6 June 1977 – XTC – Nag’s Head

Monday 6th June 1977 saw Swindon’s XTC return to The Nag’s Head for a second appearance within a month as record companies continued to ponder offering them a record deal.  A contract was eventually agreed in August 1977 with Virgin Records and their debut release followed a month later.

Nag’s Head promoter Ron Watts had first seen the band at The Plough, in Shelbourne, Wiltshire (near to where his family had originated). Recalling XTC in his autobiography, Watts said: “XTC weren’t anything remarkable at the time, yet they had a certain quality about them and they plugged away getting bigger and more appreciative audiences until they suddenly changed style and became pop stars.”

 It was on the verge of their ‘pop-star’ status that XTC returned to High Wycombe for a Watts’ promoted appearance at High Wycombe Town in May 1979.

 This is the promo for their debut release, Science Friction.

4 June 1977 – Jam – Nag’s Head

Saturday 4th June 1977 saw some of the biggest queues ever seen at The Nag’s Head, as The Jam returned for their third performance of the year.  In the month or so leading up to this appearance, the London band had released their debut single and album, appeared on Top of The Pops and had become one of the hottest live acts on the pub circuit.

However, they were rapidly outgrowing pubs.  They could quite easily of sold out the venue two times over – and their appearance was as much as thank-you to promoter Ron Watts, as anything else. Ron had championed the band at The 100 Club, as well as The Nag’s Head – Watts was a happy man that evening.

Bucks Free Press advert for gigs at The Nag’s Head – late May/early June 1977

Watts recalls The Nag’s Head appearance in his autobiography [100 Watts – A Life in Music] when he noted The Jam attracted more girls than any other band he had promoted:

“The amount of girls in school uniforms waiting in the queue was amazing.”

Watts added:

“The girls were all over Bruce Foxton, for some reason, which pi**ed Paul Weller off, who thought as singer, they should go for him.”

 Watts was also taken aback by the band’s stage presence and cited them as his favourite live act following the initial outbreak of punk in 1976:

“For a three piece The Jam were a sensation.  It was very brave of them to be doing the sort of soul covers they were playing, when everyone around them was singing about rioting and political events.  They went down a storm.”

It was clear after this night that The Jam would move on the bigger things and bigger venues.  For Watts, that meant looking at promoting gigs at The Town Hall on a regular basis.

This is The Jam performing their second single, ‘All Around The World’ on Top of The Pops in July 1977.  They would play High Wycombe Town during the week it was released.

2 June 1977 – Brewers Droop/Zoots – Nag’s Head

Nag’s Head promoter Ron Watts gave his own band, Brewers Droop, an outing at the London Road venue on Thursday 2nd June 1977.  Support came from The Zoots.  The Droop were no strangers to The Nag’s Head stage but this was a relatively rare performance due to Ron’s ever increasing promoting duties at both the Nag’s and London’s 100 Club.

Brewers Droop – Opening Time – RCA album from 1972 – photo outside The Antelope in High Wycombe

The Thursday night slot was usually reserved for ‘rock’ but with The Jam set to the play two days later on the Saturday, this ‘Blues’ night was a throwback to the nights when Watts first promoted at the venue back in 1968.

This is Brewers Droop from their 1972 album, Opening Time – the cover of which (above) was taken outside The Antelope pub in High Wycombe Town Centre.  At the time of this post, it was still open and going strong and easily recognisable from the album cover.

28 May 1977 – The Models – Nag’s Head

London punk group The Models made an early headlining performance at The Nag’s Head on Saturday 28th May 1977.  The band had been formed in Harrow earlier in 1977 as The Beastly Cads but changed their name The Models after just two gigs.  The line-up consisted of Cliff Fox (vocals and guitar), Marco Pirroni (guitar), Mick Allen (bass) and Terry Day (drums).

The Models – first and only single – Freeze/Man of the Year – released 1977 on The Step Forward label

Pirroni had famously played with Siouxsie & The Banshees at their debut gig at The 100 Club in September 1976 but had not formed part of the new look Banshees that had played at The Nag’s Head in March 1977 and earlier in May 1977.  Kris Jozajtis attended the latter gig and recalls The Models as support.

Bucks Free Press advert for gigs at The Nag’s Head – including The Models 0n 28th May 1977. A week later it’s The Jam.

Post their Nag’s Head appearances, The Models recorded a John Peel session (July 1977) and released what would be their only single – the double A side ‘Freeze’/’Man of The Year’ – on the Step Forward label.

Their early gigs included the controversially titled ‘I Wanna Form My Own Nazi Party’ – it was apparently aimed at some of the early punks who thought it was ‘cool’ to wear swastika arms bands (this included Siouxsie!).  However, it was taken the wrong way and was dropped from their set as the year went on.

