Fact #129235

James Stevenson (Chelsea) : The whole punk thing dwindled out. It happened by the end of 77. All the big bands had signed to majors and trod the path of rock'n'roll. The actual scene had died turned into a more corporate rock'roll. We supported The Clash and they were the best rock roll band on the planet. Their first album still sounds amazing. No matter what trend there is its still rock’n’roll. A band will make it because they are a great rock 'n' roll band. Whether punk or psychedelic.

Joe Strummer (The Clash) : I don't like saying, "You're a punk and you're not."
There was a record out there called Ca Plane Pour Moi by Plastic Bertrand, right? And I guarantee you if I had to play it for you right now you'd go, "Right! That is rockin!"

Now, if you were to say to any sort of purist punk, "This is a good punk record," they'd get completely enraged. But Plastic Bertrand, whoever he was, compressed into that three minutes a bloody good record that will get any comatose person toe-tapping, you know what I mean?

By purist rules, it's not allowed to even mention Plastic Bertrand. Yet, this record was probably a lot better than a lot of so-called punk records.