PUNK LEGENDS

2009 PERSONS UNKNOWN ;-)

ADAM & THE ANTS

1976 June 30: Melody Maker prints the ad "Beat On A Bass With The B-Sides" in its classified section, placed there by recent Hornsey School of Art, London attendee Ant (b Stuart Goddard, November 3,1954, London), who has been in his first band Bazooka Joe & His Rhythm Hot Shots while still a student at the school. July 3: Ant meets Andy Warren, who has phoned him two days earlier in response to the ad, outside the Marquee club, London. They form the B-Sides, rehearsing in South Clapham, London, throughout the rest of 1976 and into early 1977 with various personnel, including Lester Square (guitar), Paul Flanagan, Bob Hip and David Tampin (drums), Bid (occasional guitar and vox), and with Warren (bass) and Ant (guitar and vocals). They record a punk version of These Boots Are Made For Walking, and then disband. 1977 April 23: The Ants, comprising Ant, Warren, Square and Flanagan, make their debut at the Roxy club in Neal Street, London, on a punk bill which includes Siouxsie & the Banshees. May 10: Mark Ryan (aka Mark Gaumont) replaces the recentlydeparted Square, as the Ants make their first appearance at the ICA gallery restaurant, London. May 11: They support X-Ray Spex at the Man In The Moon pub in Chelsea, London, which will lead to a headlining gig there. June 2: The Angels' drummer Dave Barbe joins the Ants as they support Desolation Angels at Ant's alumni, Hornsey School of Art. June 20: The group open for all-girl punkettes the Slits in Cheltenham, Gloucs. July 5: They film an appearance for the Derek Jarman punk movie "Jubilee", with stand-in Banshees drummer Kenny Morris. July 11: The band play at the opening of punk venue the Vortex club, with the Banshees and the Slits. July 14: They record Plastic Surgery and Beat My Guest at Chappell's studios in London. July 18: Ant is injured, dislocating his knee, while filming Plastic Surgery at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, for "Jubilee".

1978 January 23: The band make their radio debut on BBC Radio l's "The John Peel Show", performing Deutscher Girls, Lou, It Doesn't Matter and Puerto Rican. January 24: They record Deutscher Girls and Plastic Surgery again for "Jubilee", at AIR Studios, London with new drummer Johnny Bivouac. May 14: Bivouac quits after a gig at the Roundhouse, London with X-Ray Spex. May 15-19: They record demos of Young Parisians, Lady and Catch A Falling Star at Virtual Earth Studios and Chelsea College of Art, London. June 6: Matthew Ashman makes his debut with the band at a debutante's party at the Hard Rock Cafe, London. July 10: The group record their second "John Peel Session", performing Physical, Zerox, Friends and Cleopatra. July 29: They go on to sign a two-single deal with Decca Records. September 9: Band begin a European tour in Leopoldsburg, Belgium, set to end on October 21 at the Titan club in Rome, Italy. November 14: Group record a demo of Kick at RAK Studios, London, with Snips producing. 1979 January: Decca single Young Parisians is released, as the band sign to the independent Do It Records. January 11: Group begin their first major UK tour at Brannigans in Leeds, West Yorkshire, set to close on February 19 at the Civic Hall, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire. January 26: Band make their third "John Peel Session" appearance, performing Ugotage, Tabletalk, Animals & Men and Never Trust A Man With Egg On His Face. July 6: Zerox/Whip In My Valise, recorded at London's Roundhouse Studios, is released by Do It Records. July 13: 17-date UK "Zerox" tour begins at the Porterhouse, Retford, Nottinghamshire, set to end with a sell-out date at London's Lyceum Ballroom, on August 5. August 1: Ant splits his head open at a gig at the Woods venue, Plymouth, Devon, which requires six stitches. August 12-24: Group record their debut album Dirk Wears White Sox at the Sound Development Studios, London. September 28-29: They play two sell-out shows at London's Electric Ballroom.

October 3: Warren leaves to join Square in the Monochrome Set, and is replaced by Lee Gorman. Sex Pistols svengali Malcolm McLaren becomes the group's manager and temporarily introduces Jordan, a female acquaintance, on additional vocals. The 12-track Dirk Wears White Sox is released. 1980 January 1: Band play a sell-out New Year's Day gig at the Electric Ballroom, London, marking Gorman's first and last gig in the line-up. January 14: The UK Independent Labels chart is launched in the UK, with Dirk Wears White Sox at Number 1 on the albums list. January 24: The current Ants split from Adam, as McLaren pairs Ashman, Gorman and Barbe with girl singer Annabella Lwin as new act Bow Wow Wow. January 28: Ant and ex-Models and Siouxsie & the Banshees guitarist Pirroni (b April 27, 1959) meet in a cake shop in Covent Garden and agree to establish a songwriting partnership to create "antmusic". They team up with new manager Falcon Stewart, and recruit drummer/producer Chris Hughes (later known as Merrick). February 18: Ant, Pirroni and Hughes re-record Cartrouble and Kick! at Rockfield Studios, Monmouth, South Wales. April 18: The new Ants line-up begin recording the first fruits of the Ant-Pirroni partnership at Matrix Studios, London. May: Cartrouble completes the Do It contract, after which Ant and Pirroni sign a publishing deal, having recruited Mooney on bass and Miall (who had been with Pirroni in the Beastly Cads, later known as the Models, before forming the Musk Club), as a second drummer. May 22: 14-date UK "Ants Invasion" tour, promoting a new flamboyant visual image and a drum/percussion-oriented sound, begins with a sell-out date at the Electric Ballroom. The tour will end on July 8 at the Empire Ballroom, London, with special guest, '60s singer Dave Berry. July 16: Group sign to CBS, and begin recording at Rockfield Studios. August: CBS debut Kings Of The Wild Frontier, produced by Hughes, makes UK Number 48. November 8: Dog Eat Dog, helped by the band's first BBC1 TV "Top Of The Pops" appearance, hits UK Number 4.

BLONDIE
1974 August: Group form in New York, NY, the original line-up pairing former Playboy bunny waitress Harry (b July 1,1945, Miami, Florida) with the backing musicians from her earlier female vocal group, the Stilettos. Harry has previously recorded as a member of folk-rock band Wind In The Willows (who released an eponymous album on Capitol in July 1968), while the other original members, Stein (b January 5, 1950, Brooklyn, New York), a graduate of New York's School of Visual Arts, bassist Fred Smith and drummer Billy O'Connor, have played only in local bands. With Czechoslovakian refugee Ivan Krai joining on guitar in October and two female back-up singers, Tish and Snooky, having replaced initial recruits Julie and Jackie, the band's early repertoire is based on the girl group sounds of the '60s. Blondie (having quickly changed from the earlier Angel & the Snake moniker to a name which draws attention to Harry s platinum blonde hair) begin to play the local club circuit, not least at the noted New York punk birthplace, CBGB's (which stands for "Country, Bluegrass and Blues", and other Music for Urban Gourmets). 1975 October: Ex-Knickers member Destri (b April 13,1954) joins on keyboards. It is the latest in a series of personnel changes among the burgeoning New York punk/new wave bands, which has seen Krai leave to join the Patti Smith Group, ex-Sweet Revenge drummer Burke (b Clement Burke, November 24, 1955, New York) replace O'Connor (who goes on to law school), and Smith quit to become a member of Television, replaced by Valentine. 1976 November: Having signed to the Private Stock label, debut single X-Offender and album Blondie, both produced by exStrangeloves member Richard Gottehrer, are released, reflecting a raw, new wave edge. 1977 January: They make their US West Coast debut at the WhiskyA-Go-Go in Los Angeles, with an image firmly focused on Harry, followed by a US tour supporting Iggy Pop. February: With Blondie now released in the UK, the group tours behind Television during a short concert visit, which is marred by onstage fights between Stein and Destri.

May 21: Blondie undertake their second US trek of the year, now supported by Television. July: Valentine leaves to form his own group, the Know, and is replaced by ex-World War II bassist Frank Infante (b New York), who joins prior to the recording sessions for Blondie's second album. September 23: Blondie appear at the "Punk Rock Fashion Show" with members of Devo, the Weirdos and others in Los Angeles. October: Having bought Blondie's contract from Private Stock, acquiring rights to all previously-recorded material, Chrysalis releases Plastic Letters, once again produced by Gottehrer. November: Infante moves to rhythm guitar, and UK bass player Nigel Harrison (ex-Silverhead) joins. 1978 March 18: Blondie's chart career initially breaks in the UK, as Denis (Denee), a pop-punk remake of Randy & the Rainbows' 1963 US Number 10 Denise, hits Number 2, while Plastic Letters is on its way to hit UK Number 10. April 15: Plastic Letters makes US Number 72. May 27: Second extract (I'm Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear, written by Valentine before his departure, hits UK Number 10. Blondie will spend the summer recording in New York with producer Mike Chapman (who, as one half of the Chinnichap writing and production team, has scored with a succession of 70s UK pop acts, including Mud, the Sweet and Smokie), in a conscious attempt to build a more radiofriendly, commercial sound, moving the band away from its new wave roots. September 16: Band's seven-date UK headlining tour climaxes at London's Hammersmith Odeon. September 23: Picture This, the first single from the Chapman collaboration and penned by Harry, Stein and Destri, reaches UK Number 12, spurred by the latest in a parallel series of promotional videos which accompany each single and increasingly focus on Harry as an alternative sex kitten. December 2: Hanging On The Telephone, the second single from the forthcoming Parallel Lines, hits UK Number 5. (By year's end, Harry completes filming "The Foreigner", directed by Amos Poejor whom she also acted in the earlier new wave movie "Blank Generation", which also featured the Ramones)

