From Amazorblades to the Zeros – via the Clash and the Sex Pistols – this was the year punk was in its prime. Jonathan Brown reports on a new book that tells the story
Published: 27 February 2006
Just two months in, 2006 may already be on course to become a vintage year for pop. The unpolished genius of the Arctic Monkeys, whose debut album became the fastest selling in history, and the success of the triple-Brit winning Kaiser Chiefs has prompted grand claims to be made on behalf of this year.
But for anyone the far side of 40, the artistic seeds of the two trailblazers of British music clearly sprouted long ago. Examine the DNA of the abrasive sound of the Arctic Monkeys and it can be traced back 29 years – a decade before they were born – to 1977.
It was the year when Britain celebrated the Queen’s silver jubilee with street parties and pageantry. Virginia Wade won the ladies’ finals on the Centre Court at Wimbledon and the world mourned the passing of Elvis Presley and Charlie Chaplin.
But for a large slice of the nation’s youth, 1977 meant only one thing – and it came with a safety pin through its pugnacious nose. That thing was punk rock.
Those who climbed aboard the punk rollercoaster were to enjoy a white-knuckle ride through the most exciting 12 months in the history of popular music. From Penzance to Aberdeen, groups of young men and women were pulling on bondage trousers, spiking up their hair and forming groups, regardless of whether they could play an instrument or not. Many of them were terrible. But a significant number were raw and exciting – the perfect antidote to the preening giants of prog-rock, and over-produced stadium super groups that ruled the pop world at that time.
In what has proved an extraordinary four-year labour of love, Henrik Poulsen, a Danish record company owner now living in Texas, has chronicled every punk band to have cut a record in Britain in that watershed year. The result is77: The Year of Punk and New Wave, published in Britain next month. Mr Poulsen records the young men and women on the scene, where they came from and what happened to them after punk exploded in 1978 – creating dozens of new genres from goth to ska. Beside the big five acts that dominated the year – the Sex Pistols, the Damned, the Clash, the Buzzcocks and the Jam, he includes a wealth of obscure bands which pogoed briefly yet brilliantly in the mosh pit that was punk’s short tenure on the dance floor of popular culture.
His A-Z ranges from the frankly obscure – Acme Sewage Company, for example, whose “two note guitar solos” and rather brutal vocals earned them a diehard following in their native Kettering – to the totally forgotten: Zhain, a short-lived combo that contributed a single track to the Raw Deal! compilation, one of the first LPs on one of the first independent punk labels.
Every band to leave its stamp on vinyl is lovingly recorded. For Mr Poulsen, who grew up in a Copenhagen suburb and turned 13 in 1977, punk washed up on his shores in an unlikely way. “I was in the boy scouts and we had an exchange with a group from Glasgow. They played us their punk tapes and taught us how to do the pogo. From that moment I was hooked,” he recalls. Denmark’s only punk band at the time was an outfit called the Sods.
Mr Poulsen believes that while there is a definitive “77 sound” none of the major punk bands sounded or looked the same. Many unlikely groups and artists found themselves part of the broader new-wave movement, he argues. Ian Dury, Graham Parker, Dr Feelgood and Nick Lowe, were already established on the pub rock scene, but their energy and dynamism made them natural bedfellows with punk. Others, like the Police, the Jam and Ultravox went on to change their sound radically and become hugely successful after riding the punk wave.
But there was a common theme, he says. “The 1977 punk bands took their multiple influences and merged them with one or more of the following attitudes: ‘Let’s be loud; let’s be obnoxious; let’s give the finger to society; let’s follow our own rules’. The seeds of these attitudes were clearly sown in the turgid, self-indulgent and bloated rock scene as well as the social and economic recession of the mid-70s,” he argues.
Both political and popular musical elites were reaching the end of the line in Britain. The government of James Callaghan was to soldier on for two more troubled years amid industrial strife and economic decline. In the charts, Pink Floyd, Elton John and Queen dominated, but had run out of credibility with the new breed of nihilistic and angry young men and women.
In April 1976, Joe Strummer quit the 101′ers and joined the Clash, the Damned released “New Rose” and the Sex Pistols produced their debut single, “Anarchy in the UK”, courtesy of that most establishment of labels, EMI.
In December, their foul mouthed appearance on Bill Grundy’s Today show created something approaching a moral panic, as well as costing them their recording deal. But punk didn’t flower until the following year. On 1 January, Andrew Czezowski opened the doors to The Roxy club, a former gay gangster club in Neal Street, Covent Garden. It gave the movement a physical base. John Peel provided a similar facility on the nation’s airwaves with his live Peel Sessions. As luck would have it, the silver jubilee celebrations provided the perfect target for bands like the Sex Pistols, which knew how to generate headlines as well as compelling pop tunes.
