THE RAMONES

The Ramones outside City Hall, Belfast, September 1978 - Photograph © Paul Slattery BRUDDERS BLAST OFF IN BELFAST - The Ramones, Ulster Hall 1978 Review by Adrian Thrills - NME 30th September 1978. ONE-TWO-Free-Fouh! The boys from the Bowery rocketed to Northern Ireland for the opening salvo of their fourth visit to Britain in two years. Twenty-six songs honed, polished and delivered in just under one hour. Shock Treatment indeed. It’s easy to see why The Clash (Ulster’s favourite bandy a mile) rate the rock-starved kids of these six counties as the best audience in the world. Although I was assured that this gig was a mild rather than wild affair by Belfast’s own heady standards, they lapped up everything the band had to offer. And it’s not hard to see a reason for that either. It was The Ramones first trip to Belfast (a date there during their last tour had to be called off, the usual problems : venues, insurance) and seeing bands as good, original and inspiring/influential as this for the first time is an unforgettable experience. Ah yes, apeshit time. I remember it well. Of course, the knives have been out on Da Brudders of late, And I, for one, wouldn’t argue that any band who makes assholes of themselves in print the way The Ramones did at the end of Nannie Lester’s NMW piece last week don’t deserve to come under the hammer. But do things really change so much in the space of a year? The answer has to be no, they don’t. The Ramones are still a great live group, and there’ll most likely be gigs even better than this - at times a slightly restrained opener - on the present tour. They’ve got a new drummer, but, basically, it’s the same Ramones. The visuals, for a start, are just as expected ; the Regal Eagle backdrop, the ripped jeans, the jackets - as old hat as the odour of stale Airfix. Joey even still brings the “Gabba Gabba Hey” banner on stage during ‘Pinhead’. But don’t for a moment doubt that it’s anything but peerless stuff. Sure, everyone wants change, but, in a nutshell, if The Ramones were to drastically alter their music…well, they just wouldn’t be The Ramones, simple as that, and that would be sad indeed. They’re the exception that proves the rule. However, any allegations that they don’t care about the quality of their gigs are patently untrue. The Ulster Hall audience gob as if caught in a mid - 1977 time warp, making it difficult for Johnny and Dee Dee to work the stage properly. But even on the slippery, slivered boards, they put in a whole lot of effort. Rhythm guitarists with the flair and timing of Johnny Ramone - even if he did cock up the intro to ‘Surfin’ Bird’ - are rare. Apart from one break in ‘Don’t Come Close’ (a disappointingly flaccid, flabby new single) this man is now practically alone in totally eschewing that deadly enemy of old, the guitar solo. For sheer kamikaze malevolence, probably only Lurker Pete Stride approaches this sort of stuff. After the set, in a moment of backstage weakness, Johnny himself came close to admitting that the ‘Road To Ruin’ album was mixed down for American radio play. It sounds that way anyway, but, thankfully, the inimitable punch, pace and power of the blitzkrieg live sound have yet to be bopped. If Johnny is the headbanger, Joey is the geek ; the beanpole with a nervous Cheshire Cat grin rocking gently on the mike stand until those sporadic, often hilarious, jumps, his voice, as ever, an updated harmonic Buddy Holly hiccup. Then there’s Marky, Marc Bell, the new Ramone. Hunched over the traps, he looks worried, but plays studiously. A more solid, faster (yeah, faster!) stickman than Tommy. Dee Dee just plugs away and shouts the obligators (one/toofreefouh) before each number. Like the early Sex Pistols, The Ramones don’t look like a rock band. Onstage they appear incompetent and inelegant to the casual observer, stumbling and fumbling in their movements, though only rarely in the actual playing. The set is pretty much that of the last tour and the new year Rainbow gigs, with the addition of half a dozen songs from the decidedly weak new album. Best moments are the highlights from their two bona fide classics, “Rocket” and the unsurpassed “Leave Home”, although worth a mention is the bulldozing fanfare of the charging “California Sun”, an extra specially impressive moment and a blitzing Clash tour0style medley of old stuff towards the end - “Today Your Love”, “Judy” and “Glue” making a magnificent three-pronged encore. The Ramones, here today, gone tomorrow. Not on your life. Why do I like them? Just the beat. Catch it.

