The National Grid Part Two

2008

The National Grid Magazine No.4, New Zealand Interview discussion with Wayne Daly on the subject of UK punk singles, entitled We’re So Bored With London, 22pp, published Spring 2008. ISSN 1177-2468

It has been nearly four decades since the punk movement first came into being – in the UK and USA – and since then, it has changed deeply at different levels. One key aspect of this transformation has to do with how punk has been globalized and appropriated differently by urban youth from different parts of the world. In this chapter, we address punk’s globalization, as well as its consequent localisation, which allowed the constitution, development and maintenance of local and trans-local musical scenes. These developments are particularly evident in the field of popular music, giving birth to mediascapes of considerable size. More than that, these developments seem to be intrinsic to the proper functioning of the field of popular music, standing as fundamental cornerstones for its structuring and functioning. This approach focuses on a social theory argument – one that, although relevant, has been deferred – based on the following question: is the subculture concept still heuristic in relation to understanding and explaining the ritual practices of youth resistance, or are we facing a context of investigative opportunities for post-subcultural theories emerging against a background of change, transience, neo-tribalism, bands and scenes? In times of growing economic and social easing, we discuss here the complex processes of youth identity construction around punk as a global mediascape, namely through the analysis of migratory processes of musicians displacement. This multidimensional landscape of musical youth cultures, composed of multiple expressions and references, finds meaning in a landscape that is also ontologically plural. Unlike pre-modern societies, in contemporary societies, we find a progressive diversification and complexity in the identity construction processes arising from music. Thus, in basing our perspective on this endless movement that slips through contemporary cultural and musical dynamics, we here intend to discuss the importance of these dynamics, namely for the constitution and maintenance of Coimbra’s music scene, found by the emblematic Tédio Boys who, in the1990’s, took the Coimbra punk abroad, having had the United States as their place of destination, a mobility that has perpetuated to the present day, particularly in the first decade of this century, through such bands as The Parkinsons. The desire to leave Portugal in order to broaden personal, musical and symbolic horizons has been a constant in the Portuguese punk scene, particularly for Coimbra punks who, in recent years, have emigrated to London, seeking to escape the “boredom”. What were the effects of that emigrant trajectory in the emergence of Portuguese musical projects in London? How were those projects constituted and how did they articulate a certain kind of national identity in a trans-local context? What are the functioning mechanisms of these projects in a cosmopolitan society and at the centre of the musical industry? How were the actors’ personal identities managed with the local otherness? After more than a decade, what have the results been from the musical, social and symbolic perspectives for the participants? These are the main theoretical and empirical questions that will guide this chapter.

Twentieth Century British History, 2013

This article looks at the controversial music genre Oi! in relation to youth cultural identity in late 1970s' and early 1980s' Britain. As a form of British punk associated with skinheads, Oi! has oft-been dismissed as racist and bound up in the politics of the far right. It is argued here, however, that such a reading is too simplistic and ignores the more complex politics contained both within Oi! and the various youth cultural currents that revolved around the term 'punk' at this time. Taking as its starting point the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies' conception of youth culture as a site of potential 'resistance', the article explores the substance and motifs of Oi!'s protest to locate its actual and perceived meaning within a far wider political and socio-economic context. More broadly, it seeks to demonstrate the value of historians examining youth culture as a formative and contested socio-cultural space within which young people discover, comprehend, and express their desires, opinions, and disaffections.

This article explores some of the ways in which England has been portrayed in the genre of folk, rock and punk music between 1965 and 1977. The article argues that changes in both the music and lyrics reflect the shift in England from what Eric Hobsbawm calls a post war 'Golden Age' to 'Crisis Decades'. These musical transitions are evident in increasingly strident instrumentation and lyrical content that becomes progressively more cynical. The article argues that in this way, English folk, rock and punk music has played a role in both reflecting and recreating the spirit of the age.

Irish Studies Review, 2004

This paper looks at the moment of punk in Northern Ireland in the late 1970s. This is now looked upon as a utopian moment when young kids from diverse political and cultural backgrounds put aside the enmities of their parents generation to identify as 'punk' The article discusses band like The Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers as well as the film, 'Shellshock Rock'

Weekend Punk Design Museum, London, June 2016 Design Museum website essay, Punk London (and Beyond), focussing on the punk diaspora in the UK and internationally from 1976 to date. Design of exhibition panels of punk graphics in the Design Museum Tank space, South Bank, London.

Punk and Post Punk, 2018

The journey from proto-punk to punk occurred at high speed in many of London’s satellite towns. Among these, the town of High Wycombe in the home counties offers a narrative that can trace an involvement in the earliest stages of that journey as a result of performances by leading British punk group the Sex Pistols. This article explores three Sex Pistols-related events that are used to map three clear phases of the proto-punk to punk transformation. The first wave notes the blurred lines in the fluid symbiotic relationships between proto-punk in London and its satellite towns. Drawing on Crossley, I note that London’s networked punk ‘music world’ was reliant on both cultural commuters and activities in the provinces. I propose a further, fluid notion of transivity that shows the relationship between local and ‘commuter’ punks is needed. The second wave shows the damaging aspect to High Wycombe’s punk identity as, due to its close proximity to London, many if its key actors would move to the capital as soon as they were able to. They escaped from the ‘boredom’ of High Wycombe – the commuter town – to go to the ‘excitement’ of cosmopolitan London to live their dreams. The third wave reveals a moment of class and regional cohesion, through which a High Wycombe Punk identity emerges during the summer of 1977. This occurs among the first and second wave participants who remained and the newer school-aged punks. Finally, the article introduces the local punk terrain beyond the timeline under investigation. Here, regional and class difference became played out through violent interactions between Wycombe punks and skins, and punk scenes from other towns. Here we see the assertion of ‘Wycombe Punk’ as a type.