Eric's Club opened, taking over the Revolution Club at 9 Mathew St, Liverpool 2. The Revolution Club wasn't ready yet so the opening night was upstairs at Gatsby's. Liverpool's best band of the time, Deaf School, played.
I just finished reading Bill Sykes book about Roger Eagle Sit Down - Listen to This. Its a good read and is a great example of how One Man Can Really Make A Difference. Eagle was one of the partners in Eric's Club along with Pete Fulwell and Ken Testi. He was the public face of Eric's, a Liverpool club which lasted less than four years but has become something of a legend.
How successful was it? With the benefit of hindsight you might say it galvanised a city. Much of the best of '80s music music was forged in that sweaty, smelly basement - from the Teardrop Explodes, Echo and the Bunnymen, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (who all played their debut gigs there) and Wah! Heat to the KLF, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Lightning Seeds, Dead or Alive, Wild Swans, Pale Fountains, Shack, The Christians, Its Immaterial, The Alarm, Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, Black and Space. For starters.
It was also a dive. Some nights there were barely a dozen people in. I remember a Cabaret Voltaire gig where there were maybe two dozen. During their first song I spent the time pondering the fact that although their sound was cutting edge and far out man (I knew this because NME told me so) you could sing any Buddy Holly song over the top and it would fit. At the end of this first song there was complete silence. Not a single person clapped or spoke. I spent the second song thinking about this and decided something should be done. At the end of the second song I whooped and cheered and clapped as though I'd just heard the future of rock 'n' roll. And everybody else followed suit. I went home and wrote a song called Pavlov's Dog, so missing the second band of the evening, Joy Division.
There's a lot of people who owe a debt to Roger Eagle. I'm one of them. There should be a statue of Roger somewhere. This is my tribute.
Over the next couple of months there will be posts detailing each month of Eric's gigs. Information comes from Eric's handbills and members notices plus information scavenged from around the internet and books like
- Liverpool Eric's - All the best clubs are downstairs by Paul Whelan and Jaki Florek
- Bombed Out by Peter Alan Lloyd
- Wondrous Place and Deaf School by Paul du Noyer
- Head On by Julian Cope
- Sit Down, Listen to This by Bill Sykes
The handbills have been gathered from all over. I've been collecting them online for a while and I didn't keep track. A few of them are in my loft but others have come from Bombed Out, Bombsite, Liverpool Band Posters facebook page. The rest are from searching Google images.
There's a few missing - January and February 1977 for starters - but it's pretty complete for the rest of the time. If anyone wants to fill in any details please do. The flyers weren't always accurate but the picture they give is sound. One thing they don't do is tell you who was on at the Thursday Bop or audition nights so if anyone can help let me know.
The first version of this was a straightforward list of gigs but this time round there's a bit more detail. Enjoy.
As time goes by I'd like to flesh out each entry so if you were there . . . post a comment
SEX PISTOLS AT ERIC'S
Through 1976 the Sex Pistols contrived a reputation, not so much through their music, which few people had actually heard, but through the buzz generated by Johnny & co, plus Malcolm McLaren, aided and abetted by bored music journalists tired of writing about Laurel Canyon hippies and Topographic Oceans.
In June they played Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall and Manchester was galvanised (to use Pete Wylie's term). Tony Wilson from Granada Reports saw them and booked them for the final episode of the first series of So It Goes. It may have been recorded on 28th August and was broadcast on 4th September 1976.
A week later, on 13 September 1976, they played Chester Quaintways.
Steve Allan Jones, Mike Peters (both of the Alarm) and Steff Holt (brother of Amsterdam’s Andy) travelled from their native Rhyl to a club called Quaintways in Chester. The venue had a rock night on once a week with bands like The Groundhogs and The Pat Travers Band plying their pub-rock trade. They had seen a poster glued to a wall advertising the notorious Sex Pistols the previous week.
Rhyl Youth Centre, Steve Allan Jones (kbds) Mike Peters (gtr)
Steve remembers,
‘The gig was amazing… Mike and me had been covering all sorts of songs – mainly cabaret. We couldn’t believe you could get on stage with not much more than raw energy. This was the original line-up with Glen Matlock on bass. As far as I can recall, they didn’t have a record deal then. The crowd (mainly heavy rock fans) didn’t like them much, but they were great, really meaty sound, great attitude. I remember all their amps had other bands names on them; we were told by someone close to the band that they were all nicked.
