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Friday
April 1st, 1977
Eater
April Fool's day gig (Roxy Club):
Wire
were on first - They were OK, but pretty much the new style
of Rotten take-off bands...
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Eater as
usual were top grade bollock-rockers - Grinding their
instruments to Kingdom Come! Andy came on wearing a black
jumpsuit with red straps, with a wig that made him look like
a wonky Patti Smith - wild! Waving a cheap little plastic
Union Jack flag on a stick - crazy! They blasted into 'You',
then followed it up with all the customary 'Outside Views',
'Waiting For My Mans', 'Get Raped', 'Bedroom Fix' etc etc
- The crowd was going frantic, pogoing as if we wanted to
smash the floor and ceiling in!
Shane went over the speakers
in a power dive, I was next... The lights went out at the
end, and when they came on again, Eater had got a PIG'S head
on the stage! Dee generate was spewing blood at the mouth
(those joke blood capsules you get at joke shops) - Brian Chevette was great on the guitar - Dee was unbelievable on
the drums - Christ, and they're SCHOOLKIDS! |
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Anyway, Dee and
Andy Blade chopped up the pig's head with an axe and a meat
cleaver, then they blasted into 'No Brains' - A Punkette
near me had a pig's eye fly on her lap... Ugh! (eeeeeeek!) -
A few New Wavers played rugby with the pig's head once the
gig was done - Me? I went upstairs to drink with Selena, Dij,
Pape, Kay and Sharon...Bloody brilliant gig - Eater will
never get stagnant!
Images from Don Letts
'Punk Rock Movie'
Monday
April 4th, 1977
London’s
burning with boredom now; London’s burning with boredom now
– YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Tuesday
April 5th, 1977
Shopping
at Rough Trade, Buying fanzines, gigging, Roxy and so on…
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Wednesday April 6th, 1977
Jesus
God! I’ve been a lazy bastard, not writing in this ‘ere
diary thang – I’ll spend these two pages recapping, I think.
Ok, here goes nuffink!
There’s
a new bloke who seems to be in with the crowd of Punkettes I
go around with (namely Dij, Pape, Selena, Kay and Sharon).
His name’s Alan Anger, who writes ‘Live Wire’ fanzine; the
first time Sharon (my sister, of ‘Apathy In Ilford’ fanzine
and spiky haircut) introduced Alan to me was at the upstairs
bar… For a start, Alan wore flares, and had a crappy Union
Jack T.Shirt daubed with slogans and looked OLD. But I liked
him, he’s alright. He hangs out with us a lot now, and has
contact with the bands to a great extent – I’m still shy of
going into The Roxy dressing room to interview bands – Shit,
it ain’t my fault! Anyway, I ain’t got a tape recorder, have
I? |
Image courtesy of Eddie Duggan
Oh, during
the Roxy’s ‘American Week’ a while back, we saw Cherry
Vanilla – All the girls at the front were yelling ‘Cherry
Vanilla is a cow’, ‘slag’ etc – Cherry Vanilla didn’t
deserve that – She looked really upset by those catcalls…
Her backing band, some English blokes called ‘The Police’
honestly couldn’t give a shit; they just played on as if
nothing was happening. Sad. All the way from America, and
Cherry Vanilla gets called a slag… That was ages ago,
‘American week’.
Dij
and Pape, Sue, Selena, Kay, Alan, Eddie and a few other
Punks were in the lady’s bogs cutting Pete Shelley
(Buzzcocks vocalist’s) hair, one night this month – I zoomed
in, yelling and cradling a can of lager, when I saw this
haircutting in session – Blimey, I couldn’t believe it – I
stuck there for a while, then bumped into Andy Blade (who
was serving behind the upstairs bar) – He told me Sid
Vicious and a crowd of his Greaser mates came down the Roxy
a couple of nights ago to bash a few Punks – Andy said he
ducked behind the bar, cos of flying bottles, said he was
shitting himself (I would’ve, too, if I’d been there!) – A
kid got kicked down the Roxy stairs by Vicious – What a
bastard! Other news? The Pistols’ ‘A&M’ single ‘No Future’
has been selling black market for £50. at a time – Christ,
that’s more than I’m paid in a week!
Thursday
April 7th, 1977
I tried
to do an interview with Gene Oktober of Chelsea in the
upstairs bar, sometime this month, but can’t remember
exactly what night (there’s been so much Roxy action, man!)
– Gene Oktober was fantastic – Went through the motions to
keep me happy - I like him – A really nice bloke… Don’t
understand why everybody pans him – A mystery!
Captain
Sensible dragged me down the pub on the corner (can’t
remember the night, it’s hazy, man, hazy) – He said Shane
and a girl friend of his wanted to see me – Said they’d
noticed me pogoing and that, thought I was interesting – The
girl was plump with brown hair tinged green in places, and
Shane was Shane – The kid I pogo with, quite a lot (Shane’s
Claudio Magnoli’s mate, another Pogo King!) The Captain
bought me a drink but I left for the Roxy, pretty fast, cos
I was feeling a bit out of my depth with ‘Big Figures’ –
Blimey, I wonder if they thought I was being rude?
