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Jonnie & the Lubes to support Ant-Nowhere League at the Hydrant, Sat 12th March 2011

After the spectacular success of the punkbrighton 10th Anniversary Alldayer, Jonnie & the Lubes have been added to the Anti-Nowhere League gig at the Hydrant on Saturday 12th March 2011.

Like all the acts at the Alldayer, the Lubes played an exceptional set and have been rewarded with another top-notch punk gig supporting the legendary ANL.

Get your arse down there for what should be another belter of a night.

About Jonnie & the Lubes • Part One | Part Two | Lubes scrapbook | yet more lubes

Jonnie Condom • vocals
Jan Lailey • Sax
Ian Jarvis • drums
Ken Lailey • bass
Nick Goddard • guitar
Simon Goddard • occasional guitar

Part One - Jonnie Condom & The Lubricators didn't really start out as a band but more of a name on the walls of bus stops and other public buildings. The shortened name, Jonnie & The Lubes, was due to the limited space on an A4 fly-poster.

Way back in 1977 there were two school friends, a young Jonnie, writing and singing his songs and Nick putting guitar to the words. They used to meet at Nick's flat, near the West Pier, working on songs that came at a daily rate with a lot discarded and never played beyond that room.

Then something actually happened. In September 1978, Circe, a local punk (whose father did the mural on the North Road side of the Resource Centre), was involved with a benefit gig going on at The Vault in Brighton. Somehow a slot was given to the band supporting the Smartees and the Vitamins.

It was decided that this would be the bands first, last and only gig and so, with a handful of songs (4 original and a T.Rex B-side cover) they actually played. Memories are vague when this gig is talked about. It is almost certain that Nick's brother Simon played guitar or bass but who the drummer was remains a mystery.

So that should be the end of the Jonnie Condom & The Lubricators story except that Simon had told his friend that they would play at her party at the beginning of October. That gig, at the Beacon Royal Hotel on the Brighton seafront supporting The Executives, saw the birth of Jonnie & The Lubes.

The 3 weeks leading up to this gig would see the arrival of Ken (bass) and Janet (sax) to the band. In those days nobody considered it odd to add sax to a band that still didnt have a drummer or that the sax player hadnt played sax before.

The no drummer situation was resolved on the night by recruiting one of the guests who had played in a band with Simon in the past. An extended set list including new songs was put together. Most of the crowd were unimpressed by the original material but the T.Rex cover got a warm response.

A couple more gigs followed, both support slots to the Executives at the Alhambra and XL5 at The Buccaneer. By December that year Simon had left the band leaving Nick on sole guitar duty.

Around this time a couple of the Lubes were nicked for fly-posting another band that Simon was playing with, this was an occupational hazard for anyone in the middle of the night with paste and posters. After trying to blag their way out of it they were subsequently charged to appear at the Brighton Law Courts. Simon gave his support to the case from the public gallery wearing a dress, the two band members werefound guilty and fined £10 each.

The band still had the no drummer situation to deal with. Supporting the Executives at The Richmond and using

yet another stand-in drummer, Jonnie bolted from the stage after the first couple of songs complaining that the band sounded crap, returning only after Johnny from the Execs had persuaded him.

At that time in Brighton you could get anyone you needed for a band, there were singers, guitarists and bass players on every corner, even keyboards and sax players were available but drummers were a rare breed. The band put up some simple poster ads that just read Jonnie & The Lubes want a drummer with a phone number and waited for the phone to ring.

Enter Ian Jarvis, local drummer, all the gear (packed in proper cases) in the back of his Triumph Herald, answers the ad, turns up for an audition and joins the band. With Ian on board the band manage to sort out 3 basic things: Starting together, playing in time and finishing together. With a full line-up, regular rehearsals were underway in the basement of Creature Enterprises, a clothing store in Sydney Street.

skip to Part Two

Lubes scrapbook

Below: the likely lads! Jonnie with Damage. To-nite, Live! Ken with Jan, Mr Jonnie Cool Guitar, Jonnie standing up for his rights, Ken as

straight as a dye, air guitar, Jonnie leaning in the doorway at Cambridge Grove and a poster for a gig at the Assembly Hall in Worthing.

Thanks to Jonnie for all the photos

The Lubes' continuing story:

Part Two - Following a benefit gig at The Vault which had 10 other bands on the bill, the Lubes headed off to Graphic Sound studio in Catford to record a couple of tracks for an EP to go out on Attrix Records.

The EP was a shared 7 with the Executives on the other side a unique offering that was never copied by other bands at the time - it halved all the costs of production and had 2 bands pushing the sales by selling it at gigs. All four tracks were recorded that day finishing in the early evening, production was taken care of by Terry and his engineer Albert.

Through the spring of 79 the band played support slots. In April the band were invited to play another party at the Beacon Royal, this time as headliners. The support slot was filled by Damage & Co fronted by Dick Damage. Later that month the Lubes played their first gig at the Cage, an indoor skate park on the seafront. Support was once again Damage & Co plus The Cornets.

