colgraff Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 I occasionally get nostalgic for the time when we had 'real music'. This article reminds me that it wasn't all fun. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34184563 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Load of tosh. I was a regular gig-goer from 1974 - 89 (entirely in London) and I never saw any violence of any sort at any gig. That was partly because I avoided the relatively small number of bands whose gigs were known to attract violence - Sham 69, The Clash, The Specials (because of their deliberately provocative anti-racist stance which attracted hostile skinheads), etc. Punk was mainly mock-violent. I saw the Pistols, The Damned, Siouxsie, yadda yadda yadda. Loads of pogoing and gobbing, loads of shy kids hiding behind the outrageous look and pretending to be hard. Punch ups? None that I saw. Tribes? Oh they existed alright. But we all shared the same tube carriage on the last train home. There might be an embarrassed silence, or there might be some banter. But no violence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Apple Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1441872903' post='2862417'] Load of tosh. [/quote] Agree. Isolated incidents that someone has happened to point a camera at. I went to loads of punk and rock gigs and never saw any kind of significant violence at all. While some of it might have looked rough everyone was in it together and there was always a very supportive atmosphere. It was all self policing and the need for security was minimal. IMO the real trouble has started with the introduction of security goons who seem intent on causing trouble when there is none. Crowd trouble at a JMC gig at North London Poly, oh yeah? Prove it! Nonsense from the Beeb looking to fill a few pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Low End Bee Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 I went to 100s of gigs at that time. Lots of posturing but as has been said not too much actually fighting. There were a few exceptions. Specials, Angelic Upstarts, Sham 69 and bizarrely pre double drummer Adam and the Ants gigs I went to got very nasty. 95% of the time it was skinheads kicking off. They were the real problem. The only time I got a real pasting at that time though was by a mod who pulled a truncheon out of his parka in Ladbroke Grove in 1980 and beat the crap out of me. Things could kick off at house parties, skins again usually, but gigs were pretty safe and in general just had good boisterous atmospheres. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 (edited) Agreed. I went to loads of gigs at that time including seeing Crass in Swansea of all places, Never any problems in the audience. A couple of times at small town gigs you had to be cautious coming out and avoid a few local knuckleheads looking to thump a weirdo. And there still plenty of new "real music" around these days if you can be bothered to get up off your arse and look for it. Edited September 10, 2015 by BigRedX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer of the Bass Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 This sort of thing pops up across most of the different decades and musical styles. I was a little taken aback to read about the battle of the trad jazzers vs the modernists at the 1960 Beaulieu Jazz festival: [url="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/jun/19/popandrock2"]http://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/jun/19/popandrock2[/url] You don't get that much of that with Jazz audiences these days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 (edited) Yep, the only real violence I saw was at a Sham 69 gig where the local nazi-skinheads turned up, more for the opportunity to hit people - including the band - than to listen to the band. I also gigged regularly on the punk scene in the late 80s all over the country and aisde from one incident where a bloke in the audience spat at me, didn`t have any bother. I hit him in the face with my headstock for doing so, as did our guitarist at the same time. Said man resembled a panda for the rest of the night. Re tribes, yes there were many, but the only ones that caused the bother were the nazi-skins, and the "regular people", casuals as they were known. Punks, teds, psycho-billys, mods, indies, we all hung around in the same pubs. Yes we generally were mates with the same types, and I suppose to an outsider it would have looked very tribal, but we all had mates in the other camps. Journalism creating something that wasn`t there - aside from the casuals and nazis hitting anyone that looked a bit different that is. Edited September 10, 2015 by Lozz196 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LayDownThaFunk Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1441872903' post='2862417'] I was a regular gig-goer from 1974 - 89 (entirely in London) and I never saw any violence of any sort at any gig. That was partly because I avoided the relatively small number of bands whose gigs were known to attract violence[/quote] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 (edited) [quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1441872903' post='2862417'] Load of tosh. I was a regular gig-goer from 1974 - 89 (entirely in London) and I never saw any violence of any sort at any gig. [/quote] This. I also spent these formative years as a teenage (and older) gig-goer and never once experienced any trouble, anywhere. There was the usual posturing of adolescent males, but it was largely all wind and piss. Just like it is today. Edited September 10, 2015 by discreet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JellyKnees Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 And there was me thinking this was a thread about that old BBC show hosted by Leonard Sachs... [url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dipgwBEx8FY"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dipgwBEx8FY[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassace Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 (edited) [quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1441879056' post='2862486'] This sort of thing pops up across most of the different decades and musical styles. I was a little taken aback to read about the battle of the trad jazzers vs the modernists at the 1960 Beaulieu Jazz festival: [url="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/jun/19/popandrock2"]http://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/jun/19/popandrock2[/url] You don't get that much of that with Jazz audiences these days! [/quote] Probably not, but in the