Pirroni and Allen later formed ‘post-punk’ band Rema-Rema.  Guitarist Pirroni would then join drummer Terry Day in a new look Adam & The Ants.  The later would play High Wycombe a couple of times in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.  Allen would go on to form Wolfgang Press – later signed by 4AD and performing between 1983 and 1995.

The Freeze – Step Forward single 1977

John Peel Session – July 1977

27 May 1977 –Sex Pistols release God Save The Queen

After a wait of six months, The Sex Pistols finally release their follow up to debut single ‘Anarchy in the UK’.  Signed to Virgin records earlier in May, ‘God Save The Queen’ is released on Friday 27th May 1977 amidst a mass of controversy.  The BBC take the moral high ground and initially ban it from all their programmes.  However, not before John Peel managed to squeeze a couple of pre-release plays on his late evening Radio 1 show.

God Save The Queen – Sex Pistols – picture cover from Virgin Records release May 1977

If you wanted to hear the track in High Wycombe in 1977, you had the choice of buying the single from one of the local record shops – with the possibilty of sneaking a listen in one of the booths at Percy Priors in Castle Street.  Or there was also the chance to hear it played by the DJ at gigs at The Nag’s Head or perhaps the eclectic juke box at The Coach & Horses in the High Street.

Despite the lack of national air-play, sales of the single eventually reached an estimated 20,000 copies a day and it peaked at No.2 in the official charts. – There is a (perfectly reasonable) conspiracy theory that the charts were rigged to allow Rod Stewart’s aptly named ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ to take the top spot away from the punk rockers.

The success of the single also helped boost the punk profile of the town.  The Bucks Free Press quoted local Vicar, Rev. John Crisp as saying: “Any record selling so many copies should not be ignored. It should be answered.”

Punk Vicar – Bucks Free Press – 10th June 1977

Rev. John Crisp also commented on the song’s line: ‘There ain’t no future in England’s dream,’ – saying: ”If we believe there is a future, let us be brave enough to declare so to those who preach nothing but doom and gloom”.

The single release came 15 months after the Sex Pistols had played at The Buckinghamshire College of Further Education in High Wycombe – refusing to stop playing in a support slot to Lord Sutch. The following September they appeared at The Nag’s Head with little publicity or controversy. Their appearance on the Bill Grundy ‘Today’ show in December 1976 changed all that.

Here is the video for ‘God Save The Queen’, recorded at The Marquee, London on 23rd May 1977.

26 May 1977 – Ardazell – Nag’s Head

Aylesbury ‘rockers’ Ardazell played The Nag’s Head on Thursday 26th May 1977, as promoter Ron Watts gave the punters a break from the ongoing ‘punk’ scene.

Bucks Free Press advert for gigs at The Nag’s Head – late May/early June 1977

At the time of this post (40 years after their Nag’s Head appearance), there appeared to be little historical record of the band. However, the photo below, taken from a September 1976 edition of the Bucks Herald, shows lead guitarist Clive Wagerfield sporting his homemade solid aluminium guitar – very 1970’s! Although it was the still the 1970’s!

Ardazell – pictured in September 1976 – from The Bucks Herald

According to the flyer for that appearance, their line-up was: David Bowden (lead vocals), Clive Wagerfield (lead guitar), Phil Cutler (drums), Ricky Claire (second guitar), Steve Davis (bass and vocals).

Majority of set was self-written by Wagerfield (music) and Bowden (lyrics). Most popular songs from their 1976/77 era were ‘Shinin down’, One More Broken Heart’, ‘Ardazell’, ‘Gambler’, ‘Hurricane Children’, ‘Let Me Love You’, ‘Secrets’, ‘Mr Please’ and ‘9.15 To Nowhere’.  Their set also included from time to time, Larry Williams ‘Bony Moronie’.

Whatever happened to this group and their band members?

23 May 1967 – Pink Floyd – Town Hall

‘A Psychedelic Experience in Technicolour’ was how the local press advert previewed Pink Floyd’s appearance at High Wycombe Town Hall on Tuesday 23rd May 1967.  The band had been formed in London in 1965 by students Syd Barrett (guitar and lead vocals), Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass and vocals) and Richard Wright (keyboards and vocals).  At the time of the High Wycombe appearance two years later they had all reached their early 20’s and were now at the forefront of the rising psychedelic movement sweeping the UK music scene, with their debut single, Arnold Layne, released in March 1967.

