The Deltones were an eleven piece ska/bluebeat outfit formed in London back in the early/mid 80’s, and they featured former members of The Bodysnatchers. They were an all female band, apart from the drummer who was a male. The group also recorded a Peel Session for Radio 1 and a session for Capital Radio during the late eighties, and they were well known on the London gig circuit. They were also extremely popular in France, and they also appeared on Saturday morning TV in Britain performing the single, Stay Where You Are. The group decided to call it a day in the mid nineties, but by this time the line – up had changed considerably and they had moved on to playing pop – indie music rather than ska , although some of their ska tunes where performed during their set list at their latter concerts.
Peel first saw the band in 1986 when they performed in Soho to celebrate 6 years of Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues night at the Gossip’s nightcluv. He mentioned seeing them in the Observer, published on 4th May 1986 and described that he was a fan when they first struck up:
“From the moment they struck up I was a fan. Since a typically untidy adolescence, I have suspected that women know something we men do not, that they can have an understanding and co-operative spirit that combative men can rarely, if ever, match. I’m limping through minefields here, I know, but I cannot imagine 11 men playing together on stage with the sense of community radiated by the Deltones.” [1]
A month later, the band did a session for Peel’s show, despite not having a record deal at that time and in the late 80’s, when the group were signed to an indie label, he played some tracks from the band’s only solo album, Nana Choc Choc In Paris, on his programmes.
One dead, six others injured in south Minneapolis shooting
/ CBS MINNESOTA
The gun culture insanity continues in USA this time affecting the DIY Punk scene
MINNEAPOLIS — One person was killed and six others were injured in a shooting in south Minneapolis Friday evening.The victim, who was in their 30s, died at the scene of the 2200 block of 16th Avenue South, Minneapolis Police say. Five others with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds were taken to the hospital, and one other person who was shot took themselves to the hospital.Police say they were all the backyard of the house when the shooting happened around 10:15 p.m. Two suspects walked up the alley and at least one of them started shooting into the backyard, police say. The suspects then ran away through the alley. In all, police say they recovered 10 casings from the scene.MORE: Minneapolis music community mourning after mass shooting that killed 1, injured 6Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said he believed at least one person was targeted.
This video of previous show. DIY punk at the Nudieland club
Five of the people who were injured had graze wounds, O’Hara said at a press conference Saturday afternoon. One person required surgery.No one is in custody, and the investigation is ongoing.Victim identified
Man shot at Minneapolis punk show was talented songwriter, dedicated friend
A friend and bandmate said August Golden died in a shooting Friday at the punk venue Nudieland in south Minneapolis.
Friends identified August Golden, 35, as the person shot and killed at a backyard party Friday night in south Minneapolis’ Phillips neighborhood.
A Friday night house party in south Minneapolis was double cause for a big celebration. A band was playing numbers from its new recording. Another person was having a birthday.
But the good times at the punk venue Nudieland abruptly ended about 10:15 p.m. when gunmen fired into a crowd of people assembled in the backyard of the house on the 2200 block of 16th Avenue S.
Multiple people were injured, police said. One man died. Two suspects seen running away on foot were still at large on Sunday afternoon, police said.
Authorities have not released the name of the man who died in the shooting. But on Sunday, Bryan May said he is still coming to terms that his best friend and bandmate August Golden, 35, was killed.
“He was one of my favorite songwriters,” said May, who played with Golden in the Minneapolis punk band Scrounger. “Talented.”
May met Golden over a decade ago when they both lived in Santa Cruz, Calif. May moved into a house where Golden and 30 other people were living. The two hit it off immediately, May said.
“He was one of the most inviting people,” May said.
What was punk – and why did it scare people so much?
A man in punk dress is apparently admonished by a man in London in the mid-1980s. Punk’s expressive dress and anarchic politics were seen as a general affront to middle English conservatism in the mid-1970s, with the movement continuing as a subculture through the 1980s and beyond.
EVERYONE knows the sound of punk: unfiltered and breathless, an assault of sonic claustrophobia captured unpolished in a studio, or garage, living room, or perhaps an alleyway. Guitar riffs are sharp and unruly, driven by drums clattering around a gritty, decisive bassline. Vocals are unpolished and expressive, yelling lyrics loaded with agenda above the instruments. Aggression, frustration, sneering sarcasm – and all of it loud.
Everyone too knows the look of punk: statement haircuts, ripped clothing, badges, metalwork, makeup and leather. To its makers and its audience, punk was the cultural identity of anger, disenfranchisement, and rebellion.
The surge of – and appetite for – the punk scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s wasn’t limited purely to the music. It became an ideology, spawning literature, poetry, fashion and political defiance. But, as dramatised in new Disney+ biopic Pistol, it was the music that became its gravitation point, giving a beat and an identity to a genre that would explode, implode – and be reinvented over the decades around the world. (The Walt Disney Company is majority owner of National Geographic Partners.)
Defining the undefinable
Punk as a movement – perhaps appropriately – defies definition. Defined by Monika Sklar in her book Punk Style, punk was a ‘vital new way to perform subcultural ideas, that incorporated its own art, music, dress and lifestyles… commonly rooted in those who are somehow disenfranchised from society.”
People in punk dress walk down King’s Road in London in the 1970s.
PHOTOGRAPH BY HOMER SYKES / ALAMY
Exactly when it was appended to music is uncertain, though it’s likely to have been a lot earlier than most realise. A note in the San Francisco Call of 3 October 1899 carried the outraged remarks of one Otto Wise, who reviewed the singing of a companion in a fraternity house as “the most punk song ever heard in a hall.” In this and later tuneful contexts, which were plentiful, the word was used as an adjective to describe any kind of music that was authentically ragtag or unpolished – the implication being that those making it were somewhat rough around the edges as well.
Far from a simple expression of alternative ideas, or music simply of a lowbrow nature, by the time ‘punk rock’ was a thing, it was perceived as being on a mission to deliberately provoke. Miriam-Webster defined the music as “marked by extreme and often deliberately offensive expressions of alienation and social discontent” – though the word wasn’t used widely when the movement was first finding its voice. It was around, though: In the May 1971 edition of edgy music magazine Creem, journalist Dave Marsh, in a retrospective of 1960s US bands ? and The Mysterions, described their output as being a “landmark exposition of punk rock” – one of the first times the term was coined as a genre.
The Sex Pistols in the United States, 1978. Punk rock grew concurrently in the U.S. and the U.K., though the musical movement began in America with bands such as the New York Dolls and The Stooges helping set the scene for what would follow. Stooges songs were part of the repertoire of the Sex Pistols.
PHOTOGRAPH BY PICTORIAL PRESS LTD / ALAMY
American groups such as the New York Dolls and the Ramones (‘New York rock’), The Stooges and the MC5 in Detroit (‘garage rock’) had the swagger and bare-bones musicality vibe nailed. But the general use of a term soassociated with scallywags of one kind or another was frowned upon, and mainly used by journalists to categorise elements of their music. A 1976 article in the UK’s Sounds magazine by John Ingham was entitled ‘Welcome to the (?) Rock Special’ – the question mark a clear statement that nobody quite knew what to call the new movement now emerging in the U.S., Australia and in the U.K. On the eastern side of the Atlantic at least, punk rock didn’t get its enduring identity until there was a band of suitably shameless menace upon which to pin it.
Sara and Linda, Wycombe Punk girls . By Gavin Watson
The Sex Pistols performing in Norway, 1977. The band used European dates to emphasise their ‘banned in the UK’ notoriety, though in truth the band was never banned; merely their songs were excluded from the playlist of conservative broadcasters like the BBC, which it is believed limited their commercial success. Many believe the controversial single ‘God Save the Queen’ reached number 1 in the singles chart but was denied the accolade, losing out to Rod Stewart’s ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’
PHOTOGRAPH BY NORWAY NATIONAL ARCHIVES
Against such a scene, by the mid-1970s the emergence of a colourful counter-culture of bands that seemed to articulate the country’s frustrations were a tempting lightning rod for disenfranchised youngsters.
Punk rock’s musicality – or as perceived in some quarters, lack thereof – was itself a reaction. While artistically, the songs sometimes sounded like the band had only a loose acquaintance with their instruments (a 1973 review of The New York Dolls compared the sound of the band to lawnmowers) it was a conscious riposte to grandiose, stadium-filling bands playing rambling prog-rock and employing operatic and indulgent performances.
Punk rock, when it arrived, was edgy, brief and unpolished, with unpredictable and chaotic live performances which sometimes ignited pent up crowds into violence. Out went virtuoso solos and twinkly stagecraft: musicianship came second to attitude, and the feeling of accessibility – that those on stage weren’t couched and pampered rock stars, but just someone with struggles, frustrations and something to say. Lyrics were often politicised or critical of what was increasingly seen as a country run by arcane and regressive institutions.
Such rough but charismatic sound also bred its own recession-proof fashion. The ascetic, unkempt look of American rock bands such as The Ramones and Television and artists such as Lou Reed and Patti Smith – ripped jeans held together with safety pins, recycled thrift store clothes and t-shirts – spread across the Atlantic and became individualistic styles that were by definition a unique statement. While aped – ironically – by fans, the emerging movement provided a platform for self-expression that was authentic, rag-tag, and accessible for anyone.
Some of the boldest statements were crafted by Vivienne Westwood, who at the time was in a relationship with socialite and sometime promoter Malcolm McLaren. After the latter had spent a period in the U.S. managing the New York Dolls, he became interested in managing a local band called The Strand, which he and Westwood used as a kind of musical billboard for their Chelsea fashion boutique. With the rise in popularity of fetish wear, Westwood and McLaren had renamed the boutique from Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die to SEX – and The Strand to the Sex Pistols, with McLaren describing his desired aesthetic for the band as ‘sexy young assassins.’
‘The antithesis of humankind’
It was an uncomfortable contradiction that success and popularity was the inverse to punk’s philosophy, but also the inevitable consequence of connection with large numbers of disenfranchised record buyers. This came to a scandalous head in December 1976 when Thames TV presenter Bill Grundy – who, in a last-minute switch, found himself interviewing The Sex Pistols instead of Queen in a primetime evening broadcast – appeared to challenge the band on its anti-materialistic authenticity given it had accepted £40,000 for a record deal.
Singer John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, mumbled a swearword under his breath which Grundy asked him to repeat in defiance of the channel’s stringent policies. After more goading, guitarist Steve Jones broke into a profanity-loaded rant at the presenter, all of which was broadcast live. Grundy’s career never recovered, and the Sex Pistols were instantly notorious.
Left:
Westwood and McLaren’s shop on The King’s Road in 1976. Initially named Let it Rock, then Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, then SEX – and later The Seditionaries, and finally World’s End, which it remains to this day.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TRINITY MIRROR / MIRRORPIX / ALAMY
Right:
Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood in London, 1977. Westwood wears the original artwork for God Save the Queen on her t-shirst. Westwood’s designs were deliberately intended to shock and provoke, and she and McLaren’s influence over the Sex Pistols made them a leading charge on both the genre’s music and look.
PHOTOGRAPH BY TRINITY MIRROR / MIRRORPIX / ALAMY
Bernard Partridge, a member of the Great London Council, described the band as the ‘antithesis of humankind,’ adding that punk rock in general was “nauseating, disgusting, degrading, ghastly, sleazy, prurient, voyeuristic and generally nauseating… I think most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death.”
Anarchy in the UK
The perceived threat that punk rock presented to society was framed neatly by the release of what would become an anti-establishment anthem. For a target, as the head of state presiding over a country enduring austerity, the Queen was apparently as good as any.
The sleeve for the single God Save the Queen (1977.) The song was originally called No Future, and variations of the artwork, designed by artist Jamie Reid, included images of the Queen with a safety pin through her lip and swastikas over her eyes.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT LAZENBY / ALAMY
Lydon – who wrote the lyrics – has held the opinion that the song, which was originally titled No Future, was misunderstood. In Isle of Noises, Lydon told author Daniel Rachel the song captured ”the idea of being angry, of the indifference of the Queen to the population and the aloofness and indifference to us as people.” But writing in The Times in 2022, he stated: “I’ve got no animosity against any one of the royal family. Never did. It’s the institution of it that bothers me and the assumption that I’m to pay for that.”
The inherent provocativeness of punk’s anti-establishment, anti-capitalism and anti-conformist statements inevitably went into darker territory, which deepened the divide between the older, more conservative generation and the punks themselves. As cultural theorist Dick Hebdige wrote in Subculture: The Meaning of Style, “No subculture has sought with more grim determination than the punks to detach itself from the taken-for-granted landscape of normalised forms, nor to bring down upon itself such vehement disapproval.”
Violence was a feature of many punk gigs – both within the crowd, between the crowd and the band, and between the more strait-laced public spoiling for a fight with a subculture seen as a genuine threat to the British way of life. Despite a reputation for unruliness, the punks became targets, too.
