BBC BEST PUNK MOMENT - Pretty Ancient: Celebrating 30 Years of Punk

BEST PUNK MOMENT

Fittingly, the Sex Pistols won our Best Punk Moment vote with their shenanigans on the Today Show.

JARVIS COCKER Jarvis was arrested at the '96 BRITS for running on stage during a Michael Jackson performance.

CHUMBAWAMBA The pop anarchists threw a bucket of water over John Prescott at the BRITS in 1998.

PETE DOHERTY What can we say - ex Libertine Pete lives and breathes the anarchic punk lifestyle.

SEX PISTOLS The Sex Pistols colourful interview by Bill Grundy on the Today programme.

STONE ROSES The Stone Roses covered the offices of their record company in blue and white paint.

KLF
Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond set light to one million pounds, filmed it and released a film!

 

 

nick preston
c'mon! not one mention of iggy pop he was the godfather of the punk groups..
john, fast n loud zine, ex cirencester, now glouce
ok so remember the old days of the 70s & 80s punk. but punk is NOW & will keep going foward to new sounds. Had to laugh at cirencesters new punk gargoyle on the church. in the late 70s early 80s the police & council spent all their time trying to keep the punks out of the market place.
Don Ash Wolverhampton
As far as I am concerned...There is only one true 'punk' band even if they don't like to describe themselves as that. A band who unlike the others, had no musical training except they were fans...Who had not been in any other bands, or had even practiced their instruments. They're a group of people who said "yes were a band!" and had a gig before they even knew who was playing in the band!...They are the only band I know of who got up on stage and created themselves... they wanted 15mins of fame and noteriety...They got 30 years (and more!) of it...In which they challenged musical conventions, created legions of followers, and shaped the post-punk musical landscape forever..So many bands owe their career to them it would take me the rest of the page to fill it.... In September at The 100 club 1976...The Greatest punk moment of all....The Day a band called Siouxsie And The Banshees stepped on stage...
Sam Fotovat
My friends brace your selfs punk is taken over the world thanks to green day. Its a start of a new aira
On OLD fan in Southern USA
Chrissy Hynde (of The Pretenders) kicking out the back of a police car window while "being restrained" in Atlanta Georgia during Easter Break (and first world tour) 1978 ...
cheshire.
its gota be the pistols.wat have klf got to do with punk.have i misted this one.where are the clash. the damned. the buzzcocks.all real punk bands of the times.are you for real. lisa.
Dario Argento , Prague
number 1 punk moment has to be The KLF going to meet ABBA and thell them they are sorry...
MAZ, now in Poznan, POLAND
WOT was Punk and WOT was not, wasn't important and isn't now.. WOT is important, is that the music annoyed the right people 30 years ago, and it still annoys the same type of person today. That my 18 year old daughter enjoys the same type of music that I do, makes a middle-aged man very happy!! Regards to THE DAMNED and CAPTAIN SENSIBLE, In concert..they are still the biz and kickin!!
Ian Beenz, Tokyo Japan
What a load rubbish. How can you call these wasters punk? Where are the Misfits or Black Flag, Social Distortion? Get it right beeb. Best punk moment: anything done onstage by GG Allin. Pistols were crap, long live the Ramones!
John, Stevenston
I was far too young for punk the first time around, but my teenage years were spent listening to both the Sex Pistols and the KLF (not so much the Stone Roses) and I love them both to this day. But going to a 999 gig in 2006 is no more "punk" than seeing 808 State would be "rave". It's nostalgia, swallowed and processed, just like everything. For the record, the most "punk" thing I've heard of recently is the band "Test Iclcles", who stopped gigging after a year in existence claiming that even though other people liked their music, they actually didn't, and so were stopping forever.
J. Seymour from Hull
I haven't seen anything about the clash on here. Disgracful considering it was them and the pistols who pioneered punk. Ny the way punk died when the clash signed to CBS and sid vicious died.
Violet, Bern Switzerland
The Sex Pistols, first and only.
Simon.London
Why has no-one mentioned Siouxsie and the Banshees yet?
