Oi! Oi! Oi!
Big Youth and Johnny Rotten, by Dennis Morris
It was this day, 27 February 1978, that Johnny Rotten returned from his vacation in Jamaica with a head full of future plans. The Sex Pistols label Virgin could see Johnny was rotting away under the pressure, attention and infamy the band was attracting. So they sent Rotten, a lifelong Reggae fan, to Jamaica to sign acts to the label’s new subsidiary Front Line, where he met heroes of his like Big Youth, Pete Tosh and U Roy. It was there in Jamaica that Rotten, getting sick of the Pistols narrow prospects and the commercial manipulations of Malcolm McLaren, both of which were counter to his original artistic ideas,, dreamt up Public Image Limited. Listening to Dub music in the dance hall of Kingston, John Lydon (as he would redub himself) found the new sound that was to free himself. McLaren meanwhile, forever flogging a dead horse, was in LA promoting two new songs Paul Cook and Steve Jones recorded in Rio with exiled-convict Ronnie Biggs. The name ‘Sex Pistols’ may still have been active, but it was nothing but a ghost now.
The Uffington White Horse
This day in 1982 Post-Punk icons XTC had their acclaimed album English Settlment reach #5 in the UK charts. The cover, proudly displaying the theme of the album, is the Uffington White Horse, a prehistoric hillside chalk figure a few miles from the band’s hometown of Swindon. Their label, also Virgin, wanted to send the band on a world tour to promote the album, but after only 9 shows frontman Andy Partridge collapsed on stage from exhaustion. He’d subsequently have a breakdown, bringing an end to XTC’s touring days. But remembering better times, here’s the band performing ‘Yacht Dance’ on The Old Grey Whistle Test.
In 1981, on this same day, synthpop group Heaven 17 released their debut single ‘(We Don’t Need That) Fascist Groove Thing’. The band, who take their name from a fictional band in A Clockwork Orange, is made up of Ian Marsh and Martyn Ware, two founding members of Sheffield’s The Human League. This single is a send up of the ‘silly names’ Disco songs have.
One year later, to the day, Oi-Punk group The Business released a single titled ‘Smash the Disco’s’. Drummer Kev Boyce explains it, ‘There’s no room for punk on the radio because punk’s about reality. Disco is just about a dream world where everything is fine and you can forget about Thatcher.’ Although many arty groups like Talking Heads, 23 Skidoo and ESG incorporate Disco into Punk music, the rise of Punk/New Wave is often cited as a cause for the decline in/backlash against Disco music at the end of the 70s/start of the 80s.
And finally, it’s the end of the week so here’s something to you can relax to. This day 1982 Weekend released their debut single, in which ex-Young Marble Giants singer Alison Statton opens her heart to tell us about ‘The View From Her Room’:
Rebellious Jukebox 