The Stray Cats rocked this town … twice.
Ticket Price = $12.50 ($33.50 in 2023 Canadian dollars)
BLOG ENTRY FOLLOWS BELOW
With this episode, I’ve once again jumped backwards in my story, just not as far back as that cabaret show I saw with my parents in the UK in 1977 that was the focus on EP 31, Mum’s the Word.
This time, I jump back to March 26, 1983, when the Stray Cats rocked Alumni Hall here in London, Ontario.
Technically this should have been Concert no. 16, falling between no.15/EP 21 on The Gang of Four at Wonderland Gardens on March 5th and no. 16/EP 24 on The English Beat/R.E.M. at Alumni Hall on April 23rd. However, as with the previous 1977 entry for EP31, this show was initially meant to be included as part of an upcoming compilation episode.
The reason it was going to be part of the compilation episode is this: I don’t have a ton of memories about this show.
I do remember going, and recall thoroughly enjoying the evening, but that’s about it. For whatever reason, I have scant memories about this concert vs more detailed recollections for other shows from around this time.
However—and luckily—I seem to be alone in that regard.
Every time I have posted about it on Facebook, there are floods of responses from people, so clearly this was a concert that is in the hearts of many who were there.
Luckily, MLIC podcast regular Phil Robinson as well as Noelle from the Police Picnic ’83 episode (no. 27), and new guest, blogger Marc Hodgkinson, all have lots of great memories from the night to share with this blog and its attendant podcast.
So, here it is and here we are.
Tune in for a stage dancing “crazed lady,” sweaty towels, Britt Ekland sightings, restaurants serving Alka Seltzer with breakfast, Walkman music liberation, and what was the unforgettable message that Brian Setzer imparted to Noelle backstage?
NEXT ON STAGE> Birmingham UK’s reggae outfit UB40 made two trips to London, Ontario, in the mid-80s, playing to a packed and joyous Centennial Hall on March 7, 1984, and then returning a year later almost to the week, to pack out Alumni Hall on the Western University campus on March 14, 1985.
The first show came on the heels of their international breakthrough with the “Red Red Wine” single and its accompanying covers album, Labour of Love, while they were riding high in the Canadian charts with their Geoffrey Morgan album for the ’85 show.
This long overdue episode, which we recorded almost a year ago, will finally see the light of day and get my story back on track.
Not only will Special Guest Phil Robinson be returning with his always splendiferous and humorous memories and observations, new Special Guest to the podcast and all-round wonderful person and broadcaster Skye Sylvain joins us in piecing together a hilarious—and sometimes bumpy and not-so-mirthful for her—and very memorable ride through the events surrounding these two concerts, especially delving into the social stuff following the gigs and a particular interview with the band.
Stay tuned for group afterparties, setlist shockers, questionable album autograph signings, “excited” band “members,” contrasting memories about meeting Ali Campbell, Astro’s sweaty towel—once again we’re back to those sweaty towels— and a “whoopsy-daisy!” moment that was part of a UB40 interview for Skye, complete with attempted strangulation.
All that and more is coming up next time in Episode 33, Concert no. 25, So Here I Am: UB40 @ Centennial Hall, London, Ontario, Canada, March 7, 1984 and at Alumni Hall, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, March 14, 1985. You can also click through to the original blog entry from 2015 from OpenSalon.com.
THE STRAY CATS: ROCK THIS TOWN
The first wave of punk had run its course by the end of the ‘70s. In its wake, an exploding kaleidoscope of creative musical options grew out of its ashes as the ‘80s took hold.
The new sets of sonic—and corresponding sartorial—choices burst out in every direction. On one hand, you had progressive camps that kept wanting to look and push forward into the future by creating unprecedented music (post-punk, no wave, electropop, etc.). On the other hand, there were camps that wanted things to stand still and dig deeper (hardcore, Oi!, punk diehards, etc.) or to invigorate by returning to the past.
In that last camp, you had a lot of jangly/60s-style pop—or mod pop or ska—along with another subculture that went back to the 50s: rockabilly.
Rockabilly was seemingly in the air, just off to the side of or sometimes incorporated into the punk milieu. In the UK, teddy boys, with their slicked quiffs, brother creepers, and drainpipe trousers had never really gone away.
In my previous EP 31, looking back to a family trip to the UK in 1977, I discuss landing in Britain the day after Elvis’ death and the intense reaction over there.
