GOBBING, POGOING AND GRATUITOUS BAD LANGUAGE –
AN ANTHOLOGY OF
PUNK SHORT STORIES
Another day another anthology of short stories, this time compiled
and edited by Mad Pride founder Robert Dellar. Gobbing, Pogoing
And Gratuitous Bad Language is a collection of twenty-one punk
rock stories (twenty-two if you include Nick Blinko's pages from his
sketch book) written according to the blurb on the back cover by the
world's leading punk authors.
What exactly qualifies you for being a 'punk author' is, of course,
debatable and a question that Dellar addresses with the inclusion of
a haiku-like poem by Robert Wyatt. 'Not strictly 'punk' in
itself,' Dellar writes 'Wyatt's work has always been admired
within punk circles for its intense spirit and sincerity'. I
would tend to agree. What constitutes 'punk writing', however, is a
whole other debate due to punk always being an organic concept rather
than something cast in stone and held within strict parameters. Was
Dellar on a hiding to nothing in trying to wrap some cloak of punk
rock identity around these stories? I suspect so.
Mark Perry understands this and ably demonstrates it in what is by
far the best story in the collection: 'Elvis was a punk / so was
Jerry Lee', he writes in a Crass album sleeve lyrics style 'Chuck
wasn't / Lennon was a punk / Macca tried, but failed / Townsend was a
punk turned poet / Moon was one of the great punks / so was Hendrix /
and Iggy / Zappa maybe although he was too careful, too deliberate /
Lenny Bruce was a comedy punk / Dennis Hopper was a film punk / Bolan
was a hippy pop elf punk and beautiful person / Patti was all punk /
as was Sid / the greatest punk band were Crass / they lived the life
/ The Clash signed to CBS, so that counts them out / ATV – at times
punk, sometimes avant-jazz-punk'.
Mark Perry was a visionary and I say that without any doubt or
hesitation. Was it not he who launched Sniffin' Glue fanzine? Was it
not he who wrote How Much Longer? Was it not he who forged a bridge
between punk and the free festival culture of the 1970s? The Pistols
and The Clash had a lot more in common with Here And Now, Hawkwind,
and the Edgar Broughton Band than they would care to admit. Was it
not Mark who saw through the false divisions and realised that
actually, the Stonehenge free festival path was the way for punk to
go if it was ever to survive, rather than running into the arms of
the major record companies.
'Punk could have been so much better / but it fucked up / who
cares? / it moves on / ever changing' Mark continues in a
free-form flow of consciousness 'Punk is about creative energy /
sexual energy / throwing yourself in the fire of eternal love /
commitment / devotion / a punk life – a creative life'. And
then in one fell swoop, Mark defines the meaning of punk, or if not
the meaning then a meaning but one a lot better than
most others: 'Punk is a word / trying to describe a feeling'.
Mark Perry's salvo, entitled A Punk Life, is a very good piece of
writing and unfortunately for all the other authors featured in the
book is the first entry, setting a near impossible to equal
benchmark. Maybe if some of the authors had known the quality of Mark
Perry's piece beforehand they would have upped their game? But of
course they didn't so we read the consequences.
Nutbourne City Limits by Martin Cooper is rubbish but he's forgiven
because he's the ex-singer and guitarist in Salad From Atlantis, a
Brighton band I used to quite like. Mental Punk Rock Diaries by Nikki
Sudden is an exercise in punk rock reminiscing that's nice because
he's no longer with us, having passed away in 2006. Indeed, so too
with Robert Dellar, who passed away in 2016. Stewart Home's
contribution, Cheap Night Out, is short – just three pages, in
fact, and for this reason alone it's good. Lisa Pember's story is
genuinely good. Entitled A Warning To Young Girls, it is that very
thing and a mighty sensible one too.
Unexpectedly, there's a fair amount of sex in a few of the other
stories although even this fails to save them. The book ebbs and
wanes and half-way through I'm getting bored. It needs to be said
that just because a story is short, it doesn't make it any better.
But then like the cavalry appearing on the hill along comes Old Punk,
written by Ted Curtis, and the book is saved.
Though nothing at all like Mark Perry's contribution, Curtis' story is still on a
par with it but for very different reasons. There is pathos and
bathos here; depth, perspective and attention to the minutia, full of
recognisable cultural and geographical references. A perfectly
composed snapshot of an age and place giving succour to Mark Perry's
dictum that punk is indeed a word trying to describe a feeling.
Mark Perry's and Ted Curtis' stories both start and (almost) end the
book so in effect act as bookends, and for these two stories alone
the book is worth it.
John Serpico
No comments:
Post a Comment