The Next Big Thing

From Mr Martin Percival, in NY...

"Spirit is a relatively new club on 27th St in the Chelsea district of New York City. It was chosen by Arturo Vega, the Ramones Artistic Director and live stage lighting man, as the venue for tonight's very special show due to its intimate atmosphere and a great choice it to proved to be, despite a few teething problems.

The proceeds of the event were going to cancer research but it was without the usual morbid associations that these things so often have - this was mainly the Ramones 30th birthday party and, in particular a celebration of what would have been Johnny's 56th birthday and what was C Jay's 39th.

It was clear from the off that the venue staff were more used to club goers than a gig crowd. I first dropped by the venue around 4pm in the afternoon of the show. The impression created at that time was of somewhat organised chaos. Hardly surprising I guess with so many top draw bands playing, each with their own guest list, lots of special appearances to be catered for and so on. I chatted with Clem Burke at the stage door. He seemed really pumped up by the occasion and gladly signed autographs for fans as "Elvis Ramone".

By the time I got back to the venue at 7.15pm, the organized chaos impression became even stronger, with people unsure of where to queue for ticket holders or will call tickets. Still, once inside, the first "Ramones Museum" exhibits were to be seen and any earlier inconvenience was immediately forgotten. More Ramones badges and back stages passes than could be imagined in a lifetime, original hand written lyrics, the early promo baseball bat for the first album and the letter opener for the second album plus stacks of rare and unusual photos including some great ones taken by Bob Gruen and Adrian Boot at the Rainbow on 31st December 1977 at the "It's Alive" show. The most classic of these being a "Happy New Year" sign in the same style as the "Gabba Gabba Hey" signs.

Sonic Youth came on stage just after 8pm. Introduced by Mickey Leigh, he mentioned that he first met Johnny Ramone at the age of 11 in Forest Hills and that it was Mickey who later introduced him to Joey. Sonic Youth played 7 songs in total, opening with "Burning Spear", followed by "Unmade Bed", "Plastic Sun", "White Cross" & closing with "Kool Thing". Sonic Youth are an acquired taste and clearly had their followers in the audience but they were in the minority. Their in between song chat was limited but Thurston Moore did talk about the time he was walking down the Bowery when he saw Johnny Ramone just sitting on the top of a US mail box, as if it were a perfectly normal thing to do. Thurston greeted him with "Hey, how it's going?, Johnny replied "Howaya?".and that was the end of Thurston's story, you had to be there I guess!

C Jay & Friends were on just after 9pm after an introduction from Rob Zombie. Daniel Rey on guitar and C Jay on bass were accompanied by a drummer whose name I didn't catch and a variety of guests. They opened with "Durango 95",what else?! "Wart Hog" followed and on "Strength to Endure" the first guest, Mark Sheehan from C Jay's current band, Bad Chopper, joined the band for the one song. Next up was Alan Vega to sing on "I don't care" and "I remember you". Now Mr Vega is one of my all time front men but he's erratic even with Suicide and tonight he really seemed unsure of what was going on. The (pretty simple) lyrics evaded him for the first song and for "I remember you", well the least said the better! Fortunately, in traditional Ramones style, the song was over soon enough and the next front man up was Andrew W.K. He's not someone I'd previously rated too highly but tonight to his credit he put a lot into "53rd & 3rd", "I believe in Miracles" and "I wanna be your Boyfriend".

Next up was Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age for "Teenage lobotomy" and "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow". His voice was great - C Jay sang along too to "Teenage Lobotomy", not into the microphone, just for his own entertainment. This is something I remember he often did with the Ramones, even at times having to rescue Joey when he had either microphone or voice problems. For me C Jay was the under appreciated Ramone and I was really sad when he missed out on the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame induction. If it wasn't for C Jay they simply wouldnt have survived from 1989 to 1996 to enable them to be inducted!

After "Here today Gone Tomorrow", Josh Homme left to be replaced by what proved to be the star turn of the evening, Joan Jett! Looking and sounding terrific she tore into "Judy is a Punk", "Cretin Hop" and "Rockaway Beach", complete with low slung guitar. Next it was time for Elvis Ramone aka Clem Burke to join on drums for "I wanna be sedated". Initially it seemed no one was going to sing, there were even calls to the audience for people who knew the words! Eventually Tommy Ramone was persuaded on stage for what turned out to be the set closer. A great set of songs and an inspired choice of very special guests!

Next it was time to look at more of the memorabilia on display. Arturo really pulled out all the stops and Andrew D Gore, a friend of Johnny's, loaned a lot of items he'd received from John. These can be viewed soon at www.ramonessideshow.com. These included John's Forest Hills High School graduation certificate from June 1966, his draft card from March 1967 and his very first passport June 1976, issued to enable the band's UK visit the next month.

Next up after quite a break were the Strokes. Not my favourite band, but for the younger generation New York audience, they were clearly a popular choice as the hall was rammed solid whilst they were on stage.

Blondie didn't come until after midnight with the event running an hour late by this time. "Atomic" opened the set with Debbie Harry struggling to hit some of the higher notes, although this problem quickly resolved itself. "X Offender" and "Hanging on the Telephone" quickly followed plus a song written for Joey Ramone. "Maria", "Heart of Glass", "The Tide is High", "Rapture" and "One way or Another" Led into "Pet Sematary" where Debbie duetted with Mickey Leigh, "Havana Affair" then closed the evening at 1.30am.

All in all a great night, one I'll certainly never forget, especially Joan Jett playing "Judy is a Punk", "Cretin Hop" and "Rockaway Beach" and a really fitting way to celebrate Johnny and C Jay's birthdays."