Steel Pulse, Graham Parker, The Damned… & the Crazy World of Arthur Brown – live in 1977

Another great year for gigs! My diary records life at the London School of Economics: every day in the Ents room; every day in the 3 Tuns. And the occasional lecture…

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I enjoyed my time at the London School of Economics – probably too much as my academic career suffered. On the upside I was at a lot of gigs, got to meet a great many interesting people and consumed vast quantities of beer. My 1977 diary records all the gigs I was at, although there are a few gaps. A lot of these gigs were at the LSE itself, either in the Old Theatre or the Three Tuns – the student union basement bar.

Highlights for me are SALT, a great rocking’ blues outfit at the famous Red Cow in Hammersmith; Black Slate – one of the best reggae bands I have seen live – and in the 3 Tuns bar; Carol Grimes and Steel Pulse at the LSE Release benefit; Graham Parker, filmed for the BBC Sight and Sound programme, and Stretch at the new Music Machine venue in Camden. The Damned were great, but there is a bit of a story to tell there. I shall reveal in a future post…

The rest were all good and there is a story behind some of the acts that I will add to this page in the future. If anyone remembers any of these bands, but particularly the more obscure ones, I’d love to hear from you.

8 Jan	Street Scene	Shiphay Manor (Torquay)
14 Jan	John Stevens’ Away	Marquee
29 Jan	Alkatraz	LSE
2 Feb	S.A.L.T.	Red Cow, Hammersmith
4 Feb	Strike-A-Light	3 Tuns
8 Feb	Ocean	3 Tuns
17 Feb	Advertising	3 Tuns
21 Feb	90º Inclusive	3 Tuns
26 Feb	Dave Edmunds Rockpile	LSE
	Plummet Airlines
	Ultravox
5 Mar	The Crazy World of Arthur Brown	LSE
	Carol Grimes
	Steel Pulse
7 Mar	The Cowards	King’s College
	The Damned
16 Mar	Black Slate	3 Tuns
17 Mar	Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias	LSE
17 Mar	Graham Parker	Golders Green Hippodrome
18 Mar	The Damned	The Rainbow
	T.Rex
27 Mar	Medicine Head	Fforde Grene, Leeds
25 Apr	Jenny Haan’s Lion	Music Machine, Camden
29 Apr	Stretch	Music Machine
4 May	Don Rendell Band	3 Tuns

This is a ‘work in progress’, with more to be added as I plough through my ’77 diary.

I used to produce the artwork for some of the LSE and 3 Tuns gigs. In those days I had a set of Rotring pens and stencils, and pretty much everything was drawn by hand at my bedsit in Archway.

Having got the artwork completed I would then get them printed, usually at King’s College but sometimes at the LSE.

Shown below are four examples of ‘handouts’ – or flyers – for some of the gigs listed. Click on an image to view full-screen. The Release Benefit went very well indeed; needless to say Arthur Brown was great entertainment. I really enjoyed Carol Grimes and the London Boogie Band – desperately underrated at the time and seemingly almost unknown now, which is a great shame. Steel Pulse had not been around for very long, at least outside of Birmingham, and were one of my favourites. They had not yet released a record, but Handsworth Revolution was recorded in 1977 and released in 1978.

The 3 Tuns gigs were always free entry, and we were very lucky to have some great acts in the bar. Ocean, 90º Inclusive and Black Slate were all very good reggae bands and I made a note in my diary that Ocean in particular got everyone dancing, which was pretty much unknown in the student bar. Black Slate still sound good today with albums available to listen to on Tidal (and probably other streaming services). I would like to know what became of the other two – 90 degrees and Ocean.