
pogo -and it's a hybrid of the style that John Lydon copped from theRastas and the one Mary Mekon of The Mekons invented for herself.
Ignorant of this, and uncaring anyway, the huddle of sophisticatedsteppers is meanwhile whipping itself up into a frenzy that won't subside
until Joy Division have left them utterly spent.
The spot picks out only this pool of bobbing motion, and the singer Ian
Curtis. The rest of Joy Division are shrouded in darkness as they pourout their harsh metal thunder. The singer's body shakes, rocks andpalpitates, a mad dervish of motion and movement all caught in that
one mad spotlight.

A labyrinth that is rarely exploredwith
unforced simplicity-

insanity. They all bring to mind endless corridors
where doors clank open and shut on an infinite
emotional obstacle course. "Disorder" and"Insight" start out slow and smooth, echoing Can's
Monster Movie pattern, but the monotonies anddeviations are Joy Division's unique territory. The
root causes of Curtis' lyrical "insights" - industrial
and urban decay - are ignored in favour of the end
result; the noises are human and the effect isshattering, literally. So, the brutal numbness of"Day Of The Lords" bears a slight resemblance to116

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

Unknown Pleasures is an
English rock masterwork, its only
equivalent probably made in Los
Angeles 12 years ago: The Doors'

Strange Days, the most pertinentcomparison I can make. Listen tothis album and wonder because
you'll never love the sound ofbreaking glass again.
This band has tears in its eyes. Joy
Division's day is closing in. Max BellREVIEW

Joy Division:(1-r)
Peter Hook. Stephen
Morris. Bernard
Sumner and lanCurtis"Don't you think it's wrong to pin somebody down like that? Our lyrics
may mean something completely different to every single individual."
Is that what you want?
"We'd like it, I suppose... It's like I just said. You could hear one thing; thebloke next to you could hear something completely different. It means
something to you; it means something to him. Why cut him out?"
Why not write gibberish, then? On a variation of the monkey -and typewriter principle, it's bound to mean something to someone sooner
or later.
"The songs mean something personal to us, but that's not the point.
It's like saying, 'What did Max Escher mean when he did that painting? He points to a giant print of one of Escher's
typical perspective puzzles that hangs on thewall of Manchester's Central Sound Studio,
where we are now located. "He might just say,
'I was pissed.' We don't want to say anything.
We don't want to influence people. We don't
want people to knowwhat we think."
Do you want to knowwhat Joy Division think?
What they feel? What makes them angry, bored,sad, amused, anything? What sort of cereal theyeat in the morning? What prompts a mournfulsong like "Day OfThe Lords" or what lies behinda lyric like "She took my hand and turned to me
and said she'd lost control again"? You're
probably curious, but I doubt that it's asimportant to you as the surly, defensive Hookseems to think.
That's how Hook sees it, though, and that's all he will tell you about
himself and how he sees his music. Besides adding that "people thinkthe lyrics are the guiding force, but we like to think that we influence Ian
as much as he influences us; that if we stopped playing Ian would neverwrite again."
Ian, who writes the lyrics, broadly speaking shares these views, but isless reticent. He is offstage the virtual opposite of what he is on. His
speaking voice is high and faltering, not swarthy and assertive, and his

shyness you would not guess fromhis onstage abandon.
Stephen Morris, the drummer
who completed the foursome a few
months after Ian joined, lives, like Ian, in Macclesfield, and owns a hugerecord collection, partly inherited from his jazz -enthusiast father.
"He took me to see Count Basie once. So I took him to see Hawkwind.
He was getting all dressed up and I had to explain that, no Dad, it's notthat sort of concert..."He bought his first drumkit by chopping up the furniture in his house to
sell as firewood, and he's still searching for that elusive copy ofJohn Cale's
Academy hz Peril.

Which leaves only Bernard Albrecht, whoplays guitar, and went to school with Peter
Hook. By contrast, he is astute and eager toexplain himself.
"I don't like a lot of music," he admits, "but themusic I do like I get more out of than fromanything else in life. I want to put the feelingthat I get out of music back into music as well.
"We're not ashamed of a nyt h ing we've donein the past. When we started off, none of us
could play. But each time we go one step
forward -and that draws you on. It's like...
I don't know, it's just a reallygood feeling. I
think that's why a lot of people get disillusioned,'cos, like, the music dries up."
While Joy Division are talking, Martin "Zero" Hannett is busy inside thesmall studio mixing some demos of a new version of "She's Lost Control".
Aside from managing John Cooper Clarke and running the odd live
venue and a record label called Rabid, Hannett produced Magazine's firstdemos (and their forthcoming single), Jilted John's hit, the John Cooper
Clarke and Joy Division albums, and the latter's contribution to the"We like tothink weinfluence Ian
as much as heinfluences us"

Factory Sample EP.

;-.)

z

He works like some sort ofwizard of the console, occasionally chuckling 5
to himself as he fiddles with the digital devices he's brought in for the
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 1117

11
!IL

111

FACTORY NIGHT:

ACKLAM HALL

March14,1979: Joy
Division on stageat
Bowdon Vale YouthKENSINGTON, LONDON -Er'
AClub, Altrincham,Greater Manchester
MAY17

Stylised claustrophobia
MM MAY 26/NOV 17

oy Division in London: in a package and in support.

FOUR DIVERSE SAMPLES of current
Mancunian Factory products: dopey
comedian John Dowie; a cute pop duo
called Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark;
A Certain Ratio of young men desperately
portraying themselves as artists; and finally
Joy Division, whose unequivocal, energetic
approach was doubly welcome after theengaging but ultimately tedious naivety ofthe preceding players.
Making a rare appearance in the capital, Joy
Division certainly deserved the affection of
the few who heard their insistent, welldefined pop. Fronted by a jerky, disciplined
singer in Ian Curtis, they were as exciting tolook at as they were to listen to.
The singer's twitching robotic outbursts
between vocal contributions provided thevisual equivalent of relief through movementfrom the confined claustrophobic rhythms ofdrummer Stephen Morris and bassist Peter
Hook, constantly clawed at from the inside by
Bernard Dicken's nagging guitar playing.
Also interesting to a lesser extent, were A
Certain Ratio ("Looking fora certain ratio..."- from Eno's "A True Wheel"), who were lastThursday very conscious of their roles as
artists, what with their uniformly severe
haircuts and baggy trousers.
In contrast Orchestral Manoeuvres In The
Dark, a keyboardsman and bassist/vocalist,
played airy electronic pop, like Kraftwerk
during their lighter moments. Cute at the118

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

moment. Hope they don't get coy with it.
Out of the four samples Factory had on
display, Dowie's daft humour was the least
attractive. Still, his presence proves theeclectic, adventurous nature of the label
which in Joy Division, definitely has the basis
fora solid future. Chris Bohn-

N CURRENT FORM, Joy Division shouldhave been the best thing happening on
Friday night, and the Buzzcocks campknew it too. Consequently, they treated theirguests to a lousy sound,which dampened Ian Curtis'
passionate vocals, throwing
him into an uneven struggle
with superior forces oftechnology. Inevitably helost, but the spirit ofresistance was there.
aStripped of their strongest
asset, Joy Division still
managed a few peaks with highly intense,
compact versions of "She's Lost Control" and"Transmission", which carried the impact ofmini -epics. Their stylised claustrophobia
might eventually constrict them, but for thepresent it's exciting, and their expansion on it
in the future should be worth watching.
Unsurprisingly, the sound improved
immensely for the Buzzcocks, discounting
a few hiccups at the start; that they failed tomake the most of it, after Joy Division's

0struggle, is doubly frustrating. The
Buzzcocks looked tired and jaded, making
little effort to pep up their zitzy pop. Instead,we were treated to a criminally short 35
minute run-through of hits and standards;
they only livened up when Steve Diggle took
lead vocals for "Mad Mad Judy" and"Harmony in My Head" - the latter sung very
badly, but at least it was enthusiastic
Diggle's songs, though, aren't what people
go and see the Buzzcocks for, as Shelley'scentre -stage position indicated. Directionlessand despondent, he didn't spark on "Ever
Fallen In Love" or "Nothing Left", seemingly
saving himself for the final, halfway -decent"I Believe". When Shelley doesn't try, thecounterbalance of his fragile preciousness
topples to the heavier"She's Lost

Control" carried
the impact ofmini -epicrough -'n' -ready approach of
Steve Diggle and drummer
John Maher, who aren't
the reasons why I go see
the Buzzcocks.
They Buzzcocks used
to be a vital, invigorating
band. On Friday they
displayed no interest

whatsoever; consequently they're no longer
interesting. But that's still
no excuse for what
they allowed to
RAINBOW THEATRE
happen to Joy
LONDON
Division. But
then, if they don't
help themselves,
why should they
help anyone else?
Chris BohnLIVE!
NOVEMBER 9

JOY DIVISIONSHIMMY....

session. His productions are imprinted witha generous but supple use of electronics. He
has the auteur's mark and the entrepreneur's
eye and in the years to come he's unlikely tofade away.
Joy Division regard Hannett as their sixth
member, the fifth being manager Rob
Gretton. Gretton was the DJ at the Rafters"Another good thing about it," says
Stephen, from the heart, "is if you've got
some sort of frustration, something eating
you, something you perhaps couldn't talkto anybody about - you can get it out justby playing.""The thing is, if you've got a brain,"
explains Peter, "obviously you want to do
Club back in December of '77, when Joy
something with your life, orwhatever. I'm
Division changed their name from Warsaw
sure a lot of people feel like that. Now thatand played the StiffTest /Chiswick
we've got this, we don't."
Ian disagrees: "You say that and you're
Challenge night. Seventeen bands slugged itout -Joy Division coming on last at three intaking away someone's self-respect. It's
the morning and playing two songs.
like that group -what were they called? TonyWilson, presenter of the bold but badly
someone wrote a song about women atreceived So It Goes, now Factory Records
home, and they said, 'This is a song aboutmajordomo, was in the audience. "The bands
all the women who should be out doing
were all good and they were all boring. But
what theywant.' That's taking away
Joy Division were wonderful and they had
someone's self-respect."
something to say. I thought so and so did Rob,
Bernard takes up the issue: "People who
JOY DIVISION -FACTORY'cos after that he became their manager."
don't like what they're doing either go one
Wilson recalls another incident from thatwayor another. Theyget out and donight. He was sitting next to someone whom he later found out was Ian
something else -whether it's going off round the world or forming a group
Curtis, and this someone turned to him, byway of introduction, and said,
or even living the rest of theirlives on the dole -and it takes a bit of courage"You bastard. You put Buzzcocks and Sex Pistols and Magazine and all
to do that. Or they just settle down at work and just take theweight of thethose others on the telly -what about us then?"job on their shoulders -which also takes a lot of courage. It's terribly sad,As events turned out, Wilson paid for the recording and release of
but then there's a vast amount of people who don't even think about it. Allthey want is a pint every night and two weeks in Benidorm everyyear.
Joy Division's first album out of his own pocket. Ten thousand copies
were pressed fora total cost of £8,500. If all the copies sell, and it's likely"And then I bet there are people who think we're stupid because we'rethat they will, Wilson will recoup his money, and both he and the bandgoing into a position where there's no security- it's not going to last us awill show a profit.
lifetime. That's why we don't want to state what people should be and how
Wilson can afford to be altruistic, since his main income comes fromthey should interpret our songs, because you just can't say whether
his work as a TV journalist for Granada. Nevertheless, the album,
someone's right and someone's wrong. Both people can be right at the
Unknown Pleasures, is pressed and packaged to the standard of any othersame time."
release, if not better, and it's readily available ifyou shop around for under"Everyone's living in their own little world," reflects Ian. "When I was
three quid.
about 15 or 16 at school, 1 used to talk with me mates and we'd say, 'Right,
It's relatively easy to trace the stealthy progress Joy Division have madeas soon as we leave we'll be down in London, doing something nobody
from their aggressive, noisy, unkempt beginnings in '77 to the superb
else is doing.' Then I used to work in a factory, and I was really happy
controlled heat they generate now. The former is documented for
because I could daydream all day. All I had to do was push this wagon
posterity on Virgin's Short Circuit: Live At The Electric Circus album, thewith cotton things in it up and down. But I didn't have to think. I could
transition caught on their ownAn Ideal For LivingEP, and a glimpse of
think about the weekend, imagine what I was going to spend me money
their current form was provided by their two tracks on the Factory Sample.
on, which LP I was going to buy... You can live in your own little world."
But up until now Joy Division have been dogged by business problems,
Too true. But whichever world you choose to live in, the chances are it'll
stalled by personal problems, and ignored. They mistrust the glowing
sooner rather than later coincide with Joy Division's. They're here to stay.
reviews they now get, and wait, dispassionately, for the backlash.
And one more thing... All over Manchester the sewers have collapsed,
Being on the outside has made them very insular and possessive
the sewage pipes choosing the moment almost to the day toabout their music. It has also given them their strength; not a resentful,
simultaneously end their century -long lifespan and fill the streets with
we'll -show -'em sort of strength, but the satisfaction they derive froma foul stench. But what you make of that is up to you... Paul Rambali
their music.
"All the business side -that really fucks youup," moans Peter. "Once you get back in the
October 26.1979:
rehearsal room and there's just the four of us
BernardSumnerwith instruments we're back where we started.
AKA BernardDicken/
Albrecht -with Joy
It still hangs over you like a cloud -but once you
Division at the Electric
get your instrument you're free..."Ballroom in Camden,
North London"You're always working to the next song," says
Ian. "No matter how many songs you've done,
you're always looking for the next one.
Basically, we play what we want. It'd be very
easy for us to say, 'Well, all these people seem tolike such and such a song'... it'd be easy toknock out another one. But we don't.
"We don't want to get diluted, really, and bystaying at Factory at the moment we're free todo what we want. There's no one restricting
us or the music -or even the artwork andpromotion. You get bands that are given hugeadvances -loans really- but what do they
spend it on? What is all that moneygoing to get?
Is it going to make the music any better?"Well, it'll buy more equipment. Whether thatmakes the music any better is a moot point...
But we digress.

