My favourite rock and roll story of the week was the abandonment of a show by the Kings Of Leon because pigeons were dropping their, er, droppings on their heads from above the stage of the Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre in St Louis.
Like the pigeons, I'm not a fan of KOL but I would draw the line at making my opinions known so crudely. The band had to concede defeat when the bass player was hit in the mouth by one well aimed morsel of manure, which is probably a wise course of action to take. If you're a seven year old girl, that is. It's just as well Kings Of Leon don't trace their royal lineage back to punk rock.
It wasn't pigeon poop that was the main source of annoyance in 1977 - it was human phlegm. Spitting was an occupational hazard that lasted for far too long. It's thought that it began with the Damned when drummer Rat Scabies was hit by a can of beer thrown by a fan. Or a critic. Rat emerged from behind the drums, lifted the culprit by the scruff of the neck and spat in his face. I prefer to remember Rat as the drummer on the New Rose single, rather than the man who invented spitting. Joe Strummer of the Clash ended up with hepatitis after, it's said, he swallowed a well aimed globule of spittle which came from an infected member of the audience.
I have also been covered in the stuff after some early Undertones shows. We learned that the more you complained about it, the heavier the shower became. Ignore it, keep your mouth closed, a towel handy and try not to slip, was the 1-2-3-4 of punk. You wouldn't have ever dreamed of leaving the stage because of it, though. That's not to say that the show always went on. On Halloween night in Derry, in the years before it became a huge event, we were playing on the back of a lorry in a local park. It was just two days after our first appearance on Top Of The Pops, so we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. Three songs in, an egg came out of that dark October sky. It hit my new Rickenbacker bass guitar. We carried on playing. More eggs hit us, thrown by unseen hands. We couldn't do anything about it but , yes, get down from the back of the lorry. Hold on. Eggs ? Maybe it was the pigeons attacking us as well.Μύ
John Lydon still has the ability to
conjure up , not exactly a media storm, but a media drizzle,Μύ judging by the
coverage of an onstage spat at the Benacassim Festival in Spain between the
Public Image Ltd singer and the rest of the band. It seems what we had here was
'a failure to communicate' as they say in Cool Hand Luke. He wanted the band to
keep playing at the end of a song called "Religion" but they didn't (or
couldn't) hear him. They left the stage, he stayed on and slagged them off. No
actual harm was done to any living PIL employee. A bunch of Flowers of Romance
should smooth things over. Also, the Go Betweens make an appearance in honour of
their being honoured in their home city of Brisbane. A road bridge has been
named after them. After one of the them, to be more precise. It's called the Go
Between Bridge. No room for the letter 'S' on the sign, obviously.
Magazine - Shot By Both Sides
Rockers - Don't Leave Me
Tonight
PIL - Flowers Of
Romance
Sunnyboys - Alone With
You
Six Minute War -
Weathermen
Saints - I'm
Misunderstood
Pere Ubu - Non Alignment
Pact
Meteors - Out Of
Time
Devo - Social
Fools
Siouxsie & Banshees - Love In A
Void
Radiators From Space - Television Screen (LP
Version)
Flipper - Ha Ha
Ha
Rich Kids - Rich
Kids
E Types - Put The Clock Back On The
Wall
Go Betweens - The Wrong RoadΜύ
All cover versions tonight , some of which, I suspect, filled a songwriting gap in a hurried LP. Most, though, are as good if not better than the original. The Ramones could play any song they liked and it would still sound like a Ramones song. The Damned appear tonight courtesy of their biggest hit. (I know, I'd forgotten that too.)Μύ How come something like 'Eloise' gets to number three , while 'Neat Neat Neat' didn't even get into the top 75?
Other cover versions are an attempt at getting a badge marked 'cool'. I suspect Orange Juice did that with their Al Green song. What other explanation is there for something which isn't as good as 'Simply Thrilled Honey'?ΜύΜύ I'll stop now, before I talk down the rest of the show. The Shop Assistants record's great , by the way.
Μύ
Ramones - Do You Wanna Dance?
!Action Pact! - Rockaway Beach
Dean Carter - Jailhouse Rock
Shop Assistants - Train From Kansas City
Generation X - Shakin' All Over
Orange Juice - L.O.V.E.
Dr Feelgood - Riot In Cell Block #9
Damned - Eloise
Real Kids - Rave On
Jah Wurzel - Wuthering Heights
Cramps - Green Door
Beat - Tears Of A Clown
The Jam - In the Midnight Hour
Flamin Groovies - Feel A Whole Lot Better
Replacements - 20th Century BoyΜύ
Some records by fans in tonight's show. Jonathan Richman is said to have been the Velvet Underground's biggest fan in Boston. Doesn't sound much, but when you consider that no one actually bought any VU records ever ....... Young JR moved to New York and , according to what I read , 'hung round' with Lou, Sterling, and Mo.
I think it was 1969 so John Cale OBE had long gone. You have to wonder what 'hung round' meant. Did Jonathan talk about the first LP all the time? Was he a cool fan who didn't go on too much about the band's music? Or whenever he came into the room, did several members of the Velvet Underground find that, in that very instant, they had a really important thing that they had to buy in the store and , 'yes, sit down, Jonathan, I'll be back in five minutes.?Μύ Probably not.
Both fan and object of devotion feature, as do Penetration, whose singer Pauline Murray regularly made long trips to see the early Sex Pistols. If I was her, I'd be bringing that fact into every conversation I could.
Talking Heads - Pulled Up
Joy Division - These Days
Dickies - Waterslide
That Petrol Emotion - Belly Bugs
Slits - Heard It Through The Grapevine
Outcasts - Self Conscious Over You
Modern Lovers - She Cracked
Velvet Underground - I Heard Her Call My Name
Penetration - She Is
The Slave Boys - Living In The City
Wedding Present - This Boy Can Wait
Clash - Clash City Rockers
Johnny Thunders - You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory
One of the first punk rockers to break out and become a proper pop star was Adam
Ant. The strange thing about his career was that the records that gave him the
front door key to Top Of The Pops were much better than the ones he made as a
Roxy Club regular. Doesn't stop me playing Cartrouble, though. Didn't stop him
either, when he was the biggest star in the UK. There's footage of him wearing
his wild frontier uniform on stage, while strumming a guitar to this song in
front of a good few thousand people. He either still liked it or had to fill out
a set with old songs.
Stooges - 1970
Buzzcocks -
Autonomy
Suicide - Be Bop Kid
Elvis Costello - Clean Money
Josef K -
Fun n Frenzy
Breakaways - Little Suzy
Dexys Midnight Runners -
Reminisce
Kleenex - Hedi's Head
Eddie & The Hot Rods - Double Checking
Woman
Stranglers - Tank
Adam & The Ants - Cartrouble
The Fall -
Psyckick Dance Hall
Tenpole Tudor - What Else Can I Do
Attila The
Stockbroker - Cocktails
