This book does a superb job at corralling the unruly herd of musical creators who stampeded through the late 1970s and early 1980s. This was MY time. I was 16 in 1979, excited by punk, enamoured with the new music which was emerging.

Each individual artist from this time is unique, they include Public Image Ltd on one end of the scale, and the Thompson Twins at the other. The artists could be abrasive and uncompromising, or commercial and artistically slight, but Reynolds deftly identifies a common thread that links them all. What is that thread? It's hard to pin down, but I think the title gives the best indication. In 1976 the original punks smashed down the walls that commercialised popular culture had built up over the preceding two decades. Postpunk was about the possibilities created once we could venture forth beyond those walls.

Towards the end of the book Reynolds makes some comparisons with the preceding cultural breakout of the 1960s. There's a sense that the first version was messed up, and the punks were trying to get it right this time. I'm reminded of the key line in a 60s touchstone, the film 'Easy Rider': "we blew it".

Perhaps the ambitions of the punks and those who followed were not as lofty as their older brothers and sisters. Perhaps Peter Fonda's chopper-riding character was being a bit harsh on his 60s travellers. But after reading this great book, I think we can feel pretty good about our second attempt. We didn't blow it, whatever "it" was.