“Punk rock is nauseating, disgusting, degrading, ghastly, sleazy, prurient, voyeuristic and generally nauseating… I think most of these groups would be vastly improved by sudden death.”
BERNARD BROOK PARTRIDGE
“Punks’ transgressive, shocking attitudes and stances caused normative culture to react viciously against them,” wrote Andrew H. Carroll in ‘Running Riot’: Violence and British Punk Communities, 1975-1984, “and it further isolated them from normative society; the reactions against them pushed punks deeper into their alternative community.”
Another theory for punk’s perceived aggression was the spiralling divorce rate and the dissolution of what many considered ‘traditional’ family values. As Connell states, “one way young people reacted to this was by constructing a new community, centred on punk music, that used violence to define itself.”
In addition, sinister accessories such as dog chains and knives were adopted as effects. In a further shock attack on older generations swastikas and other Nazi aesthetics were frequently worn as a deliberate provocation to those who had fought in WWII three decades earlier.
The Sex Pistols sign a record deal, 1977. Manager Malcolm McLaren (second from right) orchestrated stunts such as this for maximum publicity and affront to institutions such as the monarchy. It’s no accident the contract was signed in front of Buckingham Palace, nor that the record God Save the Queen was released to coincide with the Queen’s silver jubilee. The band themselves denied the record was timed as such.
Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen in 1978. Both would be dead a year later Spungen supposedly at the hands of Vicious, and Vicious by a drug overdose. As Vicious died whilst awaiting trial, the question over who murdered Spungen – she was found stabbed by Vicious’s knife in late 1978 while the latter was in a drug-induced blackout – remains controversial.
PHOTOGRAPH BY PICTORIAL PRESS LTD / ALAMY
Punk goes mainstream
Vicious’s death was considered one of the death knells for punk itself. Bands that followed The Sex Pistols’ lead included Buzzcocks, The Damned and The Slits, all of whom were influential in developing punk rock as a genre along various political themes, from austerity to equality, with some – including The Clash – becoming highly successful in the process. The latter made racial tension one of its protest flags, after lead singer Joe Strummer witnessed the violence between police and Black revellers at the Notting Hill Carnival in 1976, penning the song White Riot in response.
The Clash, pictured here in 1979, would be one of the British bands that would develop punk rock beyond the 1970s.
PHOTOGRAPH BY PICTORIAL PRESS LTD / ALAMY
As the 1970s became the 1980s, punk became even more resplendent. But as the decade progressed, inflation fell, the economy improved and new, less volatile bands caught the attention of younger generations.
While less menacing and gritty, the bright colours, creative hairstyles and use of makeup and other more tranquil ostentations of the 1980s music fashion appeared a natural development of punk. But stylistically, many of the bands that followed were an exaggerated contrast to their predecessors. Artists influenced by the punk movement such as Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Adam and the Ants earned the early nickname ‘peacock punks.’ The anger quelled, the motivations became less aggressive; guitars were augmented by new technology such as synthesisers that once again gave songs the produced shimmer bands like the Sex Pistols had gleefully binned. Punk, as a subculture, remained – but popular music evolved.
Their philosophy, however, didn’t – and has emerged periodically since, with movements such as gothic rock, grunge and EMO exhibiting many of the anarchic attributes that led to punk. Some of the albums produced in that first wave frequently rank in critics’ lists of the top albums of all time.
One of the bands identified as a kind of spiritual heir to The Sex Pistols emerged from Seattle in 1987. But for the lead singer, it was the philosophy, not the music, that tied the two together. “The only reason I might agree with people calling our band “The Sex Pistols of the 90s” is that, for both bands, the music is a very natural thing, very sincere,” said Kurt Cobain, of Nirvana. “All the hype the Sex Pistols had was totally deserved – they deserved everything they got.”
The Jam 1982 is written by Buckler and Zoë Howe and, in full color, glossy format, tells the eye-witness account of the band’s epic last year together, featuring previously unseen images from Buckler’s own collection. A strictly limited edition, signed hardback of the volume, including an exclusive print, will be available on the same day, and can be pre-ordered here.
The book also includes contributions from key members of those in and around the ever-influential band at the time, including DJ Gary Crowley, producer Peter Wilson, A&R manager Dennis Munday, photographer Neil “Twink” Tinning, Jennie Matthias (the member of chart group the Belle Stars who sang on “The Bitterest Pill (I Ever Had To Swallow”), and touring musicians Jamie Telford and Steve Nichol. Other friends and acolytes sharing their tales of 1982 include Eddie Piller, Paolo Hewitt, and Mat Osman.
Beat Surrender
“From the moment I teamed up with Paul [Weller] at school to start a band, everything else became secondary,” says Buckler. “We started out as a three piece with Steve Brookes on lead guitar and vocals, Paul on his prized Hofner violin bass and backing vocals, and myself on drums. We also had a name – not a very good name we thought – but it would do until we thought of a better one: The Jam. Dave Waller joined on rhythm guitar, learning to play on the way.
“Rehearsing in Paul’s bedroom,” he continues, “we got together a set of sixties covers and put on an hour of music as we worked towards our first gigs in Sheerwater Youth Club, county fairs, and anywhere around the Woking area we could secure a booking. Dave soon dropped out and in the meantime we continued to go out as a three piece, improving our set and adding in some rather dodgy self-penned love songs along the way.”
Bucker concludes: “Forty years after the split of The Jam, the real inside story hasn’t been fully told. The Jam still means a great deal to me and to so many others. I have always thought it was a great shame that we did not take it as far as we should.”
There’s been quite a few books written about The Jam, who still hold a huge fanbase world wide. Most mod and scooter events will have covers bands and memorabilia, why not get this book to add to your collection.
The first Fred Perry Shirt was worn in 1952 – an all-white shirt with a Laurel Wreath on the left side. A simple shirt with a lot of meaning. In a matter of years, the shirt had become a uniform for British youth and a highly treasured piece of clothing. “A heritage British style. Smart, but functional. If someone is wearing one you know they’ve spent a bit of money on themselves.” (Peyvand Sadeghian).
SKINHEAD REUNION BRIGHTON GIRLS BANNER
Fred Perry 70 years old
Fred Perry 70 years old
The first Fred Perry Shirt was worn in 1952 – an all-white shirt with a Laurel Wreath on the left side. A simple shirt with a lot of meaning. In a matter of years, the shirt had become a uniform for British youth and a highly treasured piece of clothing. “A heritage British style. Smart, but functional. If someone is wearing one you know they’ve spent a bit of money on themselves.” (Peyvand Sadeghian). For many, getting their first shirt was a moment to remember. Some had to wait and save weekend after weekend of pocket money for a shirt […]
The Pyramids aka Symarip are a Ska and Reggae band from the United Kingdom, originating in the early 1960s, when Frank Pitter and Michael Thomas founded the band as The Bees. The band’s name was originally spelled Simaryp, which is an approximate reversal of the word pyramids. Consisting of members of West Indian Jamaican immigrants to London, Simaryp is widely marked as the first skinhead reggae bands, to target skinheads as an audience, after playing backing band with Laurel Aitkin started to witness a growing Skinhead following. Their hits included “Skinhead Girl”, “Skinhead Jamboree” and “Skinhead Moonstomp”, the latter of […]
For many, getting their first shirt was a moment to remember. Some had to wait and save weekend after weekend of pocket money for a shirt that would become a closet staple, “It wasn’t until I was about 21 I think. I got bought one for my birthday and we made a thing of it by going to the Covent Garden shop to pick one out. To be honest it was the first and only one I had for a long time!” (Peyvand Sadeghian).
The pilgrimage to a central London shop or market with the freshest stock is as memorable for many as trying on the shirt for the first time. “I bought my first Fred Perry polo shirt in 1978, from a sports clothing store in Oxford street. At the time relatively exclusive and difficult to obtain, and a treasured item of clothing.” (Ed Silvester).
That first shirt would be worn over and over, an effortless cool ready to take on anything and look good while doing it. “I wore my Fred Perry’s until they were so worn that I pulled the entire collar off while taking it off the last time I wore it. It was only then that I really understood how much it had meant and what it had done for me. What adventures we had been on.” (Barrymore George)
Over a decade on from the original white shirt Fred Perry introduced ‘Twin Tipping’ around the collar along with new colourways. These additions allowed for more self-expression across scenes and ages. “During the mod revival years we religiously wore different coloured Fred Perry polo shirts and V-neck jumpers. I still love wearing Fred Perry polo shirts to this day, updating them every few years.” (Ed Silvester)
“Wearing my Fred Perry lifted me everytime I put them on. Like a cloth coat of armour they gave me security and a sense of belonging. They felt close and snug and warm and safe.” (Barrymore George)
Mods, Skinheads, Rude Boys and Ravers had their differences, but all were connected by being made up of working-class youths. Fashion has always been a presentation of our class place in society and the kids of the later 20th century were ready to rebel against classical ideas of clothing through subverting classic shirts like the smart polo to their own more rough and ready styles. “It’s a uniform that unites the working class and music scenes of these periods. It’s sharp and comfortable at the same time. It’s also the opposite of fast fashion and fads. It embodies strong and traditional values that are here to stay. It’s legendary.” (Catherine Laz)
Youth culture fashion has become synonymous with ripping clothes up, bleach splatters and patches, matching all of this with a crisp and clean shirt makes a statement about how deliberate your choices are, that you know you can be smart or scruffy and you know how to demand attention either way. “We used to wear them with Sta-press trousers and thin braces and DMs. Bleached jeans were fashionable at one point with skinheads, where you bleached patches on your jeans yourself. We would also wear them with pencil skirts and a jacket, with fishnet tights and brogues.” (Catherine Laz)
A Fred Perry Shirt is an iconic piece of British clothing and heritage. It has a cultural significance that young people have found fitting to represent their own journeys for status and respect, while finding unionship in those that wear it. “Fred Perry represents a long standing British and much-loved subculture clothing brand, being a constant thread winding its way through my sporting and cultural life.” (Ed Silvester).
Barrymore George
I got my first Fred Perry in 1980. In fact, I got two that day along with my first set of nice Sta Press trousers in navy blue and a red Harington jacket. One shirt was black with a yellow trim and the other was burgundy with blue trim – both had three buttons.
I got home and immediately changed into everything and the 12-year-old me set off and glided proudly up my estate road to see my mates all kicking ball in a dusty grassless field.
The game stopped for a tiny second while they gazed open mouthed and said ‘wow.’ It was just for a second but that was enough, it truly was, because my boys never ever interrupted a game of football but for me that day they did. I never looked or felt the same again.
Catherine Laz
It was the summer of 1982 on the balcony of our bedsit in Swiss Cottage. My sister is on the left and I am on the right, wearing a blue Fred Perry shirt with sky blue stripes. I had the classic bleached blond crop hair and feathers skinhead girls used to have.
We spent our days hanging around Carnaby Street and Leicester Square, the King’s Road on Saturdays, shopping at The Last Resort on Sundays (where the polo was from), and our nights going to punk/mod/skinhead gigs all over London.
We had a great time because we believed we were the centre of the world. And that is what wearing a Fred Perry shirt meant, people instantly knew you were an important part of youth culture.
Peyvand Sadeghian
This was taken in Archway, North London, at I think a Punk/Oi all dayer upstairs at the Boston Arms in the early 2000s. I can’t remember what bands were playing that day.
The photo was snapped on a lil digital camera by Chris Low who I didn’t actually know at the time although we crossed paths again years later and became mates. In trying to figure out if we’d met before he realised he had this photo!
Ed Silvester
This photo was taken in the summer of 1979, in my friend Alan Smith’s bedroom in Epping. We used to hang out there, to catch up, listen to music and talk about the next bands to see.
Ron Watts – 1942 to 2016 (Obituary researched and written by Paul Lewis – First published 16th July 2016) Legendary music promoter Ron Watts passed away on 20th June 2016, aged 73, following a long illness. Watt’s spent much of his life living and working in High Wycombe and brought world wide fame to The Nag’s Head, a former HQ of the Wanderers.
Watts is best known for his involvement in the rise of the punk scene in 1976 and 1977, promoting gigs at the famous Nag’s Head venue in High Wycombe, in addition to the legendary 100 Club venue in Oxford Street, London. However, it be an would be an insult to his legacy to leave unmentioned his part in bringing top Blues acts to venues in the UK during the late 1960’s and beyond, plus his front man role in legendary Cajun Blues band, Brewer’s Droop.
Watts, born in wartime Slough in 1942, schooled at Langley Grammar School but had moved to High Wycombe with his family by his later teenage years. His love for music came from an early age – his initial taste was jazz but he soon got into the Blues, buying his first single in 1957 when he picked up a 78 rpm version of Chuck Berry’s School Days.
After passing his A Levels he worked at Midland Bank, High Wycombe and used some of his wages to attend R&B gigs in London – taking in early performances from Alexis Korner and Charlie Watts and mixing with the likes of Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, well before they had become household names.
