The Burning Up Times - Strangled.co.uk

Burning Up Times Issue 3
Red Rum, Tommy Docherty, Tony Greig
Damned became the fi rst Punk band
to play in New York where exclusive
nightclub Studio 54 also opened its doors
for the fi rst time. ‘Power to the people’
was on everyone’s lips: the BBC’s new
comedy sit-com, Citizen Smith, saw workshy
Wolfi e, played by Robert Lindsay,
and his Marxist freedom fi ghter comrades
of the Tooting Popular Front. London
Transport launches the new silver buses
celebrating the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
In May, they were back. You guessed
it. The Sex Pistols, now signed to Virgin,
released God Save The Queen in time
for the royal revelry. Mass outrage and a
BBC ban lead to a blankety-blank space at
the Number 2 slot, lasting several weeks.
Rumours is, it outsold Rod Stewart’s
Number 1, I Don’t Want To Talk About
It. Malcolm McLaren’s art school chum
Jamie Reid did the artwork – a safety pin
through the Queen’s beak – an enduring,
iconic image.
Sport-wise, England cricket captain,
Tony Greig was sacked for signing up
players to Aussie media tycoon Kerry
Packer’s commercial cricket ‘circus’. Thirty
fi ve of the world’s best cricketers were
signed to play in a series of internationals
in Australia following their Cricket
Board’s decision to turn down his offer
of AUS$1.5m a year for television rights
to screen Australian Test matches and
Sheffi eld Shield cricket on his Channel
9 station. Back home, in football,
Liverpool won the First Division title
and the European Cup beating German
side Borrussia Monchengladbach 3-
1 in the fi nal. The Anfi eld side were
however denied a treble by their great
rivals Manchester United who beat them
2-1 in the FA Cup Final at Wembley.
United’s triumph completed a remarkable
renaissance under manager Tommy
Docherty. The club had suffered Division
Two relegation two years before and here
they won their fi rst trophy since 1968.
However, in early July, manager Docherty
was sacked following his affair with the
wife of club physiotherapist.
Warsaw (later to become Joy Division)
played their debut supporting the
Buzzcocks. France won the Eurovision
Song Contest, an Aerofl ot plane crashed
in Cuba killing 69 people, and Star Wars
opened becoming the highest grossing fi lm
at the time.
June was dominated by the Jubilee as
one million people lined London streets
to watch the royals on their way to St
Paul’s to begin the revelries. Millions
more tuned in to tellies and enjoyed street
parties. Anarchy in the UK indeed! The
Sex Pistols celebrated with a doomed
boat party on the Thames and eleven
people were arrested as they become
public enemy number one. Within weeks
Johnny Rotten was razored outside a
Stoke Newington pub and Paul Cook was
beaten up at a tube station. Punk was
becoming increasing plagued by violence ,
and The Damned, The Jam and of course,
The Stranglers all had concerts cancelled
as a result of violence at these gigs.
But it wasn’t just Punk that evoked the
physical side of man: Wembley Stadium
saw Scottish fans invade the pitch and
famously demolish the goal posts and rip
up turf following their 2 – 1 victory over
old enemies, England in the Home Nations
Championship. With further mayhem in
the West End, the writing was already
on the wall for the tournament: it was
cancellation in 1984.
A rejection of trade union recognition
at Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories
in Harlesden was one of the key labour
disputes of the 1970s. Mass multipicketing
lead to confl ict with the police
following the sacking of a third of the
The Grunwick dispute
Asian female employees when they were
refused the right to join a union. In June
and July, violence broke out frequently.
The dispute went on for almost two years.
The fi rst Apple II computers go on
sale and skate boarding became the latest
craze.
July sees a wealth of dads in horror
seeing the Sex Pistols do ‘Pretty Vaycunt’
on TOTP and The Stranglers too,
mucking about miming to Go Buddy
Go, over Peaches, despite its radioplay
version in the Top 10. Gay News’
editor Denis Lemon was found guilty of
blasphemous libel in the fi rst case of its
kind for more than 50 years. The case
was brought as a private prosecution by
the secretary of the National Viewers
and Listeners Association, Mary
Whitehouse. She objected to a poem and
illustration published in the paper about a
homosexual centurion’s love for Christ at
the Crucifi xion. Something Better Change
is released, meeting Peaches on its chart
descent.
On the 16th August, the King of Rock
‘n’ Roll, Elvis Aaron Presley died at the
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