Rottin’ Klitz

The Luke’s part of our story starts in Ireland when Breada Luke from County Claire emigrates to London in the late fifties and meets her husband who is also from Ireland (County Leittrim) and has seven children before he dies.

Susie Luke When Dad died mum struggled to pay the rent on where we living and eventually stopped, so the council moved us into a house on Farringdon Road. It was only meant to be temporary but we ended up there for over 30 years! It didn’t have a bath or toilet and we used to have to go to Ironmonger Row Baths.

Right from the start the house was an open one and saw frequent coming and goings.

Susie Luke My mum used to take in the Irish community so we always had lodgers in the house. Because she came over with nothing there was always a certain empathy for people who had nothing – there was no distinguishing between hangers on and people who needed help. The open door policy was because culturally we were Irish and that’s what you did. It’s all we all knew. When I went to my English friends houses it was very diffrent and I used to think ‘oh, this is is what it’s meant to be like!’

The mum had a rebellious side to her and didn’t enforce discipline which led to how the house became what it did.

Susie Luke My mother was very libertarian in her approach and had an anarchic sprit and let us get on with it. We didn’t have strict upbringing and people enjoyed the fact that they could associate in a place without parental guidance.

My mother was a bit of a rebel but she liked the queen. She didn’t send us to a church school because she was beaten so badly in church schools in Ireland and she saw the church as a form of control.

Terry Luke She taught us how to drink but that was it. We just got on with it and enjoyed ourselves – It was a great time. There were bad sides but I enjoyed my time – there was plenty in the family and we used to go out together. Susie was too young but aware of what was going on and not excluded.

That going out together was mainly the Hope and Anchor (pictured below), a well-known pub on the live circuit that featured both pub rock and up and coming punk bands in the merging Punk scene. As such it was a magnet for people socially and aspiring bands members.

Terry Luke I was 18 when I first started exploring things and could drink legally and the first pub that was my regular was the H&A. Not only was it a good place to see bands downstairs but you met so many people there and connections were made. It was central to our years at the time. I met Morgan Webster from Menace there because I wanted to get off with his girlfriend but I wasn’t successful in that! I think I met Charlie Casey there too.

You also have to remember that in the seventies pub opening hours were different and followed the strict 11.00–2.00 pm, then 6.00pm to 11.00pm. So once they shut you piled out needing somewhere else to go for entertainment. Back then for punks the options were limited – it might be the Roxy or Vortex but the Luke’s house became a destination place.

Susie Luke It was a great crack living there but by the time my brothers had grown up a bit my mum had lost control and they were in charge. My very oldest brother would have been into heavy metal like Zeppelin and he and the other three had their own place in the basement. We weren’t supposed to have that part of the house; it was meant to be boarded off but they opened it up.  There was a lot of parties – every single weekend from Friday to Sunday – and there would be some stragglers there in the week.  There was about 37 living in the house at one point; hangers on.  When the council eventually put in a bathroom in the room next to the living room everyone used to play darts in it and it was my bedroom because all the other rooms were full!

There was drawings and artwork all over the walls. It was like a squat but it wasn’t. Dodger (Johnny Luke) was a really good artist. Downstairs had glass tiles. It was futuristic then the top of the house where mum lived was like the 1920’s.

One of the people sucked into that vortex was Don Euripides, a school boy at the time and himself discovering music.

Don Euripides I used to go to the Hope & Anchor all the time as I only lived down the road but I was well underage and still at school. I was up for the Front Row Festival. If I couldn’t get in I would listen to the band from the top of the stairs or go in the pub and feel it coming up from the floor – especially the Stranglers. I started there really.

I was at a 999 gig at the Hope & Anchor and it was New Year and there was a pretty blonde girl going round kissing everyone and that turned out to be Debbie Pope. There were a few other blokes there and we got talking and they said ‘we’re going to be up here next week and we’ll meet’ and Kit Luke was one of them. From Kit I got introduced to Charlie Casey from Menace because Kit was going out with his sister Theresa and then me and Kit would hang out and go to Charlie’s and then go out with Theresa and if they were doing a gig we’d go along and that’s how we got into Menace.

The Luke’s lived in the infamous basement in Clerkenwell opposite Mount Pleasant Post Office and every waif and stray used to go around there after the pub. It was like party night every night. The poor neighbours next door! They hated them!

I remember I used to listen to ska records with Suggs (later in Madness) quite often. Skats brother used to have a good collection and we used to go down and listen to records on the sofa which stank of beer. The place was a like a squat.

Every time Remote Control was played we used to have a big bundle and jump on each other in the front room. They had all the records of punk, ska and reggae.

They had so many guests and they were so inviting but people abused their hospitality. Someone even nicked their telly and they caught the guy and he bottled Kit leaving him with a bad scar.

Another was Debbie Pope, the girl from the 999 gig. (Photo above right outside the Luke’s house with Debbie and Billy in front and Terry and Little Johnny behind.)

Debbie Pope Basically I was always in the Hope and Anchor – I literally lived in that pub I think! There was always a band playing downstairs but we mostly stayed upstairs and it was there that I met the Luke’s – Terry, Dodger (Little Johnny) and the rest –  and we used to go back to their place in Clerkenwell as they had parties there every single week.

Kit meanwhile was the first of the family to get into punk and who decided he wanted to be a drummer.

Susie Luke Kit was a strange and complex person. He was my brother and he looked after me; he cooked for me and cared for me.

Before punk he was a hippy and went to Belgium with his brother. There’s no pictures of him with the drums. Kit was a vegetarian at a very young age – he had a sensitivity towards animals yet kicked to death a rat in the basement. He had  a lot of anger and I think that was why he was so into the punk movement.

