From Wayne Kramer's autobiography: "On gig day, I painted my skin with gold stage makeup and wore a black suit and sunglasses. Tyner bouffed his Afro out bigger than normal and filled it with glitter. Derek and Dennis looked relatively normal except for some face paint. Fred had transformed into “Sonic Smith.” When we ran out onstage, there was a collec- tive groan from the 60,000 Teddy Boys filling Wembley. We started rocking, and it wasn’t going too badly when Tyner made the most strategic blunder in the annals of rock history. A beer can came flying in from the crowd, and he picked it up and threw it back. That simple act galvanized every one of those rockabilly fans. It was us versus them, and there was way more of them. Beer cans literally rained down on us. If we had gone onstage in our street clothes, black leather jackets, Levis, and boots, they might have loved us. We were certainly rocking hard enough, but once they decided we were “rough trade from Venus,” it was all over."
From Wayne Kramer's autobiography: "On gig day, I painted my skin with gold stage makeup and wore a black suit
and sunglasses. Tyner bouffed his Afro out bigger than normal and filled it with
glitter. Derek and Dennis looked relatively normal except for some face paint. Fred
had transformed into “Sonic Smith.” When we ran out onstage, there was a collec-
tive groan from the 60,000 Teddy Boys filling Wembley. We started rocking, and it
wasn’t going too badly when Tyner made the most strategic blunder in the annals
of rock history. A beer can came flying in from the crowd, and he picked it up and
threw it back. That simple act galvanized every one of those rockabilly fans. It was
us versus them, and there was way more of them. Beer cans literally rained down
on us.
If we had gone onstage in our street clothes, black leather jackets, Levis, and
boots, they might have loved us. We were certainly rocking hard enough, but once
they decided we were “rough trade from Venus,” it was all over."
Wow! What a story!
Many thanks John - an historical document!
Wilko Johnson was there (playing in Heinz’s backing band) and says watching Wayne Kramer inspired his whole stage persona.
Actualy, sound recording was much better in 1972. This mono casette recorder was hidden in a duffle bag behind the stage, zipped up.
'Gloria' is English music? How dare you Tyner.