Alan A Hillier wrote:A belated Happy Birthday Jim.............
What is it about you that inspires my brain to remember long forgotten things?. Just a few weeks before you were born I went with my sister Karen, Dennis Marks to see TOTP being recorded......I'll write it up and post it late on, it might (might not) be interesting for you to see what rocked the socks of people just weeks before you made your debut appearance.
Al
Would be very interesting Al if you get chance - Thanks!
Jim
"I bathed in sun and walked in rain
It taught me how to laugh again"
marcoshark wrote:Oh well, better late than never. Have a Happy hangover Jim! (and a Birthday too!)
Marc
Even though I am a couple of days late I would like to celebrate your birthday with this small and hugely insignificant offering.
This is for you Jim, driving Test Superhero, Web master, Birthday Boy and all round
dude..............................
Jim, just a few weeks before you made your debut in this wild and whacky old world way back in April 1975, I went to the BBC studios in White City to see an edition of Top of the pops being recorded.
My sister Karen had sent away for 4 tickets way back in September 1974 and when they eventually plopped on the mat she was delirious.
A couple of weeks after receiving the tickets, Dennis Marks, my sister Karen, her blonde barbette mate with seriously nice tits also called Karen and yours truly, found ourselves emerging from White City Underground Station into the midst of what seemed like a 100,000 Tartan clad Bay City Rollerettes.We joined this psychotic and disorderly mob outside the BBC buildings and the experience was memorable to say the least. It was quite obvious that 99.9 % of this predominantly pre pubescent throng had no tickets to get in but they didn't seem to give a fuck about that as they waved and clung to posters, swayed, danced, and sang Bay City Roller songs all the while moving unconciously together like a shoal of colourful fish.
Top Of The Pops always went out on a Thursday night and was 'recorded' the day before, so I can positively confirm that this was Wednesday March 12th 1975 five days before my 17th birthday.
For a minute I really did wonder what the fuck I was doing standing with all these spotty over excited Tartan clad hormonal chicks with Tartan scarf's tied around their wrists on this afternoon in March 1975, but one look at my sister Karen made me realise that she was having shed loads of fun and was happy and confident in the knowledge that she was protected by one of her big brothers and one of her big brothers seriously mad mates Dennis Marks.
The Queue for those with tickets snaked its way vibrantly and expectantly along one side of the BBC studio car park and Everyone in that queue (other than those clued up Bay City Roller fans) had absolutely no idea what to expect when they eventually got inside, but that was part of fun (apparently).
Jim, the music scene at the time of your birth was fucking dire to say the least. Songs like 'January' by a band called Pilot was still hanging about in the charts and everything was beginning to drive me fucking nuts.
The Bay City rollers were still one of the biggest things happening commercially at that time and they had had a succession of huge hits up to this point.
In baby Jim's 1975 the charts were full of absolute shite and when I think about it now it was so bloody obvious that 'something' had to break it down. Something had to destroy all this dreary, meaningless, sugary sweet commercial drivel which I hated so much.
I knew full well that I (and my mates) didn't fit in to any of it at all. We still had fond memories of late sixties and early seventies stuff and mourned the decline of the Trojan era. things were grim in 1975 which is another reason perhaps, why the effect the Stranglers had on me was so profound and lives somewhere in the knowledge that everything at that time just vanished without trace in November 1976. For me there was very definitely a 'BS' (Before Stranglers ) and an 'AS', and that has always remained so.
We were all bundled in to the BBC studio, which consisted of various sound stages on the periphery of a circular main floor.
We were told to watch out for the cameramen who proved to be an extremely dangerous law unto themselves, and the inference was that it was most definitely our responsibility to avoid them and get the fuck out of their way or we would be 'legitimately' run over.
A girl actually had her ankle injured on that night by an enthusiastic cameraman.
The presenter on this particular evening was none other than the ubiquitous Noel Edmunds who sported a beard and a wicked mullet.
After a few run throughs he introduced the first 'live' act as Scotland's answer to the Beatles..........The Bay City Rollers........Then all of a sudden these skinny Jocks (No offence to my Scottish Strangler brothers) took the stage and from just a few feet away the Bay City Rollers launched into their current smash hit and began a completely 'Mimed' performance of Bye Bye Baby.
