Interview with The Adverts Sniffin' Glue Issue 7 (February 1977)

What is it-Interview.
Subject-New group called the ADVERTS.
Members present-                 TV Smith-lead vocals.
                                                Gaye Advert-bass.
                                                Howard -guitar.
Not present-                 Laurie Driver-drums.

Details-At the time of this chat the Adverts had only played 3 gigs-Support at the Roxy Club on 15th Jan and 19th Jan plus support to the Stranglers at the Royal College Of Art on 21st Jan. They sound like nothing else around at the moment. TV's songs are 'One Chord Wonders’, 'Newboys' , 'The Quickstep', 'On the Roof',  ‘New Day Dawning', 'We Who Wait', 'Bombsite Boy' and 'Bored Teenagers'. There's more but that’s what was played the first time I saw 'em. I was suprised when I saw 'em, they hit me hard.They played fast but it didn't mess 'em up. The strong songs came through, the message if you like, was seen. I couldn't take my eyes off Gaye at first but then I noticed that she was playing great bass lines. On guitar-Howard, Gaye reckons he looks like a very famous film monster. He doesn't play like one, he's good. His breaks are unusual. Laurie Driver is a drummer. A drummer – solid. TV Smith, the singer, is always unhappy but it makes some great music. His songs mean a lot to him, you can tell by the way he sings 'em. Really, the Adverts are like one thing and that thing is the Adverts:

TV: This band’s  got about 2 months history. Gaye’s been learning to play bass for about 6 months. We’ve had a guitarist for about 2 months and a drummer about  month.

MP: When did you think of first forming a band?

TV: I’ve been doing it since I was at school. I’ve always been doing me own stuff. I had a couple of school bands. None of us could play ‘cept in those times it used to be heavy make up and all that sort of stuff, you know in the lunch hours. Doing the maths lesson with glitter all over me face ‘cause I couldn’t get it all off. I did a year at college ‘cause I didn’t know what to do – and I had another band then. It weren’t really regular ‘cause this was in a village in the middle of Devon. The college was also in Devon so we got about 4 gigs in 4 months.

MP: How did you get up to London?

TV: We came up to get a band, it’s the only place anything’s happening. Devon’s great for learning to get bored. You’ve got to have something like a band or you go insane.

Gaye: The two of us were doing fine, you know, practicing in my parent’s house. You see we’ve known each other for two years. Yeah, we could practice but that’s as far as we could go.

TV: One day she said that she’d like to play bass, so we learnt.

Gaye: I don’t know why I decided on bass. There was loads of lead guitars for sale in Devon but hardly any basses. We spent ages trying to find a bass. It cost £35.

TV: Yeah, that’s the beginning of this band. That little poxy amplifier sitting in a bedroom with this and that (pointing at two cheap guitars) and thinking what great heights we’d reach.

Gaye: Yeah, I got that  amp and the Stooges’ first album for a tenner.

NEW SUBJECT.

TV: My old band chucked me out. They wanted to do Jimi Hendrix numbers. We was doing my stuff which was a step back from what we do now. I’ve always been doing my own stuff, even when I was at school. So I haven’t had very good reactions to it most of the time. People can’t sing along to it ‘cause they don’t know what’s happening. It’s good that the Roxy’s there ‘cause we probably still wouldn’t have a chance to do it otherwise. I think the Roxy’s great. The fact that it gives people the chance to do a gig without even hearing ‘em. It means that anyone can have at least one try. I hope it don’t get closed down.

Gaye: Yeah, when we played the RCA the atmosphere wasn’t as good. To me, it was like rehearsing ‘cause we didn’t make any mistakes. I still prefer the Roxy.

TV: I hope nobody defines it ‘cause then people won’t think about it any more.

MP: What would you define your material as, where does it come from….. your attitude?

TV: I dunno, it’s not for me to say. It’s for the people who listen I suppose… I just do it. I DON’T THINK ABOUT WHAT I THINK. I sit down with the guitar and any ideas I’ve got…. No! It’s not even like that really, it could happen anyway.

GAYE.

Gaye: ‘ Cause I used to like the Stooges and the New York Dolls. Iggy’s been my hero for lots of years now. I’ve been an Iggy fanatic for about 4 years. Before I even got ‘Raw Power’ I used to borrow somebody else’s. I used to take the cover to bed with me and lay in bed with the cover on the pillow. Yeah I was into The Stooges down in Devon. Originally I was into Frank Zappa and things like that.

