On this episode of Blue Mountains Live, The Professor talks with legendary British punk pioneer TV Smith (Tim Smith), founder, singer and songwriter of the influential first-wave UK punk band The Adverts.

Formed in London in 1976 at the birth of the punk movement, The Adverts were contemporaries of the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned, and quickly became one of the defining bands of the era. Their breakthrough single Gary Gilmore’s Eyes became a UK Top 20 hit in 1977, while One Chord Wonders captured the DIY spirit that powered the early punk explosion.

We talk about the wild early days of London’s punk scene, the making of the classic album Crossing the Red Sea with the Adverts, the enduring legacy of those songs, and how Smith has continued touring the world for nearly five decades as one of punk’s most thoughtful and fiercely independent songwriters.

Now touring Australia for the first time with TV Smith’s Adverts, he reflects on the evolution of punk, the power of storytelling in songwriting, and why the rebellious spirit that sparked the movement in 1976 still matters today.

A great conversation with one of the original voices of punk rock.

And then we preempt next week’s interview with Snaijk from fret as we talk to one of our favourite presenters Wiltricity who will be filling in next week in his uncles band Fret in Surry Hills.