PUNK ROCK (NEL, 1977)
The punks are on the march - and the Teds are out to nobble them ...
An odd one. Truth be told, the Punks and Teds are pretty much peripheral figures, with only their sporadic skirmishes on the Kings Road to justify the title (and even then, it might as accurately have been called "TEDS").
Much of the story is given over to the relationship between reporter Raymond Kerr and his new girlfriend, the mysterious, hash smoking Vi who can rustle up a mean omelette. The story has more to do with publishing and music industry corruption, with much being made of the money-grabbing and hypocricy of rock stars, as personified by Johnny Reb, who despises punk but still markets himself as it's figurehead. The power-struggle this time centres on the takeover battle at "Spins" magazine, and it's such a bloodless coup you wonder why Allen devotes so many chapters to it.
On the product placement front, it's utterly lame. Several contemporary bands are namechecked - The Sex Pistols, Adverts, Eater, The Saints, Demis Roussos and Des O'Connor among them - but that hardly counts. I'm taking it that Allen had stocked up on enough Haig and Seagrams 100 Pipers to last him a lifetime and we are getting very close to the end of the series with this entry?
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