A CASE OF PRIDE: SKREWDRIVER - Punk'n'Roll 1976 - 79

By Mark Green

British Punk music has created a genre of simplistic but dynamic Rock 'n' Roll that shook the stiff establishment during dreadful years in 1976 to 1979. Skrewdriver was one of those protagonists on their quest for rebellion and fame. A band labelled as infamous, but their early Punk 'career' remained often nebulous. 'A Case of Pride' is the full story of young adventures told in an unstained and authentic way...

• Language: English
• Publisher: tredition
• Release date: Apr 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9783347186804

Mark Green

Mark Green is a passionate music collector of early Punk, New Wave / Goth, Rock and Heavy Metal, 2-Tone and Skinhead music. Born in a faraway land and influenced by his international family upbringing, he experienced subcultural life himself from the mid-1980s onwards. He lives with his family in Germany and 'Give Me Some Kick!' is his fourth book publication.

Book preview

Preface:

When Mark first got in touch with me by email over a year ago I wasn’t sure what his motives were for writing about Skrewdriver, as most of you probably know Skrewdriver has mostly been known for its connection to the far right, which started couple of years after I left the band. I have always been reticent to talk about my years with the group because of this. He suggested we have an online video meeting and we got together the following Saturday. It was great to talk about his interest in Skrewdriver and he only wanted to write about the early years when I was in the band. This was exciting for me as I had so many great memories from this period in my life. The more we spoke I came to realise how much research he had put into this project, even reaching out to Lemmy from Motörhead before he passed away. It took me back to when we started our earlier band Tumbling Dice, which morphed into Skrewdriver and the memories came flooding back. Unfortunately, two of the original band members have passed away and I have not been in touch with the other remaining one since he left the band early in our careers. I am still very close to my brother who was prominent in the years before we left for London so I do talk to him about some of the early events.

Looking through my scrapbook and speaking with Mark has me reliving the good and bad times, which has been a fantastic experience. I will always be in his debt as I come to realise how much this time meant to me. The sad part was that the book was only coming out in German, the pictures are great but I would like to have read the whole piece. When he told me he was going to bring out an English translation, I was delighted. I know this has been a lot of extra work for him but I think it is totally worth it for all the people who are interested in the early period of Skrewdriver.

Thank you Mark for all your hard work and also letting me write the preface, this means so much to me.

I hope you enjoy our journey as young men coping with the highs and lows of the early Punk years!

Kevin McKay

(Tumbling Dice / Skrewdriver 1976-1979)

February, 2021

(1)

Foreword:

Skrewdriver does not really need any introduction. In September 2020, I selfpublished the first version of ‘A Case of Pride’ in German only. At this stage, I was convinced not to go international with this book because it was just an extremely challenging project, but things changed by the end of last year after I spoke again with Kevin McKay and Glenn Jones from the Manchester line-up. I sensed that I could not end this journey without having an English version out…On top of that, I received many positive feedbacks (more than expected) about my book combined with numerous inquiries coming from people abroad asking about ‘A Case of Pride’. Therefore, what you hold in your hands is an updated translated version with additional never-seen-before pictures, flyers and more interviews.

No doubt, the entire biography of this band is exciting and as well controversial like no other group coming from the Punk environment, but hence also unique in the history of the alternative music scenes. Skrewdriver’s way from early Punk with an RnB touch, a talented singer and a bunch of catchy songs to eventually the most known (and infamous) Skinhead-Rock band in the world does cause mixed emotions either of passionate admiration or up to even intense dislike (or somewhere in-between). When writer Alex Ogg published his monumental encyclopedia ‘No More Heroes - A Complete History of UK Punk from 1976 to 1980) in 2006, he obviously struggled with this subject and excluded Skrewdriver’s notable role during the early Punk music movement…

This book ‘A Case of Pride’ dives deep into the first years of a band caught by the Punk whirlwind that raged in Britain and became (as we all know) a worldwide musical and subcultural phenomena. The later re-start of Skrewdriver is not subject of this publication and rather focuses on the very early time when four lads from Poulton-le-Fylde kicked off a band…and experienced a roller-coaster ride in London. ‘A Case of Pride’ also document in details their re-start in Manchester until Skrewdriver’s final release on TJM Records in 1979 and as well their impact on the early German Punk scene.

My sincere thanks goes to all that supported me in getting this book done during difficult times….

Mark Green

April, 2021

Acknowledgements

Kevin McKay * Glenn Jones * Chris Cummings * Neil Richmond * Jesse Lynn Dean (The Wasps) * Anthony Davidson (TJM Records, Manchester) * Noel Martin (Menace) * Mick Priestley (Buffalo) * Janne Borgh (The Moderns) * Alan Adler * Paul Burton * Gary Chammings * Martin Smith * Gary Callender * Katy MacMillan * Gert Plas (Poparchief Groningen) * Roy Weard (Dogwatch) * Nick Sack (Dogwatch) * Steve Fisher * Uhl Großmann * Detlev Rose * Geoff Clements (London Shoes) * Stephen Hawking * Frank Laux (aka Hellfire Franky) * …and special thanks to my brothers Steffen and Todd!

If Skrewdriver had not taken a turn into RAC, they would have been noticed by mainstream Rock music critics and rockers today as Punk classics, and been named in the same sentence as The Clash, Ramones, and Sex Pistols. (2)

In Memory

From the early Skrewdriver line-up:

• Ian Stuart Donaldson (1957-1993)

• John ‘Grinny’ Grinton (1957-2005)

• Ron Hartley (1956-2011)

Other influential musicians / persons during the early Punk days…:

• Keith Moon (1946-1978)

• Sid Vicious (Simon John Ritchie, 1957-1979)

• Johnny Thunders (John Anthony Genzale jr., 1952-1991)

• The Ramones (1974-1996)

• Wendy O. Williams (1949-1998)

• Joe Strummer (John Graham Mellor, 1952-2002)

• Lux Interior (Erick Purckhiser, 1946-2009)

• Phil Taylor (1954-2015)

• Lemmy Kilmister (Ian Fraser Kilmister, 1945-2015)

• Eddie Clarke (1950-2018)

• Pete Shelley (Peter Campbell McNeish, 1955-2018)

• Walter Lure (Walter C. Luhr, 1949-2020)

• Dave Greenfield (1949-2020)

My friends…never forgotten:

• Rex G. Sprague (1964-2004)

• Holger Kuttroff (1969-2010)

• Jürgen ‘TNT’ Kubelka (1968-2016)

When we formed in 1977 all we wanted was money, girls and gigs…

Ian Stuart, Skrewdriver (3)

‘Punk is the best thing since fish and chips!’

(4)

1976

It was early summer when an unusual heat wave reached Britain’s shores causing melting tarmacs and a drought that followed affecting greatly the agricultural industry. This weather phenomenon was a lifetime experience for millions of Brits, but simultaneously the harbinger of a musical youth revolution steered by a bunch of Londoners called Sex Pistols…

Until they sparked an outcry of public protest, they were an ignored band with an admittedly unusual name. Other groups dictated the sound for masses like Abba, Paul McCartney’s Wings, Barclays James Harvest and the disco-soul band The Real Thing who were occupying the top ranks in the English singles charts. The heroes of the 60s like the Rolling Stones were on their successful ‘Black and Blue’-European tour and played by early June in the sold-out Pavillon de Paris, but they appeared tame and adjusted. The same with The Who, who were also on tour to promote their seventh studio album ‘The Who By Numbers’ and were a long way off their prior aggressive stage performance.

It was a Friday on June 4th when in Manchester the Sex Pistols arrived at the venerable Free Trade Hall for their very first concert in the north-west. The 30 to 40 people, who witnessed the band’s show inside the smaller Lesser Free Trade Hall experienced a performance that ended for those who had attended in utter rejection or fascination (5). Particularly the singer with his sonorous stage name Johnny Rotten stood out with his hypnotic staring and provocations. No doubt, the Pistols made a lasting impression to a small crowd. Meanwhile rumors were circulating about this wild band led by Rotten and it was only a matter of time until the youth in sleepy county of Lancashire would hear about this apparently so outrageous gang.

In the town of Poulton-le-Fylde, people lived a modest and rather unspectacular life and majority of citizens likely never heard from a band with such a scandal-ridden name. The majority of inhabitants were even not bothered what happened beyond the city limits of Blackpool (except if it was soccer related). Before the Sex Pistols gave their debut concert on the November 6th, 1975 at Saint Martin’s School of Arts, five friends from Poulton’s Baines Grammar School kicked off a band in overcoming the dominant state of boredom. Tumbling Dice was born.

After a few months of rehearsal, they began roaming the local area and applied for gigs at social clubs, pubs and discos to play their cover Rock songs. Indeed, they secured a number of bookings and played their sets in front of dozens of shy teenage girls and drunken boys. Some several months after they started, Tumbling Dice singer Ian Stuart Donaldson (mostly known as Don or Stu) from Carleton came across an article about the Sex Pistols, when he read the New Musical Express. His eyes not only caught the group’s name, but as well the writer’s description about their apparent appetite for destructive, ruthless behaviors.

Then by mid-July ’76, news spread across Poulton that the Sex Pistols would return to Manchester for a second gig…

There’s no point in asking - You will get no reply

Sex Pistols ‘Pretty Vacant’

Six weeks after their first show Glen Matlock, Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Johnny Rotten were back at the Lesser Free Trade Hall and this time the Poulton youth would not miss this chance. Some few hours before Phil Walmsley organized a car and picked up his band mates Ian Stuart and Sean McKay. They needed a strong hour to cover the southbound trip of 80 kilometers distance to Mancunian ground. At the destination, they parked the car, walked over to Peter Street, and spotted the first bigger group of youngsters gathering in front of the Free Trade Hall. Despite the Tuesday evening, a fairly decent crowd turned up and expectantly waited for the main act. Before the Pistols hit the stage, it was up to the Buzzcocks and Slaughter & the Dogs to entertain the audience. 19-year-old Ian Stuart followed the performance of the support acts closely and with a certain admiration. At this time, he would have loved to stand on a half-decent stage and perform in front of a bit more people than he experienced with Tumbling Dice. He was already thrilled what he saw and heard, but when the Sex Pistols finally stomped on stage and raged through their first songs, he and his mates were enthusiastic. Captivated by the music, energy and Rotten’s obsessive stage personality, they knew by now that this is what they wanted and desperately needed. The vast majority of kids in the room shared the same emotional outbreak like the Poulton trio. After the concert Ian, Phil and Sean streamed outside and headed back home full of adrenalin…

Well, we were playing a lot of pub gigs, doing the circuits, and then we went to see the Sex Pistols in Manchester with Buzzcocks and Slaughter and the Dogs. We really enjoyed it ‘cos we thought it was a fresh, new sort of thing. So we did a tape more on that sort of line, sent it to a load of record companies.

Ian Stuart, Skrewdriver (6)

The experience that night was above all else the catalyst for what we did later.

Phil Walmsley, Skrewdriver (7)

Before the Sex Pistols enlightened our Poulton friends, they focused on their initial heroes of The Rolling Stones. Their cocky and lascivious stage presence earned them full concert halls, girls and money. A great combination in fulfilling teenager dreams in a small town in Lancashire. Stones songs were not the only ones covered by Tumbling Dice, but Mick Jagger & Co. were certainly the main influence for this young band.

"After a couple of months without a band, Phil Walmsley was back in business with Tumbling Dice (late 1975). This new band developed Phil’s love of the Stones / Who/ Free in a much more earthy fashion than Warlock. His main partner was vocalist Ian Stuart (or Don as he was known at school). Don had been looking for a way into the scene for a while, his developing friendship and musical common ground with Phil provided the perfect opportunity.

Original drummer Grinny was fired after a falling out with Don and was replaced by Steve Gaulter from the now defunct band Paranoia. The McKay twin Kev and Sean, new to the music scene, were on bass and second guitar respectively….

In all honesty, Tumbling Dice were not very good and it all ground to a halt in the summer of 1976. Don was still very keen on a career in rock music, but was badly in need of a new direction and fresh impetus. The key moment was seeing the Sex Pistols second gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester. Phil and Don immediately set about transforming what was left of Tumbling Dice into a serious punk band. Steve Gaulter wasn’t keen, so Grinny returned, Sean McKay had decided to go to University, but brother Kev was still on board." (8)

Stephen Yarwood (8)

Legendary Rolling Stones single Paint It Black (1966). (9)

Two weeks after the Pistols gig, Tumbling Dice gave their last concerts. These took place not in their familiar surroundings, but in Whitehaven, a town some 180 kilometers further north in Cumbria. They played two gigs at the Lowca Social Club and gave their best in front of an apparent enthusiastic audience. On the evening of August 1, 1976, they buried Tumbling Dice and the twin brothers Sean and Kevin McKay, Phil Walmsley, Steve Gaulter and Ian Stuart would never play again in this line-up formation.

It was quite an easy decision for the main protagonists Stuart and Walmsley to close this band chapter, because nothing had been the same since foul-mouthed Johnny Rotten and the Pistols spit life into the Manchester audience. By early autumn, they started frequent trips to Liverpool and explored the rise of a subcultural underground music and lifestyle scene at the recently opened Eric’s. Around the same time, during a visit in Manchester, they wandered to The Squat venue where they witnessed an impressive performance by The Stranglers. Punk was the new motivation and they embraced this movement with all their passion. By now, Malcom McLaren got the Sex Pistols into a recording studio with producer Dave Goodman and taped their first single ‘Anarchy in the UK’.

Concert-flyer: Tumbling Dice, The Tithebarn, Poulton

Lowca Social Club, Whitehaven

Skrewdriver were formed because of boredom with work, explained Ian, a Warbreck Hill civil servant of Hawthorne-Grove, Carleton."

Blackpool Gazette (10)

Roger Armstrong, one of the managers of Chiswick Records, arrived at Euston train station in London early one morning. He purchased a ride heading to destination Blackpool, a distance of 386 kilometers, to meet an unnamed band who had caught his attention when he listened to their tape containing some noisy Garage Punk Rock songs.

"When the Punk explosion occurred with the Sex Pistols and The Clash and people like that, we decided to do that sort of music, because we had a lot more energy to it. We particularly did not agree to the political content in it. All about ‘anarchy’ and all that….it was a laugh at this time, but we thought the energy in the music was great, so we started to do a little bit of music like that. Did a few demo tapes and sent them away to record companies. We had a little bit of interest back from London record companies, mainly from a company called Chiswick Records. They ended up taking groups like Motörhead and people like that on.

We went down to London, as we were invited to do a demo tape in a proper studio, Riverside Studios in Chiswick. We did the tape and as a result of that, we got a contract for one single. When we recorded the single, we decided to make the contract bigger for two singles and an LP. The record company actually named the band Skrewdriver, ‘cos we did not had a name at this time."

Ian Stuart, Skrewdriver (11)

Chiswick Records entered the business world in 1975 (named after the neighborhood in the south-west London Borough of Hounslow). Ted Carroll, the main man behind the company, had been running the Rock On, a popular record store in Camden Town since 1971. Parallel he managed for a while Thin Lizzy, and was the one who suggested to them to have their cover version ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ recorded as a single, which became the well-known international hit (12). Lizzy’s frontman Phil Lynott seemed to have a stronger bond with the named record shop, as he immortalized the Rock On in his 1973 classic ‘The Rocker’:

‘I get my records from the Rock On stall Rock’n Roll, Teddy boy, he’s got them all’

"Small, but beautifully formed, Chiswick Records launched itself on an unsus-pecting world in 1975from a market stall selling second-hand records in London Soho. The world took very little notice, but we were quite excited by the idea. Ted Carroll had already been dealing in second-hand records from his lair in the Golborne Road for a few years, whilst managing Thin Lizzy. He baled out as their manager and hooked up with me and later Trevor Churchill, to form Chiswick Records, which has over the years transformed itself into Europe’s premier reissue label, Ace Records.

From 1975 to 1984 Chiswick Records issued a string of strange and wonderful records in the true spirit of independent record companies, despite spending three years licensed through EMI in the UK…."

Roger Armstrong, Chiswick Records (13)

Armstrong, 28 years old and Belfast breed, was Chiswick’s talent scout and producer. Before his encounter with Skrewdriver he was involved in the recordings of The Count Bishops (‘Speedball’), the side-burn rockers of The Gorillas (‘She‘s My Gal’), Little Bob Story and The 101ers debut single ‘Keys To Your Heart’ with John Mellor on vocals (before he transformed to Joe Strummer).

Despite the dreary weather in the north-west, the former Tumbling Dice musicians were on fire. They knew that they had the unique opportunity on that day, to make a lasting impression on a representative of a record company. They desperately wanted to embark on a new and more exciting musical path, but to enter such adventure it needed commitment from each group member. Drummer Steve Gaulter was one of those who could not go this way, so Ian Stuart replaced him with initial drummer Grinny…

Grinny lived in Carleton somwhere near Ian and he used to drink in The Barn (Poulton). He used to hang around with the McKays and others of whom we knew. Grinny’s dad was a good musician and encouraged him a lot. … He was a bloody loud drummer, reminded me a bit of John Bonam (Led Zeppelin drummer).

Stephen Yarwood (14)

They drove their guest to Cherry Tree Road in Marton (a suburb of Blackpool) where Ian’s father was running a small machine tool factory, the band’s rehearsal base. It was there where this still unnamed band wanted to impress Armstrong in playing their version of fast and rough Rock’n’ Roll…:

He came to the factory and listened to us go through our stuff, and he was really impressed, I think we were all a bit taken aback. This guy knew the Pistols, he was part of the scene in London, things we'd only read about. It was fantastic really.

Phil Walmsley, Skrewdriver (15)

John Grinton aka Grinny during Warlock days (pre-band of Tumbling Dice), 1974 (16)

I think we played the following songs for Roger Armstrong: ‘You’re So Dumb’, ‘I Don’t Like You’, Better Off Crazy, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ and some other covers. Not sure, but probably ‘Get Off My Cloud’ by Rolling Stones.

Kevin McKay, Skrewdriver (17)

After they escorted Armstrong back to the train station, the lads celebrated this exciting encounter with some drinks, although they still had no name for the band, but this was sorted out some few weeks later…

(18)

In Australia there were a lot of riots at our gigs, but that was the crowd not us. They are the Punks, we are not! Angus Young, AC/DC (19)

(20)

1977

Early photo shoot of Skrewdriver (21)

Ian Stuart – Phil Walmsley (standing) – Kevin McKay – John Grinton

(Photo was taken at the bottom of the sea wall in Blackpool at low tide)

February 12, 1977: Little Bob Story + Skrewdriver, University - Polytechnic / Manchester

While Leo Sayer was trilling off the radio with his top hit ‘When I Need You’, Ian Stuart, John Grinny Grinton, Phil Walmsley, Kevin McKay and a handful of supporters from home ground met on the campus of the Manchester University. To be more precisely, they gathered at the Cavendish House, a place known for concerts organized by and for students. This was the location where Skrewdriver’s first live performance took place. Roger Armstrong was the one who arranged this gig for the lads from Poulton, as he was on good terms with the French headliner Little Bob Story led by Italian frontman Roberto Piazza (Little Bob). A powerful band that discovered Punk back in August 1976, when they performed at the French Mont-de-Marsan-Festival next to The Clash, The Damned, Dr. Feelgood and others. Little Bob Story were touring regularly through England and had only played with The Jam in West Sussex (Crawley College) few days earlier.The Skrewdriver slot came at no surprise since Armstrong produced their recent single for Chiswick Records.

Little Bob Story –EP ’I’m Crying’, 1976

"It was very exciting. We had a few followers from Blackpool there, which made a difference to the reaction. We played a short set that went without hitches I think. Previously we had played quite a few gigs with Tumbling Dice so this was a little more intense. The crowd were appreciative. After the sound check, we went into Manchester before the gig and Grinny stole a plug from John Lewis department store toilets to enhance his stage gear! Little Bob Story did not speak much English, but they thought we gave a good show. They were very good, powerful and tight musically, even though their singer Little Bob was little. We saw them again when they played in Dingwalls in the summer (May 5, 1977)."

Kevin McKay, Skrewdriver (22)

The band returned to their home base, after their first successful concert. Now they had to prepare themselves for the next big step in signing a contract with Chiswick Records. The music press in the meantime announced a band portrayed as the new super punk rock group scheduled to play in Blackpool: AC/DC from far-off Sydney in Australia:

’FUCK YOUR PISTOL!’

(Bon Scott, AC/DC)

"In early 1977 (20 Feb) I went to see AC/DC at Blackpool’s Imperial Hotel on the - ‘High Voltage’-Tour, their first proper UK tour. I remember my mate shouting Sex Pistols to Bon Scott, to which Bon replied ‘Fuck your Pistol’. We were already into punk, the Ramones first album was out and all sorts of bands were releasing singles. So when we noticed these two Punks at the AC/DC gig in their DIY garb we went over for a chat. The one bloke who turned out to be Ian (Stuart) said they had a band. Straight away, we wanted to know when they were playing next, they had no gigs lined up, but we were welcome to come along to their rehearsal place in Blackpool. I phoned Ian a couple of weeks later to set something up and off we went. Musically they were good and way above a lot of the stuff of the time. I was 17 and by now totally converted to this new high-energy music.

I remember Kev (McKay) was playing a Burns bass and Phil (Walmsley) had some sort of custom guitar, which I had never seen before. Grinny played the drums, as I had never seen before and Ian put the vocals across with such intensity. If I remember rightly, they played ‘Your So Dumb’, ‘Anti-Social’, the Stones ‘19th Nervous Breakdown’, the Stooges ‘No Fun’ and the Who’s ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’. After the rehearsal, they told us they had signed to Chiswick Records that week and were off to London for a couple of gigs. Chiswick also signed The Radiators from Space at the same time. Shortly after signing, they released their debut single ‘Your So Dumb b/w Better off Crazy’ and I got a free copy through the post…

I had often bump into Ian and Kev at gigs; they were at the Electric Circus in Manchester to see The Clash on The White Riot tour. I also remember them at Wigan hoping like the rest of us for the Pistols to turn up for a secret gig as the SPOTS, which they did not."

Roy Hesketh (23)

London was now the next destination, but before the young ones faced potential grim looking Cockney Punks in smoky music pubs, they needed some support before even considering packing their bags. Euphemia ‘Effie’ Ryan was supposed to be the helping hand. She was a Punk rock girl from Birmingham and had lived in England’s capitol for some time. She already had good contacts with the Chiswick label, allegedly knew Johnny Rotten and was friend with members of the popular Pub Rock / Punk band Eddie & the Hot Rods, as well with Rat Scabbies, the drummer of The Damned (15). She was the one to organize regular gigs for the band and to advertise their name in the fast