This collection starts with Frontline reggae stars the Mighty Diamonds and Johnny Clarke with the angsty ‘Crazy Bald Head’. It was the reggae rebel stance and outsider attitude that really connected with the British teenagers who would go on to become the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Slits… There was a kinship between the first generation British-born black community in London and white punks and we hear the blend of black and white right here, thanks to tracks such as the Members’ ‘Offshore Banking Business’. From the smooth tones of reggae we are suddenly thrown into the lion pit: ‘God Save The Queen’ – a seminal punk track from indubitably the most seminal punk group: the Sex Pistols. Lydon’s phenomenal post-Pistols group Public Image Limited is representedby way of ‘Public Image’.
Punk was as much about the odd, the humorous and the curious as it was about the shocking or the combative and therefore the Roogalator fit here nicely, as do Scottish art-punks the Skids, XTC andthe insouciantly robotic Flying Lizards. British eccentric Wilko Johnson also features with his post-Feelgood band the Solid Senders and more idiosyncrasy radiates from the arch but no less fierce Magazine, Howard Devoto’s post-Buzzcocks project. We also have ‘Oh Bondage, Up Yours!’, an incendiary device of a song by X-Ray Spex from the hand of the much-missed Poly Styrene and another urgent female voice was that of Penetration’s Pauline Murray.
Punk was a healthy explosion of self-expression, and it continues to motivate and inspire us to look at life in a different way…Listen to this and let it stoke the fire.
Key tracks include: Sex Pistols – God Save The Queen; X Ray Spex – Oh Bondage Up Yours; Magazine – Shot By Both Sides; XTC – Making Plans For Nigel; The Skids – Into The Valley