Rock: London 1970s Overview

As Britain’s finances spiraled downward and the nation found itself suppliant to the International Monetary Fund, the seeming stolidity of 1970s London concealed various, often deeply opposed, radical trends. The entrepreneurial spirit of independent record labels anticipated the radical economic policies of Margaret Thatcher, whereas punk spoke in tongues with protomillennial fervour. The aftershocks of the collapse of the British Empire transformed London for the first time into a truly cosmopolitan city. Its pop music was flavoured by a new generation of immigrants and people on the margins of society. Pop svengali Mike Chapman arrived from Australia, and English expatriate Mickie Most returned from South Africa. Stiff Records’ Dave Robinson was Irish, and the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten grew up in London in a transplanted Irish family. From the late 1950s Caribbean immigration had produced its own music scene and business, based on clubs and small labels. American exiles included producer Tony Visconti from New York City and the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde from Akron, Ohio. To this mix was added the influence of the art school (the Sex Pistols’ manager and three-fourths of the Clash had been art students) and assorted pseudonymous refugees from the suburbs (Siouxsie and the Banshees, Adam Ant, and Rat Scabies).