Flashing through the London underground music scene of the late
seventies Punk Rock was the ultimate anti-movement, anti-fashion,
anti-rock, anti- establishment. Its bands consisted of players
untrained in music, looking to explode the heavy over produced rock
of the previous generation stripping music down to its core. The
music was banned from every venue and club in the United Kingdom
from fear that it may dissolve the remains of Unity in the fragile
political back drop of the time. The ROXY Club stood alone in its
wish to promote this music against all odds, it survived just 100
nights but during its short reign cut through the pomp and
self-satisfied operators of the music business who finally saw they
had no clothes. This very personal book from the diaries and
memories of this infamous club by Andrew Czezowski and his lifelong
partner Susan Carrington. How it all came about, looking out from
the centre of the maelstrom at the impact they were having during
the most crucial 100 nights in PUNK rock music. It tells the
fascinating story of the radical, anarchic 'ROXY CLUB' in 1977's
Covent Garden, London. With its home-made ethos Andrew and Susan
had no political agenda other than to live on their own terms, all
they expected from others was to do the same. The ROXY Club's
sounds, style and ideas still reverberate through alternative
culture to this day.Illustrated with over 100 rare and previously
unseen personal archive photos, flyers, rare artwork and newspaper
clippings, diary entries, band contracts and other ephemera of the
time, featuring exclusive quotes from some of the PUNK bands that
played this historical club.The ROXY book will be a highly
entertaining and visually stunning guide to a pioneering
alternative to the mainstream UK music scene, a handbook of pluck
and determination, and a refusal to accept the norm while painting
on a new canvas without brushes.Mick Jones from The Clash - 'I look
at the 100 nights of The ROXY as the life span of Punk.'29th
September 2016 2016
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clubs have been a fixture of urban life for at least a century.
From Speakeasies to cellar discotheques, they are the low-lit
preserves of the city at play. A place to hold the night at bay; a
club should imbue both intimacy and abandon. Although the alchemy
for success is unpredictable, the ingredients are simple, music,
punters and alcohol. Countless night spots have succumbed to
obscurity; those black door-ways and garish neon signs that once
promised so much are long since forgotten in the relentless
redevelopment of contemporary cities. Rare are the clubs that make
their mark on history; those few that have left behind an indelible
imprint include The Cavern, The Marquee, Whisky a Go Go, Max's
Kansas City, CBGB's and The ROXY. Although widely disparate, each
was the flagship of a scene. From the Beatles to the Doors to the
New York Dolls and The Clash, iconic pop culture is rooted in club
land. It's not about money but purity of expression; the best night
spots usually lean to the seedy. Punk's foremost club, The ROXY
flourished despite it's less than salubrious neighbourhood.When
enough time has elapsed we remember and succumb to nostalgia. In
February 2013, the esteemed broadcaster Robert Elms fondly recalled
The ROXY on BBC London, reminding listeners of London's premier
punk haunt. It has been almost 40 years since Andrew Czezowski and
Susan Carrington were unceremoniously ousted from The ROXY. Until
then, they had run, fleet footed with the moment. Generous and
idealistic, they turned a forgotten Covent Garden dive into the
molten core of 1977, providing a platform for largely unsigned
bands, including The Clash, The Heartbreakers, The Police, The
Damned, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Generation X, The Buzzcocks,
X-Ray Spex, The Vibrators, The Rejects, The Stranglers, The Slits,
Johnny Moped. Virtually every single act that played The ROXY
walked away with a record deal. Harpers & Queen magazine lauded
the club, whilst John Bonham, Jimmy Page Robert Plant, Donovan and
Marc Bolan came to pay their respectsThe ROXY Book stands as a
testimony to Punk's first feral season. Lavishly illustrated and
containing quotes from Andrew Czezowski, Susan Carrington, Barry
Jones (partner), Don Letts, Shane MacGowan, Jayne County, Brian
James, Leee Black Childers, Walter Lure, Cherry Vanilla, Mick
Jones, Tony James and Alan Edwards of 'The Outside Organisation' PR
agency, The ROXY Book is both a visual and cultural record of a key
moment in English Punk Rock history.Although Andrew continued to
work with his latest charges, Generation X, the success of their
inaugural gig at The Roxy, led to Czezowski and Carrington
launching the club as London's sole Punk venue. As Shane MacGowan
noted: 'The ROXY was the first place that the punks could think of
as their own.' With the recalcitrant approval of Bernie Rhodes, The
Clash officially launched the Roxy on January 1st 1977. Susan
Carrington: "Having the Clash endorse The ROXY put us on the map.
It was an amazing night. We squeezed in wave after wave of people.
There were probably about 400 kids packed into a venue with a
capacity of 100. After that night, our lives became a traveling
circus, even though we stayed in one place."Although The ROXY
enjoyed a high media profile, attracting the music, tabloid and
fashion press, as well as a battalion of multi-national camera
crews the club swiftly became a victim of its own success. Punk
purists, Julie Burchill and Tony Parson's turned in an NME feature
entitled 'Fear & Loathing at The ROXY' which only furthered the
club's infamy whilst Peter York, writing for Harpers & Queen
fondly sited the venue as a '35 year olds vision of hell'. Despite
The ROXY's rapid ascension as the 'in' place to be, Czezowski and
Carrington barely scraped by. Behind the scenes they staved off an
unscrupulous land-lord with criminal affiliations, take-over bids
by fashion and music scene elite not to mention threats of physical
damage by bolshie band management and two robberies. Going beyond
the perimeters of most rock histories, 'The ROXY Book' charts
punk's integration into mainstream culture through first- hand
accounts. Although The ROXY's life-span was all too brief, by the
time Andrew Czezowski and Susan Carrington were evicted from the
venue in April 1977, they had made their mark on club-land.Andrew
and Susan, the dynamic couple went on to create the most successful
and influential independently owned club of the 80's and 90's, 'The
FRIDGE' in Brixton London, another BOOK for another time.