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RICH KIDS
HUNG ON YOU: THE ROADIE'S TALE
02 Academy Islington 6 - 7th January 2010
TV Smith / The Illuminations / Viv Albertine / Carbon Silicon / Patti Palladin / Beastellabeast / Midge Ure / Rich Kids
 
God Save The Sex Pistols Personal Account by David Donley


INTRODUCTION

I hope this report gives an insight into the build up to the gig, but it is all from my point of view and if it gets a bit nerdy or technical in places, I apologise, but it is a roadie's eye view eh? Also if I seem a bit gushing I should explain that whilst I have been a working musician for many years myself, and neither large venues nor famous faces particularly phase me these days, these guys are legends to a man, and when I was a teenager the Rich Kids album was so important to me. I played my drums along to it; I played guitar along to it and could never work out the intro to Ghosts. I like to think I kept a professional head at all times, but at the end of the day, the Rich Kids live in 2010, was a pretty fucking big deal.

Rich Kids Rehearsal
Rich Kids Rehearse

DAY ONE

Wednesday 6th January 2010. 7.45AM Norwich Train Station

I got into the carriage with my overpriced cup of tea and breakfast roll, sat down and thought “fuck me, I’m going to see the Rich Kids play live”. I imagine it was a thought shared by many of the audience as they got into various modes of transport, the following day. I was on the way to rehearsals. I first met Glen in 2002, played a bit of guitar for him in 2003 and had kept in touch and met up from time to time since then. It occurred to me that given that this was a benefit gig, I may be of some use in the guitar/drum tech capacity, so I offered my help and Glen accepted. I’d actually bought a ticket for the gig but had no difficulty passing it on!

12.00 Islington O2 Academy

It took me well over an hour to get from a freezing Liverpool Street to the O2. Glen arrived ten minutes before me and wanted a hand emptying the boot of his car of guitars. When I first walked out from the lift and onto the stage, Midge was stood there. We’d met quite a few times over the last ten years or so; I quickly reminded him of our last meeting and set about helping with his amp. The hired Line 6 was glowing with lights and making a humming sound, thankfully it was just a dodgy lead. My next task was to set up Rusty’s drums, a beautiful sparkle finish Gretch kit. I’d watched the ‘Rich Kids - Rock Goes To College’ video the night before and had written down notes such as ‘sits low on seat’, ‘has crash cymbals really high’, that sort of thing. Rusty arrived, we shook hands and I explained that we had met just once before, but only because I’d spotted him at Midge’s Shepherds Bush Empire gig a few years back and had dribbled on about how much I loved his drumming in The Skids (‘Days In Europa’ era). He made adjustments to the kit; I made a note of them, and set up the wind fan next to the kit - boy was he going to need that later.

On The Drums
Checking the drum lines

I went and said hello to keyboard player Terry Edwards, and yes we’d met before too when he played with Glen's Philistines in Norwich. At that point Steve New arrived; I may be wrong but I got the impression that this was the first time Midge and Steve had met in a long time judging by the heartfelt hug and welcome. I began to set up Steve’s gear. Steve’s pedal set up was pretty hardcore; a Viper distortion linked to an orange Boss Mega Distortion is the kind of combination that strips the enamel off your teeth!

Glen had been running through bass lines quietly; it was clear that he was very on the ball as to what needed to be achieved in the next two days.

It was strange, each time the band had been checking stage levels, monitor levels and so on, the odd very recognizable riff or beat would fall out and I knew we weren’t that far from it all kicking off into a song. Sure enough, I walked off stage on to the venue floor and they had the first blast through the song Rich Kids and I felt myself grinning from ear to ear, it was really happening and it sounded good. It had a few stumbles, a few wobbles but there are certain bands that just exude chemistry, and it was there straight away. They ran through Ghosts Of Princes In Towers, Marching Men and Hung on You. I can’t lie, there were false starts, discussions on which bit comes in where, and songs that collapsed in a heap, but the atmosphere just crackled every time they got closer to nailing it.

