The Roxy Club

Who would have thought that a tiny little gay club called Chagueramas on the skids in the heart of run down Covent Garden London would have such an impact on the London Punk scene but that’s just what happened.

In late 1976 before punk had fully exploded into the general people’s consciousness it was confined to a support slot here and there and a gig every now and again. While there was nothing specifically to define Punk rock as yet various ingredients, people and bands were swirling around gay clubs and venues. Bands of people from places such as the Lacey Lady in Ilford were into Bowie and the like, others such as the Bromley Contingent were shoppers on the Kings Road and ‘Sex’ while others such as The Damned were into The Stooges, MC5 and high octane rock ‘n’ roll.

And so Barry Jones who lived with Matt Dangerfield, later of The Boys, in Warrington Crescent and in whose studio The Damned recorded their first demos met up with Andy Czezowski, one time manager of The Damned and now manager of Chelsea, to pawn his guitar to enable the hiring of a gay club called Chaguaramas now in decline. A club found by Chelsea’s singer Gene October as a place for his band to rehearse and play some gigs.

Above left – Barry Jones, Andy Czezowski and Ralph Jedrazyk

By the time the club opened for Chelsea gigs it had been renamed the Roxy, Chelsea had split with members Idol and James and Towe forming Generation X and it was they who played the first night closely followed by The Heartbreakers fresh off the aborted Anarchy Tour.

The success of the gigs meant Andy Barry and Ralph could make a go at running a club. With that in mind, they took on the lease and opened on New Year’s day with The Clash.

These were closely followed by more gigs featuring more experienced bands like The Damned and newer ones like The Adverts and Eater. They were given a chance to play in front of a like-minded audience. With a place to play established, all the faces on the scene like the Bromley lot, Soo Catwoman etc and early punk fans and bands made an appearance.

Left Punky types – Photo Credit? – Right Charlie Green (R) and friend – Photo Credit – Derek Ridgers

As new bands played the audience would often comprise members of said bands. Others energised by what they had seen would start bands, fanzines or make clothes. The fans and the fashion became as important to the scene as the bands. In between bands, Don Letts would spin heavy dub grooves and whatever few punk records were about at the time.

From the off the Roxy was in a precarious position and the boys had overcommitted on what they could play in rent. A robbery following The Stranglers gig didn’t help either. Also present was an attempt to wind the club down following complaints from residents but appeals were keeping it afloat for three months at a time. But the Roxy ploughed on putting on a succession of new and old bands some good and some not so good.

In March it held an American week featuring punk stars from across the pond from CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City showed a more professional, showbizzzy style of punk in contrast to the UK’s more urban politicised style – The Heartbreakers, Wayne County and Cherry Vanilla. The event got a lot of media coverage.

With worries over possible eviction, this was quickly followed up with hurried recordings over a couple of weekends of Wire, Adverts, Eater, Johnny Moped, Buzzcocks, Unwanted, X Ray Spex and Slaughter & the Dogs. Other bands recorded but not featured included The Boys, Siouxsie and The Slits. The record is notable for its inclusion of audience noise captured around various areas of the club and the extensive pics of clubgoers and bands captured on the cover and inner sleeve. Even the adverts featured clubgoers. The recordings were financed and released by Harvest EMI under the guidance of producer Mike Thorne.

The worries came true as following a Siouxsie & the Banshees and Violators gig, Andy, Barry and the whole crew were ousted. Legend has this as the golden period, the ‘100 days’ of the Roxy, and for many the club closed and they never went back.

Don Letts and Andy Czezowski outside the Roxy Club after being evicted – Photo Credit – Erica Echenberg

But it didn’t close…

But the Roxy Club carried on … A misguided attempt to vary the programme in late April early May had rock ’n’ roll bands (Teds and Punks were now in open street warfare captured in the media) and

In July the ‘Live at the Roxy’ album was released and astoundingly made the top 20. The first live album to do so since the Bangladesh Concert was released.

A new owner was appointed to the Roxy, a certain Kevin St John, a man with a colourful past and at the time a colourful present. Having done prison time in Shanghai and Australia, he’d arrived in England and soon already had accumulated a list of crimes. The year before taking the Roxy Club on he’s been banned from running a Shepherds Bush pub because of underage gay sex and drugs. Kevin was a gay gangster and a strange person to run a punk club. Tales of sexual advances and unsavoury goings-on are commonplace, but the club kept going.

Gigs at the Roxy continued apace with The Saints and the Radiators from Space and even an impromptu appearance by the granddaddy of Punk Iggy Pop in a surprise jump onstage during The Outsiders set. Bands like Siouxsie and Eater still played as well (despite their earlier avowals).

By now a second or even third wave of bands was coming through starting to make waves such as Sham 69, Menace, Killjoys and even Crass. Along with a deluge of bands hitching a ride on the punk bandwagon or just starting and who needed a place to play. There was a home for them all at the Roxy.

Sham 69 brought with them a harder more streetpunk sound and the emergence of the revival skinheads and all that entailed. It also coincided with the rise of the National Front.

At Christmas, a 48 Hour party was held followed by 2 nights of recording for another live album featuring The Jets, UK Subs, Blitz, Crabs, Bears, Plastix, Open Sore, Red Lights and Billy Karlof.

Moving into January 1978 bands like Adam & The Ants and The Psychedelic Furs got their first break here and even the Moors Murderers played an impromptu couple of songs.

No more big names – more a seedbed for new bands – and another venue on the gig circuit for bands to play.

The Roxy also lost its final appeal and was due to close at the end of March/April. To highlight its plight Jock McDonald was brought in to publicise the closure which included various stunts but to no avail. He’d also run his own nights there. The gigs began to wind down with more audition nights and even the inclusion of a regular gay night. A final effort by Kevin St John involved using the venue at lunchtime to put on plays but to no avail.

Finally, in April the Roxy shut its doors for good with a party that involved drinking the rest of the booze there and smashing the place up. Kevin St John threatened to let the National Front use it as its headquarters in an effort to piss off those who had got it closed. The club was even squatted for a while.

In May the album was released to mainly negative reviews and no money for the bands featured; it didn’t make the Top 30. Kevin St John arranged a short tour of two dates in Scotland to promote the album, which involved putting the bands up in a YMCA and giving them no money. The final calamity occurred on the last night when some of the band’s equipment was mysteriously stolen.

Eventually, the place was gutted, done up and given a change of use.

But still the Roxy Club didn’t quite die. The last act was the publication of 100 Nights at The Roxy – a photo book chronicling bands and audience members over those first 100 nights. Later Don Letts’ Punk Rock Movie would come out with celluloid footage of more of the same.

Today in 2024 a blue plaque from the Seven Dials Trust marks the location. It’s long been upscaled and gone upmarket but though 99% of passersby won’t have heard of the club they would know of punk. At one time a Speedo shop and now a bakery, it will no doubt keep changing but it will always be a part of a historic musical London that lives on in photos, music, video and memories.

In June 1977 The Roxy London WC2 album was released and within its first week made the Top 20 of the British album charts matching the performance of the Clash’s debut and bettering the Damned’s.

No one is quite sure who first had the idea for an album but the likelihood is, it was conceived sometime in January/February 1977 by Track Records who wanted to record at the club. The record ended up on EMI’s progressive label Harvest Records produced by Mike Thorne (below).

Barry Jones (Roxy Club Partner) We knew we were running out of time – the writing was on the wall – and we thought we’ve got to get this down. Who wants to be on a record? Everybody does! It’s not that we thought this was a historic event we had to capture – nothing like that.

The record was to be am aural document of what was going on in the club.

With funding in place it was time to assemble the album. Several bands, who were considered, never even got to the recording stage, either pulling out or refusing to be associated with the projected album like The Vibrators, Generation X and The Damned.

Despite the three top names being absent what you get is a good cross-selection of bands representing Punk; the Buzzcocks, Adverts, Wire, the Slits, Siouxsie & the Banshees Slaughter & the Dogs, Johnny Moped, X Ray Spex, the Unwanted (Smak), Eater and The Boys. Though all agreed to be recorded, not all signed up.

Master Tapes track listing and original listing as The Boys get scrubbed out. From Andrew Czezowski’s & Sue Carringtons archive

From that original pool of bands The Slits, Siouxsie & the Banshees & The Boys were all recorded but pulled out of the album for various reasons.

So what did the bands that finished up on the album think of their recordings? Surely a top twenty album would have been an achievement.