1979 February 3: Heart Of Glass, a disco-flavoured third single (already a far cry from Blondies new wave beginnings) also from Parallel Lines, tops the UK chart, where it will stay for four weeks, and sells over a million copies in the UK alone, making it the band's biggest British success. February 24: Reactivated Blondie album peaks at UK Number 75. April 28: Already certified gold by the RIAA on April 6, group make their US chart breakthrough as Heart Of Glass peaks at Number 21, while parent album Parallel Lines will hit US Number 6. (A major global success, the album will eventually log over 20 million sales.) May 26: Stein-penned pop-rock ditty Sunday Girl spends the first of three weeks at UK Number 1. June: With their line-up now settled as Harry, boyfriend Stein, Harrison, Destri and Infante, Blondie wrap up three months of recording under Chapman's direction, at the Electric Ladyland, Media Sound and Power Station studios in New York. June 6: Parallel Lines is certified platinum by the RIAA for 1 million US sales. June 7: Band appear on BBC1 TV's "Top Of The Pops". August 4: One Way Or Another, still mining Parallel Lines, reaches US Number 24. September: US label Bomp and London Records in the UK release Little GTO, by "the New York Blondes featuring Madame X", the latter being Harry, who is clearly heard on vocals. Chrysalis threatens legal action, and the single is withdrawn September 29: Continuing the Chapman-helmed pop-rock fusion, Eat To The Beat, featuring guest vocalists Lorna Luft and Donna Destri, tops the UK chart, and will remain in the chart for nine months. October 6: Harry and Stein-penned Dreaming, curiously featuring legendary songwriter Ellie Greenwich on backing vocals, hits UK Number 2. November 24: Eat To the Beat reaches US Number 17. December 1: Dreaming reaches US Number 27. December 15: Union City Blue, a song also featured in the concurrent Harry-starring motion picture "Union City", reaches UK Number 13. December 31: Blondie's gig at the Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Scotland, is broadcast live on BBC2 TV's "The Old Grey Whistle Test".

1980 February 2: The Hardest Part stalls at US Number 84. March 1: Written by Harry and Destri and once again featuring backing vocals from Greenwich, Atomic, from Eat To The Beat, tops the UK chart for the first of two weeks. April 7: Call Me is certified gold by the RIAA. April 19: Call Me, a track written and produced by Giorgio Moroder for the soundtrack of the Richard Gere movie "American Gigolo", to which Harry has added lyrics, tops the US chart, and is a million-seller. April 26: Call Me also hits UK Number 1. June: Harry stars with Meat Loaf in the film "Roadie", its soundtrack including Blondie's version of Johnny Cash's Ring Off Fire. July: Atomic makes US Number 39. July 10: Eat To The Beat is certified platinum by the RIAA. November 15: The Tide Is High, a lilting reggae number written by John Holt and previously recorded by the Paragons, hits UK Number 1 for the first of two weeks, while Autoamerican, a third album collaboration with Chapman, hits UK Number 3.

THE BOOMTOWN RATS

1975 Having interviewed the likes of Elton John and Little Richard for the New Musical Express and other publications as a music journalist, Geldof (b October 5,1954, Dublin, Eire) forms the Boomtown Rats (originally named the Nightlife Thugs) in Dun Laoghaire, a small harbour town near Dublin, enlisting Fingers (b John Moyletu September 10,1956, Eire), his cousin Briquette (b Patrick Cusack, July 2,1954, Eire), Cott, Roberts (b June 16, 1954) and Crowe. Initially managing the band, Geldof soon takes over lead vocal duties from Roberts. 1976 October: Having relocated to England, the Boomtown Rats are signed to Ensign Records, as the new wave of punk music begins to ride the UK music scene. Although more versatile and coherent than many of their punk contemporaries, the band's initial success will be inextricably linked to the rise in popularity of the genre. 1977 June 30: During UK tour dates Geldof is attacked at their gig at Camden's Music Machine, London. September: Looking After No. 1, led by Geldof s frantic vocal style, is issued after months of touring, including support dates with Tom Petty. It reaches UK Number 11, while their album debut The Boomtown Rats climbs to UK Number 18. December: School-themed pop-punk single Mary Of The Fourth Form reaches UK Number 15. 1978 May: She's So Modern reaches UK Number 12. July 9-10: Climaxing an extensive UK tour, the group performs final dates at the Hammersmith Odeon, London. During the month, Like Clockwork becomes the group's first Top 10 record, hitting UK Number 6, while parent album A Tonic For the Troops, produced by Robert "Mutt" Lange, hits UK Number 8, beginning a 44-week chart tenure. November 7: Band appear on ITV's "Get It Together". November 18: Melodramatic Geldof-penned Rat Trap, heralding a more textured departure away from punk, tops the UK chart, where it will stay for two weeks.

1979 January 29: San Diego, California schoolgirl Brenda Spencer shoots and kills several of her schoolmates. Pressed for a reason, she says, "I don't like Mondays," a quote which proves inspirational to Geldof. February: Group undertake a US tour. March: A Tonic For TTie Troops makes US Number 112. April 7: Their first US tour includes an appearance at the California Music Festival, with Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and Van Halen. May: US tour ends at the Palladium, New York. July 7: Band members make a personal appearance at the opening of the Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street, London. July 28: I Don't Like Mondays, produced by Phil Wainman, hits UK Number 1 in its second week on the chart, remaining at the top for four weeks, and (aided by a striking Jon Roseman-directed promo video) becomes the Rats' biggestselling single. November: Album The Fine Art off Surfacing, chiefly the work of Geldof and Fingers, hits UK Number 7. December: Diamond Smiles reaches UK Number 13. The Fine Art Of Surfacing makes Number 103 in the US (where the group's recordings are issued by Columbia). 1 1980 February: Someone's Looking At You hits UK Number 4, as the band sets off on a lengthy world tour, covering Europe, US, Japan and Australia. 1 March: Despite attempts by Brenda Spencer's parents to have I Don't Like Mondays banned in the US, and with many US radio stations refusing to playlist the disc, the single becomes their sole US hit, peaking at Number 73. May 9: I Don't Like Mondays wins the Best Pop Song and Outstanding British Lyric categories at the 25th annual Ivor Novello Awards, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London. December: A switch to Mercury Records sees the release of reggae-tinged Banana Republic, which hits UK Number 3.

BUZZCOCKS
1976 July 20: The Buzzcocks make their debut supporting the Sex Pistols and the Damned at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. The group have been formed by philosophy student and Iggy & the Stooges fan Devoto (b Howard Trafford), who, after travelling to see the Sex Pistols in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire in February and then promoting a Pistols gig in Manchester two months later, teams with Shelley (b April 17, 1955), ex-member of the Jets Of Air, whom Devoto met at the Bolton Institute of Higher Education, Bolton, Lancashire. Diggle, whom they saw at a Manchester gig, and Maher, recruited from a Melody Maker ad they placed, complete the initial quartet. August 29: Group make their London debut at Screen On The Green, Islington, London on a seminal punk bill with the Sex Pistols and The Clash. September 21: Band play in the 100 Club punk festival with the Damned and the Vibrators, and receive widespread UK rock press attention. October: Group records an 11-track demo at the Stockport Studios, Greater Manchester. December 28: Having played some gigs on the Sex Pistols-led "Anarchy In The UK Tour", the Buzzcocks begin recording with producer Martin Hannett at Indigo Sound Studio. 1977 January: EP Spiral Scratch is released on their own independent New Hormones label, set up by Devoto and Shelley with a 500 loan, subsequently becoming a prototype punk-era collectors' item. March: Having played just 11 gigs with the group, Devoto leaves, forming Magazine (who will score five UK chart albums for Virgin Records between 1978 and '81, before launching a solo career in 1983 with Jerky Versions Of The Dream). With Diggle switching from bass to guitar, Shelley recruits Garth Smith from Jets Of Air as the new bassist, a revised line-up which will make their first appearance supporting The Clash at the Coliseum, Harlesden, London. May 1: As their support act, the Buzzcocks embark on The Clash's "White Riot" tour, finishing at the Roxy, London. August 16: They sign to EMI's United Artists label on the day Elvis Presley dies.

October: First UA single Orgasm Addict, produced by Martin Rushent, is released. November: Smith is fired for extreme unreliability during their first UK tour as headliners, and is replaced on bass by Steve Garvey. 1978 February 25: What Do I Get, the group's first UK hit, makes Number 37. March 18: Their major-label album debut, Another Music In A Different Kitchen, reaches UK Number 15, comprising an eradefining collection of short-burst punk-pop tracks, largely written and sung by Shelley. May 5: Group undertake a 19-date "Entertaining Friends" tour, with the Slits and Penetration, at Liverpool University, set to end on June 6 at the Edinburgh Odeon, Edinburgh, Scotland. May 13: I Don't Mind peaks at UK Number 55. July 22: Love You More makes UK Number 34. September 30: Album Love Bites reaches UK Number 13. October 1: 26-date tour begins at the New Theatre, Oxford, Oxfordshire, set to end on the 31 at Portsmouth Guild Hall, Portsmouth, Hampshire. November 4: Their biggest UK hit Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have) reaches Number 12, as the group embark on the "Beating Hearts" tour with the Subway Sect. (The song will be successfully covered in 1987 by the Fine Young Cannibals, hitting UK Number 9.) November 14: Group appear on BBC2 TV's "The Old Grey Whistle Test". December 16: Promises reaches UK Number 20. 1979 January: During a break from recording and touring, Shelley produces Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias, while Maher assists Patrick Fitzgerald with his debut album. March 17: Everybody's Happy Nowadays reaches UK Number 29, as the group play concerts in Europe and a five-date UK tour (including a performance at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, which will be recorded and subsequently released as Entertaining Friends). August 4: Harmony In My Head, a Diggle song premiered on BBC Radios "John Peel Show", makes UK Number 32. September 15: EP Spiral Scratch, re-issued to meet fans demand in the UK, reaches Number 31. Group embark on their first US tour, promoting Going Steady, a compilation of UK singles.

September 29: Album A Different Kind Of Tension reaches UK Number 26 in a three-week stay on the chart, while the band tour the UK with Joy Division. 1980 May: The Buzzcocks make their first live appearance of the year, at Manchester Polytechnic, Manchester. September 13: Are Everything/Why She's A Girl From The Chainstore stalls at UK Number 61, while a UK "Tour Of Instalments" dissolves after only a few dates.