Today’s angry young pop heroes continue to pay their debt to that astonishing year – even if, like the Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, they were not born for a further nine years.
A IS FOR AMAZORBLADES Brighton-based quintet made their debut with “Common Truth” on Chiswick Records.
B IS FOR THE BOOMTOWN RATS Formed in Ireland in 1975, with Bob Geldof on vocals. After opening for the Ramones tour in 1977, Melody Maker proclaimed: “1978 is theirs for the taking.”
C IS FOR THE CLASH The biggest and most influential punk band.Joe Strummer and Nicky Headon fed the media’s appetite for “filth and fury” headlines when they were twice arrested in the summer of 1977.
D IS FOR THE DAMNED Their debut album, Damned Damned Damned, is considered the first punk album. It attacked conventional hits such as the Beatles’ Help, which they played at double speed.
E IS FOR THE EAST COAST ANGELS The Dublin band made their name across rural Ireland playing church halls.
F IS FOR FUSS The full line-up of Fuss is still a complete mystery and “Our Way Must Be Better”, released in 1977, remains their only hit.
G IS FOR GAFFA The Nottingham-based five-piece produced hand-made sleeves for their debut single, “Normal Service Will Never Be Resumed” in 1977.
H IS FOR HEAVY METAL KIDS Formed in 1973, the band incorporated metal, glam and rock’n'roll into their sound. Gary Holton’s routine involved blowing himself up.
I IS FOR IAN DURY Dury had been around for years under the name Kilburn and the High Roads. In 1977, he released seminal new wave album New Boots and Panties.
J IS FOR THE JAM The Trio originally formed in 1973. Fronted by Paul Weller, they became the first punk band to appear on Top of the Pops and releasing their debut album, In the City in 1977.
K IS FOR KURSAAL FLYERS Taking their name from a ride at the Southend Kursaal amusement park, the band were always more pub than punk. Had a top-20 hit with their single, “Little Does She Know”.
L IS FOR LONDON Formed in late 1976 they had released three records by the end of 1977. Reports that they were Paul McCartney’s daughter’s favourite band did little for their credibility.
M IS FOR THE MODELS Formed from the ashes of the Beastly Cads, they band started off covering Lou Reed and David Bowie but released a single, “Freeze”, in 1977.
N IS FOR THE NOSEBLEEDS The group, featuring Ed Banger on vocals, changed their name from Wild Ram when punk took off. They released a single, “Ain’t Bin To No Music School”, in July 1977.
O IS FOR THE OUTSIDERS Wimbledon line-up’s first release was the LP Calling On Youth on the band’s own label, Raw Edge.
P IS FOR THE PIRATES Originally formed in 1962, the Pirates re-formed in 1976, 10 years after the death of vocalist Johnny Kidd. The band caught on to the energy and attitude of the punk era but still played their own rock ‘n’ roll sound.
R IS FOR RIKKI & THE LAST DAYS OF EARTH Forerunner to the gothic music movement, with broody and atmospheric sounds. The band’s first 7 inch, Oundle Rocsoc, was released in mid-1977.
S IS FOR SEX PISTOLS Malcolm McLaren brilliantly exploited the disillusion of the nation’s youth to create the definitive punk outfit. Their album, Never Mind the Bollocks, was cynical, controversial and utterly compelling.
T IS FOR THE TAKEAWAYS One-hit wonders, their only song to make it on to vinyl was “Food” and appeared on the 1977 compilation, A Bunch of Stiffs.
U IS FOR ULTRAVOX! Previously Tiger Lily, Ultravox! it was one of the few new wave bands to appear at the 1977 Reading Festival. Produced by Brian Eno, with John Foxx on vocals.
V IS FOR THE VALVE The Edinburgh band, billed released their “Robot Love/For Adolfs’ Only” single in September 1977, hailed by New Wave bible Sounds as “vital and undiluted”.
W IS FOR WRECKLESS ERIC Born Eric Goulden, he is said to have acquired his name because he often fell off stages. His first single, “Whole Wide World”, was released in August 1977.
X IS FOR X-RAY SPEX Having seen the Sex Pistols live in concert, Marianne Elliot-Said changed her name to Poly Styrene and formed X-Ray Spex. 1977 saw the release of “Oh Bondage Up Yours!”
Y IS FOR THE YOBS Formed in 1977, the band set about causing a stir by covering Christmas songs and provocatively changing the lyrics. Their first single, “Run Rudolph Run”, a cover of the Chuck Berry classic, arrived in November 1977.
