Sunday, June 03, 2007

What was with that "Punk" Seven Ages of Rock travesty that aired on BBC2 last night?

Not only chronologically deficient, the whole thing was just a mess. History being reduced to bite-sized misinformation and yet another example of The Voidoids being mistaken for Television. This series has been "critically acclaimed" but in actuality does the documentary form an extreme disservice. And Charles Shaar Murray, I can't believe that he's indicted in the morass. But anyway, what the heck. It was good to see Joey and Johnny on TV for an instant but not to even mention the Dolls and The MC5 was utter sacrilege. The Stooges got one mention via the Pistols. Dearie feckin' me...

And loosely related to several ages of something or other, I found a tour itinerary book for Television among a pile of other stuff. I didn't realise that the band's first UK show was in Glasgow. I'm fairly sure they hadn't played in London prior to that but could be mistaken.?There's also a Verlaine autograph on NBT paper... I remember him being somewhat obnoxious but he was a punk, right? Ha ha. Also found a couple of Christmas cards from 1979 and 1981 from one Steven Morrissey and also postcards from Jim Kerr as Simple Minds made their way around the world. One from New York and another from Berlin from whence Young Jim claims he drew Noddy on the Berlin Wall with lime green chalk. Now that's rock'n'roll...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

http://www.detour-records.co.uk/punkposterpage1977.htm

has a poster from this tour. but according to this : http://www.marquee.demon.co.uk/facts/gigs.htm

they played Bournemouth first! what a great weekend that was, though - Ramones & Talking Heads at Strathclyde then Television and Blondie at The Apollo.

Howard Wall

Lindsay Hutton said...

Yep, the weekend that CBGB's came to Glasgow... anyway, the book doesn't mention Bournemouth (perhaps it was a warm-up) and only starts from the 22nd (May).
They stayed at the Central Hotel in Gordon Street and it cost £29.41 for a twin room and £17.97 for a single! Blondie were here the day before, as anybody who was at Strathclyde on the Saturday would know. They would return there on their first headlining tour and play a version of "Jet Boy" in their set.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't agree more. Yet again the Heartbreakers are crow-barred out of history to make way for yet another 20 minutes of Patti fucking Smith. Why are these shows always put together by "writers" who obviously need to try to impress on the world how important she was to "punk" (correct answer, as made clear by Lydon's comment about PfS and her group being a bunch of tambourine banging hippies, is NOT A JOT), just because she was something they could relate to, and no doubt thought her schtick was something they could do, probably even "better" given the right breaks... Cos there's no way in a zillion years they could have done Born Too Loose or Blitzkrieg Bop or Anarchy. Like the same way they all leapt on the rap bandwagon. Ohhh, it makes me MAD!!!!! And, seeing as it is supposed to be mainly about the British perspective, where on earth were THE TROGGS???

Let's hunt down Charles Sharr Murray and make him eat his own "bum" (Lee Hazlewood knows what I mean...)

Ron Thewlis

Lindsay Hutton said...

I think CSM has already been indulging in his own "bum" from the inside. Apparently there was no consideration given to beat music in all this. I'm sure that most of the people who did this are blissfully ignorant of such a beast as The Troggs. I have no bugbear with Patti Smith per se but I do with the delusion of The Clash being better than Generation X. Discuss. And don't even get me started about Buzzcocks. In all this, I imagine that the brains behind this guff have no idea there even was a group called The Heartbreakers. Next week it's heavy metal... the possibilities for twisting that melon are boundless. It'll be Ozzy and backward satanic messages all the way. However, if Blue Cheer or Vanilla Fudge get a mention then I'll be happy to make a public apology.

Anonymous said...

I missed it as I was through in weegieland watching the old Television support band the Only ones, Peter Perret is alive and well, I still think Another Girl, Another Planet is everything marquee moon is but in 2 and a half minutes. Alan Mair was breaking strings guitars and amps all over the place but down to enthusiasm more than punk rock attitude. And the audience was great and the pints were a fair price and there was even a working toilet on the midnight bus back to Edinburgh, it doesnt get much better than that

Anonymous said...

I meant to say Richard Lloyd is seriously ill at the moment more news here http://www.richardlloyd.com/news.htm

Jeroen Vedder said...

Anybody wantin' to check out the "tambourine banging hippies" is directed to this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_bmkZjazAo

Anonymous said...

Any fule no the Heartbreakers smoked allcomers, end of fucking story.

Far too much media suck up lydon me thinks too.

CSM can go fuck himself, the BBC proved yet again that there is no quality control in their programmes, playing it safe being the first and only rule

a huge but predictable let down as usual.