Taffy/London
Does anybody here know what punk is???....it's not some Shoreditch wannabees sounding like pub singers..this is hillarious...
Eric's, Liverpool.
You just don't get it, do you?
Kim from Southern California
The Dead Kennedy's had many memorable moments too . . . How about Jello Biafra running for Mayor of San Francisco (and coming in 4th)!
David Newton, Burbank, California
While I'm standing by my comments / opinions I made earlier, I feel I need to address the response of Mr Martian Warlord from Hell, who seems to think that I am a "California hippy". Well, I may be living in California, but I am actually from Wolverhampton (not too far from your "hell"!!), & in fact I am nothing close to resembling a hippy! So there! PS: - Is that the real "Mad Muffett" from Slaughter & The Dogs posting ?? Brilliant!! Yay to 6 Music!!!!
Jim, Glasgow
BBC TV news coverage of Punk's 30th anniversary was a joke. Asking upper middle-class twits if they had any fond memories of Punk is like asking ex-miners if they liked Margaret Thatcher. Punk isn't dead at all - it's had a lasting influence everywhere that matters: Libertines/Green Day/Arctic Monkeys/IndyMedia... even Johnny Cash has been reclaimed in the name of the movement - the man who put the c*** in country... My best Punk moment was the Scottish Socialist Party getting six Members of the Scottish Parliament elected in 2003, giving the poverty-merchants a kick in the ballots!
Morag, Glasgow
Pete Doherty's not punky but junkie, stoned roses were stoners, jarvis, although cool, and chumbawumba (not cool) are more pranky than punky and klf don't bear thinking about. Who made this shortlist? BBC be ashamed, you're making yourselves look as bad as you did when you refused to play or show any sex pistols on your tv and radio channels. Hindsight's a wonderful thing....
Christine Taylor, Gilory, California, USA
Safety pins originally WERE used to keep clothes together, only after it became a popular genre did people put them everywhere, killing the use from a punk standpoint. Your quiz is incorrect.
Nick then: Cleethorpe, now: London
What a strange choice of 'best punk' moments. Most of them are just 'grotty yob' moments, right? My own most punk moments include the student protest at the University of East Anglia the week that the 'Anarchy' tour was diappointgly banned from visiting campus - just after the Grundy show. Then...the joy of discovering the Sex Pistols would visit my hometown Cleethorpes the very next week in a replacement gig...so I got my ear pierced that day (to Mum's disapproval and Dad's amusement)...and I wore a bin-liner, and Sid Vicious (in the audience, not yet a band-member) helped me pogo higher with a few good shoves. It all seemed so flippin' important and exciting, and innocent too. Later on more excitement, when a recumbent Johnny Rotten - blocking a small staircase, and revelling in the mainly hostile audience reaction - said that me, the good folk of Grimsby and Cleethorpes, and my fellow students down at UEA were all f****** w******. The privilege - a personal insult from the current popstar/Public Enemy Number One.
John,London
The Clash White Riot tour at The Rainbow,Finsbury Park when rows of seats where torn out and thrown on the stage! That's when i realised music had changed!
Tommy Downes _ Old Trafford.
fats waller - payed to record an album. Got pissed and forgot to turn up till the last day of recording. Without any songs written or prepared, he quickly rang a load of mates and on the spur of the moment cut some of the greatest tunes in "disapproved of" music rock on!
Matt in Budapest
The Clash being banned by the GLC for causing a riot after playing White Riot at the Notre Dame Hall in London. They didn't get it.
Col/Yorks
This is dreadful. I've just looked at "how punk are you", and the list above; has this been out together by the Blue Peter team? Having just listened to "Pretty Ancient", I'm trying to work out what the Boards of Canada have do with punk? - Pathetic effort. - Really!
the pogoing pygmy hippo, bradford
pete doherty punk, you must be joking - surely the thing that defined punk was its political edge, entirely lacking in doherty's narcissistic universe
Geoff Lee, Manchester
Pete Doherty? If you are going to pick at bumbling heroin addict you could at least have picked Sid Vicious. He may have been a bumbling junkie but at least he was in a half decent band. Can't see anybody remembering Pete Doherty fondly nearly 30 years on.
