Three months into their career, The Damned stepped on stage at The Nag’s Head on Thursday 14th October 1976 to make their first headline appearance at any venue. By all accounts they didn’t fill themselves with glory as they subjected a rapidly diminishing audience to a torrent of abuse and then Manager Ron Watts threatened to get his shotgun if they didn’t behave.
The Damned plus Jack The Hat Nag’s Head High Wycombe Thursday 14th October 1976 Advert from Bucks Free Press Midweek enhanced for wycombegigs.co.uk
Nag’s Head promoter Ron Watts had been impressed with The Damned after seeing them support The Vibrators at The Nag’s Head just a few weeks earlier. It prompted Watts to take on the management of the band. Watts recalls the decision to take on band management in his autobiography – 100 Watts – A Life in Music – “I managed the Damned for a while, right back when they first got started. Management wasn’t something I ever enjoyed but I did it as an occasional favour so I agreed to help the band out.”
However, after the band ended up in jail following a gig in Luton, their return to the Nag’s Head in October 1976 proved the catalyst for Watts and The Damned to go their separate ways. Watts was unimpressed with the attitude of his new band towards a sparse audience mixed between new punks and the Nag’s Head regulars. The bitching by the bands eventually drove the remaining numbers in the audience down to around 30.
Watts recalls the evening: “Brian James was trying to antagonise the crowd, shouting, “Call yourselves punks?” I’d had enough of this so I shouted back, “Keep it up and I’ll fetch me shotgun. We’ll see how much of a punk you are then.”
The events of that infamous evening were also reviewed by Jonh Ingham writing for Sounds magazine. His review was titled ‘High Wycombe – Village of The Damned’, where he said: “The Damned never do something simply if it can be accomplished with a grand gesture. They don’t ask for a beer, they scream for a blanket-blank beer. They don’t tell the beard ‘n’ denim set they’re antiquated or silly looking, they scream the most abusive sewage they can dredge up”. But Ingham was impressed with their musical output, commenting: “Musically, though, there’s no stopping them. Starting where ‘Search and Destroy’ leaves off, they smashed and stormed through an inferno of blazing numbers, ‘Neat, Neat, Neat’, ‘Born to Kill’, ‘So Messed Up, ‘Fish’, the energy level was phenomenal.”
Luckily for The Damned, Watts didn’t get out his shotgun at The Nag’s Head but by the next morning the two sides had agreed a parting with Jake Riviera of Stiff Records the new man assigned to try and control Captain and Co.
A week later The Damned released their debut single ‘New Rose’ the following week on Stiff Records – regarded now as the first ever ‘punk’ single in the UK.
It would be a while before The Damned returned to High Wycombe.
Another great night down The Phoenix Bar, High Wycombe, on Saturday 25th November 2017 when Pussy Cat and The Dirty Johnsons headlined a ‘punk’ influenced event. Scroll down for two self shot videos from the gig.
Pussycat and The Dirty Johnsons – Phoenix Bar High Wycombe – 25th November 2017
Headliners Pussy Cat and The Dirty Johnsons have been described as ‘Punk-Rockabilly-Grunge-Glam rockers’, while East Town Pirates describe themselves as a ‘voodoo pirate rock and roll band and have also been likened to a cross between The Pogues and Motorhead.
Other acts were: The black bullets, The Blunders, HatePenny and The GOGO Cult.
Wayne County and The Electric Chairs returned for a third performance of the year in High Wycombe with a headline slot at The Town Hall on Monday 21st November 1977. Support came from Alternative TV (ATV) and very early appearance by West London outfit, The Ruts.
Wayne and The Electric Chairs – circa 1977
This was another Ron Watts promoted gig and came on what was becoming a regular Monday night slot. The brief run of Monday night gigs at The Town Hall appears to have come in direct competition to the new Tuesday night ‘punk’ nights at The Newlands Club.
Advert for gig from Bucks Free Press
I am indebted again to my friend ‘Buzz’ for not only confirming the date of this gig from his 1977 diary, but also using his diary to recall his experiences at The Town Hall that evening. Buzz’s Diary reports that the doors opened at 7.30pm and the small gathering audience watched Wayne County & The Electric Chairs conclude their soundcheck.
