Last updated: 17 September 2009
Part two of our look at the Newport scene of the 1970s, centring on the town's Art College.
Photo of Joe Strummer in Newport in 1973 courtesy of Richard Frame.
As well as The Gay Dogs and The Vultures, another local band was Crazy Cavan And The Rhythm Rockers, formed in 1965. The Vultures would use their equipment occasionally at the Art College students' union and some years later, one of The Clash's first gigs was supporting Crazy Cavan.
The band's bassist, Terry Walley, recalls, "The 1970s was a strange time for the Newport scene. It was half punkish, half rock'n'roll, half anything people could grab onto. People had had enough of discos and wanted to go to live music. Around Newport there was a good scene of local bands, like The Racing Cars.
"It's a strange situation; there were a lot of people like Joe around stood out. You wouldn't notice them on the street, they needed to be on stage for you to notice them.
Richard Frame's band, The Gay Dogs, were a case in point of being noticed when on stage. They were largely an exercise in winding up the less-liberal members of the College's student body.
"There was a telly in the corner of one of the college rooms, and a load of students were watching David Bowie on it, going 'Look at that old poof'. And at the time I was quite shocked that these supposedly enlightened people would take that kind of attitude. So the first thing a few of us did when we got home was put loads of lipstick on and do our eyebrows. And then we formed the band, The Gay Dogs.
"It resulted in loads of people in college coming out and we were kind of inspirational to them, even though none of us were gay. Musically, we were just very noisy. It was before punk came along; it didn't sound like punk but it was punk in attitude."
Roxy Music's Brian Eno came down to Newport Art College to 'help' some of the musicians, but one of the main A-list celebrity faces to make their presence felt on the scene was the ex-model and ex-girlfriend of Keith Richards and Jimi Hendrix, Linda Keith. Richard Frame recalls, "She decided to get into photography and so came to train at the college. She was a fascinating person to have around. She lives in Hollywood now, I think."
Keith wasn't the only photographer of note present in Newport at the time. David Hurn, a professional photographer and member of pomp rockers Magnum was sipping subsidised pints in the students' union too.
In terms of recognised acts, Newport in the 1970s wasn't exactly New York, but it can be argued that this fomenting of a rock'n'roll music scene based around a set of venues, pubs and student hang-outs led to the explosion of the town's scene 20 years later.
Original interviews by Noel Gardner
