Every gig I ever went to

Shakti /  Kevin Coyne 25 June Oxford Polytechnic I’d been into the Mahavishnu Orchestra a couple of years earlier and Shakti were guitarist John McLaughlin’s Indo-jazz fusion project with violinist L Shankar. By this time it wasn’t really my thing but McLaughlin was a big name to be playing the Poly so I went along with my friend Richard; among my friends I don’t remember there being any other takers for this one. I’d heard only one or two things by Kevin Coyne and had him down as a not-very-interesting folkie type. Ok he had long-ish hair and played and acoustic guitar, that’s where it ends – lazy thinking gets you nowhere. He had the most rudimentary guitar style imaginable, open tuned and using his thumb as a barre, making your average punk guitarist look like, well, John McLaughlin. His voice was at times like a belt-sander, several of his tunes were beautiful, his lyrics lacerating, as punk as a long-haired bloke with an acoustic guitar could be. An excellent performance, and ...

The Damned / The Adverts 17 June Swindon Brunel Rooms The Damned can now play three chords, The Adverts can play one – hear all four of them! Brilliant! A proper punk gig! Back to the Brunel Rooms for this one, it was a Friday and I took the train from Reading where I was doing a day-release course at the art college as part of my apprenticeship, meeting up with my friends at Swindon. One of the best things about this gig was the hanging around outside the venue and watching various punks, or ‘punk rockers’ as the tabloids liked to call them, turn up. ‘Oi got thrown out of three pubs!’ boasted a lad with pvc trousers and a necklace made out of barbed wire. Judging by the accents they seemed to have come from all over the West Country (not that oi had anything to feel superior about). ‘You shoulda seen the Clash at Bristol, bloody magic!’, ‘Oi’m gonna get on the stage oi am!’, ‘bloody bouncer troied to break moy baaastard arm!’ I thought the punks looked fantastic. My colleagues at the ...

The Ramones / Talking Heads 31 May Swindon Brunel Rooms I don’t think I have ever looked forward to a gig as much as this one. I’d first heard the Ramones almost exactly one year previously and had developed an obsession from that moment, coveting their unaffordable import-only debut album until my friend Phil bought the UK release and it was sort of shared among our group of friends it in our unspoken sweetly anarcho-communist way. I bought their second album Leave Home, and their single Sheena is a Punk Rocker, which was a minor chart hit around the time of this gig. My 12” copy was one of a limited edition with a logo on the back of the sleeve which could be exchanged for a mail-order t-shirt. 44 years on I still have my copy (seen here), the offer unredeemed – a Ramones logo t-shirt, that’s an idea that will never catch on. As mentioned, Oxford was at this time something of a desert for punk gigs. Swindon on the other hand, or at least a promoter in Swindon, was hip to the trip. I ...

Aswad 28 May Oxford Mayfly Festival The Mayfly Festival was a free event held annually during the 1970s in Oxpens fields, a green space by the river, close to the city centre. It had begun as an ‘alternative’ event and still had something of a hippy vibe in 1977. The winter had been long, every day I was on my moped at 7.30am to clock on at 8am at a job which I didn’t much enjoy. I’d never known cold like it; Spring arrived like a blessing that year and by the end of May the weather was glorious, perfect for a festival in fact. By this time punk was happening big time and I was well into it. The Sex Pistols’ second single God Save the Queen had just been released and while musically it followed the fairly classic rock format of Anarchy in the UK, it had a genuine swagger and subversive rage about it, spearing both the monarchy and the hippies: ‘We mean it, maaaaaan!’ The first Clash album was also out, I liked tunes such as Janie Jones and 48 Hours where they channelled Eddie Cochrane,...

Graham Parker & The Rumour / Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes 11 March Oxford New Theatre First gig in a while that I was excited about. Since I’d last seen him Graham Parker’s profile had risen substantially; they had even scored a modest chart hit with a neat version of Trammps’ groove Hold Back the Night, ideally suited to GP’s soulful rasp. A headline slot at the New Theatre was a clear promotion from the Poly, though gigs there tended to be less fun what with the seats and the security and all that. In the absence of punk gigs it would have to do. By now a few punk records were appearing – the Damned’s first album was fast, rowdy and fun, particularly the single Neat Neat Neat; I loved the Stranglers’ (Get a) Grip (on yourself) and spent hours trying to master Jean-Jacques Burnel’s rumbling melodic lines on a plywood SG copy bass guitar purchased in a junk shop; Television’s Marquee Moon was arty, anti-rock; The Ramones second album Leave Home was not unlike their epony...

Burlesque 29 January 1977 Oxford Polytechnic Be Bop Deluxe 30 January 1977 Oxford New Theatre Chapman-Whitney Streetwalkers 5 February 1977 Oxford New Theatre Roy Harper 10 February Oxford Polytechnic Frankie Miller 2 March Oxford Polytechnic A cluster of gigs none of which I was too bothered about at the time. Burlesque were one of those acts who signed a record deal and were almost immediately out of fashion. They certainly weren’t punk, nor prog or hard rock, in fact they didn’t really fit anywhere and consequently weren’t very successful. The closest comparison would be with art-school smartarses like Deaf School (another out-of-time act) or Roxy Music, with added jazz chops. Dressed in Army Surplus gear echoing Bryan Ferry’s GI-Blues style, and playing tunes referencing 1950s Hollywood films stars and old-school dance trends, they put on a show and were pretty good, in front of a fairly sparse audience. Singer/saxophonist Ian Trimmer and guitarist Billy Jenkins continued to fe...