Speaking of nailing it, I wish I could’ve secured Rusty’s kit to the riser. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a drummer hit a kit so hard or break so many sticks in such a short time, it’s not a criticism, it sounded phenomenal but Rusty was sweating buckets, the kits snare drum jumped up every time he hit it and sticks were becoming Twiglets.

More people began to arrive, Gary Kemp, Maggie Ronson, Tracey Hunter along with a few family and friends who took a few photos and sat on flight cases having a listen. The backing vocals and vocals in general began to strengthen and flesh out the sound and they had a few goes at Ghosts with Gary seriously rocking out. In between songs Steve New was playing some amazing guitar. I don’t know if they were finger exercises or Zappa solos, but it was brilliant to listen to.

Glen and Midge
Glen and Midge

Throughout the afternoon they ran through the set. There was a brief lull, as members of Patti Palladin’s band began to arrive, so Glen called for everyone to go through everything just a couple more times before calling it a day. That was when it clicked, the cliché of hairs on the back of your neck standing up is spot on, they just sounded incredible. At one point whilst playing Glen looked at me with a questioning, “how’s it sound?” raised eyebrow and thumb combination; I responded with a definite two thumbs up - as a collection of mates and musicians I felt really happy for them, the side of me that was a fan couldn’t believe my bloody luck and I knew the audience was going to love it.

Glen rounded everyone up and out at 6pm, he had to get to an Illuminations rehearsal. Rusty had headed off a good hour beforehand, as had Midge dressed like Scott of the Antarctic. Plans were made to meet back at midday Thursday.

DAY TWO: Rehearsals and Gig Build Up.

I made it to the Academy with quarter of an hour to spare this time, so grabbed a coffee for me and Steve New. Steve New had wanted a Americana (black) with three sugars; when I handed him the drink along with three thin paper tubes of sugar he said, “that’s not three fuckin’ sugars!”, Luckily I’d thought the same thing & stuffed my pockets full of the buggers, he was a happy man. When I got to the stage I set about tightening the skins on Rusty’s kit. It was around this time when the news that Carbon Silicon’s drummer had fallen prey to the snow and for one nerve jangling moment it was suggested that I stand in for the guy, however, a far better solution came to pass when Rusty, The Clash drummer that nearly was, said he was up for it, and as we all know now, made yet one more special twist to the evening happen.

Everyone had arrived by this point and they got straight down to running through the set with the same sort of tenacity that was shown in the previous day’s final hour or so. I didn’t have quite so much to do as before, the band were on a mighty fine auto pilot, tidying up endings, practicing backing vocals in groups; there was one point when Glen, Tracey and Maggie were singing completely accapella, no music at all and it sounded amazing. At 2-ish Gary Kemp arrived to bash through Ghosts and All or Nothing, and I found myself having my first wave of nerves; I guess it’s because rehearsals were nearly though and it was very close to kick off.

Gary Kemp
Gary rocks out

Almost on the last beat of the last song of the Rich Kids run-throughs, the wires on the underside of Rusty’s snare just fell off, the lashings that hold them tight across the drum skin had snapped. I was a little panicked, it’s the drum equivalent of driving your car and the wheel comes off in your hand. Between myself, and Gary’s tech Ron, a cigarette lighter and some ingenious manoeuvring of plastic string we fixed it. I was about to start chilling out a bit, ready to see if The Illuminations had any particular requests for the night, when Glen came over and pointed out that Rusty hadn’t really got that many sticks left having reduced most them to matches in two days. He suggested I head to Denmark Street and get another four pairs, Rusty figured the shop at John Henrys rehearsal studios was closer, a look at the Tube map certainly bore that out so off I went with instructions to bring back a receipt, no problem.

Yes, it’s only one change, but that change is Kings Cross, it was packed and involved a long walk between platforms, lifts, stairs, and the whole lot. Luckily I kind of knew where John Henrys was and was pleased to be going as in 1984 at the age of seventeen I had rehearsed there with The Cure and I hadn’t been back since. I got to the shop, thinking I’d done well, until my debit card came back as having expired that day. Thank God I had about fifteen quid on me and the emergency twenty quid Glen had given me earlier on. Phew.

