I was handed a copy of the book; Punk: A Tale of Abuse, Addiction and Survival by Gary Morgan, some months ago, and I was inspired enough to place up this new KYPP post to let browsers know about the book, which is an autobiography and a difficult read in parts.
Gary lay’s his youthful experiences out typed out in black and white, and some of those paragraphs, written with honesty, really can be quite hard to get through.
This book is quite shocking, at least for large parts of it, some of the names have been changed, other names stay as they are / were.
I interviewed Gary via email, to get a little more background on the book and the reasons for writing it.
The photographs are from Gary’s and Mick Lugworm’s collections.
Rachel and Gary en-route to the Centro Iberico
1/ When did you have the idea of writing your experiences from your school days through to your interest in punk rock and with the many tribulations you faced? Was the idea brewing over several years or did you wake up one day and just ploughed on with it?
A/ It came about as a result of a conversation with my mum funnily enough. My mum lives in Lincolnshire these days and unfortunately I don’t get to see her that much. When we do get to meet up we reminisce about all sorts of things, but especially some of the things she missed about my brother and I growing up over the years. I told her the stories of how dad was with us and while I knew this would make her sad, I felt she needed to know. I never told her about any of the other abuses, that would have just been too much for her really. She liked hearing some of the stories I told her about the punk days, squatting and bits about my heroin addiction, especially the bits about my recovery. On one occasion she made an off the cuff comment, she said I should write these memories down so that I don’t forget them. I didn’t really pay much attention to it at the time, but while riding home from Lincolnshire on my Harley I had plenty of time to think. I thought about lots of events, incidents that had occurred and about how lucky I have been to still be alive considering some of my actions and decided it would be a good idea to take my mums advice and start writing them down, so that’s what I did. Each time I remembered an event I wrote it down, some of these events and memories triggered other memories so I wrote those down too. Sometimes I wrote them on bits of paper then transferred it to the computer or straight to the computer, sometimes I would be walking to work and I would remember something so I would I dictate it onto my phone and type it out later, that’s really how the book came about to be honest.
Gary aged about ten years old prior to starting secondary school
2/ Some of the experiences you write are quite raw, although important to the book, did you have any second thoughts about naming those in question i.e. teachers, school bullies etc, or are those names of the teacher and other people that hurt you made up?
A/ I had no second thoughts initially about naming those idiots from school, in fact my original draft that I sent to the publisher contained all the real names of all the people in the book. But, before the editing process began the publisher advised that I needed to seek permission from those that have a significant mention in the book, so this I did. I contacted Wog, Luggy, Tony, Val etc who all gratefully gave their permission. However; others I had no ay of contacting, nor did I particularly want to reach out and make contact with anyone from my school years. So taking advice from the publishers I did change those names, though not by that much, but the names changes don’t effect or detract from the nature of some of those awful incidents, events and times.
Ripper and Gary at Durlston Road in Clapton
Luke, Gary and Ripper at Durlston Road in Clapton
3/ Some names are made up Angel and some names are real but their own nicknames at the time Wog, Luggy or Ripper etc so unless you know Wog, Luggy or Ripper personally there is no reason for a random reader somewhere in the UK or abroad to know who they are, but that said, did you encounter any negative reactions?
A/ As I mentioned previously all those with a significant mention in the book gave their permission. I didn’t encounter any negativity from a single person, during those years from leaving school, discovering punk and moving up to Stoke Newington was, looking back, the best of times. My time with Cheam punks was great as was my time squatting up in Stoke Newington and looking back on those years it was such a wonderful time. We had a lot of hardship, especially through the squatting days but we mustered through, we had good times and we had bad times, but overall I think we had the best of times. I hope that came through in that part of the book. The book has been out nearly five months now and I haven’t had a negative response from anyone who has read it or who I have mentioned in it. It’s also getting some great reviews on Amazon and I’m grateful to all those who have either written a review or given me direct feedback, I think overall it has generally been well received.
4/ Do you still go to punk gigs; do you still have the enthusiasm for the live events? If so, was this always the case or were there years and years between gigs in the eighties and nowadays? In other words, if you last went to a punk gig in the eighties, did that carry on through the nineties, 2000s and up to 2025. If the punk gigs dried up in the eighties, were you interested in other forms of music? Late eighties indie or grunge. The nineties rave culture. Anything like that?
