Punk and Hardcore
MC5: An Interview with Rob Tyner
Interview by John Sinclair, Warren-Forest Sun, The, May 1967
The following interview with ROBIN TYNER, the lead singer of the MC5, the major Detroit avant-rock band, was recorded by JOHN SINCLAIR in the first ...
Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground c/o New York, NY
Report and Interview by Robert Greenfield, Fusion, March 1970
NONE OF THIS concerns anything except maybe the back room at Max's Kansas City, which is on Union Square in Manhattan but not worth finding ...
Overview by uncredited writer, Shakin' Street Gazette, November 1974
THIS IS YOUR BIG CHANCE! Yes, it’s all coming back. Following the rock & roll revival, the surf music revival, and the reggae revival, the ...
Television, Talking Heads, Ramones, The: Punk Rock: Its Day Will Come
Report by Wayne Robins, Newsday, January 1976
IF YOU thought Jefferson Airplane was a weird name, let some of these drop off your tongue. Talking Heads. Tuff Darts. Ramones. Planets. Heartbreakers. Shirts. ...
Report by Nick Kent, NME, March 1976
In downtown Manhattan the rock 'n' roll war rages on as potential crown princes of Punkdom battle for recognition.. NICK KENT interprets the action ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols are four months old...
Report and Interview by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, April 1976
THE SEX PISTOLS are four months old, so tuned in to the present that it's hard to find a place to play. Yet they already ...
Interview by Lisa Persky, New York Rocker, May 1976
Suicide Note: "The thought of suicide is a great consolation; with the help of it, one has got through many a bad night."– F. Nietzsche ...
Essay by Mick Farren, NME, June 1976
AS YOU CAN all quite well-imagine, the letters that get themselves printed in Gasbag (or Dogbag or Ratbag or Scumbag or whatever jiveass name we've ...
Ramones, The: The Ramones: Ramones (Sire Import)
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, July 1976
PHEW, WHAT A scorcher! From the opening call to action of 'Blitzkrieg Bop' to the last strung-out powerchord of 'Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World', ...
Live Review by Max Bell, NME, July 1976
MAYBE IT WAS no accident that the hottest, steamiest, dirtiest night of the year was reserved for July 4. It's not every day that we ...
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, July 1976
ABOVE MANCHESTER'S Free Trade Hall is a little known auditorium, capable of holding some 400, cunningly named the Lesser Hall. Until the Sex Pistols discovered ...
Sex Pistols, The: Punk Rock: Rebels Against the System
Report and Interview by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, August 1976
JOHNNY ROTTEN looks bored. The emphasis is on the word "looks" rather than, as Johnny would have you believe, the word "bored". His clothes, held ...
Kursaal Flyers, The, Clash, The: The Kursaal Flyers/Crazy Cavan/Clash: Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, September 1976
JOE STRUMMER'S Clash--the best new band of the year? Well, some would claim as much. At least you can guarantee that any band ...
Ramones, The: Are the Ramones, or Is the Ramone?
Interview by Lisa Jane Persky, New York Rocker, September 1976
PUNK IS A word described in many dictionaries as that which is used to light fireworks; and in this case it is. Eager to pin ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols: Club De Chalet Du Lac, Paris
Live Review by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, September 1976
PARIS: The Sex Pistols believed the myth that it all happens in Paris. The fans who drove over specially to see the band's first appearance ...
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, September 1976
Our Islington correspondent mingles with the Sex Pistols' portable audience looking for Johnny Rotten's toof. It's incisive stuff… ...
Report by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, October 1976
THE 600-STRONG line, which last Monday straggled across two blocks outside London's 100 Club in Oxford Street, waiting for the Punk Rock Festival to start, ...
Eater, Buzzcocks, The: The Buzzcocks, Eater: Holdsworth Hall, Manchester
Live Review by Paul Morley, NME, October 1976
YOU CAN count on Manchester to be 48 months behind apparent national trends. Like, reggae is largely frowned upon: crunching hard rock bands employing predictable ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers
Profile and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, November 1976
AMONG THE hordes of bands currently playing London's pub and club circuit, the Stranglers are leading contenders to break out and hit unsuspecting mass audiences ...
Patti Smith: The Field Marshall on Portobello Road
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, November 1976
"THIS ALBUM is I think much more feminine than the first album...the rhythm, it's more like ocean. The cuts that I love the best are ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Down And Out And Proud
Interview by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, November 1976
THREE WEEKS AGO at London's ICA, Jane and Shane, regulars on the new-wave punk rock scene, were sprawled at the edge of the stage. Blood ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Barbarellas, Birmingham
Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, November 1976
WEDNESDAY HAD been booked as Punk Night at Barbarellas, an excuse, if nothing else, for the club deejay to fall in love with the sound ...
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, NME, November 1976
MEET MALCOLM McLAREN. He runs a shop called "SEX". He manages a group called THE SEX PISTOLS. He sincerely believes that he and his band ...
Buzzcocks, The: Buzzcocks: Band on the Wall, Electric Circus, Manchester
Live Review by Paul Morley, NME, November 1976
MANCHESTER MADMEN ...
Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols: Rotten To The Core
Interview by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, November 1976
"I had absolutely no interest in singing. I was more interested in being obnoxious." ...
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, December 1976
Palmolive, drums; Kate Korus, rhythm guitar; Suzi Gutsy, bass; Arianna Forster, lead vocals ...
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, December 1976
The Sex Pistols/The Clash/The Heartbreakers /The Buzzcocks: Electric Circus, Manchester ...
Generation X: Central London College of Art and Design
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, December 1976
WITH SIOUXSIE and the Banshees not playing because "they couldn't get it together" and the remaining support act, Eater, being a band that I wouldn't ...
Live Review by Paul Morley, NME, December 1976
THREE DANCE bands playing the Electric Circus for the second time in ten days. They're back because the Circus is one of the very few ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977
THE STRANGLERS slogged through over four hundred gigs in two years building up an ever-increasing following. They did not jump on the punk bandwagon but ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977
IN OCTOBER 1976 Nick Lowe produced the single 'New Rose' in an eight-track recording studio. It was the first U.K. punk sound on vinyl, preceeding ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977
Monday, September 20th: The Sex Pistols, the Clash, Subway Sect, Siouxsie and the Banshees. Tuesday, September 21st: The Damned, Chris Spedding and the Vibrators, the ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977
THE RECORD INDUSTRY is waking up. In October there were rumours about huge deals on the horizon, and Polydor look set to be the first ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, '1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', 1977
WHEN I FIRST interviewed the Clash in their barrack like studio in Chalk Farm, they had yet to sign a record contract, although they were ...
Damned, The: The First European Punk Rock Festival
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion', (Omnibus), 1977
VERY LITTLE ABOUT the festival turned out as planned. Initially the Heartdrops (now the Clash), Richard Hell, the Sex Pistols and Graham Parker and the ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion, 1977
THE SEX PISTOLS made their debut at St Martins School of Art on Friday 6th of November 1975. The irate social secretary cut the power ...
Book Excerpt by Caroline Coon, 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion, 1977
"I want more bands like us. I want people to go out and start something, to see us and start something, or else I'm just ...
Sex Pistols, The, Damned, The: U.K. Report: Sex Pistols And Beyond
Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Rolling Stone, January 1977
LONDON – So this is how legends are born. Not with a song, or even a death, but with an expletive. ...
Buzzcocks, The: Buzzcocks: Teen Rebel Scores £250 From Dad
Profile by Paul Morley, NME, February 1977
This feature bears the New Wave Seal of Quality ...
Live Review by Nick Kent, NME, March 1977
NICK KENT comes out of hiding to offer himself as a 'punk' sacrifice to the ritualistic 'beat' of THE CLASH, THE BUZZCOCKS, THE SUBWAY SECT ...
Clash, The, Buzzcocks, The, Subway Sect, The, Slits, The: The Clash etc: Harlesden's Burning
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, March 1977
The Clash/The Buzzcocks/The Subway Sect/The Slits: Harlesden Colosseum, London ...
Report by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1977
Well, we got through to the second issue despite opposition from the hippies. Anyway, here we are...and it's about time we went Over The Top ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Konkrete Klockwork
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1977
AT THE MOMENT there isn't a group in the New Wave that comes within spitting distance of The Clash, live or on record. Within a ...
Comment by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, April 1977
'STAY TUNED for further developments,' John Ingham said at the end of his 'Rock Special' in SOUNDS October 9, 1976. As he forward-thinkingly observed even ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers: Manchester
Live Review by Paul Morley, NME, April 1977
These young chaps have an album out soon. It would be strange if they didn't ...
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, April 1977
ROXY RATPACK, Saturday nite. Find a friend and stick close: sink or swim. Tony and Julie were right: a club full of 'Wild Boys' outtakes ...
Generation X: The Marquee, London
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, April 1977
THE QUEUE outside looked promising. Over two months since Gen-X had played a London date (barring the infamous Noreik fiasco). As soon as you forced ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers: IV Rattus Norvegicus (United Artists)****
Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, April 1977
I THINK this album will surprise a lot of people. After all (by chance, coincidence and a spot of media manipulation, no less) the Stranglers ...
Live Review by Nick Kent, NME, April 1977
THE JAM WERE scarcely halfway through their set at half past six when the geezer at the door of the Roundhouse told the 300-plus still ...
Adverts, The, Damned, The, Motorhead: The Damned/The Adverts/Motorhead: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, April 1977
I FIRST saw the Damned at the Roundhouse last November. Shortly after the release of 'New Rose'. Although the 45 had been successful the set ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers: IV Rattus Norvegicus
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, May 1977
HERE COME the Stranglers with forty minutes of brain-rapingly original spewings like you ain't gonna hear anywhere else. ...
Ramones, The: The Ramones: Leave Home (Sire)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1977
ROCK CRITIC or not, your reviewer resides in the Midwest, and doesn't make it up to Noo Yawk any too often (last such trek occurring ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Palais des Glaces, Paris
Live Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, May 1977
THE AUDIENCE at the Palais des Glaces, a sleazy 30's flea-pit with odd nooks where Parisians indulged in the bourgeois old-wave habit of getting high ...
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, May 1977
"TURN OFF the music – we want to play," R the bassist yelled at the DJ and, before you had time to chuckle at the ...
X-Ray Spex: Man In The Moon, Chelsea
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, May 1977
A SMALLISH basement room, low-ceilinged, with a bar along one wall, and quite plush – tonite healthily full with about 100 people, A stopgap scene ...
Ramones, The, Talking Heads: The Ramones: Gabba Gabba Hey In The UK
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, May 1977
The Ramones/Talking Heads: Eric's, Liverpool ...
Sex Pistols, The, Television: Pimp-Rock?
Comment by Lisa Jane Persky, New York Rocker, June 1977
EVERYTHING happens to us all so quickly these days that even before something is completed, it is dated, labels must be attached for definition and ...
Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols: Silver Jubilation
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, June 1977
A Jubilee special from the ever-patriotic Zigzag team in the form of an almost-exclusive interview with those lovable crop-tops from Shepherd's Bush, the Sex Pistols. ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers: IV Rattus Norvegicus (United Artists)
Review by John Tobler, ZigZag, June 1977
THERE'S LITTLE DOUBT that while the first batch of British new wave albums were by the more outrageous elements, and somehow seemed to rely on ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols: Rotten Is Mum's Boy Shock
Report by Tony Stewart, NME, June 1977
NO MATTER how much criticism a young boy incites by his allegedly outrageous behaviour there's always somebody who will lovingly stand by him. His mum. ...
Gloria Mundi: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Profile and Interview by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, June 1977
AND WHAT did Gloria Mundi's Eddie Maelov get for the courage of his, convictions? ...
Vibrators, The: The Vibrators: Pure Mania
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, June 1977
MMM. PSYCHO daisies. Hid her wid de axe/you better relax. More zoop bop cartoon funnies – this time the movie's speeded up. Laugh this one ...
Sex Pistols, The: What Did You Do On The Jubilee? The Pistols on the Thames
Report by Jon Savage, Sounds, June 1977
BEFORE THE POLICE came, it was a great party. Make that a capital G. ...
Live Review by Paul Morley, NME, June 1977
THERE IS undoubtedly a great deal of refining and cleaning to be done on Buzzcocks' material before the album they can so definitely record comes ...
Sex Pistols, The, Malcolm McLaren: A Non-Interview With Malcolm McLaren
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, June 1977
I VISITED THE office of Glitterbest (Sex Pistols management) recently, accompanied by Tony D. (editor of Ripped & Torn fanzine) to try and arrange an ...
Various: The Roxy London WC2 (Jan-Apr 77) (Harvest)
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, June 1977
AN APPROXIMATE Warhol dictum: ‘In the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes.’ We never had a proper Warhol scene over here, did we? ...
Generation X: We're Not Into The Mindless Drone
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, July 1977
GENERATION X are half way through their soundcheck, and there's a "what shall we play next?" lull in the proceedings. ...
