Johnny Ramone: About to join Joey and Dee Dee?

As he grew up he realised that for all his guitar thrashing, he was a conservative at heart. He opposes abortion and gay marriage and thinks welfare benefits are too generous. “Everyone in America can succeed to at least the middle-class level if they work hard enough,” he said."

Well, I have to say I'm dumbstruck.

Exactly how many times have our paths crossed do you think, Mr. Grout?

(OK, that one's extremely unlikely)

Smiths Twice at Hex? 1st time, not Uni? Were rubbish and went off early (according to a mate who went to that one...)

Hambleden: if there was a band playing anywhere near Henley in 1983 the chances are me and my mates were there; do you happen to remember a bunch of pissed up punkers, probably with "The Damned", "Killing Joke", "Cr@ss" and "Sub-@ctive" on the backs of their leathers; probably being a total pain in the arse?!?

I was at that! 'Meat' tour right? James were absolutely on fire that night - as I said on that James thread - better than The Smiffs that tour. I don't recall a second Hex gig either.
And at the Univ - someone chucked beer ar Moz and he took them offstage halfway through the set.

I would have noticed punkers there. or anybody, come to that...

No, Backbeat band - R'n'B / Blues covers band with a brass section, right?

Alison Rolls of Between Pictures and.... (aaargh! another reasonably successful local band that had Ali McMordie of SLF on bass, what were they called....) Friction Groove later ended up as their lead vocalist!

Just because you didn't notice us doesn't mean we weren't there Mark - we frequently didn't get any closer to such events than the nearest pub (if we did turn up, it usually meant we'd just been ejected from the nearest pub!)

- Sub-@ctive
- Three Second Touch
- West One
- Shadowlands
- Holding Back The Sea
- The Storm
- Broken Dream
- Dream On

Regarding the general GOP/Johnnyness, Chuck E. called it in his review of the first album in Stairway to Hell.

I have seen SubActive and West One from Stew's list.

Were either of you at the Factory Recds evening at the Carribean Club?

nuts

actually make that sickening

Boys from Brazil I remember.

Owzabout owzabout ururururuh Elvis has left the building?

Boys From Brazil yes, definitely - they were very hotly tipped at one time.

Sheila Grant's Baby yes, we've discussed before.

Russian Drugs and Fractured ring only the faintest of bells.

Factory Records evening at the Carribean Club? I'm sure I'd have been there if I was about / knew about it - remind me!

What about (racks brain) K9's / Gene Kremer & The Bunkbeds? General Accident? Johnny & The Moondogs? A Fast Crowd / A1 Vegetables? Beevers? The Seize? Mighty Strypes? Legendary Flobs? Ant-Hill Mob? But...?? (or was it If...??) In Hill House?

and while i dislike his politics, i have always, and always will, worship the music that he was such a big part of. i take it for granted that my list of musical heroes is full of a lot of people i'd dislike a whole lot more if i met them personally, but since i don't have to meet them personally, i don't really care. if johnny was running halliburton, that wouldn't take anything away from how great "beat on the brat" is.

he's a tremendously underrated guitar player. he may not have displayed great range in his playing, but he did what he did with amazing control and precision, not to mention a world-changing sound.

Zerox? The Pierres? My Wife Drinks Pints?

El Seven anyone? The Runners From 1984 (who somehow ended up part of Death In June with Dougie Pearce from Crisis)?

Once upon a time I 'auditioned' for a band set up by 2 male nurses (not gay or owt etc), wanting to do covers for local pubs (Don't it make my brown eyes blue, Feelings, That's the way i like it...)..

Had some fun with them, but did not join (figured that there wasn't enough work in the area anyway, didn't want to do this in any case)..

A few years later (quite a few), answered ad for guitarist, went to a gig, Elvis HLTB - turns out it's the same band but only one member left and a completely different m.o. Keyboard guy (the one I knew) gave me a good rep (he was leaving), singer spit of Ian Curtis, was going to meet up again to talk about it, but then at end of gig band had big bust up and split up for three months...

umm, the heartthrobs?

and another band. But not the Crispys - the shadows of their overcoats never darkened Berkshire soil.

Mighty Strypes - yes. J+Moondogs - yes. AI Veg - yes. Ant Hill Mob - yes. Can't remember owt about any of them though. In HillHouse - yes k-rub

Diatribe - yes, the Kirby brothers. Great as a 2-piece.

Fractured - now going again : http://www.fractured.info/. Come see us in London or Brighton in April!!

