Eric's - April 21st 1979 - Iggy Pop

Saturday 21st April            Iggy Pop

                                                 + The Zones

                  

Iggy Pop.  Yoof of today know him as a weird longhair advertising car insurance.  Yoof of 1969 in Detroit knew him as the king (or clown) of some form of shock rock. Youth of Liverpool in 1979 knew of him as a legend, a myth  Nowadays you can find out anything about anyone at a couple of clicks (this whole blog is just youtube searching).  But in the 1970s it was a different story.  

Legends were truly legendary: their exploits passed down by word of mouth.  I knew someone who saw Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight, someone else who saw the Doors at the Roundhouse - in a different age.  Iggy Pop was a legend.  A legend gone bad (all part of the legend), Drink, drugs, loose cars and fast women.  And then, courtesy of David Bowie, there was a comeback.  Bowie even played keyboards for Iggy on some gigs.  These were the days of The Idiot and Lust for Life. Iggy at the top of his game.  And in April 1979 Iggy toured the UK  and played these two gigs at Eric's.  It was a week after my 18th birthday.  And it was the day of his 32nd birthday.

I went to both sets.  With a different group of friends each time.  Unfortunately for them they went the wrong way round.  For the afternoon gig I was with a younger group of punks who knew the legend and wanted to see him bleed all over the stage.  He didn't.  He had an incredibly tight band (with real live Ex Pistol, Glen Matlock on bass), played an absolute blinder of a set.  The young punks were disappointed.  I loved it. 

Later on that evening I was back with some college mates who liked proper music.  Not to worry, I thought, Iggy has the tightest band.  He'll play a blinder.  However, at some point between the two sets Iggy and band had partaken of something to help them relax.  After all it was his 32nd birthday.  Possibly just alcohol, possibly not.  They were no longer the tight little band.  They were way out there.  Iggy was bleeding all over the stage (this is Eric's stage, 18 inches high, two foot away from where we're standing).  It was manic, it was crazy, it was all over the shop.  It was that (godbless) bomb going off on stage right there in front of us.  My muso friends weren't impressed.  I loved it.

To get to and from the stage at Eric's performers had to walk from the dressing room through the mob before stepping up onto the stage. Can you imagine how that went?  

I touched Iggy Pop's jacket.  

Everyone was there. Everyone that was in a band in Liverpool in 1979, yer Teardrops, Bunnymen, Pink Military, Naughty Lumps, Wylie, Pete Burns, 051. Quite a lot of people suffered from that aloofness that plagued the Liverpool scene at that time. From some (the Zoo circle) there was a collective air of "whatever". Their loss. Iggy was incredible. 

Frank Cottrell Boyce was at Eric's that night and spoke about it on Desert Island Discs. It's about twenty minutes in.  He wrote about it in the Guardian too.   Frank was wrong.  Iggy was electrifying.   Frank Cottrell Boyce has a guilty secret.  He was a Dead Trout.

Support was the Zones.  Don't remember them at all.