Big Ted / Bristol
Malcolm Owen (RIP) from the Ruts at a Bristol gig head-butting a cymbal mid-set and playing the rest of the gig with blood pouring from the wound he'd inflicted..... that is proper, anything-goes, couldn't care, punk behaviour.... being an idiot who went out with a super-model and demanding constant media attention isn't punk. I'm still gigging in my 40s and the reaction that bands such as the Damned and SLF still get today wipes the floor with the modern day packaged punk bands such as Sum 41 & Blink 182 and the utter dross like Babyshambles....
steve barry london
the clash at the rainbow 1977,remains the benchmark for all punk gigs.
*K*I*T*H* - Airdrie, Scotland.
As per most other comments, the only true Punk moment is the Pistols here. I always preferred the Damned and Stranglers over the pistols but you cannot knock their influence. I would also like to mention the early Adam & The Ants who had many a punk moment before their massive image change during Kings of the Wild frontier (1980). Adam used to get walked over by the audience, once causing major injuries to his back.
Guy, London
There's no punks to choose from here? Possibly the pistols but that's it. And that stupid quiz is wrong, Sid was named after John's hamster. Just type Pistols + Sid + hamster if you dont beleive me. Come on BBC SORT IT OUT!!!!
Steve, Bedford.
What is "punk" about all but one of the choices listed here...? Good grief...
Dave Hilton, Warrington
Is this realy a vote for punk, if the line up had been Sex Pistols, Stranglers, The Clash, Stiff little fingers, even the more moderate Boomtown rats, sham 69, Ian Drury and Elvis Costello then it would of been a competition. Tell you what START AGAIN AND GET IT RIGHT !!!
Colin Oxford
Punk moment? Angelic Upstarts at Reid Memorial Hall Forfar....the why of it?
Simon in London
The new groups are not concerned with what there is to be learned. They got Burton suits. Huh! you think it's funny. Turning rebellion into money. - Jo Strummer: White Man in Hammersmith Palais. This said it all then and says it all now. Music industry garbage - more shame on the BBC.
Brighton
Pete Docherty is about as punk as Sique Sique Sputnik.
jeremy berg, London
How on earth can any vote on the "best punk moment" make no reference whatsoever to obviously the greatest punk rock band of them all; The Clash? Is this some kind of sick joke or an early April Fools stunt? Either way it is absurd that Jarvis Cocker and Chumbawumba are even given a mention
Andrew - Ipswich, UK
What a load of s**t. Where are the Ramones? The Stooges? The Damned? Even the effing Clash! I thought this was supposed to be a celebration of the bands who started the punk movement, why is there only one band from that era? I'm 19 and I can recognise the talent that those people had, that is unfortunately lacking in the majority of music today. I want to celebrate THOSE people!!!
Nemsy, London.
Huh? Is this vote about punk music or artistes behaving badly?
Molly, Newcastle
wheres the clash?????????????
Colin, S. Yorks
Er... What about Daft Punk ? ... (at least it has the word PUNK in the title) ...
HENRY. S. weymouth-dorsetshire
MADMUFFET, punk has had children. Probably just like you. Get over it, man.
Sam, London
What a waste of a license fee.....Or is it just that the British public are morons??? Obviously anyone witha brain will vote for the Sex Pistols as they are the only punks in this ridiculous list.
Dave Shaw - Chinnor
Punk Moment - St Lukes Catholic School Disco Skelmersdale Lancashire - late 1970's you have to picture this a Disco run by a fleet of sadistic Nuns - White Riot goes on the turntable - the screech of the record being scratched by the arm of the record player before it was ritually destroyed was bettered only by the Nuns beating confessions out of the audience to find out who the record belonged to.......these are the briefest moments that made you proud to stand out from the crowd and be a punk. The rest of your moments are mere posturing and not worth my vote.
White Man in the Hammersmith Palais
Which idiot compiled the above list? Only the Pistols were around at the time of punk and Sid - a talentless junkie by the way - certainly wasn't yet a member when they appeared on Bill Grundy. The best punk moments were contained in the music so you'd have been much better off just listing the many, many great songs. Punk was a musical movement, remember, not a series of non-events years too late and only of interest to the celebrity-obssessed media whores who pass as music journalists these days.