Slaughter and the Dogs open up the album, announcing themselves as ‘murder and the cats’ before hammering through Boston Babies and Runaway. Tosh Ryan of Rabid Records who released the Dogs’ debut single Cranked Up Really High thought their tracks ‘badly produced’.

Wayne Barrett (Slaughter & the Dogs) Not ever receiving a penny on the royalties, I don’t know how many it sold, but we got fuck all. The Roxy album was just another scam compilation. It didn’t really help us as we had Rabid Records at that time in Manchester.

However he does point out that “It became an all time classic!”

Next up The Unwanted who weren’t even supposed to be there. They pulled a fast one!

Ollie Wisdom (the Unwanted aka Smak) We had two half-hour rehearsals and blagged our way to a gig at the Roxy Club. We weren’t booked to play there at all. We just turned up and said ’You booked us.’ And they said ‘ooerr I don’t know about that’. We said ‘course you did. Do you think we would be here if you didn’t book us?’

Turned out that X Ray Spex were headlining and Eater and Slaughter & the Dogs were all playing and it was being recorded by EMI. It was our first ever gig. None of us had ever performed before and it was completely atrocious. We had five songs and we played four of them twice! It was pure Punk Rock. We just got it together. It just so happened that it got recorded and ended up as a chart album.

Wire, previously told by Andy to come back when they had learned to play, ended up with two tracks.

Colin Newman (Wire) We saw it as a gig (of which there weren’t many at the time). We opened on both nights we played. OK bands got two tracks, the rest got one. Mike Thorne, who had actually supervised the recordings was also somehow doing A&R for EMI. Meanwhile certain artists from the album were being approached by EMI A&R for a more extended interest. That amounted to Wire and the Buzzcocks. In hindsight this was a pretty big step for us.

Wire had two tracks on the album. The slow grooving ‘Lowdown’ and the up-tempo pogotastic ‘12XU’ dedicated to Lou Pannetta.

Photo credits left and right – Adrian Fox. Middle – Eddie Duggan

Closing side one were The Adverts with Bored Teenagers and for TV Smith the singer, there was mixed feelings.

TV Smith (the Adverts) We didn’t like it. The gig was one of the worst we’d played; we hardly got through a single song without making mistakes or stopping. When we listened back to the tape of the gig we hated it, but our manager and the label wanted to put a song of ours on the album and we eventually agreed.

In the end, I think that was the right decision, it helped us get known and set the scene for ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes’, which came out a few months later. Unfortunately, it also reinforced the idea of the Adverts as a ramshackle band; in fact it helped define Punk Rock as ramshackle because most of the bands on it sounded equally ramshackle. That wasn’t particularly what we’d wanted to do, but at least it set it apart from the rest of the music scene – in some way – and it was unpretentious, in stark contrast to the pompous music we’d been having to put up with before Punk.

In hindsight though Tim, like Wayne Barrett of Slaughter, thinks “the album sounds fantastic, completely unlike anything else before or since.”

Opening side two comes the loveable loon Johnny Moped. By the time he came onstage that night the Roxy was packed.

Christian Paris (the Bears) I remember there was sweat dripping from some kind of pipe running across the stage and I remember Johnny Moped and the whole Roxy Club dripping with sweat.

Johnny began the song with an extended rap in his own inimitable style.

Okay tomcats, its real hot in this joint, I prefer a sauna myself. Okay everyone are ya feelin’ alright? Or ‘alf-pissed or ‘alf-knackered or what? Jesus it’s fuckin’ hot in here. Right, we should be out boozin’, shouldn’t we? And pogoin’. Its Saturday night, innit! Have a pogo for this number. Basically it’s called “Ard Lovin’ Man”

Asked his opinions of the album Slimey Toad, the Mopeds guitarist, cryptically replied.

The club was especially horrid, but we went down like a five star rock ‘n’ roll outfit with all the lead left in. I thought the Live at the Roxy album was a great idea. It was kaoz. It established a lot of bands as a load of never was’es.

The Buzzcocks close side one with two tracks Breakdown and Love Battery. This was their one and only gig at the Roxy and one to which they had brought down some friends including Paul Morley and Manchester Shy Talk fanzine editor Steve Shy.

Steve Shy (Shy Talk Fanzine) The Buzzcocks night was a good night. About fifteen of us went in a small coach including Paul Morley and Ian Hodge (of the Worst) who was all in leather and had a big red swastika on his back. We were walking down the Kings Road on the Sunday afternoon. There were loads of Japanese tourists, and everybody wanted to take photographs. Paul Morley was going up asking for people to pay for the photographs. I think we got enough money for the beer all night! I remember Joan and Denise from Rochdale were with us.

The club was also rammed with other bands wanting to see the Buzzcocks.

Steve Diggle (the Buzzcocks) It was a cool place and a cool show to go to that night, definitely, coz there was a lot of the key Punk players and faces like Mick Jones and Billy Idol there.  We were good.  It would be an absolute rubbish Punk album without our tracks on it (laughs).

Pete Shelley (the Buzzcocks) It has its charm and is a true document of the time.  It’s when we had the tinny Woolworth’s guitars and all that stuff.  It’s got the spirit of that earliness. And the sound; you can smell the Punk coming out of it!

This being a live album and because Punk was as much about the audience as about the bands, the clubgoers were also required to play their part. The only similar album out was live at CBGB’s which was recorded strangely without an audience!

Mike Thorne (Roxy WC2 Album Producer) The do-it yourself mentality meant that audience and act were peers. The Punks had reacted against keepers of musical knowledge in their white lab coats, and weren’t about to let their mates go down the same bad road without raucous commentary. Those mates in the audience were part of the show. I persuaded the mobile crew to put mikes in reception, the bar, and the two toilets, the feeds from which we recorded separately. The music itself went to state-of-the-art 24-track recorders. Some bands’ equipment probably cost less than two reels of tape.

Annette Weatherman (Roxygoer & Photographer) The crowd was just as important as the Punk Rock musicians. The musicians were just up there representing what we all felt like. The fact that we were there applauding them didn’t mean we were just spectators but part of it. We were part of the music whether we played it or not. The people who weren’t buying this were the people who were into music all along.

Miking up the club and audience was a stroke of brilliance according to Barry.

Barry Jones (Roxy Club Partner) I don’t know whose idea it was to record the ambiance, could have been Mike or all three of us, but it was brilliant. We figured if we could get that ambiance and expand the sound we could capture what the craziness of the club was about when it was full on. 

With advertising by Andy, the Roxy was packed out.

Derek Ridger (Photographer) There was one night when the Buzzcocks played and there were five bands on. That was probably the craziest night. There was some pogoing, and a lot of pretend fighting, beer spraying and stuff like that.  I think there were people down there that night that I never saw before or since. It was an atmosphere that was quite dark and dangerous, but also quite sexy. That was it at its best. 

If the conversation sounds confusing on the record then so what? Stand in a busy bar and it’s just the same as you encounter snippets of multiple conversations. It captures the live situation perfectly and makes it sound like the club is in your room right down to the smashing glasses, tuning up and the bands setting off over the hum. It’s a noise that all live albums leave off. Here it’s a plus.

Mike Thorne then chose what were to him the most successful tracks and got mixing and fixing the tracks. In all from start to finish the album took around two months to complete at Kingsway Studios.

As per part of the deal, Barry as the artist delivered the cover after the first set of artwork from Harvest was rejected as too EMI and too corporate. Barry explains how he arrived at the cover.

Barry Jones (Roxy Club Partner) I was really stuck. You couldn’t have a band on the cover because that would have given them prominence. You couldn’t have my posters because I wanted something classier. I wanted to convey that ‘someone had a great time here’ vibe. When you saw it in a normal print it was good. Once you put that magenta solarisation on it, it popped and that was it for me. I think I had the picture before the cover and I designed the cover around the picture.

Zecca Esquibel (Cherry Vanilla) Do you see the piano on stage? What looks like one person standing to the left is actually two. That’s me dressed in an olive green jumpsuit taking the pickup out of the back of the piano. The head that you see bending to the left is Stewart Copeland taking apart his famous Tamlas. I don’t tell most people because they think I’m making it up. How ironic having of all people the Police on the cover! It would make those Punks grind their teeth.

You gotta love it!

The link between the audience and the performer is not just sonic; ‘Live At The Roxy’ is the complete package and the packaging is not skimped on. The record cover and inner sleeve are in thick cardboard. The bands all have photos of themselves and the band members are listed. More than that, the sleeve and inner are plastered with photos of Roxy Club punters and even a transexual leftover from when the club was Chaguaramas.