A/ Wow there’s a lot of different questions here and I’ll try to cover them as best I can. Do I still go to punk gigs? I am 100% a live music fan and have all the energy and enthusiasm still to go and support live music, so I go to a lot of gigs each year and some of those are punk gigs yes. To mention a few, I’ve swung by and seen the Damned, 999, Menace, The Mob, Brigandage, Rubella Ballet over the past few years and it’s great to see those guys still playing. During the early 80’s at the height of my heroin addiction I didn’t go and see many bands, in fact I doubt I saw any for a fair few years. I did on one occasion though end up backstage with Bauhaus at Aylesbury Friars one year, this was because my girlfriend at the time knew the owners and we had AAA passes. I met all the guys but, Peter Murphy took one look at me, pulled me close into him and kissed my forehead and gave me a nod of his head, I guess he knew I was off my head as he had his own struggles at the time I believe. I also used to attend the Batcave and Kit Kat Clubs and bands played there regularly, we used to watch Specimen, Sex Gang Children and others there all of the time.
Gary with his sister at the family home. Gary always gave his little sister time when he went home
Gary on his 21st birthday with the Champagne that he wasn’t allowed to open
Once I was back on track and rid of my heroin addiction, I did start getting back into music, though the anger and the energy of punk as I got older started to lose its appeal. I was finding myself listening to a lot more hard rock, from the mid 80’s onwards I started listening to bands like Motley Crue, Ozzy Osbourne, Motorhead, Kiss, Def Leppard and as the 80’s progressed I found myself absorbed in what they called at the time the hair metal scene, bands like Poison, Guns’n’Roses, Metallica, The Cult, Tigertailz were all putting the fun back into rock’n’roll and the gigs and scene at that time was great fun. There was a lot of partying during those years. As we went into the 90’s the hair metal scene started to wither, the onset of grunge changed the dynamic, but as a rock music fan I didn’t really mind that much, having come through the 70’s and 80’s and seen how scenes changed over time, I wasn’t surprised at the shift. I embraced bands like Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, Nirvana and all the grungy type bands, music after all is a gift and I embrace it all no matter what the genre, each to their own if you know what I mean.
Through the 90’s I also played in a few bands as a drummer, my bands were Empire State and Product, as Product we made some great music together and we did loads of gigs, we were a punky kind of four piece and we had a lot of fun. My friend Kevin who you’ll know from the book was the main songwriter and lead vocalist of the band. We had HiFi on guitar, Pedro on bass and me on drums. I have a load of tapes somewhere I really should get around to uploading onto CD or onto the internet somehow. We were pretty good, even if I say so myself, and were gaining some traction, but then the Britpop thing came along and we were kind of out of date and sadly we broke the band up.
Kevin and me went onto form a management and promotion company and supported and managed other younger acts like Disco Pistol who we managed together. Disco Pistol were very popular and gaining a lot of momentum, and they were being courted by the major labels. Sadly due to issues within the band it all fell apart, though three of the members did get signed to Mercury Records and released a single under the name Sweet Three, but it didn’t do anything and the whole thing collapsed.
I went onto manage a band called The Scratch and a few others as a solo manager, Kevin having given up the management thing. The Scratch did reasonably well they went on to open for Noel Gallagher at The Manchester MEN Arena and were well received by XFM. They were doing quite well for a while but never seemed to be able to move on any further, a shame, a great band though. As for the rave scene, I kind of missed that boat during the 90’s. My wife Gerry was very much into it back then though, her and her partner at the time used to promote a party called Rhythm Method back in the 90’s and I believe they also had something to do with Sunrise too. Once Gerry and I met in 1999, she took me to a few of these parties / raves and I kind of got the vibe, so in 2004/5 I did put on raves. I used to promote this party called Funkatarium, we had regular spots at venues like The Scala in Kings Cross, The Glass House in London Bridge and finished up with a monthly residency at the Rhythm Factory in Whitechapel.
Sometime in 2005 I met a young lad called Nikki Smash, and he had sent me a demo of his band The Rocket Dolls, I was blown away by it, they were awesome and their sound was great, big chunky guitar riffs and heavy bass and drums, they could really play. I did a lot of promotion for those guys and over the years we became great friends. I put on their very first London gig at The Hope & Anchor in Islington and gradually watched them rise through the ranks culminating in a great show at The Ramblin Man Festival in July 2019. They had been recording their second album called ‘The Art of Disconnect’ during that year, as part of its promotion they played a live show in my lounge at my home, which we streamed via Facebook, it was a crazy but awesome night.
