London show 1972

I have a question - does anybody know if there are any bootleg recordings from that gig? Or which songs they performed? I read only that Johnny Rotten was at that concert (he was 16-17 then) and that it lasted 40 minutes (from the info on Iggy's famous bend photo lol)

I'm not ruling out the possibility of a recording of this show (after all the 1970 Soldier Field recording only showed up fairly recently) but you'd think that we'd have at least heard of a recording of this show by now, if one existed. This concert is hugely significant - the Stooges only performance in 1972, their only gig in London ever, until 2005's Fun House show at Hammersmith, and the first with Ron on bass and James on sole guitar.

I've never come across a definitive set list, but as far as I can ascertain nothing from the first two albums was played. And as much of Raw Power was yet to be written I would guess the set list might have included some or all of the following -
"I'm Sick Of You",
"I Got A Right",
"Tight Pants",
"Gimme Some Skin",
"Scene Of The Crime",
"Penetration" and "I Need Somebody" both written in late 1971,
and maybe an early version of "Search And Destroy" which was one of the first tunes James and Iggy wrote when they came to London in March 1972.

We know that one of Iggy's favourite oldies "The Shadow Of Your Smile" was crooned to the audience during an electrical fault and that the London audience reacted with a measure of shock at Iggy's performance.

Of course the great Mick Rock took hundreds of photos, one of which ended up as the front cover of Raw Power (others on the back), the press were all invited to this showcase performance, and according to all the reports Iggy and the Stooges put on a tremendous show.

It would be brilliant if a recording existed, but I've never found one - yet. I'm still looking though!

Cheers,

Richard

I read something on the web a few weeks ago by someone who said he was there and they played a number of tracks from the 1st album including I Wanna Be your Dog + new stuff. I'll try and find it again and post it.

I am slightly sceptical though and would have imagined they played something like what Richard suggests.

What is this show from soldier field?

I think the setlist included "Head On", "I Got a Right", "Tight Pants" and "Scene of the Crime" (all of them were recorded at London in 1972).

Here's that article I was talking about written by one John Ingham:

"In June, 1973 The Stooges played their one UK concert at the Kings Cross Cinema. It was a midnight gig, which meant that first of all a lucky bunch of us drove up to Aylesbury (about 30 miles north of London) to see David Bowie being Ziggy Stardust.

It wasn’t the best show I’ve ever seen, but it was the most nervous. Iggy had a verrrrry long mic cord and wandered into the audience a lot. He sat on a girl’s lap and sang right into her eyes. He grabbed one guy by the side of his head and shook it really fast. You had no idea what he would do next and it made for a very tense atmosphere.

The band were…The Stooges! James Williamson stood in one spot in front of a double Marshall stack ripping off big riffs and noise. The Ashetons made rhythm thunder. They played a lot of Raw Power, though we didn’t know that, mixed in with TV Eye, Dog, 1969 and others. At one point the sound screwed up and with a shout of rage Ig hurled the mic against the stage floor. It bounced about a foot into the air in three or four pieces, in a line like an illustration from a manual. While it was fixed he stood alone in the middle of the stage and started singing ‘The Shadow Of Your Smile’ in his best Frank Sinatra voice. He sang it really low so everyone shut up to hear it. It was beautiful."

ah wow this is great to read!
thanks so much mc!
was that from a blog or something?

Shit...what I'd give to have seen the Stooges in those days...

Wow!! Thank you very much MC for that article I wouldn't have expected that they had ever played the stuff from the first 2 albums with James on guitar! I remember also Mick Rock saying that nobody ever had such a 'fuck you' attitude before

I would DO ANYTHING (and i mean ANYTHING) to hear this, or rather, see a video.

James Williamson playing "the Stooges" and "funhouse" would be amazing!!!!

Yeah it sounds like the best fuckin' gig you could imagine, which is why I'm slightly suspicious, though some of the detail makes it sound authentic.

Here's the blog link: http://mog.com/music/The_Stooges - scroll down to "Rock Shrine no. 15"

Here's another lesser review at the bottom of a Bowie page: http://www.5years.com/bowieslimitations.htm

He says the best song was called "Hungry"???

