24 Record Mirror , June 4, 1977

Mailman

DEE GENERATE (Caption)

PUNK MUM HITS BACK

COULD YOU please give my address to Sandra Quick , the punk mum. I have a copy of RECORD MIRROR issue April 2 she can have. Being a punky mum myself I feel the same as her, and get spiteful remarks from neighbours. It was I who introduced my son to music, took him to concerts, brought his first drum kit, put up with the neighbours' complaints, introduced him to Rat Scabies , who in turn got him an audition with Eater . He is proud to be a member of a band and to be doing something with his life, and I am proud to have helped him.

Most of the people round where I live are so narrow minded that it's almost unbelievable. They think they are running their lives right and that gives them the right to criticise me. Elderly people who have never done anything with their lives, who have lived to conform, don't like to see young people who do better than they did. Or people who are drowning in marital boredom and court summonses and debt and young people who think it's big to go up the local pub with their fathers for darts' matches and see how quickly they can get as big a beer gut as dad.

I love the new interest my son has brought into my life. I used to love going to rock concerts, now I enjoy being involved behind the scenes and meeting famous interesting people — musicians, photographers, people who write for music papers, A&R men, people who are into doing what they enjoy. They are much better than "neighbours" who sit back and criticise because they have nothing better to do. I wouldn't swap my life for any of theirs. I hope Sandra , you do your thing and don't worry about anyone else, except the people you love.

Helen , Dee Generate's mum, Caterham , Surrey .

While we are on new waves, old waves and punk I think it is time to take a stand. New wave and punk are just words thrown up by the media in an attempt to bag a new generation and some fresh energies. But I am getting sick of some of the moronic, talentless new groups joining the bandwagon, after it has rolled past, with nothing to recommend them but the age - old ability to join in after it’s too late. So from here on I am drawing the line between the punkoid junk, and some of the stupid violence that accompanies it, and genuinely talented people with something new to say. The Pistols , the Stranglers , the Jam , the Damned , the Clash , Generation X and the Boomtown Rats fall in this talented category.

STARTS THIS MONTH... AND EVERY MONTH... ONLY IN RECORD MIRROR!

- The music of now is NOISE !

- I like three or four loud, proud dudes erupting in three chord frenzies
- I can't see how anyone made a penny out of The Clash tour
- Loudness and energy is a great asset in the States
- The time is now right for Iggy
- Rock becomes like the Hollywood star system
- Brand new bleached jeans ain’t a new look

I LOVE the raw-edged energy and freshness new wave has brought to the British rock scene. The music of now is NOISE , be it beautiful, elaborate, complex, clean or bestial, primitive, political or raw. It’s a wild mixture of the whole lot — such cute noise from those Gibson and Fender toys!

I can understand some people being uncertain as to its place in the history of rock, but when I think back to the R&B boom — The Stones , Kinks , Beatles , The Who and many other such groups, they seemed very savage at the time.

Then you had the heavy metal boom, with groups like Led Zeppelin which appeared to be a whole new revolution in sound with skyscraping Marshall stacks.

Frenzies

And then there was glam rock. That was me, Bowie , Alice Cooper and a couple of other people. In fact, it’s got very similar roots to punk rock, if you look back.

Firstly, let's kick out one thing — the word punk to me is a totally irrelevant name for a very important stance of freshness, image plus its rock roots. I like the idea of three or four proud, loud dudes erupting in three chord frenzies and the explorative trip from $C$ to $A$ minor.

Can you imagine what it does to young new wave heads when they find out that there are symphonies in rock ’n’ roll too?

To me, it will always be the teenage dream personified. In this stale time for rock and roll maybe we’ll get freedom through punk. Let’s hope they try and do what I tried in the beginning and get the prices of tickets and records down and all that.

This terrible thing exists about instant wealth. People think that just because you fill a couple of concerts and get an album in the charts, you’re automatically rich. The implication is that if a group is successful they can no longer be punk. And if a group plays at the Rainbow like the Clash ... they also had FIVE groups on the bill with them, so I can’t see how anyone made a penny. Half the place was ripped to pieces and that has to be paid for.

Clash may have an album in the charts — fine — but even in my Tyrannosaurus Rex days when I had had four hit albums, by the end of that time I was super skint — and I’d made about 10 grand!

