Background

A Punk Band was the deliberately generic title given to this live project by → ↑ →. Part covers-band, part rock history statement, it was mostly played at private parties.

Ralph Traviato & Philip Brophy; Leigh Parkhill © 1977

Credits

Arrangements & drums - Philip Brophy
Bass synthesizer - Alan Gaunt
Guitar - Leigh Parkhill
Sax & vocals - Ralph Traviato

1977

Mulchay's Hotel, Melbourne
PUNK GUNK - Faraday St. Carlton, Melbourne
Prahran Technical College, Melbourne
Various house parties

1978

SON OF PUNK GUNK - Alma Hall, Melbourne
Various house parties

Ralph Traviato & Alan Gaunt; Leigh Parkhill © 1977

Overview

Ultimately, A Punk Band might best be viewed as performance art where the group performed like a karaoke band. Despite having a strong affinity for punk as it bloomed in 1977, → ↑ → formed this live set as a response to Punk's own insular entropic convulsions. The screen-printed torn-sheet T-shirts the band sometimes wore summed up → ↑ →'s attitude toward the audience:

"We love our audience - they're never wrong
We try so hard - not one bad song."

History paints the period as heroic and radical, but this is hard to balance against the reality of about 100 people gathered nervously into a tiny scene, drunkenly expounding polemics about the state of music while listening to a prescribed list of references. → ↑ → drew up a list of these 'key texts' and added their own slant which was more informed by Glam and Post-Glam. The Bowie/Eno/Pop nexus was central to this. Within a few years, Punk would become dreadfully 'rock-ized' and aligned with suspect ideals of 'roots', 'authenticity' and 'realism'. With its refusal to present original personalized angst-ridden songs and in place wilfully applying a synth-noise/pop lacquer to sacred tracks idolized by rock critics, A Punk Band was a miniscule assertion of how the trash-punk-glam-electronic-noise continuum could be repositioned.

Philip Brophy; Alan Gaunt © 1977

Technical

Set List

White Light (The Velvet Underground)
Sweet Jane (The Velvet Underground)
Sister Ray (The Velvet Underground)
No Fun (The Stooges)
I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges)
Rock'n'Roll Part 2 (Gary Glitter)
Editions Of You (Roxy Music)
Lou Reed (Vicious)
Here Come The Warm Jets (Brian Eno)
Third Uncle (Brian Eno)
Gun (John Cale)
Charlie's Girl (Lou Reed)
Roadrunner (The Modern Lovers)
Speed Of Life (David Bowie)
Don't You Get Me (Lobby Lloyd & The Coloured Balls)
Flash (Lobby Lloyd & The Coloured Balls)
Anarchy In The U.K. (Sex Pistols)
God Save The Queen (Sex Pistols)
Pretty Vacant (Sex Pistols)
White Riot (The Clash)
Funtime (Iggy Pop)
Lust For Life (Iggy Pop)

Performance T-shirts © 1977

Band equipment © 1977