punk britannia on bbc 4 this friday

[Oldrottenhead]

 can't wait

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00s81jw

lots of great clips here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00s81jw/clips

great seeing tv smith who i have met many times over the years.

[chip]

 Great stuff. I like a bit of punk, having been lstening to prog rock dinosaurs, punk was a breath of fresh air and the scene needed it too.

[Ferryman]

I'll be there, as I was in the 70s! I went prog to punk and am now back to prog, but more the modern prog bands which have a bit of punk sensibility.

Looks like a great series,

Nigel

[Ferryman]

Mind you, having looked at some of those clips I would rather remember them the way they were..... Peter Perret looks shot to bits and his wonderful voice is a shadow of its former self, but then that's the downside of hard drugs....

The Only Ones were hardly punk either! One of my fave bands from the era though.

[kenny mac]

I loved the quote from the guy living in the squat saying you could just be going to the kitchen and end up getting the job as bass player in a band.

[AndyR]

Hmmm...

I found it interesting, but rather depressing. It was still perpetuating the idea that all other music that had gone before was complete sh1t and the musicians that made it self-indulgent w@nkers.

That's what depressed me about punk then, and this not only reminded me of that, but it also gave the impression that all of us who were in our teens embraced this idea.

We did not. In fact, I strongly suspect that at least half of us did not.

We liked some of the tunes that punk produced, maybe even some of the acts, same as we liked some of whatever else was going on in the music world. What we didn't like was the brainwashing that punk fans seemed to have been subjected to and the message that they expected everyone else to be threatened into accepting.

Added to that, where was the live music scene a few years later? (Pub rock, where this came from) It was gone, the punters had disappeared. It was very laudable that punk encouraged everyone and anyone to pick up an instrument and start making noise together. The problem is, though, that unless the outfit is seriously talented (or the media tells us it is) no-one except the band's mates is going to want to listen to a whole evening of what they have to offer. The British RnB audience (those that didn't want "destroy" added to their music) drifted away and never came back. No landlord or club owner is going to put on music if it doesn't pay. The pub rock scene got deaded. It would have died anyway, I guess, but from where I stood, punk made sure of it.

I felt very depressed after I watched this program.

I'd hoped to be inspired, but instead it reminded me of how destructive and hurtful it all was.

Luckily I missed it on the Friday (and saw a repeat a few days later). On the Friday, I joined BBC4 in time for the Ian Dury and Dr Feelgood Sight and Sound in Concert (and then the Stiff Records programs). That was much more inspiring. It was about music, and not about raising one form of music by condemning other forms and the individuals who made it.

I'll probably watch the rest of the Punk Britannia thing, I'm still trying to figure out what made some of my peers so close-minded and generally thuggish and boorish about creativity, but I'm not looking forward to how it will make me feel.

[Oldrottenhead]

was only part one andy much more to come. you should also check out the documentary about tv smith that was on straght after it. that was very inspiring. despite all the trials and tribulations he went through he is still going strong.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01jch17/We_Who_Wait_TV_Smith_and_the_Adverts/

in my honest opinion one of the uk's most underrated songwriters.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVqJIWQL5ww

[Burtog]

I was gonna suggest PUNKFEST, then realised there's already been one!!

[chip]

I think people were fed up with everything not just music. The 70's were pretty bad in the UK Maggie Thatcher, strikes, poll tax, riots, you name it. Something had to explode. Punk came along through disaffected youth, grab a guitar make some noise and sing about the crap going on around them.

Now we have Adele and all the other rubbish. And again we have the 70's in repeat, tories, disaffected unemployed youth, who are going to waste and asked to work for nothing, greedy bankers and Europe in a state of chaos. So the scene is set for something else to happen whether that's music or something real bad.

[Oldrottenhead]

at least we dont have dave lee travis anymore........................or do we?