-W 13

The cuddly cosy comfort
of a tame and trusted teddy
July 3,1979:

Ian Dury&The
Blockheads

The balancing factor of
darkness and terror is all but

onstageatthe
Brighton Centre

gone as even songs like

"Plaistow Patricia" and"Blockheads" itself (keyexample, that) have become
cuddlycosynice by dint of sheer
familiarity and repetition. As
has most of Dury's show.
Keen amateur
environmental semanticists
will have clocked the "most".
Apart from the evergreen andutterly wonderful "Sweet Gene
Vincent", the most authenticallyaffecting moments in the show
were the darkest.
First there was "Waiting For
Your Taxi", an insidiously
chilling exercise in mounting
menace wherein Dury is
impaled like a broken moth at
the centre of rapiers of lightbeamed from all corners of the
HAMMERSMITH ODEON
state, a horrific allusion to the- LONDON
Union Jack for which kudos isdue to the lighting chaps.
Why won't the taxi come?
NME AUG18 Is Ian Dury in danger of losing his edge?
What are the consequences- AUGUST 8
of its non -arrival? Is it, in fact,
laAM MERSMITH ODEON IS soft
chirpiness, acute observation,a taxi at all? Why are you staring
and warm, awash with beer and love.
assimilation of the common
at me like that?
The landuryandtheblockheads
parlance (which, of course, lays him
And the real tour de force comes
Experience is well under way: funk, farts
open to all the boring old garf about who's with "Dance Of The Screamers", far andand folk wisdom. Across the stage, themore -working -class -than -who -then), his deftaway the most magnificent Dury opus thus
ensemble are strung out in a wavy line
wit and sleight -of -word, his beery anthems, hisfar. Here his compassion blends with anger
playing elasticated pinball music, rocking
winning streak of danceable fluff singles, hisrather than sentimentality, and rather thanand bouncing like champs.
warmth, his compassion... his excellent band!
congratulating his audience, he reminds them
Davey Payne looks like a punk Dr Who andSo his shows are comfy and furry, all hands that just because they've taken one victim tosounds like a flock of enraged geese; Mickey
knees -and -whoops -a -daisy and jolly goodtheir hearts doesn't mean they're entitled toGallagher sits inside his suit and goes
fun, and it's a telling demonstration of the way
pat themselves on the back for the rest of theirwhee000p whee000p; Chaz Jankel keeps his
audiences take what they want from bands
lives, because this society is full of people
hat on his head and his cards close to his chest;
and leave the rest at the side of the plate. In
going under for lack of love and support.
Charley Charles puts the fear of God into his
a way, it parallels the way that the harshHere, for once, Dury doesn't just twang
drums; Norman Watt -Roy resembles Mick
urgency exhibited by The Boomtown Rats
your heartstrings with a chuckle and a
Jones with jaundice and makes his bass go
when they were dodging hails of sputum ingrimace, he hangs a 16 -ton weight off 'em
boing; and John Turnbull looks normal andcrappy clubs gradually got eroded as theand then fires it out of a cannon.
demonstrates without a shadow of doubt his
records sold and they became stars.
However, the echoes of this harrowing
unalienable right to own so many guitars.
On Dury's first major outing in his current
moment are swiftly dissipated by a returnAdd up the figures in the left-hand column
incarnation back in Live Stiffs days, his show
to jollity and the de rigueur volley of Oi-Oi!
was riveting because it balanced the cheerfulcall -and -response routines.
and the digital readout says that describing
the Blockheads' music as "compulsively
and the macabre, the sweet and the savage,
There is a massive audience for the type ofthe darkness and the light. Dury was astylised music -hall funk he can churn out withdanceable" would be only slightly less inane
than complaining about the shortage of good
genuinely awe-inspiring figure, a victim
seeming effortlessness, and he can stick withtaking his revenge, a vision of terror as well asthat for as long as he wants and people willpubs in the Gobi Desert. In other words: awonderful band (in case you couldn't tell).
delight. In terms of sheer emotional power
sentimentalise him and love him and all will be
and impact, he took on Elvis and thetickety-boo. Alternatively, he can take a step
From the one-two sucker -punch curtain raiser of "Wake Up" and "Clevor Trever"
Attractions and beat them hands down.
back and delve into the darkness which is the
The success he received was nothing lesstrue source of his power and bring sweetness
through to "Lullaby For Franci/es" and theband walking off a houselit stage while Andy
than his due. For his courage and his humour
and light back from that.
and his wit and his acuity, he was duly
Both aesthetically and commercially, theDunkley spins a biscuit and gives thecongregation their marching orders, therewarded and recognised. No problem!
latter option is the tough one. Songs as heavy
But now Ian Dury is a family entertainer.
as "Dance Of The Screamers" are hellishly
landuryandtheblockheads show was as
cuddly and heartwarming an experience as
A great family entertainer
hard to write (involving as
beyond a shadow ofthey do no little psychic
any reasonable person could demand fortheir ackers. And that was the bloddy trouble!
a doubt (I ain't knockin',strain) and equally hard to
The balancing
y'understand), but a familytake if you're just out for
Since New Boots And Panties became "theworking man's Tubular Bells", Ian Dury hasentertainer nonetheless,beery bawdry, but they're
putting on a show where
the ones that count.
been adopted as some sort of mascot: astreasured and beloved an emblem as aeverything is flattened
I think it's time Ian
down to one dimension:
Dury started shaking
battered teddy bear with a ripped ear andscorch marks on its fur. Qualities for whichthat of bawdy warmth andup his audiences again.
gone
cosy sentimentality.
Ian Dury is loved: all-round strike -a -lightCharles Shaar Murray

Jolly goodfactor of darkness
and terror is allbut

120 HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

J

A cheapboogie bandMay 20.1979: Ronnie
Wood and Keith
Richardson stage with
The New Barbarians in

Oakland. California

MM AUG 18 Squeeze can't

recreate the magic live.
DAVITTSIGERSON WAS righta couple of weeks ago when hedescribed Squeeze as the new wave ELO. They have the same

penchant for creaming favourable
influences and shaping them in theirown vision -an asset that perhaps
explains Nick Lowe's admiration but, again like ELO, they fail to carve
any sort of strong character on stage,
and that anonymity was what madetheir performance on Sunday somiserably disappointing.
Squeeze have a curious perceptionof their live role. I'd imagined a bandthat would at least try to create thesubtle moods of their records,
where they cleverly manipulate
extremes of grossness and cuteness(as personified in the contrasting
sweetness of Glenn Tilbrook's angelic
looks and voice with Chris Difford's
dark seediness). Not so. Squeeze takea much more conservative route.
The band insist on sellingthemselves dreadfully short on stage.
Instead of projecting themselves as
the excellent and inventive pop bandthey are in the studio, Squeeze
mysteriously decide to make it asa cheap boogie band. There's a partof the show, for instance, where eachmember of the band is asked to dance
byTilbrook. True, it stirs some mild
hysteria within the audience, but talkabout stooping to conquer. Dull.
It was ironic, too, that Squeeze wereat their most lethargic when they
played (in succession) their three hit
singles, "Take Me I'm Yours", "Cool For
Cats" and "Up The Junction", eachperformed with a listlessness that
almost seemed to suggest a distaste for
their own achievements. I don't
understand their reasoning.
OK, so Squeeze want to be a good-time boogie band -as manifested ina treatment that took "Goodbye Girl"
from its perfect mid -tempo paceinto a raging, and uncharacteristic,rocker -but they should rememberthat their songs just don't allow forsuch reworking.
And in a fieldthat contains
LYCEUMLONDONLIVE!
AUGUST 12 -the likes of
Dr Feelgood

andRockpile,

they're non runners.
HarryDoherty

KNEBWORTH
HOUSE

LIVE!
AUGUST 11

Misconceived
MM AUG 18 Ronnie Wood's New

baruarians fail to sway the masses.
THE STENCH OF over -spilled sewers drifted
across the massed festival -goers part way

through the New Barbarians' shoddy set.
It seemed the most appropriate comment on
a totally misconceived venture.
The Barbarians, put together primarily topromote Ronnie Wood's recent album Gimme
SomeNeck in America, were no doubt capableof moments of high comedy and inspiration,
as once were Wood's old band, the Faces. But
evidence that they were already falling apartcame with Stanley Clarke's departure a few
weeks back.
The message was doubly driven home when
Clarke's supposed replacement, Willie Weeks,
was himself replaced by Philip Chen -who, it's
rumoured, had nine hours with the band before
the concert. In a basically ramshackle outfit
such as this, a firm but flexible rhythmic
foundation is essential. This one was so rigid
that it eventually sank and drowned under its
unwillingness to move.
But, with the two best
chugging rhythm guitarists
in the business up there,
the music should have
chopped more than it did.

Instead, Keith Richards was only roused fromhis lethargy for a tautly drawn intro to "Honky
Tonk Women", which Wood was incapable ofcapitalising on vocally.
Concentrating on his role as amiable
frontman, Wood proved unable to sway themasses. His efforts to compensate for his band's
emotional sterilitygrew more and more strained,
bringing him to an utter standstill one moment,
when he was forced to resort to the perennial"Are you all right?" call.
Frankly, Ronnie, no. It's just not good enoughfora smiling Face to bolster his pulling powerwith a famous Stone's presence, because it
quickly becomes apparent who the crowd isreally interested in, especially when theformer's weak material is fit for nothing but
a bar -room hoedown.
Three songs stood out from the rest, notbecause they were particularly strong or well
performed, just that their format varied fromthe pasty boogie that surrounded them.
They were Dylan's OK "Seven Days", theaforementioned "Honky TonkWomen",
Richards' "Before They Make Me Run" anda rushed encore of "Jumpin' Jack Flash".
For the record, Bobby Keys gave the occasional
kiss of life, Sugar Blue blew some sweet harp, and
Ian McLagan did what onewould expect of him.
The others also ran. ChrisBohn

The Barbarians:boogie,
pasty

1979

OCTOBER -DECEMBER

KATE BUSH, THE CLASH,

THE SPECIALS, PUBLICIMAGE LTD AND MORE

122 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

Encouraging
response
MM DEC 1 uz, a young Irish

band, visit the UK mainland
DUBLIN BAND U2 fly into London

this month fora series of dates
after the encouraging response
in Britain to their debut EP, Three.
The band play (all London dates):
The Moonlight Club (December 1),
Nashville (2), 101 Club (3), Hope &Anchor (4), Rock Garden (5), Electric

Ballroom, with Talking Heads (7 and
8), Canning Town Bridge House(11), Dingwalls (14) and Windsor
Castle (15).

U2 BREW

U2 in1979:(I-r)

LarryMullenJr,
Adam Clayton,
Paul 'Bono"
Hewsonand David"The Edge -EvansHISTORY OF ROCK 1979 1123

