1976-1985 Tribal Gatherings The People's History of Pop

This programme contains some strong language

Pop music is the thing we've used to tell everyone what we believe in,

and who we are.

This is its story, told by those who love it the most...

The fans.

Fans from all over the country have been digging out and sharing with us

some of their most treasured, rare and personal memorabilia.

A video of a first gig, a special ticket, a teenage diary -

all precious and all with a wonderful story.

Look at this girl with her hair flying

and people with their fab clothes.

It wasn't just about good dancers, it was about fashionable people.

There were rich kids, there were poor kids, there were black kids,

there were white kids, there was everything in between.

And there was a truck outside

on which naked men were playing rock music.

And I thought, "Well, this is different."

So whether you're a fan of indie or acid house,

Northern Soul or hip-hop,

punk, prog or bluebeat, this is about us,

the people at the very heart of this thing called pop.

Tonight we're in a time when Britain was restless and angry,

when music got involved in passionate protest

and the high street filled with colourful factions of music lovers.

It says, "Off to Blitz Embassy Club, December 9th, 1981.

"Approved by Steve Strange."

'Everyone was forming bands. We made a band.'

He couldn't sing, I couldn't play bass.

Mods would never go to Grassroots - you would just be murdered.

'It's the decade I became part of it all by singing in my own band,

'The Selecter.'

So let's talk about how we got lost in music.

How we showed off our style.

How we chose our musical tribes.

1976 was a memorable year.

Like many of you, I expect, I remember the hot, hot summer.

I remember graduating as a qualified radiographer, and I remember

something else - an ever-changing soundtrack of great music.

That was the year I started my singing career.

I played folk hits by Bob Dylan and some Joan Armatrading,

here in the back room of the Old Dyers Arms,

dressed in a yellow linen shirt and brown dungarees.

I was utterly smitten by playing the music I loved,

and seduced by the stuff that spilled from my radio.

If you were a kid listening to the charts that year,

there was all sorts of new music to discover.

A-ha, now there's a treat.

For Kevin Sutherland, every day was a treat.

He would hear the latest stuff on Radio 1 and fantasise

about being a DJ in his own pop music world.

It's all recorded in his incredible picture diary.

I kept these from the age of 12 when I started it,

and I'm not that obsessive now, but clearly I was then.

There wasn't a day when I left the diary page incomplete.

What I did was I ended up recording my RFTDs or Records For The Day.

Radio 1 was where you heard everything and then

you memorised it, or in my case, made it your Record For The Day.

# I've got position, I've got the name

# You've got the power to drive me insane

# Let's get together, the two of us over a glass of champagne... #

This is the soundtrack of my youth and the soundtrack

of many people's youth.

If I've got one thing,

I've got populist tastes here that the teenage me

is clearly representing, much of which went into the charts,

all of which was played on Radio 1.

MUSIC: Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann's Earth Band

Roughly eight million of us tuned in to Radio 1 every Sunday

to hear what was a climber, dropping down, or a non-mover -

everything from pop to disco, rock and novelty records.

There you go, September 17th, 1976.

My records for the day -

Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann's Earth Band.

I've chosen that for the second time and I went on to buy

Blinded By The Light by Manfred Mann.

And Disco Duck by Rick Dees And His Cast Of Idiots.

# Look at me, I'm the disco duck... #

If you want to know what was happening in my world in 1976,

I can tell you on 14 October I had English, I had chemistry,

I had music, I had maths.

Oh, record for the day for the third time...

Couldn't Get It Right by the Climax Blues Band.

Now we're talking. That's an absolute corker.

Now there is me knowing a good bit of music,

thinking I knew a good bit of music, and actually being right.

# But I kept on looking for a sign in the middle of the night

# But I couldn't see the light

# No, I couldn't see the light

# I kept on looking for a way to take me through the night

# I couldn't get it right

# I couldn't get it right. #

Amongst this crazy variety of music, there were standout artists.

These were the titans of British rock,

but they were more Hollywood Hills than humdrum high street,

their lives, miles away from our own.

It seemed unlikely that any of them

would deign to come down from on high.

But, just occasionally, you'd get lucky.

So this is the campus of what was Shoreditch College

and I was a student here between 1974 and 1978.

At the end of my third year, we were due to have a ball.

Exams were over and it was time for us to let our hair down.

But then, on the day, disaster struck -

the headline act dropped out.

One of Ian's fellow students had the crazy idea of asking

their famous neighbour.

There was no formal announcement.

Nobody stood up and said there's been a change to the bill -

people were told to assemble here for ten o'clock.

MUSIC: Benny And The Jets by Elton John

This was all one large open space.

