Name : Murray Acton
AKA: the cretin
Age : 61
I started playing guitar seriously in my teens but I had wanted to be a musician for as long as I can remember. My first band was in 1977 and we played sort of prog rock to the best of our abilities. I didn't like mainstream music very much and listened to some pretty weird stuff. I was however a big black sabbath fan and when they broke up I became completely disillusioned with the straight rock'n roll world. It was then that I started hearing about this thing called punk rock that was coming out of England. I was fairly out on the margin's already and the rebellious aspect of punk sounded like something I could get into. Funny thing was CBC radio would talk about punk rock, but they wouldn't play it. I just assumed that it would be really fast and really angry sounding and started writing what I thought would be punk songs. Turns out my early stuff was more metal than punk which worked out in our favour because we had fans in multiple genres. I started my first punk band in1978, and then I started the dayglo abortions in 1980. My best punk memory would have to be the day that our record label Fringe Product were arrested and charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking, and manufacturing for the purpose of trafficking obscene material. I had both the CBC and CTV national news crews at my house. Lisa Witski (sic) was my room mate and she walked in right in the middle of it. In many ways I owe my career as a musician to that day although I'm sure that was not what the mayor and police chief of Nipean Ontario were hoping would be the result of the charges. Punk rock has changed a lot since the 80's. It has been assimilated into mainstream culture. Because of that there is lots of music being played that sounds a bit like punk, but it's not. It's just pop music, and it's only message is, fit in, don't question the narrative, be normal and you will be rewarded with material treasure. Basically propaganda. There is still real punk out on the fringes of society that pushes back against the world, and pushes the boundaries of music, and culture, to all kinds of strange places. The music has crossed many genres and come in all styles, but the lyrics and attitudes are still about rebellion and individuality. I think that is at the core of all true punk. Punk has survived quite a long time already, but I think that there has always been punk hiding at the fringes of society. Music is so important to human's Much of what each of us become in life, comes to us from our music. If people are living in hard situations it will show in their music. As long as there are marginalized people struggling to fit in in a world that just wants to reject them, there will be an audience for punk rock bands.