(THE FACE February 1983)
DOCUMENTARY
PUNK'S NEW
CLOTHES
text by Marek Kohn
Photographs by Mike Laye
PUNK'S NEW CLOTHES
A little surprise for you: an acknowledgement in THE FACE that
despite everything, people persist in re-creating rock. Here's an
account of an Attitude and some groups to go with it...
NO IT ISN'T! If this is to be an examination of a kind of punk,
then that snappish reflex should be its first axiom. That was it's
attitude. You might think the style more important. Indeed, if this
new phenomenon were just a fad and a prayer, I'd either have to
chat about some nearby subject or dress this piece up in
linguistic Doc Martens; make it look punk. But this kind of punk
isn't about the number of syllables in a word, it is, as everyone
concerned seems to affirm, about an attitude. This new feeling
(this substitute for the controversial term 'movement') is "I wish it
was..."
Punk was first of all a reaction which stoked the confrontation by
refusing to explain itself. "No it isn't" would be a fair translation of
each step in the dance punk led its host community. It depended
on being probed and explained so it could keep saving "no, that
isn't it". It had to wriggle out of being caught by definitions, and
stay incomprehensibie to outsiders. It was triumphant until it lost
its strangeness. And its brilliance was to know intuitively how to
fight a battle of signs, to express the contempt of its participants
for and their difference from the majority. Its worst conceit was to
try to progress from this.
Punk was in one sense a giant bluff which was never actually
called. Other people just got used to it. Those on the inside did
do too, pulling out strands from the tangle which, in its wilful
disorder, defied explanation or an agreed meaning. They made
it ordinary.
DOCUMENTARY
PUNK'S NEW
CLOTHES
text by Marek Kohn
Photographs by Mike Laye
PUNK'S NEW CLOTHES
A little surprise for you: an acknowledgement in THE FACE that
despite everything, people persist in re-creating rock. Here's an
account of an Attitude and some groups to go with it...
NO IT ISN'T! If this is to be an examination of a kind of punk,
then that snappish reflex should be its first axiom. That was it's
attitude. You might think the style more important. Indeed, if this
new phenomenon were just a fad and a prayer, I'd either have to
chat about some nearby subject or dress this piece up in
linguistic Doc Martens; make it look punk. But this kind of punk
isn't about the number of syllables in a word, it is, as everyone
concerned seems to affirm, about an attitude. This new feeling
(this substitute for the controversial term 'movement') is "I wish it
was..."
Punk was first of all a reaction which stoked the confrontation by
refusing to explain itself. "No it isn't" would be a fair translation of
each step in the dance punk led its host community. It depended
on being probed and explained so it could keep saving "no, that
isn't it". It had to wriggle out of being caught by definitions, and
stay incomprehensibie to outsiders. It was triumphant until it lost
its strangeness. And its brilliance was to know intuitively how to
fight a battle of signs, to express the contempt of its participants
for and their difference from the majority. Its worst conceit was to
try to progress from this.
Punk was in one sense a giant bluff which was never actually
called. Other people just got used to it. Those on the inside did
do too, pulling out strands from the tangle which, in its wilful
disorder, defied explanation or an agreed meaning. They made
it ordinary.
Consigned to a foul demise by the forces of cash and
chaos, punk broods alone in its dark tomb. Its
evolution away from the light has been a cruel and
twisted one, from guerilla assault on the media to
ghost dancing on the bones of Red Indian mysticism,
from glue to Gothick. Naturally, unÂattended for so
long, its hair has grown. So have its aspiraÂtions. It
has risen to the call of groups like Southern Death
Cult and Sex Gang Children and craves a positive
comÂmunion through music. Come with us through
the veil of gloom to meet the new romantics.
chaos, punk broods alone in its dark tomb. Its
evolution away from the light has been a cruel and
twisted one, from guerilla assault on the media to
ghost dancing on the bones of Red Indian mysticism,
from glue to Gothick. Naturally, unÂattended for so
long, its hair has grown. So have its aspiraÂtions. It
has risen to the call of groups like Southern Death
Cult and Sex Gang Children and craves a positive
comÂmunion through music. Come with us through
the veil of gloom to meet the new romantics.
