In the late 70s I was a teenager growing up in the North-east, where punk didn't really happen - not first time around, anyway:
- nobody listened to Radio 1 as the reception was crap, especially after dark, and we had these wonderful local stations that actually talked about the towns and cities where we lived.
- Johnny Rotten was just another cockney gobsh*te - how was he any different to Steve Harley?
- social commentary, ok, rebellion against authority, fine, but Alan Hull and Lindisfarne had done all that 4 or 5 years previously
- The Pistols may have made history in Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall, but on our side of the country they only got as far as Northallerton - this would be like playing your only Southern gig in a place like Abingdon or Hertford.
- Maybe it was because we didn't have the big impersonal stadium gigs, but we didn't really get the "alienation from dinosaur bands" thing. Personally I was happy to sit at home and listened to records, and if I did want to go out and see bands in the flesh,there was still a thriving pub rock / folk scene going on, which didn't need punk to re-invigorate.
Punk was fine when it came along and no doubt a lot of bands made it that wouldn't have done so otherwise. What really p*ssed me off though was the whole "reign of terror" which meant that bands had to suddenly become something that they weren't, otherwise they would be labelled "boring old farts" and committed to musical oblivion. And the lie that rock music was dying on its feet before punk came along and saved it. B*llocks. There were good bands like Man and Budgie around that were on the cusp of making it, but never got the recognition they deserved because their hair was too long. It annoys me that the BBC are still perpetuating this myth about punk.
Punk was another one of those movements that, like goth today, is characterised by people who "want to look different" and as a result all end up looking the same. I kept my long hair till the New Romantics came along (and I was dragged kicking and screaming into the job market ) and suffered endless p*ss-taking by my fellow students (I had moved down South by this time) but honestly, bandwagon-jumpers the lot of 'em.
Kudos to the afore-mentioned Stranglers and JJ however, sneaking "Down in the sewer" onto the Rattus Norvegicus album - showed they could do stuff with musical gravitas if they wanted . . . .