John Van Der Kiste – Everybody’s a Winner; The Story of a Punk Band Referred to as London
Printed by Seaside Café Books 2025
As Punk approaches its fiftieth birthday – relying on which timeline you’re going by, in fact – there’s no denying it’s outlived all of the destructive reactions on the time. The picture is now established in fashionable tradition and supplies the subject material for tutorial conferences and research, and a gentle stream of books, often focussing on the principle gamers just like the Pistols, Conflict and Damned or the US model of the story.
The paradoxically titled Everybody’s a Winner takes us again to the dirty sweaty gigs at locations just like the Nashville and the Fulham Greyhound, hours crammed in sweaty Transits for provincial gigs, and the latent undercurrent of violence by no means too distant on the time. The e-book is unquestionably a little bit of a fan job – creator John van der Kiste has even performed on a few of their information – and none the more severe for that in capturing the texture of the time and liberating the group members from fears of being stitched up or misquoted. This all helps give depth to the London story – at occasions typical of many a bunch attempting to make it however with some odd turns alongside the way in which. The group shaped in 1977 from 4 pretty skilled musicians who have been annoyed by a stagnant rock scene dominated by prog rock “dinosaurs” or mega acts like Floyd and Zeppelin whereas the highest 20 was dominated by ersatz watered-down showbiz acts like Mud and Alvin Stardust. Annoyed muso Miles Tredinnick was working on the Robert Stigwood Organisation, one of many administration heavyweights of the time. Altering his title to Riff Regan (as in The Sweeney character) he marketed in Melody Maker for like-minded “Punk musicians wished to type a band”, resulting in the recruitment of Steve Voice, Dave Wight and drummer Jon Moss – who would later have big success and private trauma with Tradition Membership. Up til then he’d been rehearsing with the Conflict however resented being handled as a employed hand, the ultimate straw being requested to hold Mick Jones’ guitar for him.
London acquired off to a flying begin once they have been taken on by massive title Supervisor Simon Napier Bell. They’d already constructed a popularity as a extremely sturdy dwell act, resulting in a help slot on a giant Stranglers tour, adopted by signing for main label MCA. Napier Bell had determined he wished to money in on the punk scene earlier than all of the teams have been signed up and went for London and Japan, putting in them in a shared rehearsal area in Kilburn. Not essentially the most harmonious association for both group by the sound of it. Signing for a big-name supervisor who’d had success within the 60s with the Yardbirds and Marc Bolan ought to have given the group a giant benefit, but it surely wasn’t the suitable match for both occasion. Earlier than lengthy Napier Bell determined to focus on the Bowie/Roxy obsessives from Lewisham – apparently dismissing London as foul-mouthed, ill-mannered “oiks” in one in every of his books, though he offers them fulsome reward in his temporary foreword right here.
Jon Moss’ departure to exchange Rat Scabies – albeit briefly – in The Damned appears to have been the catalyst for a rising frustration within the group at their lack of success as varied stand-ins and replacements didn’t work out. All the identical, it was a wierd resolution to interrupt up proper after recording the Animal Video games album, It was clearly profession suicide and assured that MCA wouldn’t waste any time or cash selling a “product” from a bunch that didn’t exist anymore. Equally, the group felt an absence of help because the token punk act on a mainstream label. That is why you received’t discover something by them on punk compilations. A CD model was launched in 1997 by Punk77 Information, combining the album and their 1977 4-track ep. Authentic copies go for a fortune nowadays. MCA didn’t launch the album til early 1978, by which era the unique “one chord wonders” blast of punk was diversifying with the likes of PIL, Journal and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Had they saved going a bit longer they’d have fitted in tremendous with the second-wave punk bands like 999, UK Subs and the Lurkers. As Riff observes now, they’d most likely have been higher suggested to signal to a extra simpatico label like Stiff. For what it’s price, I don’t assume the album cowl artwork – a cartoon of a Godzilla lookalike toying with a miniature group? – was a lot assist.
As soon as the group had folded RR reverted to being Miles Tredinnick and writing comedy scripts for Frankie Howerd and “One Foot within the Grave” amongst others. Persevering with the Unlikely Subsequent Profession Transfer, Dave Wight emigrated to Australia for an instructional profession as a professor of worldwide relations research at Sydney College Nevertheless in 2008 Riff determined to reform the group, with unique member Steve Voice joined by Hugh O’Donnell and Colin Watterson. Having misplaced none of their dwell influence, they grew to become an enormous success on the Blackpool Insurrection occasions, and from there to gigs worldwide, adopted by writing new materials and placing out a brand new album, Reboot, in 2012. There’s additionally speak of securing the unique tapes from MCA for a definitive reissue of Animal Video games.
After the principle narrative, there’s a bit with lyrics and commentary on all their songs. It’s additionally an absolute deal with visually, with plenty of b/w and color repro’s of posters, flyers, adverts, and tickets, all of which give the e-book an curiosity past simply the group. There’s a pleasant gig record too, recalling the heyday of the punk period at locations just like the Nashville, the Greyhound, the Clarendon, the Hope and Anchor, principally lengthy gone or become gastropubs now however have been the lifeblood of the scene on the scene.
A extremely spectacular quantity of analysis has gone into scripting this e-book. It was nice to be reminded of my first encounter with London, watching So It Goes, Tony Wilson giving them a usually Wilsonian intro, “If Anwar Sadat can get into Jerusalem, you will get into London”, because the monitor performed over a grainy collage of newsreel footage. It was sufficient to get us shopping for the only the following day, together with one other So It Goes tip, “Metropolis of the Damned” by Ricky and the Final Days of Earth – what occurred to them, I ponder?
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All phrases by Den Browne, you possibly can learn extra on his creator profile right here:
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