Carl / Portsmouth
totally agree with MADMUFFET. Who wrote this some 22 year old post grad straight out of Cambridge? Have the BBC ever heard of The Clash? I mean I would have thought even the Stranglers tying up a journalist on the big tower in France would have been scraping the barrel, but Pete Doherty in a punk list, he had Dot Cotton trying to get him into rehap. Come on wake up and smell the snot
oz in oxford
Jarvis/KLF - what a choice! Has to be KLF, because Jarvis confirmed what we were all thinking already (jackson is a twat, BRITS are a corporate farce) , but the KLF made us confront a new and very challenging idea (money isn't, in itself, of any real value). The rest of them were just being oiks, and that, as amusing as it is to watch, isn't what Anarchy is about.
Matt - London
The BBC, like the rest of the media mainstream, are happy to celebrate this now, but apart from John Peel I don't recall them being so accommodating at the time. Censorship and scaremongering are my memories of the media's role.
Phill Grimbley (Leeds)
The Pistols are the only true Punk band in your selection. Jarvis Cocker and the rest, don't make me laugh, they would have cried off in front off a true Punk audience. What about the Angelic upstarts, ant nowhere league and the best of all SLF.
Rob in Manchester
One of the funniest Punk Rock moments is the bass player from a manchester band called The Cardinals jumping off stage at the end of a gig and kicking the living daylights out of a heckeler in the crowd. That was punk and rock n roll if you ask me.
Steve B, London
These nominations just show how poorly the writers of this page understand punk. Punk was history by 1980 - how can you include all these people who had nothing to do with punk. Punk was a revolution, a lifestyle, reaction to the way the world was in the 70's - the only 'punk' event on this list is the Sex Pistols, and most real punks thought they were crass commercial exploitationistas.
Bob Towser, Southend
I'd like to know why the Beeb are highlighting the Sex Pistols' Bill Grundy appearance with a picture of Sid Vicious who didn't even join the Sex Pistols until a couple of months after the band appeared on the Bill Grundy show!.
Le punk France
I was at the Roxy, in autumn 1975, that experience puts your nominations into the "you can't be serious" award!! Apathy to the vote
Ant from Wigan
I remember going round to my mates house back in 1976 when I was still at school. Mick said to me listen this what I,ve just got from a new band. It was Anarchy in the UK by the Pistols. From that moment I was hooked on the music. I loved the Pistols then went on to become a big fan of The Damned, The Stranglers, UK Subs, then later The Jam etc. The music still sounds good today.
Sue Nicolle. Guernsey.
No Stranglers? No vote! Jarvis Cocker did it for the nation though!!
Simon, Manchester UK
COLDPLAY - so punk they even paint the backs of their hands...
MADMUFFET, sunny PRESTON lancs
good lord, what a choice for a short list. only one punk item, the rest are just nonesense. you might as well put keith moon and his rolls on the list. this is a punk thing, stone roses? jarvis cocker et al? they're nothing to do with punk, all they seem to have done is misbehave in public. THATS NOT WOT ITS ALL ABOUT. but lets face it auntie beeb, you're the establishment, who fixed the charts in '77 so the pistols only made number 2 eh? if you want to celebrate punk then do so. STOP PATRONISING US, THE REAL PUNKS. we know who we are, all still gigging in our forties gawd bless us xxxxx
Dickie, Billericay
Only the Sex Pistols of this lot are punk. Others have mentioned the Damned and the Strnglers, However no one has mentioned the Clash, Joe Strummer attacking the So It Goes cameraman on stage, has got to be a true punk moment.
Pete Kuwait
Where are the punks in your line up? Pistols excepted there are none, what about, Clash, UKsubs, Vibrators, Buzzcocks, Banshees, Slaughter & the Dogs, etc. Come on now how can you have a vote with only 1 real entrant?
emma chichester west sussex
im not gonna bother voting if greenday isnt on there
David Yeomans Portsmouth
The Pistols were punk the others in the list dont even come close.