Back at the venue I had completely missed The Illuminations sound check which was a bit of a worry, and I was right to be concerned, but more of that later. The barriers outside had been put into line so people could queue up so I headed for the entrance. As I was approaching I spotted my friend, and indeed my lift back to Norwich, Alison McBride who’s awesome photos can be found on this website. Arriving into the venue I saw Carbon Silicon arrive so I showed Alison (and her friend, also called Ali) to a comfy seat and walked

the length of the hall to the stage. I introduced myself to Tony James and Mick Jones, who remembered seeing me playing guitar with the Sex Pistols Experience; “You’re a really good guitar player”, he’d previously remarked. I didn’t expect Mick to remember though!

I wrote down the settings on their amps, did a few final checks; that’s when I almost regressed back to my teenage years, as I got closer I could see that Alison was now sat next to the teen heartthrob and my ultimate punk pin-up of the day, Viv Albertine. Obviously I knew she was going to be there from day one but I hadn’t prepared myself for quite how tongue tied and juvenile I was going to feel when we actually came face to face, I’m 42 now for fucks sake! "I’ll talk to her later" I thought to myself, made my excuses to Ali (who’s known me for a long, long time and knew exactly the dilemma I was going through, and was attempting, quite badly, not to piss herself laughing).

TV Smith pretty much arrived, plugged in, tested his acoustic guitar, microphone, monitors and was off just as the doors opened. I was getting last minute instructions, messages to pass on etc. and as a result, by the end of the night, thighs that you could smash wine bottles on. I looked at the time, it was 6.58pm.

The Gig

I was actually heading up the steps to the stage when TV Smith came bounding out and up to the mic, slightly embarrassing as I was heading to the corridor behind the stage to ask if he needed anything. He played a fine set as usual, and as he left the stage it was then that it occurred to me big time, that thanks to the stick buying trip to John Henrys I had missed The Illuminations soundcheck. I ran on to the stage and stared at the various pedals and leads I’d not seen before. I knew from seeing the last chord of the soundcheck that Clive Langer was centre stage with Ian Brodie to his left. I raced to where they were standing behind the stage and got as much info as could, they all had their guitars with them so I just had to get the pedals going and a signal through the amps and all would be good. Clive Langer, one of our greatest  producers, and Ian Brodie, the master songwriter, watched as I knelt before the silver square block of total fucking mystery that is Clive’s pedal. Panicking I signalled for Ron to come and help, between us we plugged the right thing into the right hole etc, hands up, I’d confused part of Viv’s (up next) set up with Clive’s. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, although I was aware that one band in and I’d lost us about 5 minutes. Not the greatest start and now it was time to go and introduce myself to Viv Albertine.

I manage to keep something amounting to composure throughout. She was genuinely charming, gave me a copy of her E.P. and signed it. I took her Telecaster back upstairs, walked on stage and tuned it up. Having just made it through the meeting it was concentration all the way. Viv had put little pink stickers on her pedals to indicate the levels to set them to so thankfully I had no trouble getting everything spot on. I had some mates in the audience and the playful shouts of “wanker!” made me grin as I crouched down stage right and indicated to the stage manager that all was ready. I’d even saved the time lost beforehand. Viv walked on, I held the guitar by its strap so Viv could just walk into it and get going. I watched the first song to make sure all was well and then headed backstage again to talk to prepare Carbon Silcon's gear.

Handing Viv her guitar
Handing Viv her guitar

I hate to be dull but after tuning Mick and Tony’s guitars I was pretty much done, I saw the last song of Viv’s set and made sure I was in position to take her guitar from her. I gathered up her pedals and leads up and raced downstairs to her dressing room. She hadn’t returned there yet so I set everything out so she could see everything was as it should be.

8.05pm and back upstairs to check the drum kit was ready for Rusty’s debut with Carbon Silicon. I handed Mick his guitar; I’d been surprised that he’d had a particularly clean guitar sound in rehearsal and yet the music seemed so powerful. I learnt something there, you don’t always have to turn the gain up to ten to rock out.

