Punk Rock and The Sex Pistols

Punk Rock was more than just being about music, it was about a whole new rebellious movement against the government, quaint old traditions and representatives of the establishment. Forty years later I am not so sure that was such a good idea, but back in the 70's it was a lot of fun.

So never mind the serious stuff, who remembers the pogo, the bin liners, safety pins, chains and those weird mohican haircuts in multiple colours.

The music was even weirder, probably because of the Sex Pistols, the band responsible for initiating Punk Rock in the UK around about 1975 which is the year after I left school in my mid to late teens. So as you can imagine I was right in amongst it in terms of time frames. That said where I lived in the Forest of Dean the music scene wasn't exactly contemporary. It was actually a little bit more 'young farmers' or 'football club disco. Although some of the local disc jockeys did splash out and buy a few Punk Rock singles and of course there were the holidays to Benidorm for 2 weeks every year where punk rock was very big in the 70's. You could get involved in a really good pogo dance in Benidorm which was fantastic when the girls were only wearing vests and you were a hormone charged teenager.

Some of the more contentious records the Sex Pistols released were 'God Save the Queen' and 'Anarchy in the UK'. But it wasn't actually the music that caused the biggest uproar it was when Steve Jones used the 'F' word whilst being interviewed by a guy called Bill Grundy in 1976. It was probably the single most important event that got the Sex Pistols noticed. Like they say there is no such thing as bad publicity. Anyway after that Punk Rock had truly arrived on the UK music scene.

Image used under the GNU_Free_Documentation_License Helge Overas

Punk Rock entered the world of music in the 70's as a completely new genre that had never been seen or heard before, it was loud, rude and antagonistic, but it was claimed by the youth of the time as their own.

Punk Rock inspired a new generation of fashion championed mainly by Vivian Westwood who, unbeknown to many, was also rumoured to have fed many of the lyrics for 'Anarchy in the UK' to Johnny Rotten (alias John Lydon) who put his own stamp on the words and performed it in his own inimitable way. He did that whilst happily smashing up the bands equipment, which very often they didn't even own, plus occasionally getting involved in fights with the audience just to cap things off.

The releases of "Anarchy in the U.K.", "God Save the Queen" and Never Mind the Bollocks are counted among the most important events in the history of popular music. (Ref. Wikipedia - Sex_Pistols)

The Sex Pistols may have been credited as the premier Punk Rock band but in actual fact their rule was fairly short lived and it was the other Punk Rock Bands like 'The Clash' and 'Blondie' who were to stay the course a little longer and 'heaven forbid' bring Punk Rock out of total mayhem with a cult following into a slightly more popular music format which was renamed 'New Wave'. Your average Punk Rocker will hate reading that, but it is actually true and the average record producer breathed a sigh of relief when the 'New Wave' format emerged as a much more manageable option.

The Damned', who were actually the first Punk Rock band to release a single ahead of the Sex Pistols, but only just, also went on to re-invent themselves into what was to become known as the 'Gothic genre'. As for 'The Buzz Cocks', well never mind the Buzz Cocks, they didn't really do much at all. The Sex Pistols didn't really do anything other than Punk Rock so by the end of the 70's that was pretty much it for them, there was no reinventing themselves as far as they were concerned, it was Punk Rock or nothing.

Blondie explains what a pogo dance is, pretty good explanation actually.