In his 2006 autobiography, ‘100 Watts, A Life in Music’ he recalled that High Wycombe at the time was ‘terminally uncool’, although he attended gigs at the Town Hall, plus jazz evenings at Court Gardens, Marlow. Watts also got the bug for live performing following an impromptu singalong during an R&B gig in West Wycombe featuring John Mayall.
He married for the first time in 1962 – tying the knot at Terriers Church before moving into a flat in Farnham Road, Slough with his wife Pauline. The couple had a daughter Terri shortly afterwards. Meanwhile, his work life took him to the Mars factory in Slough. It was in his early 20’s that he saw The Beatles take the stage in Slough, while his love for live music saw him help out at The Star and Garter pub in Windsor.
Having split from his wife in early 1966, Watts first ventured into music promoting in the summer of 1967 when he put on a show at Farnham Village Hall. Another gig in January 1968 at High Wycombe Town Hall would prove another significant step in his musical career. Watts would take to the stage again to sing with Wind of Change but the news got back to his employees at Mars and he was given the ultimatum on whether to quit his job or quit his on stage antics. To his employees surprise he chose the former and his serious promoting days were about to begin.
Within weeks of handing in his notice at Mars he had arranged his first concert promotion – an R&B night in the upstairs room at The White Hart pub in White Hart Street, High Wycombe. He would dub the venue ‘The Blues Loft’ – a title that would travel with Watts over the years ahead. Shakey Vick would be one of the first acts he would promote at The White Hart, along with Jack Dupree.
The impending demolition of The White Hart forced a brief spell of gigs at Ye Exchange, also in High Wycombe, but it was when he found The Nag’s Head on the London Road that he knew he had the venue he craved for – a relatively small (300 ish capacity) upstairs venue with its own bar.
His first gig there came in March 1968 and his Blues nights quickly gained in popularity. He would bring in the legendary John Lee Hooker to the Nag’s Head at a cost of £125. With tickets set at just 7/6 (37 ½ p), it was a risk that paid off. Other names that followed, included Howlin’ Wolf, plus in May 1968, an early live appearance for Jethro Tull – six months before their debut album had hit the top ten of the charts.
Status Quo and Thin Lizzy also performed for Watts at the Nag’s Head as the 1960’s drew to a close, while Marc Bolan, playing in the then folky Tyrannosaurus Rex, was another name that would become household during the 1970’s and as they became Glam Rock monsters T.Rex.
Despite moving to London in September 1968, the following years saw Watts continue his association with the Nag’s Head, although his attention was now the formation of the National Blues Federation (NBF), along with Chris Trimming. The pair also took on the ‘quiet’ Tuesday night slot at The 100 Club, quickly gaining high regard in the Blues world and seeing BB King take the stage one evening for a jam session.
Then in 1969, another impromptu singing performance, this time during a Blues Festival on Wycombe Rye, proved the catalyst for Watts to make the decision to form a band of his own.
Brewer’s Droop were formed and played a mixture of Blues R&B and Cajun (swinging jazz). Watts took on the role of lead vocalist, while other band members included Steve Darrington (pianist), John McKay (guitar), Malcom Barrett (bass) and Bob Walker (drums). Brewer’s Droop played almost 300 gigs in 1970 and close to 1,000 in the following four years the band were on the road – sometimes playing three shows in a day. Record company interest grew and an album ‘Opening Time’ was released on RCA in the summer of 1972. The album cover featured a picture of the band standing outside The Antelope pub in High Wycombe town centre – a regular drinking and performing haunt for the band. A single followed called ‘Sweet Thing’ and just failed to make the top 50.
With Brewer’s Droop regularly on tour and Trimming offered other opportunities in the music industry, the NBF folded. However, despite his busy schedule, in April 1970, Watts promoted an early Mott The Hoople gig at The Nag’s Head, while he kept connections with the London Road venue by using the ‘Blues Loft’ for rehearsals with ‘The Droop’.
An eager Watts also started promoting gigs at High Wycombe Town Hall, initially assisting the Broom & Wade apprentice association with a Savoy Brown and Wild Angels gig. Elsewhere, he would keep in touch with the local scene by helping to promote gigs at the newly opened Twylight Club – described by Watts as a ‘concrete bunker’ – under a new flyover built in High Wycombe around 1969.
Meanwhile, back at the 100 Club, a highlight for Watts was putting on Muddy Waters in May 1972. A visitor to ‘in crowd’ at the time also included a young American student called Bill Clinton. Watts recalled in his autobiography: “He swore to me he was going to be President of America one day. He had the biggest beard you have ever seen. He was a good kid, bucket loads of charisma.” Colonel Gaddafi, as a younger man, was another regular at the ‘Blues Loft’ and the 100 Club. Watts said: “We had a couple of drinks and he seemed like a good bloke. He said he was planning to ‘go into politics’ when he returned to Libya.”
Watts married again in February 1973, wedding Maureen at Priory Road Methodist Chapel in High Wycombe. The couple had first met around late 1968 when she had interviewed Watts for a Bucks Free Press article.
A second Brewer’s Droop album was recorded in late 1973 that included the relatively unknown guitarist Mark Knopfler (later of Dire Straits) on some of the tracks. Produced by Dave Edmunds, it remained unreleased until 1989 when RCA released they had a potential seller on their hands and released it under the title of The Booze Brothers. Watts made no income after the rights had been sold off years earlier.
Brewers Droop split in 1974, leaving the way open for Watts to concentrate again on the promoting side. Now living in Lane End, he kept open his local connections with a short stint of gigs at The Crown, in Marlow. Meanwhile, he was now promoting 2 or 3 nights a week at The 100 Club as the mid 1970’s ‘pub rock’ scene began to break with the likes of Ian Dury’s Kilburn & The Highroads, Dr Feelgood, Eddie & The Hotrods and the 101 ers – the latter led by a youthful Joe Strummer.
However, with Watts starting to become bored of the live music scene, he took on a job with G.D. Searle in High Wycombe and dabbled again briefly with playing live again with the short lived Jive Bombers. Towards the end of 1975 Watts recalls that he saw an article in Rolling Stone magazine about the US ‘punk’ movement. It sparked an interest that would come to a head in the following months.
It was a chance viewing of a Sex Pistols gig on Friday 20th February 1976, at what was when then known as High Wycombe College of Higher Education, that changed his life dramatically. A 33 year old Watts was apparently at the Screaming Lord Sutch gig to see the college social secretary about a stripper he was booking for them. He popped his head into the gig to witness The Pistols creating chaos but was interested enough to think it would be worth putting on what he described as a ‘bunch of scruffs’.
Pistols Manager Malcolm McClaren would later seek out Watts at The 100 Club. McClaren said he wanted his band to play the Oxford Street venue. Watts, recalling his memories of the High Wycombe gig a few days before, agreed. The Pistols would appear for the first time at The 100 Club on Tuesday 30th March 1976. The eventful period in Watts’ life also saw the birth of his first son Stuart. The toddler would spend some of his early life being bounced on the knee of the punk rock bands.
The Pistols would appear a further 10 times at the 100 Club in 1976, including the famous Punk Festival held on 20 and 21 September 1976. Before then, on Thursday 2nd September 1976, Watts would bring the Pistols back to High Wycombe for an appearance at The Nags Head – a venue Watts was now back promoting gigs at.
Violence at the punk gigs at The 100 Club bought a ‘punk’ ban at the Oxford Street venue – the infamous Sid Vicious bottle throwing incident at the September 1976 ‘Punk Festival’ being the final straw. But London’s loss was High Wycombe’s gain as Watts brought the up and coming ‘punk’ bands to The Nag’s Head. Following the summer heatwave of 1976, Watts promoted gigs from the likes of the Stranglers, The Damned and The Clash – all before they had signed deal with major record labels.
Watts’ gigs at The Nags Head would play a significant part in the rise of ‘punk rock’ and also helped wake up the ‘terminally uncool’ High Wycombe to develop a punk movemenet of its own, putting on many local bands as support acts to the wave of artists that exploded onto the national music scene at the time. However, a brief foray into band management in 1976 with The Damned ended on a sour note when he objected to the band swearing at the paying punters, shouting from the back of the loft venue at The Nag’s Head, “Keep it up and I’ll fetch my shotgun. We’ll see how much of a punk you are then.”
In 1977, UK ‘punk’ went viral. Watts continued to put bands on at the Nags, showcasing acts like The Jam, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Generation X, The Police, Tom Robinson Band, Elvis Costello and XTC – again, in many cases, before they had signed record deals. When some of the acts out grew the London Road venue, he complimented the Nags with the more central High Wycombe Town Hall. The Stiff Tour of 1977 played the opening night at The Town Hall in October 1977 featuring one of the first ever performances by Ian Dury and The Blockheads. That same month, Watt’s second child with Maureen, Marie Watts was born. However, the marriage would not last and they split up in 1979.
Regular gig promotions continued at The Town Hall through the late 1970’s until the cloud of violence (at a non-Watts promoted gig) resulted in a draconian council ban on ‘rock concerts’ in the summer of 1980. But gigs at The Nags carried on, with the regular Thursday rock nights including a performance from ‘Top Irish Rock Act’ U2 midway through 1980.
However, a culmination of the Council restrictions and a landlord unenthusiastic for live music, saw limited opportunities at The Nag’s Head leading to Watt’s adding the Alexander’s Disco at Cippenham to his CV of music venues. It would host an early outing for new romantics Spandau Ballet but it was not Watts’ scene to see bands more interested in their hair do’s than the music.
Now back living with his parents in Slough, Watt’s tried to save the flagging fortunes of the Nag’s Head by arranging music sessions in the downstairs bar. It was around this time that a 29 year old Tony Blair would visit the venue – the then Labour MP for the ‘safe’ Conservative seat of Beaconsfield.
Never one to shy from work, Watts started working as a Quality Engineer for British Plastics in Slough in order to boost his income from the now even more risky promoting business. Some gigs at The Nag’s would be packed while others would see just a handful in the audience. A residency by local favourite John Otway proved particularly popular. Elsewhere, Watt’s gave some of their first gigs to local uprising stars Howard Jones and Marillion. Southend Blues rock act The Hamsters, also played some of the debut gigs at The Nag’s and continued to return to the Wycombe area until their retirement in 2012.
Watts’ association with promoting gigs at The Town Hall eventually came to an end in the early to mid 1980’s after the local Council decided to seek out a sole promoter for the ageing venue. The aspirations of the Council never came to fruition and the venue was effectively lost from the live music circuit.
By this time Watts had returned to High Wycombe to work as a Quality Technician at Broom and Wades. He also lived on a house boat on the Thames, near Bourne End before the leaving the area completely, residing briefly in Ffestiniog, North Wales before a move to Tamworth, Staffordshire.
Some of his final gigs at The Nag’s Head saw performances by former Cream bassist Jack Bruce, cult early 1970’s psychedelic band, The Pink Fairies, plus several more reunion night’s with Brewer’s Droop. A 20th anniversary of his time at The Nag’s came in 1988 when Shakey Vick returned with his Blues Band for an evening that Watt’s described as a ‘great night’.
After being made redundant by Broom & Wade in May 1991, Watt’s finally severed all promoting ties with High Wycombe and moved on to team up with Jim Simpson with the running of the Birmingham International Jazz Festival. Watt’s continued to confirm his love of the Blues by promoting gigs at The Bear in Bearwood (three miles from the centre of Birmingham). Within two years it had built up a membership of 5,000. He was also heavily connected with the organisation of the Birmingham Blues Festival during August Bank Holiday 1992. Gigs continued at The Bear until the summer of 1994.
Realising that the live music scene was not going to make him a living, Watt’s finally settled in Tamworth working for TNT before fulfilling one of his dreams of retiring to the South Coast by moving to a village close to Weymouth, Dorset in 2008.
During the intervening years, Watt’s was occasionally asked of his musical history and turned back the clock to be a guest of honour at a Sex Pistols reunion gig in Brixton in 2007. A year earlier he published his autobiography, Hundred Watts – a life in music, revealing much of the detail of his musical history that would have otherwise been lost. His comments at the time still rang true at the time of his passing in 2016: “Technology has taken a lot of the fun out of gigs. Too many bands today think that they can sit in their bedrooms and do it all from there. They need to get out there like we did and shake their arse.”
For those who went to any of Ron’s gigs, you will remember that he never tucked himself away from the spotlight. At The Nag’s Head he would regularly sit at the top of the stairs, taking your small change for entrance and checking your membership card. At the Town Hall he would sometimes come out onto the front steps before letting in the punters, with a warning that he didn’t want any trouble at that evening’s gig.
And the final word goes to Ron, again from a 2006 interview where he reflected: “I have had a blessed life. I didn’t have any special talent, I was just in the right place at the right time. Things just kept landing at my doorstep. Every day was Christmas.”
Summer 1978 – England: Two years on, punk has exploded from its roots in grubby Sex Pistols gigs to shock exposés, hit singles, high street fashion and cartoon punks like Sham 69. It has lost its bite.
