PUNK SPECIAL

Public Address: PUNK SPECIAL

Relating the story of punk in anything less than about 4,000 songs is pretty much impossible. From The Addicts and Angelic Upstarts to Zounds and The Zeros, most lists only cover around 100 punk bands, so they’re woefully incomplete, omitting outfits such as Defcon Zero, Vortex, Sick On The Bus, The Satellites and many more. Further selecting the definitive song by each band is an equally thankless task.

It's easy enough with bands like Menace or Cult Maniax but what about The Lurkers, Subhumans, or 999 who each had several classics to their name? What about Anti-Nowhere League, Wire, and The Mob? All of them punk, but all very, very different. Added to that - what began simply as punk rock rapidly diverged into multiple subcategories – from hardcore and crust to anarcho-punk, pop punk, street punk, horror punk and numerous other variations. There are rules, but then again, there are no rules…

 And that's before punk and metal hopped into bed together and started producing their own obnoxious offspring! And then there's the fact that a lot of people can't seem to agree about what punk actually is, but will happily bicker about what it isn't. It's fast and aggressive – except when it isn't. The songs are short and political – except when they're not. You've got to have spiky hair and a studded leather jacket – except when you don't.

Written Produced and Presented by Thom McKeown © 2024  (Punk Quiz Compiled and Presented by Andrew McKinnon)