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Proto Punk

State Street, Ann Arbor, 1967

The Stooges

Before the Stooges, James Osterberg played drums in Michigan bands, first the Iguanas and then the Prime Movers, who gave him the nickname Iggy. The new group played its first show on Halloween night 1967 at the house they shared on State Street in Ann Arbor, and in March 1968 they opened at the Grande Ballroom billed as the Psychedelic Stooges. Iggy worked a vacuum cleaner and a blender into the noise, while Scott Asheton hit oil drums with a hammer. Elektra signed them along with the MC5, paying the Stooges $5,000. John Cale produced their first album in New York in April 1969. In June 1970 a TV crew filmed Iggy leaping into the crowd at the Cincinnati Pop Festival with peanut butter smeared on his chest.

Natick, Massachusetts, 1970

The Modern Lovers

Jonathan Richman started the Modern Lovers in Natick, a suburb of Boston, in 1970. He had moved to New York the year before and got to know the Velvet Underground, and their sound shaped the band as much as the Stooges did. Jerry Harrison on keyboards and Ernie Brooks on bass joined drummer David Robinson in early 1971. Warner Bros. paid for a session in Boston that autumn, and A&M got interested too. In April 1972 in Los Angeles they cut two sets of demos, one produced by John Cale for Warner and one by Allan Mason for A&M. Warner signed them in 1973, but the band split in February 1974. Beserkley put the demos out as an album in 1976. Harrison later joined Talking Heads, and Robinson co-founded the Cars.

New York, Mercury, 1973

New York Dolls

New York Dolls formed in New York and played their first show on Christmas Eve 1971, at a homeless shelter in the Endicott Hotel. The look came from drag: David Johansen often wore high heels and sometimes a dress, while Johnny Thunders, Sylvain Sylvain, Arthur Kane and Billy Murcia went for spandex and platform boots. Murcia died during a short English tour in November 1972, aged 21, and Jerry Nolan took his place. Mercury released two albums, the first produced by Todd Rundgren in 1973 and the second by Shadow Morton in 1974. A Creem poll named them both best and worst new group of 1973. In 1975 Malcolm McLaren put them in red leather, just before Thunders and Nolan left to start the Heartbreakers.

Ladbroke Grove, 1970

The Pink Fairies

The Pink Fairies came out of the Ladbroke Grove underground. Three members of the Deviants, Paul Rudolph, Duncan Sanderson and Russell Hunter, broke with singer Mick Farren after a disastrous American tour, and in February 1970 the former Pretty Things drummer Twink pulled them into a new group. The name came from a story by Jamie Mandelkau. They made a habit of playing for nothing outside the gates of big festivals, Bath and the Isle of Wight in 1970 among them, and outside Bath they met Hawkwind, with whom they sometimes played as Pinkwind. Three albums for Polydor followed between 1971 and 1973, the last made as a trio with Larry Wallis on guitar.

Ann Arbor, 1974

Sonic's Rendezvous Band

Sonic's Rendezvous Band formed in Ann Arbor in 1974 out of what was left of the Michigan scene: Fred "Sonic" Smith from the MC5, Scott Morgan from the Rationals, Gary Rasmussen from the Up and Scott Asheton from the Stooges. They recorded very little in their lifetime and released almost none of it while they were together. In 1978, without Morgan, they toured Europe as Iggy Pop's backing band. The band's run ended in 1980, the year Smith married Patti Smith, and he died in Detroit in 1994. In 2006 the UK label Easy Action put out a six-disc box set of their recordings, released with Patti Smith's approval.

London, private pressing, 1973

England's Glory

England's Glory was Peter Perrett's band in 1973, a few years before he formed the Only Ones. Perrett, born in Camberwell in 1952, sang and played guitar, with Dave Clarke on lead guitar, Harri Kakoulli on bass, Jon Newey on drums and Michael Kemp on keyboards. Record companies showed little interest and they never got a deal. The band paid for a private pressing in 1973, eight acetates and then 25 vinyl copies, meant only as promos. Perrett's drawl owed plenty to Lou Reed, and the NME writer Nick Kent nearly took the acetate for a Velvet Underground bootleg. The recordings got a proper release in 1987 on Five Hours Back, after the Only Ones had split. Kakoulli later played bass in Squeeze.

The Collection