Essay by Alan Betrock, ZigZag, July 1977
2:39 Richard Hell and the Voidoids glide into take one of 'The Plan', a quirky composition, supported by subtle mood changes. At 2:43 it's finished. ...
Saints, The, 999: The Saints, 999: The Nashville, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, NME, July 1977
THERE IS A TEMPTATION to regard The Saints as comic. This stems from a number of idiosyncratic things about them, not least of which is ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, July 1977
GENERATION X. In the 60's: a book wherein 'youth speaks about itself'. In the 70's: a 'new wave' band which does the same, on the ...
Lurkers, The: The Lurkers: Attack Of The Distortion People
Profile and Interview by Jeremy Gluck, Sounds, July 1977
ALLOW ME TO present The Lurkers, whose enlightened adherence to the golden rule of "Three Chords, Three Verses, Three Minutes" definitely fingers them as the ...
Alternative TV: Sniffin' Glue…
Report and Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, July 1977
NOW: THE ROXY these days is not what it was – whatever shrill camera-lens sense of event there was in the Andy Czezowski days has ...
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, July 1977
The Boys ain't no joke ...
Fall, The, Howard Devoto, Buzzcocks, The: Manchester: They Mean It Maaanchester
Overview by Paul Morley, NME, July 1977
MANCHESTER as a Rock and Roll town just didn't use to exist. It fed dutifully off London, and there were frequent visits from groups to ...
Lurkers, The, Generation X: Generation X/The Lurkers: The Marquee, London
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, NME, July 1977
YOU KNOW THAT immense sense of relief that hits you when you get through the one album in every twenty or so that you might ...
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, August 1977
THERE ARE FEW groups I'd rather go and see at the moment than The Slits. They've only been going a few months in their present ...
Generation X: This Canadian Geyser Come to London and Saw Generation X
Report by Jeremy Gluck, Sniffin' Glue, August 1977
"YOUTH, YOUTH, YOUTH". I heard that chorus on a tape just once and spent the whole week mentally playing it over and over. Then I ...
Ramones, The: A Night At The Ramones
Report and Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Pig Paper, The, August 1977
IF YOU weren't square, you weren't there, or something. In other words, the gasping legions of Canadian punkdom filled the aptly-named New Yorker Theatre in ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Social Rehabilitation of the Sex Pistols
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, August 1977
THE PROSPEROUS CYBORGS at the next table in the backroom of this expensive Stockholm eating-place are sloshing down their coffee as fast as they possibly ...
Vibrators, The: The Vibrators: Marquee, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, NME, August 1977
THE TWO-FINGER salute put in a surprise appearance at The Vibrators' gig on Sunday. Whether the dozen pairs of arms frantically waving V signs were ...
Wayne County & The Electric Chairs: Wayne County: Electric Circus, Manchester
Live Review by Paul Morley, NME, August 1977
UPSTAIRS IN THE tiny Electric Circus dressing room Wayne County fussily fumbles and fidgets; he's got to look just right. He's wearing a crisp fawn ...
Adverts, The: Reading The Adverts
Profile and Interview by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, August 1977
THE NEW WAVE scythe has brought about a dual personality in programming for a lot of the more established clubs. ...
Dead Boys, The: The Dead Boys: Pretty Vicious
Profile and Interview by Mary Harron, Sounds, August 1977
THE DEAD BOYS are part of anew generation at CBGB's, a generation that has finally succeeded in erasing that fine line that divides the cool ...
Boomtown Rats: The Boomtown Rats (Ensign)
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, August 1977
OH CHRIST, what will we label them? Rock 'n' Roll, Rhythm & Blues, Pop/New Wave? All tags apply. But no one alone totally fits the ...
Interview by Danny Baker, ZigZag, September 1977
THE ROXY CLUB. Week one. The band bottom of the three playing that night played the night's most exciting set to about 20 people. ...
Rich Kids, The: The Rich Kids: Back With A Bullet
Profile and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, September 1977
COMING DOWN from the Harrow Road by bus, Steve New's getting the rise taken out of him by a bunch of kids because he's wearing ...
Jam, The: The Jam: The Nashville, London
Live Review by Nick Kent, NME, September 1977
THE NEW WAVE scene is arguably more interesting now than ever, as the big five or six bands are being forced to consolidate their first ...
Buzzcocks, The: Whatever Happened To The Buzzcocks?
Interview by Caroline Coon, Sounds, September 1977
Now there's nothing behind meAnd I'm already a has-beenMy future ain't what it wasI think I know the words that I meanYou know me – ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers
Report and Interview by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, September 1977
TW STUDIOS are tucked away behind a drab shopfront off London's Fulham Palace Road. To gain entry you have to go round the side, through ...
Vibrators, The: The Vibrators: The Punks Who Came In From The Cold
Report and Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, September 1977
"I think I ought to make it clear", says Knox, arms waving like flags in a stiff breeze, "that when we first started we were ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers: No More Heroes
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, September 1977
AHHH – BUT these are testing times...now the very real euphoria has subsided, the scales have fallen from my eyes: not recantation, but re-evaluation. Timely ...
Heartbreakers, The: The Heartbreakers: LAMF
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, October 1977
THE HEARBREAKERS are one of my fave live bands. For sheer ecstatic raunch you can't beat 'em. This album has been a long time coming. ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers Do The Pose
Comment by Peter Silverton, Trouser Press, October 1977
EXTREME REACTIONS to the Stranglers are not unusual. Take the case of a mate (well, acquaintance) of mine, Dick O'Dell, tour/road manager for Alex Harvey. ...
Essay by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, October 1977
IT MAY COME as a bit of a shock, especially if you were just getting used to the idea, but Britain's new wave movement is ...
Overview by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, October 1977
After A Glorious Year, British Punks Are Now Absorbed Into The Music Biz Money-go-round ...
Sex Pistols, The: Punk Rock and the Sex Pistols
Overview by Stephen Demorest, Hit Parader, October 1977
Hey, said my name is called disturbance. I'll shout and scream, I'll kill the king,I'll rail at all his servants.–(Rolling Stones, 1968) ...
Heartbreakers, The: Billy, Walter and Johnny: The Heartbreakers
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, October 1977
INTERVIEW TAKES place on a second floor flat, a stone’s throw away from the Thames. Present are: Walter Lure and Billy Rath, singer/guitarist and bassist ...
Report by Chris Salewicz, NME, October 1977
AFTER A WEEK of cloud-sealed gloom the sun shone down on London on Friday pushing the lunchtime temperature to 63 degrees. The vibes seemed auspicious ...
Richard Hell: To Hell and Back: Richard Hell
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, October 1977
"I'M GLAD my name's Hell, because at least those people at the radio stations are gonna have some idea what to expect. I intend to ...
Boys, The: The Boys: Boys In Bondage
Profile and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, October 1977
IF I'D KNOWN what I was letting myself in for when I went to see John Cale at the Roundhouse this Easter, I think I'd ...
Generation X: The Marquee, London
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, October 1977
ROCK ON Indeed.I've finally figured out, after all this time, why, despite the fact that lots of people whose opinions I respect hate them, I ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers: Brunel University, Middlesex
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, October 1977
OF COURSE, what with all those bad reviews the Stranglers have picked up since the release of the new album No More Heroes, you might ...
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, October 1977
Prime Manchester venue closes... Power cut at the Electric Circus ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Who's In Love With Janie Jones?
Interview by Caroline Coon, Sounds, October 1977
DURING THE hot summer of 1976, a No. 31 bus jolts through Notting Hill Gate. On the top deck is Mick Jones, humming a riff. ...
X-Ray Spex: Oh Bondage! Up Yours!
Interview by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, October 1977
"IF SOMEBODY said I was a sex symbol, I'd shave me'ead tomorrer," cackled Poly Styrene. "'Oh Bondage Up Yours' ain't about sex particularly. In fact ...
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, October 1977
"I'M NOT stupid. I know, however successful I get to be right now, that in two, three, maybe four if I'm lucky, years' time, I'll ...
Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols: Spunk Rock
Report by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, October 1977
FOR A MOMENT there I thought I'd stumbled into a dream I just wasn't equipped to handle. All change for Edge City. The punk behind ...
Clash, The: The Clash in Belfast
Report by Caroline Coon, Sounds, October 1977
AT FIRST the band were reluctant to have their photo taken anywhere near the soldiers. "They'll think we're here to entertain the troops," said Strummer. ...
Jam, The: The Jam: Environmental Music
Profile and Interview by Howie Klein, New York Rocker, November 1977
LAST MONTH the Jam travelled to America for a short promotional tour, playing dates in established new wave centers, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, November 1977
THE TITLE SAYS it all really. Ignore the press hysteria, dopey articles in Rolling Stone and cross-country panic/fear/loathing over "those foul-mouthed Sex Pistols". This album ...
Iggy Pop, Ramones, The: Iggy Pop: Cobo Arena, Detroit
Live Review by Lester Bangs, NME, November 1977
Iggy suffers metallic KO, Ramones rule OK? ...
Report and Interview by Paul Morley, NME, November 1977
JIMMY PURSEY bursts upon you. He is a natural. A natural natural. Distortion in the media can colour reputations wrongly, especially the reputation of fulsome ...
The Hollywood Binliner: L.A. Punk
Report by Mick Farren, NME, November 1977
THERE ARE 70 PUNKS IN L.A. – HERE'S MOST OF 'EM... ...
Live Review by Paul Rambali, NME, November 1977
THERE IS something about the Music Machine in Camden Town that severely dulls one's capacity for enjoyment of an evening of live rock. ...
Damned, The: The Damned: Music For Pleasure
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, November 1977
CATCHING SIGHT of the title in a news column, I wondered. 'Music For Pleasure'? Have the dervish-like Damned decided to junk all this credibility rubbish, ...
Ramones, The: The Ramones: Rocket to Russia
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1977
WHO DOESN'T LIKE the Ramones? Nobody, that's who – unless they're dead or M. Black of Norwich or something. I've had this LP for three ...
Clash, The, Lester Bangs: The Clash: Clash City Rockers On Tour
Report by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1977
DERBY KING'S HALL. The thickset geezer with the appearance of a frustrated rugby player – too short to make the scrum but just as tough ...
Alternative TV: ATV: Is As Wonderful
Profile and Interview by Danny Baker, ZigZag, December 1977
I WAS AT ONE of Steve Mick's bi-annual parties, (baffling, rambling affairs – you want to find your long-lost aunt? Come in and prowl around, ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers: No More Heroes
Comment by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, December 1977
IT'S SO HARD to decode the Stranglers. After you've gone through the easy observations about Dave Greenfield's keyboard sound and its relationship to Ray Manzarek, ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, December 1977
PREMISE: Record company executives have been skipping the brandy on their expense account lunches in their eagerness to sign up any band that can loosely ...
Generation X: Roundhouse, Chalk Farm
Live Review by Nick Kent, NME, December 1977
THE FIRST TIME I encountered Generation X (or at least their lead singer/figurehead Billy Idol) it left an unpleasant taste in my mouth. ...
Sid Vicious, Sex Pistols, The: The Sid Vicious Guide To London Hotels
Report by Nick Kent, NME, December 1977
IT WAS AT THE A&M Sex Pistols press conference, convened early this year, that newly appointed group bassist Sid Vicious gave his brusque views on ...
Various Artists: Live At The Vortex
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, December 1977
HA. ANOTHER sledge-hammer blow pulping revolt into style...At least might someone have the good grace and honesty to stick 'Punk (a/k/a 'New/Wave') Sampler' on the ...
Sex Pistols, The, Sid Vicious: Never Mind The Sex Pistols, Here Comes The Wrath Of Sid!
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, NME, December 1977
IT WAS the last day in November when the whole ugly mess finally exploded. Sid Vicious, the bass player of The Sex Pistols, had once ...
Penetration: The Future Is Female
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, December 1977
ACCELERATION DON'T go to my head...London – a module, self-contained, trapped in an ever-accelerating time/style warp: a week seems like a month in our brave ...
Nuns, The: The Nuns: Whisky a Go Go, L.A.
Live Review by Howie Klein, New York Rocker, 1978
SOMEHOW THE NUNS manage to transcend the traditionally (like in "traditionally moronic") rivalry between San Francisco and LA. Perhaps that’s because the Nuns are as ...
Slits, The: The Slits: Holland Park School, London
Live Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, January 1978
I BURBLED MY feelings about The Slits for four pages in ZZ75 last July, and happily that resulted in crazed Radio One producer and Zigzag ...
Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols: Few Waves Made During Tour Of U.S.
Report by Susan Compo, Santa Ana Register, January 1978
IT'S NOT SURPRISING that Britain's punk rockers, the Sex Pistols, found San Francisco "boring". The city that was to be the last stop on the ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols: Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, January 1978
HO HUM, ANOTHER album from the Pistols. No, seriously, this is it. After all the controversy, bannings, bullshit and speculation, the Pistols finally have something ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols Are Cocked
Report by Wesley Strick, Circus, January 1978
Will Their Punk Madness Spread to the States? ...
Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols in Memphis
Report by Dave Schulps, Sounds, January 1978
ITEM: Officers of the Memphis, Tennessee Vice Squad attended the Sex Pistols' American debut performance in Atlanta on Thursday just to make certain that the ...
Damned, The: The Torments of The Damned
Report by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, January 1978
(a somewhat sobering cautionary tale of our time)Charles Shaar Murray asks, is that a light at the end of the tunnel – or another oncoming ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: A World Domination By 1984 Special
Profile and Interview by Paul Morley, NME, January 1978
This is Siouxsie and the Banshees/They are patient/They will win/In the end. ...
Ramones, The: The Ramones: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, January 1978
VERMILION, AFTERWARDS (taking in with a sweep of her arm the splendid rococo-deco vastness of the Rainbow gallery): "Rock'n'roll belongs in the pits, not here". ...
Viletones, The: The Viletones: The Four Viletones Of The Apocalypse
Profile by Jeremy Gluck, Sounds, January 1978
FORGET NEW York, Give London a pass. Come instead to Toronto, Canada's fun city. Join the revellers at David's where, on certain choice nights, you ...
Slaughter and the Dogs: Marquee Club, London
Live Review by Paul Rambali, NME, January 1978
NINTEEN seventy-seven happened pretty fast. ...
Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols: This Could Be The Last Time
Report by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, January 1978
HYSTERIA! Disgust! Bemusement! Perplexity! The hip, FM radio dj still can't believe it. The Sex Pistols in San Francisco – heavee, man! Back in Hollywood, ...
Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols: Tour Notes
Report by Howie Klein, New York Rocker, February 1978
In case you were incommunicado for the last month, the much-ballyhooed Sex Pistols American tour has come and gone. ...
Clash, The: The Clash's Joe Strummer (1978)
Interview by Howie Klein, Rock's Backpages Audio, February 1978
A typically splendid Strummer interview: He explains Ska! He digs Steve Miller! He prefers the Sun to the Guardian! He's in hospital with hepatitis! Plus stuff on gobbing, politics, the upcoming 2nd Clash album etc.
File format: mp3; file size: 25mb, interview length: 27' 17" sound quality: ***
Sex Pistols, The, Sid Vicious: An Evening with Sid and Nancy – The Odd Couple Behind Closed Doors.
Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, February 1978
SWAYING CRAZILY, Sid Vicious clambers up off the bed. He manages the three or four steps to where, obeying live-in-lover Nancy's instructions, he removes the ...
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, February 1978
THE WORST THEN. The name? Aha an apt trap. Illustrating at once the extreme that they are, yet at the same time to ...
Adam & The Ants: Marquee Club, London
Live Review by Nick Kent, NME, February 1978
Termites devour part of New Wave ...
Live Review by Paul Morley, NME, February 1978
999 ARE A heavy-pop quartet signed favourably to United Artists. They are, in effect, on the verge of some kind of breakthrough. A likeable bunch ...
Adverts, The: The Adverts: Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, February 1978
ONCE UPON a time, the fastest way of revealing yourself as an Old Fart Who Didn't Understand The New Wave was to allege – in ...
John Lydon, Sex Pistols, The: John Lydon: Man A Warrior – The Interview part 1
Report and Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, March 1978
There's only one place to be late at night in Jamaica – tuned in to radio JBC, the man Michael Campbell, the man they call ...
Angelic Upstarts: Bolingbroke Hall, South Shields
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, March 1978
I WAS starting to think the whole thing had gone down the toilet. All the energy and the anger. Suddenly smart suits and cash register ...
Subway Sect, The: The Subway Sect: Bernard Rhodes Great Unknowns Payola Special
Interview by Paul Morley, NME, March 1978
SUBWAY SECT have been together in some form or another since the semi-legendary 100 Club punk festival in September 1976. The line-up on that date ...
Sex Pistols, The, John Lydon: John Lydon: Man A Warrior, part 2
Interview by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, March 1978
CYNICS AMONG the SOUNDS readership may have been wondering why/how our Johnny Rotten underwent such a speedy transformation into this new-fangled character called Johnny Cool, ...
John Lydon, Sex Pistols, The: The Poolside Pronouncements Of Johnny 'No-Tan' Rotten
Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, March 1978
JOHN ROTTEN likes dressing up. Seeing him stuck away under a parasol by the side of the Olympic-sized pool of the Kingston Sheraton at eleven ...
Interview by Gary Pig Gold, Pig Paper, The, April 1978
GARY AND JOHNNY PIG IN A PIGSCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH NAZI DOG AND FREDDY POMPEII ...
Generation X: X Cert For A Teenage Opera
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1978
GENERATION X ARE pissed. Legless. Tony James is sprawled in a dressing room armchair, cradling his bass with a glazed-silly grin spread across the face ...
Angelic Upstarts: What's Going On 'Ere, Then?
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, April 1978
"WHO KILLED Liddle?" On stage a tall young man wearing a police hat, white shirt, trousers and jackboots is down on his hands and knees. ...
999: Briefing For Direct Action
Report and Interview by Jeremy Gluck, Sounds, April 1978
I WOULD HAVE LAUGHED at you for saying as much to me before, but Liverpool, with all its cool, uninspiring streets and grey sky has ...
Report by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, April 1978
...take it from Sue and Sandra ...
Review by Paul Rambali, NME, April 1978
ON PAPER Generation X have their credentials for being The Now Sensation all present and correct. They've had them for a long time too. ...
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, April 1978
"DID YA hear that bit on the news about Charlie Chaplin's body. The IRA claim they took it and now they want ransom for it." ...
Wayne County & The Electric Chairs: Wayne County: County Counsel
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, April 1978
WHEN WAYNE COUNTY left his native state of Georgia, "because it was icky, and I got shot at", he meant to take a trip down ...
Generation X: Generation Rock & Roll Soul
Profile and Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, April 1978
MIDNIGHT IN THE basement console room at Advision Studios, London W1. As Generation X bassist Tony James avidly demands of producer Martin Rushent that he ...
Damned, The: The Damned: Final Spotlight On The Damned
Report by Peter Silverton, Sounds, April 1978
"OOOOOOOOO CAPTAIN," says Helen from Headingley, "you're so cool these days. That jacket" – indicating his sombre black tuxedo affair and matching multi-colour polka-dotted tie ...
Generation X: 'You Can't Help Selling Out'
Report and Interview by Jeremy Gluck, Sounds, April 1978
"MY FRIEND was bawling her eyes out. She asked Billy to kiss her and he did. She just about fainted!" ...
Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, April 1978
SO THERE I was with photographer Harry Murlowski, dozing and half-listening to his interminable, politically-orienated conversation with a couple of hard-core Sham 69 followers in ...
Generation X's Billy Idol (1978)
Interview by Howie Klein, Rock's Backpages Audio, May 1978
The Generation X frontman talks about the evolution and nature of the band, and extemporises about the nature of punk rock and the power of rock'n'roll.
File format: mp3; file size: 46.6mb, interview length: 50' 54" sound quality: ***
X-Ray Spex: Poly Styrene Is Still Strictly Roots
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, May 1978
SUNDAY NIGHT in Croydon, and Poly Styrene's voice is shot. Flu goes for the throat like a cornered rat: when the victim's a singer, the ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, May 1978
SWEET SIOUXSIE and her boys in black play loud, angular, claustrophobic. Batter batter into submission: make you want to do bad things... ...
Adam & The Ants, X-Ray Spex: X-Ray Spex, Adam & The Ants, The Automatics: The Roundhouse, London
Live Review by Ian Penman, NME, May 1978
AS MS. POLY'S strychnine air-raid voice shreds the encore and all present, the audience front-line snaps. ...
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, June 1978
THERE HAVE BEEN quite a few new wave bands who have a strong relationship with their audience, but not a one can compete with Sham ...
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, June 1978
FROM THE VERY start of their recording career, it was obvious that Generation X had some rather unparochial ideas about their role as a punk ...
Sham 69: If The Kids Are United…
Report and Interview by Caroline Coon, Sounds, June 1978
JIMMY PURSEY'S very baggy grey flannels are held up by a brand new pair of white braces. His striped shirt is as clean as five ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols Shoot To The Top
Report by Susan Compo, Santa Ana Register, June 1978
WHEN 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN', a song by British punk-rockers the Sex Pistols, hit the top of the English charts several months ago, it was ...
Clash, The: The Clash: The 'Serious In-Depth Interview' You've Been Waiting For!
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, June 1978
"AAAWOOOEEEUUUOOO, PETE...'ear you bin to the States...how wazzit?" ...
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, June 1978
FEELING RUTHLESS, you could divide the entire spectrum of pop and rock'n'roll into two. ...
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, June 1978
REMEMBERING THAT electricity comes from other planets... ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Banshees: The Unacceptable Face Of '78
Interview by Jon Savage, Sounds, June 1978
'Overground – from abnormalityOverboard – for identityOverground – for normalityOverboard – on identity'– 'Overground' ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Banshees
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, July 1978
"I CAN'T WAIT to get into Polydor and run wild 'round the secretaries and throw all their typewriting paper and get their ribbons twisted. They ...
Alternative TV: The Image Has Cracked
Review by Danny Baker, ZigZag, July 1978
YOU KNOW them "artists" and "reviewers", they ain't never gonna stop. ...
Slaughter and the Dogs: Do It Dog Style
Review by Ian Penman, NME, July 1978
UNFORTUNATELY, A posthumous debut album. Quite something, not even the anti-Christ (Sex Pistols) managed to pull that off. But it is a rather sad, inevitably ...
Alternative TV: The World At Once…Dateline: Stonehenge
Interview by Paul Morley, NME, July 1978
I FOUND myself re-reading Colin Wilsons' prodigal slice of philosophical mythmaking The Outsider the other week. During the time I spent submerging myself gleefully into ...
Undertones, The: The Undertones: Queen's University, Belfast
Live Review by Gavin Martin, NME, July 1978
ON A NIGHT when one of the world's top bands, Ireland's favourite sons Thin Lizzy, were packing them in at the Ulster Hall, it was ...
Specials, The, Clash, The: The Clash/The Specials: Friar's, Aylesbury
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, July 1978
FOR PEOPLE who like to put things in neat little pecking orders – and because of our conditioning there's a lot of them – the ...
Subway Sect, The, Prefects, The: The Prefects, Subway Sect: A Tale Of Two Bands
Profile by Paul Morley, NME, July 1978
TWO GROUPS, both of whom have to some extent followed their instincts. Prefects have always been aware of the area they were aiming for; Subway ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Clash On Tour
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, July 1978
IT'S AS IF THE Clash's 'Police And Thieves' stage backdrop has suddenly transmogrified into moving 3-D. ...
Stiff Little Fingers: The Harp Bar, Belfast
Live Review by Gavin Martin, NME, July 1978
THE HARP Bar is packed for the return of Ulster's most popular and notorious modern rock band, Stiff Little Fingers. ...
Generation X: Why Generation X Are The Best Group In The World
Interview by Jeremy Gluck, Pig Paper, The, August 1978
KEEP THE Sex Pistols (someone is going to have to now), keep The Clash and someone take The Stranglers, please. I've got a group on ...
Adverts, The: The Adverts: The Marquee, London
Live Review by Miles, NME, August 1978
Gobba Gobba On Gaye ...
Suicide, Clash, The: The Clash, Suicide: The Music Machine, London
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, August 1978
TIME HAS come today. Third of four Music Machine gigs and – surprise! – the ritual bottling of Suicide appears to have been omitted for ...
Sham 69: Pursey's Down The Dogtrack
Report and Interview by Danny Baker, NME, August 1978
Sham 69's leader blows his wages, ponders his role, and has a few larfs. DANNY BAKER goes to see an old mate about a dog. ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Bansheed! What's In An Image?
Profile and Interview by Nick Kent, NME, August 1978
JOHN MCKAY, the Banshees' guitarist, has a pale, ashen look constantly playing about his features and talks in measured, serious tones. ...
New Wave Goodbye? Some Thoughts On The Economic State Of The New Wave Industry In America
Overview by Greg Shaw, New York Rocker, September 1978
LET ME BEGIN by saying that I’ve written many articles on New Wave, most of which have dealt with the exciting possibilities of making permanent ...
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, September 1978
LOVE BITES can be: The vice-like heart-grasp of new love: Embarrassing marks on the neck; Romance with a sting in the tail; THE NEW BUZZCOCKS ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, September 1978
"BUT WHY," asks the New York groupie journalist, "do The Stranglers make such inflammatory remarks about Americans? I really don't understand it," she concludes, glancing ...
John Cooper Clarke: Just Another Ex-Gravedigger Poet Into Dada and the TV
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, September 1978
GARRY BUSHELL GOES PUNK-SURREAL ...
Stiff Little Fingers: Electric Ballroom, London
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, September 1978
Let's give the Fingers a big hand ...
Buzzcocks, The: Buzzcocks: Love Bites
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, September 1978
VULNERABILITY MEANS never having to say you're sorry... ...