Never came across that site before (the 'mog' one). Seems to be quite a lot on it ...

Jonh (sic) Ingham is credible. He was a music journalist in the seventies. He wrote extensively in Sounds and championed the Clash and the Pistols in the early days. He wrote one of the first Clash fanzines. He managed Gen X when they started. Not heard of him since the seventies though.

Although of course there is no way of knowing that he actually wrote the piece.

I seem to remember reading about the Kings Cross gig in the NME at the time (probably a review by Nick Kent?).

I'd love know how James performed the earlier tracks.
Somehow can't see him playing it like Ron, even if he could...

This is all fascinating stuff.

I would love to believe that the Stooges played songs from the first two albums at the Kings Cross gig, but I'm afraid I'm still a bit sceptical.

Jonh Ingham's account is great, and I have no doubt that he attended the show, but I would argue that he maybe has some of his facts wrong. It is clear that his report was written quite some after the gig, (it was posted in 2007 - 35 years after...). For a start he dates the concert 11 months later than when it actually took place. So if his memory is a little shaky on that then it could also be a bit uncertain when it comes to the songs performed. I would imagine, as a music writer, Ingham has attended loads of gigs. It's entirely possible that he's muddled this show's set list with other Iggy gigs.

Also, my gut feeling is that James would not play songs from the first two albums. In fact in those days the Stooges never looked back. They played the first album songs to death throughout 1969. Sometime around the end of the year / early 1970 all those songs were replaced by Fun House tunes. Fun House formed the basis of the Stooges sets for the rest of 1970 until Dave was fired. The latter part of the autumn saw the introduction of new jazzier tunes. When the band reconvened for live shows in the spring of 1971 it was a whole new set once again that was performed. Nothing from before.

So, with the changes imposed on the band by their move to London, and with a whole bunch of new tunes ready to roll, I just can't imagine the Stooges playing their earlier material at the Kings Cross gig. Various reports over the years have said that nothing prior to 1972 was played - though I've yet to see a proper account of the gig from 1972 that actually names the tracks played. Most reports mention "The Shadow Of Your Smile" interlude, but the fact that Nick Kent's review didn't mention any earlier songs implies to me that none were played, and the fact that he doesn't name any of the songs that were played implies that they were all unfamiliar to him (he was a big Stooges fan and would have recognised anything familiar).

Anyway, as with all this archaelogy, I would be very happy to be proved wrong by some solid facts. But I reckon it must have been a killer show, regardless of what was actually played.

Cheers,

Richard

adams66 wrote:

This is all fascinating stuff.

I would love to believe that the Stooges played songs from the first two albums at the Kings Cross gig, but I'm afraid I'm still a bit sceptical.

Jonh Ingham's account is great, and I have no doubt that he attended the show, but I would argue that he maybe has some of his facts wrong. It is clear that his report was written quite some after the gig, (it was posted in 2007 - 35 years after...). For a start he dates the concert 11 months later than when it actually took place. So if his memory is a little shaky on that then it could also be a bit uncertain when it comes to the songs performed. I would imagine, as a music writer, Ingham has attended loads of gigs. It's entirely possible that he's muddled this show's set list with other Iggy gigs.

Also, my gut feeling is that James would not play songs from the first two albums. In fact in those days the Stooges never looked back. They played the first album songs to death throughout 1969. Sometime around the end of the year / early 1970 all those songs were replaced by Fun House tunes. Fun House formed the basis of the Stooges sets for the rest of 1970 until Dave was fired. The latter part of the autumn saw the introduction of new jazzier tunes. When the band reconvened for live shows in the spring of 1971 it was a whole new set once again that was performed. Nothing from before.

So, with the changes imposed on the band by their move to London, and with a whole bunch of new tunes ready to roll, I just can't imagine the Stooges playing their earlier material at the Kings Cross gig. Various reports over the years have said that nothing prior to 1972 was played - though I've yet to see a proper account of the gig from 1972 that actually names the tracks played. Most reports mention "The Shadow Of Your Smile" interlude, but the fact that Nick Kent's review didn't mention any earlier songs implies to me that none were played, and the fact that he doesn't name any of the songs that were played implies that they were all unfamiliar to him (he was a big Stooges fan and would have recognised anything familiar).

