It's Raining Watneys Party Sevens!

ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY.
NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED!
This was my fourth and last Reading festival. I travelled down from Devizes by train with friend John Morris.

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/reading-79.html

The line-up was mixed and this was a disappointing festival because both Thin Lizzy and The Ramones were down to headline but both bands pulled out. I was particularly disappointed to miss the Ramones – I had seen them at the Bristol Locarno (Sept. 2nd 1978) and they were at their usual frenzied best, rip-roaring through their set at breakneck speed – there’s three clichés at once for you!

And that's a good excuse for this:

The line-up was mixed and for me, nothing like as interesting as the previous year. The rockers were back with a vengeance! It spelt the end of an affair with Reading. It was like it finally dawned on me that, actually, this may have been a rite of passage but listening to crap bands, drinking crap beer, camping in a crap tent and getting rained on by not only rain but also by cans of beer wasn’t exactly a pleasant way of spending a weekend!
Here's a quote from ukrockfestivals.com:
'Throughout the festival I watched and lived in fear of this rain of empty (or half empty) beer cans and bottles (some with recycled contents). Party cans were hurled through the air and you knew when they landed, that was probably the end of someone’s festival. I braced myself when the frenzied lobbing erupted, expecting a cranium contact with a large Watney’s Seven can. Then, suddenly it would stop. Then start again. I saw one person wearing a crash helmet, in order to enjoy the music.'
And then there's the toilets:
'Going to the toilet in the portable loos was like a journey into hell. After queuing for ages I managed to get a cubicle. I now know what Joseph Conrad meant when he wrote: "The horror, the horror". An entity that could well have been the chum of the "Alien" existed in there, a pileup enough to make a Dyno-rod storm trooper quail. Motorhead were onstage, adding their soundtrack to this nightmare vision.'

Playing early on the Friday wereThe Cure playing early stuff like ‘Killing an Arab’ (a reference from Albert Camus' 'The Stranger') and the wonderful pop of Boys Don't Cry:




 

Also on the Friday were two ok 'new wave' bands Punishment of Luxury (Newcastle-based theatrical-punk band) and Doll by Doll. The latter was fronted by Scottish songwriter and folk legend Jackie Leven, who died in 2011:



Early Punishment of Luxury single:



Next up of note was the manic epileptic splendidness of Wilko Johnson, ex of Dr. Feelgood.
Here's a clip with that band:


:
Also on that day were Motorhead, The Tourists (with Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart) and The Police. I was never any great Motorhead fan and remember leaving their set to go and find a pub. We found one down the road and walked in to the public bar. It was like a war-zone and there was smashed glass everywhere. We had a quick pint and went back to the festival! The Tourists, who had a hard time following crowd favourites Motorhead, and The Police, who went down a storm and aired Walking On The Moon for the first time in public, were ok and enjoying their five minutes of credibility. 
On to the Saturday...And the only band I can say I remotely liked was Inner Circle. Much to my relief after the appalling welcomes meted out to Big Youth and The Mighty Diamonds three years earlier, they went down well:



Thin Lizzy were replaced by German band The Scorpions, which was a travesty, and other acts included Gillan, Steve Hackett of Genesis, and Cheap Trick. Yawn. I Want You To Want Me? No chance!
Sunday was not quite as poor. The Ramones were replaced by Nils Lofgren. Hardly an appropriate substitute, but I liked him and he put on a good show, including acrobatics. Some good guitar solos!



Peter Gabriel and The Members were the only other two acts I enjoyed. The Members, from Camberley and still going, were subject to more anti-punk antipathy but performed with customary vigour:



And here's their stab at reggae with 'Offshore Banking Business' featuring trombonist Rico from The Specials:



Peter Gabriel's Reading songs included 'Biko' and 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway' - both great songs and both with Phil Collins on drums. The 'Lamb...' was also a great Genesis double concept album from 1974.
The above two songs are on YouTube from this festival but the quality is poor so try these:





And just for good measure here's the early Genesis album 'Foxtrot' remastered in its entirety. forgot how good early Genesis were with Peter Gabriel and how different this album was!:



And that was that!

