January 1st 1978 - 1.30am - Come in after New Year's Eve party, spiky hair literally frozen by the blizzard outside, pissed off and cold. Old Grey Whistle Test is on TV.......and by now they play Punk. This comes on. Fantastic. Forgot my frozen self and decided to buy a guitar as soon as possible.
one of my favourite , their looks were strange to me as a kid , kind of aristocratic and hip punk band but i loved them and still love this refrain and voices ! long time no heard , thanks!
Superb video. THE most under-rated of the first generation of punk bands. If these sessions had been commercially available in 77/78 (MTV etc) this band would have been up there with the Clash and the other 'big name' bands. Nick Cash's vocals are superb, some timeless singles and album tracks and in the day a fantastic live show. I saw them supporting the Runaways in Nov 77 and headlining their own tour in 78 and many times since. Tis one of life's great mysteries why 999 weren't massive.
The essence of it is quite simple, Punk spanned the years from 1974 to 1978. Was a term given by the British media to my generation as the inconsequential generation, we didn't matter, we finished college to find whole industries had been shut down with mass unemployment. The first British Punk band was The Stranglers (1974 - ) It always makes me laugh when people who weren't even there profess to know more than those who lived it, especially those not born for another 20 plus years.
Jett Black. Tell 'em. They do not know the influence. An American, I lived In Holland from 76-78 and was in the midst of the punk influence for quite a while and as being 58 years old still listen to and love the bands from those times. They had a lot to bring to the table.....
The first album is a 'lost' classic rock n roll album - if you were 14 and wanted to learn some brilliant songs, that would be the one to get. Fantastic sound, great look, should have been massive.
i remember wearing pink and green for months after seeing this lot......im alive was fantaSTIC LIVE....and i still love me and my desire....wonderful stuff
Was just going to make the same comment tigergambit. 999 were totally underrated and should indeed have been very very big. This music will last another thirty years too.
You got the 7 " Guard it with your life lol I worked in the 1st Virgin Store in New Oxford st we did nothing so we got paid in singles and 12" and I had a lot of original 60s stuff ,, My ex sold them all ,,,, bloody Hell Im getting angry ,,better listen to this and get happy again lol :-)
How the hell did you manage to hold on to them all these years ,,, Im not going green lol The Hope and Anchor was my Local ,They had a stage downstairs all painted red and the sweat would run down the walls and the bass would shake the place ,Happy times ,the Best !! :-D
reklessheart after punk then new wave, I became tired of it all, the excitement was gone for me, punk really was dead it seemed by late 78 so I ditched the punk for the funk and put my 7" punk singles away, I have a great fondness and love for them still and some still do it for me like Emergency! peace n love x
The album that this is from is a proper 'forgotten classic' . Can't understand why it's so underrated. Great video, with all the energy and attitude that you could possibly want. Anyone starting a guitar band could do a lot worse than just getting hold of '999' by '999' and learning it! Bass, drums, guitar, vocals - Bloody marvellous!
My DAD got me into 999 in the late 70s after he heard them on John Peel and bought the first 2 LPs - which, incidently, are totally underrated CLASSICS
Sacré bon petit groupe, 999 ! Et qui savait écrire de vraies chansons. Les compos sont toujours enlevées, concises, jamais chiantes. Jusqu'à leur sixième album, pas grand chose à jeter (à part peut être le cinquième, le raté "13Th Floor Madness"). Je reviens pour ma part souvent à "The Biggest Prize In Sport" (1980).
You had to have seen them live back in 78 to realise how good they were. They were up there with The Clash, The Damned & The Jam playing a live set. Ah remember the Lyceum ballroom gigs - superb!!
That video, for the budget used and time it was made stands out as pretty damn good, I bet video makers from later on used it as a model rock video. The song is my favorite from 999 also. Thanks!
Dear RikiRude, well done for posting this - I've been after it ever since I NEVER saw it again after it was first broadcast, so a big thank you, and yes, what more do we want. If I'd won the lottery this week, I'd cut you in!
This is my favourite 999 record. A very underestimated punk band who should have been far bigger than they were. This video is an absolute classic, many thanks for the posting!!
Je les connais depuis 1982 Pourquoi ils ne viennent pas en France ? ils feraient un carton ! quelle pèche ! N'à pas vieilli ou bien comme bon bordeaux , Meilleur groupe Punk avec les Ramones , Jam , Stranglers (pas tous les Albums ) P.I.L. , Frank Black , starshooter Encore très frais à écouter et à voir ! Merci pour la Vidéo !
I'd forgotten just how good this song is, great drum pattern to keep you listening, and then three hooks combined in the chorus - the descending arpeggio guitar chords, the instantly memorable rhyme of the line 'back in full attack', and the harmony to 'never give in until they crack' - to pull you right in! Fab stuff.
@Random5able I agree-and that's because punk rock is just stripped down rock n roll. One of the key differences between punk and other rock genres-especially metal and classic rock-is that punk is about the song, not about a bunch of "musicians" showboating or endless aimless solos that only pot heads can enjoy. it's like what Billy Idol said in that one Generation X song "a good musician is a disease, I'm gonna do what I want, play what I please."
Punk Rock and Punk are two separate entities. "Punk" was about the ethos. Even Hippies was involved in Punk and Punk Rock. The lyrics here say a great deal for the ethos not just of the punks but very much of the time. The music was a product of what was going on inside the youth; a manifestation and reflection of the ethos. But only a part of it. It has left a legacy that is just as strong today ;)
@hooraysweden - Spot on, mate. Look at the diversity of the original punk rockers - Mick Jones with his long hair, John Lydon with his spike, Paul Simonon with his quiff, Ramones with their...blimey. Even early 80s hard core punk rockers like around the time of Discharge and GBH became a little identikit punk., though the music was great. I know coz I was there.
Nice one Bowwowwow. I saw John Robb on the box t'other day about factory records. I will definitely give that a read. BTW I saw 999 and the Damned in 78 at the russell club in Hulme, Manchester. Hadto go to the afternoon matinee though. Cheers mate :)
Stranglers were still quite good in their New Wave years, and there were also plenty of good New Wave bands overall. There were actually many that never reached the mainstream, too, probably more than ones that did, even though the genre was supposed to be a commercialized form of punk.
Happy days. Dave dived into the crowd at the gig in question, during New Rose I think. Yep and then leg it home for tea. Couldn't spike me hair up though as I had this annoying kink in it.Seen the Ruts at a matinee as well. Mad one!
Punk in the UK started with the Pistols. Not sure about the Stranglers. They sounded like the Doors and half of them looked liked off-duty prison officers. There were plenty of earlier, worthier, UK proto-punk acts, The Creation, Pretty Things, Deviants, for example...
This band & Wire seem to have set the stage for most Rock-Pop acts from 1979-1984. I didn't discover "Punk Rock" until 88/89 as a 13/14 yr old kid. By that time,this stuff was great but sounded like an artifact from a bygone era. Watching a 1976 Stranglers concert on VHS circa 1989/1990 was anticlimactic and dated.
Musical punk - good comment about chord change. There are some comments about the death of the 'old grey whistle test' ..... don't mock - these programs keep visual history for UTUBE - search .... Later Jools and find the new Whistle test, BTW - I think Jools is creating a fantastic musical history (although not to sure about his interview technique :-))
