...SATURDAY JANUARY 29TH 1977
CLEAN PUNKS THE MENACE TO OUR KIDS
From left: TONY JAMES, JOHN PERFECT, BILLY IDOL.
GENERATION X may well be the 'punk-rock' group that many people have been waiting for; songs with lyrics about change and revolution but with
melodies ; cute enough for boy meets girl. And a lead singer in Billy Idol who, while coming out with the standard lines putting down age, stagnation and
establishment, looks pretty enough for girls whose big sisters used to swoon over Marc Bolan. Oh yeah, and they don't take drink or drugs....
"They make you want to sit around all day and not do anything about the situation," Billy Idol says blandly as we sit in The Ship in Wardour Street, all of us drinking orange juice although only
one glass contains the demon Smirnoff. "All that crap, it ain't worth doing...."
Not all drugs make you feel like sitting around flashing peace signs....
"The revolution can't happen if you're knackered tomorrow," Billy Idol retorts,
"It ain't worth taking drugs," says Tony James, the bass player. "The important things in our life are the band, writing songs and playing....we get no time for anything else. If we drink too much we
can't play."
"Most of the people you admire, like the Dolls, Iggy, MC5....
"We don't wanna be like them," Tony says.
"They failed," Idol asserts.
They didn't fail for me. They made some of the best music I ever heard.
"It didn't win ultimately," Tony says, at pains to show me exactly what Billy meant by that last statement. "It didn't last. I don't want to be like Keef
or The Who...."
"He couldn't be like Keith Richard if he tried," Patti O'Doors said when I played the tape back in the office.
"Iggy was great, but he was smashed out of his brain all the time," Idol says. "I'm about seeing things change NOW. He led up to what we're
about, but he was a totally negative stance. We're gonna be positive...."
Three-of the members of Generation X used to be in Chelsea with Gene October who was the lead singer with Idol on guitar, Tony on bass
and John Towes on drums. But it wasn't going in the direction they wanted, with not enough emphasis being put on, uh. social comment so
the three of them left Gene to carry on with Chelsea and formed Generation X with Bob Andrews on guitar.
I only saw Chelsea once, but on that night I was impressed by their enthusiasm, their energy, their commitment to their music and the fact that
they didn't give a shit if the mostly arty-student audience liked them or not. They were rough, but they showed promise.
But, like Billy Idol and Tony James say, (they do nearly all the talking for the band, wilh John Towe making occasional remarks and Bob Andrews
saying nowt) Chelsea and Generation X are two different bands. One of the ironies around them is that, despite the great belief in the
lyrical content of their songs, the words are almost entirely unintelligible when they play live, like down the Roxy on Saturday night.
Idol holds the mike like it was a python going for his throat and screams and spits out the words as his face contorts and turns purple. James
makes his runs back and forth across the stage, Bob Andrews stands motionless and Towe whacks hell out of his shiny drum kit.
Titles include "New Orders", "70's Problems," "London Life" and, their piece de resistance, "Your Generation."
"Trying to forget your generation, Using any way I see /The end will justify the means, your generation don't mean a thing to me."
That's just one example hut pretty indicative of where they stand singing of new orders although they're breaking no new ground either their
music nor their attitude, unlike the Sex Pistols who by the way they perform, the songs they write and the uncompromising way they've ALWAYS
faced the media have made it possible for bands like Generation X to break on through....
And Generation X sing of trying for kicks without wanting to pay the price of getting kicks and they talk of being positive and forward looking
although their song "Ready, Steady, Go," is all about not being in love with the Stones or Dylan, just being in love with Cathy McGowan.
And they talk about social ills and ''gonna change things" and other naive spiels, while coming out with statements that make them look like, a
mindless New Faces act compared to, say, the Pistols or Clash.
Like this....''I was in a band called London SS," says Tony James. "The name was initially chosen for shock value; the great thing about Nazism is that your parents hate it, it was shocking. We
didn't give a shit, we weren't in the war, so it was great because it was shock value. If it shocks and it's frightening then it' great."
What about concentration camps? By this time I was feeling slightly sick. And it wasn't the booze.
"Yeah, but we were never in the war, we didn't know nothing about that. It's just something that happened, right?" James asks me. Wrong. What makes you think it can't happen today? You talk
about caring and commitment, but if six million corpses don't cut through to you then nothing will. "Obviously we don't agree with it," he says hurriedly. "SS also stood for. .sort of Street
Soldiers.,.."
Street soldiers fueled on orange juice? Revolutionaries who don't give a shit about Bergen-Belsen? The orders-nouveau sung to pleasant pop-rock melodies?
If Generation X didn't hype themselves as being such a big deal then I would probably not be as turned off by the band as I am now. If they just admitted that they're another young rock band
and dropped the boring platitudes and thoughtless (because that's what it is) political raps then I wouldn't mind, I'd wish them all the luck in the world.
But I think it's about time that every goddamn 'New Wave' band in the land realised that, at the end of the day, they will stand or fall on their own merits and not because they have learned the
right media spiel lines.
The Pistols are good enough to kick out and replace the Stones and the Clash are good enough to make you forget about The Who.
What about the rest of you New Wave bands? Who are you good enough to replace? On stage at the Roxy Billy Idol wipes the sweat from his face after finishing "Youth, youth, youth."
"Can someone get me a drink of water?" he asks.
One of the Pistols turns to me and smiles. "Clean boys," he says.