The first time I saw the Pistols last Spring they done an Iggy number and I saw ‘em every week after that. I thought it was amazing. I never believed that Johnny Rotten would be like us but he said he did. He’s a nice guy.

Before we moved up to London I thought up part of a song ‘cause I was in this horrible, revolting factory. They had this sign up on the wall saying about, ‘draw to your attention that we’ve got mice here and we have got rat inspectors….’ And I thought up this song. What was it? Yeah…. Look after all the rats and strangle all the fuckin’cats! That’s the first part. That’s the sort of thing I do, so I thought, I’d better shut my mouth. I’m better off just doing the bass lines.

TV: You’d wanna do an hour of Iggy Pop songs!

MP: What do you think of the audience at the moment?

TV: I think it’s in danger of becoming super cool. When we did that first gig, like from watching other bands before- if nobody walks out it probably means they like us. If they stand there it’s alright, I mean I don’t care what an audience does. If they like it, great, I don’t want them clapping after every number.

TV.

TV: A lot of bands started playing since the Pistols and started writing since them and that. Which is good but I’ve been writing a long time.

Gaye: Do you reckon our guitarist looks like Frankenstein?

ENTER…. FRANKENSTEIN!
(The interview was in TV and Gaye’s flat but now it is in Franke…..Howard’s flat).

TV: Subway Sect used to busk in Hammersmith subway, didn’t they, I did as well…

Howard: I got caught busking in Tottenham Court Road station. London Transport Police – ‘Would you mind moving along, next time we catch you we’ll have you!’

TV: I’d be singing ‘There’s a killer in ya subway…’ People didn’t give me much money.

Gaye: A policeman suggested that you got singin’ lessons, with the money you’d got, but he only got about 10p.

TV: Not only was he a policeman telling me to go away, he was a critical policeman. If you’re good – ‘Accompany me to the station and do a free concert for the lads’.

HOWARD.

Howard: When you see people at the front, jumping and dancin’ along. You know, I don’t think about anything else. I don’t think about recording studios or big stages. I just like seeing people enjoying themselves and you actually find yourself playing to ‘em. What upsets me a bit is the spotlights and things, always being on stage. You can’t see people at the back, you know.

This band is a good band. TV would probably be playing this sort of music anyway. It just happens to have coincided with, what is, basically new music and new outlook for young people. There’s only certain chords you can play on a guitar and there’s only certain notes in a scale, right. I mean, the lyrics and yer feeling and the way you develop the music is what is new about it.

I think there’s a sort of elitism developing on the new wave scene. Although, that could be something that’s been generated by the press. The Pistols, the Clash, the Damned and now Generation X.

THE ANSWER TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO RECKON THAT TV SMITH ACTS LIKE JOHNNY ROTTEN ON STAGE.

TV: I’m not aware of it, but so many people have said it to me that it’s starting to get into my brain.

Gaye:  TV used to have a band in Devon. He was exactly like that then. He used to be even ruder to the audience, he was really objectionable. Exactly the same as he is now.

TV: As far as I’m concerned I haven’t changed since I did it 2 years ago or when I did it in a school band even. I’m just gonna carry on, I don’t really care. I mean, people have to relate to something. People always go to the nearest thing, you know, just a thing in human nature. Like, people wanna call the scene “punk”, you know. They see me perform and they wanna say “it’s like Johnny Rotten”. There’s no need for it, who cares….

Gaye: Yeah, I’ve had somebody accusing me of copying the bassist of Talking Heads ‘cause I’m female. Just ‘cause I’m female!

FIRST LP COVER.

TV: Who cares…. We haven’t really been giving you positive information really.

Howard: The first time you’ve had a negative interview.

TV: We’re Generation -, we are. I wouldn’t like to read this shit!

Interview by Mark P.

The Adverts Electric Circus Manchester 26th June 1977

Ok then, to kick this off, here's a pretty good early recording from the legendary punk venue, second only to The Roxy, the Electric Circus in Manchester.

When The Adverts outgrew the fanzine punk scene and came to the attention of the 'serious' music weeklies they were invariably picked up for an apparent lack of playing ability, in this respect Gaye in particular was targeted. However, listen to this recording, made just six months after their first gig at the aforementioned Roxy on 15th January. Tonight's gig saw The Adverts sandwiched between the headliners, The Damned and The Prefects from Birmingham. According to the gigography on Tim's homepage, this was the 50th gig that the band had played and given this fact, I think that the band sound tight, if not musically sophisticated.

