Thursday 5 March 2020

March 5th, 1980 - Marvel UK, 40 years ago this week.

Other than Robert Mugabe taking over leadership of Zimbabwe, this week in 1980 was not an eventful one.

I shall, therefore, plough straight ahead with my look at what Marvel UK was up to at that very time.

Incredible Hulk Weekly #53, the Defenders

The FF are still preparing for their first-ever fight with the Hulk.

What they don't know is that Rick Jones has been kidnapped by a commie!

The Black Knight's still defending a castle from someone or other.

The Beast's fallen-in with Unus, the Blob and Mastermind and they've all decided to run away to the circus.

In his main strip, the Hulk's in Canada again - and heading for a showdown with Sasquatch.

And, finally, the Defenders are still trying to rescue Jack Norriss from Scorpio.

You have to say, they're taking their time over it. And to think I thought the Avengers made a meal of their fights with the Sons of the Serpent.

Spectacular Spider-Man Weekly #365, Dr Octopus

I can announce that Spidey's up against Doctor Octopus.

I can also announce nothing else, as the contents of this comic are a baffling enigma to me.

Then again, so are the contents of the Spidey story.

Star Wars Weekly #106

Leia's still telling Luke the tale of how she gained her impressive fighting prowess.

We also get a short interview with Peter Cushing.

Elsewhere, Star-Lord's back and we also get a tale about a group of scientists who decide to fire a man, with an unhappy life, into space, on the grounds that he's got less to lose than happy people do.


Starburst #19, Saturn 3, Star Trek, Black Hole

What's this? Saturn 3 and The Black Hole? In the same issue!

Is there no limit to the treats this magazine is determined to give us?

Rampage Monthly #21, Hulk vs the Cybortron

I have vague memories of the Hulk tale. I think Bruce Banner finds himself in a sinister secret research facility in the desert and, thanks to that, it's not long before the Hulk finds himself up against a robot that's basically a giant puppet.

The X-Men are captured by Black Tom and the Juggernaut.

But fear not! Help is at hand - because the leprechauns are on the case!

I've no idea what the Dr Strange tale involves.

Marvel Superheroes #359, Count Nefaria

Having survived the attack of the Lethal Legion, the Avengers now have to face their boss Count Nefaria.

The original X-Men are up against Magneto.

We get a text feature about Marvel's Golden Age heroes.

And the Champions take on Pluto.

If they hurt him, Mickey Mouse'll be furious.

Doctor Who #21, Tom Baker and Lalla Ward

As if the Doctor unknowingly having a bomb in his stomach, in The Star Beast, isn't bad enough, now it turns out K-9's having an identity crisis and thinks he's a cat.

We get more from the text adaptation of The Chase.

The cover misspells, "Mechonoids." Then again, it's an easy mistake to make.

We get more of Marvel's adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

We get a pin-up of a mummy from Pyramids of Mars.

And we get a new picture strip called Twilight of the Silurians.


Savage Sword of Conan #29

I don't know what the Conan tale involves - and, to be honest, I'm not totally sure what's going on on that cover - but I do know that included inside is a Red Sonja tale drawn by Frank Thorne.

Frantic #1, Kermit and Miss Piggy

Good grief! Is there no stopping Dez? Not content with all the other books Marvel UK now has, he's only gone and launched another one!

And, this time, it's filled with hilarity, as Frantic makes its, no doubt, side-splitting debut.

This means Marvel UK now has nine publications to its name.

But, no. It doesn't. It has TEN because this week sees the launch of Marvel Superhero Fun and Games. However, I can't find a decent copy of the cover for that, anywhere online.

However, I probably won't be including that one in future editions of this post, as it's just a puzzle book and there's probably not much to say about it.

60 comments:

Timothy Field said...

Marvel UK had really become that weird aisle in Lidl with the Chinese power tools and gardener's knee-pads by this point.

Anonymous said...

Still with the f@&!£# leprechauns in Rampage. I have the distinct feeling you're getting some sort of perverse pleasure out of mentioning them every month Steve.

The Dr Strange tale is the second part of the story from last month, the one with Clea off her head. We're just about at the end of that gap between Steve Englehart's abrupt departure from the series, and Jim Starlin's arrival.

And as for there being no stopping Dez, I'm pretty sure he's out of a job by the end of this month.
(If you listen carefully, you can probably hear dangermash cheering)

-sean

dangermash said...

YYYYYYEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not been this happy since I went for my graduation portrait and found it was some guy with a camera and not F****R****** with a pencil.

Steve W. said...

Tim, it does feel like Dez was trying to corner every market when it came to publications.

Sean, I feel I should always credit the leprechauns. I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of them.

Dangermash, all good things come to he who waits.

Anonymous said...

This Count Nefaria story remains my favourite Avengers story mainly because it was such a bonkers punch fest. I did end up with the the US issues no doubt first read this in this month's MSH. Let's not dwell on Dez. Much like Steve Austin, he'll soon return better, faster and stronger than we was before.

DW

Redartz said...

Steve, I also try to stay in good graces with the leprechauns. So when the occasional craving hits, I can still enjoy a bowl of their cereal (after all, 'tis magically delicious)...

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing FRANTIC was just a UK reprint of Marvel's CRAZY? That cover gag is hilarious! See, Kermit is a GREEN FROG, and so when Miss Piggy kisses him, instead of a handsome prince, she gets LOU FERIGNO!

This is what's happening in that awkward SAVAGE SWORD cover : Conan is travelling on a road somewhere, and for some reason he's wearing a metal breastplate as part of his kit when he happens upon this monolith thing out in the middle of nowhere. Turns out the monolith exudes some kind of super magnetic field, and suddenly zzzzzziiinnnnnggg-KLANG! -- Conan is swept off his feet, and gets stuck to the monolith. That's some magnet, boy! Next thing you know, this big slimy sentient Snot Creature is sliding down the monolith, intent upon devouring our favorite Cimmerian.(Where exactly did it come from? Was it hiding out of eyesight, clinging to the other side of the monolith with its super-sticky snot powers, or was it really really small and then suddenly grew really really big, or was it just invisible or something? Hell if i know!) Somehow he manages to not become Snot-Monster food (I don't remember how) and continues on his way. The End. Seriously, that's pretty much the whole story -- no evil sorcerer, no political intrigue, no pretty girl to be rescued, etc.

It's based on one of those crummy L. Sprague DeCamp pastiches, meant to fill in one of those glaring gaps in Howard's original Conan Saga Chronology : Which road did Conan take on his way to Not-Iran at the beginning of that one REH story, after he left Not-India at the end of the previous? More importantly: Why did Roy Thomas think it needed to be adapted into a comics story?

- b.t.

Anonymous said...


Oh wait -- maybe there WAS an evil sorcerer...

Doesn't matter. It's still rubbish.

- b.t.

Killdumpster said...

Then again, DM, if F****R****** would have done your grad portrait you'd get a chuckle when you saw it years later.

"How did I get my joints to bend in such impossible ways back then, and why did I twitch so much?"

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Steve! Thanks for posting this! It serves as inspiration to two of SDC’s favorite subjects: RJ and SM!


1) Rick Jones captured by a commie? What issue of Hulk / FF would this have been originally? As a cold-war warrior (like M.P.) I am fascinated by any and all contributions to bring down those evil Reds!

2) That is a very nice and beguiling drawing of Doc Ock! I dare say I don’t think I’ve ever seen him with such long mechanical arms? And, as I look at each of the four arms, I notice one is projecting straight down, holding him up like a stilt! This leads me to a very important question / tangents!

2a) Who wins: Stilt Man vs. Doc Ock??? Did they ever fight each other or team up???

2b) Did Wally Wood ever draw Doc Ock? If so, having invented Stilt Man, has Wood made similarities of between the two villains and their long appendages?

3) Also – there is something Gil Kane-ish about that Star Wars cover? Anyone know who drew it? If so, poor Gil must have been horribly frustrated by the creature lying (or is it laying?) on the ground. It does not appear to have nostrils.

4) When was the Whizzer in the Avengers? I thought Whiz was an Invaders WW 2 hero only? Or is he really an android related to Torch / Vision or something weird?

Charlie Horse 47 said...

I feel nostalgic about Fr*nk R*bbins!

Anonymous said...

Charlie

This was the period in which the Avengers believed Whizzer to be Wanda and Pietro's dad. He was in a few stories around that time.

DW

Killdumpster said...

The only time I'm subjected to leprechauns & elves nowadays is St. Patrick's Day, SDC, and eating breakfast with my nephews when they're in town.

General Mill's Lucky Charms is alright (loved it as a kid), but now I just eat "boring" cereal. Shredded Wheat, oatmeal, Cheerios, and corn flakes.