Davy Jones's Locker

ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY.
NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED!
This post is a timely addition to a series on bubblegum cards. I’ve started ones on World War II and Batman, so here’s another on The Monkees. Timely as Davy Jones sadly passed away on the 29^th February (aged sixty-six). The Monkees were an early manufactured pop band from the sixties who had several massive hits and who caught the zeitgeist of the times. They also had a hugely popular, wacky, weekly TV show, called imaginatively enough, The Monkees. This was  produced by NBC and aired between 1966 and 1968 (two seasons – 58 episodes). This show used (at the time) innovative film techniques:

‘Rafelson and Schneider (the producers) wanted the style of the series to reflect avant garde film techniques—such as improvisation, quick cuts, jump cuts, breaking the fourth wall, and free-flowing, loose narratives—then being pioneered by European film directors. Each episode would contain at least one musical "romp" which might have nothing to do with the storyline. In retrospect, these vignettes now look very much like music videos: short, self-contained films of songs in ways that echoed Beatles' recent ventures into promotional films for their singles. They also believed strongly in the program's ability to appeal to young people, intentionally framing the kids as heroes and the adults as heavies.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkees_%28TV_series%29)

The four actors were taught improvisational comedy and given characters loosely based on themselves: Mickey Dolenz  (the wacky one); Mike Nesmith (smart and serious); Peter Tork (naïve) and Davy Jones (sensible English pretty-boy).

In the TV show, a situation comedy, The Monkees  were depicted as a struggling band who shared a house in Malibu, California. They had a sign saying ‘Money Is The Root Of All Evil’ and a ‘Monkeemobile’ – a converted Pontiac GTO.

In praise of the show, Time magazine contributor James Poniewozik said:

‘Even if the show never meant to be more than entertainment and a hit-single generator, we shouldn’t sell The Monkees short. It was far better TV than it had to be; during an era of formulaic domestic sitcoms and wacky comedies, it was a stylistically ambitious show, with a distinctive visual style, absurdist sense of humor and unusual story structure. Whatever Jones and The Monkees were meant to be, they became creative artists in their own right, and Jones’ chipper Brit-pop presence was a big reason they were able to produce work that was commercial, wholesome and yet impressively weird.’

Below is a link to an interesting article re. a Davy Jones versus Justin Bieber argument!

http://entertainment.stv.tv/opinion/299484-davy-jones-was-the-justin-bieber-of-his-day-so-rather-than-do-davy-down-lets-give-bieber-his-due/

  

Whatever the arguments are re. 'manufactured' pop and and its credibility, there is no doubt that The Monkees, 'put together' as they were, produced some classsic pop - and they were musicians in their own right.

Pleasant Valley Sunday (in status symbol land) -  written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King:

And Last Train To Clarksville:

The Monkees were also in a film called 'Head', described as a 'psychedelic comedy-adventure'  written and produced by Bob Rafelson and none other than Jack Nicholson.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_%28film%29

The film is either a  'landmark of surreal, innovative filmmaking or simply a fascinating mess.' You choose! Here's a trippy  opening clip. Ah the sixties!:



The band also famously invited Jimi Hendrix to be their opening act for a 1967 tour - a match not made in heaven! 'Jimi Hendrix managed to get through a total of only seven dates with the Monkees, culminating in his final show on July 17, 1967, which may or may not have ended with Hendrix saluting the crowd with his middle finger.'
Read the full story here:
 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jimi-hendrix-drops-out-as-opening-act-for-the-monkees

Davy Jones was born in Manchester and famously appeared in Coronation Street aged eleven, playing Ena Sharples’ grandson. He also played The Artful Dodger in London and on Broadway and  trained as a jockey at Newmarket. He was in The Monkees from 1965-71.

