Vacant: A Diary of the Punk Years 1976-79 Book

Punk can be said to have begun in 1974, when its fashion high priest and priestess Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood set up the infamous SEX boutique ("Specialists in rubberwear glamourwear & stagewear") on the King's Road in London. Punk proper emerged--or rather exploded--into the public consciousness in 1976 / 77 with the advent of such bands as Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Clash and The Sex Pistols (and their charming, unforgettable Jubliee ditty God save the Queen). Nils and Ray Stevenson worked on the fringes of punk from its earliest inception; Nils later became the Sex Pistols' tour manager, Ray their publicist and photographer. Vacant: A Diary of the Punk Years 1976-9 is a fascinating, debauched, day-by-day photographic diary of punk's highs and lows: the pubs, the clubs, the punch-ups; and it is packed with reminiscences from both its famous and little- known participants. We have snapshots of a very young Billy Idol, Paul Weller, Boy George, but the stars of this book are the women, in their fishnets, safety-pins and extreme eye make-up. It is satisfying to see that Siouxsie Sioux never took hers off, even when exposing her lily-white form to the harshness of the Los Angeles sun, to be reminded of the superb collective that was The Slits and glimpse once more the magnificence of Poly Styrene's teeth, which could have brought brace wearing back into fashion. "Punk was a cage to run wild in," writes Nils Stevenson in his introduction, and it's here in all its two-fingers-up-at the establishment glory. --Catherine TaylorRead More