Punk pathetique

Punk Pathetique is a subgenre of British punk rock (principally active circa 1980-1982) that involved humour and working class themes.

The name of the genre was coined by then-Sounds journalist Garry Bushell, who actively championed many of its exponents. Punk pathetique was initially an attempt to characterize a group of London bands that embodied Cockney culture with a Dickensian working class attitude. Musically it was related to, and had crossover with the Oi! subgenre. The cover of the 1980 Bushell/Sounds compilation album Oi the Album said it featured "ruck 'n' rollers and punk pathetiques".^[1]

Some punk pathetique bands had notable successes in the UK charts. Toy Dolls got to #4 in December 1984 with "Nellie The Elephant." Splodgenessabounds reached #7 in 1980 with "Simon Templar", and #26 with "Two Little Boys" later that year.

According to Bushell:

During 1980, hooligan audiences, especially in South East London, found new live laughs in the shape of Peckham-based piss-artist pranksters Splodgenessabounds, whose brand of coarse comedy and punk energy scored three top thirty singles that year. Their debut single, "Two Pints of Lager" was a Top Ten smash. Tongue in cheek, I dubbed them "punk pathetique" along with equally crazy bands like Brighton's Peter and the Test Tube Babies and Geordie jesters The Toy Dolls.^[2]

Other key punk pathetique bands included TV Personalities, The Shapes, The Adicts and the Gonads. Rather than the "ruck 'n' roll" of harder Oi! groups, Punk Pathetique focused lyrically on the ephemeral and the trivial. Max Splodge, of Splodgenessabounds, said: "The pathetique bands are the other side of Oi! We're working class too, only whereas some bands sing about prison and the dole, we sing about pilchards and bums. The audience is the same."^[2]

Peter and the Test Tube Babies were first featured in Sounds in July 1980, and made their vinyl debut on Oi The Album later that year. They favoured absurd lyrics and strange titles, "The Queen Gives Good Blow Jobs" being a typical example.^[3]

Toy Dolls, based in Sunderland, shared the punk pathetique approach to entertaining nonsense. Singer Olga Algar told Sounds in March 1980: "We're a new wave group, but we're not serious. All our songs are pretty childish and infantile, but they're all based on things and people 'round here."^[4] They proved they could match the London-based bands for ridiculously long song titles, with 1986's "If You're In A Pop Group You'll End Up Paying A Fortune Practicing At Peter Practice's Practice Place."

Other acts aligned to the movement included John Peel’s favourites The Postmen, Desert Island Joe, Pierre The Poet (Garry Butterfield), Paul Devine and his appalling ‘Stop That Drumming’ and later Case, Lord Waistrel & The Cosh Boys, the Alaska Cowboys and the Orgasm Guerrillas. All of these acts recorded songs (except Pierre). Even later, the mantle was inherited by the Macc Lads who did comic punk singalongs such as Charlotte The Harlot in very much the same style.

Bushell writes that Punk Pathetique peaked in autumn 1980, with the Pathetique Convention staged at the Electric Ballroom,^[2] but critic Dave Thompson has stated of Splodgenessabounds' 1981 album:

Music historians find their attention drawn to "We're Pathetique", Splodge's rallying call for a musical genre which precious few people even remember today. But the Punk Pathetique movement spawned not only Splodge, but also such joys as the Toy Dolls and Peter and the Test Tube Babies, and it still has an impact today.^[5]

As of 2006, Toy Dolls, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, The Gonads and Splodgenessabounds continued to tour and record.

References

1. Gimarc, George (2006). Punk Diary 1970-1982. Backbeat Books, San Francisco. p. 393. ISBN 0-87930-848-6.
2. Garry Bushell. "The Story of Oi!". garry-bushell.co.uk. Retrieved 2006-07-07.
3. Gimarc. Punk Diary 1970-1982. p. 348.
4. Gimarc. Punk Diary 1970-1982. p. 312.
5. Dave Thompson. "Splodgenessabounds album review". allmusic.com. Retrieved 2006-07-07.