Alan Anger (Live Wire Fanzine) A mixture of pictures of the groups and poseurs are all over the cover. Live Wire #7, July 1977

Roxy album: Back and inside covers

Skid Kid (Ripped & Torn Fanzine). The outer and inner sleeves are covered in small snapshot photos of various artistes both on and off the album, as well as the usual liggers and poseurs. So, you never bought it nicked or ligged it for the cover Didja-? Ripped & Torn #7, August 1977

Fiona Dutton (Roxygoer) The photos actually feature quite a lot of some people who only went that one night and were what we disparagingly called ‘Global Village kids’ after the disco at Charing Cross. They were basically tourists, although there are one or two regulars on the cover. 

On the Roxy cover were also pictures of the Manchester mob down to see the Buzzcocks as Gail Bamsey, who was with them, recalls.

Gail Bamsey (Roxygoer) There is one picture with Ian, Alan (both from Manchester band the Worst) and a guy called Vinny on the ‘Live at the Roxy’ album and another with Denise from Rochdale who was one of the Manchester Punk girls with Paul Morley standing behind her.

Upon release, the album ran the gauntlet of the full range of criticism in the music weeklies and fanzines. In the NME Julie Burchill reviewed the album positively, ending on an uncharacteristic poignant note.

Slaughter & the Dogs…stunningly professional… recalling all those best Roxy nights…The Unwanted have the definitive pogo song…The Adverts…are vastly more palatable than they ever were for real…Eater…whose considerable energy seems to for once to possess a soupcon of direction.” And intellectualising Julie identifies ”…the essential frustration of this album, much more of a theme than aggression or social conscience. A frustration that cuts deeper than any recording contract and a front cover will ever heal. A sign of the times, reflected in the final moments of sad squabbling which close ‘Live At The Roxy.’ NME, 2.7.77

By 1978 in the book The Boy Looked At Johnny, penned with her husband and NME co-conspirator Tony Parsons, they had come to bury Punk not praise it. Along with the hatchet job of every major US and UK Punk band, the Roxy and its live album was given similar revisionist treatment.

The product itself was a rush job managing to omit almost all of the finest bands who had played the Roxy, instead, gathering together an interminable tinny drone, unlistenable mindless muzak which sounded as if it had been recorded in a rusty bean can.

Click below for larger images

Jon Savage in his ‘Sounds’ album review was up for a bit more intellectualising.

An approximate Warhol dictum: ’In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes.’ We never had a proper Warhol scene over here, did we? So up steps the Roxy to fill that gap – all the photographers out for their Punkposes/starspotters/stab-your-back hierarchy/drill eyes/plastic ghouls/freaks-as-norm/ the I’ll be your mirror sense of event – often the bands became secondary to the real business of the evening: to see/be seen.

As audio-verite, this album is brilliant. The concept – an evening at the Roxy – is established right from the first groove.

Mr Savage then goes on to list the bands that he thinks good and bad before concluding.

So no false nostalgia for the Roxy please – it had its 15 minutes and served its purpose – for better or worse the new wave has moved on. As a documentary. It works very well: after two sides you feel authentically blank/bored/bombed. But as with most albums of this type (Viz CBGB’s) the motley assortment of bands doesn’t make it listenable. Sounds, 6.8.77

Last word from reviews at the time to Charlie Chainsaw from fanzine Chainsaw.

This album’s bloody fantastic, it’s what the New Wave is all about. This is the album of all the hot new bands that don’t have anywhere else to play. The recording quality couldn’t be any better…the songs themselves are as clear as you can get, as good as on a studio album.” His only quibble was “Can’t make out many of the words though – why isn’t there a bleedin’ lyric sheet?” Julie Davis, Punk, 1977

Mixed feelings from record buyers

Mike Herbage (Department S) I remember my mate Mick buying this LP and I couldn’t believe how shite it was. Talentless boneheads with a Johnny Rotten wannabee attitude. I mean Johnny Moped, really….Why? I was just sooooo grateful to know which pointless drivel to avoid going to see. Utter dreck.  I would concede that Wire and the Buzzcocks are good though. Punk77 Forum Board

Provoked? (Glasgow A.P.G 1977) It was raw and somehow the energy of all the bands came through. Even if you weren’t there at the time it captured those bands in their early state and roughness. It almost spewed out what it was like to be at the Roxy Club with all its bands racing to play better. It’s not some glossed over product. It’s a one take production and not spending seasons in a record studio like most f**king stars do. It’s Punk Rock just before being captured by the major record dross, with its large venues and its big f***ing contracts sign here rubbish There’s a good few classic tracks on Live at the Roxy. Punk77 Forum Board

Grumbles aside, it really is an astonishing artefact that captures a movement on the cusp of going well and truly overground. All the bands were Punk and linked sonically and visually by that loose term for better or worse. It’s bands forming out of nothing, with limited equipment and varying levels of musical knowledge with a basic creative spark and a will to have that fifteen minutes of fame.

The album catches all those gritty moments and more. It adds the chatter and crowd ambience as virtual tracks themselves containing future members of even more band wannabees. It’s a fact that bar the Unwanted, every artist featured made at least one album. Three of them, the Adverts, X Ray Spex and Buzzcocks (and so very nearly Wire), made the charts and still influence bands today. If you want to push it further two members of the Unwanted ended up joining the Psychedelic Furs. Later on Ollie Wisdom, the singer, formed the Specimen and ran his own goth version of the Roxy, ‘The Batcave’, before becoming a renowned DJ. Not bad going for supposed dross!

So in reflection what did they all think of the album?

Andy Czezowski (Roxy Club Partner) It encapsulated that moment in time 100%. The ability or lack of ability, the time and period and the movement and the energy is certainly caught. I think it’s magnificent for that. I don’t think I’ve even listened to the album since.

Barry Jones (Roxy Club Partner) It captured the spirit of the place. It’s a shame we rushed it. We should have had it longer so you could have got some real conversations. The best tracks by far on it are the Wire tracks. Always my favourites; the ones that blew me away. I was proud of it and I loved the look of it. Love what it said about a particular time in British pop history. It was accidental. We picked up something rolling by and helped it go somewhere. The timing was perfect.

Mike Thorne (Roxy WC2 Album Producer) Most Punk bands were ramshackle and couldn’t play.  End of story.  But competence wasn’t the issue – message was all.  The album captures the time and place.  I had some studio experience, so was able to catch the spirit of place and the sheer exuberance of it all on vinyl. There was a lot of energy to be bottled. The attitude and content was just right. No need to chase some illusory technical perfection. Also, remember this was a one-off live album, attempting to catch and convey a spirit, a time and a place.

And the last word to Ollie from the Unwanted who sums up perfectly the Roxy, the album and Punk Rock in just a few lines and reiterates Mike Thorne’s points.

Ollie Wisdom (the Unwanted) The album captures something of the chaos unleashed by the whole Punk thing you know. Suddenly there are a million bands and anybody could be in a band on a stage. It didn’t necessarily require any talent or musical ability. You could just go and do it anyway.

Eventually cream rises to the top and the dregs float to the bottom. That’s where the Unwanted were. Pretty down near the bottom! It was the stepping stone leading to the Specimen and a direct evolution to where I am now. Music has given me a fantastic life and the Unwanted was the start.

Punk had certainly moved on a long way and this second live at the Roxy album contained another batch of young hopefuls trying to emulate the success of their predecessors from the first album

The recording dates were advertised in both Sounds and New Musical Express as taking place over three days; Sat Dec 31st, Sunday January 1st, and Monday January 2nd.

St John was obviously aware of the bands who could pull an audience and the ones he could manipulate into getting for free. Negotiations with the bands weren’t complicated – either do it for nothing or you’re not part of it.  A chance of being recorded and the possibility that it might lead onto other things meant payment wasn’t an issue for most bands.

The Crabs hailed from Great Yarmouth and were originally called Tezzer, a glam teeny-bop band aged around fifteen and sixteen in 1976. Back then they had become involved with Mike Berry who became their manager and signed them up to a publishing deal with Sparta Florida. The Acme Sewage Co were from Welwyn Garden City and had already been featured on record. Blitz lived with St John. Their place on the album was assured.

There were some strange inclusions though.

