A BBC film currently available on iPlayer not only offers insight into local man Chris Packham's relationship with punk rock, but also offers fascinating glimpses of our area, including Midanbury and Southampton, in the 70s and beyond.
Packham pictured at Cobbett Road Library in 2015. Photo: bitternepark.info
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Now, more than 40 years on, as Chris goes to Buckingham Palace to receive a CBE for services to the environment, he asks himself if he has, over the years, turned into the type of 'establishment figure' that his 17 year-old self would have hated...
In a highly personal and revelatory film, Chris sets out to question both himself and other former punks who, like him, rocked against racism, fought for gay rights and caused their parents untold grief, to discover if the values they all believed in still hold true today and are still as relevant.
Chris meets some of the legends at the heart of the movement, like punk icon Jordan, who was known as punk’s first muse; artist Jamie Reid, who designed the Sex Pistols’ record covers; The Clash’s first drummer and now chiropractor Terry Chimes; chart-topping vicar Rev Richard Coles; and gay rights campaigner, now Radio 6 Music DJ, Tom Robinson.
He also meet Joe Talbot, the lead singer of Indie band Idles, at the famous punk venue the 100 Club and even hooks up with his own old punk band The Titanic Survivors, in a pub in Southampton. He left the band in 1978, but it reformed, and still plays some of the songs that Chris wrote.
Chris concludes that the spirit of punk perhaps lives on not just in the music but in the rebellious spirit of the young - and is still at the heart of many modern-day protests.
The film is available on iPlayer here for a limited period.