a musical history – by Terence Ruffle

(This is part two of a three-part story. Part one is here.)

There was a very important thread running through my life in those days, and that was Veronica Peyton. Veronica was my second girlfriend, and pretty much the hippest person on the planet at that time. At least I thought so.

We met at school. It was 1972, the autumn term. Her parents were great, they’d drive us back to their fabulous abode,and let us listen to our music quite loud, on an original early 60’s Dansette record player!

I’d heard of Roxy Music through “Virginia Plain”, but never heard their album, which Veronica had.

Someone I wasn’t familiar with at all, was Lou Reed. David Bowie had produced the fabulous “Transformer” album (with major and not fully credited help from Mick Ronson). Veronica turned me onto that too. And with a lot of help from David Gowlett, I was fully immersed in the Velvet Underground by the Spring of ‘73.

It was the sound track to our school leaving exams. Oh dear!!!

Veronica also had Bowie’s recent (at the time) re-issues of”Space Oddity” and “Hunky Dory” – both of which I loved. But the one that really got me, cos it rocked so hard, was “The Man who sold the World”.

Tony Visconti played the bass on it, and his playing really rocked, as of course, did Ronno’s guitar. It was pretty much the same guitar sound as “Ziggy”, but much more aggressive and proto metal. And the lyrics projected a lot of sexual ambiguity, fairly homosexual or bisexual.

Thankfully “She shook me cold” alleviated my fears. It was really raunchy in a very heterosexual way.

The other big revelation which Veronica gave me, was “Raw Power” by Iggy and the Stooges, which was also produced by Bowie.

Iggy was so hard, in your face – “wild” and “rebellious” don’t come close to describing this sound. This band sounded like crashing chunks of sheet metal, the most devastating noise I’d ever heard. It was the rawest rock’n'roll ever, I thought – I and probably still do.

Aside from the Bowie thread, and the fact that Roxy were from a planet in Bowie’s universe, and that Lou Reed had been brought back to life by him, all of which Veronica understood, there was a look – which both Veronica and her sister Hilary had.

It was part Victorian – frock coats and fox furs. And perhaps lacy shirts or tops. They were both hip to Biba (where the New York Dolls made their first UK appearance) and when money allowed, they would shop at Kensington market.

Though Hil was an amazing seamstress, she would often use both sources as inspiration.
A dash of glam, diamonte and classy stack heeled boots. And black nail varnish. Lots of expensive looking rings, jet and chains.

Straight legged red tab Levis, which I’d not seen before, except on the occasional better dressed skinhead.

Like my good self, neither were adverse to plundering Oxfam charity shops, which seemed to be bristling with late Victorian and 1920s fashion in those days. And long, usually black hair (or in Hil’s case blonde), a pre Joey Ramone look, that sometimes obscured quite large parts of the face.

Kee-rist, that sounds like Russell Brand!!!

I remember seeing a few other friends of Veronica’s and Hilary’s, who all had a similar but less classy look. Perhaps they went to the same school in Brentwood? I can’t give you a label or an “ism” – it was their look. It was unique and very attractive. Certainly, again, it was a precursor to the punk look.

So when Veronica told me that her and Hilary had tickets to see David Bowie, and would I like to go along with them, I was deleriously happy!

This is the second part of a three part article about David Bowie’s Hammersmith Odeon gig in 1973. The final part will be published very soon. Watch this space…

If you’d like to find music by the groups mentioned in this article, you can buy it on CD and vinyl from netsoundmusic.com. They’ve got plenty of records and CDs by David Bowie

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