Every Saturday in 1982, Nancy would make a pilgrimage to her local record store in Philadelphia and browse the latest releases. Although she worked as a paralegal by day, her passion was music. “In my spare time, I was managing and promoting punk bands and writing for fanzines,” she says. In July, she stumbled upon a record by the band Society System Decontrol, whom she had never come across before. “I listened to it and straight away I loved it. There was a note inside saying: ‘SS Decontrol would like to play your city or town,’ with a phone number.”
Deciding she would like to book them for an event, Nancy called the number. She reached Al, the band’s guitar player, who lived just outside Boston. “I was working as a machinist, making parts for jet engines, and playing in the band,” he says. “We couldn’t play the dates Nancy asked for, but we ended up talking for three hours. I knew it was pretty special to keep chatting for that long.” He asked if she would like to come and see the band play live the week after in Staten Island, New York, and told her he would put her name on the guest list.
