Alex Paterson From The Orb Picked His 10 Favorite Punk Records Ever

This article was originally published on THUMP UK.

You might remember that we tried to interview Alex Paterson from the Orb last year. In fact, we actually did interview him. But we'd forgotten to turn the dictaphone on. So the interview was nothing more than a pleasant memory. This time round, we've smashed it. We can only hope that Alex is as happy as we are about it.

Before he was part of the Orb, Alex Paterson was a punk. An actual punk. The kind of punk you see Stuart Maconie waxing lyrical about on old talking head shows. In fact, Alex was so dedicated to the punk ethos that he was a roadie for Killing Joke. Killing Joke's bassist was a bloke called Youth. Youth and Alex were old pals. At the end of this month, they'll be reunited on stage when Youth, and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols, join the Orb for a special performance of their seminal album Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld at the Electric in Brixton.

With that in mind, we asked Alex Paterson, former punk rocker, to pick his 10 favorite punk rock records ever.

This was the first punk single, from back in the autumn of 1976, and it's still the most anti-everything song in the universe. Which isn't bad for a band from Croydon.

The Gods Of The After Life. The band of the century for me. I saw them many times. And they even went on a short British tour with Killing Joke in 1980!

The first album was a classic. Proper angry youth for a country going to pot. I saw them several times and "Complete Control" still gets played on WNBC, the radio station I have a show on.

This was the number one record for the Queen's Silver Jubilee. Enough said. It's truly our anthem of despair. God saves. Remember: "She ain't no human being." Wonder what David Icke makes of that?

There's multitudes of music from the other Manchester band of the 70s. They wrote the best pop songs for a lost generation of benefits and dole queue masses.

Adam and the Ants actually put on one of the best gigs of the 70s, and it'll always live on in my soul. This particular record was sone you'd hear everywhere from the Music Machine and the Roxy to the Electric Ballroom in Camden. A total classic.

A classic song about their local Chinese in Chislehurst. I met my girlfriend Annette at a Banshees gig in February '78 at the Croydon Greyhound.

I love this track. Even now it still sounds fresh. I saw them as early as '78. I was told by my mates I shouldn't go see this band, because they had no guitar!

Another one I love—it's still a favorite round these parts. I saw them at the Roundhouse in '77 .John Foxx was the singer then and they recorded three brilliant albums —the first being produced by Brian Eno.

The best gig I ever went to was this lot at the Lyceum in 1977. It felt like the beginning of World War Three and the end of days rolled into one.

The Orb play Electric Brixton on July 29th.

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