Blank Generation (Punk 1973-1980)

A tale of two cities, London and New York and the birth of punk. Each city created a bastard child that marked the biggest and fundamental shift in popular music since Elvis walked into Sun Studios. Blank Generation unpicks the relationship between the bankrupt New York and the class and race-riven London of the mid-1970’s and explores the music of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Ramones, Television, Patti Smith, The Damned and Buzzcocks. (bbc.co.uk)

“It’s the summer of 1976. I am sitting in a huge crowd at the Knebworth Festival waiting for the Rolling Stones to appear. As the hours pass I remember thinking ‘I’ve had enough of this. These rock stars are taking the piss. This is bollocks’. And I hoped I wasn’t alone in feeling cheated.

But at the same time in London, in small clubs and pubs there was hope – a punk salvation for my generation. A friend of mine buys the first punk single and plays it for me. I am stunned. “New Rose” by the Damned is a brilliant burst of primal rock energy. Nothing will be the same.

Thirty years later I am asked to make a programme about Punk. I feel strange. Unlike most subjects I deal with, this IS my life! I can remember hearing the records for the first time and going to my first punk gigs. So how am I going to make a documentary which tries to make sense of it all?

Punk has complex and fascinating roots. In the US there were proto-punk bands like the Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop and the Stooges and the New York Dolls. In the UK you can see influences on Punk from sixties groups like the Who and the Small Faces through to seventies bands like Alex Harvey, Mott the Hoople, the Faces and Dr Feelgood.

But how can you tell the story of Punk in one hour of Television? It is impossible. So you will have to excuse me in having kept the story a simple one of New York and London – concentrating on what we believed to be the key punk bands. Excuses. I know, not very punk.

We of course affected to be cool in our professional detachment when conducting interviews. But the mask would slip. These pioneers of punk were my heroes.

In New York there was Debbie Harry, inches away, wrapped up and glamorous, coping with the cold of a morning in a night club without the heating on. She was that close to me – patiently answering my questions!

In New York we met Tommy Ramone, the last original member of the Ramones alive. We interviewed Tommy at the Lower East Side loft where the band used to live and rehearse and which is now the home of their friend Arturo Vega.

In New York we got a full punk tutorial from guitarist Lenny Kaye and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty from the Patti Smith Band. They showed us just how they put three chords together with poetry to produce the classic album ‘Horses’. That was cool.

In Los Angeles John Lydon entertained us for nearly two hours with his own inimitable commentary on his story of punk insurrection and rebellion. That was very funny!

In London, Glen Matlock from the Sex Pistols showed us how he came up with the riffs for Pretty Vacant, Anarchy in the UK and God Save the Queen. I now know that Punk’s “bad boys” had Abba as one of their influences!

Pete Shelley from Buzzocks explained how he came up with the one note guitar solo for the song Boredom. Viv Albertine from the Slits made it very clear that Punk wasn’t just something for the boys in the band.

So sit back and enjoy The Sex Pistols playing ‘Anarchy in the UK’, the Clash – ‘White Riot’, Patti Smith – ‘Horses’ and the Ramones – ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’. And with these punk “standards” appreciate a mesmerising performance by John Lydon’s PIL and the pop perfection of Buzzcocks ‘Ever Fallen in Love’.

I hope there will be questions and queries about our decisions, about who, why, what and when in this story of Punk. Everybody will have their own history. So I hope fans – of my vintage and young folk too – will tune it and then leave their comments below. And I want them to mean it, man!”