This, an audience recording, really gives the listener a flavour of what those early club gigs were like prior to both The Damned and The Adverts breaking into the bigger venues.... The Top Rank Ballrooms and various Sports Halls. Mancunian lads pass comment throughout the set and you can hear the occasional pint glass meeting its end.

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-udut4THMjk

Subliminal Advertising – The Wonder of The Adverts

In 1976 a young couple left Devon for the more obvious, youthful attractions of London. Attendees of the infamous (….’no Sid don’t!’) 100 Club Punk Festival in September of that year, Tim (T.V.) Smith and Gaye Black (a.k.a. Gaye Advert) wasted no time in putting their own band together in a similar vein to the other new bands that were starting to make a big noise in the capital. This was perhaps easier for Tim than for others in the same boat, as he had previous experience in his band, Sleaze, which had some moderate success in the South West of England the previous year.

Despite the fact members of the band that were soon to be known as The Adverts (namely Tim himself and guitarist Howard Pickup) had previous with bands, the new group would freely admit that they were in no way masters of their chosen instruments at this point. This fact was indeed acknowledged in one of my all-time favourite advertising hooks in music, courtesy of Stiff Records. Posters advertising joint gigs with then label mates The Damned boldly proclaimed that ‘The Damned can Play 3 Chords, The Adverts can Play 1…… see All 4 at……..’. Genius, and not so far from the truth, at that point. Things were to change though.

Under these circumstances it was a happy coincidence that the birth of the band corresponded roughly to the opening of punk’s own club in Covent Garden, The famed Roxy Club. Punters attending this club were interested in the amphetamine fueled urgency of the music that bounced off the basement walls rather than any manner of musical virtuosity. Whilst other small venues in the city would host bands that were eventually to be labeled punk and new wave, most notably pubs owned by the Fullers and Chiswick breweries, their landlord bookers had to consider the opinions of older punters to the extent that the ‘pub rock’ bands were someway further along the competency road. The Roxy had no such constraints and bands learned on the job, or rather on the stage, in front of young audiences who were not out looking for the ‘lost chord’ when three would do quite nicely!

The Adverts I believe played at The Roxy Club twelve times between January and April 1977 (that’s a lot, certainly in today’s terms!). They supported many of their contemporaries, Generation X, The Jam, Wayne Country and the Electric Chairs and of course The Damned. Under these circumstances they quickly improved and gained record company interest.

Stiff Records, to my mind a brilliant, forward thinking label, made a stupid mistake, in that for the band’s all important debut release they featured only a portrait image of bass player Gaye…. who was to the Roxy what Debbie Harry was to CBGBs and Stiff sadly took a similar marketing approach. This was not what The Adverts were all about and they left the label after that first release.

The Damned started to get some success and took The Adverts on tour with them in the late Spring of ‘77, thereby exposing the band of larger audiences in bigger venues.

Having shrugged off Stiff, the band signed to Anchor Records with whom they released a handful of single’s, the first on the label being their best known for good reason, the ever sinister ‘Gary Gilmore’s Eyes’….. a brilliant pearl from the mind of Mr Smith on a contemporary request by death row resident, the aforementioned Gilmore that after his imminent execution by firing squad in January 1977 his eyes would be donated to science…. listen to the song and it will all make twisted sense! ‘No Time to be 21’ and ‘Safety in Numbers’ followed before the debut album, the brilliant ‘Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts’ finally saw the light of day in January 1978.

Right the way throughout this time the band were faced with torrents of criticism, most of it directed at Gaye, tearing apart her playing style in what seems to be such an unfair manner. Let’s face it, those darlings of the NME The Clash had Paul Simenon on bass and he had fret markers on his bass….. by all accounts much of the Clash’s bass on vinyl was provided by The Blockheads' Norman Watt-Roy…. So let’s not be hasty lads. This too was, as I explain to my own children (18 and 21) in different times and dodgy sexual politics were not confined to prime time Saturday night TV, it lurked in the column inches of the music press right beside articles about The Slits, Poly Styrene and Siouxsie who we now look upon as women who empowered their generation and that which followed!

It seems that few people were seriously listening to The Adverts at the time. The hacks were obsessed with The Clash, Pistols and Buzzcocks, but in my preparatory trawl through 100 or so old copies of NME, Sounds and Melody Maker…. very little print space is given over to The Adverts.

