Take this walking tour to explore the story of punk music in Belfast, a city where punk meant more! Find out what a punk, defiant attitude means. You’ll hear about the punk scene of the late 1970s, the collectives that kept punk alive from the 1980s, and the range of social issues that are making our contemporary punk bands angry.
Belfast punk holds a special place in music history, near and far. The story of 1970s punk and the Good Vibrations record shop and label run by Terri Hooley, has been dramatised in the ‘Good Vibrations’ film and stage production.
On this tour you’ll experience the spirit of punk music and its legacy in Belfast with a passionate punk music loving guide, who saw many bands live back in the late 1970s, including The Outcasts, Rudi, Stiff Little Fingers, Ruefrex, Victim, etc – and who loves today’s punk bands too. You’ll see the locations of legendary sites in the 1970s punk story, including where the Good Vibrations record shop first opened and its second site, marked now with impressive new street art, plus where the Harp Bar and The Pound stood.
You’ll hear too about punk collectives in Belfast from the 1980s to now, including Warzone and Giro’s, seeing where their first and most recent bases were, and how they brought together young people from communities across the city. You’ll hear stories of nights out in Hill Street back in 1979, as well as of recent punk gigs. There’ll be a visit to the city’s music hub, the Oh Yeah Music Centre, to look around the punk memorabilia and artefacts in the display cabinets of its NI Music exhibition.
A soundtrack of punk music will be played at each stop, including ‘70s tracks by Rudi, The Outcasts, Stiff Little Fingers, Ruefrex, The Undertones and more, as well as tracks by contemporary punk-linked bands such as, Problem Patterns, Tramp, Jock, Cherym and Wood Burning Savages. Their lyrics detail the issues that punk bands have and do actively campaign about.
Practical Details: Meet on Great Victoria Street, by the Go Petrol Station (under its shelter) near the Punk Murals. The tour will take two and a half hours and end in the Cathedral Quarter. Tour starts at 2pm. Please arrive at the meeting place five minutes before the start time.
On the tour you will walk up to 2.5 miles, on level ground, though with a few cobbled streets. The tour will take place whatever the weather, so please come prepared!
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