‘My mother used to say: “Punk is just a phase. You’ll grow out of it.”

Sorry Mum, but Mick Stephens is now 53 and “still lives and breathes being a punk”.

Not surprising then he was intrigued when longtime friend Dawn Longhurst got in touch last week, telling him to check out a Memories feature in the Gazette about punks in Colchester in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which included an image of the pair of them along with three other eye-catching friends posing in front of Colchester Castle.

Mick was 17 at the time and remembers it well, naming the three others in the picture, Rob Humm, David Herlihy and Frannie Bugg, and how it was taken in the wake of a key moment in the punk movement announcing itself in Colchester.

“There was a movement starting in the town with bands such as Special Duties and Modern English,” Mick says, “but there was nowhere in town to play gigs.”

True to the DIY punk attitude, an impromptu concert was set up to startle a Sunday afternoon in Colchester town centre. Special Duties, who were, like Mick, former students from Alderman Blaxill School, brought their gear to the underground loading bay below Red Lion Precinct and set up to play. Hundreds of people turned up to see them play a fifteen-minute version of the only song they knew, There’ll Be No Tomorrow, performed in front of the Marks and Spencer bay.

Mick says: “I remember the drummer bringing his gear along in a wheelbarrow. Those guys turned up just to play to anyone. That was the punk spirit “The police and security came along and unplugged it, but they played for about 20 minutes. We gave it a good go.”

The event itself may have been short-lived but it had its desired effect. The desire for the music was obvious and venues starting waking up. Punk has arrived in Colchester.

Mick says: “The music venues started taking notice. The Embassy Suite (on Balkerne Hill) held the Colchester Punk Festival and there were gigs at the Institute, the Clarence pub (now the Purple Dog) and Essex University.”

There’s no doubt punk had a huge effect on Mick.

He says: “The music and the look changed my life completely. At 17 I had a huge red Mohican haircut.

“They were the best years of my life. It was about being an individual and that was very important to me as a teenager and still is today.

“At Alderman Blaxill I used to go into school with zips sewn into my tie. It wasn’t long before I was kicked out of school.”

There was a lot to rebel at in the late Seventies. There was discontent at mounting unemployment, racial tensions and social upheaval with teenagers looking to escape the sense of boredom and hopelessness.

Mick says: “Everyone was rebelling. There was a lot of people out of work. I was lucky. I got a job straight out of school.

“I was 16 in 1978 and it felt like people were turning their back on you. With punk there was that camaraderie. You felt like you belonged.

“It was great to be with a group of like-minded people and going out and having fun.”

One of Mick’s haunts was the Colne Lodge, situated at 103-105 Crouch Street, which is now a care home. In the early eighties the pub had four bars, with the one downstairs on the right very popular with the town’s punks.

Mick says: “We used to hang out with the lads from Special Duties there. They were fantastic times and we were just having fun together.”

Not everywhere in the town was so accommodating to punks and Mick admits he and his friends were subject to some prejudice and violence and always had to be on their guard.

He says: “There were plenty of people who gave us trouble. You had to fight back and stand up for yourself.

Sometimes the threat of violence came from other punks, with rival gangs squaring up to each other at events.

“When Essex University started putting on gigs there was always trouble,” Mick says.

Being a punk was never going to be just a youthful rite of passage for Mick, it is, he says, “in his blood”.

The Mohican may have gone, but the ripped shirts, leather zips and piercings remain.

Mick says: “I look back at those times and I’m 53 now but I don’t think I’ve changed. I refuse to change. Being an individual is important to me.”

He’s left many of his friends from Colchester behind now, living in Portsmouth where he works as a lorry driver, but still makes frequent returns as his mother and his son and daughter still live in the town.

He says: “I lived in Colchester for 33 years, but I really don’t like coming back anymore. I really think the town’s got worse.”

There certainly doesn’t seem to be too many punks around in the town anymore, with other subcultures such as goths and skaters taking over.

Mick says: “It’s good these kids are expressing themselves, but the goths thing was never for me. They’re a bit laidback.”

Does Mick feel even more ‘individual’ than ever now as a middle-aged punk?

“There’s still plenty of us about. I’ve just come back from Rebellion [annual the punk and alternative music festival in Blackpool] with fellow Colchester punk Kevin.

“I’ve also got a friend called Bella who is 62 and has bright blue hair. She’s punk forever.”

Mick is still friends with the members of Special Duties, the band of schoolmates that first got him excited in the Colchester live music scene.

“Steve Norris, Steve Green and Nigel Baker were in the year above me at Alderman Blaxill.

“I’ve followed them since those early days and they’re still going strong.

“They did so much to put Colchester punk on the map. The band are just coming back off a US tour. In fact, I’m booked to go and see them at the Owl Sanctuary in Norwich in November.”

“I was speaking to Steve Norris recently and I told him the band should do a reunion gig at the school, although I believe it’s closed down now.”

Mick is also keen to stage a reunion with the five friends caught on camera in the wake of the guerilla Special Duties gig.

“I have spoken to Dawn about it. She’s quite normal now so I don’t know if she’d be interested and I don’t know where some of the others are now.

“I’d love to get us all together again. It’s not worth doing it with just two or three.”