Speaking as someone who bought the records and went to the gigs at the time, let's set the UK Punk Record Straight: There have always been two 'Punks' - Punk Rock (focussing on individual ideas of rebellion/expression), born in two separate incarnations in the US and UK (in the latter case the first bands were The Sex Pistols, The Stranglers, The Damned and I would argue the initial lineup of Ultravox!), then Punk, the media-mediated construct of social realist fakery inspired by The Clash, who reduced everything to poorly-thought out agit-prop. It was either obvious to the listener at the time or not - when Lydon sang 'Anarchy In The UK', he wasn't really talking about taking up the Black Flag...