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How Paisley became punk rock’s unlikely ‘centre of the universe’

27 February 2019

In the 1970s, Glasgow played host to concerts from many of the biggest pop acts of the time. A particularly raucous 1976 gig by The Stranglers, however, led Glasgow City Council banning bands from the popular punk movement from performing in Scotland’s largest city.

Young Glaswegians’ appetite for punk between 1976 and 1977 was therefore impossible to satisfy ...unless they were willing to travel 11 miles down the M8 motorway, as Bruce Findlay from Zoom Records remembered.

“Suddenly punk is banned in Glasgow, so the centre of the universe for punk rock in Scotland became Paisley.”

When Glasgow banned punk

Clare Grogan and others reveal why Paisley became an unlikely centre of Scottish punk.

Some of the punk bands that played in Paisley

Clare Grogan of Altered Images remembered how groups of Glasgow punks would travel to Paisley for infamous punk nights at The Bungalow Bar and The Silver Thread Hotel, watching such bands as:-

  • The Clash
  • The Buzzcocks
  • The Fall
  • Siouxsie and the Banshees
  • Elvis Costello
  • The Skids
  • Generation X
  • Johnny and the Self-Abusers (later to become Simple Minds)

More important moments in Scottish music

Scotland at the time of punk

The austerity of 70s Scotland is laid bare, wiping the slate clean for a new era in Scottish music. (From 2017)

‘Scotland invented Indie music’

The Scottish record labels and bands that forged a new model in the music business. (From 2017)

A Scottish punk in China

Neil Oliver watches Scottish musician Hugh Reed perform at Beijing’s Punk Rock Noodle Bar.

Related Link

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