The Clash forged a misguided alliance between the sensationalism of a Daily Mirror Dead End Kids shock report and the romance of a
Che Guevara bedsit poster. But the biggest musical disaster for punk wasn't so much them as Siouxsie, because she wasn't seen
through.
She was a trouper. She kept the faith and preserved the star-fan relationship which The Sex Pistols refused. Nobody ever came out
and said that her songs were the sort of shallow pop pulp that had as much inspiration as anyone could get from a few hours with a
random selection of secondhand paperbacks. If nothing else, she's a testimony to the power of make-up and a stony silence.
ANARCHY IN THE UK
The way our young people turn out tends to support Darwin's observations on the peculÂiar development of creatures cut off from
their fellows by a stretch of sea. Even the disaffected are cast differently from their continental comrades. Over there, those allergic to
mass culture seem to make more connections amongst themselves, in GerÂmany, you have the Green ecological moveÂment, in
Italy, the desperately committed Autonomists; and more autonomes in Zurich in the Seventies, the French "marginals" had as dogmatic
a uniform as British skinheads, with their check shirts, straight jeans and long hair. All these have a fairly firm ancestry (b. 1968. in
effect) and often an unstoppable tendency to generate intricate political theory, appreciating as they do the value of tradition and
thought.
We of course have our Social Democrats and hand-wringers, and on the
political side there is the disarmament movement, but our chief equivalent
of a 24-hour social opposition is the Punk.
Like all real Britons, punks distrust theory, politicians and intellectuals.
They believe in the individual, and as true Britons one of their greatest
concerns is for the welfare of animals. The really unapproachable
anarchist punks, like tortoises in their crusty shells, are quite separate
from the developments sketched in this article. They did help give it a
definition by giving the new versions something from which to distance
themselves. The word is accessibility, not purity. Brigandage, for instance,
want to encourage punk fellow-travellers who might be scared off by the
anarchist extremists.
This is a shift of strategy rather than a change of heart. But there's still
a sense of disaffection. Bob Short of Blood & Roses has a keen sense
of anarchy but is against it on the unusual ground that if it were achieved,
it would put an end to further progress. It's this kind of abstract argument
that has difficulty getting out of the squat and down to practicalities. And
no amount of imported earnest Italians could persuade these diffident
dissidents to abandon idealism and individualism for the great leap
forward of materialism. There's always that complacent British
satisfaction with having good intentions.
THE GREAT ROCK'N'ROLL MYSTERY
Two things in rock are really easy to conjure up without trying very hard:
a loud noise and an air of mystery. For the latter, you just drop a few
hints and your audience fall over themselves to do the rest. A lack of
irony, playfulness and humour; a handful of horror images (both the
supernatural and the violent varieties), a need to conjure up an aura...
You can see it in The Birthday Party, Bauhaus or Theatre Of Hate in
their various way: Groups like those, especially the latter two are
straws in the wind. Bauhaus would be the band in the scene (even if
the fiercest demon they conjure up is Ziggy Stardust) but they're so
acutely polished and commercial. Being "underground" is mysterious
in itself.
There's a constellation of images, mainly familiar ones from films or
cartoons - who have also been taken up more rigidly and crassly by
heavy metal - that fit the sensibility. Most of them are linked by the
unseen Figure of Death, The silhouette of the Great Reaper himself
turns up on the Sex Gang Children's single labels (By coincidence,
he's also on the label of the current Rip Rig & Panic single, "Beat The Beast", which takes jazz to Blood & Roses' Crowley territory).
Playing with the images of death is a running theme through youth culture, particularly those circles in which real chances are taken
with an early grave, like Hell's Angels or drug-fixated groups.
