If there’s one thing the original breakout wave of ‘77 punk bands loved, it was furiously enforcing copyright law against pinball machine companies. That feels like the overriding message to take away from this very, very weird attempt to milk a youth explosion, weird firstly because it was in 1982, five years after punk rock exploded, four years after the Sex Pistols imploded, three years after punk’s main poster boy Sid Vicious died of a drugs overdose and two years after The Clash had released Sandinista!, a famously bloated triple album featuring 36 tracks and clocking up a run-time of two hours, 24 minutes and nine seconds.
Somehow though the machine’s manufacturers Gottlieb thought the numbers would add up, so much so that they went to great pains to make sure they wouldn’t be receiving any letters from a "Mr Rat Scabies Esq" asking for a cut of the earnings. Cunningly, the machine’s design obscures letters from the bands’ names – so “Sex Pistols” becomes “X PIS”; “Dead Boys” becomes “EAD BO”; “Depeche Mode” turns into “PECH MO” and “Joy Division” becomes “OY DIVISIO”, but with all the letters guillotined in half across the middle. Yeah, that’s right – Gottlieb were so late to the party they were trying to lump Depeche Mode into the punk scene, a crime perhaps more unforgivable to committed music fans of the era than ripping off their names in the first place.
Still, looks pretty fun to play. Would’ve loved to have been in that marketing meeting.