The lads had put absolutely everything they had into that album, Nikki as the main songwriter had really pushed himself and poured his heart totally into that album. It was due for release in March 2020, a tour was all set up, arrangements all made for press and then, well, we all know what happened next. Covid happened.
Everything had to be cancelled, not once, not twice, not three times, the band didn’t know if live music was ever going to be a thing anymore, all the nonsense about vaccines and proving your vaccine status or you couldn’t go out etc etc. It was just a crazy time, and sadly this killed the band. The album did eventually get released, but the fanfare had gone and so had the band. If you get a chance to check the album out on Spotify, I totally recommend you give it a whirl, it really is a fantastic record.
I also put on a benefit gig for Ukraine. This was to raise money to support the Ukrainians fighting the Russians, it was a great evening and I had two bands that I worked with at the time play an acoustic set each. We had Wolf Moon and the Dead Jackals, again you check them out too on either Spotify or YouTube. I’m not really involved in any management or promotion of bands at the moment, though I do keep an open ear. So, to round off the original question, I have always continued to be involved in music in some way shape or form, supporting live music and acts, this will never change. My personal taste in music may change, but rock’n’roll has always and will always be with me and I’ll always have energy for that.
5/ There is this book written and available right now. Is the next instalment of your life written down yet? If not are there any plans for a second book? You were managing a rock band at some point I think, and also joined a motorcycle club, plus less importantly got married and had kids (that was a joke by the way) but seriously any thoughts on another book?
A/ I guess there will be another book, as you can tell from the answer to the previous question, I’ve done a hell of a lot in my lifetime and continue to do so. Kevin and I had many adventures, as musicians, as managers and promoters and in life too. There’s a lot of good rock’n’roll stories there when I think about it, maybe I’ll capture them and entitle the book “The Adventures of Gaz’n’Kev” who knows?
The thing about the first book was that I never really planned it to be a book, it was just getting all that stuff out of me, a lot of that shame I held onto and it wasn’t mine to keep, so by getting that book out there it gave that shame back to those it belonged to, it wasn’t mine to hold anymore. If that makes sense. Once I had written it and put all the pieces together, I gave it to my wife Gerry, I said to her that she ought to read these stories I had put together about myself growing up. I thought it may help her understand me and my past which I had only shared a little about. After a few days I came home from work, Gerry was in floods of tears, I asked her what was wrong and she gave me the biggest cuddle and said she had just finished reading my book and it made her cry and she said she loved me all the more for reading it. I was moved, but said book, what book? Up until that point I had never really considered it to be a book. Gerry said I should try and see if I could get it published, she said it was a story that should be out there. I wasn’t sure at the time that I was ready for the whole world to know my intimate secrets, but then I thought, yeah fuck it, the shame isn’t mine, give it fucking back, get it out there. So I sent it off to a few publishers, I got great responses from Austen Macauley and Piccolo, I went with Austen Macauley because they came back to me first, and because they published Duff McKagen from Guns’n’Roses autobiography. The thought of being publishing mates with Duff appealed to me, but outside of that, Austen Macauley gave me the best response to the manuscript.
Gary’s band punk band Warning
6/ Can you remember the first few gigs you attended? Whether punk or not?
A/ The very first live band I saw was Gary Numan and Tubeway Army, it was great, I was totally enthralled. The first band on was a two-man outfit with a backing track, some months later I was watching Top of the Pops and there they were, it was Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
Tubeway Army were amazing, and after that there was no stopping me. I got into seeing regularly bands like Martian Dance, The Meteors, Adam and the Ants as well as playing in my own punk band Warning.
The late 70’s and early 80’s musically speaking was a great time to be a youngster without a doubt.
7/ Were you ever a bike courier, as a lot of old punks ended up being so, driving around cities delivering stuff? Some anarcho punks that I knew back in the eighties normally used bicycles and delivered sandwiches to businesses, but you already had some decent motorcycle experience, although ‘shoplifting’ getaway driver, as laid out in your book, but did you eventually go ‘straight’ and become a courier!
