Where Were You?

There was an article at The Guardian earlier this week about The Mekons and how they made their debut single Where Were You? It's here. The band formed in Leeds in 1976 inspired by seeing the Anarchy tour pitch up at the Polytechnic, the Sex Pistols and The Clash. Gang Of Four formed almost immediately, Mekons a little later. This was the key impact of the first flush of punk, the number of people standing and watching, knowing they wanted to do something and the seeing the Pistols and thinking 'I could do that'. 

There's a heartwarming comment in the below the line section where a reader recounts seeing The Mekons soundcheck and speaking to guitarist Tom Greenhalgh and asking him what the chords for Where Were You? were. Later on that evening during the gig as the band played the song, Tom shouted the chords out as he played them, the flame that was lit by the Pistols and The Clash and the Anarchy being handed on again. 

Where Were You?

The intro's clanging guitar chords and rattling drums are really special and then it all kicks in. As noted in the article by Jon Langford, the song is about male loneliness, an anti- macho lyric inspired partly by Buzzcocks. The songs goes off like a flare and later the lyrics and guitars/ drums have done everything they need to, it stops suddenly. 

There's loads more to The Mekons, they have become the longest lasting of the first wave of punk bands, surviving line up changes and fashions and diving into country and folk, 80s alternative and occasionally dub. In 1988 they released Ghosts Of American Astronauts, a sweetly sung 80s indie song with the still astonishing first line, 'Up in the hills above Bradford, outside the napalm factory/ Ghosts of American astronuats, glow in the headlight's beam'.