Patti Palladin next at 8.45pm, I only really needed to take Rusty’s snare off the stand so Dave New could put his on, and then prepare Steve New’s guitars. Steve had different tunings for this set and Bestellabeast, Standard EADGBE, for the Rich Kids each string went down a semi-tone. This was a laid back set, I enjoyed seeing the lady in action live. It was cool seeing Glen playing acoustic with a full band too, he’s such a good guitarist as anyone who catches his solo acoustic shows will know.

I was absolutely knocked out by Bestellabeast, they were phenomenal although I’m not sure some of the crowd knew what had hit them. I was crouched on the steps of the stage when the girl from the monitor desk raced past me, my memory has failed me slightly, but I think it was a problem with one of the microphones, unfortunately she crashed into Steve on the way and knocked his guitar out of tune. He was pretty rattled and as the song ended he shoved his mic stand over. I don’t know if it was the stand or if it took something with it when it went, but as I was peering over the monitor desk to see what was what I felt something whiz past the back of my head, I heard a loud bang and turned round to see the mic and stand laying on the floor. I thought it was perfect dirty rock’n’roll and Steve was absolutely on fire, as for singer Beatrice Brown, well boys, check out the black and white promo video for ‘Final Mistake’ on Youtube. I’ll say no more.

Midge up next. It’s always good to see and hear Midge, over the last ten years I’ve been lucky enough to share many a happy post-gig moment. Midge always delivers, whether it’s with his own band or solo, even stretching back to the 70’s as a child, my sister was into the Bay City Rollers, I liked Slik better. So it was with immense pleasure that I hand Midge his guitar and Phil Singleton’s review tells you the rest. A hugely appreciated set that gave me no technical problems and allowed me to enjoy it along with everyone else.

At 9.55pm, Midge headed off the stage and I headed on, this was it.

Rich Kids Set.

I may be imagining things, but the whole atmosphere had changed, the crowd knew that in a very short time (not as short as I’d hoped!) they were going to see the Rich Kids live and you could almost touch the excitement.

Steve’s pedals were still set up from Beastellabeast but the guitars needed tuning to a different key, as did Midge’s Les Paul. With no problems there I hopped onto Rusty’s kit, tightened up the snare, hit each part of the kit to make sure all was good with Hannah on the monitor desk, set the cymbals to ‘Rusty height’ and then walked across to Glen’s bass rig.

Let me try and explain why what happened next sucked so badly. I’d left Glen’s stuff till last because it hadn’t given me any problems for two days, that’s two days of several bassists giving it some serious welly. Glen got me this gig, he’s a mate for sure, but also like most of you reading this, a bit of a hero of mine when it comes to his work, and I was determined to do my bit as smoothly and as professionally as possible. So imagine how it felt as I put the bass round my neck, turned the volume pot up, gave it one twang and heard the sound just disappear rasping from the main speaker down to total silence.

I had one of those horrible hot/cold moments. The stage manager signalled that he wanted to get the band on, I made an ‘absolutely not!’ gesture back and started to re-check everything, it had to be the amp head, I could hear the bass coming through all the monitors as I played it but nothing from the huge speaker cabinet. I waved at Ron to get over to me (Martin Kemps bass tech, so I figured he should know more than me), and between us we checked everything once more. Nothing. I ran over to Glen with the bad news so he joined us. I was absolutely dying inside of embarrassment and mild panic. It obviously wasn’t my fault, but of all the people to be let down at the last minute it felt worse it being Glen somehow. The hire company had sent two bass heads so it was a case of “fuck it, change them over”. Ron took the dud off the top of the speaker as I ran round the back, opened the flight case and lifted out the new head, it weighed a ton, myself and Ron wrestled it to the top of the speaker, plugged it in and the whole rig kicked into life and that mighty Matlock klank and rumble bass sound nearly took my legs away. I have never breathed a larger sigh of relief. Two thumbs up to the stage manager, lights out and on walked Gary Crowley. Holy cow, that was close.

Gary said his piece, introduced the band and out they came from behind the curtain leading backstage to a deafening roar. I put Steve’s guitar round his neck and took up position on the stairs, almost immediately I realized I’d left Steve’s other guitar on the stand, if I left it there the humidity and stage lights may take it out of tune so I scampered on and removed it.

