England's Dreaming: Jon Savage

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A word for the fearless, exhausted Danes, who fought to the very last second, their minds engaged even as their bodies began to flag. To me, being 22, 23 and being new to London, reading this recent history of London, I just remember thinking this is brilliant.

England’s dreaming: Euro 2020 final offers chance to scratch England’s dreaming: Euro 2020 final offers chance to scratch

If you have any interest in the punk era this book will genuinely inform you and make you re-evaluate your preconceived ideas. From the second, Damsgaard curled and swerved and dipped a brilliant shot through the taut Wembley air, over the wall and into the top corner. Well, that’s also the impact of social media, which is one of the great dissolvers of how things used to be.

Now I sometimes wonder – and I’m really throwing this to you, because it’s not my experience – but I would surmise that the sheer weight of information is sometimes quite daunting. Highly recommended to anyone who likes the music or wants to know more about a strand of music and fashion that changed music, the industry, society and the people involved. Lydon's transformation from being a dumb jerk of a kid to a still-obnoxious but nonetheless somewhat savvy and occasionally thoughtful media critic, music professional, professional celebrity, and groundbreaking art-rocker is really underplayed. JD: Thankfully, I don’t hear an axe grinding when I read this book (like I do when reading some books about music). Now all three are being reissued next month with updated introductions from Savage, Jeremy Deller and Scott King, THE FACE sat down with the author to pick his brains on what ayear locked-up might portend for the kids of tomorrow.

How England’s Dreaming told the definitive story of London punk

I was watching a documentary the other day where Vivienne Westwood looked at the camera and said punk was nothing like what people thought it was – that it came up and fizzled very quickly as it became mainstream. His most recent compilations have included the now deleted Fame, Jon Savage's Secret History Of Post-Punk 78–81 on Caroline True Records. This was a milieu of some complexity, reduced within twenty seconds of the Grundy interview to white, male Rock. I think it’s very important; that kind of “entryism” into the mass media is crucial to the Sex Pistols’ story. It goes deep into the calculated approach of Malcolm McLaren, political push back of the Thatcher era conservativism, the ineptitude of the music industry, and the incompetence of the punks themselves.And here, right here, on page 435 -- I had skipped ahead in despair earlier only to read: 'After the demise of the Ed Sullivan Show, there was no concentrated, nationwide TV exposure of pop until MTV in 1981. And so that means taking references from different times and stealing from different kinds of cultures – that’s been going on for nearly 50 years. Like with many of the albums that I hold dear, it is astounding that "Never Mind The Bollocks" ever made it out into the world, and the same can be said for many of the other foundational UK punk albums.