Within a few weeks of his death, Elvis’ records would constitute one-fifth of the UK Top 30 singles AND albums.
Britons reacted deeply to Elvis’ death. I touched down in the UK the day after his passing in 1977 and his image and sounds were everywhere you went in the country. A few weeks after his passing, 1/5 of the UK LPs and 45s charts were Elvis records (including the Bubbling Under, NME, September 10, 1977). Check out EP 31, Mum’s The Word—In Town Tonight—In The City—UK ’77 for more about that trip during the peak of punk.
After the Sex Pistols imploded in San Francisco at the start of 1978, the Pistols scored a couple of Sid Vicious-fronted hits in the UK the following year covering Eddie Cochran’s “C’mon Everybody” and “Something Else.”
Later in ’79, The Clash issued their magnum opus, London Calling, with an electric cover of Vince Taylor’s “Brand New Cadillac” as the second track.
Meanwhile, The Cramps had been busy in New York City pioneering their own sub-genre—psychobilly—which was unveiled to great affect on their classic debut, Songs the Lord Taught Us, in 1980.
Here in Canada, Toronto’s Bop Cats released their 4-track debut EP in early 1980, a year before the Stray Cats’ debut LP, becoming a hot and popular live act in Southern Ontario in the early 80s. (In fact, all 4 of us in the podcast thought that the Bops may have opened this show when, instead, it was Toronto new wavers The Deserters.)
Originators (Elvis Presley, Wanda Jackson, and Link Wray) and Progenies (Dave Edmunds, The Cramps, and The Bopcats)
Check out my Spotify playlist MLIC>ROCK THIS TOWN: 50s ROCK + VARIANTS & PROGENIES, A Companion for mylifeinconcert.com EP 32, featuring 1950s Rock/Rockabilly and its various offshoots through the decades. Elvis, The Cramps, Wanda Jackson, Link Wray, Dave Edmunds, Billy Lee Riley, Chuck Berry, Pretenders, and more.
Back over in the UK, The Polecats had formed and helped kick off a new wave of rockabilly revivalism, earning a hit with their cover of David Bowie’s, “John, I’m Only Dancing.”
So, rockabilly was one of the musical colours that was in the air as the new decade began, particularly in Britain. That was probably why New York City’s Stray Cats chose to focus on furthering their career there.
They were signed in Britain following a bidding war and met legendary roots-rocker and producer Dave Edmunds from Rockpile who helmed the boards for the 1981 self-titled debut. Arista was the label that signed them and issued their records in the UK and Europe.
After releasing a second British LP, Gonna Ball, they were finally signed to a North American contract by EMI America. In the podcast interview, Phil notes the Stray Cats’ October 1981 performance on ABC’s Fridays, which I also watched. They were hit-making stars in the UK at the time but hadn’t been signed to a US deal, something that the telecast petitioned to have happen—with successful results.
The Stray Cats make their US TV debut on ABC’s Friday prior to having a US record label. By this point, they were stars in the UK, with “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut” already big hit singles there.
It was after this performance that Le Chateau picked up an import copy of their UK debut which I quickly taped, playing the dickens out of it across 1982.
They became absolutely huge on this side of the pond when their North American debut, Built for Speed (a compilation of the best cuts from the first two UK LPs) was released in mid-1982. Singles “Rock This Town” and then “Stray Cat Strut” repeated their UK success over here, and by year’s end they were an international sensation.
We also all note during the interview about how shocked Phil, Noelle, and I were when The Stray Cats blew up so huge over here. While they were playing decidedly American-rooted music, which had also been big in Canada for an even longer period than down south, the reality is that in early ‘80s North America—particularly America—the concept of retro was almost non-existent.
The Stray Cats’ first two UK LPs (The Stray Cats & Gonna Ball, both 1981) and their American debut (Built for Speed, 1982) featuring the best tracks from those UK LPs.
I remember reading an interview with Madness many years ago, with members discussing how on their first trip to New York City in 1980—bedecked in ‘50s/vintage suits, clothes, and pork pie hats—cabbies would think they were out-patients from a psych ward because that dressing style was so marginal in that era.
It wasn’t exactly a huge thing here in Canada either. I’ve also heard interviews with Catherine O’Hara and Andrea Martin from SCTV about when they were filming a few seasons in Edmonton, Alberta at the start of the 80s, how hard it was for the show’s costumers to find vintage clothes when a skit needed it, because there were no vintage clothes shops in Edmonton.
