Name: Myles Petersen
Age 53.
I got interested in punk (albeit I had no clue what it even was!) when was about 10 years old in 1978. My older brother had met some guys when he joined the army and when he came home on leave he had these crazy records! We loved music and both took music lessons and we always listen to interesting stuff. A lot of acid prog rock stuff like Pink Floyd and Yes. But by the end of the 70's things changed a bit and then Disco happened! I didn't really fall for it, but there was some other stuff happening. Guitar rock. The first Van Halen album, ACDC Highway to hell. Now we're talking! I didn't even like Kiss. I thought they were really goofy and to be honest their music didn't really live up to their not really that scary image. Then, wham! Like a fucking thunder bolt to my head, I heard Sex Pistols. Never mind the bollocks! My life changed instantly. It was everything before was a fucking joke. Fleetwood Mac? Supertramp? Cmon! I could go on and on. No point. Then I heard bands that had a little bit of a different idea but just as important and venomous like The Clash, Buzzcocks, Devo, and I finally discovered an amazing artist and band that had been there all along, since when I was probably 2 years old. IGGY POP AND THE STOOGES. So now I was an adolescent punk, the next thing to do was to learn 3 chords on my guitar and start a band! BEST PUNK MEMORY? There are too many to mention! Besides, it's not dead! There's more memories to have! I could write a book about it! But I can share something that's kind of funny from back in the day. It was our bands (UNNATURAL SILENCE) first big show at the York theater on Commercial drive. BLACK FLAG were the headliners and at that point they were probably the most recognized biggest 'punk' band in the world. So it was a big deal! So we showed up with our sorry ass gear and did our sorry ass sound check, which seemed like it went OK. So BLACK FLAG was late but we stuck around to maybe meet them and check out their sound check. They showed up Henry Rollins was so mad he wouldn't even get out of the tour van. They set up and some dude walked up to us and said 'you guys gotta go ' and we were like 'but we're playing on the bill,we just want to hang out ' and he said 'Black Flag don't like people watching their sound check!' I couldn't believe it. It felt like something was starting to go wrong in the scene. Fortunately there was a classic punk house down the road called 'the Plaza' which was DOA's original digs that housed many people and great parties in those days, so we just left and went down there and partied until the gig started! HAS PUNK CHANGED MUCH SINCE THE 80'S? Punk isn't a thing or fad or a movement. It's attitude and it's a way of life. It's always been there. It will never die. It doesn't matter how you look or what music you like, it's about not taking shit from anybody, standing up for self and looking after people who are less fortunate, and not buying in to corporate monsters that are destroying the planet, people, culture and everything that we care about. IS PUNK HERE TO STAY? Yes. Refer to the last answer!