Punk, Rock, New Wave – Newcastle & Middlesbrough 1977-78
by Brian Gibson
Revealed by Café Royal Books April 2025
One other nice assortment of classic punk pictures from the ever-impressive Café Royal imprint. This newest one brings collectively artist Brian Gibson’s teenage pictures of reside gig motion and punky avenue life round Newcastle. It’s an incredible evocation of a time, a spot and teenage life usually.
The pictures carry an incredible mixture of innocence and perspective, as garments, hair and equipment transfer with the occasions – however the odd pair of flares or lengthy hair. Occasionally now some smartass pops up saying that Punk was actually only a cliquey London factor put collectively by Malcolm Maclaren and his media buddies – these photographs show in any other case.
The Ramones are most likely the largest names right here, caught in motion at Newcastle Metropolis Corridor, December 1977. You gained’t discover any of the UK Huge Names – Conflict, Pistols, Damned, Jam – nevertheless it’s good to see the true hard-working gigging teams just like the Tom Robinson Band and native heroes Penetration represented right here, together with the Stranglers and Ian Dury, plus a few presumably native bands, Velocity and the MP’s. There’s a pleasant shot of Speaking Head Tina Weymouth singing, and a pensive-looking David Byrne with acoustic guitar, together with a rapt viewers for Wire and a cool motion shot of Iggy Pop in mid-leap (I’m guessing it was the Lust For Life tour with David Bowie on keyboards, although in that case he stays hidden within the
shadows).
What makes this e-book actually stand out although are the group photographs and a collection of pics from native golf equipment. There’s a well timed reminder of how the native report store could be the main focus of its personal little scene and hang around for like minded folks, the Hear Ear on this case. These footage actually catch all of the nuances of the time – the explosion of badges, charity store clobber, cropped hair, ripped t-shirts, skinny ties, security pins a gogo… The texture of crossover between totally different occasions and scenes reveals within the occasional heavy steel lad hanging on to his lengthy hair, or a former soul boy wanting a bit awkward as a scruff.
Even the names are fab retro – Gatsby’s in Whitley Bay, with all method of various types mixing on the dance ground, whereas others favor to pose aloof, in the meantime a younger lady seems uncomfortable and misplaced in her leopard pores and skin frock. The West Denton youth membership shot catches a superb explosion of blended types and imagery – two lads in meticulously torn, pinned and graffiti-ed t-shirts entranced by the music, with pre-punk hair within the foreground, mutoid shades again left & wise Adidas model tee shirt within the center. There are a few native “faces” like Harry Hack and the Huge G who drift by the photographs in numerous guises.
Anyway it’s nice to see a challenge come collectively – I labored with Brian doing the Deviation
Avenue journal some time again, when he was questioning if the outdated pictures nonetheless existed. The images are superbly reproduced right here within the Café Royal custom. They’ve performed a number of different music themed titles lately, together with the Velvet Underground, Wu-Tang Clan and
Madchester together with festivals (free and industrial) and different Alt Tradition subjects like
demos and squatting. I can’t suggest this e-book or the collection usually an excessive amount of – it’d solely be 36 pages lengthy, however manages to catch the look. Really feel and sound of the punk period greater than many a much bigger e-book.
Purchase the e-book right here:
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All phrases by Den Browne, you’ll be able to learn extra on his creator profile right here:
Pictures supplied by the photographer Brian Gibson
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