Side One. The Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, Bethnal Green.
Fade in.
Two chairs on a stage in front of a projection reading
“Will Hodgkinson in conversation with Pete Townshend”. Hundreds of chairs
squashed together facing them. Please welcome, Pete Townshend. Pete talks.
Feedback screeches. And again. Hodgkinson makes same auto-destructive art gag
twice. Not a conversation, more a monologue. Will, wearing nice brown suede
boots, and audience occasionally interject but otherwise it’s all Pete for over
an hour promoting his autobiography Who I
Am. Throw him a crumb and he’ll bake you a cake. Lots about being an art
student in 1961. Drifted into pop music. Had to leave pretty college girls to
his mate Barney - Richard Barnes - whilst he did gigs and waited for the fight
to start. Wrote early songs directly for his mod audience. Was easy as mods
were all the same. Now his audience are old and complicated he can’t write for
them. As the male mods got more effeminate the female mods got more masculine,
no Bridget Bardot glamour: short hair, dark straight shirts. Wrote songs as
demos to play to the Who whereas John came in with the music for “Whiskey Man”
and “Boris The Spider” written out. Keith and John preferred the lighter songs like
“Happy Jack” and dressing up in silly clothes. Roger would complain songs
weren’t working class enough. Has no favourite songs from his solo catalogue
and doesn’t think of them as separate from his other writing. Doesn’t mind
doing gigs but doesn’t love them either even though he says he is great at
them. Love for the Rolling Stones. Even when they are crap, Jagger is incredible.
Brian Jones gets a bad press but was always nice to Pete and was a
musicologist. All of them were cool to hang out with. The Beatles were okay but
came from a slightly earlier showbiz tradition and then bridged into the younger
generation. More art school reminisces. Lecturer said in 1961 everyone would
have computers by 1965. Sly and the Family Stone brilliant at Woodstock. They repeated
the refrain “I Wanna Take Your Higher” over and over until the slumbering crowd
woke up and got into it. The Who repeated trick with “Listening To You”. Keith
had a great way with words and said two girls “were attached” to him and John
in van before Woodstock. Pop music is a vehicle for a communal experience for
the audience to lose themselves in a crowd and become one. They aren’t there
for Bono, they are there for themselves. Can never have a conversation with Bob
Dylan. Dylan likes the ladies and happy to chat away with Pete’s partner Rachel.
Does impression of Bob talking to Rachel. Tried to attract his attention. Bob
eventually looks up and says “Where’s Roger?”
Hundreds queue for book signing. Military operation.
Staff open book, bung it in front of Pete, flicks his pen, pick up your book,
move on, next. No signing anything except book, no posing for photos. Can you
put ‘To Mark and Paula’? Too late. “No, but you look very stylish the pair of
you. Really great." Okay, thanks, that’s even better. Said same thing to friends David Edwards and
Claudia Elliott moments earlier. Shake hands. Looks older close up Paula and her
sister Karen ask for a hug. “No, but I take it back about mod girls, you've got in down pat. You’re both very sharp”.
Side Two. The Golden Heart, Commercial Street, Spitalfields.
Arrange to meet Moonie’s loyal assistant and Full Moon author Dougal Butler in the pub.
Off we strut – a procession of mods and Who glitterati - including Richard
Barnes and Doug Sandon, drummer from The Detours. Dougal and Barney regale the
mod corner with their tales. Dougal tells of he and Moonie nicking jackets from
two sleeping policemen, find car keys in the pockets and take it for a spin, sirens
blaring, and return before they woke. Does a little dance and sings "We are the mods". People on Facebook ask him random stuff
like where Keith bought that jacket he was wearing in photo from 1971. How the
fuck should he know? Talking of random questions, where did Keith get his
elephant’s foot table? The one in the picture with him playing records wearing
crushed velvet trousers, wife Kim in red tights and daughter Mandy playing? It
wasn’t a table it was a planter and Dougal still has it. Bought in Mombasa.
Keith and Kim also bought a smaller one with a lid for John and Alison
Entwistle’s wedding present. Alison recently gave it to Dougal. Full Moon doing well and getting good
press in America. Rumours Roger Daltrey has been offered a huge advance to
write his autobiography.
Barney signs my copy of his Mods! book. The Bible since I was thirteen. Surprised the pages
aren’t falling out. They are. The Scene club had the most discerning mods. Goldhawk Road and his own Railway Hotel were just for locals. Guy
Stevens had the most amazing record collection. Calls Dave Edwards the new Guy Stevens. The footage of the High Numbers at the
Railway Hotel on the Amazing Journey
DVD made him think they were better than he gave them credit for at the time.
Didn’t think mods would like them at The Scene as they were so loud and mods
would sooner listen to James Brown but they did. The Action were good but The
Small Faces were the other great ones, especially for Steve Marriott’s voice. The
photos in Mods! and Pete’s book of
The Who dancing at The Scene, were they staged or genuine? Genuine. Who was the
best dancer? Pete, as coming from a showbiz family didn’t mind making a fool of
himself. Roger was too stiff back then and basically a rocker. Pete the only
one that really connected with mod. Pete can change like that. Click. Barney's voice sound similar to Pete's.
Landlady chirps in with how she knew Kenney Jones. Been in
East End all her life and lived on same street, Watney Street in Stepney, as
him. Got lost together in Hampton Court maze. Buddy Ascot from The Chords
with us. Nice fella. He’s surprised people are still interested in the mod
revival period. I'm not but loved his band The Rage back in ’84-’85. Man approaches
to tell us about a Simon Townshend gig. Buddy forced to reveal what band he is
in. Man’s face drops. Mouth wide open. Frozen. Still frozen. Oh. My. God. Utter
disbelief. The Chords are my favourite band after The Who he says. Mine too
says Buddy. Move away. Man says he went off band when they changed logo and put
the “o” in Chords into a square. Stumble from pub. Newspaper reports of Kray
twins on chip paper.
Fade out.
Many thanks to
Claudia Elliott for photographs of Pete Townshend, Richard Barnes and Dougal
Butler.
The Action, Pete Townshend, Richard Barnews, Dougal Butler....you people are having it too good over there!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant piece as always!
Thanks Bill - Was just a lucky couple of days. Will write up The Action stuff once I've finished reading the book...
ReplyDeleteOn doorstep and I missed it.Any idea when they're sending out details for ordering The Action book.
ReplyDeleteSorry Johnny I don't. Nobody who has reserved one has heard anything yet. No idea why. Maybe just getting payment methods sorted.
ReplyDeleteThanks MP.At least they've been printed.Went to the 'Art Of Punk' book launch at Tate Modern the other week and the books were still being printed.In China.Nice to see the old punk DIY ethos still holds true.Great article as always by the way.
ReplyDelete