HELLO GOODBYE
Mark Perry & Alternative TV
It star ted with the UK’s first punk fanzine – and ended with downers and disillusionment.
Changing channels: Alternative TV at The Roxy, London, 1977 (from left) Tyrone Thomas, Mark Perry, Alex Fergusson.
Erica Echenberg/Getty, Miles Copeland, Courtesy Mark Perry
HELLO MARCH 1977
I never had aspirations to be in a band, let alone be a journalist, but after the success of [Perry’s punk ’zine] Sniffin’ Glue I was everywhere. I was like the spokesperson of punk, interviewed in all the papers. That’s when Miles Copeland [brother of The Police’s Stewart] approached me to run a new label, Step Forward. This must have been December 1976. I was really excited, it was my chance to put out the music I liked. Then once we were releasing records, I thought, Why don’t I get a band together? I was writing lyrics and had met [guitarist] Alex Fergusson through Sandy Robertson at Sounds, and we both liked the same sort of stuff.