He was a scary person, he was small and tough and he boxed and he was quite a force of nature when he wanted to be but it was all bravado. He was mad into Fungus the Bogeyman. He bought this leather coat that he always wore and he ripped it up and put pins in and wrote ‘Klitz’ on the bottom of it and ‘Fungus the Bogeyman.’

Kits first drums were cardboard boxes and we were saving egg boxes to soundproof the shed. He’d extended it and he used to practice there. It didn’t make any difference it still drove us mad!

Terry Luke Kit got into Punk very early and he was someone I’d always looked up to and he adopted some outlandish regalia and as a result we used to call him ‘zips’. He wore a uniform basically which was all black and surrounded by zips. He was a tiny little fellah and I followed his lead. We all got into it and we used to go to the Roxy, H&A and anything gig wise.

He just decided he wanted to be a drummer one day, started banging away on things and eventually bought himself a drum kit. They rehearsed at the house and if I had a neighbour like that I would be getting environmental health in.

Cookie Luke Kit was the first to get into Punk because my older Bob was a bit too square and into Led Zeppelin, Hendrix and The Doors.

Central to the band were the two founders Kit Luke and Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott who was 6’3 tall. Paul lived in Hoxton Shoreditch so was a twenty minute walk from the Lukes and the Menace connection was already there.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott When I first saw Punks I was shit scared of them and hid in doorways when I saw them. They just scared the living daylights out of me. One morning I woke up and I’d heard some music on the radio and I thought “Yeah I like that” and it went from there. I went to the Roxy Club one night and I loved it and the rest is history. I used to work with Steve Tannett in the Post Office. I knew him before Menace and used to go and see him when he was in a band called Stonehenge.

Skats was a regular at the Roxy Club and Vortex and knew Suggs and Tokes and the skinhead crew. He also wasn’t averse to a bit of trouble making and aggro.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) We used to be at the Hope and Anchor five times a week as one of our regular haunts and there was Suggs and Tokes down there. We didn’t think of them as skins and us punks – we were mates. On a Saturday night we used to go out with them up the West End and sometimes it didn’t end up well. We used to go up the Vortex for the punch ups. As punks and skins we used to join up and go up there and cause trouble. We was what we was they was what they was. I was a skinhead back in ’69 so I knew what they were about. They just wanted to destroy anything that breathed whereas we would give people a bit of a chance. Unless you were a Teddy Boy that is; coz we couldn’t stand them.

Phil Conte (boxer John Conte’s brother) was a doorman at The Roxy Club. If there were any Teds about, he’d come down and shout “Skats get them all together” and we’d go up and have a punch up or chase them off. One time we followed them all the way to a place called the Slots of Fun. We give it to them there and they never came back. Mind you we even got attacked by hippies one night – that was funny  – can you believ that? Another doorman from the Roxy was a Ted called Tiny from Fulham. He was a bit of a loner because he used to attach himself to us. He was scary as he was 10 foot tall and 8 foot wide. He used to talk the talk but he was the only Ted we would let in the Roxy and be left in one bit!

It was good. Noone got really hurt. Well sometimes they did, but that was life. It happens now.

How Kit and Skats met is

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) I’m not too sure how it all came about and where I met Kit because it feels a lifetime ago but I met him and we must have talked about forming a band and decided let’s give this a go and it went on from there. We were the first two.

The name Skats came up with the name Rottin’ Klitz which is arguably the most outrageous name ever in Punk.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) I came up with the name. I loved the name (laughs) I done that one.

Terry Luke The Rotting Klitz were more renowned for their name – I thought it was spelt Rottin’ with an apostrophe and Klitz – Kit came up with the name with a name like that they weren’t going to get on Top Of The Pops and he found it hilarious and ground-breaking; pretty much like his drumming!

Susie Luke I remember saying to Kit  ‘What’s a clit?’ because I as only 11 or 12 and he said its is a really rude part of a woman’s anatomy.  I thought they were called the Rottin’ Tits because that was the only rude part of a woman’s anatomy I knew. It was interesting telling people at school my brothers band! (laughs)

Cookie Luke The Rottin’ Klitz; I can barely say the name without being embarrassed but its less about the name and more about my association with the band! (laughs)

The house provided the perfect place for the fledgling band that was comprised of a mixture of people floating through the scene. There’s some debate as to who was eventually in the line up which could be described as fluid but the  core was Kits and Skats.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) I think Dee was the first. We used to go through guitarists like drinking pints. She carried on coming round and going to gigs but we moved it on. Sparky might have been the next one but we had a good few to be honest. 

Dee Hurley (Klitz, Muvvers Pride, Spiders) There might have been an after gig party at Kit’s house. I just cannot remember!!! I wish I could. In the early days I had a live in job with a hotel in Sloane Square and the living quarters for staff were at a big house on Pimlico Road. Great place to be at the start of punk!

Yes it was the Klitz to start with and I wasn’t keen on the ‘Rotting’ bit lols and I played Guitar with Skats on Bass.

We rehearsed at Kits basement in his home – his brother Terry was such a talented lyricist and I left the live in job and moved into the house with them in a spare room they had.

I think I met Billy at the Roxy who came from Chester and she crashed at mine sneaking her in when she first came to London but memory is very hazy! I know that I was with Billy when she first met Candy and it really was love at first sight for the pair of them!

Terry Pope Kit formed the band. He was on drums with Skats on bass, 2 singers, Billy and Candy, Dee hung around but she was part of the entourage but not in the band as far as I remember. Alan who was known as Sparky was the guitarist and he had idea about introducing the fuzzbox which didn’t work at all but he was slightly eccentric character who wasn’t around for that long. Prior to that there was Skits possibly on guitar. They didn’t have a manager to my knowledge.