Buzzcocks, The: The Buzzcocks: Love Bites
Review by Simon Frith, Melody Maker, September 1978
UMMMMM, ON THE cover of their new album the Buzzcocks look yummy enough to wrap up and take home. Love Bites, it's called, but no ...
Ramones, The: The Ramones: A Blitz At The Speed Of Light
Live Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, September 1978
The Ramones: Ulster Hall, Belfast ...
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, September 1978
A LISTLESS GREY shroud hangs gloomily over Manchester as I arrive on this lazy Friday afternoon. From Piccadilly Station, it's a 15-minute walk through the ...
Profile and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, October 1978
IF MY FIRST sight of Jake Burns had been while keeping myself occupied on a bus by speculating on the lives of the other passengers, ...
Skids, The: The Skids: No Comedy, No Intellect, No Politics, No Punk
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, October 1978
GARRY BUSHELL INTERVIEWS THE SKIDS AND GETS CONFUSED (AGAIN). AN EVERYDAY STORY OF SCOTTISH LADS IN A POP GROUP. ...
Penetration: Moving Targets (Virgin)
Review by Paul Morley, NME, October 1978
THIS YEAR A LINE formed. At one end Penetration, and from there through Joy Division, The Mekons, The Slits, The Fall, The Passage, The Pop ...
Penetration: Moving Targets (Virgin)****
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, October 1978
WE'RE NOT the same, you're not the same, they're not the same. ...
Review by Ian Penman, NME, October 1978
AND YES, this unfortunately is where it separates. 999's second album – always a fateful thing – and the illusory packaging hides a regression. ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: The Scream
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, October 1978
NO MATTER what anyone may say or think, the success of 'Hong Kong Garden' was neither predicted nor predictable. Despite its obvious instantness (primarily, of ...
Wayne County & The Electric Chairs: Music Machine, Camden Town, London
Live Review by Paul Morley, NME, October 1978
OCTOBER SEES the inevitable recognition of two of the greatest rock'n'roll performers of all time — Bette Midler and Wayne County who, even before Wayne ...
Sid Vicious: Max's Kansas City, NYC
Live Review by Ira Robbins, NME, October 1978
ON AN unusually busy New York rock night, the attraction of an ex-Pistol was apparently sufficient to pack Max's out for a couple of sets ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Queens University, Belfast
Live Review by Gavin Martin, NME, October 1978
THE LAST time The Clash tried to play The Ulster Hall a combination of big business insurance moguls and local bureaucratic bullshit caused the gig ...
Buzzcocks, The: The Buzzcocks: Top Rank, Shefield
Live Review by Andy Gill, NME, October 1978
Who, exactly, is gobbing on whom? ...
Johnny Thunders: Nothing Is Forever
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, October 1978
Maybe you sneered at the New York Dolls; so maybe you missed a Distant Early Warning of the new wave. Johnny Thunders is back in ...
Rich Kids, The: The Rich Kids: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, October 1978
UNTIL THE RICH KIDS get a few things into perspective – the rather misbegotten and amusing attitude, for instance, that their music goes above the ...
Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols Bootlegs
Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, October 1978
Sex Pistols: Indecent Exposure (It's A Dirty Business) (Rotten Records – bootleg album)'Anarchy In The U.S.A.'/'Belsen Was A Gas' (Rotten Role – bootleg single). ...
Lurkers, The: The Lurkers: Strange Daze In Sheffield (Or Maybe Halifax)
Report and Interview by Paul Morley, NME, October 1978
SOMEONE MUST have been spreading lies about me, for without doing anything wrong I was told to write a feature about The Lurkers. The Man ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Scream
Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, November 1978
FIRST DAY I got it I stunned a full room with this magnificent record...and you should have seen me three hours and four more plays ...
Review by Paul Morley, NME, November 1978
JIMMY PURSEY'S Ulysses – a day in the life of 'a working class kid'. A shrug of the shoulders. ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Black'n White Drop Outasite
Live Review by Ian Penman, NME, November 1978
The Clash: Roxy Theatre, Harlesden ...
Report and Interview by Ian Penman, NME, November 1978
"Every night before I go to sleep/Find a ticket, win a lottery/Scoop the pearls up from the sea/Cash them in and..." ...
Cimarons, The, Sham 69: Sham 69 & The Cimarons: The West Country Invasion Starts Here
Report and Interview by Penny Reel, NME, November 1978
IT WOULD appear that someone's got it in for Jimmy Pursey and Sham 69. You see they're planting stories in the press to the effect ...
X-Ray Spex: Germ Free Adolescents
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, November 1978
"I WANNA BE A FROZEN PEA!" Does Poly Styrene finally make it? Will she really dehydrate? Does she turn into a Teasmade? Will she... ...
X-Ray Spex: X-Ray-Spex: Germ Free Adolescents
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1978
SMASH THE barriers and the truth shall make you free (as long as stocks last, anyway): barriers between humans and objects, between the natural (sic) ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols: Bootleg Albums
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, November 1978
The Sex Pistols: Gun Control/Live at the Rodeo ...
Boomtown Rats: This Feature Is Guaranteed Free From Bob Geldof
Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, November 1978
...THAT'S THE PETE SILVERTON PLEDGE ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Town Hall, Middlesbrough
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, November 1978
PERSPECTIVE. THE Clash are heroes (but not mine). ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Most Elitist Band In The World
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, November 1978
'A gig is often an exaggeration of what we feel every day and therefore it can probably seem a bit ridiculous at times maybe. It ...
Pure Hell: Just Another Bunch Of Middle Class Kids With Silly Names And Spiky Haircuts: Pure Hell
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, November 1978
"H-E-E-EYY..." Pure Hell drummer Spider Blaze tousles his Rita Hayworth red crop and slaps his right palm down on mine, giving me one of those ...
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1978
AND YOU ALL thought, or have been led to believe, that Siouxsie and the Banshees were nothing but grim-faced, black-clad warriors of doom and disorder, ...
Slits, The, Clash, The: The Clash/The Slits: Village Bowl, Bournemouth
Live Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, December 1978
IT'S 5.30 in the morning and for some reason I'm stuck on a ledge halfway down a several hundred foot cliff overhanging Bournemouth beach... And ...
Public Image Ltd: Public Image (Virgin)
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, December 1978
AND THE BOY looked at Johnny. And he shouted: "Look, ma, the Emperor's got no clothes." ...
Snatch Says: "Morons Are Running The Media!"
Interview by Jon Savage, Search & Destroy, Spring 1978
JON SAVAGE interviewed PAT PALLADIN in London a while ago... ...
Report by Larry Jaffee, Imagine, January 1979
SID VICIOUS, bass player for the now-defunct, notorious punk rock band, the Sex Pistols, pleaded not guilty on November 21; at his arraignment to the ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, January 1979
THE CLASH HAVE been through a lot since they last released an album, almost 19 months ago, and so has the scene that they emerged ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Music Machine, London
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, NME, January 1979
LIKE THE few other rock bands that occasionally verge on genius – such at The Rolling Stones and the original Roxy Music – The Clash ...
Generation X: All The Young Dudes
Interview by Nick Kent, NME, January 1979
GLEAN WHAT you will from the shapes of things that came to pass during 1978, but one commodity that was rejected with an almighty vengeance ...
Stiff Little Fingers: Inflammable Material (Rough Trade)
Review by Paul Morley, NME, February 1979
I WAS HARDLY expecting it but...even more so than Never Mind The Bollocks – which turned out to be comedy – much more so than ...
Stiff Little Fingers: Inflammable Material (Rough Trade)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, February 1979
POOR OLD Stiff Little Fingers. They stormed across the Irish Sea last year and confused most people by talking loudly about being Ulster Boys without ...
Report by Kris Needs, NME, February 1979
ON WEDNESDAY, January 31, Sham 69 played their last ever gig. ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols: The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, February 1979
"WHAT NEEDS UNDERSTANDING is the state of paralysis everyone is in..." ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Give 'Em Enough Rope (Epic)
Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, March 1979
FUTURE SHOCK NOW (If You Want It) ...
Clash, The: The Clash: The Fillmore, San Francisco
Live Review by Howie Klein, New York Rocker, March 1979
EXCEPT FOR THE fact that they're probably the best performing band around, there's something almost superfluous to Clashness about the band's shows. Wait a minute ...
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, March 1979
MEDALS FOR bravery should be struck for Billy Idol and his mates in Generation X. Would you, dear reader, like to stand on a stage, ...
Alternative TV: Vibing Up The Senile Man (Deptford Fun City Records)
Review by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, March 1979
WHEN MARK Perry gave up editing Sniffin' Glue, he started a band that has turned out to be a logical extension of the famous punkzine. ...
Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1979
THE SLITS AND me in an Interview Situation, eh? Well, hardly. We just chat away (it was better when the cassette was off but I ...
Sham 69: Jimmy Pursey: The People's Champ
Interview by John Pidgeon, Melody Maker, April 1979
JIM POPS down the betting shop to bung twenty quid on a 10-1 shot in the 3.10 at Newbury, so I give his records the ...
Members, The: The Members: At The Chelsea Nightclub (Virgin)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, April 1979
BEFORE WE start let something be said: if lesser papers want to slag off Sounds they're quite welcome to try, but per-lease don't use the ...
Buzzcocks, The: The Buzzcocks: Inside The Hit Factory
Report and Interview by Peter Silverton, Sounds, April 1979
"It's really amazing. I can just sit there and go dee-da-dee-da-dee, da-dee-da-dee, put some words to it, teach the other three how to play it, ...
Angelic Upstarts: Gonna Be A Prison Break-In
Report by Garry Bushell, Sounds, April 1979
THE BAND THE POLICE LOVE TO HATE INVITED TO DO A PRISON GIG? ...
UK Subs, Specials, The, Damned, The: The Damned/UK Subs/The Specials: The Lyceum, London
Live Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, April 1979
WITH ENOUGH police grouped manacingly outside in coaches, in squad cars and standing around to supervise a couple of Manchester United away fixtures, I suppose ...
Generation X: Valley Of The Dolls (Chrysalis)
Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, April 1979
MOST NEW-WAVE bands decry the jet-set life styles of established rock stars, but it's a safe bet to assume many were attracted to rock by ...
Report and Interview by Stephen Demorest, Creem, May 1979
DURING THE ten days between February 7 and 17, 1979, the people of Iran toppled the Shah; the American ambassador was assassinated in Afghanistan; President ...
Buzzcocks, The: The Buzzcocks: The Other One Speaks!
Interview by Michael Gray, ZigZag, May 1979
WHEN YOU GO and see Buzzcocks, there are four of them. Up at the back, as high on his rostrum as an Old Bailey judge, ...
Undertones, The: The Undertones: The Reluctant Debutantes
Report and Interview by Paul Morley, NME, May 1979
"When the group first started I suppose it's like a phase, y'know, ye want to be a fireman or ye want to be a policeman. ...
999: Feelin' Alright With the Crew
Profile and Interview by Jon Young, Trouser Press, June 1979
ANYONE WHO SEES more than one rock show a year knows that a lot of the glitter wears off after the first few times. Which ...
Ruts, The: The Ruts Bleed For You
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, June 1979
IT WAS ALL going so well too, that was the point. So everyone assumed it was part of the act. I must admit I was ...
Punk Attack: 'The Obituary of Rock and Roll'
Book Review by Dave Marsh, Rolling Stone, June 1979
Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons: The Boy Looked at Johnny (Pluto Press) ...
Stiff Little Fingers: (F)Ireland Rockers
Interview by Garry Bushell, Trouser Press, July 1979
"TAKE A LOOK where you're living/You got the army on your street/ And the RUC dog of repression is barking at your feet..." Jake Burns ...
Penetration: The Whisky, Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, July 1979
I'D SEEN the name around several times, but I'd never seen the band until tonight. Strange how your luck can change. ...
Sham 69, Sex Pistols, The: Goodbye Sham 69
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, July 1979
"WE WANT SHUM! WE WANT SHUM! WE WANT SHUM!" Friday night in Glasgow The Apollo is packed to capacity and if you want understatements the ...
Ramones, The: The Ramones: Rock'n'Roll High School (Sire Import) ****
Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, July 1979
THE ERA of the compilation is upon us, and this soundtrack album of smarties and arties is another rapid fire job, featuring the next best ...
Report and Interview by Paul Morley, NME, July 1979
IT'S OUT of the blue and into the black. A place is left somewhere behind where the front pages of the daily newspapers comment hysterically ...
Angelic Upstarts: Teenage Warning (Warner Brothers)
Review by Paul Morley, NME, August 1979
NEWCASTLE'S Upstarts are already, for obvious and not so obvious reasons, being prepared by the vulture voyeurs as the successors to Sham. I'm not sure ...
Angelic Upstarts: Someone Else's Fight
Report and Interview by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, August 1979
INTOLERANCE FALLS like a heavy pall over the Angelic Upstarts – only they won't lie still and let it settle. Follow them round for a ...
Angelic Upstarts: The Nashville, London
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, August 1979
THE MUSIC Press is a middle class toy, perpetually pampered, easily bored, easily bought off. It's too easy to sit pretty in your safe mortgaged ...
