Punk’s not dead

On some long ago day, a long ago sunny day sometime in 1978, or maybe it was 1979 (something to do with the identikit punk haircuts and gear that I remember exploded into public view after 1977 — oh look there’s Sid Vicious and Paul Cook, while I suspect that the skinheads have been revived from the dead of the early 70s by the emergence of Sham 69), the locals of this Oxford pub came outside to be snapped, a pub community, an alternative pub community, a vibrant, brash and robust community — the pub after all was known for its music then. Lord only knows what the beer was like — was this a place where lager or Long Life or Strongbow held sway at the bar, while the punks pogo-ed and the skins did their peculiar dance that involved stomping up and down in their DMs and tugging on their braces? I can’t remember for the life of me what beers Ind Cooper produced, but here in this pub on this long ago summer’s day I suspect what beer was drunk would have been secondary to the crack and the celebration that a band on stage would have bought. Now this pub is called the Angel & Greyhound and Ind Coope has vanished into the annals of history and rugby is shown on match days and there is food and it is a Young’s pub (complete with the sort of signage the brewery had when they were still brewing). How did it become a Young’s pub I wonder? Meanwhile this marvellous photograph covers the wall opposite the bar (was this where the stage was?) and I sit in a comfortable chair and think about that long ago day and the people who were there and what on earth happened to them. Punk’s not dead you see.