PUNK took a generation of East Lancashire youngsters by the scruff of the neck - and although they may now have nine to five jobs and families, there are still enough fanatical ex-punk followers to fill East Lancashire venues when cult acts hit the comeback trail. ACCRINGTON band SCHOOLGIRL BITCH were typical of the working-class youths who voiced their disillusionment with society through the rough and ready medium of punk rock.

Frontman Nick Name - real name Nigel McHugh - sold his gear after the band split up to meet the production costs of their only single, Abusing The Rules, which is now a collectors' item.

They - like many other small-time punk acts - bombarded East Lancashire town centres with fly-posters and sought notoriety by attempting to get banned by local councils. Schoolgirl Bitch split in early 1978, when bass guitarist Phil McHugh decided he could not play well enough and drummer Paul Milek became fed up with not making money. Nick got 1,000 copies of the single produced and the record became an underground hit.

New bass player Evil Doc Talbot - alias Nigel Talbot, from Accrington - joined and the two struck a typically aggressive pose in High Street, Blackburn, for the camera of Lancashire Evening Telegraph photographer Frank Walsh. This year, the photo graced the front cover of a compilation album saluting the great unwashed and unknown bands of the punk era.

But the hottest and most high-profile punks to come out of East Lancashire were THE STIFFS, formed in 1976 by four schoolboys from Blackburn and Clayton-le-Moors. They released six singles and recorded a session with John Peel before their first settled line-up split in 1981.

Singer and guitarist Phil Hendriks, guitarist Ian "Strang" Barnes, drummer Tom O'Kane, and bass guitarist Mark Young got together as 14-year-olds in 1976 to form a band. By 1977 Young had been replaced by "Big" John McVittie, who tempted the band with his offer of rehearsal facilities - his parents' back garden. The band signed to record industry giants EMI in the spit-soaked punk heyday of 1979.

Despite an awesome live reputation, the band never released an album - until this year when a compilation of singles and unreleased material was put together.

Some 20 years after they signed to EMI, the album generated enough interest to spark a one-off comeback gig in Blackburn. The gig - the band's first for 14 years - duly sold out, although it was a far cry from the days when they played cult London venue The Lyceum alongside the UK SUBS.

Caught between the tail end of punk era and the new dawn of electronic pop, The Stiffs gaining an awesome live reputation but eventally split without much fame or fortune.

Big-name acts like THE BUZZCOCKS - who played King George's Hall, Blackburn earlier this month - drew huge support in East Lancashire during the late '70s. And punk idol Joe Strummer - guitarist with THE CLASH - refused to carry on one gig at King George's until the crowd agreed to refrain from the punk pastime of spitting at the performers.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.