Category: Nag’s Head

Saturday 4^th June 1977 saw some of the biggest queues ever seen at The Nag’s Head, as The Jam returned for their third performance of the year.  In the month or so leading up to this appearance, the London band had released their debut single and album, appeared on Top of The Pops and had become one of the hottest live acts on the pub circuit.

However, they were rapidly outgrowing pubs.  They could quite easily of sold out the venue two times over – and their appearance was as much as thank-you to promoter Ron Watts, as anything else. Ron had championed the band at The 100 Club, as well as The Nag’s Head – Watts was a happy man that evening.

Watts recalls The Nag’s Head appearance in his autobiography [100 Watts – A Life in Music] when he noted The Jam attracted more girls than any other band he had promoted:

“The amount of girls in school uniforms waiting in the queue was amazing.”

Watts added:

“The girls were all over Bruce Foxton, for some reason, which pi**ed Paul Weller off, who thought as singer, they should go for him.”

 Watts was also taken aback by the band’s stage presence and cited them as his favourite live act following the initial outbreak of punk in 1976:

“For a three piece The Jam were a sensation.  It was very brave of them to be doing the sort of soul covers they were playing, when everyone around them was singing about rioting and political events.  They went down a storm.”

It was clear after this night that The Jam would move on the bigger things and bigger venues.  For Watts, that meant looking at promoting gigs at The Town Hall on a regular basis.

This is The Jam performing their second single, ‘All Around The World’ on Top of The Pops in July 1977.  They would play High Wycombe Town during the week it was released.

London punk group The Models made an early headlining performance at The Nag’s Head on Saturday 28^th May 1977.  The band had been formed in Harrow earlier in 1977 as The Beastly Cads but changed their name The Models after just two gigs.  The line-up consisted of Cliff Fox (vocals and guitar), Marco Pirroni (guitar), Mick Allen (bass) and Terry Day (drums).

Pirroni had famously played with Siouxsie & The Banshees at their debut gig at The 100 Club in September 1976 but had not formed part of the new look Banshees that had played at The Nag’s Head in March 1977 and earlier in May 1977.  Kris Jozajtis attended the latter gig and recalls The Models as support.

Post their Nag’s Head appearances, The Models recorded a John Peel session (July 1977) and released what would be their only single – the double A side ‘Freeze’/’Man of The Year’ – on the Step Forward label.

Their early gigs included the controversially titled ‘I Wanna Form My Own Nazi Party’ – it was apparently aimed at some of the early punks who thought it was ‘cool’ to wear swastika arms bands (this included Siouxsie!).  However, it was taken the wrong way and was dropped from their set as the year went on.

Pirroni and Allen later formed ‘post-punk’ band Rema-Rema.  Guitarist Pirroni would then join drummer Terry Day in a new look Adam & The Ants.  The later would play High Wycombe a couple of times in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.  Allen would go on to form Wolfgang Press – later signed by 4AD and performing between 1983 and 1995.

The Freeze – Step Forward single 1977

John Peel Session – July 1977

Aylesbury ‘rockers’ Ardazell played The Nag’s Head on Thursday 26th May 1977, as promoter Ron Watts gave the punters a break from the ongoing ‘punk’ scene.

At the time of this post (40 years after their Nag’s Head appearance), there appeared to be little historical record of the band. However, the photo below, taken from a September 1976 edition of the Bucks Herald, shows lead guitarist Clive Wagerfield sporting his homemade solid aluminium guitar – very 1970’s! Although it was the still the 1970’s!

According to the flyer for that appearance, their line-up was: David Bowden (lead vocals), Clive Wagerfield (lead guitar), Phil Cutler (drums), Ricky Claire (second guitar), Steve Davis (bass and vocals).

Majority of set was self-written by Wagerfield (music) and Bowden (lyrics). Most popular songs from their 1976/77 era were ‘Shinin down’, One More Broken Heart’, ‘Ardazell’, ‘Gambler’, ‘Hurricane Children’, ‘Let Me Love You’, ‘Secrets’, ‘Mr Please’ and ‘9.15 To Nowhere’.  Their set also included from time to time, Larry Williams ‘Bony Moronie’.

Whatever happened to this group and their band members?

Ron Watts gave Swindon’s XTC a Nag’s Head debut on Monday 16^th May 1977.  The four piece consisted at the time of Andy Partridge (guitar and vocals), Colin Moulding (bass and vocals), Barry Andrews (keyboards and piano) and Terry Chambers (drums).

Their live performances in the early gigging days were noted for the antics of keyboard maestro Andrews.  He used a combination of piano and ‘open-top/stage tilted’ keyboards to mesmerise the audience.  In the days when punk was becoming the fashion, they were not necessarily the hippest people in town but they knew how to write a pop song.

But the rising punk scene had given XTC a foot into the door of the music industry and at the time of this Nag’s Head appearance several record companies were chasing their signature.  They had already recorded demo’s for CBS but they got cold feet – maybe after a number of abortive London gigs in early 1977? At a gig at London’s Rochester Castle on 14th April 1977, Andrew’s keyboards malfunctioned and they had to play as a trio, presumably with record company ‘suits’ looking on. “We had to play all the dumb stuff”, said Andy Partridge in a Sounds review of the gig.

