10 Greatest Secret Music Concerts Of All Time

WHERE: Marquee Club, Oxford Street

WHEN: 1980

Looking at the bands who played the iconic Marquee club in 1980 is a total trip. You've got 6-night stands from Iron Maiden rubbing shoulders with The Cure, Duran Duran, Joan Jett and Def Leppard. It's not all the biggest names in music though (Spizzenergi anyone? Anyone?!), but one name stands out as particularly obscure.

Tucked away is a set by John's Boys. Googling them will get you nowhere, but with enough digging, you'll find that the name came from the band's manager, John Weller. His son, Paul, fronted the band, and you might otherwise have known them as The Jam; arguably the biggest rock band in the country at the time.

Seriously, imagine getting word that The 1975 were setting up at Power Lunches and you've got a vague idea of the kind of s**t that was lost when word got out about John and his boys. A queue for tickets sprung all the way down Oxford Street, and the ovation that greeted Weller, Foxton and Buckler when they took the stage was deafening.

That was where the problems began.

See, the problem with being a huge band is that you get a lot of different kinds of people into your music. The Jam's brand of Rhythm and Blues-inflected punk-pop brought together mods and skins alike. Y'know, mods and skins. Those two tribes that in the early '80s, really, really didn't like each other.

So, what should have been a wonderful surprise descended into a venue wide punch-up. AWESOME.