Punk's not dead yet! it's dead .......................................................................................................................................... NOW!

It is way cheaper not to be a punk! Leather jackets are expensive dude.

I guess I did most of it at one time or another but generally I like to think that I tried to distance myself from each the worst punk archetypes / stereotypes (safety pins, zips, bondage straps, bleached / dyed hair, tartan, brothel creepers, bum-flaps, big spikes / mohicans....) as soon as I became conscious of them becoming too commonplace / cliched.

I generally kept my hair short (after that alarming day in 1977 when it suddently went from being 8" long at the back with a nice center parting to being 1/2" all over), and usually wore DM boots, leather jackets (usually with either "Damned" or "Killing Joke" on the back and different badges all over the lapels), narrow-legged jeans (frequently with holes in the knees) and band t-shirts 'though - as much because it was practical as anything.

I must admit that between '80 and '83 I did wear altogether far too much black (in fact for 2 or 3 years I don't think I owned an article of clothing that wasn't black) which is obviously something of a stereotype; although I still don't think anyone would have been able put me neatly label me and slot me into either the "punk", "anarcho-punk", or "goth" pigeon holes.

There was an extremely conscious decision to STOP wearing ANY black at all early in '84, as a very deliberate signal that I had moved on from certain.... people, activities and relationships.

These days I keep my hair short, usually wear DM boots or shoes (I do prefer the boots but it's so difficult to drive in them, isn't it?), leather jackets (nothing written on the back 'though, and just the one rather smart-looking Damned badge on the lapel of one of them), narrow legged jeans (generally without the holes in the knees 'though) and t-shirts (sometimes with band names on but usually not) and I regularly wear all black.

Oh and the attitude?

Those who know me best will tell you that's still very definitely punk.

Fashion is for people without brains.

I stopped wearing secondhand flannel shirts and jeans with ripped-out knees sometime around 1996. This was mostly due to my expanding musical interests -- more hip-hop, more old-school funk, more techno/breakbeat.

Er... grunge is kind of like punk, right?

i guess i just stopped dressing to impress cause the only people that would be impressed would be other lame guys, around 86 or 87.
I continued to have long hair till about 1999 but then shaved it all off. I generally still wear a lot of black and dark colors but they are mostly jeans and polo's I wear for work.

Where is Alex in NYC for this thread?

I'm not your performing monkey.

aww c'mon

You are punk rock

Punk's not just dead, it's been cremated and the ashes sprinkled in my grandma's lasagna.

I am feeling incredibly "stoopid" tonight.

I missed punk, but I went from being 100% grunge to not full stop one day in 12th grade. I got my greasy, straggly hair cut and needed new clothes that didn't have disgusting greasy stains on the shoulders and back from my greasy, straggly hair. I think mostly I'd forgotten where to get grunge clothes, or perhaps they weren't being sold anymore, so I went all euroslut instead.

punk-as-fashion is/was really lame.

Yawn.

I love how identipunk, one little splinter, is always confused with the whole tree and all of its branches.

Whatever.

People often fail to see the whole tree and all of it's branches because they don't realise that they're actually sitting on one of those branches....

Lest there be any miunderstanding, the above comment should not be construed as being (solely) a reference to monkeys, either performing or otherwise.

ha - the only shoes I've owned since I was 14 (1976) are DMs, but not the same pair. You can't beat them. At the height of punk we wore home-made, customized t-shirts, suitably ripped and torn, along with narrow jeans/denim jacket. There was never a uniform and anyone who *thought* too much about what they looked like was usually a bit dodgy. I have always had v.short hair since then, I used to dye it purple, green etc sometimes, but not for years and years. (although I'm toying with dying it for my gig on Sat.)By the time I got to Univ (1980) i'd become more 'Factory' than punXOR - long overcoat etc but never all-black! That was for Sisters of Mercy fans! these days I reckon i'm more pub-rock than punk-rock. eagle-eyed ILXers may have seen my authentic 1980 A Certain Ratio shorts at summer FAPs as a throwback to the old days. I'm sure those shorts should have a FAC number all of their own.

During the last 27 years I think I've actually purchased three pairs of shoes that weren't DM's - and I've eventually ended up throwing every single one of them away having hardly been worn.

The Doc is absolutely OTM - punk was never supposed to be about looking and acting the same as everyone else; it was supposed to be about being yourself.

I reckon DMs are so broad they make yr feet go flat and wide. my wife inisted that I bought a pair of 'other shoes' to get married in. I discarded them in agony at the reception. Hey - come to the gig on Sat. Stew!

I think my feet were flat and wide enough to begin with.

I'd love to Doc but I'm off down to Portland for a week's hols starting tomorrow.

Well, since I started this, I should add my nought pence worth.

I never was a punk, fashionwise. I drifted towards 'post-mod' in the early to mid eighties, but spent too much money on records...

Did you wear DM's though Mark?

I think it goes without saying that we've all spent far too much money on records!

i think the time is right for M.Grout, S. Osborne and myself to start an 'I Love Old Punk Nostalgia' forum of our own. sub-branches : I Love Doc Martens, I Love Thames Valley Punk and I Love The Damned. Oh...and can I have 'I Love Slaughter and The Dogs'? Really, I insist.

m. sinker could wander in occasionally and tell us we're not really punXOR, or something....

Do you remember a Reading punk band called The Clergy, Dr. C?

No! Sorry

Arfa, Chris Williams, Dave Daly and Colin.... (Maycock?); great guys, played with Sub-@active a few times.

I think you'd have liked them - they regularly used to cover Cranked Up Really High, Boston Babies and You're A Bore.

Oh and I think I'm right in saying that they all wore DM's too.

I wore so much black in the 80's that my mom once refused to buy me a dress stating that I dress like an Italian widow. Never wor the DM, my arches are too high. Still have a pair of monkey boots though. Punk as a fashion statement...hmm. To me, punk is about challenging norms about beauty and fashion (and to some degree gender roles). Of course, it doesn't take long for the main-stream to co-opt the "look", and when you start seeing designer jeans sold already torn and Macy's has pantyhose that look torn, leather jackets at the mall or whatever, then the "anti-norms" have become the norm. I agree with the above that "punk's about being yourself" There's that weird gray area between wearing styles that identify you with a certain group, and wearing a uniform. Anyway found this thread by searching for "monkey hair jacket" just thought I'd throw in my 2 pense.

re: upthread:
what is identipunk and where did the monkeys come from???!!!!

Rudimentary Peni rule.

No they don't.

I truly think this is the most classic thread I've read so far on this board. Thanks all ye who have posted therein.