UK Subs: No Change For UK Subs
Interview by Chris Bohn, Melody Maker, August 1979
Finding that tribal punk is still alive...and kicking ...
Stiv Bators, Dead Boys, The: The Resurrection of Stiv Bators
Report and Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, September 1979
STIV BATORS is just about the easiest interviewee I've ever met. Just push "Record" and he'll talk for hours about anything that might make good ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie And The Banshees: Join Hands
Review by Peter Silverton, Sounds, September 1979
WHADDA YA MEAN, is it extreme? Can you honestly imagine the Banshees doing anything —whether it be throwing shapes for a camera, getting dressed for ...
Review by Paul Morley, NME, September 1979
AS THE Slits sing-song: don't take it seriously. ...
Sham 69: The Adventures Of Hersham Boys (Polydor)***
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, September 1979
WHAT DID Sham mean to you? I don't really give a monkey's cos to me and a lot of my mates they were the business. ...
UK Subs: Another Kind Of Blues (Gem)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, September 1979
THIS REVIEW lasts 180 seconds and reads 1-2-3-4. It starts with a loud guitar burst, then bass and drums explode and your voice roars 'GARAGELAND' ...
Buzzcocks, The, Gang of Four: Buzzcocks/Gang Of Four: Club 57, New York, NY
Live Review by Van Gosse, Melody Maker, September 1979
THIS IS the year that the New Wave, or at least its more retrograde element, has finally hit the U.S. charts. Everybody English and short-haired, ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: In Aberdeen...No-one Can Hear You Scream
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, September 1979
THE GEEZER standing next to me in the urinal said "Hey, have you heard the rumour? Two of the Banshees have run off. They're not ...
Overview by Mark Williams, Melody Maker, September 1979
If Los Angeles is the future, how come its bands all sound so backdated? MARK WILLIAMS puts the case for the defence ...
Gang of Four, Buzzcocks, The: The Buzzcocks, Gang of Four: Club 57, New York NY
Live Review by Richard Grabel, NME, September 1979
THIS IS AN interesting juxtaposition: Buzzcocks work on a high energy formula, a formula that works; Gang Of Four work away from formula – they ...
Slaughter and the Dogs: The Boot Boys Are Back In Town
Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, September 1979
"PUNK IS BACK, PUNK IS BACK, WO-AH, WO-AH!" ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: There Was I Waiting At The Church
Interview by Nick Kent, NME, September 1979
NICK KENT feels the wrath of Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin ...
Penetration: Coming Up For Air (Virgin) ****
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, September 1979
UP! THAT'S what Penetration are. Such stimulation. A Japanese masseuse on speciality-of-the-house rates could hardly have tickled more of a tingle into every nerve-end from ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: "Humourless? Us?" - Siouxsie & the Banshees
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, September 1979
"...Thy Kingdom come / They will be done / In Earth as it is in Heaven / Amen... Knock, knocking on Heaven’s door / Let ...
Buzzcocks, The: Buzzcocks: Hey Mac Are You Some Kind Of Limey Pop Star?
Report and Interview by Paul Morley, NME, October 1979
SAT RANDOMLY around a small table are four young men each with dark hair. When they grin, their faces show they see things differently. ...
Jam, The: The Jam: The Revolution Will Start When Paul Weller Has Supped His Pint
Interview by Paul Morley, NME, November 1979
"I WOULDN'T say I'm a very articulate person, but I seem to be able to articulate when I write lyrics..." ...
Clash, The: The Clash: London Calling (CBS) **
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, December 1979
"THE HELL with it! Let chaos reign, louder music, more wine, the hell with the standings, the top rungs are up for grabs. All the ...
Interview by Cynthia Rose, Viz, 1980
Some Facts About Madness, Rape, Zombies, And Other Intense Human Behaviour ...
Splodgenessabounds: Help Stamp Out Splodgeness!
Profile by Garry Bushell, Sounds, February 1980
MANY DISTRESSED Sounds readers have written to us about the alarming outbreaks of 'Splodgenessabounds' currently sweeping through lower class areas of South East London. This ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols: The Very Best Of
Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, February 1980
THE PERFECT contradiction: The Japs offer such fine pressings, this album'll cost you about £9 if you want it…and I'm reviewing it as usual on ...
UK Subs: Live Kicks (Stiff) **
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, February 1980
POGO? I thought I'd never start. ...
Iggy Pop: I Can't Stand to be Alone
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, February 1980
TO OPEN A DOOR and find Iggy Pop behind it is like opening a well shaken-up can of lager unawares. ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Six Days On The Road And 16 Tons Of Fun…
Report by Kris Needs, ZigZag, March 1980
THE QUEST GOES ON, HIT THE DECK! ...
Cockney Rejects: Greatest Hits Vol 1
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, March 1980
WHEN I first met Micky Geggus and Stinky Turner and heard their tape I knew there was something about it and them that said they ...
Stiff Little Fingers: The Voice Squad
Interview by Mick Middles, Sounds, March 1980
'WE'RE GONNA BLOW UP IN THEIR FACE' ...
Penetration: Going Underground
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, April 1980
SO YOU'RE learning to write music, Pauline – how's it done then? ...
UK Subs: Brand New Age (GEM)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, April 1980
WHEN I was at school we used to have a big fat Scottish Geography teacher who was forever clotting you round the head and saying ...
Slaughter and the Dogs: Slaughter: Get Ready To Do Ruck Steady
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, April 1980
THREE MONTHS into the weighty Eighties and pop paper medics decide it's time for Slaughter's funeral. ...
Members, The: The Members: 1980 — The Choice Is Yours (Virgin)****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, April 1980
Members 'not has-beens' debate ...
Fatal Microbes, Honey Bane: Fatal Microbes: Femme Fatale
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, April 1980
A BOOZER IN beautiful down-town Stepney is the rendezvous and despite London Transport I manage to arrive at the right time on the right day ...
Report by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, May 1980
THE DILS, ONE of California's premier new wave bands, have broken up for keeps after three years together. ...
Clash, The: The Clash Clamp Down on Detroit
Report and Interview by Susan Whitall, Creem, June 1980
Or: Give 'Em Enough Wisniowka ...
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, June 1980
NO DISRESPECT to Dave 'half-a-shandy' McCullough but, myself, I get no pleasure from records that sound like tin baths falling down coal chutes. Witless soul ...
UK Subs: The Masters Of Pure Pogomatic Power Pound On (Part 86).
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, June 1980
NO DISRESPECT to Dave 'half-a-shandy' McCullough but, myself, I get no pleasure from records that sound like tin baths falling down coal chutes. Witless soul ...
X: Beyond the Valley of the Doors
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, June 1980
HOLLYWOOD PUNK. Sounds about as real and desirable as cocktail-lounge muzak. If there's anything genuine or worthwhile in there it certainly isn't easy to find. ...
Cockney Rejects: Have They Bitten Off More Than They Can Chew?
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, July 1980
"THIS IS A once in a generation band. The sort of band who'll either be massive in eighteen months or dead or both." ...
Exploited, The: The Exploited: I Still Believe In Anarchy
Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, August 1980
SOMETIMES I wish my mind and body were under the same management. Anyone with half an eye on the dictates of fashion and media double-think ...
Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, August 1980
AT THE risk of getting into a this week's big thing situation, I've got this feeling in my bones that Tenpole Tudor are gonna be ...
Professionals, The: The Professionals: Diary Of A Man Who Likes To Stay In
Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, August 1980
THE PROFESSIONALS' debut single 'Just Another Dream' is about twenty bus stops down the road from 'Anarchy In The UK' if you're using words like ...
Interview by Andy Schwartz, New York Rocker, September 1980
EN ROUTE to London, X stopped over in New York in June for a round of interviews and two live performances, at the '80s and ...
UK Subs, Dead Kennedys: Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables; UK Subs: Crash Course
Review by Andy Gill, NME, September 1980
SPOT THE DIFFERENCEStudy these two pictures carefully. At first sight they may seem identical, but there are at least twelve small but significant differences between ...
Public Image Ltd: Image Publique S.A.: Paris Au Printemps (Virgin)
Review by Vivien Goldman, NME, November 1980
Lydon says he hates live albums. Paris Au Printemps – PAP – the best of two nights recorded in Paris this spring, is a consumer ...
Jimmy Pursey, Angelic Upstarts: Jimmy Pursey: The Cockney Kid Is Innocent
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, December 1980
So who are you gonna be today then, Jim? The new Messiah or the little boy lost? Robespierre or the Urban Spaceman? An all-round good ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Sandinista! (CBS)
Review by Nick Kent, NME, December 1980
OK, OK, they're a jolly prolific bunch always about to give their audience more than their money's worth, but – Christ, let's not mince words ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Joe Strummer Answers The Call-Up
Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, December 1980
WORKING ON THE theory that if you give him enough rope he'll either hang or save himself, the following pages are left basically for the ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Sandinista!
Review by Van Gosse, Village Voice, January 1981
CONFRONTING THE Clash's epic monstrosity Sandinista! is like being a teacher (which I once was) and having one of your favorite little buggers show up ...
Adolescents, The, Circle Jerks: The Adolescents/Circle Jerks: The Starwood, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Mark Leviton, BAM, January 1981
A PACKED house and a dance floor that demanded knee pads and crash helmets provided the Black Hole of Calcutta ambiance for an evening of ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Home On The Range
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, February 1981
PAUL SIMONON lives in a modest two-room Notting Hill basement flat just north of Ladbroke Grove tube station. ...
Jam, The: The Jam: Sound Affects (Polydor)
Review by Don Snowden, New York Rocker, March 1981
SOUND AFFECTS finds the Jam stretching out, once again successfully staying off the (seemingly) inherent limitations of a three-piece lineup. ...
Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Germs, The, X: LA Punk
Report by Mick Farren, NME, April 1981
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA is always preceded by its own legend. There is no way you can avoid that legend if you grew up with the price ...
Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, May 1981
'We've got to get out and we've got to fight back' is still the message from SLF and their commitment hasn't evaporated since the heady ...
Interview by Peter Silverton, Smash Hits, May 1981
SHE CHOSE the name... "Because there is a very sweet side to me – Honey – and there's a really horrible side to me – ...
Report and Interview by Paolo Hewitt, Melody Maker, June 1981
STANDING BY the toilet door, the kid recognised him instantly. The hair piled up in a scraggy mess. The white leather jacket. The beautiful punkette ...
Report and Interview by Mick Farren, NME, June 1981
The winner of NME's Flatter The Clash competition checks out the ramifications when an English band's world is at Bonds. ...
Clash, The: The Clash: The Return of Native Paranoia
Report by Chris Salewicz, Face, The, August 1981
IN HOT humid New York City, the eight Clash dates at Bonds discotheque had their number doubled following a first night raid by the Fire ...
Everybody Needs Somebody To Hate: A History Of L.A. Punk Rock
Overview by Gene Sculatti, Creem, October 1981
"For God's sake, is that all you people in L.A. want to hear: aggressive lyrics and a raging guitar?!"– Chris Stein ...
Overview by Jon Savage, Face, The, November 1981
I’ve been waiting for this one ever since the Black Arabs: a classic rip-off single to finally mop up any punk detritus and put it ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, 1982
QUITE WHY Fear have created such a stir on the L.A. punk scene is far from apparent from this Record. Smarter they may be than ...
Damned, The, UK Subs: Dreaming Of A Punk Christmas
Report by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, January 1982
"COME HERE," cried an excited Captain Sensible from the corner of the backstage lounge. "I've just discovered what this is like! It's like the Generation ...
Black Flag: Damaged (SST Import)
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, January 1982
"THE RUNAWAYS on angel dust," was how my pal Jimmy 'Bubbles' Skinner summed up this awesome Yank Punk broadside. The Stooges on bad sulphate is ...
Sex Pistols, The, Malcolm McLaren, Bow Wow Wow: Malcolm McLaren
Interview by Johnny Black, unpublished, February 1982
This is the full transcript of the interview, a small (1500-word) version of which appeared in Over 21 magazine in May 1982. ...
Profile and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, February 1982
'Five years on and you've still got nothing' ...
Business, The: The Business: Minding Their Own
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, February 1982
'The winter of discontent is nearing/Thatcher's got trouble with her hearing/The voices of millions are going unheard/I'd try to laugh if it wasn't so absurd/This ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, March 1982
"Oi has spoilt punk. I really hate the idea of the Oi thing even if some of the music's alright...if Oi and punk are the ...
Chelsea: Spring Time for October
Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, April 1982
I DON'T know why it had to happen to Chelsea. Clawed by the press, mauled by the dim-witted forces of fashion, the four-man disaster team ...
Chron Gen: Chronic Generation (Secret)
Review by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, April 1982
WELCOME TO the chronic generation, and a glimpse into the past, present and future of Chron-Gen on their debut album. ...
Angelic Upstarts: Still From The Heart (Zono)
Review by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, April 1982
EXTRAORDINARY. Quite extraordinary. This has got to be the most astonishing thing I've heard in months; a shock so devastating that I'm shaking still. ...
