Extracts taken from the Headpress book
NO FOCUS: PUNK ON FILM
edited by Chris Barber & Jack Sargeant

Punk has been analyzed as social phenomena, as musical renaissance, as youth subculture and even as an economic force. But never in relation to film before now.

NO FOCUS: PUNK ON FILM, edited by Chris Barber and Jack Sargeant, takes a journey through punk on celluloid, from The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle to Jubilee from The Blank Generation to Ladies And Gentlemen The Fabulous Stains. Featured directors include Don Letts, Penelope Spheeris, Julian Temple, Amos Poe, Derek Jarman and Billy Childish — rogue visionaries who picked up a camera in response to punk.

Chapter sample

Crass: Anarchism in the UK

by Gavin Mitchell
aka Alice Banned

One band, more than any other, came to dominate the post-punk scene. Through the combined use of music, literature, graphics and film, they relentlessly exposed the dissimulated horror and hypocrisy of ‘decent’ society. They had phenomenal record sales, yet have all but disappeared from history. During the time in which Thatcher’s government busied itself destroying communities, this band was pivotal in trying to build an alternative. You’ve doubtless guessed the band is Crass.

Download the No Focus chapter Crass: Anarchism in the UK by Gavin Mitchell as a pdf in the original layout by clicking here.

Chapter sample

Levity and Mystery:
an introduction to the films of Billy Childish

by Neil Palmer

Punk rock has long since become an umbrella term for outsider creativity worldwide, and Billy Childish’s creative-individualist stance has been and continues to be a factor in defining what punk rock means. Childish’s music, painting and writing have long been subject to investigation in various magazine articles and documentaries, but the films he’s made and in which he has participated, from 1979 to the present, remain virtually unknown and he has not discussed them at length before now.   

Download the No Focus chapter Levity and Mystery by Neil Palmer as a pdf in the original layout by clicking here.