Saturday 26th February 1977 –Black and White Minstrels Show – Chiltern Rooms
While the youngsters of the time were getting a hard time in both the press and in person for looking a ‘bit different’ and listening to music that wasn’t ‘progressive’, back in February 1977 it was seemingly still OK for the white middle class to ‘black up’ for the sake of ‘light entertainment’.
A Bucks Free Press advert shows The Black and White Minstrel Show was due to perform at The Chiltern Rooms in Desborough Road on Saturday 26th February 1977. The £1.85 entrance cost would also reward you with a ‘Chicken in the Basket’ supper.
Bucks Free Press advert for events coming up at The Chiltern Rooms in February and March 1977. Chicken-in-the-Basket seemed popular at the time
It would be fair to say that this show has not stood the test of time. Apparently, viewing figures for the BBC show of the same title (first broadcast in 1958) reached a peak of more than 20 million by the mid 1960’s. Despite on-going controversy over its portrayal of black people, it remained on the screens throughout the majority of the 1970’s before finally be axed by the BBC in July 1978.
Where you would start attempting to explain the premise for this show to the generation born post 1978? It would also be interesting to hear the thoughts of the significant Caribbean origin population of High Wycombe to a show of this type being presented on their doorstep?
In keeping with the ‘Life on Mars’ style time-travel, the entertainment advertised for Thursday 10th March 1977 was billed as ‘STAG 77’ – no not a band from the New Wave of Heavy Metal but a ‘Gentlemen’s Evening, with Adult Comedians – beautiful Girls, Girls, Girls’. This time, £2.50 would gain you entry, including the obligatory ‘Chicken in the Basket’ supper.
But there was alternative entertainment on the same evening that ‘STAG 77’ strutted their stuff at The Chiltern Rooms –at the other end of Town down the London Road, Billy Idol’s Generation X were returning to the Nag’s Head supported by the only gigging Wycombe ‘punk’ band of the time, Deathwish.
As part of BBC Music Day on Friday 9th June 2017, BBC Local Radio are working with The British Plaque Trust to choose a recipient for an official Blue Plaque in each BBC Local Radio station area in England and the Channel Islands.
To quote the BBC website:
The BBC are asking their listeners for nominations for an iconic location or music legend that they feel should receive the honour of an official Blue Plaque.
The British Plaque Trust criteria is to commemorate innovative, influential and successful people who have died. In keeping with this, listeners to BBC Local Radio are asked to nominate singers, musicians, songwriters or producers from any genre of music with a distinct local connection, who are no longer alive. They can also nominate significant locations which are a big part of our musical heritage, for example iconic venues and locations of important events.
The story of both The Nag’s Head and Ron Watts are documented elsewhere on this website but if you are looking for a quick summary, Watts, who died in 2016, was instrumental in bringing leading Blues, Rock and Folk artists to the London Road venue in the late 1960’s – including John Lee Hooker, a young Marc Bolan, Status Quo, Jethro Tull and Thin Lizzy. During the early days of Punk, the locally born Watts took the risk to promote the likes of The Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Clash, The Stranglers and The Jam– ALL BEFORE THEY HAD SIGNED RECORD DEALS. All these acts have since become iconic names in the history of the UK and world music.
Meanwhile, Watts, who also promoted at The 100 Club in Oxford Street, has largely gone unrecognised for the part he played in promoting acts that would regularly get turned away from other venues. Ironically, in the same year that Watts died, The Nag’s Head also went the way of many other live music venues – lost to residential development after protests from the local music loving public were ignored. Local councillors seemingly more interested in ticking boxes for housing requirements, rather than providing an outlet for musical creation, inspiration and community based gatherings.
Read more from the links below.
Get your nominations in by midnight 26 February 2017:
18th February 1977 saw the release of ‘Damned, Damned, Damned’ by The Damned on Stiff Records, for what is accepted as the first ‘long playing record’ by a UK ‘punk’ band.
Damned, Damned, Damned – the classic front cover of the February 1977 release on Stiff Records
The Damned, Damned, Damned album was recorded in early January 1977 and produced by Nick Lowe. 27 year old Lowe had released Stiff’s first single, ‘So it Goes’ in August 1976. His first band, pub rockers, Brinsley Schwarz, had played the Nag’s Head as early as August 1973 and appeared on at least three more occasions into 1974.
Recording was completed in 10 days. Total running time for the 12 tracks comes in at a minute or so over half-an-hour and included their debut single New Rose and the subsequent follow up, Neat, Neat, Neat, released on the same day as the album.
Neat, Neat, Neat, she can’t afford a cannon
Damned, Damned, Damned reached No.36 in the UK album chart.
YouTube audio of full album below:
The Damned would not return to High Wycombe until April 1979.