London on Sundays -nor, for that matter,
inhabit "the fabulous world of Kings Road
"demystifying
thinking" which Danny Baker is so keen
andtrivialising
the swastika"
to attribute to me -doesn't completely
exclude me from understanding themeaning of the swastika.
Jamie Reid, the Sex Pistols' sleeve designer,
provided us with two logos of swastikas to use
in the presentation of their records. One wascovered with marijuana leaves; the other which we used on Sid's album -was in theform of four guitar necks. Both were intended
to convey his opinion about the repressivenessof record companies in general and Virgin inparticular. Being liberals to the point ofoafishness, we have always made a point ofprinting all the artwork given to us by the
Pistols' camp, including full -page attacks
on ourselves.
We also presumed -wrongly
NME JEC A swastika adorns a new Pistols release and NME is
as it turns out -that by
unimpressed. A week later, Virgin's Richard Branson writes in...
demystifying and trivialising
the swastika, much as Sid
himself did by wearing it on
pURCHASERS OF Sid Sings, Virgin Records'
philosophical stance,
his increasingly grubby
SIDE ONEno matter how garbled
T-shirts, it would be seen
heartfelt tribute to the man they are said
33% RPMSTEREOto have plans to turn into the biggest
or specious it may be.
as an object of ridicule.
SID SINGS
ROM IO WIN w... O...
posthumous star since James Dean, will
Virgin Records
Certainly no offence was
1 MI44044, 414 MVO 00111/4644 Wow
1f
1111111.44.1.
already have had an opportunity to check out
marketing man Charlie
intended, as I share NME's
rnrrwon OM 04.044,41.:Z*44.4.4.
I 144 WAY 411.44,.....4444
44.4.4,44.44.4. CA L
the wacky, finger -on -the -pulse satire of theDimont, however, appears
distaste for the National
SID VICIOUS
artwork prominently displayed on the label.
only able to think in terms
Front, similar organisations
in...
Other readers will no doubt be delighted toof profit margins, no matterand all their grisly supporters.
learn the label boasts that oh -so -meaningful
how evil the methods of haulingSo, much as I initially disliked theof 20th -century symbols, a swastika, wittily
in the money:superior, bossy, moralistic tone ofcreated by Pistols' situationist art -form"The record's just meant to be something ofBaker's review, on further reflection I totallychappie Jamie Reid from the necks of four
a retrospective album. For people who want toaccept that if even one Jew or immigrant was
Fender St ratocasters. This motif has alreadycollect all the Pistols' stuff. The swastika's justoffended, he would have been justified in his
been used elsewhere: on a poster currently
meant to be an amusing statement about theattitude. The use of real swastikas over Blair
being distributed by Fast Product for the Deadmusic." Ha ha.
Peach's face, around Brick Lane and on Asian
Kennedys' "California UberAlles". The poster
shops -brazen intimidation if I even saw it -is
NME DEC 15
also displays marijuana plant -decorated
completely sickening.
swastikas, which, says Reid, is intended to
FOLLOWING LAST WEEK'S review of the
Finally on this point -so that you can besymbolise how hippies sold out. (Ah-hum).
Virgin Sid Sings album and the Thrills
absolutely certain that Tyndall, Webster and
The Stratoswastikaster mot if was originallypiece on the swastika logo carried on the
I would not have an enjoyable time in bed
designed for another album that the fabulous
record label itself, the NMEwas contacted bytogether -I enclose one of the posters Virgin
House ofVirgin were projecting for Christmas
Virgin boss Richard Branson.
put out to ridicule the National Front at therelease titled FloggingA Dead Horse, apparently
Branson was disturbed that it could betime of the last election.
a Sex Pistols' Greatest Hits LP -and you thought
misconstrued that the Virgin organisation was
No apologies for the album itself- no morethat was what Never Mind The Bollocks was!
supporting unpleasant right-wing beliefs. He
so than for, say, the Elvis Presley LP, another
Dead Horse is apparently now being held until
asked to be given the opportunity to be able toposthumous album we released to enthusiastic
The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle is finally released.
place in writing his own thoughts on thereviews in the same week. Ifyou were offered
Accordingly, Jamie Reid utilised thematter. Here is Branson's reply:
stories on either Vicious or Presley and thought
distasteful motif in question in the Deadthey would sell papers and interest yourKennedys artwork. When Thrills pointed out toDear Neil [Spencer, NMEeditor]
readers, you would have no hesitation in
our Jamie that all this flaunting of swastikas
It was ironic that, in your streeter-than thouprinting them. In this respect, I take exception
was getting a bit tedious, he replied that hedismissal of Sid Sings last week, you should
to your hypocritical remark about how ourwouldn't expect "radical chic journalists" toinitiate your attack with as totalitarian amarketing manager -whom you approachedunderstand how it was in actuality a stunning
broadside as "If rock'n'roll has any backbone,fora misquote -"appears only able to think incondemnation of the repressive nature of theit would close Virgin Records down". Just
terms of profit margins". What was your admusic business. Hence his imaginative usage
because I don't stroll down Club Row in East
manager thinking about when he approachedof Stratocaster necks to form the swastika.
him for the artwork for a full -page"I find the whole hysteria that
Sid album ad? Ceasefires insurrounds the swastika quite amusing
Rhodesia? Cabinet leaks?
-it's just a bunch of old Leftists getting
You are free to put Elvis Presley ortied up with dialectics rather than
Sid Vicious on the cover of NMEto
facing up to the real issues," he added.
sell more copies. The public, in turn,
Unfortunately the relatives -thoseare not obliged to buy the paper. We
who survived, anyway- ofsix million
can do likewise by issuing theiror so people killed in the Nazi death
unreleased material. Once again,
camps do not laugh so easily at thethe public don't have to buy it.
notion of the swastika.
Unless theywant to.
As muddled as Reid's thinking may
Roll on FloggingA Dead Horse.
be, however, he does take some sort ofYours, Richard Branson
Bransonin1979:
Virgin were

"No offence was intended"2,

Virgin 'Not Horrid'

CLASH MOVIE IN NEW

YEAR

September20,
1979:TheClashatthe Palladiumin New York City

Ready for screening

Rizeo8CToy6oCalasnhexftilymean
MickJagger:
to appear in

he Clash movie, Rude Boy, isw ithi n three weeks of final printing, but although it should
be ready for screening by m id -late November, it's unlikely to be on release in Britain ant i
the new year.
Director Jack Hazan said the soundtrack is being dubbed over the next three weeks and will
be cut back from its current two -and -a -half-hour length to two hours for general release. No
distribution deal has yet been worked out, but Hazan has had offers and feels that this will be no
problem. Because of the state of the cinema market approaching Christmas, he reckoned thatthe movie -which centres on the character of Ray, a white kid in Brixton who gets involved with
The Clash and their music -will be showing early in the newyear.
A soundtrack album featuring about 45 minutes of Clash music will be released with the film.
The new studio Clash album, which was produced by Bill Price, Guy Stevens and the band, will
be released at the end of November. No title is yet available.

Werner Herzog's
Fitzc arraldo?

-1-"We'll see
it through"I

September 20,
1979:The Who at
NYC's Madison
Square Garden

NME DEC 15 ragedy
notwithstanding, The Whocontinue their US tour.
The Who have decided tocomplete their US tour
schedule, despite theCincinnati tragedy on December 3,
when ii young people died in thestampede to gain admittance to thevenue the band were playing.
Immediately after the disaster, they
were so shattered that they considered
cancelling - or at least curtailing - theremainder of the tour. But now the initialshock has subsided, they've agreed to fulfil

their commitments.
Said Roger Daltrey: "We'll see it through.
We talked seriously about pulling out, but we
felt that cancelling the tour wouldn't undo
what had happened, and would only have theeffect of disappointing thousands of otherpeople. We've also decided to go ahead withour charity
concert at
Hammersmith
Odeon onDecember 28."

THE WHO

CARRY

Daltrey explained that The Who's thinking
was conditioned by the fiasco occurringoutside the stadium, and therefore beyond
their control and responsibility. He added:"If it had happened while we were on stage,
we'd have been on the first plane home, andprobably never performed live again."
Now Pete Townshend is going to great
lengths to ensure that a clause is enteredinto the band's contracts, whereby safetymeasures come under their jurisdiction.
"We want to be in a position where weourselves can legislate for this situation,and so make certain that such a tragedy
never happens again," he said.

A return tothe style of
Exile On
Main StNME DEC 1 lobsleigh trials
a new Rolling Stones
album is nearing completion.
THE ROLLING STONES' longawaited new album, which theyspent months recording in Paris,is provisionally scheduled for mid -January
release. Although still untitled, it'sunderstood to revert to the style of Exile
On Main Street.
And they are making initial plans fortheir much -delayed return to the concert
platform - involving tours of Australia,
Europe and Britain - which hopefully
would bring them to the British Isles inthe early spring.
Said their London spokesman: "There's
also talk of another film for Mick Jagger,
which would be shot in South America.
We're not yet sure if this would affect thetiming of the tour - but if it did, it would
only be a slight disruption."
Meanwhile, this weekend Jagger flies
from New York - where he's working on
the album sleeve - to West Germany toattend the Olympic bobsleigh trials in
Winterberg, as he is personally financing
and sponsoring the two -man London
team of Alan and Arnold Dunn.

New
for
LP
StonesfollowtoYear, tour
TWF ROLLING STONES'

also uspokesman: "There's Jawof another film for Mick
in gni I.

1979

OCTOBER -DECEMBER"I getfreaked out"
NME OCTOBER 20

Ask a post -fame-

I: THREE LETTERS that have come to represent "the1menemy" in rock'n'roll's war games. EMI House rambles likea country home with a thousand warrens of ministry -typeboring pools and divisions. The guard on the reception listens
Jto my appointment with Kate Bush with all the emotion of aweighing machine being told a hard -luck story. Like everyone
else, 1 get told to take a seat while he talks, unheard, into one of the extensionphones. About 10 minutes later I'm led down and through EMI House and up
to a corridor down which the Daily Mirror's Pauline McLeod is striding. She'sout -I'm in.
Kate Bush is sipping Perrier water from an elegant glass. I tell her she'll geta royal old bulge if she carries on guzzling the gin like that, and she laughs
naturally. She's far more attractive than I'd ever thought -not being the globe's

most rabid fan of the woman, y'understand -although quite short.
NMEhad been after a KB interview for a while but, so I'd learned on leaving theoffice, her management were less than obliging. Me? Well, the truth is that I had
no opinions about Kate at all. I knew the singles, but I really couldn't find it in me
to go any deeper, to checkout her roots (he said, nicking in this piece's mostcontrived gag). I still don't... such was our meeting.
Hey Kate. Do you feel obliged to sing like that these days?
"What? You mean..."Y'know, like you could age the nation's glassblowers.
"Oh, yeah, sure. I mean, I don't feel obliged -that is me. See, like in a recording
studio, when it's all dark and there's just you and a couple of guys at the desk,
well, you get really so involved that to actually plan it becomes out of thequestion. It just flows that way. As a writer I just try to express an idea. I can't
possibly think of old songs of mine, because they're past now, and quite honestly
I don't like them any more."

Ef,

it

straight question,
you get a straightanswer. What's
success been like?

"You go out toget cat litter andthere's 40 people
staring at you...
I feel like an animal."
Earlier in the year,
her "Tour Of Life"is poorly received.

Doing "Wuthering Heights" must've been murder then.
"Well, I was still promoting that up until 18 months after I'd had it released.
Abroad I was still promoting it on TV, where I was able to do it backwards and (shemimes it while picking her nose nonchalantly)... just weird."
Have you still got people around you who'll tell you something's rubbish?
"My brother Jay, who's been with me since I was writing stuff that reallyembarrasses me -he'd let me know for sure... Yeah, there's a few I can really trust."
She smiles again and I warm to her. Mind you, she speaks my language, so
I could be sympathetic because she's one of the South London rock mafia. I ask
her what it's like to be paraded in The Sun
and suchlike as the Sex Goddess of POP!
"Hmmm. You see, you do a very straightinterview with these people, without evermentioning sex, but of course that's the only
angle they write it from when you read it.

126 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979,,WOW WOW. WOW. WOW.

AMA-"
AMAZINGAMAZING(. . .

supermarket)
the
only
at
that'sandI-Well whenever I se* the news .t's always

KateBushlam,:"71wnedayslfeI
likeoneofthelads"

1979

pp

I 127

197

OCTOBER-DECEMBER

Taunted by two suitably

attireddancers, KateBush performs"Violin-,which will appear on
the following year's
NeverForEver album

Desperate to dazzle and bemuse
NME APR 28 .iie theatrical Tour Of Life fails to impress one NME scribe.
T. WO MEMORIES: RECALLED first are
the days when rock'n'roll was swampedwith failed classical pianists and violinists
who knew that they could make it in rock'n'rollbecause certain strata of the rock audience
have an inferiority complex about Real
Culture and no standards by which to judge it.
Recalled second are all the unpleasantaspects of David Bowie in the Mainman era.
Successfully shoved under the cerebral
carpet by the passing of time and the ghostsof all those dynamite gigs, it only takes a whiff
of Kate Bush's tour programme and thehaughty condescension of the little notesfrom the Kate Bush Club that you find on yourseat when you arrive to bring it all back. No
photographers. Stay in your seats andworship, you dumb bastards!
The Kate Bush show that's been wowin' 'em(as in "Wow, wow, wow, wow, we think you're
unbearable") all over the country is a tributeto hard work, lots of money and the old-styleideology that defines the relationshipbetween artist and audience as purely thatbetween worshipper and worshipped.
Described (elsewhere, natch) as some kindof apex in the mating of rock and theatre, it issimply the most complicated and expensive
extant collision between theatrics (there
is a difference between "theatre" and"theatrics", but if Kate Bush is aware of it,
she certainly isn't letting on) and MOR pop.
An endless stream of sets, costumes,
pantomine-conjuring special effects, backprojections, sound effects (ranging from windand rain to her brother's awful crypto-poetry
128 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

read in a portentous, echoing elocution -competition voice to audible sniggering frompeople who hadn't paid the statutory fiver for
their tickets) and things that would be
described as "gimmicks" if they occurred in
the course of a performance with less lofty
ambitions as this one. The KATE BUSH (sheprefers capitals) experience is an exercise in
the time-honoured art of battering an
audience to death and making them like it.
Ms Bush herself is theevident product of an awful
lot of strenuous selfimprovement. One can only
imagine all those years ofballet training, mimeclasses, piano lessons... she
is Supergirl: the range ofher skills aspires to bebreathtaking and theend result is that she iscapable of doing enoughthings passably toconvince large numbersof people (only a few ofwhom are equipped toknow better) that she isdoing them brilliantly.
Her piano playing
is competent but
characterless: unlike
Laura Nyro and Joni
Mitchell - whose work
she evidently admires- the style is neither
distinctive nor

expressive. Her songwriting hints that itmeans more than it says and in fact means
less: she hints at mystery and uses it as a cloak,
whereas true mysteries always stand naked.
Her singing is at least unusual: her shrill, selfsatisfied whine is unmistakable. Altogether,a lightweight talent with one good song("Wuthering Heights") to her credit.
Her dancing is more perspiration thaninspiration: completely lacking in sensuality
or funk, it relies instead on a supple, well exercised frame and enough ballet moves toimpress people who know nothing about
ballet, just as the Emersons and Wakepersonsof yesteryear were able to bullshit people
who knew nothing about classical music.
Her mime is elegant sham: great mime
expresses everything,good mime expresses
something and bad mime
expresses nothing otherthan somebody's been
to mime classes.
Backed by a cast of adozen (seven musicians,
two dancers, two singers
and the real star of theshow, illusionist Simon
Gray), Bush twirled andskittered and trilled her
way through a series oftableaux vivants whichalmost disguised that if
it had actually been
performed and staged

She twirled andtrilled her way
through a series oftableaux vivants

as a straight concert it

would have been tediousin the extreme.
For the climax centred around "JamesAnd The Cold Gun" - she
dressed up in cowboy
togs and methodically

KATE BUSH

Performing theshow'spenultimat
song,"Kite",from
The Kick Inside

PALLADIUMLONDONAPRIL 18 -shot Grayand the twodancers,
complete with fakeblood, rimshots and dry ice,
before retreating to the stylised
womb at the back of the stage
from which she had originally
emerged, shooting at theaudience. It was the first timethat she played direct to thecrowd and the only emotion
expressed was hatred.
It has been pointed outthat she's terribly young andoh -so talented. She certainly
works hard: the show runs
over two hours and except
for when she's seated at thewhite piano, she's in constantmotion, using a radio mic ona kind of telephonist's headset
so that she can move freely thewhole time.
The trouble is that she's
completely entranced with theidea of her own stardom andthe concept of presenting analmost superhuman facade.
Tony DeFries would've loved
you seven years ago, Kate,and seven years ago maybe
I would've too. But these days
I'm past the stage of admiring
people desperate to dazzle andbemuse, and I wish you were
past the stage of trying thosetricks yourself.
Sure, what you do takes talent,but it ain't the kind of talent I
respect. Enjoy your success.
Charles Shaar Murray

