Well written and researched, but comes off too much like a school textbook for my liking. Didn’t make it through it all

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

'No Feelings', 'No Fun', 'No Future'. The years 1976–84 saw punk emerge and evolve as a fashion, a musical form, an attitude and an aesthetic. Against a backdrop of social fragmentation, violence, high unemployment and socio-economic change, punk rejuvenated and re-energised British youth culture, inserting marginal voices and political ideas into pop. Fanzines and independent labels flourished; an emphasis on doing it yourself enabled provincial scenes to form beyond London's media glare. This was the period of Rock Against Racism and benefit gigs for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the striking miners. Matthew Worley charts the full spectrum of punk's cultural development from the Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks and Slits through the post-punk of Joy Division, the industrial culture of Throbbing Gristle and onto the 1980s diaspora of anarcho-punk, Oi! and goth. He recaptures punk's anarchic force as a medium through which the frustrated and the disaffected could reject, revolt and re-invent.

I am just going to be brief about this book.

* Brilliantly researched.
* Lots of footnotes and source material.
* Fascinating look into the famous and not-so-famous bands of the times.
* The clash of art, politics, social unrest, and music made for an explosive combination.
* Anyone with the slightest interest in punk, art or politics of the 70s and 80s should read this.

Got a little repetitive at times, otherwise this would have been a 5-star book for sure!


Paul
ARH

Well researched and formatted. I loved everything about this. Worley cited reputable sources as well as fanzines. It is a complete catalog of Punk history.

Mixed is how I would describe my feelings toward “No Future.” Author Matthew Worley has crafted an excellently worded book, intermixing the punk scene with the political atmosphere occurring at the time. He has obviously spent a lot of time analyzing 1976- 1984, piecing and matching songs from the punk genre with the social and political happenings in England.

At the same time, it is no secret that every generation has their revolt with the status quo. Art and music can reflect some of that turmoil, and in that respect, punk music is no different. The book’s treatment at times feels heavy-handed, intimating the music had a vast effect on what was going on in the country. Artists are definitely affected by the world, their country, their neighborhood. These outside influences affect their work, and can be felt in the rhythms and discords as well as embodied in the actual words. A whole book dedicated to matching lyrics with the prevailing mood in the country would probably inspire Johnny Rotten to write a song, and I don’t think it would have a positive message.

After a while, the mode of presenting the negative mood in England followed by numerous examples of punk lyrics became tiresome. I though the book might concentrate more on the bands and what impact they tried to have, but the book hardly dwelled on any band more than a sentence, preferring to flit about like a bee, landing here and there before flying off in another direction.

If you are looking to find read about various punk bands and how events shaped their music, you will gain no more than an overview due to the author flipping from band to band to yet another band. For you, this book would probably seem tedious, and be at best a three-star effort. If you are seeking more of a historical read, one that informs you about the history and social events occurring during the rise and fall of punk and does not devolve into long passages with details about different bands for multiple paragraphs, this is probably the book for you. This is undoubtedly Mr. Worley’s intent, and I will rate his written effort based upon what I believe he was trying to accomplish. Four stars.

Meticulously researched history of punk rock.

If you ever wanted to know what punk rock stood for and emerged from, pick up this excellent book. No Future covers the punk scene in England and Ireland from 1976 to 1984. It uses material from the time as its source material thus avoiding the pretentiousness of the last punk history I read (http://dianereviewsbooks.com/punk-dead-modernity-killed-every-night). It asserts that, while punk had a DIY ethos, it also was formed out of boredom of the middle-class life that awaited these teens. Punk died as soon as the 'look' became more important than the words. No Future calls the late fashionable arrivals to the scene 'part-time punks' but in America they were called poseurs or sometimes disparagingly 'new wave'.

No Future is highly recommended for those interested in the punk era or its music. Even though I listened to the Sex Pistols at the time, I was surprised by the urbanity and foresight of Johnny Rotten's quotes, which are sprinkled throughout this book. Many of the bands have been forgotten but their music is still refreshing. I suggest that you grab an adult beverage and play each song as it is mentioned on Apple or Amazon Music while reading this book. The music really is the star but No Future will add the historical, economic and political context that makes the music even more enjoyable.

Thanks to the publisher, Cambridge University Press, and Netgalley for an advanced review copy.

No Future: Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture, 1976-1984 by Matthew Worley is a study of the Punk Rock movement and its evolution in England. Worley is Professor of Modern History at the University of Reading specializing in 20th century British politics with a particular interest in the labour movement.

