When I first started going to punk clubs, there were very few people. Just a small crowd hanging at the front of the stage, giving the band hell, making themselves part of the show the way punk audiences should. In short, there weren’t enough people to make a “pit” like those which would be seen later. Some punks were doing The Worm, a dance that involved dropping yourself to the ground in front of the stage, in the middle of the audience and spazzing out on the floor like a nerve gas victim, or a fresh fish thrown on a boat deck. Other punks might kick the person around the dance floor.
More often, people would be doing The Pogo, a vertical dance that involved jumping up and down, in place, with your legs and back rigid. It was supposedly started by the immortal Sid Vicious and The Pogo was around for quite a long time, but as the audiences got younger and the bands harder and faster, a change took place.
Instead of staying strictly vertical while jumping, the dancer would move slightly sideways and bang into a neighboring punk. That punk would be pushed away by the force of the impact and, as he reached the edge of the dance area, he would hook around and re- enter the dance floor. Over time this changed, and the punk who had been hit wouldn’t just re-enter the dance area, he would come back in among the other dancers, and he would be looking to slam into someone…