Entertainment For Lively Minds
The White Riot tour (The Clash, Buzzcocks, Subway Sect, and the Slits)
Posted by Vincent on 1 December 2011 - 11:03am.
When:
May 25th, 1977
Where:
Sussex University Mandela Hall, Falmer, UK
Comments:
Punk was emerging, I was sitting my O levels, and they converged in this heady day (ironically, a month later I also saw Genesis - but that sort of confused juxtaposition was more the norm then than the media ever allowed). The Slits were truely unique; I had never heard such music before, nor women with such attitude or appearance. I thought they were great. The Subway Sect were fast rock and a bit 'meh'. (Not that you said that then.) The Buzzcocks were funny and sharp, and despite playing songs I had mostly never heard before, the songs got into your head immediately. The Clash were exciting enough, but at root massively conventional, what with the guitar licks, light show (of a kind), and anthemic efforts. That's why they were liked, and why The Slits, though far more radical, were never so successful.
The Audience:
Amongst the punks and their home-made clothes (little high street punk tat available then) were a surprising number of flares and centre-partings. But what does it really matter?
Food & Drink:
Couldn't even afford a pint in those days.
It Made Me Think...:
The Slits were the future, the rest was riffing with short hair.
I was there too...
...remember that as it was summer, The Slits pretty much had to go on in daylight as the stage backed on to a glass wall pretty much.
There is some video of this show kicking around as well, as the media dept students filmed it all.
Oddly it's Viv Albertine's birthday today, & I'm seeing her later - I'll tell her she was the future...
brings it all back
Hi mark, that's what I recall as well - the media students also got the Damned a few weeks later, i believe.
I was at The Damned as well...
....it was only the next week I think. The Adverts were the support act & it was much more of a let's laugh at the punks audience who took great delight in lobbing cans at the band. Rat stood up to protest & as if in slow motion a can arced out of the crowd & bounced off his head. He spent the next couple of numbers drumming on his knees while The Adverts prowled the crowd looking for the culprit. The Captain played a few numbers lying flat on his back, & Dave Vanian ended up stripped to the waist declaiming from the top of the PA.
The Damned were so brilliant I never went to see them again as I knew it could only be a disappointment.
Looking back on it now, those 5/6 weeks in May & June 1977 seem almost supernaturally great. In quick succession I saw the Ramones, Talking Heads, The Clash, Buzzcocks, Subway Sect, Slits, The Damned, The Adverts, Wire & The Jam, and the soundtrack was God Save The Queen.
Overused I know, but it really was life changing...
Great post.
Can we have some more backdated reviews please?
talking heads and dire straits
Brighton top rank -- never bloody made it -