That sort of success didn’t change my life. I still lived in Notting Hill Gate , and so will these guys. You don’t instantly get showered in platinum albums and millions of Rolls Royces . That’s a fantasy. You work twice as hard, do twice as many gigs, get twice as many roadies and end up with twice as many headaches. But hopefully, make music that’s twice as good.

Beer belly

Sometimes you lose the music completely, because the only thing you get given you is lots of booze. It's automatically made available and you practically become an alcoholic. Take Rat Scabies ... he was on my tour for three days and got a beer belly. And he worked it off!

The long-term effects of punk rock will be exactly the same as those of glam rock. Major figures will emerge and will last as long as this planet does, like the Stones — who seem to last for ever...

And, there are a lot of groups who will never make it. Recently I mentioned that I would like to produce a new wave band in an interview and I got about a million tapes sent to me, most of which are rubbish. But I would still love to produce a good new wave band and give them freedom. If you can play three chords really fast doesn’t make you good, but I think that’s already been established.

It will probably take a year for the British new wave to be marketable in America simply because nearly all those groups are loud and have a lot of energy — that’s a great asset in the States .

And there are others — take Iggy Pop for example. He’s just broken big in America . His album went straight into the charts at Number 50 . He is amazing!

The time is now right for Iggy . He’s a very mature artist, great on stage and by far out Jaggers Jagger . He is a much bigger talent on stage and for once he has a record company behind him.

The Clash success has a lot to do with the CBS people, they did a very good job. The only reason that The Damned’s album didn’t go Top 10 was because it was the first.

So where does new wave leave me and my friends? It’s not going to affect the sales of Led Zeppelin’s records, nor is it going to stop Abba selling. New wave is a whole different section of a new market.

Led Zeppelin are currently doing a very successful tour of the States . They’ll go on to become the musical equivalents of Paul Newman , Steve McQueen and Robert Redford — then you have Al Pacino and James Caan and under them you have the new stars like Richard Dreyfus . Rock becomes like the Hollywood star system.

Bleach

It follows the same pattern of maturity and success. It does change — Led Zeppelin matured, T Rex are in the middle. Give me two more years and I’ll be mature. I’m not a punk and I don’t profess to be one. I’m not 18 and living on a council estate, I’ve done that, that’s why I can understand it but I have no category because I’m a classless person.

The punk fashion scene is also interesting. I was the first person to have Levis and then, they were a very important thing to own. I used to put a brand new pair of jeans into a bowl of bleach to get all the holes in them, so that ain’t a new look.

I wore leather jackets then. I always had a zip-up leather jacket. It was part of the look. But there was two looks — you had one for one day and the next you’d wear suits like The Jam . I just had to vary the styles a bit... I had imagination.

In the same way that I can now talk about the new sound I can go home and listen to 'My Baby Left Me' by Elvis Presley and get just as much satisfaction. In fact, I've got a song called 'Mona' from the new Beach Boys album which I think is phenomenal. I played it 25 times this morning and they're supposed to be a dinosaur group!

TOUR DATES.

EUROPE

26th PARADISO, AMSTERDAM, HOLLAND
27th
28th (PARIS T.V.) } FRANCE.
29th PARIS.
30th RHEIMS.
1st OCT. ZURICH SWITZERLAND.
2nd VIENNA AUSTRIA.
3rd
4th MUNICH. } GERMANY.
5th FRANKFURT
6th HAMBURG
7th MALMO
8th RONNEBY / STOCKHOLM ? } SWEDEN.
9th OREBRO

UNITED KINGDOM

OCT.

20th ~~ DUBLIN STADIUM. ~~ } BELFAST *
21 ~~ CORK T.B.A. ~~ } EIRA / DUBLIN. *
22 BELFAST ULSTER HALL. LIVERPOOL STADIUM.
23
24 NEWCASTLE POLY. DUNFERMLINE * KINEMA ( BILL DOUGLAS. )
25 GLASGOW APOLLO.
26 ~~ EDINBURGH ODEON. ~~ LEITH THEATRE *
27 LEEDS UNIVERSITY.
28 NEWCASTLE POLY *
29 MANCHESTER APOLLO.
30 STOKE VICTORIA HALLS.
31

NOV.

1 SHEFFIELD TOP RANK *
2 BRADFORD UNIV. *
3 DARBY KINGS HALL *
4 CARDIFF UNIVERSITY *
5 ~~ IPSWICH CORN EXCHANGE ~~ *
6 ~~ NORWICH ST ANDREWS HALL ~~
7 ~~ BIRMINGHAM ODEON. ~~ GAUMONT?