That kind of freaks me out, because thepublic tend to believe it..."Asking a few more questions, I begin torealise that this isn't the kind of stuff thatweekloads of Gasbags [the NMEletterspagel are made of. I'm searching fora key
probe, but with Kate Bush -well, there's not
likely to be anything that will cause the
12 -inch banner -headline stuff, is there
now? I recall Charlie Murray's less than
enthusiastic review of her Palladium shows,which were apparently crammed with lameattempts to "widen" the audience's artistic
horizons-y'know, lots of people dressed as
violins and carrots an' that. CSM reckons it
was one of the most condescending gigs in
the history of music. Kate had read thereview, but she didn't break down.
"Just tell me one thing," she said innormal tones. "I mean, was he actually at
the show that night?"
Yeah, sure. I remember he told me he'dspent a week there one Tuesday.
"Oh, well, in that case that's just his
opinion and he's entitled to it."
We all smiled again, and Kate asked me if
I'd seen/Vier:I wondered if she got out
much herself.
"Well, I don't get out to parties often.
I have this thing about wasting time..."Oh really? Which thing is that?
"You know, I nag at myself all the time for beinga waster. I think, 'Gosh, you could be creating theworld or something. Well, that certainlyseems a worthwhile thing to do,
all right, although it has in fact been done before.
Y'see, occasionally Kate allows the poet and allround Tyrannosaurus Rex dreamer to slip out, asucker for Lord Of The Rings. For a start, I have cut
about a hundred "wows" and "a mazings" from her
speech. She talks at length about how important she
feels it is to be "creating" all the time, and when I
asked her if she looked to the news for any songinspiration I got this curious answer:"Well, whenever I see the news, it's always the samedepressing things. Wars, hostages and people's arms
hanging off with all the tendons hanging out, you
know. So I tend not to watch it much. I prefer to go
and see a movie or something, where it's all put much
more poetically. People
getting their heads
blown off in slow motion,very beautifully."
She grins broadly again.
Kate is an artist throughand through, seeing theworld as a crazycanvas onwhich to skip. Her
outrageous charm covers
the fact that we are in the
midst of a hippy uprisingof the most devious sorts.
I approach her on thequestion of being a woman
in pop music once more.
How do her workmates treat her?

me to get on with it in that way. But at the same time,
I sense that they're very respectful, because they
make me aware of being a woman, and will layoff thedirty jokes and that..."Incredible. Do you find men in awe ofyou?
"Socially? Wel1,1 find that -with people that I
haven't seen for a couple ofyears, because they won't
treat me as a human being. And people in the street
will ask for autographs and also won't treat you as
human, but... ah... sometimes I get really scared.
Sometimes when I'm going to the supermarket to get
the coffee and cat litter, I get freaked out and see allthese people staring, and you turn around andthere's like 40 people all looking at you... and when
you go around the corner, they're all following you!
You start freaking out like a trapped animal.
"However, I don't notice guys doing it on a personallevel. Maybe some will keep their distance, but thatmaybe because they don't get off on me.
"You see, when I first got started, I thought that I'dbetter watch out for these rip-off artists and stickwith old friends. But it's amazing that since I've beenin the business, I've made many more real friends,
especially on a working basis. I find that I can get so
involved with a guy working with me -and usuallyon a platonic level, which is great! That's so special,like these two minds linked on this one project. And
that is a very beautiful thing that I'd never haveexperienced if I had not been in this business.
"And what's more, I'll keep these friends for life,
because not only do they care for you, but they giveme information and their teachings. What more
could I ask for?"Do you think there's a danger of becoming
detached inside music?
"Probably. I don't read newspapers, and I've said
I don't watch the news. I love books, but I don't readmuch. What I do is I get people to read to me, and I put
the stories in my head."A bit like a hat, I suppose.
"And films. I watch an awful lot ofTV films."
Do you think you might be avoiding real life?
"Well, no, because I think that all these heavy issues-equality among blacks and whites, etc- have all
been done before, and if you do it now, it has to be very
cleverly handled. It all gets too negative and cliched.
So I find that, working with fantasy, I can handle thesame issues, perhaps, but in a more positive way."
Don't you think that albums can make you feel andthink sometimes withouter... pussyfooting?!
remember the first time
I heard The Clash, and...
"Oh, yeah, some ofthese new bands areamazing. They're justspringing up. The Police
are just amazing..."Here, listen, I thinkyou've got the picture. KateBush, to meet, is a happy,
charming woman that can
totally win your heart. But
afterwards on tape, when
she's not there and you
actually listen to all this, well...

"I get people
to read to me

and I putthe stories in
my head""Well, when ! started, I felt reallyconscious of being female among
all these fellows. But these days
I feel like one of the lads."

That doesn't sound very healthy.
"Oh, yeah, it is. When I'mworking, it's really important for

golly gosh. Don't lose sleep, oldmates, it's just pop music -folk
and the games they spin. Wow.
This was Chicken Licken,
Cosmic News, Atlantis,

goodnight, man...
Danny Baker
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 1129

November10,1979:
Pete Townshend(right)ripshis
trousers during The
Who's Brighton show

BRIGHTON- CENTRE

Aimlessly frenetic-

NOVEMBER 10

highlight -"Drowned",
beginning with rumbling

piano and hefty drum rolls.
MM NOV 17 .,od is resurgent, but The Who go from stately to stumbling.
Their other opera representation, "PinballWizard"/"See Me Feel Me", combined with
THE WHO HAVE always been acutely
Townshend's joyful gigs with his own
heavy floodlighting to prompt the biggest
aware of their own legend -justplaintively sung chorus.
reaction of the night.
look at The Kids Are Alright. EachThe first newish song, "Sister Disco", wasBut then everything went downhill. The
landmark is carefully stage-managed andsolid, lightened by John "Rabbit" Bundrick's
disguised intro of "My Generation" was swiftly
duly recorded, which rather diminishes theairy synthesizer; "Who Are You" had all therecognised, the song turning into a seemingclassic Who hallmarks: stuttering intro,
endless rock'n'roll-style medley. "Won't Get
supposed spontaneity and secrecy of theirreturn to Brighton.
reticent Townshend chorus and impassioned
Fooled Again" was similarly spoilt. Townshend
Daltrey voice. "Music Must Change" sensibly
is just incapable of jamming interestingly, so
Naturally, fans heard about it earlyenough to form long queues days before
introduced a three-man horn section, leanlythat Who jams stumble over a crashing, falling
used to bolster the song's chorus. Like therhythm and their leader's aimlessly frenetic
tickets went on sale. The media were
there, the legend thus fuelled. Brighton,
Stones, The Who are adept at assimilating
riffing, based more on a boredom and relief
newer songs into their set, so with eachgamble than tension and release.
a sentimental journey for the band and fansalike: a veterans' run rejuvenated by an
subsequent hearing theyThe end and the encores:
seem more and more likethe band's lasers have been
influx of new mods. Quadrophenia wasshowing further on up the road, supplying
they belong.
replaced with a lighting rig
The Who were happy
that spells out their name,the script to this particular movie.
The Who in Brighton sounds better in
together, joking between
to much applause. They
Townshend began
themselves without forcing
returned with "Young Man
retrospect than it did on the night. But it
didn't have to be that way, and for half of thethe friendship on theBlues" - an unfortunateaaudience. Once, Daltrey andchoice, as the father
concert it was more than that. The return of
we figure of the chorus now
mod means that The Who no longer have toTownshend began a chorusof " We were the mods, we
resembles Townshend too
strain to justify their presence, like they did
with the less -easily -pleased punks who
were the mods", and later
closely: "How did you learn
Townshend qualified his
how to fight/spit/shit", etc.
preceded them. The first half was relaxedand stately and fine by me. The Who gently
relationship to the movement thus: "Naturally
Later there's a half-hearted attempt to smash
we don't have much to do with the mods
a guitar, and it's all over.
caressed the strings marked "audience
response", rather than tugging at them astoday, and we didn't have much to do with
Whether they like it or not, The Who havethem 15 years ago." The irony was probably
become an institution - one that would
they were to do later on.
"Substitute" and "I Can't Explain" arelost on the audience, but they both seemed
benefit from nationalising and rationalising
if it wants to function efficiently in the '80s.
great pop songs by any standards, andpretty pleased with each other's presence.
the band played them with lively respect.
Quadrophenia was represented by
Chris Bohn
"Baba O'Reilly", possibly the best of all Who
a forceful "Punk And
numbers, with easily the most recognisable
The Godfather" andintro, was astonishingly moving, fusing- perhaps the set's

Daltrey andchorus of "Wewere the mods,
were the mods"

130 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

Veterans' runThe Cri

Ina

Randy Newman
guests on an editionof US late -night TV

show SaturdayNight
Live that airs on
opDecember 8.1979

Trekking
through thepast darkly
NME DEC 8 Randy Newman

brings his mix of satire andself-deprecation to London.
Randy Newman was wandering
around backstage at the
Dominion gazing disconsolately
down. "Why doesn't anyone likemy ELO song?" he kept asking no
one in particular, and no inparticular answered.
Randy Newman in concert was
fraught with that kind of question;
the space between the man's acuteirony and his inability to convey theappropriate emotion grew wider as thenight progressed. At first, with
Newman alone at the piano,
everything was dandy, theatmosphere and acoustics
DOMINION THEATRELONDON were right and the singer songwriter picked his worksh irted way across a division
and all the time his
Being no expert on Randy Newman, I'm notof material that only hits you
fragmented melodies exist in
sure whether his newer material really is aswhen you wake up in somecounterpoint to the nastiness.
duff as some folks make out. I do know that his
NOVEMBER 25 other room.
Brecht and Weill chords slap up
understanding ofAmerica's social problems
Newman's emotional spooking
against bar -room rolls, giving theand diseases (viz "Rednecks") are far more
became an intricate device forimpression of a practised amateur
powerful than the tepid parodies of the '70s
trekking through the past darkly; thewith a timely message.
traits he seeks to lampoon.
casual nonsense of "Simon Smith", a song
Newman ended this phase with "Political"The Story OfA RockAnd Roll Band" isfor imaginative children, was pursued bya
Science", the band trouped on and thea fine spoof and "It's MoneyThat I Love"murder unfolded -"In Germany Before The
atmosphere slipped off. Sometimes it seemedcomes straight from t he wallet ("They say
War" -a terrifying but still peaceful accountthat the band and their leader had only justthat money can't buy love in this world 1of a psychopath after the event; maybe it's justbeen introduced -arrangements were
But it'llget you a half -pound ofcocaine anda crime of passion.
untidily comfortable, disappointingly
a 16 -year -old girl") but "Pants" just isn't
The mind responsible wasn't giving that one
rock'n'roll. The rhythm section was
funny, in the sameway that FrankZappa isaway. Instead his feather touch on the keys
collapsible; the guitarist and the synthesizer
a monumental pain in the arse.
filled in the gaps; a melody was floating up
player evoked few of Newman's best
But when the band treat a songlike limp
some stairs and across a meadow.
characteristics.
heavy metal, you wonder
The satires, "Sigmund Freud's"Birmingham" survived
where parody ends andImpersonation OfAlbert Einstein In America"
partially intact, but a song
reality begins.
Sometimes it
and Randy Newman's version of "Take It Easy"
like "They Just Got Married"
It was nice to welcome-"The Girls In My Life (Part One)"- turned
begs for the arrangement
seemed that thesome metaphysical relief inperspectives inside out, railing against thethat only time and a bandthe encores when Newman
band and theirstate and baring the soul too much.
like Steely Dan could havereturned alone. Then you
As a writer Newman thrives on selfafforded it. The maddercould hear the ghosts ofleader had only just some New York vaudevilledeprecation and human unkindness. "Marie"
Randy got, the more sane
is a chilling account of justified rejection,
the band became, and forstage and watch the curtain
been
introduced
while "Rider In The Rain", accompanied bya number as acutely sad as
rise on the early part of thethe Randy Newman army ("You shoulda"Louisiana 1927" thecentury, which isheard the Germans sing this one"), did it forformula never even left the shelf.
Newman's most suitable case for treatment.
the romantic image of the settler. Newman"Kingfish" and an uptempo, toe-tappin'
There was melodrama in "LonelyAt The
knows his man and so does his audience.
"Short People" are two facets of Newman's
Top" and music -hall sentiment for "Davey
During this solo section it was possible to
The Fat Boy". Newman put his big money onstyle -the one a historically illuminating
appreciate the songs and the execution.
affront to nostalgia with the songwriter
the last number, "I Think It's Going To Rain
With Newman's left foot flailing erratically,as storyteller fora fascinating past, theToday", but by then it was too late.
he set about divulging the notions of theother a mildly amusing parody of bigotry,
A curiously unsatisfactory evening ofvindictive God, original sin and America's
an insubstantial piece in his pattern bookentertainment - Eugene Debs wouldn't haveprimitive religions. The faults he sees inof sim ilar songs. Schumacher would
stuck around for the electrical storm -it reallynever broke. Max Bella countryare levelled at individuals too,have approved.

-

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 1131

1979Om
OCTOBER"The nuttiest
sound around"

October20,1979:membersof
TheSpecials,Madnessand The

Selecter onHovebeachafterthe
first nightofthe 2 ToneTourat
Brighton'sTopRankand before
thatevening'sshowattheOasis
Leisure CentreinSwindon

MADNES?, THE SELECTEr and headliners HE SPECIALS' embark on a

40 -date UK tour. Along the way they meet wild crowds, loyal skinheads andoutraged feminists. "If we'd wanted to talk about politics," says Suggsy
from Madness, "we'd have formed a debating society, not a fucking band."1979
OCTOBER-DECEMBER,.

