1978 - From Punk to Heavy Rock

My 'Year of Punk' which began in April 1977, turned into a year and a half of Punk, that continued on unabated for most of 1978. But throughout the year an increasing number of 'Heavy Rock' records had begun to attach themselves to my collection of Punk/New Wave records, and as the British Punk wave had begun to fizzle out from the mainstream of music, Heavy Rock began to slowly solidify itself into the music that wanted to be identified with.
But before that happened, there was to be a brief, but intense musical love-affair with the Tom Robinson Band, whilst still in the throes of 'punkmania'. The Tom Robinson Band, or TRB, weren't strictly a punk-band in the accepted sense, but their music had a unique fire and aggression, coupled with socio-political lyrics that definitely protested against the establishment, via the passionate and charismatic Robinson himself.
But as the year began, I was still avidly collecting punk/new records by The Stranglers, The Jam, The Buzzcocks, and many others.

But it was the Stranglers who still dominated my musical passions that year. And although they would have to share that domination with TRB, for me they reached their peak in 1978 with the release their third and best album 'Black and White', and potent singles like '5 Minutes', thus ensuring their continued high rank in my affections; particularly with J.J. Burnel continuing to dominate their sound with his snarling, overdriven  bass playing.

Amongst all this, TRB, who had hitherto only occupied a very small part of my musical consciousness in the form of their 1977 hit '2-4-6-8 Motorway', made a much more serious impact with release of live e.p. called the 'Rising Free' e.p. And soon afterwards they made even further impact with the release of a third single: 'Up Against the Wall', which was definitely my 'song of 1978', and propelled TRB to being deemed worthy of album-buying status. And with their debut album 'Power in the Darkness' that year; They became the only other band besides The Stranglers to achieve that status, partly because album buying in a big way would have to wait for another year until I left school.

This was the first time that a band had made an equal impact on me with their lyrics as well as the music. Previously, although the Sex Pistols and The Stranglers came high in my lyrical appreciation; It was always the actual music, and the guitar or bass playing which was at the forefront of that impact. The words were always a secondary phenomenon that were almost there to fill the gaps. TRB changed all that with their songs which were full of  social and political comment which highlighted racism and spoke up for minorities, and generally criticised the system and attacked the establishment. In my naive 15 year old way, I felt that these songs helped me to understand things I hadn't previously been really aware of, and make me feel connected to a wider world outside my bubble of existence.
TRB's association with Gay Lib', 'Rock Against Racism' 'Women's Rights', and the 'Anti-Nazi League' brought a new dimension to the importance of music in my life.
As the passionate and intelligent mouthpiece of this new dimension; I hero-worshipped Tom Robinson himself to a degree which never quite reached before. I wanted to look and dress like him. I wore a blazer and loose tie, like he did. I wore TRB, Ant-Nazi League, and Rock Against Racism badges, both on my school uniform (although I was repeatedly made to take them off) and my out of school clothes. I tried to style my hair as close to his as possible. I recorded their radio concerts onto cassette on my Dad's music-centre. I watched all their tv appearances and collected any music magazines with articles about them. I even got full-marks at school by writing an 8-page essay for my 'school project' that year.
And most of all, I listened to their songs repeatedly and learned the words. I would unashamedly sing along to 'Glad to Be Gay', even though I wasn't gay, because I thought it was great that they wrote such songs. Perhaps for the first time, I realised that you didn't have 'BE' something, whether it was black or gay, or whatever, to be able to feel a kind of empathy and understanding for people who were the underdog, or the bullied, or abused for no good reason other than they weren't the same as the you. All these things I got from TRB; One of the most important bands that I've ever listened to.

But as I mentioned at the beginning of this particular chapter, the end of 1978 saw the rise in my affections of 'Heavy Rock', the musical genre which would soon propel me to actually learning to play an instrument, and being associated with Rock music in the wider sense into the next decade and beyond.
And although my record collection had already been further infiltrated in 1978 with records like 'Rosalie' by  Thin Lizzy, and 'Louie Louie' by Motorhead, (a band whose future impact on me would be significant) and such rock records would soon see my punk records relegated to 'the past'; It took one of old-guard of blues-based, hard rock bands to truly smash through and re-shape my musical awareness once again.
Like Punk beforehand, It came via the radio. As well as the John Peel Show, there was now a new radio show to listen to as well. This was the Friday Rock Show hosted by Tommy Vance, which introduced me to two of the most important bands in my musical life. The first was HAWKWIND, whose music would take on a much greater significance for me in the early 80's. But in the meantime, I encountered the other of these two bands whose impact on me was more immediate. Whilst listening one night as a young 15 going on 16 year old, there was a repeat of an old BBC Radio 1 session from 1969, that introduced me to the raw, emotional power of LED ZEPPELIN....