I can’t
write recaps no more, cos too much is happening, man, I
wanna go to BED!
Oh yeah,
Shane was the one who whizzed over the speakers with me at
one of The Jam’s Roxy gigs – He sticks his head in the
speakers like me, an’all! (‘Night).
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Saturday
April 9th, 1977
Oh yes.
It’s funny – Whenever I meet Claudio, Doug, Andy, Dee (or
even any of the girls I hang out with), I go:
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHH!”, screaming into their faces –
To which they usually go: “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHH!”,
screaming back into MY face – Is this the Punk way of
greeting yer mates? I suppose it is, really – night-night,
Doom Rockers!
Monday
April 11th, 1977
Hippie
girl tried to pick me up at the upstairs bar of The Roxy
around this time – Didn’t go with her cos she was a Hippy,
Punk isn’t about love, besides – I was scared, cos I’m a
VIRGIN… (Virgin on the INSAYNNNE!) |
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Tuesday
April 12th, 1977
‘Seditionaries’ poseurs make me sick – Their hundred pound
clothes get on me wick, They even get their jackets –
impregnated – with vomit, grease and… fuck knows what else!
(the scummy Rich can’t even dirty their own clothes – even
THAT has to be done for ‘em, shitbags)
Gigging.
Thursday
April 14th, 1977
This
month, end of Roxy days as a place to be.
Friday
April 15th, 1977
All the
‘Sunday Mirror’ kids know where it is, and come in droves
usually Fridays and Saturdays, creating a vile,
uncomfortable (even violent!) atmosphere.
Monday
April 18th, 1977
Julie
Burchill called me a Legend at around now, or maybe it was
last month? One of the 2. (That was in an N.M.E. during the
summer).
Too damn
right! Met Julie Burchill & Tony Parsons by upstairs bar of
The Roxy, tonight, X Ray Spex, Adverts and Wayne County were
on… Julie bought me a drink, or did I buy her one? Dunno –
Anyway, she said my mag is one of the Top Punk Fanzines
displayed on her office wall – fucking hell – FAME!!! Tony
Parsons called me over to meet someone, and would you
believe it – the Rich bastards upstairs (the Elitist, Rich
Punks usually hang around upstairs) were shocked at my name,
when it was called out- what’s so bloody shocking about
being called ‘Randy Bollocker’? shitty Rich aren’t so
‘street scum’, after all!
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Chatted
to Sally and Crystal of the fanzine ‘More-On’ in the
lady’s bogs – they said they thought ‘London’s These
Things’ was great – I told ‘em I thought THEIR mag was, too – Well, it IS, innit? –
Poly
Styrene talked to me by the bar, before Wayne County came
onstage – She is really nice, shy like me, a bit – Poly S.
wants to be in No.3 of ‘These things’ – I know, now, SHE was
the gangster ‘Al Capone’ girl I saw in February! Christ,
what a fucking change from then to the way she is now! It’s
five thirty six in the morning and I’m tired, so I wanna go
to BED, man!!! |
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Wednesday April 20th, 1977
Too much
happening.
One
night around now, me and Sharon were ripping plants from a
trough outside a London bank (we were in St. Paul’s at half
three AM in the morning after some gig or other – Gen X?),
throwing the destroyed plants over the pavement – we felt we
could feel the City shaking at the roots – Punk is doing
something, Society KNOWS us now, and Society is panicking by
what it is seeing… I’m glad I’m 16 now – MY TIME IS NOW!!!
(Glad I wasn’t 16 in 1967!)
Sunday
April 24th, 1977
Smashed
the Roxy bogs up with a Skinhead kid called Chris sometime
this month – early April (we only smashed a strip light – I
think!)
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Saturday
April 30th, 1977
Work
today as usual. Yes, instead of the ‘friendly shop boy’
façade I usually put on with workmates and customers alike,
it’s me in a down mood. I can’t fucking hide my boredom and
need for change at all now, I’m just so miserable. The work
days drag, I only live for the gigs, and the nights, God I
hate the day to day hum-drum of working in the shop. The
Clash are lucky, they’ve made their escape by working in and
living for the band they’ve constructed, I’ve got to start
something up soon, cos I don’t want to waste in a shop for
the rest of my life. I won’t, I just know that. I didn’t go
in this afternoon; fuck it all, it’s really narking me.
All I
need is a drum kit, pass-way to some kind of ‘freedom’.
Freedom is ‘freedom’ in this world, as people search for it,
dream of it, so desperately want their own particular piece
of it, but when they get their so-called ‘freedom’, they
find that the ‘freedom’ they have grasped isn’t as ‘free’ as
they had expected. Know what I mean? Half day, ain’t it?
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