Bucks Free Press advert for ‘The Pink Floyd’ appearance at High Wycombe Town Hall on 23 May 1967 – enhanced for wycombegigs.co.uk

In the weeks leading up to their High Wycombe outing they had been putting the finishing touches on their debut album – The Piper at The Gates of Dawn – as well as performing a ground breaking concert in London.  In addition, their extravagant live performance had caused a stir on BBC TV.

‘The Pink Floyd’, as they were known then, had appeared at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall onFriday 12 May 1967 to perform the first ever ‘surround sound concert’.  The ‘Games for May’ gig was described as:

“Space age relaxation for the climax of spring – electronic composition, colour and image projection, girls, and the Pink Floyd.”

It set a landmark for future gigs but owners of the venue at the time,  were less impressed.  The Floyd’s bubble machine and flower petals had messed up the posh seats and carpets of the Queen Elizabeth Hall and they were banned from performing there again.

Two days after the show and just over a week before the Town Hall, the group performed and were interviewed on BBC’s ‘The Look of the Week’ show.  Their performance on Sunday 14 May 1967 of ‘Astronomy Domine’ is previewed by Dr Hans Keller, who suggests:

 “There is continuous repetition and proportionally they are a bit boring”.

In the interview that followed with Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, Keller asks Waters:

“Why does it all got to be so terribly loud? For me, frankly, it’s too loud.  I just can’t bare it.  I happened to have grown up with the string quartet which is a bit softer.  So, uh, why does it got to be so loud?”

 Waters replies:

“Well, I don’t think that it HAS to be. But I mean, that’s the way we like it. And uh, we didn’t grow up in the string quartet so I guess that could be one of the reasons why it’s loud.  I mean, it doesn’t sound terribly loud to us.”

The gig hungry Floyd were soon back on the road, taking in lower scale gigs in Newcastle, Southport and Brighton, before their ‘Technicolour’ performance in High Wycombe.

The set list for the Town Hall gig would most likely have included many of the songs performed from the ‘Games of May’ gig:

‘Matilda Mother’, ‘Flaming’, ‘The Scarecrow’,”See Emily Play’, ‘Bike’, ‘Arnold Layne’, ‘Candy and a Currant Bun’, ‘Pow R. Toc H’ and ‘Interstellar Overdrive’.

‘See Emily Play’ was released as their second single in June 1967 and they performed the song on Top of the Pops in July 1967.  The original video recordings were wiped by the BBC put a badly damaged copy was discovered in 2009 and was since uploaded to YouTube.

Meanwhile, ‘The Look of the Week’ clip is also available via YouTube:

Did you find it ‘terribly loud’ at High Wycombe Town Hall on 23rd May 1967?

References and further reading:

https://www.wired.com/2009/05/dayintech_0512/

http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/oldott/www.offthetelly.co.uk/index5111.html?page_id=562

 

18 May 1977 – Sex Pistols sign for Virgin Records

Two months after being sacked by A&M, The Sex Pistols finally agree a new record deal with Richard Branston’s Virgin Record Label for an ‘unspecified figure’. The deal was signed on Friday 13th May 1977 and made big news in the following week’s music press.

Johnny Rotten and Steve Jones grace the front of the NME – May 1977

The Pistols had played High Wycombe twice in 1976 prior to signing a deal, first with EMI, and then A&M. The well documented controversy surrounding the ‘Bill Grundy’ interview in December 1976 and other off stage antics had made record companies wary of taking them on.  While live venues were also reluctant to promote their gigs – although in many cases this was instigated by local authorities keen to set their ‘moral standards’ and Pistols Manager, Malcolm McClaren, keen to continue the myth that nobody wanted them to play.

Virgin were set to rush release the much delayed Pistols second single, ‘God Save The Queen’, on Friday 27th May 1977.  The NME also reported in their 21st May 1977 edition that the band had nearly completed work on an album, while a spokesman for Virgin described advance orders for both LP and single as ‘massive’.

A huge marketing campaign was also planned by Virgin to announce the new contract and forthcoming single. But plans to advertise on ITV were thwarted when both Thames TV and London Weekend rejected the commercial, even though it had been described by Virgin as ‘not offensive or controversial’.  Perhaps Thames TV were still smarting from the Bill Grundy episode?

The Pistols were also said to be looking at returning to gigging again but would have to overcome the number of alleged bans from venues and local authorities. After playing The Nag’s Head in September 1976, the band played around 25 further dates before the ‘Grundy’ moment on 1 December 1976.  Post ‘Grundy’ and until the day they signed for Virgin in May 1977 they had played less than ten further dates in the UK, plus a couple of dates in the Netherlands.  Just two of those dates had included new bassist, Sid Vicious – brought in during February 1977 for The Beatles loving Glen Matlock.

