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77 Sulphate Strip

About Me

’77 Sulphate Strip – By Barry CainAn eyewitness account of the year that changed everything…“An eye witness account of 1977 by one of the only journalists allowed full access to the bands. This is the true story of how it felt and what really happened then… … and how John Lyndon, Hugh Cornwell & Rat Scabies feel now about what they said and did back then.”“ JOHNNY ROTTEN sits on the floor, back up against the wall, as I walk into EMI’s press office. The Sex Pistols have just signed to the label and I don’t know what to expect, except that it won’t be The Rubettes. I had seen genuine fear in the face of another reporter also waiting to interview the band. I like Johnny’s smile. It’s genuine. There’s a flash of honesty about him. We were both raised in the Desolation Row that was sixties’ Islington so he knows my life and I know his, and that gets the biographical shit out of the way. His vitriol is meticulous but strangely melodious, something I’ve never encountered before. His vocabulary is extensive – music to the ears of someone who had sexed up his interview technique on transatlantic phone interviews with big US soul acts from some Midwest town who talked a lot about God. I always take shorthand notes and I’m fast but have to hang on to Johnny’s coat-tails as he whistles down the wind because I don’t want to lose a single precious word. He has ‘star’ written right through him, like a stick of Brighton punk rock. His words are sexy and sassy, strong and genuine, untutored, nourishing. I must catch every one, every aching syllable. I feel liberated and lubricated at the same time, like a tunnel ride in a water park.”That encounter changed my life and led to a year like no other as bands like The Sex Pistols, Jam, Clash, Damned and Stranglers ate it up and spat it out. And, the day after the first Pistols interview, a three minute encounter between the band and Bill Grundy at Thames TV changed everything else, forever…

My Interests

I'd like to meet:


My Blog

B*Witched, bothered and B*Wildered

The last poster magazine I published was in August 1998, the month pop music died  for me anyway. I'd watched it dying for 20 years. It was like shoving your mum into a care home when she's 85 an...
Posted by on Fri, 23 May 2008 02:35:00 GMT

Cained and able. Page 21 - WWW. STRANGLED. CO. UK

Cained and able. Page 21WWW. STRANGLED. CO. UKIT'S 1977 AGAIN...
Posted by on Tue, 13 May 2008 02:55:00 GMT

For Claudia.... The filthiest night of my life

I was sitting in a pub a week or so back in the company of five other blokes for whom middle-age is a fond memory. During a conversation about being parents - it's an old chestnut but still hot - one ...
Posted by on Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:59:00 GMT

Zavvi’s ’BOOK OF THE WEEK’ - ’77 Sulphate Strip

’77 Sulphate Strip, Ovolo Publishing’s flagship music title about the year of ’punk’ is ’Book of the Week’ in all Zavvi stores (formerly Virgin Megastores) week com...
Posted by on Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:04:00 GMT

FILTHY’S PUNK POSTER EXHIBITION PART II - FREE ADMISSION

FILTHY MACNASTYS WISHES TO INVITE YOU TO THIS MEMORABLE IF NOT LIFECHANGING EVENT.....FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE. FOR INVITES AND MORE INFORMATION [email protected] OR paul@st...
Posted by on Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:55:00 GMT

Downbeat Blues - by Barry Cain

This ended up on the cutting-room floor in the Strip office. My own personal song of death and kisses is Try A Little Tenderness by Otis. It's the one I remember most from that hot summer Sat...
Posted by on Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:53:00 GMT

Marty Frasiers chair

These blogs are like drugs. I've got a shitload of things to do  words to write, parents to tend, decisions to make, emails to send, people to ring, kids to mend. I don't need to shoot these bl...
Posted by on Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:03:00 GMT

The Tapes of Wrath

The other night, outside a cab office near Crouch End, I climbed into the front seat of a minicab driven by a Somalian. I like talking to minicab drivers. They're exotic denizens of the night, armed ...
Posted by on Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:27:00 GMT

The other mans grass...by Barry Cain

Green was the colour of my youth. Bethnal Green, Stepney Green, Islington Green. Green Shield stamps, the Green Lantern, Green Acres and 'eat your bloody greens'. Green was the colour John Ta...
Posted by on Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:20:00 GMT

Thanks for your support...

Thanks again to those of you who have have supported '77 Sulphate Strip with fantastic reviews, handing out flyers at gigs and with merchandise, selling the book through your shops and to those of you...
Posted by on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:47:00 GMT