Nikki Sudden: The Sex Pistols “Spunk” Cassette

You have to realise that I was a naïve and somewhat immature 20 year old, and this was my first actual contact with a professional musician, a (forgive me Nikki) “minor” star in independent music circles, and what was more, he'd sought me out.

(Picture, left, shows Nikki & bother Epic on Swell Maps last tour, in Milan on 31st March 1980)

Somewhat in awe at first, as I was for some time to come, I spent the first of many evenings over many years in his engaging and charmingly egocentric company. My specific memories of that first meeting include mild astonishment at the number of books and records crammed into his room, in particular his mighty collection of T Rex records, tapes and of the books of both Captain W E Johns (Biggles et al)

and of Franks Richards (Greyfriars/Billy Bunter).

But what stands out most was learning that I was in the company of someone who'd actually seen the Sex Pistols at the 100 Club and The Screen On The Green back in 1977.

Sitting here nearly 30 years after that first meeting, it's hard to relate how important the music of the Sex Pistols and specifically the Never Mind The Bollocks album was to a 20 year old self confessed part time punk. It had been the very first LP I'd bought when I'd gone in to gainful employment, and I make no pretence of the childish satisfaction received from taking over my father's Bang & Olufsen music centre and playing “Bodies”, for the sheer thrill of hearing the “language”. Many better tracks of course on that timeless album – go on, listen to it again if you've not heard it for a while; a classic rock album, born out of and taking inspiration from the punk rock movement, but a timeless rock album through and through – but hey, I was busy “rebelling” against my parents (albeit in a relatively inoffensive fashion....).

Not only had Nikki been part of the scene at the gestation of punk rock, he actually had a copy of the Pistols infamous “Spunk” album, the bootleg of Dave Goodman produced pre ...Bollocks demos featuring Glen Matlock on bass, and what was more, he was happy to do me a cassette of it. Remember I'm living in sleepy mid Warwickshire, such items were unobtainable outside London, and this was verily the Holy Grail of Punk. And so in the early hours of the morning, I leave Harbury in my Austin 1100,

tape player blaring out what were, truth be told, poorer versions of the NMTB album, not that anything could then diminish my delight at hearing this historic bootleg.

Though Nikki would later introduce me to all manner of (possibly, probably, no definitely) more crucial music, this very first “gift” could not have been more thrilling. Moreover, there was the prospect of further advancing my musical education with a promise to compile a tape of the best of T Rex and, the first of many, a various artist compilation tape both of which he'd drop round on his first visit to my home a few days later. The “Spunk” cassette has long gone – eventually got a copy on vinyl myself – but I still have the other two near on 30 year old cassettes, the first of which introduced me to lesser known T Rex gems such as “Venus Loon”, and the second, to the likes of The Desperate Bicycles

of Big In Japan, of Can and, for the very first time, “Bangkok” by Alex Chilton

– whose band Big Star would eventually nigh on dominate my world. But that will be a tale for another time.

It wouldn't be long before there would be a Swell Maps compilation, and all manner of other delights, along with the inspiration to take my fanzine, eventually, to a slightly more ambitious and certainly a higher level.

Coming Soon - Late Night Shopping For Pets With Sonic Youth