Local promoter Ron Watts’ connection with the band (he put them on ten times at The 100 Club between March 1976 and September 1976, plus the one-off show at The Nag’s Head), led to on-going rumours that they would return to the town for a secret gig. Later in the year, the infamous S.P.O.T.S (Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly) would drive the rumour mill into top gear, with any remote connection to the word SPOTS and a Ron Watts gig being suggested as a possibly return to The Nag’s Head for the punk icons.

Did you go down The Nag’s Head on the off chance that the latest Ron Watts promotion may be the Sex Pistols in disguise?

16 May 1977 – XTC – Nag’s Head

Ron Watts gave Swindon’s XTC a Nag’s Head debut on Monday 16th May 1977.  The four piece consisted at the time of Andy Partridge (guitar and vocals), Colin Moulding (bass and vocals), Barry Andrews (keyboards and piano) and Terry Chambers (drums).

Their live performances in the early gigging days were noted for the antics of keyboard maestro Andrews.  He used a combination of piano and ‘open-top/stage tilted’ keyboards to mesmerise the audience.  In the days when punk was becoming the fashion, they were not necessarily the hippest people in town but they knew how to write a pop song.

But the rising punk scene had given XTC a foot into the door of the music industry and at the time of this Nag’s Head appearance several record companies were chasing their signature.  They had already recorded demo’s for CBS but they got cold feet – maybe after a number of abortive London gigs in early 1977? At a gig at London’s Rochester Castle on 14th April 1977, Andrew’s keyboards malfunctioned and they had to play as a trio, presumably with record company ‘suits’ looking on. “We had to play all the dumb stuff”, said Andy Partridge in a Sounds review of the gig.

The Nag’s Head appearance went a little smoother and they impressed Ron Watts enough for a repeat booking just a few weeks later. They would eventually sign for Virgin records in August 1977 – releasing their first single in October with the rapid fire, ‘Science Friction’.

XTC would re-pay Watts’ faith in the band a couple of years later with a headline performance at High Wycombe Town Hall – just at the point they were about to break into the UK single charts.

Here’s a sample of one of their early live shows- recorded in Swindon (around September 1977) – the not quite so poppy ‘Cross Wires’, complete with Barry Andrews going a bit crazy on keyboards.

Read more about XTC at the amazing http://chalkhills.org/ website.

 

13 May 1977 – Chelsea/Stukas – Nag’s Head

Gene October’s London punk outfit Chelsea were billed to appear at The Nag’s Head on Friday 13th May 1977 with fellow Londoners Stukas as support.

Bucks Free Press advert May 1977 for The Jam, Chelsea and Stukas at The Nag’s Head – plus early Step Forward promo pic of Chelsea

There may be a debate whether this gig actually took place as some listings have Chelsea down as playing a London date at The Winning Post on the same evening.  If you can confirm either way, that would be great.

Gene October (real name John O’Hara) had formed Chelsea in October 1976 along with Billy Idol and Tony James.  Idol and James went on to form Generation X in late 1976 but October stuck with a new look Chelsea that included Carey Fortune (drums) and eventually Henry Badowski (bass) and James Stevenson (guitar).

Later in 1977, this line-up would record the anthemic ‘Right to Work’ single, released on Step Forward records.

Meanwhile, The Stukas had performed their first gig around around Christmas 1976 at The Imperial Hotel, off Russell Square in London.  They consisted of Paul Brown (vocals), Raggy Lewis (guitar and vocals), Mick Smithers (lead guitar), Kevin Allen (bass) and John Mackie (drums).

Stukas debut single – reverse of picture cover with details of band members

Pre-Stukas, band members had been in a group called The Teenage Rebels.  Guitarist Raggy Lewis claimed in a Sounds interview published in June 1977: “The Teenage Rebels were before their time. We were getting banned from venues long before the Sex Pistols came along.”  Kevin Allen added: “That’s because we were bloody awful.”

The Stukas set-list at the time included: ‘Klean Living Kids’, ‘Position Number One’ and ‘Maxine’

Despite supporting the likes of Chelsea, Wayne County and Johnny Thunders, they were a band who tried to distance themselves from the rising ‘punk’ and ‘new wave’ scene.

Lewis explained in the Sounds interview:

“The punks seem to like us. Down at The 100 Club we even had a Ted pogoing! But I reckon we’re really aimed at the football crowds.”

Allen chipped in:

“We’re called the Stukas ‘cos if people don’t like us we come and drop bombs on their house.”

This is The Stukas first single, ‘Klean Living Kids’, released on Chiswick later in 1977.

This is a practice session for Chelsea’s first single,’Right to Work’, also released later in 1977, plus an interview. Chelsea would go on to release several more singles in the 1970’s and early 1980’s and continue gigging into the 2000’s and were still active at the time this article was first published.