Compiling a 1978 New Wave radio show recently got me thinking about those days, back when I was fourteen. I was too young for Punk's genesis (how often do you see those two words together?) in 1976 and its explosion in 1977. Oh, I knew about it; it was in the Daily Mirror, but I'm pretty sure I was at a Jubilee street party when the Pistols were commandeering a boat down the Thames playing 'God Save the Queen'. I wouldn't have forgone free butties and pies to show alliegance to a pop record, not at thirteen.
But it was 1978 when I started tuning in - when kids at school were telling you smugly that it was already all over. Ever get the feeling you've been cheated? But how could it be all over? Great records were still coming out , though you had to be careful who you declared your love of a Buzzcocks song to. Punk, despite being supposedly all over was an exclusive club; they'd paid the membership subs and the doors were closed. And ironically Punk also belonged to the bully boys and knuckleheads who saw it as a glorification of violence. You couldn't just "like" Punk, you had to "be" a Punk and cover your blazer in safety pins, headbutt a teacher and set fire to the bike sheds.
It was a confusing time. Despite our non-proximity to London, and no-one being remotely old enough, if you hadn't seen the Pistols at The 100 club or The Screen on the Green in '76, you weren't fit to burn. Yet at the same time, comedy punk songs like 'Jilted John' and 'Kill' by Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias were taken at face value and treated with the same reverence as Anarchy in the UK.
Nobody had much of a quality filter, we just wanted Punk and if it was on pink vinyl even better.
Once I was seen as a black-market purchaser from the older lads I was accepted and allowed in, no bondage keks required. And My God! It was exciting! Certain records were elevated to Holy Grail status - New Rose, Spiral Scratch, Anarchy on EMI. I bought 'Damned Damned Damned' from a guy who a year earlier wanted nothing more than to beat me senseless, yet here we were meeting furtively in the corridor, examining the merchandise - Stiff Records, authentic! Money changing hands. I remember physically shaking from that encounter, not from the fear of this underworld dealing but from the sheer excitement generated by the disc I held in my hands.
You could pledge alliegance to the groups you loved with little badges on your blazer lapels, and furious debates raged about which groups were "Punk" or not. Were the Ramones Punk? Then how come they looked like rockers and had (eeek!) long hair? And The Tubes? They had a song about punks but it sounded like Glam Rock. It was a veritable minefield. Then once 1979 kicked in it got really complicated. The Jam, were they suddenly Mod now? The Specials and Two Tone, I like it but that's Mod too and we are genetically predisposed to hate them...no, it's Ska, that's alright. The Human League, Tubeway Army, and where the hell were Devo coming from?
But it was all good and in the end we decided we were just gonna like what we liked, screw the tribal dividing lines that the grebos and gimps clung to desperately, and screw the disdain of the rugger buggers - they were all into Yes and Elton John anyway. Yup, 1978 a mighty fine year!
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