Back to the important business of bubblegum cards!:

And finally - if you turn the cards over you find a jigsaw puzzle - re-created here for the first time in over forty years!!

 

I have another full set of Monkees cards in black & white - but that's another day!

National Periodicals Publications Inc.

Over to America now, and for this post I'm going to, eventually, publish an entire set of Batman 'bubblegum' or 'trading cards', issued from 1966 by National Periodicals Publications Inc. These cards take you right back to the sixties, and look great (or should that be fab). They came with the obligatory rectangle of pink bubblegum which was tasty for approximately five seconds. National Periodicals Publications Inc. was known as DC comics years before they officially adopted that name (1977). The DC stood for Detectice Comics and included: 

'Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Aquaman, Nightwing, Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern and the Flash, along with such superhero teams as the Justice Society, the Justice League and the Teen Titans, as well as antagonists such as Lex Luthor, the Joker, the Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman, Sinestro, the Penguin, Two-Face, General Zod, Brainiac, Harley Quinn and Darkseid.'

Their colourful seventy-eight year history can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Comics

What we have here is Series 1, known to collectors as  'Batman orange backs' or 'Black Bats'.

The majority of the illustrations are done by Norman Saunders, the veteran 'pulp' illustrator mentioned in the previous post, and from pencil drawings by Bob Powell, who died in 1967. They are hand painted images. Referring again to the previous post, these artists were also involved in the 'Battle' bubblegum cards from the A&BC Chewing Gum Co. based in England. You can note from the backs of these cards below that, although they originate from America, they are printed in Great Britain by, you guessed it, the A&BC Chewing Gum Company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Powell



Smoke me a kipper I'll be back for breakfast!

What a guy! What a lunchbox!

Robin: Look Batman - a pipistrelle!
Batman: Oh Lord give me strength!

Look Batman, I don't care what you say, the pants have to go!

Hey guys, there's that weirdo who wears his pants over his tights!

Oi! I can blow my own nose thanks!:

The truth dawned on Batman - 'I must look like a twat!'

Nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh...Batman!

Are you 'avin a larf?! Ah of course you are...You Joker you.

Lackey: Sorry to interrupt boss, but have you got a light?
Joker: Highlights? How very dare you! I'm a natural green!

Joker:The best way to get information out of someone is to allow them to poison themselves!
Batman: Ggrr...Those pesky poison pellets!

Never had Batman down as a trade unionist!

And I thought I was having a bad hair day!

Typical night out,cruising the street, swinging away. We get the picture.

Holy mackerel Batman! It's Mao's Little Red Book! It's those damn pinko-commie bastards again!

 

A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd

Anyone remember Bubblegum cards?!  ‘Bubblegum’ or ‘trading’ card games were, at least in Kent, a popular playground sport in the mid-to-late sixties. Cards were exchanged by swapping and by playing card flicking games played in the playground. For example, you would line a number of cards up against a wall and if you could knock any down by flicking another card at them then you win those knocked down cards. Another one was just flicking the cards onto the ground, and every time you landed on top of another card then you would win all of the cards that were already on the ground. Fun eh?! These cards were mainly bubblegum cards – i.e. they were from small packs consisting of three to four cards (can't remember exactly), each accompanied by a rectangular piece of pink bubblegum, bought for a few pennies. Other cards came free with Walls or Lyons Maid ice cream or with packs of tea, but these were usually smaller and not of the correct flicking thickness.Very important that -  this was a serious business, and I managed to amass quite a collection!