The Jam, part of punk’s first wave, also appeared to have lost their edge, but as the year wears on, they emerge with an album that is swiftly proclaimed as one of the decades finest.
Ska Beat Rudies T Shirt
The LP launches The Jam on a journey which makes them the UK’s most adored pop group.
The album was of course, All Mod Cons, which was smothered in the iconography of the 60’s cult which had so impacted on the young Paul Weller (pictured below right) three years earlier.
All Mod Cons is the third studio album by the British band The Jam, released in 1978 by Polydor Records. The title, a British idiom one might find in housing advertisements, is short for “all modern conveniences” and is a pun on the band’s association with the mod revival. The album reached No. 6 in the UK Albums Chart.
Soon a clutch of The Jam’s most loyal fans took to copying the band’s Mod dress sense; suits, button-down collared shirts, Fred Perry’s and short, neat hairstyles (such as the French Crew).
By coincidence, probably the most influential Mod band from the original 60’s scene were in the process of making a film about the original teenage experience – based in their West London haunt of Shepherds Bush – through the eyes of a Mod.
The Who‘s Quadropheniaaccurately re-enacted the spirit of Mod London and Brighton for a generation too young to remember.
News filters out, nostalgic epitaphs to Mod are published and by the time the film is launched a year later, that army of Jam fans grows into what will soon be labelled the Mod Revival . . .
Summer 1979 : The Sounds music paper has led the way in documenting a fresh clutch of bands dressing as Mods. Most of them are based around London/Essex with a sound that mixes The Jam’s new wave energy with 60’s melodies and choice Motown/Who/Small Faces cover versions.
One of their main haunts is a rough and ready pub in Canning Town, East London, called the Bridge House, which funds a live album taped on May 1st – Mods Mayday ’79. The album includes tracks by Secret Affair, Squire, Small Hours, The Mods and Beggar. It is the first gathering of the tribes outside a Jam gig.
Meanwhile, Paul Weller stumbles across another regular haunt, the Duke Of Wellington at London Bridge, where he spots The Chords from South London – and invites them – and a leading Mod band from Essex, Romford’s Purple Hearts – to support The Jam on tour.
By August, most of the revival’s leading players have been signed up. Ian Page is seen on BBC1’s Nationwideas the scene’s self-proclaimed spokesman while his band, Secret Affair are given their own label (along with Squire) called I-Spy, by Arista Records. Both had already supported The Jam.
The Jam’s former producer, Chris Parry, adds The Purple Hearts and Back To Zero to his Fiction roster of The Chords and the R&B fuelled Long Tall Shorty. The Chords link up with Polydor and Long Tall Shorty to Warners. By Autumn the Mod revival is in full swing.
The Merton Parkas break into the mainstream Top 40 (just) with You Need Wheels, followed by Secret Affair with the ultimate Mod revival anthem, Time For Action (followed by the Motown-styled Let Your Heart Dance, and the more serious My World).
The Purple Hearts and The Chords enjoy a string of minor hits while The Lambrettas (pictured at left), from Lewes, West Sussex, debut with the excellent Go Steady, before cracking the Top 10 with an old R&B favourite, The Coasters‘ Poison Ivy.
Fuelled by this and Quadrophenia –and running parallel to the Midlands’ 2 ToneSka Revival – Mod filtered out of London right across the South and the Midlands, and, to a lesser extent, the North.
The revival would ultimately spread to include much of Europe, Australia and even (albeit to a lesser degree) to parts of the USA.
The Pyramids aka Symarip are a ska and reggae band from the United Kingdom, originating in the early 1960s, when Frank Pitter and Michael Thomas founded the band as The Bees. The band’s name was originally spelled Simaryp, which is an approximate reversal of the word pyramids. Consisting of members of West Indian Jamaican immigrants to London, Simaryp is widely marked as the first skinhead reggae bands, to target skinheads as an audience, after playing backing band with Laurel Aitkin started to witness a growing Skinhead following. Their hits included “Skinhead Girl”, “Skinhead Jamboree” and “Skinhead Moonstomp”, the latter of which was based on the Derrick Morgan song, “Moon Hop”. After the release of Skinhead Moonstomp album in 1970 and a sell out gig at wembley marred with teenage violence. Reggae was deemed too dangerous for the Conservative Britain of the time, so the band were sent to Europe to spread the Ska and Reggae music on the mainland. The band officially split in 1985 after releasing the album Drunk & Disorderly as The Pyramids. In April 2008, they headlined the Ska Splash Festival in Lincolnshire as Symarip, and later performed at the Endorse-It and Fordham Festivals. Since 2019 they are back and playing as The Pyramids across the world to mark 50+ years of Trojan records.
The Great Skinhead Reunion is a 4 day Festival. Including Pre Party beach BBQ on Brighton Beach England Celebrating British Subculture
Line up for 2024. Once again we have a fantastic line up of acts
Established in 2011 The Great Skinhead Reunion Brighton was designed to bring Skinhead back home to where it was born in the 1960´s When the Mods and Rockers came to Brighton and hit the headlines, establishing their own youth culture. From those early Mods came the Skinheads, who embraced the new music coming in from Jamaica known as Ska. The Jamaican immigrants to the UK mixing with British working class kids with style and attitude, to form a new youth culture.
The second wave of Skinhead began to build in the mid 70´s with the birth of Punk Rock in 76, this time musically the Skinheads adopting the Punk rock sound and aggro of the football terraces, Working class bands forming and putting out their own angry antisocial messages in music, frightening the media into a frenzy of misinformation, who promoted the image of hyper violent bootboys and girls on the loose. This was a time of major political unrest in the UK and extremist groups tried to recruit within working class culture, often targeting Skinheads and football supporters, in the hope of win one, win them all pack mentality.
By 79 The skinheads were on the fightback and in London with bands like Madness and Badmanners, linked with British Midlands such as Coventry bands The Specials. The Selector and The Beat and created the 2tone label, which firmly mixed black and white youth together against this media onslaught.
In 1981 came the next wave. Oi! music was unleashed by Sounds magazine, bringing back the angry streetpunk energy and protest into the Skinhead subculture, once again giving the media and movie makers something to chew on.
Over the years the pendulum swung back and forth, but against all the odds Skinhead in its genuine form found its way across the world, connecting the Working class of Britain with mainland Europe, during the cold war even into communist Eastern block, then across to USA, South America, and in modern times, Indonesia to pretty much every westernised nation.
At the Great Skinhead Reunion Brighton you will find the most genuine, real and very friendly welcoming event in Skinhead history. Real people who have lived the life, mixing with new faces just coming in. We actively search for new acts to showcase and tour. We reunite old bands and give them a stage to play, we encourage scene DJ´s from across the worldwide scene, to play and network. Together all of us taking the scene forward, learning from previous mistakes, without selling out our principals of a true Working class subculture. The reunion invites everyone to attend, be you a skinhead or just someone wanting to be part of the event, interested and wanting a great fun weekend. We also actively support charities every year.
FULL 3 DAYS EVENT, YOUR WRISTBAND IS VALID THROUGH OUT, YOU CAN USE IT FOR AS LITTLE, OR AS MUCH AS YOU WANT. THE EVENT WILL SELL OUT.
WRISTBANDS GIVE YOU FULL ACCESS TO ALL THE EVENT, THREE FULL DAYS AND NIGHTS OF ENTERTAINMENT, 12 BANDS, 10 DJ’S PLUS A SPECIAL PRE PARTY BEACH BBQ ON THURSDAY PRE PARTY
The line-up maybe subject to change, as so many band members and dj’s are involved, alcohol, world wars and famine can be unforeseen, but the Great Skinhead Reunion, is more about coming to Brighton to see all your friends and making some more, for 3 full days of mayhem.
SKINHEAD ONLY HOTELS .
Add to your experience, by getting a room in our Skinhead only hotels. Conveniently located, with a short walk to the venue, and no moaning neighbours to worry about. The rooms vary in size and cost, to fit your needs. all within an easy walk to the skinhead reunion venue. We have hotels exclusive to the Great Skinhead Reunion guests and bands. Party party !! please email subcultz@gmail.com with your requirements, to be booked into the Skinhead Hotels
For those on a low budget, its worth checking Hostels and campsites, but my advice, is to get in the reserved hotels, for a nice stress free, clean and comfortable holiday in Brighton.
TRAVEL INFORMATION
Brighton is situated on the south coast of England, approximately one hour from London. London Gatwick is the nearest airport. There are regular direct trains and National Express buses. The next nearest is Heathrow, We Strongly advise NOT to fly to Stansted or Luton as this is a long way and expensive UK public transport, but if you have no choice then use National Express buses from those airports, which you need to book in advance to get cheaper rates, and you risk losing valuable drinking time
The nearest ferry port serving mainland Europe is Newhaven -Dieppe . Newhaven is about 20 min drive to Brighton. Dover is about 2 hours to Brighton
PARKING ZONES – one of the worst aspects of Brighton, is a lack of affordable parking. my advice is to use street parking on the suburbs of Brighton, its a reasonably safe place. a good bus service will take you into brighton centre (churchill square) and a short walk from there to the sea front. worth allowing the extra hours work, to save yourself serious parking charges. Wilson Avenue is about the nearest free street parking to the venue, jump on a local bus back into town.
All Event Enquiries email Symond at subcultz@gmail.com. phone (uk) 07733096571
Brighton can lay claim to being a big part of the birth of Skinheads. During the Mods and Rockers battles of the 1960’s when London lads would descend on the South Coast for bank holidays to Peacock and cause ‘Bovver’ the term Skinhead was born, to describe the short haired Mods.
Becoming probably the biggest and longest standing of all the youth fashion subcultures, Skinhead has matured and now become a worldwide community. Distinctly recognized by almost military shaven head, boots and braces. The real skinhead is a working class product of the British council estate ‘salt of the earth character’ fiercely proud of his identity,with an obsession for clothing, style and music, equaled only with his love of beer.
On the first weekend of every June, since 2011, Brighton has seen an ever increasing number of Skinheads and their lovely Skinhead Girls invade Brighton. Boots, Braces, pristine clothing and a cheeky smile. Attracting scene members from right across the globe, to Madeira Drive, overlooking the beach. A full three days of Skinhead related entertainment is laid on. DJ’s playing hyper rare vinyl, from the early days of Jamaican Ska, through to modern day Street Punk and Oi. Live bands hit the stage of the Volks bar each night. With various aftershows happening until the early hours, to keep the party buzzing.
This event is to raise money for some of our girls trapped in Ukraine as the city came under attack. A few of the girls have escaped with just a bag of clothing, kids and a baby. Now homeless in mainland Europe, with an ever changing situation, we will be taking a van out to Europe directly after the event with much needed aid, size 8 girls clothes and meduim plus children and other essentials, please come to this event, have fun and do something, £10 tickets plus any donations you can do. This is very genuine i spoke to the girls as they were making their way to Romania with children and babies, they abandoned anything they couldnt carry and went by foot over the border to escape war. , bring along any donations of clothes, she asked for size 8 and medium, but all sizes will be donated to other girls. medical stuff, womens sanitary and animal supplies, everything is needed
when i spoke to Samira last week she was being bombed as she was trying to escape Kyiv with some other girls, children and babies. for four days the girls struggled to make their way to the Romainian border. Some of the girls are still missing. We have arranged accomodation in Germany for the girls temporarily and hope to get them to UK. We at Subcultz were asked to be the agent for the previous Ska band the girls had formed, but had broken up prior to the war outbreak, we now plan to work with Samira to persue her singing career with UK musicians
IF YOU WISH TO DONATE MONEY YOU CAN USE FRIENDS AND FAMILY OPTION ON PAYPAL TO SUBCULTZ@GMAIL.COM (PLEASE PUT A NOTE -(UKRAINIAN CRISIS FUND). BANK TRANSFER PLEASE EMAIL US FOR DETAILS. IF YOU WISH TO DONATE CLOTHING MEDICAL, WOMENS AND BABIES PRODUCTS, ANIMAL FOOD PLEASE EMAIL SUBCULTZ@GMAIL.COM AND WE WILL LET YOU KNOW A COLLECTION DELIVERY POINT. ONCE THE VAN IS FULL WE LEAVE. PLEASE DROP PARCELS TO 131 VALLEY ROAD , PORTSLADE BN412TN IF YOU ARE IN UK. EUROPEAN PICK UP POINTS TO BE CONFIRMED
The girls and children sheltering under a road bridge from Russian bombers during the invasion of Kyiv
Some of the girls are still missing in Ukraine
This is the items badly needed, having spoken the Red Cross
Canned food – Pot noodles – Powder soup – Baby food – Nappies – Sanitary Products – Soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste – Power Banks and batteries – Small compact sleeping bags – PPE (overall, goggles, gloves, etc) – First Aid Kits. Women and childrens clothing, small toys, sweets, pushchairs, shampoos.
