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I Was There

  • Jul. 15th, 2009 at 9:27 PM
1979
An exhaustive list of gigs at the infamous Middlesbrough Rock Garden has turned up. It's almost certainly the work of John "Blank Frank" Hodgson.

Here's the section I remember - with the gigs I went to in bold-

October 13th 1978 - Ultravox
October 19th 1978 - The Lurkers/Nicky Beat and The Beatniks

January 12th 1979 - Adam and The Ants/No Way
January 26th 1979 - Disguise/Nicky Beat and The Beatniks
January 27th 1979 - Zhaine Griff/The Barbarians
February 3rd 1979 - Doll By Doll
February 10th 1979 - The Invaders
February 13th 1979 - Lene Lovich/Fingerprintz
February 17th 1979 - UK Subs/No Way
February 24th 1979 - The Barbarians/Basczax
February 25th 1979 - Chris Rea
March 3rd 1979 - The Cure/The Amazing Space Frogs
March 4th 1979 - The Undertones
March 10th 1979 - Gang Of Four/Basczax
March 17th 1979 - The Pretenders/Bitch
March 22nd 1979 - Patrik Fitzgerald
March 24th 1979 - The Skids/No Way
March 31st 1979 - The Damned/Basczax
April 6th 1979 - Dead Ringer
April 7th 1979 - The Hurricanes
April 14th 1979 - Chelsea
April 20th 1979 - Lew Lewis

Cowboys International played with Penetration on April 21st 1979

April 28th 1979 - The Doll/Basczax
May 1st 1979 - Fischer Z
May 4th 1979 - The EF Band
May 5th 1979 - No Way
May 12th 1979 - Punishment Of Luxury
May 15th 1979 - The Dickies
May 19th 1979 - V2/The Frantic Elevators (featuring Mick Hucknall of Simply Red)
June 7th 1979 - Basczax/Deja Vu/The Amazing Space Frogs/Penelope Polaroid and The Hornrims (local band night)
June 9th 1979 - John Cooper Clarke
June 16th 1979 - The Human League/The Flowers
June 18th 1979 - Patrik Fitzgerald/The Wall/Teardrop Explodes
June 22nd 1979 - Girlschool
June 23rd 1979 - The Tourists (featuring Annie Lennox)
June 24th 1979 - The Cramps/No Way
June 29th 1979 - Voyager
June 30th 1979 - Pure Hell
July 7th 1979 - Cowboys International
July 14th 1979 - Bitch

October 13th 1979 - Mekons/The Flowers
November 2nd 1979 - Jack Thighs
November 10th 1979 - Generation X (featuring Billy Idol)
December 1st 1979 - The Photos
December 29th 1979 - Basczax/Discharge/The Amazing Space Frogs (local band night)

January 3rd 1980 - The Sines/Slight Error/The Amazing Space Frogs/Savage Passion (local band night)
January 5th 1980 - The Beat never turned up
January 11th 1980 - Girlschool
January 12th 1980 - Little Bo Bitch
999 played 2 nights, on the 26th and 27th January 1980
31 Jan 80 Def Leppard (Thurs)
February 8th 1980 - Doll By Doll
February 14th 1980 - The Revillos/The Amazing Space Frogs

Dexy's Midnight Runners did NOT play on 16th February as there was a local band night that night:
February 16th 1980 - Basczax/The Sines/Savage Passion/Tick Tick (local band night)

March 1st 1980 - The Planets
March 5th 1980 - The Sines

The Flowers supported OMD on 8th March 1980


There's loads missing though - The Fall, twice. UB40, Prince Far I, Wire, another Gang of Four gig, the Piranhas, Psychedelic Furs, Crass, Agony Column, Kleenex - Raincoats - Spizz Energi (Rough Trade triple header) were all ones I was at. I also remember missing Pere Ubu- much to my eternal annoyance.

There's been a continual trickle of comments about the Rock Garden appearing at posts here and here which suggest that there are more than a few of us for whom Middlesbrough Rock Garden was an important part of growing up. I do think that by being 18 in 1979, I was pretty lucky.

And who the handbag-partridge-underfelt were "Jack Thighs"?

Comments

( 3 comments — Leave a comment )
(Anonymous) wrote:
Oct. 23rd, 2009 03:34 pm (UTC)
Rock Garden gigs
UK Subs played four times between 1979/1981 - Cyanide supported them one night; they cancelled one night and an Irish band called Protex played as headliners. Simple Minds played in August. Pinpoint supported 999 on those two weekend dates in 1980. As you state loads missing though and was sure that the Gang of Four played later on again in 1979. Wire was October 1978 and Punishment of Luxury played another two times. Others missing are Adam & Ants (1980), Athletico Spizz '80, Au-Pairs, The Chords supported by Bombay Drug Squad, Comsat Angels, Cuddly Toys, DAF, Delta Five, Department S, Disco Students, Distractions, Echo and the Bunnymen, Everest The Hard Way, Fire Engines, Gloria Mundi, The Jerks, Josef K, Members (played twice), Nash The Slash, Orange Juice, Original Mirrors (Ian Broudie), The Pathetix, Pink Military, Positive Noise, Private Sector, Purple Hearts, The Scars, Sector 27 (Tom Robinson), The Selecter, The Skatalites, Slaughter & The Dogs, Smirks, The Spectres, Teardrop Explodes, Toyah, Tenpole Tudor, This Heat, TV21, UB40, Wasted Youth & Writz.
(Anonymous) wrote:
Dec. 8th, 2009 09:05 am (UTC)
Jack Thighs
..they were a hard-rock mainly covers band from Darlo..used to do Thin Lizzy/ZZ Top etc...their Drummer was particularly brutal, used to break sticks at a rate of 10 a gig. Dickie Sanderson wouldn't have liked 'em!
[info]bagrec wrote:
Dec. 8th, 2009 03:53 pm (UTC)
Re: Jack Thighs
No, doesn't sound like my cup of tea!
( 3 comments — Leave a comment )