"16 :111::,.,iogvhet

4 mark Madness' lastI

MELODY MAKER

THEREARE 43 alarm calls booked for this morningand -oh hell! -one of them is coming this way. You
can hear the damned bells ringing through therooms of Swindon's Crest Motel, shrieking life into
slumbering bodies.
Outside the motel, a drab handkerchief of mist hangs
wet and cold over Swindon. The rabid yelp of the alarm jerks warm bodies
out of bed and into the shivering arms of the day.
The cast congregates in the lobby, pale -faced and hungover. The motel
staff are crisp and morning -bright with toothpaste smiles and efficientmanners. The tour party looks like death's leftovers, pushed to the side of
the plate. Terry Hall, who sings with The Specials, kisses goodbye to his
girlfriend, and sees her to the taxi. She's going home to Coventry.
"I think I'm going to cry," he whines. Jerry Dammers, another Special,lumbers through the lobby, an awkward shambling figure in a shabby
mac. He manages a smile, his tongue a flash of pink through an absenceof teeth. Young Woodsy, Madness' drummer, punishes his lungs,
doubling up in a violent paroxysm of coughing.
"My body's had enough of me," he gasps, his sharp face drainedof colour.
Three days into the 2 -Tone Tour, and we're already looking for the
stretchers. Ah, but it wasn't always like this.

IT WAS A gloriously sunny autumn afternoon when we gatheredat the Roundhouse. The three bands had been rehearsing there
the week before the tour, licking themselves into shape for an epic
40 -date trek around the island.
The atmosphere was buoyant, full of optimism; the energy of themusicians cut voluptuous shapes in the air. The Roundhouse wasbristling with enthusiasm. The coach was late, and the tour was alreadybehind schedule. By this time we should have been well on the way to
opening night in Brighton. No one seemed mildly concerned.
The three bands were strung out across the Roundhouse bar. The
Selecter and The Specials mingled, wandered and joked. Madness werequaffing light and bitters, being noisy. With their skinhead haircuts, Fred
Perrysports shirts and bright -blue Levi's originals (worn low around thewaist, with baggy arses ballooning around their knees and the bottoms
rolled up over their DMs), they looked like a gang of roughneck schoolkids
waiting to be taken fora day at the seaside.
134 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

s''', beforeleaving for US
dates, the band join The
Specials on stage at Ayr
Pavilion, Scotland

Kellogs was standing at the bar watching them. Kellogs was the tour

manager on last year's Be Stiff extravaganza. When St iffsigned Madness,they were put in his charge. He's just finished a fortnight on the road withthe rascals, and he's feeling a little weak at the knees.
"They make me feel so old," he said wearily. "They just don't stop. Up
till four in the morning boozing. Look at them..." We looked at them.
Down the hatch went another seven pints... "They're loving it. They'reon top of the fucking world. A hit single on the telly, on the road away frommum, drinking, smoking -all yobbos together. They're having the timeof their lives.
"Annuver 300 pints of light 'n' bitter," cried Madness in unison as thecoach pulled up outside the Roundhouse, their North London accents
crackinglike finger joints.
TrHERE ARE 40 of us on the bus and Madness, inevitably, aremaking the most noise; shouting, swearing, drinking, pulling
ridiculous faces at the crowds in Oxford Street. The older
musicians in The Selecter and The Specials smile indulgently; they'vebeen there before and they recognise Madness' behaviour.
Woodsy was sitting opposite one of the Specials, who had brought along
his girlfriend.
"This your saddle up for tonight, issit?" he asked with a wicked leer.
The Special had a television/cassette contraption.
"That's a nice little number," Woodsy nodded approvingly. "Expensive?""Sixty quid," said the Special.
"Fell off the back of a lorry, did it?" Woodsy asked.
To let everyone know that he's in a band, Woodsy carries a half -bottleof Scotch in the pocket of his army -surplus windcheater. Musicians arenotorious drinkers; Woodsy knows this from reading about bands inthe rock mags. He takes a hefty slug. He winces visibly as the Scotchburns a hole down through his stomach. He coughs and gags, lights
another Embassy.
Steve English was sitting across the aisle from him. Steve English is
the minder on the tour; he's looking after the security. He's built likea Sherman tank, looks a little like a bruised John Belushi. He's worked
as a bodyguard for Marvin Gaye, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and John
Conteh. He looks at the paltry figure of Woodsy grappling with theeffects of Scotch.
"Silly little fucker," English laughs.
"If he carries on like that for the next six weeks we'll carry him off thistour in a basket..."2 -TONE TOURHEYARE OUTSIDE the Top Rank, a dozen

skinheads, waiting for Madness. They are
led by Prince Nutty. They are all wearing
porkpie hats, tilted back on their heads, Crombie
overcoats, braces, Levi's or Sta Press trousers, andthe obligatory DMs.
You'll recognise Prince Nutty immediately. It's his
contorted mug staring out of the centre of the inner sleeve of Madness'album One Step Beyond. Nutty tops the tape measure at just under six feetand has shoulders as broad as the bonnet of a Cortina. He's surrounded
by a gang of his cronies. They're a fearsome -looking bunch. And there
are more of them inside the Top Rank, milling around sending out
intimidating vibes.
"Remember me?" asks one of Suggsy, Madness' singer. "I danced onstage wivyer at the Rock Garden, remember?""Yeah, 'course I remember you," Suggsy replies unconvincingly. The
skinhead stumbles off, tripping over on the stairs.
Madness had played in Brighton, at the Polytechnic, during their brief
warm-up tour earlier this month. A mob of British Movement supporters
had turned up at the gig, threatening trouble.
"They didn't do nuffink, though," Woodsysays. "They just stood about
in the bar talkingvery loudly about Adolf Hitler. I think it put a few
punters off, mind you..."Kellogs had mentioned earlier that there had been some elements
at Madness gigs in the North who had turned up looking for trouble.
In Oldham, a security check on the audience as they arrived at the gig
resulted in a number of weapons- knives, even a home-made mace being confiscated. When the band played in Huddersfield, a coachloadof fans from Middlesbrough arrived. The gig was already sold out. Whenthey couldn't get in they started a small riot, smashing the group's van
and trashing the truck of a film crew who were following Madness.
The band are sensitive about their following. They don't want toalienate the skins, but they don't want to be seen to be tolerating some of
their more violent outrages.And they certainly don't want to become any
kind of focus for the British Movement, or any other political group.
"There's no way that we're political," Suggsy says at one point. "We're
certainly not fascists. Ifwe were fascists, what would we be doing playing
ska and bluebeat?
"Ifwe'd wanted to talk about politics, we'd have formed a debating
society, not a fucking band."Prince Nutty and the large
contingent of skins at Brighton
seemed to respect Madness'concern that their gigs don't turninto a violent shambles. The themeof peaceful coexistence and mutualcompatibility that is constantly
stressed by The Selecter and The
Specials communicates itself to theheaving crowd at the Top Rank.
The aggressive atmosphere that
had prevailed earlier in the evening
as the skins, punks, mods, students
and weekend groovers in platformheels and flared bedspread trousers
all stampeded through the doors
and into the ballroom is quickly
dispelled. The skins storm to thefront of the stage, and they don't
budge. No one invades theirterritory, and they are content
with that, prepared to leave
everyone else in peace to enjoy
the music.

priority. Madness and The Selecter come off badly
as a result.
The audience groove outrageously; having forked
out their two -and -a -half quid, they're not about tobe denied a good time. But the frontline vocals ofPauline [Black] and Gappa (Arthur Hendrickson]
are woefully distorted by a capricious soundbalance. The twin guitar foundation organised by Neol Davies and the
spritely Compton Amanor lifts the music, gives it a powerful direction;
Desmond Brown's keyboards create great swelling gashes in the sound;but their impact is sadly undermined by the mix.
"Carry Go Bring Come" lashes through almost intact, and "On MyRadio" is powerfully arranged, reaching a frantic climax that leaves
the dancing hordes utterly breat hless. But from here to the encore
their performance, bitterly affected by the wayward sound, tends todegenerate into a myopic blur. It flashes by with plenty of activity, but
leaves no impression.
CHAS SMASH MONKEY -CRAWLS to the microphone tointroduce Madness. "Hey you!" he bellows, his voice echoing
around the sweltering ballroom. "Don't watch that. Watch this!
This is the heavy, heavy monster sound... The nuttiest sound around!"The skins at the front of the stage erupt, a conflagration of spinninglimbs and jerking heads. Lee Thompson's bronch it ic saxophone rattles
and wheezes, fidgets and flirts, scurrying over the beat. Mike Barson's
carousel organ pitches and whines, filling the songs with jokey little
swirls. Suggsy's vocal is pitched at the level of a fairground barker, full of
Duryesque accents and coarse asides.
The sound of Madness is the sound of Kilburn &The High Roads spreadover a ska-bluebeat background with the odd dash of vintage rock'n'roll
and a sprinkling of the Small Faces' cockney humour.
It's all quite splendid fun. Entertaining, in a very laddish sort of way, it's
the sound of drunken Saturday -night parties and heavy petting in theback of a Cortina and being sick on too much cider. It has a loutish
swagger that can be endearing when it's not irritating. The humour isbrittle, and a little bullying. It almost forces you to have a good time.
The audience allows its arm to be twisted without protest. The stage isassaulted. A few intrepid skins dance around the group. One attempts tosnatch Thompson's sax. In the audience the skins are clambering uponeach other's shoulders. On stage, Madness are playing "Swan Lake".
Blink! Now they're playing "Razor
Alley", which goes straight into
"Land Of HopeAnd Glory".
"Madness" is an inevitable anthem.
They close with "The Prince", whichis really their "Sweet Gene Vincent",
and come back for an ill-consideredversion of "Shop Around", which is{BIMINI IS

THIS FIRST GIG of the
2 -Tone Tour see -saws

unpredictably from chaos
to celebration. The late arrival
in Brighton has prevented thegroups having full soundchecks.
The Specials, as headliners andarchitects of the tour, claim

NES

lhE'SL.<?-eR..
TONE

TOUR79November 9111
Newcastle Mayfair

really rather dreadful.
"Thanks. You're fuckin'wunnerful," shouts Suggs at the end,
retreating before another berserk
wave of delirious skins.
APAIR OF LIME -GREEN

socks vividly illuminatedby the ultraviolet stage
lights lets us know that The
Specials are at last among us.
The socks belong to Jerry

Dammers, and they are pumping
up and down to a thrilling beat. The
lights flare up and suddenly The
Specials are coming at Brighton
from all directions.
The front line is a frenetic blur ofrushing bodies. Roddy Radiation,
black leather porkpie nestling on
blond spikes, guitar slung low,
powers across the stage from one
direct ion.And hello! Here comes
Lynval Golding from the otherdirection. Squeezing himself
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

I

135

404

.

- "

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Madnessint979:(1-r)Mark
Bedford,DanWoodgate,
LeeThompson,Chris
Foreman,Graham"Suggs
McPherson,ChasSmash
and Mike Barson

log

between this hurricane rush, Neville Staples darts"The next song," he announced, introducing "Tooand hurries, his voice lost in his own slipstream.
Much Too Young" "is dedicated to the stupid cow
ONE STEP Ifl
Terry Hall, meanwhile, stands at the microphone,
who reviewed it in the MelodyMaker..."int imidat ingly gormless, as infuriatingly static asThis remark rather incensed a platoon of ardent
Rotten with the Pistols.
feminists who happened to be in the audience.
On their record, Elvis Costello has given The Specials a thin, urgent"What about the women's movement?" someone cried.
sound, mellowed occasionally by sparse brass arrangements. It was"They're all a lot of stupid slags, ifyou ask me," Mr Hall replied
said by Specials aficionados to be untypical of the group's live sound.
emphatically.
Whether the group has shifted its musical emphasis or not I can't say
By now the audience was wound tighter than a corkscrew by The(this being the first time I'd seen them), but their performance isSpecials' relentless attack. The vicious thrust of "Concrete Jungle" presently characterised by an unexpected harshness and bony
during which Dammers vaulted over his organ, which was placed besideaggression that reflects the album's spiked venom.
the drums on a second stage level above the rest of the band, and attacked
I'd expected a more mellifluous mood to dominate; a carefree
Staples -provoked a brief outburst of fighting in the audience.
rhythm that would seduce the feet and ease the heart. There was little
To escape the scrum, the audience began to clamber up onto the stage,of that at Brighton. The Specials were fierce and unsettling. The songs
and onto the speakers. Rico [Rodriguez) and Dick Cuthell, who'd come onfor "Guns Of Navarone", were virtually swallowed by the mass of bodies.
were nervous and intense; compelling and threatening rather thanreassuring, a disquieting mixture of conflicting
The rest of the set was consumed by chaos.
and contradictory emot ions. If "It's Up To You"
By the time the band got around to playing
was compassionate and caring, "Rat Race""A Message To You, Rudy" (the first hint of real-a new song -was its antithesis; a spiteful,warmth in their performance), most of theangry tirade.
audience appeared to be on stage with them.
For all its apparent chaos, The Specials' show
And those that weren't were dragging those thatis as choreographed and deliberately contrived
were off so that they could get on. Rico looked
as any rock act. Terry Hall baits the crowd,
totally bemused, and hid under his woolly hat.
Neville Staples encourages them to reach out(Suggs, who was at the side of the stage, laterand invade the stage. He provides most of thereported that Rico at one point turned
spectacle, too; clambering up on the PA stacks,
despairingly to the wings and complained.
dangerously perching there as the speakers"I can't play me trombone with these people
sway beneath him.
bouncing up an' down," he cried.
He becomes almost frighteningly possessed
As the group fought their way offstage
on stage, smacking over microphone stands,
through this thoroughly demented rabble,
lunging at Hall and Golding, dancing into themicrophones were wrestled from the hands of
crowd waving a pistol during "Gangsters". During "Little Bitch" -whichroadies. Skins shouted slogans, punks replied. There was the most awful
was dedicated to one of the critics of their album -Staples sent his mic
racket, and through the hysterical cacophony there bellowed the strident
stand bouncing over the heads of the audience, who were surging backvoice of an indignant feminist.
and forth like the Kop.
"Come back and explain yourselves!" she demanded ofThe Specials.
The group appeared to have been stung by the reviews of their album"Don't applaud these fascists!" she roared at the audience.
(though bassist Horace Panter and Dammers will claim that they think
The Specials were having none of it. They were off.
critics unimportant). Terry Hall, at least, was not prepared to let the
Our intrepid suffragettes were not to be put off so easily, however. They
evening pass without criticism of this paper.
waited for Terry Hall to emerge from hiding and proceeded to give him"We didn't get

Eqvis Costello
to produce 'cos

he's special

or anything"

136 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

2 -TONE TOURa royal ear bashing, reproving him for his

praise that swung their way after the
success of "Gangsters". With similar zeal
he dismisses those who consider The
Specials to have sold out by signingutterly sexist attitude. They stood there in
their frocks and hiking boots, lecturing
him on his reactionaryviews and lack of
insight into the feminine psyche.
Jerry Dammers was standing behindthe unfortunate Hall. He lookedspellbound by the feminists.
The ringleader stared at him. "Andwhat have you got to say for yourself?"
she demanded. Dammers looked at her,
grinning gummily.
"Would you like to come to a party withme?" he asked.
HE SECOND GIG of the 2 -Tone

2 -Tone to Chrysalis.

