Jellyfish - London Astoria 21/05/93

Seventeen years ago today, and one of many, many nights spent at this great, lost venue. As well as numerous club nights I can remember seeing a triple bill of Soho Roses, The Last of the Teenage Idols and Tigertailz here, and a fairly early show by The Manic Street Preachers (Feb 1992). RIP The Astoria.

The top 10 pages on Glamrock Aftershock

A check on the Google Analytics stats for this site over the last three months threw up some notable trends. Naturally I'd expect the homepage to be at the top, and it's not a massive surprise to see bands with the stature of the New York Dolls and the Manic Street Preachers taking positions 2 & 3. I'd like to say that The Rockit Dolls are at number 4 on merit but I know full well that the majority of that page's hits came via a posting on the Swindon Music Forum. Still, I'll take a number 4 placing any day.

Numbers 5 to 8 however are what really caught my eye. None of Gunfire Dance, The Last Of The Teenage Idols, Soho Roses or Uncle Sam are household names. In their time they managed five albums between them (three by Uncle Sam, one each by the Last of the Teenage Idols and Soho Roses) and four singles/EPs (two each by Gunfire Dance and Soho Roses), all of which were on small labels and/or self-financed and all long-deleted.

Over the last couple of years the collected recordings of Soho Roses and Gunfire Dance have been reissued and MySpace has also helped bring their music back into the public arena.

Their high positions will have been helped by the comparatively small pool of sites available to anyone searching for them; but it's heartening to see that people ARE searching. I suspect most of these readers are of a certain age (i.e. roughly the same as me), have warm, possibly rose-tinted, memories of these bands (ditto) and probably feel that their equivalents today don't come close to matching them (double ditto).

The Rockit Dolls - Link Centre, 08/04/89

Well, it is my blog after all ... and if anyone else wants me to shamelessly mention their band (past or present) do let me know and we'll see if we can come to some kind of arrangement.

Still, seeing as today is the 20th anniversary of the first gig (20 years!!!) there is at least some point to this posting. So please allow me to set the scene.

It's a gig that shouldn't really have happened, for as of mid-March 1989 we

a) didn't have a drummer and
b) only had two songs.

Our hand was forced after attending a Swindon Rock Front meeting - now, don't get carried away thinking this was some alternative underground movement. Swindon Rock Front was a council-led initiative that put on gigs at the Link Centre as well as a series of outdoor shows through the summer at the Town Gardens park. Compared to the other four attendees we were the youngest by some distance. We only went along hoping to find a drummer, left our details and a few days later got a call from a band that had a gig coming up and, seeing our name and twigging what sort of band we probably were, offered us the support.

Despite the two minor drawbacks above we accepted. And I would recommend any band that needs a kick up the backside to do the same - nothing focuses the mind more than knowing you've got a gig in three weeks' time.

So stage 1 - find a drummer. Easy. Off we went to local punk heroes Cut Throat Razor. Top blokes one and all, and drummer Freddie stepped into the void on loan.

Stage 2 - write some songs. Not so easy. The only two we had were 'Teenage Dream' (predictable 12-bar with lyrics stolen from the first D'Molls album) and 'The Elvis Rug', a 40 second paean to, well, a rather grotesque Elvis Presley rug that had been hanging unsold for years at Swindon's Brunel Market until one day - it was gone. There were a couple of covers we'd been playing while drummerless ('Blitzkrieg Bop' and 'Anarchy In The UK' - we were nothing if not predictable) and so that was half the set sorted.

The rest was cobbled together over three rehearsals. In some cases they were barely songs but a collection of randomly assembled riffs that the singer, Mark, tried to make sense of lyrically, desperately searching for the bit that could best be considered 'the chorus'. Funnily enough the song most considered our 'hit', 'Chained To Your Love', for which I have to take sole responsibility for its terrible lyrics regarding a visit to a prostitute but which actually featured something resembling a proper song structure, was - rightly - dismissed as excruciating when we reformed for a couple of gigs in the mid-90s. Bassist Billy weighed in with one of his, and somehow we found ourselves with the required 30 minutes worth of material.

Fast-forward to the gig itself ... due to an accidental double-printing of tickets the 200 capacity venue had about 300 people in it (we'd sold over 100 on our own). No pressure there then. We went on stage at about 8.20pm, opened with a brief snippet of the 'Batman' theme, and then into 'Blitzkrieg Bop' (also played by LA Roses later on). The first Rockit Dolls original was 'Fatherly Type', a song all about never wanting to have kids. As I type this I'm awaiting the arrival of my second child, and there are three other baby Dolls fathered by my fellow band members - so we might have gone back on that one.

Mark suffered a microphone problem during 'Chained To Your Love' (not that anyone missed much as the second verse was merely the first one repeated), I cocked up the solo to 'Teenage Dream' but other than that we pulled it off - having not bothered leaving the stage we assumed an encore (a repeat play of 'Anarchy In The UK' - the second of three airings as the other support, The Fred Dineage Experience, also played it - I did say these weren't original covers). A live video exists of this, and when Mark says 'Shall we do 'Anarchy' again?' a voice close to the camera is heard to say 'Why not - Dreamtime did it'. We have no idea what this means.

After the gig I signed two autographs. I have never been asked to do so since and so it could be inferred that this was the peak of my musical career.

But hey, there's still time to change that - isn't there?

http://www.myspace.com/rockitdolls

Albums I still listen to 15/20 years on ...

This blog started off the back of a thread on Glitzinet, encouraging people to post their top-10 albums of all-time. I'm not that up on what's new on the scene, and any list I might have submitted is unlikely to have included anything post-1995.

I'm also incredibly bad at naming favourite bands/albums/songs, and when I finally tried to put a list together various memories came back to me that related to many of these albums. Hence, Glamrock Aftershock.