Like Billy Karloff & the Goats. I don’t think it’s being harsh to describe John ‘Billy Karloff’ Osborn (vocals/guitar), as one of music’s journey men destined for obscurity. Through the seventies, Osborn had been playing in a selection of acts on the pub scene including Slippery Sam and Streamliner. He was also in some very Punky sounding outfits like Scum Of the Earth and the Punks. Somehow he had ended up as Billy Karloff & the Goats and on the Punk scene without sounding really very Punky at all.

Also on the album were…The Red Lights formed in mid 1977 and debuted at the Roxy supporting Menace on 12th November 1977 and their track ‘Never Want To Leave,’ featured on the Roxy album.

XL5 are a bit of a mystery. One can only hope that St John’s and Berry’s promises of fame didn’t seduce them. They played once on a Tuesday audition night on 13.12.77 and two weeks later they made the recording. Likewise the Streets were another band who played their debut gig at the Roxy in December and featured on the album.

Staple Roxy acts like Sham 69 and Menace didn’t appear on the album. They were starting to build up a following and media interest and had already been signed up to either Illegal or Polydor record labels. Others like Raped were asked but refused because of the deal.

Farewell To the Roxy was finally released on April 7th 1978 just as the Roxy shut its doors for good. Unlike the first album it was given a much lower key release in the press with quarter page ads towards the back of the music weeklies and a full page in Zigzag.

The Pitiful (see above picture) who had played would have discovered their non-appearance. They were recorded but legend has it that their performance was so bad it couldn’t be included and as a result of this the UK Subs got two songs on the album.

The Jets also somehow ended up with two numbers on the album. A fact which escaped Kevin St John and Mike Berry and probably The Jets at the time. Drink and Dreg.

Looking at the cover of the album the bands and fans would most likely have been surprised and disappointed. A dark gloomy Polaroid, from which you barely make out the Roxy Club, was stuck in the centre of the cover. On the back, the track listing was written over a picture of a section of the graffitied Roxy toilets. It could have been so much more, if like the Live At The Roxy WC2 album cover, it had added photos of the club, bands and regulars that had continued to make the Roxy their home and scene.

Ronny Rocka (the Crabs) It could have been a great cover with just some of the photos taken on the days of the recording.

Justin (The Jets. On the last night we played there the band name was sprayed on the ‘bog’ wall somewhat larger than the scatter shot of existing graffiti. Unbeknown to us this angst ridden wall was to be photographed for the back cover of the LIVE AT THE ROXY album causing a certain amount of miffness amongst a couple of the more competitive bands. Jets Archive website

Christian Paris (the Bears) It’s a shame there wasn’t more thought behind it because potentially it could have been a little bit of history that we all could have been part of. But then again if St John hadn’t of done it there would have been nothing at all.

The reviews in the press were mainly negative. Mick Wall in Sounds commented.

Whereas the first ‘live’ artifact (from an altogether different era) ‘Live At The Roxy WC2’ was a celebratory achievement, a platform on which such notable dignitaries as Wire and X Ray Spex were launched into the world, ‘Farewell To The Roxy’ is by comparison a less than laudable affair. It writhes and squeals, limply creeps up from behind and ultimately betrays any dignity it might well have subscribed to. It’s not so much of a failure as a mistake…blow by blow obscurity starts here… If you were there then you’ll probably treasure this banal token forever and ever. If you weren’t then stay well away. Sounds, 15.4.78

Rosalind Russell in the Record Mirror) awarded the album a lowly two out of five stars. In her review she comments, “If this was the general standard prior to the closure of the Roxy, then it’s not such a bad idea to shut it down.” Record Mirror, 15.4.78

Alan Anger, who had been a regular at the Roxy and present at the first live recording, dismissed it in his fanzine saying.

Most of the bands on the second Roxy album (with the exception of the Crabs) are a lot of shit as well. The first Roxy album had people like the Buzzcocks and Spex on it, which goes to prove that the first wave of new wave was the best wave on the ocean. Live Wire #18

The first wave of Punk bands took the plaudits. From that first Roxy album, five out of the seven bands were signed to major labels and three of them had chart hits. Bar one act, every band released an album. For the bands on Farewell To The Roxy it was a different story. Most of them never even recorded or had records released and eventually faded into obscurity. But it’s that obscurity that has given this album its staying power and even a new lease of life and appreciation.

Justin (the Jets) As for the album I think most bands that appeared probably viewed it for what it was. In terms of progressing (for want of better expressions), up any music business or other career ladder it was likely to mean very little. It was where it was all happening, somewhere everyone wanted to be, and of course with respect to appearing on the recording, there just might be the opportunity for a further bite on some other type of cherry.

Jenny Rate – Open Sore and Charlie Harper – UK Subs – Roxy Club

The exception to the rule was the UK Subs who did benefit from being on the album. The album may have been cheap and cheerful but John Peel, the Radio 1 DJ who championed Punk from the beginning, loved the UK Subs tracks and played them continuously and exposed them to audiences around the world. This combined with their relentless touring ended with them signed to GEM and they would enjoy prolific chart success in their early years. Two million years later they are still touring and recording.

The continued obsession with Punk Rock has made the first album so well known that’s there very little else to discover sonically and historically about those bands. ‘Farewell To The Roxy’ charts a very different Punk Rock period. One with lots of potential riches to be gleaned from bands who had missed out on the Punk major label goldmine and who were forced to ply their trade just like before on the circuit building a following and paying their dues. This is the real explosion of Punk Rock and its continuing legacy. From the fun pop Punk of The Bears, to the new wave Punk of Blitz to the harder almost heavy metal guitar and singing of Open Sore to the tunefulness and sense of dynamics of The Crabs to the classic Punk tunery of the UK Subs. All this reflects how Punk was moving toward the end of 1977. It was chiefly musical, still amateur but no longer benefited from the fashion, hype or publicity of the early days.

December 1976

Tuesday 14/12/76: Generation X
Wednesday 15/12/76: Heartbreakers

January 1977

Saturday 1/1/77: The Clash, Chelsea

Monday 3/1/77: Slaughter & The Dogs

Thursday 6/1/77: The Jam, Wire

Saturday 8/1/77: The Jam, The Lurkers

Tuesday 11/1/77: Heartbreakers

Wednesday12/1/77: The Vibrators

Thursday 13/1/77: Eater

Saturday 15/1/77: Generation X, The Adverts

Monday 17/1/77: The Damned, Eater, The Boys

Wednesday 19/1/77: Slaughter & The Dogs, The Adverts

Thursday 20/1/77: Squeeze, The Zips

Saturday 22/1/77: The Stranglers, The Cortinas

Monday 24/1/77: The Damned, The Boys

Tuesday 25/1/77: Buzzcocks Cancelled

Thursday 27/1/77: The Vibrators, The Drones, Outsiders

Saturday 29/1/77: Generation X, Sham 69

Monday 31/1/77: The Damned, The Rejects

February 1977

Wednesday 2/2/77: Heartbreakers
Thursday 3/2/77: Eater, Johnny Moped
Friday 4/2/77: Chelsea, Cocksparrer

Saturday 5/2/77: The Cortinas, Masterswitch
Sunday 6/2/77 The Adverts
Wednesday 9/2/77: The Vibrators, The Rejects, Eater
Thursday 10/2/77 Little Village – Funky Latin Salsa sound!
Friday 11/2/77 The Jam, The Lurkers
Saturday 12/2/77: Slaughter & The Dogs, Beastly Cads

Monday 14/2/77: The Damned, The Adverts
Wednesday 16/2/77: The Vibrators, G.B.H.
Friday 18/2/77: The Boys (Cancelled)
Saturday 19/2/77: The Cortinas, The Bombers
Sunday 20/2/77: Reggae Night
Monday 21/2/77: The Damned The Adverts, Johnny Moped
Tuesday 22/2/77: The Late Eddie Cochran

Wednesday 23/2/77: Slaughter & The Dogs, G.B.H.
Thursday 24/2/77: The Jam, The Rejects, Wire
Friday 25/2/77: The Only Ones, Kubie & The Rats, The Drones,
Saturday 26/2/77: Shakin’ Streets, Beastly Cads
Sunday 27/2/77: Possible biggie – ring 836 8811 for details
Monday 28/2/77: The Damned, The Adverts, Chelsea

March 1977

2.3.77: Marc Bolan’s Dandy In The Underworld LP release party…followed by Heartbreakers

Captain Sensible & Marc Bolan

Thursday 3/3/77: Heartbreakers, Cherry Vanilla & The Police
Friday 4/3/77: Wayne County & The Electric Chairs, The Police, The Adverts

Jayne County (Electric Chairs) Well, the first gig was at the Roxy, and it was kind of a dive, but a good dive! It had real atmosphere. Very trashy. I performed my Patti Smith impersonation, as Ratti Smith, doing a warped version of ‘Horses’ chanting ‘horses, horses, horses. Giraffes, giraffes, giraffes, piss ants, piss ants, piss ants, etc. etc. etc.’ It was a hoot. It told the story of Johnny. Johnny goes down to the locker room, and let’s the football players all jerk off on him. Then he jumps up, all covered from head to toe with sperm, saying, ‘Hey, I ain’t no queer man! I just like to get jerked off on by football players!’ It was a ridiculous parody and quite insulting, actually!