THE CLASH
1976 June: After nine abortive months with seminal punk outfit London SS, Jones (b June 26, 1955, Brixton, London) forms The Clash in Shepherd's Bush, London with Simonon (b December 15,1955, Brixton), who has never played before but learns bass guitar. Bernie Rhodes from Malcolm McLaren's Sex boutique in London becomes their manager. Guitarist Keith Levene {later of Public Image Ltd) and drummer Terry Chimes join, and Strummer (b John Mellors, August 21,1952, Ankara, Turkey) is persuaded to leave R&B group the 101 ers, which he formed in 1974 with Alvaro Pena-Rojas. August 13: The Clash give their first "official" public performance, in a London rehearsal hall. August 29: Formal debut gig (after an unannounced support slot behind the Sex Pistols in Sheffield, South Yorkshire) is at Screen On The Green, Islington, London. September 20: Band play the 100 Club Punk Rock Festival, London, but club owners are wary of potential punk violence and gigs generally prove hard to find. Levene leaves the group after only five shows. October 23: They play "A Night Of Pure Energy" at the ICA Theatre, London. December 6: Band embark on the Sex Pistols' highly controversial "Anarchy In The UK" tour (all but three gigs will be cancelled). 1977 January 1: The Clash play the opening night of the Roxy Club in London's Covent Garden. With record companies now showing interest in the punk genre, The Clash sign to CBS worldwide (after recording some demos for Polydor in December), a deal negotiated by Rhodes. Their debut album is recorded over three weekends. Chimes leaves and is replaced by Topper Headon (b May 30,1955, Bromley, Kent). March: Group pull out as the support act to a John Cale tour. April 9: Typically antagonistic debut single White Riot makes UK Number 38. April 30: Featuring 14 rapid-fire punk cuts, their album debut, The Clash, largely written by Strummer and Jones and produced by Mickey Foote, reaches UK Number 12, immediately showcasing their raw, aggressive, guitar-driven punk angst. May 1: The "White Riot" UK tour starts at the Roxy, with The Jam and the Buzzcocks as support bands (The Jam will pull out on May 29). Remote Control is released.

May 9: London's Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park is vandalised during a Clash gig. June 10: Strummer and Headon are each fined 5 in London for spray-painting "Clash" on a wall. June 11-12: The duo are detained overnight in prison in Newcastle, Tyne & Wear, having failed to appear at Morpeth magistrates court on May 21 to answer a robbery charge relating to the theft of a Holiday Inn pillowcase. They are fined 100. The latest UK tour, which starts a few days later, is wryly named "Out On Parole". July 16: Group take an "Awayday" to Birmingham as consolation for the cancelled "Digbeth Punk Festival", to headline "Britain's Burning - The Last Big Event Before We All Go To Jail" at the Birmingham Rag Market, with the Slits, the Saints, Cherry Vanilla and the Tom Robinson Band. August 5: The Clash perform at the second European punk festival in Mont de Marsan, France. October 8: Complete Control, recorded with reggae producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, makes UK Number 28. The group spend an afternoon in a German jail after a dispute over a hotel bill which a promoter should have paid. December: During a further UK tour, a punk riot ensues during the band's appearance at a gig at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, Dorset. 1978 February: Strummer is hospitalised for 11 days with hepatitis. March 4: Clash City Rockers makes UK Number 35. Their debut album, still not released in the US (where CBS deems it unsuitable for radio play), sells more than 100,000 on import, making it the biggest-selling imported album ever in the US. March 30: Simonon and Headon are arrested in Camden Town, London for criminal damage, after shooting down racing pigeons with air guns from the roof of Chalk Farm Studios. Four police cars and one helicopter are required to make the arrest. Fines this time will total 800. April 30: Band headlines the "Anti-Nazi League Carnival" in London, organized by Rock Against Racism. July 1: (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais makes UK Number 32, as the group embarks on a 10-date UK tour at Granby Hall, Leicester, Leicestershire, set to end on July 12 at the Top Rank, Birmingham, West Midlands. With some work already completed for a second album, they meet Blue Oyster Cult producer Sandy Pearlman, and finish the project with him.

July 8: Strummer and Simonon are arrested and fined (25 and 50 respectively) for being "drunk and disorderly" after a show at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland. September 9: Group performs at London's Harlesden Roxy. October 21: Rhodes is fired as manager after the band and CBS find him hard to deal with. He is replaced by one of The Clash's early champions, Melody Maker journalist Caroline Coon. November 1: Rhodes, who has a contract giving him 20 per cent of the band's income, is granted a court order stating that all Clash earnings are to be paid directly to him. November 25: Their second album, Give 'Em Enough Rope, debuts at UK Number 2. December 2: Band play two sell-out concerts at London's Lyceum Ballroom, as they begin their "Sort It Out" UK tour. 1979 January 6: Tommy Gun reaches UK Number 19, their biggestselling single to date. January 31: Group begin a North American tour in Vancouver, Canada, with Bo Diddley as the unlikely support act. February 17: They perform at New York's Palladium Theatre during the US leg of the tour, dubbed "Pearl Harbor 79", opening the show with I'm So Bored With The USA. March 24: English Civil War (Johnny Comes Marching Home) reaches UK Number 25. April 7: Give 'Em Enough Rope makes US Number 128. June 23: Four-track EP The Cost Of Living, headed by a revival of Bobby Fuller's I Fought The Law, reaches UK Number 22. Coon and the band part company. August: Group record 12 songs in three days with veteran producer Guy Stevens (who had recorded their Polydor demo in December 1976), at Wessex Studios. September: Their second US tour, with the Undertones opening, is dubbed "The Clash Take The Fifth" (a reference to temporary fifth member Mickey Gallagher, of Ian Durys Blockheads, on keyboards). US support acts include R&B stalwarts Sam and Dave, Screamin Jay Hawkins and Lee Dorsey, plus "new wave" country-rocker Joe Ely, and psychobilly band the Cramps. September 21: Group perform at The Palladium, New York. October 6: Album The Clash, belatedly released in the US, makes Number 126. November: A new album, completed with Stevens, is announced as a double retailing at a single-album price.

December 22: Released, as promised, at a single-album price, double album London Calling, co-produced by Stevens (originally to have been The New Testament with its sleeve a pastiche of Elvis Presley's debut album) debuts at its UK Number 9 peak. December 27: Group co-headline (with Ian Dury) the second of four benefit concerts for the people of Kampuchea, at London's Hammersmith Odeon. 1980 January 19: Extracted title track London Calling reaches UK Number 11. In need of management, the band sign to Blackhill, run by Peter Jenner and Andrew King (former Pink Floyd and current Ian Dury managers). March 15: "Rude Boy", a fictionalised documentary film of a Clash roadie {played by Ray Gange) made by Jack Hazan and David Mingay, premieres at the Prince Charles Cinema in London. Much of it has been filmed behind the scenes on the road over the previous 18 months. March 22: London Calling climbs to US Number 27. April: Group begin a string of one-night stands in Europe. May 21: Strummer is arrested at a much-troubled gig in Hamburg, Germany after smashing his guitar over the head of a violently demonstrative member of the audience. He is released after an alcohol test proves negative. May 24: Train In Vain (Stand By Me), the band's first US chart single, reaches Number 23. June: Band tour the US and Europe, with Jamaican DJ Mikey Dread, with whom they also record Bankrobber, playing on selected European dates. August: They begin recordings for a self-produced album at Electric Ladyland Studios, New York, with tensions between Jones and the others affecting some sessions. (During the year Jones also produces Spirit Of St. Louis by US singer Ellen Foley, his current girlfriend, and will also coproduce Ian Hunter's Short Back n Sides, to be released the following year) September 6: Bankrobber, released in the UK by CBS following a flood of Dutch imports, steals UK Number 12. November: The 10-inch mini-album Black Market Clash, specifically customised for the US market, makes US Number 74. December 6: The Call Up, an anti-draft song, reaches UK Number 40.

December 20: Triple album set Sandinista!, issued at the band's insistence at a double-album price and with mixed reactions owing to its sprawling content, reaches UK Number 19. (The band agrees to relinquish royalties on the first 200,000 copies if CBS releases it at the cheaper price. Jones is quoted: "Listen, the bottom line on Sandinista! is that you can dance all the way through it. The only thing is that you have to dance a certain way.")

ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ATTRACTIONS

1971 Son of bandleader Ross McManus, Costello (b Declan McManus, August 25,1955, London) is already writing songs in his early teens in Liverpool, Merseyside (the city to which his family moved in 1968), when he leaves school at age 16 to become a computer operator at an Elizabeth Arden cosmetics factory. Seeing future collaborator Nick Lowe perform at the Cavern in 1973, Costello (still called McManus) forms his own band, Flip City, in London, and moonlights on the local club scene, honing his songwriting skills while continuing his day job at Elizabeth Arden. 1976 Costello sends Flip City demos, recorded at Pathway Studios, to record companies. One reaches Jake Riviera's newly formed, pioneering Stiff Records and, seeing potential in the patchy demo (which will emerge on the bootleg album 5,000,000 Costello Fans Can't Be Wrong), the label head contacts him. With Stiff interested in signing Costello as a solo artist, Flip City disbands as he begins gigging as DP Costello (his grandmothers maiden name). 1977 With six of his demos already played on Charlie Gillett's Capital Radio show "Honky Tonk", McManus, at Riviera's suggestion, renames himself Elvis Costello. While a backing band is assembled, US West Coast group Clover, currently in the UK, is brought in to provide the rhythm section on his debut effort, under the production guidance of Nick Lowe. April: First single Less Than Zero, written about fascist leader Oswald Mosley, is released by Stiff May: Ballad Alison also fails to chart, while a line from its chorus, My Aim Is True, will provide the title for Costello's first album. May 27: He makes his live debut as Elvis Costello at the Nashville in London. July 9: He quits his day job at Elizabeth Arden. July 14: Costello and his backing band, the Attractions, play their first gig together, as a support act to the still-male Wayne County at the Garden, Penzance, Cornwall. The line-up is bassist Thomas (b August 9,1954, Sheffield, South Yorkshire), ex-Sutherland Brothers & Quiver keyboardist Nieve (b Steven Nason), from the Royal College of Music, and drummer Thomas (ex-Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers).

