Girls Will Be Girls: The Women at the Birth of Punk
Derek Ridgers spent 1977 deep in the back alleys of London, dodging flailing limbs and saliva in the city’s mosh pits in order to capture its then-exploding punk scene with a borrowed camera. “Sometimes the pogoing was so fervent that I had no choice but to pogo along too for fear of being subsumed,” the British photographer remembers in the introduction to “Punk London 1977,” which is getting a stateside release by British publisher Carpet Bombing Culture next month. Those days are long gone—he went on to swap the Banshees for the Spice Girls, and the scene’s lanky youths for the likes of Johnny Depp—but the book proves that he still has plenty of dirt left on London’s once-grimy youth culture. A look through reveals that even if The Clash kicked off ’77 with a show at Ridgers’ most frequented dive, the Roxy, on New Years Day, it became apparent that it was the women he photographed who really ruled the year. From Siouxsie Sioux nearly swallowing a microphone to Debbie Harry standing tall and bleach blonde to plenty of other faces as defiant as their eyeliner, take a look back, here.
1
Debbie Harry at Hammersmith Odeon, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
2
Gaye Advert at The Vortex, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
3
The Vortex, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
4
The Vortex, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
5
Crawley College, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
6
X-Ray Spex sho at The Man in the Moon, Kings Road, Chelsea, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
7
Siouxsie and the Banshees at The Music Machine, Camden Town, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
8
The Vortex, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
9
Ari Up at The Vortex, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
10
Soho, 1978.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
11
The Vortex, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
12
The Roxy, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
13
Cherry Vanilla at The Roxy, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
14
The Vortex, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
15
Pauline Murray at The Vortex.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
16
The Vortex, 1977.
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
17
Photo by Derek Ridgers, courtesy of Carpet Bombing Culture.