Here’s a history of the most famous (English) maker of these cards (from the website referenced below):

 ‘A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd. formed in 1949, and folded in 1974. In its 25-year history it produced some of the best bubble gum and collectors cards ever seen in the U.K. The company has become a favourite amongst card traders and collectors for the quality, variety and imagination shown in the design and production of their gum giveaways. Their range covered film stars, the Beatles, the Monkees, Man from UNCLE, War cards and banknotes, as well as an impressive range of English and Scottish football cards, pennants, pin-ups, emblems and crests. In the history of gum and trade cards, they will go down as one of the greats. Using the letters of their names the owners had wanted to call the company ‘ABC’, but the Aerated Bread Company (a company which existed from 1862 until 1955 and which was known as the A.B.C. Company) objected. Instead, the partners decided on the name A&BC Chewing Gum Ltd.

Their gum was made of chewable plastic, not chicle (a natural gum from a tree native to Central America). Since sugar was not available without a licence, A&BC produced one of the first ever-sugarless chewing gums using an artificial sweetener. They worked in this way so that the product did not require sweet rationing coupons. Since the children of the time had difficulty obtaining sweets, A&BC’s chewing gum, and therefore the company, took off fairly quickly.’

(http://cards.littleoak.com.au/special_pages/abc_history/abc_history_part1.html).

One set of their cards were World War II cards known as ‘Battle’ trading cards, which came from A &BC in 1965. The thing about these cards is that most of them were incredibly graphic: full of gore, blood and death. Just what captivated young kids I suppose. Especially six to ten year-olds! Today they  seem so strange that it's like they're from another world. But as well as being really quite shocking, they are also works of art, pop-artish and iconic.

The Battle cards were painted by Norman Saunders, Maurice Blumenfeld, Ed Valigurski, and Bob Powell. I'm going to look into these artists, and here is a website for the first one:

 http://www.normansaunders.com/

And a review of a book on him:

 http://boingboing.net/2009/01/23/the-art-of-norman-sa.html

So here are some Battle cards:

Poor old Miss Anderson. Didn't quite make it to the, er, Anderson shelter:

Assume nothing!:

Blimey

Um, I think we get the idea:

Ah, just the sort of images to push on to innocent eight year-olds!
More, maybe lots, lots more, to follow, including iconic Batman (from the US), The Monkees and Tarzan cards . And yes, of course I've got the full sets!

Reading 1978 – The Woodwork Squeaks…

ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL REMAINS THE COPYRIGHT OF THE ORIGINAL HOLDER AND IS USED HERE FOR THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION, COMPARISON, AND CRITICISM ONLY.
NO INFRINGEMENT OF COPYRIGHT IS INTENDED!
Now things were getting interesting. Amidst the middle of the road and soft rock (Lindisfarne & Foreigner anyone?) you can find The Jam, Penetration, Sham 69, Chelsea, John Otway, Squeeze, Patti Smith and The Tom Robinson Band.

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/reading-78.html

Another non-sexist programme cover:

There was a real mixture of sub-cultures here, attracted by the eclectic line-up: Mods for The Jam & New Hearts; Hippies for Steve Hillage & Spirit; Rockers for Status Quo and Ian Gillan; Skinheads for Sham 69; Folkies for The Albion Band and Lindisfarne; Punks for Penetration and Chelsea. Of course they’d all get along swimmingly? Hhmm...

 ‘1978 was like a crossover year from the old type festival goers, into the newer younger element, my clear memory is of a hippie having his acoustic guitar smashed over his head by some skins, whilst all the time saying "I love you man, I love you". It sounds funny today, but was disturbing at the time.’

It wasn’t all violence, of course, and for the most part it was like any other festival. However, Jimmy Pursey’s Sham 69 fanbase had a skinhead contingent and some of these were in attendance. Pursey always had good intentions and scored a hit with the pretty terrible ‘If The Kids Are United.’:

This clip, interestingly, lists the Top 20 of the time (get those hair-dos) – The Boomtown Rats and The Motors are the only notionally ‘punk’ bands there. ‘Punk Rock’ is so glamourised these days as some all-conquering revolution. It is hugely influential, but few bands broke into the mainstream, and most people remained unimpressed.

