
Mr. Rotten
I'm pretty sure this was the first photo I ever saw of Johnny Rotten. My friend Trixie came into homeroom and showed me a news article -- she'd clipped it to show me. Pretty sure I have the article plastered in a book somewhere. Around Dec '76 or Jan '77? I read the article, stared at the photo, then refused to give it back to her. Got told off by the teacher for wrestling over it. The rest of the school year was pretty much wasted on me.
She and I had already been hooked on old Who LP's -- and when the Ramones lp came out, we both went on an all-day mission to find our copies. Success!
So we were ready for The Pistols. There was an awesome newsagent in Evanston, IL who stocked PUNK. Seriously, the only one in town:

Wish I'd been the one to buy 'em. Read hers. :-(
I've checked my school diaries from '78-'81 and there are photos pasted in of The Clash on almost every other page for 2 years running. Wow. What an impression they made. I'm sure if I hadn't seen 'em live, I wouldn't have been so stuck on them for so long.
Funny, there aren't there any homework listings, but almost every show or gig I attended is marked in girlish handwriting. I love how many pictures I have of Blondie. And Mick Jones! I guess The Rose came out that year, huh?
Remember The Effigies? DV8? The Special Affect? Don't know why, but I had a habit of clipping the show ads from The Reader (Chicago) and pasting them in. At the time, it seemed like overkill, but now I'm glad I did it.
Thanks Dave for the trip down cloudy memory lane. Mel