Withdrawn, Condemned – A Childhood of Punk Rock Music and Railway Enthusiasm by Hugh Gadjit
Published by Shunt Limit
299 pages
Out Now
Hugh Gadjit takes us on an autobiographical journey through 70s youth culture running parallel to an obsession with trains and arriving at punk rock central. Probably the perfect book for rail punks, says Nathan Brown.
In this book, Hugh Gadjit starts off as a small child entranced by model rail, which develops into an obsession with a few remaining steam engines haunting the national network, rapidly transformed to a focus on the more ubiquitous diesel-electrics. He never loses his love for train sets. Meanwhile, on the other track, we have the development of popular culture for kids via comics, music and TV through the 1970s.
Trainspotting and punk? Is this a thing? You bet! First Blyth Power and then Eastfield have flown the flag for railpunk, Eastfield boasting an Urban Rail Punk t-shirt and incorporating the old BR logo double arrow into the cover of their most recent release. I think there may be more railpunks out there than Hugh reckons, who would totally understand “The Pistols badge jostling for space with enamel loco pins on my anorak”.
While I did have a train set as a small child (finding out from this text that the Lima engine I had was a bit cheap), I wasn’t into it enough to understand all the rolling stock nomenclature, but Hugh Gadjit’s writing is interesting enough and flows in such a way that it didn’t really matter. I understood. Similarly, technical details about trains beyond steam, electric and diesel went over my head, but I didn’t disengage with the book. Even a non-initiate like myself could feel the enthusiasm leap off the pages. His descriptions of locations – not just train stations – paint a vivid picture, e.g. the grim urban landscape of Portsmouth recounted thus “a small labyrinth of early seventies concrete…festooned with furtive graffiti (generally football-themed), and it reeked of stale alcohol and piss.” Man can write.
Starting before 1976, this is a journey through 70s youth culture with comedy records vying with glam rockers and ABBA for attention, TV shows aimed at children and mainstream comics getting upset by the soon-to-be-banned Action. Hugh’s obsession with Airfix and Star Wars figures soon waned when along came punk, but he never lost his love for trains.
Gadjit does a good job of describing the sometimes shocking and sometimes mundane way that punk managed to seep into the national consciousness and into the ears and brains of ordinary kids across the country, resulting in said kids talking about punk rock in the playground in the same way they discussed the 1978 World Cup (that’s how I recall it). We’re reminded of The Goodies doing their 1977 parody of punk and punk rockers featuring in teen mags as pin-up heartthrobs. 1978 saw Top Of The Pops appearances from new exciting punk bands from Rezillos to X-ray Spex, supplementing the Sex Pistols and The Damned. Siouxsie & The Banshees, Buzzcocks and Sham 69 singles were available in Woolworths next to the pick’n’mix. It also saw the launch of Smash Hits, which featured plenty of “new wave” artists. His first “real” punk single being Tommy Gun by The Clash, which triggers another obsession in young Hugh.
As the book cover indicates, everything really takes off in 1979. Sid Vicious dies, and Hugh finally gets a tape of Never Mind The Bollocks. He recounts the host of youth subcultures out on the streets and discovering a rich aural landscape including Generation X, SLF, 999, Adverts, Skids, The Members, Undertones, Penetration, The Ruts, UK Subs and Angelic Upstarts alongside the post-punk Joy Division and Tubeway Army, Motörhead (who straddled the punk-metal divide) and dub poet LKJ. He spends more time hovering over the record button to tape punk songs off the radio, and a schoolmate manages to get Friggin’ In the Rigging played in a school music class. He recounts how there were questions over the authenticity of punk acts and how some would be branded as posers. As the year ends, London Calling hits the streets, and Hugh is finally kitted out in DMs and Harringtons.
There comes a day when he has to consider his dual existence, viewing his display of punk rock posters alongside train spotter ephemera: “The juxtaposition of these viva le revolution punk rockers in full flight against a transport-tracker’s smorgasbord of diesel delights might have struck visitors as an odd one; the same thought was beginning to dawn on myself.” This tension occupies the latter part of the narrative, although by the end of the book, his love of trains and the spotting thereof has not waned.
This is an enjoyable read. If you’re not bothered about the trainspotting or train set aspect but love punk rock or even just enjoy people reminiscing about the 70s popular culture in general, Gadjit’s writing will be enough to win you over. For all you rail punks, it’s almost like the book was created with you in mind.
~
Words by Nathan Brown. You can read more from Nathan on his Louder Than War archive over here.
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