46 years ago SG 8 crawled out of our office in a corner the back room at Rough Trade and, once again, confirmed our place as the UK's number one punk zine.
'New York Invasion!' the front cover announced and inside we had extensive coverage of the UK visits of Johnny Thunder's Heartbreakers, Wayne County & Cherry Vanilla. Yes, I know, not quite the Ramones, Television and Talking Heads - this lot were strictly second division - but still a lot more exciting than some of the turgid UK bands stepping out after the initial UK punk explosion of late '76.
Elsewhere in the issue were reviews of 2 of the post important records of early 1977 - the Damned's first album and the Clash's first single 'White Riot'. 'White Riot' was THE rallying call. "This single brings rock back to where it should be" I wrote, "back in the hands of the kids. Kids who live in the poxy council estates..." Yep, it was on CBS but, at the time, it was just great to have piece of Clash vinyl in our hands. "Follow no one, lead Yourself!" we proclaimed and we meant it too. Probably the apex of the UK punk scene, this one.
We also wrestled with the Jam in this issue. I can't remember how it really started but our ongoing spat with them ended up with Paul Weller burning a copy of Sniffin' Glue on stage at the Marquee. Ah, bless...
And, the pin-up in this issue? The Sex Pistols - No Future! Who'd have guessed how that one was going to turn out.