A Silvertone memo book containing nineteen pages of handwritten notes regarding The Clash's first European tour from their trusted roadie Steve "Roadent" Conolly. The notes include addresses (including one for John Lennon's Dakota New York address), phone numbers and guitar/amplifier/instrument lists, etc. Featured is an itinerary of European and UK tour dates for The Clash. These includes dates from September 26th through December 20th. Measures 4 x 6.25, some of the pages are detached from the binding. Comes with a Gotta Have Rock & Roll Certificate of Authenticity.

MUSIC ON FRIDAY

IS PUNK SO SHOCKING?

Asks Elaine Williams

WHAT’S all the fuss about, that’s what I want to know. Call it what you like, punk or new wave , it’s certainly causing shock waves.

There have been rumours of councils up in arms and banning gigs because of punk horror stories and this current atmosphere showed at the recent gig given by The Clash at Nottingham Palais .

The Clash had already cancelled one appearance at the Palais because of illness in the band and it was doubtful whether the band would appear this time.

The music papers were full of new wave gigs being banned after The Clash played at the London Rainbow Theatre and seats were ripped out.

Since then bands such as The Damned and The Stranglers have been having trouble all along the line — audience numbers have been limited and gigs banned for something which wasn’t even their doing.

Why ban The Stranglers ? ... a bunch of unemployed teachers who got together to play some honest to goodness dynamic music. A few naughty words?

Fortunately The Clash were allowed to play at Nottingham but police were ready for trouble outside, bouncers looked on suspiciously and there was only coke to drink at the bar.

They need’nt have gone to such trouble because everybody went there to enjoy the music.

As soon as Joe Strummer ( best rhythm guitarist in the business by the way ) struck up that first chord, the audience were away, jumping up and down, shouting out the words to the songs singing along in complete abandon.

Nottingham’s Palais was silent as people staggered away from the stage out into the streets.

Police and management, prepared for a frenzied onslaught of raging punks looked on redundant. They needn’t have worried themselves.

Chart of the week

NEW WAVE Top Singles 1-10

SEX PISTOLS — God Save The Queen
CLASH — London’s Burning
CHELSEA — Right To Work
JAM — In The City
CORTINAS — Fascist Dictator
SAINTS — I’m Stranded
RADIATORS FROM SPACE — Television Screen
STRANGLERS — Peaches
HEARTBREAKERS — Chinese Rocks
BLUES — I Ain’t Your Son

top L.P.s

CLASH — Clash
JAM — In The City
STRANGLERS — Rattus Norvegicus
TELEVISION — Marquee Moon
RAMONES — Leave Home
SAINTS — I’m Stranded
IGGY POP — Raw Power
JONATHAN RICHMAN — Rock ’n’ Roll
M.C.5. — Kick Out The Jams
FLAMING GROOVIES — Still Shakin’

Chart supplied by leading Derby record shop

PUNK ROCK SURVEY

Will success buy an end to the bans?

Are the punk bands managing to beat the bans? Well, according to this week's RECORD MIRROR survey, success is bringing more freedom. As the groups begin to bring in the really big audiences — and the big money — fewer towns and cities feel they can afford to turn them down. Only four of the nine city councils questioned admitted refusing bands gigs. And the promoters felt the problem had either been over-blown — for all groups except the Pistols — or was improving dramatically. Promoters and groups alike agreed there was little real trouble at their gigs — nothing like the problems with the teenybop idols — and several were looking forward to almost total acceptance by winter. So, for the latest news from the men-in-the-know, the groups and their managements, read on.

VENUES ROUND THE COUNTRY HAVE THEY REFUSED BANDS' GIGS?

LONDON : Yes. They don't mention any bands but they insist that it's due to safety problems. LEEDS : No. A spokesman said: "I have no knowledge of it at all. And we certainly have no policy." EDINBURGH : Yes. Mrs Wade , halls manager: "We don't allow heavy bands at all as we have trouble with them." MANCHESTER : Yes. Mr Bee , from the recreation dept.: "It's council policy not to accept any punk rock bands." LIVERPOOL : No. A spokesman for the courts who issue the licences to play said he didn't know of any refusals. But there are good club facilities. GLASGOW : Yes. Mr Horsburgh from Glasgow Council : "We make our decision according to their record at other halls. We refused the Sex Pistols because of the newspaper reports we heard." NORWICH : No. Mr Fitt , halls manager: "We go on previous gigs played. We haven't banned any groups as yet." CARDIFF : No. There have been no applications refused so far. BRISTOL : No. A spokesman said: "We've never banned a group, but we reserve that right."

