Punk Diary: The Ultimate
Trainspotter's Guide to
Underground Rock
1970-1982
By George Gimarc
Backbeat Books August 1, 2005
ISBN 0-87930-848-6 (£15.99)
This is a fucking massive telephone directory covering the bulk of
punk events, landmark happenings and classic gigs as caught by
the UK music press from 1970-82. This all encompassed edition
handily incorporates the early work of George Gimarc's acclaimed
'Punk Diary 1970-79' with his '1980-1982 Post Punk' book that
followed hot on its heels. All lovingly bound together with additional
information, into one big, fat, juicy 746 page odyssey. This is worth
your unbridled attention! George Gimarc is a fan of punk and
must've poured through literally hundreds of copies of the music
weeklies such as Sounds, NME and Melody Maker etc to bring us
the beef of this expansive work.
Punk Diary ain't a book you can just pick up and read straight
through. There ain't any chapters or story lines to follow, just years, months and dates that jog your memory, make you
think so thats when it actually happened or will bring a smik to your face! The pages are lit up with selected imagery as
you wade through this encyclopaedia of punk. This journal of discovery is purely a chronological and factual snapshot of
the day to day dealings from the UK (and to a lesser extent) US punk universes. Its biggest pull is that this will become
undoubtedly a constant research source for budding punk historians or just fans after the information on your favourite
bands. If you wanna track down those missing records you couldn't date and even the ones you didn't rate, Flock Of
Seagulls anyone? You can literally dip into this and find out exactly what happened to who and when and where over an
extensive period of time. And thank gawd for that 44 page band index at the back so that you can just jump right in where
the action was in punks more explosive regions. There's a staggering 1,276 bands detailed in here! From the Ants to
Angst right through to the Sick Fucks and the Sex Pistols. They are all lovingly recorded and documented for your
easy to digest dissection. Punk Diary will only be a minor disappointment for all the more obscure punk outfits; coz the
bands that never made it into our UK weeklies don't get covered, which is a shame. However all the main contenders of
the day get a healthy treatment as do some of the lesser known outfits who made it through pure luck or maybe word of
mouth? However if your from Europe you'll be feeling totally estranged as there ain't much coverage at all apart from
bands such as Kleenex or the Stinky Toys who managed to breach the gap. But what is included will definitely wet your
whistle. I hope George could maybe one day do a US version if he has the energy or resources to choose from. But I
suspect this is purely a UK experience because let's face it love em or loathe em, the British music press along with the
zine heirarchy at that time, did a splendid job of covering punk when it was still a threat and worth printing.
As an added bonus you get a FREE CD which give us a fascinating insight into George's early 80's Dallas 'Rock N Roll
Alternative' radio show, where he conducted one to one interviews with such droll characters as Devo, The Damned,
Adam Ant, Stiv Bators, The Ramones and the Go Go's along with 18 others segments from artists that appear in this
book.You can view a couple of sample pages here! ****
PETER DON'T CARE
Trainspotter's Guide to
Underground Rock
1970-1982
By George Gimarc
Backbeat Books August 1, 2005
ISBN 0-87930-848-6 (£15.99)
This is a fucking massive telephone directory covering the bulk of
punk events, landmark happenings and classic gigs as caught by
the UK music press from 1970-82. This all encompassed edition
handily incorporates the early work of George Gimarc's acclaimed
'Punk Diary 1970-79' with his '1980-1982 Post Punk' book that
followed hot on its heels. All lovingly bound together with additional
information, into one big, fat, juicy 746 page odyssey. This is worth
your unbridled attention! George Gimarc is a fan of punk and
must've poured through literally hundreds of copies of the music
weeklies such as Sounds, NME and Melody Maker etc to bring us
the beef of this expansive work.
Punk Diary ain't a book you can just pick up and read straight
through. There ain't any chapters or story lines to follow, just years, months and dates that jog your memory, make you
think so thats when it actually happened or will bring a smik to your face! The pages are lit up with selected imagery as
you wade through this encyclopaedia of punk. This journal of discovery is purely a chronological and factual snapshot of
the day to day dealings from the UK (and to a lesser extent) US punk universes. Its biggest pull is that this will become
undoubtedly a constant research source for budding punk historians or just fans after the information on your favourite
bands. If you wanna track down those missing records you couldn't date and even the ones you didn't rate, Flock Of
Seagulls anyone? You can literally dip into this and find out exactly what happened to who and when and where over an
extensive period of time. And thank gawd for that 44 page band index at the back so that you can just jump right in where
the action was in punks more explosive regions. There's a staggering 1,276 bands detailed in here! From the Ants to
Angst right through to the Sick Fucks and the Sex Pistols. They are all lovingly recorded and documented for your
easy to digest dissection. Punk Diary will only be a minor disappointment for all the more obscure punk outfits; coz the
bands that never made it into our UK weeklies don't get covered, which is a shame. However all the main contenders of
the day get a healthy treatment as do some of the lesser known outfits who made it through pure luck or maybe word of
mouth? However if your from Europe you'll be feeling totally estranged as there ain't much coverage at all apart from
bands such as Kleenex or the Stinky Toys who managed to breach the gap. But what is included will definitely wet your
whistle. I hope George could maybe one day do a US version if he has the energy or resources to choose from. But I
suspect this is purely a UK experience because let's face it love em or loathe em, the British music press along with the
zine heirarchy at that time, did a splendid job of covering punk when it was still a threat and worth printing.
As an added bonus you get a FREE CD which give us a fascinating insight into George's early 80's Dallas 'Rock N Roll
Alternative' radio show, where he conducted one to one interviews with such droll characters as Devo, The Damned,
Adam Ant, Stiv Bators, The Ramones and the Go Go's along with 18 others segments from artists that appear in this
book.You can view a couple of sample pages here! ****
PETER DON'T CARE
HATE RATES.... ***** BIBLE **** TABLOID *** COMIC ** CHIP PAPER * PULP
