A neighbour has lent me an anthology of New Musical Express 1955 – 1990, full of memories and interesting articles about what was happening in the pop music world. I opened in at the late 1970s, the punk era, with many of the bands being banned from playing in the UK, as an affront to public decency. It brought back memories.
I was 21 in 1977 and living in London, well Wembley, not the trendiest of areas, but my flatmate Jim worked for EMI Records, albeit as an accountant. We were regulars at The Marquee to see bands, most of whom have fallen into obscurity and whose names I have forgotten.
It’s been claimed that the first real punk single was ‘New Rose’ by The Damned which came out in 1976. It has the familiar C5 A5 B5 chords, the #5 chords running right through the punk era.
I met the bass player, known as ‘Captain Sensible’, some time in the early ‘90s at a do. A very nice man with kids living in Brighton. We sat on a sofa eating sandwiches. And yes he was wearing a beret. Can’t remember what we chatted about. But I remember the journey home round the M25. For some reason I had missed that the road was narrowing with traffic cones. As I ran across the cone bases on my right my left wing mirror was knocked by the underside of a lorry on my left. I still am not sure how the situation was resolved, but my passenger was about the colour of a dull moon.
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