The promoters speak out

Let them play: That was the plea from the people we asked two weeks ago, about the growing number of council bans on new wave groups. This week, we talk to people on the other side of the fence — the promoters and the groups. MEL BUSH , one of the biggest independent promoters, did the Jam 's show at Hammersmith Odeon . "I've had no problems," he told us. "The idea is to have good relations with the people in charge. If the problems are talked about, they can be overcome." "The new wave thing isn't new, we had the same with Slade and David Cassidy . In fact the teenybop thing is harder to control, because it's hysteria — new wave is just pure excitement." CHRIS PARRY , the Jam 's own promoter, isn't so happy with the Hammersmith Odeon show. City councils have the last word — they issue licences for each concert separately. But, according to Chris , council tactics don't always stop at outright bans. "They have subtle ways of either stopping or putting people off playing," he explained. "At the Odeon , the GLC wouldn't let the bar be opened." "Regulations can be interpreted as the councils' wish. They can make the show uneconomic, or very uncomfortable." "During this tour, we did 36 dates, and, of those, two were pulled out and two were changed." "Soon the acts won't be shocking any more. The media will quieten down, and even the Pistols will become respectable. New wave is big business now. The pure economics make sense — so it will become easier." JOHN JACKSON , who works as the Pistols ' promoter, told us: "People shake when they hear the name! The provinces are being very difficult. The Scandinavian tour went off without a hitch, which indicates that the band themselves are no aggravation." "We will have to find our own insurance, but the band should be able to tour by the end of the year. But we have to think very carefully about where to put them. The Clash did a one-price gig at the Rainbow , and everyone at the back stormed forward, and that was trouble." "I would never consider their act being changed. The only problem is the media — fixing up venues takes a lot of persuasion." THE STRANGLERS and Australian band the Saints don't seem to have had much trouble. Said Derek Savage , the Stranglers ' promoter: "A couple of gigs have been blacked. But the Stranglers have been on the road before and they never had any trouble." "We mainly do Top Rank ballrooms and college gigs. The ballrooms have licences for a whole year. If we get any bigger, we'll just do two nights at one ballroom. Halls with seats wouldn't suit us — people should dance to the Stranglers ." Saints ' promoter, John Bagnall said: "Being partly heavy metal instead of pure punk helped. I had very little difficulty getting venues. I'd imagine there would be problems with bigger venues, but we'll play it by ear." GENERATION X , have no complaints — even though they've just had a Glasgow show banned by the council. Their co-manager, Stuart Joseph , said: "A lot of problems are down to inexperienced promoters. The bans have been blown up out of all proportion, mainly by bands who want to make a big noise about not playing, rather than doing great gigs."

Band stand

BUT DO the groups go along with these statements? Here's what some of them had to say: JET BLACK , the Stranglers ' drummer: "We lost about nine dates on the last tour through the councils. It was a tremendous problem re-fixing shows. It's obviously an over-reaction — decisions are being made by people who know nothing about the music. It's a ridiculous attitude. I don't see that our songs preach corruption. Maybe they feel social comment is getting at them." CHRIS NOTT , the Victims ' lead singer: "All they're doing is jumping on the bandwagon in banning new wave. They're frightened of the kids rebelling against the system. The councils and whatever they stand for must have something against youth." BERNIE RHODES , the Clash 's manager: "It's stupid, it's like art schools being run by the guy who cleans the toilets. All the trouble between the punks and Teds is because they're bored. If they had a place to go, an all-day venue where they could see bands then they could keep out of trouble." KYM BRADSHAW , bassist with the Saints : "It's getting better. Most bands are OK — other than the Sex Pistols — and there are so many that people soon won't be able to afford to refuse them venues." "My main complaint is with the facilities. Often venues are ridiculously overcrowded. If you can't see the group, it's as bad as going to Earls Court ." KENNY STUART , lead singer with Dirty Tricks : "Promoters often don't give a damn about the band — just getting the money. They could do much more for up and coming bands, who really need better treatment to gain confidence." "It's a shame new wave bands have problems getting venues. A few places with proper facilities are needed desperately now." "Often the dressing rooms are dirty, and it can be impossible to get a glass of beer."