The almost completely unknown Ruts were first on stage and according to Buzz’s diary, “played 20 minutes of undistinguished hard punk”. Looking back on the formation of The Ruts some 40 years after their High Wycombe appearance, it appears they got together just a month or so before stepping on stage at The Town Hall. The line-up was Malcom Owen (vocals), Paul Fox (guitar), John ‘Segs’ Jennings (bass) and Dave Ruffy (drums).
Early Ruts picture from the rutsdc website – note the home made t-shirt with what would become their iconic logo
Much of the online history of The Ruts has been derived from an interview with ‘Segs’, released as part of the 2001 Ruts compilation album, “Bustin’ Out”. The interview recalls The Ruts first ever gig had taken place on 16 September 1977 at The Target pub in Northolt. The first sessions were recorded in October 1977 (a YouTube audio clip is included at the foot of this article).
At the time of writing this piece I’d not had a chance to listen to the interview but this also appears to be origins of the claim that the definitive Ruts line-up (listed above) made their live debut at High Wycombe Town Hall supporting Wayne County – however, the date is listed as 25 January 1978 rather than 21 November 1977. I can only assume that recollections of dates have been blurred over the years – clarification from anybody reading this would be appreciated.
ATV – cover of their Live at The Rat Club ’77 album – one from my collection
Back to 21 November 1977. Alternative TV were fronted by Sniffin’ Glue fanzine founder Mark Perry and had been formed earlier in 1977 with a line-up Alex Fergusson (guitar), Tyrone Thomas (bass) and Chris Bennet (drums). The catalyst for forming the band appears to be Perry’s disillusionment with the punk movement, which by mid-1977 had succumbed, in the main, to the pressures of record company commercialisation. Perry’s attitude at the time is summed up in his lyrics to ATV’s 1977 ‘How Much Longer’:
How much longer will people wear
Nazi armbands and dye their hair?
Safety pins and spray your clothes
Talk about anarchy, fascism and boredom?
Well you don’t know nuthin’
but you don’t really care
By the time of their appearance at High Wycombe Town Hall it appears that Alex Fergusson had left the band following disagreements with Perry. Thomas filled in on guitar to set-up a basic raw sound that left much of the audience baffled.
It certainly didn’t impress a teenage ‘Buzz’ who wrote in his diary, “To our surprise and disgust [ATV] were useless. On two occasions their guitarists broke strings in the middle of songs and it was a very lifeless set played to less than 100 people. I was very disappointed by the pathetically small audience, although there was a lot still in the bar.”
Clearly the majority of the audience had come to the see the flamboyant Wayne County. He had played at The Nag’s Head on two occasions earlier in 1977 (6 March 1977 and 9 April 1977). The headline appearance, at the much larger capacity Town Hall was an ambitious step for an act more used to the pub and club circuit but in the week before the High Wycombe gig were also top of the bill for a performance (also with ATV support) at Portsmouth Pavilion Ballroom (16 November 1977). While the following night they supported The Adverts at London Roundhouse, again with ATV as an additional support act on the bill.
With those two previous High Wycombe appearances behind them, they proved more popular with the Monday night audience. Buzz recalls: “Everyone assembled down the front to watch. Wayne County is an extraordinary showman…dressed in multi-coloured socks, sandals, tea-cosy on his head, eyelashes, lipstick, loose shirt and jeans, incredibly funny chats between songs. Great music, great backing band by The Electric Chairs.”
Wayne County would return to the more appropriately sized Nag’s Head twice more the following year (1978), by which time he was on his way to becoming Jayne County. ATV released a few independent records in 1978 and 1979 but don’t appear to have returned to High Wycombe – although friends, ‘Here and Now’ did pack out the Nag’s Head in 1979. The Ruts were the group who blossomed the most, taking reggae and ska influences to produce some of the most powerful post-punk records ever. They would return as support for The Damned at The Town Hall in April 1979 on the verge of their break-through into the public eye.
For your viewing pleasure
Ruts – 1st demo session – October 1977
Alternative TV —Life After Life – live 1977
Alternative TV —How Much Longer?
Wayne County and The Electric Chairs – Live in France October 1977
Judging by this video, it appears he may dressed down for the Town Hall gig a month later!
The Newlands Club in High Wycombe opened its doors briefly to punk gigs during October and November 1977. The venue, sometimes described as a ‘concrete bunker’, had been constructed under the flyover, built as part of the Octagon shopping centre opened in 1968, and was better known for hosting DJ evenings rather than live music. Local punks, The Xtraverts, would be one of the first bands to grace its small stage in 1977, with Eater, Rejects and Pink Parts all following in a flurry of activity before the end of the year.