fifties when jazz was king a toxic mix of squaddies - Brits and USA - and teddy boys meant that fights were not uncommon. We were on the same bill as the Humphrey Lyttelton Band at Oxford Town Hall and the whole crowd broke out into a massive fight. The few that didn't want to get involved got up the stage with the band. Afterwards Humph gave me a thumbs up and said his band always played better when there was a fight going on. A social club in Bracknell had to abandon its Saturday night do because, as one guy wryly put it 'there were too many dances during the fight'. Edited September 10, 2015 by bassace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Apple Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 [quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1441879274' post='2862491'] aisde from one incident where a bloke in the audience spat at me, didn`t have any bother. I hit him in the face with my headstock for doing so, as did our guitarist at the same time. Said man resembled a panda for the rest of the night. [/quote] New Model Army gigs used to have a rep of being violent, but the truth was is was a load of blokes in clogs and tatts doing the goth chicken dance and all very friendly. I was chatting to a girl once who when I told her I was a big NMA fan she decried that the lead singer was a psycho who had booted her brother in the face with his clog and he lost a tooth. That didn't sound like the singer I knew and asked why? Oh, he spat on him she replied. well, duh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Most of the gigs I went to in the 70's and 80's were sit down affairs, ie Hammersmith Odeon etc, so not much scope for a rumpus there. There were punch ups in the clubs in the 60's but they were generally old fashioned, "outside now" type brawls. Pride was settled quickly and very few people actually got hurt. As I recall the press was very happy with the column inches they were able to fill with Punk and Rave horror stories. The Punks we used to see in the Kings Road were a bunch of sweeties. I bet the Adrian Goldberg & Jim Frank's editor thought this was good copy. Whether it was generally true or not? Well, why spoil a good story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inthedoghouse Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 When I saw the title of the thread I immediately thought of "The Good Old Days" that used to be on TV :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mCPNSR1f24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skidder652003 Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 [quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1441882646' post='2862526'] New Model Army gigs used to have a rep of being violent, but the truth was is was a load of blokes in clogs and tatts doing the goth chicken dance and all very friendly. I was chatting to a girl once who when I told her I was a big NMA fan she decried that the lead singer was a psycho who had booted her brother in the face with his clog and he lost a tooth. That didn't sound like the singer I knew and asked why? Oh, he spat on him she replied. well, duh! [/quote] Justins a quaker! He wouldnt do that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 [quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1441894047' post='2862721'] Justin's a Quaker! He wouldn't do that! [/quote] No, he wouldn't. When I met him he came across as a very gentle sort. When he wasn't singing, that is... Mr Apple will tell you the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 Same here, although I do recall a couple of fairly energetic dust-ups at a club in Newcastle when I lived there, would have been mid-late '70's. Can't remember the name of the club, but it was on Newgate street just where it turns the corner, across from where Debenhams is now but what I remember as a flytippers paradise of old... In general, however, I don't recall much at all - not even from the Specials gigs. (To be fair these were pretty local to the Coventry area before they became famous - the School of Education in Canley was one of their 'locals' at that time IIRC - pretty boisterous near the stage but no more than any other gig, and certainly not violent.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lojo Posted September 10, 2015 Share Posted September 10, 2015 (edited) I remember being at a gig in an underground carpark as part of a Scooter Run, which got overtaken by NF skinheads, bottles and fights everywhere, we just got out one of the exits before the police locked it down. Best moment from those days though was the Stranglers walking out of the Guildford uni gig. I will add though as other have said, it was pretty peaceful really from what I remember, unless you wanted to enter the area where all the "rucking" or whatever you want to call it was happening, then it was a free for all with no one to blame but yourself. Edited September 10, 2015 by lojo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevvo66 Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Mayflower in manchester long gone the exploited punks against skins who came in kicking off quit scarey and bottles getting thrown into the crowd good gig apart from that punks 5-skins 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smalls Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 I remember 2 violent gigs in Chester when I were a lad... One was at the Gateway Theatre where a number of local punk bands were playing, and the other was at the Arts Centre with Echo and the Bunnymen and the Teardrop Explodes. Both times a number of mods and skins came in and attacked the punks - that was the end of gigs at both those venues! But I also remember going to see The Exploited in Leeds in 1982ish; I was jumping around with arms flailing (as you do) and managed to punch a huge skinhead full in the face. I was a bit worried and sidled off, but he came after me, shook my hand and said "great dancin' mate!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ivansc Posted September 15, 2015 Share Posted September 15, 2015 (edited) (grin) I once started an "incident" at a gig... Very early days of punk and my band were playing a local Labour club. All good fun and lots of that new-fangled pogo dancing, till one of the razorblade-and-safety-pin brigade spat at our bass player (my girlfriend) I jumped off the stage, guitar in hand, and laid into him, whilst his mates were trying to explain that in THEIR world spitting on someone was a sign of approval. Who knew? Like... WHO KNEW???!!! Edited September 15, 2015 by ivansc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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