The Nag’s Head appearance went a little smoother and they impressed Ron Watts enough for a repeat booking just a few weeks later. They would eventually sign for Virgin records in August 1977 – releasing their first single in October with the rapid fire, ‘Science Friction’.

XTC would re-pay Watts’ faith in the band a couple of years later with a headline performance at High Wycombe Town Hall – just at the point they were about to break into the UK single charts.

Here’s a sample of one of their early live shows- recorded in Swindon (around September 1977) – the not quite so poppy ‘Cross Wires’, complete with Barry Andrews going a bit crazy on keyboards.

Read more about XTC at the amazing http://chalkhills.org/ website.

 

Gene October’s London punk outfit Chelsea were billed to appear at The Nag’s Head on Friday 13^th May 1977 with fellow Londoners Stukas as support.

There may be a debate whether this gig actually took place as some listings have Chelsea down as playing a London date at The Winning Post on the same evening.  If you can confirm either way, that would be great.

Gene October (real name John O’Hara) had formed Chelsea in October 1976 along with Billy Idol and Tony James.  Idol and James went on to form Generation X in late 1976 but October stuck with a new look Chelsea that included Carey Fortune (drums) and eventually Henry Badowski (bass) and James Stevenson (guitar).

Later in 1977, this line-up would record the anthemic ‘Right to Work’ single, released on Step Forward records.

Meanwhile, The Stukas had performed their first gig around around Christmas 1976 at The Imperial Hotel, off Russell Square in London.  They consisted of Paul Brown (vocals), Raggy Lewis (guitar and vocals), Mick Smithers (lead guitar), Kevin Allen (bass) and John Mackie (drums).

Pre-Stukas, band members had been in a group called The Teenage Rebels.  Guitarist Raggy Lewis claimed in a Sounds interview published in June 1977: “The Teenage Rebels were before their time. We were getting banned from venues long before the Sex Pistols came along.”  Kevin Allen added: “That’s because we were bloody awful.”

The Stukas set-list at the time included: ‘Klean Living Kids’, ‘Position Number One’ and ‘Maxine’

Despite supporting the likes of Chelsea, Wayne County and Johnny Thunders, they were a band who tried to distance themselves from the rising ‘punk’ and ‘new wave’ scene.

Lewis explained in the Sounds interview:

“The punks seem to like us. Down at The 100 Club we even had a Ted pogoing! But I reckon we’re really aimed at the football crowds.”

Allen chipped in:

“We’re called the Stukas ‘cos if people don’t like us we come and drop bombs on their house.”

This is The Stukas first single, ‘Klean Living Kids’, released on Chiswick later in 1977.

This is a practice session for Chelsea’s first single,’Right to Work’, also released later in 1977, plus an interview. Chelsea would go on to release several more singles in the 1970’s and early 1980’s and continue gigging into the 2000’s and were still active at the time this article was first published.

The Jam returned again to The Nag’s Head on Thursday 12^th May 1977 supported by relatively new outfit Wire.

The Jam had released their debut single and album in the two weeks leading up to the gig and the local fan base of the band meant the busiest night down The Nag’s Head since the USA Rock Weekend in March.

Wire were formed in October 1976 by Colin Newman (vocals, guitar), Graham Lewis (bass, vocals), Bruce Gilbert (guitar), and Robert Gotobed, real name Robert Grey (drums). Their recognised live debut with this line-up was at London’s Roxy on 1st April 1977.

Wire released their first single on EMI offshoot label, Harvest later in 1977 with three diverse tracks:  ‘Mannequin’, ‘Feeling Called Love’ and ‘12XU’. Their second single, ‘I am the Fly’ was apparently an early favourite of Jam lead singer Paul Weller.

In a interview with Rolling Stone magazine, ahead of their March 2017 release of LP Silver/Lead, leader singer Colin Newman quipped:

“We’re the most famous band you’ve never heard of. Our fans assume that Wire is massive – like, we’ve all got mansions. And then there are lots of people who know groups who are more successful than Wire who’ve been influenced by Wire – yet they’ve never heard of Wire. It’s a very strange kind of fame.”

Meanwhile, The Jam were on the road the fame, or at least an appearance on Top of the Pops.  Their performance of the single ‘In The City’ on Thursday 19^th May 1977 (a week after their Nag’s Head) appearance is widely recognised as the first by ‘punk’ group on the BBC programme.  The arguments about whether The Jam are a ‘punk’ band, or not, will go on forever.

Paul Weller commented on the punk scene in the NME published on the day of The Nag’s Head gig:

“I don’t see any point in going against your own country. All this ‘change the world’ thing is becoming a bit too trendy. I realise that we’re not going to change anything unless it’s on a national scale. We’ll be voting Conservative at the next election.”

Weller later claimed it was a bit of wind-up and he went on to support the Labour party in the years ahead.

