Hi Penny, just wanted to say hello - I am loving your posts and am a big fan of the lost art of “music journalism that is also great writing”…. It’s something that has become rare since the great re-ordering of the music industry post millennium. Appreciate you making your work available here and am having a blast discovering stuff i missed the first time around! Keep slugging 👊
Great piece, Penny. I recall doing the first interview with Steve Rawlings (the vocalist) for MM, it was my debut published feature. Lots of mentions of Barnsley, a bit cliched but a good starter for ten!
See also the bands that NME journalist Richard North aka Richard Cabut labelled 'Positive Punk', Blood and Roses, Brigandage and a couple of others. North/Cabut was a member of Brigandage along with Michelle Archer, who was at school with a dear friend of mine. I saw her punk band
The V.D.U.'s live. One of them was in the original line up of King Kurt. His name was Geoff, but IIRC he called himself something juvenile like Snotty.
Yes, a lot if floundering after punk! Post-punk, the hindsight catch-all term that we use now certainly wasn’t around at the time. I can’t remember how or if we ever collectively referred to the multitudinous offshoots resulting from punk. I guess we were living in the present and all the many and varied sounds were just received and understood as ever-widening continuations of the original year zero implosion/explosion.
Hi Penny, just wanted to say hello - I am loving your posts and am a big fan of the lost art of “music journalism that is also great writing”…. It’s something that has become rare since the great re-ordering of the music industry post millennium. Appreciate you making your work available here and am having a blast discovering stuff i missed the first time around! Keep slugging 👊
Thanks Tony, that's great to hear.
Great piece, Penny. I recall doing the first interview with Steve Rawlings (the vocalist) for MM, it was my debut published feature. Lots of mentions of Barnsley, a bit cliched but a good starter for ten!
They’re still going? Wild! Bought an album of theirs decades ago.
EVERYONE is still going!
See also the bands that NME journalist Richard North aka Richard Cabut labelled 'Positive Punk', Blood and Roses, Brigandage and a couple of others. North/Cabut was a member of Brigandage along with Michelle Archer, who was at school with a dear friend of mine. I saw her punk band
The V.D.U.'s live. One of them was in the original line up of King Kurt. His name was Geoff, but IIRC he called himself something juvenile like Snotty.
I always thought "positive punk" was a daft name. It's not like the original punk bands weren't positive.
Not heard this for years. I remember their music but I don't remember them looking like that. I think they just look young (now I'm not so young).
Everyone then looks so young now. But so were we, back then.
I remember the name but not the sound. I imagine them being lumped in with bands like Sex Gang Children.
Yes, they were at the time. Folk were still floundering around for what to call them all until eventually the goth label stuck.
Yes, a lot if floundering after punk! Post-punk, the hindsight catch-all term that we use now certainly wasn’t around at the time. I can’t remember how or if we ever collectively referred to the multitudinous offshoots resulting from punk. I guess we were living in the present and all the many and varied sounds were just received and understood as ever-widening continuations of the original year zero implosion/explosion.
This is taking me back, Penny! Didn't see them live but had the record.
Saw them in 84 - great band, especially early stuff!