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I'm not sure where lamp posts come in the list of most effective advertising media but an A3 poster tied to one in Derry made me aware that Mumford and Sons were coming to a small bar in Donegal. Sorry, Mumford and Sons tribute band. Don't get too excited. Not that Mumford (or his sons) are my cup of meat. But the poster did make me think. Whatever happened to coming up with witty names to call your tribute band ? No Way Sis, Bjorn Again, Hayseed Dixie - there was at least some mental effort involved there. Just adding the words 'band' and 'tribute' shows a lack of effort, chaps. What really struck me, though, was the realisation that Mumford and Sons haven't been around long enough to warrant a tribute. Their first LP only came out last October, with twelve songs on it. So its not as if this tribute band has a huge list of songs to learn, either. The early pioneers, Bjorn Again and the Bootleg Beatles, filled a need as Abba and The Beatles weren't likely to be appearing at your nearest large stadium any time soon.
In Australia, they made up for the lack of international acts by coming up with their own. But there's no excuse for a Mumford And Sons tribute act. Not yet, anyway.
By the way, Derry can claim to have the first tribute act in the world. In the middle 1970s, there was a band called Quo 2. They played Status Quo songs. Never heard them, never saw them, don't know their names, I just read the ad in the Derry Journal. I didn't realise then that what I thought was a lack of imagination would actually be a genius move in the world of live music. Shows what I know, doesn't it ?

Johnny Moped's been described as the link between pub rock and "the beery end of punk". Not a huge musical chasm, then. Johnny himself (the band name was also Johnny Moped, in a confusing Alice Cooper-type situation) had an unfortunate image as someone who, when presented with a microphone, would be as likely to deliver a large burp as the first line of a song. I remain a fan, not least because of such work as 'Incendiary Device' and 'Darling Let's Have Another Baby'. This week, we present the thought provoking political treatise on early ThatcherismÌýentitled 'Wee Wee'.Ìý Much more sonically sophisticated are the Shock Headed Peters, whose I Bloodbrother BeÌýuses some cutting edge 1984 studio technology. Boy meets boy and all that.ÌýÌý

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Sex Pistols - Seventeen
Johnny Moped - Wee Wee
Skids - Of One Skin
The Loft - Up The Hill & Down The Slope
Rocket From The Tombs - Never Gonna Kill Myself Again
Vibrators - Into The Future
Big Audio Dynamite - E=MC
Models - Man Of The Year
Shock Headed Peters - I Bloodbrother Be
Groupies - Primitive
Dr Feelgood - She Does It Right
Members - Chelsea Nightclub
Rezillos - Getting Me Down
Real Kids - Roberta

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When did it become OK to like Led Zeppelin ? Was I the only one who missed the repeal of one of punk rock's original laws ? ÌýI mention this because their name came up in a conversation during the summit between the President of Russia and the President of U2. There's coverage of the encounter on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ website, where the weakness of the tea that was poured by Bono caused great concern, with worldwide commodity markets experiencing sharp downturns as a result. One area of agreement which was quickly reached was that both men were fans of Robert Plant's old band. Nothing surprising there. Russian Presidents have too much to worry about, like counting nuclear arsenals and sending out gas bills, to concentrate on developing good musical tastes. Mr Medvedev will never get round to listening to that box set of The Stooges, let's face it, so he'll remain a Zep fan for the foreseeable. But it's those who were combatants in the Great Punk Rock War of 1976-77 that I am referring to. You didn't like Led Zeppelin. You didn't like Pink Floyd (post Syd) and you didn't like Emerson, Lake or Palmer. There's a full list of bands to not like, which I will gladly post out in case you'd forgotten. No post punk revisionism on my record player. "No Elvis, Beatles Or The Rolling Stones", sang the Clash in "1977", the b side of White Riot. Unfortunately they chose the three old wavers who made great records. "No Led Zep, Eagles Or ELP" may not have scanned quite so neatly, but it would have remained longer in a young punk rocker's heart.

The news that Wyclef Jean's not going to be the next President of Haiti - something about him not actually living there, apparently - brought to mind some other short lived political careers of people whose day job involved cavorting on a stage. Who can forget Joe Strummer's manifesto in the New Musical Express ahead of the general election in May 1979? Certainly not the person who sent him a death threat as a result of reading Joe's views on Northern Ireland. It put Joe (and the rest of The Clash) right off the idea of coming to Derry for a free festival that summer, which was fair enough, I suppose. I don't think Joe was ever serious about running for office, of course. That manifesto thing was probably an NME inspired wheeze, which must have seemed amusing in the office in Carnaby Street. Much more practical was Jello Biafra, who got as far as standing for election as mayor of San Francisco in 1979. Bear in mind, at the time, he was the singer of a band called the Dead Kennedys. That was a tasteless enough name before he decided to enter politics, but it didn't seem to be an issue in the campaign. His most famous policy was that businessmen should be forced to wear clown suits within San Francisco city limits. He lost the clown vote as a result and came fourth. A few others have dabbled since but never the ones who would have been worth voting for. I would love to have seen Joey Ramone towering over the Presidential podium taking questions from the White House Press Corps, with Dee Dee as Secretary of State. I wouldn't have let either of them anywhere near the nuclear button of course. That would have been safe in Johnny's guitar case.