Tuesday 16th February 1977 – Matlock leaves The Pistols
News began to emerge that Glen Matlock’s time with The Sex Pistols could be at an end. On 11th February 1977, Sid Vicious had ‘auditioned’ as their new bass player (even though, in true punk fashion, he could not play the right notes or keep in time).
Vicious (aged 19, real name John Beverley) had followed the Pistols since their formation in late 1975. He had attended their infamous performance at High Wycombe College in February 1976 – after the gig he was seen staggering around with blood dripping from his hand having smashed a window trying to get into the Pistols tour van.
Glen Matlock at The Nag’s Head in one of his many bands that played the High Wycombe venue. More on this to come.
Matlock’s departure was eventually confirmed by Pistols Manager Malcolm McClaren on 28th February 1977 – a telegram to the music press claiming he had been ‘thrown out’, because he ‘went on too long about Paul McCartney’. A 19 year old Matlock would later deny he had been sacked, stating in a leaving agreement that he had ‘resigned’. He was paid off the sum of £2,966.98 plus £25 for work with The Sex Pistols at a recording session on 3rd March 1977. The agreement also stated Matlock would receive one-quarter share of royalties for the songs he had co-written.
Matlock had played with The Sex Pistols in High Wycombe for both the February 1976 appearance and the September 1976 outing at The Nag’s Head. But his departure from the most famous punk band of all time would not end his performing days, or the chance to see him High Wycombe.
Shortly after his Pistols exit he would be seen down the Nag’s Head during a time where he was looking for recruits for a new band – the group would eventually emerge towards the end of 1977 as The Rich Kids. Matlock would go on to appears with at least another four acts in High Wycombe during his performing days, including The Rich Kids, Jimmy Norton’s Explosion, The Spectres, London Cowboys and Dead Men Walking. At the time of this post he was still touring in 2017 at the age of 60.
Friday 14th February 1975 – Brewer’s Droop – Technical College
Ron Watts’ band, Brewer’s Droop were guests at the 1975 Valentine’s Ball at High Wycombe Technical College. If I am reading the advert correctly, your romantic night out would have started out with the charmingly named Dildo Kids!! Although that may have been a strap line for The Droop?
Music paper advert for Brewer’s Droop mini tour – February 1975, including Wycombe, Birmingham and Bognor
By the time of this gig, ‘The Droop’ had been gigging for more than four years, clocking up more than a 1,000 dates but regular gigs were on the downturn, leaving a then 33 year old Watts to concentrate on promoting.
The Technical College was also set for a change, when in September 1975 it was renamed (or in modern jargon, ‘rebranded’) to Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education. Under both banners it would regularly host gigs throughout the 1970’s and beyond, while ‘rock concerts’ at the nearby Town Hall gradually became less frequent.
It was just over a year later that Watts returned to the venue (to help book a stripper) and bumped into a ‘bunch of scruffs’ called ‘The Sex Pistols’. The rest is..etc…
Birmingham based The Move came to High Wycombe at point of their first UK chart success. Formed in December 1965 with a line-up of Trevor Burton (guitar/vocals), Roy Wood (guitar/vocals), Chris Kefford (bass/vocals), Carl Wayne (vocals) and Bev Bevan (drums), they released their first single, ‘Night of Fear’, in December 1966.
The single peaked at No.2 in the UK on 26 January 1967 and just over a week later they were the headliners at High Wycombe Town Hall’s Valentine Ball.
The Move – Bucks Free Press advert for their 13th February 1967 appearance at High Wycombe Town Hall – the ‘A NIGHT OF FEAR’ caption is a reference to their single of the time. Note the added attraction of ‘TOP DISCS’!
The Move were grouped into the ‘Psychedelic’ tag that the music press of the time were starting to use. This was during a period of mass experimentation in not only the latest electronic music gadgets but also the mind altering substances prevalent in the music industry.
A quick look at the lyrics of ‘Night of Fear’ seems to reveal more, “Just about to flip your mind, just about to trip your mind”.
Their follow up single in April 1967, “I Can Hear The Grass Grow” reached No.5 in the UK charts and was also accused of containing references to ‘the synthetic effects of hallucinogenics’.
Wood, 20 at the time of the Wycombe gig, would go on to claim fame with Wizzard in the 1970’s, while Bevan (22), would become better known for his time in the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). They were both still performing at the time of this article, 50 years after their appearance at The Town Hall!
This is what they looked and sounded like back in early 1967.
Friday 11th February 1977 – Throbbing Gristle – Nag’s Head
A common misconception about many of the early ‘punk’ bands was that they ‘couldn’t play’, had ‘no good songs’ and looked like they’d been dragged through a hedge backwards. Of course, only some of this may have been true. Some of the best pop songs of the 1970’s came out of the punk movement and the musicianship was generally of a high standard.
