MY PUNK EPIPHANY

I began 1994, the year i turned 18, still largely disillusioned with the songs dominating the charts and still delving into the riches that the back pages of music had to offer. I was vaguely aware of the emerging bands who would become part of the "Britpop" scene, but they hadn't really grabbed me yet. The only new album i'd bought in the past 12 months was Pet Shop Boys mega-pop masterpiece Very, in its lego brick cd case, full of big electronic pop songs. A few things would soon give my tastes a kick: my parents having Sky TV installed, which meant i could have my fill of music through MTV: hours spent on buses travelling to and from my new job, which i filled by reading the NME, Melody Maker, Q, Select, Vox, and Record Collector, whilst listening to my walkman: and listening to The Evening Session on Radio 1, which played a wealth of Indie and Alternative music. I did start to take notice of these new bands as the year wore on, and my tastes would slowly be shaped by what i heard, but it would be a couple of videos on MTV that would open my mind to an important part of rocks' back pages. I'd read and heard a lot about the Punk explosion of the late 70's, and its effect and influence on the music that came after, but i was yet to hear any of it (although The Jam became successful on the back of Punk, i've never considered them to be part of it). Sat idly watching MTV Europe (as it was) one day, a short, snotty 3 minute blast of buzzsaw guitar grabbed my attention. The song was "Basket Case", by a Californian Punk band called Green Day, and as soon as it finished i wanted to hear it again! Not long after that, another American band by the name of The Offspring were on, a song called "Self Esteem". Different to the Green Day track, but still what i discovered was known as Punk Rock. I would find out through the music press that there were a load of U.S. bands influenced by the UK Punk bands from the late 70's - The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, etc - who were starting to have hits in their home country, and who would soon do the same here. That Christmas i would get Green Days' massively successful "Dookie" album, and a few weeks into '95 "Basket Case" would become a Top 10 hit here. The Offspring would go on to have a big hit with their album "SMASH", and in their wake bands like Rancid, NOFX, and Bad Religion (who had been around for a good decade and a half already) had varying levels of success.

All these new punk bands from across the water made me want to hear the bands they had been inspired by, and a few months into the year two compilations would open another door for me. One was a budget cassette i borrowed from a friend, which had about 20 songs from The Stranglers, 999, Ian Dury, The Damned, and a few others, which soundtracked many an early morning journey to work! The second was a double cassette, "The Best Punk Album InThe World...... Ever!" With such a boastful title, i had to investigate. It was a goldmine of Punk, New Wave, Post-Punk, and a smattering of the Pub Rock that was a forerunner to the Punk explosion. Hearing most of these songs for the first time excited me: the energy, the anger, the raw simplicity of "Anarchy In The Uk", "New Rose", "Teenage Kicks","Alternative Ulster", "Ever Fallen In Love", and "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker": the nervy, wiry artiness of "Psycho Killer", "Marquee Moon", "Blank Generation", and "I Am The Fly": Bands like Siouxsie & The Banshees, P.I.L., Wire, X-Ray Spex, Magazine, Killing Joke, and XTC taking the initial energy of the music in different and creative directions, resulting in what became known as Post-Punk. The more commercial "New Wave" stuff like Blondie, The Pretenders and Boomtown Rats sounded good too. There are often people who think that Punk hasn't dated well: i disagree, and the young generation creating such an anarchic blast of noise that spoke to their generation and beyond is something sorely lacking in todays' society. I would go on to buy albums and compilations by The Damned, Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Undertones, The Ruts, The Sex Pistols, etc, each one becoming an important part of my musical education, not to mention my expanding collection.

Hearing these raw, passionate sounds fed my interest in guitar music, the emerging alternative bands that became part of the Britpop era, the punk and new wave-inspired bands from home and abroad, such as Weezer, whose self-titled debut album - and huge hit "Buddy Holly" -  was part of the soundtrack to my summer that year, along with Blur, Oasis, Radiohead, Supergrass, Pulp, and so on. I even owned a guitar around this time, on which i tried and failed to master the three chords necessary to start a punk band of my own, although it didn't stop me writing "lyrics" for the next few years!