Please bring any of these items to our fundraising event or post/deliver to
Angie Larter 131 Valley Road, Portslade, Brighton, BN41 2TN
The hero of Winter dressing will always be the overcoat. Warm, luxurious and thoroughly practical, a beautifully tailored overcoat gives any wearer an air of stature and style.
What is an overcoat? Not to be confused with a topcoat, an overcoat is a tailored coat which is traditionally knee-length or longer. Made from a warm, heavyweight cloth, such as wool or a wool/cashmere blend, they can be either single or double-breasted. They usually feature a single rear vent.
The overcoat has been a key part of a gentleman’s wardrobe since it was invented in the late 18th century. They were often worn as formalwear to represent the wearer’s social status or as part of their uniform, both professional and military. The style of the overcoat hasn’t changed much since then, apart from some very subtle changes made according to whatever the trends are at the time.
It was, for instance, very fashionable during the Regency period to wear form-fitting clothes, subsequently, the overcoats of the time were worn closely fitted to the body; usually double-breasted in style, with waist seams and a flared skirt. As the popularity of the overcoat grew and it became available to the working classes, the silhouette became looser, so as to accommodate their lifestyle.
There are several styles of overcoat, all variations similar but subtlety different.
The first I draw attention to is the Chesterfield. It became fashionable in the 19th century. It is said that the Earl of Chesterfield had this style of coat made by his tailor. But, whether he is actually the creator of the Chesterfield is debatable, purely because the similarity of it to other coats. The coat is available both in single-breasted and double-breasted. Quite often made in a woollen cloth with a herringbone pattern. It usually has a fly front and is knee-length or slightly longer. Some will have slanted flap pockets like a hacking jacket, including possibly a ticket pocket, and a welt pocket on the chest.
Another style is one that is not mentioned a great deal these days and owes it’s look and use to the Military. Called the British Warm, this coat is made of thick Melton wool like the Pea Coat. It has epaulettes and is double-breasted. Usually two flap pockets, and no ticket pocket. There is also a variant of this coat that usually comes in Cashmere. This one is usually longer and is similar in style to the Trench Coats that officers wore in WW1.
Next, we come to another variant, and that is one called The Covert. This coat is quite similar in style to The Chesterfield. It is slim-fitting, sits above the knee, and although has features in common with the Chesterfield, such as a fly front, the same pockets, such as the three flap pockets, and a chest welt pocket, and the inclusion of a velvet collar. It is the twill fabric, and the fact it can be worn all year round makes it popular. Originally it was a hunting or riding coat. On the inside of it, there is usually another large pocket level with the thigh, which was usually used for provisions or ammunition. So quite possibly that’s the reason why so many old-style “Gangsters” used to like wearing them.
Lastly, we come to the one style that has become well known especially in the UK, and that is The Crombie. Although in regards of style it has been around since the end of the 18th century. The brand Crombie didn’t produce coats of it own until as recently 1985. Crombie was essentially a fabric manufacturer, and their woollen mill was established in 1805 by John Crombie in Aberdeen, where it was able to produce a high-quality woollen fabric. John saw that it was good business to sell these fabrics they made directly to tailors, as well as other merchants.
By the mid 19th century its fabrics had become not only fashionable on Savile Row, but we’re being exported on a global scale. During the American Civil War, for example, Crombie’s booming business was able to provide the grey cloth used to uniform the Confederate Army, all while markets in Canada, Japan and Russia were getting well established, and all by the turn of the 20th century.
Crombie produced hundreds of miles of cloth for blankets and uniforms during both world wars. Between them, the Crombie family sold the business to Salts – a company named in honour of the entrepreneurial Yorkshireman Titus Salt, who built Saltaire and popularised alpaca. In 1958 Salts was subsumed into the Illingworth Morris empire, and later inherited by Pamela Mason, the ex-wife of James Mason. During the 1980s the group was acquired by Alan Lewis, the Conservative Party’s vice-chairman for business.
Skinheads at Piccadilly Circus London 1980. photo by Gavin Watson
Under Lewis, Crombie’s emphasis shifted: in 1985 the first Crombie-branded collection of coats and other wares were produced, and in the early 1990s production moved to Yorkshire. The collection of Crombie branded clothes is still going strong – garments include plenty of City and skinhead-friendly covert style coats, and what we would term The English Town overcoat. Which is tailored from thick woollen cloth.
There are different variations of this coat, and many other brands often do their own versions. Next for instance do a Crombie style coat called an Epsom. But, where it differs from the Crombie, is that it doesn’t have the welt pocket on the left chest. Any well dressed Mod, Skinhead or Suedehead, would be frustrated by this missing detail, I am sure. But for the chap who wants a coat to go to the races, or work in the city. It isn’t a bad coat. All of these coats do their job. They serve their purpose and keep their wearer clean and dry. So whether you are a Russian Spy, a Gangster, a Banker or a racing enthusiast, or just an average Joe. There is always an overcoat worth getting, and they always look smart and are perfect for when things get a bit chilly.
A Woman Hitting a Neo-Nazi With Her Handbag (Swedish: Kvinnan med handväskan, lit. “The woman with the handbag”) is a photograph taken in Växjö, Sweden on 13 April 1985 by Hans Runesson. It depicts a 38-year-old woman hitting a marching neo-Nazi with a handbag. The photograph was taken during a demonstration of the Nordic Reich Party supporters. It was published in the next day’s Dagens Nyheter and a day later in some British newspapers and sparked a discussion in Sweden about “violence unleashed against innocent demonstrators.”
Runesson’s photograph was selected as the Swedish Picture of the Year (Årets bild) 1985 and later as the Picture of the Century by the magazine Vi and the Photographic Historical Society of Sweden.[1]
The photograph was produced using gelatin silver process and editioned by gallerist Pelle Unger.[2] Twelve copies, three AP and three PP has been produced in the size 58 by 80 centimetres (23 in × 31 in) and price ranges between €3000–6000.[3]
A statue was later erected for Danuta Danielsson
Danuta Danielsson, the woman in the photo, committed suicide, jumping to her death from a water tower, two years after the photo’s release, due to the unwanted media attention she received as a result of the photo’s popularity.[4] She was born in 1947 and moved to Sweden after marrying a Swedish man she had met at a jazz festival. She was of Polish heritage and her mother had been imprisoned in Majdanek concentration camp during World War II.[1][5][6] A local artist, Susanna Arwin, expressed desire to raise a life-sized statue of Danielsson but it was ultimately decided against for two reasons, the first being that council members in Växjö were concerned such a statue could be interpreted as promoting violence and the second being that Danielsson’s surviving family reported that they would be unhappy with Danielsson memorialized in such a manner.[5][7][8][9][10] Seppo Seluska, the man in the photo, was a militant from the Nordic Reich Party.
50 years ago the nation was shocked by violence which accompanied our first true youth culture. One man at the notorious Brighton brawl looks back on the chaos
The bank holiday began with tourists flocking to the coast but ended with them fleeing for their lives as Mods and Rockers turned beaches into battlefields.
Fifty years ago, in the spring of 1964, simmering rivalry between the groups reached a flashpoint as they clashed repeatedly on seaside piers and promenades across the country.
But the worst of the violence was seen in Brighton, as families were trapped in a shocking showdown which sparked moral panic about the state of British youth.
Tony Edwards was 18 and one of the first band of Mods to arrive on the Sussex coast that day. He says: “The Rockers had outnumbered us for years but leading up to 1964 we’d grown in numbers – now it was payback time.
“When we arrived on the beach there were just a few Mods and a big group of Rockers in the middle. Within about 90 minutes the beach filled up with hundreds of Mods.
“Then someone on our side threw a pebble at them and within a few seconds they were just being blitzed. I saw one guy who’d been cut on the head with blood running down his face.
“In the end the police had to charge on to the beach and escort this group of Rockers off the seafront, which must have been humiliating. They were tough men and we were just little kids poncing around in fancy clothes.
“But we weren’t going to take their c**p any more. It was the holidaymakers I felt sorry for. They looked terrified.”
You’re coming with me, son: Police arrest youths on Brighton beach (Image: PA)
Tensions had been rising for some time. The Rockers were usually in their 20s or 30s; Elvis-loving bikers rooted in 1950s Teddy Boy culture.
The teenage Mods’ culture, which flourished in the early 60s, was based on continental clothes, Italian Vespa and Lambretta scooters and the music of soul and jazz musicians.
They first clashed that spring on the March bank holiday in Clacton. At the Essex resort 97 people were arrested and the battle lines were drawn.
After that, trouble flared from Bournemouth to Margate, up to the bank holiday of August 1964. But Brighton’s Whitsun clash was the most notorious, thanks to sensational headlines and its immortalisation in Mod flick Quadrophenia.
Battles ran well into the night but although there were weapons – knives, chains and makeshift knuckle dusters – most scuffles involved fists and boots.
Tony, once branded King of the Mods in hometown Reading, says: “There were quite a few scuffles. I got into a few myself and nearly got arrested.
“I kept out of it most of the time but we would rush over and watch if something did kick off. We saw the action on top of the aquarium, a scene which is famous.
“In the middle were these Mods with deck chairs bringing them down on the heads of Rockers.
“But a lot of injuries came from the sense of panic and all these crowds running around. It was bedlam.
“A Mod got pushed through a window and got so badly cut he was pouring with blood. It was really nasty and there was this copper holding this lad and he was quite emotional: ‘For Christ’s sake, just look at this!’ he said.
“It was an accident, the crowds pushed him through, but word spread that a Rocker did it – and that fired us up more.”
The Mods got much of the blame for the violence but 68-year-old Tony, now a dad of three and a grandad of two living in Cornwall, blames the Rockers and police.
He says: “The police were very heavy-handed. There was panic about Mods but it was misplaced. All we wanted was to have a good time. Music and clothes were our passion.
“There was probably a hardcore of violent people, Mods and Rockers, who just used it as an opportunity for a fight.
“But it was the Rockers who went to Brighton knowing there was going to be trouble. They went there looking for it – and they certainly found it.”
SEX PISTOLS WERE FINANCED BY USSR TO ‘DESTABILIZE WESTERN WORLD’, ADMITS EX-KGB AGENT
Alexandrei Varennikovic Voloshin, a retired KGB agent, has admitted this week on National Russian Television (NTV) that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was behind the creation of the 1970s punk scene and financed major punk bands such as the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Ramones.
The USSR government at the time spent “hundreds of millions of rubles” on this covert operation destined to “create utter chaos” and “pervert the Western youth to nihilist, anti-establishment and anti-American ideologies” he explained in an hour-long interview broadcast on national television.
Famous punk songs of the legendary punk band the Sex pistols were even scripted by a team of psychologists and war propagandists of the USSR.
“I am an anarchist”, “God save the Queen the fascist regime”, “No future” and other nihilist and anti-establishment lyrics were intended to unleash a wave of cynicism towards authorities, promote the use of heavy drugs and entice the youth with revolutionary, counter-establishment ideas.
The 1970s punk subculture movement was allegedly financed by the USSR, says ex-KGB agent, Alexandrei Varennikovic Voloshin
The retired KGB agent claims the maneuver was extremely successful.
“We understood at the time that music was a powerful means of propaganda to reach the youth”explained the 77-year old man.
“Our mission was to use teenage angst to our advantage and turn the baby boomer generation of the West into a decadent, pro-drug and anti-establishment culture that would create uprisings and bring Western democracies into utter chaos.
We even infiltrated mainstream radios to promote their music and reach millions of people every day” he admitted, visibly proud of the accomplishment.
“For many of us in the KGB, infiltrating the 1970s punk scene was one of the USSR’s most successful experiments of propaganda to date” he acknowledged during the interview.
Punks burning a U.S. flag in the early 1980s, influenced by the punk music scene which was allegedly financed by the USSR
Some experts openly admit Punk nihilism, which was expressed in the use of harder, more self-destructive drugs like heroin and methamphetamine, pushed United States President Richard Nixon into the War on Drugs, a campaign of prohibition of drugs, military aid, and military intervention, with the stated aim being to define and reduce the illegal drug trade within America and around the world.
Its long been talked about how the Russians and Americans used many tools in the cold war to try to cause destabilisation. In UK extremist groups such as the Irish Republican Army, National Front, Socialist Workers party are all rumoured to have recieved funding from Russia, to create divide and ultimately civil war or revolution.
“What makes Gavin’s photos so special is that when you look at them, there’s clearly trust from the subject towards the photographer so it feels like you’re in the photo rather than just observing’.”
— Shane Meadows
BIOGRAPHY
Gavin Watson was born in London in 1965 and grew up on a council estate in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. He bought a Hanimex camera from Woolworths in his early teens and began to take photographs. Upon leaving school at the age of sixteen, Watson moved back to London and became a darkroom assistant at Camera Press. He continued to hang out and photograph his group of skinhead friends in High Wycombe.
