Tag Archive: Punk Rock


WAVE THE FLAG AND PASS THE SICK BAG

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June 2, 2012

There are times that I feel homesick and long to be back in the UK and London especially. This weekend I’m happy to be far far away.

Over a long weekend, celebrations take place marking 600 60 years of the Queen’s reign. Four days of a royal love-in would be hard to stomach and if I was there, I’d probably need to invest in a supply of Lydia Leith’s fetching Royal Sick Bags to help me survive the ordeal.

Actually, the Queen is a weak link in my loathing for the royals probably because as the years roll on she looks more and more like my mom.

The Diamond Jubilee events are set to throw up plenty of proud flag-waving and ‘we will never be slaves’ patriotism packaged as entertainment. Continue reading →

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BACKTRACKING # 20 : RICHARD HELL

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June 20, 2011

Part of an irregular series of bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl. (Search ‘Backtracking’ to collect the set!)

RICHARD HELL – (I Could Live With You In) Another World/(I Belong to the) Blank Generation / You Gotta Lose (Stiff Records,1976).

Looking immaculately wasted on the cover , Richard Hell was an early poster boy for punk. The Blank Generation inspired Pretty Vacant and Hell laid claim to inventing the ripped T-shirt anti-fashion look.

The other two tracks on this EP are disposable and the A side positively sucks.

The Brits took the Punk blueprint from USA but made it into something more savage and less in thrall to the Garage Rock ethic.

Blankness – the void – a vacancy – all made the idea of nothingness into an identity – a statement of non-being.

The message, in so many words, was the world doesn’t owe us anything and we give nothing in return. “I was saying let me out of here before I was even born”, sings Hell.

In David Foster Wallace’s short story ‘The Girl With The Curious Hair’ a character called Cheese says “that my punkrocker clique all felt as if they had nothing and would always have nothing therefore they made nothing into everything”.

Ironic to say that is you google blankgeneration.com you find a fashion site which includes as its mission statement the reminder that “corporate culture is killing creativity.  What the world needs is free thinkers, independent spirits, self sufficient people doing things differently.People with a global conscience that share a common point of view or central belief”.

What goes around comes around.

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BACKTRACKING #18 : THE KILLJOYS

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June 6, 2011

Part of an irregular series of bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl. (Search ‘Backtracking’ to collect the set!)

THE KILLJOYS – Johnny Won’t Get To Heaven b/w Naive (Raw Records, 1977)

Kevin Rowland was never a convincing punk rocker although this is one of the best singles from 1977. It was the band’s one and only official release. “The main thing I learned from The Killjoys was how not to do it”, he later reflected

Rowland started his musical career with Lucy And The Lovers, a Roxy Music influenced band I have never knowingly heard. The tidal wave of Punk Rock forced a rethink and The Killjoys were born. Continue reading →

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BACKTRACKING # 17 : THE CLASH

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June 5, 2011

Part of an irregular series of bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl. (Search ‘Backtracking’ to collect the set!)

THE CLASH – (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais b/w The Prisoner (CBS, 1978)

The mainstream hegemony is highly efficient and resistant to threats. It is hard to believe that less than two years before the release of this single, the folk devils were pounding on the door getting the establishment in a sweat.

Punk Rock was accused of demonizing the youth and the treasured social order was seen as being at risk. The tabloids railed against the filth and the fury on prime time TV. Where would all end? The Sex Pistols were the main whipping boys but they were seen as just the tip of a dangerous iceberg. Continue reading →

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BACKTRACKING #9 : VANILLA FUDGE

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March 24, 2011

Bite-sized posts about 7″ singles I own – shameless nostalgia from the days of vinyl.

Vanilla Fudge – You Keep Me Hangin’ On b/w Take Me For A Little While (Atco Records, 1967)

Not too sure how this one landed in my single’s box. It was probably nabbed from my elder brother although it doesn’t sound like his usual taste.

He was a fan of Motown though so maybe he was swayed by the fact that the A side is a slowed down and metalized version of the hit by The Supremes. He probably threw it out after hearing what they did to the original.

The B-side it more melodramatic fluff with false histrionics as Mark Stein dwells on lines like “I need you – it ain’t funny”, which it decidedly ain’t.

Both are produced by Shadow Morton famous for introducing the world to The Shangri-Las. Continue reading →

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