The Heat at the Roxy Club... We had supported Wilko Johnson on his first post Feelgoods UK tour and released our ep on local independent takeaway records. We woke up to the reality that we needed to book some dates and studio time ourselves if we were to continue since lady luck had turned her attention elsewhere. As our drummer Joe worked in the cellar at the great eastern hotel Liverpool Street and had socialised a bit in the early punk period he was delegated to knock on a few doors. The Roxy Club although past it's happening phase was on our list.

 

First he hit us with the good news - he had taken our record there at lunchtime and booked us in HEADLINING and that we would be paid (an unusual courtesy we discovered) £15.00 expenses. However there was one condition, we had to change our name! Another "connected" band from London called the Heat was playing there the week before and under no circumstance would our booking be honoured with our usual tag. After Joe (who had a sense of humour) convinced us that the Sex Pistols and Johnny Thunders played under assumed names so we would be in good company we agreed to be billed as the Steve Hooker Band. We even played in Southend three weeks before using the same moniker as a warm up.

 

On arrival we were given the kind of cold shoulder normally reserved for support acts. We were charged admission for Joe's mate and somebody's girlfriend because we were only allowed one guest and that would have to be our roadie, then interrogated by Kevin who had arranged the gig with Joe as to why he had given us a headline slot and agreed to pay us! It was a mystery to me, as we might have been happy to have played for the privilege of being there with a name act but not someone you never heard of and someone you never heard of had a nightly residency by then! We were duly introduced to the other two bands booked to open for us - the Features (fresh faced lads with a Keith fixation - a contradiction in itself) and Bad News (who had supported Bernie Torme at the Marquee and wanted the world to know it). Then Kevin hit us with the sucker punch - we couldn't headline. Another band who were it seemed friends of his were to be the main act. They were Handbag - a gay trio specialising in Ziggy era Bowie covers, all cropped hair, whale herders, leather jackets, rolled up jeans and boots - YMCA drag before it was invented. A good band but not what one would have expected in London's top punk nighterie!

 

So we sound checked to even more abuse for having cheap amps and a old drum kit, Bad News did their thing, the Features threw their shapes through "happy" and other "exiles" type pieces then we were shooed onstage. I wouldn't say our shambling rhythm 'n' blues inspired more than mild curiosity except from the two red headed Brummie rock chicks who had followed us from the Wilko tour and a couple of junior skinheads that called out stuff during the first two songs, getting the point soon enough that we were used to much

worse where were came from and didn't care. Half way through the set we played Chuck's "Little Queenie" - that's when I noticed Kevin at the side of the stage in his white Travolta suit looking agitated though he had taken little notice of us up till then. A couple of songs later, wanting to take it up a bit for the "finale" we did "let's dance" which was well known at the that time from the Ramones cover. Everything seemed to be going well - no hint of a bad atmosphere, then Kevin stepped onto the stage and told me, "you're playing rock 'n' roll - you'll have to stop". There wasn't any riot and the people who came to see us and the club regulars all seemed to find it odd.

 

As Kevin didn't seem to want to speak to me or deal with me, Joe who had after all negotiated the date followed him down to his office and after fifteen or twenty minutes of haggling came back with our fifteen quid minus the admission for his mate and the other bloke's bird. It tickles me to tell my rockabilly buddies how we were booted out of the famous London punk club for playing a Chuck Berry tune!