July 26: Seeking a US record deal, Costello performs outside the London Hilton Hotel, where there is a CBS sales conference in progress. He is arrested and subsequently fined 5 for obstruction, although it is thought the incident is nothing more than an imaginative Stiff PR ruse. August 20: My Aim Is True, produced by Nick Lowe, reaches UK Number 14, featuring the current single Red Shoes. Its quirky new wave, rock-driven style is highlighted by Costello's highly articulate and literate lyrical bite. September 10: Costello plays at the Crystal Palace Bowl, London, on a bill headed by Santana. October 3: Seminal new wave "Stiffs Live" label package tour of the UK, with Costello, Lowe, Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric and Larry Wallis, begins. November 5: At the end of the tour, Riviera takes Costello, Lowe and the Yachts with him to the newly formed Radar Records, leaving Stiff to co-founder Dave Robinson. November 15: Costello begins his first US tour at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco, California, set to end on December 16 in New York. December 17: Deputising for the Sex Pistols on NBC TV's "Saturday Night Live", Costello stops in the middle of performing Less Than Zero and says, 'Im sorry ladies and gentlemen, there's no reason to do this song," and launches into Radio Radio, which he had previously been asked not to sing. December 24: Reggae-tinged Watching The Detectives, Costello's last recording for Stiff and his first Singles chart entry, reaches UK Number 15. 1978 January: Costello returns for a three-month tour of North America, with Mink DeVille and Rockpile, ending with two sellouts at the El Mocambo Club, recorded for a subsequent live album. March 18: My Aim Is True reaches US Number 32, after 36 weeks on the survey. Unlike the UK edition, it includes Watching The Detectives and is licensed for release to CBS/Columbia for North America. April 1: Self-penned and again produced by Lowe, This Year's Model, issued with the Attractions, hits UK Number 4, as a 14-date UK tour opens at the Bracknell Sports Centre, Berkshire, set to end on April 16 at London's Roundhouse. (Bass guitarist Bruce Thomas cuts his hand in the dressing room of Manchester's Rafters club, after demonstrating how to smash a bottle during a bar-room brawl. Nick Lowe takes over and fills in for some dates.)

April 15: (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea reaches UK Number 16. May 20: This Year's Model makes US Number 30, again with a different track listing to the UK version. June 17: Pump It Up reaches UK Number 24. November 4: Radio Radio, lamenting the state of the nation's airwaves, reaches UK Number 29. December: Costello plays seven sold-out nights at London's Dominion Theatre. He separates from his wife and young son (they will be reunited a year later). 1979 January 20: Album Armed Forces, its sleeve designed by Barney Bubbles, hits UK Number 2. February 15: A Taste Of Honey beats Costello, among other nominees, to win Best New Artist at the 21st annual Grammy awards. March 10: Oliver's Army hits UK Number 2, as its parent album, Armed Forces, hits US Number 10. April 1: During his "Armed Funk" US tour, Costello plays three sets at three clubs - the Great Gildersleeves, the Lone Star Cafe and the Bottom Line - in one night in New York. In a much-publicised subsequent incident in a bar at the Holiday Inn in Columbus, Ohio, Costello has an argument with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett, who is so angered by his allegedly racist remarks about Ray Charles and James Brown that she starts punching him, which is explained by Costello as "bringing a silly argument to a quick end... and it worked, too". June 16: Accidents Will Happen reaches UK Number 28. He produces the first Specials album, while Riviera sets up his new label, F-Beat, following the collapse of Radar. December 22: Costello performs at the first of four benefit concerts for the people of Kampuchea, at London's Hammersmith Odeon. 1980 February: F-Beat is launched with Get Happy!, produced by Lowe, which hits UK Number 2. The 21-track, quick-fire set (released as a single album), with five tracks coming in at under two minutes, has been recorded in Holland. March 8: I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down, Costello's cover of an old Sam & Dave song, hits UK Number 4. April 12: Get Happy! reaches US Number 11. (Linda Ronstadt, who has already recorded Alison on her 1978 album, Living In The USA, covers three Costello tunes - Party Girl, Girls Talk and Talking In The Dark - on Mad Love.) April 26: Hi Fidelity reaches UK Number 30. June 14: New Amsterdam makes UK Number 36.

August 17: Costello performs at the Playhouse Theatre during the Edinburgh Rock Festival in Scotland. August 23: He performs at the "Heatwave Festivl Mosport Park, Toronto, Canada. November: Taking Liberties, a US-only compilation of outtakes, demos and unreleased UK 45s, reaches US Number 2. (It features Hoover Factory, written by Costello to help save the historic Hoover vacuum cleaner manufacturing site, on the A40 to the west of London.) A similar album is released in the UK, with different track-listings and in cassette-form only, as Ten Bloody Mary's And Ten Hows Your Fathers. November 30: Costello and Squeeze play a joint benefit concert at the Top Rank club in Swansea, South Wales for the family of boxer Johnny Owen, who has died from injuries received during a title bout in the US. December 20: Clubland peaks at UK Number 60.

THE DAMNED
1976 May: The band form initially as a trio from the same burgeoning London punk scene that has given birth to the Sex Pistols, with Sensible (b Ray Burns, Apr 23,1955, UK), who has played in a number of bands, including Johnny Moped (as guitarist) since 1970, James (b Brian Robertson, Feb 18, 1955), ex-Brighton outfit Bastard and proto-punk outfit London SS, and Scabies (b Chris Miller, July 30,1957, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey), ex-Rot and London SS, who has met James while rehearsing as a drummer for the "Puss In Boots" musical. After two gigs in Nick Kent's Subterraneans backing band in Cardiff, Wales, the trio recruits Vanian (b David Letts, Oct. 12, 1956), who is working as a gravedigger in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, to form the Damned. Andy Czezowski becomes the band's manager. July 6: The group debuts at London's 100 Club, supporting the Sex Pistols. August 21: Their fifth gig is at the "Mont de Marsan" punk festival in the South of France. On the outward bus trip, Scabies has a fight with Nick Lowe, which leads to a working friendship. September: The band splits from Czezowski and signs to Stiff Records, with the label's Jake Riviera becoming their new manager (followed by co-label head Dave Robinson). September 21: They play at London's 100 Club punk festival, with the Buzzcocks and others. October 22: Debut single, James-penned New Rose, with Lennon/McCartney's Help! on the B-side, is released. Produced by Nick Lowe and regarded as the first-ever "punk" release, it fails to chart but is Stiffs biggest seller to date and helps the label secure a distribution deal with Island. December 6: The band support the Sex Pistols on their "Anarchy in the UK" tour, but are fired in mid-trek after agreeing to play for Derby councillors in private (to assess their suitability for the youth of the town). 1977 April 8: The Damned, the first UK punk group to play US dates, open at CBGB's, home of the New York punk scene, on a Stateside tour organised by Stiffs Advancedale Management.

April 16: Their frenzied debut album, Damned, Damned, Damned, produced by Lowe and recorded and mixed in only eight hours, makes UK Number 34. Neat Neat Neat, another James song, is paired with Scabies' Stab Your Back as the first Stiff single released via Island. May: A UK tour, supported by the Adverts, follows their return from the US. (The trek's poster announces: "The Damned can play three chords; the Adverts can play one. Hear all four at...") June 14: A gig at the Lincoln Drill Hall is interrupted by anti-punk gangs. June 30: Vanian suffers a dislocated shoulder during an attack in their dressing room after a West Country gig. August: James insists on a second guitarist, and previously unemployed Robert "Lu" Edmunds joins, heightening tensions within the band. Problems arise recording their second album as producer Shel Talmy is dropped and Pink Floyd's Nick Mason is recruited. September: Problem Child, recorded with Mason, is released. October 1: Scabies leaves during a European tour. Jon Moss (later of Culture Club) temporarily replaces him on drums. November: Second album Music For Pleasure is released, supported by a UK tour with US punk band the Dead Boys. December: The group leave Stiff after the release of Don't Cry Wolf. 1978 February 28: The band split. James forms his own outfit, Tanz Der Youth (before forming Brian James' Brains & the Hellions and then the Lords of the New Church); Sensible switches to guitar and joins the Softies, before forming the short-lived King. Meanwhile, Vanian joins the Doctors of Madness, Scabies links with the White Cats, and Moss and Edmunds go into the Edge. April 8: The Damned re-form for a farewell gig at London's Rainbow Theatre, smashing their equipment after the final encore. September 5: Vanian, Scabies and Sensible play another reunion gig, as Les Punks, at London's Electric Ballroom, with Lemmy of Motorhead on bass, and decide to re-form. While acquiring the rights to the Damned name from its legal owner, James, the trio plays for two months as the Doomed, with temporary bass player Henry Badowski. 1979 January 7: Having regained the Damned name and now signed to Chiswick Records, a new line-up with Alistair Ward (exSaints) on bass debut at the Greyhound pub, Croydon, Surrey.

May 26: Love Song reaches UK Number 20. October 27: Smash It Up makes UK Number 35. November 17: Parent album Machine Gun Etiquette, produced by the band with Roger Armstrong, reaches UK Number 31. December 8: I Just Can't Be Happy Today makes UK Number 46. 1980 February: Ward leaves to join heavy metal band Tank, and is replaced by Paul Gray (ex-Eddie & the Hot Rods) as the group continue to tour relentlessly October 18: The History Of The World Part 1 peaks at UK Number 51. November 29: Double set The Black Album reaches UK Number 29, including the seasonal There Ain't No Sanity Claus.

