ON THIS DAY ... in 1978 - THE ADVERTS + Sham 69

19 photos from the battle-scarred Roundhouse, February 12th 1978

THE ADVERTS - DISCOGS

Sham 69 - Discogs

A gig of two halves, if you like, with THE ADVERTS, one of my all-time favourite bands, and definitely my favourite band at the time, with a classic debut album, a series of vital singles, always bringing through interesting new ideas. They’re supported here by the cartoonish idiocy of Sham 69, who’d gone from a couple of decent singles into an abrupt downward slide that led to the gumbie punk garbage of ‘Hurry Up Harry’ so it’s hardly any surprise they picked up a bonehead audience when aiming so low. This gig was marred by violence from Sham fans who broke into the venue through a side door, sparked loads of fights, and hurled whatever they could find at TV Smith. Accepted, these were violent times and things erupted at gigs, or the streets around them, all the time but this was like a month’s average carnage all happening on the one night.

Amazingly, Sham appear to still be around, although there were two versions touring at one point. I never had any time for their proto-Oi approach but did encounter one of Pursey’s solo albums by accident, reviewing it for Melody Maker, and it contained some cool ideas, but by then no-one wanted anything to do with him. He was also in and around the Batcave scene, so wasn’t the one-dimensional carthorse most imagine. Sham were still shit though.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!! I was actually at this, as Sex Gang and The Danse Society were playing. The audience were initially nonplussed, then pissing themselves laughing.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

TV Smith went from strength to strength after The Adverts split, through TV Smith’s Explorers, Cheap and his own solo work, which has seen him constantly touring and releasing albums, the latest being “Handwriting” and if you’re in America he’ll be supporting The Damned on tour which should be a brilliant experience.

TV Smith's TX Adverts supporting The Damned:

Fri 16.5 (US) NEW ORLEANS - Civic Theatre

Sat 17.5 (US) AUSTIN - Radio East

Sun 18.5 (US) DALLAS - Granada Theatre

Tues 20.5 (US) HOUSTON - House of Blues

Wed 21.5 (US) SAN ANTONIO - Paper Tiger

Fri 23.5 (US) PHOENIX - Van Buren

Sat 24.5 (US) SAN DIEGO - North Park Observatory

Fri 30.5 (US) BERKELEY - UC Theatre

Sat 31.5 (US) SACRAMENTO - Ace Of Spades

Next UK gigs:

Thu 20.2 READING - Face Bar

https://wegottickets.com/event/636458

Fri 21.2 REDDITCH - The Railway Inn

https://facebook.com/events/s/tv-smith-plus-rotunda-guineapi/1406614286713307/

Sat 22.2 SHEFFIELD - Samuel Worth Chapel

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/sheffield-general-cemetery/the-samuel-worth-chapel

TV SMITH’s constantly updated website here > https://tvsmith.co.uk/

My Goth, Punk and Indie photobooks can be perused here » PHOTOBOOKS LIST

Including:

FIFTEEN PER CENT OFF all photobooks until midnight on Friday 14th Feb (meaning the TV Smith book is just £8.49?). Look for the ‘+’ top right of checkout page, click that and the box opens for the discount code - VALENTINE15 (keep all in CAPS as it’s case-sensitive there).

Some classic shots (Siouxsie, Rozz, Cocteaus, Damned, Bauhaus, Vega, Sex Gang, AAE, ASF, Lush, Jordan, Carter, Clash, Slits, PTV etc) can be obtained here as photos or posters. Even the wonderful Gothic Rock book cover as a t-shirt (page 3 in shop) »

MICK MERCER PHOTOS - REDBUBBLE

Goth classics (GRBB, Gothic Rock, Hex Files etc) on Kindle can be found here » GOTH KINDLE

Fourteen more photos from this gig follow, for paid subscribers only.

Paid subscribers get access to every post and photo gallery posted since January 2023, while free subscribers can only see what’s been posted during the past two weeks. Photos listed now go into my Substack archive, searchable by paid subscribers, and will never be listed as galleries again.