First of a three-part documentary series about the history of punk rock. The film explores the road to punk in Britain, which begins in the early 70s with a young generation already conscious that they have 'missed the 60s party' and are stuck in a Britain heading for economic woes and dwindling opportunities. But before the punk generation finally arises to have its say during 1976 come a group of pub rockers, a generation of bands sandwiched between 60s hippies and mid-70s punks who will help pave the way towards the short, sharp shock of punk, only to be elbowed aside by the emergence of the Sex Pistols, the Clash et al. Pub rock set the template - small venues, fast retro rock n roll and bags of attitude typified bands like Dr Feelgood, Ducks Deluxe, Kilburn and the High Roads and Eddie and the Hotrods. Featuring unseen archive footage and interviews with John Lydon, Paul Weller, Mick Jones, Wilko Johnson, Nick Lowe, Adam Ant, Brian James and many more. Mick Farren: The Titanic sails At Dawn
A couple of years or so ago I was a guest on Start The Week, and I was authoritatively
informed by a very distinguished journalist that the whole Internet thing was
just a silly fad like ham radio in the fifties, and that if I thought any different
I was really a bit naïve. It is a very British trait – natural, perhaps,
for a country which has lost an empire and found Mr Blobby – to be so suspicious
of change.
But the change is real. I don’t think anybody would argue now that the Internet
isn’t becoming a major factor in our lives. However, it’s very new to us. Newsreaders
still feel it is worth a special and rather worrying mention if, for instance,
a crime was planned by people ‘over the Internet.’ They don’t bother to mention
when criminals use the telephone or the M4, or discuss their dastardly plans
‘over a cup of tea,’ though each of these was new and controversial in their
day.
Then there’s the peculiar way in which certain BBC presenters and journalists
(yes, Humphrys Snr., I’m looking at you) pronounce internet addresses. It goes
‘www DOT … bbc DOT… co DOT… uk SLASH…
today SLASH…’ etc., and carries the implication that they have
no idea what any of this new-fangled stuff is about, but that you lot out there
will probably know what it means.
I suppose earlier generations had to sit through all this huffing and puffing
with the invention of television, the phone, cinema, radio, the car, the bicycle,
printing, the wheel and so on, but you would think we would learn the way these
things work, which is this: 1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;
2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly
exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;
3) anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order
of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s
been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.
Apply this list to movies, rock music, word processors and mobile phones to
work out how old you are.
This subjective view plays odd tricks on us, of course. For instance, ‘interactivity’
is one of those neologisms that Mr Humphrys likes to dangle between a pair of
verbal tweezers, but the reason we suddenly need such a word is that during
this century we have for the first time been dominated by non-interactive
forms of entertainment: cinema, radio, recorded music and television. Before
they came along all entertainment was interactive: theatre, music, sport
– the performers and audience were there together, and even a respectfully silent
audience exerted a powerful shaping presence on the unfolding of whatever drama
they were there for. We didn’t need a special word for interactivity in the
same way that we don’t (yet) need a special word for people with only one head... MORE
This piece first appeared in the News Review section of The Sunday Times on August 29th 1999 via
TV Smith: “I had no problem with Stiff Records, even when I thought I was being done over. I could see the point of it, for example, the cover of One Chord Wonders. They put Barney Bubbles onto designing the cover, then when we got invited into Stiff to see what he’d done, well, I felt like I’d been stiffed. But, what you can you say, it was a brilliant cover. They created an icon out of Gaye and they put The Adverts firmly in punk rock history. There was no question that that cover – which I would definitely not have agreed to – was a massive step forward for the band.” Via TV Smith and Gaye Advert now from 'Punk Britannica'