Candy was just a North London boy who name was Terrence like mine. You got  a lot of people who tagged along in punk because it was the time and he was one of them. Billy was more into it but they were quite traditional people as a couple.

Cookie Luke We used to go a out to the Roxy club a lot and Kit realised that anyone could be in a band so he decided to form a band and they were going to be better than the Sex Pistols. They used to rehearse in 128 Farringdon Road. We used to get lots of complaints not because it was too early or too late in the day but because they were so fucking awful!

Christopher (Kit) the drummer, sounded like someone banging a nail in the wall constantly. Kit Syphilis was his punk name in homage to Rat Scabies. The bassist was called Paul (Skats) and was quite posh and was a sort of Sid Vicious wannabe but probably the only bassist in the universe who was actually a worse player than him. Candy was a very very very poor Johnny Rotten who was tone deaf and his girlfriend Billy.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) Me? Posh?  Where the fuck did he get that from? I’ve never been posh in my life. My name was Skats! Work it out. You can’t be posh with a name like that!

Me, Kit, Candy and Billy just all done what all punk’s done. We got drunk, had a laugh down The Roxy nearly every night and saw where it went from there. We were all pretty close and looked out for each other. I forget who our first singer was, but Billy and Candy were brilliant and I loved them. Nice people. Candy was pretty quiet and needed a few jars to liven up, but he was a great geezer. I think Billy wanted to go more mental than she did but didn’t. We had them and it was great. Kit was a lovely geezer and I had a lot of time for him. He was the bollocks; top lad!

Billy and Candy couldn’t sing and we couldn’t play but it was what Punk was about. We went on stage and had the bollocks to do it knowing we were crap but we done it and people enjoyed themselves. People would come on and do special guest spots and people wanted us to play with them so we couldn’t have been that bad. We pulled the crowds.

Cookie Luke Because they were friends with Menace they were allowed to open for them a few times. I’ve tried to crowd it out of my head like it didn’t happen but its guilt by association. The guitarist, of which they had many, were all terrible until Riff came along, was always too busy, off his head or speeding and somehow they procured a so called manager but he was hopeless and did nothing.

Steve Tannett (Menace Guitarist) – They were fans of Menace who were in a band and Charlie’s sister was going out with Kit. They had a house and basement opposite Mount Pleasant PO and it was like party house  – you’d always end up there with booze and punk records and fucking pogoing; a typical party house and that’s the environment we were in and Andy was around.

Charlie Casey (Menace Bassist) We were all mates and it was a little bit of a scene. We used to hang around with all of the Lukes – Cookie, Terry, Johnny and Kevin – and we used to a party practically every weekend at theirs. We used to be at the pub getting pissed or go down to the Roxy and then go back to their basement and have a party. I saw them play loads of times and rehearse.

Candy was the singer with his girlfriend Billy and they were just out and out punks with all the gear but they were really nice. Cookie and I got on really well and Kit went out with my sister then got married.

The band also had a manager for a time

Cookie Luke Somehow they procured a so called manager but he was hopeless and did nothing.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) We just called Dave ‘Skits’. Sometimes he would get us a gig somewhere or negotiate the money if noone was going to pay us. If noone paid, they wished they did. He was a bit of a boy him. Lovely geezer but I called him Skits because he was just mad as in mad violent. He would be laughing one minute and killing someone the next. He was protective about us and if anyone came near us he was on them.  He was more like a bodyguard than a manager.

Debbie Pope I went out with Skits – Dave Bregan – and we got together going to the Sheppey gig in the van.

Manager? I don’t think he did much managing (laughs) He claimed to be the manager. Quite funny when you look back on it.

And even a roadie

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) We had a good mate and roadie called Chains whose brother was Dave Lynch from The Unwanted who went on to play with Billy Idol and Chelsea and was also good pals with Sid Vicious. Chains was always with us.

Band rehearsals and auditions were also held at the Luke’s basement.

Debbie Pope There was always bands down there rehearsing and I knew Little Johnny and Kit and I was just there. Sometimes on a Saturday morning after a night of boozing they’d start getting the drums out and start rehearsing and once I heard them start playing I knew it was time for me to go home (laughs)! I knew them because I knew them as friends rather than following them as a band so I tagged along with them.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) I was round there every night. We used to have our band rehearsals and get pissed in the front room and when the neighbours started congregating outside shouting at us we used to go in the kitchen and do it (laughs). It was great!

Kit used to make made his famous spaghetti Bolognese made of non meaty Soya stuff. He made a good dinner even if it was the same every night and we appreciated it (laughs).

Cookie Luke They used to rehearse in 128 Farringdon Road. We used to get lots of complaints not because it was too early or too late in the day but because they were so fucking awful!

Their first advertised gig was at the Roxy Club on 1st March 1978 supporting The Fringe and Matiks in the last months of the famous punk club. It’s reported that the band didn’t turn up, however that’s not true. In perhaps the truest form of Punk braggadocio Skats and Kit were going to do the gig with just bass and drums

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) Our first gig was at the Roxy and it was just me and Kit. We thought we could get away with it but then we thought hang on its just bass and drums and though its punk this isn’t going to work. When we got there we told Kevin St John, the boss of The Roxy, and he had to make out that the rest of the band hadn’t turned up to save face. That was our first one or not should I say!

Our real first gig was in a college opposite the Elephant and Castle shopping centre with Dee on guitar. It was in the canteen area and the stage was dinner tables with boards on the top! We slipped around everywhere on the poxy things. We only had seven songs so we played them all twice and the audience didn’t notice because we were really fucking awful.  The poor bastards enjoyed themselves and so did we with the help of 10 pints each. The Klitz were born that night! 