At that end there was a foot-high stage upon which stood

the grand piano.

And who was the piano for?

None other than Elton John.

Blimey. There was a sense of disbelief.

Elton started to do his solo renditions of all the hits and more.

We have photos from that evening.

That's a photograph of Elton playing the gig.

I think for that particular night, Elton had dressed down.

And people just went bonkers.

It was a very big moment.

It was great that Elton did the gig because, at that time,

the perception of rock stars was that they were aloof and elite.

'But Elton said that he would do the gig if we could get him

'two bottles of wine and a grand piano.'

It was just fantastic and a great, generous gesture.

What made Elton's guest appearance all the more amazing

was that most of our superstar bands now played mega gigs,

and kept a safe distance from the hordes who adored them.

And it all might have gone on like that if it hadn't been for chance.

On 1 December 1976,

a new video by one of those mega bands, Queen,

was due to be showcased on a London tea-time television show.

But it was pulled,

and a new band appeared instead.

I was at the family dinner table and a TV show came on and it turned out

it was the Bill Grundy show where the Sex Pistols were interviewed.

We'll meet afterwards, shall we?

You dirty bastard.

'It's now very famous for the amount of swearing and uproar that caused.'

-Go on, again.

-You dirty fucker.

-What a clever boy.

-What a fucking rotter.

Well, that's it for tonight.

I was immediately seduced, which is kind of odd because I didn't

even hear the music, I just saw

these strange-looking people

that looked a couple of years older

than I was, I suppose,

at the time, and I was just

'blown away by it.

'It just looked so fresh and exciting.'

# I'm on a submarine mission for you, baby

# I can't tell ya what I've found... #

Up until that appearance on the Today show, punk was underground.

Now, it was in your face.

We just made our own clothes and we just used to impress each other

every other day, "Look what I've just made."

'These horrendous shirts with blood splats over it.'

The sound, the look,

the attitude - this tribe was a two fingers up to the norm.

I remember seeing pictures of punks in newspapers

and being blown away, thinking, "Who are these people?"

I think the offensive gestures was basically causing a generation gap -

rather than just adopt your parents' attitudes or

your grandparents' attitudes, I did not want to carry over that old way.

You know, this is the new way.

I try so hard to be nice.

'I'd certainly flirted with a swastika very early on, until my mum'

actually burst into tears and we had a big talk afterwards.

I never wore one ever again.

# God save the Queen

# The fascist regime... #

The swastikas weren't that clever anyway.

It was punk's original aesthetic that remains inspirational.

# God save the Queen

# She ain't no human being... #

The huge fuss after the Today programme left

the Sex Pistols' Anarchy In The UK tour in tatters.

Nervous venues pulled the gigs and threw out the posters.

So if you were a gig promoter who had something from that time,

then you would have a rare piece of our musical history on your hands,

sought after by collectors.

Originally I ran the 400 club on a Tuesday night

as a small club sort of venue, 400 or 500 people in Torquay

and as you can see by that, the sort of bands we had on.

The Sex Pistols were booked.

And then of course that fateful television programme, Today,

with Bill Grundy...

Then it started to go wrong.

The owners of the 400 Ballroom, which I rented,

said, "We're afraid we're going to have to cancel that date

"because we've been told that if we put them on, the local authorities

"won't look favourably on the renewal of our entertainment licence."

But you were canny enough to keep all the memorabilia.

-Yeah.

-Tickets and hand bills.

And this is the contract,

Signed by Malcolm for 22nd December, the final date on the tour.

-So that's Malcolm McLaren's signature?

-Yes.

But this date never happened.

No, the whole tour collapsed by then.

But you have the posters.

I kept everything, yeah.

Look at that.

So you were not only going to get the Sex Pistols,

you were going to get the Dammed, you were going to get

Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers and you were going to get The Clash.

-Yeah.

-I mean this is just an absolute snapshot, isn't it,

of the bands that were around at that time

that really, really meant something.

# I got a feeling inside of me

# It's kind of strange

# Like a stormy sea

# I don't know why, I don't know why

# I guess these things have got to be... #

It's much sought after by music memorabilia people

because most people threw them away.

And if I was to ask you how much I would have to pay

for one of those posters, much would that cost?

A lot of money.

Spoken like a true promoter.

A poster like this could fetch about two grand,

because it comes from the very beginnings of punk.

At venues like the 400, you weren't sitting up in the gods

squinting to see your hero,

you could be a part of the excitement.

The first heady rush of punk kind of ended with the demise

of the Sex Pistols in 1978.

But Pistols fan Dene Stansall got a chance to be part of it

before it all imploded.