Newlands Club – Bucks Free Press adverts – October and November 1977
The entrance of the Newlands Club was located almost opposite the entrance to Tesco’s Supermarket and just before the main vehicle entrance to the High Wycombe Bus Station –the latter also built as part of the Octagon shopping centre. From 1968 until the early 1970’s, the small venue hosted the Windrush Twylight Club and boasted early appearances by Sweet and Genesis. During the mid-1970’s it then become more popular as a disco venue and is well documented as a place where locally born Adrian Sherwood would go to play reggae records bought during his Saturday afternoon shopping excursions to London.
The loss of the Nag’s Head as a ‘punk’ venue in September 1977 is believed to be one of the driving factors why The Newlands Club was targeted as a new live music venue in the latter months of 1977. A 999 gig at The Nag’s Head on 1 September 1977 had seen altercations between the young punks and an older crew out for a fight. ‘Punk’ gigs at The Nag’s Head were subsequently banned by the Landlord but just over a month later an alternative venue was found.
On Tuesday 4 October 1977, a day after The Bunch of Stiffs Tour at High Wycombe Town Hall, a relatively small crowd turned up to see The Xtraverts blast out their version of punk rock. Support came from The Vermin but despite their threatening name, were not considered part of the local punk rock scene. Meanwhile, The Xtraverts were continuing to build up their local following having started gigging mid-way through 1977. They included former Deathwish bassist Carlton Mounsher but he was set to leave and join up with a new band playing the following week.
On Tuesday 11 October 1977, it was the turn of The Party to try their luck. The Party had been created out of the remains of Deathwish and The Pretty – Deathwish had been formed in the latter months of 1976 but had played their last gig by the time they supported Generation X at The Nag’s Head in March 1977. Deathwish founder Kris Jozajtis, Mark White and Carlton Mounsher formed The Pretty shortly afterwards but played their only gig at the Nag’s Head High Wycombe Punk Night in June 1977. The Party included Mark Reedman on vocals but their time would be relatively short too. The songs they created in their brief time together as The Party included ‘This Last Daze’, ‘And This One’ and ‘I Used to be Happy’, ‘Kicks’ and ‘Fear of the Night’.
It’s also understood that members of The Party were responsible for organising the gigs at The Newlands Club. Gigs were originally advertised with posters stuck up outside the venue but this later briefly expanded to adverts in the Bucks Free Press and listings in the regular weekly music papers, including NME, Melody Maker and Sounds.
The regular Tuesday ‘punk nights’ would continue on 18 October 1977 when the Varicose Veins would headline. The support act was billed as The Mystery Girls but they pulled out at the last minute. A delve around the internet 40 years after this gig reveals that The Varicose Veins were a ‘punk’ band based in Arlesey in Bedfordshire. They had formed earlier in 1977 and had played support slots at The Roxy, Neal Street in London. However, their punk pedigree did not make for a successful evening in High Wycombe. My long time friend ‘Buzz’, recalls via his 1977 diary that ‘every aspect of the gig was a flop’. In addition to the no show by The Mystery Girls, there were technical problems with the PA and microphones. The lead singer of The Varicose Veins moaned about the equipment, sound, audience and their female guitarist. Buzz recalls: ‘Eventually the drummer kicked the drums over and stormed off, followed by the vocalist and lead guitarist. The girl sat down, obviously upset, and was comforted by friends.’
Buzz also remembers fellow High Wycombe Grammar School pupil Kris Jozajtis selling badges at the gig but was baffled at the poor attendance and how the venue could survive.
A quartet of gigs for the month was completed on Tuesday 25 October 1977 with an appearance by The Rejects. The London based band had formed at the tail end of 1976 and made their debut live appearance as support to The Damned at The Roxy in January 1977. They would later support the likes of The Jam, 999 and Generation X. The line-up for the Wycombe gig is likely to have been frontman Bruno Wizard (real name: Bruno McQuillan), Jim Welton (bass), David Dus (drums) and Anton Hayman (guitar). Dus was later drummer for Wayne County. The band changed their name to The Homosexuals in early 1978.