At some stage the Klitz became the Rotting Klitz, though looking at adverts from the time it was more of a struggle to get their name right as in ‘Rotting’, ‘Rotten’ or ‘Rottin’ or ‘Klitz’ or ‘Clitz!’ Most people seem to favour Rotting Klitz.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) They wanted to be outrageous. They used to put us down as all sorts because of the name – the rotting naughty parts – ‘we can’t put this name in print’ sort of thing you know!

Candy was a bloke and Billy Bollocks a girl and she used to throw green tampaxes off stage at the crowd! They were an item.

Dee Hurley (Klitz, Muvvers Pride, Spiders) – Kit used to throw tampons dipped in green ink into the audience!

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) We used to chuck Dr White tampaxes that stunk of bad eggs and had bits on them into the crowd. It was getting our own back for gobbing on us. I  remember a face who kept hitting me with spit and meeting them after; that didn’t end well for ’em!

The songs were written by bassist Skats.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) I wrote all of the songs really; music and words. Andy Riff in your feature said I could only play one note. I laughed at that but in my defence Paper Cuts has got four chords in it (laughs). One of our songs was called ABCD and that had just two chords. It started off slow and then just went mental. We had words but so the singers used to make up things there and then which could be quite funny sometimes (laughs). That was us. That’s how we done things.

Another song was about notorious cop killer Harry Roberts.

The band did a speeded up version using the same lyrics and tune as above.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) The most famous song people still talk about is Harry Roberts. I was sitting on the toilet at me mum and dads and we had a gig and I though we need a new song so I wrote it there and then in about 10 minutes.

I didn’t know it would be so popular. We used to get raided by the police when we were gigging because of the trouble it caused. We used to put Harry Roberts posters up advertising our gigs and they didn’t like it but we carried on doing it.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) We did it fast like the Ramones. We got nicked at the Angel gig doing that song by the police and they stopped us and said you cant sing that!

If you want to get an idea of how controversial the song was, and still is, the below is from 2017.

Police killer Harry Roberts was idolised in a sick chant by a football fan – just one of almost 70 offences committed by West Midland football fans in one season. The offence on August 22 two years ago, when Birmingham City faced Burnley, was recorded as disorderly behaviour. Express & Star

Their first proper gig is likely to have been on a Monday at The Tidal Basin Tavern in the East End which sounded an apt place for their debut!

The Tidal Basin Tavern hosted punk gigs in the late 1970s, hosting new wave luminaries such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the gender-challenging Wayne County & the Electric Chairs, while strippers kept the day time drinking crowd amused. Urban 75

Cookie Luke They turned up and did a soundcheck about 6ish and started drinking. A guy drove them, Riffs brother who for some reason was called Shakespeare and who was later the bass player in the band. In the corner of the venue there was about 20 soul boys all in baggy trousers playing pool that grew to about 40 people. By 6.30 the guy who ran the place came over and said ‘I’m not really a musical entrepreneur but I’m going to give you your money (which was £20 and just about covered petrol costs) but whatever you do do not get on the stage because you will be killed!’ He paid them not to play. They were outraged but I said I think its a good call. If you ruined these guys night out playing pool to sing a song about whelks or childish/schoolboy ramblings about ‘I hate this’, ‘I hate that’ and ‘I hate you’ then it would likely end in disaster. On the way back they broke down as well so it took three hours to get back!

A gig with Menace at the Rochester Castle saw them at least play albeit for a short while.

Cookie Luke They opened up for Menace at the Rochester Castle in Stoke Newington.  There were around 200 people in there. They started off and they seemed to have something together for the first couple of songs and then the guitarist who seemed ok (they had a few come and go and they were all useless) had a nervous breakdown on stage. The others kept trying to encourage him and then Kit was heckling him, then the crowd got restless and there were bottles, glasses and cups being thrown and Skats offered them all out before the band left the stage. That was one of the big moments they blew.

Another gig at the Rochester castle with Tubeway Army saw Gary Numan request something off Skats.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) We had a gig at the Rochester Castle in Stoke Newington supporting Tubeway Army and Gary Numan who at the time I thought was a right mug’ offered me money if I would get the crowd pogoing. What a fucking joke haha!

Gigs descending into chaos though was par for the course for the band and what Skats saw as their charm.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) Can I be honest?  I was too pissed or speeding off my nut to know if a gig was bad or good. If my bass was in one piece at the end of the night I knew I must have done aright (laughs). You’d have taken so much you had to keep checking it was your hand playing the bass and noone else’s (laughs) To me every gig was good. I do remember I must have played well one night because the band turned round and said “You played really well Skats.” So I thought to myself well you must be slipping then (laughs).

Their first publicity, however, came courtesy of one of those gigs with Menace at Borough Hall on the Isle of Sheppey that turned into a reportedly large-scale fight and made the local paper.

The infamous Luton Van!!  Front row, from left: Leigh (Morgan Webster’s German girlfriend), Sallie (Skats’ girlfriend), Billy Bollocks in drape, two Hoxton skins. Behind Leigh and Sally: unknown. In centre behind Hoxton skin, unknown. Others at the back: Debbie Pope on left, laughing; Dixie in back left corner; Candy in Menace shirt; Skits in front of Candy; Don Euripides in back right corner; Anthony to the right of Don, with curly hair; Theresa Casey to the right of Anthony.

Don Euripides The Sheppey gig was quite a weekend. 3 times I encountered the police on that trip and didn’t get nicked once. The band had hired a Luton van to bring their gear down (which wasn’t very much) but basically everyone from the crowd went as well so there was a load in the back of the van. See photo above!

