Posted 10:52 AM by Paul
Punk Lives

Between 1977 and 1979 I was the editor of a punk rock fanzine and also guitarist and singer in a punk / new wave band called 2.3, named after the average number of children in a British family. We did OK to start with supporting major acts like Generation X, The Stranglers and Siouxsie and the Banshees. We developed a small following for our brand of guitar based new wave which could be best described as a mixture of the Talking Heads, the Clash and the Jam. We even had a single out called "Where to Now" on the legendary Fast Product label which also released the first Human League tracks. In fact I introduced Fast to the Human League as they were mates, I was a big fan and we shared a rehearsal room. However, at the back end of 1979 we called it a day. I went to university a year later to study Spanish and eventually sold my Gibson ES330. Great times and happy memories. Having our fans boo Generation X off stage by chanting our name and nearly being blinded by a glass thrown at me by a Neo-Nazi whilst I sang "F**ck the National Front" [ it just missed me and the Neo Nazi was given close attention by a black bouncer ] stick in the mind. I still occasionally meet up with Haydn the drummer with the band who is now something big in finance and studying for a law degree in the evenings. I run a positive image and recrutiment campaign for the construction industry. Very punk.

A couple of years ago a young Dutch woman called Eve tracked me down for an interview for her documentary film Made in Sheffield. To be frank, I was amazed anyone remembered us, never mind were interested in what we did. Apparently a lot of new punks see 1977/1978 as some kind of golden era of real bands with intergity, which is not exactly how I remember it. Having said that we used to lay back and dream about how cool it would have been to be hanging out with Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassidy in NYC in the 50s. It fact it would probably have been a dreary alcoholic improverisehd hell made even worse by bad acid. Such is the power of dreams.

So, last night Eve gets in touch with me by e-mail saying that an LA based label Grand Theft Audio (great name) is trying to track us and other Sheffield bands down with a view to releasing our material. I reply to the guy who owns the label and say feel free to get in tocuh. It was about 11.30 p.m. Seconds later the phone goes and Brian from Grand Theft is on the phone from LA for an hour discussing the nuances of 70s bands I had never heard of and asking us to try and track down any other material we recorded. Nice bloke. A real fan. Apparently some of these bands are now slightly large in Japan.

So if we can find all those tapes 2.3 might even get their debut album out 24 years late. Now that would be funny. We'll see.