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Any original punk fans out there? What singles/albums do you rate?
Any memories you want to share?
My only memory of 76/77 punk was watching the Bill Grundy i/view live whilst waiting for Crossroads I think? And somebody showing off The Pistols Bollocks LP to another guy on a 73 bus!
New Rose - Dammed Gordon is a Moron - Jilted john Barmy Army - Expolited Kill the Poor - Dead Kennedys Sham 69 - Hurry up Harry The Adverts - Gary Gilmour Eyes Anti-Nowhere League - Streets of London Bow Wow wow - I Want Candy Spizz Energi - Wheres Captain Kirk
jesus - i could be here all night
Seeing as how I was in high school here in the US when the Ramones and the Pistols hit, the only person in a 35,000 town who actually liked listening to that stuff, it was certainly a breath of fresh air from what had come before. I can clearly recall a school paper review complaining about the lack of musical ability of the Pistols in an article on a lame California rock band (Pablo Cruise).
Played the hell out of all Ramones, "Bollocks", the first two Clash albums, Pink Flag by Wire, the Live At The Roxy album, the first Stranglers album Rattus Norvegicus, Inflammable Material by Stiff Little Fingers, the first albums by The Undertones and The Jam.
Other classic singles that are still played today include:
Part Time Punks-Television Personalities
Love Lies Limp-Alternative TV
Where Were You and Never Been In A Riot-The Mekons
Babylon's Burning-The Ruts
Borstal Breakout-Sham 69
Spiral Scratch EP-The Buzzcocks
Damaged Goods-Gang Of Four
Shot By Both Sides-Magazine
back then I loved pretty much anything by the Damned, Black Flagg, DKs, Clash, and Sex Pistols (and later PIL).....my fav songs out of all of them would be I Just Cant Be Happy Today and Nasty by the Damned , London Calling by the Clash, God Save the Queen by Pistols, and Rise by PIL.....I was also in high school at the time and was living in a small country town in Texas....I think there was maybe 10 of us at school who were listening to this type of music....and our principle even asked on more than one occation if we were devil worshipers because of it....ahhhh memories!
Well, the Sex Pistols got me into it. Then The Clash became very big for me. Followed by some other bands like Dead Kennedys, Sham 69, X-Ray Spex, and The Exploited. There are so many other punk bands of "the old school" that I love (X, The Germs, Circle Jerks, Ramones, Dead Boys, many others I can't think of off-hand), but the Clash and the Pistols are the biggest for me. I've listened to "Nevermind the Bollocks" so many times that I'm quite sick of it except for a few songs that never get old, but The Clash always manage to stay fresh no matter what--since they put out more than one album and played with many different influences.
I, of course, was just a gleam in my mother's eye when punk first broke through in '76/77, and she was an Eagles fan 
so I didn't discover punk until the time of Green Day and Weezer (GD I still love, Weezer I consider "punk-ish" or at least hard-rock influenced varient). As for the "golden oldies", almost all the usual suspects apply:
Sex Pistols Clash Ramones Buzzcocks Talking Heads The Jam
But I would also point to Jonathan Richman's first lineup of the Modern Lovers as an essential to any history of punk, their one "album" (actually one or two different sessions cobbled together) came out in '76 (they had broken up in '73) and had a huge influence on the English punk scene (John Lydon once cited "Roadrunner" as his favorite song). While he's never really returned to the punk-ier style for his later albums, he remains an interesting cult artist (You notice how I keep mentioning him, in the hope someone else might seek out his stuff?) 
Like most movements there were only ever a handful of decent bands and bucketloads of dross...to these ears punk was largely finished by the time '78 came round and the best newer bands (e.g. Banshees, JD, Magazine, PIL) went off and did something far more interesting and left the gobbing masses to the likes of the UK Subs (awful!)... Anyway, my top punky list goes something like...
Sex Pistols - original and best Clash - up to and including White Man in Hammersmith Palais The Adverts - first band I ever saw and still one of the best The Slits - Peel sessions are magnificent X Ray Spex - ecological lyrics before it became fashionable Subway Sect - unfortunately very little of their early stuff was ever released Banshees - until Siouxsie's voice, the drummer and guitarist all went in '79 Adam & the Ants - pre pirate and dandy highwayman phase Buzzcocks - still sound good today!
Can't think of any more offhand (but I've probably missed some out!)
My memories:
First heard of punk reading the Rolling Stone article "Rock is Sick and Living in London" (or some such title). All the press about the Sex Pistols was negative- they were vulgar, they spat on their audience, they openly admitted to hating rock and wanting to destroy it.