The North American mainstream was more about big hair, overproduced, unironic mall-gloss, and the more-is-more/fuck-any-kind-depth-or-taste aesthetic. Jim Steinem was having a lot of hits with various acts at this time, which says a lot.
So having a stripped-down, roots-based band playing retro music that was both faithfully and respectfully rooted in the past but also tinged with a punk rock vibe (as that is the community they came out of) from a group who looked and sounded nothing like Journey or Toto just didn’t seem to be a formula for mass success over here.
Inexplicably, they blew up against the grain.
This Alumni Hall show happened at what was probably the peak of Stray Cats Mania in Canada and the US. It was a hotly anticipated here in London, Ontario.
Alumni Hall, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
Alumni Hall was sold out on this early spring day, with excited revellers populating and bop-bop-boppin’ around the open-spaced general admission dance floor.
I definitely recall going to and enjoying the show, but relative to many other concerts from back in the day, I am largely blank on remembering details from this concert.
I’m not even completely sure who I went with but my guess would be that it was with Miss Beach, Lady B, MZ, and Le Chateau or some combo thereof. I think so anyway.
Luckily, my podcast guests—Phil Robinson, Noelle, and Marc Hodgkinson—remember plenty of details about this one. (Listen to the podcast for the full interviews which feature much more detailed information and memories than in this blog entry).
Phil and Noelle went with their friends Wendy, someone we will call Sammy the Goose (fellow-SCTV nuts will get that reference), and another unnamed person.
Also luckily, Noelle was keeping a diary around this time and she still has it, providing several details from the evening.
Noelle wrote in her diary that “We started off at Wendy’s house, where we imbibed, and so on. And then we went to the show … they would let you dance but we couldn’t get very close to the stage, and when they came, on I was getting crushed, but it was kind of funny.”
“They put on a great show but they really acted like teen idols,” then adding in parenthesis, “They were shaking their sweat all over people in the front row,” much to Noelle’s considerable chagrin. (Marc will be returning to the matter of those sweaty towels shortly).”
In the interview, Phil and Noelle discuss their musical memories from the set.
Phil: I do remember them being really good. Being fast. And I felt, “God, there’s only 3 of them and they’re making this big noise.”
Noelle: And the stand up bass, I don’t think I’d ever seen someone play a stand up bass like that before, and how (Lee Rocker) would balance on it. Stand on it and balance. They definitely put on a great show.
All four of us in the podcast did indeed have a great time at the concert, but there was one big moment we all remember in particular … well at least I did as well after being reminded.
Noelle: Wendy jumped up onstage and danced with Brian Setzer.
Phil: I remember Wendy jumping up on the stage … I think it was at the end. She got up and she was dancing around for a bit. And it got mentioned in the review the next day in the London Free Press. They called her a “crazed lady.” (It said), “At the end a crazed lady jumped on the stage and started dancing.”
Indeed, I not only remember Wendy jumping up on the stage but also the “crazed lady” remark in the Freeps the next day. It was chucklesome to read.
Phil: So, after that, we said, “Right. We’re going to get onstage for every single concert we go to.” So that’s what started the whole thing (that lead to) a few weeks later at The English Beat concert, jumping on the stage. It was like, “Gotta get on the stage! Gotta get on the stage!”
Noelle: And they didn’t do anything to her. I think she just danced with him a little bit and then she went down by herself.
Phil: Yeah, yeah, because nobody else did.
Various: I remember that part of the show. I remember her being on stage and thinking, “Isn’t that Phil’s friend, Wendy?,” because I did see you at the gig and I did say “Hello” to you, Phil, because you were there with your group and I was there with my group. But I remember (her up there) because it was like, “Oh. Wait a minute.”
Meanwhile, Wendy’s one-lady stage invasion launched a determined mission among the group.
At that English Beat/R.EM. show a few weeks later, what had started with a lone “crazed lady” on the stage for the Stray Cats, became a full-on stage invasion at that April ’83 gig (listen to the podcast to hear Phil’s more detailed recollection of that event).
I asked Phil, “do you recall if this mission about getting onstage at gigs, did it extend much past The English Beat? Or was it kinda like ‘Hey, let’s do it … uh, maybe not.”