So what were you doing here with the Sex Pistols?

I was actually auditioning

to sing on their Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle album,

along with loads of other guys and girls all crammed in

to this theatre, all looking to have a part of the action.

Dene saved some very special mementos from the day

he spent singing with the Sex Pistols.

We came across these.

Steve Jones had a bit of passion for red jackets

so we kindly took on a very permanent loan.

These jackets -

these are ushers' jackets from this very theatre and Steve can

be seen wearing his in the film, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle.

This was an anarchic, slightly silly film being made at the same time

as the album, and Dene's own audition appears in it too.

# We couldn't play

# They called us foul-mouthed yobs... #

His movie stardom lasted all of two seconds.

I know that you've got one more thing.

And this is it.

This tambourine.

This was what I used when I sang with the Sex Pistols on stage.

It says on here, "Won't stretch or shrink,"

but Sid Vicious had different ideas,

and he got hold of it and put his fist clean through it.

That is absolutely amazing.

So Sid actually punched your tambourine.

-He did.

-Brilliant.

# And did it my way... #

At the end of the film,

Sid Vicious shoots at an audience of establishment figures.

But while this image of punk as an anarchist rebellion was a bit

over the top, there was a pop music protest under way that was getting

properly political.

By the late 1970s, right-wing groups were marching against immigration in

the streets of British cities, often clashing with left-wing protesters.

In 1976, I was shocked when it was reported that Eric Clapton,

one of Britain's biggest rock stars, had given an extraordinary rant

against immigrants at one of his gigs.

A bunch of activists and musicians were similarly appalled

at Clapton's comments and wrote a public letter.

"Rock was and still can be a real progressive culture.

"Keep the faith.

"Black and white unite and fight.

"We want to organise a rank and file movement against

"the racist poison in rock music."

Now that's what I call a manifesto.

They formed Rock Against Racism, and in 1978 they put on 300 gigs

and five carnivals across the country.

The box is something...

It's full of stuff that I collected 30-odd years ago.

Pervez has saved gig posters and pamphlets from a time when

he was inspired by music to get out on the street and shout

for what he believed in.

He went to Rock Against Racism's first carnival

in London's Victoria Park.

This is probably, as far as fandom is concerned...

It encapsulates everything because we gathered at Trafalgar Square,

we marched to Victoria Park, and you saw X-Ray Spex, Steel Pulse,

Tom Robinson and The Clash.

What more do you want?

MUSIC: Ain't Gonna Take It by Tom Robinson Band

'Growing up from the time I came in 1965 to the mid-'70s,

'I think it was a pretty bleak time.'

We were aliens here, and something had to change.

So Pervez and his mates formed a band, Alien Kulture.

INDISTINCT

This was filmed by my brother Imran.

He was quite into cameras at the time and he filmed this.

The sound quality is poor, the picture is poor,

the music is poor, nothing great about it.

# Bullshit detector... #

That's Garageland.

We always did Garageland.

That's the amazing thing - imagine that, a Pakistani punk band

with a skinhead onstage singing along because he feels like it.

He wasn't a proper skinhead.

I know, but don't tell anybody that.

Rock Against Racism, from our perspective with our interest

in music and our interest in politics - it was a perfect fusion.

The boys self-financed their own single and decided to sing

about the things that mattered to them.

'We did read the NME, we did go to gigs, we did go to the mosque,'

we did read the Koran. Two cultures, you're stuck in the middle -

which one do you turn to?

At times you turn to one,

at times you turn to the other,

'and sometimes you turn to both.'

For good lefties like me, did I want to be

in a band doing left-wing protest songs with a punk bent?

Oh, go on, then.

I'll give it a whirl.

But there was so much positivity around that whole time.

This was a time when pop had the power to really get

to the heart of the things that we felt strongly about.

By the late 1970s, a generation of young black kids was growing up,

feeling that they were being treated like outsiders in their own home.

A new music made by,

and for, this generation was expressing the frustration -

British roots reggae.

For DJ Empress growing up in Handsworth, Birmingham,

one album by a local band was the most important she ever bought.

I'm holding an album by Steel Pulse,

it's called Handsworth Revolution.

It's the first album I ever bought

when I was back in my teens.

We're inside Handsworth leisure centre.

This is the room where we used to come in to have dances.

'The bass boxes would be quite big, they'd be situated in the corners.

'You just rocked to the music.

'It would be dark in here, you'd just see the silhouettes of people.'

But the atmosphere was great, there was never any trouble.

Roots came out of Jamaica, and was a different sound for

a different time, with a heavy drum and bass

and lyrics about black heritage.

'That is my passion, roots music.'

