Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 28-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
In the mid-’80s, David gave me a lot of great albums by bands he’d found out about when he squatted in London in the very late ’70s. I was introduced to punk rock by way of X-Ray Spex, Slits, Poison Girls, Raincoats, Au Pairs and Crass. Most of the bands he listened to had women in them; the exceptions were the Clash, Sex Pistols and Gang Of Four. Often David had stories to tell about seeing these bands live. I think he saw Gang Of Four on the back of a flatbed truck at a No Nukes rally. Several years ago, Mecca Normal was playing an afternoon event at a house in Battle Ground, Wash. A member of Gang Of Four was there, but we didn’t know it until after, when he came up said he liked us. What a thrill!