The Newlands Club gigs may have not been that popular but they certainly filled a need for at least the growing curiosity of the younger generation keen to see what ‘punk rock’ might have been all about. However, the addition of a rival venue to The Nag’s Head did not gain 100% acceptance. Ron Wattsrecalls in his ‘100 Watts’ biography: ‘I didn’t fancy the idea of sharing my audiences so I made myself busy for a few weeks putting on more punk than usual and the new venture didn’t last long. It might sound mercenary, but I’d spent years building up the very crowd they were trying to take away from me’.
The winners in this battle of the gigs would the general public, with a host of gigs to choose from during October and November 1977. Further gigs at The Newlands would take place on more Tuesdays during November 1977: 1 November – Pink Parts, 8 November – The Lurkers, 15 November – The Crabs and 22 November – Eater. But Watts would step up his gig output via The Nag’s Head and The Town Hall – with the latter remaining the major venues in the Town as 1977 ended and 1978 brought a more commercial version of punk to the music scene both locally and nationally. The Newlands Club would eventually fall to the wayside as a live music venue – although around 18 months later a similar venture at The Multi-Racial Centre (another ‘concrete bunker’ at the opposite end of the flyover), would open its doors to a ‘second-wave’ of punk.
If you remember going to any of this short run of gigs at The Newlands Club, please get in touch. I would particularly excited to hear from anybody who has copies of posters, photos or any other memorabilia.
For your viewing pleasure
Varicose Veins – Hiroshima – early 1978 single
Lurkers – Shadow – live 1977 at The Red Cow
Crabs – Lullabies Lie – Live at The Roxy December 1977
Eater performing ‘No Brains’ at The Roxy earlier in 1977
The long-awaited debut album from The Sex Pistols was finally released on 28th October 1977. ‘Never Mind The Bollocks – Here’s The Sex Pistols’ hit the record shop shelves amid a flurry of controversy over the seemingly offensive nature of the title. A record shop manager in Nottingham was eventually arrested under the then 88-year-old Indecent Advertisement Act for displaying the sleeve in his shop window. Record shops in High Wycombe were quick to react and make comment.
Harlequin Records in White Hart Street (on the site of the former Percy Prior’s shop), took the decision the remove the display from their window following the much-publicised case a couple of weeks after the long player was released. Having said that, the album was on full display inside the shop.
High Wycombe’s other major record shop at the time, Derek’s Records in Octagon Parade, didn’t have the album cover on display in the window but made no attempt to hide the cover inside the shop. Shop Manager Graham Hale was asked about the album in a Bucks Free Press article by Janice Raycroft. He said: “It’s not really a case of offending people. The record has been selling so quickly, there’s hasn’t been time to get a sleeve in the window.”
The Manager agreed to pose with the album cover for a photo for publication in the Bucks Free Press. He added: “After all, I’m broadminded and I can’t see that it would really offend other people either. It’s not the worse in common use and you can hear more on the television. It’s about time people stopped living in the past. A word can’t hurt them.”
Meanwhile, a local fan of punk rock had stuck a gigantic poster for the album on the wall of High Wycombe Guildhall. Initially the complete title was in full view before what was described as a ‘less broad-minded citizen’, ripped the top off the poster to remove the problematic word.
The Sex Pistols had famously played High Wycombe on two occasions on route to their route to notoriety – in February 1976 they caused havoc at a Screaming Lord Sutch gig at The College, while in September 1976, local promoter Ron Watts brought them to the Nag’s Head for a performance that pre-dated their rise to fame following the Bill Grundy incident in December 1976.
The YouTube video below is the wonderful Classic Album documentary for the iconic album.
Locally based Public Service Announcement are scheduled to make their fourth appearance since forming earlier in 2017 with a headline appearance at High Wycombe Phoenix Bar on Friday 8th December 2017.
Public Service Announcement – Phoenix Bar – Friday 8th December 2017
The band, who include former members of 1980’s punk outfit Basta Roc, debuted in April 2017 before a fully blown debut at The Phoenix Bar in June 2017. They went on to play BledFest in September 2017 and will return to The Phoenix Bar for some ‘Xmas Shenanigans’.
Support on the night is set to be two more punk bands – Nottingham based Interplanetary Trash Talk and Northampton based Crash Induction.
Doors Open 7.30pm – Admission £5 – In aid of Alzheimer’s Society.
The Tom Robinson Band made a return to The Nag’s Head on Sunday 9th October 1977 for a low key warm-up date to promote their debut single – 2-4-6-8 Motorway. The band had signed for EMI just a few weeks previous and their previous appearance at The Nag’s Head on 25th August 1977 had gone down a storm with the locals – and with a near sold out venue, promoter Ron Watts was a very happy man too!
