I don't dispute that, but you're talking about the bands and I'm talking about the young people who spawned it and bought the records.
Interesting. Could the death of it come down to some of them being talentless twats, who couldn't play their instruments? Sid Vicious was harldy a good bassist, but lived off his reputation. Supposedly Matlock came up with most of the decent stuff the Pistols sang about, then Lydon made a few changes. I've heard some weird reasons why he was kicked out the band, but dunno if they're true or not. Suppose these things reoccur all the time, so it's nothing new.
Matlock left because he wasn't into the music the Pistols were making, as soon as he left he formed the Rich Kids with Midge Ure and they were utter ****e... [video=youtube;PIfFUDt4Grw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIfFUDt4Grw[/video] He never made any decent music after leaving the Pistols, he mainly just guested on bass, playing other peoples songs. Vicious couldn't play at all, he was an ornament, Matlock or Jones played Bass on the Pistols recordings and Vicious just did the stage act(badly). All the stuff about the Pistols not being able to play and McLaren's claim that they'd only got their instruments two weeks before their first gig were complete bollocks. Jones and Cook were decent musicians and had been gigging for years before Pistols happened. Punk remains the best live music I've seen and it remains the most influential genre since rock and roll. [video=youtube;mrCYEXGfAac]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrCYEXGfAac[/video]
I dont want to talk too much about the Pistols as im not going to diss the band - there was far more to Punk than MMs playthings, Lydon was probably one of the most Astute musicians in the UK in the late 70s and still needs to be listened to when he speaks
John Beverley was Lydon's mate and by all accounts a lovable and harmless joker. He then spiralled into heroin aided by a groupie called Nancy Spungen. Like almost music and groups of the time, it was not meant to last and be listened to 30 years later- it was music for NOW, hot off the press, not a magnum opus double album. You knew punk was ****ed when you used to see kids modelling themselves on 'Sid Vicious' walking the streets
If you have an hour or so to spare, this 1978 documentary, Punk in London, is a decent watch. Including interviews and live performances of The Clash, X-Ray Spex, The Jam, Boomtown Rats, The Adverts, The Lurkers plus many more! [video=youtube;6SqTD6MGCr0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SqTD6MGCr0&feature=related[/video]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHNZUop7OK0&feature=related Okay perhaps not punk exactly but in the mid 1970s definitely the best pub band in the world ever. When they came to the Springhead a few years back they were still absolutely the best pub band in the world ever.
Yeah, John Cooper Clark played Spring St at least once. I can't help feeling that the list of acts are the obvious mainstream side of Punk though.
Just like to point out that for a large proportion of us, it WAS about the anger and injustice, this was the best way for us to vent those feelings. It also politicized a lot of us too, or at least woke us up to politics and more importantly, the alternatives. At the point it went Oi Punk one way, I went the other way with Crass, Poison Girls etc.
Just back to the TV stuff. I don't know if it's sort of every region doing it so that they can have a local feel to the Punk season (like they do the national news and then go to Look North etc), but I've been led to believe that the BBC are doing a programme about the punk scene in Hull as part of this season. I'll try and dig out the emails I got about it to check, but if it starts before I remember you should look out for it.