Debbie Pope We were all in the back of the van with the equipment and we were all smoking and we got stopped by the police. Skats was driving and we could hear them asking ‘what have you got in the back?’ and then they open up to find all our faces staring out at them. I cannot believe they just let us go. It was really funny. I thought we’re done but they let us carry on. Someone had opened up the roll up a little bit to get some air in because it was getting stuffy in there; it was uncomfortable (laughs)!

When we first got down there and we were walking around Sheppey it was quite surreal because you had kids coming up wanting our autographs. By the evening once the bands were playing there was trouble. We stayed at a house but I can’t remember who’s.

Don Euripides  Once we got to Sheppey we were staying in this squat full of hippies and one of the locals must have seen us turn up and rang the police. They paid us a visit (number 2) to let us know they knew where we were and if there was any trouble they’d be back. The squat was pretty bad and there were a few skinheads there. We felt safe because there was a few of us there but most of the people in the squat were a bit crazy.

So we went to the gig which was at a community centre sort of place and I don’t think the guy running it knew what he was letting himself in for. We had quite a few skinheads with us because already Menace were associated a lot with Sham 69 by then and some other skinheads don’t know where from. I remember the Klitz did their bit and Menace were on and the new skinheads were shouting out ‘Webster! Webster!’ which was the name of the leader of the National Front who had the same surname as the Menace singer. The other skinheads took offence to this so there was a big fight between them and it just spread round the whole gig. Someone called the police and they turned up and I thought here we go again.

They were arresting everybody. Noel said ‘grab an amp’ and I grabbed it and pretended I was a roadie and put it in the van and got a lift home with them. What was remarkable was the lies in the newspaper article about what we were doing and how disgusting we were, cutting our wrists…writing our names in blood on the walls.. it was a girl with a red magic marker writing graffiti! It was a proper wild west fight and the band had to stop in the end. I couldn’t wait to get home.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) There was a good crowd and they loved it. Punk hit that Island with us. We gave them punk and they loved it. They hadn’t seen anything like us before (laughs). We kept going back there to play and we’d crash out at their houses and always went to their fair when we were down there.

Charlie Casey (Menace Bassist) The papers were all bollocks. It was a good gig and the Rotting Klitz came with us, but it was really good ,good sound, we played well. The audience were great trying to get on stage and there was mayhem.

It was just the press making stuff up. It had that real kind of almost backward idea about punk rock. What they were trying to do was make the headline news so they could sell it to The Sun which would have been cool. There might have been a skirmish. It would have been quite good if they were fornicating though a bit odd because you’d have been wanting to have dance round and go mental to the music. It was just grabbing headlines with shock , horror. It was nice to get some publicity but I don’t think it got any further than the Sheppey News – circulation three thousand. ‘Those naughty punks! What do they get up to!’

Not long after this gig the Klitz lost yet another guitarist.

Not long after this gig the Klitz lost yet another guitarist and Kit asked Don to audition.

Don Euripides One day they asked me to audition for guitar so I borrowed my mates guitar from school and Morgan Webster from Menace was at the audition. I played a little bit but I don’t think they liked it so off I went and didn’t get the gig.

Dee Hurley (Klitz, Muvvers Pride, Spiders) I know I got asked to replace Lynne Easton in Muvvers Pride and jumped at that and moved out of the house. It obviously didn’t go down well with the Klitz! So there was a bit of bad feeling there over that!

Andy Riff (Guitarist) A legendary band; it was through Menace that I got the job. I used to rehearse with my brother through 1975-6 in a club at Clerkenwell. I’ve known Steve Tannett since 1971 and we were mates since kids. He became a guitarist in Stonehenge that then became Menace.

Around mid 1978 he said to me there’s a little band round the corner, who’ve lost their guitarist. I went round with just me guitar and not even a case and said Steve Tannett sent me and I’ve come for an audition. Cookie (Kits brother) said ‘you don’t look like a punk. You look like a soul boy! and then asked me if I could drink 10 pints. I said I wasn’t a soul boy and talked about the music I was into and they said audition was Monday.

So I went round the flat Monday and there was about 30 fans in it, birds with ripped up fishnet stockings and the like. Skatz the bass player could only play on one string; he never made it to the second. He started a song and goes this is ‘The Famous’ and I hit one ‘A’ chord and that was it; all the fans liked me and I was in.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) We didn’t really have auditions. We used to say here’s the bass line dum dum dum. Play that. Then we’d speed it up and if you could do it we’d say “You’re in!” If you could turn an amp on and strum a guitar you were in to be honest (laughs). It was that raw. Riff was a bit too good. To play our music he only had to hit 3 or 4 chords so he had to lower himself to play our stuff I think, but he enjoyed it. He was a good lad.

So in a very short space of time Riff went from audience to stage.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) In four days I’d learnt the songs, was up playing and written the tune for ‘Exterminate’ which was a big feat for me as I’d never played in a band or stood in front of an audience. My first gig was at the White Hart (Last Bastion) supporting Menace and Raped.

That first gig was reviewed in the NME by Adrian Thrills who gave the band comically short shrift!

It would be soiling this paper that I’m writing on were I to go into detail on how bad the first band were. Their pathetic ‘shock’ name says more about their mentality than words here ever could.

The Last Bastion was a punk club held at the White Hart in Acton every Wednesday that first started around mid 1978. With the Roxy Club and Vortex gone it was a solid punk venue giving opportunity to bands to play that unfortunately shut its doors after a massive fight broke out on the gig on 22.11.78 featuring C Gas 5 and The Pack. The venue sadly burnt down in the early hours of the very first day of 2017.