If you want to know if I went to see Chumbawamba: at the Uni. (at least three times) / the old cinema at Cemetery Junction when it was being squatted / the old bus station when it was being squatted / a free festival of dubious legality on some wasteground next to the railway line behind Metal Box / The After Dark / Alley Cat Live; then why don't you just come straight out with it?

Timebomb was the friction groove single. I got it as a 'prize' at a local band's evening raffle.

Anyone else see New Order in May 1981 at RUSU?

Aaah yes, they used to DJ at the students night on Sundays at The Majestic in the mid-late '80's, didn't they?

Now who was the duo that Steve Rolfe was in. 'country acoustic' lots of drink songs and stuff. They released a three track flexi...

Weren't Military Surplus an early incarnation of Radical Dance Faction (RDF)?

Our singer's claim to fame was that she played a casio keyboard on the b-side (version) of their one and only single. (I forget which bandname they went under for it, it was pre-RAF anyway)

Can you imagine those two sentences together any other time? (re: Reading)

I once told Ade and Billy about a Damned gig where myself and a bunch of other guys were recruited to carry a coffin, containing Mr. Vanian, onto the stage at Hammersmith Palais.

They thought this was such a great idea that they decided to nick it with immediate effect.

Unfortunately however, they couldn't afford a proper coffin, so they decided to make one.

Out of plywood.

When we tried it out before the gig however, it immediately became apparent that this glorified tea-chest wasn't going to bear Billy's weight: when we lifted it up, there was a horrible cracking sound, and the base and Billy remained firmly on the ground on the ground!

Consequently, at the beginning of the gig, myself and 3 other guys had to carry the "coffin" through the crowd (Angie's Wokingham) and place it on the stage.

Meanwhile the stage was filled with so much smoke that the audience were supposed not to be able to see Billy scuttling across the floor on all-fours and climbing into it....

Did any of you guys run into Ricky Gervais during these times?

My mate N* is vain, self-obsessed, thinks he's got a nice smooth line in chat with the ladies (although actually it's painfully obvious that he hasn't), suffers from the delusion that he's a successful businessman, plays guitar and writes terrible songs which he'll immediately start playing to absolutely anyone at the slightest provocation, and has a goatee beard.

Hey, you don't think....

No, that's stupid - N* wouldn't have had a goatee beard when Rick Gervais knew him.

Some sort of New Romantic nightmare I believe.

My friend N*, at work, yesterday.

Must have been something do with the live music scene in Reading though, obv.

Underneath all that fire honouring zeal and the wildly raging apocalyptic fury, he's just a great big softie really.

[hastily assembles large pentagram out of Killing Joke sleeves and cowers at the centre]

if they happen to also write lyrics and/or sing, then i certainly care about what they write and sing about, too. but that's what i've got joey and dee dee for.

Do you really mean to say ALL who followed them? I can think of about nine-dozen bands clearly influenced by the Ramones who you'd be hard-pressed to call "musicians".

another way of looking at it is that it was a reaction against the elite and a celebration of the norm. what were the ramones but average fucked-up american kids just trying to be themselves?

and in monte melnick's new book it comes out that he was more than a Reaganite, he was a card-carrying member of the KKK (hence "the kkk took my baby away" as alex mentions upthread, written after he stole Joey's girlfriend) though there's a fair bit of conjecture that he just liked to wind people up with his redneck act & that he was actually not that much of an asshole.

At the time of their inception, though, the "elite" had become the norm (i.e. yawnsome Rick Wakeman rock, etc.), which spurned the band to get back to the roots of rock'n'roll (the norm you were alluding to, I believe).

I first read the rumour on the Gathering (the Killing Joke list), but there was no credible follow-up, which is why I thought I'd take the rumour here and see if anyone could verify it.

-- amateur!st

Jesus Christ, what prompted that attack?

but maybe the meanspiritedness was just in jest

i'm beginning to think that and if so i apologize

2/ it is surely possible to see punk as revolotionary, reacting aganst the (then) musical/cultural status quo, etc, or as reactionary, ie we don't want none of that fancy stuff, get back to basics, 3 chords, now start a band etc. I am fucked up in the head enough to like both old punk, and prog rock, so I can see both sides, for what that's worth (NOTHING haha)

3/ Dunno what to think about johnny ramone, really.

I don't think that makes you "fucked in the head" at all (but if it does, than I'm "fucked in the head" too).

(an excellent thread, that was, fritz)

This LP was discussed in great detail upthread! Looks like at least one copy made it as far as Huddersfield.