Punk is debatable rightly so. The way I look at it is... Guy from The Patti Smith Group, one of the American punk acts, said he watched the Sex Pistols play the next night after they played London. John Lydon refered to them "Did you see the hippies last night banging their tambourines?". The yanks were playing catch-up after that. Took the likes of Dead Kennedys and Black Flag to rescue the situation.
It probably started out that way but quickly became mostly right wing. The Ska revival of the the late 70s and early 80s was more akin to the skinhead movement of the 60's. I'm sure I read somewhere that one of the reasons Jerry Dammers put the specials together was because of the extreme right wing route that punk had moved to.
Who was the first punk? Iggy Pop David Bowie Mick Jagger Johnny Cash all this **** you could debate till the proverbial cows come home
They had a terrible problem with neo-nazis in those days, they could turn up and wreck a gig, any gig. I've got a fair amount of Oi! records and even the dodgy bands e.g. Condemned 84 don't tend to go down the white power route, patriotic but not openly racist. The "Rock Against Communism" bands e.g. Skrewdriver pushed that stuff.
Madness were plagued by them until they told them to **** off. They were playing reggae standards and the daft ****s thought because they were seven white boys from London with short haircuts they must be nazis
When Punk died on it's arse my mates went down the skinhead road. So I have heard a lot of the Oi stuff. Some of it was OK. Strength through Oi and all that pish. Did go and see The Exploited in the Barralands. That was an experience best forgotten.
Mods were mods with attitude. Skinheads were spineless idiots who copiied each other because they had no style, fought in packs, and always ran when they didn't have the numbers. And incidentally, the only British youth culture that didn't originate in London was Northern Soul.
He played for us too, I bumped into him in the players bar once, I was a bit pissed and gave him the "you're me best mate" routine. How embarrassing, for both of us probably.