There's a shop here in the 'Burgh, in a market district we call "The Strip", that sells bulk amounts of Lucky Charms marshmallows. They sell-out every Saturday.

They literally get mobbed.

Killdumpster said...

The only kid I know Whizzer had was Nuklo. He made a claim on fathering Wanda & Pietro around or after Giant-Sized Avengers #1 (which is a great book). I can't remember exactly.

Marvel's whole twisted origins of Wanda/Pietro/Vision from the bronze age plus just started to get annoying to me as a reader.

Killdumpster said...

No you don't. Just keep repeating that to yourself, oh my brother.

Anonymous said...

The Whizzer was an old Timely-era character who did turn up in the Invaders Charlie, but he wasn't an android - he got his powers from... er, an injection of mongoose blood.
And like Kd says, he was Nuklo's dad. With Miss America I believe.
Someone at Marvel really should have had a word with Roy Thomas about all that old stuff, but he was his own editor...

b.t., I suppose the logic behind adapting the various pastiches was to make the Marvel Conan consistent with the literary version as (then) published. Which isn't to say it necessarily made for good comics of course.
But not being especially into the Howard originals I was never bothered by any of that, so long as the comics looked good. Sure, you're right about that snot-monster story, but where it really falls down is the Pablo Marcos artwork.

-sean

Anonymous said...

The Whizzer was an off-and on guest-star in the Avengers for a while.
Talk about a heart attack waiting to happen. I'm only fifty-one, and if you see me running then something very scary is behind me, and you oughta run too.

Charlie, I don't remember Wally ever drawing Spider-Man or any of his villains. Wally kinda drifted over to D.C. Comics.
And I hated them damn Soviets, making life miserable for everybody. I think Putin is worse---he's smarter than they were.
But Trump sure likes him! He'd like to be Putin when he grows up. Shutting down the press and having people erased at will.

M.P.


Anonymous said...

The funny thing is M.P., with the "end of communism" the Americans got exactly what they said they wanted - the Russians listened to all of those western neo-liberal economic advisors, introduced "free" market reforms, withdrew from eastern Europe and even former Soviet republics etc etc

And yet you all still keep complaining about them! Some people are just never happy...

-sean

Anonymous said...

What is it you imagine is going on in Russia now, Sean, and what do you think they are doing on the world stage? That's the part that worries me. Syria, the site of one of the oldest extent civilizations on Earth, has been reduced to a landing strip for Russian fighter planes. People have fled there in the millions. The ones that weren't dead, anyway. And Putin has had people killed on England. In Stratford, for example. I've been there. Invading the Ukraine, destabilizing NATO through his puppet...I don't need or want a bad guy to support my world view, but they keep coming regardless.

M.P.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Gents, Chaps, Mates, Buddies, Blokes...

I know Steve Does Everything but...

I was a bit tongue-in-cheek about the Commie remark and Rick Jones. I mean, given my/our age (I'm 58) I was fed a steady ration of "better dead than red" growing up in the midwest USA in Gary, Indiana.

(I mean, we are talking about a state that flew the flag at half mast for Lt. Calley for a year b/c he was found guilty and sentenced to prison.)

So I was just using the mindset I grew up in and with for my first 40 years. for a bit of humor. I truly did not mean to engage in anything serious regarding commies, fascists, capitalists, bourgeoisie, royalists, red necks...

Charlie Horse 47 said...

I though Wally Wood created more/less the Stiltman in an early issue of DD?

And with Doc Ock using his arms as stilts, I see a clear and compelling case of intellectual property infringement!

I mean, if Power Man fought Power Man for simply calling himself Power Man, mere copyright infringment, then surely Stiltie and Ockie could have a throw down, over this, no?

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Good gawd... I forgot the Whizzer had mongoose blood cursing through his veins and Nuclo was his son! Roy the Boy had to be tripping on something!

You know... Marvel really missed out on the "take a drug to get rid of your powers" shtick. I mean, it worked colossally for Spidey 100 - 102, giving us Moebius the vampire! Why not continue the concept?

The Whiz could take a drug and start fighting The Cobra for a good three issues eventually biting Cobra in the jugular to death?

This seriously could have been a whole new "What If" line of comics!!! OMG! You heard if from CH47 first! I am claiming the copyright on this idea in front of SDC's fans effective now!!!

Anonymous said...


