The art of Damien Hirst and the music of the Prodigy, the attitude of Liam Gallagher and the hair of Eminem - all owe a great debt to the cultural movement that burrowed through Andy Warhol's Factory and the early 1970s' New York underground, emerging triumphant, kicking and screaming at the top of the British popular music charts, some five years later. Affectionately known as 'punk', it was the spotty, scruffy, bastard offspring of many a grander musical form, but like many a prodigal, went on to become more successful than its forebears, leaving a legacy that is still recognised today.

This book gives voice to the punk generation 25 years on, as it remembers the mad, frenzied and often incoherent world of 1975-9. With nearly 100 contributors, including specially commissioned interviews with members and managers of the Sex Pistols, the Clash, the Ramones, the Heartbreakers, Siouxsie and the Banshees and many others, everybody has had a chance to speak, and their memories are supported by hundreds of previously unpublished photographs.

Variously described as middle class, working class, political, social, sexual, aristic, superficial, perverted, puerile and heroic, punk has always inspired contoversy. Now it is for the reader to decide the truth - or truths - that fuelled this unique movement.