Nico in London, part 2

Finding the old Nico photo recently (Feb 26th post) inspired me to dig out a couple of other old bits,.. I found an old Record Mirror from August 28th, 1965 with an great article on Andrew Loog Oldham's latest discovery.. (click to read it.. it's a full size scan)

And here's the record she made.. pre Velvets with Jimmy Page on guitar..

Nico- I'm Not Saying

Nico - The Last Mile

Sideburns No.1 - This is chord, this is another, this is third.. now form a band!

Bit of a special one here.. from January 1977 this is the zine with the legendary 'here are 3 chords, now form a band'.. and the rest is pretty cool too.  There's a 5 page Stranglers feature with an interview with Jet Black, live reviews of Eddie and the HotRods at the Roundhouse plus bits on the Feelgoods, Lew Lewis and the Darts.. yeah, not what we'd call punk now but this was Jan 1977 and there weren't too many what we'd now call punk bands around.. that all happened..um.. probably a week or two after this came out!  There is a great short editorial bit on page 3 about the beginnings of the London punk scene which gives you a feeling of what it was like back then..  (Got to say a big thanks to Martin for helping me get hold of this one! )

Download Sideburns #1

Suze Rotolo (November 20, 1943 – February 24, 2011)

I just read that Bob Dylan's old girl friend and muse Suze Rotolo died recently, aged 67 after a long illness.  She's best known for being on the cover of his second LP, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but was also key to politicising Dylan in the early 60's and was the inspiration to some of his great early songs , such as "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "Boots of Spanish Leather".   They were together around late 1961 till early '63.  After she and Dylan seperated (he left her for Joan Baez) she continued to be involved in the Greenwich Village scene, visted Cuba in 1964 and was involved in the Civil Rights movement.  She wrote a book,  "A Freewheelin' Time, A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties" in 2008 (which I haven't read yet but it's in the pile I'm slowly working my way through..)  She was interviewed in the Scorsese Dylan documentary 'No Direction Home' and came across as a very modest, cool woman who just happened to find herself in the middle of an exploding folk scene, involved with it's biggest star and just took it all in her stride and got on with her own life when Dylan moved on...  Suze RIP

Update: I've finished reading Suze's book 'A Freewheelin' Time' and thoroughly recommend it whether you're into Dylan or not..  It's a snapshot of the 60's folk scene and New York Greenwich Village scene and how she had to deal with the changes happening at the time both personally and politically.. It's a great read.

And a bit more Dylan.. my mum gave me a stack of old Sing Out folk magazines she bought back in the early 60's including this one with a very early Dylan cover feature, from 1962.  This was around the time his first LP came out and has words and music for several of his newer songs at the time, including 'Blowin' in the Wind'.  I just scanned the Dylan pages..it's quite a chunky magazine.

Download Sing Out Oct - Nov 1962

Nico in London

Nice photo of Nico in London around the time she recorded with Andrew Loog Oldham in 1965.

Kings Rd - DIY Punk

Today's fanzine is one I picked up recently though I think I had or read a copy way back.. probably didn't keep it as there were no Banshees/Ants/PIL articles!  It covers the DIY punk 'scene' that sprang up in '78 with groups like TV Personalities, O-Level and Swell Maps.  I think it was put together by the TV Personalties.. or at least they had some involvement.. nothing is clear and why should it be!  It's a good read..

Download Kings Road Vol. 1 No . 1

As a tie in to this I've also dug out the O-Level We Love Malcolm EP.. I never listened to it much after I bought it but it's really quite good!  Stairway to Boredom is my fave..

O-Level - We Love Malcolm

Leave Me:

Everybody's On Revolver:

Stairway To Boredom:

Ripped and Torn 11 - A Cheap Night Out with Raped

Got a nice old copy of Ripped and Torn today.  Tony D was really getting into it by issue 11...a bit of colour on the covers and over 25 pages loaded with articles, interviews, reviews and opinion.  This issue has Raped on the cover with a 2 page interview inside, also interviews with the Only Ones, Billy Idol and Levi and the Rockats plus a couple of 2 page photospreads (NY Dolls and Derek Jarman's Jubilee).

Download Ripped & Torn 11

To tie into this issue I'm also posting a classic single by Raped..  A 4 piece from London featuring Ziggy like lead singer Sean Purcell, guitarist Fabian Kwest, bassist Tony Baggett and distinctive Japanese drummer 'Paddy'.  Their first EP, 'Pretty Paedophiles', got them a lot of negative publicity and combined with their camp/gay image (which they actively played up!) at a time when punk was heading towards leather jacketed uniformity meant they didn't have an easy time of things.  Their gigs often had an edge to them as they always got abuse from some of the audience and were prepared to give as good as they got..  At one gig at the Moonlight in West Hampstead Sean and Fabian jumped off the stage and attacked a guy who had chucked a pint over Sean and I remember Sean pulling a knife out on stage at another gig..  Musically they were mostly thrashy '77 style punk, shock value lyrics but with a few good tunes ('Moving Target' and 'Escalator Hater' from the first EP were ok) but suddenly in '78 they came out with 'Cheap Night Out'.  Similar lyrics to their earlier stuff but it added a great glam rock sound.. It deserved to do better but never really took off and they stayed stuck in the small club circuit.  They changed their name to Cuddly Toys in '79 and moved further towards the glam sound, releasing a nice cover of a Bowie song, 'Madman' later that year.  They kept going till 1981 and apparently finally found a bit of success in Japan towards the end..

Raped - Cheap Night Out:

 

Here's the insert that came with the 45..forgot about this when I first did this post..
Download Cheap Night Out insert

I also found this old publicity photo, printed when they were called Raped but with their name trimmed off after they became Cuddly Toys!

The Satellites - Urbane Gorillas of West London

Right.. trying to catch up on all the various ideas I've had for posts over the past few months.. Here's a follow up to the Sounds of the Westway fanzine post I did a while back.  That was produced by Derek Gibbs who went on to form the Satellites in late 1977.  They gigged around west London extensively for the next 5-6 years. I saw them quite a few times around 1978-79, supporting bands like the UK Subs or headlining pub gigs at places like the Windsor Castle near Westbourne Park and out around Acton, Ealing, Alperton, etc.  They were always a great live band and used to get a mixed crowd of West London punks, skins, rockabillies..  (I also got to meet a very lovely redhead called Joanna at their gigs which was extra motivation for catching night busses back home from deepest Alperton!).  Here are both sides of their first 45, Urbane Gorilla, back by High Rise Hill billys.  Other classics were 'I Fell In Love with a Lesbian' and 'Lucy is a Protitute' which came out on a later release..

Urbane Gorilla



High Rise Hillbillys