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You went on the Farewell to
The Roxy Tour in Scotland with a few of the bands.
It was a tour in name only. In reality it was a pathetic fiasco
shambles, ending up with half the bands guitars being stolen on the last
show in
Edinburgh.We were housed in Youth Hostels, asked to do daily minor
domestic tasks, as well as buy and cook our own food, be quiet on entering
the premises after 9pm and respect the establishment like it’s your own
home. I’m not (too) proud of the fact that... I didn’t clean the bathroom
mirror or mop the stairs, I stole a hippies cornflakes and a Swedish
students tin of cold baked beans, puked up outside at 2am and toppled over
a bunk bed for a lark (which has left me with the vivid memory of one of
the drummers flying through the air telling me I was in trouble now!). I
was asked to leave, twice, but only remember sleeping on the coach once. Oh yes, and Kevin St John flew everywhere and stayed in a
swanky hotel somewhere, he didn’t tell anyone which one. As a side note,
Acme’s guitarist spent the entire tour, including the long long coach
journeys twiddling on his sunburst Gibson Les Paul to the adoration of the
rest of his band, and the amusement of everyone else.
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How did the tour go?
What was the reception like?
As it happens, every show was Fantastic. Barrowlands in Glasgow was about as good as it gets.
Packed full of loud drunken herberts, screaming their heads off between
songs, up for every band, fumbling the opposite sex, bouncing up and down
from start to finish. The UK Subs were trying to
find a way out of it. That Charlie Harper is such a funny geezer, her
Majesty really ought to knight him for services rendered. But their bass
player and guitarist were at each others throats one saying 'No No we've
got a contract ..we have to do it!... If we blow this contract no one will
ever trust us again...' and the other saying, 'but we're the UK Subs, we
should be on a percentage of the door and a guarantee'. Charley just
accepted we'd all been screwed over big time, but what can you do?
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NME June 1978 |
The end
Blitz carried on. Was Kevin still your manager?
The Blitz, carried on, did it? I thought it died and another band
from Oop North used the same name.
And good luck to them, it’s a good name, although I’ve never heard any of
their records. After I made my escape I wanted to stay as far away from
the Blitz as I could.
How and when did it all
end for Blitz and what happened to the rest of the band?
After the Roxy closed, Kevin St Johns need for a Punk Band seemed to
pale into insignificance. The band went its separate ways, keeping in
contact for about a day and a half (Ruth, Jez, Ed, if you’re out
there...). I know that Jez worked in an amusement arcade in Scarborough
and was a hospital porter just off Leicester Square for a bit, but I’m
sure he must’ve done something else musically, he was a bitchin’
guitarist.
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Leopard boy George! |
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After punk I took
an about turn. I wrote to Herbie Flowers (this countries most prolific
session musician) asking for help. Gawdblesshim, he called me up and
invited me along to a session he was doing with Justin Hayward and Jeff
Wayne. Suddenly from being punk rock and hating everything about the
establishment within a couple of months I was sitting with people I'd
spent the last few years hating, and it was great! I've never looked back,
until today, and on reflection, I met some great people, but it was a pile
of shit most of the time.
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| We thought we were
going to be stars - we had a lot going for us. We were much better
musicians than the Clash and the Pistols, we had a solid following of
hardcore Punks and had the manager of the Roxy looking after us. The
reality of it was, we were never going to get anywhere. We were at the end
of the movement, and even though Punk was making inroads into the
mainstream, the chequebook bubble had burst leaving a lot of A&R
executives out of pocket with only a band of musical beginners to show for
it. George 2006 |
Part 2 -
The Roxy & other gigs | Part 3 - Recordings |
Part 4 -Farewell To The Roxy Tour |
Part5 - The End
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