A/ Yeah, I did a bit of motorcycle couriering, I actually did it on that old Suzuki DR400 I mentioned in the book. I didn’t really write much about that as there wasn’t really much to tell, I mean I just delivered stuff to one place or another on the odd occasion and got a few quid here and there. Nothing really noteworthy. Couriering wasn’t much fun either, especially when you’re on a completely illegal bike, but you know, at the time, any cash helped.
8/ What did you wife and son think of the book, were you worried about them, especially your son reading it?
A/ As I said previously, it was down to my wife Gerry and her support that I sent it off to publishers after she read it in the first place. As for my son, he knows it exists but has not read it, we have talked about it a little, though not in any great depth. In all fairness to him I don’t think he has a burning desire to read it, if he does and has any questions then I am here to answer them, but in truth I doubt he’ll read it.
9/ Your photographs of yourself in the early eighties show a whole array of punk clothing, some I would guess would have come from Seditionaries, or Boy etc. You worked up the Kings Road for a while, did you go to the shops up the Kings Road like Seditionaries or Boy, to hang out or to buy clothes, or did you get the clothes more locally? Also do you still have a box of old clothes and if so, do would you imagine how much these items are worth now on the nostalgia market?
A/ Sadly, I don’t have any of those original clothes anymore, I wish I did, I have reproductions of some of the T-shirts and shirts from Michelle Brigandage label Sexy Hooligans. Working on the Kings Road was great, yes, I shopped in all the shops and bought all the gear. It’s a great thing when you are earning money, you can get the things you want as well as pay for the things you need. I would hang out in Kensington Market too, that was a great place to hang out, it’s a real shame it isn’t there anymore. There were some great stalls in there. On the Kings Road we would hang out after work in The Chelsea Potter, that also used to be a great scene, it seemed like the whole punk and alternative world was there at times.
10/ I have given you a cardboard box to put a dozen of your favourite records in (not necessary just punk records). What will those records be?
This is such a hard one, wow, over the years I’ve come to love so many different records from so many different artists.
But I guess since you’ve asked and in no particular order it would probably have to be the following:
- The Cult – Love
- The Cult – Sonic Temple
- Adam & The Ants – Dirk Wears White Sox
- Guns’n’Roses – Appetite for Destruction
- Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks
- Psychedelic Furs – Talk, Talk, Talk
- Hanoi Rocks – Two Steps from the Move
- Hanoi Rocks – Back to Mystery City
- Bauhaus – In the Flat Field
- Def Lepard – Hysteria
- Motley Crue – Shout at the Devil
- Motley Crue – Dr Feelgood
11/ You managed to escape the downward spiral of drug addiction, what would you want to say to anyone that might be suffering with drug addiction nowadays with your experiences in the past?
A/ I would say that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but you have to want to give up your addiction yourself. You cannot force an addict to stop, you cannot force anyone into rehab, they will only go off the rails again. You have to want it for yourself and it all depends on the individual, their circumstances and where they are at the time. The stars need to align for your recovery to be successful if you know what I mean, also there is no definitive answer or format for everyone, everyone is different and deals with their addictions in different ways. Sometimes you just have to find that way for yourself and decide if you’re going to go it alone, or who if anyone is the best person or persons to support you with that recovery, but most importantly, you’ve got to want it for yourself.
12/ Last question. Harley Davidson or a 1965 Vespa 150 Sprint? And why? Be careful on the answer as I am moderating the KYPP blog! [SMILEY FACE]
A/ Actually Mick I had a Vespa PX125e at one point. I loved that bike and had it for about a year in the 80’s, while I had it I hung around with a group of scooter punks. I had it after I stopped the gear, we had quite a lot of fun riding around, drinking and going to gigs, maybe I’ll write about those times in my next book if there is one, but ultimately it has to be my Harley Davidson Street Glide Special mate, such a great bike. Me and Gerry love going on rides, attending rallies and generally having fun on it, the Harley community like the scooter community, I guess is really cool, the bike is so big and is so comfortable too, you can just soak up the miles on it, my wife loves it too and that is very important to me.
Gary and Wog on the Harley Davidson at Rockaway Park in May 2025
Gary, Mark (ex of The Mob) and Wog at Rockaway Park in May 2025
Gary with Vicky and Wog at Rockaway Park in May 2025
Vicky, Tony D, Gary and Del at Meanwhile Gardens in May 2025
Thank you to Gary for answering the questions.
Gary’s book may be ordered directly from the publishers (preferred) HERE
The book is also available on Amazon and can be ordered from Waterstones.