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Friday
November 18th 1977
Now that
this wonderful year is ending, and because Punk is as dead
as Elvis Presley I want to fill up these empty pages and
write about what kind of a Punk I was, and what Punk meant
to me.
I got
into Punk with my sister Sharon in October 1976, but,
besides seeing Eater & The Damned before Christmas ’76, for
me personally the ONLY real Punk period was from January the
1st 1977 top April, 1977 – Everything that came
after was just clutching at straws (once The Roxy Club was
no longer our home). I was glad I was 16 in a way, but
sometimes wished I was older, like Johnny Rotten and people
like him, because the older Punks knew their way around,
whereas I DIDN’T – All I really knew was The Roxy, and the
fact that all the concepts and aims of Punk were to be
BELIEVED in, heart and soul. I was annoyed to be 16 when
older fanzine editors wouldn’t tell me of a cheaper way to produce my mag,
instead of doing it at local library Xerox machines, at
exorbitant prices – some fanzine editors were rip-off
merchants, and jealous of their sources…
At least
at 17 I don’t regret the earlier part of this year, because
I was real, because I DID believe, and was so fullof life
and lust to challenge – When I found out that most Punks
were in it for the money, I felt shattered – Still do – And
my working class shit hole background was real, thank God!
Only people like Eater (all of them), Gene Oktober, The Jam
and girls like Selena and Kay were real – Lucy Toothpaste
(the one who writes ‘Jolt’ fanzine) is posh, but she was
real… God, I can’t go on any more – I just think to myself,
you know – Was it all worth it? With people like Poly
Styrene it was worth it… Now, I suppose, the true believers
of working class background are FINISHED – chained to the
wheel. Goodbye.
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Wait!
Funnily enough, the night Elvis Presley died, my dad called
Sharon and me up at midnight to hear the announcement… The
DJ on the radio played Elvis music all night. Me, Sharon and
our dad stayed up all night to listen. The rain was violent
outside, a real storm going on (most uncanny), the wind
raging and howling – all for Elvis… I don’t know about
Sharon or dad, but the news of Elvis Presley’s death made me
want to cry… Rock’n’Roll got me into music properly at
thirteen years old, and that was Elvis’s world. Music like
Rock’n’Roll is for everyone, isn’t it? Even Punks… |
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The End -
Arcane Vendetta 1977
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