GENERATION X
1976 October 18: Already seen on UK television as a devoted Sex Pistols follower during the group's notorious Bill Grundyhosted ITV "Today" appearance shocker, and a member of the band's dedicated Bromley, Kent-based contingent of fans, Idol (b William Broad, November 30,1955, Stanmore, Middlesex) has teamed with bassist Tony James, ex-London S.S. and future Sigue Sigue Sputnik member, who is equally keen on the burgeoning UK punk movement. Within two weeks of then-August meeting, the pair join Gene October's hardcore punk combo Chelsea, with Idol now making his first formal live appearance with the band, playing guitar at an ICA, London gig. Within two months, however, both he and James will quit the band, taking drummer John Towe with them. December 10: Also recruiting guitarist Bob Andrews, allowing Idol to assume a full lead vocal role, new punk outfit Generation X make their live debut at the Central College of Art and Design, London. December 21: Generation X baptise the Roxy Club, Covent Garden, London. 1977 July: Having grabbed label attention as a result of a foursong "John Peel Show" BBC Radio 1 session, the band sign to Chrysalis. September: First release Your Generation, a sound of the times, makes UK Number 36. (Before the end of the decade, Generation X, billed as Gen X from late 1979, will nab four more UK chart singles: Ready Steady Go, Number 47, March 1978; King Rocker, Number 11, January 1979; Valley Of The Dolls, Number 23, April 1979; and Friday's Angels, Number 62, June 1979; and the albums Generation X, Number 29, April 1978 and Valley Of The Dolls, Number 51, February 1979. Towe will leave in December 1977 to join the Adverts, to be replaced by Mark Laff) 1980 October: Gen Xs Dancing With Myself, a masturbationthemed Idol-penned single, which he will retain in his solo repertoire, stalls at UK Number 62. November: Andrews and Laff quit the group, but Idol and James are determined to continue, and recruit ex-Clash drummer Terry Chimes and Chelsea's James Stephenson on guitar.

THE JAM
1976 October 21: Welter (b John Weller, May 25, 1958, Woking, Surrey) has met Buckler (b Paul Richard Buckler, December 6, 1955, Woking) at school in Woking, where they began jamming together, in 1975, during lunch hours in the music room. Using the session as the inspiration for their group name, they have linked with Foxton (b September 1,1955, Woking) and Steve Brookes to initially peform at local social and working men's clubs. With Brookes leaving, Foxton moving to bass and Weller established on lead guitar and vocals, the remaining trio play their first notable gig at the Queensway Hall, Dunstable, Bedfordshire opening for the Sex Pistols. Concentrating subsequently on live work in London, The Jam play gigs at the Marquee and 100 Club, and regular jaunts at the Red Cow pub, where the group are auditioned - and dismissed - by EMI Records. 1977 February 25: Following a month's Red Cow residence and a frenzied gig at the Marquee, The Jam, managed by Weller's father, John (who makes his business calls from a building site in Ash Vale, where he is working), sign to Polydor Records for the 6,000 advance offered by A&R man Chris Parry. (A four-year deal, it will be re-negotiated after 90 days.) The UK music press links the band with the burgeoning punk movement, but The Jam establish their own niche and a later spotlight in a UK mod revival. They sport mohair suits and use Rickenbacker guitars. May 1: The Jam, following further showcase gigs at London's Hope & Anchor and Nashville Room venues, embark on the Clash's "White Riot" UK tour at London's Roxy, but pull out after a show at the Rainbow Theatre, London, on May 29, following an argument with the headlining punksters. June 4: Debut single, In The City, produced by Parry, makes UK Number 40. June 11: Having taken 11 days to record, and with all songs penned by the group's leader, 19-year-old Weller, album In The City reaches UK Number 20. The Jam begin a 42-date UK headlining debut tour, including a sell-out date at London's Hammersmith Odeon. Their mode of transport is a red Ford Cortina. (They only complete 38 of the gigs, owing to exhaustion.)

August 20: Aided by their appearance on BBC1 TV's "Top Of The Pops", All Around The World reaches UK Number 13. November 19: The Modern World makes UK Number 36. The group visit the US for a 16-date club tour, which is less than well received, before embarking on a 23-date UK tour. December 3: Parent album This Is The Modern World, despite lukewarm reviews by the UK music press, reaches UK Number 22. A major UK tour starts, highlighted by a brawl between the band and rugby players at a hotel in Leeds, West Yorkshire. Leeds Crown Court subsequently acquits Weller, who moves to London with his first love, Gill. 1978 March 25: While the band support Blue Oyster Cult on an ill-billed US tour, News Of The World makes UK Number 27. June 18: Group close out a short UK tour at London's Lyceum Ballroom. August 25: The Jam headline day one of the Reading Festival, Reading, Berkshire, as the "small-venue" punk ideal fades. September 23: David Watts, a cover of a Kinks track, backed with "A" Bomb In Wardour Street, peaks at UK Number 25. November 4: Anti-racist-themed Down In The Tube Station At Midnight climbs to UK Number 15. All Mod Cons, produced by Vic Coppersmith-Heaven and featuring 11 Weller compositions, hits UK Number 6, once again showcasing the group's quick-fire, post-punk angst, driven by Weller's distinctive guitar and vocal style. November 29: 20-date "Apocalypse" UK tour ends, headlining the first day of the "Great British Music Festival" at the Wembley Arena, Middlesex. 1979 April 14: Strange Town peaks at UK Number 15. The Jam begins their first world tour, visiting the US, Canada and Europe. May 4: 15-date "The Jam 'Em In" UK leg begins. September 8: When You're Young makes UK Number 17. November 18: Group embark on a 21-date UK tour at the Apollo Theatre, Manchester, scheduled to end with three nights at the Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London. November 24: With The Jam firmly established as a "quick" singles band, The Eton Rifles shoots to UK Number 3, as its parent album Setting Sons hits UK Number 4. 1980 March: Their first US chart appearance. Setting Sons peaks at US Number 137 (although major US success will always elude this quintessential British band).

March 22: Going Underground/The Dreams Of Children becomes the first UK single of the '80s to debut at Number 1, where it will stay for three weeks. The band are in Los Angeles when the news breaks. April 26: Polydor Records re-issues the group's early singles, which all re-chart - In The City (Number 40), All Around The World (Number 43), This Is The Modern World (Number 52), News Of The World (Number 53), David Watts (Number 54) and Strange Town (Number 44). May 26: The Jam participate in the "Pink Pop Festival" at Galeen, Holland. June 2: Group perform at the Loch Lomond Festival in Scotland. August 9: Following a tour of Japan, they take part in the Turku Rock Festival, Turku, Finland. September 6: Start tops the UK chart in its third week of release. October: Band begins a major UK and European tour, ending in sell-out dates at their favoured venue, London's Rainbow Theatre. December: Album Sound Affects hits UK Number 2.

P.i.L.
1978 April: After the Sex Pistols split at the end of their December 1977 US tour, lead singer Johnny Rotten reverts to his real name, John Lydon (b January 31, 1956, Finsbury Park, London), and, having taken a short holiday in Jamaica, returns to Britain to form a new band with exClash member Levene, novice bass-player Wobble (b John Wardle) and Canadian Walker, who has played drums with the Furys and is recruited through an ad and subsequent auditions. With the quartet's name chosen as a sanitised anti-rock 'n' roll statement, Public Image Ltd signs to Virgin Records (the Sex Pistols' label). July 25: The formation of the group is officially announced by Lydon. November: Their debut single, Public Image, released in a mock-newspaper sleeve, hits UK Number 9, with the group billed as Public Image Ltd (though most subsequent singles will simply credit Pil). December: Album Public Image reaches UK Number 22. December 25: Their first live gig is a Christmas Day showcase at London's Rainbow Theatre. (Scattered live dates follow in early 1979, but PiL will not mount a full tour until the late '80s. Walker will leave, to be replaced on drums by Richard Dudanski and then by Martin Atkins.) 1979 June 30: Lydon guests on BBC1 TV's "Juke Box Jury", on a panel with Joan Collins. July: Death Disco reaches UK Number 20. September 8-9: PiL perform at the two-day "Futurama Festival" at the Queen's Hall, Leeds, West Yorkshire. October: Memories peaks at UK Number 60. December: Metal Box reaches UK Number 18, so titled because the original release is packaged in a round 12-inch metal container with the album inside in the form of three 12inch singles. 1980 February 13: Lydon's London house is raided by the police, who smash open the front door to find him waving a ceremonial sword at them from the top of the stairs. The only illegal item found on the premises is a canister of tear gas, claimed to be for defence against intruders. March: Metal Box is re-issued in conventional form as the double album Second Edition and reaches UK Number 46. The band play selected European dates, including a concert in

Paris, France that is recorded for a future live album. May: Second Edition peaks at US Number 171. June: Returning from a short US tour which has had a mixed reception, the band announce that they will not play live again, and Atkins leaves to join Brian Brain. August: Wobble departs for a solo career (to later form Human Condition and, more successfully in the '90s - after working for London Underground - Jah Wobbles Invaders Of The Heart). October 6: Lydon is arrested for assault after a pub brawl in Dublin, Eire. {Sentenced to three months in jail for disorderly conduct, he will be acquitted on appeal) November: Live album Paris Au Printemps, from the concert earlier in the year (and released mainly to counter bootleg albums of PiLs live show), makes UK Number 61. Jeanette Lee joins the group for "visual assistance", organising its visual elements.

