The Silver Jubilee & The Sex Pistols (& Iain Shedden)

The Sex Pistols – God Save the Queen (Virgin)

‘In early June 1977, we took a brief break from our labours to overturn a few tables and piss in the punchbowl at the Queen’s silver jubilee party,’ Steve Jones wrote in his autobiography Lonely Boy last year. ‘I never really paid much attention to all that jubilee bollocks, to be honest. That was more Rotten and McLaren’s end of things.’

As a fifteen year old schoolboy I actively tried to ignore all the jubilee bollocks myself. Apart from the Pistols’ take on events.

Nowadays we’re presented with the idea that the whole country bar a few malcontents went Jubilee crazy. In their Sex Pistols history Young Flesh Required, Alan G. Parker and Mick O’Shea even observed that, ‘No other nation can do pomp and circumstance like the British,’ before going on claim, ‘The whole country became one enormous street party and buried its troubles beneath a sea of red, white and blue bunting.’

This doesn’t convey the whole truth of the matter. Yes in Glasgow the Queen came during May and was greeted by shedloads of loyal subjects (60,000 estimated although these figures tend to be exaggerated by journos). A match to mark the occasion at Hampden between a Glasgow select and an English Football League select, originally envisioned as an all ticket affair with an 85,000 limit, ended up with organisers hoping for 30,000 fans and tickets available to buy at the gate.

The Times carried the headline ‘One million people greet the Queen on her Silver Jubilee Day’ but the slightly less prestigious Glasgow Evening Times led with a story on the whereabouts of Ugandan tyrant Idi Amin together with a report that vandals had wrecked the chances of a planned celebration in Giffnock that night by setting the proposed bonfire alight a day early.

Glasgow Herald columnist Anne Simpson bemoaned the fact that celebrations were relatively muted north of the border: ‘I know Scotland has had its official dose of Silver Jubilation but even then most of us didn’t get to the parties and it strikes me that what we all need just now is a bit of a carnival, a chance to stick paper hats on our heads and be happy.’

No thanks.

Was there a street party outside where I lived? No. Did anybody I know give a flying fuck about the Jubilee? No. Was God Save The Queen really that controversial then?

Well, yes. It wasn’t allowed airplay on Radio One – apart from a couple of spins by Peel. Commercial radio stations banned it too, the IBA judging it ‘against good taste or decency, likely to encourage or incite to crime, or lead to disorder.’

Boots, WH Smith and good old Woolies refused to stock the 45 with the latter two failing to even acknowledge its existence, leaving a blank space on the chart displayed in their stores.

Top of the Pops refused to show the bands’ promo for the song let alone invite them to perform in their studio. Thames TV & LWT refused to air an ad for it and perhaps most controversially of all, the single was artificially kept off the number one spot.

The song infuriated some patriots enough to attack Johnny Rotten and others with a Pistols connection, as well as ordinary punk fans across the country. Years later, it emerged via former spy David Shayler that the band had featured prominently in a MI5 file named Subversion in the Music Industry.

Remarkably God Save the Queen was only the second Sex Pistols single.

Nowadays even the safest of safe comedians employed by the BBC can happily have a go at the Queen. Many did when her name appeared recently in connection with the Paradise Papers along with other serial tax avoiders like Gary Linekar, Lewis Hamilton and Bono.

Saying that, while hosting Have I Got News for You last year some of Frankie Boyle’s jokes were censored although he was allowed to accuse the Royal family of being ‘the products of centuries of incest.’

Certainly no anti-Royal record could conceivably cause the same kind of Gasp! Shock! Horror! headlines as God Save the Queen today – arguably no record of any kind could. And the odds of any song trying to do so and sounding as thrilling as God Save the Queen are, at best, minimal.

According to Marco Pirroni it is the ‘greatest pop rock ‘n’ roll single ever’ and I would have undoubtedly agreed with this assessment on Jubilee day. Hearing again Steve Jones’s sledgehammer guitar, Paul Cook’s no messin’ drums and Johnny’s scorching voice spitting out those establishment baiting lyrics, I still wouldn’t argue against it.

