This is a very ambitious set of films which attempts to chart the birth, life and death (yes it's very definitely dead) of punk in the UK. Starting at the beginning with the rise of pub rock, which, like punk was a very small group of bands and fans. The road from Canvey Island led to the Nashville and the Hope and Anchor where drunk punters jiggled to the very un-punk sounds of country rock and boogie. Whalleys first film paints a familiarly grim picture of a country still suffering from the privations of the second world war, rationing and britains traditional conservatism which was still leaving the wife at home to creep down the local for a few jars of mild and whine about last nights match.
Enter Dr Feelgood, Kilburn and the High Roads and the Count Bishops to prove a point that the UK was as good a place as any for homegrown, low down dirty boogie. There's some great footage of bands in action and the narrative carry's well through to the 101ers and Rock On records. There is so much information here that you have to admire the way in which the film makers manage to cram all the important stuff, the interviews and archive footage into little under an hour.
Next stop the Kings Road, McLaren, Pistols and the Clash. We get a bare bones version of the story - interviews with Cook, Lydon, Matlock and McLaren and much of the same old film we've seen before but there is a real love here and knowledge of the subject and the music. We see the Damned, Stiff Records - New York Dolls and the sniffing whistler declaring "Mock Rock" but there are enlightening interviews, even tory-boy Paul Weller gets in on the act.
The second film covers the rise of the Pistols and the first wave of year zero bands through 76 into 78. The demise of the pistols and the breakdown of the initial wave into street punk with the daring "Art-schoolers" taking a back seat as Sham 69 lead the way and punk becomes an urban uniform of black leather, bleached hair and spitting with a handful of oi and fascist politics to stir the pot.
Punk was dead and, as the atmosphere becomes decidedly murky and divided, Thatcher comes to power and a new feeling of desperation provokes something even more powerful than Punk.
Program three seems to have bitten off more than it is possible to chew in the limited time it has but does a remarkable job of charting the rise of Post-Punk music with interviewees Mark Stewart, Wire, Hooky from Joy Division, Gerry Dammers, and Howard Devoto among many others. There are loads of performances and a real sense that this was an important musical event, that for many of these bands existence was more important than making a living, that the politics of pop always came second to the message itself. Add to the mix the ever present sensation that WWIII was brewing (bolstered by sections of the movie Threads) and there is a very strong feeling that this truly was music for the end of the world or the beginning of a new one. You had to move on from punk otherwise, as Dammers points out, you'd be left begging for change outside a tube station.
I really enjoyed these films, especially part three. Recommended. For the full story in the same sequence read:No Sleep 'til Canvey Island by Will Birch. Englands Dreaming by Jon Savage and Rip it Up and Start Again by Simon Reynolds.
The was also an accompanying set of live performances titles Punk Britannia at the BBC.