The ‘Wycombe Skins’ were part of the working-class skinhead subculture brought together by a love of ska music and fashion. Although skinhead style had become associated with the right-wing extremism of political groups like the National Front in the 1970s, Watson’s photographs document a time and place where the subculture was racially mixed and inclusive. His photographs were published in the books Skins (1994) and Skins and Punks (2008), and the director Shane Meadows cited them as an inspiration for his film This is England (2006)
It is a massive pleasure & honour to feature an interview with English actor, director, producer and musician Gary Shail on “Mods Of Your generation”. Best known for his role as “Spider” in the iconic cult movie Quadrophenia that many of us still admire and talk about today. This year (2019) marks the 40th anniversary of the film which is a massive milestone for everyone involved. The fact that its still talked about today makes it even all the more great. Gary is a great guy who has attended a lot of events over the years in aid to raise money for charity. We asked Gary about his own event coming up called QUAD 40 and about his career and experiences filming Quadrophenia & Jack the Ripper. We also discussed his book “ I think I’m on the guest list” published in 2015 and his Christmas song “ Modding up my Christmas list ” (2017) and more. Gary has done a variety of interviews throughout the years so it was difficult to ask him questions that he hadn’t been asked before, however I hope you enjoy the interview as much as we enjoyed asking the questions. Make sure not to miss out on the anniversary celebration of the movie on Brighton Pier August 25th 2019 for more information go to www.quad40.co.uk#ModsOfYourGeneration
(1) I have heard you are a huge fan of the Regents a four-piece band based in Essex heavily influenced by the original mod spirt of 1964. Are there any other new bands influenced by the mod scene who you are also a fan of? Yes I’m a big fan of ‘The Regents.’ I’ve known Sea Jays the lead singer since he was 16yrs old and he definitely has the right attitude. Mind you, he has always had the right attitude! Another young band I am really impressed with are ‘The Lapels’ who I saw play in Derby at a MOTM event the year before last. They completely blew the roof off the place, and nobody wanted to go on after them! The drummer was only 14yrs old at the time I think, and I watched them play with his mum! (2) You were just 18 when you were cast to play spider in Quadrophenia. I am sure you have been asked this many times before but did you think Quadrophenia would become the phenomenon it is today at the time of filming. Of course I didn’t know that I’d still be being asked questions about a film I was in 40yrs ago, but, I think we all knew at the time that it was definitely something special (3) On Christmas 2017 you released a song called “Modding up your Christmas list” to become number one. Have you any plans to do this again in the future. “Very catchy tune by the way LOVED IT” HAHAHAHA..My Mod Xmas Song? Well, I actually got a hell of a lot of flak for doing that by certain people who shall remain permanently nameless. But it was great fun to do, and a lot of people loved it, especially the kids. I had people sending me videos of their children doing dance routines in their living rooms, which was brilliant! But no, I don’t think I’ll be the next Cliff Richard.
Modding Up My Christmas List- 2017 (Official Video) (4) You have been involved in many MOD and Quadrophenia events over the years. Is this something you enjoy being part of and do you have any memorable moments from any of the events that stand out. Yes I do enjoy all the events I get asked to. Over the years I must have met thousands of people who love Quadrophenia, and it’s always a great feeling when my presence can actually help to raise money for a worthy cause. Some of the funniest memories I have are probably un-printable, but trying to get a kebab in Stoke at three in the morning with Alan May (The Glory Boy Radio Show) doing Withnail & I impersonations sticks firmly in my memory! (5) Your character in Quadrophenia had many memorable quotes in the film. What is the one that fans mention the most? Always the one about getting a gun! (6) Your book “I think I’m on the guest list” published by New Haven publishing LTD in 2015 was highly regarded and recommended. I found the book to be a very funny memoir of your life and the extraordinary people you have worked with and met throughout your career. Can your briefly describe the book to someone who has not yet read it. The book was actually written because of Gary Holton (The Rocker who beats Spider up) Gary and I became really good mates after Quadrophenia, and actually formed a band together called ‘The Actors.’ But when Gary sadly died in 1985 I never spoke to the press or anyone else for that matter about it. Then I was contacted 30yrs later by someone who was writing a book about him and wanted a contribution from me. I wanted to put the record straight about a few things, so I agreed. The publishers of the book loved what I’d written, so I was offered a publishing deal for my own story. I thought I’d better do it myself before I was dead and some other twat was ‘putting things straight’ about me! It’s certainly not your average autobiography I think, and later on this year I will be doing an Audio Version with a soundtrack, which will be totally different to anything you’ve ever heard I hope.
(7) Many fans of Quadrophenia have expressed an interest in a follow up to the film. Is this something that you would support? or like myself do you feel it is best left alone. There has always been talk of a “follow up” But I can’t see that ever happening. It’s always interesting to hear some of the Ideas of what our characters would have been doing in later life though. I think Spider would’ve become a hit-man for Ferdy’s drugs cartel!
(8) You are a huge fan of Trojan records, what is your favourite track, album or artist under the Trojan label. Yes I grew up with the Trojan record label, and one of the first artists I remember driving my parents mad with was Desmond Dekker. But I’ve always loved reggae and had a very respectable collection of Jamaican Pre- Releases by the tender age of 13. Last November, I was proudly invited by Neville and Christine Staple to their 50th Trojan Anniversary weekend at ‘Skamouth’ In Great Yarmouth where I actually met ‘The Pioneers’ who were about 100yrs old. They could still cut it though! (9) This year (2019) marks the 40th anniversary of Quadrophenia (film). To celebrate this, you have organised, and event called Quad 40 in Brighton on the 25th of August 2019. Tell us a little bit about what to expect from the event and where fans can buy tickets. It’s actually on the 25th August Johnny! Yes I have hired Horatios Bar on Brighton Pier from 12 noon ‘till midnight on Sunday the 25th August. And I can tell you now that I never thought I had this much bottle to actually try and pull something like this off. It’s a logistical fu**ing nightmare, but I’m actually really enjoying it. I’ve spoken to almost all of the other cast members of Quad who have all promised to attend (work permitting) but trying to get us all in the same country together is hard enough, let alone on a bleedin’ pier! On that morning before the actual party, Quadrophenia is being honoured with ‘The Brighton Music Walk Of Fame Plaque’ to be unveiled at the pier entrance, so it would be great if there were a few mods about. Tickets and details available at www.quad40.co.uk
(10) A question received by Jimmy Hemstead follower of Mods of Your Generation and Blogger at MOD TV UK “HI Gary in your younger days was you ever a mod and did you ever own a scooter, can you tell me when and how you got into acting and why please?” Hi Jimmy, love all your art-work by the way!No, I was far too young to be a mod; I was born in 1959, so I was only 5yrs old in 64 and the only scooter I owned was made by ‘Chad Valley.’I never had any ambitions to become a professional actor at all when I was a youngster, but somehow found my way into drama school at the age of 12, thanks to my parents and a couple of Comprehensive High School Teachers who probably just wanted me just out of the way!Quadrophenia was my first professional job when I left. (11) Do you have any plans to release more music, Books etc or what are you doing now that we can look forward to in the future? Yes, I will definitely be writing another book I think, but not part 2 of my autobiography, that would just be a bloody diary. It will probably be about my time working in the advertising industry in the 1990s. You think actors and musicians are crazy? They’ve got nothing on advertising people! Musically though, I never really stop. I had a solo album out last year called ‘Daze Like This’ (see below) which a lot of people liked, and I guested on ‘The Transmitters’ debut album which was great, although I hear that they have now split up. I’ve also recorded a couple of tracks with Steve ‘Smiley’ Barnard which are on his ‘Smiley’s Friends’ albums, and I’m back in the studio in a couple of months with ‘The Regents’ for their new album. I’m always writing though, and will hopefully record some of my own stuff probably next year now.
Title track from the album “Daze Like This” (12) Do you keep in touch with any of the main characters of Quadrophenia 40 years on? Yes, I see quite a lot of Trevor Laird (Ferdy) and I’ve recently been working with Toyah. Hopefully I’ll be seeing the others soon
(13) What do you regard as your biggest achievement in your career or what are you most proud of? I actually don’t think like that. Everything that keeps me off of the unemployed statistics is an achievement these days! I am extremely proud of my family though, and very recently became a granddad to a beautiful baby girl called Ellie May. I’m very proud about that! (14) In 1988 you appeared as the tough pimp “Billy White” in the tv series of “Jack the Ripper”. Sir Michael Caine also appeared in the series as Chief Inspector Frederick. Caine was a huge influence on British Culture in the 1960’s and referred to by many as a style icon.What was it like working with such an influential person in British pop culture? Making ‘Jack The Ripper’ in 1988 was like a dream come true, and working on a film with Sir Michael Caine was an experience I shall never forget. He was so interesting to watch, whilst he was working on camera, and I learnt a great deal from him. Everywhere you looked on that set there was something extraordinary going on in the acting stakes. Lewis Collins, Armand Assante, Susan George, Jane Seymour, Lysette Anthony, Ray McAnally, Hugh Fraser, Ken Bones etc etc.They were all giving it their all. I was just glad I gave it mine!
(15) Finally, How would you like to be remembered? Just to be remembered at all would be nice! Again it was a massive privilege to interview Gary shail and a big thank you to followers of “Mods Of Your Generation”, Please continue to show your support. Please like & share the “Mods Of Your Generation” Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/modsofyourgeneration/ interview conducted by Johnny Bradley for “Mods Of Your Generation”interview (C) 2019 to Johnny Bradley & “Mods of your Generation”
SAM QURESHI is an Alto Saxophonist and Composer of Jazz, Mod Bossa & Latin soul. He was born in Pakistan, grew up in Birmingham and has lived in Manchester since 1997. He is a talented & dedicated Jazz Musician with over 35 years working with some big names in the music industry. He has an interesting and exhilarating story to tell. Mods of your Generation are excited to feature him an interview.
Mods took their name from Modern Jazz in London 1958 becoming the phenomenon we know and love today. The culture spread throughout the united kingdom and worldwide, effecting fashion trends in many countries adopting Italian scooters such as Vespas and Lambrettas and tailored suites. It was an essential part of The Swinging 60’s. The original Mods of this exciting new subculture frequently attended Jazz clubs listening to Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Miles Davis – New Mods are listening to Sam Q catalogue in the same way however some are sceptical and not aware about its original roots. Whether it’s the chill-out Bossa Nova set in the lounge or the late night hot sambas to dance the night away. It has become the re-Birth of The Cool. Sam Q’s Night patrol are the essential sound to take you on a journey back to the roots of the Modernist culture and how it first began.
1) can you explain the Concept of Jazz Music /Bossa Nova in terms of Mod Culture? It’s the pure History of the UK and Worldwide birth of the Mods. It began in London in the late 50’s at the Jazz Clubs at the time. I guarantee you the members of The Who, The Kinks, Paul Weller will be big Jazz fans – and the former would have been attending Jazz/ Bossa Gigs in the Swinging 60’s -They will have original Blue Note Records in glorious Vinyl of the Jazz/Bossa Nova Masters such as Miles Davis, Stan Getz and John Coltrane. Jack Kerouc in his book ‘’On The Road’’ documented it as ‘’The Beatnics Generation’’ – you can read this blog on my website also https://spinningwheelrecords.com/modbossa
2) Do you think your music would sit in with Modern Day Mods? Yes! I think they are fed up of the norm bands – There are some really cool Mod bands out there for both old and young Mods these days . I think the ‘’New Mod’’ would really dig the sound of ‘Sam Q’s Nightpatrol’’ with the hybrid Latin sounds that Ive invented coupled with infectious rhythms and catchy melodies, it’s a very cool and stylish vibe and they would recognise and identify with their sub culture no problem. Of course, Ska and Northern Soulies also would latch on the Saxaphone influence straight away. My Vinyl EP ‘’Peles Groove’’ proves this with the demand being so great I had to manufacture another run.
3) Who are the band members of Sam Q’s Nightpatrol? Your not going to believe this but I must have worked with over 100 Musicians since the birth of my Latino adventure called Nightpatrol some 10 years ago!! Jazz musicians are hard to hold as they are in so much demand and they tend to keep moving on with alternative projects. But this gives me such a emphathy with for example the great Saxaphonist John Coltrane and other greats from the 1960’s – as it was the same problem with the quartets he tried to establish. Eventually finding his classic quartet of Garrison, Tyner and Jones. I have used many vocalists worldwide on my compositions also – the greatest musician I used on my ‘’Birdbrain’ and ‘’Secret Bossa Nova’’ tracks is Gibi Dossantos of the Sergio Mendes Band. On my current EP ‘’Lucky Charm’’ I have introduced a young Swedish Girl on vocals called ‘’Maya’’ – I love to nuture and develop- Also my most regular musician bassist Mike Crumpton.
