30 YEARS OF PUNK
Presented by Steve Lamacq, this two-part series tells the story of the bands that changed the musical landscape in 1976.
By the mid-70s the UK was experiencing economic meltdown. Lengthening dole queues and a grey landscape of high rise disasters stood in rubbish-strewn streets. In retrospect, it was inevitable that the music of the time would be dark, nihilistic and fuelled by an energized political anger.
Whilst the New York music scene, built around CBGB’s, was much more rooted in rock’s rich tapestry and art school ideas, it was nowhere near as ferocious and dangerous as what was happening in Blighty. The London punk scene, initially driven by Malcolm McClaren's clever posturing, was given the perfect psychodrama by John Lydon’s fierce intelligence and neo-psychotic glare.
The Sex Pistols were getting out onto the sleepy circuit, wrecking PA’s and getting occasional column inches. The Stranglers were gigging around the country, trading punches with irate punters. In Bolton the Buzzcocks read a paragraph about the Pistols in the NME and drove all the way down to London to search for the band. TV Smith was putting together The Adverts in Torquay. Elsewhere, the Capital was calling and the Clash were on hand to write the soundtrack. Everywhere punk rock was beginning to emerge.
All these loose strands were beginning to coalesce around the Sex Pistols. McClaren noticed this and managed to place the movement behind his group and his shop… the race was nearly over and London was about to win. A generation of kids, let down by the government and disgusted by the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, had at last found an expression for their discontent, a music that spoke back to them. Never mind the Bollocks, revolution was in the air!
Contributors: John Lydon, Malcolm McClaren, Mick Jones (The Clash), Hugh Cornwell (The Stranglers), TV Smith, Howard Devoto, Pete Shelley (The Buzzcocks) and many, many more.
