Punk’s Easy Reader roots, as recalled by Black Flag’s Spot
Black Flag singer Keith Morris incites a riot during a July 1979 Polliwog Park concert in Manhattan Beach. Photo by Spot
“I remember coming up to the Easy Reader office over the Bijou Theater and complaining about how bad a band review was by someone named Marylynn. She said, ‘I’m Marylynn. Can you do better?’ She was laughing. ‘I said, ‘Hell yea.’”
“I was working as a waiter at Liz Turner’s Garden of Eden for $75 a week. Greg Ginn was a regular. He was also writing reviews for Easy Reader. He said he started a punk band. Black Flag practiced in the old Bath House. We called it The Worm. You needed to know the password to get in.
“That summer, I took pictures for Easy Reader at the Polliwog Park Punk concert. Seeing Black Flag perform made me want to record them before they got killed. — Punk music engineer and photographer Spot, from a 2014 Easy Reader interview.
Spot covered the Sunday afternoon concert with Easy Reader reporter Kerry Welsh. In the July 26, 1979 Easy Reader, Welsh wrote, “Black Flag’s ardent fans, with hair in every conceivable (and unconceivable) color, jumped up and down in the traditional punk ‘pogo,’ pelting the band and the nearby crowd with oranges, tomatoes, watermelons, cans, rocks and bottles as the band played their brand of frenetic, anarchistic rock. Lead singer Keith Morris, meanwhile, spewed obscenities while challenging the crowd to fight. Parents quickly collected their children and fled the park.”
Spots photographs of the Polliwog Park Punk Concert Riot and others he took of the South Bay Punk scene have been published in a coffee table book titled, “Sounds of Two Eyes Opening.” Photos from the book will be on exhibit this Saturday, April 28 at Cornelius Projects, 1417 South Pacific Avenue, San Pedro. For more information visit CorneliusProjects.com. Spot’s book is available at Sinecurebooks.com.