“LINK WRAY KICKED SID VICIOUS’S ASS”
THE night before his first gig at Earls Court, Dylan snuck away from a party organised by his record company to prowl London in search of live music. Final stop was the Music Machine in Camden, for an eventful, no-hard-feelings reunion with his erstwhile bandleader Rob Stoner, playing there with rockabilly revanchist Robert Gordon and one of Dylan’s musical heroes, Link Wray – who had recently recorded a truly incredible version of Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”. Stoner tells the story.
“Dylan came to see us play in London, June 14, 1978. He was a big fan of Link, and because I was in the band, he wanted to say hello. Backstage after the show, Bob told Link he’d seen him in the 1950s, that he was even better now. Then that crazyass bass player from the Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious, wanders in, drunk and nasty. He lurches up saying something like, ‘Aren’t you Bob Dildo?’ and starts waving a knife around. Now, Link always carried a switchblade and he knew how to use it. But before Link can get his blade out, we get Sid out into the hallway. Link gave him a kick in his ass and sent him sprawling along the corridor for his trouble. Afterwards, Bob said to Robert Gordon, ‘Hey, c’mon back to my hotel room, I got some songs you might wanna do.’ We went back and Bob starts playing all these fucking tunes.
Robert hears one and goes,
‘Nah, dunno.’
So Bob plays another, and, same thing, RG’S like, ‘Next.’ Bob went through 10 tunes, man, and
RG didn’t like a single fucking one
– and told him. As we left, I said to him,
‘What the fuck, man?’
That was a disappointing visit to Bob’s hotel room.”