Governments manipulating outcomes never. Regarding the Sex Pistols, I remember me and our kid with britches with the trouser legs fastened with cord and safety pins with the Album Never Mind The B#@%*#ks blaring out ...oh to be young again

I was never rebellious enough for some of the music you guys are talking about. I love the music looking back. I never got punk (and I was too young really anyway) but equally some punk bands seem quite tame when you look back. When the Clash were at the height of their powers they were a rebelious and new punk band but you hear them on Radio 2 now.

Saying that, The Clash for me stays around because of the quality of the music and lyrics. It's not just old guys wanting to relive their rebellious teens, songs like London Calling and Rock The Casbah could easily be covered by the Script or the Killers now and go straight to the top. Covering or re-issuing the Sex Pistols wouldn't get a play anywhere in my opinion. They were of their time and that time has gone.

One of the best examples of how I liked music when I was younger is the Jam. I think I mentioned them earlier.
When you look at the early performances of the Jam, they are full of angry young man angst, and it kind of put me off them, but they changed slightly as I went through my teens and Jam/Style Council/Weller jumped to one of my favourite band/solos. Funny how the image can change your perception of the music.

I've never been frightened to go see whatever it is I want to see though, whether popular with my friends or not. I have tickets to see both Kylie and Shania Twain now.

Out of interest why did the "angry young man angst" put you off the Jam?

I just wrote a really long reply and then clicked on a pop up which lost my page. It was a masterpiece of writing that will be lost forever.

I can sum it up though by saying I was just not that kid. I was born in 68 so quite young as they built their rep through the 70s. I wanted to be John Travolta then rather the angry young man (the irony being that JT was an angry young man in his own right in SNF). I was the 'nice' kid not the rebellious kid.
In the 80s the revolution for me was all about the Miners Strike and Mandela and Live Aid. The music of change was much more mainstream in that time and although I was very engaged, I wasn't suffering from any of the issues at that time. I come from a mining background but my parents weren't in that industry at all, so I felt strongly about it but I wasn't affected by it.
I think music at that time was my escape rather than my voice of rebellion and the angry young man.

Looking back now, I can judge the music on it's merits so music I might have missed first time round like the Clash are at the top of my list now.

I have to say a good friend of mine who sadly passed away before his time used to do an excellent Weller on stage. He was the most unlikely guy to even sing along in a crowd but when pushed up front in the rugby club with his guitar to some strange maybe even patronising looks, he did 'Down At the Tube station' as well as I have ever heard it with all the relative passion and skill of Weller. People never looked at him the same. It's a great memory, so the Jam have a special place for me, even though I wasn't there at the beginning.

99 red balloons was a No1 during the strike just a bit of useless information

That's tickets sorted for Killing Joke!

UK Subs tonight! I know there's a game on but was pre-booked, thought it was all going great when the game was on Sunday as I'm in Leeds on the night for Gomez, hotel booked!

Please don't be messaging the score, will watch as soon as I get home.

Similar with me, booked tickets for the Angelic upstarts ages since, they then changed the day, Upstarts instead of Trin. Cel a vie.

Looking forward to Charlie and the boys covering some ABBA to celebrate them reforming