Released on 27 May 1977, here is the promo filmed at the Marquee a few days earlier:

The night of the Jubilee in London witnessed one of the most inspired publicity stunts ever. Malcolm McLaren hiring a boat (the Queen Elizabeth) which sailed down the Thames with the Pistols playing live, the boys launching into Anarchy in the UK as they passed by Parliament. This provocative jaunt ending in arrests for McLaren, Vivienne Westwood and others there for the show once the boat had been docked.

Nothing in Scotland could compete with that but that same night Edinburgh did see the establishment of a regular new punk night at Clouds, a venue originally opened back in the 1940s when it was known as the New Cavendish.

Lanarkshire group The Jolt played Clouds a number of times including a Rock Against Racism benefit.

Sadly, while I was writing this post I belatedly became aware of the death last month of their drummer Iain Shedden.

A great live act, I saw The Jolt a number of times, from a wee pub, the Amphora I seem to remember, in Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street to the Apollo, where they performed in front of thousands while supporting The Jam.

After The Jolt split, Iain went on to record with other bands, most notably The Saints. Once a junior reporter on the Wishaw Press, he re-ignited his career in journalism when he emigrated to Australia in 1992, becoming a music critic with The Australian, a job that saw him interviewing an amazing array of talents such as David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Patti Smith and Keith Richards.

Here’s a single by The Jolt. Written by Paul Weller for the band, See Saw was released in June 1979 by Polydor. Four months or so later The Jam brought out their own version as a B-side for Eton Rifles.

Iain Shedden: January 6, 1957 – October 16, 2017

For more on The Jolt click here for my post New York, London, Paris, Wishaw.

New York, London, Paris, Wishaw

Over the past week or so I’ve been to see The Jesus and Mary Chain performing Psychocandy in its entirety at the Barrowlands and watched Channel 4’s What We Wore: 80s Glasgow – The Outsiders.

Just like thirty years ago when I first saw the Mary Chain in their early days, their sound was often atrocious; unlike back then, though, they showed up bang on time and played a fairly lengthy set, launching immediately into an ‘encore’ before getting down to tackling their debut album in its original running order.

At least that’s the way I remember things as, just like 1985, I have to confess to overdoing the booze beforehand, although probably not to the extent that I would have when I once saw them play in Glasgow club, Daddy Warbucks, which also used to host the Splash One nights, the main subject of the Channel 4 doc.

Although I generally avoid Channel 4 nowadays due to some of the contemptible crap like Benefits Street they insist on cluttering up their schedules with, this was definitely worth a watch and is still available as I type on 4oD.

The interviewees were well chosen: no Reid brothers admittedly but their Barrowlands support act Rose McDowall appeared, as did Stephen Pastel, Thurston Moore and others, including the always entertaining Mr. Duglas T. Stewart, who should really have his own show. Preferably replacing Benefits Street.

Oh and the Griffin Bar on Bath Street got a couple of mentions, something I hadn’t envisaged ever happening in the course of any documentary. Was there a few weeks back but rather than any indie kid hang-out, the joint was rammed with middle aged women having a few G&Ts before heading over the road to the King’s Theatre to see the stage version of The Full Monty.

I could have did with another half an hour of The Outsiders although, on the minus side, one or two of folk did occasionally come close to the old cliché that punk didn’t arrive in Glasgow until years afterwards.

No punk scene in Glasgow in 1977?

Dear reader, there was even a punk scene in Wishaw.

And just like New York had CBCGs, London had The Roxy and Paris had Le Gibus, Wishaw had their own venue for punk music in the heady days of ’77, the Crown Hotel.

Okay, that last sentence could be described as a little jokey but it is undeniably true.

The moderately sized town of Wishaw in what is now known as North Lanarkshire lies around 15 miles to the south-east of Glasgow and it would have to be said it’s a fairly unremarkable place. When I interviewed Ming City R*ckers a few months ago, they took great pleasure in portraying their home town of Immingham as a hell-hole. One anonymous reader posted the following comment: ‘They’ve obviously never been tae Wishaw if they think their town is crap’.

The Jolt consisted of singer and guitarist Robbie Collins, Jim Doak on bass and Ian Sheddon on drums. Robbie and Ian were from Wishaw, Jim from neighbouring Shotts.

