London calling: see rare photos from the rise of U.K. punk rock

Punk rock first broke in the U.K. in 1976, with bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash at the forefront of the counterculture movement. Journalist John Ingham was there to document punk's rise first-hand as a reporter and photographer, even publishing the first ever interview with the Sex Pistols in April 1976 for the weekly music paper Sounds. Now, more than 40 years later, he has released a hardcover collection of these artifacts, Spirit of 76: London Punk Eyewitness, including some of the only colour photos from the time. Below, Ingham takes us behind the lens of some of the photos from this iconic period in music history.

— Jesse Kinos-Goodin, q digital staff

Johnny Rotten, Notre Dame de France, London, Nov. 15, 1976

"This was a concert being taped for a Saturday morning TV show, so hopefully there would be a tape of it in existence somewhere, which would make it a significant date in punk rock history. The other thing is that's the last time Glen Matlock, the original bass player and the guy who co-wrote all the songs, plays with them.

"In Britain at that time, there were three TV channels and that was it, so a Saturday morning kids' show would have had a viewership of 10 million, 12 million. Punk, at that time, was on the verge of breaking nationally in a big way. For the live portion of this show, they rented this space for an invite-only thing and the place was full – 150 people inside and another 100 outside. I think it was treated as current events and newsworthy at the time."

Billy Idol, Royal College of Art, Nov. 5, 1976

"Billy Idol (guitar), Tony James (bass) and Gene October (vocals) made up the band Chelsea, and at this point have played one gig. A week later Billy and Tony leave Gene, Billy moves from guitar to singer and they go looking for a guitarist. In December they relaunch themselves as Generation X.

"Billy came with a bunch of fans that had gotten labelled the Bromley Contingent, because Bromley is an outer suburb of London, the other main member being Siouxsie Sioux. Billy had these Lou Reed, Velvet Underground wraparound sunglasses and a brown Beatles haircut, but the night of the photo in question … it was the first I'd seen him with the peroxide hair. I just asked, 'Can I take a photo?' and they said 'Ya,' and I didn't pose people or anything. I just put the camera to my eye and waited until I got something and they all posed the way they posed in that picture. You couldn't make it up. They were people who inherently knew how to play to a camera. They were all show-offs in the extreme, but that was the beginning of the Punk Apollo, as I call it."

The Clash, Royal College of Art, Nov. 5, 1976

"On the bill it was the Clash, Subway Sect and the Jam, and it was called the Night of Treason because it was on the fifth of November, Guy Fawkes night.

"The audience was very much a mix of the original punk fans, about 100 to 150 people, then there was a large group who had just come to see what the fuss was all about, and then there was a large group of the Art College students. For the Clash, that was the biggest stage they had been on at that point and they just grabbed it, they just stamped their authority all over the place that night. I've heard people say, 'I saw the Clash that night and they changed my life.'

"Somewhere in the middle of the set this beer glass came flying to the stage and smashed across it. Joe Strummer wanted none of that so he just stopped it and said, 'Who threw that?' Some guy put up his hand, so Strummer singled him out and said, 'If you got something to say, come up here and say it.' So this guy got up on stage and they started having this conversation, it was very odd. Weirdly, these university students, who were supposed to be the smart ones, were actually the dumb ones in this whole movement, they were the ones throwing beer glasses and acting like idiots."

Viv Albertine And Siouxsie Sioux, Notre Dame de France, London, Nov. 15, 1976

"This is one of my favourite photos. I turned to the right and saw them and just snapped it straight off to grab it before it disappeared. What they are looking at is, John Rotten is on stage, they are setting up and he's lurking about and has found this blonde wig that he's put on his head and he's acting like a cabaret lounge singer. For Viv, there was no idea who the Slits were yet, so she was only known as Mick Jones' girlfriend. With Siouxsie, she had just done her first interview for TV and you could see that she liked the attention. She'd performed with Siouxsie and the Banshees so had been on a stage, she knew what it felt like, she'd been interviewed and there was a battle plan forming."

John Ingham's Spirit of 76: London Punk Eyewitness, is available now.