London Gets Punked Off!
There has been a bit of a weird weather dilemma here recently, as mentioned in my previous post the cold weather seemed to take a back seat a few weeks ago and then we were unseasonably blessed with a spell of really quite warm dry and sunny weather, which oddly enough came to a grinding halt after a lovely sunny Sunday. You are never sure what to wear! Anyway enough about that topic and renowned favourite British pastime and on to other things…
Is She Really Going Out With Him?
So, the Sunday was indeed during the day quite hot and we headed up into town to go see a stage play at London's Dominion Theatre just opposite Tottenham Court Road station, we had originally booked the tickets all the way back last year as soon as we could because what we were to see was a one night only production (at least in London).
We headed up a bit earlier than the start and popped into a lovely old pub along Charlotte Street not far away called The Fitzroy Tavern, a proper old school Victorian style pub with loads of etched glass and different cubicle sections to sit in, we had been there before around Christmas time and it was busy so at the time we managed to find some seating upstairs which again is divided into different rooms with proper fire places (really snug in winter). On the Sunday it wasn't too busy so we found some seats got some drinks and had a relax and a chat before we headed out and just around the corner to Mowgli Street Food to grab something lovely to eat. The restaurant is really quite sweet decked out nicely with plenty of fairy lights and some swing seats too! The food was also fab and for London not bad priced either.
Neat, Neat, Neat
Finishing up we retraced our steps back to the theatre for a trip down memory lane in a nostalgia fest called ‘Punked Off!’ (I think it was originally called ‘Pretty Vacant’ but maybe they couldn't use it for copyright reasons), anyhoo the theatre was as expected chock full of old gammers (us included!). Everyone there ready to relive some musical memories from those halcyon days when punk gave the music scene a right royal kick up the a*se!
It was narrated by Kevin Kennedy (actor and musician) who described the times, the strikes, three day weeks, crap music, rubbish fashion etc until…Boom! Everything exploded into a world of chaos, thrashy music, pogoing, attitude, fashion and yup, lashings of phlegm! Camden as shown in the header image was used as the backdrop throughout the performance, so thought I would throw that in.
It was all quite well done, the narration punctuated with music, fashion and a bit of choreography. Have to say the band and actors/dancers were awesome, the band ripped out all the old classics by The Damned, Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, Clash, Stranglers etc, narration provided the backdrop as to how some of the bands started off and the usual joke of the 40,000 people who attended the first Pistols gig at The Lesser Free Trade Hall in Manchester (only about 40 were really there).
Fan Club
At the interval I popped out to have a cheeky vape and got chatting to some like minded musical souls, some were really part of it back in the day, one of the fellas was 67 so what we were hearing was the soundtrack to his youth. Others there had some instantly recognizable band t shirts, I almost forgot the time and hurried back in for Part Deux.
The second half was a good as the first I guess it covered more music which would have been the soundtrack to Mrs Akin and I’s youth being 1979 and into the 80’s. Some brilliant covers by the band of music by Ian Drury & The Blockheads, Siouxsie & The Banshees to Blondie, The Pretenders, Squeeze, Talking Heads, Joy Division etc.
It was a great night out closing with the Sid Vicious fully revved up version of ‘My Way’ to which everyone, without exception got up and jumped about to (you could hear those creaky knees and joints above the music😁). My only minor gripes would be that it didn't really tell you much you probably wouldn't have figured out by doing a bit of reading and would have perhaps been even better if the venue had no chairs so all of us old uns could have had a senile jump around a bit more to some of the sounds throughout the show (dodgy knees and joints permitting!). Other than that it was top stuff!
A Damned Shame
Anyway the bitter sweet of this little tale ends with the sad news that a couple of days prior to the event Brian James the original guitarist with The Damned had passed away at age only 70. In memory of him I leave you with the links to a couple of tracks, the first is ‘New Rose' the very first Punk single to be released on the independent 'Stiff Records' Label in all its stomping and thrashy glory with some great riffs by Mr James, in fact the first album was pretty much all written by him. After The Damned (leaving after Music For Pleasure their second album), he went onto to form Tanz Der Youth and then with this last track I leave here from his time with ‘Punk Supergroup’ The Lords Of The New Church' with one of my favourites ‘Open Your Eyes’. They were comprised of musicians from both sides of 'the pond':
- Vocals - Stiv Bators (ex-Dead Boys)
- Guitar - Brian James (ex-The Damned)
- Bass - Dave Tregunna (ex-Sham 69)
- Drums - Nick Turner (ex-The Barracudas)
They lasted as a band until 1989 and released their material on the independent 'Illegal Records' label. They briefly reformed again in 2001 until 2007. If you like stuff by The Damned you can catch more at my post on this site at the link 'Strawberries'.
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Catch u all again soon….and Stay Punk!
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