THEN I heard them, and they blew away all the other tripe that 70's bands were playing. Punk was still new and unknown in the States then, so you could only hear it on the late night radio shows that played imports. Bands like The Adverts were played alongside bands like AC/DC- there wasn't a lot of recognition of the differences in genres. They were all imports- not on regular rotation at the rock stations.
After the Sex Pistols hit, other punk bands got notice- e.g., The Ramones, who were really the first punks, unless you count some of the proto-punks from pre-75 (e.g., Iggy and the Stooges). And once the punk floodgates opened, everything changed- the rock world was divided into "classic rock" on one hand, and all the permutations that punk rock spawned (punk, new wave, modern rock, alternative) on the other. Whatever camp you fell into, the other camp was unlistenable rubbish.
At least that's how it was here in the States.
One other memory:
I visited England in '77 or '78. I was out in the Devonshire countryside, and heard the Sex Pistols being played in an outbuilding to the hotel I was staying at. Went and checked it out- a girl about 8 years old, wearing a blue gingham dress- verry proper British girl- was playing Sex pistols 45s. That's when I knew that the pre-punk tripe was a dead genre.
Nevermind the Bollocks will forever be the anthem. What a shame they could only do one studio album. Most of PiL is crap IMHO but Album and This is what you want are good.
The Clash will always be my favorite. But I hardly consider them a punk band. Their music is a little more sophisticated than that. Except for that shit album, Cut the Crap. London Calling and Sandanista are outstanding albums.
Next I list the Dead Kennedy's, America's answer to political punk. I used to put Plastic Surgury Disasters on for my HM friends. It starts out kinda slow slow and they think "so what" then the speed kicks in.
The Ramones. I cannot believe that Blitzkrieg Bop is being used by AT&T to pimp their cell phone. Even worse, two Ramones are dead.
The thing about punk is that opened the door for some many people.
Another thing I remember is how feckin' humorous the band members' names were...Johnny Rotten, Laurie Driver, Robert Gotobed...
Originally posted by bLuE oRdEr Another thing I remember is how feckin' humorous the band members' names were...Johnny Rotten, Laurie Driver, Robert Gotobed...
....Poly Styrene, Rat Scabies, Jane Suck
Wish I still had that Rolling Stone with Johnny Rotten on the cover that you mention; that was a great story during the SPOTS tour, before the Swindle movie was filmed, and somebody, I guess Malcolm, brought Russ Meyer and Roger Ebert over to London as possible collaborators on the film. One thing I remember from the article is that great quote about Roger: "This is Roger. He's really into tits!!" Well duh, hanging around with Russ is a pretty good sign of that; every time I see him on TV, that quote always pops into my head.
I actually may have saved that. Did some cleaning a few years ago, and found it. Don't remember if I kept it or threw it out. I hope I've got it in a "save box" somewhere.
Originally posted by bLuE oRdEr Another thing I remember is how feckin' humorous the band members' names were...Johnny Rotten, Laurie Driver, Robert Gotobed...
Jello Biafra, Exene Cervenka, Darby Crash, Captain Sensible, Bernard Albrecht...
HOMICIDE by 999
THE LIGHT POURS OUT OF ME - MAGAZINE
Although not PUNK as such the above one was a classic at this time.PUNK died pretty quick but swept away a lot of PROGRESSIVE ROCK BANDS...who eventually came back
But this was a great time for music and clubbing.Getting in nightclubs with jeans and baseball PUMPS..i kid you not.But at this time DISCO had also got a hold here in ENGLAND.I was still into NORTHERN SOUL and loved the DANCE SCENE.The drugs,the talc on the dance floor ,staying up all night,lot's of beer.And now what do i do...bloody hell..NOWTS CHANGED except it doesn't take me as long to get ready..don't need to dry my hair.There is something extremely sad about not growing old gracefully buy hey kids...it's great fun.Now all i have is ALL the music i will ever need,not enough time to work...so i semi retired and have my sons continually asking me..DAD...WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? 
Still looking ...i'm not buying.
ROCKET ROLL
Does anyone remember the Adverts? Crossing The Red Sea, Gary Gilmore's Eyes etc. One of my favourites along with the usual suspects.
Originally posted by Marko Does anyone remember the Adverts? Crossing The Red Sea, Gary Gilmore's Eyes etc. One of my favourites along with the usual suspects.
First band I went to see! October 1978 at Thames Polytechnic. I think Gaye Advert moved about 2 steps during the whole gig - one to step up to the microphone to do the backing vocals on 'Bombsite Boy' and one to move back from the microphone once the song had finished. Seeing the hails of gob flying towards the band made you realise how bad it must have been for the bands to put up with these 'Daily Mirror' punks night after night.
Hmmm...they're not considered a punk band generally, and certainly are not from the "original" school...
...but, damn, when the Pixies ripped into "Bone Machine" to open a set, that was punk. The Pixies own your sorry ass.
