Independence Day: How Ramones Changed the World

Fifty years ago this weekend, Ramones played their first two UK shows, catalysing the British punk scene. Simon Price talks to people who were there, and argues that anyone who dismissed them as cartoon cretins missed the point Ramones live at the Roundhouse by Gus Stewart / Redferns / Getty There comes a moment in every Dolly Parton concert, as cherished as it is predictable, when the country icon reels out her famous scripted off-the-rhinestone-cuff remark: “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.” It's a quip which could easily be adapted to fit Ramones: it takes a lot of brains to sound this dumb. Because, if there's one defining question which still dangles over the New York City punk pioneers,... The post Independence Day: How Ramones Changed the World appeared first on The Quietus .