Classic Rock

Ramones

- Ian Fortnam

London Rainbow

December 31, 1977

A momentous year, 1977 had over-delivered on its promise. Customaril­y fuelled on pure adrenaline, we prepared for its final act.

The Rainbow was heaving, the foyer’s fountain was dry but the gent’s toilets were flooded. We padded through piss to our cheap seats, sick with anticipati­on. A dazzling Rezillos rose to the occasion, before Generation X – too pop for the hard-core – posed hard to muted response.

Then, there they were. The ultimate exemplific­ation of the D-U-M-B punk ideal. The leather-jacketed stormtroop­ers of the three-chord apocalypse. 1977 had been a year of rapid-fire six-string assaults. Blurred fists pummelling at over-cranked humbuckers. Automatic-weaponry tempos. Angst, amphetamin­es, fury. But nothing, not even their records, could prepare you for the original Ramones at their peak.

Drilled like a crack military unit, they dispatched 28 songs, including three encores, in 54 minutes. Sometimes there was space between songs for star-jumping Dee Dee to rattle of a “one-two-three-four”, before Johnny brutalised their next selection, sometimes not. Hunched Joey brayed odes to Blitzkreig­s and Beaches as Tommy performed miracles behind his kit.

New Year came and went. We haunted the stage door, stayed out all night. Tomorrow? If not the world, at least The Roxy. What a time to be alive.

the wail of noise, while Cobain scream/moaned his way across the heads of the audience. A Nirvana song without guitars? Photos exist. Recordings exist. I still can’t believe it happened. Terrifying.

 ??  ?? Nirvana at New York’s Marquee in ’91: terrifying.
Nirvana at New York’s Marquee in ’91: terrifying.

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