An astute reader would have worked out my MP3 player has broken, which has caused me much pain and sadness. I'm very used to having a lot of music with me everywhere I go. The adjustment has been quite traumatic.In one of the finest of York’s many fine sandwich shops you will find some of my friends hard at work – flipping bacons over a hot grill, eagerly dicing peppers or squeezing the brine out of huge tins of tuna. As much as the love of their job seems to course through their collective veins, one of the perks of the work is that under the right circumstances my beleaguered sandwich technician friends have free reign over the music played in the shop.Despite the shitty sounding portable stereo the slightly trendy sandwich shop becomes a decent enough environment for us all to share music – I have fond memories of having been introduced to lots of good music there. Chaz has been playing a Metallica cover album featuring a cover of Anti-Nowhere League's So What. I found it quite exciting despite my loathing of Hetfield, Ulrich et al. Someone kindly lent me the Live & Loud record by the original artists. For one reason or another it’s been a long time since I listened to some proper English punk and it inevitably got some of the old juices flowing. I’ve just spent a happy few hours digging through my older punk collection and debating a stylish new Mohawk.After unleashing Germfree Adolescents by the X-Ray Spex (one of my favourite ever vocals) I whipped out the perennial and hardy (I’ve been gardening today) Stranglers’ 1977 debut Rattus Norvegicus. If you have not heard this album and you have any interest in the early British punk/rock/new-wave then it should be immediately added to your “it’s quite important to listen to these very soon” list. The Stranglers just happen to be the first (and only) band my Dad ever introduced me to, but I want to tell you about where the rest of my new-wave education came from – the excellent compilation album Teenage Kicks, which I have been revisiting this evening.Looking back now, it is hard not to dismiss the album as a cynical and commercial way of repackaging the era for the 40/50 somethings who were there at the time, probably listening to the Bee Gees and Abba but who are now looking for some coffee table cache. No matter though, the songs fight back. The Pistols, Sham 69, The Buzzcocks, the Vibrators and the rest still have as much energy and passion, as much power in the delivery as they ever did. I listened to the first (and strongest) CD through a few times in the end and the songs all still bring me a lot of joy, from Hazel O’Connor to Ian Dury & The Blockheads. The second CD is unfortunately a bit lame and takes more of a touristy approach to the music. The point though, is that the whole compilation is a decent stepping stone to learning and discovering a whole raft of bands and artists that you aren’t likely to hear on the radio or buy after stumbling across them in a record shop – the album serves as a decent introduction to the genre and in the end there can be no substitute for actually listening to this music. If you aren’t familiar with any of it then you should acquire some or all of the following:CD1 track list:Sex Pistols - Pretty VacantThe Jam - Going UndergroundThe Undertones - My Perfect CousinEddie & The Hot Rods - Do Anything You Wanna DoSham 69 - If The Kids Are UnitedElvis Costello & The Attractions - Pump It UpThe Stranglers - No More HeroesBoomtown Rats - She's So ModernIan Dury & The Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm StickThe Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't 've)The Skids - Working For The Yankee DollarThe Vapors - Turning JapaneseGeneration X - King RockerX-Ray Spex - Germfree AdolescentIan Dury & The Blockheads - What A WasteDepartment S - Is Vic ThereBow Wow Wow - Go Wild In The CountryHazel O'Conner - Eighth DayVibrators - Automatic LoverLena Lovich - Lucky NumberRich Kids - Rich KidsThe Jam – StartThe Undertones - Teenage Kicks