America had its punk rock movement in 1970s New York. The Ramones, Television, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and the New York Dolls played to shock American rock out of its corporate rock slump and put an end to disco. In the 1980s West Coast punk came into being and was much closer to the British movement in style.

The British punk movement was built almost out of necessity. "No future" was much more than a catchphrase but it was a deeper feeling of the bleak destiny. Today, young Americans can expect not to do as well as their parents and not live as long either. Americans hide in cheap consumer goods and an abundance of processed food. The British youth fought back with music and attitude. Margaret Thatcher is still hated in England while Reagan moved quietly into history. The British economy was in shambles -- high unemployment and inflation. Unions lost power most famously in the 1984-85 coal miners strike. State industries were privatized. Squatting became a common necessity. The threat of nuclear war (and the Falkland Islands) proved to many that there was no future.

The Sex Pistols and (now British Butter spokesman) Johnny Rotten (Lydon) take center stage in this book. The Buzzcocks, Crass, Malcolm McLaren, Siouxsie Sioux, The Adverts, and the Clash all make it into this book and their role in the evolution of Punk Rock. Punk rock was not a monolith but an evolving movement.  Punk was not just music.  It was art, sex, and style. It had many players from anarchists, communists, and the far right.  Neither the mainstream liberal or conservative parties accepted or considered the punk movement part of their ranks. It was not about changing just the music like in America; it was about changing society as a whole.  The youth acted out against a system that abandoned them.  

Punk evolved.  The most well known and first to gain popularity was "dole punk."  The dole was the welfare system that was used to support those out of work.  It would eventually be cut back by Thatcher.  In 1976 England need to take out a $3.9 billion loan from the IMF.  It was the largest loan ever requested at that point.  The English government was forced into an austerity program to stabilize the pound and England's sovereignty.  The Labour Party began to splinter giving rise to Thatcher.  

Bands like the Buzzcocks produced their own EPs in a do it yourself (DIY) fashion.  DIY became a movement of not counting on commercial production for your needs.  It was an attempt to separate from the system.  While some groups initially believed in self-reliance later these same groups worked with charity efforts. The range of music types was large from Aryan to reggae with Oi punk trying to unite the various groups.

I took plenty of notes throughout this book hoping to include them in this review.  I found myself with a pile of notes and ideas I could not fit in.  This is also a little surprising since one-third of the book is notes and source material.  The material is from a variety of reputable sources as well as Fanzines of the time which connected with the feelings and views of the youth from that period.  Well written.  Well researched and literally packed with relevant information on a pivotal point of social, music, and art history.

Matthew Worley’s ‘No Future’ obviously takes its title from the Sex Pistols’ second single, ‘God Save the Queen’ which so spooked the establishment that it is commonly supposed that the official UK singles chart was rigged to prevent it reaching Number 1 at the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977.

Worley’s book covers the years 1976-1984 and - as indicated by its subtitle, ‘Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture’ - he is particularly concerned “to explore the extent to which the cultural spaces opened up and inhabited by British punk from 1976 informed and were informed by the wider socioeconomic and political environment of which they were part.” That is to say, he “seeks to determine the politics of punk as a musical form and youth culture.”

Worley faces three major problems in attempting to achieve this laudable aim. Firstly, there is the dizzyingly protean character of punk, which Worley seeks to address by defining punk “in its British context … in relation to people and cultural practices inspired or informed by the Sex Pistols.”

Secondly, there is the related problem that it is easier to say what punk was against than what it was for, so that “members of the far right saw punk’s swastikas and iron crosses as evidence of white youth becoming aware of their racial identity” at the same time as “some on the left saw in punk a formative expression of socialist protest.”

Thirdly, with John Lydon having sold out to become the brand ambassador of Country Life Butter, it’s difficult not to regard punk with a jaundiced eye as at best naïve and at worst as superficial as those ‘fans’ who would festoon themselves with safety pins and the other sartorial paraphernalia of punk in the toilets at the start of a gig and then revert to conventional clothing and accessories as soon as it was over.

Worley has nevertheless succeeded in producing a book which vividly recreates his chosen period and makes out a strong case “that there was something more than image and sales at stake” - that punk amounted to much more than just an attitude expressed with uncommon energy and venom.

Contrary to Johnny Rotten’s superb sneering vocals there was a future for Britain despite the dislocation attending the breakdown of the post-war consensus and it turned out to be not the future of punk’s dystopian dreaming. Punk is lucky to have in Matthew Worley an historian capable of rigorously analysing its times and distemper.