‘It sounded dreadful – but to me it was the second coming!’: punk rock memories – in pictures

Fans at a Damned gig, London, 1978

These images of the punk and new wave music scenes in London, New York and LA were taken by DB Burkeman between 1976 and 1982 when he was a teenage school dropout struggling with substance abuse issues. While he was spending his disposable income on self-medication, rolls of film inevitably remained undeveloped in a bedside drawer. Decades later, following his mother’s death, Burkeman cleared out his old bedroom and discovered a time capsule of the explosion of punk rock. All photographs by DB Burkeman. Crash Bang: Pictures from a Punk is available from Blurring Books