Any old punks out there or people into it? i meam proper punk btw not Green day etc...

Been listening to some of these lately.

The Ruts, Sham69, Blitz and Peter and the testtube babies.

Wonderful gritty stuff, cleanses my soul from all these polished turds they call music these days.

I can say that as i'm an old grumpy git

Ah... finally a thread for people who don't like thirteen minute bongo solos.

X-Ray Spex are my favourite punk band ever and the early Manics rank a close second, but I've been listening to Sham 69, the Damned, Gen X, Crass, Theatre of Hate and the Toy Dolls a lot lately.

It's the sincerity that is riveting...you will never ever find that nowadays and I'm not being old and moaning cos I'm not even 20 yet.

Love old school Punk

Ramones
The Clash (first album)
The Slits (Viv Albertine still does the London Circuit)

Would of been great to of been a 16 year old in 75/76

One myth though. It wasn't quite the working class movment that it was made out to be.
The Ramones were all middle class. Joe Strummer had an upper middle class upbringing, The Slits all Middle class.

However you had The pistols and The Jam. Proper working class lads.

Having a look at whats in my ipod in terms of punk, i've been listening to:

Chelsea, The Dammed, The Dead Kennedys, The Distillers, Leftover crack, The Lurkers, Sham 69, Tiger Army.

I always listen to a lot of Nofx, Minor Threat, Rights of Spring, Fugazi and such as well but i I wonder if i'm going to get told that they aren't "proper punk"

Must dig out Germ Free Adolescents again, haven't listened to it in ages - way too long

I was around 19/20 in the late 80's and i got into punk then to escape Rick Astley etc... i really liked the Manics and remember bumping into Richey and Nicky getting of the tube at Fulham Broadway where they were recording at the time.

Loved the original version of "You Love us" just for its sheer energy and Motown Junk, Stay Beautiful but was really dissapointed with the Album.

Especially after one of the great punk moments when they slagged off every other band on the bill and the audience when they went onstage live on Radio one.

Fugazi are legends i remember buying Repeater and someone nicked it from work , i just thought what great taste they have lol, i'll have to give them a listen been way to long.

It's a brilliant album, one of the few things that shows that some in the punk movement were real individuals and not (as some presume) just a bunch of commercialised ***** wearing safety pins and stamping on flowers.


Ahh, it's brilliant that you bumped into them!! I love their early punk phase, the New Art Riot EP and Motown Junk has been on bloody repeat for ages and ages with me. People call that period a rip off of the Clash/Birdland and it's true, but they did it with a lot more style and coolness. Especially compared to all of the dreary shite around at the time in the late 80s.

I really like Generation Terrorists at times but there are just way too many songs on it and it's overproduced. There are skeletal punk versions of a few of the songs like 'Generation Terrorists' (Stay Beautiful) and 'Faceless Sense of Void' (Love's Sweet Exile) on Youtube and they're musically (if not lyrically) better than the final versions. The Manics had a lot of great musical ideas but (aside from Motorcycle Emptiness) they got too lost in trying to be GnR.

James was and is just to bloody good on the guitar lol i bought the New Art Riot ep and liked that i thought the LP would be the same, they were like you said to into GnR.

My mate saw them first and he had never heard of them, he just laughed and said he thought they were the rolling stones on the tube then i turned around and couldn't beleive it.

Great memories and a lot of it on my ipod including these gems :
The Adverts - Gary Gilmores eyes
Eddie and The Hot Rods - Do anything you wanna do
The Leyton Buzzards - Saturday night beneath the plastic palm trees (later to become Modern Romance!!!)
The Members - Sound of the suburbs and the brilliant Solitary Confinement
Yet I am also quite happy to listen to Gaga and Taylor Swift

How about bands like

Anti-Nowhere League.
The Exploited.
Crass.
Anti Pasti.
Discharge.
Agnostic Front.

There hasn't been a bad band named in this thread so far, and its made me go back and listen to The New Art Riot ep. which is making my revision far more pleasant.

Good show all round.

I'm still ridiculously proud of the fact James stepped on my foot during their secret gig at The Marquee just before Gold Against the Soul was released

The Members - oh I did love those back in the day - this thread is throwing up some brilliant memories

Am I the only person who owned a copy of The Damned spin off group Naz Nomad and the Nightmare's 'Give Daddy the Knife Cindy' - (although I probably know the answer to that ) Must track down another copy, mine got nicked by an ex

Well it must've been better than "Happy Talk" lol what was sensible on in them days.

I think The Members were the first punk band to use Reggae, i think The Clash were supposed to have been the first but i'm sure the Members beat them to it.

I think you are right. Their singles Offshore Banking Bussiness, The sound of the suburbs, and later, Working Girl are still some of my all time fave singles. Shame they didnt do much more. They wouldnt sound dated on the radio today

Mum was into punk in the 70s and got to see a lot of the bands live - she saw The Clash three times.

I have a lot of songs from that era - quite a few already mentioned - on my mp3 player and seem to be adding to it quite a bit.

Currently listening to The Ruts as it happens.