The drums go back to slavery days and that's how people kept

themselves entertained back then.

So, yes, it's always the drum, the bass, is the music.

'I am from Handsworth so this album was very significant to me.'

My favourite track on the album is called Ku Klux Klan

and for me that really draws out what was going on at the time.

# Walking along just kicking stones

# Minding my own business

# I come face to face with my foe

# Disguised in violence from head to toe

-# I holla and I bawl

-Ku Klux Klan

-# But dem naw let me go now

-The Ku Klux Klan... #

'There were young black men,'

they experienced the most racism, I would say, and it was the men

that were always stopped on the street for no reason at all.

'And so they sang about those experiences

'and a lot of people would recognise what they were talking about

'and had been through it, and so they would buy the music.

'Growing up as a teenager,'

your choice of music is very different from your parents.

And it was a different thing, it was new.

'My parents' generation didn't identify with that type of music

'at the time. it was just too hard-core for them.'

MUSIC: I A Rebel Soul by Aswad

Hard-core and defiantly British.

They're good cos they're different. Usually all of them

come from Jamaica and stuff, this one is just local.

And it would be nice if we could say they're our group in a way

when all the rest are from Jamaica.

The discontent in Britain's black communities had a big effect

on a band I think were the best to come out of punk -

The Clash.

They fused the rawness of punk with reggae rhythms.

# Midnight to six man

# For the first time from Jamaica

# Dillinger and Leroy Smart

# Delroy Wilson, your cool operator... #

Our band thought that The Clash was the bee's knees of all punk bands.

We had their album, London Calling,

on heavy rotation in our tour bus all the time.

I'm about to meet somebody who has something special from

The Clash's own tour just before London Calling was released.

In 1979, the band went off on a breakthrough tour of America,

and in the summer they took artist Ray Lowry with them

to capture their performances.

My father Ray Lowry was an absolutely huge fan of The Clash

and he'd tell me little stories

about being at the side of the stage

doing these paintings,

and these are his sketch books that he took with him.

So he drew direct from life?

He didn't take any photos, he'd just sketch them at the gig and then

go back to his hotel room and put the colour in.

And as you can see, he was asked by Joe Strummer

to go as the war artist.

Is that what he said, war artist?

-Yes.

-Who came up with that phrase?

It was Joe Strummer's name for my father.

War artist, yeah.

I think he identified in what The Clash were doing,

something that really made a connection with

the early days of rock and roll that excited him.

You can see his excitement in the drawings. You really get a sense

of the pose and the action and the liveliness.

MUSIC: Clampdown by The Clash

They're full of energy, aren't they?

Yes, and very identifiably members of The Clash - Joe Strummer there,

you can see his trembling leg he always had when he was on stage.

As I grew older, I then became myself

a Clash fan and I'd sit there in the back room listening to my vinyl.

On one side he was the artist and on the other side he was my father.

So that makes me proud, very proud.

# The sun is zooming in, meltdown expected,

# The wheat is growing thin, a nuclear error

# But I have no fear

# London is drowning, and I live by the river... #

There's actually a quote in here that I think just captures the whole

moment and the whole movement of what The Clash was doing

that my dad got down on paper.

He says, "They look like the kind of awe-inspiring culture heroes

"who haunted the troubled skies of my adolescence.

"America is being reminded of how rock and roll looks

"as well as how it should sound."

That's wonderful.

The Clash were mixing styles from all over, whether it was reggae or

rock and roll, to forge an identity as the ultimate rebel rockers.

They were soundtracking the Britain of 1979,

and it was a nation divided,

between left and right, workers and their bosses, rich and poor.

And our music, too, was shattering

into sometimes antagonistic factions.

MUSIC: Do The Dog by The Specials

Among them a gang reviving the spirit of the '60s originals.

MUSIC: When You're Young by The Jam

Friends Claire and Mike met on the Cardiff mod scene.

'We'd meet in all these places'

that culminate together -

you had punks, you had skinheads,

you had mods, all separate,

all went to different places.

These are some of my original patches that I used to wear

on my jacket, on my parka.

And this is the prize possession really, this is my collection of

Jam singles which I have carefully listed in order of release

up to Beat Surrender which was the last one.

All this collecting of things and documenting things is quite

normal for kind of mod people.

It kind of appeals to our kind of OCD tendencies if you like.

-We are a bit OCD.

-Oh, yeah.

It was our interpretation of what we thought had gone before -

the clothes, the sharpness, the style,

everything about it really, I think just really connected.

If you saw someone dressed in a parka,

or dressed as a mod walking down the road,

you'd give them a nod, and as a teenager,

as a mixed up 14-year-old, that was very,

very reassuring to feel that you were part of something and belonged.

