It’s said we always remember our ‘first time’: first kiss (tick); first date (tick); first foreign trip (tick – it wasn’t on the SS Uganda!); first car (tick); first gig (tick) …..

First punk gig, though? Hmmmnn?

Well, until I did a little research for this post (we don’t just throw these things together, you know) I thought I could remember the first one I went to.

For years now I’ve believed it was The Rezillos at Gigi’s Discotheque in Glasgow city centre in 1977. However, I’ve now read that although the venue catered for private functions, it didn’t open to the general public until 1978.

In a way, I’m happy at that revelation. It means the first punk band I saw ‘live’ was the one that would go on to become icons of not only the genre, but rock music in general; their name appears on millions of T-shirts across the world and they’ve been immortalized with an appearance on The Simpsons:

Ramones.

I was into punk music right from the off. In that pre-internet age, dear old John Peel and his late-night radio show were to be thanked for sending these sounds into my bedroom. Suddenly, a lot of the rock music I’d been listening to, sounded a bit passé.

It was 1977, and whatever spare money I had would be spent on records. I’m pleased to say that forty-six years later, I still have in my collection, original 7” singles by The Boomtown Rats; Sex Pistols; The Adverts; Generation X; Radio Stars; Sham 69 and no doubt several others.

Ramones were due to play in Glasgow at The Strathclyde University, Students’ Union on 21^st May 1977. It could hardly be termed a ‘big’ venue, but then Ramones could hardly, at that stage, be described as a ‘big’ band.

I didn’t go to Uni, so I pleaded with my pal Derek to sign me in for the show.

“What do you want to see them for?” he asked, “they’re just a poor man’s Status Quo.”

I learned later he was mocking both bands’ styles. Something to do with ‘3 chords’ I believe.

Hey – I was no musician. I liked music, I didn’t know music. What’s wrong with three chords, I wondered? Surely that’s at least better than only one, or two chords?

Having promised to keep Derek in beer all night he agreed to get me into the show.

All my previous gig experiences had been at The Apollo, Glasgow – a venue, without a bar, where you stood up out your seat under pain of a beating from the very stringent and enthusiastic bouncers.

This one was different!

There were no seats for a start. No bouncers either. And there was a bar – a very cheap one at that. A pint of lager would set you back no more than 30p if I remember correctly. To say it was raucous evening would be putting it mildly.

Mosh-pits weren’t yet a ‘thing,’ but it was wild down in front of the stage, as Glasgow punks mimicked the stranglehold and pogo dancing they’d seen on TV news footage from London.

Like most of the others in the room, I too had supped a few beers, and so I can’t recall most of the songs that Ramones played. However, the show was part of the ‘Leave Home’ tour, promoting their second album so I imagine most of that was covered.

They would release their third album, ‘Rocket To Russia’ later that same year (two album releases in twelve months!) and from that, ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’ was already well known and was given a blast that night.

Interestingly, and I didn’t realise this until many years later, the support band that night was Talking Heads. I do remember being quite unimpressed and retreating to the bar, but I still tick them off as a ‘seen them’ band! (Tastes change over the years, and I do really like their music now.)

Also said to have been in the audience of one hundred that night was Debbie Harry as Blondie were in town to play a show the following evening.

I feel really privileged to have seen Ramones play such an intimate gig so early into their career … and with the original, most iconic line-up of all: Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy.

The image of three cool-looking, leather-jacket clad dudes and a sweaty T-shirted drummer, furiously playing their wild and innovative brand of music will never leave me.

The Ramones show had gone ahead despite the public outcry over this new subversive new music. Following the infamous Sex Pistols television interview with Bill Grundy in December 1976, Glasgow City Council are believed to have leant heavily on the owners of the Glasgow Apollo and forced them to cancel the scheduled Pistols tour date.

The fear of anarchy and public disorder was well overblown, but other music venues in Glasgow read between the lines and, fearing for their licences, didn’t accept bookings from ‘punk’ bands.

It’s a misconception that punk music was formally banned from the city, the City fathers not setting any legal precedent on this. In effect though, the music was driven over the county border to Paisley which resultantly formed a burgeoning scene.

Paisley wasn’t the easiest place to get to for me, and so other than a few local bands in local pubs, I didn’t see another punk show until Glasgow Council relaxed their stance and venues became more comfortable to take bookings again.

Given the facts detailed at the outset of this piece, The Rezillos must have been the second ‘name’ punk band I saw.

It was a steaming hot summer evening (I guess in 1978, now) when a small group of pals and I turned up at Gigi’s. This venue was even more intimate than Strathclyde Union. There was no stage, and the band played in the middle of the dance floor, with a bunch of crazed and drunk fans going mental all around them.

The Rezillos weren’t your archetypal street punks – they had an image and style that was based more on B-movie Science Fiction characters. The music had punk’s characteristic pounding bass lines, but was almost futuristic. It was all very inventive and fun.

As always though, there were some that took it all just a bit too far. When vocalist Fay Fife took to the stage, she was wearing what looked like a black bin bag … it may have been a black latex dress, I’m not sure. Whatever, the reason for that choice of attire soon became obvious as some copycat idiots in the audience started gobbing at her.

Thankfully the spitting fad was only a short-lived, and the need for protective clothing at punk shows became less essential as ‘punk’ seamlessly morphed into ‘new wave.’  

A couple of months later and I was badgering my pal Derek to again sign me in to the Students’ Union – this time to see a band I’d loved since their 7” debut (‘Dirty Pictures’) the previous year:

Radio Stars.

Despite beer again getting the better of the nineteen-year-old me on the evening, this remains one of my favourite ever gigs!I don’t recall too many specifics, other than vocalist Andy Ellison (formerly of John’s Children and Jet) holding his microphone into an empty light socket and hanging upside down from the stage lights rig!

I do remember however, the feeling of sheer exuberance and fun on that evening.

And I do, thanks to the prompt of writing this post, now remember the first punk gig I attended.

(Word count and post length have beaten me on this one – I’ll have a Radio Stars specific post up in a few days.)

(Post by Colin Jackson of Glasgow – October 2023)