The last word should go to someone with first hand experience of new wave gigs, who's put them on regularly, and is prepared to continue doing so. Tony Brainsbury owns the Brunel Rooms , Swindon , and has put on the Ramones , Talking Heads , the Damned , the Jam and the Vibrators . "And we've had no trouble," he says. "Not even a light bulb smashed. The music is aggressive, but that's what the young people want. I've seen more rowdiness at a hunt ball."

DAY TWO: THE TRUTH ABOUT BRITAIN’S MOST NOTORIOUS BAND

FOR the past year every move the Sex Pistols have made seems to have caused an uproar. For the man behind Britain’s top punk rock band it has been twelve months of almost nonstop controversy. Here we examine how he put them where they are now.

THE PUNKS’ Mr FIX-IT

By GLORIA STEWART

WITHOUT 29-year-old Malcolm McLaren there would be no Sex Pistols . It was Malcolm who found the band members and moulded them into a dynamic, abrasive unit.

True, they didn’t take a lot of finding—they used to hang out at his shop in London’s King’s Road .

But it was McLaren who channelled their music into what the Blank Generation needed, a generation on the dole without much recognisable future.

McLaren told me: "I’m into power, believing in yourself and your own abilities. Don’t think the rock crowd’s conflict ends at 30. And let’s face the fact is it’s all changed."

"Punk is the small spark of apathy. The Sex Pistols started a spark of life and energy which has now turned into a flame fire. The everyday rose of the dole queue were poverty-stricken springs—financially and creatively."

"Punk means they gave him an outright frontal attack on the system."

System

"Don't forget this was a generation brought up on distant popstars who lived like kings on the proceeds from their tax havens. When they went to gigs they turned up in big limousines."

"Today the old system hardly makes music any more. £15,000-worth of equipment, which needs big stars and agents. The punk wants to be in touch with the band, not standing miles away with rows of amplifiers in between. So gigs are small and cheap."

That’s why the record companies have been having palpitations lately.

"Long-established stars are frightened. We constitute a huge challenge to the whole way the record business is organised."

"After the advent of the Sex Pistols some 300 bands have been inspired to try their hands, regardless of whether they play in tune or not."

"Without having what the music men needed and wanted, we would have been nothing."

Having established the fundamentals, McLaren started wheeling and dealing. Business meetings on behalf of the band occupy almost every waking minute of his life.

First he got a recording contract from EMI .

"We couldn't believe our luck," said McLaren .

It was not to last long. Not after the late Bill Grundy on Thames TV .

" EMI paid a thousand deaths and, finally, pulled out after two and a half months. The band and I wanted an interview with Sir John Read , the chairman. We were in Holland at the time."

"The message came back. No interview. No reasons. Just tell them they can have the money. They are surplus."

EMI retain this, saying we mutually agreed to terminate the contract.

Scrap

"Our next recording company was A and M . That too soon dissolved. Seven days in all," McLaren recalls.

"We seem to have been fired by A and M after a party at the Footlights in Margaret Street . We signed with the Sex Pistols and into a scrap with Bob Harris from BBC’s ' Old Grey Whistle Test '."

Derek Green of A and M says: "The Sex Pistols were the quickest success I ever had. But I changed my mind. I decided that, to be involved in what they did outside their music."

Perform

McLaren then negotiated with Virgin Records . For months I couldn't get through the door of any record company except Virgin now,"* says McLaren .

"While all this was going on we could not perform in Britain whatsoever. That was why we decided that if we couldn't perform to live audiences, at least we'd get the power of the band on film. We brought in American director Russ Meyer ."

" Warners put up $800,000 for pre-production. And the U.K. end of Twentieth Century Fox were saying they were very interested indeed."

But, at the eleventh hour, Grace Kelly and Earl Lord Jr , the major shareholders of the part of the company, decided not to proceed.

The Russ Meyer script didn't really work out so we are now proceeding with Peter Walker , an English director. On our McLaren continues with the band still. Next he thinks and the cry would go up. "Plans for Mr. McLaren , Los Angeles for Mr. McLaren ."

Working

Of 29 he would tape in his black leather trousers, long aquamarine coat, and 1950s-style creepers. Beneath the tangled mop of red hair his brain would be ticking away.

Whether he was adding to the fighting for the group or having an interview with a Dutch record company representative, he would be working like mad.

To skin photographers, the promoters, the crowd, they were all important. So great ideas were discarded.

