When Joey Ramone played London for the first time at the Roundhouse theatre 1976, it was a spectacular and momentous event for punk music, inspiring the likes of British bands the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Chrissy Hynde, and the Buzzcocks, all of whom were amongst the audience that night.

They forged the way for do it yourself, cartoon style punk rock, in a way that was lapped up and revered by the Brits and yet outside of New York, took longer to be taken seriously in the US. When Joe Strummer came up to Johnny Ramone after the gig, concerned that his own band, The Clash, were too rough to perform, Johnny answered him "Are you kidding? We're lousy, we can't play. If you wait until you can play, you'll be too old to get up there. We stink, really. But it's great."