Jimmy Burns is not only a massive punk hoarder and collector, he is also a real gent. We first touched base some time ago when Jimmy contacted me through the blog and shared some images of posters which he had, of punk concerts I had been to in the past. Jimmy then kindly let me use these images on my blog. Since then we have kept in touch and I was delighted when he told me that part of his massive punk memorabilia collection was to be displayed in Newcastle Central library.
Jimmy kindly offered to meet me at the library and give me a private personal tour of his exhibition, which is by the way, excellent and well worth visiting. He met me and my carer Jan at the entrance to the library and we went upstairs in the lift to the space where his collection is currently on show. What he revealed to me was a treasure trove of memorabilia which takes the visitor through the history of punk, particularly in the north-east. This includes very rare posters of punk bands including Sex Pistols posters from early gigs, including their legendary show at Huddersfield on Christmas Day 1977, which was to be their last UK concert (before the later reunions). There is also a massive collection of badges, tickets, vinyl and original, very rare, punk clothing such as a Destroy T-shirt from the original Kings Road shop of Malcolm McLaren and Vivian Westwood.
To say that Jimmy has assembled a unique collection of punk items which not only covers the north-east but is of national importance, is an understatement. I very much doubt anyone else has such a collection. And indeed, only part of his collection is currently on display in the library. Jimmy has put this together largely through personal connections he has made over the years.
We were soon chatting about punk concerts that we had both been to “back in the day” and shared some great memories of mad evenings in Newcastle Mayfair and Newcastle University. We both had particularly strong memories of quite crazy, violent gigs such as The Specials at 
Newcastle Mayfair. Happy days.
Jan and I were both knocked out by the exhibition and by Jimmy’s passion for anything to do with vintage punk rock. Thank you so much Jimmy for spending time with us, talking us through the exhibition and sharing happy memories with me. I really appreciate it and look forward to chatting with you more in the future. Good luck with the exhibition. I’m sure that many people will go to see it and that it will be well received. If you are interested in punk rock then I would urge you to go along and visit the exhibition while it is c
urrently on display in Newcastle Central library.
A great afternoon spent in great company discussing some of the best music to emerge in the late 70s and early 80s and some of the best concerts to ever take place in the north-east around that time.
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