As soon as I heard this song, when it was released in the summer of 1977, The Only Ones became my new favourite band.

I went to every show they played, bought every single and every album. I loved them then and I still do. Especially this.

Of course there’s nothing obviously ‘punk’ about them, from Peter Perrett’s hair to John Perry’s lack of it, or the fact that both members of the rhythm section, Alan Mair (once of 1960s beat band The Beatstalkers) and Mike Kellie (ex-Spooky Tooth), were pushing 40 at the time.

But Perrett’s wasted appearance, his languid Lou Reed-like drawl and his seemingly effortless facility for tuneful songs of doomed romance and drug addiction, immediately drew parallels with the Velvet Underground.

They had the good fortune – or is it misfortune? – to make one song that everybody knows in Another Girl, Another Planet but I would take Lovers Of Today and its B-side Peter And The Pets, both of which I have on a prized 12-inch single, all day long.

They broke up in the end, of course, and Perrett launched a solo career with his son taking the place of Perry on lead guitar, but they have sporadically re-formed, most recently at the Somers Town Festival on a scorching day in Kings Cross three years ago.

To my huge delight, and the indifference of most of the other hundred or so people who had gone along largely to drink beer in the sunshine, John Perry joined Perrett and Mair for the first time in forever to perform three of my favourite songs on a makeshift stage, peeling off solos of heartbreaking beauty just as he once did every night.

By then Mike Kellie had died but I did catch the original four playing together one last time in 2004.

When my children were in their teens I took them to one of those big outdoor festivals at Hyde Park and my daughter ran into one of her school friends, who said she was there to see her grandfather, who was in one of the support bands.

“Who’s the band?” I asked. “Oh, you won’t have heard of them, they’re not very famous,” she replied. “They’re called The Only Ones.”

And yes, that did make me feel very old.