Then the other thing I did was stick my head into the bass drum at the end of a song. Also at the Roxy, I did ‘Toilet Love’ with the condom and garbage wig and trash bag dress, with old Roxy handbills glued all over it. Also, I vomited on stage as well as all the jumping about, vile language and gestures. But no, I did not eat dog food out of a toilet and pretend that it was shit! I had stopped doing that by then! Paul Marko, The Roxy WC2

Saturday 5/3/77: Cherry Vanilla, The Police, The Boys
Thursday 10/3/77 Siouxsie & The Banshees, Iron Maiden (Cancelled)

Iron Maiden had checked out the Roxy first catching Gene October and Chelsea play.

Steve Harris (Iron Maiden) …all these weirdos diving about spitting all over each other and soaking the singer in spew. I said, ‘Fuck this. If we play down here, there’s gonna be a riot!’ Imagine if our fans had gone down there and the punks had started gobbing on them. There would have been a right knuckle.  Mick Wall, Iron Maiden: Run To The Hills, 2004

Tuesday 22/3/77: The Jam, The Rejects
Wednesday 23/3/77: Eater
Thursday 24/3/77: The Boys, Slaughter & The Dogs, The Adverts
Friday 25/3/77: Slaughter & The Dogs, Chelsea, The Adverts
Saturday 26/3/77: Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Slits
Thursday 31/3/77: The Damned, Johnny Moped (Cancelled)

April 1977

Friday 1.4.77: the Cortinas, the Models

Saturday 2.4.77: Recording of ‘the Roxy, London WC2’ – Buzzcocks, Wire, X Ray Spex, Smak (later the Unwanted, Johnny Moped

Saturday 9.4.77: Generation X, Penetration 

Friday 15.4.77: The Cortinas, the Models

Saturday16.4.77: Johnny Moped, Skrewdriver

Monday 18.4.77: Wayne County, the Adverts

Thursday 21.4.77: Ozo

Friday 22.4.77: Slaughter & the Dogs, the Lurkers

Saturday 23.4.77: Siouxsie & the Banshees, the Violators

Andy Czezowski (Roxy Club Partner) They said to me ‘you had better leave or else’ and they threw me out on the street. That’s where I met Adam Ant because he said ‘why don’t you come in?’ and I said ‘I can’t. They won’t let me.’

Outside people were asking me ‘Andy what’s going on?’ They could see there was a change on the door because they were not being nice. And whereas we were laughing and joking and letting people in for free, they were making everyone pay. People would say ‘I’m a friend of Andy’s’ and they would say ‘Well we don’t fucking care. You gotta pay!’

Wayne Lewis (the Violators) We traveled with our equipment on the train and got to the Roxy early. We saw Siouxsie rehearsing in the afternoon and I remember thinking 1. She is quality and 2. How come the guitarist has got a wedge haircut (ginger fella, great haircut but not what I thought it was all about). Bottom line is that there was a coolness about them.

The crowd was older and a bit intimidating. There were blokes looking like IRA hitman, all berets and sunglasses and in hindsight I realise they were the fashion end of the movement, all Art School cool. Also everyone was about ten years older than us BUT it was everything I hoped it would be and it was packed. The dressing room (yeah right!) was pokey and small, full of damp walls and graffiti. The beer was served in plastic glasses and was poor. Not that we had that much of it as we were skint. We were not acting, we had fuck all!

I remember as we went into our first number, all nerves and adrenalin, that the audience loved us. There was a lot of pogoing going on. We were in our element and we were good even if I say so myself. Ari Up did join us on stage and sang along. I don’t know how because even I didn’t know the words. I think we did encore just before Don Letts drowned us out with some dub. It was a magic night.

Monday 25.4.77: Crazy Caven & the Rhythm Rockers

Thursday 28.4.77: Downliners Sect

Friday 29.4.77: Chelsea, the Prefects, Bethnal

Saturday 30.4.77: XTC, Drones

Steve Warren (XTC Roadie) Place gets heavier by the minute with lots of leather, chains and various other strange clothes. Heaviest guy is one with glasses, short hair, no teeth, and armband. Studded gloves, leather trousers and jackboots. XTC come on and open with ‘Radios In Motion’. The crowd like ‘Saturn Boy’ very much. I cringe with fear when they play ‘Watchtower’, but it goes down quite well. Dave James and Colin then get hit by a glass. Band leaves after 29 minutes thank God. Reid’s brother starts smashing some tables up and The Drones roadie beats up writers from a paper. Various beer cans and glasses are thrown around. I do like a girl in black suspender belt and stockings with the white shirt. Lots of trouble when the place closes. No one wants to leave. Heavy scene at the end of the road and later we find our Reid had his car smashed in. Chris Twomey, XTC – Chalkhills & Children, 2002

May 1977

Monday 2.5.77: Count Bishops, Cherry Vanilla 

Thursday 5.5.77: Rock ‘n Roll Nite: Mike Berry & the Original Outlaws 

Friday 6.5.77: New Wave Night: 48 Hours (later 999)

Saturday 7.5.77: Violators

Norm Fasey (The Violators) The place was empty for the second gig!! There couldn’t have been more than a dozen people there. It was sad to see the place had gone down the shitter in such a short space of time! We were playing on our own so did our set twice. So we supported ourselves. Punk77 Interview

Thursday 12.5.77: Rock ‘n’ Roll Nite: Flight 56

Friday 13.5.77: New Wave Nite: London

Saturday 14.5.77: New Wave Night: Act To Be Arranged

Thursday 19.5.77: Rock ‘n’ Roll Nite: Cadillac

Friday 20.5.77: Wasps

Saturday 21.5.77:

Thursday 26.5.77: Masterswitch, Mean Street

Friday 27.5.77: Aggravators, Menace

Steve Tannett (Menace) There’s a film about IRS and Miles Copeland and there’s some footage of him and me where we’re telling a story but we’re not in the same room. So it cuts to Miles and he goes, “So I had this recording time and I didn’t have a band so I went to the Roxy Club.” Then I’m like, “Yes we’re playing the Roxy Club and we’re in this shitty dressing room in the Roxy and in walks this guy.” Then it goes back to Miles and he says, “Yeah, so I walked in and I went you guys are pretty good you know, and do you want to make a record?” It’s a true story.

The truth is that Miles did have a pull out on the studio at Pathway for another band who couldn’t do it. So that night we happened to be at the Roxy he came in, and it’s as true as the day I was born, “You guys want to make a record?” and we went, “Hmmm dunno. Yeah one day.” He went, “No, do you want to make one now?” He told us he had some studio time at Pathway and to be there Saturday or whenever it was and we were like, we couldn’t believe it.

So that first gig at the Roxy in May 1977 Miles and Kim turned up and effectively signed us that night to a two-record deal. We went in and recorded nearly straight away.

Miles Copeland It was a fluke; I had a studio. I needed a band. I saw Menace, we did the record, a few weeks later I was driving around selling the record to stores.