THE RAMONES
1974 August 16: After forming in Forest Hills, New York and playing a first gig at a private party, the Ramones begin a residency at New York's seminal new wave club CBGB's. The original lineup is Johnny Ramone (b John Cummings, October 8,1951, Long Island, NY), Ritchie Ramone, soon to be replaced by Dee Dee Ramone (b Douglas Colvin, September 18,1952, Fort Lee, Virginia), and Joey Ramone (b Jeffrey Hyman, May 19,1952, Forest Hills). Tommy Ramone (b Thomas Erdelyi, January 29, 1952, Budapest, Hungary) takes over on drums to let Joey sing. They all adopt the working surname Ramone. 1975 June: The band audition for Rick Derringer and Blue Sky Records by opening for Johnny Winter at Waterbury, Connecticut, in front of a 20,000 audience, though the label will not sign them. November: Danny Fields becomes the band's manager and negotiates a recording contract with Sire Records. 1976 February: Group record their debut album on a $6,400 budget. May: Blitzkrieg Bop, their debut single, is released, taken from The Ramones, a furiously-paced punk album that peaks at US Number 111. July 4: Group celebrate the US bicentennial by making their debut at London's Roundhouse with the Stranglers and fellow patriots the Flamin, Groovies. (They are also featured in the punk film "Blank Generation".) November: The Ramones pull out of a UK tour twinheadlining with the Sex Pistols. The Damned and the Clash replace them. 1977 March: The Ramones Leave Home peaks at US Number 148, once again comprising short, high-octane punk cuts. May: Leave Home makes UK Number 45 while the group begin their first UK tour, popularising its no-frills "1-2-3-4" intros to every song and its "Gabba gabba hey!" catchphrase. June: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker reaches UK Number 22. June 6: Two shows at London's Roundhouse with Talking Heads.

July: The Heartbreakers release Chinese Rocks, co-written by Dee Dee Ramone. The band are invited to Phil Spector's home, as their winter UK tour is cancelled. August: Swallow My Pride makes UK Number 36. September: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker peaks at US Number 81. December: Album Rocket To Russia reaches US Number 49 and UK Number 60. (During the year, Joey is hospitalised in New York after suffering second-degree burns to his face, neck and upper chest after he drops a teapot.) 1978 January: Rockaway Beach peaks at US Number 66. May: Tommy Ramone leaves the band (but remains their producer, credited as T. Erdelyi). He is replaced by Marc Bell from Richard Hell's Voidoids, who takes the name Marky Ramone. Do You Wanna Dance peaks at US Number 86. October: Don't Come Close makes UK Number 39, while parent album Road To Ruin, on which the group make an effort to write songs lasting more than their usual two minutes, reaches US Number 103 and UK Number 32. 1979 April 25: Roger Corman's film "Rock'n'Roll High School" premieres in Los Angeles. The band are featured in the film, performing the title track and a new Paul McCartney song, Did We Meet Somewhere Before. June: Live album It's Alive, recorded at London's Rainbow theatre, reaches UK Number 27. August: Soundtrack album Rock'n'Roll High School, with the Ramones tracks re-mixed by Phil Spector, is released. September: Rock'n'Roll High School peaks at UK Number 67. (Spector has reportedly listened to the opening chord for 10 hours.) 1980 January: End Of The Century, produced by Spector, makes US Number 44 and UK Number 14. (Recorded in five different studios, the band will later denounce Century as their worst album). February: Baby I Love You, their cover of the Spectorproduced Ronettes hit from 1964, hits UK Number 8. April: Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio peaks at UK Number 54. August 18: Group begin a six-week European tour at the Assembly Rooms, Derby, Derbyshire. (They will play London's Hammersmith Odeon the following night and the Playhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland, on August 24 during Edinburgh Rock Festival week.)

SEX PISTOLS
1973 Fine Arts graduate and clothing retailer Malcolm McLaren (who has recently changed the name of his shop in Chelsea, London from Let It Rock to Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die), having met schoolfriends Cook (b July 20,1956, London) and Jones (b May 3,1955, London) in 1971, begins to take an interest in the band the pair formed in 1972 (which includes friend Wally Nightingale), and, as their part-time manager, adds bassist Glen Matlock (b August 27,1956, Paddington, London), an assistant at the store, to their line-up. Rehearsing throughout the following year as the Swankers, they learn a variety of '60s covers and also begin to write their own material. 1975 The Swankers makes their only public performance, singing three songs at a party above Tom Salter's Cafe in the King's Road. May: McLaren returns from six months in the US, working as manager for glam-punks the New York Dolls, and decides that Nightingale will not fit into his scheme for the Swankers. Jones moves to guitar, leaving the band looking for a singer. June: McLaren suggests ex-Television singer Richard Hell (who has already invented a punk look for himself), but the band wants an unknown London vocalist. August: John Lydon (b January 31, 1956, Fmsbury Park, London) meets the group at McLaren's shop, which has now been re-named Sex, and is asked to join as singer. He auditions standing next to the shop's jukebox and singing along to Alice Cooper's School's Out. The group become the Sex Pistols, and Jones christens Lydon "John Rotten", after his catchphrase, "You're rotten, you are." November 6: The Sex Pistols play their first gig at St Martin's School of Art in London (a performance lasting 10 minutes), followed by a series of small gigs, mainly at art schools.

1976 April 3: They support Joe Strummer's band, the 1O1ers, at the Nashville Rooms, West Kensington, London. The group then spend the summer building a cult following in London, playing a novel, volatile, nihilistic brand of seemingly unrehearsed garage rock in a variety of venues as the seeds of punk rock are sown, masterminded ostensibly by McLaren, who also introduces anti-fashion statements for the band members including bondage clothing, safety-pins through the skin and short, spiked, dyed hair. August: The Sex Pistols are barred from appearing at the "European Punk Rock Festival" in Mont de Marsan, France, by organisers who dislike their image. (They have already been banned from several London venues, including Dingwalls and the Rock Garden.) August 29: Group play at the Screen on the Green Midnight Special, Islington, London, supported by the Buzzcocks and The Clash. September 3: Band perform at the Club de Chalet du Lac in Paris. Billy Idol, devoted follower of the band and member of its infamous inner sanctum, dubbed the "Bromley contingent", drives to France in his ex-Post Office van with Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin of the Banshees to see the gig. September 17: Pistols play a concert for inmates at Chelmsford Prison, Chelmsford, Essex. September 20: Band headline at the 100 Club punk rock festival, London, which sees the debuts of Subway Sect and Siouxsie & the Banshees, featuring Sid Vicious (b John Ritchie, May 10,1957, London) on drums. The Sex Pistols make their first UK TV appearance singing Anarchy In The UK on "So It Goes". October 15: A week after Rotten appears on the cover of music paper New Musical Express, the Sex Pistols are signed to EMI Records for a 40,000 advance (following bids by Chrysalis, RAK and Polydor). November 26: Anarchy In The UK is released. November 28: The Sex Pistols appear on BBC1 TV's "Nationwide" and ITV's "London Weekend Show". December 1: Group appear on ITV's early evening magazine programme, "Today", in place of Queen, who had been scheduled but pulled out following dental work on Freddie Mercury the previous day. Taunted by interviewer Bill Grundy, they respond with profanities and verbal abuse and make the cover of every newspaper the next day, establishing the group's name across the country.

December 5: The "Anarchy In The UK Tour" (also featuring The Clash, the Damned and the Heartbreakers) is due to start, but many dates are cancelled. (Only three out of 19 gigs go ahead) December 7: The Sex Pistols' reputation is discussed at EMI's AGM. Chairman Sir John Read apologises for the group's behaviour. December 18: Anarchy In The UK makes UK Number 38. December 25: In the New Musical Express, the Pat Travers Band challenge the Pistols to a jam with Peter Cowling using two bass strings, Travers three strings and Nicko McBrain a hi-hat, snare and cymbal, claiming they could still out-play them. 1977 January 12: EMI issues a statement saying it feels unable to promote the Sex Pistols' records in view of the adverse publicity generated over the last two months, even though press reports of their behaviour seem to have been exaggerated. (EMI honours their contract, promising the 40,000 advance; Anarchy In The UK sells 55,000 copies before being withdrawn.) February: Vicious, currently a member of Flowers Of Romance, after auditioning as bass player to replace Matlock, joins, despite his rudimentary playing skills. (Matlock is allegedly dismissed because he liked the Beatles.) February 1: Group begin a European tour in Belgium. March: Rotten is fined 40 for possession of amphetamines. Matlock forms the Rich Kids with Steve New (guitar) and Rusty Egan (drums). March 10: The Sex Pistols sign to A&M Records on a trestletable outside Buckingham Palace, at a 7am press conference. March 16: Owing to pressure from other label artists and its Los Angeles head office, A&M fires the band, having pressed 25,000 copies of God Save The Queen. Much to McLaren's glee, the group have earned 75,000 for their six days with the label. May: Pistols sign to Virgin Records for 15,000, though the label immediately encounters problems pressing the group's new single, God Save The Queen, at the CBS plant when workers threaten to walk out. Jamie Reid's sleeve depiction of the Queen with a safety pin through her mouth causes a furore in the press. May 27: God Save The Queen is released, and reportedly sells 150,000 copies in five days, despite being banned from daytime play by BBC Radio 1 and leading chainstores.

June 11: God Save The Queen hits UK Number 2, amid claims that the record is out-selling Rod Stewart's chart-topping I Don't Want To Talk About It. Virgin Records tries to buy airtime during "Today" commercial breaks to advertise the record but is turned down. June 15: Virgin Records hires a boat called "Queen Elizabeth" for a party on the River Thames. The Sex Pistols perform Anarchy In The UK outside the Houses of Parliament and members of the party are arrested when the boat docks. June 18: Rotten, producer Thomas and engineer Bill Price are attacked with razors in the car park of the Pegasus Hotel, Highbury, North London, on their way back to the nearby Wessex Studio. June 19: Cook is set upon by six men wielding knives and an iron bar outside Shepherd's Bush underground station. (He will have part of his hair shaved after 15 stitches are required.) June 21: Rotten is attacked in a brawl at Dingwalls, Camden, London. July 21: Group make their BBC1 TV's "Top Of The Pops" debut, singing Pretty Vacant. July 30: Pretty Vacant hits UK Number 6, while the group tour Scandinavia. McLaren meets film director Russ Meyer to discuss a Sex Pistols film. (Meyer will pull out of the project, which enjoyed the provisional title "Who Killed Bambi?".) August 19: Band undertake an "undercover" UK tour as the Spots (an acronym for Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly), and also play as the Tax Exiles, Special Guest, the Hampsters and Acne Rabble. Vicious wears a black suit, shirt and tie to appear at Wells Street magistrates court to answer charges of carrying a flick-knife at the 100 Club. With Paul Simonon and Mick Jones as defence witnesses, he is fined 125. October 29: Holidays In The Sun hits UK Number 8. The Belgian Travel Service issues a summons claiming the sleeve infringes copyright of one its brochures. (The sleeve is withdrawn from sale.) November 12: Never Mind The Bollocks - Here's The Sex Pistols enters the UK chart at Number 1, displacing Cliff Richard's 40 Golden Greats. It stays on top for two weeks, before being dethroned by Bread's The Sound Of Bread. A policewoman sees the album sleeve in a shop window and informs the retailer he is contravening the 1889 Indecent Advertsing Act because of the word "bollocks" on the sleeve.