Z IS FOR THE ZEROS The band’s first single, “Hungry”, was released in November 1977 revealing their R&B and rock roots. They went on to release two more singles.
Just two months in, 2006 may already be on course to become a vintage year for pop. The unpolished genius of the Arctic Monkeys, whose debut album became the fastest selling in history, and the success of the triple-Brit winning Kaiser Chiefs has prompted grand claims to be made on behalf of this year.
But for anyone the far side of 40, the artistic seeds of the two trailblazers of British music clearly sprouted long ago. Examine the DNA of the abrasive sound of the Arctic Monkeys and it can be traced back 29 years – a decade before they were born – to 1977.
It was the year when Britain celebrated the Queen’s silver jubilee with street parties and pageantry. Virginia Wade won the ladies’ finals on the Centre Court at Wimbledon and the world mourned the passing of Elvis Presley and Charlie Chaplin.
But for a large slice of the nation’s youth, 1977 meant only one thing – and it came with a safety pin through its pugnacious nose. That thing was punk rock.
Those who climbed aboard the punk rollercoaster were to enjoy a white-knuckle ride through the most exciting 12 months in the history of popular music. From Penzance to Aberdeen, groups of young men and women were pulling on bondage trousers, spiking up their hair and forming groups, regardless of whether they could play an instrument or not. Many of them were terrible. But a significant number were raw and exciting – the perfect antidote to the preening giants of prog-rock, and over-produced stadium super groups that ruled the pop world at that time.
In what has proved an extraordinary four-year labour of love, Henrik Poulsen, a Danish record company owner now living in Texas, has chronicled every punk band to have cut a record in Britain in that watershed year. The result is77: The Year of Punk and New Wave, published in Britain next month. Mr Poulsen records the young men and women on the scene, where they came from and what happened to them after punk exploded in 1978 – creating dozens of new genres from goth to ska. Beside the big five acts that dominated the year – the Sex Pistols, the Damned, the Clash, the Buzzcocks and the Jam, he includes a wealth of obscure bands which pogoed briefly yet brilliantly in the mosh pit that was punk’s short tenure on the dance floor of popular culture.
His A-Z ranges from the frankly obscure – Acme Sewage Company, for example, whose “two note guitar solos” and rather brutal vocals earned them a diehard following in their native Kettering – to the totally forgotten: Zhain, a short-lived combo that contributed a single track to the Raw Deal! compilation, one of the first LPs on one of the first independent punk labels.
Every band to leave its stamp on vinyl is lovingly recorded. For Mr Poulsen, who grew up in a Copenhagen suburb and turned 13 in 1977, punk washed up on his shores in an unlikely way. “I was in the boy scouts and we had an exchange with a group from Glasgow. They played us their punk tapes and taught us how to do the pogo. From that moment I was hooked,” he recalls. Denmark’s only punk band at the time was an outfit called the Sods.
Mr Poulsen believes that while there is a definitive “77 sound” none of the major punk bands sounded or looked the same. Many unlikely groups and artists found themselves part of the broader new-wave movement, he argues. Ian Dury, Graham Parker, Dr Feelgood and Nick Lowe, were already established on the pub rock scene, but their energy and dynamism made them natural bedfellows with punk. Others, like the Police, the Jam and Ultravox went on to change their sound radically and become hugely successful after riding the punk wave.
But there was a common theme, he says. “The 1977 punk bands took their multiple influences and merged them with one or more of the following attitudes: ‘Let’s be loud; let’s be obnoxious; let’s give the finger to society; let’s follow our own rules’. The seeds of these attitudes were clearly sown in the turgid, self-indulgent and bloated rock scene as well as the social and economic recession of the mid-70s,” he argues.
Both political and popular musical elites were reaching the end of the line in Britain. The government of James Callaghan was to soldier on for two more troubled years amid industrial strife and economic decline. In the charts, Pink Floyd, Elton John and Queen dominated, but had run out of credibility with the new breed of nihilistic and angry young men and women.
In April 1976, Joe Strummer quit the 101′ers and joined the Clash, the Damned released “New Rose” and the Sex Pistols produced their debut single, “Anarchy in the UK”, courtesy of that most establishment of labels, EMI.
In December, their foul mouthed appearance on Bill Grundy’s Today show created something approaching a moral panic, as well as costing them their recording deal. But punk didn’t flower until the following year. On 1 January, Andrew Czezowski opened the doors to The Roxy club, a former gay gangster club in Neal Street, Covent Garden. It gave the movement a physical base. John Peel provided a similar facility on the nation’s airwaves with his live Peel Sessions. As luck would have it, the silver jubilee celebrations provided the perfect target for bands like the Sex Pistols, which knew how to generate headlines as well as compelling pop tunes.
