On Mark Jay’s debut novel THE NUDNIKS OF 1977 (Spinners, 2026)
From the heatwave of 1976 through to one jew’s jubilee
And Punk’s special fire, Mark Jay’s Nudnik novel, his first,
Blazes forth. A safety pin through a bagel adorns
These judgements from the old London Jewry
On what it means to be vital, from fanzine dreams
To a future in and around London north,
By way of Golders Green and a God grown Temple Fortune
In which Jay’s alter ego, one Herbert Gluck mitzvahs on
And Bowie ascends above his Wembley Stadium altar
Taking heart and hope with him as Gluck learns the lesson
Of what it means to both stand apart and belong. A Nudnik
Is a Kvetcher whose fight in seeing red wipes the bullshit.
And so this punk poet’s progress is one part postal Portnoy
And one part Holden C. (without the close psychosis of course)
As he navigates the NF and Ivan the Terrible, a convert frummer
Step-Dad to redefine for the reader what a British Jew was, is
And can be: not an Israel acolyte, but rather a secular Saint
Close to Kilburn. A ‘meshuggeneh misfit’ who hears the Ramones
As chords fizz like champagne for the ear to be supped
With the ever cool Lizzie Finkel and mopped up by chollah,
As smooth as Dali’s cheese and granting all that is known
Sweeter notions as memory makes sense showbiz.
And so Jay glugs and Glucks. In looking back, he moves forwards,
Recreating the cares which came to consume after Chedeh;
Chiefly the founding of a nation state of new music
And a testament torn from the rack on which the NME
Could be found preaching Punks’ Gospel. Genesis and Yes
Would be banished as fashion fumes, forming both structure
And shape and attack. We witness the discovery of the Damned
And the Clash, like acne blooms on Mars’ surface. We see
Herbert Gluck Lester Banging at the heels of the Jarman jagged
Exodus across Golders Green which now shines
With the substance sourced and stoked by the Pistols
And Johnny’s “Shit” snarled at Bill Grundy as Steve Jones’
Fucker judgement discredited anyone sedulous. This novel then
Is a tour as all good novels are, should and must be. It Tristam
Shandies with lager, just as it’s sense and sensibility shimmer,
Stirred by teenage spunk and hindsight, as it moves from the murk
Of the hitherto unrecognised suburbs to San Francisco and the gain
And the glory of the passionate heart taking flight. We see the Punk
Scene from backstage. Between the gobs of spit spumes the spirit
Of those for whom being was so much more than mere songs.
Punk remains in the heart and in the head as well. Rockers ramble.
They can repeat in age what youth granted and cater endlessly
For the throng. Or diversify, change, evolve, or score opera,
But the galvanised kids, now in their 60s still retain soul and strut.
Punk is a form religion for them, albeit one free from worship,
Although there is a sense of that in Jay’s writing, which 50 years later
Holds joy and discovery open at every possible door. Nothing’s shut.
As we sensate Sniffin’ Glue and Jay’s own All the Poets. What Gluck
Gains from the gruesome is a spit stung kiss from his time,
Which could both soften and snarl, burn and bite and inspire
A deeper love that this novel with its rebellious air can make mine,
Or yours come to that. It’s sheer energy is persuasion. Its faith forms
A future in which we can remain what we were and not mime
The tropes of the day, or its 86, 400 seconds. We can be anyone again
At each moment. We can enthuse and restore what real image is:
Not a mask but a representation, an essence. To be a jew today is so
Tricky as Jay writes here. Faith as war. But what Jay celebrates is not
The jew but the Jewish. From Shul to Seder, from Baruch Adonai
To shalom. Peace, mate. That’s pure and can be found in PiL
And as dudes doven, or in the scene or zine you’ve subscribed to
Despite the Hebrew near word rhyme with bomb. Music renders
An explosion within and thus sparks the true conflict of what it is
We should fight for as we care and kvetch and become. So, Jay’s
Book is a handbook for all, as well as novel-memoir. It is both
Totem and Talmud, a dry cleaned kabbalah, a scratched sum,
A saintly if secular search, as well as a mind mensch, King Canuting
Before the New Wave, post Punk, as soul and squat leaven landscape
And the wonder and win words can give us are lain out in lines
Which connect with everyone’s inner teen, including those who now
Own tender numbers, for while this book is strident it is sensitive too.
Thoughts reflect the still forming face of any gender. Lined by love,
Age awards us with every passing day life’s true prize: emotion writ
Large, something to be embraced, not avoided, while being aware
Of its dangers. This is why music protects us as if each searing note
Struck us, wise. Whether it’s the characters of Mossy, Zeke, or Cy-Anne
Or Gluck’s much loved Lizzie, these myth-adventures along each
London line reel us in. Whether around a fountain or fame,
Or secreted special shadow. Don’t take it lying down. Nudge a Nudnik.
At any age all is open. They will show you how, nu? Begin.
David Erdos 18/4/26
Cover of a previous graphic novel comic by Mark Jay, inspired by both dc comics
& 60’s counterculture comix.
The Nudniks of 1977 – The debut novel by Mark Jay
Novel and Graphic Novel Comic Book published by Spinners
Short Blurb
A riot of punk, poetry, and memory, The Nudniks of 1977 collides Camden ’77 — Cable
Street ghosts, Grunwick strikes, whispers of continental radicalism, and the Sex Pistols’
anti-Jubilee boat party — with 2017, where Herbert Gluck returns to his childhood home,
now an Airbnb, haunted by his unfinished diary. Blending zine-like energy with noir
introspection, Mark Jay’s debut is an urgent, and unexpectedly tender Klezmer-punk
hymn to loss, identity, and mythmaking — where anarchy meets inheritance, and the past
refuses to stay buried.
Biog
Mark Jay – is a film-maker, writer and visual artist who has been causing cultural chaos
since 1976. Specialising in marginal social histories, his films have won awards
internationally. The first issue of his seminal punk fanzine Skum was produced when he
was still at school and featured the first and only interview with Sid Vicious and Viv
Albertine’s legendary group, The Flowers of Romance. He was arrested alongside the Sex
Pistols on their anti-Monarchy Jubilee boat party in June 1977, created the cartoon poster
for their debut LP, collaborated with Vivienne Westwood on T shirt designs and was a
stowaway on the Clash’s Out of Control Tour.
All this and more is chronicled in The Nudniks of 1977
Link to store:
His two recent poetry collections – Geshmack X Gesheft and Five Years are available here
https://5767.co.uk/product/geshmackxgesheft/
https://5767.co.uk/product/five-years/
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