An outstanding performance (?) Source: Things In General number two Date: 1981 Author: unknown "JOHN'S BOYS" (ha ha) THE MARQUEE £1.50 THE NIPS The band played like heroes. The club was packed, it was pretty hot and sweaty, you had to fight to even stayin the same place, but that's rock'n'roll, innit? Well, that's what I'm supposed to say, aren't I? People are told that packing themselves into a tiny black room and being blitzed by over-loud music equals having fun, and of course they believe it. Neither the management or the Marquee nor the Jam showed much respect for their paying customers by allowing these conditions at the infamous Sauna of Wardour Street. Maybe no-one has suggested that there should be a stricter limit on the number of people allowed in, or that more than 20 people out of about 500 should be allowed to sit down in the three-hour length of the gig, or that there should be some method of allowing fresh air in. Well, I have. I'm sure the Jam's motives were good, and under proper circumstances it would be great to see a band as good as them playing in a club... but they should remember that if you're playing in a small room, you don't actually need the same amount of amps that you might use at, say, the Rainbow. I don't consider it a necessary part of my Friday night's entertainment to be semi-deafened for about three days. Sorry I'm not saying much about the music, but it wasn't easy to concentrate on it. The Nips were very enjoyable sixties-ish R'N'B, their most outstanding song being the single, "Gabrielle". It was possible to listen to the music during their set, but when the Jam come on the influx of people from the bar made this almost impossible. They played well, they played "Eton Rifles", "David Watts", "Away From the Numbers", etc. Some of the more unfamiliar songs, and towards the end some of the familiar ones, began to merge into one long noise. I can't honestly say I enjoyed a moment of it. And I wasn't the only one... ask some of the mangled people who had to be helped onto the stage and escorted out a door at the back. One of the people I was with fainted. And I haven't even got to the part when the club was attacked by skinheads - seems they had an axe to grind. (along with lots of wooden clubs with nails in them). What fun the youth of today have!