Today’s angry young pop heroes continue to pay their debt to that astonishing year – even if, like the Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, they were not born for a further nine years.
A IS FOR AMAZORBLADES Brighton-based quintet made their debut with “Common Truth” on Chiswick Records.
B IS FOR THE BOOMTOWN RATS Formed in Ireland in 1975, with Bob Geldof on vocals. After opening for the Ramones tour in 1977, Melody Maker proclaimed: “1978 is theirs for the taking.”
C IS FOR THE CLASH The biggest and most influential punk band.Joe Strummer and Nicky Headon fed the media’s appetite for “filth and fury” headlines when they were twice arrested in the summer of 1977.
D IS FOR THE DAMNED Their debut album, Damned Damned Damned, is considered the first punk album. It attacked conventional hits such as the Beatles’ Help, which they played at double speed.
E IS FOR THE EAST COAST ANGELS The Dublin band made their name across rural Ireland playing church halls.
F IS FOR FUSS The full line-up of Fuss is still a complete mystery and “Our Way Must Be Better”, released in 1977, remains their only hit.
G IS FOR GAFFA The Nottingham-based five-piece produced hand-made sleeves for their debut single, “Normal Service Will Never Be Resumed” in 1977.
H IS FOR HEAVY METAL KIDS Formed in 1973, the band incorporated metal, glam and rock’n'roll into their sound. Gary Holton’s routine involved blowing himself up.
I IS FOR IAN DURY Dury had been around for years under the name Kilburn and the High Roads. In 1977, he released seminal new wave album New Boots and Panties.
J IS FOR THE JAM The Trio originally formed in 1973. Fronted by Paul Weller, they became the first punk band to appear on Top of the Pops and releasing their debut album, In the City in 1977.
K IS FOR KURSAAL FLYERS Taking their name from a ride at the Southend Kursaal amusement park, the band were always more pub than punk. Had a top-20 hit with their single, “Little Does She Know”.
L IS FOR LONDON Formed in late 1976 they had released three records by the end of 1977. Reports that they were Paul McCartney’s daughter’s favourite band did little for their credibility.
M IS FOR THE MODELS Formed from the ashes of the Beastly Cads, they band started off covering Lou Reed and David Bowie but released a single, “Freeze”, in 1977.
N IS FOR THE NOSEBLEEDS The group, featuring Ed Banger on vocals, changed their name from Wild Ram when punk took off. They released a single, “Ain’t Bin To No Music School”, in July 1977.
O IS FOR THE OUTSIDERS Wimbledon line-up’s first release was the LP Calling On Youth on the band’s own label, Raw Edge.
P IS FOR THE PIRATES Originally formed in 1962, the Pirates re-formed in 1976, 10 years after the death of vocalist Johnny Kidd. The band caught on to the energy and attitude of the punk era but still played their own rock ‘n’ roll sound.
R IS FOR RIKKI & THE LAST DAYS OF EARTH Forerunner to the gothic music movement, with broody and atmospheric sounds. The band’s first 7 inch, Oundle Rocsoc, was released in mid-1977.
S IS FOR SEX PISTOLS Malcolm McLaren brilliantly exploited the disillusion of the nation’s youth to create the definitive punk outfit. Their album, Never Mind the Bollocks, was cynical, controversial and utterly compelling.
T IS FOR THE TAKEAWAYS One-hit wonders, their only song to make it on to vinyl was “Food” and appeared on the 1977 compilation, A Bunch of Stiffs.
U IS FOR ULTRAVOX! Previously Tiger Lily, Ultravox! it was one of the few new wave bands to appear at the 1977 Reading Festival. Produced by Brian Eno, with John Foxx on vocals.
V IS FOR THE VALVE The Edinburgh band, billed released their “Robot Love/For Adolfs’ Only” single in September 1977, hailed by New Wave bible Sounds as “vital and undiluted”.
W IS FOR WRECKLESS ERIC Born Eric Goulden, he is said to have acquired his name because he often fell off stages. His first single, “Whole Wide World”, was released in August 1977.
X IS FOR X-RAY SPEX Having seen the Sex Pistols live in concert, Marianne Elliot-Said changed her name to Poly Styrene and formed X-Ray Spex. 1977 saw the release of “Oh Bondage Up Yours!”
Y IS FOR THE YOBS Formed in 1977, the band set about causing a stir by covering Christmas songs and provocatively changing the lyrics. Their first single, “Run Rudolph Run”, a cover of the Chuck Berry classic, arrived in November 1977.
Z IS FOR THE ZEROS The band’s first single, “Hungry”, was released in November 1977 revealing their R&B and rock roots. They went on to release two more singles.
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