Tom Robinson Band – Tour poster October/November 1977
The 2-4-6-8 single had been released the Friday before their second appearance at The Nag’s Head and it was another busy night.
Peter Cottridge, writing in the December 1977 issue of the High Wycombe fanzine, Bucks Shee Press, said of the Tom Robinson Band: “When the band played at The Nag’s Head recently it was something special. The atmosphere was almost tangible, the audience becoming spontaneously involved in a way rarely seen at most rock and roll outings.”
He added: “Tom’s songs are securely rooted in the reality of 1977 and are social comment with a definite political stance.”
The set list for the gig at The Nag’s Head included the following:
Long Hot Summer
Don’t Take No For An Answer
2-4-6-8 Motorway
Martin
Winter of ‘79
Better Decide Which Side You’re On
I’m All Right Jack
Right on Sister
Glad to Be Gay
Power in The Darkness
Up Against The Wall
Encores are most likely to have been popular covers, Bob Dylan’s ‘I Shall Be Released’ and Lou Reed’s ‘Waiting For My Man’ – plus another play of the new single, 2-4-6-8 Motorway.
The performance was extremely well received by the Nag’s Head gig-goers and Tom promised the crowd he would see them again soon. It was a promise he would keep – returning to the much larger Town Hall venue at the tail end of the tour – by which time the band had celebrated a top five hit and appeared on Top of the Pops.
This is a live performance of 2-4-6-8 Motorway recorded at a similar time to the Nag’s Head.
High Wycombe Town Hall had the privilege of hosting the opening night of The Bunch of Stiffs Tour on Monday 3rd October 1977 and this piece was written and published shortly after the 40th anniversary of this historic occasion.
Bunch of Stiffs Tour – High Wycombe Town Hall – montage of press cuttings and ticket
The much-publicised tour would showcase five artists on The Stiff label, Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric and Larry Wallis. The initial idea was for each act to play around 20 minutes on a rotating headline basis but the partially chaotic events at the opening night in High Wycombe led to a change of plan – Elvis Costello and Ian Dury would eventually alternate the headline slot, with the remainder sharing the support roles during a tension filled tour across the UK.
The Stiff publicity machine encouraged a host of journalists to attend The Town Hall gig, but the tour entourage did little to please promoter local Ron Watts. The events are recalled in Will Birch’s ‘No Sleep Till Canvey Island’ book first published in 2000.
The book claims that on arriving at High Wycombe Town Hall in a torrential downpour; the journalists marched to the front of the queue, where they were greeted by promoter Ron Watts. “You’re not bringing that lot in,” roared Watts, “they’ll all have to pay.”
It goes on to say that Jake Riviera [Stiff boss] was apparently furious and ordered Glen Colson [Stiff Publicist] to resolve the issue at once. The book then quotes Paul Conroy [Stiff Manager] as saying: “Jake always liked a guest list, but for Ron, who had been doing the local Nag’s Head for years, the Town Hall was the big one.”
These were comments that obviously riled Watts and he attempted to put the record straight in his ‘100 Watts’ autobiography, saying: “I admit I wasn’t happy at the sight of dozens of Stiff employees, journalists and hangers-on demanding free entrance and eating into my takings, but I’d worked with bigger and better artistes than Elvis Costello and Ian Dury, good as they were.”
However, Watts would have been delighted with the turnout from the general public. By the time the doors opened at 7.30pm, the queue outside the front entrance of the Town Hall was tailed back around 100 yards towards the High Street.
Birch’s book is less than accurate about the running order on the evening of the High Wycombe gig. The recollections from more than 20 years previous suggest Nick Lowe opening proceedings, followed by Elvis Costello, then Wreckless Eric and Ian Dury headlining. However, reviews in Record Mirror, Sounds, Melody Maker and local fanzine Bucks Shee Press, written within days of the gig, give a more reliable sequence of events.
By 8.30pm the punters inside the venue (described by Melody Maker journalist Allan Jones, as having, ‘the immediate feel of a youth club on a cancelled Sunday afternoon’) had to be patient. A mass of roadies on stage battled with the logistics of dealing with five sets of equipment before the first act could take to the stage.
