a musical history – by Terence Ruffle

I read with some amusement recently that Steve Jones, the guitarist with the Sex Pistols, saw David Bowie at the Hammersmith Odeon, the night before he retired as Ziggy Stardust,on July 2nd, 1973.

I was there, tho’ I don’t recall seeing Steve.

But I do recall guitarist Mick Ronson (Ronno) playing a white Les Paul at the gig, one that looked remarkably similar to the one Steve Jones played in the Pistols. I wonder if this was one of Jonesy’s infamous heists? Perhaps if anyone knows they could leave a comment?

To give you some background about myself at the time, I was sixteen and had been gig-going since the previous year (see Emerson Lake and Palmer article).
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The first big gig I remember going to was at the Oval cricket ground, on the 30th of September, 1972.

The main attraction for me was Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP). My dear old mate Barn was fanatical about them and I’d bought “Pictures at an exhibition” myself, which I thought was rather dark, and rocked in an odd kind of manner.

The cover images of the “Tarkus” were all it took to convince me I should attend. When we walked into the Oval, either side of the stage there were what initially looked like huge images of the tarkus. But they were actually full sized models of tarkuses. They were almost as big as the p.a. stacks – which were about the size of a house! It seemed like a comic book prog rock wet dream!

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