Flipper: Album Generic Flipper (Subterranean)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, May 1982
A FIRST song, 'The Way Of The World', opens like Hawkwind's 'Silver Machine', and Album G.F. never really lets go from there on in. Flipper ...
Anti-Nowhere League: We Are…The League (WXYZ)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, May 1982
ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, I give in. Let's face it, this just ain't the sort of music (?) to lend itself to sensitive in-depth philosophical probings. ...
Anti-Nowhere League: We Are…The League
Review by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, May 1982
THERE'S ONLY one League in my life. It's not the Human League, for sure. It's not the Ivy League either, or the League of Gentlemen. ...
Vice Squad: Stand Strong, Stand Proud (EMI/Riot City ZEM 104)****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, May 1982
THIS ISN'T a great album but it is a very good one. For Vice Squad it's a crucial show of strength because their first album ...
Angelic Upstarts: Mensi's Marauders
Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, May 1982
"COME HERE you!" bellowed Mensi across a crowded and quite respectable lounge bar. The reverberations thundered over the heads of the lunchtime clientele, their salads ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Combat Rock (CBS) ***
Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, May 1982
Gonna write a Clashic ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Up The Hill Backwards
Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, May 1982
HALF PAST ONE on Portobello Road. Past the chippy, opposite the bookshop, within earshot of a man with an amplified mouth-harp honking and scything through ...
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, NME, June 1982
"There's a certain charisma about a guy that everybody thinks is about to drop dead. It's like when Daffy Duck blows up on stage and ...
X's Wild Los Angeles Gift: Sign On The Dotted Line, Please!
Interview by Richard Grabel, Creem, June 1982
X ARE FINALLY getting some respect. Their first album, Los Angeles, released in 1980 on the independent Slash label, sold some 80,000 copies, not bad ...
Peter and the Test Tube Babies: More Bottle Than Brains
Report and Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, June 1982
Carol Clerk cracks a tube with PETER AND THE TEST TUBE BABIES ...
Exploited, The: The Exploited: Troops Of Tomorrow
Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, June 1982
APART FROM its marvellous cover, which depicts "an Escape From New York vision of a desolated city where punk can express its essential nature of ...
Business, The: The Business: Heaven Can Wait
Profile and Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, June 1982
IT SEEMED like a good idea at the time. Meet The Business, knock back a pint or two, set off on a disco crawl...and find ...
Lurkers, The: The Lurkers: The Lurk Of Love
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, July 1982
THE BLOKE who spends his life writing things like 'Let's Lurk' and 'Lewisham Lurkers' over every available wall on my estate, and who's probably single-handedly ...
Profile and Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, July 1982
IT WAS in the winter of 1978 that vocalist Lee Drury had his first traumatic encounter with the cruel forces of fate. At the time, ...
Profile and Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, August 1982
Carol Clerk collars confident Blackpool punksters The Fits in a fact-packed foray ...
Damned, The: The Damned: Strawberries (Polydor)
Review by Leyla Sanai, NME, September 1982
YOU DIDN'T really think they'd gone, did you? After all, it's only four years since their 'farewell' gig, and looking at Jimmy Pursey's Hams 69 ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, September 1982
THE VERY concept of a band like Coming Blood is about as shock-horror near-the-knuckle punky as you can get. Their name alone is a verbal ...
Circle Jerks: Love The One You're With...
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1982
THERE'S PEOPLE diving off the sides. A somersault – look! a bellyflop! – a couple of thrilling jack-knives. The one wearing the bathing cap – ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, October 1982
SLOPING OFF the Inter-City at Manchester Piccadilly, I was suddenly overcome by a torrid tinge of terror. ...
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, October 1982
Garry Bushell comes to the Orange-aid of Peak District punksters The Violators ...
Blitz: Voice Of A Generation (No Future) *****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, October 1982
THIS REALLY is the big one, final proof if any were needed that the punk renewal of the last two years is more than just ...
UK Subs, Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, Splodgenessabounds: Oi and Skinheads: Coming a Cropper
Comment by Garry Bushell, Sounds, November 1982
A passionate defence of skinhead culture by GARRY BUSHELL ...
UK Subs, Urban Dogs, Vibrators, The: Urban Dogs: Doggie Doings
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, November 1982
CHARLIE HARPER is late, Charlie's always late. Me and Knox sit in the office cracking the usual jokes about it being his pension day. Not ...
Cock Sparrer: Strictly For The Birds
Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, November 1982
COCK SPARRER'S come-back couldn't have been better timed. Just as the street rock scene was getting staler than a Marie Celeste bread roll, the original ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Revolution Rock
Profile and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Downbeat, December 1982
IT'S AN UGLY voice. Gruff, guttural, uncouth, barbaric at times. Joe Strummer can't sing, not like an Al Jarreau or a Joni Mitchell, anyway. Lyrics ...
Profile by Penny Valentine, History of Rock, The, 1983
IF THERE WAS one band that successfully rose above punk’s swift and premature decline, it was the Clash. Although historically the Sex Pistols remain the ...
Clash, The, Sex Pistols, The: Punk: 1977 - Two Sevens Clash
Essay by Chris Salewicz, History of Rock, The, 1983
AS A REBEL MUSIC, punk rock had close affinities with reggae. When the punk movement found a focal point and place of worship in the ...
Book Excerpt by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, 'Hardcore California', 1983
IN 1978 THE suburbs of Los Angeles (Anaheim, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach etc.) were still a home for Disneyland, Movieland Wax Museum ...
Retrospective by Tom Hibbert, History of Rock, The, 1983
FROM 1970 ONWARDS, the US rock mainstream grew increasingly staid, predictable and unimaginative. On the surface, the American scene appeared to offer nothing but sleepy ...
Retrospective by Chris Salewicz, History of Rock, The, 1983
A nation watched aghast as punk reared its spiky head ...
Southern Death Cult, Sex Gang Children: Positive Punk: Blood And Roses
Overview by Richard North, NME, February 1983
PART ONE "Don't dream it, be it." — Rocky Horror Show ...
Pete Shelley, Buzzcocks, The: Peter Shelley
Interview by Jim Green, Trouser Press, August 1983
Back when the much-saluted bywords of British punk were "rebellion," "relevance" and "gritty realism," Manchester's Buzzcocks brought something fresh, pithy and even humorous to their ...
Profile and Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, August 1983
LET'S FACE IT – much of what passes for music in our country is, in fact, nothing more than product, the worthless, soulless result of ...
Bad Brains: Rock For Light (Abstract)
Review by Richard Cook, NME, August 1983
BAD BRAINS are an idea bursting full-tilt from a terminally fevered cortex. Rock For Light is the attempted rationalising of the notion, and it so ...
Bob Segarini, Teenage Head, Diodes, The: Teenage Head, Diodes, Segarini: Toronto Punk Albums
Review by Gary Sperrazza!, New York Rocker, January 1984
Teenage Head: Frantic CityDiodes: Action/Reaction Segarini: On The Radio ...
Interview by Cynthia Rose, NME, January 1984
IT'S ALMOST like standing with my stilettoes planted on the very threshold of Club Yes. ...
X Spots the Mark: Raw Chemicals With a Spoon
Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, February 1984
AS I ENTER Billy Zoom's Cincinnati motel room, I glance at the usual rockband-on-tour pile of black leather jackets, but I also take note of ...
Clash, The: The Clash: The Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Lynden Barber, Melody Maker, March 1984
ONCE UPON a time when we were a little more naive than we like to admit, The Clash seemed pretty important, like they were the ...
Live Review by Cynthia Rose, NME, March 1984
Smacked Bottoms ...
Review by Don Watson, NME, March 1984
TO SAY that Black Flag's Damaged was the punk LP of 1981, is tantamount to (if I may be allowed to lapse for a moment ...
Minutemen, The: The Minutemen: Buzz Or Howl Under The Influence Of Heat (SST)
Review by R.J. Smith, Creem, April 1984
CIVIL DEFENSE QUIZ: ARE YOU PREPARED?What should you do in case of a sudden dropping of a nuclear weapon on your neighborhood? A) Grab ...
X: Guitars Against The Golden State
Profile and Interview by Robin Eggar, Face, The, April 1984
They've been called The Last American Rock Band. It's a tag they hate. ...
Review by Roy Trakin, Creem, July 1984
WHAT HAPPENS to hardcore bands when they get old? They turn into Hawkwinds, that's what. Redondo Beach's finest have let their skinheads grow out and ...
Interview by Don Watson, NME, September 1984
RUN! THIS can't be happening! The headlights of the car bearing down on Greg Ginn and Bill Stevenson capture two slack-jawed faces, stark with astonishment, ...
Alternative TV: Mark Perry: After The Storm
Interview by Richard Kick, ZigZag, October 1984
ONE SOMETIMES wonders what ever happened to the original punk rock generation of 1976? Obviously those who have managed to hold onto the limelight we ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers: The Menin Straits
Interview by Richard North, ZigZag, November 1984
A BAND who, in 1977, I jumped up onstage with at the Queensway Hall Dunstable/I was drunk/I sobered up very quickly/ ...
Review by Bill Black, Sounds, December 1984
"RICHARD HELL HAS been the most emotionally compelling, brilliant, innovative and influential rock 'n' roll performer of the past ten years. Unfortunately, these qualities are ...
Ramones, The: Joey Ramone (1985)
Interview by Larry Jaffee, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1985
Da Brudda gives us his Desert Island Discs and raps about record labels, producers and the musically and politically sterile 1980s.
File format: mp3; file size: 52.2mb, interview length: 57' 02" sound quality: ***
Ramones, The: The Ramones in London, part 1 (1985)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, February 1985
Joey and Dee Dee talk about life for da brudders is the mid-'80s, Hardcore, chart success (or not), and much more.
File format: mp3; File size: 30.6 mb Interview length: 44 minutes 36 seconds, sound quality: ***
Gene Loves Jezebel, Ramones, The: The Ramones/Gene Love Jezebel/Restless: Lyceum, London
Live Review by David Quantick, NME, March 1985
HALF OF WESTERN CIVILISATION is here tonight; there are men in the toilet talking about Black Sabbath, there are Gary Holton and Rat Scabies and ...
Report and Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, July 1985
They don't sound like the Ramones, and they don't look like the Sex Pistols, but bands like Hüsker Dü, the Minutemen and the Meat Puppets ...
Black Flag: 9.30 Club, Washington DC
Live Review by Simon Witter, NME, July 1985
THE INTENSE energy with which they maliciously rioted across the grooves of Damaged inevitably doomed them to an early burn out, and tonight's show was ...
Overview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, January 1986
TO PUT EVERYTHING INTO PERSPECTIVE, AS TO WHERE THE ORIGINALS FROM '76 HAVE GONE; BE IT A WAYSIDE DITCH OR A MAJOR RECORD COMPANY WATER ...
Punk: I Fought The Biz And The Biz Won (How We Got Here From There)
Overview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, February 1986
PUNK: IT MADE OUR DAY...It's been ten bleak winters since...well, we look back in hunger at the years youth reclaimed rock and for a while ...
Punk and Reggae: Rip Bam Bam Bye Yeah
Retrospective by Sean O'Hagan, NME, February 1986
"Black and white, unite and fight" was the call; The Clash sang of 'Police And Thieves', Johnny Rotten found he was 'Born For A Purpose'. ...
Simply Red: Punk in Manchester: Oh, How We Laughed
Essay by Paul Morley, NME, February 1986
BE OFF with you! Little Red, it is said, is not happy at the hollow allegations that suggest he has 'sold out' by leaping from ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: The Howling
Retrospective by Don Watson, NME, February 1986
SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES: "a great whirlpool of noise, pulling the future down." Many moons later DON WATSON recalls the dawn of the great Sioux ...
Black Flag: My War (Continued)
Report and Interview by Richard Grabel, NME, July 1986
FRIDAY NIGHT at New York's Irving Plaza, filled to the rafters with punks letting their freak flags fly. Tattered, dazed and confused kids line the ...
Black Flag: SST Records: Working Muscles, Packaged Wallop
Report and Interview by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, September 1986
YOU COULD SAY this is the darkest Dark Age the music world has seen yet, what with commercial radio more dead than death itself and ...
Stupids, The: Stupidity Maketh The Men
Interview by Cynthia Rose, NME, May 1987
Not dumb, maybe a little deaf by now...UK thrash stylists The Stupids step off their skatin’ wheels and entertain Cynthia Rose with tales of ordinary ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers: Fey Bikers On Azur
Report and Interview by Simon Witter, NME, October 1987
THE PHONE RANG. It was the chief. "Be at the airport tomorrow morning. The Stranglers. Marseilles. Bikers' convention. JJ Burnel burning up the track on ...
Bad Brains: An Interview with HR
Interview by Al Quint, Suburban Voice, Winter 1987
PROBABLY THE MOST unusual interview I've ever encountered in my 4 years of doing this 'zine. In a haze of marijuana smoke, surrounded by several ...