At the end of the set the three of us resolved to talk to the band. We sidled up to them at the bar. With a gentle nudge from Mike I plucked up courage to ask Johnny Rotten, “How do you write your songs then?” He looked me up and down like I was the shit on his shoes, turned to Glen Matlock and said, “Get the beers in Glen.” We shuffled off into the night, chuffed that we’d had a “conversation” with the Sex Pistols, but resolving to never treat fans like that if we ever got famous.’
Steve Rastin says;
‘Read in Dave Goodman’s autobiography that pre-gig the band got thrown off the racecourse for pretending to be horses. After the gig they kipped in their hired van and it was during the night that they resolved to split the songwriting credits four ways (bet Mr Matlock regrets THAT decision!!!).’
From the excellent Link2Wales site
Well.
They were advertised to play in Birkenhead ten days later:
That didn’t happen, but then they were due to come to Merseyside a fortnight later.
Sometime between 10th and 12th of October the Sex Pistols went into Landsdowne/Wessex Studios to record a demo version of Anarchy in the UK. On the 17th they recorded the single version. In between they turned up in Birkenhead and Liverpool. Or did they?
By way of introduction, here’s some memories from Tranmere supporters from The Football Network. Reminiscing about pubs and clubs, someone mentions Eric’s:
Gloucester_White says he hated that disco s**t, but had discovered Eric's. Next there’s a mention of the Sex Pistols, from NickNotTheGreek suggesting that the Sex Pistols played their first non London gig at Eric's.
If you can’t trust an 11 year old punk on a bike, who can you trust? There was another gig advertised at Hamilton's in Birkenhead in December 1976 which didn't go ahead; this might account for people being convinced that the earlier gig was cancelled.
Bill Drummond: Paul Morley curated a CD called ‘North By North-West’, he also wrote the sleeve notes and he made out the Pistols never played Liverpool, they only played Manchester.
In Sit Down! Listen to This! Bill Sykes recalls interviewing Tony Wilson:
Bill Sykes: I remember Roger telling me he put the Sex Pistols on at Eric’s before the Bill Grundy incident.
Anthony H Wilson: No he fucking didn’t! No, that’s a complete lie, absolute total lie, not at all, it’s actually the reverse of that. Absolutely not, the Pistols did not play. The Pistols did not come back to the North-West after July 20th, the second Manchester gig in ‘76. That’s why Liverpool was so far behind Manchester.
The Pistol's definitely played "Eric's", I was there, with Pete Burns as the only punk around! Tony Wilson asked me what I thought of them, while while having a burst in the bogs!
Tony Wilson also might have said “When forced to pick between truth and legend, print the legend.”
We'd seen the Runaways and were planning to go the following week to see this band all the papers were talking about. That Friday, we were in a pub called The Palatine in Garston. It was chucking it down outside. 'Shall we leg it to the bus stop or stay here?' someone said. We stayed in the warm pub.
Mick Reid
The music papers were full of the Sex Pistols, the Damned, the Stranglers and the Clash but in those pre-Spotify/You Tube/Bandcamp days nobody had actually heard them, unless they'd been to a gig. There were no records out - the first punk single, the Damned's New Rose came out on October 22nd, the first punk Peel session was the Vibrators a week later (28th October).
Early adopters of Eric's were the weird kids from Aunt Twacky's, Jayne Casey and the 'hairdressers and homosexuals' and the hippies that used to go to the rock gigs that Roger Eagle put on at the Stadium.
Like Tony, John and Mike.
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Mike: I’d been going to the Stadium since 1969 and knew Roger Eagle. He used to let us in early for the sound checks etc, and we’d help shifting gear. etc, So when it shut and he told us he was opening a club instead we followed him there and signed up for a card, although we had already started going there before it was Eric’s.
I used to go to the original Cavern, then ‘The New Cavern’ when it shifted over the road, that morphed into the Revolution, then Eric’s, then Brady’s. Gatsby’s was in the same place but using the upstairs of the New Cavern. That was a straight nightclub disco and the entrance was on Victoria St.
Then Oct 76 Eric’s opened in the basement. Although for the first gig, the Stranglers played upstairs I think.
We were there quite early and Roger let us in, we quickly realised that it wasn’t the same, and the old days were gone. We knew who the band were, and punk had already kicked off, but I thought they were musically rough and under rehearsed. But still enjoyed them. I can remember a few lads pogoing at the front and gobbing over each other. Then Jean-Jacques gobbed back which made them pogo even higher. I missed The Runaways gig, then went the following week for the Pistols.
