Punk: The Whole Story
Compiled by Mojo Magazine
Dorling Kindersley, 2006
228 pages, illustrated
rrp $59.95


To get straight to the point, it really seems something of a contradiction to try to summarise punk in a glossy coffee table book. And while editor-in-chief Mark Blake claims that the book's compilers have tried to draw on primary sources, as often as not that actually means interviews culled from the Mojo and Q Magazine archives. So while the words may have come from those who were there, it seems that they were often uttered well after the fact.

Compounding this, the book's format dictates that the saga is delivered as a pictorial feast. Of course in depicting a culture for which the visuals are often almost as central as the music, this is not at all unrealistic. The problem, however, is more to do with the manner of presentation, which seems more in keeping with an introductory hobbyist scrapbook. Band featurettes are interspersed with recurring sections detailing 'The Look', 'The Shots' and lists of albums and singles, as well as essays on venues, merchandise and fanzines. In short, it's just all too... nice and the net effect feels like a sad diminution of the power of many of these iconic images.

On the positive side, a lot of the articles here do make for interesting reading. While the main focus is on the British explosion of 1976-77 (Sex Pistols, The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Stranglers etc), there are also pieces on US proponents such as the Stooges, Ramones, New York Dolls, Television and Black Flag, as well as the editors' clear pick for current flag-bearers, Green Day.

It's fair to say that millions of words have been written about punk, and pretty as this book is, it doesn't exactly come across as an essential contribution to the literature. The fact that the book's Foreword is contributed by lightweight Debbie Harry and Afterword from disgraced Sex Pistol's svengali, Malcolm McLaren (unsurprisingly, taking credit for everything), says it all really.

So I guess if you're in the market for a comparatively undemanding read with lots of pictures (or just want to marvel at the alarming resemblance shared by Joey Ramone and Patti Smith, then 'Punk: The Whole Story' could be for you.

However, if you're genuinely interested in something a bit more substantial, you might want to spend your hard-earneds on a copy of Jon Savage's 'England's Dreaming' instead.

Jeremy Reglar