America’s Dreaming: California Punk, 1978

25.8.78: This is my first visit to the U.S., let alone the West Coast, and I know that I’m on another planet, especially when, at the Griffith Park Observatory, the blood-red moon bathes an endless strip of freeways with an apocalyptic, killing glow. Laurie has spent the day in driving me round a succession of thrift stores, where we load up on Martin Denny albums and tab-collared shirts – impossible to find in the UK.