Punk: Attitude Page #7

and our attitude and everything.

I need some money

to borrow

But surely I'll give it back to you

Tomorrow

We did not enjoy any other girl

images that were around...

so we stripped down all the conditioning

and punk helped us to do that.

We're emotional

There was a scene already but

The Roxy was where it all kind of...

it was focused in on.

Suddenly you had

the place to play.

The Roxy was really officially

started on January 1st in 1977...

with The Clash opening.

It was a place where the groups

could actually get up on stage...

and play in front

of an audience.

Now comes the break up

Make up

From the make up

Just like the devil's rain

So musical.

There was a disc jockey at the time,

Don Letts.

His record collection was heavily

based on dub and reggae...

and there was no real

punk records around.

It was Don diving into his collection

and magically it worked.

He would play the real roots culture

rock reggae, the real dub...

and that's how a lot of the

punky reggae evolved later on.

So reggae was the sort of sound

track to the whole punk scene.

At least it was in London.

I mean no one would listen

to anything else that I know of.

It gave you an attitude

that you could tag on to.

That's how I learnt how to play,

was playing along to reggae records.

All the guys that were working behind

the bar were living up in Forest Hill...

with Don Letts, myself,

we all stayed up there.

Everyone always was hanging

out in Don's room...

cos he had all

the records and stuff.

Everyone that was hanging out there

got in some band or another.

I know Arianna

came up there...

some of The Slits

would be up there.

The Clash would

be up there.

That was the beauty

of that scene.

Everyone got a band together

and everyone was in a band...

and everyone you know was trying

to get a band together...

and you probably played

with half of them.

Oh bondage up yours

Would they break up?

Too be honest, I found some of the

elements at The Roxy quite disturbing.

Oh bondage up yours

Oh bondage no more

Oh bondage up yours

Oh bondage no more

I thought I was in hell down there. It

was like going into the nether regions.

Fifteen years

For the guildford four

Innocent people

sent them off to jail

We didn't make any money...

cos the bar staff were selling spliffs

behind the bar and not any drink.

Certainly speed, I think, was the,

the drug of choice...

and when The Heartbreakers came over,

they were all taking smack...

and so, of course, everyone was

in the toilets anyway shooting speed...

and then when the smack

came into the scene...

that was, kind of punk

was over after that.

It only lasted 100 days;

officially 100 days of The Roxy...

because of, things went

so fast in those days.

By the time the ball was really

going for everybody...

it was just... it was starting

to get a little bit cliched.

Suddenly the whole country

knew about it...

and then everybody

would turn up at gigs...

with what they assumed

was the punk rock look...

which meant the safety

pin in the cheek...

and like a black bin

liner for clothes...

but then again,

you look at the groups...

none of those groups had

safety pins in their cheeks...

none of them had a bin liner so this was

a whole tabloid thing that was made up.

It became a little

bit regimented later on...

when everyone was kind of wearing

leather jackets with studs...

and Mohicans and

all this stuff.

Oh sh*t arse

Arse

Punk Rock itself actually got a bit

nasty didn't it towards the end...

especially with all

the tabloid sort of...

you know,

all this gobbing, spitting, hate...

and Sid killing himself and Nancy

and all this weird stuff.

For the small amount

of people that...

were really integral

to the beginning of it...

I suppose we had all

moved on really.

Punk inherently...

was gonna have a short life span cause

the beauty of Punk music anyway...

was that that fact that no

one could really play very good...

and what happens is...

that if you get into a band

and you actually like playing...

and you want to make

music your life...

or well we didn't think

in terms of careers...

but if you wanted

to pursue that...

then inevitable you got

better at your craft.

It is time for you to stop

With of all your sorrows

It is time for you to stop

All of your sobbing

The Pistols and The Clash...

what was happening there,

there was an energy there...

a forcefulness there about what they

were doing and determination about it...

that really I could tie into...

the same kind of cultural

revolution and energy...

that was in New York.

There was a difference

and yet there was a sense of...

now an international

community of thought.

The immigration departament

tried to protect us from them...

denying them visas for a

few days late in December...

but now they're here and

they're loose to Pommerland...

They're the Sex Pistols,

the British punk rock group...

that began their first American

concert tour last night in Atlanta.

They had this whole

hype around them...

where they were the craziest

band in history...

and people were afraid to be

in the same room as them...

so the first half of

the tour was cancelled...

and they ended

up opening in Atlanta...

and the police kept

warning them...

that if they kept trying to piss on

the stage or throwing up on stage...

or raping any women,

they're going right to jail.

It's pretty far from

what the reality was.

They were, were not that crazy on stage,

until they got to San Antonio...

at this place Randy's Rodeo

was a converted bowling alley...

and there was about

2,000 rednecks there...

who each and every one

of them wanted...

to personally beat the crap

out of the Sex Pistols.

They didn't help matters because

Johnny was wearing a t-shirt...

that had 2 gay cowboys having

sex with each other...

and the audience was just throwing

full beer cans and food...

and anything they could get their

hands on at the Pistols...

and the Pistols

just kept going.

Sid would take a full beer

can right off the teeth...

and spit on somebody

and the crowd loved it.

They'd just done the

most successful thing...

they'd achieved

what every band wants.

They came as a new band,

starting in a couple of clubs...

ending up the last day playing

a huge theatre in San Francisco...

to a giant audience

and then broke up.

Here's an interesting

thing that happened.

Punk rock. Boom.

It comes out.

Then the Sex Pistols break up.

Johnny Lydon forms Public Image...

which to me is infinitely more

interesting than the Sex Pistols.

You never listen to a word

That I say

You only see me

For the clothes that I wear

Some really interesting

musicians came out of punk rock.

Like they really wanted to do

some music and all of a sudden...

Howard Devoto morphs

out of the Buzzcocks.

He has Magazine, with a really

challenging brew of music.

Shot

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