TONY PARSONS
January 29th, 1977 NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS (Punk Rocker Archives)
From left: TONY JAMES, JOHN PERFECT, BILLY IDOL.
GENERATION X may well be the 'punk-rock' group that many people have been waiting for; songs with lyrics about change and revolution but with
melodies ; cute enough for boy meets girl. And a lead singer in Billy Idol who, while coming out with the standard lines putting down age, stagnation and
establishment, looks pretty enough for girls whose big sisters used to swoon over Marc Bolan. Oh yeah, and they don't take drink or drugs....
"They make you want to sit around all day and not do anything about the situation," Billy Idol says blandly as we sit in The Ship in Wardour Street, all of us drinking orange juice although only
one glass contains the demon Smirnoff. "All that crap, it ain't worth doing...."
Not all drugs make you feel like sitting around flashing peace signs....
"The revolution can't happen if you're knackered tomorrow," Billy Idol retorts,
"It ain't worth taking drugs," says Tony James, the bass player. "The important things in our life are the band, writing songs and playing....we get no time for anything else. If we drink too much we
can't play."
"Most of the people you admire, like the Dolls, Iggy, MC5....
"We don't wanna be like them," Tony says.
"They failed," Idol asserts.
They didn't fail for me. They made some of the best music I ever heard.
"It didn't win ultimately," Tony says, at pains to show me exactly what Billy meant by that last statement. "It didn't last. I don't want to be like Keef
or The Who...."
"He couldn't be like Keith Richard if he tried," Patti O'Doors said when I played the tape back in the office.
"Iggy was great, but he was smashed out of his brain all the time," Idol says. "I'm about seeing things change NOW. He led up to what we're
about, but he was a totally negative stance. We're gonna be positive...."
Three-of the members of Generation X used to be in Chelsea with Gene October who was the lead singer with Idol on guitar, Tony on bass
and John Towes on drums. But it wasn't going in the direction they wanted, with not enough emphasis being put on, uh. social comment so
the three of them left Gene to carry on with Chelsea and formed Generation X with Bob Andrews on guitar.
I only saw Chelsea once, but on that night I was impressed by their enthusiasm, their energy, their commitment to their music and the fact that
they didn't give a shit if the mostly arty-student audience liked them or not. They were rough, but they showed promise.
But, like Billy Idol and Tony James say, (they do nearly all the talking for the band, wilh John Towe making occasional remarks and Bob Andrews
saying nowt) Chelsea and Generation X are two different bands. One of the ironies around them is that, despite the great belief in the
lyrical content of their songs, the words are almost entirely unintelligible when they play live, like down the Roxy on Saturday night.
Idol holds the mike like it was a python going for his throat and screams and spits out the words as his face contorts and turns purple. James
makes his runs back and forth across the stage, Bob Andrews stands motionless and Towe whacks hell out of his shiny drum kit.
Titles include "New Orders", "70's Problems," "London Life" and, their piece de resistance, "Your Generation."
"Trying to forget your generation, Using any way I see /The end will justify the means, your generation don't mean a thing to me."
That's just one example hut pretty indicative of where they stand singing of new orders although they're breaking no new ground either their
music nor their attitude, unlike the Sex Pistols who by the way they perform, the songs they write and the uncompromising way they've ALWAYS
faced the media have made it possible for bands like Generation X to break on through....
And Generation X sing of trying for kicks without wanting to pay the price of getting kicks and they talk of being positive and forward looking
although their song "Ready, Steady, Go," is all about not being in love with the Stones or Dylan, just being in love with Cathy McGowan.
And they talk about social ills and ''gonna change things" and other naive spiels, while coming out with statements that make them look like, a
mindless New Faces act compared to, say, the Pistols or Clash.
Like this....''I was in a band called London SS," says Tony James. "The name was initially chosen for shock value; the great thing about Nazism is that your parents hate it, it was shocking. We
didn't give a shit, we weren't in the war, so it was great because it was shock value. If it shocks and it's frightening then it' great."
What about concentration camps? By this time I was feeling slightly sick. And it wasn't the booze.
"Yeah, but we were never in the war, we didn't know nothing about that. It's just something that happened, right?" James asks me. Wrong. What makes you think it can't happen today? You talk
about caring and commitment, but if six million corpses don't cut through to you then nothing will. "Obviously we don't agree with it," he says hurriedly. "SS also stood for. .sort of Street
Soldiers.,.."
Street soldiers fueled on orange juice? Revolutionaries who don't give a shit about Bergen-Belsen? The orders-nouveau sung to pleasant pop-rock melodies?
If Generation X didn't hype themselves as being such a big deal then I would probably not be as turned off by the band as I am now. If they just admitted that they're another young rock band
and dropped the boring platitudes and thoughtless (because that's what it is) political raps then I wouldn't mind, I'd wish them all the luck in the world.
But I think it's about time that every goddamn 'New Wave' band in the land realised that, at the end of the day, they will stand or fall on their own merits and not because they have learned the
right media spiel lines.
The Pistols are good enough to kick out and replace the Stones and the Clash are good enough to make you forget about The Who.
What about the rest of you New Wave bands? Who are you good enough to replace? On stage at the Roxy Billy Idol wipes the sweat from his face after finishing "Youth, youth, youth."
"Can someone get me a drink of water?" he asks.
One of the Pistols turns to me and smiles. "Clean boys," he says.
TONY PARSONS
January 29th, 1977 NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS (Punk Rocker Archives)
