European Punks

It begins in the sub arctic tundra. The punks and local wolves gather to drink and live wild at night. A lifelong brother & sisterhood celebrating punk otherness with music and fire. But it’s tough, the landscape is barren and flat, the town so small, the locals stoical, hard bitten people, unmoved by these young pulsing hearts. The punks vow to set free from this darkened torpor and begin a great vision quest. To explore the punk capitals of Europe and America, and to find their international brethren.

Scott 4 & Magic Car - European Punks

The winter’s darkness is fading into springtime as the journey begins. Cattle return to pastures and the landscape reawakens. The orange and black haired kinder can see the season cycle repeating and a cosy familiarity beckons them to stay and witness it once more, but a greater purpose guides them on & away.

During the journey, memories of the land they have left and their early years cloud their minds. In the nursery where they had first come together, in stormy darkness, when their sect had been forged, hard as iron, like the frost and ice outside. Yet they carry on, singing anthems of punk law, and raise voices high and drunken like their Viking ancestors had centuries before. They charge on into the urban maze of chaos. It is foreign yet shot through with a familiar creed.

They encounter likened souls, in night long ceremonies & parties, bringing together punk spirit in all its international flavours. They also hit up against ne’er-do-wells and crazies who test and all but break these trusting spirits and pure hearts.

Finally through the smoke & noise, they first hear a lone call, a low sound in the distance. Often it can hardly be heard in the anarchy & clang of the city. Other times in the cold quiet dawn, its tones are stronger, more insistent recognisably coming from the direction of their glacial homeland. Through all the heat & murk a new realisation dawns. The punk of abroad is what moved and inspired them, but now something new is sensed, almost within reach, that sends them returning. As though pursuing a distant star, their progress begins, back to the Nordic lands. On & on, the sound which guides them becoming clearer.

Through many mazes and circuitous meanderings they reach the land of home and see the familiar lights in the low buildings of hometown. On returning, the sound they hear still calls them further on, further north across the crisp flatlands, where the ice never fades.

The sleds are packed once again and they set off into the unknown territories. Their hearts are charged with a sustaining purpose, but they know not where they are being led. Countless days and nights pass, the sled runners cutting across the icy surface. The punks no longer know where they are or how to get back, even if they wanted to. On like a triumphal procession through the arctic night with torches and flares. At the horizon a brilliant presence is sensed. They are giddy with apprehension, moving closer kilometre by kilometre, the glowing apparition reveals itself to them.

Scott 4 & Magic Car - Yellow Main Sequence

As they get nearer, they make out an ice pack palace. This they instantly recognise as their own punk Valhalla, something until now, known only in their hearts, never spoken of. On & on it looms larger and more proud. They reach it drunk with anticipation and enter its glowing blue portals. They are finally home and ready to found a noble punk dynasty.

So is the fable of the European Punks which urged the Scott 4 to travel northwards, meet the brethren of Magic Car, and record the saga which this records charts.