I still don't have a definitive list, and am unlikely ever to have one. However as a starting point here are 10 albums that I first heard between 1987 and 1992 that I still listen to today (and in many cases have re-bought on CD to replace well-worn or lost LPs). Don't read anything into the order (which is roughly speaking the order in which I first came across them). Some albums I've already blogged about, some are yet to feature.

Guns & Roses: Appetite For Destruction
The album that saved me from a descent into thrash before it got too serious (liking Metallica & Anthrax is one thing, but I've even found an Onslaught record in my collection - it could have got so much worse ...).

Hanoi Rocks: Back to Mystery City
The album where Razzle came on board and the final piece of the jigsaw fell into place. I know a lot of diehard fans favour the band's debut but this is the standout album for me (exception as below!).

The New York Dolls: self-titled
From the opening crash of cymbals and Thunders' ploughing the riff to 'Personality Crisis', right through to the finale of 'Jetboy' the Dolls' debut is a lesson in pure trash.

The Dogs D'Amour: In the Dynamite Jet Saloon
It may have taken them five years (and several line-ups) to reach the public eye but it was well worth the wait! Strange to find this is out-of-print - if there's a market for Soho Roses and Gunfire Dance collections (see below) then surely the Dogs D'Amour's back catalogue should still be available?

Hollywood Brats: self-titled
Had no idea who they were but trusted the guy at the record fair (Tony McCrory - responsible for many discoveries I could have missed).

The Jacobites: Robespierre's Velvet Basement
Another record fair purchase, and again I had no idea what to expect. Lo-fi production and the occasional Casio keyboard do not detract from the rest of the music.

Letters From London - Uncle Sam
Again, why on earth has this never been reissued? Rock's most famous milkmen deserve more!

Flies on Fire: self-titled
(Revival of) Creedence Clearwater Revival. Despite being on a major label, having Ric Browde at the helm and even bringing in Jo Dog, Flies on Fire remain obscure but their two albums are well worth the pittance they trade for.

Redd Kross: Third Eye
KISS meets the Beatles. 'Nuff said.

Motorcycle Boy: Popsicle
Dragged kicking & screaming into the studio by Sylvain Sylvain, arguably the forgotten hero of the Dolls gets his name onto another great rock & roll album.


Honorary mentions (as they're not strictly 'albums'):

Soho Roses: Whatever Happened To... The Complete Works
Collection of their 2 EPs and album. A fine band who I managed to see once (an MTV Xmas show at the Astoria along with Last of The Teenage Idols and Tigertailz). My band at the time desperately wanted to be a mix of Soho Roses and Hollywood Brats. We didn't quite pull it off but we had fun trying.

Gunfire Dance: Archway of Thorns
Another post-career collection. Taking their cues from Iggy, Brian James and Stiv Bators Gunfire Dance always seemed on the verge of something - and then went no further. RIP Ant.

Hanoi Rocks: Self Destruction Blues
The best Hanoi album, but as it's a collection of b-sides and out-takes I thought it only right it should be down here!

Soho Roses - Whatever Happened To ....

As a rural teenager, my eyes were very much focused on London and its seemingly burgeoning glam scene. At the time Kerrang! was a fine source of information (largely via the Shrapnel page that accepted contributions from anyone and everyone) and bands that probably only ever played about three gigs seemed like the next generation of rock stars.

The next level up (but one down from the Dogs D'Amour and the Quireboys) were bands such as Soho Roses. Regulars at the Marquee, they even managed to get the occasional live review and feature in Kerrang! and Metal Hammer. On tracking down their debut EP in Shades (those people of a certain age will know the shop in question), we thought it ever so impressive that the record was mastered at Abbey Road studios. Abbey Road! Okay, so it was on the band's own label but surely someone significant must have been bankrolling them to get into such a famous studio!*

However, the first Soho Roses record I got hold off was actually their second single, So Alone, as fine example of trashy glam punk you're ever likely to hear. My band at the time was desperate to sound like Soho Roses, and kind-of succeeded in that we were compared to the Buzzcocks (a cover of What Do I Get turned up on the Third & Final Insult, the album Soho Roses recorded to clear their debts once they'd decided to call it a day).

Almost twenty years on their complete recordings (which in their vinyl forms had been going for large sums on Ebay) have been committed to CD: Whatever Happened To... The Complete Works. And do they stand the test of time? OK, so Ric Browde and Mike Clink might have something to say about the production but there are enough great songs to here to overlook that: Why D'ya Break My Heart, 'Cos of You, Just A Girl, Crazy 'Bout Me and the afore-mentioned So Alone (in particular the original single version) prove that Soho Roses had more to offer than most, but this was London and not LA and it wasn't just a simple case of showing up at a record company with backcombed hair to be instantly signed as the next G'n'R.





*Many years later when releasing a self-financed record of my own we too found ourselves in the mastering room at Abbey Road. It clearly wasn't such a big deal after all ......

L.A. Guns - self-titled

It might seem that I have no interest in the US glam scene - this is not strictly true. Appetite For Destruction pretty much got the ball rolling for me. It's just that much of what came out of the States after that album was, well, a waste of space (I mean come on, Warrant? Johnny Crash?).

Okay so L.A. Guns had Brit Phil Lewis on vocals. Maybe that's why I gave them a chance in the first place, and it was on a pilgrimage to Shades that I picked up LA Guns on import. The obligatory schmaltzy ballad aside (which at least they hid on side two, rather than making it side one, track three like everyone else), the album has what so many bands falsely claim to have: attitude and a sense of urgency. I remember reading an interview with Paul Blittz from Soho Roses in which he said that he hates going to see bands that describe themselves as punk but turn out to be bad metal - I like to think that LA Guns (well, on this album anyway) are not the sort of band he was talking about.