Phil: The only other one I can remember doing it was when Me, Wendy, and Sue, who I shard a flat with, we jumped on the stage when we went to see Hoi Polloi at the Embassy … but there was no stage, we just kinda jumped over the monitors and started dancing around. And they kind of looked at us weird because there was like 10 people there, (and the band was wondering) “What’s going on?”
Since there were only about 10 people at that show, the band was mightily confused as to why a group of revellers were choosing to dance in the musician’s performance space.
Phil: I didn’t really take off as we thought it was gonna.
Phil and Noelle also remember trying to get backstage after the show.
Phil: We got a few feet from the (dressing room) door and they wouldn’t let us in. And I remember Britt Ekland was there. She walked up the stairs and past us. She said ‘Hello” to us or something. She must have done because I remember her smiling at us and walked past us which I thought was really cool because I thought “Oh my goodness, it’s Britt Ekland!” She was going out with Slim Jim Phantom.
Noelle: I didn’t know that and I just thought it was really weird that she was there, and then we found out later that they were dating.
Noelle’s diary also notes that “After the show we went (around) the back way to try to meet them. There was a student police guy, but he was really nice and we talked to him for a while. And then Brian Setzer walked out. I remember him coming out of a room and walking down the hallway and going into another room.”
Setzer then turned to them, smiled, and said something SO imprinted on Noelle’s brain that she remembers EXACTLY what he said until this very day.
He said …
Drawing by Noelle. She sketched this into her diary after the 1983 show.
“Hey.”
Cor blimey!
After the show, the 5-some headed downtown to a party and then hung out at Noelle’s studio upstairs at the Clifton Arms at York and Richmond: the same studios I have already immortalized in the nutsy episode on the 1983 Flipper gig and also in my entry about seeing Hugh Cornwell from The Stranglers in 2010.
Meanwhile, Marc Hodgkinson was also at the show and remembers it well. Marc is a fellow London, Ontario-er music nut and writes #The500Blog, where he counts down Rolling Stone’s Top 500, one album per week. (You should be reading it.)
While he looks at the album and the artist, many of his entries are written through a lens of his own insights, reflections, and experiences.
Marc discovered mylifeinconcert.com a few years ago and, upon realizing that we were of similar ages and both writing here in London about music via singular perspectives from our own lives, reached out to contact me. We’ve been getting to know each other since. Now we just need to have our schedules align and finally meet up in person.
While I initially thought that Marc did security at this concert as he did security for other London shows in the ‘80s, particularly for those at Victoria Park’s bandshell, it turns out he attended this Stray Cats gig along with his-then girlfriend as just one the punters in the crowd. (Tune into the podcast to hear Marc talk more about the various London shows he was part of in the ‘80s.)
Marc was 17 at the time of this show and his main genres at the time were metal and prog rock. However, Marc became interested in the Stray Cats largely on the strength of Brian Setzer’s guitar playing. His then-girlfriend was a big fan, and so off the Alumni they went to see the rockin’ Kitties.
He was thrilled to be able to go to any concerts at all, having just moved from a small southern Ontario town of Kingsville to the much-bigger London, Ontario. This was his first time seeing a show at Western’s Alumni Hall, and they bussed it there, with Marc sporting eye makeup at this Duran Duran-obsessed gf’s insistence. Marc was a trooper and complied.
He was also thrilled to have been able to cleverly get this recordable Walkman smuggled in to record the show. Security found the Walkman which was cassette-less as he had a friend meet him inside with a blank cassette.
Their 1983 hit, “(She’s) Sexy + 17.” I wonder if they still play this one.
He did indeed record the show, only later to find that what was most audible during the recordings were teenage girls relentlessly screaming “Brian!!,” drowning out the music in the process.
He also recalls the “crazed lady” (aka Wendy) and her energetic onstage hoofing but thought that she was actually part of the show.
Marc: I remember they were up there and there was somebody dancing, and I thought it was like ‘Well, this might be happening. This might be something that’s going on where people are allowed to get up on stage. It wasn’t one of those situations where a giant security person came and tackled somebody. However they got them off the stage, it was certainly gently.”
My conversation with Marc also returns to what Noelle alluded to earlier about the band throwing their sweat on the audience.
Marc: The big thing that stood out was, right at the end Brian wiped his face down with a towel and he threw it into the audience. And because of where I was standing, I was fairly tall (by comparison) because I was around girls and I’m a reasonably big guy. And I remember getting it—it hit my hand—and it was ripped out of my hand so violently and so suddenly by somebody who ripped it away, and I’m pretty sure it was one of the girls near me. She just had the will within her to say that ‘That towel is going to be mine!,’ and when I caught it, I was hoping that I could grab it and then give it to my girlfriend, and that would be a trophy from the show. But, it hit my hand for about a half-a-second and then was then ripped out violently and I didn’t see where it went.
