PUNK: Animal, Vegetable or Mineral.

Rip It Up, Issue 5, 1 October 1977, Page 12

PUNK: Animal, Vegetable or Mineral.

Jeremy Templer.

Rock at Razor’s Edge

While punk rock has undoubtedly been accepted as part of a reaction against the mechanical discipline of disco music, its importance lies in its emergence as a marketable fashion. Its password is a surrender to primalism. But this could be the early ’6os: the music is once more outrageous, but it’salsoantagonistic, creating its own tension, dividing, sometimes conquering. And the kids are excited. The battles between the Mods and the

Teds could break out again tomorrow Punks versus Rockers. The music itself isn’t really important. The music is only that of its audience who are aggressive, selfconscious and who feel victimised. Its intention is to shock and to alienate those outside its devotees, which makes its following all the stronger. The music is minimal, with little but the titles to distinguish one song from another. The vocals are mostly inaudi-

ble but the sketch of each song is left faintly traced under the layers of sound. It's rock stripped to its raw essence, the energy and excitement left bare. The only important part of the music is the attitude. And the attitude is one of anger, frustration and desperation a total despair that can find no purpose other than itself, that can do no more than scream out for everyone to hear. Most of the bands to play London’s original punk rock venue, the Roxy, sounded much the same and, on the evidence of the live album The Roxy London WC2 (Jan-Apr 77), all that separates a band like Wire from the Sex Pistols is good management. In imost of the new punk groups the musicians’ ages range between 14 and early 20, though Eater averages out at 15 years. But, as with all bandwagons, there are some here who look out of place and some musicians who’ve come around for a second or third try at the business. But that by no means invalidates the music. Just as it doesn’t matter that most of the punk rock vocalists never escape a monotone and manage a three note range at best, that the

guitars are way too rough for the chords to be distinguishable. And, be-' cause the punk rock movement is overly anarchic, the ultimate achievement has to be that of the Unwated on the live Roxy album. The Unwanted then known as Smak were playing their first gig and had only been playing together for a week. Of course it .can’t last and I don’t think anybody’s expecting it to. It may ,have■ ready ended after it• has been hard to take the Sex Pistols seriously since they, originally signed to EMnot^o i 000 pounds^^_^_

Nobody mentions that the record companies' stranglehold on youth culture may well have been weakened were the punks refuse to record, carrying on playing the clubs instead. And once the Sex Pistols had been signed to a major company, every record company was looking to sign any punk rock group. While some bands, like the Damned, signed to independent or privatelyowned labels, it's becoming apparent that commercialism is already taking

the guts away from the music. It’s happened before of course and, just as then, the record companies are getting rich on the anger of youth; an

anger directed at all the record companies represent. It would be hard to understand why the Sex Pistols signed a recording contract in the first place were it not for all the dictum of nihilism: nothing really matters at all. And, besides, I’m sure they gave EMI and A & M a good time.

The punk rockers have vitalised an otherwise jaded music scene but what’s most interesting now is to see what will follow. The Ramones are playing faster (17 songs in half an hour), the Clash are said to be improving, the Sex Pistfc>ls are currently forced to play under a different name because of their reputation for inciting violence. The professed amateurism that separates the punks from the New

Wave groups holds punk rock in embryo, but it must eventually develop if not progress. And some of the more exciting groups loosely enveloped by the punk movement the Jam, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers among a few others look fit to go on to better things. In many ways we’re right back at the beginning, still waiting for the next Beatles. Not that that really matters.