The Cage was unlicensed and did not have a bar, this meant gigs could go on past 11pm. As the skate kids went home pub leavers would come in.

Meanwhile the tapes for the EP had been mastered and sent to the plant. Members of the 2 bands and friends put together 1000 picture sleeves for the EP.

Kay, who was responsible for the Executives posters, prepared the artwork and printing. In an effort to stave off the boredom of the kitchen table production line, various messages were scrawled inside the covers before they were stuck together.

At the end of April the Lubes/Executives EP was available to buy. A copy was dropped off at Radio 1 straight from the pressing plant and John Peel played I Got Rabies during his show that night, he continued to give it airplay through April and May. Peter Archer of the Evening Argus gave the single a slating in his review, the band werent bothered.

By now the band were rehearsing at Cambridge Grove in Hove, a self-built space that required negotiating a flight of stairs up from the road, a journey through a flat into a conservatory and then down another flight of stairs to the room.

The difficult access meant anyone who came to use it usually left any heavy equipment behind to be picked up at a later date and became a home to other peoples equipment, to which the Lubes helped themselves.

On a high following the EP, April turned into May and saw the run-up to the beginning of the end for the band. Following the theft of the Dodgems and Fan Clubs gear from the Resource Centre the Lubes played a couple of gigs, the first one with the Dodgems at the Cage, and then at the Resource Centre, supporting the Molesters.

A few days later and it was the aforementioned Cage gig with the Piranhas and then back to the Cage again with the Dodgems. All this was leading up to an out of town gig at the Worthing Assembly Hall. This was the biggest gig the band had got, Woody and the Splinters on first, followed by the Lubes with the Executives headlining.

On arriving in Worthing it was clear that Ian, who was now also drumming for Woody, was ill and faced doing two sets back to back.The Lubes had a fair bit of local support in the crowd and went down well. Mid-way through the set one of the halls large curtains appeared on the stage landing on the drum kit. By the end Ian's kit was covered in beer and spit from the crowd.

The stage monitors also had a drink or two poured into them and an expensive AKG microphone and stand came out worse for wear.The equipment damage didnt go down to well with the guys from Ohm Acoustics who were the PA for the night. The backstage theme was beer and graffiti with friends including Paul from the Dodgems. The band returned to Brighton and did nothing for five months.

During this down time Ken and Jonnie kept things together, meeting up and doing some music. They had sessions with Paul (guitar) and Wayne (drums) late of the Molesters but although the sounds were good nothing more came of it.

In October 79, a new four-piece Lubes line-up emerged for the final time, supporting the Cheeks at the Buccaneer. Jan had now stopped playing in the band, Simon was back on guitar, Little Dave from Lewes was the new drummer with Jonnie and Ken up front.And that was it. In just the one year Jonnie and The Lubes had played 25 gigs, made a record and had John Peel airplay. Ken and Simon went on to do things with Slaves Of Janet, Nick later formed Queue Dance and put out a single and Ian continued with Woody & the Splinters. Jonnie got out of the local music scene.

Jonnie Condom

Lubes recordings and gigs

RECORDINGS

1979: I Got Rabies / Terror In The Parking Lot Attrix Records RB/05/EP - 4-track EP with the Executives
1980: Terror In The Parking Lot Teenage Treats Vol.5 Xerox Records- Bootleg compilation album



Have a listen...



Nick Goddard & Ian Jarvis
Graphic Sound Studios Catford 11.02.79



GIGS
11.09.78 The Vault: Smartees / Vitamins (support)
02.10.78 Beacon Royal: Executives (support)
30.10.78 Alhambra: Executives (support)
02.12.78 Alhambra: Executives (support)
17.12.78 Buccaneer: XL5 (support)
02.01.79 Richmond: Executives / Dodgems (support)
27.01.79 The Vault: 10 bands night (support)
28.02.79 Alhambra: Molesters (support)
07.03.79 Buccaneer: Dirty Weekend (support)
17.03.79 Alhambra: Executives (support)
24.03.79 The Adur: Executives (support)
28.03.79 Alhambra: Dirty Weekend (support)
30.03.79 Alhambra: Executives (support)
02.04.79 Beacon Royal: With Damage & Co
06.04.79 Alhambra: Executives (support)
13.04.79 The Cage: With Damage & Co / The Cornets
14.04.79 The Cage: No support group
21.04.79 The Cage: With The Chefs
27.04.79 Alhambra: Executives (support)
28.04.79 The Cage: With The Dodgems
05.05.79 Resource Centre: Molesters / Return / Dirty Weekend (support)
09.05.79 The Cage: With The Piranhas
12.05.79 The Cage: With The Dodgems
14.05.79 Assembly Hall: Executives / Woody & The Splinters (support)
01.10.79 Buccaneer: Cheeks (support)





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