Man In The Moon

The Main In The Moon pub was situated at 392 Kings Road London and just at the bend at World’s End as it curves round to Seditionaries. It had a theatre upstairs and a cellar room downstairs and was at one time the haunt of Christine Keeler of the Sixties Profumo scandal fame. Keeler was a young model and dancer who helped to bring down the Tory government of Harold Macmillan. The story is laced with intrigue and sex so likely the Man In The Moon, like the Roebuck, attracted a mix of colourful characters from all walks of life including the underworld and sex trade.

However in punk terms, for a short period from around March 1977, a small scene developed here around Beaufort Market stallholders Poly Styrene and Ollie Wisdom’s bands namely X Ray Spex and The Unwanted and also King’s Road devotee with a Jordan fixation Adam Ant. The X Ray Spex Wednesday night residency supposedly came about after the landlord of the pub buys a dayglo tie from Poly’s stall and they get talking.

Alan Anger who produced the fanzine Live Wire and also wrote for Zigzag mentioned the pub in an article called The Joy Of Spex.

The dive bar was very tiny, without a stage, and the equipment was so shabby that it suited the surroundings. All the same, the place had a certain kind of atmosphere all of its own. The gigs were advertised by way of photocopied ads left lying around in “specialist” shops such as Rough Trade or by word of mouth. The regular support acts for Spex at this time were The Unwanted and Adam and the Ants. ZigZag, #86, August 1978

The Ants supported X-Ray Spex before headlining their own show there on May 25th. It was after this last show that SEX/Seditionaries shop assistant Jordan (invited by Adam to the gig) took on the role of band manager.

In Jordan’s book Defying Gravity she has The Ants supporting Siouxsie & The Banshees there which I think is mistaken. She recounts them playing Adam’s love song to her Sent A letter To Jordan three times in a row, equipment failing and the audience gradually moving back frightened by the intensity of Adam who started to terorrise them leaving just Jordan, Marco Pirroni & The Banshees in the room. Based on seeing this she became their manager!

The Man In The Moon and the Roebuck were the destination point for thirsty punks. Both feature in the short punk novel from the time The Punk by Gideon Sams.

Thelma and Adolph got off the train at Sloane Square and walked down the King’s Road towards the Roebuck and The Man In The Moon. The Roebuck was one of Adolph’s favourite pubs but the Man In The Moon had a lot of punk clientele.

However, it was a short-lived scene, and once X Ray Spex moved on to bigger things bands eventually stopped playing there.

This was where X Ray Spex gained their regular following and when they stopped playing there, the place never really caught that atmosphere again (though small bands like Defiant and Local Operator did attempt to recreate it – but to no avail). ZigZag, #86, August 1978

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