PUNK ROCKERS

It is widely believed that the music genre known as Punk Rock started in 1976 with the release of the seminal 'Leave Home' by the RAMONES. But at that time I was roughly 4 years of age and, like a lot of kids at that time I couldn't have appreciated the fuss.The SEX PISTOLS giving 'cheek' to BILL GRUNDY at prime time TV stirred up an amount of anger from middle aged people who viewed JOHNNY ROTTEN, and the like, as obscene in their words and actions.

So it was a sort of irony, a few years later in roughly 1979, that my uncle came across the Irish Sea from LONDON, to visit our family home. My dad had just got his hands on a brand new AKAI stereo and was getting acquainted with classical music and the pleasures of vinyl. Well my uncle TED (along with a guy from BELFAST, ROGER ARMSTRONG) had founded a record label in LONDON (CHISWICK RECORDS) and had begun (since c.1975) releasing 7"singles. When he came to see us TED brought over a couple of freshly pressed singles, one for me and one also for my sister: THE DAMNED's 'Smash It Up' was the title of the singles he delivered. It was the first slab of Punk I had ever heard and of course I wanted to hear the circular piece of plastic played on the new stereo.

At that point my father probably wished he'd spent his hard earned money on a LAWN MOWER or some other gardening implement rather than on the flash AKAI he had purchased. Definitely not a fan of PUNK. He's not exactly the sort of person who would have been pogoing to PUNK or blowing his nose on peoples shirts. A gentleman to a fault, my dad, and not impressed with the loud crunching obstreperous music being blasted out he grudgingly placed the vinyl on the deck and prayed for it to be over quickly (rather like a sermon on Sunday's).

As I say I was too young to appreciate what was going on at the time. However I did start listening to JOHN PEEL from about 1985 onwards and he played plenty of that sort of music on his programmes. He introduced me, and possibly thousands of others, to the likes of the RUTS, BUZZCOCKS, UNDERTONES and many other lesser known acts. In 1988 I came across a band that was to change my life: RAMONES. I managed to get and Audio Tape of the band which contained 30 tracks and I have never known a band to have as many great tunes as they recorded. I can recall jumping into my Dad's car while it was parked on the driveway and playing the tape on the car stereo over and over again with my brother beside me in the front passenger seat. It was the only way to listen to that kind of sound without annoying anyone.

I have been listening to PUNK for years and it has not lost its allure. What interests me, though, is the energy that loud, raucous music does to people. FRANK COTTERELL-BOYCE had a series (now over) on BBC RADIO FOUR and it featured characters (fans) that lived as young adults around the late 1970's. The five episodes are entirely fictional but they evoke the moments when PUNK was in the ascendancy. Each episode features characters who were present at an ADVERTS gig back in 1977 and it tells the story of what subsequently happened to each person since that time. A sort of rite of passage. Now in the noughties they have either had children or, as in one case, are in prison. I think that, even though the music was central to PUNK, there was clearly a culture present and PUNK fans from that time will be able to relive some of feelings and emotions of what went on then, by listening to, of all stations, BBC RADIO 4. Back in the 1970's PUNK would probably not have gotten any attention on that radio station - how things have changed!

What is it about that form of music that is synonymous with violence and rage though? I read, a few years back, in a football magazine, 'WHEN SATURDAY COMES', of a man, a hooligan, who would get an erection if there was any chance of violence brewing up at a football match. Now I suspect there was possibly some journalistic license there but, it comes back to energy which is a good thing, in theory at least. Life affirming. Whenever I listen to the likes of 'Hurry up Harry' or 'Suspect Device' I don't get stiff, but it certainly makes me want to jump about. Had I been around in the 1970's I probably would have been a quiet unassuming chap. Times certainly change and even though I LOVE PUNK music I could do without all it's accessories: Drugs, Pins through the nose, Leather jackets, spitting and urinating, dyed hair..... but not the energy.

Even though my parents hated everything about PUNK I could at least enjoy the sound. There is something wonderful about JOHNNY RAMONE's Mosrite guitar chopping away and also JAKE BURNS' (SLF) growling out vocals. I simply cannot get enough of the sound. Even though, admittedly, I would probably have balked at it back in the day. The media have sanitised it over the years but I find it difficult to get excited, in quite the same way, about other forms of music even though there is plenty of good music out there today.

Towards 1980 CHISWICK RECORDS folded and that gave way to ACE RECORDS and a myriad of other musical treats. Over the years, my Uncle would ply me with records. I received everything from 'Southern Soul' to folk music from MADAGASCAR, a marvellous musical education for me. But I could never get that noisy, scrawny, ranting PUNK out of my ears and still can't today!