Les Prior, a member of Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias, was sent on stage to keep the audience amused. “We’re here tonight to play a benefit concert. A benefit concert for the Save The Whale Fund!” he joked. “..but unfortunately the whale’s been held up at Dover.” He waffled on for a few more minutes before introducing Wreckless Eric (playing only his third gig). W.E., donning a hideous pink knitted jacket, played a short set with Ian Dury guesting on drums. The highlight is when he plays his single, ‘Whole Wide World’.
Ian Dury would return next with his Blockheads for a set that would ultimately steal the show. He made his entrance by shouting ‘Oi! Oi!’ at the crowd and adding: “I used to go to a school near hear at the top of Amersham Hill. The headmaster was cruel to me because he didn’t like me, an’ that’s why I’m warped.”
Dury had previously played High Wycombe with his previous band, Kilburn and The High Roads, and this was one of his first outings with the highly professional Blockheads. The set drew mainly from The New Boots and Panties album, and included, ‘Sex and Drugs and Rock n’ Roll’, ‘Plaistow Patricia’, ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’, ‘Wake Up and Make Love to Me’, ‘Billericay Dickie’, ‘Clever Trever’, ‘I’m Partial to your Abracadabra’ and ‘Blockheads’.
The former Grammar School boy won most of the crowd over but part way through the set a local wag shouted out, “The guitar solos are too long”. Dury responded to the heckler with; “An’ what exactly do you know about it? Anyway, the guitarist gentlemen is now at the Joanna [piano].” Not put off by Dury’s retort, the heckler adds: “The guitar solos are still too long.” Dury comes back again with: “What is this, a f**king debating society? Shadup!” The face in the crowd is not heard again.
Bunch of Stiffs Town Hall, High Wycombe 3rd October 1977 Poster enhanced for wycombegigs.co.uk
Nick Lowe (formerly with Brinsley Schwarz) had the task of following Dury – coming on stage in a green suit covered in question marks. His band included two drummers, including Dave Edmunds and Larry Wallis (ex-Pink Fairies) on guitar. They opened with ‘So It Goes’ – a familiar number with the crowd. Wallis took over the vocal duties later in the set to perform his most well-known song, ‘Police Car’ but the set never hit the heights of Dury.
Headliner for the night, Elvis Costello and The Attractions, had played a sell-out night at The Nag’s Head just a couple of months previous. However, he chose to play mainly new numbers for his Town Hall appearance – a situation that didn’t please some the crowd when some called for more recognisable numbers. “If you’ve got it, you can go home and listen to it. If you haven’t you can go out and buy it.” It was not the greatest tactic so late into a multi-act show.
The evening got worst for Costello when half-way through the set, Ian Dury’s publicist B.P Fallon threw hundreds of badges into the crowd. The badges were a set of four, saying ‘Sex and’, ‘Drugs and’, etc. The Town Hall punters scrambled to collect the set while Costello played on. The incident did not amuse Jake Riveria who was seen to physically ‘reprimand’ Fallon.
Interesting to note that the High Wycombe date was originally intended to be recorded for an official live album to be released just four days after the gig. However, for whatever reasons, the Town Hall recordings were never used and the live album instead called upon material from later dates at Norwich, Leicester and London Lyceum. I wonder if the live recordings made at High Wycombe are still in existence?
If you have any memories, memorabilia or pictures from the gig please get in touch via the contact page.
Here’s a few YouTube clips of the artists on show at High Wycombe on 3rd October 1977.
Wreckless Eric – Whole Wide World
Nick Lowe – Sound of Breaking Glass – this is from 1978 but he’s performing in the same green jacket as the one from the Town Hall gig
Larry Wallis – Police Car
Ian Dury and The Blockheads – Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll
Elvis Costello and the Attractions – Watching the Detectives
Tragic news broke on the morning of 16th September 1977 when it was revealed that glam rock icon Marc Bolan had been killed in a car accident. Bolan had appeared seven years previous at High Wycombe Technical College (4th December 1970) as front man of the soon to be giant T.Rex. He had also appeared a few years earlier at The Nag’s Head in their earlier incarnation – Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Evening News – 16th September 1977 – Marc Bolan Killed
Just 29 years old at the time of the his death, Bolan was being driven by common law wife Gloria Jones, when their purple Mini hit a tree in Barnes, London. A 30 year old Jones escaped with a broken jaw and but was initially not told of the heart-breaking news of the death of her partner and father of two year old son Rolan.
This is Bolan in his last TV appearance before his death – an impromptu jam session with David Bowie on the ‘Marc’ TV show broadcast in the UK on ITV during August and September 1977.
