plastic punk

they got Pure Mania out really fast - June 1977 - must have been among the very first punk long-players

my brother Tim brought home the second LP, V2 -  released less than a year later - but even I (punk-ignorant and indeed rock-ignorant at that point) could tell they weren't the real deal



this, their self-announcing debut single "We Vibrate", sounds like something Lawrence from Denim could  get behind



talk about punksploitation and bandwagon-jumpage!





Chris Spedding another (enjoyable) faux-punk i was going to get to later

the first flurry of singles being on RAK records is the giveaway (it was Spedding recommended them to Mickie Most)

so were they (like Slaughter and the Dogs) glamsters who turned punk? Pure Mania co-produced by Robin Mayhew, sound engineer for Bowie's Ziggy Stardust shows. Later Vibrators backed up Ian Hunter.

An odd little mini-tradition in rock (there are other examples I think) - having the title track of your first album actually appear on a later album



How well I remember that cover - seemed striking, different kind of graphics - lying around in my brother's room.



presumably this what Stiff Little Fingers named themselves after

more "legacy" - as later covered by The Exploited






this title sounds like a Ramones-ish song come up with for some comedy show punk spoof