Such history builds up the resonances of the symbols There's a coherence here that is the opposite of the blind alleys, tricks and
evasions of punk as she was first spoken. It's neater: the music is mostly competently played and by now traditional, a support for a
cloud of images that you've run across before. You're halfway there before you start.
It's no problem to fail in with much of the new punk if you want.
Che Guevara bedsit poster. But the biggest musical disaster for punk wasn't so much them as Siouxsie, because she wasn't seen
through.
She was a trouper. She kept the faith and preserved the star-fan relationship which The Sex Pistols refused. Nobody ever came out
and said that her songs were the sort of shallow pop pulp that had as much inspiration as anyone could get from a few hours with a
random selection of secondhand paperbacks. If nothing else, she's a testimony to the power of make-up and a stony silence.
ANARCHY IN THE UK
The way our young people turn out tends to support Darwin's observations on the peculÂiar development of creatures cut off from
their fellows by a stretch of sea. Even the disaffected are cast differently from their continental comrades. Over there, those allergic to
mass culture seem to make more connections amongst themselves, in GerÂmany, you have the Green ecological moveÂment, in
Italy, the desperately committed Autonomists; and more autonomes in Zurich in the Seventies, the French "marginals" had as dogmatic
a uniform as British skinheads, with their check shirts, straight jeans and long hair. All these have a fairly firm ancestry (b. 1968. in
effect) and often an unstoppable tendency to generate intricate political theory, appreciating as they do the value of tradition and
thought.
We of course have our Social Democrats and hand-wringers, and on the
political side there is the disarmament movement, but our chief equivalent
of a 24-hour social opposition is the Punk.
Like all real Britons, punks distrust theory, politicians and intellectuals.
They believe in the individual, and as true Britons one of their greatest
concerns is for the welfare of animals. The really unapproachable
anarchist punks, like tortoises in their crusty shells, are quite separate
from the developments sketched in this article. They did help give it a
definition by giving the new versions something from which to distance
themselves. The word is accessibility, not purity. Brigandage, for instance,
want to encourage punk fellow-travellers who might be scared off by the
anarchist extremists.
This is a shift of strategy rather than a change of heart. But there's still
a sense of disaffection. Bob Short of Blood & Roses has a keen sense
of anarchy but is against it on the unusual ground that if it were achieved,
it would put an end to further progress. It's this kind of abstract argument
that has difficulty getting out of the squat and down to practicalities. And
no amount of imported earnest Italians could persuade these diffident
dissidents to abandon idealism and individualism for the great leap
forward of materialism. There's always that complacent British
satisfaction with having good intentions.
THE GREAT ROCK'N'ROLL MYSTERY
Two things in rock are really easy to conjure up without trying very hard:
a loud noise and an air of mystery. For the latter, you just drop a few
hints and your audience fall over themselves to do the rest. A lack of
irony, playfulness and humour; a handful of horror images (both the
supernatural and the violent varieties), a need to conjure up an aura...
You can see it in The Birthday Party, Bauhaus or Theatre Of Hate in
their various way: Groups like those, especially the latter two are
straws in the wind. Bauhaus would be the band in the scene (even if
the fiercest demon they conjure up is Ziggy Stardust) but they're so
acutely polished and commercial. Being "underground" is mysterious
in itself.
There's a constellation of images, mainly familiar ones from films or
cartoons - who have also been taken up more rigidly and crassly by
heavy metal - that fit the sensibility. Most of them are linked by the
unseen Figure of Death, The silhouette of the Great Reaper himself
turns up on the Sex Gang Children's single labels (By coincidence,
he's also on the label of the current Rip Rig & Panic single, "Beat The Beast", which takes jazz to Blood & Roses' Crowley territory).
Playing with the images of death is a running theme through youth culture, particularly those circles in which real chances are taken
with an early grave, like Hell's Angels or drug-fixated groups.