The group has retained its autonomy,
he insists. Chrysalis is working forThe
Specials; The Specials aren't working for
Chrysalis. (Nevertheless, Chrysalis areunderwriting the current tour at a cost of£53,000.) Their deal with Chrysalis allows
them to record 15 singles a year by any
bands they might sign to 2 -Tone. Of t hat 15,
Chrysalis are obliged to release 10 records.
Exuberance andpropulsion: The
Selecter singer
Pauline Black

Tour was at the Oasis LeisureCentre in Swindon. The Oasis
reeked of chlorine, from the swimming
pool which is housed in the same complex as the sports arena in which
the bands played.
The arena was cold, dispiriting and depressing. The evening was an
uncomfortable success, the audience reacting with a curiously spinelessenthusiasm. The Selecter benefitted from a better mix, but Madness wereafflicted by a hollow bala nce that seemed to flatten all their attempts tocarry the audience away with them. The Specials, after the exhilarationand tension of Brighton, seemed muted. The hysteria seemed to havegone out of their performance. It was probably a better show musically,
but it lacked the wild drama of the opening night.
To dampen the spirits even more, we were confronted at the Brest Motelby a manager who refused to serve us drinks.
"Come back, Sandy Richardson, all is forgiven," moaned Steve English.

11

tfERRY DAMMERS MAKES his point quickly and succinctly.
"I don't like doing interviews," he says, as we lounge amid thelurid decor of a bar in the Stateside Centre in Bournemouth.
Dammers is a curious figure. He is clearly the principal inspiration of
The Specials: his songs constitute most of the album, and it was his
ambition that first brought them to national attention on The Clash On
Parole tour, having talked Bernie Rhodes into allowing them on the bill.
"What Jerry wants, Jerry usually gets," says Horace Panter, attesting to
Dam mers' determination. For all this, however, Dammers is a distantfigure. He doesn't relax easily in front of the tape recorder, although hebecomes more voluble later when it's packed away. His conversation is
fragmented and meandering.
What concerns him most is The Specials. He defends them fiercely
against most criticisms. He replies with bitterness

2 45

to some of the reviews of their first album,
particularly those that accused the groupof resting too complacently on the

TONE

.11

III

THE PRINCE (2 321
IlN T Rornosonl

Ween. Bo.

OMADNESSA CLANGER PRODUCTION

Db011711
2 TONE RECORDS

MARK/Mr
CITTSAUS

NUM 1.1D
4°.TUD,R0

The Specials'
keyboards player
and main songwriter
Jerry Dammers on
stage in London,1979

0"

He is as equally determined to defend
Costello's production of The Specials'
album, which has come in for a bashingfrom some quarters. He finds it difficult tounderstand why the group should becriticised for their association with him.
"He was just someone who liked us and wanted to do the album. It's not
as if we chased him 'cos he's famous or anything. We never thought of it
like that... He just came to all our bookings. No one else did. He said heliked the band and asked if he could produce us. We all got on with him,
and he got on with the job.
"It's amazing, you know... people come up to you and say, 'Well -what's
he like as a bloke?' And he's just a normal bloke, that's all. Elvis Costello is
no one special. We didn't get him to produce the album because he's
special or anything. He just wanted to do it and we thought why not? It
could have been anybody."
The conversation continues for awhile, but gets nowhere specific.
Dammers begins to fidget and looks as if he wants to get away.
"I don't think I have anything to say, really," he says at one point. "I justthink that people should hear the music on the radio or on record- or theyshould come to see us... and then they can make up their own minds
about what we're doing..."He points in the general direction of the stage.
"Up there," he says. "That's where it really happens."
WHAT'S HAPPENING UP there now is The Selecter. And

tonight they've got it right.
Pauline's voice is more clearly defined (though it still gets
lost at times in the general assault). Gappa is more controlled and decisiveand the band plays with a genuine explosiveness, reaching a peak ofgalvanising power on "The Selecter", with Neol Davies' spindly, metallic
guitar lines forcing a passage through the thick layers of rhythm andpercussion, and the final number, "Street Feeling".
The exuberance and propulsion ofThe Selecter's set virtually
overwhelms the rest of the evening. Neither Madness nor The Specials
are particularly helped by the sauna -like conditions of the StatesideCentre. The audience is packed ina dancing mass in front of the stage,
trapped beneath a low ceiling.
There's virtually no oxygen left inthe building by the time the entire
cast (with the exception of Pauline,
who's jiving behind the mixingdesk) joins The Specials fora
riotous "Skinhead Moonstomp".
Backstage, the Specials flake out
in their dressing room, their energy
utterly spent. Horace has collapsed
against a wall in the corridor. His
face is as pale as a winter moon;
his cheeks are hollow, his eyes
glazed. His shirt has been ripped
open, and lies across his stomach
like a damp rag. His trousers arerolled up to the knees.
He pushes back his straw trilby
and groans. "Oh, well," he says.
"Three down. Only another 37
to go." Allan Jones

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 1137

the spirit of '68" and runningaway from it -"willnot forgive/
I know you very well/Run away,
run away/Should / run away"(I think). An amazing entrance,
finishing after -10 minutes witha mocking but relevant "onlythe lonely" warble.
The other side of the first 45
is taken up by the two singles,"Memories" and "Swan Lake"
better known as "Death Disco"
the second being a slightly
different mix. As "Death
Disco"'s seven-inch flip, ""No
Birds" is included later, Metal
Box comes more expensive
than you might have thought.
Nevertheless, they still sound

-

-

111

quite magnificent."Memories"
is noteworthy in this context,
Lydon's sharp and sad

4

JohnLydon:stillcoming totermswith his recent
legend anddistant past

ALBUMS
Public Image Ltd "-" "--VIRGIN

Like most ex -Catholics, John
Lydon betrays a contemptuous

rejection of childhood religion
which is about equal to the guilt
he feels in purging himself of it.
Because the church's teachings
are so deeply instilled at an earlyage, breaking away is hard to do
and, once done, it's never clean
and often bitter. The struggle tostay free of Catholicism's
pernicious influence is tough,and it's one that's affecting
Lydon still, judging by theunderlying themes of Metal Box.

-

Even in the Sex Pistols, aninnate moralism showed

through, particularly in "Bodies",while the cutting of ties with
demigod McLaren and all the
Pistols represented later gavebirth to the rigorously anti commercial, almost puritanicaladventurousness of Public
Image. The first single, clean andtuneful, struck the first blow
against Pistolian expectations;then, just as they were warming
to it, the debut album threw themoff the trail again, with its harsh,jarring noises and rambling,
uneven structures. Purging his
Pistol past went hand in hand withthe blunt but blistering attacks
on the church in "Religion" and,more obliquely,"Annalisa",
138 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

themes continued in the
recent single, "Memories"
which is included in Metal Box.
Despite its novel and costly
packaging, nothing about thealbum/collection is surprising;
everything here has a precedent.
But then, Lydon has always
planted clues. This time, it's morestraightforward Metal Box issimply a progression from anda perfection of Public Image.
The basic thrust comes from adriving, single-minded drumbeat
and Wobble's wanderings to andfrom the forefront of the mix.
Keith Levene alternately attacks
and tacks on raggedly spiky
guitar, which occasionally spirals
excitedly around the sound,
other times dropping in and out.
Ditto Lydon, whose voice andwords have you straining to catch
what he's saying.

-His voice is almost

unrecognisable when it first
appears with a drawled "sl000ww
moottioon" at the start of track
one, "Albatross".
Sounding like an ill
Jim Morrison, he
expands at length on
the Ancient Mariner
metaphor, "getting
rid off the albatross"from around his neck,which is his past:"Sowing the seeds of

discontent"; and "Killrecollections questioning theinfallibility of his guardians:"You make me feelashamed." And, later,"What's in the past/
Can never last.""Poptones",
opening thesecond record,builds on a jangling
guitar feature,
which Levene might
have lifted from an old
Byrds' middle -eight, kickedalong from beneath by Wobble's
skittering, spidery runs. The
song undermines conventional
pop subject matter by revealing
the skull beneath its cosmetised
skin: "Can't forget the impression

4". Wobble surpasses himself
with menacing rumbles that
accompany train -time
drumming and a scratchy,
bleeping guitar. Lydon strays
in with some offhand lines
which seem humorous in lightof the title: "I don't know why I
bother/There's nothing in it forme/The more /see the less /get/
The likes of you and me canembarrass facts," all whined out
in his best Albert Steptoe voice
against an obscured staccato

chant of "Love/War/Kill/Hate"(that's another guess), replaced
later by the simpler "Chant"chant. The latter is taken up by anorgan for the closing instrumental
passage, pinned down by
Wobble's earthy playing. Hushed
and reverential, it fleetingly hits
an almost Wagnerian splendour
in a rough sort of way, making foran eccentric finish.
Yet the album as a whole isn't

particularly eccentric whenrelated to PiL's own history.
They've doggedly followed an
independent line, but that
doesn't necessarily mean they'regoing to surprise us every time.
It'd be nice if they did, but, for thepresent, Metal Box gives us time
to catch up with their continuing
obsessions and Lydon's revealing
passions: the flirtation with his
own legend, and his need tocome to terms with both thatand his more distant past. And

if that prospect doesn't excite
you, then I don't know what will.

you made/ You made a hole in theback of my head."

Chris Bohn, 1.1M Nov 24"Careering" and "The Suit"observe - less interestingly but
more plainly - conventional
ambition, the first asking "Is thisliving?", while the second could

Gang Of Four Entertainment! EMI

be a Ray Davies song.
The third 45's "Bad Baby" has

Lydon warning people to stayclear of external influences ina song riddled with childhood's
fear of the bogeyman in thiscase I'd guess he means the holy
mysteries: "Someone is calling/
Don't you listen/Ignore it and it'll
go away." The use of synthesizers
is not unlike Hawkwind's.
The final side is12 minutes
devoted to the extraordinary
murk of "Socialist/Chant/Radio-

Enveloped as we seem to be bysuch backward times, Gang Of
Four could hardly have picked amore awkward moment to foist
their collectivist approach on the
not -so -open market. Rock's recent
cultural revolution has bred newlegions of consumers; it has also
never seemed further away.
Gang Of Four were born in the
thick of it, a cross -breed of thepossibilities suggested by Wilko
Johnson's furious, coarse noise
and the cry for fresh expression.
They rose to this call, and met thechallenge with primitive zeal. Mix
up this metaphor by stirring insome earnest, but hardly serious,
convictions about thenature of society (not"politics", please...
they're artists) and that,give or take the exact
dates, is Gang Of Four.
Nowadays I leave myobjectivity at the door
when they're in town.
Such critical baggage is a
distraction from the mostwith tremendous emotional
clarity, but then you're left
with the issue unresolved,
which is what they seem towant. As far as it goes
it's great, but it goesso far and thenheavyweight live attraction on
the planet. Yet it was difficult,alas, not to notice Gang Of Fourunderestimating the intelligenceof their audience last time around,
trying to impress them withstrobe lights (the poor man's laserbeam) and unnecessarily underselling their already powerful andindividual character.
If Gang Of Four want to reducethemselves to the standard rocklevel it's well within their power tobe, one day, as big and irrelevant
as Led Zeppelin. They're that
good, if you like - and they know
it. The exclamation mark after
their album's title is there toemphasise the irony.
The sleeve has trouble
reconciling itself to this. On thefront, a little koan illustrated insituationist style. Koans are atype of Oriental epigram. Gang
Of Four's songs are a bit likekoans: flat, brief truths with asting in their tale. They're notalways pearls, but I feel we aremeant to nod wisely.
Anyhow, the cover reads:"The Indian smiles, he thinks the
cowboy is his friend. The cowboy
smiles, he is glad the Indian thinks
he is his friend. Now he can