So anyway, the well-meaning Pursey thought that it would be a great idea to invite the long-haired hippie guitarist, Steve Hillage up onto the stage to join Sham 69 for a number or two. There was some fighting at the front of the stage and it didn’t take long for the stage invasion to start (this usually happened at their gigs). To be fair, this would have probably happened anyway, with or without the presence of Hillage. Pursey ended up in tears, and chaos ensued. The kids are united indeed. I once briefly talked to Pursey in Bonaparte Records shop in Guildford – he approved of my purchase of a Black Uhuru LP – and he came across as an ok guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sham_69

Borstal Breakout from this festival, before the mayhem:

The Pirates were the remnants of Johnny Kidd and The Pirates who had a huge hit with ‘Shakin’ All Over’ in 1960. Johnny Kidd, the composer of the song, died in a car crash aged 30 in 1966.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Kidd_%28singer%29

There is a clip on You Tube of The Pirates giving it their all at Reading ’78, but nothing can compare to the original:

Bethnal – yet another band that went a bit punky with the times with a USP of a fiddle player. And here’s their passable version of The Who’s ‘Baba O’Reilly’ (apologies to Who fans who may be appalled!):

A John Foxx-era Ultravox being ahead of the electronica game, and before Midge Ure spoiled the party – apart from these points of note it's a bit crap really! ‘The Quiet Men’ at Reading ’78:

Some highlights:

Penetration – very good punk band from Newcastle fronted by Pauline Murray. Classic single – their first – Don’t Dictate:

Penetration re-formed on 2001 and are still active today. They have had several different band members, one of whom was Paul Harvey. Paul is an old friend of my ex-wife and also an artist.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Harvey_%28artist%29

The ‘Stuckist’ tag refers to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuckism

Here are, in order, Daryl, Lotty, Sophie & Joe:

The Jam – superb mod/punk band from Woking led by the ever popular Paul Weller. Living in Guildford in the late seventies/early eighties meant that The Jam were local lads made good and guitarist Bruce Foxton was often seen about town. He also attended a couple of gigs by The Vapors, a Guildford band that I liked and saw in several pubs around town. They went on to have a huge hit with ‘Turning Japanese’, and their first album ‘New Clear Days’ (geddit?) was a pretty decent pop-punk album. It was quite strange to see that single go up in the charts week by week – I think it reached number 4. As for the Jam – they obviously became absolutely huge. At the time of their Paul Weller-enforced break-up in 1982 they had had four number one hit singles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jam

 

A great live band – they went down a storm, although Paul Weller wasn’t happy with the sound. I also saw them over the next few years at the Guildford Civic Hall, the Crawley Leisure centre and the Swindon Oasis. The latter venue was the best – a small club (with a revolving bar) where you could get close to the band, who not surprisingly got mightily fed up with a few punters who kept spitting at them, Bruce Foxton at one point  jumping at one of the perpetrators with guitar aloft, incandescent with rage. The bouncers had to pull him off and the gig carried on. Spitting – what the hell was that all about?!

In The City – from this very concert. Plus Mr. Clean & 'A' Bomb In Wardour Street. Attitude and energy – where’s that gone?!:

Down In The Tube Station:

Going Underground - sorry about the advert before it:

Patti Smith at her creative best, playing songs from ‘Horses’, Radio Ethiopia’ and ‘Easter’.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patti_Smith

Horses & Hey Joe:

John Otway at his barmy best:

The first incarnation of Chelsea featured Gene October and Billy Idol. Chelsea's debut single, was included in Mojo's list of the best punk rock singles of all time. They are still touring today:

Squeeze’s  first and best single:

And The Tom Robinson Band triumphantly headlining on the Sunday night. A

Reading crowd singing along to ‘Glad To Be Gay’, there top 20 hit – who’d a thought it?!


 
There just maybe hope for diversity at these festival things after all!

The Jam, Status Quo, Patti Smith & Foreigner: