Originally posted on the 'Listen To The Sirens' site.... but it concerns The Skids and the punk incarnation of Tubeway Army...
I was very happy to come across this particular gig review this evening. This was the infamous gig that almost stalled a career before it started. The night out in West London when Dunfirmline's Skids supported Tubeway Army at The White Hart in Acton. As I recall, by rights The Skids should have been topping the bill as they had been hitting London quite hard in the summer of 1978. Who knows, had the running order been reversed, then perhaps musical history may have taken a different course. Had The Skids headlined and therefore been on stage at the point that fighting started in the audience, would they have managed the situation differently. I cannot vouch for the other members of The Skids, but Richard Jobson was by all accounts quite handy in fight situations and maybe he could have deescalated the altercation. Had Tubeway Army supported, it is possible I suppose that they could have packed up and been half way home by the time that trouble flared.
As it was, little did the band know as they plugged in to their amps that night that this would be the last gig that Tubeway Army, the punk band would ever play. This gig looms large in the Numan story in that it galvanised Numan into action. No more punk gigs played in the back rooms of pubs to audiences more focused on blood letting than anything going on on stage.
New Musical Express (24th June 1978)
Last Bastion Flyer (Summer 1978)
New Musical Express (24th June 1978)
Sounds (24th June 1978)
Sadly, in what I believe is the only live review of the band to appear in the mainstream music press, all the focus in terms of Tubeway Army’s performance is focussed in the violence that marred the gig. No mention is made at all to anything that the band played which is very disappointing. As mentioned in Paul Goodwin’s book ‘Tubeway Daze The Untold Story of Tubeway Army’ it is very difficult to chart the evolution of the band through 1978. This is a real loss to the music fan as 1978 was perhaps Numan’s most prolific year as a songwriter, as borne out by a number of archive releases in the 1983 and 1984. It’s a rule of geometry that it takes at least two points to draw a line and unfortunately there is no second point in Tubeway Army’s live fossil record! The one point that we have is the ‘Living Ornaments ‘78’ set (from a gig on 21st February at London’s Rock Garden). In the 3 or 4 months between appearances in Covent Garden (Rock Garden) and Acton, how had the set changed I wonder? Numan acknowledges his propensity to change the band’s set through the regular introduction of new songs. At the time of the ‘Last Bastion’ gig Tubeway Army were about to record the first album, begging the question (for me at least) did the Acton set include material that would go on to be on that first album? Of the non-released material (i.e. the singles) played at the Rock Garden, only ‘My Shadow In Vain’ made the album cut.
The upshot of Numan's first retirement from playing live was the the majority of the material on the Blue Album/Tubeway Army was never heard live as it appeared on record. The revamped versions played on the '79 tour are fine versions, but by the same token so are the originals.
Ever the dreamer, I have a proposal for Gary. This year there have been many events to mark the 50th anniversary of punk. However, second wave bands such as Tubeway Army and The Skids came just that little bit later. So here’s the plan. A special one off gig to take place on 28th June 2028… ‘Last Bastion 50’ (venue TBD… The White Hart still exists but may be a tad small!). Gary and Richard come together once again (The Skids are very active on the live scene at the moment) to recreate that gig 50 years ago…. albeit without the fighting (I don’t think that the ‘Ealing Skins’ are much of a force to be recognised these days). Order of appearance to be decided by the toss of a coin. I think it’s a sure-fire winner! Well as I said I can dream...
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