Ex Punks

[Kahuna]

From The Australian today,thought some here may find it of interest---



Those were the days, let's not bring them up

* Some ex-punks make a habit of strolling down memory lane at every available opportunity. Not Allan Graveur
* May 17, 2007

I ALWAYS thought boomers were boring. The way they went on about peace and love and flowers in your hair. And I always thought the Anzacs were boring, the way they went on about some war that was finished well before I was born, although war is making a comeback. But now I know there's one thing more boring, perhaps the most boring thing of all: punk.

As a former punk, there's nothing more boring that talking about those days: you know, the day I first saw Johnny Rotten on Countdown singing Pretty Vacant; or Razar at the Brisbane Hotel, and the Flowers were there too: they went on to become Icehouse, the band that sang Great Southern Land, which still hasn't grown on me; or the Ramones at Festival Hall; and the night Chris Bailey of the Saints paid for my pissed mates and me to get home from a near-empty gig they did at Zillmere in Brisbane.

See what I mean? I could go on, but I won't. The thing is, the Saints reunion gig, along with the Riptides, the band with the singer who went on to sing that really boring song about lightning over cane fields, has brought all the old punks out of the woodwork.

So now it's a competition to out-punk everybody else.

I made the mistake of wearing a Pogues T-shirt to Woolies. It's not that I don't like the Pogues. I love Shane MacGowan, my one true hero, although thinking of him makes me think I ought to see a dentist. When will dentists learn that our not seeing them has nothing to do with the pain, it's the price? As for the Pogues, it's just a damned shirt my brother bought on eBay.

So when an old surfie saw it - the shirt, that is - I had to stand and hear about how his old days were older and better than everybody else's. You know, he was there when the Saints used to play at Petrie Terrace, he went over to England, and got to go to England because ... well, I really don't know, but it makes you more of a punk, or a citizen of the world, as it still does today.

Sure, getting drunk at the Church or in the mud at Glastonbury, snorting coke, working as an accountant, following Liverpool, and coming back and telling all and sundry nothing much really, but with an accent, somehow makes you more sophisticated.

Anyway, the guy went on about how the Ramones weren't really punk, how kids today didn't understand that it was all just rock'n'roll, about Lou Reed, about the Saints, about buying tickets for his kids to the Saints, and so on.

The fact is, I was a punk for two or three years of my life, and by the time the Clash appeared, I was well and truly over that hate-your-parents stuff, although I was a little sad when Joh Bjelke-Petersen knocked down Cloudland, the place where they and so many others played.

Look, I liked the Beatles back when I was toddling, although I don't go on about them now. And then I liked ABBA, but I don't go telling all the kids I meet I listened to them, like it was some kind of badge of honour, although I think it has come full circle and it's cool to say that kind of thing now. As is being gay, but when you're not getting sex of any kind, does it really matter what sexual preference you have?

The fact is, for so long I've been going on about my old punk days, and god, it's so tiresome. I'm not a punk now and, for that matter, the only reason I became one was because nobody liked me. The beauty of getting older is that you don't really care that no one likes you. In fact, I care less now when I tell people I care, than in the days when I cared and said I didn't care. Remember Johnny Rotten singing "and I don't care"? Well, when I say I don't care, I do care really. I care about the things that matter to me. I care about friends and family, and some of the people I meet, and old ladies who have to wait in line at the post office. And I like it that way.

Back then, back in the days I don't want to discuss, I had to hate everything. I had to think death was the only way out. Way out of what? OK, life has a few downers, but all in all it's a party worth living.

So why would I want to be identified with a few brief years of my life? I followed the Western Suburbs Magpies for 25 years, although I've only been to Sydney two or three times in my life: once to buy a Dead Kennedys album, believe it or not. But the point is, why do I identify with a team that always used to lose, from a place where I've never lived? Thank god, the so-called Wests Tigers won. It kind of exorcised a demon from my soul once and for all. Thanks, Benji. It sure beats kicking the gate.

Why, for that matter, would I identify with football players anyway? These days, hell, I'd rather watch baseball than rugby league, and I'd rather play PlayStation than listen to the Clash. I mean, the only songs they play on the radio now are the songs that made it big on jeans commercials, the Jam's A Town Like Malice, Elvis Costello's Oliver's Army, Blondie's Heart of Glass, and that's about it. It's not about punk, it's not about Avril Lavigne. Has anyone seen that Girlfriend clip on television? Believe me, the blonde girl was never the punk.

It's about some long gone era in my life, when Joh ruled with an iron fist, when I was full of angst and failing exams and shy as hell when talking to girls. These are things I don't want to remember. Especially Joh, although Peter Beattie kind of keeps him in my mind.

And I don't listen to the Dead Kennedys any more, Sid's dead, as are most of the Ramones, Rotten goes on celebrity reality shows. And as for the Saints reunion, well, I still think they were Brisbane's greatest band, but I'd rather be in my bedroom watching the Mets on Fox and perhaps taking time out to meditate a little than knocking back beer and talking about those glory days.

The fact is, and if I have to borrow a phrase the boomers always use, if you remember those days, as most kids who wear Ramones shirts today seem to remember with ease, then you weren't really there. And it might have been fun, but I've had funner times since, drinking tea with my mum and watching Temptation.




http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/ ... public_rss

[Kahuna]

thought some here may find it of interest---

..........or maybe not!

[Dogwatcher]

ha ha - great piece.
I can see this being played out by people my age but talking about grunge.

[Leaping Lindner]

Thoughts?????

"And as for the Saints reunion, well, I still think they were Brisbane's greatest band, but I'd rather be in my bedroom watching the Mets on Fox."

You're a wanker!

[Barto]

Die now you boring old c***.

[McAlmanac]

"These days, hell, I'd rather watch baseball than rugby league, and I'd rather play PlayStation than listen to the Clash".

A bloke who wants to play PlayStation and watch American sport on Fox in his bedroom. Yeah mate - you're a grown up now.

[Punk Rooster]

"These days, hell, I'd rather watch baseball than rugby league, and I'd rather play PlayStation than listen to the Clash".

A bloke who wants to play PlayStation and watch American sport on Fox in his bedroom. Yeah mate - you're a grown up now.

Sounds like regression to me!

PS- I thought of LL whilst reading through that article!

[JK]

"These days, hell, I'd rather watch baseball than rugby league, and I'd rather play PlayStation than listen to the Clash".

A bloke who wants to play PlayStation and watch American sport on Fox in his bedroom. Yeah mate - you're a grown up now.

LMAO .. Thats great!!

[Barto]

"These days, hell, I'd rather watch baseball than rugby league, and I'd rather play PlayStation than listen to the Clash".

A bloke who wants to play PlayStation and watch American sport on Fox in his bedroom. Yeah mate - you're a grown up now.

But don't you understand? He's doing it WITH A CUP OF TEA ALONGSIDE HIM.

Tea=maturity. Beer=you're livin' in the past man, contemporise.

[RustyCage]

And he's probably "progressed" from smuty porn to classy all male erotica