Soho: ‘76 Year Zero
Londons legendary 100 Club, is located in Oxford Street just around the corner from Fox Soho offices in Moor Street, Soho just off Cambridge Circus.
Originally a restaurant called Macks it launched as a music venue in 1942 hired out every Sunday evening to host swing events.
Eventually it was taken over by Humphrey Littleton’s management becoming best known as a jazz venue hosting artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Ronnie Scott and Johnny Dankworth…
…Until that is Ron Watts organised the first 2 day Punk Special on 20th and 21st September 1976 at The 100 Club which included Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, Buzzcocks, Siouxsie, Subway Sect, The Vibrators and Stinky Toys.
Although Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwoods shop Seditionaries was based in Chelsea, the Sex Pistols knew Soho well. McLaren had the Pistols management company Glitterbest based at Dryden Chambers off Oxford Street. Their rehearsal rooms and unofficial HQ was in Denmark Street, they regularly attended Club Louise in Poland Street, had previously played a number of gigs at The 100 Club, gigged at El Paradise strip club in Brewer Street and by all accounts loved a good fry up at the Centrale Cafe right opposite us in Moor Street.
This event was a watershed moment for the emerging punk scene as it began to develop from underground into the mainstream and way beyond in terms of its influence. Eventually it became viewed as one of the most significant cultural movements of all time.
With a modest capacity of hundreds it was well attended with such future movers, shakers and influencers as Paul Weller, Shane MacGowan, Viv Albertine, Billy Idol, Chrissie Hynde and Vivienne Westwood in attendance.
Unfortunately at the time, (from a media perspective) it was as much made infamous by violence, when a glass thrown by another would-be personality, the soon to become Sex Pistols bass player Sid Vicious shattered and injured one of the audience.
Over the passing of time however this gig is certainly one of the most written about in popular music history for all the right reasons, and to a degree it has achieved mythical status.
Nothing has conveyed the story of better and so vividly from an ‘insiders’ perspective as this fascinating piece ‘The 100 Club Punk Festival 1976 (Revisited)’ written by Subway Sect and Clash roadie Barry ‘The Baker’ Auguste recalling his first hand experience of the build up, performances and post gig emotions of an event that was to become one of the most important and iconic gigs ever played in and around Soho or for that matter anywhere else on the planet.
Below is the introductory section, a taster – a link to the original full length story is HERE. It’s a fascinating insight.
“40 years ago, at the end of a red-hot English summer, a highly significant Festival took place at the 100 Club in Oxford Street. Although only several hundred people were in attendance, it was nevertheless a watershed moment in popular music and culture.
The 100 Club Punk Festival was the moment when everything changed in Britain and a new era in popular culture was born. As my own small contribution to the 40th anniversary of 1976 (Year Zero), I have put together a few scraps and glimpses from memory of that momentous gig. Endlessly chronicled and dissected by writers and journalists over the years, this is my own personal view of the show and what was happening then.
Being entirely subjective, I’m sure many of you who were around at that time may disagree entirely with the facts I present from memory.
I think what journalists and the media have failed to understand is the precarious state of the nascent punk rock scene back then. The Clash were a tiny troop – just Mick, Joe, Paul, and Terry (to some extent). Bernard Rhodes (the manager) and his ‘missus Sheila, Mickey Foote their sound man, and Sebastian Conran flitting in and out of Rehearsal Rehearsals on his Norton Commando.
There was no-one printing t-shirts or making clothes, no record company to call on, no tour manager, no wages. The only person with a car was Bernie, so when I showed up with the Subway Sect having a functioning motor vehicle, I was very quickly co-opted to run errands, pick-up spares, and shuttle back and forth to Bernie’s. They were just an idea at the time, fermenting over six months and born from the frustration of the bloated, stagnant music scene. Their existence was balanced on a knife-edge, with success or failure at each show so crucial.
Contrast that with the Pistols who had been gigging for almost a year, had Malcolm and Vivian successful in their own right, the SEX shop supplying their clothes, Boogie, their soundman, Sophie in the office, and the whole Bromley contingent following them around, providing a supportive entourage. What the 100 Club Punk Festival did was to solidify the inner core of the top punk rock bands (Pistols, Clash, Damned, Buzzcocks, Subway Sect), and give the concept an identity and meaning. In the weeks following the show, bandwagon-jumpers like ‘The Stranglers’ and ‘Eddie And The Hotrods’ would push their hair behind their ears, place rubber bands around their flared jeans, and try to catch the wave that had been created. It was off to the races after the Festival”
The Baker – September 2016
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