An acknowledgement, isn't it?

In their neat jackets and spotless shoes,

these kids wouldn't have been seen dead next to a certain group

of scruffy long-haired types, into altogether wilder music.

Iron Maiden at Middlesbrough Town Hall, 1981,

and some T-shirts as well.

Satan from the Holland tour.

The Anthem, Holocaust, Heavy Metal Mania.

"I've got heavy metal music in my blood and I'd like to get it to you if I could."

These groups were part of what was called the new wave

of British heavy metal.

I think in terms of the whole excitement of being part of

that scene, particularly from a fashion point of view,

there was a whole new dress code that seemed to emerge as well.

People would spend evenings sewing dozens and dozens of patches

on their jackets and whilst I never thought of myself as dressing

as being part of a tribe, I suppose looking back now...

500 or 1,000 young lads at a gig all dressed the same and all

head-banging at the front of the stage, it was a very exciting time.

Tribes got so specific that there was even a following

for just one bloke.

# Now the light fades out

# And I wonder what I'm doing In a room like this

# There's a knock on the door

# And just for a second I thought I remembered you... #

Here's is one of me, I think I was aged 16.

It's your basic Numanoid look, haircut the same style

as Gary Numan's, and dressed in black which is the uniform.

# So now I'm alone

# Now I can think for myself... #

When Tubeway Army appeared on Top Of The Pops, I was like,

"Wow, what is this?"

It was kind of powerful but very cold, very alien,

otherworldly and it was just so striking.

I just thought, "This is for me, I like this."

It turned out that there was kind of like this subculture in town

that was developing and all these tribes were going to come together.

So you had punks in there, skinheads, but it was good because

you had like a big tribe with all these mini sub-tribes in.

Punk probably brought the tribe thing out -

I don't think there was ever anyone saying there was tribes

of glam rockers.

MUSIC: Emergency by 999

But wearing your allegiances on your sleeve could be dangerous

out on the street.

Mods would never go to Grassroots down in Charles Street.

You would just be murdered.

I think mods are jolly silly people.

I can't actually say I ever took any really bad beatings.

A lot of it was comments. I had a few headbutts and stuff at school.

But I went to school with red and black hair and eyeliner on

and black nail varnish and fishnet socks.

You don't come here to stir anything up?

No, the Teddy boys always start on us and we steam into them.

I think the interesting thing about heavy metal fans,

and certainly the new wave of British heavy metal fans,

'is that despite the sort of raucous and violent nature

'of the music at times,'

the people who listen to it and go and see it themselves

are generally quite sort of gentle in nature.

If it gets messy, someone throws a beer over you, you don't have an

argument, you just say, "OK, sorry about that, I'll buy you a pint."

Up in Coventry, a new musical movement burst onto the scene

that was hoping to unite the kids

and instead of fighting in the streets,

get everyone dancing together.

# Stop your messing around

# Better think of your future... #

The Specials fused ska from the '60s, punk rock

and a mod look all into one genre named after their label, 2 Tone.

The first album I bought was this one, The Specials' debut.

I'd been saving up for weeks.

Held together by Scotch tape now, you know.

It struck a chord with me because the original ska,

which I'd heard growing up also struck a chord with me but this was

different, it was like the next thing was to emulate the look.

MUSIC: Rude Boys Outta Jail by The Specials

This is me at the age of 15,

dressed in the style, my Crombie on.

I used to sometimes carry the albums to school,

they were like badges of honour.

I'd been into punk but stopped short of adopting the look.

I'd liked reggae but couldn't locks my hair up.

'But this definitely felt like this was something

'that I could relate to.'

# I have to carry a knife

# Because there's people threatening my life

# I can't dress just the way I want

# I'm being chased by the National Front

# Concrete jungle... #

'The funny thing with 2 Tone is that, as upbeat at as was,

'when you actually read the lyrics,

'they're talking about serious issues.

'I zoned in on that but I liked the fact that they were a mixed band.'

It just made it like this is something that your white mates

as well as your black mates can relate to.

The Specials were a bit special for me too - they put out

our first record.

2 Tone was where I found my musical home.

-# Too much pressure,

-It's getting to my head

-# Too much pressure,

-They're giving me hard times

-# Too much pressure,

-The woman made me sad

# Too much pressure... #

When 2 Tone turned up in Coventry, I felt an instant connection.

The mashup of black and white British cultures

captured something that I felt inside.

But back then there wasn't time to stop and reflect,

it was a time of constant reinvention.

In 1980 we went on tour to America.

