Who is this Nigel Williamson anyway?

Remembering the birth of
UK punk...
(on the anniversary of the death of Sid Vicious from a heroin overdose).

OK... let's look the facts, it was a long time ago, so forgive me if I struggle with clarity and detail on this one.

Think hard! Ok, it must have been during my first year at Ravensbourne College (www.rave.ac.uk) when I witnessed the event - and I must have been around 18/19 at the time. When I think back from where I am now (working at GGS as a website designer/developer/administrator), to those heady days as an art college student in London, seeing the birth of a new revolution in music genres. Wow... that was a lifetime ago!

Our union team consisted of a pro-active bunch who were always on the look out for new ways to entertain the the student masses (us). But as luck would have it - this time they didn't have try too hard, for the band came to them, kind of cap in hand I seem to remember. A call was taken in the union office from the band's representative (I'm thinking this could well have been Malcolm McLaren) asking if it would be possible to play a gig at the college. He mentioned being friends with 'Skidmarks' who were our resident band at the time, so I guess the consensus was that he was kosher.

I was studying Graphic Communications and remember seeing a fellow course student struggling with a new brief. He was racking his brains, trying to come up with poster/flyer ideas for for a forthcoming gig at the college featuring this new band called "The Sex Pistols". He opted for a literal solution I seem to remember. Talk about spelling it out... how did we get that one passed the powers that be?!

The morning of the event saw us building the stage in the main hall. I remember a flurry of activity around us as we worked - culminating in the arrival of the band. Outside the relatively small (but fast growing) London punk scene - these guys were unknown at the time, so no one payed much attention to them. And don't forget - we're talking about an art college here, so dressing 'individually' was the rule, not the exception.

I seem to remember we ended up building the stage together... chatting and helping each other. All hands on deck as it were. The staging system was modular and went together quite easily. Consequently we were pretty much done by lunchtime. Time has taken its toll and memories blur, but I have this abiding memory of ending up in the local pub that lunchtime... us and the band. I can't remember what we were talking about exactly, probably the gig, the punk scene and college life. This must have looked pretty weird to the locals, for the college sits firmly in the 'stock broker belt' of south east London. But I hear that's all about to change with a sparkling new campus being built on the Greenwich Peninsula.

The night of the gig came and went and the place was packed. But was it memorable? Well it was for me because I was there getting involved for most of the day. Although has to be said that I don't remember much about the gig itself, other than the spitting and the obscenities. Whether it was a memorable gig depends upon the individual spectator I guess. Punk was this scary new thing with a pulse that demanded to be noticed. In time bands like The Clash would emerge with pure raw talent. Whether the slightly more 'manufactured' Sex Pistols package could ever be compared favourably is a question that has been asked many times over the years.

And so to the question asked at the beginning of this blog...
Who is this Nigel Williamson anyway?

Well, he's a well-respected article writer for The Guardian - and turns out he was there that very night. and with more clarity than I could ever muster he's recalled the event for us all to enjoy here.

OK, so he's trashed it, suggesting punk was a pile of Sh*t, but then... wasn't that the whole point?

If you're interested, I've found another link to the event - on 'The News Shopper' website here. This was (and quite possibly still is) a free-sheet newspaper for south-east London. It is at this point that I feel a confession needs to be made public here - after all these years of secrecy. For a very short while I was one of many 'paper-boys', delivering this free-sheet to the good people of Bromley to earn some beer money. It was impossible! No way could I deliver that many copies in time... before the next one came out. I was overwhelmed and my landlady (quite rightly) was taking issue with bales of 'The News Shopper' piling up on the stairs and landing. So what did I do? Well lets just say that a local church received more than one copy of 'The News Shopper' that week... and not through the letter box. I gave up that job soon after - and I'm heartened to see that 'The News Shopper' is still thriving, despite taking me on as a 'paper-boy'.

Keith Halliday
GGS