6th September 2020
Thurs 10 Sept---Glen Matlock Band play The Electric Ballroom.
This will be a socially distanced event where all socially distanced Heath & Safety procedures will be in place according to Govt guidelines and where the audience will be seated at separate tables.
Glen’s band for this one off show will be Chris Musto on Drums, Jim Lowe on Bass and on guitar will be special guest for the evening, Neal X ( Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Adam Ant, Marc Almond ) Tickets are £30....with support from The Priscillas.
I would have gone to this show but I am in mainland Europe from Mon 07 Sept to Tues 22 Sept. September is usually a good month for gigs and events but not much on due to the coronavirus. Will be going to see an old friend and hopefully the plane both ways is half empty as it's not a beach resort. I will have use of the sauna , outdoor pool in the huge garden and an e-bike so should be good fun. Daily news on raysgigs will be taking a break for a fortnight.
This book is a must buy - released 10 April 2020.
Worlds End : Sex Pistols / McLaren / Westwood - A Chronology 1971 to 1978 by Mal-One and The Punk Collective.
Retails for £14.99 and is available from Rough Trade stores and online.
Visit their website here to buy it mail order.
It is also available via Ebay and Amazon.
This is a historical document set in Day by Day format with incredible attention to detail over its 344 pages.
There are a few punk-art collages by Mal-One but no band photos as we all know what they look like.
The Year Zero is the early 1970s at McLaren/Westwood store at 430 Kings Road ,Chelsea where music, film, art ,fashion, youth culture evolved from here to change the music scene forever.
As expected , most of the book centres on the two incredible years of 1976 and 1977. One thing you do notice throughout the book is the amount of gigs The Sex Pistols had cancelled. It got even worse after the Bill Grundy incident as they became the most talked about new band in the country,and everybody wanted to see them play live but nobody could see them as the GLC, other local councils, promoters and everybody else just pulled the plug on them.
Certainly not easy for Malcolm McLaren to manage them , with all the various problems. Hard to believe that before their re-union tour in 1996 the biggest crowd in the UK they had played to in 1976/1977 was around 1000 people, and they were all low key secret gigs.
It was criminal that they could have filled multi-nights at the bigger London venues but were just not allowed. I would compare it to something like 1994 when Oasis were the hottest new band in the UK. They had swagger and attitude and swore a bit but imagine nobody was allowed to see them play classic tracks from their debut album like "Rock 'n' Roll Star", "Live Forever" , "Supersonic" and "Cigarettes & Alcohol".
Nice to see that i get a mention in the book on page 225 which is related to the "Pretty Vacant " poster "Dance To The Sex Pistols" which i am in.
The stills were taken from Sex Pistols Notre Dame 1976 gig. A smaller version of the poster is on page 162.
The Sex Pistols are my fave band ever,so i know most of their history and was there for bits of it , but this book still surprises me with many never before known happenings in their career.
It really is a great five star read.