Back when punk and reggae were rebel bedfellows, I discovered this deep cut – thanks to Johnny Rotten. I still can’t find out much about it.

At the time, in July 1977, tabloid tales of punk were terrifying the nation, Rotten was a national hate figure, and the Pistols were being banned wherever they tried to play.

In the middle of all that he did an interview with Tommy Vance for Capital Radio where he picked a bunch of his favourite music. I’ve still got the cassette I recorded, but it’s on YouTube now.

Much to the surprise of everyone, there was nothing predictable: no Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, MC5, Modern Lovers or New York Dolls; far less anything by his contemporaries like The Ramones and The Saints.

Half his selections were reggae tunes, along with some Tim Buckley, Rebel Rebel (while claiming he wasn’t a fan of Bowie), a track each from Lou Reed, John Cale and Nico (while claiming he wasn’t a fan of the Velvets) and a couple of English oddballs like Kevin Coyne and Peter Hamill.

You can listen online to his interview, which conforms rather more closely to his punk persona, with sullen sarcasm his default response to questions. Or you can spare yourself the sarcasm and listen to the playlist.

In the meantime, this was the most obscure track he chose; I don’t know and cannot find out a thing about Makka Bees but I love this tune which came out in 1977 with the peculiar title Nation Fiddler.