Punk pioneers to play free gig in Cork

It was a classic case of right time, wrong place, when the Membranes emerged growling and screaming from the English town of Blackpool in 1977. While the media fixated on the punk and post-punk explosions in London and nearby Manchester, the seaside Lancashire town was treated with neglect.

The ripples of punk were felt keenly by voluble frontman John Robb. While his band the Membranes felt inspired by the movement to make their own DIY racket, Robb could only look on in bemusement when some years later American bands such as Big Black and Sonic Youth were being idolised by the press for making a sound not too far removed from the one already pioneered by the Blackpoolers.

Robb is philosophical about the geographic handicap which fate dealt him.