I have to confess to a weakness for comedy records, from 'Ernie' to 'Hard Days Night' (Peter Sellers version). But I think Max Splodge's best known record takes it to a higher and more surreal level. Don't dismiss it as 'Punk Pathetique' as the music labellers have deemed it. It is two minutes and eleven seconds of growing anger and frustration with being invisible to all around you. And a great guitar riff, as well. The Madness collected works are reissued this week. Fine collections of songs, although earlier this week I was taken aback when a colleague told me that he didn't like Madness. Who doesn't like Madness ?
Also a question - is Jane singing 'It's A Fine Day' post punk ? Answers welcome.

Splodgenessabounds - Two Pints of Lager & A Packet Of Crisps
Stranglers - Burning Up Time
Madness - Take It Or Leave It
Orange Juice - Intuition Told Me Pt 2
Microdisney - Birthday Girl
Jack Lee BandÌý- Its Hot Outside
Clash - I'm So Bored With The USA
Ben Watt - Slipping Slowly
New York Dolls - It's Too Late
Dislocation Dance - Its So Difficult
Exploding White Mice - Burning Red
John Cooper Clark - Gimmix Play Loud
Jane - It's A Fine Day
Elvis Costello - You Little Fool

It's not known who the mystery music fan was that, for a few short hours today, successfully passed themselves off as Axl Rose, Twitter tweeter. But he (or she) is to be commended for a brave attempt at keeping Guns N Roses out of the country. This morning, ´óÏó´«Ã½ News carried the earth shattering story that G'N'R were cancelling their UK dates. I heard it on the radio , between the latest on the Pakistani floods and a story about getting rid of mixed wards in England. Yes, it is important that we all keep up to date on the happenings of heavy metal bands from Los Angeles. Speculation was that Axl, the singer who seems to be the only original Gun or Rose still in the band, had thrown his microphone out of the pram and wasn't coming out to play. He was tweeting that the shows were cancelled and fans should claim a refund. That, unfortunately, wasn't the case and he is still intending to perform at the Reading and Leeds Festivals this month. Poor Axl was the victim of a hacker. Like others of the punk generation, I had hoped that such throwbacks as Guns N Roses (can I start calling them Guns And Roses ? I feel slightly 'down with the kids' using the apostrophe - thanks) would be replaced in the hearts of the American public by The Ramones or The Clash. It wasn't to be. The nearest we got was when they recorded an LP of cover versions, which included the Damned's New Rose and Human Being by the New York Dolls. A nice payday for the original songwriters, but still not enough to make me see them as anything other than a band who saw the film and thought it was a public information film about being in a rock band.

Sometimes it takes me a while to realise a record's any good. Sometimes it takes thirty years as it did with Richard Hell's Blank Generation LP. A bias against baldy men, unfortunately, whenÌýI saw Bob Quine, guitar playing Voidoid. You can do that when you're 21.
Also tonight, the Human League make their debut on the show with an instrumental from their Holiday 80 EP. They do sound as if they're playing their synthesisers with one hand while holding the manual in the other. Still great though. If I was buying a synthesiser, I would definitely get them in for advice.

Damned - Neat Neat Neat
Mo-dettes - Norman (He's No Rebel)
Radio Birdman - Anglo Girl Desire
Richard Hell - Who Says Its Good To Be Alive
Echo & The Bunnymen - The Puppet
Human League - Dancevision
Shop Assistants - All That Ever Mattered
Generation X - One Hundred Punks
Comsat Angels - Red Planet
Flamin Groovies - Teenage Head
The Arms Of Someone New - Left To Right
Dead Boys - High Tension Wire
The Cure - It's Not You
Mekons - Snow
Swell Maps - Lets Buy A Bridge
Del-vetts - Last Time Around

Despite being a huge fan of the band, I've never got close enough to actually smell any of the Sex Pistols. Now, I don't have to as the band has a on the market, complete with the God Save The Queen image and a tartan stopper. (Why tartan ever became associated with punk rock I don't know - possibly via the Bay City Rollers ?)
Should I be shocked, outraged or holding out my wrist for a free sample ? Its either a brilliant comment on consumerism, branding and public gullibility or the final straw in the band's pursuit of cash from chaos. Fleecing record labels EMI and A&M is one thing, being honest about reforming for a big payday was refreshing, just like the perfume's "restless bite of lemon, sharpened and intensified by a defiant black pepper". But there is a limit to the joke. Although it does open the possibility of other punk rock related products. "New Rose Plant Food" courtesy of those keen gardeners The Damned ?Ìý "Clash White Riot" toothpaste ? "Jam Jam" ? Suggestions welcome.

Its fourteen years since The Ramones finally got out of the tour bus for the last time, having performed over two thousand two hundred shows without really getting the success they deserved. Like the Velvet Underground, they're part of American rock and roll royalty, without the royalties. I read an interview with the drummer from the Fleshtones, another New York band, who shared a stage with the Undertones in the U.S.A. in 1980. His abiding memory was of the Derry band sitting around afterwards, drinking milk. Something he'd never seen adults doing 'en masse' before. Never having watched an FA cup final, obviously. And to complete the American Trilogy, the Runaways salute the genius of Slade. Without sounding at all crazee, funnily enough.
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Ramones - Glad To See You Go
Fleshtones - The World Has Changed
Adam & The Ants - Kick
Rudi - Overcome By Fumes
Buzzcocks - ESP (Peel)
Scientists - Atom Bomb Baby
Go Gos - Our Lips Are Sealed
Grass Roots - Live For Today
Au Pairs - Dear John
Felt - Trails Of Colours Dissolve
X - I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts
Darling Buds - If I Said
The Fall - Cruisers Creek
Runaways - Mama We're All Crazee Now