Such history builds up the resonances of the symbols There's a coherence here that is the opposite of the blind alleys, tricks and
evasions of punk as she was first spoken. It's neater: the music is mostly competently played and by now traditional, a support for a
cloud of images that you've run across before. You're halfway there before you start.
It's no problem to fail in with much of the new punk if you want.
BLOOD & ROSES
To his credit, Bob Short doesn't trade on his
interest in Aleister Crowley's Art of Magick.
True, he's fond of joss sticks, and the group
does sometimes perform with black candles
on stage ("The fans bring them!"). And it's
fair to say he's some- thing of a paranormal,
one of those people who interprets or
invents coincidences as being arranged by
some mysterious all-pervading force.
He interprets the emergence of a loose
social group around bands like Blood &
Roses. Sex Gang Children and Southern
Death Cult in this way, rather than ascribing
it to smaller and more down-to-earth causes;
the search for novelty, for instance. In a
loopy Zig Zag piece on Blood & Roses last
year, a very impressionable interviewer
recounted all sorts of fringe stuff about astral
projection and so on. It makes good
sensational copy but Bob explains the Art in
much more respectable and restrained terms:
"There are three important factors in Magick.
The first one is that any act of change made
in accordance with your desires is an act of
magick.
To his credit, Bob Short doesn't trade on his
interest in Aleister Crowley's Art of Magick.
True, he's fond of joss sticks, and the group
does sometimes perform with black candles
on stage ("The fans bring them!"). And it's
fair to say he's some- thing of a paranormal,
one of those people who interprets or
invents coincidences as being arranged by
some mysterious all-pervading force.
He interprets the emergence of a loose
social group around bands like Blood &
Roses. Sex Gang Children and Southern
Death Cult in this way, rather than ascribing
it to smaller and more down-to-earth causes;
the search for novelty, for instance. In a
loopy Zig Zag piece on Blood & Roses last
year, a very impressionable interviewer
recounted all sorts of fringe stuff about astral
projection and so on. It makes good
sensational copy but Bob explains the Art in
much more respectable and restrained terms:
"There are three important factors in Magick.
The first one is that any act of change made
in accordance with your desires is an act of
magick.
The second one is do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law, love is the law, love under will. The third point is that magick's for all.
That means it's not just if you want to be a guru, an ego trip like that. Making an effort to be the best is an act of magick."
The rest of the group seem to be happy enough with it as far as that definition goes. They're an unassuming bunch who don't make
any great claims for the music and don't even especially want to talk about it. Like Brigandage, they sometimes sound like The Sex
Pistols and I like them, sometimes they sound like Siouxsie and I don't. Their single, "Love Under Will" is a due example of punk
formality. The music is third-gear three chord punk, a traditional arrangement for a basic Crowley manifesto as above.
One thing they manage (though perhaps only through shyness) is the lack of distinction between themselves and their audience. They
don't have the tiresome high stringing of Sex Gang Children and their need to make people concentrate on them. Bob: "We make
music, yeah, but I think it's purely soundtrack. It's just the music that's going on when everyone's in the room together."
And how would they express the new attitude-not-a-movement?
The bands that are around now are making a genuine attempt to be different. That's the common denominator. That's the only
justification of the term 'movement'."
BRIGANDAGE
"We're a punk group." No ifs or buts.
Michelle (the singer) is perfectly clear from
the very first sentence past the
introductions about what Brigandage are.
Pronouced by her 'Brigandaahzh', as in
Steve and Rusty's Visahzh, the name is a
nod to McLaren' s notion of banditry. Like
many of the people associated with this
scene, Michelle is old enough (23) to have
known what it was like first time round. Like
Richard North, who pitched a banner for the
movement ('Positive Punk') in the NME
a few weeks ago, she believes in punk
progress. (Six years to get to this? What
patience!).
Brigandage do present themselves in a
positive fashion. They look at the same time
like punks and like individuals with
self-respect. And quite a lot of the time they
sound bless 'em, not unlike The Sex Pistols.
