MUSIC MEMORIES: Young punks and the summer of '77

1: This photo of the angry young punk Simon Ellis (lead singer of Rotherham's very first punk band The Prams) was taken during Punk's summer of hate of 1977 in Rotherham town centre just across from the old Woolworth's store. That first full summer of Punk saw a handful of Rotherham teenagers swap their flares, heavy rock LP's and long hair for straight legs, zips, the Sex Pistols and short cropped hair. Amongst the very first of the local punk rockers were Simon Ellis, Julie Longden (who features on the front cover of the p'Out of Control'p book), Pete Weston, Kathy Williams, Tim Jones, John Flanagan, Tim Green, Bryan Bell, Ivor Hillman and a handful of others. The Rotherham Windmill, and before that Charades, were the in places and the local band was The Prams.

2: Julie Longden (short dark hair at front) and her punk friends 1977 in Woolworths' photo booth. Julie and her punk friends managed to follow and hang around with The Clash, Stranglers, Ian Dury, The Boys, The Adverts and many more bands of the time. Many of her previously unseen photos, along with her accounts can be seen in the books Out of Control and This is Our Generation Calling.

3: Rotherham Punk Tim Jones and the late Jo Brailsford at Rotherham fun fair- Winter 1977. A distinct Mod influence on Punk can be seen in this early photo. Both Tim and Jo later moved into a more Mod direction. Sadly Jo passed away in 2007 and is greatly missed by all of her friends and family.

4: Billy Idol in the bar area at the Windmill for his band Generation X's first nationwide tour which brought them to Rotherham. Billy Idol and the rest of the band mixed with the local punks before their set at the venue, chatting to Julie Longden and her friend Sharon. Billy didn't prove too popular with some of the local punks when he tried to drown out the support band (Sheffield Punk pioneers 2.3) with the jukebox. Earlier on, on trying to gain entry to the club, Billy arrived on his motorcycle and on attempting to gain entrance was told to get to the back of the queue by thegirlfriend of the promoter. There are more photos from this night in the book Out of Control: Punk Rock at the Rotherham Windmill and Doncaster Outlook.

5 The Prams at Old Hall Youth Club Rotherham for their first gig. Formed in 1977 almost at the start of punk, the original period of the Prams saw almost anyone wanting to get up on stage have a go with the band. They went through a sequence of lead singers finally settling on John Flanagan who sang on their only single, the post-punk cult favourite 'Modern Men' / 'Me'. Their ranks also included Johnny Brown who went on to play with Manchester faves The Fall for a short period, but played too fast for them to keep up! The history of The Prams, along with many rare photos, is documented in This is Our Generation Calling.

Were you a Rotherham punk? What was your favourite local band? Use the "write a comment" button to post your memories or click here to email.

MUSIC MEMORIES: punk girls, the boys from Bury and Jarvis Cocker.