The initial recording didn't go too well and there were a few stops and starts in the recording. Lead singer Les McKeown began complaining to the crew and the camera men that there were a couple of guys out front who were deliberately trying to distract his attention and fuck with his mind.
McKeown repeated his protestations during take two, take three and then take four and loudly (Over reacting in my book) exclaimed that he was upset because there were a couple of Lads (Me and Dennis) in the audience who were being very disrespectful (His words) and the fact that Dennis and I were giving the whole band continuous double fisted 'Wanker' signage was upsetting him and distracting him from the task in hand (Perhaps his reaction demonstrated the fact that (as he has said in various interviews subsequently) he realized what a load of bollocks he was involved with and maybe he knew somewhere in his own mind, at that very moment, that our behavior was merely confirmation of what he genuinely knew within himself was about to finish his band and everything like them. If that were true, I might find a modicum of respect for him) Anyway, this Geezer had really taken the bait and it had really fucking freaked him out.
Dennis and I continued to be complete Fucking obnoxious arseholes throughout the entire recording of Bye Bye Baby but (As we found out later) we were upsetting just about everyone and were told in no uncertain terms that we were spoiling everything and that if we didn't chill out we would be thrown out. The two Karen's who were complete devoted fans.
Of the Bay City rollers were not impressed with us at all.
To me and Dennis the Bay City Rollers were a complete fucking joke and we had taken a Golden opportunity to slag these wankers off and there was no way that we were 'not' going to take full advantage of that opportunity.
Eventually the recording of Bye Bye Baby was completed but not before Dennis and I were threatened for a third and final time with immediate expulsion from the building.
Next up was a geezer called Peter Shelley (No Relation to the Peter Shelley of the Buzzcocks) he came on to a sound stage with a great big dog (and I mean big) and tried to get this animal to sit still whilst he sung this seventies anthem
'Love me love my dog'.....I'm serious......'Love me love my fucking Dog'.........can you believe this shit.
Well......... This huge dog wasn't fucking having any of it and started pissing and shitting all over the place, dragging the guy about and generally running off all over the studio and doing what dogs do, that was fucking brilliant, really hilarious and everyone was in hysterics but they eventually got through all that as well.
Then we had the Rubettes, these geezers in white suits and white flat caps with their hit called 'I can do it', in my book at least, had more creditability than the Rollers.
This was followed by a surreal performance by Duane Eddy who sang and played his twangy guitar song thing, which was called something like "Play me like your old guitar" Fucking weird. He looked really old but was in fact only in his late thirties on this night. Apparently he had been a fifties and sixties minor icon.
Pans people danced to an Elton John song, which is where I got myself on TV. When I saw the playback the next night I was clearly visible with my Tank Top and quite visibly Ogling the knockers of the gorgeous Pans People dancers.
Minor celebrity band 'Fox' (Anoushka Fox...... sexy little thing) did her song called 'only you can' and I thought she was quite original for the time.
Gloria Gaynor did a 'live' song as well.
The rest of the show was a succession of Promo's
There was a memorable video of Telly Savallas singing (well....talking actually) a version of 'If'......What the fuck was that all about? and the big bad ......Walrus of love Barry White churned out another of his soulful shag ditties "What am I gonna do with you"
The most memorable moment for me was meeting the Irish songstress and minor star Dana in the hallway. She had sung a song on the show and came wafting though the foyer whilst I was on the phone to my mum. My old Mum loved her songs and as she came past I cheekily asked her if she would have a word with one of her biggest fans (Not exactly true) . To her credit Dana took the phone and chatted away to my old mum for ages but my Mum (Knowing me so well) thought the whole thing was a complete fucking wind up ...but she wasn't prepared to let on and spoil the joke for me.
When Karen and I got home and convinced her that she really had been speaking to the very famous (at that time) Dana, her face was a picture. She eventually got used to all that kind of stuff over the coming years and on the odd occasion would gingerly open the front room door at some early hour(never knowing what she might find) only to find a Strangler or two crashed out on the sofa.
haha fucking excellent Al. I remember stumbling across a Top 40 on the day I was born and thinking "Shite!!". Must`ve been so refreshing when The Stranglers came on the scene
Cheers!
