I was listening to a show on Radio One called the Lock Up, which had a countown of (supposedly) the ‘most punk’ songs of all time – as voted for by listeners to the show.

Well, I can only assume that most of the listeners are a lot younger than those of us who remember punk the first time round. I know you shouldn’t get worked up about these polls, but really… number 1 was Basketcase by Green Day, while Anarchy In The UK was languishing at number 6.

I’m not suggesting that Americans can’t do punk (it was great to hear the Dead Kennedys and a couple of Ramones tracks) but I wouldn’t really count Nirvana, The Offspring and Rancid as punk! Actually, maybe Rancid should count, they have the spirit, but surely Timebomb would have been a better track to choose than Ruby Soho?

Even the DJ drew the line at the listeners’ choice for No 4 (Firestarter) and sustituted The Exploited.

If any more middle-aged ex-punks want to join me in being outraged the full tracklisting is here for now (next week it will be in the tracklist archives.

While looking at the web site I noticed an option to vote for ‘your favourite cover versions’. So I cast a vote for Spizzenergi’s cover of Virginia Plain on the B side of Captain Kirk just for the hell of it. Its not the best cover in the world, its not even the best Spizzenergi have done, but its durable and goes down a storm when Spizzenergi play it live these days.