'Out on the Streets' - Coventry 1979

Out on the streets, Coventry 79, Neol Davies surround by fans in the Dog and Trumpet after 'On the Radio' broke. Desmond Brown's pulsing Hammond opening the show. "This violent City" read the headlines in the Coventry Telegraph; watching your back in the subways, "Reclaim the Night" and "Disarm Rapists" scrawled on the subway walls under Greyfriars Green. Boom town to Ghost town, redundant car workers lining up outside the dole, placards "Fight for the Right to Work", Socialist Workers selling red rags, CND rallies in the Cathedral Ruins, new wave, Punk and rollicking ska, John Fox in the Underpass, Suicide is Painless, Too Much Pressure. Lady Godiva galloping through the precinct indecently, Peeping Tom trying to keep up, arrested for spying from the Cathedral spire. Charley's dreadlocks and wild bass dancing, Pauline out front, Pork Pie hat. Thatcher chasing Arthur Scargill with her brolly in Mr George's after a Sex Pistol's gig. Right wing riots in ethnic areas, truncheons raining down on lefties. Rat Race city still smarting from Hitlers bombs. Gottlieb Daimler smoking Havanna in the Jaguar, the world gone mad but the music rocked into the Echo Beach 80's, out on the streets with the Gangsters of time, the making of memories, indelible...Trev T.