Thirty four years ago today The Heartbreakers played The Speakeasy.
The rock business haunt north of Oxford Circus had seen better times by this gig. I was taken by a member, a photographer at the agency where I worked. I remember being embarrassed by his long hair.
The Heartbreakers played with swagger and assurance rather than the aggression and speed adopted by the majority of punk bands. These were men, not boys, Johnny Thunders exuding menefreghismo. The set was released on the album DTK.
This poster was taped to a wall at the back, so easy to remove on exit. It wasn’t until much later I found it was a variant on a misspelled colour version used for a gig at The Roxy with Siouxsie & The Banshees a couple of weeks earlier.
The photo was taken by Erica Echenberg. I don’t know who did the design; maybe the wonderful Leee Black Childers?
Roxy poster from radioethiopia’s flickr pages.
Mondo
March 15, 2011 at 11:16 amNow that’s a find – I’m sure you’ve seen it, but just in case Cult Rock Posters (Roger Crimlis) contains a gallery of similar goodies ..
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cult-Rock-Posters-Roger-Crimlis/dp/1845131290
I was at the launch a few years back at Bamalama,Posters, Leather Lane where a load of the originals were framed and wall mounted..fab!
BTW the heartbroken blonde on the poster is ellow New Yorker and Spiderman’s lost squeeze – Gwen Stacy.
Paul Gorman Author
March 15, 2011 at 11:21 amThanks for the info. Know Cult Rock Posters well.
According to forthcoming Bloke Of Britain Jeff Dexter (who was also at the Speak that night and if I recall right tried to entice me to the Bamalama shindig) the design is down to the Roxy’s Andy Czechowski who produced the great run of Roxy flyers using one of the first colour photocopiers in London.
My poster appears to have been a b+w (and spell-checked) version for the 15.3.77 gig.
Steve E.
March 15, 2011 at 2:37 pmBTW Paul, I few months back, I posted a request on the The Look blog, wondering if I could have Jeff Dexter’s email address in order to ask him a question.
Never got a response (though did get a reply to the question), so could ask Jeff directly if he was the dj at a Pink Fairies gig at the Roundhouse back in early 1975 who played ‘White Punks on Dope’?
Paul Gorman Author
March 15, 2011 at 2:44 pmDear Steve
Apologies for not getting back to you earlier. Shall ask JD and get back to you.
Was this the Fairies gig with Lady June. Lol Coxhill, et al?
PG
Steve E.
March 16, 2011 at 2:11 pmCheers Paul,
No idea who else was on the bill (possibly Mick Farren and a reunited Deviants). One thing I do remember clearly is that the Fairies dressed the stage with a giant joint hanging overhead, accompanied by two mammoth Mandrax pills (heady days, indeed… )
Paul Gorman Author
March 17, 2011 at 8:33 amHI Steve
JD says it wasn’t him (he got out of DJing by 74 I think). Andy Dunkley was house DJ for the events I went to there around that time; does that ring any bells with you?
Steve E.
March 17, 2011 at 2:01 pmYup, Dunkley rings a bell – Greasy Truckers and all that.
Paul Gorman Author
March 17, 2011 at 2:06 pmHe’s around – want me to get a contact for him?
Steve E.
March 17, 2011 at 2:14 pmThat would be fab Paul – same question about playing ‘White Punks’ at a Fairies gig.
It was the first time I heard it, and it completely blew me away.
Thinking about writing a piece about how influential the Tubes debut album was, and it would be neat to find out what reactions djs at the time got from playing it.
Paul Gorman Author
March 17, 2011 at 2:27 pmI remember Kenny Everett playing it quite a bit and Whasisname with Your Mother Should Know on Capital weekday evenings…
Steve E.
March 17, 2011 at 3:37 pmI just googled Your Mother Should Know on Capital, and came up with You’re Mother Wouldn’t Like It with – Nicky Horne. Jeez, there’s a blast from the past.
Paul Gorman Author
March 19, 2011 at 3:55 pmThat’s the one. But he didn’t play Hawkwidn, Pink Fairies, etc. More Little Feat. Steely Dan + The Eagles. Had Bowie on a couple of times I recall.
Steve E.
March 21, 2011 at 1:48 pmTellingly, that’s the kind of music my mother did like, and why I left home pronto as soon as I could…
Brian
March 21, 2011 at 5:40 pmI could be completely off base here but I seem to recall the poster design being the work of Barry Jones, although who knows how much the Roxy guys worked up things together, who else might have helped, etc. great seeing this in any case, thanks for a consistently fascinating site, Paul.
troy
March 22, 2011 at 10:04 amfrom Paul Marko’s “The Roxy London WC2 – A Punk History” (2007), p176:
Barry Jones (Roxy Club Partner): …Lee Childers was so gracious because I spelt Heartbreakers wrong…I spelt it “Heartbrakers”. He was so gracious saying ‘it doesn’t matter, they’re beautiful’.”
The poster was one of three Jones made for “American Week” at the Roxy (March 2 – 5, 1977) , specially copied in colour at a copy shop near the phonebox immortalised on Ziggy Stardust. The other two colour posters were for Cherry Vanilla and Wayne County.
Paul Gorman Author
March 22, 2011 at 1:08 pmThanks for clearing that up Troy. The other flyers are on the flickr link in the story.
DB
March 23, 2011 at 3:20 amWas just about to tell you that I thought it was designed by Barry Jones when I noticed the mystery had been solved.
What you may not know is that Barry had a band called The London Cowboys, played bass for those infamous Sid Vicious shows at Max’s Kansas City & went on to form the band The IDOLS with Killer Kane (ny dolls) & Jerry Nolan (dolls & heartbreakers).
I was Barry’s flat mate for a few months in 79 or 80 (very blurry) I still have one of the color photocopy flyers : )
He was a super talented guy & sadly a bit of a unsung hero.
ps, your blog is amazing!
eddie duggan
August 13, 2012 at 12:01 pmditto the Barry Jones point already made (I followed a link here from a tweet by Paul Gorman).
Several of Barry Jones’s fliers, including the Heartbreakers at the Roxy, can be seen here: http://stereosociety.com/roxy.shtml
I used to have quite a few of these, but sadly they got lost over the intervening years.
Paul Gorman Author
August 13, 2012 at 2:52 pmJones talks about it here: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=218351960084