A very influential pensioner

Chris Spedding turns pensioner today. Quite something for a rock, pop and jazz guitarist who had already reached that milestone in the eyes of the up-and-coming of 1976, half a lifetime ago. Back then, if you were over 21, you were too old for Punk. So the likes of The Vibrators, Chris Spedding’s backing band at the famous 100 Club Punk Festival in September 1976, and with whom he released two singles for Mickie Most’s RAK Records in November 1976, quickly became persona non grata. Yet I saw The Vibrators twice in the first six months of 1977 (without Chris Spedding) and I liked them. I was happy to walk around with a little badge with a red ‘V’ on it. After all, the sound of The Vibrators was the sound of Chris Spedding - a driving guitar grind, which somehow recalled Chuck Berry and 50s teens. And I, and many others, had a history with the bloke. I can trace the success of his single, Motorbikin’, in July 1975, as the very beginning of a change in my musical tastes. It was a dull time for music. The excitement of glam had gone. No more Sweet, Slade, Glitter, Mott or Sparks. It was all about waiting around for the next Rolling Stones tour, Led Zeppelin gatefold LP or David Bowie outrage. Motorbikin’ sounds tame now but it was a fast-paced pop single for its time, making a mockery of offerings from Wings and ELO, cutting a different note to the drive of Status Quo. It said that pop could be something different, more energetic, with bite. It paralleled the pub-rock movement which was making Dr Feelgood the cult band of the day. I bought Back In The Night around the same time as Motorbikin’. They went well together. In 1976, I still hadn’t finished with Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Genesis and Van Der Graaf Generator. And David Bowie was very much at the centre of my universe. But Chris Spedding and Dr Feelgood led me onto Eddie And The Hot Rods, the true bridge to Punk for those who had come from the rock route I had. So, by the autumn of 1976, when The Sex Pistols were first outraging the nation and getting banned everywhere, record companies were in a huge hurry to get Punk records out there. And, even at the age of 32, Chris Spedding was in demand. He could play. He’d been playing in bands since 1957 and had worked with the likes of Jack Bruce, Nilsson, Roy Harper, Lulu, Dusty Springfield and John Cale. This man had influence and credibility. He’d played on Brian Eno’s Here Come The Warm Jets. He was a customer of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McClaren at their Seditionaries boutique on London's King’s Road. He actually produced the first three-song demo by The Sex Pistols – Problems, No Feelings, and Pretty Vacant - which led to their first single release in November 1976 (he denies playing on the demo). Yet it was his collaboration with The Vibrators that ended this street-cred. Nobody wanted a pop song called Pogo Dancing (it was still two years before The Buzzcocks were to prove that Punk could go pop). It was a slip that the early Punk glitterati never forgave him for. Yes, there was Motorbikin', but we still remembered he was a Womble, in a furry costume playing his trademark Gibson Flying V on a tour around the very same time. He was everyone’s guitarist - and fledgling Punk was very exclusive. The Vibrators had started out as Chris Spedding’s backing band. They played the 100 Club Punk Festival. They were one of the first to play the infamous Roxy Club in London's Covent Garden, open for the first six months of 1977 only. They ended 1977 by playing support to Ian Hunter, solo after Mott The Hoople. But they were influential. Stiff Little Fingers took their name from a Vibrators song. And The Vibrators are still touring today. Singer, Knox, is 63. Almost as old as he looked in 1977. But Chris Spedding had shed his Vibrators mistake and moved on. He escaped to America and, by 1980, he was recording an album of his own again, ironically entitled I’m Not Like Everybody Else. He’d certainly played with everybody else. And that’s how it’s continued. Paul McCartney, Tom Waits, Roxy Music. Now he’s playing blues rock with his own band, Click Clack, at the age of 65. Tonight, he’s live at Nottingham Arena on Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds Tour. So, happy 65th birthday, Chris. It’s thanks to you that I…

Postscript: In late 1976, very few Punk records had been released, so, in order to believe that something was happening, we had to extend the genre to New Wave. Interestingly, below are the first 10 Punk and New Wave singles in order of date of release. The Sex Pistols were actually 7th or 8th into vinyl and not the first in the UK. With Blondie, a band we did not really begin to recognise until mid 1977, there is some dispute over whether X Offender was released on this very day, June 17th 1976 (or December). And the first Ramones single passed most of us by. Also, while we were listening to Eddie And The Hot Rods’ new Live At The Marquee EP, we weren’t sure whether The Saints were Status Quo on speed. Some people will dispute this listing. Where is Iggy Pop or Patti Smith? In reply, I’ll say this: Iggy Pop and Patti Smith were neither Punk nor New Wave, any more than Lou Reed or the New York Dolls were before them (largely an age/generation thing). Iggy was an influence, who outlasted those of his generation such as the MC5 and Velvet Underground, to have an important presence throughout the Punk and New Wave era and beyond, into parody. In 1976, I saw Iggy as a Bowie acolyte. I'm not even going to mention Jonathan Richman or Television, both of whom had singles in 1975. You can't be included in a movement before that movement has begun. For their part, bands like The Stranglers, Talking Heads, The Jam and many others after them - were passengers who surfed the New Wave. But, like them or loathe them (and I liked The Stranglers, seeing them twice in the first half of 1977), they were important to the movement at the time. The following songs and their B-sides you heard at every Punk gig or gathering you went to, because they were the only records available. You have to remember that so much of this hinged on whether The Sex Pistols, the leaders of the movement, would get a UK recording contract in 1976. Had they not succeeded, none of the Americans or Australians would have made it in the UK either and Punk would have fizzled out before it started, instead of becoming the inspiration for a whole host of movements which followed it, from the Ska and Mod revival, to Post-Punk and New Romanticism, early 80s pop and every Indie band since. So, the influence of Chris Spedding is there for all to see. You’ve earned your bus pass, Chris…

FIRST 10 PUNK/NEW WAVE SINGLES

April, 1976: The Ramones: Blitzkrieg Bop/Havana Affair (Sire) US release

June, 1976 or December, 1976: Blondie: X Offender/In The Sun (Private Stock) US release

September, 1976: The Saints: I’m Stranded/No Time (Fatal) Australia release

October, 1976: The Damned: New Rose/Help (Stiff) UK release

November, 1976 Chris Spedding and The Vibrators: The Pogo/The Pose (RAK) UK release

November, 1976: Richard Hell and the Voidoids: (I Belong To The) Blank Generation/(I Could Live With You) In Another World/You Gotta Lose (Stiff) UK release

November, 1976: The Vibrators: We Vibrate/Whips And Furs (RAK) UK release

November, 1976: The Sex Pistols: Anarchy In The UK/I Wanna Be Me (EMI) UK release

January, 1977: The Stranglers: (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)/London Lady (United Artists) UK release

January, 1977: The Buzzcocks: Spiral Scratch EP (New Hormones) UK release

markgriffiths@idealconsulting.co.uk