They are people who want to stay punks,
but don't want to decline slowly and
squalidly from year zero. As such, their
look and their music is a viable formula.
FEAR OF FUNK
The Tribe is a one-nighter run by Cloudy and held at a once legendary gay
club up West. Keep it dark and don't let them get comfortable is the guideline
for the decor. Which is right for the two undergrounds using the place, although
it wouldn't do for the mythical creatures with no visible means of support for
whom the party never stops or gets any more diverting. The prices at the Tribe
are more in their range; not astronomical, but liable to encourage observers
rather than observees.
Those Old records records they play sound suprisingly fresh if you haven't
heard them for five years, but it's a nice club which would be a lot better if the
music vvas more daring. At the moment, it's an odd place which, like the scene
in general, is still working from an image to an identity. It's a bit gawky and
really very punk especially compared to the largely vacuous, sporadically
venomous and very faded London club circuit.
SEX GANG CHILDREN
It is snowing. Photographer Mike Laye and I have gone to Stevenage to see
the live Sex act. The gig is in a little sports hall. The Comic Strip's Bad News
Tour episode has just been shown - the one where a struggling band's
progress up the M1 leads to pre-gig trauma and one member threatening to
leave and take the PA with him. I amuse myself with the coincidence...
When we contact the group, it turns out that the drummer had just left, taking
the van with him, so the group had to dash for the train along with their
fans. Nothing can stop me after this, and I have a perfectly entertaining
evening doing desultory vox pops with drunks.
The morning after, the Children and I do a faltering interview. They are very
cross about the idea of THE FACE inventing a movement. "What I'd like to
say to the London music press." complains bass player Dave Roberts, "is stop standing on your fucking pedestal and looking down on
those kids across the country, as they do. Instead they should turn around and give them some confidence, like we're trying to!"
Next they try and persuade me that they are not a rock band, which strikes me as precious coming from a guitar/bass/drums vocals
outfit who, it can safely be said, do not play bossa novas.
Much of their spiel is special pleading: they're desperate to be different, and they push their songs well beyond the safe working limits
of what talent they have. The effect is like a race between the instruments and the voice to lose each other and get to the end of the
song on their own. The group are so tense and twisted that I can't help but guess that they like it that way.
So there I was with a useless tape, less than pleased. Then I ran into Andi, the singer, who wasn't happy about it either. Off the spot
and without recording, we got on okay - as long as we weren't actually talking about the group. Terry, the guitarist, gave me a copy of
the LP, which has a very good sleeve that avoids doing the obvious and trading on the gothic. The lyrics are printed on the inside.
They're hopelessly convoluted and belong to the rock school of apocalyptic masochism, but do show that they are thinking, and, from
what I can make out, that they have some sense of right, wrong and politics. One thing they are is sincere - to the point of sounding
self-righteous - completely committed to what they are doing. If they would only display the sense of parody they say they have...Unless
it's all parody?
Anyway, I've come to terms with them,and I'm cheerily writing this piece when Mike phones me to say that the Children aren't coming
out to play. So you'll have to buy another magazine to find out what they look like.
That means it's not just if you want to be a guru, an ego trip like that. Making an effort to be the best is an act of magick."
The rest of the group seem to be happy enough with it as far as that definition goes. They're an unassuming bunch who don't make
any great claims for the music and don't even especially want to talk about it. Like Brigandage, they sometimes sound like The Sex
Pistols and I like them, sometimes they sound like Siouxsie and I don't. Their single, "Love Under Will" is a due example of punk
formality. The music is third-gear three chord punk, a traditional arrangement for a basic Crowley manifesto as above.
One thing they manage (though perhaps only through shyness) is the lack of distinction between themselves and their audience. They
don't have the tiresome high stringing of Sex Gang Children and their need to make people concentrate on them. Bob: "We make
music, yeah, but I think it's purely soundtrack. It's just the music that's going on when everyone's in the room together."
And how would they express the new attitude-not-a-movement?
