It's still incredible how exciting 1977 was for music. For me and a few others. Everything changed. There was a trickle of overseas releases that turned into a flood that seemed at the time to wash away the old guard. In reality it didn't do that. they were still around. It probably just wrecked the careers of some up and coming old wave bands. But bands like Supertramp still became big at the same time this was all happening. The Sex Pistols were IT though. They were the ones to knock down the doors. Steal all the column inches in the NME. And in the end become the first casualty limping to a sad end in San Francisco.
This was their second single. I picked it up in Box Hill Brashes. I still remember the excitement of seeing it in the racks. I was astonished because it came out really quick. Often you would wait ages for a new release from overseas. Got it home and was just knocked out by how good it was. Especially the guitar playing and Johnny's sneering vocals. Even the the artwork was totally different to what I was used to. I started putting two cheap amps together to make a Steve Jones sound. By now I had an Ibanez Les Paul. Great guitar. Stolen a few years later.
My band Subway tried to find a bass player and we asked Rob Wellington. He said no but came back a few weeks later and offered to be the guitarist. He was a cool guy with good connections. So he was in. He started pulling the band into shape. He changed our name to the Fiction. Got me to be just the singer. Eased Chris out of the band. And for our first gig in April 1978 we played Bernhardts for the Pulp magazine benefit show. All the Melbourne punk bands played. Boys Next Door, Young Charlatans, News. Brilliant night. Brilliant times.
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