And what, no love for the Meatmen? They're the Meatmen and you suck. War of the Superbikes.
Cramps: Bad Music for Bad People.
Howzabout old Husker Du? Land Speed Record, Everything Falls Apart, etc.? He may be spinning techno in gay clubs these days, but Bob and Co. could burn.
Are Black Flag too mainstream to count? I love the one-two punch of Loose Nut/In My Head.
News Flash: Bowie covers "Pablo Picasso" on his new album.
Originally posted by Gnu Odor And what, no love for the Meatmen? They're the Meatmen and you suck. War of the Superbikes.Are Black Flag too mainstream to count? I love the one-two punch of Loose Nut/In My Head.
Forgot about the ol' ex-school teacher Tesco and his band of well-behaved lads, who took equal opportunity in blasting just about everybody, from some of their contemporaries (TSOL are sissies), to crippled children (Crippled Children Suck), to rastas (Blow Me Jah) to the Beatles (One Down Three To Go) to the charmingly titled Glad I'm Not A Girl. TV and his boys nailed 'em all to the wall, and I guess we all really do suck for not paying close attention back then. Heard their records on the local radio station back in the day way too many times, but I never once changed the channel.
TV's rants in Forced Exposure were always a great read, and a good place to read the hows and whys of his ABBA obsession.
I've been wracking my brain trying to recall who sang that little hardcore ditty about Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy, and all I can remember is the chorus, which goes "Does Nancy perform..........acts of oral copulation?"
I think you'll find that Sex Pistols picture is from the El Paradise strip club, 4/4/76, not the gig that's in 24hpp...
Originally posted by Gnu Odor News Flash: Bowie covers "Pablo Picasso" on his new album.
Ah, that should be interesting..."some guys try to pick girls, and get called assholes..."
Stumbled upon a nice picture of the original Modern Lovers...
Would love to add it to my growing selection of avatars, but it's too big 
Originally posted by bLuE oRdEr "These kids today have no idea what real punk is"
I saw that sometime a while ago and laughed my ass off. It's so damn true! I myself, "back when I was punk," pulled the same shit to distance myself from the Blink 182-loving rabble while I was indulging in the Pistols, The Clash, DK, The Exploited, X-Ray Spex, Sham 69, and so on. Ah...memories. That sort of punker-than-thou posing is one of the main reasons why I got so sick and tired of that whole scene. Do I still listen to that music? Yes. But I don't have to dress up to freak out the establishment or parade my punkness to the world. "I guess this is growing up." 
At the expense of comin' across like some aad fuddy duddy, I'd better just add that much of the punk stuff I grew up listening to when I was a youngster would still sound fresh, vital and relatively uncontrived today - much of it was created by bands with scant regard for any kind of fashionability of what the fuck was in vogue at the time (apart from the fact that they were all united by the "anyone can get up and play" ethic which was essentially what punk was fucking well about) - they just got their heads down, got their shit together and churned it all out. A lot of the bands I liked have since reformed to do various annual punkfests, etc, yet in the case of half of them, far from appearing sad and middle-aged (are you listening Hooky, Barney and co??) and past it, some show remarkable resilience in the face of general apathy and derision. But if they loved doing it back then twenty-odd years ago, what the fuck is there stopping them doing it now?
I mean, one of my fave bands Cocksparrer announced to all that their Holidays In The Sun headlining gig in Morecambe back in June was to be their last ever show and it would be great to end on a high. Fair play to them, it's sad I know, but sometimes you can't go on forever. Ditto Angelic Upstarts - whom, now with mouthpiece Mensi out for good, just would not be the same - it's only like if The Fall carried on without MES for instance - pretty much pointless.
The fine line between punk and hardcore means that you can't actually list one lot of great bands without wanting to include everything else on the fringes that is loud, fast, raucous and uncompromising - so bands like Fugazi and Leatherface will always get my treasured vote above all else, whilst a handful of the much-maligned Oi! bands also figure somewhere.
But if we must reduce everything to the triviality of lists then the following would also warrant repeated listening in my case....
Compulsion Big Black Mekons / Three Johns The Business Menace The Damned The Stranglers Sham 69 The Dead Kennedys The Last Resort Anti-Pasti Conflict Red Alert 999 Vice Squad Adicts The Vibrators UK Subs Alternative TV Penetration Subway Sect G.B.H. The Ruts Blitz The Clash (even though they're as overrated as the Pistols) Peter & the Test Tube Babies The Crack The Meteors Stiff Little Fingers The Undertones The Lurkers Gang Of Four The Pop Group PIL (first three albums in particular) Wire (pretty much everything) The Reprobates Groop Dogdrill Death By Milkfloat
Oh god, can I ever help being so anal? ;)