The Roxy’s gone, 100 Club doesn’t care – Last Bastion will put on bands who can’t get a gig elsewhere: Punks rule ok!!! Support it!!

Lyrics came from Billy and Candy and then from outside the band.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) When Billy and Candy left, the drummer’s brother Terry wrote the lyrics for the band as he was fairly educated. He wrote the lyrics for the song John Wayne which I took to the Dark and ended up being their first single and which was a Rotting Klitz/Suspects song.

Terry Luke I wrote some lyrics that found their way into their set list. My one of note was the one The Dark took on called John Wayne – I did the lyrics and Riff did the music. Nothing else would stand the test of time. I wrote for the Klitz songs like Onward Christian Hypocrites as I was moving out of religion and adopting atheism.

Sadly the band never released anything but rehearsals were recorded and a couple of live gigs as the Suspects.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) ‘Arry Roberts’ and ‘Paper Crap’ about the papers writing shit would have been the ones. Would have made a great double A side single.

Harry May

Famous

Powerpop

Kits drumming and the band’s sound were at best described as individual!

Don Euripides Drumming is what I call hammers and nails and the band sounded like someone putting the bins out to be honest! They were kind of pretty bad but they were Punk and that was what it was all about. Because Billy and Candy both sang, it always reminded me of the Rezillos. The band were all right. Everyone remembers the song ‘Harry Roberts.’

Debbie Pope A lot of the time when you used to hear them rehearsing they were shouting at each other, not getting it right and starting again and I thought I gotta go I can’t bear this! But at Sheppey one or two of the songs sounded quite good and I was surprised! (laughs)

Charlie Casey (Menace Bassist) The only song I can really remember is ‘Harry Roberts – he kills coppers’.  They used to do very short sets and the sound was normally crap as well or maybe it was just how they sounded (laughs).

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) We had a gig in Putney supporting the UK Subs and we didn’t have a guitarist because we pissed them off or something like that. So old Charlie Casey filled in for us on guitar which was good for us but probably not for him (laughs). He seemed to have a good time though!

Terry Luke His drumming was hilarious;most songs would start with him introducing the hammer and tongs approach to things with him bashing away and the others follow. They were very loud and unmelodic; shouty with a barrage of noise approach that didn’t require musicianship.

The best was Riff when he came along. The songs themselves were an absolute racket which would potentially have driven people mad if they had to listen to them constantly, A persona of hardcore punk and attitude but wasn’t confrontational. Only when Dodger joined, and he came across as a cocksure and confident, did they get more aggressive.

Susie Luke I love how everyone is so complimentary about Kit’s drumming. I knew it was bad but I thought it was meant to be (laughs)

The Sheppey gig violence wasn’t an isolated incident and across a lot of punk gigs it became a fixture to varying degrees not least because the band supported Menace for most of their gigging lifespan. The Menace gigs were both because of Andy’s friendship with the band and that he and the Rotting Klitz did the roadieing (driving and gear set up) for them!

Andy Riff (Guitarist) When we came off stage at the White Hart we (Skats, me and Kit) were attacked by skinheads on the way to the station. Billy and Candy went one way and Skats, me (just holding my guitar) and Kit the other with the skinheads after us. Luckily some little old lady saw and told us to come into her house and after a while they fucked off. First or second gig coming off stage to almost getting your head kicked in. I didn’t know what to do!

Same at Romford where the band took the wise decision to not play.

Andy Riff (Guitarist)  We drove Menace there and my brother was the driver. We were the roadies. We were supposed to play that night but we didn’t go in. We turned up and they were turning people away with knives and crowbars. We never played but Menace went on and three songs in someone was pogoing down the front and got glassed or punched in the face and it all kicked off. Noel said come back later and when we got there it was mayhem; they all got bashed including Hoxteth Tom [Menace fan – later of the 4 Skins]. Kicked off big time.

Charlie Casey (Menace Bassist) Rottin’ Klitz were playing with us in Romford in a youth club there straight away as we got there we thought fuck this this is nasty. The whole vibe wasn’t good and it was wall to wall skinheads and the Rottin’ Klitz were all in chains and zips and out and out punks. So we said to them ‘you’re not playing’; it’s not going to be safe and I think they waited in the van or went off. We didn’t even want them to be in the audience. There was one little lad who hung round with them and he was about 17 and quite angelic with little zips and chains and the skinheads started on him when we were playing so Morgan said something and we stopped playing and they just steamed into us onstage you know.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) The trouble at gigs was widespread and nearly every night there was some sort of shit going on. We had a few skinhead problems and dockers once from Silvertown but we still played coz that’s the way it was.

On the Silvertown trouble.

We had a gig down their manor one night and it was choc a block punk. I think we was supporting Menace and things was getting a bit rowdy inside with some of the local bods. Then word got out that we were gonna get jumped and the mood changed a bit with us all coz we never went up against these before; I mean, let’s face it, they were Millwall and they wern’t mugs. I think it was one of the only times after thinking about staying that we all got out of there on the double but not without getting paid first We waited in the van from a distance but it ended up a no show, but I’ll tell you it was squeaky bum time. It was the first time it ever happened to us and we didn’t like it.

The band also used the time honoured roadie excuse for getting their fans into gigs free.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) We use to have ridiculous amounts of people claim to be our roadies to get in for free. One of them was Suggs, later of Madness, who when challenged by a bouncer at a gig what was he helping carry, swiftly replied ‘Riff’s guitar pick’ making him laugh and let in for his nerve.

