Three-part series about the history of punk. Daydreaming England was
about to be rudely awakened as punk emerged from the London underground
scene and a nation dropped its dinner in its lap when the Sex Pistols
swore on primetime television. Punk had finally found its enemy - the
establishment. It began to extend its three-chord vocabulary through an
alliance with reggae, captured by the Clash on White Man in Hammersmith
Palais. A disastrous PR stunt by the Pistols on a Thames barge marked a
turning point - the darker underbelly of the summer of '77 saw race
riots in Lewisham, the backdrop for a rawer, working class sound. By '78
punk was becoming a costume - the pop orthodoxy it had originally
sought to destroy. For many punk ended when the Pistols split, beset by
internal problems, following an abortive US tour in January '78. Those
practitioners who would go on to enjoy sustained success sought to
modify their sound to survive, such as Siouxsie Sioux, leading to the
post-punk era
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