The 101'ers' Elgin residency 50th commemoration continues. The 101'ers' residency in the Elgin at 96 Ladbroke Grove put them and Notting Hill on the pub rock map. Over the course of 30 gigs in the back bar of the Elgin between May ’75 and January ’76, the 101’ers transformed from a Van Morrison-style urban rhythm’n’ blues orchestra into a more streamlined rock’n’roll outfit. This change in musical direction brought them in step with the ensuing pub rock boom led by Ian Dury’s Kilburn and the High Roads, Dr Feelgood and Eddie and the Hot Rods. Joe Strummer’s first original number, the single ‘Keys to Your Heart’, and ‘Junco Partner’ and ‘Jail Guitar Doors’ date back to the Elgin era. As ‘the 101’ers’ r’n’b rave on every Monday night at the Elgin’, the audience included the other future Clash members and the local Sex Pistols, Steve Jones and Paul Cook.
The Chippenham and Elgin pub rock scene was trailblazed by the proto-punk group the Derelicts, the 101’ers’ Latimer Road ‘squat rock’ rivals, described as ‘Trotskyite r’n’b’ in an Ian Penman NME review quoting the 101’ers’ singer. This legendary North Kensington group – consisting of John Studholme, Sue and Barbara Gogan, Dan Kelleher and Richard Williams – merged with the 101’ers and split into the Atoms with Keith Allen, the Martian Schoolgirls, prag VEC, and the Passions of ‘I’m in Love with a German Film Star’ fame. As the Elgin became part of the pub rock circuit, there were also gigs by Maggie Bell, McSmith with Alex Harvey, and comedy turns by Alexei Sayle, Keith and Tony Allen.
As the 101’ers became the main contenders to Dr Feelgood’s pub rock bar stool, they went on the road in an old hearse to play the Windsor and Stonehenge free festivals, various benefit gigs and student unions. They headlined the first gig at Acklam Hall under the Westway – a benefit for the North Kensington Law Centre on Golborne Road, promoted by the 101’ers and Sex Pistols tour manager John Tiberi, an Elgin Avenue squatters benefit at the Chippenham Factory in Chippenham Mews, the Harrow Road Windsor Castle, and the Queen Elizabeth College on Campden Hill Road. Dr Feelgood also played at Acklam Hall when it first opened.
After the Delinquents played at the Campden Hill college, Mick Jones formed an alliance with the Hollywood Brats, London’s existing answer to the New York Dolls, following a meeting with the guitarist Brady in Portobello market. British punk rock began on Portobello Road in 1975, when this Delinquents/Hollywood Brats practise group chose London SS as their working title. According to one explanation by Brady, the name was meant as a word play on life in London on Social Security, but it was a more successful attempt to out-outrage the New York Dolls with camp Nazi shock-horror tactics; influenced by the Dirk Bogarde films of the time, The Damned and The Night Porter, rather than the NF. Original punk rock accessories were purchased at the notorious military ephemera stall in the antiques market, to scare the squares in the heavy rock tradition of Brian Jones, Keith Moon, Mick Farren and Lemmy.
At the time of the New York punk scene, London’s equivalent to the Bowery Zone was Maida Vale. As the London SS practised at the Warrington Crescent flat of Matt Dangerfield (later of the Boys), they were taken under the wing of Bernie Rhodes, an associate of the Sex Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren. The group also included, at one time or another, Tony James (who went on to Generation X and Sigue Sigue Sputnik), Brian James (later of the Damned and Lords of the New Church), Geir Waade, Kelvin Blacklock, Casino Steel and Andrew Matheson of the Hollywood Brats, Barry Jones and Steve Dior.
The first punk rock site in North Kensington is 93 Golborne Road, where from the early 70s the legendary Rock On record stall of Thin Lizzy’s manager Ted Carroll boasted a ‘huge and rocking selection’ of rare imported rock’n’roll, rhythm’n’blues, rockabilly, 60s beat, northern soul, US punk rock and garage. Phil Lynott pays tribute to him in ‘The Rocker’ with: ‘I got my records from the Rock On stall, sweet rock’n’roll Teddy boy, he’s got it all.’ Jon Savage cites Rock On as second only in punk rock importance to Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s Let It Rock/Sex/Seditionaries shop on King’s Road: ‘Going there was in its self an act of faith. Golborne Road was at the wrong end of Portobello Road, 10 years before urban regeneration.’
