THE FOREST HILLS ARE ALIVE..

When the Ramones came to the UK in 1976, they were a major inspirational force for the burgeoning British punk movement. But back home in New York, the artists soon to be known as Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy had been moulding their oft-mocked brand of back-to-basics rock'n'roll to barely credulous but slowly growing crowds since 1974-5. Kris Needs, who was there at that UK debut, speaks to Joey Ramone's brother Mickey Leigh, Craig Leon, Lenny Kaye, Chris Frantz, Jayne County and others, also drawing on his own historical encounters with the band, to trace the backstory of four like-minded suburban outcasts and the ‘chemical imbalance’ that helped catalyse a revolution.

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4 JULY 1976: It’s a sweltering Sunday afternoon in the midst of a heatwave and your correspondent is waiting for the Ramones in the lobby of a Euston tourist hotel on his first assignment as a music writer. They're making their UK live debut at London’s Roundhouse that evening, and it’s time to go to soundcheck.

Standing with the band’s manager Danny Fields, my surreal introduction to the four disparate personalities who make up the Ramones couldn't have been better choreographed as the lift doors open to reveal Dee Dee Ramone. Sporting trademark black leather jacket and goofy grin, his New York street punk demeanour fronts an oddly childlike naivete as he complains about sharing his hotel room with Joey Ramone because “he floods da bathroom washing his hair, then spends two hours combing one side until it’s dry and then complains the other side looks different!”

With perfect timing, the lift spills out the six-foot-six bathroom-hogging culprit with soaking wet hair. Towering over everyone, there’s a gently innocent quality to Jeff Hyman, aka Joey Ramone as he announces proudly, “This is my Bay City Rollers look!” He holds up pencil-thin legs encased in ankle-grazing Levis, fluorescent green socks and new-looking sneakers. Next comes Thomas Erdelyi, aka Tommy Ramone, who started as the band’s manager-adviser before switching to drums when nobody else proved suitable. As band spokesman, he seems the most normal of the four Ramones.

Finally, John Cummings aka Johnny Ramone strides up, dressed for work in black leather jacket, Pep Boys T-shirt, ripped jeans and sneakers. In later years, the guitarist will emerge as the right-wing taskmaster who drove the Ramones like a drill sergeant and despised anyone who didn’t share his views, including Joey. Setting a pattern for a decade packed with Ramones shows, Johnny is smiling and friendly because I’ve just given Ramones’ debut album a stonking review in Zigzag magazine.