We were only gone for six weeks, but by the time we got back

there was a whole new thing happening.

To outsiders, or their more politically active contemporaries,

this set, bent on enjoying themselves,

seems scandalously decadent.

I'd returned to find a colourful new tribe had sprung up

accompanied by some extraordinary looks.

This was being called New Romantic.

It started in clubs in London and Birmingham,

but the frilly shirts and flamboyance soon spread.

I'm unemployed.

How easy is that to carry on the look when you haven't got any money?

Not very easy. I usually go around second-hand shops and pick up what I can.

For the New Romantic, it was all about looking unique.

Some were lucky enough to make the pilgrimage

to the original clubs, to dance the night away to new synthy sounds.

The most famous was the Blitz.

Sorry, you're not blonde enough.

Its door policy, enforced by Steve Strange,

was so strict that most of us could only dream of getting inside.

And there's one of me in all my glory.

It says, "Off to Blitz Embassy Club, December 9th, 1981.

"Approved by Steve Strange."

Penny Pepper still has her diary entry from one magical night

with Steve Strange

and the Blitz Kids.

"A dazzle of lights and blaring music hit our ears with beautiful assault.

"I took in the decadent

"appearance of all these young men

"striding about with their lithe, quivering thighs

"thrust through tight white shorts.

"It was erotically weird,

"but who's complaining?

"I can't describe the clothes, they were just amazing.

"There wasn't one singular theme at all, really.

"It was brilliant."

Back into the archive.

This is quite funny.

Look at that one.

Penny had written to a teen magazine to ask for help to get

all the way from her home in Buckinghamshire to glamorous London.

I can't really express how much of a leap into the unknown it was.

I was fighting against incredible barriers to just stand

and participate in everyday life.

It felt like a culmination of so much of what I'd missed.

As it turned out, it was a highlight

in quite a few years of dry boredom.

To go out to see these people all dressed up like peacocks,

it was fun, it was trashy.

We didn't care that this didn't have any serious politics.

It was all surface showing off and we were just in our element

for that one shiny night.

-ALL:

-# Please, please tell me now... #

-Are you all deaf?

-No!

You will be by the time you've finished.

We don't care!

Out of this club scene came a host of pop bands - Spandau Ballet,

Culture Club and, from Birmingham, Duran Duran.

If there was a message, it was pure pop escapism.

# I made a break I run out yesterday

# Tried to find my mountain hideaway

# Maybe next year maybe no go... #

Alex Mayes is reverend of the Kerry parish in mid Wales

and still a die-hard Durannie.

This is my sister, the one that you see mostly, and I'm the other one.

I've got a pink Duran Duran T-shirt on,

but we used to wear these constantly everywhere we'd go.

I think Mum used to have to keep washing them and we'd have them

back on again and stuff like that.

Her fiance George wouldn't have been seen dead in such a thing.

This is a Dammed badge, I'm a big Dammed fan.

This is an original Public Image Ltd badge from 1979.

This is when I was about 19, so you can see the start

of the handsome beast you see before you.

We hate each other's music taste.

When I first found out that he'd been in punk bands

then he played some of the vinyl, I was just like, "This isn't music,

"there's not even a tune here."

There's an almost religious divide in music tastes between these two.

I know as well as them that whatever tribe you were into back then

is something you carry with you all your life.

Duran Duran was a proper band.

The music was just so catchy.

The lyrics were great.

I think I've actually got here...

Can you just pass me my Rio album?

Oh, really?

This is the original one I have.

We used to listen to it so often that the words would actually overtake,

then we'd kind of underline all the words that really

meant something to us at the time.

They probably don't mean anything now, do they?

They didn't at the time.

Bird of paradise - I love the fact that I underlined ice cream,

cherry ice cream,

it's one of the most famous lyrics they've got.

# Cherry ice cream smile I suppose it's very nice... #

So their lyrics I think were outstanding.

Obviously the picture is the best part,

because Duran Duran were all about style and all about looks.

They generally had suits, Armani suits and things like that,

so Roger looks amazing in this electric blue suit

which I think really suits him. Yeah.

SCREAMING

The mayhem and the screams - it all brought back memories

of the Bay City Rollers and the Beatles.

Pop stars were once again the stuff of adolescent fantasy.

What's so good about these guys?

THEY SCREAM

It wasn't just the band and the music that was attractive,

it was the lifestyle.

I was what you would think of as being middle class

and we had everything.

We were probably what the '80s aimed people to be.

People do say about the flash videos and all the rest of it,

but when you're very young,

and you look at that and take it as, "I want to be able to go abroad,

"I want to be able to have a lovely car and do everything they can do."

