I was still in middle school, in Italy, and Bowie posters splattered my bed room walls.. Sunday lunchtime tv those days showed a cool music show, and that s where I saw all the first british punk invasion of '77. I saw the Sex Pistols... They made sense to me!!!!Weeks later I gave myself a spiky haircut.. that caused ongoing family fights..if I had gone out naked it would have caused less of a shock...people was rude and nasty.. then I bought the S Pistols lp at the local department store, ( true, you could get punk records easily then) and the Ramones.. Bowie has gathered dust ever since...a few years later there were 5 of us in the city, and a punk band, still active to this day.. I got a bass....as my punk mates started to lean towards new wave, I met up with new punks, and now it s 1984 I think, and hardcore is HUGE, and a punk club opens in the nearby city, and that s where I ended up hanging out all the time. Saw bands from all over the world in that epic place. And I was with likeminded friends at last. I saw DIY in action when it didn t have a name. I never found so much comraderie. We are still in touch. All of us. It s a strong and secret legacy,kinda feels as if we did fight at war together , and in a way we did. And it was magic, just being a part. I was the only deviant and then suddenly there are more, and we re a family, and I m not a deviant anymore, I'm a superhero. Punk is self empowering. There are great punk bands today that I know thanks to my younger friends. They are super heroes, too. Punk is good for them And beware, there could be an angry young punk behind any lovedoll, nerd, or mentally retarded looking type...