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Jacko Boogie (probably not his real name) grew up in the North-East in the 1970s and saw his first band, Roxy Music, at an outdoor gig in Newcastle. On his way home he bumped into Brian Eno and was immediately impressed by how small he was. Several years later he went round to Bryan Ferry's house - Bryan wasn't in but his mum made him a nice cup of tea. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to be a rock & roll star, and when punk came along Jacko formed his first band, which also featured Mike Gibson, later to find fame as a member of The Godfathers. The Jermz made one self-released single, a copy of which will now cost you more money than it did then. As the camera dissolves, we leap forwards to 1985. Jacko is wandering through Brick Lane Market in London, just as the stalls were packing up, when he comes across a whole pile of RAK and Bell singles lying in the gutter. Brick Lane's not quite on the road to Damascus, but nonetheless this was a moment of revelation, albeit one tinged with sadness. Distressed that the music of his youth should be so neglected, he resolved there and then to form a band that would pay tribute to the glitter years of pop. The result was The Eight-Track Cartridge Family, whose first gig was at a Rough Trade party at The Fridge in Brixton. Playing a set entirely comprised of covers, the Eight-Tracks were the first group I know of to try to revive the old days. The fact that they were doing it at a time when the hip-quotient of the 70s was at its lowest point was obviously something of an own goal, but has a certain heroic inappropriateness all to itself. They should be saluted. Amongst Jacko's treasured possessions are the Wombles box-set and a photo-booth snap of Sid & Nancy, abandoned when the young lovers decided to hail a cab instead of waiting for the pictures to develop.
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Eddie Amoo | ||