"His Master's Voice"
Halfmoon Theatre, Stepney Green - 1983
"Our hero sang in a band. It was the best thing he’d ever done. Then he got ‘spotted’. It was his big chance to be Rich and Famous. It was also when his troubles really began.
Punk arrived in ’76 to the horror of the press, the media, the record companies and (of course) the parents; and to the joy of the kids. For them punk summed up all the disgust and frustration they felt, growing up in a country that had stopped caring. At last they found they could hit back.
By the System wasn’t going to lie down and die. The record companies adapted – they absorbed and commercialised the threat. Everyone made a profit. Except the kids.
Jam-packed with songs ranging from the fifties to funk, from scat to punk David Anderson’s savagely funny show ripped the lid off the music business and reveled the hard truths that underlined the hype."
Special thanks to the Halfmoon Theatre for their help with this feature.