Bunnyman by Will Sergeant

Author:Will Sergeant [Sergeant, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781734842289
Publisher: Third Man Books
Published: 2021-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

14.

The Birth and Death of Punk

‘Anarchy in the UK’ – Sex Pistols

The year is 1976. Harold Wilson resigns as the British prime minister. He’s had enough and is now sixty years old. Jim Callaghan steps in to run the Labour government. The summer has seen a serious drought and hosepipe bans are in force across the country. One of the hottest summers on record is announced with the now-classic headline, ‘Phew, what a scorcher!’

On the telly and radio, it was pretty much wall-to-wall disco music. Soon Saturday Night Fever would be in full swing. All the nightclubs played was disco music. On the radio, you couldn’t listen for half an hour without hearing Abba’s horrendous europop; I wasn’t a fan then and I am not now. It was late 1976 and punk was lurking in the shadows, yet to creep into the population’s consciousness. Even the music press at the time pretty much ignored it, or more than likely were unaware of it. I was a regular reader of the music papers NME and Sounds, even Melody Maker would be floating about. But I can’t remember seeing much in 1976 about punk. I was still into Dr Feelgood, Bowie and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. There was no ‘punk’ movement as far as I knew. Maz had bought the first Ramones album but they appeared to be just another gang of scruffy, long-haired kids – just like us. The Ramones’ music was strippedback rock, no big, drawn-out solos. They seemed to be adopting Status Quo’s approach: they had the long hair, they had the faded jeans, although Joey and the boys had ditched the flares that Quo were still sporting and in their place wore battered Levi’s 501s. Like Quo, the band’s sound was built around a few chords. They rocked like hell and were as tight as fuck. Somehow, even though a lot of the ingredients were the same, the taste was so different. Status Quo were becoming uncool and the Ramones were very cool; how does that work? It can only be down to the attitude, the blatantly moronic lyrics contained in such songs as ‘Beat on the Brat’ and ‘Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue’. They sounded like a twisted Beach Boys if Charlie Manson had been welcomed into the fold as a chief nihilistic lyricist.

I had heard the Sex Pistols ‘Anarchy in the UK’ at a Dr Feelgood gig. The sound engineer played it over the PA system, and it stood out among all the usual pre-gig rock tunes from 10cc, Supertramp, Led Zeppelin, Queen and the like. I’m sure they played ‘Anarchy’ a few times that night. It made me feel weird: my heart was racing, I had a strange feeling in my stomach. How can music make you feel this good, create this amount of emotional joy? After all, it’s only sound, the ephemeral touch of vibrations in the air. This effect has always fascinated me. From the days of Melling Youth Club and

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