Shockwave - Virginia Boston

 SHOCKWAVE - VIRGINIA BOSTON

As this is its 50th anniversary, punk rock is in for some serious revisionism over the coming months and so, when in Rome, as they say. Shockwave by Virginia Boston was one of the first books to catalogue the very early days of punk although on being published in 1978, because things were moving so incredibly fast with urgent dispatches from the frontline in the form of new, iconic records being released on a weekly basis, it was already somewhat out-of-date.

Not that it mattered, however, because Shockwave acted almost as a drawing of breath. A sort of pit-stop before plunging once more onto the super-highway of cultural discourse. Punk was - it's important to remember - centred on music though this wasn't its sole reason for being of value. Punk was a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional thing. Punk was anything you wanted it to be and was there to take whatever you wanted from it. Punk was a free-for-all. 

Shockwave starts with a quote that says 'It was going to go down as one of the most boring decades in history I should think musically. The Seventies will now be a landmark in history because of what's gone on'. The quote is from Jordan, described as being 'Punk personality'. Nowadays, of course, we all know that Jordan was in actual fact the queen and punk was her once mighty kingdom.

Shockwave is a scrapbook, essentially, composed of photographs, quotes and snippets of lyrics; and that's not to belittle it in any way as there's absolutely nothing wrong with a good scrapbook. From the introduction you can tell it's been written just after the Sex Pistols have split up in San Francisco so therefore Public Image Ltd have yet to be formed, The Clash haven't quite left England for America, Stiff Little Fingers are yet to land, and Crass have yet to rear their angry heads.

All the usual suspects from the '77 school of punk are featured in glorious black-and-white snapshots but in addition to this and just as importantly, there are lots of photos of the audiences and individuals within those audiences. This in itself speaks volumes in regard to the punk idea of levelling the playing field and breaking down the wall between audience and performer. Here it is - within the pages of Shockwave - in practice. Underscoring this is also the amount of attention paid to fanzines and all the many quotes from their editors.

Shockwave is a good book and the enthusiasm it captures is palpable. Its purpose nowadays of course is to serve as a social document of a time now long gone but the problem with this is that if you're mad enough, you can end up paying up to £200 for a copy. The lesson in this is whatever you want it to be - that coincidentally is the same lesson to be gained from punk, really. The lesson is you.

John Serpico