4) Do you find this movement of musicians very difficult to cope with? The opposite is true. It keeps everything very fresh and new. I always have a nucleus of great musicians available who know my stuff – Although I do strive for my Spiritual line up. My idea is to introduce a new vocalist every 12 months – To give others a chance of breaking through in the music Industry – I think this is important also destroys that old fashioned image of a regular band line up- It’s great when I’m going to do a gig people wondering ‘’will it be Maya or Vanessa or Taylor on Vocals tonight etc’’ – When I tour different countries I will introduce local singers there for example in Los Angeles Fernanda Franco who sang on ‘’Love Spring Fountains’’ in Spain ‘’Almudena Moldes’’ who is the singer on ‘’Birdbrain’’
5) What is a typical Sam Q’s Nightpatrol gig like? We normally do 2 sets – The first is what I call the ‘’cool set’’ a selection of gentle Bossa Novas from the Jobim Songbook – as well as many originals both instrumental and vocal. This really relaxes the audience as they get prepared for the later set. It really puts their mind on the alpha levels, of course the alcohol also helps to! The 2nd set is the ‘’hot set’’ fast Bossas and Sambas and the joint really is jumping believe me!! Dancing on the tables. Now who says they don’t like Jazz.
A live performance of Sam Q’s Night patrol in Manchester UK at Bar 21 playing ”Peles Groove” 6) How important is it to play the Bossa Nova Standards and can you name some of them? I think its very important to play a few standards at each gig as this educates the audience onto the birth of the genre and how they relate to my compositions. The music biz can also see how equally my originals sit with the ‘Masters’ of the past which of course wins me gigs and Record Deals. Proof of this is how well my music is being accepted by the Brazillians themselves and currently been offered a Tour of Brazil. The classic Jobim Tunes I will play are ‘’Desafinado, Wave,Corcovado’’ to name a few we also do the Classic Sergio Mendes ‘’Mas Qu Nada’’
7) Your sound seems to be accepted by a much wider audience than the normal Latin Jazz threatening to break commercially – Proof of this is 2 of your past Managers – Can you tell us a little bit about them both? A tear comes to my eyes as they have both now passed away. The great Joe Moss who managed The Smiths and Johnny Marr saw me playing a gig by pure chance in Manchester some years ago and immediately wanted to work with me. I was actually playing in a ‘’Indie Rock’’ venue and instead of the punters leaving they were phoning their friends to get to the venue and we got 5 encores. He saw a parallel with the Indie Music movement of Manchester in the 80s when all the major labels said it would never sell. Joe proved them wrong.. The Smiths sold millions. Joe loved my style of Bossa Nova and encouraged me to keep pushing on a regular giging circuit, ofcourse he would represent me to the Majors and prove them wrong a second time haha.. Bruce Replogle who worked with manifold commercial bands over the years including US Manager for John Lennon heard a few of my tracks on New York Radio Station and instantly phoned me and sent me a management contract – He called us ‘’The Beatles of Bossa Nova’’ – I miss them both dearly.
8) Tell me more about the Major Interest currently and why you think this is? I think Latin Music has come into the forefront of Commercial Music today – Its influence is very apparent such as massive hit Justin Bieber ‘’Depacito’’ – Every week a major seems to release a Latin inspired track – Of course back in the 60s The Beatles touched on this with the Latin inflected ‘’and I love her’’ – But clearly today and now they are searching for the flagship of Bossa Nova – People from Sony, Universal and Warner are actively making contact with me – Im talking right now with Universal Music LA about a potential US Tour to follow up our Brazilian Tour next year. On my Social Media and websites stats you see them monitoring every move I seem to make!! I recently signed a Publishing deal with the original David Bowie and Black Sabbath Team which is another strong indication.
9) Tell me about your previous releases including your current release ‘’Lucky Charm’’? I have recorded to a high level 8 albums/EPs and recently formed my own label ‘’Spinning Wheel Records’’ to accommodate the business sides. Albums have completely different musicians and vocalists on them as I touched on in a previous answer. They are digitally distributed via Imusica in Brazil who power all the Latin releases worldwide so Im very proud of this. From ‘’How To Steal The World’’ to ‘’ Magnetic Lunchbox’’ to the current ‘’Lucky Charm’’ they seem to be rocking the Industry and music lovers Worldwide. The Vinyl EP ‘’Peles Groove’’ is doing fantastically well in the marketplace. The current ‘’Lucky Charm’’ features vocalist ‘’Maya’’ and is 2 originals and 2 classic Bossa Nova side by side. It includes ‘’The Girl from Ipanema’’ and my original ‘’Magpie and the Squirrel’’
10) You were a professional Busker for years and was spotted by Paramount Pictures. How else did busking Jazz in the streets help with your musical development? My busking years started in Birmingham in the early 1990s – and I continued when I first arrived in Manchester in 1998 – It helped me establish my first gigs in Manchester as many Bar owners saw me playing – Busking is a very special artform there’s nothing like it to master your instrument 30 minutes of Busking is equivalent to 4 hours practice!! When you learn something standing in the streets you will never forget it and Studio Session work becomes a doddle. Any fool can go into a Studio with a recording team and high-quality equipment and made to sound good. But busking is the REAL deal the Public aren’t stupid, and they will know immediately if you don’t have the talent. I busked jazz, no backing tracks, and kept the punters happy. I must have played over 1000 tunes across the board, never planning my sets just blowing my Sax and let the spirit take me where it wanted to go. Paramount Pictures Scouts were walking though Manchester during their filming of the remake of ‘’Alfie’’ and approached me to appear in the production as a New York street busker – which was great but but NOTHING beats the feeling when a small child of 4 years of age comes and dances in front of your playing when you are busking and the parents film and put a few pennies in your box. That’s true musical success!!
11) Tell me about your School Days and your friends growing up? I was 13 years old and sneaked into a Pub in Birmingham in 1978. On my way out I was set about by National Front members in their early 20’s – To my rescue a group of lads black/white in their late teens who turned out be a starting out UB40. Afterwards they took me to their rehearsal room, a shabby old cellar. 12) How did UB40 Influence your musical career? They had learned their instruments from scratch and influenced me to do the same and join the band, but I was still a school kid. I used to play truant from school and watch them rehearse and go to their gigs. I loved watching them develop their reggae sound and how music could deliver such a powerful political message, they were the forefront of the Rock against Racism movement in the early 80s and played with all the Ska Two Tone bands like The Specials, Madness and The Selector. Also, this was my first flavour with the Mods who had adopted 2 Tone at that particular time. In Birmingham I was regarded as the 8th member of UB40 Sax player Brian Travers bought me my first Saxaphone.
England World Cup Anthem Song 2014 Written by Manchester Jazz Musician Sam Qureshi for the Brazil World Cup 2014. 13) Who was your greatest influence to become and succeed as a musician? In one word my Mum. She was my inspiration and kept me going when I easily could have given up. She was my rock in the Industry and I always got my strength from her. She passed away 4 years ago, but I can feel her by my side every single day. Check out Mods Of Your Generation via the link below https://www.facebook.com/modsofyourgeneration/ Interview by Johnny Bradley – Mods of Your Generation interview (c) Johnny Bradley & Mods Of Your GenerationPhoto (c) Sam Qureshi
From its emergence in the 1970s, punk rock was a movement which concerned itself with the present. Its hallmarks were rock ‘n’ roll, a do-it-yourself attitude and a good sense of humor. As it spread from the U.S. to the U.K., it would also come to include a distinctive political sensibility. Many of the early punks were young people who actively sought to distance themselves from their upbringings, from any kind of ethnic ties, and to form new identities through their art.
Given the punk attitude of leaving the past behind and forging a new way forward, it seems counterintuitive to connect punk rock with Judaism. Yet punk, like many art forms to come out of New York City, has deep roots in Jewish history. From its origins with Jewish musicians in the 1970s to modern-day Jewish punk bands, the histories of Jewish culture and punk rock are deeply intertwined.
Many of the people involved in the original punk scene in 1970s New York were the children of working- and middle-class Jews. Their backgrounds ranged from overtly religious to secular and culturally Jewish, but all of them were formed by their Jewish backgrounds and would in turn bring those influences to their music and performances. These included not just musicians—such as Joey and Tommy Ramone, Chris Stein of Blondie, Lenny Kaye of the Patti Smith Group, Richard Hell, and all of The Dictators—but also managers, photographers, club owners and more. Punk might not exist as we know it without the Jewish club manager Hilly Kristal, founder and owner of CBGB, the club where many New York punks performed for the first time. Nor would it have made it to the U.K. without Jewish manager and Sex Pistols founder Malcolm McLaren. Jewish record company executives like Seymour Stein recorded the music, while Jewish photographers like Bob Gruen documented the scene for posterity.
However, despite the large Jewish presence in early punk, many were reluctant to discuss their Jewish heritage. Like many Jewish entertainers, quite a few punks took on less Jewish-sounding stage names (like Thomas Erdelyi and Jeffrey Hyman, who became Tommy and Joey Ramone, respectively), while others had their names changed by their parents in childhood, in order to better fit into the American middle class (as with punk godfather Lou Reed, whose father changed the family name from Rabinowitz). Some even went as far as denying or refusing to discuss their Jewish heritage. While for some this may have reflected their discomfort with their Jewish identities, many more undoubtedly did it as part of embracing punk’s freedom to recreate oneself. “The tabula rasa aspect of punk is one of the most important things about it,” says Vivien Goldman, who was a music journalist covering punk in the U.K. in the 1970s and is now the author of Revenge of the She-Punks, a book on women and punk. Although Goldman’s Jewish background is certainly important to her—her parents were Holocaust survivors, and she is a first generation British citizen—she believes that “to be a punk was to liberate yourself from what had gone before.”
This seemed to be the predominant belief among punks of the 1970s on both sides of the Atlantic. Jewish culture was rarely at the forefront of punk music, even if its creators were quietly Jewish behind the scenes. Some offhand references to Jewish culture crept into the occasional song, but these were “few and far between and largely subterranean,” says Michael Croland, author of the books Oy Oy Oy Gevalt!: Jews and Punk and Punk Rock Hora: Adventures in Jew-Punk Land. These references were largely secular and easy to miss, such as The Ramones’s reference to “kosher salamis” in the song “Commando.”
Quite a few punks took on less Jewish-sounding stage names—like Thomas Erdelyi and Jeffrey Hyman, who became Tommy and Joey Ramone.
Something that did become part of the imagery for many early punks—Jews and non-Jews alike—was, counterintuitively, Nazi imagery. Young punks were known to wear swastikas and, particularly in the New York scene, collect Nazi memorabilia. The reason for this can seem difficult to grasp. “They weren’t serious [about being Nazis],” says Goldman, however she also adds, “I didn’t like it, and a lot of us didn’t like it.” One reason for the use of the swastika by U.K. punks, as Goldman and others have speculated, is that it was a way to rebel against their parents, the generation that had lived through World War II and had yet to stop talking about it. In America, Steven Lee Beeber speculates in his book The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB’s: A Secret History of Jewish Punk that the use of Nazi imagery was a means for Jews to take back control of the narrative, to control former Nazi property, to play with it and poke fun at it as they pleased.
Starting in the 1980s, punk underwent a series of musical and cultural changes. By this point, many of the best-known original punk bands had either broken up or evolved their sound to fit punk’s new commercial market. However, their early work had permanently changed the music world, especially for young people, with new punk bands arising and the genre spawning new offshoots such as post-punk and new wave. Punk was disseminated beyond its original scenes, leading the musical style to be adopted for new purposes. This included, for the first time, Jewish punk bands who embraced their Jewish identity in their music, rather than relegating it to the background.
According to Croland, the first such band was Jews from the Valley, which arose from the L.A. punk scene in 1981. At the time, they were still somewhat of an outlier. While new punk bands like Bad Religion and NOFX carried the 1970s torch in having Jewish members while not making most of their music about Judaism, Croland says that Jews from the Valley began when “one guy was screaming along to ‘Hava Nagila’ one day and thought, ‘I should distort that and put that into a song.’” That guy was Mark Hecht, and the song and the band both became known as Jews from the Valley, and thus began the short-lived career of the first Jewish punk band. Their music incorporated well-known Jewish songs such as “Hava Nagila,” original songs with Jewish themes, and a good dose of Jewish/punk humor and offensiveness. The band broke up after just a couple years, and at the time, it seems there were no other bands making punk music explicitly Jewish.
The 1990s saw punk undergo yet more major changes. In the early and mid-90s, punk (or pop punk, depending on who you ask) became radio-friendly, with bands like Green Day and The Offspring mainstreaming the genre. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, many pop punk bands rose to fame. The other major punk revolution of the decade was Riot Grrrl, a movement which combined punk rock style and aesthetics with feminist politics. Though women had been present in punk scenes since the beginning, feminism was now being brought to the forefront of punk politics, and all-female punk bands such as Bikini Kill were rising to prominence. On a somewhat smaller scale, Jewish identity also became a more prominent feature of punk, helped by the fact that Jewishness was becoming a more acceptable topic in popular music at large (a trend which Croland partially credits to Adam Sandler’s “Chanukah Song”). Though there was not—and is not—really a Jewish punk “scene,” the 1990s was the first time that multiple Jewish punk bands came into existence simultaneously.