Tony: Life for me in the mid 70's was centred around going to see live music, I was a frequent visitor to the main music venues at that time, ie, the Stadium, Montfort Hall, the Empire. Royal court and my particular favourite the Liverpool Polytechnic on Byrom Street. I also went to the Moonstone (St Johns Precinct), the Metro Club (Sweeting Street). Those who remember and went to these venues were probably dressed like me, long hair, flares, baseball boots, cheese cloth shirt, denim jacket with a fake Old Grey Whistle Test badge that we used to get from a shop at the top of Moorfields next to the Wizards Den.
The music I listened to and bands I saw were popular with the crowds that went to those venues, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath etc, I liked this sound but it was an inherited sound. Having 5 older brothers and two older sisters this was some of the music that was played at our home along with me Ma's and Da's Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra; my sister's Lindisfarne and folk music; my older brothers' Tamla Motown, and our Joe's Barry White, Tavares and the disco music that was being pumped out at that time.
Being 18 yrs old I always was looking for a new sound and being in a band I was getting frustrated with trying to play the Bm diminished and G7 sustained chords. Steve Howe of Yes mastered and who our band tried to emulate.
John: 1976, we are talking the final remnants of the prog rock music era, Yes, ELP, Genesis? Long hair, flared trousers, 10 minute songs, ‘concept albums’, drum solos and, all of a sudden, Punk Rock explodes? Polar opposites, politically, musically & culturally?
HoofuckingRay!
15th October 1976, two weeks after opening, Eric’s hosted the Sex Pistols. Everybody, in Liverpool, (of a certain age), claims to have attended that iconic gig. Liverpool City Council tried to get the gig banned, somehow, it went ahead.
Tony: So one Friday afternoon in October sitting in Antwacky’s a fella came in with a flyer promoting a new music venue that had not long opened called Eric’s. He said we could get in for 50p if we turned up early and they had a new heavy rock band from London called the Sex Pistols on. Friday night was normally Liverpool Poly night and a session on the Newcastle Brown. but me and my mate Karvy decided to check this new music venue and the new Heavy Rock band out.
John: As we stood patiently in a modest queue, a local musical ‘legend in his own lifetime’ Phil Jones was arguing with two doormen, a short space ahead of us. He was clearly twatted and becoming extremely annoyed as they would not allow him in, ‘do you know who I am’? Without a ticket, he was still demanding entry based on the fact he had a record deal. His band had just finished recording a double album with Charisma Records. A concept album that now, Punk Rock had arrived on the ’70s music scene, was surplus to demands and never released.
Tony: So at around 9pm we ventured into the basement of the Fruit Exchange on Victoria Street (before Eric's moved into Matthew Street). I liked this place it was dingy, dark and intimate, a low stage and ceiling. Looking around I remember the small crowd being very stereo typical of the crowd I was used to – flares, long hair, etc, but I did notice a small group standing in the corner dressed really wild - ripped tshirts and jeans with swastikas and dog collars and the lads had black lipstick on and short spiked hair. Girls equally provoking with ripped stockings and suspenders on show. Being curious I asked one of the girls from that group where she was from she told me with a snarl that she was from Bromley (I can't confirm it but I think she may have been Souxsie of Banshees fame) l can't remember what time the Pistols came on.
I remember the place wasn't packed. Being a guitarist l always used to try and get close to the stage to try and see the lead guitarist technique. So I was standing at the front when Rotten and co came on stage. I remember him looking, eyes glaring around, then he caught my eye then said (I think to me) "why are you wearing your dads clothes" then expletives about hippies. Steve Jones hit the power chord to start Anarchy in the uk and my world changed. This was raw this was basic this was crude, this was mine.. I instantly fell in love with this vulgar sound, this is what my generation was waiting for, this was our sound not our brothers or sisters, this was new.
Roddie Gilliard: I went to that Eric’s gig, not too many people there, mostly curious long hairs. They were awful, broke a bass string trying to tune up. I’d read about the singer having an answer for any heckler, but all he managed was "if you don't like it you know where the exit is" - it was nothing to write home about.
Henry Priestman: Although I loved the charged atmosphere and the energy, general opinion was that they were good, but not as good as we all thought they'd be. Even Johnny Rotten's audience baiting wasn't up to what we expected, legend has it his best line was 'If you don't like it, you know where the door is.'
Norman Killon: It was Friday 15 October 1976. I remember there was a hiatus when after a couple of numbers a guitar string was broken and had to be replaced. While this was happening Johnny was bent over the microphone stand glaring at a far from large audience.
John: Bass player, Glen Matlock managed to achieve the impossible, breaking an E string during the opening number, something I didn’t believe possible without a hacksaw. The band seemed nervous, unusually so, if you listened to the hype. Quiet in-between songs, nothing like the raucous, aggressive ‘louts’ as portrayed in the NME and Sounds. They played a song, then silence, with literally zero audience response and little, if any ‘Rotten’ banter?