Paul – London via Merseyside
There is only one 'punk' moment in your list, and no prizes for guessing which one. Who is responsible for this uninspired shortlist. For me it would have to be Tony Wilson introducing Blondie to the nation at tea time at the end of Granada Reports, "rip her to shreads"
Jim Bowen's Traditional Matchplay Dartboard - Brad
Only one of these so called punk moments involves a punk band so it's a no brainer BTW punk lasted for about 3 years not 30 which is about how long it was supposed to last. Best punk moment was Pan's People dancing to Bank Robber by the Clash. TOTP just didn't get it.
Dion, Liverpool
Oh come on! There's nothing here which resonates with the spirit of what the Pistols pulled off in 1976. Pete Doherty? What's truly 'rebellious' about that bleary-eyed deadbeat? His fans, the British law system, Carl Barat and Kate Moss have all given him more chances than most would ever get if they followed his sorry example. Jarvis Cocker's indignation was justified, but to protest with silly hand movements at the front of the stage (we didn't even know about it until newspapers showed close ups of him the day after the Brits aired) is just limp. The Stone Roses paint throwing was a private spat. Burning a million quid is just disgusting. An 'artistic statement'? What did we learn from it, and what do you think John Lydon, who grew up in dire poverty and now devotes time and money to kids charities would think of it? Chumbawamba? Humour was a vital part of the Pistols influence. They knew that earnest political correctness would never enamour the public at large, and it didn't. So as always, the Pistols win in the punk stakes. Swearing on telly was hardly a display of razor-sharp wit, but it launched them into our consciousness. And with no need of that trend-hopper McLaren.
John/Liverpool
Only one worth voteing for - SEX PISTOLS ! The rest just isn't Punk - Punk wasn't an attitide - Punk was a way of life .... A time in life .....Punk is dead ... Long live the memory ......
Gideon B, Reigate.
Punk is not a competition 'Best punk attitude' is an oxymoron, you moron.
John, London.
I think for a start that since this is a 'punk' competition only punks should be in it.
adam caudill, derry, NI.
one punk band in that list, if punk is merely attention seeking i'm sure every little scal who ever scrawled his name and slashed a bus seat should be on that list too.
Neil - London
Pistols without a doubt, the genuine punk boys. I was a heavy metal freak, but still had an admiration for punk. Stranglers too, nobody liked them now that was punk! Jarvis? Chumbawumba? Pete Doherty? Call them PUNK? That's like saying that Kylie Minogue writes "Rave" tunes!! GET THEM OFF THE LIST!!!!
Gary Cambridge
God Save The Queen should have the nations number 1 in the Jubilee celebration week but the establishment conspired to keep it off! Sex Pistols no contest!
Gary - Ringwood
As a 47 year old who lived through the punk era it has to be the Pistols, their sound is as good today as then. The other nominations are a joke. Pistols, Stranglers and The Ramones these were the true and original punk rockers.
Brian- Glasgow
What about the Stanglers - No More Heroes- without a doubt - why are critics intent on trying to write them out of punk history ? I was a young teenager at that best of time - I was there - don't let stupid punk/music history 'academics' try to write them out of the scene. They're not going to go away ......
spom, nottingham
are you joking....?? chumbawamba get in here but theres no mention of a whole host of moments from the clash, the ultimate punk legends......my personal moment would have to be choosing grandmaster flash and the furious five to open for them in new york.....pioneers in every sense
jack, lyme regis, dorset
yeah i agree
Craig Lappin, Hastings East Sussex
I would suggest that punk officially ended on new years day 1978, when PIL played at the Music Machine. if you think that punk is an ethos that transcends its time, i fear that your understanding of context is sorely lacking. Isnt teenage rebellion just an old person thing? Best punk moment, John Lydon on reality TV. Ever felt conned?
Stuart, Sheffield
Great. Now the media's run by people who were pseudo-punks just as in the 1980s it was run by pseudo-hippies ranting on about the 60s.