Fanzine Ripped and Torn showcased the band early in their career, Collins revealing that he’d jacked in Uni after a miserable couple of years there, while Doak had been kicked off his course at Glasgow Uni after failing everything two years running. Tut. Tut. Ian Sheddon meanwhile was writing the pop page for his local paper, the Wishaw Press, whose offices were handy for the Crown.

The three had known each other since their schooldays and began thinking of getting something together musically in the first half of 1975, a time by which Collins was already fed up with the direction that most music was taking.

Increasingly he found himself attracted to 60s R&B with Dr Feelgood’s Malpractice being one of the few contemporary records he loved.

As Collins told Ripped and Torn: ‘We played our first gig (as a trio) with more of a punk repertoire on Dec 2 [1976]. The punters were more interested in knocking hell out of each other & the cops arrived. We climaxed our set with a thundering “New Rose”’. He then explained: ‘The ‘new wave’ arrived at the best time coz it made us feel that we weren’t alone in what we were trying to do and it helped us to move our ideas into the seventies.’

Their second gig was played in front of only half a dozen punters in the Crown although they demonstrated enough potential to secure themselves a Saturday afternoon residency, where their set would showcase a mixture of their own tunes like Show Stoppers, Dire Straights and Decoyed along with some punk covers and some more punter friendly covers of songs by the likes of The Small Faces. They went on to play twenty straight gigs at the Crown, all the while building an audience.

The venue also witnessed the first appearance of The Skids outside Dunfermline; Johnny and The Self Abusers and Rev Volting and The Backstabbers made the short journey from Glasgow to play there too and another punky Wishaw outfit The Pests were regulars. The Glasgow Herald paid a visit to the hotel with a photographer in tow to take some snaps for their The Punk World feature (part of which is reproduced here, sorry for the state of the scan):

In another article in the summer of ’77, this time one from the Wishaw Press, titled It’s Punk – and we love it!, Jack Kerr, the hotel’s owner, spoke of the perceived gamble in allowing punk. ‘At first there were many small incidents, mainly the customary spitting among the audience, but I have this controlled and have no regrets that I gave the group a chance.’

By this point, dozens were being turned away due to the limited capacity of the Crown and The Jolt began to attract the attentions of some London record labels, quickly becoming the first Scottish punk or new wave act to sign with a major, Polydor, reportedly on a four year deal worth £90,000.

Polydor was already the home of another three-piece with passion for punk flavoured 60s R&B inspired songs, The Jam, and Paul Weller became a big fan of the Lanarkshire band, roping them in for support slots whenever possible and (later) even giving them a song of his called See Saw.

Inevitably, The Jolt made the move south and while in London, were one of the acts filmed by Wolfgang Büld, a young German director who had just moved from Munich to Britain to make documentaries. Punk in London (which would surface in 1978) showcased the band with a short interview together with footage of them performing at the Red Cow on Hammersmith Road, where they belted out the song that would become their first vinyl offering: You’re Cold.

With the imminent release of the single, The Jolt embarked on some promotional gigs in London before returning again to Scotland where they fitted in a homecoming show at the Crown – this, though, didn’t go quite as planned and apparently near the end of their performance, the band walked off the stage and refused to play on after the Crown’s owner insisted that the audience stop dancing.

Jack Kerr suggested the band’s success might have gone to their heads and there was talk of a ban although the band could have easily claimed they’d outgrown the Crown anyway.

The Jolt faced more criticism after a proposed date at the Silver Thread in Paisley supposedly had to be cancelled following a sound check where it was declared they were too noisy although they did go on to play dates in Edinburgh at Clouds, followed by, on the same day, a lunchtime gig at the Isle of Skye Hotel in Perth then one at the Maryat in Dundee that evening.

A week after the Crown walk-off, You’re Cold was met with some less than sparking reviews. NME’s Steve Clarke summed up the track in fourteen scathing words: ‘Strictly third division punk from this Scots combo. Untidy and lacklustre playing. Flat production’, while Ian Birch in Melody Maker denounced the record as: ‘Two rapid songs full of identikit sentiment. Chris Parry’s production makes the experience even more drowsy.’