Mike: This was still early days. I don’t remember there being a bonkers crowd going nuts like at later gigs, just a few punks bouncing around at the front then quietly waiting between numbers while Rotten, who had no on-stage repartee, just leaned over and leered menacingly. I stood at the side with my long hair and flares (which soon went) and suddenly felt very old at 20. There were still many more similarly dressed, it wasn’t all punk fashion then. There were still loads of the homeless Stadium crowd hoping this would be the replacement.
Stephen Proctor: I was at the Pistol's gig, having not long returned from a "far out" Israel, with hair down me back! I saw some of the kerfuffle they were making, and having seen the queue for the Runaways, thought there was something unusual going on, and decided to go see them!
It was a fairly low key affair, with most, just standing back, waiting, but for the only punk like figure, Pete Burns! Spoke to Tony Wilson, in the bogs, who asked me what I thought of the band, and even Bob Wooler, had come to check them out! I was ambivalent, still wrestling with the Boring Old Fart tag I'd been given!
John: They appeared surprised, confused by the lack of audience response, not surprising as when you looked around, all you could see was, long haired musicians, all of an age soon to be irrelevant. Leather or denim jackets, flares, beards, so far removed from Punk Rock that it was comical.
Roy White: It wasn't very full - half the room were really cool kids and the other half were students (Roger Eagle and Ken Testi had offered cheap admission for students).
I always remember the anger, intimidation, and energy of the band, and Johnny Rotten in particular. Jayne Casey, Holly Johnston, Paul Rutherford, Pete Burns and Lynne Burns were all in attendance that night.
Mike: I don’t remember much more about the music or the performance, as for a few of us there, it wasn’t the earth shattering moment it’s been made out to be. I thought musically they were one of the worst bands I’d ever seen on stage, and although I fully understood what was happening, with the movement and attitude, anti-establishment and anti prog 20 minute guitar solos etc, I just remember being hugely disappointed at how bleak the future seemed to be.
I don’t remember them going down brilliantly, just with the punks at the front, otherwise they were just absolutely naff, all show (and that wasn’t much) and it fizzled out, as most punters drifted downstairs to see if there was a band on there. I’m sure you’d get a different version from the guys at the front.
John: To be honest, I wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about? I didn’t get it (at least not straight away). I did however, get that this was the start of something big, a game-changer.
Tony: The Bromley mob were up doing a mad dance going crazy so l backed off to the rear in awe . . . My world had changed . . .
Mike: Nevertheless, it was clear that everything had changed. I just thought the Pistols were overrated garbage. Sorry. 😂
John: After what felt like a very brief performance for a headliner we went downstairs to watch a local support band, Albert Dock, all of us, sort of, scratching our heads? What was all the fuss about? The rest of the night was uneventful. We never really discussed the Pistols.
Steve Tempest: Went to the gig and somehow got to meet them in the dressing room after the gig . . . Remember Johnny being in bad mood and wearing the I hate Pink Floyd t-shirt . . . I also remember Paul Rutherford and I think Holly Johnson being there.
John: Once the dust had settled, around two weeks later, rehearsals. We doubled the tempo of all our songs, ripped our clothes and learnt how to spit whilst playing and we changed the bands name from Berlin to Fun …. if you can’t beat em?
Mike: I kept going to the club though. Roger & Ken didn’t just book punk bands as you know, people forget there was a variety on offer including John Martyn, Deaf School, Talking Heads, the Albertos etc, etc, and it soon became a brilliant club for its diversity and taste. A great club to hang out with your mates.
Bill Drummond: The only time Roger put the Pistols on there were probably only fifty people there and they were shit anyway. Paul Morley curated a CD called ‘North By North-West’, he also wrote the sleeve notes and he made out the Pistols never played Liverpool, they only played Manchester. The reason they didn’t have any influence was because they were shit that night. If they’d been great they would have had an influence. About ten of us went along, and having seen them we went “Ok, so that’s London” and they were shit. [from Bill Sykes ‘Sit Down, Listen to This’]
Ken Testi: I booked the Pistols for Eric’s and that took place upstairs in what was Gatsby’s. We got a band called Albert Dock to support them, I didn’t enjoy it, they were trying to live up to this persona they were developing. Not friendly. With the music there was a dynamic there but it was early days for them. The attitude of the people around them wasn’t constructive in any way plus the horror of walking into the dressing room after they’d left and finding it ankle deep in broken glass. It wasn’t a pleasant gig. [from Bill Sykes ‘Sit Down, Listen to This’]
