Interview with a punk

The punk subculture was a music and fashion scene most prevalent around the mid-1970s and early 80s. Members of the movement subscribed to several ideologies, including anti-establishment and anarchist ideals.

I interviewed Denise, a woman who in the late 70's belonged to the punk scene in Nairn, Scotland. My questions were mainly aimed towards how the subculture changed while she was a part of it, and whether or not this effected her opinion of it.

Did you belong to any one particular group?

The punk rockers.

What year did you become involved with this group?

I would have been 14, 78’… 77’ …  around 1977.

How did you become aware of this group?

Well the music was in the charts, Johnny Rotten, The Skids were in, and then of course, the TV, Top Of The Pops, the news was covering it, my friends at school… when I went to the youth club, that was the music they were playing, it was inescapable, you had to conform really, we were pretty impressionable.

Did you know many people, or did you have many friends that also subscribed to this group?

Yes, friends at school, well, I think at that age I’d have been 14, and as you know at that age you tend to be a bit rebellious. So, it kind of fitted in with that time in my life, of course I wanted to rebel, so here comes this punk rock, like the Sex Pistols, who were rebelling against everything.  It was like the perfect storm, it just came at the right time for my age.

What was the primary ethos or mission of your group?

To rebel. To shock, to piss the older generation off. I suppose anarchy came into it as well. There was this group called the Sex Pistols... I’m sure Johnny Rotten was the first one, and they replaced him with Sid Vicious, their behaviour was terrible, they were doing things on the TV, in the media, they were SWEARING! And spitting! Up until that point nobody swore on television. So, anybody took them on a TV show at that time, their behaviour was awful, so that was a big attraction.

Was there a particular fashion associated with it? Can you describe it?

Oh aye, all black, ripped t-shirts, safety pins, the more the better. Black boots, black eyeliner, spiked hair, a lot of the boys had mohicans. They would shave the sides of their hair off then dye it a color. The makeup had to be over the top. The anti-nuclear slogans painted on the back of the boy’s jackets, they were popular, “fuck the pope!” anything that was shocking.

Did you or anyone you know ever buy clothes/accessories/makeup for the sole purpose of fitting in with the group?

Yes. I ripped my t-shirts that my mother had bought me, I put safety pins through my ears. The music was anti establishment, it was anti political, so that rubbed off on us, and at that age we were rebellious anyway. We used to put badges over our jackets, anti-nuclear, anti-war, anything that was “anti” something.

What kind of rituals would members of the group perform? (hair dying, piercings)

Safety pins through my ears, make necklaces out of safety pins, The make up, obviously, dying our hair, especially blue or pink, some of the boys used to put love and hate on their knuckles.

Were there any shops that catered to the kind of fashion your group had?

Maybe in the cities, not in Nairn, we had to make a lot of our own. It was an unkempt kind of look, I never wore dirty clothes, but it was that kind of look, it was to shock. The trousers, the jeans all became drainpipe-y in the shops where they had been flares, so that kind of changed. And the boots, we started to see doc martins in the shop a lot more, the girls would wear them. I was aware there were things we weren’t getting, from people off the TV… that was where we got our ideas from.

Was there any particular kind of music your group listened to?

Sex Pistols was the favourite. There were loads that came off the back of them, I can’t remember their names, one band would appear after another and it was hard to keep track.

Did that kind of music become more or less popular?

Oh for young people it became very popular, much to my parents disdain. There were new bands springing up all the time, it just became this follow-on sort of thing in the charts, loads of new groups copying the formula popped up, and they were after money.

Did you attend any events associated with your group?

Oh aye, we had discos in our day, but we had a youth club and stuff like that, we’d all dress up… we lived in Nairn, so the culture was kind of muted as a result of the location. There wasn’t any live music or concerts up here, but we just got on with it.

Were there any activities or behaviours associated with your group? Did you agree with them?

Smoking, that’s how I became a smoker, even to this day, but we didn’t drink, and we didn’t take drugs… if we were in the city, that might have been different.

We were very anti-social to the older generation. There was no violence that came out of it in Nairn, but in the cities there were. We had quite an attitude, dancing was a big thing too. We kind of just jumped up and down a lot and banged our heads.

How much money (roughly) do you think you spent?

I bought the records and knackered my clothes, make-up… I just spent what money I had. I worked as a waitress, I would spend my wages on it, I earned about £10 a week to give you an idea.

Did you feel as if you belonged, or that your group was a family in any way?

I felt I belonged, the fact they were like minded people.

Was there any signalling?

I advertised the fact I was a punk through dress. A lot of the boys would paint crosses or swastikas on the back of their jackets.

What made you leave the group?

I just grew up. I think we all did, we grew out of it, I had a boyfriend who wasn’t a punk, school I suppose, we had responsibilities ahead, we left school at 16, we were gonna have to do exams, then get a job, music changed, the new romantics came in after that and we were seeing, gone from all the original message of the anarchy and anti establishment to glam rock, weird 80’s stuff… it wasn’t angry anymore, it was all wrong.

Was there any point you remember the group changing in a way you didn’t like?

It became intimidating for the older generation. If there was a group of you together, old people didn’t like it, they felt intimidated, I din’t like that. I woke up to it, I realized it was wrong.

Was there any point you felt the group was becoming too “corporate?” or commercial?

No. I wouldn’t have been aware of it if it was.

Do you think your group kept it’s ethos toward the end?

Yeah… but I think living in Nairn we were presented with a homogenized version of it to start with, I don’t think we ever got the full picture. We saw stuff on the TV, from the cities, doing all these things, squatting, sit-ins… that was the start of having a “right to something,” so they’d all be in squats and protests… can you imagine that in a city, to a small town? We thought we were punks, but we weren’t getting the real version, we never did. The beare bones of the message was always the same, but it got diluted on the way up to Scotland.

What I have learned from this account is that one representation of the punk movement can be vastly different to another. The "version" of punk that Denise was a part of was a much more muted one than that experienced by young people in say, London or Manchester. The underlying spirit or message of the movement remained the same, but it presented itself differently among the young people of Nairn, and it is easy to overlook how cultural and environmental factors effect a subculture. It is possible for a subculture to evolve in an entirely different way depending on it's location.