Johnny and Spencer - The Fight is On!

Johnny and Spencer - The Fight is On!

Sunday Morning Herald

12th June 1992, Walter Neff

If there's one thing the music public loves it's the sound of tinkling glass, crunching bone and mangled expletives as rock star mates have a go at each other. This week it was rakishly degenerate Johnny Vanguard’s turn to headbutt the boundaries of his beautiful friendship with that equally crazy Spencer “Davis” Lees gentleman.

Apparently, the pair and an army of like-minded individuals recently descended on Sydney's hyper-exclusive Atlantic Bar to celebrate their win after this years ARIA awards.

It all started very innocently, and was going well (mainly in liquid form down the throat) until Spencer suddenly decided that he was hungry. An unusual occurrence in itself, but Spencer proved adept at remembering what tickled his gastronomic fancy and ordered a tasty sounding salmon and two vegetable dish.

As luck would have it, when the meal arrived, Lees was away from the table answering the call of nature. In a sudden frenzy, Vanguard wolfed down a huge hunk of salmon (in one go!) and was seen feeding portions of the salmon to Spencer’s long time girlfriend, Jo Beth Jo. Both were still munching discreetly when Lees returned. Vanguard, then pointed to the vegetable strewn plate and pretended that the fish had failed to arrive in the first place. "They didn't bring your salmon, man," he quavered in his customary, almost Elvis-like fashion. "Compla-aaain! COMPLA-AAAIN!"

Lees rather violently proceeded to do just that, allegedly stressing his point by attempting to throttle the establishment's astounded manager. Jo Beth Jo was seen egging on the star. Meanwhile, Johnny reached over with a fork and necked the lonely vegetables. When Lees returned to find an empty plate, Vanguard looked him straight in the eye and sniggered: "Look, they didn't even bring your vegetables, man ... Compla-aaain! COMPLA-AAAIN!"

The crisis then escalated when Spencer yelled back at the top of his voice “Complain! I’ll complain about you… You’re a pig Vanguard!!” Vanguard looked quite shocked at this moment, and replied, “Maybe but at least I treat my women properly!” The place erupted, glasses and punches were thrown and words not usually heard in the back streets of Kings Cross were roared at top volume, and a classic rock star fight was in full swing.

In the middle of it all, just as Spencer was about to throw a punch at Johnny’s face, Jo Beth screamed “Don’t hurt him!” Both men turned around and looked at her. It was a poignant moment in the proceedings. The fighting then continued. It felt like it lasted for hours, but in reality only lasted a number of minutes, and was stopped when bad mates intervened. All is not well in the Underlife camp.