Punk TV

BBC2 is showing the second part of its series Punk Britannia tonight. Last week focussed on the proto-punk of Dr Feelgood, the New York Dolls and others; part two is the high point of punk in 1977.

In the summer of 1977, I was a six year old eating jelly at a Silver Jubilee street party. The first punk I heard was the Sex Pistols records an older lad up the road played to us a couple of years later.  In the 1980's, as well as listening to post-punk bands like The Jam, I also worked back from The Smiths to The Buzzcocks and from Madness to the ska roots of reggae that influenced punk.

The NME journalist Danny Kelly summed up the conditions that created punk as "council estates; amphetamine sulphate; the dole; John Peel; Bob Harris; pub venues; glue; the suburbs...". I hope BBC2 manages to capture the excitement of what Kelly rightly called "brilliant, revolutionary music".