The SouthendPunk.com Celebration of '30 Years of Punk' took place on Thursday March 15th 2007 and was an electric and inspiring day. China Doll, Giacomino Parkinson of Southend Sites , The Dim Locator and Noisy! Sophia took some great shots of the evening - see the above galleries for the photographs.

The day began when China Doll and Mr Atomic brought down many of the 100 Punks artworks that China has made. With help from Steve Machine and Noisy! Sophia, they went on a series of 'art attacks' around Southend, starting at Hadleigh Castle before moving on to the seafront, via some Fish, Chips and Peas ('Garden or Mushy?'), and then meeting up with Blitzkrieg Bob, and they all headed to The Kursaal, then that great venue where so many local punk bands got their first gigs - Focus in Central Southend. Finally they made it back to the beach, in time to draw breath for the evenings festivities.

So to Chinnery's, with the 100 Punks Gallery adorning the walls and with a night of carefully chosen songs by Steve Machine launching the evening. Author Alex Ogg and partner Dawn took their place by Noisy! Sophia who so diligently helped run the Merchandise stall for the night. Alex signed copies of his book 'No More Heroes', and as songs by the Velvet Underground segued into Ziggy Stardust, and X-Ray Spex met Iggy Pop, the first band of the evening took the stage - The Convicted - and they managed to inject a good dose of energy into the proceedings. Chinnery's sound man Mike insured the sound was great, and The crowd began to swell with many old faces making an appearance, along with many members of local punk bands past and present. RetroSpex continued the Convicted's pace, with the 100 Punks Gallery providing an inspiring backdrop.

Following more sounds from The Adverts and Slaughter and The Dogs via The Buzzcocks and The Clash, The Machines readied themselves, as they prepared for their first local show since their split in 1978. Nick Paul led the band onstage, and they soon cranked things up via a blistering start to their set with a trio of '77 Machines songs - 'Racing', 'You Better Hear' and 'Chain Gang'.

The Machines played 14 songs in total (including the encore), climaxing the evening with venerated classics 'True Life' and 'Don't Be Fooled'. Exhilarated but Exhausted , the band left the stage and Siouxsie, The Only Ones, Patti Smith etc finished off a classic evening, celebrating 30 Years of Punk in Style.

Enjoy the Galleries - More events will be planned.

Apologies to anyone whom we didn't manage to make contact with, or photograph at the event.

Thanks to The Machines, The Convicted/RetroSpex, China Doll + Mr Atomic of the 100 Punks crew, Noisy! Sophia, Blitzkrieg Bob, Alex Ogg and Dawn, Jim, Giacomino Parkinson, Kevin de Groot, The Dim Locator, David Reddihough and crew, Mike and all at Chinnery's, Mushroom, and to everyone whom came to the event to celebrate with us.


Steve, March 21st 2007



NB - If anyone has any further media from the event that they would like to contribute then please get in touch via the site's main email address - similarly if anyone doesn't want their Picture represented here, then get in touch also and I'll remove it

Finally...

Some clips of the night can be found on The Machines YouTube presence - these can be viewed by Clicking Here