As for the music, Marc says that “The thing that really stands out was just his guitar playing. Like being that close to somebody who played the guitar that well and that cleanly … I’d seen great guitarists before, but never that kind of style of guitar and sound of guitar, and that big hollowed-body that he played, and just how effortlessly he played that instrument. I spent most of my night just staring at his fingers on the fretboard.”
They came, they played, they sweated, and all at Alumni Hall had a splendiferous time.
Five months after this show, the Cats released their 3rd UK/2nd US LP, Rant’n’Rave with the Stray Cats, yielding another big hit in “Sexy and 17” and a lesser one with the ballad “I Won’t Stand in Your Way.” After that, their popularity wound down, with Brian Setzer going solo, and the other two Cats hooking up with ex-Bowie guitarist Earl Slick to form Phantom, Rocker & Slick.
The Stray Cats reformed for a successful tour in 1988, coming back to London and playing to another packed house at Dr. Rockits. Once again, I remember going to the show and really enjoying it, but can’t recall any details.
The show isn’t even mentioned in my journal entries from that time.
The Cats subsequently reformed and have issued albums and toured sporadically over the years. Each member has also had an interesting history playing with many esteemed artists.
Setzer also had success with his swing-focused Brian Setzer Orchestra. I caught, and enjoyed, the tail end of their mainstage set at Ottawa Bluesfest 2009 after having just exited an exceptional Ornette Coleman gig inside the War Museum.
Phil also saw Slim Jim Phantom this past summer at an ‘80s festival in Leeds, UK, where he lives.
As for Jim and Brit, they had a long relationship and marriage from 1984 to 1992, and according to the interweeb, they remain great friends and committed parents. Good on ‘em.
As for the Stray Cats: may you always be the cat’s pyjamas!
And thanks muchly to Phil, Noelle, and Marc for taking the time to share your memories from this show.
Their first UK hit from 1981, “Runaway Boys”
Stray Cats’ Setlist for the March 26, 1983 show at Alumni Hall (Setlist.fm)
- Your Baby Blue Eyes
- Double Talkin’ Baby
- Rumble in Brighton
- Drink That Bottle Down
- Built for Speed
- Rev It Up & Go
- C’mon Everybody
- Stray Cat Strut
- Lonely Summer Nights
- Fishnet Stockings
- Jeanie Jeanie Jeanie
- Rock This Town
- Encore: Foggy Mountain Breakdown
- Runaway Boys
- Encore 2: Oh, Boy!
- Somethin’ Else
NEXT ON STAGE> Birmingham UK’s reggae outfit UB40 made two trips to London, Ontario, in the mid-80s, playing to a packed and joyous Centennial Hall on March 7, 1984, and then returning a year later almost to the week, to pack out Alumni Hall on the Western University campus on March 14, 1985.
The first show came on the heels of their international breakthrough with the “Red Red Wine” single and its accompanying covers album, Labour of Love, while they were riding high in the Canadian charts with their Geoffrey Morgan album for the ’85 show.
This long overdue episode, which we recorded almost a year ago, will finally see the light of day and get my story back on track.
Not only will Special Guest Phil Robinson be returning with his always splendiferous and humorous memories and observations, new Special Guest to the podcast and all-round wonderful person and broadcaster Skye Sylvain joins us in piecing together a hilarious—and sometimes bumpy and not-so-mirthful for her—and very memorable ride through the events surrounding these two concerts, especially delving into the social stuff following the gigs and a particular interview with the band.
Stay tuned for group afterparties, setlist shockers, questionable album autograph signings, “excited” band “members,” contrasting memories about meeting Ali Campbell, Astro’s sweaty towel—once again we’re back to those sweaty towels— and a “whoopsy-daisy!” moment that was part of a UB40 interview for Skye, complete with attempted strangulation.
All that and more is coming up next time in Episode 33, Concert no. 25, So Here I Am: UB40 @ Centennial Hall, London, Ontario, Canada, March 7, 1984 and at Alumni Hall, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada, March 14, 1985. You can also click through to the original blog entry from 2015 from OpenSalon.com.
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