Jim
"I bathed in sun and walked in rain
It taught me how to laugh again"
Alan A Hillier wrote:Then we had the Rubettes, these geezers in white suits and white flat caps with their hit called 'I can do it', in my book at least, had more creditability than the Rollers.
Funny you should mention them Al.
Back in 97 my band...."Nameless", played a gig at "The Fish' " near Littleborough, next to a reservoir on the border of Lanky and the heathen wastelands of YORKSHIRE!
Now here we were, playing our own brand of "punk rock" to a pub full of Teachers, Middle management, Farmers and "Real Ale" drinkers. Quite apt that we were next to water, cos we went down like a lump of lead! We played brilliantly, as you do when the audience is against you, but got absolutly no fuckin applause except for this one old guy, must have been about 60, wearing a flat cap and a big grey beard. Honestly he was smoking his fuckin pipe, drinkin his mild and enjoying the night.
About halfway through the set, landlord comes over and tells us to knock it on the head, pack up and he'll pay us off. Old guy in flat cap goes across to the l/lord and comes back to us. He's had a word and we can carry on!! "and by the way, can you play "God Save The Queen?" and is it alright if I play along with you?"
He gets from behind the bar, a beautifull black Gibson guitar and a little 50 watt combo,and proceeds to jam alomg with GSTQ, putting in a fuckin ace blues influenced solo! It was fuckin awesome! :wtf?:
The audience suddenly came alive.
He jammed along to the next four songs, playing like a pro.
Anyway, it turns out he was the guitarist in The Rubettes, all those years ago! He was a session muso most of his life after that,and despite being a blues man at heart, he loved the music created by"the great punk bands....the pistols, the stranglers and the Damned!" He told us it was the best night he'd had in a long while, and much alcohol was consumed after hours, talking about the late 70s. Funny though, i can't remember his name. Shame really.
Three of the original members (singer Alan Williams and drummer John Richardson a.o.) are still going. Bassist Mick Clarke grew up in Dagenham (stranglers connection!).
Juke Box Jive and Tonight and I Can Do It were amongst my first 7" purchases back in the good ole seventies.
My guess is that you met Tony Thorpe who was their guitarist some years in the seventies.
--eric--
i was attracted by a night torchlight parade
and there i came
Alan A Hillier wrote:Then we had the Rubettes, these geezers in white suits and white flat caps with their hit called 'I can do it', in my book at least, had more creditability than the Rollers.
Funny you should mention them Al.
Back in 97 my band...."Nameless", played a gig at "The Fish' " near Littleborough, next to a reservoir on the border of Lanky and the heathen wastelands of YORKSHIRE!
Now here we were, playing our own brand of "punk rock" to a pub full of Teachers, Middle management, Farmers and "Real Ale" drinkers. Quite apt that we were next to water, cos we went down like a lump of lead! We played brilliantly, as you do when the audience is against you, but got absolutly no fuckin applause except for this one old guy, must have been about 60, wearing a flat cap and a big grey beard. Honestly he was smoking his fuckin pipe, drinkin his mild and enjoying the night.
About halfway through the set, landlord comes over and tells us to knock it on the head, pack up and he'll pay us off. Old guy in flat cap goes across to the l/lord and comes back to us. He's had a word and we can carry on!! "and by the way, can you play "God Save The Queen?" and is it alright if I play along with you?"
He gets from behind the bar, a beautifull black Gibson guitar and a little 50 watt combo,and proceeds to jam alomg with GSTQ, putting in a fuckin ace blues influenced solo! It was fuckin awesome! :wtf?:
The audience suddenly came alive.
He jammed along to the next four songs, playing like a pro.
Anyway, it turns out he was the guitarist in The Rubettes, all those years ago! He was a session muso most of his life after that,and despite being a blues man at heart, he loved the music created by"the great punk bands....the pistols, the stranglers and the Damned!" He told us it was the best night he'd had in a long while, and much alcohol was consumed after hours, talking about the late 70s. Funny though, i can't remember his name. Shame really.
Nice story Raven
This whole subject has awakened some nice memories regarding The Sweet, and Slade and various others .......in 1973.....if your interested I might write it up.