Saturday 28.5.77: XTC, Sahara Farm, Krakatoa

Bob Noble (Sahara Farm) I was there at the time of conflict between Kevin St John the Roxy Club manager and our manager, I thought he was a right smarmy git, who did not give a toss about anyone. One thing that did stand out about him, were his trousers, they were pure white and had a crease that could slice bread. The reason that that stood out to me, was that at the time I thought his club was one of the biggest dives I had ever been in. We didn’t get a sound check, and did we get paid? I have no idea. Punk77 Interview, January 2026

June

Wednesday 1.6.77: Wire

Thursday 2.6.77: the Models, the Framed

Friday 3.6.77: 999, Bethnal 

Saturday 4.6.77: 999, Mean Street, the Eyes

Tuesday 7.6.77: the Violators

Thursday 9.6.77: Sham 69, Skrewdriver 

Friday 10.6.77: the Lurkers, Mean Street, the Police

Saturday 11.6.77: Wire, Adam & the Ants, Mean Street

Sunday 12.6.77: Johnny Moped, Mean Street

Thursday 16.6.77: Johnny Moped, Mean Street

Friday 17.6.77: Police, the Mutants 

Saturday 18.6.77: The Boys, Mean Street

Wednesday 22.6.77: Ed Banger & the Nosebleeds, Shoplifters, Gloria Mundi

Thursday 23.6.77: the Electric Chairs, Alternative TV, Ed Banger & the Nosebleeds

Friday 24.6.77: the Saints, Neo, Bethnal

Saturday 25.6.77: the Saints, Mean Street, Tubeway Army

Wednesday 29.6.77: Audition Night: Bernie Torme, Icebergs, Rikki & the Last Days of the Earth 

Thursday 30.6.77: the Electric Chairs, Alternative TV 

July 1977

Friday 1.7.77: the Electric Chairs, Alternative TV

Saturday 2.7.77: Slaughter & the Dogs, Violent

Wednesday 6.7.77: Audition Night: Model Mania, Zero

Thursday 7.7.77: Skinflicks, New Hearts, London

Friday 8.7.77: Skrewdriver, Renoir

Saturday 9.7.77: Mean Street, Swords

Wednesday 13.7.77: Audition Night: Outpatients, the Dead

Thursday 14.7.77: the Slits 

Friday 15.7.77: Eater, Bethnal

Saturday 16.7.77: Stilletto, Sham 69

Wednesday 20.7.77: Audition Night: Transistors, the Makers, Stinky Toys, Killjoys

Thursday 21.7.77: Siouxsie & the Banshees, the Unwanted, Swank

Friday 22.7.77: X Ray Spex, Tubeway Army

Saturday 23.7.77: London, the Zips

Tuesday 26.7.77: the Bears

Wednesday 27.7.77: Audition Night: Transmitters, Now

Thursday 28.7.77: Mean Street, Menace, the Rings, the Rezillos

Friday 29.7.77: Dead Fingers Talk, Cocksparrer

Saturday 30.7.77: Dead Fingers Talk, New Hearts, Neo

August 1977

Wednesday 3.8.77: Audition Night: Clutch Plates, the Bears, Nuffin

Thursday 4.8.77: Rikki & the Last Days Of the Earth, Screens

Friday 5.8.77: Menace, the Killjoys, Zeros

Saturday 6.8.77: Slack Alice, Bernie Torme

Wednesday 10.8.77: Audition Night: Bleach, Vile Bodies, Varicose Veins

Thursday 11.8.77: Mean Street, Some Chicken

Friday 12.8.77: the Victims, the Members, Ed Banger & the Nosebleeds

Saturday 13.8.77: Ed Banger & the Nosebleeds, Sham 69, the Now,

Ed Banger (the Nosebleeds) It was a classic toilet gig. The smell of vomit, weed, glue, and graffiti everywhere – perfect – we got there late for the gig. As it was just a single doorway entrance on some side street, we must have passed it five times or more so before we eventually got in. Sham 69 were on stage with Mr Pursey doing one of his legendary rants between songs to about ten people. Most of them were other bands waiting to go on.

There was a definite feeling of sleaze in the air with the sight of two leather clad mini skirted Punkettes sticking there tongues down each others throats in the middle of the dance floor – superb. There was some top dub reggae played by the DJ between bands and by the time we went on there was another twenty odd people in the place which made it look quite full with the venue being the size of the average front room. So we blasted through our set at double speed with Mr Pursey leading the crowd in community pogoing finishing the set with a frantic version of ‘Music School’ and proceeding to the bar to get steamed with our new found friends. Overall a right dump of a place but an important place in Punk history.

Sunday 14.8.77: Mean Street, Sham 69

Tuesday 16.8.77: Riot Squad, Defiant

Wednesday 17.8.77: Audition Night: Dole Queue, Rabies & Cool Thrust

Thursday 18.8.77: London, Johnny Curious & the Strangers

Friday19.8.77: Eater, the Dead, Bethnal

Saturday 20.8.77: Sham 69, Menace, the Dead

Tuesday 23.8.77: Audition Night: Speedometers, the Crabs, the Tax Exiles

Wednesday 24.8.77: Audition Night: Pink Parts,

Thursday 25.8.77: Bazoomies, Varicose Veins

Friday 26.8.77: the Wasps, Rabies

Saturday 27.8.77: Swank, Dole Q

September 1977

Friday 2.9.77: Sham 69

Saturday 3.9.77: Sham 69

Tuesday 6.9.77: Maker, Blue Screaming

Wednesday 7.9.77: Audition Night: the Meat, Cycles, the Tickets

Thursday 8.9.77: the Models, the Tools

Friday 9.9.77: Skrewdriver, the Wasps

The Wasps at the Roxy Club singing I’ve Got Something To Tell You

Saturday 10.9.77: Tubeway Army, Riot Squad, New Hearts, Bazoomies

Tuesday 13.9.77: Monotones, Prof & the Profettes

Wednesday 14.9.77: Audition Night: the Blanks, the Look.

Thursday 15.9.77: the Unwanted, Tubeway Army

Friday 16.9.77: Eater, Dole Q

Saturday 17.9.77: Bazoomies, Nipple Erectors

Tuesday 20.9.77: Spitfire Boys (Cancelled), London

Thursday 22.9.77: Cock Sparrer, the Bears, Crass

Saturday 24.9.77: Sham 69, the Tickets

Thursday 29.9.77: Radiators From Space, the Outsiders

Friday 30.9.77: Sham 69, Radiators From Space, Crass, Dole Q

October 1977

Saturday 1.10.77: Penetration, Tubeway Army

Tuesday 4.10.77: Fairclough, Blitz Kids

Thursday 6.10.77: Chelsea

Saturday 8.10.77: Sham 69

Friday 14.10.77: the Depression

Saturday 15.10.77: Bazoomies, the Tickets

Tuesday 18.10.77: Gobblinz, Void

Wednesday 19.10.77: Audition Night: Mistakes, Om.

Thursday 20.10.77: the Suspects

Friday 21.10.77: Menace, Some Chicken

Saturday 22.10.77: Bazoomies, Silent Types, Charge

Sunday 23.10.77: Special Punk Disco, Members Free, Jam Sessions

Wednesday 26.10.77: Audition Night: Bricks, Charge 

Thursday 27.10.77: Outsiders, Martin & the Brownshirts, Nipple Erectors 

Friday 28.10.77: New Hearts, Mistakes, Meat 

Saturday 29.10.77: Toes, Satans Rats, the Tickets 

Sunday 30.10.77: Special Punk Disco, Members Free, Guests 50 p, Jam Sessions Welcome

November 1977

Tuesday 1.11.77: the Oppressed, Young Death

Wednesday 2.11.77: Audition Night: the Ba, the Trash.

Thursday 3.11.77: the Mistakes, Varicose Veins, Youthenasia 

Friday 4.11.77: Maniacs, Void, Monotones

Saturday 5.11.77: the Skunks, Blitz, the Night(s), the Now, Nile

Sunday 6.11.77: Punk Rock Disco, Members Free, Guests 60p, Jam Sessions Welcome

Tuesday 8.11.77: Crisis, Youthanasia, the Plague

Wednesday 9.11.77: Audition Night: Wild Youth, Kassels, Enemies Of the World

Thursday 10.11.77: Dead Fingers Talk, Backlash, Rabies

Friday 11.11.77: the Depressions, the Mistakes, Acme Sewage Co

Saturday 12.11.77: Menace, Blitz (Roxy Band), the Red Light

Sunday 13.11.77: Punk Rock Disco, Members Free, Guests 60p, Jam Sessions Welcome

Tuesday 15.11.77: Why Not, Berlin

Wednesday 16.11.77: Audition Night: Open Sore, Charlie & the Clock Springs

Thursday 17.11.77: the Outsiders, the Automatics, Goats

Friday 18.11.77: Wasps, the Tickets, the Shoplifters

Saturday 19.11.77: Metal Urbain, Blunt Instrument, the Tarts 

Sunday 20.11.77: Punk Rock Disco, Members Free, Guests 50p, Jam Sessions Welcome

Tuesday 22.11.77: Destroyers, Peroxide Romance

Wednesday 23.11.77: Spanker, the Jets

Thursday 24.11.77: London, Rabies, the Tarts

Friday 25.11.77: Suburban Studs, Blitz, the Mistakes, UK Subs

Saturday 26.11.77: Mean Street, Bears, Shoplifters

Sunday 27.11.77: Punk Rock Disco, Members Free, Guests 50p, Jam Sessions Welcome

Tuesday 29.11.77: Leroy Zoom, Plastics

Wednesday 30.11.77: Audition Night: Exorcist, Suffocation.

