Aged 12 in 1977, both of us at Punk Girl Diaries grew up in the fizzing comet tail of punk’s year zero. Too young to be pogoing round the 100 Club spitting at bands or brushing shoulders with the Bromley Contingent, we had to be content with watching Punk unfold from the provinces of small town England.
By the age of 14 we were both sulking along our respective local High Streets in customised jumble sale finds, with our home cut hair and band badges. We were the suburban part time punks. Since then Punk has been a defining influence, probably on everything we’ve ever done.
But how did that happen? And what do we mean by “defining”? Surely we’re not the only ones to have picked up guitars, and made the first clumsy fledgling steps into playing in bands or writing fanzines? In the 40 years since punk exploded, we’ve both worked “normal” jobs, “creative” jobs, and demanding jobs, but even after this extended saturation in “normality”, we’re still punks. We still play guitars, and the blog…yes it’s our fanzine for modern times.
We’re not the pink Mohawk variety of punk, we’re more the quiet, sarcastic, creative types, even in our 50s we’re still here with a bunch of ideas, and energy for all kinds of projects. Including this.
Punk was especially important to girls, it was probably the first youth movement that connected us as equals rather than spectators, as participants, and not just fans. This is really important. This is the very crux of the matter!! Punkgirldiaries is not, and never has been about schmaltzy nostalgia, it’s about something much bigger, and far less documented.
Tell it any way you like, but here’s 10 questions to get you going.
1.How did you first become aware of Punk? (Did you see something in a newspaper? See it on TV? Friends? Older siblings?)
2. What/who was it? And what did it mean to you?
3. How did it change you?
4. Did you ever form a band? Write a fanzine? Start modifying your clothes? If you did, what was the band/fanzine called? And what did you do to the clothes?
5. Did you have a punk name? What about your friends?
6. Which bands/records were you listening to?
7. What were you wearing? And where did you get it from?
8. Biggest Punk influence (person/record/idea/quote?) and why?
9. First record? First gig? First punk record? First punk gig? And did you ever meet any of your musical heroes?
10. How have Punk ideas influenced your life?
Add anything else you feel like, but if possible please could you include a brief bio; your name (or one we can use), how old you were, which town/area you were in etc, and a photo of you taken between 1977-1984 to accompany your answers. Also you might like to tell us what you do now. Mp3s of bedroom bands, original artwork, scanned diary entries and original fanzine scans are all especially welcome. We thank you in advance, let’s see what we can do.
Email your answers to us, (with punk urgency) at punkgirldiaries@gmail.com
More about us HERE