At home in London , as well as running the Sex Pistols , he contributes ideas to Seditionaries , the punk centre for fashion, a shop run by McLaren's lady, Vivienne Westwood .

And meanwhile he is preparing a tour of America .

Bovver in black leather

IN London’s King’s Road one afternoon I spoke to three punks from Brith .

All were wearing silver-studded black leather jackets, trousers with zips up the back, and chains.

All three said they were under constant police surveillance whenever they went out in their punk gear.

Jean Mahoney told me: "If I’m out with these (the two boys) we are always getting 'pulled' by the police. If we’re in a car it has to be searched."

Studs

"It’s just our clothes. Nothing else. The other day a copper told me my dog collar with studs on was an offensive weapon."

Nineteen-year-old Jean is an office worker, but she doesn’t wear her gear to work.

Little Dave Stow , a 19-year-old printing worker, said: "I got interested in punk because it was outrageous. It shocked people. It makes you really independent when you get insulted at school."

"We figure out we’re hated by the Teds . For National Front guys who hate the Punks and have set the Teds on to us."

Dave says: "Because you might see a punk wearing a swastika, he supports Hitler. He's probably wearing it for no reason at all."

"The Teds all hang out at the main line stations late at night, waiting for any punks to turn up."

Or they go down to the gigs just to smash the place up.

"The black punks are all right. Got nuthin' against them. Punk’s really good for people. After a gig you are so exhausted you just want to go straight home."

"Those Teds don't half chase you through windows sometimes. One girl got put through a plate glass window in Oxford Street ."

"I’m interested in the words of the songs. They really get into your head."

POWER PACK: punk singer Poly Styrene.

"Now I’ve got a purpose in life"

IN the packing order of punk there is a definite hierarchy.

After the Pistols come The Clash and The Stranglers , two groups who have been variously banned or not allowed to play part of a punk pedigree.

But The Clash seem to have neglected their humble origins lately and were rumoured to have gone first class to Ireland to go away to Jamaica ; very “non punk.”

The fans were seen riding round in a Rolls-Royce , so that disposal of them.

After these more famous bands come the Irish Brixton area shoes where it is good to have come from.

At last, with Brixton as a brand as a background there is less chance of being considered a “poser” or fake, the worst crime in the book.

I had a closer look at two more bands, X-Ray Spex and Radiators From Space .

Power

X-Ray's lead singer, Poly Styrene , is a diminutive girl with a silver brace around her teeth. Her band has strength and power.

Poly has successfully bridged the gap between black and white. She is white, but has a black dad.

Poly yet set herself deliberately to be the very opposite of the traditional pop star sex symbol.

She wears a man's jacket, ankle-socks and wildly unattractive bright pinks and grays. Her fans, like the Pistols , are full of hate at our society. "My mind is like a plastic bag."

"I never knew what I wanted to do when I left school."

"They always used to say work hard at school and you'll get a good job. But all the jobs were the same—jack boring."

"Then I started getting a band together. That gave me a purpose in life."

Poly is the only girl singer I have heard among punk bands whose voice is strong enough to soar above the massive noise and keep its sharpness.

Another interesting band with plenty to say about society is Radiators From Space .

Their 19-year-old lead singer, Phil Chevron , who sports a silver tooth in the front of his mouth said:

"Our theme is: Re-evaluate your whole life. Don't follow leaders. Think for yourself. You must find your personal solution."

"In a way, society has died. It is very difficult to know what's wrong."

Tough

"We take an aggressive stance—it is quite the reverse of the hippie world of the sixties with Love and Peace."

"We are hard, tough and aggressive, because we think this is the only way to effect any change."

"Everyone outside punk thinks pogoing (the leaping up and down punk dance) is dangerous. People are just enjoying themselves."

With their recent " TV Tube Heart " Radiators from Venus attack TV and the way it stops the younger generation from thinking for itself.

That goes down well with the crowd. And perhaps explains why few punk bands choose to go on " Top of the Pops ," considered by punk groups to be an artificial substitute for music.

Would you like me to find more historical articles about the 1970s London punk scene?

---

Punk in Trondheim

"Folk song is passivating and numbing"

Norway's only punk magazine is published in Trondheim and is called ROCKEFILLA . We wrote to Rockefilla and asked them to tell us about Trondheim as a punk city. Instead, there came a demand to include a free advertisement for Rockefilla . Here it comes. (?)

