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And then he walked along the edge of the Circle
This is the place where we will post your stories about the Green's Playhouse, The Glasgow Apollo and Satelitte City (The Wee Apollo). As it develops we will break the stories up into sections such as Myths, Gigs I missed, Meeting the Bands, Where are they now etc. No story too trivial and we will only edit out bad language!
New Forum structure on Apollomemories soon.
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| Suicide supported The Clash in 1978. I was a devoted 18 year old Clash fan, but
Suicide were the best band I ever saw live. I remember a very few other people were
standing cheering, while everybody else booed them constantly.
It was the most
intense and emotional musical experience I have ever had until I attended a
performance of Beethoven's 9th last year. Thank you, Alan Vega & Martin Rev.
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| I was at that infamous event when Suicide supported The Clash, and i was one of the
ones
hurling abuse, amongst other things, at this
electro horror-show...most
young punks like myself (16yrs) wanted the blistering guitar-
punk of The Clash
(and Richard Hell, who was
great)but we weren't expecting 2 posers with synths...i
came to appreciate them years later
but at the time it was too much for our narrow
view of what "punk" music was.
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| er..sorry, slight error in story above,
Richard Hell didn't play same night he
played
at the previous Clash gig...it's all a bit fuzzy!
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| Here is my recollection of Suicide in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1978. I had never
heard of Suicide at that time. They were one of the support acts for The Clash, the
other being “The Coventry Specials” later known as “The Specials”.
Just to
set the scene, this was the height of the punk phenomenon which had a huge impact on
British society. At the time the tabloid newspapers had articles about “punk rock”
every other day. Everybody had heard of The Sex Pistols although few people had heard
their music since they were banned from radio, television, and major record shops
refused to sell their records. The Clash were the other big name in punk. So
I
was there to see The Clash.
The streets leading to the Apollo theatre were
lined with punks, and the general public seemed to creep away rather intimidated by
our presence. So you see, this was an audience that were at the cutting edge of what
was happening. Nothing was too revolutionary, or shocking for them…. One would
assume.
Having been to pre punk gigs I was familiar with the routine, bouncers
search you for tape recorders and potential weapons. I think they gave up at this
gig. An endless stream of people with razor blades hanging from their ears and chains
everywhere. The first group on was the Specials, who gained mild respect from the
audience patiently waiting for The Clash.
Next Suicide. No introduction. A
bare stage. (two piece synth bands did not exist at this time, guitars drums, that
was it!) A man (Martin Rev) walks on and holds a note on the keyboard. The audience
is still talking amongst themselves unaware that half the band is already on stage
and the performance has started. The noise gets louder, a tape loop..repetitive
electronic noise.. gets louder, the audience start to look at the stage. Alan
Vega walks on. He is wearing a glitter jacket, with one sleeve torn off.
Is
this punk? He takes the microphone and screams… The noise echos round the theatre. He
says something… just a distorted echo. I remember thinking.. “What the **** is
this!!!” It was clear his accent was American, and he posed like the audience loved
him. (at the time punk was a particularly British thing, The Clash had a song called
“I’m so bored with the USA” ). So who was this American strutting around in a glitter
jacket sounding like Elvis, and where the hell was that loud distorted pounding beat
coming from!
The audience looked in bewilderment for a few minutes before
deciding to start a slow handclap of disapproval. This is usually the sign for a
support band to finish off before things get worse. But Suicide were only just on
stage. Alan joined in with the handclap acting like the audience were clapping along
to the music. This stopped the hand clapping but provoked the audience to shout abuse
and hurl objects at the stage. I did not see an axe, but I can quite believe the
reports that this happened would be true. I did see cans, bottles and even an attempt
to through the first row of (formerly fixed) seating onto the stage.
The
Apollo Theatre had a notoriously high stage of about 10 feet so this was not
successful. I remember Allan poised on the edge of the stage on his knees supported
by one hand, the microphone in the other, looking down at the audience like a hunting
dog ready to attack. Alan picked up one of the cans thrown at him and pretended to
drink from it, giving a wave of thanks to the person who sent it. I was completely
confused. Punk was the most outrageous thing to have happened in my lifetime, so what
was this? A loud industrial noise. Drum beats like disco music but psychotic. A
singer who tolerates this abuse and performs with such confidence and seems to think
he is star like Elvis. I was open minded about music. Even in those days I was
listening to the avant garde, and had at least three Kraftwerk albums so was not
unfamiliar with electronic music (although I am sure this would not be the case for
most of the audience).
I couldn’t make out the words.. they just echoed round
the theatre…. He seemed to be screaming and taunting the audience, but also speaking
with affection and passion. A real emotional explosion. And that could be said about
the audience as well I suppose. How could it be possible to create such a
violent reaction so quickly with just music. And then silence.
I thought I
saw blood on his face. Whether it was the result of the missiles being thrown or self
mutilation I don’t know. He seemed not to be bothered by it. He still acted like a
showman. The music stopped, he said something…I don’t know what, but then
calmly and coolly he walked off. It seemed like the audience were suspended in
silence as they suddenly came to terms with the state of madness they were in. In
probably just 20 minutes they were taken from a state complacent acceptance of a
another support act, to complete anger, then suddenly nothing.
As for me, I
didn’t know if I hated the band or not. All I knew was that I had to buy a record to
try and make some sort of sense out of what I had just witnessed. I bought the first
and only Suicide album of the time, and here I am still listening to it, and every
other Suicide, Vega, Rev album that followed to this day.
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| Thanks for Ian Tyson for the above review.
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| The blood on the side of his face came from him constantly hitting himself with the
microphone.
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| You are spot on
The story about the axe is a myth
It was an incredible
performance and at the time groundbreaking and original
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