punk caught my attention in 77 because it had a political edge i could relate to, it had a healthy distrust of everything in authority, it had an interesting allegiance with reggae music and it was energetically charged for changing everything, for the first time london was exciting, exploding with creative energy and vital. it didn't last and like the clash say, it was not long before someone turned rebellion into money but by then the cat was out the bag and the idea was seeded in many a young punks mind. bands formed with cheap electric guitars that were never tuned correctly, garages were filled with adolescent dreams, the record companies had no idea anymore. what was good. what would be a hit? what bands should they sign up? bands became random, many died an honourable indie death and some went on to become awesome, the stranglers, the clash, the psychedelic furs, the sound, alternative tv, magazine, the only ones, the au pairs, buzzcocks, slits, the pop group, x ray specs and the banshees. many bands just fell to the wayside but some became very interesting and really bloomed in the post punk years. i enjoyed the music of the post punk period but the energy had changed as thatchers influence strangled us all. 

in london everything was charged with an angry energy of youth, it was our time and we were not interested in hippie feel good words of peace and love as they became the very thing they protested about,   the establishment. we wanted to tear everything down and start again. destroy every column that it stood upon and lets take it from there. kinda stupid when you think about it as an older man but at the time it was easy to get disillusioned with thatchers plans. back then the left meant something, the left wing cared about people no matter who they were, the left wing was against censorship and supported the arts and also supported equality and fairness, workers rights and all that jazz. (nowadays the left are the fucking right with their overwhelming love of bureaucracy and controlling everything we think)

was it destructive, yes, it was. the punk movement said we don't need a fucking corporation distributing our records, printing our news, dictating our fashion, telling us what to be, we can do that all ourselves. we can just be ourselves. punk was about intent. 

it spawned magazine's newspapers, ideas, new forms of writing, photography and design, fashion, tv shows, hair cuts, politics, self identification, philosophy and music. seeing xtc with barry andrews at st albans club was no ordinary concert experience, it was like being in the centre of the atom watching it explode. seeing the clash play was a inspirational moment of what could be done with three chords and the truth, seeing the ruts break into a reggae song halfway through their set showed what rebel music really was. it was a great time to be in london. 

but while all that was going on bowie was in berlin recording with iggy. it was low that was released first. the idiot and low were embraced by the punk movement, bowie had a free pass which he had worked hard for and amongst my peers was respected and valued as beyond the industry of pop music, he was a serious artist and punk loved him. iggy was also embraced by the punk movement, many call him the godfather of punk but i didn't, i just saw him as a rocker from detroit who worked with bowie on raw power and now they had influenced one another through berlin, working on the idiot and low together with similar musicians and tony visconti as producer. despite the bones being worked on in switzerland and france these albums reeked of a west berlin influence where the seed was germinated. i'd always loved bowie and iggy's presence together and their influence created something quite different. a third current of creativity which felt origional. 
when i heard these two albums i was convinced this was the future. punk came and went very fast, it was dead in london by the time it hit america. punk was never a single sound or statement, it was an art movement, a do it yourself attitude. artists don't need masses of money or record companies or big publishers, you could do it in a garage, put it out on cassette, zerox machine your book or just dye your hair purple and make a statement. there was no intellectual philosophy, no wanking on about anything, it was classless and multidisciplinary, made by the people for the people with brains and the people of this age, they all loved bowie. 
back in new york there was talking heads, the ramonnes, television and patti smith whom embodied punk and though they extended influence to the uk in london punk was now dead.

but this new music had come now, it was impressionistic, hard almost industrial sounding, and the drums sounded weird. 
lyrically i think bowie borrowed from iggy stylistically at least, short phrases often made up on the spot. both albums were incredible. 
i was working in london, in a punk shop on covent garden. boy george owned a shop next door and i'd see him often ordering his tea. he was always wearing a big white gown and had make up on his face. one day he dropped all his lyrics and i helped him pick them up. around this time carnaby street was filled with characters, i'd have to stand outside the shop amongst all the clothes spilling over onto the pavement and watch all these people walking by. around lunch time i'd notice this orange headed geezer strutting down the street just like the little red rooster but he was skinny and had a ziggy haircut he wore chelsea boots and a tight leather jacket. his face would stand out from everyone else's and one day he came in and started talking to me about the rolling stones.
'yeah but i don't really listen to them much, i like david bowie.'
'oh yeah me to, you ever heard any of his bootlegs?'
'no just his albums.'
'i have a great one where he sings waiting for the man.'
'oh wow, i'd love to hear that,' i said in an awesome and sincere way.
'yeah my band are trying to learn it, it's not a difficult one and we do the bowie version.'
'you in a band?'
'yeah we are called the blue meanies.'
'oh wow, i always wanted to be in a band but i don't play anything.'
'do you sing?'
'i guess i could, never really tried.'
'we need a singer. why don't you come for a jam.'
a few days later i crossed over into south london and was met by martin at pekham station, where i was introduced to chris the piano player and his crazy old red vw beetle. i don't know how that car managed to sustain us, i still can vividly recall the way it turned corners, almost frictionlessly like a loony tunes car where the wheels stretch.
i can't quite recall whose house we jammed in but there were a few people in a room all making a racket, they did a stones song which i couldn't sing at all, then a bowie one, i think it was 'man whom sold the world.' that i could manage. 
i must have sounded okay as they invited me back, but i knew i marched to a different rhythm even then, my inner beat does not match the outer one, yet sometimes this seems to work, i dunno the dynamics of it but i do know for me, i just had to feel the love for the song, music and words and the bowie ones and lou reed songs were definitely inside my bones whereas mick and keef were martins musical influence. eventually there was an amalgamation of bands, we joined up with two brothers, a guitar player called tez and his brother tone. these guys changed our sound into something very dynamic, it was sounding more powerful as they made a great rhythm section. now these two lived in a big old house somewhere in south london and we rehearsed in their attic eventually getting gigs. the brothers were influenced by rhythm and blues so our songs were mostly old blues songs which i was crap at singing, but the few bowie tunes we did or lou songs i found myself feeling confident and managed to sing reasonably. it was not until we met terry and tony that we realised all instruments had to be in the same key so those two contributed a massive learning curve to our musical lives. i dunno, i was still a teenager the idea of being in a band was a pipe dream and even back then despite my enthusiasm in reality i knew i was their weakest man. my own ability was unique, i couldn't conform but those guys seemed to believe in me, martin was amazing, a very encouraging guy who on the sly was making plans to relocate to west berlin.
we had a few adventures in london, martin, chris and i, my memories fuzzy but they always involved soaking up some invisible bowie trail. we started to frequent the three tuns pub where he played and hanging out in bromley at the art collage. stupid stuff i know but what did i really know back then? i thought you could pick up a trail of some one and it would kinda lead you to them. i still think in those magickal thinking terms, it's very strong and often works. it leads me to interesting places, it led me to west berlin.