Every tribe or musical genre has to have a dance, the Locomotion, the Mashed Potato, the Twist, The Hustle, and Punk’s dance was the Pogo. Typically sarcastic, Pogoing just involved jumping up and down on the spot, or very close to the previous spot approximately in time with the deafening and hallowed sound of Punk. Their was little skill involved, no training necessary and it was something you just “got” or you didn’t…. utilitarian, spontaneous, democratic and a bit dangerous, it was very Punk Rock.
Legend has it that this latest dance craze was started by Sid Vicious as an inventive way of seeing a favourite band, even from the back of a crowded room; it was also a way of dancing, without dancing, and of fighting without fighting. It was generally a solo dance, no partner was required – but if felt you that needed one, then amphetamines were apparently a popular choice. Using the shoulders of the person in front for some extra leverage was quite acceptable as was playful contact with other dancers.
Today’s guest dance correspondent, Ms Debbie Harry explains it much better here…
In 1976, session guitarist and part-time Womble, Chris Spedding attempted to follow up on the chart success of his 1975 release “Motorbikin'” by releasing a single with the punk band The Vibrators called “Pogo Dancing”. It failed to chart. That’s because offering up some pub rock dirge as an anthem to a movement that it was supposed to both appeal to, and represent, smacked of cynicism and unabashed marketeering by a chancer of the highest order. Not very Punk Rock. What Chris had failed to understand was that Pogoing was not like the Bump, or the disco inspired Hustle – and he was not VanMcCoy. Also worth remembering, that when you are performing your new dance craze song on TV is that its probably best not to illustrate “Pogo Dancing” with a hot pant wearing disco dolly who’s never heard of Pogo-ing.