| Basically
its hard to place Sham 69. For writers like Danny Baker
and Mark P they were what punk was all about away from
the arty / elitist approach. To Mark P in 'God Created
Punk 'They were the first true punk band....(with)
cleverly constructed working class anthems...Sham (were)
the very essence of punk...Sham were the true successors
to the Pistols'
Here's Jim in
Sniffin Glue 12 telling Danny Baker what's what "
Do you know what a real punk is? a real punk today is the
bloke with a belt joining the legs of his trousers together, or a girl in fishnet stockings. And they're the
first people to shout wanker at my band. Cos they're in
their little smug groups of fashion .....My attitude
might seem thick to you cos I was brought up to be thick
to keep rich cunts in money...Sham 69 speak exactly what loads of
geysers think."
For
others their stance and populist approach brought a very
different side to punk that wasn't pleasant. Gareth from
the Shapes:
Thanks to the likes of Sham 69 and Co
not making a stand against violence and right wing
involvement until it was way too late, there was a time
when going to *any* gig could result in violence. It was
the violence at gigs that was one of the things that
killed off the old punk. I fucking hated OI
music, and the bands that did nothing to stop the
violence at gigs. That idiot Pursey had his head so
far up his arse it wasn't true. He just didn't want to
deal with it. He'd be singing "If the Kids are
United" and the whole fucking place would be a war
zone while he was doing it. Maybe I'm being a bit unfair
to him, but they could really have done more to control
the situation in my view.
There's
no denying Sham had a whole heap of 24 carat gold punk songs but the
flirting with all the social realism of football chants
and skinhead fans reaped the inevitable reward of every
gig a potential Altamont....There was no great come together of
the working class...yawn. They swallowed the rhetoric but
the realism swamped them. As punk followed Shams
blueprint into the narrow corridor of oi/brutality and
bonehead lyrics Jimmy was just a false hope out of his
depth. Rock'n'Roll is just rock'n'roll . Remember them
for some great punk toons.
Jimmy
later on got into producing turned up at The Batcave and
gave Alien Sex Fiend some money to smash up a tv set. The
revolution would not be televised !
|