December 1977

Thursday 1.12.77: Dirty Dogs, Raped, the Tickets

Friday 2.12.77: the Depressions, Youthenasia, Charge

Saturday 3.12.77: the Valves, Crisis, the Heat, DJ Jerry Floyd

Sunday 4.12.77: Punk Rock Disco, Members Free, Guests 50 p, Jam Sessions Welcome & Wanted

Tuesday 6.12.77: Assault, Blood Donor, Jesus Savage

Wednesday 7.12.77: Audition Night: Nazi, Jets

Thursday 8.12.77: UK Subs, Acme Sewage Co., Open Sore 

Friday 9.12.77: Streets, Youthenasia, the Defects

Saturday 10.12.77: Menace, Backlash, Void

Sunday 11.12.77: Punk Disco, Members Free, Guests 50p, Jam Sessions Welcome,

Tuesday 13.12.77: XL5, the Visitors, the Vamp

Wednesday 14.12.77: Audition Night: Pitful, the Furs, Jesus Savage

Thursday 15.12.77: the Brakes, Perverse Velvet, Spanker

Friday16.12.77: Adam & the Ants, the Red Lights, the Tax Exiles, Billy Karloff & the Goats

Saturday 17.12.77: the Depressions, Acme Sewage Co., Open Sore, Raped

Sunday 18.12.77: Punk Disco, Jam Sessions, Members Free, Guests 50p

Tuesday 20.12.77: Audition Night: Godsteeth, Julie & the Filmstars, Billy Karloff & the Goats

Wednesday 21.12.77: Audition Night: Smack, Hampsters, Berlin

Thursday 22.12.77: Sham 69, Masterswitch, Blitz, Menace

Friday 23.12.77: Sham 69, Masterswitch, Blitz, Menace

Saturday 24.12.77: Blitz, Exorcist, Peroxide Romance, Open Sore – 24 hour Xmas Party

Sunday 25.12.77: Peroxide Romance, Plastix, Open Sores, Blitz, the Tickets, the Goats, UK Subs, the Jets, the Streets

Monday 26.12.77: the Tickets, Billy Karloff & the Goats, Blitz, the Jets, Plastix

Tuesday 27.12.77: Last Resort, G.B.H., UK Subs, the Streets, Jesus Savage.

Wednesday 28.12.77: Audition Night: Unorthadox, Benzine Jag, Neon Hearts

Thursday 29.12.77: Mean Street, Puncture, Jesus Savage, Billy Karloff & the Goats

Friday 30.12.77: the Crabs, Plastix, the Streets

Saturday 31.12.77: Recording of ‘Farewell To The Roxy’

January 1978

Sunday 1.1.78: Recording of ‘Farewell To the Roxy’

Monday 2.1.78: Recording of ‘Farewell To the Roxy’

Tuesday 3.1.78: XR21, Senile 

Thursday 5.1.78: the Plague, Bad News, the Monitor

Friday 6.1.78: the Bears, Youthanasia, the Tickets

Saturday 7.1.78: Adam & the Ants, Blitz, the Purge

Tuesday 10.1.78: Audition Night: the Sockets, Lixs

Thursday 12.1.78: Blitz, the Shop-Lifters, Perverse Velvet

Friday 13.1.78: the Pigs, Open Sore, the Heat

Saturday 14.1.78: Billy Karloff & the Goats, Acme Sewage Co, UK Subs

Tuesday 17.1.78: the Deviators, the Machines

Wednesday 18.1.78: Paradise Smell, Desperate Straits, Audition Night

Thursday 19.1.78: Angels, Spanker, the Lasers

Friday 20.1.78: the Plague, Crisis, the Purge, the Furs

Saturday 21.1.78: Adam & the Ants, Richard III, Plastix

Sunday 22.1.78 Jamming session

Tuesday 24.1.78: Schmo, (the Drug) Addix

Wednesday 25.1.78: Chaos, the Aliens

Thursday 26.1.78: the Depressions, Blitz, Xtraverts, the Night

Friday 27.1.78: the Heat, the Features, Bad News

Saturday 28.1.78: Adam & the Ants, Virus, Perverse Velvet

February 1978

Wednesday 1.2.78: Interference, the Thrillers

Thursday 2.2.78: the Depressions, the Plague, Sychodelic

Friday 3.2.78: Handbag, the Zips, the Lasers

Saturday 4.2.78: Menace, the Purge, Raped

Monday 6.2.78: Dillinger, Zabandip, Psalms, Red

Tuesday 7.2.78: Checkmate, Solo, Saboteurs

Wednesday 8.2.78: Nazi, Revenge

Thursday 9.2.78: Demon Preacher, Charge, Schmo

Friday 10.2.78: Mothers Pride, Open Sore, Leyton Buzzards – Moors Murderers also performed 1 song

Saturday 11.2.78: Blitz, the Vamp, Crisis, Virus

Sunday 12.2.78: the Plague, Muvvers’s Pride, Billy Karloff & the Goats

Tuesday 14.2.78: Works, the Bodies

Wednesday 15.2.78: the Sane, Unknown

Thursday 16.2.78: Acme Sewage Co., Lockjaw, the Vamp

Friday 17.2.78: the Plague, the Red Lights, Perverse Velvet

Saturday 18.2.78: Blitz, Handbag, Angelo Paladino

Sunday 19.2.78: Billy Karloff & the Goats, Muvver’s Pride, the Plague, the Mistakes

Monday 21.2.78: Rubber Ball, the Sweaters, Laughing Gas

Tuesday 22.2.78: Soho Jets, Dresden

Wednesday 23.2.78: the Depressions, the Meat, Anorak

Thursday 24.2.78: Menace, UK Subs, Zipps

Friday 25.2.78: Mean Street, the Lasers, Exorcist

Saturday 26.2.78: Muvvers’s Pride, the Plague, the Public, Matt Vinyl & the Decorators, French Lessons

Tuesday 29.2.78: Blood Sports, Jerry Jam Rag, the Afterbirth

March 1978

Wednesday 1.3.78: the Fringe, Matiks, Rottin’ Clits

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Rottin’ Klitz) Our first gig was at the Roxy and it was just me and Kit. We thought we could get away with it but then we thought hang on, it’s just bass and drums, and though it’s punk this isn’t going to work. When we got there, we told Kevin St John, the boss of the Roxy, and he had to make out that the rest of the band hadn’t turned up to save face. That was our first one or not should I say!

Thursday 2.3.78: Gay night: Handbag

Friday 3.3.78: Blitz, the Works, Social Class IV

Saturday 4.3.78: the Depressions, Patrik Fitzgerald, Schmo, Cowards

Sunday 5.3.78: Sham 69, Patrik Fitzgerald, Muvver’s Pride

Tuesday 7.3.78: X-Films, the Lepers, Abortion

Wednesday 8.3.78: Magnet, Wasted, Stalag 16

Thursday 9.3.78: Gay night: Handbag

George Webley (Blitz) The end days of the Roxy were sheer bedlam and I get the feeling that he kept it open because it was a good place for a lot of people to do business after hours… a front. He tried a few things. One night he tried was a gay night on a Wednesday. That was just hilarious coz what would happen is you would get all these businessmen and Whitehall mandarins turning up to kind of go ‘I wonder if I could just check this club out.’ There were loads of Punks downstairs who were supposed to be there as fodder and no one gave a shit.

Steve Hooker (the Heat) A gay trio specialising in Ziggy era Bowie covers, all cropped hair, whale herders, leather jackets, rolled up jeans and boots – Y.M.C.A drag before it was invented. A good band but not what one would have expected in London’s top Punk nighterie!

Friday10.3.78: Zipps, Tax Exiles, the Vamp

John Evans (Tax Exiles) At our last gig there the audience was very different. Punk had become a fashion, a mainstream – bondage trousers in high street shops! The crowd then was comprised of people who thought “being a Punk” was what they’d read about, and learnt from the tabloid newspapers – they all had to spit, their clothes had become a uniform, there was no longer that individualism, there was no longer that feeling of “community” – they were becoming everything we rebelled against! At that final gig, the band that was on before us had been canned off-stage.

