Punk: The Original By Punk Magazine

Richard Hell and the Voidoids’ Blank Generation is an iconic album that has influenced countless rock bands with its image, its attitude, and its blistering performances. Released in 1977 on Sire Records, the album was received ecstatically by critics such as Lester Bangs and the New York Times’ Robert Palmer (who called it one of the ten best albums of the decade), but as was the case with most original “punk” albums, it wouldn’t get mainstream recognition for decades. Now its place in music history is secure as one of punk’s most significant records. Recently, Rolling Stone magazine lauded Blank Generation as one of the “40 Greatest Punk Albums of All Time,” giving the innovative and literate band its well deserved credit on the cusp of its 40th anniversary.

The post punk explosion of the late 1970’s/early 1980’s is regarded as one of the most exciting periods of music making explorations in Bristol. The period is now being revisited, seen as being even more relevant to do so as there is the 2020’s surge of new acts reviving and mining the seam of the genre. Fast forward nearly half a century (gulp!) from that first post punk period and the ever-active chroniclers of West Country musical history, Bristol Archive Records, have focussed on this heady epoch with ‘The Bristol Post Punk Explosion (1978-82)’ compilation release, out on vinyl and digital.