Anyway, as with all this archaelogy, I would be very happy to be proved wrong by some solid facts. But I reckon it must have been a killer show, regardless of what was actually played.

Cheers,

Richard

I agree with everything you said! Its kinda obvious that the stooges (during that era) just performed their new material. About the review: if he doesn't even remember what year the concert was held.. (he says 1973 in the article, while it was actually in 1972...) i doubt that he will remember the setlist!

The gig was filmed but have never been released in any kind of format by some quite well known filmer Ive forgot the name of.

A former friend of mine did claimed that it was showed once at the actual Kings Cross cinema sometime in the early-mid 90's. I couldnt find any info on the net about it know and dont have any contact with that friend today.

Film? That would be amazing.

The show was photographed extensively throughout by Mick Rock, but I've not heard of any film before. Rock did film a number of David Bowie concerts during the summer of 1972, some footage of which was used in promos for tracks like "John I'm Only Dancing" and "The Jean Genie" later in 1972. Could this where stories of film come from?

I actually worked in Kings Cross between 1995 and 1999 and would walk past the venue every day. There was no chance of any archive film of the Stooges being shown there during that period because the place was closed down in 1993. The reason it was closed was because Stanley Kubrick and Warner Brothers sued the cinema after they had showed "A Clockwork Orange" without Kubrick's permission. The result was bankruptcy for the cinema. It reopened around 1999 as club / cinema.

Cheers,

Richard

Hi JN,

wonder if your getting it confused with the Mick Rock photography display at the Scala which I think was late 90's. I went along to view it and basically it was just a number of poster size photos of the Stooges in 1972 on the wall. I did get some good photos of the photos mainly stuff from his book I think.

Saying that, please do your best to see if it really was video'd that'd be something really special.

Im 100% sure that I didnt mixed it up with the Bowie gig, but I cant guarantee that the girl I got it from didnt mixed it up. Her and her brother was big Iggy fans and did from time to time live in London, even if they grown up in Gibraltar.

Its atleast 10 years since I last heared from her and the only way to find her was through googling, that didnt helped me out at all :'(

sheddy wrote:

I'd love know how James performed the earlier tracks.
Somehow can't see him playing it like Ron, even if he could...

Can't even imagine James doing that stuff, to be honest.
Any more than I can imagine Ron doing James's songs.

i find it odd that a recording from the night before of lou reed at this same venue recently hit the net. kind of makes you wonder who taped the stooges the next night.

Shakes wrote:

i find it odd that a recording from the night before of lou reed at this same venue recently hit the net. kind of makes you wonder who taped the stooges the next night.

Recordings from Lou Reed on the Transformer era?

Where can I get these?

if you have an account at dimeadozen.org, try searching for lou reed there.

other wise, try here maybe for a trade?

http://db.etree.org/lookup_show.php?shows_key=366384&show_users=true

J.N wrote:

The gig was filmed but have never been released in any kind of format by some quite well known filmer Ive forgot the name of.

A former friend of mine did claimed that it was showed once at the actual Kings Cross cinema sometime in the early-mid 90's. I couldnt find any info on the net about it know and dont have any contact with that friend today.

Yes, Johnny Rotten said that sometimes in the Sex Pistols era he looked the movie of this show. So the movie exist...

mc wrote:

Hi JN,

wonder if your getting it confused with the Mick Rock photography display at the Scala which I think was late 90's.  I went along to view it and basically it was just a number of poster size photos of the Stooges in 1972 on the wall.  I did get some good photos of the photos mainly stuff from his book I think.

Another possibility: There was a talk and film show by Clinton Heylin at the Scala to promote his book "From the Velvets to the Voidoids", so must have been '93 I guess. I was there. He did show some Stooges footage as part of that but it was just the usual 1970 Cincinnati stuff.

Also, as I recall, the promotion for this made reference to the Kings Cross Cinema Stooges gig, so might have led to confusion.