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Harvest Records SHSP 4069 (UK)
Live recordings compilation of various Roxy bands.
The Adverts "Bored Teenagers" track 6 side one.
Cardboard picture inner sleeve.
Various worldwide releases at the time and later rereleases.
CD release 1990 Receiver Records RRCD132.

Various: The Roxy London WC2 (Jan-Apr 77) (Harvest)

Jon Savage, Sounds, 25 June 1977

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 attempt to fill that gap – all the photographers out for their punkposes/star-spotters/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 evenings: 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 (where we encounter the perennial door/guest list/10p for the coats hassles): conversations taped without their perpetrators’ knowledge provide a subliminal soundtrack of shrill bitchiness between the songs. It’s impossible to get a clear idea of what/who they’re about, as two usually run concurrently with the intro chat, but you can have fun guessing which luminary said what: "So pretentious... saw the Pistols first gig... is Sid Vicious in tonite?... EEEEEE! It’s Johnny Rotten... do you come ‘ere often?... punk rock bands really are nice well-spoken blokes... It’s a really NICE atmosphere down ‘ere... " The bogs flush/glasses break with monotonous regularity. At the end of side 1, the producer slips in a bit of genius by allowing the Adverts’ PA hum to transfer to the run-off groove, on an endless roll. Who needs sound effects records now?

Unfortunately, much of this is simply making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The concerts taped are all from the end of March/beginning of April (not from Jan-Apr as the album title misleadingly hints) – by then everybody was living in a camera lens and not many bands caught fire. To put it bluntly, most of the music is undistinguished: the bands use the Ramones/Pistols as their starting point, and there simply isn’t enough variation. Yes I know it was early days and that’s what went down, but here we have a ‘product’ that is intended to stand in the market place and has to be judged as such. It won’t sell to the unconverted.

So amongst all the one-two-three-fours and rent-a-riffs, any variation of sounds is welcome. For this reason (and also because they’re only represented by one track apiece) the Adverts and X-Ray Spex come off best. Both are pretty rough ( it was the Spex’s second gig), but the Adverts’ ‘Bored Teenagers’ is a good example of their intense brand of apoplectic desperation, mixed in with some fine rock’n’roll dynamics/sense, and X-Ray Spex’s 'Oh Bondage! Up Yours!’ is a witty song performed with involvement/excitement. The sax ensures that it sounds immediately different. Both manage the notoriously difficult transition from stage to record, as they do have a strong sense of performance: creating your own atmosphere.

As do the Buzzcocks, but they’re more understated. On the night this was recorded (which I reviewed) they were the best band, but somehow this is lost. I suspect it’s because their power is accumulative: most of their songs interlock/build on the same mood, and this becomes very powerful over 40 minutes. They do a good ‘Breakdown’ and ‘Love Battery’ as an encore, with the laconic intro "We’ve got no more songs." I’d like to hear an album. Wire sound as though they’re aiming for something interesting: ‘Lowdown' is too much of a monotone drone, but ‘I 2XU’ is a classic in embryo – a great riff exploding the tension of the verses. Produce it!

Johnny Moped loons amiably: ‘Hard Loving Man’ shows his band to be a solid outfit. I bet he’ll regret his intro rap though, when he gets it back at gigs for ever after. Eater are very lackluster, murdering Alice Cooper’s ‘18’ ('15') unforgivably and unamusingly. Showing how much care has gone into their singles. Slaughter and the Dogs are routine, showing how quickly innovation turns to formula, and the Unwanted (the Smak) are just inept. I’ve been rude about them already, in my review at the time, so it’s only fair to say it was their first gig, and apparently they’ve got better. At least it’s something to show around.

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 very listenable.

Though again, like the Roxy live, it’s far better than nothing at all. But ultimately this album reminds me of those Oriole Merseybeat Live albums which everybody bought and played for a month, and then forgot about for ten years until they became collectors items. Mmmm – hedge against inflation the Roxy way...

© Jon Savage, 1977