(Magistrates "reluctantly" declare two weeks later that it is not an offence to display the record.) The Sex Pistols sign to Warner Bros for US distribution. December: During the month, police are called to the Ambassador Hotel, Bayswater, London after complaints from residents about noises coming from a room occupied by Vicious and girlfriend Nancy Spungen. They are arrested on suspicion of possessing illegal substances, but are released without charge. Listeners to Israeli Radio vote God Save The Queen the worst single of the year. In a Daily Mail interview, Cook's mum Sylvia admits that she is "making a nice little dining room out of Paul's bedroom. I don't think I really want him back." Aberdeen council meet to decide whether to let the band play at the city's musical hall, while Labour councillor Margaret Williams claims that the group are known to cut up animals on stage and cover themselves in blood. December 15: Band are denied entry into the US two days before a scheduled NBC TV "Saturday Night Live" appearance. Elvis Costello takes their place. December 25: The Sex Pistols play their last ever UK gig at Ivanhoe's in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, a charity performance before an audience mainly of children. 1978 January 5: The Sex Pistols begin a US tour at the Great Southeast Music Hall, Atlanta, Georgia, before an estimated crowd of 500. January 10: Band make their US TV debut on "Variety". January 14: After gigs in Memphis, Tennessee; San Antonio, Texas; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Dallas, Texas and Tulsa, Oklahoma, the group plays what will be its last live show, at the Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, California. At the fall of the curtain, Rotten says to the 5,000 sell-out crowd, "Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?" He quits the tour and heads for New York. January 16: Vicious falls through a glass door at their San Francisco hotel, overdoses on drugs and goes into hospital. (He will also overdose on Valium and alcohol on a flight to New York.) McLaren returns to London, while Cook and Jones use plane tickets to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, previously purchased for a planned one-off concert. Virgin declares there will be "no more Sex Pistols releases". Never Mind The Bollocks peaks at US Number 106. February: Cook and Jones stay in Rio as guests of "great train robber" Ronald Biggs.

February 23: Vicious, then playing solo gigs at Max's and CBGB's, is arrested with Spungen for possession of drugs in New York. April: Cook and Jones play dates with Johnny Thunders at London's Speakeasy club. Vicious also performs as a vocalist with Thunders. After the Sex Pistols split, Rotten reverts to his real name, John Lydon, and, having taken a short holiday in Jamaica, returns to the UK and forms a new band with ex-Clash member Keith Levene (guitar), novice bass player Jah Wobble and Canadian Jim Walker (drums), who has played with the Furys and is recruited after auditions. The quartet, named Public Image Ltd (PiL), sign to Virgin. July: Virgin refuses to release the single Cook and Jones have recorded with Biggs under the title Cosh The Driver. Instead it is released as No One Is Innocent (A Punk Prayer By Ronnie Biggs), a double A-side with Vicious's version of the standard My Way. Vicious plays a farewell gig at the Electric Ballroom, London, under the banner "Sid Sods Off' with the Vicious White Kids - Rat Scabies, Glen Matlock and Steve New. July 25: The formation of Public Image Ltd is officially announced by Lydon. October 12: Vicious, living at the Chelsea Hotel in New York with Spungen, calls police to say that someone has stabbed her. He is arrested, charged with murder and placed in the detox unit of a New York prison. During a four-day spell at Rikers Jail, he will attempt suicide twice. {McLaren eventually bails him out for $50,000 with money from Virgin.) 1979 February 2: Still out on bail, Vicious dies at a New York party from an accumulation of fluid on the lungs caused by a heroin overdose. The Sex Pistols, McLaren and Virgin go to court in an attempt to resolve the group's financial affairs. The High Court judge appoints a receiver to sort out finances, including money tied up in the movie and album The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, currently in production. He tells those concerned to sort out who owns the name the Sex Pistols and whether Lydon is still under contract to McLaren. (In the course of the week Cook and Jones change sides, joining Lydon/Virgin against McLaren,)

March: The Sex Pistols' revival of Eddie Cochran's Something Else, coupled with Friggin' In The Riggin', hits UK Number 3. The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle, a double album of out-takes and jokey songs, hits UK Number 7 (and will subsequently be edited down to a single album). April: Silly Thing, a double A-side with Tenpole Tudor's Who Killed Bambi?, hits UK Number 6. July: C'mon Everybody hits UK Number 3. August: Some Product - Carri On Sex Pistols, containing interviews, commercials and the "Today" interview, but no music, hits UK Number 6. October: "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" movie premieres. Julien Temple's film is a collection of early Pistols footage and comic situations, with McLaren claiming the whole phenomenon was no more than his inspired hype. Rotten is largely absent from the movie. The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, a double A-side with Tenpole Tudor's Rock Around The Clock, reaches UK Number 21, while Cook and Jones's new band, the Professionals, make UK Number 43 with 1-2-3. December: Sid Sings makes UK Number 30. 1980 February: Further Sex Pistols cash-in album, Flogging A Dead Horse, reaches UK Number 23. July: (I'm Not Your) Slapping Stone, reviving the Monkees hit, makes UK Number 21.

SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES

1976 September 20: Bromley, Kent punkette Siouxsie (b Susan Dallion, May 27, 1957, London), working as a waitress in Chislehurst, Kent, takes part in the 100 Club punk festival in London, with Sid Vicious on drums, Steve Havoc on bass and Marco Pirroni on guitar. Naming the band after the 1970 Vincent Price film "Cry Of The Banshee", their live set, featuring Siouxsie reciting The Lord's Prayer, lasts 20 minutes, and is their last performance as the band splits immediately. (Havoc, staying with Sioux in the newly revamped Banshees, will revert to the name Steve Severin, b September 25,1955, Vicious will join the Sex Pistols, and Pirroni will join the Models before becoming Adam Ant's songwriting partner in Adam & the Ants.) December 1: Siouxsie appears with the Sex Pistols on ITV's "Today", telling host Bill Grundy, "I always wanted to meet you," to which Grundy replies, "We'll meet afterwards, shall we?" Morris joins the Banshees on drums. 1977 February 24: Pete Fenton joins on guitar. July 2: John McKay replaces Fenton. October 20: After a Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers gig at the Rainbow Theatre, London, at which the Banshees are the support act, Siouxsie and Morris are arrested and detained overnight at Holloway Road Police Station. They are fined 20 each for obstruction and released the following morning. November: Band perform Make Up To Break Up on then-debut UK TV appearance. November 29: They record a session for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show. 1978 June 9: The group sign to Polydor Records, after intense lobbying by their fans, including a "Sign The Banshees Now!" graffiti campaign. June 21: Siouxsie & the Banshees appear with The Gash, the Sex Pistols and Generation X in Don Letts's film, "Punk Rock Movie". (The group was also filmed for Derek Jarman's "Jubilee", but the clip was never used.) September: After much word-of-mouth and media interest, their debut single, Hong Kong Garden, hits UK Number 7. October 11: Band start their first major UK tour, with Sioux persisting with her black leather, heavily made-up, often breast-exposing visual stage presence, and Nico and Human League performing as support acts.

December: Debut album The Scream, co-produced by the band with Steve Lillywhite, reaches UK Number 12. 1979 April 7: Group play a charity concert for MENCAP, but are later faced with a 2,000 bill for seat damage. April 28: The Staircase (Mystery) reaches UK Number 24. July: Playground Twist makes UK Number 28. September: Second album Join Hands reaches UK Number 13. Morris and McKay leave midway through a tour and, after five days of panic, the others are temporarily joined for the balance of the dates by Budgie (b Peter Clark, August 21,1957, St Helens, Lancashire), ex-Slits, on drums, and Robert Smith (on loan from the Cure) on guitar. October 3: Sioux is hospitalised with hepatitis. October 29: Kiittageisen (Metal Postcard) makes UK Number 47. 1980 January 16: With Smith committed to the Cure, John McGeoch (moonlighting from Magazine) joins temporarily on guitar. April: Happy House, produced by the band with Nigel Gray, makes UK Number 17. June: Christine makes UK Number 24. July: McGeoch joins on guitar full-time (but at first still "unofficially", so that he can continue with other projects). August: Album Kaleidoscope hits UK Number 5. October: Band tour the US for the first time. November: Israel climbs to UK Number 41.

THE STRANGLERS
1974 October: The Guildford Stranglers are formed in Chiddingford, Surrey, originally as a trio comprising chemistry graduate and ex-science teacher Cornwell (b August 28,1949, London), onetime jazz drummer and ice-cream salesman Black (b Brian Duffy, August 26, 1948) and Burnel (b February 21, 1952, London), son of French parents and a history graduate from Bradford University. The group sign with Albion management and Greenfield joins on keyboards the following May, after answering an ad placed by the band as a "soft-rock group" in Melody Maker, replacing Swedish guitarist Hans Warmling. A sax player, recruited at the same time, lasts for just three days, and the band decide to remain a quartet. 1976 February 29: After close to a year on the road playing minor club gigs, the Stranglers take a significant leap foward when they make their major venue debut taking part in the "Special Leap Year Concert" with Deaf School, Nasty Pop and Jive Bombers at London's Roundhouse. May 17: The Stranglers support Patti Smith at the Roundhouse. May 19: Seven-date UK tour begins at Birmingham's Bogarts, West Midlands, set to end on May 28 at the Gaiety Theatre, Leicester, Leicestershire. July 4: Group play at the American bicentennial show at the Roundhouse, on a bill with the Ramones and the Flamin' Groovies. September: They support Patti Smith on a full UK tour (followed by a further UK trek on their own through October and November). December 3: Band sign a recording deal with United Artists, one of the earliest punk/new wave contracts. 1977 February: Group-penned debut single, (Get A) Grip (On Yourself), produced by Martin Rushent, makes UK Number 44 (after being accidentally omitted from the chart by compilers BMRB in its first week of release) while the group are playing live dates in Europe. February 8: Supporting the Climax Blues Band at London's Rainbow Theatre, the band's performance is cut short by a power turn-off after Cornwell reveals his "Fuck" T-shirt on stage. (The Greater London Council has warned the management that its performance regulations would not allow this display.)