Arguably the biggest gig was supporting Punk originals Eater and up and coming heirs to the punk throne, the UK Subs.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) We did some big gigs. Second gig was supporting the UK Subs at Tooting. We nearly never played with Eater. They had all new gear and the UK Subs were late and we had no gear and they said ‘you’re not borrowing ours’. I said ‘I thought punk was supposed to share’ and he said ‘not ours and if the Subs don’t turn up you’re not going on’. However the Subs did turn up and said use ours and then when Eater went on and their shiny new gear was all covered in gob by the end.

Andy Blade (Eater) It was a phlegm fest and a depressing final nail going into punk’s coffin lid for me. I don’t even remember the bands that played, as I stayed away from the venue until time to go on, then split immediately.  I do remember UK Subs fans outnumbering Eater fans (as I’ve said before, we hardly ever played to proper Eater ‘fans.’ because they were too young).

I can easily see Steady Legs [Gary Steadman] refusing to lend his precious gear, typical of him too, tight git that he is,  but it wouldn’t have been ‘Eater’s decision’. Just his. It’s made to sound like some kind of punk injustice, when we were all lovely brothers in arms – which we definitely weren’t. The Subs & whatever shitty support bands that were on that night,  they (& the press) had ruined an amazing scene. Clones of the clones of the clones; no brotherhood there.  Feel free to quote me 🙂

Supporting Menace meant a friendly rivalry between the two bands and friends resulting in an unlikely event and a gracious compliment.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) Most of the gigs were with Menace as we were mates. The Klitz blew them offstage at The Lord Raglan in Wolverhampton – It was the new line up with Little Johnny and my brother. Steve Tannett was shocked and said – ‘We’re Menace. You can’t blow us off but you have!’ and fair play to him him he said ‘Well done!’

Steve Tannett (Menace Guitarist) None of us have any recollection of that; the idea that anyone blew Menace offstage is an absurdity because we were pretty good. We could slay any crowd and by the time we hit GLC everything would go off. We were fucking good and on our game. I don’t believe it but how can I disprove it? (laughs)

Charlie Casey (Menace Bassist) – I don’t remember them blowing us off stage at Wolverhampton (laughs) 

Skats was the first to go citing musical differences.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) I’d left before Billy and Candy left. I woke up one morning and I thought bollocks to all this and I just completely stopped it. I don’t know why I felt that way. I think they were wanting to get better and I didn’t really want that. I wanted us to stay raw. People in your article say Kit drumming ‘hammer and tongs’ but so what? That was what was Punk was supposed to have been. Being able to play like Phil Collins or Jimmy Page wasn’t what it was about. It was “You’re crap. But you can still play in band and do music.”

He left without bitterness and let them have all the tunes and words.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) When I left I let them use my music and words; everything. I left without any bitterness and let them get on with it and they developed to sound better. After that I completely shut myself from them and that was it.

The Eater gig was probably the last with Billy and Candy. The scene around the Hope & Anchor and the Lukes was also winding down and the Klitz morphed into the Suspects (not to be confused with the Suspects from the Vortex album)

Andy Riff (Guitarist) Billy Bollocks and Candy left; Both disappeared and I still don’t know what happened to them to this day. They lived in the same house as Kit and he got up one morning and they’d had a row with each other and gone. We waited around a few days for them and thought they’d come back but they never did.

Debbie Pope Billy and Candy disappeared – I don’t know where they went. Things were winding down. I’d stopped going to the pub and back to the Lukes and it faded and we stopped meeting. People were getting jobs, girlfriends, boyfriends and life was moving on.

Susie Luke Kit and Bob got married and moved out and Terry left so that was the older lot gone and then for a while it was me, Bumpy and Dodger and we had our own thing going on with our friends from the pub.

Terry Luke They [Billy and Candy] were there one minute and then they weren’t but that wasn’t unusual. There was a lot of mobility. For me it all ended around end of 1978. I went off to make my own way in life.

These were taken by Nina Marcou. This is Judy Taylor who used to go to the Hope and Anchor too.  I met her there with Kit. She was the first fan that followed me from the Klitz to the Dark then Jamie went out with her for a few years. She was a big part of the scene at the flat and her sister went out with Terry Luke for a while. A great friend back then. She’s even got the badges on (Rottin’ Klitz and Suspects) that Johnny done for her. Andy “Riff” Regan

It seems both defected over to the sworn enemy of the punks – the teds. Another old face from the Roxy, Sheryl Rhodes aka Tampax, had done the same and it’s highly likely that the increasing violence at punk gigs and emergence of skinheads prompted the change.

Dee Hurley (Klitz, Muvvers Pride, Spiders) There was a photo I had seen of them years later – Billy and Candy as Teddy Boy and Girl where they had moved into the rocking scene.

The dynamic and name of the band had also changed.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) There was only me and Kit left. My brother Bob came in on bass and we couldn’t find a singer so then Kit’s 16 year old brother Johnny, who was really enthusiastic, stepped up. We used to call him little Johnny Rotten and we did a few gigs as The Suspects. We didn’t realise there was another band with the same name that appeared on the Live At The Vortex album.

Susie Luke He was incredibly funny and had a dry sense of humour. If he’d lived he would have been a Shane McGowan character; London Irish, gruff voice, comes across as scary but not at all; quite poetical but couldn’t find his words unless drunk. He died in 1997 aged 35. (Susie pictured above with brother Johnny)

Terry Luke Johnny/Dodger ended up as the lead singer – a cross between Rotten and Shane McGowan if you could imagine that. Dodger was quite raucous and liked a drink and was usually drinking on stage and I’m not disparaging him. He came across as a cocksure and confident and they did they get more aggressive.

The Suspects was a cleaner name and Riff was in his element before they split up.