If you wanted real punk, then step forward Throbbing Gristle – a band consisting of 26 year old Genesis P Orridge (real name Neil Megson), 25 year old Cosey Fanni Tutti (real name Christine Newby) and, according to the Bucks Free Press Midweek review of their gig at The Nag’s Head on Friday 11th February 1977, reclusive American artist Monte Cazazza. The latter apparently coined the phrase “industrial music for industrial people”.
A scan of the review is shown below but I’ve also included the text for ease of reading and search engine recognition.
I wish I’d gone home
Anyone who reads the juicer Sunday and popular newspapers will know the name of Throbbing Gristle, pictured above featuring Genesis P. Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti and Monte Cazazza.
One may have asked in passing : “Who are these weirdies?” I still don’t know who they are, or why they should have attracted such publicity, and I went out of my way to see them perform at the Nag’s Head pub in High Wycombe on Friday.
Well, I say perform because just at the moment I seem to be lost for words to describe what went on.
I make no apology for saying I am a lover of heavy, noisy. Jarring, ear-splitting music. I’m young and strong and I can take it.
But I had a job to keep my pint in my stomach as I listened to the muck which was Throbbing Gristle’s claim to fame.
An ape with his hands severed can thump just as violently on a bass guitar as Genesis did. I thought that was bad, but then he picked up his electrified violin and suddenly the place was full of agonised cats.
I can’t be sure that he was trying to sing, and I couldn’t make out every word he screamed into the microphone, but it sounded like I should have ignored the man and gone home.
Our photographer gave up early. I wish I’d followed him.
But I waited, and watched dumbfounded as Cosey Fanni Tutti bared both her chest and her ignorance of music, and Genesis poured artificial blood over his head then spat it onto the stage.
At least he did stop playing for a while — but only to shout obscenities at the audience and to throw a table across the hall.
Then he invited half a dozen youngsters from the catcalling and jeering audience onto the stage, and he handed them the instruments. They sounded better than Throbbing Gristle, even though they couldn’t play a note.
Those youngsters paid 75p to go into the hail to listen to the stomach churning travesty of music which Throbbing Gristle was oozing into the Nag’s Head.
The landlord, Mick Fitzgibbon, told me that the youngsters were about ready to throw Genesis P. Orridge, plus his equipment, bodily through the door.
“I’ll never have them back here,” he said. “The kids were threatening to punch the promoter, and I don’t blame them.”
However Gig Reserves, the promoters want to make amends to customers of theNag’s Head. They promise that next weekend’s band, Phil Ram, is good, and not to be missed. I think I’ll go along to make sure
KEITH BALDOCK
Those with a strong stomach, should follow the link below to read how Cazazza funded his 1977 trip to the UK.
The Nag’s Head gig was also recorded for an official cassette release in 1979.
The track listing included: Very Friendly, We Hate You (Little Girls), Slug Bait, Anarchy And Music. Zyklon B Zombie, If I Was A Little Baby and Wall Of Sound.
Perhaps the ‘Zyklon B Zombie’ track name influenced the later Wycombe punk band ‘Cylcon B’, formed in 1979 with former members of the Plastic People?
Were you one of the people who were invited on stage at this gig? Please get in touch.
The complete audio was available via YouTube as of March 2020. Happy listening!
Saturday 11th February 1967 – Tom Jones – Town Hall
I found a picture on the internet (Getty Images) that claims it’s from a Tom Jones performance at High Wycombe Town Hall on 11th February 1967.
The Bucks Free Press archives from February 1967 has no mention of the gig, before or after the suggested date. Looking at the picture, it is certainly not in the main Town Hall but could quite possibly be The Oak Room. Did it actually take place and on what date? Do you know anybody who may have attended?
This is another gig that I’ve had difficulty in verifying if it actually took place.
Numerous David Bowie archive websites list the 11th February 1972 as the 2nd night of the Ziggy Stardust tour. However, the gig was not advertised in the Bucks Free Press and the performance (if it took place), passed without comment in the local press.
The date came less than two week’s after Bowie’s legendary performance at Aylesbury’s Borough Assembly Hall. That 29th January 1972 date saw Bowie perform tracks from Ziggy Stardust for the first time. An advert for this gig appeared in both the Bucks Free Press and Midweek in the days leading up to ‘Friars’ show.
Advert for David Bowie gig in Aylesbury 29th January 1972 – from Bucks Free Press
But what about the High Wycombe show? A young Bowie had performed in High Wycombe back in March 1966 but by 1972 he was now reaching superstar status.
Any information on any of his High Wycombe performances, gratefully received.
These are links to two websites that list the 11 February 1972 gig