For us punks here in the city, it has been a hard time with a lack of records and understanding. The record shops have finally discovered that there is money in punk too; it sells. People like having something new all the time that they can misunderstand and destroy.

There is no punk scene here in the city. The only thing is that a few people are hung up on punk. The others, unfortunately, take the wave as a new fashion, i.e., because of all the crap written in the bourgeois press about punk. Most of the so-called punks are conservative, usually wearing fashionable clothes and listening to the other type of music.

(Music can be divided into punk and non-punk.)

The point of the wave is, after all, that we should have a little fun in the damn boring 1977 — the musicians still believe in what they are doing. On the other hand, it MUST also be practically revolutionary: it shall be contemptuous of authorities such as capitalism/fascism/nationalism/nazism, religions, and the sanctification of, among others, humans. The revolution must be lived in everyday life — otherwise, it’s dead, for fuck's sake. Hatred must flare up, or else it will only be another failed rebellion like the previous two. The way the hatred comes forward may seem idiotic, but it is practical. Violence is necessary in a violent society.

At the Sex Pistols concert in Trondheim , there were a lot of reactionary kids who dug their songs. I don’t fucking like that — the band hates the audience because they refuse to understand anything. (That’s why they spit and burp.)

Anarchy in the UK and I Wanna Be Me are among the most political lyrics I’ve heard. And what music to go with it! It’s clear that politics doesn’t suit folk songs as political music traditionally has done. "Folk song is passivating and numbing — people don’t get an energy kick, they just mumble along."

Shoot all cozy folk singers.

Rockefilla is Norway's only punk magazine and can be obtained by sending 2kr via postal payment slip to Åge Utnes , Vollabakken 28 , 7000 Trondheim . The next issue arrives in early September with, among other things, a report from a super-conversation with Johnny Rotten .

Rock against fascism .

Pønk i Trondheim

"Visesang er passiviserende og sløvende"

Norges eneste pønkeblad kommer ut i Trondheim og heter ROCKEFILLA . Vi skrev til Rockefilla og ba dem berette om Trondheim som pønk-by. I stedet kom et krav om å ta inn gratisannonse for Rockefilla . Her kommer den. (?)

For oss pønkere her i byen har det vært en hard tid med mangel på plater og forståelse. Platesjappene har omsider oppdaget at det er penger i pønk også, det selger. Folk liker jo å ha noe nytt hele tiden som de kan misforstå og ødelegge.

Det er ikke noe pønkemiljø her i byen. Det eneste er at noen få er opphengt på pønk. De andre tar beklageligvis bølgen som en ny mote, dvs. pga. all den dritten som er skrevet i borgerpressa om pønk. De fleste av de såkalte pønkere er konservative som vanligvis går i moteklær og hører på den andre typen musikk.

(Musikk kan deles opp i pønk og ikke-pønk.)

Meningen med bølgen er jo at vi skal få det litt moro i det drittkjedelige 1977 — musikerne tror allikevel på det de holder på med. På den annen side SKAL den også være praktisk revolusjonær: den skal være foraktelig mot autoriteter som kapitalisme/fascisme/nasjonalisme/nazisme, religioner og helliggjørelse av bl.a. mennesker. Revolusjonen må leves i hverdagen — ellers er'n dau for faen. Hatet må blusse opp ellers blir det kun et nytt mislykket opprør som de to forrige. Måten hatet kommer fram på kan virke idiotisk, men den er praktisk. Vold må til i et voldssamfunn.

På Sex Pistols -konserten i Trondheim var det en masse reaksjonære unger som digga låtene deres. Det liker jeg faen ikke — bandet hater jo publikum for at de nekter å forstå noe. (Derfor spytter og raper de.)

Anarcy in the UK og I wanna be me er blant de mest politiske tekstene jeg har hørt. Og for en musikk til! Det er klart at politikk ikke passer til visesang slik politisk musikk tradisjonelt har gjort. "Visesang er passiviserende og nedsløvende — folk får ikke noe energikick, men bare laller med."

Skyte alle koselige visesangere.

Rockefilla er Norges eneste pønkeblad og kan fåes ved å sende 2kr. med postinnbetalingsblankett til Åge Utnes , Vollabakken 28 , 7000 Trondheim . Neste nummer kommer i begynnelsen av september med bl.a. referat fra en super-samtale med Johnny Rotten .

Rock against fascism .

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