Punk didn't start until 76 & didn't have any sort of mainstream status until 77 (the tag didn't become universally excepted as a musical movement until then).Punk77 is usually the term given by old punks for the initial & true punk movement (was only 13 in '77).Just to get things straight - The Ramones have never been a major selling artistRamones discography.Thought their songs were a little bit of a joke personally with their bubblegum pop & girl group (Shangri-las etc.) type chorus's (wiki - The syrupy, string-laden Ronettes cover "Baby, I Love You" released as a single, became the band's biggest hit in Great Britain, reaching number 8 on the charts ) .Alot of their guitar work was O.K. though, although over simplistic (compared well to alot of the heavy rock I was listening to at the time).The success they did gain was on the back of their association with the British Punk movement (there wasn't a truely recognised American Punk scene in the mainstream at the time - it was all part of the underground rock movements which included the Stooges - more recognised as a heavy rock band in America - at the time).
During the '70's punk was mainly an underground movement.It was no where near as popular as many of the arena selling artists that existed at the time - thank God! many of you reading this are probably thinking to yourself .It did get alot of negative mainstream press during this time due mainly the acts of deprivation by alot of the artists (pissing, spitting on audience etc.).It did gather alot of underground following which did lead to some short term chart entry successes - Sex Pistols, The Clash etc.There were many other genres / artists of rock music that were out selling & were more popular than punk even at it's peak.Hard rock (+ early metal) as a whole was definately more popular than Punk at the time.Prog was more popular overall (even though it's popularity was dropping off from it's peak of around '75).
Alot of so called Punk bands were just ex-Pub rock bands (Punk was an off-shoot of the London (pub) street rock movement - which was a very diverse musical mix).Many jumped on this anti-authority punk movement.Just trying to get things in a little bit of context.
The '76 - '79 Punk rock era thing is a little bit of a myth really.It was never a mainstream movement overall.Never Mind The Bollocks etc. were peak selling albums that were not the norm for most artists - sales were alot based on the hype surrounding the notoriety, really - didn't mind some of sex Pistols songs, but didn't that anti-press & the way they used that anti-press quickly turn me against them (a new way of marketing was born - ugly & trashy !!!!).Rock music before this had used this to a certain extent but didn't Punk take it to a new level (wasn't the Sex Pistol's album 'The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle' a little bit of a self expression of the disgust of this marketing strategy).
Post-Punk, New Wave & even the New Romantic movement were bigger than the initial Punk movement - some other movements that claimed an association (even more deluted) with Punk i.e. Brit Pop etc. maybe became bigger commercially again(The initial American hardcore punk scene was pretty small movement).You could say Punk influenced these movements.Haven't rock movements always influenced rock movements that preceded them.It's all part of rock's evolution.Punk77 played only a small part in this evolution.
What really gets me riled is the fixation with Punk, that still seems to remain, in the rock media of the Punk golden era which in all intents & purposes never really existed in a mainstream sense - it was very much a press (& partially major label) constructed thing (ask John Lydon).

Love the Clash and the Ramones and saw them both at the Glasgow Apollo ...both were amazing.
Also just dug out an X-Ray Specs "best of" for "germ free adolescents" and had forgotten how good they were ...many top tracks.
Never mind the bollocks is still a "must have".

I was also into Stiff Little Fingers

Against Me!
Bomb The Music Industry!
Refused

I guess The Gaslight Anthem too?
Also tempted to say Streetlight Manifesto but I suppose you could easily fit them into Ska

In the context of the historical (what we are all supposed to think is good by certain ends of the rock hierachy) maybe.Musically - not really.The album is O.K. at best.Not's saying it's not influencial - too influencial, perhaps (along with a few other albums in a similar vain) ??? The influence has certainly worn a bit thin over the years - especially artists influenced by it (others) who don't get even near to the passion displayed (probably the most redeaming thing about NMTB).There's more to rock music than just passion though - although an important part.
Definately worth a listen though, for those who haven't already.Don't think it's that relevent to what a rock musician should be attempting to play these days though - rock music has moved on since then (or should have anyway )

Bumping in to Nicky AND Richey?! I would have probably embarrassed myself and leapt on them.

pathetic fangirl mode off/

Love the Manics early singles, Buzzcocks, The Slits, Siouxsie, Pistols and especially The Fall. Their first album is class!
Adore Magazine too but think they might not be classed as punk?
Last edited by poppyblue : 20-04-2011 at 00:13

i was 20 in 77.... loved punk at the time, boy did we need it! and its legacy has lived on with punk fashions from back then still around today.

i dont listen to punk now though, for me its pure nostalgia, it belongs in the past, it was of its time, for me....music has moved on, and many of the political issues espoused by punk are now accepted and mainstream (equality for eg).

lol... couldnt agree more... the text book retrospective music fans though seem to acredit them with more clout/influence then they actually had. often by simplistically saying 'the pistols copied the ramones'... i dont know any original punk fans who rated the ramones above being 'ok'.

People class The Stranglers as punk, although they pre-dated it.

I think of them as a pumped up Doors.

I don't think I had the album, but I did see them at a 'psychedelic' bash at the Town & Country Club around '87.

I remember they did a great version of the Seeds' 'The Wind Blows Her Hair'.

XTC also did a 60s inspired psych album called '25 O'Clock' under the moniker of the Dukes Of Stratosphere. That got a fair bit of publicity with some cool posters asking 'What Time Is It?' pasted up around the town.

'New Rose' by the Damned is probably my fave punk single.