It’s kinda adorable that y’all hate F***k R*****s so much, you can’t even bear to type out his name — like he’s Voldemort or something :)

About 5 years ago, I was at the San Diego Comic Con, looking at some R*****s pages at an art dealer’s table. This guy next to me says with a British accent, “My mates and I hated that guy’s stuff when we were kids, but I quite like it now.” I turn to look at him and it’s Jonathan Ross. FWIW.

- b.t.

Steve W. said...

B.t, while I generally struggle with Frank Robbins' art, I do feel there were times, like his short stint on The Shadow and on Luke Cage, where I found his artwork perfectly agreeable. His work on The Invaders, though....

Charlie, I'm sure Marvel is rushing, even now, to bring your Whizzer v Cobra story to life.

Charlie, the FF v Hulk story was reprinted from Fantastic Four #12. Rick Jones discovers Karl Kort is a Red spy when Karl accidentally drops his wallet containing his membership card for a subversive commie group.

I'm assuming the Star Wars cover was drawn by Carmine Infantino.

b.t, thanks for the magnetic Conan info.

Red, yes, the leprechauns must always be respected.

DW, I'd say my favourite Avengers story is the one in which they go back in time to see what happens to Bucky - and just can't avoid getting involved.

Killdumpster said...

Heh heh. Charlie said Doc Ock & Stiltman had "long appendages". Heh heh.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

KD - is that your Beavis or Butthead impersonation, LOL!

Anonymous said...

Now that everybody who watched Beavis and Butthead is middle-aged or close to it, who will teach the children about them?
Is our shared heritage in peril?

M.P.

Anonymous said...

I remember that old FF story with the Hulk Steve, from when Marvel UK reprinted it three years earlier in the Complete FF. Seems they were getting less fussy about reusing stuff, and abandoning any kind of attempt to present a coherent approach to the material.

The scene with Rick Jones and Kort's wallet was a bit ridiculous - the first thing they teach us at subversive commie training camp is how to make sure we don't accidentally leave our membership cards anywhere!
(Why am I telling you? You're from the peoples republic of South Yorks, so its not like you don't already know that)

-sean

Anonymous said...

Sean, and Steve, I apologize for my earlier rant. It was truly out of place.
Put it down to Canadian whisky and recent dental surgery.
I have no wish to be a troll.

M.P.

Anonymous said...

Never apologize or back down M.P.

-sean

Anonymous said...

Thanks, pal.

M.P.

Killdumpster said...

M.P.. Hope your oral surgeon prescribed you decent pain killers, or is that the reason for the whiskey? Kickin' it old school?

Watched some reruns of Beavis & Butthead recently, but they don't have the music video critiques anymore. It's not the same without them.

Getting the rights from the artists was probably too expensive.

Killdumpster said...

A kid that worked for me in my jukebox service department left his wallet laying around at our work station. It was open, and I noticed he had a socialist party membership card.

That led to an interesting debate.

Dougie said...

Not at home to check but isn't The Curse of the Monolith Gene Colan's only Conan story?
The villain is Feng, an effete Khitan ( aka Chinese) nobleman. Before Marvel got the rights, Roy Thomas actually wrote a better version of the DeCamp story in the Barry Smith era ( The Monster of the Monoliths).I think all his early adaptations of the pastiches were better, really.

Anonymous said...

Dougie, I just looked up Curse of the Monolith, and it appears you are correct that it was drawn by Gene Colan.
But he was teamed up with Pablo Marcos. My recall is that the results were not good, and I'm not about to blame Gene the Dean.

-sean

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Is it OK to morph to Steve Does Anything? I have a burning question about the Sex Pistols.

Killdumpster said...

Ask it, oh my brother.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

So, this is a bit of copy/paste that follows, to provide context for my question which is as follows.

I am wondering do all you UK guys traditionally watch the Queen's speech during Xmas lunch? Is it so? Or was it so? Would the whole country, have lubed up, watch the Queen speak on Xmas?

"A new book is out - "Sex Pistols: The End Is Near 25.12.77" which collects the in-show shots of the photographer Kevin Cummins, who was covering the concert for New Musical Express. That afternoon, at his parents’ house, Cummins had committed small-scale anarchy by getting up and leaving in the middle of Christmas lunch. This meant that he was also skipping the Queen’s televised speech, traditionally watched with boozy fealty by every single person in the country. “My father didn’t speak to me for at least three weeks,” Cummings writes in his introduction."

Killdumpster said...

