Outlandos d'Amour: 1977/79

Punk Rock was 'too much'...

Punk rock American-style was unleashed on an unsuspecting Warrington audience recently and it proved too much for some of them.

The blitzkreig tactics of three so-called "new wave" acts from the USA had some of the crowd at a Warrington Technical College students' union dance seeking refuge in the bar at the Lion Hotel in Bridge Street.

Yet it was this very aspect of the music its raw energy or calculated banality, depending on your viewpoint that transfixed many of the listeners.

First band on were Police, a guitar-bass-drums trio whose sound mix had all the clarity of a rice pudding. Admittedly they had vigour and drive; but their songs lacked the tightness and hooks that are the hallmarks of, say, the Ramones.

Augmented by keyboards, Police returned later as a backing group for the groupie-turned-singer Cherry Vanilla. After a jazz-tinged instrumental, Ms Vanilla appeared in black leotard and with cherry-red hair!

Visually she resembled a white Tina Turner. Vocally not so - though both Cherry and the predominantly male audience seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Top of the bill were The Heartbreakers, led by former New York Doll Johnny Thunders. Next to these boys, the  Sex Pistols look like Eurovision Song Contest entrants! Their image is based on all the hollow-cheeked; street-wise arrogance and malevolence that was labelled "punk" long before the term became fashionable.

Again the sound texture was murky. Yet, after a while, you seem to get swept away by the infectious intensity of it all, the throbbing bass, incessant drums and manic chord-changing.

And soon you find yourself actually enjoying the no-holds-barred simplicity of it all and you realise that this is the nearest that rock has got to its much-sought-after "roots" since the country boy with the long sideburns gave-up driving a truck round the Deep South to become a singer over two decades ago.

(c) The Runcorn Guardian by Barry McLoughlin