And so for me, Duran Duran had that.

That era really epitomised going out and grabbing life and doing

whatever you want to do in life.

But while Duran Duran captured the spirit of those who felt

there was an opportunity to grab,

there were other voices who didn't buy into that vision.

We feel that the music should be used in order to make

serious statements,

because so many groups sell masses and masses of records

and don't raise people's level of consciousness

in any direction,

and we find that quite sinful.

MUSIC: This Charming Man by The Smiths

The Smiths' thoughtful songs spoke to those teens who felt

a bit out of step with the world.

Being the strange one, being left out.

I think this is one of my German covered vinyls.

So that is a complete fluke.

Angie Cooke got hooked on The Smiths while on a YTS scheme.

She has amassed a huge collection of Smiths records and memorabilia.

Delve in the pile.

I bought this when I was 16, sat and listened to it

at the dining room table with my headphones on,

and basically changed as a person before my family's very eyes.

# When you walk without ease

# On these

# Streets where you were raised... #

They're just great lyrics, some of them are really funny,

some of the songs are really poignant,

some of them are daft and make you smile, some of them make me cry.

I was a very unsure person when I got into The Smiths,

but they helped me rediscover my confidence.

It was quite unusual for someone like me, a black girl,

to be into them,

as far as I'm aware.

Because I loved them that much, I was never going to back down

from that and that made me far more assertive and confident in myself.

That new-found confidence opened up a world of possibilities

for Angie that changed her life.

I just didn't think I was very intelligent at all.

I didn't do that well at school, but once I got into The Smiths

I thought, "I'm going to see if I can get in to further education,"

which I did.

And then I thought maybe I could go a bit further and that's when

I applied to go to university.

And obviously that worked out really well and I got to move

to Manchester and that's all because of The Smiths.

Morrissey's appeal was in the intimacy

of the connection he generated.

If you were at a gig,

it wasn't unusual to rush up on stage to hug him.

Friends Raju and Sultana jumped on to the stage at a memorable gig

at Dingwall's in London.

For Raju, getting this close to a star was more special than for most.

For us, coming here was like

crossing a threshold.

In the Asian community, you grew up

listening to Bollywood music or film music.

And Top Of The Pops... My father never had a telly.

My father was deaf and blind so never had a telly,

and I used to go down Bethnal Green Road

on a Thursday night, and they used to have the TV rental shops,

and I used to stand outside looking at Top Of The Pops.

I never heard it.

And once there, he grabbed something he's treasured ever since,

and, no, it's not Morrissey.

I used to collect the set list.

And this is it.

This is the original Dingwalls set list for The Smiths,

their last two gigs at Dingwalls.

So I got them to autograph it.

"Raju, stay handsome. Morrissey, The Smiths, '83."

"For handsome Raju, Johnny Marr."

-Blimey.

-HE LAUGHS

Raju and Sultana decided they had to meet them again,

and went to see The Smiths at a festival in 1984.

I somehow managed to sneak into their dressing room after the gig.

Off the top of my head, I can't remember,

but I must have blagged my way in and said, "I work here,"

or something.

HE LAUGHS

There's Morrissey with his hearing aid.

And I was too shocked, you know,

at last, I'm having a picture taken with somebody famous.

But I got Morrissey to, obviously, give me a signature,

and then when I took a couple of pictures of Johnny Marr,

he recognised me from Dingwalls.

And my jaw just dropped, you know.

I said, "Sultana! They remember us!"

-Yeah!

-And I was just so emotional.

-It was...

-It was just amazing, yeah.

MUSIC: Rock the Casbah by The Clash

The bands we loved in early '80s Britain gave us more than music.

They give us a gang to belong to, and something to believe in.

For me, the band that got me dancing and thinking were The Clash.

# Rock the Casbah

# Rock the Casbah

# Shareef don't like it... #

Us fans had listened to them evolve musically,

but never lose their faith in rock 'n' roll's ability

to capture hearts and change minds.

# By order of the prophet... #

The last great album, Combat Rock, fused the vitality

of their punk roots with the new musical energy of the '80s.

Fellow Clash fan, Robert Gordon McHarg,

has a precious insight into how their legendary frontman,

Joe Strummer, created their explosion of lyrics and music -

Strummer's notebooks, from his personal archive.

It really is a fascinating amount of...

-history.

-Yes.

And so, as a fan myself, finding it was a bit like the Holy Grail.

This is the notebook for the Combat Rock album.

Just the cover gives such great insight into, actually,

what the album is, with these things like "rap beat"...

"Punk, burning bush"...

So all of those influences, then, all coming together, then.