Lee - London
Pete Doherty (and carl barat) are modern punk...they brought it back and wew should all be greatfull
gilmore jersey
GREEN DAY RULE U FREAKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sam Keyan Fotovat from Uxbridge
GREEN DAYS WOODSTOCK '94 WASONE OF THE BEST MOMENTS IN PUNK MAINSTREAM AND THATS A FACT.
Mick Bradford
How can some of the later moments be classed as punk moments against what the Sex Pistols did? They were the ones who epitomised the anti-establishment feeling of the time and this moment was just the greatest incidence of the establishment not understanding what the youth of that era were about. And don't mention Doherty he is just a smackhead with a coker girlfriend. Punk my arse!
Mike, Leeds
Don't you think that the whole concept of deciding on what is the 'best Punk moment ever' goes against the idea of Punk itself? That Punk is whatever is new and innovative and shocks a culture at a certain time, and not just a random 'anarchic' act thats more of a PR campaign for the person doing it than anything else. Pete Doherty and others like him are the reason Punk is deader than Sid Vicious
scunner Scotland
The Stranglers on TVs rock goes to college, telling the audience what they thought of them and then telling them to f*** o**
Michael StJohn - Cornwall
What about the Anti Nowhere League ?
Paul - Edinburgh
Is this middle-class Suburbia's idea of Punk?? get a grip. Pistols get my vote
John - walsall
Vote Jarvis Cocker >.< tha was the best moment ever!
naughtynorman newcastle upon tyne
what?no otway and barrett from the old grey whistle test when otway fell off his amp onto his nether regions and barrett made him play on ,now that was history we all shared
Joey, Swindon
What about the guitarist from l7 dropping her pants (and panties for that matter) at the end of their appearance on The Word. Live pubes! Pretty punk I think.
Simon, Batley
Surely Fruit Bat from Carter the Unstopable Sex Machine rugby tackling Philip Schofield at the Smash Hits Pole Winners Party is the best Punk moment ever?
Kenny, Warfield
The Sex Pistols and their pals on the Grundy show is the only punk moment on this list!!
Butsy, Worcs
Most punk moment: KLF and Extreme Noise Terror playing the Brit awards and finishing with Bill Drummond firing a machine gun at the audience (with blanks). There were certainly a few surprised faces in the audience!!!!
Charlie - Cirencester
The Pistols are synonymous with the word punk, but Iggy Pop and the Stooges, The New York Dolls - the scene started with them. For once though, America was the wrong time, wrong place and the UK was the right time, right place. What makes the Grundy incident stand out above the Stranglers incidents is the coverage and the shock value. Strippers on stage and getting banned from Radio is cool in the world of Rock, but hardly shocking. And Doherty - sorry, he doesn't deserve the air time he gets.
Hitchin
Best Punx = The Clash
Nick - Harrow
Is this really a punk" list? Sex Pistols I remember The Stranglers having the power turned off mid concert by the GLC for wearing offensive t shirts (the word truck looking a little like a 4 letter word - how times have changed!). Getting in free to see The Clash at Bellvue Manchester due to the doors giving in to crowd pressure, Joe Strummer opening with the words "Getting in for Nothing" instead of "London's Burning" (Souxsie and the Banshees as support. Don't give me this Chumbawamba stuff. My Granny would have doused Prescott.
Jake, London
PETE DOHERTY? he's a loser and a junkie! that's not punk! that's just being a moron! The Grundy show can not be topped!
Michelle, Nottingham
Should have had The Stranglers on here. Still true to their ethos today, still gigging, have not burnt out, have not sold out and do what THEY want, WHEN they want. Long Live The Men In Black!
anarchyintheuk Bromley
what a pathetic poll. Don't tell me 3,000,000 people were at the 100 club gig. Why is the world full of so many..... Psuedo punks. When I was at school in the 70's I was one of only 3 punk rockers, I lived in Bromley, the home of Punk but now apparently everyone was.
Andy, Hamilton
First time I heard punk was the green jelly version of anarchy in the UK, but their version was called anarchy in bedrock they had changed all the lyrics so it was a comedy song about the flinstones but the music was the same and it was something else, bought never mind the bollocks the following week and haven't stopped listening to it since. What an album!!!
Ol, Stafford
Ermmmmm, pete doherty, and punk??? What is going on? Does that mean the spice girls are punk aswel, and britney?