X: Live at the Whisky A Go Go on the Fabulous Sunset Strip
Review by Don Snowden, Boston Phoenix, May 1988
FOR ALL THE national accolades heaped on X throughout the '80s, the group never stopped viewing itself as an LA band stepped in the nitty-gritty ...
101'ers, The, Clash, The, Sex Pistols, The, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer
Interview by Jon Savage, unpublished, May 1988
This interview was for Jon Savage's classic punk book England's Dreaming, and is published here in its entirity for the first time. ...
Jonathan Richman: Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
Review by Robert Sandall, Q, 1989
BESERKLEY HAVE re-issued their entire catalogue of Jonathan Richman albums but they should have stopped with this one, a brilliant piece of East Coast proto-punk ...
Review by Mat Snow, Q, June 1989
UNLIKE THE Sex Pistols, the other great London punk-rock group had ambitions beyond delivering the short, sharp shock to the system suggested by the sudden ...
Pogues, The: The Pogues: Peace & Love
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, August 1989
BY RIGHTS, The Pogues should surely be dead by now, overcome by the drink or the enthusiasm of their fans. Yet somehow they've survived the ...
Sex Pistols, The, Malcolm McLaren: Malcolm McLaren: Pernicious? Moi?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, August 1989
IN THE "PIANO BAR" of a Mayfair hotel, portion of club sandwich in one hand, glass of fine red wine in the other, Malcolm McLaren ...
Buzzcocks, The: The Buzzcocks: Product
Review by Martin Aston, Q, December 1989
LIKE MOST punk escapades, Buzzcocks started with Johnny Rotten, whose "We're not into music, we're into chaos" motto drew Bolton students Peter Shelley and Howard ...
Review by Martin Aston, Q, October 1990
IF ANY GROUP seem wholly inappropriate for CD repackaging, then Crass are it, being eight admitted non-musicians who used snarl-toothed punk music as a vehicle ...
Profile by Martin Aston, Q, October 1990
CRASS WERE BRITAIN'S seminal anarcho-punk band, whose communal life and own Crass label epitomised the movement's DIY ethic. Handling everything from mail order, promoting gigs ...
Sex Pistols, The, Clash, The, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious crashed my 21st
Essay by Peter Silverton, Observer, The, 1991
At this distance, all I can remember for certain is the gangle of his legs and the pinch of his cheeks. ‘This is John,’ said ...
Profile by Martin Aston, Q, May 1991
FAMOUS – OR SHOULD that be infamous? – for their punk-era, terrace-anthem hits 'If The Kids Were United (They Would Never be Divided)' and 'Hurry ...
Bob Mould, Jello Biafra: Bob Mould and Jello Biafra: Two Faces of Punk
Interview by Mark Kemp, Option, July 1991
CLAWING THEIR WAY INTO THE '90S, BOB MOULD & JELLO BIAFRA EXPLORE THE PERSONAL & THE POLITICAL ...
Sex Pistols, The: Jon Savage: England's Dreaming
Book Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, November 1991
EVEN THOUGH 15 YEARS have passed since the release of 'Anarchy In The UK', there has never been a book which has satisfactorily documented Britain's ...
Johnny Thunders: Go, Johnny, Go: Thunders' So Alone
Sleevenotes by Ira Robbins, Sire Records, February 1992
AMONG THE LIFETIME residents of abyssville are those rock'n'rollers whose faith in the liberating rebellion of mangy guitar music gets crossed up into a personal ...
Retrospective by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, February 1992
NO ONE could ever have predicted it, but the Damned are the great survivors of punk. ...
John Lydon, Sex Pistols, The: John Lydon
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, March 1992
THE MAN IN THE ETHNIC-TEA-COSY-STYLED headwear and the unsightly puce satin ski pants lies back on my sofa, swigs lustily from a bottle of strong ...
Green Day: If Today Is Yesterday’s Tomorrow, Is Green Day Today’s Beatles?
Comment by Metal Mike Saunders, BAM, May 1992
IF YOU BUY one album this coming year buy this one: Green Day’s Kerplunk! ...
Ramones, The: The Ramones: Mondo Bizarro
Review by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, October 1992
Dear Mrs Ramone, Just a quick note to let you know how the boys are, these days. ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols: Kiss This
Review by Mat Snow, Q, November 1992
NEARLY 15 YEARS after John Lydon quit the Sex Pistols, effectively ending them bar a few final pranks, his subsequent band, PiL, find themselves no ...
Beastie Boys, The, Henry Rollins: The Beastie Boys, Rollins Band: Roseland Ballroom New York NY
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, January 1993
THIS PAIRING wasn't as odd as it seemed, because the Beastie Boys have created ― or at least mobilized ― a new kind of fan. ...
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Siouxsie and the Banshees: A Kiss in the DreamHouse
Book Excerpt by Lucy O'Brien, 'Love is the Drug' (Penguin), 1994
ALTHOUGH SHE'D been one of punk's founding fathers, as it were, Siouxsie Sioux never really looked like she could last the distance. She's still here ...
Review and Interview by Metal Mike Saunders, BAM, January 1994
Popcore Ascending? Or Is That Just The First Phase Of 'The Greatest Band In America'? ...
Clash, The: The Clash: Clash on Broadway (Legacy)
Review by Tom Hibbert, Q, June 1994
DID YOU know that The Clash's song, 'Career Opportunities', was written whilst the band feasted on potato croquettes from Kentucky Fried Chicken? ...
Sex Pistols, The, John Lydon: Who the Hell Does John Lydon Think He Is?
Interview by Tom Hibbert, Q, June 1994
THE INTERVIEW, Q vs Lydon, should have taken place several months ago but when I turned up on his Fulham doorstep and rang his bell, ...
Green Day: Young, Loud, and Snotty
Interview by Eric Weisbard, Spin, September 1994
GREEN DAY's unexpected rise from Gilman Street punk urchins to MTV poster children has not come without a price. Eric Weisbard wonders if they can ...
Clash, The: Clash/Subway Sect/Slits/Prefects: Chancellor Hall, Chelmsford
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, NME, October 1994
BORED TEENAGERS – SUBURBAN HICKS with soap-stiffened Sid Vicious barnets and bleeding earlobes gape in awestruck, whey-faced wonder. Chelmsford, anonymous epicentre of NOWHERE is playing ...
Green Day: Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, NY
Live Review by Carol Cooper, Newsday, 1995
BY MATCHING the cheeky insouciance of the early Beatles with the amphetamine hooks of the Ramones in the late ‘80s, Green Day graduated rock and ...
Interview by Roy Trakin, Rock's Backpages Audio, August 1995
The young pups of punk nouveau phone in about their humungous success, vast wealth, and what it means to be a punk, twenty years after the fact.
File format: mp3 File size: 33.3mb Interview length: 36 minutes 24 seconds Sound quality: **
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols Sign To A&M Records
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, October 1995
Early 1977, and following the inevitable bust-up with EMI, the Sex Pistols are about to release 'God Save The Queen' and embark on their shortest ...
Report and Interview by R.J. Smith, New York Times, January 1996
EVEN FOR A break-all-the-rules punk rock band, some rules still apply. It's 10 minutes to stage, and the members of Rancid are sitting in their ...
Ramones, The: Gabba Gabba Sniffle: The Ramones at Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Independent, The, February 1996
PUNK MAY not be dead, but the Ramones, it would seem, have finally bitten the dust – like the spaghetti western mercenaries to whom they ...
Sex Pistols, The: A Seance in Finsbury Park: The Sex Pistols Reunite
Live Review by Jon Savage, Spin, August 1996
JUST BEFORE the Sex Pistols take the stage in the waning light, a curious hush falls on the boisterous punk crowd. A myth is to ...
Interview by Richie Unterberger, Perfect Sound Forever, December 1996
THE SPIN Alternative Record Guide wrote that Crass were "probably the first rock band whose liner notes are not only indispensable, but often better reading ...
Interview by Richie Unterberger, Perfect Sound Forever, December 1996
THE SPIN Alternative Record Guide wrote that Crass were "probably the first rock band whose liner notes are not only indispensable, but often better reading ...
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, 1997
NEXT TO CBGBS peers like the Ramones and the Voidoids, Talking Heads barely sounded like a punk band. After the startlingly non-conformist ‘Love Building on ...
Iggy Pop: Iggy And The Stooges: Raw Power
Review by Paul Lester, Uncut, June 1997
LOOK OUT, honey, cos they're using technology. Or rather, remixer Iggy Pop is. ...
Adverts, The: The Adverts: Bored Teenagers
Retrospective and Interview by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, September 1997
ANYONE PAYING attention to the British music scene in recent years cannot help but have noticed T.V. Smith. Across three superlative albums, 1991's RIP: Everything ...
Green Day: Stick 'Em Up, Punks!
Interview by Ben Myers, Melody Maker, October 1997
Those loveable American punk rockers GREEN DAY are back. We join them in Milan to find out if they're still punk at heart. Guess what? ...
Richard Hell, Robert Quine: Robert Quine
Interview by Jason Gross, Perfect Sound Forever, November 1997
WHO IS ROBERT Quine? According to him, he 'remains one of the most compelling, appalling and universally hated figures in music history.' ...
Sex Pistols, The: Sod Awf! The Sex Pistols And Other Pleasantries Of Punk
Retrospective by David Dalton, Gadfly, February 1998
A Short History of the NOW! ROCK EXISTS in the humming; now, an all-enveloping bubble of sound, energy and ecstasy. Like being at the flashpoint ...
Absolute Kristal: CBGB's new punk rock label
Report and Interview by Ted Drozdowski, Boston Phoenix, July 1998
HILLY KRISTAL'S MAD AS HELL and he's not gonna take it anymore. Okay, that's a slight exaggeration. But the 66-year-old hipster who owns the New ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols
Retrospective by Philip Norman, Daily Mail, 1999
ON DECEMBER 1, 1976, Londoners tuned in to Thames TV's Today show, expecting the usual bland mix of metropolitan news and views appropriate for a ...
Interview by Ian Fortnam, music365.com, 1999
SINCE THEIR initial formation, way back in 1976, Manchester’s Buzzcocks have attained a genuinely legendary status in the hearts and minds of both aficionados of ...
Sex Pistols, The: Nils Stevenson
Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, 1999
YOU'VE PROBABLY heard this before, but this time it's true. The best Punk book yet has just hit the streets, written by someone who were ...
Offspring, Green Day: California Über Alles: US '90s Punk part1
Retrospective and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, January 1999
In 1994, GREEN DAY and THE OFFSPRING released two albums which changed the face of American music. From Dookie and Smash to 'Pretty Fly (For ...
Green Day, Offspring, Rancid: California Über Alles: US '90s Punk part 2
Retrospective and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, February 1999
After the huge success of GREEN DAY, THE OFFSPRING and RANCID came the inevitable wave of copy-cat bands and the backlash. Here, US punk's movers ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages Audio, June 1999
From Tony Bennett to Tony Adams: Gavin Martin chats with the Mighty Strummer amidst liggers and drunken Finns about The Clash, The Mescaleros, Greil Marcus and why he hates Suede and the Manic Street Preachers.
File format: mp3; in 4 parts, total file sizes: 106.3mb, total interview length: 1h 56' 08" sound quality: **
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, June 1999
Barney Hoskyns talks to Iggy Pop, New York NY, 24 June 1999 File format: MP3 ; File size: 20.9mb; Interview length: 45 minutes; Sound quality: ***
Clash, The, Joe Strummer: Joe Strummer: Definitely Not Admitting Defeat Yet
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, Guardian, The, September 1999
"I THINK GOOD manners will come back. In America, kids saw punk rock as a licence to be as rude as possible. I didn't like ...
Report and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, October 1999
When it comes to smut, filth and all-round seedy behaviour, no one can touch San Diego oiks BLINK 182. This is, after all, a band ...
Clash, The: The Clash: From Here to Eternity
Review by Ira Robbins, salon.com, October 1999
ON PAPER, the October 1982 pairing of the Clash and the Who at Shea Stadium in New York should have been historic. And maybe it ...
Richard Hell: The Richard Hell Interview
Interview by Ian Fortnam, music365.com, 2000
RICHARD MEYERS, AKA Richard Hell, has more than made his mark on many areas of the media. Musically, he formed Television with Tom Verlaine, the ...
John Lydon: Psychobabble: John Lydon
Interview by Neil Mason, Melody Maker, June 2000
NOTE: When the Filth and the Fury film was released in 2000, Lydon agreed to do three press interviews, of which Melody Maker, for some ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols: Anarchy In The UK
Retrospective and Interview by Gavin Martin, Uncut, June 2000
THE EARLY SEVENTIES have been a golden age for the homegrown British pop single. The pan-stick and yob fraternity, which includes T-Rex, Sweet, Slade, Mott ...
Sex Pistols, The: Sex Pistols: History Is Punk
Retrospective and Interview by Philip Norman, Sunday Times, 2001
More than 20 years after they committed high treason during the Queen's silver jubilee, the Sex Pistols are still the kings of rock rebellion. As ...
