directions were darker and heavier, as
epitomised by such bands as the Stones or
Led Zeppelin, who strutted around like
untouchable other-worldly gods. Others
were more self-indulgent and ludicrous,
such as the absurd fantasy world of
progressive rock or glam-pop hybrids, as
was evident in such stars of the day
as Bowie and Bolan.
All well and good, but by the
early seventies in London the
great British cultural explosion
had passed, and despite what
the history books might suggest,
the everyday reality of life and
mainstream culture had been
largely unaffected by it.
Life for the young men and
women in the street was a far
cry from the world of the stars
presented in NME or on Top of
the Pops, who operated from their
lofty pedestals before retreating to
their country mansions or tax-
dodging foreign retreats. Most of
the drugs they indulged in were
unaffordable, and sex was not quite as
freely available across the land as the
hippies had people believe.
In short, the distance between music
fan and rock star was as wide as it had
ever been; it didn’t involve the young
fans but kept them at arm’s length. This
situation made, by the mid-seventies,
for some of the most self-indulgent,
overblown rock music ever, being
created by the privileged few who had
been allowed into the old-boy network
establishment that was the British music
i ndu st r y.That is exactly where punk came in.
The argument as to when punk
actually started rages on today, but we do
know that two late-sixties Detroit bands,
the Stooges and MC5, took rudimentary
garage rock, amplified it, and turned
it into something more forceful,inspirational, volatile and subversive
than anything that had gone before. Live
performances were legendary, and though
neither band sold many records while
they were in existence, they did set a new
standard for how far rock music could –
and should – be pushed.
In New York, The Velvet
Underground stripped things down
and painted them black, while in
their wake the New York Dolls
bastardised the bluesy imprint
of the Stones with a hard-edged,
if shambolic, street-smart sound
and flamboyant, confrontational
presentation.
All these bands influenced
those few visionaries who decided
to take this disparate music to
another level, none more so than
Queens quartet the Ramones,
whose genius lay in their simplicity
and who debuted in 1974. With
three chords, energy in abundance,
and an attitude that came from a
very real outsider’s position, they
showed that a lack of money, good looks,
and natural musical ability didn’t have
to get in the way of making exciting
music played from the heart. The term
‘punk’ itself passed into everyday use via
the fanzine of the same name that first
documented this initial wave of suchJoe Strummer performing at
the Rainbow Theatre in 1977.''I was aware of the
political system early
on and... I grew up
listening to a lot of
reggae, music that had
more edge than a lot
of contemporary music
insofar of political
content...''Paul Simonon