I really needed a plectrum for my guitar, I was just starting to learn some chords, and you couldn’t play proper punk rock chords without a plectrum. Technically you couldn’t play proper punk rock chords when your current and only source of information was a slightly tatty copy of The Beatles Complete guitar edition from the local library either, but let’s not dwell.
Buying a plectrum felt anti-punk, it would have made me a consumer, and would have just eaten into precious record buying or jumble sale funds. Why cave in and buy something you could conceivably make yourself, even if it was a plectrum? Instead, I decided to channel my inner Valerie Singleton who could rustle up almost anything out of a discarded washing up liquid bottle, and my first plectrum was no different. It was a bit curved, it would start to curl up back into it’s pre-plectrum shape when left unattended, it still had part of an F for Fairy on one side, but it worked just fine. I felt like I deserved a badge.