The Burning Up Times - Strangled.co.uk

Burning Up Times Issue 3
Glasgow City Hall
David Boyd was there, 22 July 1977
Rattus Norvegicus came along and
changed my life. Then came the fi rst John
Peel session and I heard Something Better
Change and I Feel Like A Wog. Next came
the announcement in the press of a tour
– with a date at Glasgow City Hall.
It was the fi rst big Punk gig in
Glasgow, but the venue was only about
800 capacity and more used to classical
outings, and big bands played at the
larger Apollo. With my mate David, we
set out wondering if punks were going to
be there. In the city centre we saw punks
dressed up like the Sex Pistols, with safety
pins through their mouths, a rarity for
Glasgow! At the gig, we were taken aback
by the amount of these serious punks. It
was scary! It was a cauldron of excitement
by the time we went inside. It was sell-out,
and as we stood by the bar downstairs
as support band London came on. John
Peel played them, but they weren’t very
good. After the rush down the front, we
witnessed pogoing for the fi rst time. It was
quite intimidating, a far cry to the likes of
Yes at the Apollo.
There was a long gap until The
Stranglers came on. The crowd chanted
– and when they fi nally came on, they
Being there!
Two tales of Glasgow, plus one
from Canterbury, and the Roundhouse
looked great, and Dave wore his boiler
suit. They looked like a Punk band should!
They opened with Grip, and played most
of Rattus and new songs that would later
end up on No More Heroes. The pogoers
jumped about wildly. All this was new
and unknown as the threat of violence
lurked in the air, and scuffl es broke out.
There didn’t seem many bouncers either;
perhaps the hall wasn’t expecting any
trouble? Hugh stopped playing for a while
and asked the audience to stop. Half
way through the set, there was a stage
invasion. At fi rst, they carried on playing
and they seemed okay with it. There were
no bouncers to be seen, and everyone just
piled onstage. It was a shambles, and then
the band walked off.
There was a long pause, and we were
left wondering what was going to happen
next. The stage was then cleared, and
The Stranglers came back on and burst
into Go Buddy Go, followed by Ugly. I
remember JJ jumping around, and soon
the stage was full of crowd once again. It
was complete mayhem. The band walked
off for the second and fi nal time. Had
they not abandoned the set, we would
have seen Sewer too. The lights went up
and mayhem returned outside. It was
tremendous and exciting, but the stage
invaders had spoilt it. It was, though, an
interesting experience! #
Back home, I remember the next
morning, coming downstairs for my
breakfast. I’d just started working at a
bank. My father said asked me if I’d been
at The Stranglers concert at the City Hall.
I replied I had, and he said: “I don’t think
that’s a good thing for you, there’s a lot of
abuse in the press about that, there was
a riot.. the police were called. What were
you doing there? That’s not going to stand
you in good stead at the bank!”
The papers ran with the story and it
was on the news. The Sex Pistols were
banned from everywhere, and last night’s
trouble got The Stranglers tarred with
that brush, and were in turn, banned from
playing there. It wasn’t the band’s fault,
after all, they didn’t encourage the stage
invaders to end the gig. The publicity they
got was very bad – but great in another
way: everyone knew who The Stranglers
were, even my father.
Glasgow Apollo
David Boyd was there, 16 October 1977
This was the fi rst time The Stranglers were
due to play the Apollo, but the councillors
enforced their ban. We were disappointed
because the album was out, and there
was a big hoo-ha with The Stranglers;
apart from the Pistols, The Stranglers
were the biggest Punk band in Scotland.
But the gig goes ahead! It was a sell-out!
The councillors (or ‘City Fathers’ as they
were called) announced the band would
play, but they would be present – and if
things got out of hand, they would end the
gig. These were exciting times, especially
reading about the band inside out in
Sounds, NME and, of course, Strangled.
We even knew about Jet’s ice cream van!
All that stuff had come to light and we
understood the band much better. So by
the time of the gig, we were extremely
excited, but with slight trepidation. In
the space of four months, the band had
progressed from the City Hall to the
3,500-seater Apollo.
We were up in the balcony that night
having seen what happened at the City
Hall! Yes, wimps! We also chose not to
wear safety pins in our noses! The view
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