Not one but eight snippets of songs from the earliest days of punk, shot at CBGBs in New York over the course of (I’m guessing) 1974 and 1975.

The film-maker is Ivan Kral, a Czech refugee who came to NYC with a love of film, music and poetry and documented the nascent punk scene from its earliest days on his 16mm camera.

He also played in a band called Luger who supported Kiss at their earliest shows, before joining an early incarnation of Blondie.

He then moved across to the Patti Smith Group, playing guitar on all her first four albums, and co-wrote several songs including Dancing Barefoot.

After Smith married and temporarily retired, Kral collaborated with Iggy Pop in the early Eighties, and composed film scores including the Barry Levinson classic Diner.

He died in 2020, and for anyone interested in the NY punk scene, I highly recommend watching his film The Blank Generation, available in full on YouTube.

The performers seen here onstage are (in order) and include rare, possibly unique, footage of Richard Hell fronting The Heartbreakers after leaving Television and before forming The Voidoids:

0:01 Blondie – Platinum Blonde
0:15 Ramones – Loudmouth
0:28 Talking Heads – Psycho Killer
0:35 Tuff Darts – Fun City
0:42 Wayne County – Are You a Boy Or Are You a Girl?
0:48 Patti Smith – Real Good Time Together
1:00 New York Dolls – Funky But Chic
1:06 The Heartbreakers – Blank Generation