Dave U, Redhill
I'm with Jim & Duncan : where are The Stranglers? These guys are legends! They walked it like they talked it, and compared to them the ones on your list are a bunch of drama queens. Rattus, Heroes and Black & White are 3 of the 4 greatest albums ever made; the other's The Raven. In '77 & '78, they were just plain dangerous - with some of the best bass lines you'll ever hear.
Mark - Dunfermaline
The Skids just forming beats the lot of 'em. Richard Jobson dancing - pure class. Adamson (RIP) and his guitar work will never be matched. Into the Valley best track ever laid down!
Tony Lambo, London
Has to be the pistols. nothing punk about the rest. Special mentions should go to the stranglers and there "we dont play to elitist audiences" during rock goes to college" and of course The clash.
Emily in Canterbury
The only punk band that matters is The Clash! xx
Carol, Kirkintilloch
Best Punk moment? There's only one real punk there! No Contest!!
New Rose, Nottingham
OMG!! None of the list is punk!! Where did you get it from?
Mike Robinson - Corbridge
The choice barely touches what the punk movement was all about, most kids in the eighties were buying The Ruts, The Damned, UK Subs and the greatest band of all Stiff Little Fingers. As a teenager being told that don't go alone with the mainstream but if you've got your own dream then 'Go for it!' was just the message many wanted to hear. Jake Burns gravelly voice belting out 'if you've got a dream don't dare ignore it' was what the punk message was truley about.
themightyfall/Nottingham
PS Giving a small urchin at Leicester bus station a penny for his guy...then taking his Guy along to dance in the mosh pit at the Stiff tour.
Tots - Manchester
The one that kicked it all off - literally with that lorry driver putting his boot through his TV. I can't remember Doherty farting in the face of a customs officer while being strip searched and as for KLF they're carreer was desperateand ancient by the time they pulled that publicity stunt. Love Bill's book Bad Medicine though.
themightyfall. Nottingham
The Damned. Fulham Greyhound pub. PA fell into the crowd. They carried on. Also half a dozen of us getting in to see the Stranglers on one ticket by means of passing it (the ticket) through the toilet window.
carrie macdonald dorset
no more stranglers anymore? seems impossible that your list does not mention them.and what about the clash, they performed some truly punk gigs that i will never forget. it was a brilliant time to be a non-girly teenage girl! any other still- punk-at-heart girls out there?
Russ Turner - Great Harwood
Only ever was one true punk band and that's the Pistols any other bands were mere imitators of them. I have to agree with the comment up there about the laughable content in with The Sex Pistols on the vote, not only was the Grundy show a landmark in pop history what about the ill fated boat trip of the pistols singing God Save The Queen on Jubilee day? No-one will ever ever come close to the rawness and massive influence The Sex Pistols had on culture, fashion and of course music.
Martian War Lord, Hell
" ART STATEMENT....PRE MEDITATED PROTEST....MORE LIKELY TO DICTATE HIS ACTIONS......" My dream came true, all hippys were sent to California!!! Best punk moment? Cant remember much as i was "OUT OF CONTROL ON VARIOUS SUBSTANCES!!" Iggy Pop throwinging himself against a brick wall till he blead.
Ian - Cambs
I like the story of the Clash getting arrested for shooting Pigeons with an air rifle. With he exception of the Pistols, even this petty offence beats this so called punk list for outrageous behaviour
Mandi, Cardiff
How can you call Pete Doherty a punk? Just cause he's been on drugs and acts like an idiot on stage doesn't make him a punk. Definately the Pistols for the No.1 moment.
SO, London
Yeah, I agree with Miles from London, Carter USM should definitely be there instead of chumbawamba - they were being political, Carter were just being Punk! And Pete Doherty as a punk 'moment'? Which moment are we talking about? Drawing 'I heart Kate' on a car window? Give us a break!
Simon - Norwich
Why no mention of the best punk band ever?? The Clash have inspired so many other bands and still continue to do so (Libertines, Hard Fi etc). I saw them live in Bristol when I was 16. The best Punk moment ever has to be Clash in Glasgow Apollo 77/78 - the bouncers were beating the fans up - Joe Strummer apeals for calm and in the next breath launches into White Riot and utter chaos follows!! Pure class..
