Punk 45

Punk 45! is introduced (and co-edited) by Jon Savage, author of the acclaimed definitive history of punk, England’s Dreaming.

Contributors include Peter Saville, Richard Hell, Richard H Kirk, Seymour Stein, Geoff Travis, Martin Moscrop, Glenn Branca, Jamie Reid, Dave Robinson, Roger Armstrong, Martin Mills, Gee Vaucher, Savage Pencil, Dennis Morris and more.

This book is a revelatory guide to hundreds and hundreds of original 7” record cover sleeve designs – visual artefacts found at the heart of the most radical and anarchistic musical movement of the 20th century.

As well as the encyclopaedic visual imagery featured inside, the book also includes interviews with a number of significant figures in punk music: artists and groups including Richard Hell, Martin Moscrop (A Certain Ratio), Richard H Kirk (Cabaret Voltaire), Glenn Branca and David Thomas (Pere Ubu); record label owners including Seymour Stein (Sire Records), Geoff Travis (Rough Trade), Roger Armstrong (Chiswick), Martin Mills (Beggars Banquet), Dave Robinson (Stiff Records), David Brown (Dangerhouse); and the celebrated designers involved in creating punk’s original iconic imagery – Peter Saville (Factory Records), Gee Vaucher (Crass Records), Jamie Reid (Sex Pistols), Gee Vaucher (Crass Records) and Dennis Morris (Public Image Limited).

The revolutionary do-it-yourself ethic of punk was applied to the aesthetic of design as much as it was to music, and record sleeves acted as lo-fi signifiers of anarchy, style, fashion, politics and more with an urban and suburban invective courtesy of the 1000s of new bands – punk, post-punk, pre-punk, nearly-punk and more – that emerged at the end of the 1970s.

This book is an exhaustive, thorough and exciting celebration of the stunning artwork of punk music – everything from the most celebrated and iconic designs through to the stark beauty of the cheapest do-it-yourself lo-fi obscurities.