# The Clash, the Cramps and Penny Kiley’s teenage punk diaries Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-66565/the-clash-the-cramps-and-penny-kiley-s-teenage-punk-diaries Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-66565/the-clash-the-cramps-and-penny-kiley-s-teenage-punk-diaries.md Podcast: [Word In Your Ear](https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-66565) Published: 2026-05-01T22:14:10+00:00 Episode link: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/5ff0586154e2a73589267809/e/69f525b28dd960ac612c3943/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-66565/episodes/the-clash-the-cramps-and-penny-kiley-s-teenage-punk-diaries Duration seconds: 1713 ## Resource Penny Kiley moved to Liverpool in 1976, ran into punk rock and “became the person I’d never been allowed to be”, as vividly remembered in her memoir, Atypical Girl. It’s a moment of liberation mapped out by records, nights at Eric’s and the big personalities in the city’s Second Coming, the beat she later covered for Melody Maker. She looks back here at some unconquerable moments, among them …   … the impact of Marc Bolan and David Cassidy - and later Patti Smith, Siouxsie, Pauline Murray and Poly Styrene   … punk’s “bad taste aesthetic” and the clothes she wore   … boomtown Liverpool in the late ‘70s – “everyone had a film script or a demo tape”   … how Boy George stole Pete Burns’ act   … the Clash, Talking Heads and the Ramones at Eric’s   … why her book is “like an historical novel about the way journalism changed”    … first reviews, front covers and life as Melody Maker’s Liverpool correspondent, “which could be awkward with friends in bands”   … Orange Juice and the ground-breaking NME C81 tape   … and the adjustment to the ‘80s – “the Royal Wedding, Live Aid, Duran Duran, yuppies, a decade where I didn’t feel I fitted in”   Order a copy of Atypical Girl here: https://birlinn.co.uk/product/atypical-girl/   https://www.waterstones.com/book/atypical-girl/penny-kiley/9781846976919 Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock'n'Roll going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/word-in-your-ear-66565/episodes/the-clash-the-cramps-and-penny-kiley-s-teenage-punk-diaries/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/word-in-your-ear-66565/the-clash-the-cramps-and-penny-kiley-s-teenage-punk-diaries.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.