Concentration and general running about means that my recollection of what happened on what song is fuzzy, I made sure that I was ready with a spare guitar after each song but, as in rehearsal, Steve seemed keen to keep the same guitar and tune up himself. I think it might have been during Burning Sounds when Rusty caught my eye, gesturing wildly with his head. I ran over to discover that the three prongs of the snare stand had turned round so that the whole lot had landed in Rusty’s lap. Apart from the angle not being very helpful it meant that Rusty was effectively smacking himself in the bollocks with every beat. I stood it back up but I couldn’t move it whilst Rusty was still playing, so for the last two minutes of the song I simply had to hang onto it, crouched down but in full view of everyone; it felt like forever as I think crew should be invisible if possible so it doesn’t distract the audience and break the vibe of the performance. Oh well.

During Ghosts, Rusty called me over again, this time his head was motioning to the other side of the kit, I dived round to find the large cool air fan normally pointing at Rusty’s face was now pointing at the floor. To be honest the damn thing had seen better days and I’d already gaffer taped it up earlier because it felt loose. I got one of Rusty’s broken sticks, split the end and made a sort of ‘fishing rod stand’ type thing and jammed it under the fan, angling it until I saw Rusty’s hair move and I knew all was good! Then I realised I was stuck, I couldn’t go behind the drums as it was a solid wall, and Gary and Midge were in full rock out mode, so I ran across the front of the drum riser and leaped off the end!

Leaping off the stage
Leaping off the stage (far right)!

The encore was fun, with at least four extra guitarists all wanting to play. As the band went off after Only Arsenic, I scrambled about tuning Steve’s guitar, getting Mick Jones’s out of the case and into an amp; Midge and Gary were sorted already and anyone else was going to have to mime! The encore section was great for me because I pretty much just stood by the monitor desk watching and listening. It was great after all the running about to just enjoy the show for a bit. It was a really cool end to an amazing gig.

As the band disappeared through the curtain and the house lights went up I began to put guitars and basses in their cases. It only occurred to me at that point that I was now going to have to clear the whole stage and was going to miss all the jollities downstairs and at the aftershow up on the mezzanine; I was also absolutely knackered, best I get on with it then.

Time SheetAs I was winding up leads, and stacking cases my mind began chewing over the reason it had all happened in the first place. I’ve been a long time supporter of Macmillan Cancer Support. It’s tricky, and in my case selfish, picking a charity, but being a smoking rock dude I figured I’m probably going to need Macmillan at some point rather than the research guys. As I cleared the last of the equipment off the stage I grabbed a set list, a running order, broken drumsticks, a couple of plectrums, hand written lyrics with vocal directions on, all sorts of bits and pieces and figured I’d do something with them for Macmillan. So if you’re not sure where to throw a spare couple of quid feel free to investigate www.macmillan.org.uk/donate or if some nutter wants to give me a few hundred for the collectables do get in touch via the GSTSP’s website!

So there it was, all done and dusted. I nipped upstairs where the aftershow was still actually quite lively, chatted to a few people, received quite a few “thank yous” which was really nice, and after a bit of nudging from the friends I was with, went and got a photo taken with Viv, fantastic. Back down to earth I realized Glen only had fifteen minutes to get his car out of the car park, so myself and the two Ali’s headed down stairs and over the next few minutes I was up and down the stairs again carrying guitars, bags and gathering my own stuff together.

I said my goodbyes and got into the back of Ali’s mini. I snoozed most of the way back to Norwich getting in, thanks to the snow, at 4.30am. When I woke up the next afternoon, I ached all over. Later on I got a txt from Glen to thank me for my help. Apart from it being a nice gesture, the thing that really made me smile about it was this; considering the bands I grew up with and loved, the artists that have influenced me and the music I still listen to today, it was less of a chore and more like winning some amazing prize! So as I said rather obviously in my reply to Glen, ‘You’re welcome, it was awesome’.
 
Written by David Donley
Photographs by Alison McBride (and David)
God Save The Sex Pistols ©Phil Singleton / www.sex-pistols.net 2010

God Save the Sex Pistols

God Save The Sex Pistols ©Phil Singleton / www.sex-pistols.net