Johnny and Riff left at Clerkenwell Youth Club 1979 – A photo that has so much in it from Riff’s white boiler suit with ‘Klitz’ stencilled on his leg by Johnny to the graffiti featuring The Dark, The Suspects and Menace. Riff’s brother Bob ‘Shakespeare’ featured right. Below Johnny, Kit and Riff.

Round about this time there were a couple of incidents with other bands both good and bad. First off with Ian Stuart from Skrewdriver.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) Ian Stuart came down to a party at the Rottin’ Klitz’s gaff so Kit says you can stay the night. In the morning we discovered he’d nicked my brother’s Rickenbacker bass and fucked off. Me and Kit went to the Skrewdriver gig looking for him and he admitted he’s nicked it and sold it. He did a whip round the audience and got £30 but it was worth a lot more. But what you do? It was only me and Kit there; we weren’t mob handed.

And then the dad of an up and coming band approached the band in a pub in a break in rehearsals.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) We were rehearsing and Kit and me  went up the Road to the Penny Black for a pint of lager. I sat down and Kit hit the bar. As we about to sip our beer along comes this bloke and asked us if we were punks as Kit was all zipped up. I thought here we go; he doesn’t like our kind and out we go but to my amazement he said my son Paul is in a band too. I ask him what’s the bands name was and he said they ain’t played anywhere yet but had just cut their first single.

The song was In a Rut and the band was The Ruts. We’d never heard of them of cause but he said would you like to meet my son when he’s down next week with the single? We said ‘yes’ and went back and finished off the rehearsal. The following week we went back in there again and he said my sons upstairs. We got chatting, talking about our bands and me and Kit bought a single each. Before he left he asked would we like to see them play their first gig for family, friends and close fans and we said ‘yes’. It was a secret gig in Newington Green at the Pegasus pub. What a gig; I knew they were gonna be big.

The Klitz/Suspects lasted until the end of 1979 though they weren’t a prolific gigging band, playing just four gigs over a seven month period.

Suspects/The Dark/TX1 – Clerkenwell Youth 16.2.79
The Wall/Suspects/Shag Nasty – Clerkenwell Youth 1.6.79
The Wall /Suspects – Pied Bull No1 Club 14.8.79
Suspects/Effect/Vomits – Clerkenwell Youth 21.9.79

The end of the band in early 1979 wasn’t dramatic. Never a long-term option, the Klitz/Suspects ended when Andy Riff joined The Dark taking what would become their first single John Wayne from the Klitz with him. To keep the Menace link going Noel Martin and Steve Tannett produced that first single and the former managed the band for a while.

The last Suspects gig was on 21.9.79 and featured the Dark supporting them and with Riff and Jamie Kane (Dark drummer) playing in both sets.

Andy Riff (Guitarist) No he [Kit] wanted Jamie to do the last 2 gigs as I was in the Dark then and Jamie loved the band so he stepped in and we got the live recording of that gig. Kit never ever left the band; he had trouble with his hands because when he played they would blister badly by the end of a gig and all his fingers would have plasters on them or little bits of sticky bandage.  I called him ‘the Mummy’ after every gig.

Terry Luke His aggressive drumming used to blister his hands and that style of ferocious drumming made Keith Moon look a bit mild but he wasn’t as musical. He really did like to hit away at them! He had a bigger problem with his underarm though, because there was a sac under it that was painful for ages. The hospital found it was full of pus from a cat scratch.

Also in attendance were Noel Martin and Steve Tannett from the Aces (formerly Menace) who got up and did two Menace songs making journalist Gary Bushell, who was present, a very happy man before the police stopped the gig.

With Andy gone they lost their most proficient player and by then punk had moved on. Little Johnny was devastated and in tears with the band splitting up and never joined or formed another band. Sadly he died from alcoholism some 20 years later.

Don Euripides switched from guitar to bass and hooked up with Kit. They attempted to put together a Factory Records sounding band without success but not before Altered Images, who used the same rehearsal studios as them and sometimes at the same time, came out later with a song suspiciously like one of theirs!

Skats, who had departed the band so suddenly, stayed a punk for a while but cut himself from the circle of friends and band acquaintances all centred around the Hope & Anchor.

Paul ‘Skats’ Southcott (Bassist) I still kept being  punk for a little while but just for me and didn’t go to them. I just broke off and that was it. I can’t remember properly but I used to go out to clubs and gigs but did it on me own or with a mate. Then one day I woke up and I could see the disappointment in my mum and dads eyes (laughs) and just started dressing normal and being normal. 

I do regret it though, because Punk was my life and in a way its still in me. which I’ll never forget and its one of the best parts of my life. I’d love to get on stage one more time and belt out some punk before I peg it. I can remember a few of our songs but not all of them. It was just fun all the way; non stop having a laugh. I enjoyed what we did and to this day I still live what we did in my mind.

I was about 18-19 when I was in the Klitz. I joined the army in my early 20’s and was in it for 21 years. I’ve been a male stripper and a world famous paranormal investigator. I’ve been about a bit and I’m still a shit. Haha!

I am gonna restart the Rottin Klitz. We are gonna be shit and we will still be raw punk. I’m working on new songs now but will keep Harry Roberts and Exterminate coz I liked them. Please give Kit and Johnny a mention. They were good people and I’d appreciate that.

Kit married Theresa Casey and again never continued in music and like his brother died later of alcoholism.

For Andy Riff, he continued being a roadie for Menace and then Vermilion and the Aces but his own journey with his own band The Dark was beginning and that’s another story!

As for 128 Farringdon Road? Below is the infamous house and basement converted in 2016 with its current occupants no doubt unaware of its Punk history, good times and the people who passed through it  – the home of the Luke’s and the infamous Rottin’ Klitz!

Susie Luke There will never be a poverty like that, or a family be given a house like that or music like that or squats.