A GUEST SERIES

24 – Love’s Sweet Exile / Repeat UK – Manic Street Preachers (1991 Columbia Records)

Released as a single in October 1991 (Reached Number 26)

So it was at around number 24 that I realised that there was quite few records that I had omitted from this list that probably should have been on it. So what I’m going to try and do is package them all together and try and crowbar them into the posts somehow, these records are definitely as good and probably as influential as ‘Love’s Sweet Exile’. I hope that makes sense.*

Anyway…Let’s talk about The Marquee. The Marquee was a legendary venue on Charing Cross Road, London (well eventually, it had other locations as well). It had a capacity of about 500 I‘d say and facts fans will know that it was the location of the one of the first ever Rolling Stones gigs and for over 30 years The Marquee wrote itself into rock heritage by hosting amazing gigs. It shut in 1995 and by 1996 a Wetherspoons pub had moved in (The Montagu Pyke) and firmly shat on that hard earned 30 years musical heritage by immediately banning juke boxes inside it and selling burgers that taste like they’ve been licked first by tramps.

As a young lad I saw loads of really good bands at the Marquee. I saw Pop Will Eat Itself there two nights in a row, where they played exactly the same set both nights, ending with a pumped up version of this

Wise Up Sucker (1989 RCA Records, Number 41)

The Marquee was also famous for secret gigs. In 1990 Metallica played at The Marquee as a support band under the name ‘Vertigo’, and were introduced as a new band playing only their second ever show.

Famously, Motley Crue played the venue under the moniker ‘the Four Skins’ (oh my sides…) without knowing that this was also the name of a popular London skinhead band, whose fans all turned up at the gig, and looked rather bemused when some hairy arsed cock rockers wobbled onto stage.

In 1991 I saw a band called R.S.P.C.E. play there. They walked on stage and immediately burst into this

Sheriff Fatman (1989, Big Cat Records, did not chart, reissued in 1991, Number 23)

And finally, in 1993, my friend Martin bought me an 18th birthday present, it was a ticket for a gig on July 4th 1993 at the Marquee Club, London, the act were a band called ‘Generation Terrorists’. The price £7. I had ticket number 0004. It was a week before the Manics released the second album ‘Gold Against the Soul’.

And it was amazing. The band ended with a stunning version of ‘Love’s Sweet Exile’.

SWC

*JC adds………….

This means you’re about to be treated to at least 145 45s @ 45 over the coming weeks….I’ve been lucky enough to have received everything up to, and including #10….the chapters of the life of our south-west correspondent will gradually be revealed….lots of laughs are on their way (exactly what we need at this point in time).