Nashville Rooms
Details
- Date
- December 29, 1977
- Venue
- Nashville Rooms London, England (West Kensington)
- Billed As
- The Soft Boys
- Gig Type
- Concert
Notes
The Soft Boys opened for a reggae band this night, apparently it was originally to be Steel Pulse but ended up being "Merger".
The Punk Music Catalogue in their listing for the Red Cow, claims the Boys were there on the 29th with "Tonight" but probably an error, although they played there the next night. NB it may be they played an early show at one venue and a late show at the other. In their listing for the Nashville, Punk Music Catalogue also lists the Boys as playing there on the 29th, and the newspaper ad we have (see image at right) has them at Nashville on the 29th and Red Cow on the 30th.
Review (transcribed below) from page 1 of Kimberley Rew's Soft Boys scrapbook. It is assumed to be about this gig given the mention of the other band, Merger. Oddly, all the instances of the letter "n" in the review are hand-written, even though all other letters are typed - presumably an issue with the author's typewriter.
Image used with permission.
The Punk Music Catalogue in their listing for the Red Cow, claims the Boys were there on the 29th with "Tonight" but probably an error, although they played there the next night. NB it may be they played an early show at one venue and a late show at the other. In their listing for the Nashville, Punk Music Catalogue also lists the Boys as playing there on the 29th, and the newspaper ad we have (see image at right) has them at Nashville on the 29th and Red Cow on the 30th.
Review (transcribed below) from page 1 of Kimberley Rew's Soft Boys scrapbook. It is assumed to be about this gig given the mention of the other band, Merger. Oddly, all the instances of the letter "n" in the review are hand-written, even though all other letters are typed - presumably an issue with the author's typewriter.
Image used with permission.
Reviews
From 'Chainsaw' issue dated March/April 1978.
This was the second time I'd seen the Soft Boys but the first time (a couple of months ago) I was in the bar talking to the Users for most of their set so most of their songs I hadn't heard before.
Well like Squeeze they're not really punk - their music is more like late-sixties LSD-influenced stuff. But they are very good - they're instantly likeable as well. Halfway through the set someone stood up and shouted "Absolute fucking shit!" (not quite true but it was still a laugh). The things I didn't like about their set were.... they didn't play their single Wading through a Ventilator (which is great), and they played no encore - nothing at all. It doesn't matter if they were only the support band.
The Soft Boys were supporting Merger, a reggae group. This was my first-ever reggae gig and it ended in disaster - I had chicken Vindaloo curry earlier on and it wrenched my gut, halfway through their set I started trotting off to the bog every five minutes. So I can't be too hard on them - but I still think all reggae sounds the same.
They've changed guitarist (the Soft Boys, I'm talking about) since this gig - their new one is called Kimberley something (I can't read this writing very well). The old line-up was:
Robyn Hitchcock: Vocals, guitar.
Morris Windsor: Drums.
Andy Metcalfe: Bass.
Alan Davies: Guitar.
This was the second time I'd seen the Soft Boys but the first time (a couple of months ago) I was in the bar talking to the Users for most of their set so most of their songs I hadn't heard before.
Well like Squeeze they're not really punk - their music is more like late-sixties LSD-influenced stuff. But they are very good - they're instantly likeable as well. Halfway through the set someone stood up and shouted "Absolute fucking shit!" (not quite true but it was still a laugh). The things I didn't like about their set were.... they didn't play their single Wading through a Ventilator (which is great), and they played no encore - nothing at all. It doesn't matter if they were only the support band.
The Soft Boys were supporting Merger, a reggae group. This was my first-ever reggae gig and it ended in disaster - I had chicken Vindaloo curry earlier on and it wrenched my gut, halfway through their set I started trotting off to the bog every five minutes. So I can't be too hard on them - but I still think all reggae sounds the same.
They've changed guitarist (the Soft Boys, I'm talking about) since this gig - their new one is called Kimberley something (I can't read this writing very well). The old line-up was:
Robyn Hitchcock: Vocals, guitar.
Morris Windsor: Drums.
Andy Metcalfe: Bass.
Alan Davies: Guitar.