To be fair, the band themselves weren’t hugely impressed by Parry and Robbie would later accuse the producer of thinking it was still ’76; claiming the single sounded like a demo.

I reckon the critics were being very harsh though. See what you think, this is You’re Cold:

 
More on The Jolt in 2015.

Tonight At Noon / Forever More

THE JAM: TONIGHT AT NOON

 
Just out this week is Paul Weller’s More Modern Classics, a collection that features a selection of his solo work from 1999 to the present.

For some years now Weller’s been dismissed by many as a Dad Rock fuddy duddy, happy just to churn out drenched in nostalgia ditties with Britpop buddies like Steve Cradock and Noel Gallagher. According to one pal of mine, he’s divorced more wives than written truly great songs since his heyday as singer, guitarist and main songwriter with The Jam.

I disagree. Yeah, he did spend too long a time for my liking seemingly trying to recreate the ‘getting it together in the country’ type of sound that Traffic pioneered in the late 1960s but – very possibly coinciding with his decision to give up booze around four years ago – he now appears more eager to embrace new influences and experiment musically than the vast majority of artists of his generation, 2010’s Wake Up The Nation signalling something of a late period renaissance for the Woking man.

Two years later, Sonik Kicks took him even further out of his comfort zone and even witnessed him flirting with Neu! motorik rhythms, which certainly took me aback, kind of like hearing that Kate Bush is dabbling with Oi! or hardcore for her upcoming tour. Paul Weller goes Krautrock? Somehow though it worked and I’d rate Sonik Kicks a much better album than biggies like Stanley Road and Heavy Soul.

The final song of the new collection, Brand New Toy, a special Record Store Day release a couple of months back, is also worth seeking out, a superb slice of modern day music hall glam which I’m sure Ray Davies would have been proud to have penned.

Saying that, this is a far from perfect compilation.Sweet Pea, Sweet Pea is no more a ‘modern classic’ than One Direction are The Velvet Underground and, even worse, is his version of Wishing on a Star. Godawful stuff, Paul, in the hugely unlikely chance that you’re actually reading this, although I’m sure you wouldn’t give two fucks or even a damn about my review (of sorts) anyway.

In case you didn’t get it, that last line was a reference to a lyric of The Jams’ second single The Modern World, which also kicked off their second album This is the Modern World.

One day after school in the winter of 1977, I headed over to Rockabill Records in East Kilbride where I’d got to know a guy who had wangled a part time job there. He was playing the LP on the shop’s stereo and was pretty underwhelmed by most of it.

This reaction wasn’t entirely unusual. Critics tended to dismiss the album as hurried and ill conceived but most of the music immediately transfixed me, London Girl, I Need You and, most particularly, Tonight at Noon,a song that sounded almost magical and poetic.* At a time when punk was near its peak – and the week that This is the Modern World came out, Never Mind the Bollocks was Britain’s bestselling album – I thought the words and music of Tonight at Noon were beautiful, not a word I would have used to describe any other record I’d remotely liked that year up until this point.

This is Tonight At Noon:

 
I kept asking for it to be played again and again as I didn’t have the money to buy it, most likely because most of my pocket money had just been used to buy a ticket for the upcoming Jam show at the Glasgow Apollo.

 

Finally a mention for a new Edinburgh act who’ll be supporting Paul Weller at his sold out Forest Live shows later this month. Produced by Richard Hawley and released last Monday on Neu! Reekie! Records, this is Forever More:

 
For more on Paul Weller:
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And to hear Paul speaking with Billy Sloan on Radio Clyde last Sunday night click HERE.

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* The back cover of This Is The Modern World gave thanks to Liverpudlian poet and pop artist Adrian Henri ‘for foresight and inspiration’. Weller borrowed the title of a Henri poem (which Henri himself had borrowed from a Charlie Mingus track) for Tonight At Noon and also lifted lines such as ‘I will bring you night flowers / coloured like your eyes’ and ‘held for a moment among strangers / held for a moment among dripping trees’ straight from his poem In the Midnight Hour without giving him an actual writing credit.