This inertia that set in effectively destroyed the band. A couple of single releases in the 18 month gap between the release of ‘The Red Sea’ album and ‘Cast of Thousands’ in late 1979 did the trick. For some reason the second album was ill-received, despite a change in musical direction (i.e. in acknowledgement that punk had evolved, the musicians were more accomplished and had more to say). For certain, The Stranglers and Buzzcocks achieved this transition in 1979, but for some reason the press would not tolerate such a progression from Tim and Co. Personnel changes were inevitable and the band threw in the towel after a gig in Slough at the end of October 1979.

You would have to ask Tim or Gaye for the reasons that The Adverts did not meet their full potential but some of the reasons do not require over-consideration. Gaye was a woman learning her instrument, she was good looking but shied away from the spotlights on stage... something that the music press felt very comfortable digging at in 1977. The fact that there was such long gap between the release of the first and second album amounted to near commercial suicide in 1978.... the music scene was moving faster than it had ever done and such a hiatus could only ever damage a band like The Adverts.

For me in the final analysis, when it comes to The Adverts, musical virtuosity was always second to TV's lyrics... they were an ideas band.... prompting people to think about possibilities as much as anything else. They were truly originals of the first wave!

Personally, I think that ‘Cast of Thousands’ is a great album….. Parsons and Burchill….. ‘Hang Me High!.

Shibuya WWW Tokyo 3rd November 2019

Here's a great one for Christmas. The first night of the band back in Tokyo no less. A great sounding gig... with very interesting keyboards! Thanks to the taper for sharing, it's much appreciated.

Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to one and all!

WAV: https://we.tl/t-5N0HouxrZU

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-piQFz62YWW

01. Intro/Toiler On The Sea
02. I’ve Been Wild
03. (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)
04. Time To Die
05. Nice ‘N’ Sleazy
06. Norfolk Coast
07. 5 Minutes
08. Unbroken
09. Golden Brown
10. Always The Sun
11. Skin Deep

01. Peaches
02. Outside Tokyo
03. Freedom Is Insane
04. Walk On By
05. Something Better Change
06. Relentless
07. Hanging Around
08. Tank
09. Duchess
10. No More Heroes

The Clash De Brakke Grond Amsterdam 14th May 1977

On Joe's day, here are The Clash in Holland back in 1977.

Cheers Joe!

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-PZ3Dt4DZnS

Artwork: Included in download file.

01. Intro
02. London's Burning
03. 1977
04. I'm So Bored With The U.S.A
05. 48 Hours
06. Deny
07. Tuning
08. Hate And War
09. Capital Radio
10. Police And Thieves
11. Cheat
12. Career Opportunities
13. Janie Jones
14. Garageland
15. White Riot
16. 1977

Canberra Times Review of The Stranglers' Gig at the Canberra Theatre On 5th March 1979

Thanks to John Harrison for sending me this review from The Canberra Times.

Sex Pistols Mr George's Coventry 17th December 1977

This is a recording of one of the last gigs in the UK that the band were to play, only Keithly and Huddersfield on the 'Never Mind The Bans' tour. Rotten who was apparently suffering from a bad cold on the night wound the audience up and courted their support in equal measure. The famous Gooner's comment 'I see the Arsenal won!' was a reference to the fact that Coventry City had lost 2-1 at home that afternoon. 'We played to a load of ponces dahn South last night.... nice to be back' referred to the band's gig at Brunel University in Uxbridge.

The sound is pretty good taking into consideration it's age and the packed club environment in which the recording was made. It is pretty chaotic but when they do get to playing the songs they are played well... mmm maybe not the bass!

The gig was a sell out and 500 or so punters were cranked up to fever pitch such that the band had to remain backstage for two hours after the gig whilst the audience dispersed. Eventually, the band were lead out via a back entrance to the venue and taken to the nearby Leofric Hotel where Sid observed the age old rock 'n' roll tradition of smashing up his hotel room.

Sid's room

(Leofric Hotel, Coventry 18th December 1977)

FLAC: https://we.tl/t-ByS5RatuUC

Artwork: https://we.tl/t-mtQaskAeye

01. Seventeen
02. New York
03. E.M.I.
04. Bodies
05. Belsen Was A Gas
06. Holidays In The Sun
07. Anarchy In The UK
08. Pretty Vacant