March: The Stranglers record their first live session for "The John Peel Show" on BBC Radio 1, after completing a UK mini-tour. April: Group play again at London's Roundhouse, with The Jam and Cherry Vanilla. First album, The Stranglers IV: Rattus Norvegicus, recorded in six days, hits UK Number 4. May: Another UK tour begins, lasting into June. Some dates are cancelled when local councils and venue bookers begin banning punk-associated groups. June: Band back Celia Collin, a female singer discovered by their manager Dai Davies, who has sung live with them at London's Nashville, on a revival of Tommy James & the Shondells' Mony Mony, credited to Celia & the Mutations. June 4: After trouble at a Clash gig at the Rainbow Theatre, the Stranglers have seven tour dates cancelled. The Damned, The Jam and the Adverts are also affected by cancellations. July: Peaches/Go Buddy Go hits UK Number 8. (The Aside is banned by the BBC for "offensive lyrics", so the B-side is promoted equally as the group perform the track on their first major TV appearance, on BBC1 TV's uTop Of The Pops".) Burnel receives call-up papers to complete national service in France. He is ordered to report to the 39th Infantry Division in Rouen, but objects on the grounds that it would "conflict with my commitment to the Stranglers", and escapes the draft by providing proof of his permanent residency in Britain. August: Something Better Change/Straighten Out hits UK Number 9. September: Banned from appearing at Manchester's Belle Vue Elizabethan Rooms because owners Trust House Forte object to the band, a Stranglers spokesperson says, "Trust House Forte should concentrate on food served up in their motorway cafes before they start worrying about punk." September 1: The Stranglers begin a major UK tour, followed by further European dates. October: No More Heroes hits UK Number 8, while the album No More Heroes, again produced by Rushent, hits UK Number 2. During live dates, a number of Glaswegian councillors attend an Apollo Theatre gig to check on the group's behaviour. Cornwell has spotlights shone on them in the stalls and dedicates Ugly to them.

November: Group play a short residency at London's Roundhouse, supported by the Dictators and partially recorded for a later live album release. Burnel and Black spend a night in jail in Brighton, East Sussex after a gig at the Top Rank, charged with obstruction after trying to help two Dutch Hell's Angels Stranglers fans who had been arrested. November 22: The Stranglers perform on the first night of the three-week "Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival" in Islington, London. 1978 February: Five Minutes makes UK Number 11. March 16: Group begin their first US tour (moving on to Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia, and back through Europe). May: Nice'n'Sieazy makes UK Number 18. June: Black And White, including Nice'n'Sieazy, hits UK Number 2, supported by a UK tour. September: Their keyboard-driven revival of Walk On By written by duo Bacharach/David makes UK Number 21, with jazzman George Melly guesting on the B-side track, Old Codger. October: Group play at London's Battersea Park with Peter Gabriel (strippers performing during Nice'n'Sleazy), before beginning a series of one-off shows in London using pseudonyms to beat local council bans. 1979 March: Live album Live (X Cert), from a variety of concert appearances, hits UK Number 7. April: Burnels debut solo album, Euroman Cometh, makes UK Number 40 as he undertakes a solo tour. June: Band record a new album in Paris, France, coproducing the tracks with Alan Winstanley (engineer of previous recordings), and also headline the Loch Lomond Festival in Scotland. August 18: The Stranglers perform at Wembley Stadium, Middlesex with AC/DC, Nils Lofgren and headliners the Who. September: Duchess, from the forthcoming album, makes UK Number 14. October: The Raven, with initial pressings featuring a 3-D sleeve picture, hits UK Number 4. Cornwell also releases an album, Nosferatu, in collaboration with Robert Williams. November: Nuclear Device (The Wizard Of Aus), taken from The Raven, reaches UK Number 36 as the band tours Britain. December: Four-track EP Don't Bring Harry makes UK Number 41.

1980 January 7: Cornwell is found guilty of possession of heroin, cocaine and cannabis. He is fined 300 and sentenced to three months' imprisonment in Pentonville Prison, London. March 21: Cornwell is sent to Pentonville after losing the appeal against his drug conviction. April: Bear Cage makes UK Number 36. April 25: Cornwell is released from prison. (The story of his time spent there will be related in his book, Inside Information.) June: Who Wants The World reaches UK Number 39. June 21: The Stranglers are arrested in Nice, France after allegedly inciting a riot when a concert at the university is cancelled because a generator has not been supplied for electrical power. (Black will chronicle this event in his book, Much Ado About Nothing; the group members will be fined in a Nice court later in the year.)

THE UNDERTONES
1978 June 15: Led by Fergal Sharkey (b August 13,1958, Londonderry, Northern Ireland) and John O'Neill (b August 26, 1957, Londonderry), the Undertones have been formed by five friends in Londonderry in November 1975, initially playing pop covers in local pubs. By 1977, and influenced by the burgeoning punk movement, the band have begun to perform their own songs, and have made a demo that has been rejected by Stiff, Chiswick and Radar Records. After a period of playing regional gigs, during which their act and repertoire are finely honed, and having been spotted in a "Battle of the Bands" contest in Belfast, they now make their recording debut at Wizard Studios, for local independent label Good Vibrations. September: Punk-directed debut release Teenage Kicks receives UK airplay from BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, which brings A&R interest from UK labels. (Peel will later confess that the track is his all-time favourite 45.) October: Band fly to London to appear on BBC1 TV's "Top Of The Pops", as the record climbs the chart. They are still without a manager, so Sharkey negotiates a five-year deal with Sire Records. Sire re-issues Teenage Kicks (only 7,000 copies were originally pressed on Good Vibrations). November: Teenage Kicks reaches UK Number 31 during a sixweek chart run, as the band begin their first UK tour, with the Rezillos, who split halfway through, leaving the Undertones to go it alone. 1979 February: Get Over You makes UK Number 57. May: Jimmy Jimmy is the band's first UK Top 20 hit, at Number 16, once again showcasing Sharkey's distinctively urgent vocal style. Their debut album, the teen-angst themed The Undertones, reaches UK Number 13, the sleeve inspired by the Who's My Generation 1965 debut. July: A re-recorded version of Here Comes The Summer, extracted from the album, makes UK Number 34, as the group undertake their first US tour, supporting The Gash. October: You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It?) peaks at UK Number 32.

1980 January: Band travel to Holland with producer Roger Bechirian to record their second album. April: Hypnotised becomes their biggest-selling UK album, hitting Number 6, while the extracted My Perfect Cousin, written by Bradley and Damian O'Neill, is their biggest UK hit single, at Number 9, aided by a promotional video featuring Subbuteo's soccer boardgame. July: Extracted Wednesday Week charts at UK Number 11. August: The Undertones tour the US again, this time as headliners, but remain only cult favourites. A headlining European tour follows. October: With a lack of chart progress outside Britain, the band is freed from its Sire contract, and sets up its own label, Ardeck Records, licensed through EMI.

XTC
1977 September: Partridge (b November 11, 1953, Malta), Moulding (b August 17, 1955, Swindon, Wiltshire) and Chambers (b July 18,1955, Swindon) are all ex-members of the Swindonbased Star Park rock band who, having changed their name to Helium Kidz at the height of the punk boom, are joined by ex-King Crimson keyboard player Barry Andrews (b September 12, 1956, West Norwood, London) to form XTC. Having played club dates in London during the summer (including a gig at the Hope & Anchor, Islington, London in July), and earlier auditioned for CBS Records, XTC have signed to Virgin Records (with Partridge and Moulding inked to Virgin Publishing for song copyrights), which releases the debut EP, 3-D. 1978 January: Debut album White Music, recorded in one week and largely written by Partridge, makes UK Number 38, as the band is linked to the currently popular UK new wave movement. (During the month, Partridges parents appear on the ITV quiz show "Mr and Mrs.) February: Statue Of Liberty is released. May: This Is Pop, produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange, is released. November: Go 2, helmed by Martin Rushent, reaches UK Number 21, including the extracted Are You Receiving Me? 1979 January: Andrews quits the band on their return from a 10 date US mini-tour. (He teams with Robert Fripp to form the League Of Gentlemen, before joining Shriekback and recording as a soloist for Virgin.) He is replaced by longtime friend of the band, Dave Gregory. May: Life Begins At The Hop peaks at UK Number 54. July: Band tour Australia, New Zealand and Japan. August: Third album Drums And Wires, a firm pop/rock set showcasing Partridge's sharp lyrical wit, and produced by Steve Lillywhite, makes UK Number 34, as XTC begin a brief UK tour. November: Making Plans For Nigel, written by Moulding, reaches UK Number 17. 1980 February: Partridge releases the John Leckie-produced solo album Takeway (The Lure Of Salvage), under the name of Mr. Partridge, as Drums And Wires climbs to US Number 176. March: Walt Till Your Boat Goes Down is released.

September: Double A-side Generals And Majors/Don't Lose Your Temper makes UK Number 32, while Black Sea, again produced by Lillywhite, reaches UK Number 16. October: Towers Of London makes UK Number 31. November: Take This Town, from the "Times Square" movie soundtrack, is released. 2009 PERSONS UNKNOWN ;-) FOR MORE PUNK EBOOKS VISIT: http://persons-unknown.blogspot.com