Brian, Edinburgh
All rubbish. The real moments in punk were when kids started realising they could pick up an instrument and start a band without all the music industry crap that went along with it. The real punk bands are still playing all over the world in pubs and clubs every n ight.
Jaime - Clydebank
I remember hearing The Damned's New Rose for the first time at a boy at school's 16th birthday party. My friends and I had always considered him to be one of the school swots but he gained a lot of respect that night. I'll never forget my introduction to punk. Thanks, George.
David Newton, Burbank, California, USA
I vote for the Pistols on Grundy. The KLF's act was an "art statement" more than a random punk act, & the Stone Roses thing was a pre-meditated protest over money owed by an ex record company. Doherty is out of control on various substances which more than likely dictate his actions (instead of the other way round), & the Chumbawamba one was, while applaudable, an obvious attention grabbing one! Only Jarvis can match up to the mighty Pistols. The Pistols Grundy incident was an unplanned, natural reaction to an absurd situation, as was Jarvis's!!! That's punk rock!!!
Mike Gunn - Glasgow
I can't see The Rezillos in your listing for BBC 6's pretty ancient but they are advertised. Can you tell me when they are on? Its great that you have them - absolutely amazing ... but when??
Jim, Leeds
Where are the Stranglers? University riots in France in which the band all get locked up, onstage strippers, blasphemous songs banned by the BBC, sexist lyrics, kidnapping journalists and leaving them tied to the Eiffel Tower...........!
Brian Goslow/Wormtown USA
Sex Pistols - Without Jonesy and Johnny riling up the UK by taking on Grundy, the others would by classical musicians studying ELP or Jethro Tull scores
colin manchester
who's compiled this shortlist.....how can you put that lot in with the pistols....come on have a word with yourself whoever done it
david yates, biggleswade.
no contest. sex pistols win. the others couldn`t be mentioned in the same breadth.
Eric Equality - Hackney
gotta be! the footage seems mild now, but at the time rotten's cynical snidery and jones' drunken oafishness sent the media and public into meltdown and (for better or worse) put punk firmly and squarely on the cultural map. "the filth and the fury" indeed. “ex Libertine Pete lives and breathes the anarchic punk lifestyle”??????? bollocks does he. he's most well-known for being a junky house-breaker. must be a lot of "anarchic punks" where i live then.
Kieran, Menai Bridge
happened in my home town, was brilliant, would have loved to be part of it!
Duncan Round, Pulloxhill
Stranglers True to their roots. Never giving up. Always evolving Never forget their fans. Brilliant live whether it was Cornwell or Roberts. JJ is the Coolest Living Punk - would you argue with him?
Leicester
It was a time of high unemployment, high inflation and a government who were not in touch with the masses. Punk was the result. Not just working class kids but anyone who was p****d of with the way things where and wanted to shake things up. It was a fantastic period for and one I am glad I was part of
The Raven - Cambs
All the above options are rather lame and/or just showing off (burning £1m? how can that be "punk"?). How about kidnapping journalists and tying them to the Eiffel Tower, walking out on a live BBC concert show (Rock Goes To College) after less than 4 songs because of the attitude of the student audience, how about surviving to the present day, playing to huge audiences around the world and still grabbing you round the throat, shaking you around making you feel like you've been mugged by something other-worldly and wonderful. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the one, the only THE STRANGLERS!!! "Pure" punks didn't like them because they were "old" and could play their instruments, journalists hated them (feeling was mutual!) and the media in general gave them a hard time. However, no band from that era still has the same following, much of it now at least second generation, sells as many records or tickets to concerts nor commands such devotion. For a band that weren't considered "poper punk" in the heyday of the mid-late 70s, these guys are the ones whose career is the most "punk" of them all.

Miles, London
Nooo - you've missed the most punk moment of all, ie Carter USM decking Philip Schofield at the Smash Hits Awards. Carter were the originators, Jarvis & Chumbawumba were the immitators!!

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