‘Surf-board’ Rock in a far from sunny Belfast. Alternative Ulster Fanzine - No 8 review by Roger. Admittedly it wasn’t much of a night for surfing. Cool and windy, typical Belfast weather , but on arrival at the Ulster Hall, yes, there they are up on stage, the unmistakable torn blue Levi’s and soon to be discarded black leathers. The comic strip characters suddenly come to life and the relentless pounding and thrashing that IS The Ramones blares out across the night. Of course I’d obviously missed support band Then Snips’ but that didn’t really cut me up any! Inside, and it’s just one great mad dash through all the classic Ramone songs, though few numbers off the excellent debut album. Joey on stage, tall and resplendent in customary knee-torn Levi’s, moves about with the grace of a three-legged giraffe, looking hilariously awkward and at times positively silly as he makes unsuccessful attempts at a pogo, forgetting, poor fellow, that he was still clinging to the mike stand! Rapport with the crowd attained the dizzy heights of a hurried “One - Two-Three - Fawr” Chant and then off they’d go again, crashing blindly into the next three minute gem. The energy transmitted was nothing short of electrical. The songs move along at break-neck speed. No time to breathe. Stop now and you’ll be trampled underfoot... However, the Belfast crowd, usually so vibrantly wreckless, was surprisingly subdued and the music at (astonishingly for The Ramones, who were meant to be heard extra-loud) fairly low volume. They encores with ‘Do You Wanna Dance’, ‘Today Your Love - Tomorrow The World’ and ‘Oh Oh I Love Her So’ and were deservedly called back again, finishing, this time for good, with, ‘Judy Is A Punk’ and ‘Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue’ before yelled a tear-stained farewell to Belfast and The Ramones’ fleeting visit to Ulster was over. The fun and the fantasy was over. For one reason or another it wasn’t quite the great event it should’ve been. As one observer pointed out, “If they’d played here a year ago, the police would’ve gone wild”. Interview by Dave Angry and Roger After the gig the band were well pleased with the reception but were rightly peeved off with the mindless gobbing, which at times got very unpleasant. Johnny turned out to be a rather articulate speaker which hints at some past college education and kicks out the accepted ‘Dumb American’ comic-strip caricature which they do NOT like one little bit, mes amis, I can tell you! However they are reluctant to talk about their own pasts. Johnny talked at some length about the new album which he thought was the best they’d done so far. They seem to be more settled with Mark, the new drummer. Johnny agrees “Yeah Mark plays faster (?) and heavier than Tommy and we’re getting on really well together”. Later we spoke to Dee Dee, who, like Joe Strummer a few weeks later, was sporting a snatch ‘No Sacrifice’ T-Shirt. He turned out to be the band’s resident comedian, beginning by shouting after one of the Europa’s stiff shirted waiters- “Hey Dad!...y’know he looks just like my pop!!...waiters are funny y’know, sometimes they’re O.K. ; sometimes they’re really nasty. At least you can get REAL ice-cubes here. Some places I’ve been to, you have to get down on your knees and plead for one!!”. A.U. - (trying to get Dee Dee to be serious for a moment) : Are you writing any new material at the moment? Dee Dee - (not having any of it) “Hey, can anybody get a drink around here? Hey pop...uh, no, we’re not writing at all at the moment. We used to write a lot on tour but not on the one” A.U. - What bands do you like in America now? Dee Dee - “I like Cheap Trick a lot. Joey likes Springsteen ...English bands? Well, Siouxsie, The Valves, D.P.’s, I loved The Damned. They were the greatest. A.U. - Any changes within The Ramones. Dee Dee - “Yeah, Joey’s moving about a lot more. I’m getting worried about him. He’s hurting his knees!! We’re feeling more loose and confident with Mark. We were too restricted with Tommy. He’s paranoid y’know!!! It’s funny, he left just as we beginning to make it in America......he’s happier.....producing......hell, where’s my drink??!...

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