The bands that are around now are making a genuine attempt to be different. That's the common denominator. That's the only
justification of the term 'movement'."
BRIGANDAGE
"We're a punk group." No ifs or buts.
Michelle (the singer) is perfectly clear from
the very first sentence past the
introductions about what Brigandage are.
Pronouced by her 'Brigandaahzh', as in
Steve and Rusty's Visahzh, the name is a
nod to McLaren' s notion of banditry. Like
many of the people associated with this
scene, Michelle is old enough (23) to have
known what it was like first time round. Like
Richard North, who pitched a banner for the
movement ('Positive Punk') in the NME
a few weeks ago, she believes in punk
progress. (Six years to get to this? What
patience!).
Brigandage do present themselves in a
positive fashion. They look at the same time
like punks and like individuals with
self-respect. And quite a lot of the time they
sound bless 'em, not unlike The Sex Pistols.
They are people who want to stay punks,
but don't want to decline slowly and
squalidly from year zero. As such, their
look and their music is a viable formula.
FEAR OF FUNK
The Tribe is a one-nighter run by Cloudy and held at a once legendary gay
club up West. Keep it dark and don't let them get comfortable is the guideline
for the decor. Which is right for the two undergrounds using the place, although
it wouldn't do for the mythical creatures with no visible means of support for
whom the party never stops or gets any more diverting. The prices at the Tribe
are more in their range; not astronomical, but liable to encourage observers
rather than observees.
Those Old records records they play sound suprisingly fresh if you haven't
heard them for five years, but it's a nice club which would be a lot better if the
music vvas more daring. At the moment, it's an odd place which, like the scene
in general, is still working from an image to an identity. It's a bit gawky and
really very punk especially compared to the largely vacuous, sporadically
venomous and very faded London club circuit.
SEX GANG CHILDREN
It is snowing. Photographer Mike Laye and I have gone to Stevenage to see
the live Sex act. The gig is in a little sports hall. The Comic Strip's Bad News
Tour episode has just been shown - the one where a struggling band's
progress up the M1 leads to pre-gig trauma and one member threatening to
leave and take the PA with him. I amuse myself with the coincidence...
When we contact the group, it turns out that the drummer had just left, taking
the van with him, so the group had to dash for the train along with their
fans. Nothing can stop me after this, and I have a perfectly entertaining
evening doing desultory vox pops with drunks.
The morning after, the Children and I do a faltering interview. They are very
cross about the idea of THE FACE inventing a movement. "What I'd like to
say to the London music press." complains bass player Dave Roberts, "is stop standing on your fucking pedestal and looking down on
those kids across the country, as they do. Instead they should turn around and give them some confidence, like we're trying to!"
Next they try and persuade me that they are not a rock band, which strikes me as precious coming from a guitar/bass/drums vocals
outfit who, it can safely be said, do not play bossa novas.
Much of their spiel is special pleading: they're desperate to be different, and they push their songs well beyond the safe working limits
of what talent they have. The effect is like a race between the instruments and the voice to lose each other and get to the end of the
song on their own. The group are so tense and twisted that I can't help but guess that they like it that way.
So there I was with a useless tape, less than pleased. Then I ran into Andi, the singer, who wasn't happy about it either. Off the spot
and without recording, we got on okay - as long as we weren't actually talking about the group. Terry, the guitarist, gave me a copy of
the LP, which has a very good sleeve that avoids doing the obvious and trading on the gothic. The lyrics are printed on the inside.
They're hopelessly convoluted and belong to the rock school of apocalyptic masochism, but do show that they are thinking, and, from
what I can make out, that they have some sense of right, wrong and politics. One thing they are is sincere - to the point of sounding
self-righteous - completely committed to what they are doing. If they would only display the sense of parody they say they have...Unless
it's all parody?
Anyway, I've come to terms with them,and I'm cheerily writing this piece when Mike phones me to say that the Children aren't coming
out to play. So you'll have to buy another magazine to find out what they look like.
