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 Were you a member of the punk family featured in the documentary about the Mitchison Road squat? |
Anarchy in Islington... the 1980s punk family
Internet video recalls thriving squat in £1m home
A GRAINY 1980s documentary on Islington punks has become a surprise YouTube hit.
The gang of 20 squatted in a desirable period house in Mitchison Road, Canonbury, where the only rules were “no heroin and no glue-sniffing upstairs”.
Now they have re-emerged as an unexpected hit on video-sharing website YouTube in a little-known film made for Australian TV in 1983, which has already attracted 319,458 hits.
The Tribune is trying to track down the stars of the video, or neighbours who may remember them from Mitchison Road, where identical homes are now worth up to £1 million.
The documentary captures the squatters making their money by charging curious members of the public £2 for permission to take pictures of their wild haircuts and clothes.
As the commentator says: “These are business punks.”
They all sleep on the same floor, and fleetingly discuss their “free” attitude to sex. One man, apparently named Scott, is shown enjoying the pleasures of glue-sniffing from a plastic bag.
More than 1,000 people have posted comments on YouTube, including several from people who claim to have lived in the flat.
One – footytenerife – reacted in shock to the revelation that a glue-sniffing punk featured in the film was actually his father.
He said: “Cant believe i found this, that guy sniffing glue is ma dad !! I was shocked to see this !!... he’s doing great and the one wiv a blue mohawk (alex) I’ve met him not long ago but some of the guys are dead.”
Another tells the sad story of Kay McCartney, who can be seen 21 seconds into the footage.
The writer, only known as OFlynn, said: “The gluesniffer’s name is Scott, and I met him again seven years later and he was fine. But a huge RIP for Kay McCartney who killed herself just a few years later, 21 years old, at Christmas time, after a childhood in institutions and foster homes. Her punk family was the only one she ever had, and a few of us cared about her a lot. But we couldn’t save her.”
According to another writer, the gang were kicked out by “an angry mob” of unfriendly locals.
Georgelars 68 said: “I was in this video and lived in this squat. I seem to remember the film crew providing the bottles of cider. There was a guy in the film called Cyril although his real name was Richard, he can be seen ‘kissing the rat’. We got booted out of that squat by an angry mob of local people as I recall.”
Members of the groups went by the names of Anne Marie, Cyril, Kev, Steve Pill, Kay, Scott, Animal, Dave, Alex and Bumbox.
Many of the website’s posts have speculated on what the stars would be doing today. One said: “The ‘Leader’ is now 48 years old! I wonder what he’s up to now!”, while another suggested “they all became accountants shortly after the film was made”.
The video can be viewed on www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0IZdP3x66Y
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