Punk Britannia (BBC4 1st June 2012)

[webmonkey]

Central to Punk Britannia was one of the biggest myths that has crept into the history of punk. Its been built up over the years of music documentaries. The myth is the impact that punk made. 

Punk Britannia built punk up as if it was a huge menacing monster which took over, kicked out the old and sent the long haired beardies into hiding. In fact, quite frustratingly at the time, absolutely no-one took punk seriously except John Peel. It was generally perceived as a joke and ridiculed royally. At best, it became merely a very minor irritant that the media implied would go away before too long. And it did, out of the medias' sights at least. All that was subsequently covered was 'New Wave' - the toned down, sanitised, safe and marketable material, cherry picked from punk's aftermath. 

The silver jubilee week's chart from 1977, the year of that alleged revolution features only three punk singles from Ramones, The Stranglers and Sex Pistols (with The Jam at #40). Contrary to the myth that punk revolutionised the music industry, on the whole, for them, it was very much business as usual, unfortunately.

What really happened, unbeknown to all those who say "Punk was dead by 1978," was that it actually got a lot harder, serious and developed a highly political agenda and forged a very real and genuine DIY culture. However, simultaneously it nose dived completely underground. If you weren't involved, you'd have hardly known it was happening.

So above ground, things just carried on as usual.

[richardfamous]

Good point!

I try to avoid all these sort of programmes, they just seem to miss the point. Interesting to see people trying to make sense of it all, but its always the same 'talking heads' (not the band!) with the same old psychobabble. I know the political punk scene has been airbrushed out of the 'official' history, and if you believed the hype, it never existed!

[brixtondeb]

I watched the 'Post Punk' episode on i-player last night - they touched on the political punk scene *very* briefly with a short interview with Penny Rimbaud and a clip of Crass, but that was it!
Where were you guys??? Rubella Ballet? Flux? Conflict? Blyth Power?

And they maybe spent about 3 minutes on The Slits and Raincoats combined - again, many other female/female fronted groups were just brushed under the carpet - gaaaah!!

My girlfriend and I had a very spirited discussion about the deliberate glossing over of what we would consider very important parts of the 'punk jigsaw' in favour of the same tired old names.
I know they only have a finite amount of space but you'd think John Lydon was the be-all and end-all of punk if you took these programmes at afce value.
Hopefully it will inspire people to look up all these other great bands and find out the true history.

[webmonkey]

Indeed, anarcho punk especially, has been written out of history.

I wonder if the reason for this is that mainstream media ignored it at the time therefore there are few resources mainstream documentary film makers can draw on (but surely they should be sourcing original material anyway?), or is it because it simply doesn't fit the now seemingly 'official' punk history those film makers have created. Anarcho punk is a subculture contrary to that 'official' history on many levels.

Drifting slightly off-topic here...

Vi Subversa appears in Zillah Minx's film 'She's A Punk Rocker' - see the links page in the Poison Girls website.

'The Punk Years' TV series (2002) briefly touched on anarcho punk, mainly in episode 5 where Crass and Chumbawamba are interviewed but even 'The Day The Country Died' film, dedicated to anarcho punk and made by someone involved in that subculture, ignored Poison Girls.

[back2front]

Roy Wallace is currently redoing "The Day the Country Died" film though he's notoriously hard to pin down.
I can't agree more with some of the earlier posts when punk is confined to the 76/77 Pistols and Clash 'revolution' and especially when they always skip over the anarcho-scene which had the real political backbone.

In one sense the dismissal (ok there is the occasional footnote as in John Robb's series) is a way to undermine the historical libertarian sense while shoving the entire subculture into neatly compartmentalized genres for commodification and exploitation.

Even recent books on bands involved in the times have tended to concentrate on the music rather than the subculture and its political ramifications.

That's one reason why it's great to see this forum springing up - perhaps a little analysis rather than popstar worship and where to get the spattered green vinyl limited edition 12inch single to complete your collection (as if combined weight of said record collection when placed on top of 10 Downing Street would crush said building with its sheer weight!).

[webmonkey]

Interesting to hear Roy Wallace is redoing The Day The Country Died. Is this in response to the blatant omission of women in anarcho punk or what?

Anyway, what prompted me to sound off yet again about how punk was misrepresented as the all conquering uber-beast in Punk Britannia was Top Of The Pops from this week in 1977 which is on TV as I bash the keyboard here... Stranglers (Go Buddy Go - hardly a punk a classic) and Sex Pistols... the sum total of punk in the top 30. So much for punk sweeping aside the old guard, ripping up the old and flustering the establishment.

ooo ooo, next up, here comes Johnny Mathis...