The ‘Marc’ TV show also featured several up and coming ‘new wave’ bands, including some who had played live in High Wycombe earlier in 1977.
Here is Generation X performing ‘Your Generation’ – they had performed at The Nag’s Head on four occasions in 1977 before they appeared on the ‘Marc’ show.
‘Punk rock’ at The Nag’s Head came to a violent and controversial end on Thursday 1st September 1977 after trouble broke out at 999 gig, with local punks Xtraverts as support. In what was becoming a more regular occurrence, local punks were targeted by alternative cultures of the period (affectionately known at the time as ‘long haired boring old farts’, or words to that affect).
Nag’s Head Landlord Mick Fitzgibbons subsequently began banning anybody looking remotely ‘punk’ like from the premises and also pushed the ban on to the type of bands being promoted by Ron Watts. The draconian action came just short of a year after Watts had promoted a Sex Pistols gig at the London Road venue – with the following 12 months seeing the likes of The Damned, Stranglers, Clash, Jam, Generation X and Siouxsie and The Banshees all grace the upstairs stage.
999 – I’m Alive front cover
999 were a band formed in what some regard as the second phase of the punk explosion. The idea of what was to become 999 originally came from London based musicians Nick Cash (vocals and guitar) and Guy Days. Cash was a former member of Kilburn and the High Roads, with Days a session guitarist on some of the High Roads’ demo tapes.
Via a late 1976 Melody Maker ad around October 1976, the duo recruited Jon Watson (bass) and two months later, Pablo LaBritain (drums). Their first gig is recognised to be at Northampton Cricket Club in January 1977 but the 999 name was not used until mid-way through 1977 when the now classic raffle ticket logo was devised. Previous incarnations of the band had been The Dials, Fanatics and 48 Hours.
They released a partly self-financed debut single – “I’m Alive”/”Quite Disappointing” in July 1977 and having established themselves on the London punk circuit, were signed to United Artists around the time of their Nag’s Head appearance. Their debut release on UA – “Nasty Nasty”/ “No Pity” followed in October 1977.
Meanwhile, support band, Xtraverts, were now firmly established on the local ‘punk’ scene having played their first gigs earlier in 1977 – including a ‘Wycombe Punk Night’ down The Nag’s Head in July 1977. By the time of their September 1977 appearance, 20 year old lead singer Nigel Martin had recruited Tim Brick on drums and a 17 year old Mark Reilly (*) on guitar. Meanwhile, Ian Stavan (formerly of Cardiac Condition) was set to replace Carlton Mounsher on bass – the latter joining the newly formed Party with Kris Jozajtis.
* It is obligatory to mention at this point that Mark Reilly later went on to form early 1980’s pop band Matt Bianco – Matt Bianco being the name of the band, rather than a name change.
The Xtraverts – picture taken around November 1977 and published in Issue No.1 of Wycombe fanzine The Bucks Shee Press. Published on the internet for the first time by wycombegigs.co.uk – October 2017
Much of The Xtraverts self-penned set at the time was written by Brick and Reilly – including ‘Read it in the Papers’ and ‘Interview’ (a song about the infamous Bill Grundy/Sex Pistols debacle and formerly called ‘Hey, Bill Grundy). However, Martin had written the lyrics for ‘Blank Generation’ and ‘A Lad Insane’ – these two songs would be recorded in December 1977 and released in January 1978 on the Spike record label – the record being produced with the help of local musician ‘Spike’ Jones.
Nigel Martin commented on the targeting of punks in the December 1977 issue of local fanzine Bucks Shee Press “Everyone picks on punks. We’re just a target for everyone. “
The violence and subsequent action by the Nag’s Head landlord, also prompted at least one disgruntled punter to write a letter to the Sounds magazine:
‘Katie Komplex’ from Gerrards Cross made it quite clear why the trouble had started:
“This was due to some ignorant individuals who looked at the gig as a good excuse to beat up punks, and naturally we got the blame for the trouble.”
“Anyone who has been to the ‘Nags Head’, will know that it is a good little club, with a good atmosphere, which has had some brilliant new wave bands over the past year.”
Sounds letter from October 1977
And finally, back to the music you may have heard during the eventful night at The Nag’s Head in September 1977.
999 – I’m Alive audio via YouTube below
Xtraverts – Blank Generation audio via YouTube below