exploit him." Substitute Gang Of
Four for Indian and EMI for
cowboy and you have Gang Of
Four getting coy and selfconscious about their position.
Progress to the inner sleeve
and you find it splattered withthe blood that the media
desensitises us to. Down in thecorner is a number: EMC 3313.
Entertainment by Gang Of Four.
Questions about the value of
information transmitted bycommunication systems, and thecorrupting nature of thosesystems, are raised, and raised
again in "5.45", and left hanging...
They don't want to be too
didactic, but they want to stir ourconsciousness; to provoke rather
than politicise. This is agit-pop
soft sell - sometimes it works andat other times it doesn't. The Pop
Group made the mistake ofthinking people would persevere
with their cyphers because they
thought they were important.
Gang Of Four are skating aroundthe same ice. Their lack of lyricaldirectness sometimes fuddles
the issues of the songs.
Paradoxically they can cut acrossdoesn't get
there. If they wereless self-conscious
they just might.
In the light ofwhich, there's little
point in taking issue
with the opening

cut's ambiguous flirtingwith images of Britain's useof habeas corpus in Northern
Ireland."Ether" barely arouses
the ire of their bipartisan plea forsanity in that vestige of empire on
the Fast Product EP Armalite
Rifle. But its stuttering pulse andmachine-gun rhythm guitar
preface what follows: an album long burst of hard, compulsive
rock action, which, though lessaccomplished than Joy Division's
Unknown Pleasures, stacks up
alongside in terms of potential.
There are six cuts a side, held inplace by a production, by Gang
Of Four and associates, thatdrips cold sweat; clear, raw andunderdone to a turn. Six of thestones they throw won't shatterthe windows in anybody's house,but the other six could. They are:"Natural's Not In it", running on
tracks laid down by the Magic
Band on C/earSpotthat allow Jon
King to work up a head of steam
about the devaluation of humanrelationships;"Not Great Men'',running on the same tracks, with
King's deliberately drab voiceburying his words in Gang Of
Four's naked arrangements;"Damaged Goods", which you
really ought to know by now;
"Guns Before Butter", whichshows how good they can be at
baring a common emotion;"Essence Rare" with a stanza
about the Bikini atoll H-bomb
tests that lent its name to thetwo-piece swimsuit invented thesame year and an otherwise
obscure lyric redeemed by the
Gang's beguiling way with abracing tune; and finally "Glass'',
ditto as for "Essence Rare".
Without dwelling on thedetails, Gang Of Four better
watch their pretensions, or they
will end up in the same place as
Wire, communicating with only
their egos. That's part of thereason why I'm being so churlish.
Like Wire's first album, in more
ways than one, Entertainment!
is a landmark for post -punkhorizons. It's rock revision. Take
afresh look. Paul Rambah, NME Oct 6

TheSlits:(I-r)
Palmolive.Viv
Albertine.Tessa
PollittandAriUp

SINGLES
Pink Floyd
HARVESTA decade's rolled by without
Pink Floyd releasing a single in
Britain for reasons beyond me(probably something to do withthe old myth linking selling out
with chart success). So it's niceto know they're aware of theswitch in emphasis and further
that they've been listening to
the radio. Because "Another
Brick In The Wall" is a great
modern single, described aptly
by Ian Birch as "an elegant
Sham 69 record". Floyd
characteristics are there ominous guitar/keyboards
themes, this time fired by ascratchy guitar figure, sardonic"people's voice" singing anda smooth, homogenised
production - all effectively
streamlined in keeping withthe times. The song is an anti educational rant, the lyrics areplayfully illiterate and the killer
punch comes when thechildren's choir is brought in tosneer its way through thechorus, upending the seasonal
tradition of cutesy kiddy
novelty records. Kids haven't
been used so effectively since
Lou Reed's Berlin. The flip's anoddity called "One Of My
Turns", where a taped
conversation leads the songestablished by the band andproduced by Jimmy Pursey.
Strangely, the shouted
staccato vocals are reminiscentof Poly Styrene. Brash andexciting. mmNov24
The Slits

ISLAND

The Slits come third only to Viv"Spend, Spend, Spend"
Nicholson and Britt Ekland in

the "I Do Absolutely Nothing
But I Do It In The Newspapers"
championship stakes. Their
single on Island rolls along
without causing a fuss,earning them theaccursed "alright"
verdict once again.
It does have afetching pianoin it, though.
Erm, er, ah...

that's about
it really, justanother album
track bunged
out for a single.
The other side of"Typical Girls" is aversion of "Heard It
Through The Grapevine" donein a reggae sauce, or rather
overdone, and is one of themost ham-fisted cover -versionsof any song anywhere. Just thething for those waiting to hear
Joyce Grenfell fronting The
Flying Lizards and produced by
Denis Bovell. NMEOct6

into a metallic romp. MM Nov24
The Police
Waiktne Un I Ile Moon A&M

Cockney Rejects

Perversely, this is actually theone Sting vocal performance
I actually like, though thispeculiarly empty song, basedaround a stalking bass figure,probably wasn't a smart
choice as a single. mfriNov24

I'm not convinced, but I'm
not about to argue with therollicking wall of noise

Sex Pistols
VIRGINA messy, half-baked heavy -

\
ait

i:ftt

cf fv1Ifk

I_Lrock anthem that - surprise- never takes off. Cool forprats. NME Oct 6

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

139

-01691979
OCTOBER

"Desperation I recommend
With their backs to the wall, THE CLASH 1-

rise to the challenge and deliver
London Calling. Discussions now include:"pokey" lyrics, bat piss, and why inthe war against the "grey neu musik"a band must have swing and soul.

-ny 7 and the Longhorn

present

THE ONLY BANDTHATFROM ENGLAND

r

I

Group
JohansenSpecial Guest DavidMELODY MAKP' DECEMBER 29-

INSI DE THE CLASH'S new rehearsal studio, under a railway
bridge somewhere in South London, Joe Strummer issinging a slow country blues about rolling boxcars, twisting
his head way down under to reach a low mic, perched next toan electric piano. To his right, Mick Jones, dressed in black
shirt, vest and trousers, looking like a maverick from aWestern B -movie, messes around with a bottleneck; while to his left
Paul Simonon slouches on a bar stool, as if posing for the silhouettelogo on Top OfThe Pops. Behind them, Topper Headon drops an
occasional beat to throw drumsticks for his dog.
This is the new Clash, relaxed and unfettered by the chains- or"bullshit", as Joewould have it -with which somewould hind them totheir past. They will later worryabout the lack of work they're getting
done, but undoubtedlythe music will be as tough and as tight as it everwas bythe time they reach the stage in January. By then, their attack
will be strengthened byan influx of newsongs fromtheir third album, London Calling, which showcases
an ardent, much younger -sounding band, for the
Y MATTERS
first time allowing itself the expression of a fullrange of emotions, rather than just those sentiments
we all wanted to hear. The sound is exhilarating,jumping from the loping, lightweight "Jimmy Jazz"to the swinging political punch of"Clampdown",
the "white trash" reggae of"Lover's Rock" and the
upstart rocking"I'm Not Down" or"Hateful".
The songs' source -material is rock'n'roll, oldmovies, Raymond Chandler, anything- not justapersonal experiences or responses, which limited
the scope of The Clash and Give 'Ent Enough Rope.
Those albums were necessarily narrow, pushing
forward the punk message. But life goes on, thingschange, people grow, and in doing so The Clash »
0 404

it

`,L.'

t:f:

8 PM * September 12 * At the.St. Paul Civic Center Arena CONCERT BOWL

gm.

open

Fle'r

Danck.elatAvail able
Reserved
00,
Office,Tickets $7.
Center Box
Civic
the
the Longhort
Stores,Dayton'A..rican Music*HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

I

141

197_..ERR

February1979: (I-r)MickJones,
Paul Simonon,Topper Headon
andJoeStrummerin Monterey,

California,duringthesix-date:- Pearl Harbour'79 Tour

have broken out gloriously from their own
confines. They've learnt from their mistakes,
which were many, and today they're far morecautious in what they say off the record, friendly
and helpful, without volunteering the "goodcopy" they used to deliver, and which they'vebeen forced to live down ever since.
"The trouble is, the newspaper men haveforgotten why humans like music," says
Strummer. "It's like the fairytale, when people
forget the basic thing because they're too
involved with the bullshit. And that's the moralof this fairytale- they can't see the wood for the trees any more.
"We're just a group and we release records, and that's the face of thesituation, but people think they've got to swallowall the bullshit with it.
That's why I thought 'Blind Date', which you used to have in your paper(MMused to carry single reviews by a guest musician who wasn't allowed
to see the label or the artist's name before passing comment) was so good,
because the reviewer had to judge it on the tune and the beat -what itshould be judged on, you know, not what kind of trousers he's got on."Easy to say that now, but The Clash -with or without Bernie Rhodes,
whom they've acknowledged as being important in establishing thepolitical character of the band at the beginning- formed the blueprint
for the whole movement of socio-political punk bands, and thrived on
confrontation at all levels: with authority, with their record company(CBS), and with their public -the last category perhaps still to come.
The Clash coming clean will shock those harbouring illusions about
them being frontline troops, though the band began the whole mobile guerilla -unit thing themselves. Even on the new album, on "Spanish
Bombs", Strummer glamorises the "artists at war" image.
"I got that from reading -Orwell and people like that," he says. "It's beenprettywell covered. But me, I've gone through myStarskyAnd Hutch stage.
If there was another one, I don't think I'd rush out there and get in the frontline. Who lives by the gun dies by the gun- never was a truer word said."
The emphasis has shifted. The Clash still shoulder responsibilities, likemaking sure the songs are right and the band are fit to play them and to
give their all on stage: "It ain't like sitting on a stool; it's about 300 times
more physical than that. I'm now 27 and it's somethingyou gotta learn by
the time you're 25, that before then your body doesn't keep a record of"Our ability
has widened
slightly. You
gotta learn..."142 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1919

what you do to it. After that you get real sick, sortof burning the candle at both ends -especiallydoing the stuff we do. All this junkie he's -so -out of -it rock'n'roll stuff doesn't appeal to me at all.
That's the easy way out, you know?"
He adds: "I wrote 'Rudie Can't Fail' aboutsome mates who were drinking [Carlsberg
Special] Brew for breakfast. They think nothingof it. Me, I'm past the stage where I can. I candrink Brew for breakfast, but not everyday, andthat's what made me notice them. I thought it
was a hell of a way to start a day."

Their commitment comes in the positive exuberance of the songs,
concentration on getting the basics right and helping people in the mostdirect way they know -cutting the price of the album to the minimum.
Eighteen tracks for £5, as the ad goes. Most of them worth having, too.
Ironically, bearing in mind the music's healthy vitality, The Clash wereat their lowest when they began planning London Calling. Reeling fromexpensive court hearings, extricating themselves from former manager
Bernie Rhodes, then leaving his successor, Caroline Coon, The Clashwere going through a radical reappraisal of their whole approach.
First, they took control of their management, only recently
relinquishing it to Blackhill Enterprises when they had the album in thecan, because "we didn't wanna spend all day on the phone". But they wereat rock bottom, and desperately needed to find a way out. Says Strummer:"Economically, we were really tight at the time. This album woulda been
our last shot, never mind ifwe didn't have the spirit for it, which we did.
"I don't know why, but the problem seemed to relax us, the feeling that
nothing really mattered any more, that it was make -or -break time.
"Desperation. I'd recommend it. We thought of this idea to create the£2 wall of sound, by recording it on two Teac recorders to keep the costs
low, so we could release it cheap. Then the music would have to be fucking
good to cover this fucking insanity. We just said to ourselves that we'd
never put out a Clash album for six quid.
"But to do that, we knew we'd have to pay for the recording costs
ourselves, otherwise CBS woulda told us to fuck off and sent us anotherlist of debts when we asked them to put it out cheap."
They got CBS to agree to the lowest price category, which would also
cover a free 12 -inch single; they played a festival in Finland- "It was good

THE CLASH

dough and would pay for the recording costs at Wessex Studios," says
Strummer- and recorded between May and August.
"We gave CBS 20 tracks and told them to put eight on the 12 -inch single.
They freaked out, so we said, 'Look, make it a fiver', and against my
expectations they agreed to put it out as a double album. I'd say it was our
first real victory over CBS."ORE IMPORTANT, THE double -album format allowed them

