The Pop Corporation

At the turn of the ’80s, the yoof TV show Something Else had a great featurette on punk in Belfast. If you like local scenes, spotty kids and derelict streets, you’re in for a treat!

Of course, ’80s Northern Ireland means – by law – you have to mention sectarianism and The Troubles. We’ve now mentioned it, and we’ll let the video and the local Belfast punks in it, do the rest. What’s so great about these old vignettes of regional scenes is seeing the impact of music on a community – kids thinking anything is possible or just simply having a great big dollop of escapism from the grindstone. Cocky, dressed up, disaffected, straight-talking – it’s great.

The show this featured on had a big impact on punk and subsequent alternative TV (irreverent and sometimes amateurish hosting later seen in the likes of The Tube and The Word, for example). Bands that appeared on the show included Joy Division, The Clash, The Specials, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Jam, The Undertones, Dexy’s, John Cooper Clarke, The Skids, The Damned, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, and then later, The Raincoats, Fun Boy Three, Orange Juice, Depeche Mode, and U2.

Stellar.

Anyway, this doesn’t have a Before They Were Famous moment, but it is a terrific look at punk putting some fire into the bellies of a bunch of kids who are thoroughly bored of all the nonsense of their community, the decisions their parents made before them, and all that good stuff that makes for a young snotty rebel. Just try and ignore the attempts of satire at the start of this video. They were trying their best at being a bit different, is all.