Since the above article was first published, local High Wycombe music fan, Dave Tapping, got in touch and sent the clipping below published in Sounds magazine the week before the gig at The Nag’s Head on 12th May 1977.

The gig preview, says, ‘The Jam are at High Wycombe Nag’s Head on Thursday for a one-off before rejoining the White Riot ’77 tour next week. Try and catch them before they’re rich and famous!’ Dave says ‘indeed, I was glad I did!’.

Here’s Wire performing the punky ’12XU’ from their first single:

And here’s The Jam ‘punking it up’ on Top of the Pops.

Were you one of the punters who queued up the Nag’s Head stairs and paid £1 (75p for members!) to see these two hugely influential bands?

Pub Rockers’, Bees Make Honey returned to The Nag’s Head for another headline performance on Saturday 7^th May 1977.  The London based band had previously played on 24^th March 1977.  Their prompt return suggests that promoter Ron Watts was suitably impressed with their crowd pulling power to warrant a rare Saturday night gig at the London Road venue.

The following week would see The Jam, Chelsea and XTC take to the boards at The Nag’s Head as an explosion of gigs was set to run throughout the summer of 1977.

The Banshees returned to The Nag’s Head on Thursday 5^th May 1977 as they continued their first steps on the live circuit. Their appearance supporting Johnny Thunders at The Nag’s in March ’77 was only their 4^th ever live outing – the May ’77 show in High Wycombe was still only their 8^th venture in front of live audience.  Other dates in-between their two Nag’s Head dates included a show in Worcester and two gigs at London’s Roxy.

The Nag’s Head date was another low key affair promoted by Ron Watts.  There was with very little advance publicity and the audience was made up of the Nag’s Head Thursday ‘rock night’ regulars plus those curious to see a ‘punk’ band on their door-step.

Banshees bassist Steve Severin explained in Mark Paytress’s 2003 biography of the band, “We stepped into a void left by the Pistols because they weren’t allowed to play anywhere.  For a lot of people we were probably the first ‘punk’ band they ever saw live.  Musically we were very different from the Pistols, but then was a huge diversity of sound among all the bands.  No one sounded like Subway Sect, or Buzzcocks, or even The Clash, at that point.”

The Banshees line-up at the time still consisted of Siouxsie Sioux (vocals),  Steve Severin,  Kenny Morris (drums) and Peter Fenton (guitar).  Fenton was proving a problem in Sioux and Severin’s vision for the band.

Siouxsie (from the Paytress biog): “Fenton didn’t really fit in.  He had an orange lead on his guitar and that really annoyed me.  He was a real rock guitarist, always trying to put licks into songs and pulling funny faces when he played.  We spent most of the time trying to make him forget what he’d learned.”

Fenton would make his final appearance for The Banshees at London Dingwalls on 19 May 1977.  The guitarist was sacked on stage, Sioux explaining, “He’d gone into this terrible wailing guitar solo in the middle of a song, so I said, ‘That is f**king sh*t’ and pulled the lead out of his guitar. Afterwards we had this enormous fight backstage.  The management at Dingwalls told us, ‘You’ll never work here again.’”

There may have been fights backstage at Dingwalls but violence among the crowd and with band members were common place during the early days of ‘punk’ gigs.  The trouble was not necessarily caused by the teenage/early 20’s, ‘punks’ but typically by the older crowd struggling to come to terms with the new craze. The violence was often very tribal.

Severin recalls: “You could guarantee that at just about every gig there’d be a fight by the end of the third song. Someone would try to drag Siouxsie into the audience. She’d kick them, Kenny would jump over his drum kit and pile in, and it would all go off.”  But Severin remembers the Nag’s appearance as being slightly unusual: “At The Nag’s Head in High Wycombe they had the grace to wait until Kenny was clearing away his drum kit before they threw the first glass.”

John McKay would replace Fenton on guitar and played his first gig with the band at London’s Vortex on 11 July 1977.  It proved to be the final piece in the Banshees jigsaw – their sound dynamic changed overnight and by the end of 1977 were the one of the most popular live bands on the circuit but bizarrely, at a time when every marginally new wave act was being signed, were still without a record deal.  Even when Ron Watts brought them back to High Wycombe for a gig at The Town Hall in April 1978, they were still a month away from signing a deal with Polydor records.

This is a Banshees demo recorded in March 1977 of a track called ‘Captain Scarlet’ – a crowd favourite at the time.

With a least one Nag’s Head performance to their credit, The Jam released their debut single, ‘In The City’, on Saturday 29^th April 1977 on Polydor records.  The song took its title from the ‘B side’ of The Who single ‘I’m a Boy, released in August 1966.

The Jam had appeared at The Nag’s Head earlier in 1977 but as the single gradually made an impact on the UK charts, you would have had another chance to see them at the High Wycombe venue on 12^th May 1977.  They would also perform the single on Top of the Pops a week later.  The single reached No.40 in the UK charts.

The debut album, also titled ‘In The City’, would be released a week before their 2nd Nag’s Head appearance.

The YouTube clip below is The Jam performing In The City at Manchester’s Electric Circus in 1977. It shows the pure energy of their live performances at the time.