In 1977, New York was a really happening place, especially if you had shiny flares, platform boots and a mullet hairstyle. Disco ruled supreme in the Big Apple and every weekend would-be John Travoltas put on their glam rags and strutted down to Club 54.
Skulking in the shadows outside the glare of glitter, however, a different scene was taking place - and the dress code was shredded T-shirts, spiky hair and a snotty attitude. While the disco bunnies danced their troubles away, New York's punk set were pogo-ing to the beat of Blondie, Talking Heads, Heartbreakers, Teenage Jesus & The Jerks, Suicide and Richard Hell & The Voidoids. During that hot, oppressive Summer of Sam, when serial killer David Berkowitz stalked the mean streets, venues such as CBGBs, Max's Kansas City and The Mudd Club were the flashpoints of punk passion and No Wave nihilism.
The New York punk scene of the late 1970s was probably one of the most vibrant and exciting musical movements in rock history, even more intense, more focused and more tribal than its UK counterpart.
It brought together people who shared a chronic shortage of money, a hatred of traditional American values and a love of explosive and exciting music. It showcased the art-school brilliance of David Byrne and the avant-garde music hall of John Cale. It gave us the minimalist, electronic rockabilly of Suicide, the stripped-down funk-punk of James Chance & The Contortions, and the pixillated popcore of Television. It created two female megastars in punk poet Patti Smith and punk-pop queen Debbie Harry. It allowed losers such as The Dead Boys and The Heartbreakers to shine for a brief, short-lived period before drug addiction took the lives of Stiv Bators and Johnny Thunders. And, of course, it regularly exposed the near-mythical member of James Jewell Osterberg aka Iggy Pop. No wonder many of today's rock stars wish they'd been there.
Emily Armstrong and Pat Ivers were, and they've got hundreds of hours of video footage to prove it. Between 1975 and 1980, these two women immersed themselves in the New York punk scene, filming the bands in the raw as they played the dingy, dimly-lit venues and smoky hellholes of Manhattan. Some of the results will be shown next week in a series of five films at the Arthouse, starting with Greatest Hits 1975-1980, covering the most popular New Wave bands of the era, and finishing with an outdoor showing of Live From CBGBs 1975-1977, featuring Blondie, Talking Heads and The Dead Boys.
Armstrong, a New Yorker of Irish parentage ("I was conceived in Ireland") and Ivers, a Philadelphian with Irish roots, were both working in Manhattan Cable Television in 1975, filming community board meetings and speeches by local politicians, when they were hit head-on by the first wave of New York punk.
"We were fans with a capital F," recalls Armstrong, speaking from her home in Manhattan. "I was always a fan of music - in my hippy days, I would go and see Janis Joplin at the Fillmore East and Jimi Hendrix at the Cafe Wha? When I was 13, I snuck out of Catholic school to see The Beatles and The Rolling Stones."
By the time Armstrong reached adulthood, the US music scene had - in her mind - gone completely to the dogs.
"Early 1970s music was terrible! You had Yes, Toto, Chicago and Poco. I hated them all. Pat took me down to CBGBs to see Patti Smith and I had a complete epiphany. After that, we started to go to CBGBs all the time. We'd take our video equipment with us and film the bands onstage, then broadcast it every week on Public Access TV."
The show was entitled Nightclubbing, and it gave the women access to the venues around town and got them within spitting distance of the bands. "Hilly Krystal, the owner of CBGBs, was very supportive of our efforts as maniac fans. We installed our own lights in the venue, and we got the club's soundman to do a separate mix for us. We got great sound quality. If we taped a band and the sound wasn't good, then we wouldn't show it. We went to The Mudd Club, Hurrahs, Urban Plaza, even did a little taping out of town in places like the Ratt Club in Boston. In all, we filmed about 80 different bands playing over 100 gigs.
"It was a brilliant scene: moshing hadn't really taken off, so you could stand comfortably in the front and see the bands. On any night, we could go out and see five different bands in five different clubs. We became well-known on the scene. We were Pat and Emily, the video girls, and that was a way to get in free to the gigs and get free beers. "My favourite band was The Dead Boys from Cleveland. I was in love with Stiv Bators. I didn't get involved with the musicians, though, but I absolutely worshipped them.
"People often ask me about the similarities between the US punk scene and the UK scene. Well, America was going through recession, and nobody had any money. When I think about it, I don't know how I got by, I was completely broke. Women like me and Pat were like freaks of nature - two punk girls lugging equipment around. "Richard Hell summed it up in his song - we were the `blank generation'. A lot of people couldn't afford drugs, but heroin had a big appeal for some. It was junkie chic. William Burroughs contributed to the glamorisation of heroin - he would come into CBGBs quite a lot. Punks in New York weren't as glamorous and stylish as British punks. I remember when The Sex Pistols came over to New York, they seemed completely overdone. We just wore black."
Although Armstrong was right in the thick of things during the formative years of US alternative music, she didn't get too close to the future stars. She does, however, have some lasting impressions of the time.
"When I first saw Debbie Harry onstage at CBGBs, I thought she was a no-talent. But Hilly Krystal said to me, `you'd better tape this girl cos she's gonna be big'. Talking Heads were still in college when they were playing CBGBs, but though they didn't look much like punks, they commanded huge respect. Contrary to popular legend, nobody wanted to kill Richard Hell, says Armstrong, even though he wore a T-shirt pleading "please kill me".
"People loved Richard Hell. He's a great wordsmith who has stayed true to his vision of being a poet." And her most memorable gigs from the period?
"The Clash at the Palladium," answers Armstrong. "And Patti Smith at the Museum of Natural History. It was a benefit gig, and people in tuxedos paid $50 a ticket to see her play in the Planetarium. I had to save up to go to that one. Another great one was the Blitz Benefit shows, which went on over four nights. It was a benefit for Johnny Blitz of The Dead Boys, who had been stabbed in the street. Everybody played. We taped it and sometimes it got so out of control that we couldn't even film. The Dead Boys headlined it and John Belushi came down to play drums with them. It was four days of madness, 11 bands every night, strippers and performance artists. It was out of control and wonderful."
Nightclubbing starts on Tuesday August 1st at 7.30 p.m. at the Arthouse, Curved Street, Temple bar. Tel: 01-6056800.
