Sigue, Sigue Sputnik Newcastle Mayfair 12th March 1986
Recipe for a successful pop/new wave band.
1. To start off you must have some existing credibility. In this case, Tony James had a significant punk pedigree, and had starred in Generation X. Tony was, and remains, a good friend of Mick Jones of the Clash, who was to be the new band’s sound engineer.
2. Find a charismatic and, ideally crazy, lead singer. Enter Martin Degville, or simply “Degville”.
3. Craft a new art-based image, and wear the wildest clothes you can. It helped that Degville was a clothes designer and worked in YaYa clothes shop in Kensington Market.
4. Choose a wild, obscure, strange name for the band, so everyone can talk about you and discuss what the name means (by the way what does Sigue, Sigue Sputnik mean?).
5. Rehearse a lot, and play rarely, and only at select trendy venues.
6. Talk to the press and “big up” your band. James described the band as “Hi-tech sex, designer violence, and the fifth generation of rock ‘n’ roll”.
7. Wait until you feel the time is right, and the band have gained enough of a buzz around them and then, and only then, release a single. Link the single with a movie, for mass exposure. In this case the band’s first single “Love Missile F1-11” was included in the film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”. It reached No 3 in the UK charts.
8. Go out on tour at last. Make sure that there is lots of publicity around the tour. In this case the band were billed as the latest shock rock band; the next Sex Pistols. The Sun featured the usual shock-horror stories. Some of their shows were marred by violence and Sigue, Sigue, Sputnik were, as a result, banned from several venues. The Newcastle gig was moved from Tiffanies to the Mayfair, because of fears of violence.
Now to the concert. The gig itself was not that well attended, and the security entering the venue was one of the strictest I have seen. Full searches on the way into the ballroom. The show was as expected; outrageous, strange, fun and like nothing else we had seen. The music was a mix of dance, electronic, rockabilly and punk; if that makes any sense. Degville was very much a star, wearing the most outrageous headgear and costume. A video of the Newcastle gig can be seen on YouTube. Google Sigue, Sigue, Sputnik and Newcastle Mayfair and you’ll find it.
Sigue, Sigue Sputnik were Tony James – space guitar; Martin Degville – vocals; Neal X – electric guitar; Ray Mayhew – drums; Chris Kavanagh – drums; Yana YaYa (Jane Farrimond) – keyboards, space echo, special effects.
I saw them once more at Newcastle Riverside a year or so later.
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