I have had my doubts for quite some time now whether "punk" is any kind of thing to believe in, once you are past the age of 25 at the very latest. Doubts voiced here and there, sometimes subtly
Just the other day I read something that bolstered the doubts even more. A review at Louder Than War of a memoir by Steve Diggle, who nowadays essentially = Buzzcocks
The book is called Autonomy: Portrait of a Buzzcock. The reviewer is Dave Jennings.
"Autonomy is one of Buzzcocks greatest songs and maybe one of the songs that best captures the essence of what Punk was, and still is, all about. Be who you are, take no shit and, as far as possible, control your life and live it the way you want to....
"Diggle believes he was born to be a Punk, relating a tale of when, as a seven-year-old, he was part of a gang that literally smashed up one of their nan’s house. This independent, untameable streak continued through being expelled on his final day of school and avoiding work like the plague...."
Hang on, wind back a bit there: your foundational self-mythos is that you and a bunch of fellow untameables went around to one of the gang's granny's place - no doubt full of cherished keepsakes and mementoes of a life nearing its end - and you smashed it to pieces? I know the Damned, ludicrously if irresistibly, sang about "gonna smash it up til my dying day", but making a lovely old lady cry is something to be ashamed of, quietly repented of in the sleepless small hours... not something you'd foreground in a memoir...
But wait! There's more:
"Diggle’s life of autonomy veers into some uncomfortable areas such as heavy drug use... and the difficult to comprehend fact that he drove away from his girlfriend, who was holding their baby and begging him to stay, rather than suffer the constraints of a relationship and being a parent."
Yes, difficult to comprehend... and yet so commonplace... bog-standard shit bloke behaviour, nothing especially punk rock about it
Except in a certain sense it is pure punk rock.
"Life as a Punk Rock icon gave him what he feels he needs, the omnipresent sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. As Charlie Harper would say, “Born a rocker, die a rocker”."
I know, I know, there are other ideas of punk - DIY, collectively run performance spaces, all ages shows, Maximum Rock 'n' Roll, Crass, riot grrrl, etc etc - anti-authoritarian, concerned, altruistic, committed to causes - wholesome, earnest, idealistic... But I suppose what I am saying is that actually the real punk, the true punk, is the "and we don't care"/ "got no emotions for anybody else... I'm in love with my self" element. That's the the core of it - and it's why it appeals to boys aged 15 to 17 above all...
In a funny twist, of course, if ever there was a thing as "gentle punk" then it was Pete Shelley, who appears to be the opposite of Diggle.
Although apparently there's some tell-all stuff in Autonomy about Pete....
