The spiritual home of punk'... they chorused. How so?
Ian Dury: Essex boy and day tripper to Sunny Sarfend, where, he caught his polio dose, giving him a buckled bearing later aped on stage by Johnny Rotten. Following the High Roads era, Dury and The Blockheads signed to Stiff Records - see below.
Dr Feelgood: described by Joe Strummer as 'a machine' - The Feelgoods parenting of punk can't be over-estimated: snatching pub rock back from an infestation of denim-clad, pseudo Americana musos, then charging it with an amphetamine, booze fuelled, grubby-suited aggression, Anglicised angle and confrontational face-front stare... With a run of ram raiding residencies at key London venues delivering battering Estuary rhythms. Venues that would become the birthing pools of punk.
Clem Burke has gone on record saying the Feelgoods album Malpractice was a perma-play and source of sonic inspiration at New York loft parties among the gathering gutterati of the NY scene - Blondie, Talking Heads, Television.
Then there's the matter of a £400 loan from Lee Brilleaux used to setup Stiff Records - who, released the first punk single New Rose, and punk album Damned, Damned, Damned from - The Damned..
Eddie and The Hot Rods: a younger snarlier Feelgoods and Stiff label-mates to The Damned. Southender Paul Gray eventually left the Hot Rods to join The Damned. And has just recently reunited with Captain Sensible for The Sensible Gray Cells
TV Smith a Romford boy, whose Adverts One Chord Wonders single was released on Stiff (leading back to the Brilleaux loan) ..
So where does this windy theory wind it's way to - well, TV Smith is back for his third Southend visit on the 7th December. Support comes from Eight Rounds Rapid (with a Feelgood offspring hiding in the line up).. An evening of baton-handing from first generation punk to the nu-New Wave of 8RR
And there's an aftershow shindig from Piley and myself..
It's brought you by the Retro Man Blog, Southend Punk and Podrophenia - and takes place at The Railway Hotel - Wilko Johnson's favourite local, and the venue of choice for spiky tops on tour,. John Cooper Clarke, Glen Matlock and Clem Burke,
We had stage diving at the first TV gig, a stage invasion at the second - and as TV said, how are we gonna top it next time - let's found out on the 7th....
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