16/07/1977
Whites,Norwich.
The first Crabs gig and the last Tezzer gig.
Whites was one of the few rock pubs that had live bands and gigged there every now and again as Tezzer, we decided on this gig to kill Tezzer and test the water as the Crabs. We played two 45 minute sets the first as Teezer with the old rock set and the second as the Crabs with our new punk set . The first ever Crabs set consisted of 4 or 5 new songs and some of the old tezzer set played faster like the Kinks'All day and all of the night'this made the set short which was only 30 minutes long, so to make up the time we played 'Ancharcy in the UK' twice. Our first ever performance as the Crabs went down well for Norwich but there was the odd horrified rock fan. The Crabs was born and us and punk was here to stay.
23/08/1977
The Roxy,London
Our first London gig and it was the punk venue that all punks knew. Every punk band wanted to play there since the release of the 'live at the Roxy' the album that launched punk into fame. We where all shocked to see how small the venue was, it was like playing in someone sitting room and it did not take long to pack it out for our debut performance.The Crabs went down a storm and the owner John St' Clare loved the band and booked us back to pay to play again. We didn't care it was a good start and we where on our way!
20/09/1977
The Vortex,Wardour St, London
Our second London gig and our first major support opening for X.Ray Specs who had two tracks on the Roxy album. The Crabs played well and we went down better than the main band. We had a great vibe going things was happening.
28/09/1977
The Music Machine,Camden,London
First big London venue we where first on the bill with New Hearts and Radiators from Space. Strange selection of bands New Heart was a mod type band and the other I never saw ever again. Great night, met a lot of people including one of my heroes Gary Holton and top it all we went down great. We were all buzzing like mad.
18/10/1977
The Music Machine,Camden,London
Booked back after the last performance with Slaughter & the Dogs we were second on the bill and The Pysco's. Another top gig with great response from the punters. By this time we had no record deal but did have a publishing deal and management who played for us to go to a west end hair saloon to have our hair dyed various colours before a photo session. I had mine Ronny dyed purple,Tony green,Will flame red and Ricci being the sensible one had blue streaks. The photos where taken and the prints were in black and white. That should have been a sign of things to come?
25/10/1977
The Vortex,Wardour St,London
Second gig at the Vortex with Sham 69 head lining followed by The Crabs, Rikki & last days of Earth and The Primates. As you can guess the crowd was full of skinheads looking for a reason to hit some one and us wandering around with funny colour hair. Surprisingly the skins liked the band and we had a good night, went down well, no one beat up then after the show Willy gets arrested for writing the Crabs with spray paint on a wall in the west end, he spent the night in a cell. Management loved it they got a bit of publicity out of it.
02/11/1977
Silver Thread,Paisley,Nr Glasgow.
Crabs first gig in Scotland we had played two nights in a row with the Buzzcocks top of the bill then the Crabs and the Prefects. I had never seen the Buzzcocks before yet another Roxy album band, they was a good live band with catchy songs. A few years later they had a string of hits but at that time they were struggling just like us. We lived in a converted 7.5 ton truck with no power steering, after a few month touring up and down the UK we all had arms like popeye, which later came in handy a few times.
25/11/1977
New Regent,Brighton .Sussex
This gig was a part of the Foxes circuit a string of pubs al over the south of england that had live music at this gig we was supporting yet another Roxy band Siouxsie & the Banshee's.They had no gear apart from a floor tom and a cymbal and to me they sounded like a horrible noise. If anyone bet me in a few years they would have hits and become massive I would have put my shirt against it. They gave us £12 for using our backline and P. A.
Back to Home
The Crabs Play at The 12 Bar Club 23 Feb.
This will be the third reunion in 30 years the first was in Suffolk about 20 years ago the second was in 2006 at morcombe bay Wasted Punk Fest. We played that gig with only half of the line up, we had Mick English on the guitar and had to find a drummer from one of the bands about 20 mins before stage time . This time we will at least have 3 out of 4 from the original line up with Mick English the only unoriginal on the guitar.
Other bands on the bill are 4 Original 1977 punk bands on the same bill!
LONDON (First gig in over 30 years)
THE CRABS (www.myspace.com/crabs77)
THE BLEACH BOYS (www.myspace.com/bleachboys)
THE AMAZING SPACEFROGS (www.myspace.com/theamazingspacefrogs)
plus a late set from punk covers band NIGHT OF TREASON
at the 12 Bar Club
Denmark Street, London WC2H 8NL
Doors 8pm
Only £7
