Ecstatic crowds packed the Hammersmith Ballroom this past Saturday for
a
reunion concert by legendary Seventies band Johnny Lodger and the Boers.
The Boers had a number
one single on both sides of the Atlantic in December
of 1976 with A Good Time To Be Nice, a debut recording famously released
on the same day as the Sex Pistol's Anarchy in the U.K. The Boers and the
Sex Pistols would spar continuously
thereafter, both in the press and on stage.
When the two bands shared a bill at Leeds University
in 1979, a fistfight broke out
on stage during a set change and lasted for more than fifteen
minutes, ending only
when Sex Pistol's singer Johnny Rotten wrenched the bass drum from Paul Cook's
drum kit and smashed it over Lodger's head. "The Sex Pistol were all about being
snarly
and surly and rude," Lodger noted in an interview with Melody Maker in
1982.
"And that totally f–––ing pissed me off. I mean, what's wrong with dressing
nicely,
singing clearly, and saying 'please' and 'thank you?'" The Boer's clean-cut
image and low-key
live shows made them outsiders in the raucous punk era, but
their mellow, mannered style has proven
to be big hit thirty years on with fans
who are now far more likely to brew a cup of tea
than to swig from a bottle
of Jack Daniels. "The nice little turtle is kicking that smug-bastard
hare's ass
at last," Lodgers smiles. "Face it. Even Lydon doesn't want to be Rotten
anymore."
Top Photo © 1978 Timothy Bozarth, Rock Report Magazine
