In Praise Of Johnny Seven

Who remembers Johnny Seven One Man Army?  I only knew it as Johnny Seven but my research today put me right.  It was the ultimate toy.  Playing war games was a familiar pastime for boys back in the late sixties and the Johnny Seven was light years of any other toy or pretend weapon.  I dreamt of having one but knew realistically I'd never own one. The only person I knew who had one was Gary Harrison, who lived over the road from us. He was the envy of all the other kids in our road.

Those days are obviously long gone but my memory has been jogged a couple of times over the years.  I remember a great Vic and Bob sketch from the mid-nineties where Bob posing as Lovejoy name checks the great gun as well as talking about going "oggy raiding" - simply Teesside!
And I was reminded again at Friday night's latest Rock Garden re-union show.  The Rezillos supported by a local "back in the day" band, strangely called Johnny Seven at The Georgian Theatre.  I don't remember them to be honest although my memory is not what it was.

In truth I didn't have high expectations. Ste fancied going and we bought our tickets back in August.  It seemed like an ok idea with 3 months to go before the concert and when it sold out in September I wondered if it was going to be Acne Rabble all over again, only this time I had a ticket.  I suggested to Ste that we should try and cash them in.  Probably best we didn't, I'm not sure I would have been comfortable being outed on the local scene as a ticket tout.  Anyway, probably like the Sex Pistols show I think anybody who really wanted to see The Rezillos managed to get there

Johnny Seven, kitted themselves out for the occasion in suits and ties, (ala cup final stylee?) and played an extremely tight (can't believe they could have been that proficient "back in the day") set of what I presume were their songs back in the day.  "Where Have All The Skinheads Gone" referring to them (I think) as "those naughty skinheads!" and "Fashion" which of course pre-dated the Bowie song of the same name.  I think I heard something about "you bought your clothes in '73".  Ouch, brought it home how old most of us there had grown.  They finished with a rousing version of Folsom Prison Blues.  I doubt if they would have got away with it at The Teessider even if they'd been capable to play it.  They won me over, it was very good fun. 

Looking good for "around" 50 year olds I'm sure you will agree?

It is well documented that The Rock Garden was a fearsome venue to play.  Ste told a story about a support band once getting a table thrown at them and I've talked about the violence from time to time at Goffa's, both  here and in my previous life at Livejournal.   Times change though and Teesside's musical fraternity is extremely easy to please nowadays. The worst response a band ever gets is  polite applause.  Steve Harland, the co-promoter told me that The Rezillos received a dreadful response at a punk festival in Durham a couple of months ago.   That was never going to happen at Stockton

The crowd lapped it up and the band loved it. The band looked fit and well playing pretty much all the songs off their only proper album, Can't Stand The Rezillos, including my favourite, It Gets Me (give it a go, it really is very good).

There's no point me giving my opinion on The Rezillos music because it just isn't really my thing circa 2011, although being from Teesside I offered my polite applause.  That said, I enjoyed the night, Ste and the Bells were very good company.  We reminisced about "the faces" of the Rock Garden "dead and alive" although modesty forbid me putting myself forward.  Of course I jest but I wonder how many people attending on Friday had performed 3 times at The Rock Garden?  Have I mentioned before?

What was I on about?  Oh yeah, Johnny Seven. - It was an expensive toy and how rich was Gary Harrison that he could afford one?  So as you do, I google it.

Sadly I couldn't find out how much they were "back in the day" but Jeez!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  How much today?