THE WHIP
The Whip was good during
the first few years of its
life, when it lived happily.
Then I noticed that it had
been born evil. An
extraordinary fatality.
Whenever he kissed a little
pink-faced child, he felt
like tearing open its cheeks
with a razor. And he would
have done so very often
had not Justice, with its
long train of punishments
prevented him. He was no
liar, admitted the truth and
said that he was cruel.
The Whip, drenched with
unrestrained savagery and
menace unveils a strange
world. One of angels and
gravediggers,
hermaphrodites and
lunatics. Delirious, erotic,
blasphemous and grandiose
by turns.
See before you a monster.
The Whip's face I am glad
you cannot perceive,
though it is far less horrible
than its soul.
Beware the painful
impression he will not fail
to leave upon your
imagination. Become fierce
and find your way across
his desolate and poisonous
swamps.
The Whip was good during
the first few years of its
life, when it lived happily.
Then I noticed that it had
been born evil. An
extraordinary fatality.
Whenever he kissed a little
pink-faced child, he felt
like tearing open its cheeks
with a razor. And he would
have done so very often
had not Justice, with its
long train of punishments
prevented him. He was no
liar, admitted the truth and
said that he was cruel.
The Whip, drenched with
unrestrained savagery and
menace unveils a strange
world. One of angels and
gravediggers,
hermaphrodites and
lunatics. Delirious, erotic,
blasphemous and grandiose
by turns.
See before you a monster.
The Whip's face I am glad
you cannot perceive,
though it is far less horrible
than its soul.
Beware the painful
impression he will not fail
to leave upon your
imagination. Become fierce
and find your way across
his desolate and poisonous
swamps.
THOSE NEW CLOTHES
The main title of this piece isn't
simply sceptical. The actual clothes
are fine. Individualism as a political
position is a liberal dead end, but
in dress and lifestyle it's a joy to
behold. No single basic uniform
emerges but you can tell it when
you see it. There's an open
approach to dressing, a desire to
look good and a slight punky edge
of toughness (not machismo). It's a
look to live with rather than a
moment's rebellious gesture. Not
that it's particularly new. For what
it's worth, the studs, leather and
jeans worked their way (via the gay
clubs?) back into the West End
The main title of this piece isn't
simply sceptical. The actual clothes
are fine. Individualism as a political
position is a liberal dead end, but
in dress and lifestyle it's a joy to
behold. No single basic uniform
emerges but you can tell it when
you see it. There's an open
approach to dressing, a desire to
look good and a slight punky edge
of toughness (not machismo). It's a
look to live with rather than a
moment's rebellious gesture. Not
that it's particularly new. For what
it's worth, the studs, leather and
jeans worked their way (via the gay
clubs?) back into the West End
wardrobe, oh, ages ago. The music came later and it still doesn't seem crucial. Easy as it would be
to make some sort of equation like 'tough music for tough times', the return of rock in all its hard
banality is more likely a result of boredom with funk and bright new pop.
There's a group squeezed between the complicity of the ex-punks (and their elders) and the pop
kids. Both of these avoid rock for different reasons. In between, there are lots of people who will
want a rock experience. They want to be in that crowd in front of that stage. They want to be all
facing that same way, not |ust dancing around to records. At the least, they need the semblance of
passion, even if it's only sweat and noise.
The aura of mystery helps because it never delivers, only entices. On another level, music doesn't
matter. Heaven was packed for Southern Death Cult (This group looms small in this piece because
one of its members vetoed any cooperation with THE FACE. One looks forward to such firm
principles being applied to appearances on Top Of The Pops). I doubt very much that many of the
customers had seen them before, and I should imagine many would go along with the person
overheard the next night, "Y'know. I woke up this morning and I still didn't feel any better about
Southern Death Cult".
The group fills a theatrical need. It doesn't really
matter what the bulk of the audience thought of
them, they'll do for now. To paraphrase Bob
Short, it's the right background noise for a
social event. Further ahead, as the charts
indicate the growth of a new market with no
shame about wanting rock, it's a correct
background noise for the time.