-Even more so, like they've outgrown punk, almost.

-Oh, yeah.

This book in particular,

it's just stunningly full.

This is a public service announcement!

This is Know Your Rights, I love this bit.

"Voice effect like God talking."

Yes, it's fantastic.

# Know your rights

# All three of them... #

This is like the early workings of Know Your Rights.

I find this very interesting, because it has so many lines

that aren't in the version that they used on the final album.

I also found this interesting,

cos they were obviously working out what to put on the album.

And there was five extra songs.

So, all of this is just, like,

-an insight into the inner workings of Joe Strummer's mind.

-Oh, yeah.

And then, Joe's also kept a timeline

of when they've actually started off the recordings.

You know, "Started at 3pm. Stopped at 11.30.

"Started at 6pm. Quit at 7am."

It just shows, like, a document seems to hold

so much more than the actual writing of the songs.

MUSIC: Overpowered By Funk by The Clash

# If you ain't reggae for it

# Funk out... #

It's fascinating to see how The Clash worked,

and how Joe got his message across in his lyrics and music.

I share with Gordon a real admiration

for what the band were doing.

I think they were always, like, leading the way. They were that...

"Let's have a better world, and we can do it through music,

"or we can at least do it through action."

# Asinine

# Stupefying

# Can the clone-line dry you out? #

This had been at the heart of The Clash's ethos since '76.

But the pop world had bloated since then.

Mainstream music of the '80s seemed to be more focused on fashion

and fun than on saving the world.

# Funk out

# Funk out! #

In 1984, one tragedy and one inspired pop star

would wake us up from our hedonistic haze.

In Ethiopia, seven million people are threatened by starvation.

Thousands have already died.

Dawn, and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night

on the plain outside Korem, it lights up a biblical famine,

now, in the 20th century.

I...

I was just watching that Ethiopian thing, this...

I think this is gross after coming out, after seeing that.

-Oh, yeah.

-I'm serious.

MUSIC: Do They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid

# Feed the world... #

Bob Geldof was serious, and he acted on it.

He organised a charity single with big '80s pop stars

to raise money for the famine.

# Feed the world

# Let them know it's Christmas time

# Feed the world... #

Then, in 1985, they put on the greatest show on Earth.

# Feed the world. #

When the acts started to come through, you know, The Who,

Queen, Bowie, Paul McCartney, I thought, "I've got to go."

MUSIC: We Will Rock You by Queen

Lee was one of tens of thousands who queued up all night for a ticket.

This is the famous ticket. It's got bits of Sellotape and stuff on it.

It's over 30 years old now.

But I've always had to get it out if people have asked,

cos this is the ticket that they want to see.

It was quite a lot of money, £25,

that was probably three quarters of what I was earning a week, then.

But then, when we bought the tickets,

we knew that money will be going to help them as well, help the famine.

So it was all good, in that respect.

MUSIC: Dancing With Tears In My Eyes by Ultravox

And it was just, like, sort of World Cup fever.

The atmosphere just increased and intensified till we

got through the gate, and then it was something else.

# Drink to forget the coming storm

# We love to the sound of our favourite song... #

And this was programme that you bought.

It was £5.

So the cause was the underlying thing about it all.

On the day, you did know you were doing good as well,

and it did make you feel quite proud of yourself

that you'd bought the ticket and made the effort and gone there,

and hoping it was sort of escalating around the world.

So, yeah, I think we were all involved in that.

Lee was a 19-year-old Queen fan from Sussex.

And at Live Aid, he joined Duran Duran fans,

Bowie kids, U2 fans,

and 72,000 other pop lovers who had perhaps never been that radical

or political before.

And yet, through music, had been united in a common cause.

This was the power of pop.

I find it incredible that the sort of...

The mass of people probably feel that something should be done,

yet their own governments just don't do anything.

As time has gone on, people always ask me what it was like.

We thought we could change the world, then.

I think it was a part of history, music history especially.

For one moment in 1985,

it really did seem like music could make a difference.

It wouldn't just shape our personal identities,

it would change the lives of others.

MUSIC: Dance Hall Days by Wang Chung

Live Aid took the restless spirit of the late '70s,

collided it with our worship of teen heroes...

..and for a brief moment, made out of all of us pop revolutionaries.

For us pop fans, it was liberating times.

But it wasn't all sweetness and light.

Sometimes, the politics and the punch-ups could get a bit heavy.

But, without our passion and without our tribes,

British culture wouldn't be what it is today.

And we wouldn't be the people we are.

# When I, you

# And everyone we knew

# Could believe, do

# And share in what was true

# I said

# Dance hall days, love

# Dance hall days, love. #