Saturday 11.3.78: French Lessons, the Plague, Perverse Velvet

Sunday 12.3.78: Audition Night: Mystery bands

Monday 13.3.78: Audition Night: Mystery bands

Tuesday 14.3.78: A.P.B, Another

Wednesday 15.3.78: Samuel Goodnight, the Pistols

Friday 17.3.78: Landscape, Berlin, UK Subs

Saturday 18.3.78: Cyanide, the Vamp, the Public

Sunday 19.3.78: Mean Street, Billy Karloff & the Goats

Tuesday 21.3.78: Audition Night: Nazi, Sinex

Wednesday 22.3.78: Audition Night: Mystery bands

Thursday 23.3.78: Gay night: Handbag

Friday 24.3.78: the Mekons, the Tarts, Soho Jets

Saturday 25.3.78: Blitz, the Dead, the Plague

Sunday 26.3.78: Magnet, A.P.B.

The Magnets, a new band, played the Roxy and no one was there. Somewhere between their desire to get the event over with as soon as possible and the realisation that there was nothing to be lost, they played a set that even they must have been pleased with and that many of their more lauded contemporaries would have done well to watch. This review is in fact based on several gigs, but I’ve chosen to pin it down to the Roxy one because ostensibly the bleakest, it also seemed also to be typical of the kind of experience all bands have to go through at some time.  Lindsey Boyd, Sounds, 8.4.78

Tuesday 28.3.78: Audition Night: Mystery bands

Wednesday 29.3.78: Audition Night: Arctic Frost, 64 Spoons

Alderman Huggins (Arctic Frost) This was our first gig, and what a cool place to play it. Even as an empty space it had a great atmosphere; edgy, with some real cool, real heavy dudes, who were the staff. Anyway, we played our gig, it went okay, and that’s when the really funny bit started.

The manager, [Kevin St John] a tall chap with dark hair and dress-sense from a time gone by, had on some kind of magnolia flared slacks. He said that he thought we were pretty good and he would like to manage us. He could get us loads of gigs and we could turn pro straight away. Fantastic, don’t forget this was our first gig ever. He then went on to explain that there was a clause in this proposal which involved our guitarist Darrel (who could only be described as a “pretty” 15 year old public school-boy) spending weekends with him!

So there we were, the casting couch was alive and well, in fact the whole thing seemed so amazing, like it was something out of a film. We couldn’t persuade Darrel to turn gay for the good of the band so we had to decline the offer. Strange, but Dave’s mum had warned us before we left to “ Be careful of the homosexuals!” Obviously a very switched on lady.

Thursday 30.3.78: Gay night:  Handbag

Friday 31.3.78: Eater, Passengers, Mean Street

Andy Blade (Eater) I played it before it shut? Christ, there you go, I’d blanked it out of my mind. It’s like that with bad experiences isn’t it? I wonder if I can claim some kind of Gulf War stress syndrome kind of thing from Westminster Council?

I honestly don’t recall playing there after Andrew Czezowski left. I know we were asked to several times but I always said ‘no way’, so unless you can locate the three men and a dog and ask them, I will deny it to my last day.

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April 1978

Saturday 1.4.78: the Bodies, Teenage Skins

Sunday 2.4.78: the Streets

Monday 3.4.78: Audition Night: Mystery bands

Tuesday 4.4.78: Audition Night: Mystery bands

Wednesday 5.4.78: Parazone, Macfocahest

Thursday 6.4.78: Gay night: Handbag, the Lepers

Friday 7.4.78: the Zipps, Soho Jets, Tiger Ashby

Saturday 8.4.78: the Mean Street, Cynex, the Public

Sunday 9.4.78: Audition Night: Mystery bands

Monday 10.4.78: Spotty Dogs, the Clap

Wednesday 12.4.78: Injection

999, 48 Hours (aka 999), Abortion, Adam & The Ants, Acme Sewage Co, Addix, The Adverts, The Afterbirth, Aggrovators, The Aliens, Angelo, Paladino, Angels, Anorak, APB, Assault, ATV, The Automatics, The Ba, Backlash ,Bad News, The Bazoomies, The Bears, The Beastly Cads (aka The Models), Beggar, Benzine Fag, Berlin, Bernie Torme, Bethnal, Bill Kreme, Billy Karloff & The Goats, The Blanks, Bleach, Blitz, Blitz Kids, Blood Donor, The Blood Sports, Blue Screaming, Blunt Instrument, The Bodies, The Bombers, The Boys, The Brains, The Buzzcocks, The Bricks, Captain Comedown, Chaos, Chelsea, Charge, Charlie & The Clock, Checkmate, Cherry Vanilla, The Clap, The Clash, The Clutch Plates, Cock Sparrer, Cool Thrust, The Cortinas, The Count Bishops, The Cowards, The Crabs, Crazy Caven & The Rhythm Rockers, Crisis, Cyanide, Cycles, The Damned, The Dead, Dead Fingers Talk, The Defects, Defiant, Demon Preacher, The Depressions, Desperate Straits, The Destroyers, The Deviators, Diamond Lil , Dillinger, Dirty Dogs, Dole Q, Downliners Sect, Dresden, The Drones, Eater, The Electric Chairs, The Eyes, Exorcist, Fairclough, The features, Flight 56, The Framed, French Lessons, The Fringe, The Furs, GBH, Generation X, Gloria Mundi, Gotham City, Grass, The Hamsters, The Heat, The Injection, The Jam, Jerry Jam Rag, The Jets, Johnny Moped, Johnny Curious & The Strangers, Julie & The Film Stars, The Killjoys, Krakatoa, Kubie & The Rats (aka The Rats), Handbag, The Heartbreakers, Zoom, The , The Heat, High Mileage, Interference, Jesus Savage, Landscape, Larry Lasers, Last Resort, Laughing Gas, The lepers, Look, The Leyton Buzzards, Liz, London, The Lurkers, The Matiks,  MacFocahest, The Machines, Magnet, Maker, The Maniacs, Masterswitch, Mean Street, The Meat, The Mekons, The Members, Menace, Metal Urbain, Mike Berry & The Outlaws, The Mistakes, Model Mania, The Monitors, The Monotones, The Mothers Pride, Mutants, Northwood, Nazi, Neo, New Hearts, The Nights, Nile, Nipple Erectors, Nosebleeds, Oppressed, The Nothing, The Now, Omm, The Only Ones, Open Sore, The Outsiders, Oze, Paradise Smell, Parazone, The Passengers, Penetration, Patrik Fitzgerald, Peroxide Romance, Perverse Plague, Plastix, Velvet, The Pigs, Pink Parts, The Pistols, The Pitiful, The Police, Radiators Prof & The Profettes, Psalms, The Public, Puncture, The Purge, Rabies, Revenge, The Raped, Red, Red Lights, The Rejects ( aka The Homosexuals) , Rezillos, Squad, , Richard III, Rikki & The Last Days On Earth, The Rings, Riot Roogalator, Rottin’ Clits, Rubberball, Saboteurs, The Saints, Samuel Goodnight, The Sane ,Satans Rats, Schmo, The Screens, Shakin’ Streets, Sham 69, The Shoplifters, Sinex, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Skrewdriver, The Skunks, Slack Alice, Slaughter & The Dogs, The Slits, Smak (aka the Unwanted), Social Class IV, The Sockets, Soho Jets, Solo, Some Chicken, The Speedometers, Spitfire Boys, The Spotty Dogs, The Springs, Spanker, Spunker, Squeeze, Stalag 16, Stinky Toys, Stormtrooper, The Stranglers, The Streets, Suburban Studs, Subway Sect, Suffocation, The Suspects, Swank, The Sweaters, Swing band, Sychodelic, The Tarts, The Tax Exiles, Teenage skins, Teeth, The Thrillers, The Tickets, Tiger Ashby, The Toes, Tones, The Tools, Tubeway Army, Trash, The unknown, UK Subs, Unorthodox, The Unwanted, Varicose Veins, The Valves, The Vamp, The Vibrators, Vile Bodies, The Violators, Violent, Virus, The Visitors, Wasted, Wire, The Works, Wrist Action, X-Films, XL5, X Ray Spex, XTC, The Xtraverts, Young Death, Youthanasia, Zabandip, The Zeroes, The Zips, Zipps.