But it's okay, this new scene. It's individualistic
and positive - though it defines that positiveness
negatively against other kinds of punk; pack
punk, overcommitted purist punk, drug and glue
swamped punk, punk that cuts its nose off to
spite society's face. No doubt some will disclaim
the punk label before you can say bandwagon,
but they can't escape their roots! The doom 'n'
gothic theme is another way of expressing gloom
- which doesn't square with the Positive Principle
- another version of long raincoat music, but
more kitsch. It also allows a dose of very silly
mysticism (which is hardly progressive, except in
the old sense of Progressive Rock) an airing it
doesn't merit.
There's a quiet but significant leaning towards political idealism, as expressed by small labels and
opposition to commercial pop. It's liberal, not radical, and it tends to end up having faith in faith
itself. As style it's fine, as a faith it's insipid. What can be said for it is that it gives people hope, and
that is not a quality to sneer at nowadays. The new clothes are very nice, but they shouldn't be
blown up into the New Clothes of the folk tale. It's only a new combination of themes we've seen
before and it wouldn't be anything without that familiarity.
There's a ghost hanging around whose words seem to have persisted like the Cheshire Cat's grin .
"The Sex Pistols are an attitude, not a band "
Ever have the feeling that you're hearing an echo that just won't go away?
THE END
to make some sort of equation like 'tough music for tough times', the return of rock in all its hard
banality is more likely a result of boredom with funk and bright new pop.
There's a group squeezed between the complicity of the ex-punks (and their elders) and the pop
kids. Both of these avoid rock for different reasons. In between, there are lots of people who will
want a rock experience. They want to be in that crowd in front of that stage. They want to be all
facing that same way, not |ust dancing around to records. At the least, they need the semblance of
passion, even if it's only sweat and noise.
The aura of mystery helps because it never delivers, only entices. On another level, music doesn't
matter. Heaven was packed for Southern Death Cult (This group looms small in this piece because
one of its members vetoed any cooperation with THE FACE. One looks forward to such firm
principles being applied to appearances on Top Of The Pops). I doubt very much that many of the
customers had seen them before, and I should imagine many would go along with the person
overheard the next night, "Y'know. I woke up this morning and I still didn't feel any better about
Southern Death Cult".
The group fills a theatrical need. It doesn't really
matter what the bulk of the audience thought of
them, they'll do for now. To paraphrase Bob
Short, it's the right background noise for a
social event. Further ahead, as the charts
indicate the growth of a new market with no
shame about wanting rock, it's a correct
background noise for the time.
But it's okay, this new scene. It's individualistic
and positive - though it defines that positiveness
negatively against other kinds of punk; pack
punk, overcommitted purist punk, drug and glue
swamped punk, punk that cuts its nose off to
spite society's face. No doubt some will disclaim
the punk label before you can say bandwagon,
but they can't escape their roots! The doom 'n'
gothic theme is another way of expressing gloom
- which doesn't square with the Positive Principle
- another version of long raincoat music, but
more kitsch. It also allows a dose of very silly
mysticism (which is hardly progressive, except in
the old sense of Progressive Rock) an airing it
doesn't merit.
There's a quiet but significant leaning towards political idealism, as expressed by small labels and
opposition to commercial pop. It's liberal, not radical, and it tends to end up having faith in faith
itself. As style it's fine, as a faith it's insipid. What can be said for it is that it gives people hope, and
that is not a quality to sneer at nowadays. The new clothes are very nice, but they shouldn't be
blown up into the New Clothes of the folk tale. It's only a new combination of themes we've seen
before and it wouldn't be anything without that familiarity.
There's a ghost hanging around whose words seem to have persisted like the Cheshire Cat's grin .
"The Sex Pistols are an attitude, not a band "
Ever have the feeling that you're hearing an echo that just won't go away?
THE END
