What are you doing in a place like this?
Does any of us know what we're doing here, though?
Thank you and welcome, new subscribers and new readers!
I have been farting around Substack since 2021 - I can’t believe how quickly time flies!
Punk Turns 30 - AGAIN!
At the end of 2004, as a significant anniversary date grew closer, that which we know as Punk Turns 30 started to coalesce.
That first real post was basically a placeholder too. I wasn't quite sure what to do here. It was a year into COVID and working from home, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Some days, I wasn't sure if I should just reproduce the Punk Turns 30 blog I launched in 2004, or if I should reproduce the site I created for my most successful traveling photo exhibit - Unguarded Moments, Backstage and Beyond. The site I had set up for it in 2007 got hijacked - in a weird way, my content is still there, but when you go to it’s URL, it’s a site selling domain names (oh, I have done troubleshooting galore; everything is paid, DNS redirects are on point etc ad infinitum). I wrote about it previously here.
There was a discussion here on Substack about punk photographers, and it was then I realized how compartmentalized audiences and readerships are, so I tooted my own horn. I was proud of the centerfold spread in the weekend entertainment pull-out in Memphis’ Commercial Appeal that previewed that exhibit. I thought that being the subject of the centerfold of a major music city’s newspaper’s entertainment section anointed my position somehow.
For some reason, the Memphis Commercial Appear Archives aren’t responding to me tonight but if you want some context, you can read this at Newspapers.com.
ANYWAY -
I appreciate all the likes and restocks and comments. Word of mouth is the best.
Even when I was a road manager for Stiv Bators’ 1980s punk rock supergroup, Lords of the New Church, while MTV and magazines called them a supergroup, we knew we had to work hard to get every ass in the door of every gig. It was Stiv Bators from the Dead Boys, Brian James from The Damned, Dave Treganna from Sham 69, and Nicky Turner from The Barracudas. If you’re into punk rock, this is most definitely a super group. Even as late as 1987, we had just 9 people attend a show in Huntington Beach, CA. Orange County loved their harder music and The Lords delivered. They had historically filled rooms like the Whisky A GoGo in Los Angeles, the 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, and The Ritz in NYC. But in a traditionally hard core-loving Southern California beach town - 9 people showed up. I remember Dave Treganna asking me if there was a crowd yet, and I gave him the headcount and he asked what their names were (thinking they were probably all friends of ours).
I think about this whenever I have to introduce myself and my bonafides. But I think you may be familiar with some of my photos.
I don’t know everything, but I lived through the OG wave of punk rock and have the photos to prove it.
I appreciate your follows and subscriptions and your finding the time to read what I have to say!
Eventually, I figured out that this Substack should be a workshop for my forthcoming memoir. I do appreciate feedback, so comment away!
Thank you for your stories and photos! So much of our punk history is being lost or has been distorted by people who weren't even there. You along with a few other people (who were in the scene like us) are giving me the idea it's time to put some of these stories from the Louisiana punk scene into writing! 😊
I'm going to post my photos from the early 80s soon. I've got some Plimsouls, Dream Syndicate and a lot of paisley underground bands.