Unlike some other old punks of my acquaintance, I am no longer a fan of being hectored by angry men thrashing guitars and pummelling drums into oblivion.

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The Angelic Upstarts, led by shaven-headed Mensi, flew the flag for back-to-basics punk from the North East – and for socialism and kicked off the much misunderstood Oi! movement.

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The Zeros are another of the long-forgotten punk bands from the Class of ’77. This was on the fairly terrible Streets compilation on Beggars Banquet that year.

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Forget The Fall… The U.K. Subs have had at least 82 members and are still going strong – with the same singer. Charlie Harper formed the band, initially as The Subversives, after seeing The Damned at the Roxy in 1976 and never looked back after shortening their name.

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As far as I know this lower-league punk single was the only release by The Rowdies, released on Birds Nest Records in 1978. You may be able to hear the sound of barrels being scraped. (more…)

The Carpettes never reached the giddy heights of the Pistols or Clash but they made their mark on punk as one of a handful of bands from the North East.

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The Adicts were musically influenced by Malcolm McLaren but their image was pure Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange.

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Here’s a cracking rarity from the tail end of punk by The Pack. Built around a cracking guitar riff and a pounding rhythm, the dramatic vocals are by future Theatre Of Hate / Spear Of Destiny star Kirk Brandon.

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Not only have I never heard of Pure Hell before, but I never knew there was a punk group made up of four black guys til now.

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Another of the first wave of Manchester punk bands to evolve from the early days of The Electric Circus, V2 showed their roots by blending punk with a hefty dose of Glam… hardly surprising since most of us who jumped aboard the punk bandwagon had grown up on Slade, Sweet, T.Rex and Bowie.

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