Punk
As a punk you would cut your own hair, play three chords loudly and print your own fanzine – and in 1980s Poland, that could get you noticed by the secret police.
Three chords and an attitude
Punk emerged in the mid-1970s, with bands such as the Ramones in New York and the Sex Pistols and The Clash in London. It was a reaction against polished stadium rock and against social stagnation, especially in Britain during economic crisis and high youth unemployment. The music was fast, short and raw. The ethos was do-it-yourself: anyone could form a band, record cheaply, start an independent label or write and photocopy a fanzine. Fashion – ripped clothes, safety pins, leather jackets, spiked or brightly dyed hair – was designed to shock.
Punk behind the Iron Curtain
Punk reached Poland in the late 1970s and grew into a major youth movement in the 1980s. Bands such as Dezerter, Siekiera, Brygada Kryzys, KSU and Armia sang about grey blocks of flats, conformity, militarism and censorship, often in coded lyrics to slip past the censors. The Jarocin festival, held from 1980, became the largest rock festival in the Eastern Bloc, drawing tens of thousands of fans. The authorities tolerated it partly as a safety valve, while security services watched and infiltrated the scene. Fans from all over the country camped in the town for days, and for many young Poles it was the one place where they felt free.
Life on the scene
Daily punk life meant rehearsing in cellars and youth clubs, swapping cassettes, hitchhiking to concerts and dealing with police checks and hostility from passers-by. Polish punks often made their own badges and clothing because there was little to buy. Many were also involved in pacifist and ecological movements such as Wolność i Pokój in the late 1980s. Punk’s DIY ethic lived on in independent music, publishing and activism long after its first explosion.