I absolutely do not know anything about that. It's up to our UK brothers, it seems.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Sean - that was a very nice reply to MP. IT's a tense climate here in the USA... And anyone of us is ready to "pop" since 2017, lol.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Ok... this question is specific to everyone, not just UK dudes...

As I go through the great divorce, and have to analyze 30 years of possessions from family life... Do I keep the VCR? I only use it once a year to watch Little Drummer Boy and Rudolph at Xmas.

Or do I just chuck it? I need some sage advice here!

Steve W. said...

MP, I don't think you committed any serious offences with your comment.

Charlie, I've never seen a Queen's Speech and I can't believe anyone I've ever known has watched it either.

Dougie, thanks for the Gene Colan/Conan info. It is amazing that he never got to draw the character again.

Steve W. said...

Charlie, if I were you, I'd see if you can get anything for it on eBay.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Good lord... How am I going to read a book about the Sex Pistols if the author is lying right out of the box?!

Frankly, I thought it sounded odd that "every brit" would sit around on XMas lubed up watching the Queen speak. But it was 1977 so I thought, well, we used to watch the President's annual State of the Union aAddress back in the day. Well, at least a lot of adults would, sort of.

SDC - VCRs are going for around $50 on ebay! But the guy who recently converted all my 8mm family videos to DVD said he lets folks have VCRs for free, which he receives as donations.

Me thinks I'll have me a meat pie and think it over. Frankly, this ebay stuff can be too much a hassle to only make a double sawbuck out of the deal...

dangermash said...

I can confirm that I too have never watched the queen's speech. Not even in 2019, the year of the nonce.

Anonymous said...

Charlie, needless to say I've never seen the Queen's speech either, what with being a typically ungrateful immigrant (I'm usually too busy taking someone else's job and living on welfare handouts).

I wouldn't really trust any books on the Sex Pistols - or that '76/'77 punk era generally - partly because the major participants each have their own agenda, but mainly music journos seem more interested in myth-making than anything else.

-sean

Steve W. said...

It's true. There's so much nonsense talked about Punk, with journalists going on about how it blew all the "dinosaur" acts out of the water, ending established careers, left, right and centre, as Punk cut an irresistible swathe through the charts.

The truth is that, at the height of Punk, the UK charts were dominated by the likes of ABBA, ELO, Boney M, Showaddywaddy and the Brotherhood of Man, with the Punk acts mostly fighting for minor chart placings.

Anonymous said...

I did enjoy UNDER THE BIG BLACK SUN, John Doe’s compilation of essays about the L.A. punk scene. It benefits from the Rashomon effect of dueling narrators — Jane Weidlin, Henry Rollins, Dave Alvin, Exene Cervenka and many others tell the story from their own (sometimes overlapping, sometimes contradictory) perspectives.

I enjoyed about the first half of John Lydon’s memoir NO IRISH, NO BLACKS, NO DOGS. After awhile, his narrative “voice” became too grating.

- b.t.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Gents! I have to agree with your assessments of Punk. I mean, even if I saw the world's best Punk band - The Ramones - I can't say it moved me. (Admittedly, it wasn't until I was granted citizenship to this venerable site that I learned the Ramones were punk, LOL!

Well, I shan't buy a book that tells me all you UK blokes spent Xmas in front of the telly, have snockered (not snookered, Steve) watching the Queen's speech.

b.t., funny you mention that. I was just looking at a property deed from my home town of Gary, Indiana from 100 years ago. The deed, owned by the city of Gary, explicitly states that it is forbidden to sell the property to "anyone but pure Caucasians." (Didn't exclude Irish though. I guess Irish are Caucasian? I always thought they were Celt.)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I liked the Lydon book too, although I found it less interesting the more he became involved in the music biz (which may well be just another way of saying he became increasingly grating).

It was also disappointing there wasn't much about Public Image Ltd, as the early years - with Jah Wobble and Keith Levene - are a fascinating contrast/counterpoint to the Pistols, and would have added a lot.
Its as if he finally decided to be "Johnny Rotten" after all. Or at least thats where the money is (which it probably is).

-sean

Anonymous said...

The music scene in the U.S. in the early '80s left something to be desired. All those sappy inane ballads. Even the once-great band Chicago sold out and cashed in.
Punk was necessary. It trickled on over here from the U.K. like a sonic Corona Virus, and pretty soon we had bands like the Cramps and the Butthole Surfers.
That's what my loose gang of associates in high school listened to.
I can only handle that stuff in small doses. These days M.P. is a mellow cat.
Usually.

