Punk 45 (new edition)

Punk 45 (New Edition) is an anthology of visual punk culture through its album covers between 1976 and 1980, edited by Jon Savage and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records).

The book begins with an introduction by Jon Savage, legendary biographer of the Sex Pistols, to the history of visual punk culture, illustrated by several hundred album covers. While the angle is chronological, Punk 45 (New Edition) explores the international shockwave that was the punk movement, with American, European and Australian bands. The legendary The Stooges and Patti Smith are featured alongside The Valves (Scotland) and Marie et les garçons (France).

Through numerous interviews and essays, key figures in the music industry share the shock of their encounter with punk. Bobby Gillespie, lead singer of Primal Scream, tells how the images of Johnny Rotten singing on stage and the Queen of England with eyes masked by letters cut out from newspapers on God Save The Queen's Sex Pistols' album changed his life. In the essay "Paris Is Burning", Marc Zermati, the founder of Skydog Records and the Open Market record shop in Paris, details the characteristics of the different scenes in New York, Paris and London, and how his label has succeeded in bridging the gap between punk, American garage rock and English pub rock.

Punk 45 (New edition) offers a striking graphic dive into the punk movement, with its black and white covers emblazoned with red and yellow messages, trashy photographs and cut-outs, but also intimate and lively through the various testimonies of this period of raw creativity.

With contributions from : Jon Savage, Bobby Gillespie, Stuart Baker, David Thomas, Marc Zermati, Roger Armstrong, Seymour Stein, Richard Hell, Dave Robinson, Jamie Reid, Geoff Travis, Martin Mills, David Brown, Edwin Pouncey, Richard H Kirk, Glenn Branca, Dennis Morris, Martin Moscrop, Gee Vaucher, Peter Saville.