Dictators, The: The Dictators: Go Girl Crazy
Review by Jeremy Gluck, MOJO, 2001
THESE OLD-SCHOOL rockers put punk on the musical map, opening the way, for better or worse, for two decades of divergent tunes and dissonant noise. ...
Weirdos, The, Negative Trend, The, Middle Class, The: America’s Dreaming: California Punk, 1978
Book Excerpt by Jon Savage, England's Dreaming, 2001
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 ...
Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, Village Voice, 2001
IT'S KINDA IRONIC that the untold story of the Los Angeles punk scene should be officially told (tolled?) at a time when New York City ...
Alternative TV: The iJamming! Chat: Mark Perry
Interview by Tony Fletcher, iJamming.com, January 2001
AS THE FIRST sentence of my mission statement makes clear, Mark Perry was a major factor in my deciding to write about music – though, ...
Slits, The: The Slits: Cutting Edge
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Morley, Uncut, February 2001
I AM A LITTLE nervous as I approach Viv Albertine's house. She was a Slit. For anybody of a certain age who has a penis ...
Ramones, The: Joey Ramone's 50th Birthday Bash: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York
Live Review by Michael Azerrad, Boston Phoenix, May 2001
IT'S FUNNY HOW memorials often take on the character of the person they honor. The sold-out "Life's a Gas – Joey Ramone's 50th Birthday Bash" ...
Review by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, July 2001
OK CLASS, READY? It's time to remember exactly WHAT (real) Punk Rock is (was). ...
Green Day: The Biggest Punk Rock Band in the World: Green Day
Retrospective by Ian Fortnam, unpublished, 2002
THE FACTS speak for themselves. With worldwide album sales currently in excess of 23 million, their Grammy Award winning, multi-platinum Dookie debut boasting an almost ...
Richard Hell: What Fresh Hell Is This?
Interview by David Dalton, Gadfly, 2002
RICHARD HELL was the primal Punk, the ur-Punk: the spiky-haired one. The torn t-shirts, the safety pins, the era-defining ‘Blank Generation’–much of the ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, February 2002
Perverse selection – from New York Dolls to Gonads, Buzzcocks to Toy Dolls — misses chance to be definitive summary ...
Richard Hell: Hell Is Other People
Interview by Ben Myers, Careless Talk Costs Lives, March 2002
IN HOT And Cold, Richard Hell's new collection of three decades of writing, there's a photo of a young obscure poet called Theresa Stern. She ...
Minor Threat, Fugazi: Ian MacKaye: Inventing Hardcore
Profile and Interview by Ben Myers, Careless Talk Costs Lives, March 2002
"These are our demands: we want control of our bodies. decisions will now be ours. you can carry out your noble actions, we will carry ...
Buzzcocks, The: Part-time Punks: The Buzzcocks
Retrospective and Interview by Paul Lester, Guardian, The, March 2002
The Buzzcocks were one of punk's most influential bands. Now, 25 years on, Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto are recording together again. Paul Lester meets ...
Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, April 2002
RICHARD HELL can walk down the street in New York City's East Village without being recognized. ...
Obituary by Gary Pig Gold, fufkin.com, July 2002
WITH THE DEATH of yet another Ramone, perhaps little really needs to be added at this point on how Dee Dee and his honorary brethren ...
Stranglers, The: The Stranglers: Come and Join the Unruly Escapades
Retrospective and Interview by Keith Cameron, MOJO, August 2002
HANS WARMLING was fed up of life in the ice cream van. He'd come to England from his homeland of Sweden to play guitar and ...
Sex Pistols, The: The Sex Pistols: Crystal Palace Sports Centre, London
Live Review by Steven Wells, NME, August 2002
We Might As Well Be Proud Of Them ...
Joe Strummer, Clash, The: Less Rotten Than Reasonable: Joe Strummer and My Punk Damascus
Memoir by Simon Warner, PopMatters, December 2002
ALTHOUGH I saw Joe Strummer in action many times, I only met him once and, embarrassingly, confused him with someone else. ...
Joe Strummer, Clash, The: Joe Strummer: Comrade, Goodbye
Memoir by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, March 2003
SOMETIME IN 1979, I WAS interviewing Joe Strummer for the NME in the Worlds End pub on the King's Road. As well as giving me ...
Joe Strummer: Tougher Than Tough
Obituary by Vivien Goldman, Spin, April 2003
IT WAS FITTING THAT HIS FINAL LONDON GIG WAS A CONTROVERSIAL benefit for union workers. Though Joe Strummer will be remembered for generations as the ...
Good Charlotte: American Candyass, or: Why Good Charlotte Must Die
Comment by Metal Mike Saunders, Rock's Backpages, September 2003
ARE YOU PEOPLE not understanding? Doesn't anyone learn anything from the lessons of the past? The tail end of poof metal's monstrous commercial ...
Sex Pistols, The, Sid Vicious: Sid Vicious: Threw a Glass Darkly
Book Excerpt by Mark Paytress, 'Vicious: The Art of Dying Young', Sanctuary Books, 2004
SID did it. Didn’t he? ...
Television: Marquee Moon (Expanded); Adventure (Expanded) (Rhino)
Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, January 2004
BEFORE THE Sex Pistols there was New York's Lower East Side: trash aesthetes with short hair, kinky vixens in B-movie stilettos. Kids with minor drug ...
Nirvana, Sid Vicious: Kurt Cobain and Sid Vicious: Death and Glory
Essay by Sean O'Hagan, Observer, The, February 2004
"Thank you all from the pit of my burning nauseous stomach." – Extract from Kurt Cobain's suicide note ...
Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Harp, September 2004
BY FRONTING her own rock band – issuing lyrical missives from the depths of her fertile unconscious that rivalled anything that Bob Dylan ever scribbled ...
Clash, The: The Clash: London Calling 25th Anniversary
Retrospective by Ben Myers, Record Collector, October 2004
BY EARLY 1979, to the outside world The Clash were coasting. In their three short years of existence they had signed to Sony for a ...
Clash, The: Paul Simonon: London's Most Handsome Man
Interview by Ben Myers, 3ammagazine.com, November 2004
IT'S ALL ABOUT poise. If you don't have poise – definition "balance; a dignified and self-assured manner" – in rock 'n' roll, you're nothing. Paul ...
Ramones, The: Ramones: We're Outta Here!
Film/DVD Review by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, December 2004
RAMONES GIGS were always exciting rather than accomplished affairs, and if this disc featured only their shambolic 1996 Los Angeles swansong there would be little ...
Sex Pistols, The, Damned, The: Citizen Punk
Retrospective by Jonh Ingham, Q, 2005
APRIL 1976 - For me it began at the El Paradise strip club, where the Sex Pistols filled a tiny room with three-chord beat and ...
Sex Pistols, The: AUDIO: Sex Pistol Glen Matlock (2005)
Interview by Nina Antonia, Rock's Backpages Audio, January 2005
From shop boy to Sex Pistol: the Pistols' key songwriter talks about the genesis of the band, the role of McLaren, goin' down the Roxy and the 100 Club Punk Festival
File format: mp3; in 2 parts, total file sizes: 42.3meg, total interview length: 46' 08" sound quality: **
Slits, The: The Slits: The Distaff Side of Punk - The Slits Re-Released at Last
Retrospective by Mac Randall, New York Observer, February 2005
IF YOU ASK PEOPLE to name the most influential punk-rock bands of all time – even people who boast scarily high levels of pop-culture awareness ...
Johnny Thunders, New York Dolls: The First Punk: Johnny Thunders
Retrospective by Nina Antonia, MOJO, March 2005
FOR THE GENERATION of kids who became punks, the New York Dolls' appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test in November 1973 was an epiphany. ...
Slits, The: The Slits: Girls Together Outrageously
Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, March 2005
"You haven't said yet how good I look on my Web site!" ...
Sex Pistols, The: Ten Reasons Why The Sex Pistols Didn't (or Couldn't) Save Rock And Roll
Comment by Gary Pig Gold, inmusicwetrust.com, August 2005
In honor of Julien Temple's great new film The Filth And The Fury Gary Pig Gold humbly submits to both punks and non-punks, old and ...
Flamin' Groovies, The: The Flamin' Groovies: Flame On
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Mills, Harp, December 2005
July 4, 1976: America is knee-deep in Bicentennial festivities, but across the pond in London a celebration of a different sort is underway. ...
Members, The: The Members: At The Chelsea Nightclub
Sleevenotes by Alex Ogg, Captain Oi Records, December 2005
THE MEMBERS were punk's misfits, a little too lacking in personality disorders and raw ego to sit comfortably with the punk firestarters, a little too ...
Devo: We're The Pits, or Punk Comes to LA
Retrospective by John Mendelsohn, MOJO, Spring 2005
THREE YEARS AFTER my group Christopher Milk -- signed to Warner Bros. and produced, rather poorly, by a famous English producer -- agreed that we'd ...
Prefects, The: The Prefects: Live 1978: The Co-Op Suite, Birmingham
Sleevenotes by Jon Savage, Caroline True Records, 2006
This recollection of a March 1978 concert was revived nearly 30 years after the event for Caroline True's issue of a full Prefects live show ...
Retrospective by Dave Thompson, Goldmine, May 2006
THE ODD thing about the history of punk is, it's very easy to forget some of its best progenitors. ...
Iggy Pop: Where the Debris Meets the Sea: Iggy Pop and James Williamson in Kill City
Retrospective by Barney Hoskyns, eMusic.com, September 2006
IGGY POP remains rock’s ultimate protopunk – the "world’s forgotten boy" who took the menace of the MC5 and the demonic danger of the Rolling ...
Essay by Steve Redhead, Rock's Backpages, March 2007
BACKPOOL ROX II, issue 9, price £2, came out at the end of last year. You won't find it referred to in Babylon's Burning, the ...
Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, June 2007
JOE STRUMMER was a fascinating bunch of guys. The former Clash frontman was both romantic idealist and career opportunist, anarchist rebel and proud patriot, hippie ...
How I Took On The New York Dolls
Memoir by Mark Hudson, Daily Telegraph, June 2007
As a new exhibition marks the 30th anniversary of punk, Mark Hudson, lead singer in a college band, recalls the once-in-a-lifetime feeling of the summer ...
Memoir by Barney Hoskyns, eMusic.com, Winter 2007
THE RECENT PUBLICATION of Joe Carducci's moving and fascinating Enter Naomi: SST, L.A. and All That... (Wyoming: Redoubt Press) takes me back 25 years to ...
Retrospective by Jon Savage, Ugly Things, February 2008
NOTE: This was written as an introduction to a brilliant Ugly Things article by Johan Kugelberg called "No More Jubilees: Punk Before Punk", which aimed ...
Suicide: How the Godfathers of Punk Kept The Faith
Interview by Paul Lester, Jewish Journal, October 2008
New Yorkers Alan Vega and Marty Rev were punks before punk was invented, known in the '70s for their violent gigs and raging synth rock. ...
Obituary by Jon Savage, Guardian, The, November 2009
Nightclub owner who acted as a catalyst for the LA punk scene ...
John Lydon, Public Image Ltd, Sex Pistols, The: John Lydon
Interview by John Doran, Stool Pigeon, The, March 2010
IN CALIFORNIA WE MEET a traveller from an antique land. On two scrawny legs – KFC issue – he stands. He has a shattered look. ...
Runaways, The: The Runaways: Wild Thing — How Sandy West Was Lost
Retrospective by Evelyn McDonnell, L.A. Weekly, March 2010
ON A SUMMER day in 1975, a 16-year-old girl carrying a Silvertone guitar took four public buses from Canoga Park to a two-story house in ...
Public Image Ltd: Dear John: Public Image Ltd
Interview by Ken Scrudato, Filter, May 2010
WAY BACK in 20th Century England, a gang of four insurrectionist-minded punk motherfuckers were to be found causing such an anarchic, subversive uproar as to ...
Film/DVD Review by Gary Pig Gold, Rock and Roll Report, January 2011
A FULL DISCLOSURE right up front, one and all: Way back in the 1980 hey!day of my fanzine, The Pig Paper, a certain Kevin Michael ...
Clash, The: Vinyl Icon: The Clash
Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, May 2011
UNUSUALLY, FOR AN ALBUM awarded Vinyl Icon status, the "fi" of The Clash's eponymous debut is not of the highest. It is, however, an album ...
Minor Threat, Bad Brains: Ian Mackaye meets Bad Brains and invents hardcore
Retrospective by Stevie Chick, Guardian, The, June 2011
NO MERE THREE-CHORD punk dullards, Washington DC's Bad Brains had chops to spare. They'd started as jazz-fusion quintet Mind Power, worshipping at the altar of ...
Pussy Riot: The Riot Girls' Style
Comment by Vivien Goldman, New York Times magazine blogs, August 2012
IT HAS BEEN a shock to see the bravely smiling faces of three girls from the Russian punk collective Pussy Riot locked in a glass ...
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, September 2012
GOD, THE AVENGERS were a great little band. And I say little band only because time and geography conspired against any possibility of them being ...
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