I sat down to write this piece several days ago with some inspirations that got it brewing in my head. I generally finished writing it on March 6th. On the morning of March 7th, I got up, made coffee and hit the laptop to make a few final changes and send it off to the fine editors at Pencil Storm. And then I saw that Brian James had died on March 6th, the very day I finished writing. It would have been wrong to send this in without adding an In Memoriam here first.
Brian James passed peacefully surrounded by family on March 6, 2025. He was 70 years old. He was best known to most as the guitarist, songwriter and founding member of The Damned. The single “New Rose” was the first punk single released in the early days of punk rock, pre-dating The Sex Pistols. Brian left The Damned after the first two records but did equally seminal work as the guitarist of The Lords of the New Church, which featured Stiv Bator post-Dead Boys. He returned to The Damned on various occasions, including some reunion shows with the original lineup in 2022. He was known as a true gentleman. He will be missed.
I now return you to my original piece…
Caroline Coon, one-time manager of The Clash, wrote a book in 1977 called The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion. The cover, as shown above, suggested that the music was the future, hence the “1988” with the then-current year of 1977 shadowed in the background. I first acquired this book by ripping the check-out card from the back of the book and stealing it from my high school library. This was before they started banning so-called subversive books from school libraries, but I digress. The book ultimately ended up in the hands of a friend who moved to Boston and I never saw it again. Fortunately, I found a copy a few years back in a small used book store, so I have it in my collection again. But this is not a book review. (On second thought, it’s a great book. The end.) This is simply a celebration of the music that changed everything for me.
I was in the tenth grade in 1978-79. I lived in Alexandria, VA and with a driver’s license in hand, D.C. was a routine destination. There were clubs with killer bands that would take any form of identification you wanted to produce, no matter how suspect. The DJ’s in those clubs would spin all of the great British punk bands between sets. There was store called Commander Salamander that was the American answer to Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s Sex shop on Kings Road in London. Back in the suburbs, in Arlington, VA was RTX (the Record and Tape Exchange) which was exclusively loaded with punk and new wave imports. And we had WHFS, a killer radio station that played amazing music. The bottom line is that I had access to amazing new music that I am sure many people did not.
Once my core group of friends discovered punk rock, we were all in. We were the outcasts for the rest of our public school lives, with the haircuts, punk buttons on our jackets, torn jeans and band t-shirts. I once wore a Dead Kennedys t-shirt to school and was forced to choose between turning it inside out or being sent home. I turned it inside out, but looking back, that may not have been the punk rock choice to make. We listened to The Ramones and X and plenty of American bands in time, but initially, it was all about the music from England (and I guess Ireland). When I look back now, I can still reel off all of the bands that I latched onto and still love today. Here are a dozen that come to mind immediately.
The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, The Stranglers, 999, The Buzzcocks, The Undertones, Stiff Little Fingers, Siouxsie & the Banshees, The Jam, The Vibrators, Eddie & the Hot Rods
I have been reading a book called The Clash on The Clash. The book is a collection of interviews and articles on the band and it’s makes for a pretty good early history of the band. That book is what got me thinking about this great, revolutionary time in music history. Here are a whole evening’s worth of videos to feast your ears and eyes on. Check them all out, and maybe have a pint while you go back in time. Enjoy.
Normally, Pencil Storm would embed all of these videos, but tonight we’re gonna leave ‘em as links so you can mix & match your own Saturday night party.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBojbjoMttI The Sex Pistols – “Anarchy in the U.K.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL8chWFuM-s The Clash – “I Fought the Law”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUxFQ5QBiYk The Damned – “New Rose”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6DCnrXHJGI The Stranglers – “Duchess”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCFCRVCqjFQ 999 – “Homicide”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrafPlgQlME The Buzzcocks – “Harmony in My Head”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PinCg7IGqHg The Undertones – “Teenage Kicks”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DF9gGMmtFE Stiff Little Fingers – “Alternative Ulster”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amR6-neQBPE Siouxsie & the Banshees – “Happy House
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ipGhzrIi3s The Jam – “In the City”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saRtz34PQYk The Vibrators – “Automatic Lover”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQJ0R57k7HQ Eddie & the Hot Rods – “Do Anything You Wanna Do”
JCE, or John to his friends, was born in the Nation’s Capital. He grew up in the VA suburbs of D.C. His earliest musical memories are tied to a transistor radio with a single earphone that he carried everywhere listening to AM radio. His wife of 33 years says he’ll never grow up, and she’s exactly right. He attributes that to his lifelong love affair with all things rock n roll.