M.P.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

MP - you weren't grooving to Kenny Rogers "Lady" or Captain and Tenile "Do that to me one more time?"

Honest to cripe... I never knew a single person in my life who owned a Punk record... I mean, I even saw the Ramones but never bought one of their records. Now, I know a lot of dudes who bought Pink Floyd's "The Wall" though which was out at the same time.

Anonymous said...

I think the closest I ever came to owning a punk record is the Ramones greatest hits.
But it's not because I am a mere poser (I am), it's because I am a real cheapskate.
Yeah, them awful power ballads. The only justification for them was providing an excuse to rub up against some chick at a school dance.

M.P.

Redartz said...

M.P. and Charlie- the early 80's music scene in the US was prone to some awful mush. Charlie mentioned "Lady", another one that set my teeth on edge was "Endless Love". God, that song was everywhere. My sanity was saved by being in art school with all those bohemian types. Devo, Richard Hell, the Go-Go's, and Talking Heads were our soundtrack.

Steve, you discussed how the UK charts were still dominated by traditional acts. Regardless, your UK sounds sure livened things up over here!

Anonymous said...

When I began buying (or, more fequently back then, taping) records, I was interested in punk. It didn't matter to me if ELO had the big hit singles or Led Zeppelin got an audience in six figures at Knebworth - the first Public Image record, or Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures were what sounded exciting.

Music critics have decided that was "post-punk" though, so despite what I thought at the time it turns out hardly anything I listened to was punk either...

-sean

Redartz said...

Sean- in terms of classification, some in the press over here would refer to "Punk/New Wave". With that wide net, you could cover anyone from ABC to Ultravox, and anything in between. Kind of like the term "alternative ": pretty open-ended...

Anonymous said...

I think NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS is a kick-ass masterpiece and the first 3 Ramones albums are pretty great (the songs DO all sound pretty much alike, can’t deny it). Super-hardcore bands like Black Flag just scared the crap out of me. I’ve always WANTED to like X but somehow just .... don’t. I’ll keep trying tho.

I saw The Ramones once, at the Palladium in Hollywood. And The Dickies and Nine Nine Nine at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. That was about it for me and punk concerts. Both of those were fun, but they didn’t lead to me to wanting more of the same. I was quite content to stick with Cheap Trick, Queen, ELO, Van Halen and other “safer” acts for my live show fix.

And yeah, this idea that Punk somehow killed Prog and “Old School” Hard Rock is just silly. Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Bad Co. etc positively THRIVED during the peak of Punk’s popularity (not to mention all the new Super-duper Mainstream bands of the same era, Boston, Toto, Foreigner, etc). But I totally get where that narrative came from — the IDEA of Punk was certainly seductive, it was something that wasn’t the same-old “Classic Rock”, and it wasn’t Disco, it was raw and NEW.

Punk’s biggest legacy was probably as a gateway to other more commercially accessible forms of pop music that weren’t QUITE so aggro and confrontational. Power Pop, New Wave, Post-Punk, Cow-Punk, Grunge, Roots, the catch-all “Alternative”, etc etc. Ah, labels!

-b.t.

Charlie Horse 47 said...

Like Adam Ant said on why stopped trying to be a Punk artist, "How many different ways can you pierce your skin or spit on people at the end of the day?" I always took that to mean the meaningful "difference" to their fans was the stage show and not perhaps the music.

Anyhow Punk came and went quickly enough... and if folks want to make a living by writing a book 40 years later, god bless them. But don't write that in 1977 all the Brits but the writer sat around on Christmas half-lubed up watching the Queen's speech, LOL!

Anonymous said...

I don't mind labels as such - how else are we going to sort through the mass of music that comes out? - but don't much care for when they become definitive in circular arguments (of course punk ran out of ideas quickly if anything with ideas is defined as something else).

In some ways disco, and especially hip-hop (although the latter didn't have much impact on the mainstream til a few years later) felt newer than punk; at least, a record like I Feel Love did compared to, say, the Clash.
And in the UK reggae was big - in an underground sort of way - around '76/'77, and has probably had more influence on new forms of music here than punk over the long term. The dub mixes in particular felt like they were from a different world, which they sort of were really, coming originally from a Caribbean island.

-sean

Anonymous said...

Charlie, I think we can all agree music journalist and social historian are two quite different professions.

-sean