Green A CASE OF PRIDE

SKREWDRIVER - Punk'n'Roll 1976 - 79
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-3-347-18680-4
Verlag: tredition
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 304 Seiten

British Punk music has created a genre of simplistic but dynamic Rock 'n' Roll that shook the stiff establishment during dreadful years in 1976 to 1979. Skrewdriver was one of those protagonists on their quest for rebellion and fame. A band labelled as infamous, but their early Punk 'career' remained often nebulous. 'A Case of Pride' is the full story of young adventures told in an unstained and authentic way...

Mark Green is a passionate music collector of early Punk, New Wave / Goth, Rock and Heavy Metal, 2-Tone and Skinhead music. Born in a faraway land and influenced by his international family upbringing, he experienced subcultural life himself from the mid-1980s onwards. He lives with his family in Germany and 'Give Me Some Kick!' is his fourth book publication.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Green, Mark

Leseproben

1977

Early photo shoot of Skrewdriver (21)

Ian Stuart – Phil Walmsley (standing) – Kevin McKay – John Grinton

(Photo was taken at the bottom of the sea wall in Blackpool at low tide)

February 12, 1977: Little Bob Story + Skrewdriver, University - Polytechnic / Manchester

While Leo Sayer was trilling off the radio with his top hit ‘When I Need You’, Ian Stuart, John "Grinny" Grinton, Phil Walmsley, Kevin McKay and a handful of supporters from home ground met on the campus of the Manchester University. To be more precisely, they gathered at the Cavendish House, a place known for concerts organized by and for students. This was the location where Skrewdriver’s first live performance took place. Roger Armstrong was the one who arranged this gig for the lads from Poulton, as he was on good terms with the French headliner Little Bob Story led by Italian frontman Roberto Piazza (Little Bob). A powerful band that discovered Punk back in August 1976, when they performed at the French Mont-de-Marsan-Festival next to The Clash, The Damned, Dr. Feelgood and others. Little Bob Story were touring regularly through England and had only played with The Jam in West Sussex (Crawley College) few days earlier.The Skrewdriver slot came at no surprise since Armstrong produced their recent single for Chiswick Records.

Little Bob Story –EP ’I’m Crying’, 1976

“It was very exciting. We had a few followers from Blackpool there, which made a difference to the reaction. We played a short set that went without hitches I think. Previously we had played quite a few gigs with Tumbling Dice so this was a little more intense. The crowd were appreciative. After the sound check, we went into Manchester before the gig and Grinny stole a plug from John Lewis department store toilets to enhance his stage gear! Little Bob Story did not speak much English, but they thought we gave a good show. They were very good, powerful and tight musically, even though their singer Little Bob was little. We saw them again when they played in Dingwalls in the summer (May 5, 1977).”

Kevin McKay, Skrewdriver (22)

The band returned to their home base, after their first successful concert. Now they had to prepare themselves for the next big step in signing a contract with Chiswick Records. The music press in the meantime announced a band portrayed as the new super punk rock group scheduled to play in Blackpool: AC/DC from far-off Sydney in Australia:

’FUCK YOUR PISTOL!’

(Bon Scott, AC/DC)

“In early 1977 (20 Feb) I went to see AC/DC at Blackpool’s Imperial Hotel on the - ‘High Voltage’-Tour, their first proper UK tour. I remember my mate shouting Sex Pistols to Bon Scott, to which Bon replied ‘Fuck your Pistol’. We were already into punk, the Ramones first album was out and all sorts of bands were releasing singles. So when we noticed these two Punks at the AC/DC gig in their DIY garb we went over for a chat. The one bloke who turned out to be Ian (Stuart) said they had a band. Straight away, we wanted to know when they were playing next, they had no gigs lined up, but we were welcome to come along to their rehearsal place in Blackpool. I phoned Ian a couple of weeks later to set something up and off we went. Musically they were good and way above a lot of the stuff of the time. I was 17 and by now totally converted to this new high-energy music.

