'self-portrait with camera & mohawk' circa 1982
by allison schnackenberg |
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Allison Schnackenberg attended 7 different elementary, middle, junior and high schools in the 11 years she spent
following her parents up and down the east coast of America. Some time around 1977 Allison discovered punk-rock &
that's when her real education began.
From '77 - '79 Allison ventured out from her suburban home in New Jersey across the Delaware river to Philadelphia where
she used her fake ID to get into gigs by 'The Clash', 'The Bloodless Pharoahs', 'Elvis Costello', 'Panther Burns', 'Blondie',
'The Ramones', 'Patti Smith', 'The Boomtown Rats', and 'The Undertones'. The adrenaline thrill of the music and the opportunity to
meet like-minded disaffected, rebellious kids sparked something that set that girl's brain and heart afire & she jumped
straight in with both boots.
A move to Miami in late '79 plunged Allison into geographic isolation from the movement that was by now identified as
'punk'. Her addiction had become so strong that she was forced to create her own entertainment; and more importantly she
realised that she could. Allison started her fanzine 'Savage Pink' as a 1-sided 8.5 x 14 inch xerox flyer - predominantly
collage work in the popular cut-and-paste ransom-note style. Allison quickly found Miami's tiny punk community, and
although few decent bands ventured to the bottom of the Florida pennisula, she still counts Joan Jett playing at a biker bar
in Ft Lauderdale as the one of the best gigs of her life.
In 1980 she moved north again to Philadelphia. 'Savage Pink' grew into a multi-page, 2-sided extravaganza
(helped along by having the keys to the copy shop where she worked) & so, needing to fill all those pages with something,
Allison got her first camera - a battered old Chinon 35mm rescued from the back of her mother's closet. As well she became
instrumental in the forming of the Philly chapter of the Better Youth Organization (BYO). The BYO's origins were on the
West Coast but their aim - expressed in the motto 'Strength & Unity' - was to encourage kids in every town to organize
themselves, take control of their own scene, book shows, form bands, generally support the explosion of American music which
had started out calling itself punk, but by now went by the name 'hardcore'.
As well as producing the fanzine, Allison became closely involved with Philly band 'Sadistic Exploits', was a member of the
band A State Of Mind, and forged links with similarly active kids in New York, Washington DC and Boston. BYO promoted shows
in Philly and New Jersey, eventually raising enough money to rent a 3-story warehouse on Third Street in downtown Philly,
turning it into a self-run youth centre for musicians, skateboarders and artists. Unfortunately the BYO centre was
personally shut down after only a few weeks by the city's Mayor Greene. 'Savage Pink' took its last gasp with it's only
issue as a proper newsprint tabloid before dying an untimely death.
In 1982, Allison moved west to California to form a punk rock commune with San Francisco band 'Crucifix'. She got a job
working for British independent distributor 'Rough Trade', where she attempted to subvert their dependance on British imports
with her support of early American punk-labels like 'Dischord' and 'Touch & Go'. During this time Allison became very active in
the East Bay anarcho-punk community, continuing for a while with the band 'A State Of Mind', but mainly concentrating on her
photography and her work in distribution.
She moved to London in 1985 to work at Southern Studios with John Loder and CRASS, which provided the opportunity to not only
work with a label whose ethics, aesthetics and politic had been hugely influential on her personal development, but also
to drag some good old American punk rock across the ocean and give many bands their first real distribution in Europe.
Allison still works at Southern in London and loves to tell youngsters how she fought the Punk Wars for them.
'The Sadistic Exploits of Savage Pink' was conceived through the support and insistence of a few individuals who have been
subjected to long, monologue-dominated tours of my photo albums. Andy Capper, Tony Sylvester, Pat Graham, Melanie Standage,
Pandora Vaughan and Ian MacKaye ... this is all your fault. That said, I hope that the collection will provide a little window
into a period of time that I was privileged enough to be a part of, and which ultimately determined the path that the rest
of my life would take.
Punk or hardcore, whatever you want to call it, gave me and many others the ability seize control of instruments which we
had never imagined to be within our grasp. It empowered us to create our own society, our own economy, and to
express ourselves both as individuals and as movement. I think that what was created out of that crazy energy has had an
impact not just on music but on the music business, on literature, poetry, photography, art... I can point to people who
have been mavericks in all of these areas who have been part of, or been informed by, punk. It's been said many times before,
but punk isn't a kind of music, it's an attitude, and one that I hope I still have today.
See Pop? ...it wasn't just a phase after all.
Allison Schnackenberg London . April 2004
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