text by Andy Fairgrieve
The departure point for Year Zero Punk comes from a very special dram of Scotch whisky. That in itself it not unusual. For many years the Scots have held that their ‘water of life’ is indeed a rather inspirational spirit. From poetry to song and now visual art, whisky has long been accredited as being a lubricant aiding the creative process.
Where this drop of liquid inspiration is unusual though comes not from the fact that it is a single malt whisky, meaning that every drop created only ever comes from one distillery.
Surprisingly, when set against the background of an industry that is dominated by a handful of multi national consortiums. It is also not simply because that the distillery that creates this single malt whisky is still fully independent and owned by the same family that brought it into existence in 1887. Although these qualities of independence and continuity are in themselves something to be valued and have more than a passing relevance to this presentation.
Where I feel that this dram truly inspires comes from it's age, or perhaps more abstractly from thinking about it age.
This very special dram is the Glenfiddich 30 year old.
In genealogical terms 30 years can be conceptualised as the passing of one generation. Since this spirit was distilled at The Glenfiddich Distillery 30 years ago it has lain in an oak cask, slowly maturing, absorbing and building its character from the wood and the passing of the Scottish seasons, making every year count until now,2007 when it has been bottled and made ready to be enjoyed, a gift from one generation to the next.
Of course year zero for this dram was 1977, which itself is remembered as a rather special year in terms of popular culture. It is often argued that as a movement or ideology, punk begin some years before 1977. This is most true in parts of America and in London , but for most people of my generation who were living across the UK 1977 was the year that we first really became punk aware.
I have often wished I could give my own personal version of punk history, as most other accounts often seem to treat punk as a fashion that largely ended in the early 80's. As if it had been washed aside by the rise of the new romantics and the rather clumsily entitled new wave of British heavy metal (or N.W.O.B.H.M for short) Yet many of the bands from the first wave punk went on to enjoy some chart success through out the 80's with varying levels of damage to or totally abandoning their punk values along the way. Others plodded on, possibly remaining closer to their punk origins but by thrashing out the same old tired clichés and maintaining the stereotypical image often came to become no more than a parody of themselves. Quite a few of these bands still exist today playing large scale gigs such as the Wasted festival. Events such as these are certainly popular with younger punks keen to see and hear the heroes of yesteryear and those of a certain age who forget the humdrum existence of middle aged life and once again relive the glories of their youth. However in many ways these large syndicated punk events are trapped in their own nostalgia.
My relationship with punk has taken me on a different path from the above. It begins in the closing days of 1976 and continues to the present day. My aim is to present a musical history of punk as it has paralleled the past 30 years of my life. How the experiences it has provided me with have informed and imparted something to my character. As an analogy it could be said that over these past 30 years punk has been one of the staves that makes the cask of my spirit.
Year Zero Punk play list
70's
01. The Clash: 1977. CBS 1977
02. The Ramones: Sheena is a punk rocker. Sire 1977
03. The Killjoys: Johnny won't get to heaven. Raw 1977
04. Motorhead: Motorhead. BigBeat licensed from Chiswick 1977
05. Metal Urbain: Cle de Contact. Rough Trade 1977
06. A.T.V.: How much longer. Deptford Fun City 1977
07. Kleenex: Ain't you. Rough Trade 1978
08. Johnny Moped: Hard lovin man. Chiswick 1978
09. Siouxsie and the Banshees: Love in a void. Polydor 1978
10. Adam and the Ants: Deutscher girls. EG 1978
11. Damned: Love song. Chiswick 1979
80's
12. Discharge: Fight back. Clay 1980
13. Crass: Bloody revolutions: Crass 1980
14. Crass: Big A little A: Crass 1980
15. Zounds: Subvert. Crass 1980
16. Conflict: The serenade is dead. Mortarhate 1984
17. Conflict: Mighty and Superior. Mortarhate 1985
18. Extreme Noise Terror: Borstal breakout (Sham 69) 198?
19. Sedition: Or dealing with death. Blistering barnacle records 198?
90's
20. Japs Eye: Rule of fear. Worried sheep. 1994
21. Brezhnev: Nice day for a walk. Vitaminepillen 1996
22. Scatha: F**k the System. Anonymous/enslaved 1996
23. Oi Polloi: F**k the national lottery. Rugger bugger 1997
24. Yokel: Life's way. Spiral objective 1997
25. Tolshock: From father to son. Panoptic vision/farewell/borkenkafer records 1998
26. Cress: Violate. Worried sheep 1998
27. Oi Polloi: Mien augen. Camary 1998
28. Beergut 100: Invitation to violence. Ph records 1999
00's
29. Fastard: Barbara Cartlands corpse. Insane society 2001
30. Fastard: Desecrate to create. Brew 2001
31. Unkind: Miten luonta vastaa Pathetique2001
32. Scatha: Rant Panoptic vision/crime scene/anonymous 2002
33. Kansalaistottelemattomuus: F**k their f**king system. Kämäset Levyet 2002
34. Death Mold: Spawn of Satan. Spore 2004
35. Malignant tumour: Commands from the oval throne. Insane society 2004
36. Moshtradamosh: Sauron you c**t. Thrashwax 2004
37. Filthpact: Credit culture. Black box 2004
38. Pax Americana: Rockagainstwaragainstterrorism. Brew 2005
39. Atomgevitter: Where's the venom? Problem 2005
40. Oi Polloi: Deiseil's Deonach. Problem 2006
41. War All the Time: The death rattle. Crime scene 2007
42. Step on it: Dissonance Problem 2007
43. Black Sister: Unholy driver. Problem 2007
44. Filthpact: D-beat is love. Problem 2007-10-09
45. Sex Pistols: God save the queen. Virgin 181
I have selected 45 7” records. 45 rpm is not only the speed 7” records are traditionally played at, (although many of the later records play at 33 rpm) the cost of buying a 7” record in the late 1970's was around 45p. Above this the number 45 also signifies one record for each year of my life so far.
I restricted myself to 7” records because personally I feel they are the archetypal format for punk. In the days before CD and mp3's, vinyl was king. Even today vinyl is still seen as a more respected format for releases. While CDR's or downloads are now by far and way the most usual route for bands looking to bring out their own material, just as cassettes used to be but vinyl still holds some sense of authority and authenticity.
The majority of the records come from my own collection although I am must thank my long time friend Oengus for allowing me to borrow one or two from him to help fill a few gaps that I could not have filled with out resorting to 12” vinyl or CD.
The records are presented chronologically from 1977 to the present day but not each year is represented. I have attempted to avoid some of the more obvious choices from the early years. Most of these tracks are readily available on the multitude of‘Best punk album in the world’type compilations. Instead I have tried to show how that very early on one of punks main values, the ethos of do it yourself or D.I.Y, came to emerge and evolved to shape my experiences. Footnotes for the play list will I hope, offer some background to the bands and the time as well as some further introduction to the personal relationships I have come to enjoy and value in my life.
I am most grateful of course to the support of Chen Hui-chiao, Yao Jui-chung, Peter Gordon and my colleagues from William Grant and Sons here in Taiwan David Li and Eric Huang for allowing me this indulgence. |
