Perhaps we all need a bit of frivolity at the moment. So, a bit of escapism: the large amount of UK punk rock debut singles released in 1977, in no particular order, and all from what were then relatively unknown bands; and if we do get power cuts this winter, you might perhaps be able to warm yourself with the energy from these tracks.
I’ll start high energy: The Buzzcocks were formed early in 1976, after Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley went to a Sex Pistols gig (the old cliche is that not many people went to see the Sex Pistols, but those that did immediately formed their own punk bands).
Orgasm Addict, the debut single by the Buzzcocks, was released by the United Artists record label in November 1977. There’s not much more I can say about this, except that the track lasts exactly 2 minutes, and of course it was banned by the BBC (if you’re on blood pressure tablets you might want to turn the sound down)…
After that we might need to lay back and light-up a cigarette; but no, there’s more: X-Ray Spex, who of course were formed in 1976 by Poly Styrene after she saw a Sex Pistols gig in Hastings. Poly Styrene (real name Marianne Elliott-Said, of Somali origin) was an unlikely lead singer who had huge braces on her teeth. The X-Ray Spex debut single is called Oh Bondage Up Yours, released in September 1977 by Virgin Records (one month before the Buzzcocks’ Orgasm Addict was released). Poly Styrene described Oh Bondage Up Yours thus: “a call for liberation. It was saying: Bondage—forget it! I’m not going to be bound by the laws of consumerism or bound by my own senses”. Poly Styrene was opera-trained and her voice has been described as “powerful enough to drill holes through sheet metal”. Another unusual thing about X-Ray Spex is that they used a lot of saxophone in their songs. The original sax player was a then 16-year-old girl called Susan Whitby. The combination of Susan Whitby and Poly Styrene made X-Ray Spex a kind of rock version of St Trinian’s. Just listen to this…
In case these first two tracks have blown your fuse board, I’ll tone things down a bit: Ian Dury and his band The Blockheads are not always seen to be in this genre, but I would hazard that they were definitely punk, if not totally musically, but surely in attitude. Ian Dury was a childhood polio victim who was left crippled for life. Dury used to fall over during stage performances. Most of the audience used to think it was part of the act. It wasn’t.
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll is the debut single by Ian Dury, released by Stiff Records in August 1977 (the Blockheads weren’t fully involved at the time)…
As with Orgasm Addict and Oh Bondage Up Yours, this next track is a debut single from a band that were inspired by the Sex Pistols. The track is called One Chord Wonders, released in April 1977 by Stiff Records, and the band are The Adverts. Despite the fact that The Adverts can barely play their instruments, One Chord Wonders perfectly captures the essence of UK punk rock during its early years. The band’s rather attractive bass player, Gaye Black, was often called the first female punk star. Didn’t anyone notice Poly Styrene…?
The Stranglers might seem a bit more polished than the other bands I’ve featured here. This is because they started life in 1974 as The Guildford Stranglers. None of the band came from Guildford (a town to the west of London). The connection comes from their drummer, Jet Black (real name Brian Duffy), who at the time ran an off-licence/liquor store in Guildford that became a base for The Stranglers. Jet Black also had an ice cream round and the band used to travel to gigs in his ice cream van. The Stranglers were a kind of Anglo-French band, because one of the founding members was Jean Jacques Burnel (bass and vocals). The heavy bass of Burnel and the whirling keyboards of Dave Greenfield (another founding member) became the signature sound of The Stranglers. Arguably The Stranglers weren’t purist punk, but they were putting out punk stuff during the incredible year that was 1977.
Despite being around for a number of years, The Stranglers didn’t release their first album until 1977. It was called Rattus Norvegicus, and in my humble opinion it’s one of the best debut albums ever released. The Stranglers debut single from this album, released by United Artists in January 1977, is called (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)…
The Clash formed in 1976, when founding member Mick Jones saw the Sex Pistols perform for the first time. He said: “You knew straight away that was it, and this was what it was going to be like from now on. It was a new scene, new values - so different from what had happened before. A bit dangerous”. During 1976 The Clash were the supporting band for the Sex Pistols at a number of small venues. Neither band had a record contract at the time.
In January 1977, the Clash signed to CBS Records for £100,000, a remarkable amount at the time for a band that had played a total of about thirty gigs and almost none as a headliner. As Clash historian Marcus Gray describes, the “band members found themselves having to justify (the deal) to both the music press and to fans who picked up on the critics’ muttered asides about the Clash having ‘sold out’ to the establishment”. The band’s debut single, White Riot, was released by CBS Records in March 1977…
You might have noticed that just about every track I’ve featured here refers to a mob called the Sex Pistols. 1977. I was 13-years-old at the time and living in London (and in cramped, sweaty venues, on beer spilt floors, I used to pogo to all this stuff). 1977 was also the year of the Queen’s silver jubilee. Us Subjects held street parties in celebration. That summer a geezer called Malcolm Mclaren hired a boat and the band he managed, the Sex Pistols, performed a floating gig on the River Thames, taking the piss out of Queenypoo’s jubilee. The floating gig didn’t last long. Police launches forced them to dock at Westminster Pier, by the Houses of Parliament, and Mclaren and the Sex Pistols were arrested.
The songs that the Pistols played on that boat were from Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, which was the only studio album that they ever made. The title of the album landed the Pistols in court again, where defending Queen’s Counsel John Mortimer produced expert witnesses who were able to successfully demonstrate that the word ‘bollocks’ was not obscene, and was actually a legitimate use of Old English. Of course, it wasn’t just the album’s title that stirred controversy. The songs God Save the Queen and Anarchy in the UK caused an outrage, don’t you know. This next track is from Never Mind the Bollocks and is God Save the Queen. It’s the Sex Pistols debut single, released by A & M Records in May 1977…
There’s lots of bands I haven’t mentioned, but here endith this run through of UK punk rock in 1977, otherwise I’ll be here all night.
Now I find from week to week the sentence sticking fast
Turn the corner, rub my eyes and hope the world will last
Stranger from another planet welcome to our hole
Just strap on your guitar and we’ll play some rock ‘n’ roll
