PUMA ARGENTINA

SEX AND DRUGS AND ROCK AND ROLL
We were drawn against Chelsea away in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, Liverpool FC that is, and me and my mates were determined to be there. I remember it as the game of the duffle coat‚ and blue snorkel parka. After staying the night in a mates flat in Peckham, South London where we all slept in his freezing cold flat (in our duffle coats) we made our way to Stamford Bridge expecting a smooth ride into the next round.

In those bleak days when Chelsea was a very hostile away match Liverpool only had several hundred there mostly clad in the aforementioned coats plus a smattering, of bubble/puffa coats and trainees. Chelsea’s boys were a curious array of punks, boot boys, and skinheads! We went in the seats and were shocked at the exorbitant price of the tickets, £5 if my memory serves me well. What a rip off we thought but worth it if we saw the mighty Red Men‚ triumph. We were well beaten 4-2, with the long blond haired Clive Walker scoring an unlikely hat-trick. As the fourth went in my mate threw his steaming hot coffee at the rows in front, at no one in particular. To our surprise a very angry Alan Hudson (ex Chelsea player) turned around who did that‚ he screamed, we laughed nervously, as we made our escape. A feather headed Hudson in a coat that looked remarkably like fur, arguing with a load of duffle coated Liverpool fans. It was worth the entrance fee to see the look of horror on his face. It was a disappointing season for Liverpool in those days as we only won the European Cup and the European Super Cup; we lost out in the League and the League Cup to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest.

Ian Drury provided the alternative soundtrack for 1978 and even though Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll never made the charts it was the perfect anti-dote to the disco fever sweeping the mainstream. The soundtrack to the film Saturday Night Fever which was dominating the charts worldwide which only made the punk/new wave scene appear even more exciting and revolutionary. The Sex Pistols had split earlier in the year and later that year Sid Vicious had been charged with murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen in the infamous Chelsea hotel in New York. The Clash released their second album Give em Enough Rope‚ and Keith Moon died from the drug that he was taking to get him off the drug that was most likely to kill him: booze.

Pic :: Keith Moon