I remember Kev (McKay) was playing a Burns bass and Phil (Walmsley) had some sort of custom guitar, which I had never seen before. Grinny played the drums, as I had never seen before and Ian put the vocals across with such intensity. If I remember rightly, they played ‘Your So Dumb’, ‘Anti-Social’, the Stones ‘19th Nervous Breakdown’, the Stooges ‘No Fun’ and the Who’s ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’. After the rehearsal, they told us they had signed to Chiswick Records that week and were off to London for a couple of gigs. Chiswick also signed The Radiators from Space at the same time. Shortly after signing, they released their debut single ‘Your So Dumb b/w Better off Crazy’ and I got a free copy through the post…

I had often bump into Ian and Kev at gigs; they were at the Electric Circus in Manchester to see The Clash on The White Riot tour. I also remember them at Wigan hoping like the rest of us for the Pistols to turn up for a secret gig as the SPOTS, which they did not.”

Roy Hesketh (23)

London was now the next destination, but before the young ones faced potential grim looking Cockney Punks in smoky music pubs, they needed some support before even considering packing their bags. Euphemia ‘Effie’ Ryan was supposed to be the helping hand. She was a Punk rock girl from Birmingham and had lived in England’s capitol for some time. She already had good contacts with the Chiswick label, allegedly knew Johnny Rotten and was friend with members of the popular Pub Rock / Punk band Eddie & the Hot Rods, as well with Rat Scabbies, the drummer of The Damned (15). She was the one to organize regular gigs for the band and to advertise their name in the fast growing Punk music arena.

April 16, 1977: Johnny Moped + Skrewdriver, Roxy / London

The first Skrewdriver appearance in London took place in the legendary two-deck club Roxy, as the opening act for Johnny Moped (label colleagues at Chiswick Records). Moped started their music career already in 1974 and had illustrious members during their band history, such as Chrissie Hynde (later famous singer with The Pretenders, although she had only a brief involvement with the band) and Raymond Burns (better known as Captain Sensible, the later guitarist with The Damned).

Johnny Moped – backside debut album ‘Cycledelic’

“Escaping from a marauding bunch of Millwall Skinheads is a vivid memory of the Roxy Club”

Johnny Moped, Singer

(online interview Scanner Zine, 2016)

The Roxy venue was relatively small and around 100 Punks attended this gig on a Saturday evening. In the audience was also Danny Smith from the number one Punk fanzine ‘Sniffin Glue’, who felt quite thrilled about Skrewdriver’s show (‘…I felt triffic!’). In their April – May issue they reviewed the band pre-released first single ‘You’re so dumb’ (official release date was on June 15, ’77) next to Elvis Costello, Radio Stars, Blondie and others. They mistakenly stated that Skrewdriver hailed from Bristol instead from Blackpool…

Sniffin’ Glue’: Skrewdriver

“The Sniffin’ Glue office is next to the Step Forward (record label) office. It has no electricity, so a cable is fed out of the window along a ledge and into the SF office.”

Barry Cain, Journalist (24)

“The Roxy was probably the scummiest, dirtiest venue any band could play, but it suited Punk perfectly.” Gary Wellman, The Wasps (25)

The band survived their first London show and were now part of a growing ‘scene’. To ensure that they remained present, they had to quit their jobs (except for student Phil Walmsley) to concentrate fully on the music. The record company organized the accommodation for the band in the northern part of the city, which may sound in the beginning like the first step to Rock star heaven, but it turned out differently…

“Chiswick had this arrangement with a landlady in Tufnell Park. She owned a big Edwardian terraced house and we had one room for the four of us. No beds, a double mattress and two singles on the floor and barely space between them to tread, that was it! There was one bathroom between about eight people and one horrendous kitchen. We survived on a diet of potatoes and baked beans.

The landlady was called Nora she seemed a bit unhinged at times, she had two dogs and they weren't house trained so you had to watch where you walked! The place was filthy. Chiswick paid the rent and they paid us a wage £15 a week, that is all we got whatever we did. We could be recording, gigging, or anything else but we still got our £15.” Phil Walmsley, Skrewdriver (26)

A bizarre, but likeable lad from Cardiff, Wales by the name of Steven Harrington aka Steve Strange (1959-2015), lived in the same terraced house as the Skrewdriver group. At this time, he worked for Generation X, as their creative head and seemed to have good contacts with all sorts of people involved in the London scene. The Generation X crew had a plan where they wanted to go. This included building up an image, closing ties to music writers and promoters. Skrewdriver was to learn from their tactical approach through Steve Strange… Later he became a nightclub celebrity in the emerging New Romantics scene, known for its extravagance and fashion drive. His musical project with Visage earned him Golden Records in Germany and Switzerland for their celebrated song ‘Fade to Grey’.

“Very sad to hear about my friend Steve Strange’s passing. RIP mate.”

Billy Idol...