When were you 1st aware of punk rock?

[Adam Ant]

Went to see Adam and the Ants at the Ritz in NY. Think it was his first U.S. gig back in 1980 or 81. Changed my life forever.

[Screen 13]

As a youth, I remember a family trip going by a small store that had a Sex Pistols display back around '78. As someone who was just started to get interested in music by then, I knew that something was a little different from what was playing on the local FM stations. Reading a couple of magazines, there were some slight mentions here and there, but the band that really stood out for me at that time was The Clash, around the time of London Calling. At the time I was more into Power Pop and Mod Revival (The Jam caught my ears especially), but to those who connect 2 Tone to Punk, then you can say that the appearance of The Specials on Saturday Night Live in 1980 was what convinced me to check the sounds out even more.

Meeting a friend in a Library two years later, after hearing a few songs on the more adventurous Alternative Music shows, came the introduction to bands like Dead Kennedys.

[toyah]

the Ritz was the first Adam & The Ants U.S. show, quite a night it was;
he's back in NYC in Feb.,part of his first U.S. tour in 16 years..!

[Frau_Blucher]

When my buddies Stephen Patrick, Bernard, Peter, Ian and I caught the Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, I was hooked, then and there.

[BigBri]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Frau_Blucher[/i]
<br>When my buddies Stephen Patrick, Bernard, Peter, Ian and I caught the Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, I was hooked, then and there.
[/quote]

Ah, ya beat me to it!

[Surly]

Hard to say when I first discovered punk, but I remember when I first found new wave, which ultimately led me to punk. I was at a friend's house in 1979, watching SNL. He was born in England but had been in America since very young (I was born in '68). The B-52's were the musical guest that night, and I was blown away. When my friend realized I liked what I saw, he said "Well, then, you're a punk," which I thought meant "hoodlum." I said "No I'm not, I'm a good boy!" [:D]

From that point forward, I realized there was music beyond the Top 40. Growing up in Cleveland, it was all about corporate rock, but at the same time, that city is where many artists "broke" from.

Years later, I read how Kurt Cobain had a similar experience to mine when watching that same SNL broadcast.

In 1983, one of the Cleveland rock stations went new wave for a short while; by this point, I had been a non-stop MTV watcher (we got cable in August of '82). This exposed me to all sorts of new music, and when the format flipped again later that year (new wave just didn't work in that market), I went the college radio route where I quickly found The Dead Kennedys, etc.

"Words like conviction can turn into a sentence"

[newwavepop]

its hard to say, i was only 10 in 82 and had heard the word punk but dont think i had any idea what it really was. i recall being around 12 and thinking duran duran and the police were punk just from seeing them on mtv, i thought the not traditional seeming to me rock music and short odd hair were punk. i was growing up on the poor southside of oklahoma city, me and the kids around me literally looked like the guys in the outsiders film. just dirty kids with jean jackets and jeans. i dont think we had caught up to the 70s yet much less the 80s. the closest i had to exposure to it was watching all those cheap 80s teen comedies on cable that seemed to always have a scene in a club with a bunch of gothish new wavish punkish kids in the background. i loved those scenes and those extras in the back but there was absolutely nothing and no one around my world that was anything like that. me and my friends barely knew anything past thriller and the older kids around the neighborhood were strictly ozzy. it wasnt until later in the late 80s when my crowd of thrash kids started slowly getting into crossover skate stuff like dri and suicidal which led to the misfits and hardcore stuff. then starting about 90 i was burned out on the everything fast and loud and went searching on my own for the stuff i hadnt heard and started really appreciating the pre hardcore era of punk. and today i am totally into the san francisco and l.a. sides of the scene more than the new york and british.