Subway Sect - Ambition (Rough Trade 1977). Design: unknown.
New exhibition now on in London's second smallest exhibition space - the L Gallery in W+K's reception desk. It's a selection of Neil Christie's collection of old punk singles.
'We oppose all rock and roll'
In 1977 I was
fifteen. I was a kid living, it seemed to me, on the edge of everything, up in the
frozen wastes of northern Scotland, waiting for something to happen. The first
wave of punk was what I’d been waiting for: a movement to join, a cultural call
to arms, a teenage rampage, a riot of our own. It’s hard now to imagine the
scarcity of media in those days. There was no internet, only three TV channels,
you could buy chart records in Woolworths or Boots. And they cost so much you could afford to buy maybe a single
a month. There was only the NME and the John Peel show – and in Aberdeen these
were like bulletins from another world.
Generation X - Your Generation (Chrysalis 1977). Design: Barney Bubbles.
These singles
were totems, talismans and badges of allegiance. Not widely available, hunted,
hoarded, swapped, carried to school, played again and again and again. The
graphics on the covers were themselves codes to live by that we wore on our
sleeves and pinned to our blazers.
In the words of Subway Sect (from A Different Story, B-side of Ambition):
"We oppose all rock and roll
as going down the chute.
We oppose the rock'n'roll that's held you down for so long you can`t refuse."
Sex Pistols - Holidays in the Sun (Virgin 1977). Design: Jamie Reid.
The Clash - Complete Control (CBS, 1977). Design: CBS in-house.