M to keep lighter, nonsensical tracks, like the free -ranging.....
"Jimmy Jazz" or the misunderstood "Lover's Rock",alongside more conventional Clash songs like "Clampdown","Hateful" and "Death Or Glory". "Jimmy Jazz" is The Clash at theirmost relaxed, working out on a bluesy tune, with Strummer scatting
along, taking more care with his voice than the words:"What started me thinking is that it's not only the message, but the way
it's said. So a piece of nonsense can have a powerful meaning tome. Like,
you know, 'Well, they all call me Speedo/But my real name is Mr Earl.' But inthis post -Dylan age, if you unleashed that on the political critics, they'dgo 'tedious nonsense', whereas in fact it's the greatest thing that everwalked the earth alongwith all the other things."
Mick Jones begins miming Gene Vincent doing "Be-Bop-A-Lula" andStrummer continues: "Like, I saw that TVprogramme when they weretaking the piss on a panel show, by reading out the lyrics of 'Be-bop-a-lula,
she's mybaby I Be-bop-a-lula, I don't mean maybe.' They didn't understandthat it's Gene Vincent and that's it -the meaning oflife is revealed
immediately (laughs).
"But I put a lot of thought into the whole process of writing lyrics. Somedays, I just can't see the point, and then I get worried because it's the only
thing I've been solely preoccupied with for I-don't-know-how-manyyears."
Strummer's at his most passionate these days talking about method
rather than content, except in a rather extraordinary defence of "Lover's
Rock". It's a song I'd considered lightweight before he volunteered, out of
the blue, his reasons for writing it, opening up a whole new area
previously left uncovered by The Clash. He says that the song's based on
The Tao Of LoveAnd Sex, which is about "the Chinese way of fucking. A lotof people in the Western Hemisphere have problems. No one really wants
to talk about this kind of thing, but it's very common, especially with boys
turning into men -you get some great bird and fuck it up, right? This song
mainly tries to tell you how to do it properly. It goes: 'You western man,
you're free with your seed I When you make lovers rock/But whoops there
goes the strength you need -to make real cool lovers rock.'"Another thing" he adds. "It's about how you can have a good time
without her either having to take the pill or have a baby. The pill leads todreadful depressions with some girls. Taking the pill everyday, sometimes
getting fat and they don't know why, and that makes them feel worse.
"I mean, I was a dwarfwhen I was younger, grew to my normal size lateron, but before then I had to fight my way through school. Anyway, that's
why I wrote the song, even though it's a bit of a touchy subject. I don't agreewith the pill at all. Then you got the Pope saying Catholics can't take it..."Strange: The Clash, musically closer than ever to the rock'n'roll
mainstream, moving further away in their concerns. Strummer does
deflate his explanation somewhat, though, saying, "The song is, kind of,having a laugh, too."In retrospect, Give 'Em Enough Rope was more of a mistake of execution,
Sandy Pearlman succeeding only in diminishing The Clash's passion,
without playing up their force. It just doesn't compare with Guy Stevens'more sympathetic, less obtrusive job on London's Calling.
Strummer remarks on the difference: "Guy is that private thing called
an X -factor. He comes in and grabs
me by the throat and says, 'I deal
with emotions', and that's it. He
doesn't deal with knobs or whateverelse producers deal with. He's very
off-the-wall, and he understands
the spontaneity of the moment priceless. If you can get that moment
when you playa song just so in frontof a tape machine, you got a million
dollars. He understands that.
"Sandy's just a knob-twiddler.
Well, not even that -he oversees
others twiddling knobs. But Guy
Stevens no longer knows what amachine is, only that it's a means to an end, while Pearlman half -knows
that, but he's not sure. He's too obsessed with the machinery of it. He's
kinda forgotten that it's only there to give us some soul."
The myth -making of "Guns On The Roof", "All The Young Punks" and"Last Gang In Town" indicated that the band were taking themselves andtheir history a bit too seriously in those days. Strummer counters: "Yeah,
that was another stream of bat piss, you know? But I think sometimes youneed to do that. We like to gee ourselves up a bit, but it's not strictly
serious, like 'Last Gang' wasn't anything to do with us at all. I never for one
minute imagined that we were the last gang in town, but the fact it was
one of our song titles became a handy headline for newspaper editors.
"In fact, I was taking the piss out of violence by inventing a mythicalgang. Every day I was hearing about a new gang: first the Teds, then thepunks -then they were fighting -then the rockabilly Teds and the zydeco
kids, who were rumoured to wear straw cowboy hats and Doc Martens
covered in cement. All this was at the height of the violence, an' I cameacross it lots of times. I just wanted to take the piss, you know? So weinvented this mythical gang, like: 'Boy, you better come running,
because here's the last gang in town. Less interesting were the continually publicised clashes with CBS, theremote-control/complete-control games that still goon, but now they
don't talk about them so much: "Hmm. I must agree it's not the point at all,fighting record companies. It's a waste of time, but with 'Complete Control'
I thought strongly about it, and the phrase kept cropping up everywhere
after we seized on it, so I think, looking back, it was worth latching on to."
Strummer today is more pragmatic, less prone to lash out at easytargets. M ick Jones is the same. In casual conversation he's friendly andopen. When he drifts in on the interview, he contents himself wit h a few
quips or corrections. He'd rather continue the rehearsal that the meeting
has interrupted. With both, some subjects are taboo. The Clash film, forinstance, which they're adamant won't be released. No further comment.
On the band's past political involvement, Strummer tends to sidestep
questions by talking about the medium rather than the message.
He says: "I personallylike a pokey lyric, because unless there's
something really good about it, it bores me to hear about jealousy andstraight heterosexual complaining songs. Unless, say, it's Chrissie Hynde-I wouldn't care what she's singing. Her voice is the sweetening to the pill.
But unless it's someone like that, I prefer a pokey lyric- by which I mean alyric covered in barbed wire.
"Look, we're just trying to do the best we know how. Our ability has
widened slightly. Ya gotta learn, ain't ya? You wake up the next day andknow there's more to be done, and carryon hoping that you won't makethe same mistakes. You gotta keep your eyes open.
"Another thing I'm fed up with, Strummer adds, getting moreanimated, "ifyou don't mind me saying so, and that's calling the kettle
black- (singinglow, deadpan):4It'sa shiny situation I A lot ofmess today I
It's a shiny situation.' What I'm trying to say is one step beyond. I hope
we've gone through that stage.
"Listening to all this cold, grey brave -new -world musik-with a K- you
know, I wouldn't play it to a cage ofhamsters. It wouldn't do them any good.
It doesn't do me any good. What we're trying to do is make some music. It's
just, you know, the sound of finger -clicking. You know what I mean? This isout of place in the modern world. It's bullshit, the new kind of bullshit, andit's just as well to spot it when you can, otherwise you follow it like sheep.
"Like, there we were in '71 following Emerson, Lake & Palmer to thebrink of disaster, but luckily everybody snapped out of it. I don't like thisneu pop musik, because it just ain't got swing, or soul.
"Dogma?" he continues. "We kind of need that stuff, but we ain't gonna
set it tolifeless, cold, grey music,
because we realise there's no point intrying to get a message across unless
it's somehow sweet -so that yourunconscious will reach out to it.
"Anyway, we always tried to play justas good as we could. What we play
now is what we can do. It wouldn't be
fair to do ranting music, because
we've mastered a time -change. We
can play in another rhythm. So there's
just no point. We do a bit of ranting,just to keep it up, but we don't do it all
the time. We do something now which
we couldn't do before." Chris Bohn
HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

143

THE HISTORY OF

Missed any of our previous issues?
Get them at www.uncut.co.uk/store
THE HISTORY OF

AMONTHLYTRIP

THROUGH MUSIC'S
GOLDEN YEARSTHISISSUE:1978
11.1101d$ 10111,

ItiGITOC131111111 /IIP .M111111111

THE HMO Y OF

THE HISTORY OF"I prefer to take a risk""ARMING...

EX PISTOLSBRUCE SPRINGSTEEN- THE HISTORY OF

ROCK

,HEES
ROLLING STONES'

410

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TOM WAITS XTC DEVO SHAM 69 TAMMY WYNETTE DAMNED
THE

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Readers' letters

1979

JuLy,t,.

MM JUL-DEC hew from the Chic seats, fickle critics, the cassette con and more...
Borders on the ridiculous
At about the start of '78, some kids
in my town started to discover
punk. It was quite hard to get
Led Zeppelin and co to taketheir somnolence elsewhere,
but some of them finally made it.
The record shops actually stocked
Pistols' records.
Then things started to get a bit
nasty. "Punk is dead," cried thediscophiles (yes, they were late,Sit, sit sit (yowsah,
yowsah, yowsah)

I recently purchased,
for a substantial
amount of money, a front -row
seat to see Chic at their concert in
Brighton. Lucky, you may think.
Not at all; I could neithersee theband nor hear them properly.
The sound was impaired, and theview obliterated, by a heaving
mass of "dancers" from theaudience. An appeal was madeby the management for the crowd
to be seated, but in actuality theband continued to play.
Life was made sufficiently
unpleasant for several members of
the audience, who had planned tosee and hearChic, to complain to
the promoter. The promoter,reluctant to empathise, madeweak excuses -one of which was(I quote): "You didn't seriously
come to a Chic concerts to sit
down, did you?"
May I drawyou (and their)attention to page 10 of Chic's
programmes, which reads: "Chic's
live show counters the belief that
disco music will not wash with asit-down audience." Pity we wereunable to do just that.
I hope the promoter, who
assured me that he would refund
the ticket money of a disabled
man sitting directly behind me,
did so at the end of the concert.
Meanwhile, I appeal to musicians
to remember those in the audience
who wish to watch and hear themat work. Ifdancing is part of the
package, this should be madeplain prior to the concert, andtickets should be allof one price.
And to dancers: why don't youfind a disco and do your own thing
there, so that the majority of theaudience can watch and listen to
the band in a more pleasantenvironment?
BILL LADBERY, St James' Court,
St James' Road, West Croydon(MM Oct 27)

too). Now we feel a bit lost.

Most hardened punks keep
going by replaying their old
Pistols and Clash albums again
and again.
However, we have heard of,the...er... mod revival. What's it
all about? Where can you buy
parkas? Do you really need ascooter? Should I sell my John

CooperClarke album?
Oh well, I expect we'll find out
soon. It's only 50 miles to thenearest gig, and someone plays
there nearly once every week!
KAY HOLMES, Riverside Drive,
Egremont, Cumbria (MMJul 3)

Quality not quantity
It is tiresome to read people's
persistent claims that popularity
in terms of units shifted, and cash
grossed, equate with the qualityof the music. But there are twosides to the phenomenon.
The Popularity Equals Quality
Syndrome is opposed by themusic critics who pick up on an
obscure artist and push him or her
as far as they can with ecstatic
reviews; then, when theirplaythings achieve somerecognition, proceed to pushthem over the cliff. Once fameapproaches, they lace theirarticles with contemptuous
vitriol. Recent reviews of Ian Duryand Dire Straits bear me out.
RN OWEN, Chesham, Bucks(MMJul 3)

All mod con

OnAugust 20Iwent to Barnsley
Civic Hall to see the March Of The
Mods tour. The gig started with
Back To Zero and there was alengthy interval before a good set

by the Purple Hearts. Until theneverything seemed to be goingaccording to plan.
About three-quarters of an hour
after the Hearts' set, a gent cameon stage and announced that
Secret Affair had been recording
a session for Top Of The Pops, andwould hopefully arrive later toperform. He then stated that thiswas not the promoter's fault.
Secret Affair didn't arrive, andat about 12.30 it was announced
that they wouldn't play. I paid
£1.75 for an advance ticket, andmany paid £2 on the night. I got
the impression that most were
there for Secret Affair.
The two bands I did see I could
have seen in London for 75p, so
I feel that I've been ripped off. In
addition to this, I'm incensed by
the statement that the promoters
are not responsible.
In my opinion, it shows that theband are more concerned withmaking money than honouring
their commitment to an audience.

Have yougot it yet?

PETER AFNEW, Westwood Court,
Huddersfield Road, Barnsley, Yorks(MMSept 22)

Got it taped
It's ridiculous for the British
Phonographic Industry to suggest,as you report (MMOctober 6), thatalbums sales are being hit byhome recording rather than asa result of high prices, when the
two are closely related.
Home recording is a direct resultof both high prices and the musicindustry's failure to provide anadequate cassette equivalent tolong-playing records. LPs' glossy
covers, often including songsheets, are things of beauty.
Cassettes not only cost more thanrecords (and why on earth should
they?), they also look like what
they are -little plastic boxes withtiny reproductions of picturesdesigned for album covers. No
attempt has been made to treat
cassette packaging as an art form.
So the cassette buyer feels
cheated, he is expected to pay
more money for an inferior
product, so he borrows a record
and tapes it himself. Anotherexample of McLuhan's assertion
that we "impose the form of theold on the content of the new". Old
methods and ideas are employedwhen new ones are needed.
But there are a couple of hopefulsigns -you could send away forthe booklet with Dylan's lastalbum, and, a flash of inspiration
at last, Blondie's Eat To The Beatalbum contains a bonus track on
cassette only.

\)C4

nounDAIUraliti=1:2:711.7.3044,,,,,, Meat 114041 O.

1I.*

BERNARD EMBLEM, Birchen
Bower Walk, Tottington, Bury
(MM Oct 20)

HISTORY OF ROCK 1979 I 145

1979

YOMTNB'I MONTNMADNESS IN THE RSA

Coming next.
in 1980!
S0 THAT WAS 1979. Hope you dug the "grey neu musik".

But that's far from it from our reporters on the beat. The
staffers of NMEand MelodyMakerenjoyed unrivalled accessto the biggest stars of the time, and cultivated a feel for therhythms of a diversifying scene; as the times changed, so did
they. While in pursuit of the truth, they unearthed stories
that have come to assume mythical status.
That's very much the territory of this monthly magazine. Each month,
The History Of Rock will be bringing you verbatim reports from thepivotal events in pop culture, one year a month, one year at a time.
Coming next, in 1980...

JOY DIVISION

THE BAND'S PROMISING career is arrested by the tragic death oftheir singer, Ian Curtis. Their second album, Closer, stands as the
band's epitaph, while the music press attempts to uncover meaningfrom what has happened - meaning always present in their music.
"Ian Curtis decided to leave us," NME writes, "yet he leaves behindwords which urge us to fight, seek and reconcile..."CAPTAIN BEEFHEARTA NEW GROUP. A new album. Still very much the same unique brandof strangeness. Beefheart grants an audience at his desert home andrelates tales of his childhood artistic genius, and his early
employments. "I once sold a vacuum cleaner to Aldous Huxley..."ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN
THE LIVERPOOL FOUR -PIECE bring the camouflage netting and the

dry ice, all ingredients in a possible psychedelic revival. "I'd say I'm
more interested in atmosphere," says the band's singer, Ian
McCulloch. "The spaces between the obvious, you know..."
PLUS...
PAUL WELLER MEETS PETE TOWNSHEND!

MADNESS!
SPANDAU BALLET!

146 I HISTORY OF ROCK 1979

FROM THE MAKERS OF UNCUTTHE HISTORY OF

CKEvery month, we revisit long -lost NME and Melody Maker interviews
and piece together The History OfRock. This month: 1979.
"You can't be weird in a strange town I You'll be betrayed by your accent and manners..."Relive the year.

THE JAM MOUNTED A NEW
BRITISH INVASION OF THE USA
KEITH RICHARDS DODGED PRISON TIME IN CANADATHE SPECIALS AND MADNESS TOURED A NEW SOUNDAROUND BRITAIN..and TOM WAITS, OY DIVISION, THE DAMNED, THE CURE,
BLONDIE, KATE BUSH and many more sharedeverything with NME and MELODYMAKER

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