Probably the most prominent example of such a band was the Australian group Yidcore. Formed in 1998, they put their Jewish identity at the forefront of their music and performances, albeit not in a particularly serious way. “They were all about shtick,” says Croland, “whether that was drinking Manischewitz wine out of a shofar, getting into food fights on stage with hummus or bagels or falafel, or using their songs to try to woo Natalie Portman.” They drew on the traditions of the early punk scene, not just in musical style, but also in their love of humor and irony, while adding an in-your-face Jewish twist which early punk bands lacked. The group stayed together for over a decade, becoming perhaps the best-known Jewish punk band.
In the 21st century, punk has splintered into many styles and subgenres, including the further development of “Jewish punk” and “punk-influenced Jewish music” as genres unto themselves. With punk so well integrated into the musical mainstream, it is hard to point to an insular “punk scene” such as that of 1970s New York, but instead, punk and its offshoots have spread out, both stylistically and geographically.
Moshiach Oi! performing at the book launch for Michael Croland’s Punk Rock Hora in March 2019 (Credit: Shloyo Witriol)
While Jewish punk continues to be a niche genre, several bands have carved out an unabashedly Jewish space in the modern world of punk. Moshiach Oi! is one such band. Formed in 2008 and still active today, the band performs songs with an overtly religious bent, made to showcase its love of Torah. In the realm of cultural Jewishness, The Shondes has become a successful punk band that is open about its Jewish roots. “I came into playing rock music through Riot Grrrl and queercore—radical punk movements that helped shape my aesthetics and politics at a really formative age,” says Louisa Solomon, the band’s singer. The Shondes’ music combines rock and radical politics with references to Jewish proverbs and melodies, a combination which came naturally. “We write as full people informed by all of our experiences,” says violinist Elijah Oberman. “Jewishness is one part of that, just as our experiences as queer or as women or trans/non-binary people are. Jewish stories and ritual are a part of how we’ve come to be who we are, and so are Jewish melodies.”
The Shondes at a seder in their new Passover-themed music video “True North” (Credit: Jeanette Sears)
The Shondes
Similarly, punk—both its aesthetic and its attitude—has permeated more traditional forms of Jewish music, including klezmer and simcha music. Younger musicians like Daniel Kahn grew up with punk as part of their musical taste. Kahn has taken aspects of punk and made them part of his klezmer-based repertoire, creating a self-described “radical Yiddish punkfolk cabaret.” Similarly, bands such as Electric Simcha have adapted aspects of punk to simcha music—traditional Jewish music played at celebrations such as weddings. Just as punk has influenced non-Jewish forms of music, forming such genres as pop punk, so too have there been multiple punk-y variations of Jewish music.
The fact that punk has been and continues to be influenced by Jewishness (and vice versa) speaks to the core concerns at the center of both cultures. In discussing why Jews continue to be drawn to punk, Oberman gets to the heart of one of their most essential similarities: “Jews are taught to wrestle with G-d, and to me that also means wrestling with our texts, our rituals, our traditions. When even the things you hold most sacred are always up for debate, I think that can lead to a level of comfort with deep questioning of how things are or are supposed to be. Pretty punk, yeah?”
Image captionChuck D on The Clash: “They taught us to fight for what really matters”.
When Public Enemy frontman Chuck D was introduced to the righteous punk of The Clash, he didn’t get it.
“I thought they were a bunch of people with brand new music that were whining about their existence,” he tells the BBC.
“I didn’t think their problems were as severe as black people’s problems, but oppression is oppression and abuse is abuse.
“At that age I didn’t know how much their pain was. I do now.”
What the rapper later discovered was a band who were unafraid to take artistic chances, filing front-line reports on the poverty, boredom and lack of opportunity facing the British working class.
Fiery and idealistic, their music nonetheless seemed alien to a hip-hop fan in Long Island… until Chuck D’s friend Bill Stephney told him Public Enemy should be the rap equivalent of The Clash.
“The idea was that we were going to do something that would have a level of intellectual heft,” Stephney later recalled.
“It would have some substance to it, but it had to rock the party.”
The song that first made Chuck D “pay attention” to The Clash was The Magnificent Seven – unsurprising, given that it was itself inspired by the boombox rap of Grandmaster Flash and the Sugarhill Gang.
Built around a loping bass line (played by Norman Watt-Roy of the Blockheads) it saw Joe Strummer pick apart the human cost of capitalism, as he chronicled a day in the life of a minimum wage supermarket employee.
Image captionThe Clash originated from the punk scene but quickly outgrew it
The combination of rap and a social message made a big impression; and Chuck cannily noted that reporters often talked about The Clash’s message as much as their music.
“They talked about important subjects, so therefore journalists printed what they said, which was very pointed,” he told NBC earlier this year.
“We took that from the Clash, because we were very similar in that regard. Public Enemy just did it 10 years later.”
Musically, Public Enemy were just as revolutionary, with cacophonous soundscapes that relied on avant-garde cut and paste techniques, brutal beats and the squeal of police sirens.
But of all the qualities they shared with The Clash – from attitude and lyrical urgency to musical innovation – Chuck says the most important was “fearlessness”.
Both bands fought for social and racial justice, and both faced criticism for their depictions of police brutality: The Clash on Know Your Rights and Public Enemy on Fight The Power.
But they remained staunchly, defiantly independent – even though, in The Clash’s case, they were signed to (and in some cases strait-jacketed by) a major international record label.
Chuck D suggests that most modern acts lack that spirit.
“Bands today want to sell out,” he says. “They’re not pressured to stay broke and unknown and unpopular.
“They want to be popular and known and able to make a living… so it’s hard to tell young people to stand up for something and not worry about being paid.
“And who can blame them? As you grow up, you gotta work. They want to be able to do their music and art and make a living at it and you gotta honour that.”
Image captionChuck D and Public Enemy – the band he once described as an “information portal”
If you think the firebrand rapper sounds like he’s mellowing out, you’d be right.
Whereas once he declared: “Elvis was a hero to most / But he never meant [expletive] to me,” the 58-year-old no longer agrees with The Clash’s 1977 manifesto, “No Elvis, no Beatles or Rolling Stones”.
“Time has erased the golden idols and the only thing that fights against time is the proper curation of their works,” he says, presumably with one eye on his own legacy.
His own contribution to preserving The Clash’s legacy comes in an eight-part podcast, produced by Spotify and BBC Studios, which follows the punk heroes from their origins at the 1976 Notting Hill riots, to their clashes with the National Front, their struggle for creative control and their later experiments in funk, jazz, reggae and dub.
“It’s the story of a band that changed everything,” he says.
“They taught us to fight for what really matters – and to do it as loud as hell.”
Stay Free: The Story of The Clash is available now on Spotify.
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Mods Of Your Generation – Interview – The Kite Collectors MODS OF YOUR GENERATION·SATURDAY, 21 DECEMBER 2019 The band is based in Wiltshire UK and formed 2013, taking their main inspiration from the music of new wave and the 1960’s. The result is a mixture of influences and attitudes with a quality blend of infectious energetic melodies that literally fizzles in the ears. The band have attracted a huge fan base and the new album is greatly received by many. The band stopped gigging to concentrate on their studio work and “Never Look Down” is the result of the last 18 months. The album is superb and is instantly one of my favourites of 2019. Every song is relevant to the daily struggles of life and the lyrics bring some understanding, comfort and peace.Robby Allen the lead vocalist and song writer captures the true struggles of daily life in many of the tracks. A great example of this is the song “The Ballad of Mental health Issues” Making the tracks clear and relevant to the listener.Robby Allen has been an advocate of the mod/garage scene for many years. He found success in the late 1980s with garage rock outfit The Mild Mannered Janitors. Support slots include The Stone Roses, Inspiral Carpets, The Prisoners, The Prime Movers, Steve Marriot, The Godfathers, Zoot Money, Graham Day and the Forefathers with many more.Buddy Ascott (Chords) and two-time KCs producer Sam Burnett (Back To Zero) referred to drummer Pete Summerfield as one of the best out there. We aren’t going to argue and certainly agree. Everyone who contributed to this from the sound engineer Keith Holmes who worked on some of “The Yardbirds re-masters to Robby Allen and the whole band, I would like to thank you all for providing me with some great music to listen to and cherish.
The Kite Collectors Promo – Never Look Down
When was the band formed?
I started work on the first album in 2012. The first version of the band was formed in 2013 in Wiltshire, UK.
Where does the name Kite Collectors come from?
The original idea behind the Kite Collectors was to be like John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in which I would be at the centre of it and bring in people to augment it. They would be the ‘kites’ that I collect. That was what the first album ‘Mildred’s Tree’ was. The main addition to it was my former bandmate from The Mild Mannered Janitors Steve Duffield (he also played in the Beta Band and now with Steve mason). He is a brilliant bassist with a talent for finding bass melody. Towards the end of that first album I also roped in Pete Summerfield to play drums. I had seen him play live a number of times and asked him to be in a band before but he was always busy doing other things – then I got lucky and he said yes. I added Dave Roe on guitar and Bryn Evans on organ; bassist was a young lively lad called Tom Williams. We had one practice and then did our first gig. That was it really – after that we started travelling the country playing – building up a really loyal set of followers.
The Kite Collectors live
The new album “Never Look Down” is dedicated to the Glory days Choir. Who are they?
In 2015 I was travelling back from work and was thinking about call and response songs – I wanted one for the people who spent their hard earned cash in coming to see us. Something I could dedicate to them. So, I wrote Glory Days. I sang it into my phone in a traffic jam and then finished it when I got home. There’s so much that we moan about in life but I think it’s important to also remember that we have good days too. We’ve lost a lot of friends recently because we are now at that age where time and illness catches up. It’s just a call to remember that some days are great, especially when we’re together and that one day we will look back on these days with fondness too. These are our glory days. We call those who follow the band the ‘Glory Days Choir’.
Tell me about some of the bands musical influences?
John Mayall, Small Faces, The Who, The Beatles, Medway sounds like The Prisoners and the New Jersey sound of The Smithereens; mix in a little classical music from Mendelsohn and you have what I write. Steve Marriott was my music hero though – my favourite song of all time is Tin Soldier. I got to support Steve 3 or 4 times in the 1980s. He was playing with the Packet of Three. I remember when he had just sound checked (which consisted of him touching the jack lead and saying ‘yeah, that’s alright,’) he started playing a keyboard. I was sitting on the edge of the stage with my music hero behind me playing blues licks on the organ and I thought that music life couldn’t get much better than that. I was chuffed when he remembered my name next time we played with him – although he did tell me to ‘fuck off’ out of the dressing room later the same night because I kept interrupting him with requests from people to sign stuff.
kite collectors live at The Fiddlers Elbow
What inspired you to write & record the new album?
After a gig in London I got quite ill, really bad actually – mental health wise. On the way home in the car, curled up in the footwell; I realised that I needed a break. I was feeling a bit broken. I said to Pete and others that we wouldn’t gig anymore and kept talking about the Sgt Pepper model – where you write and record but don’t gig it.I started building up songs and demos again and I did consider putting them out as a solo thing. But – Pete is such a brilliant drummer I didn’t want to do it without him. He is also like part of my sanity in music. He is a bit crazy but with me he is often the reasonable one – like the adult. He brings so much energy to the songs. The whole feel of the album is one of creating space for all of the elements to stand out. It also meant convincing Pete to be more repetitive in the beats he plays – he found it a challenge but does it brilliantly. It’s basically me and him and a few guest singers. I play everything apart from the drums.We recorded 24 songs – I always have loads more than we need for an album. I have never stopped writing. I’ve had more time to play with these tracks than I did with the previous album (Shockerwick 135). It has been more like it was with Mildred’s tree or Clockface. I enjoyed the process and freedom much more.
What is the meaning behind the new albums music & lyrics?
Window World starts with a big Hammond Organ sound. It’s like those big classical pieces that are meant to make you think ‘wow – it’s started’. I love the way it stays on the last chord of the intro and the Lesley amp sound pulsates. We wanted to keep it really airy. Not fill the space too much – that’s why it is organ, bass and drums at first. The electric piano comes in later and the guitar not until the solo. Like a lot of the album it talks about a relationship. The contrast between people and that awful cynicism that can set in – that’s in the line: ‘I gaze upon the sun and feel the rain’.This is Me Again was a quick song to write – many are. I sat down with my Rickebacker 330 and just started thrashing at it – simple chords in which I could paint a picture of normal life. It’s a comment on the mundanity of life and how we navigate it. Wayne Lundqvist Ford is singing backing on it and does a great job.Let it Reign had a weird start. I was thinking about the way Steve Duffield does a little shuffle on stage when he plays bass – I’d just seen him with Steve Mason. I then wrote around that movement he does. When I was doing the guide vocals one of my dogs barked and I liked it – so I kept it in and looped it at the beginning. What I like most about the song is the way the bass stays on one note for the first part and the guitar chords change over it. I also messed around with percussion – sometimes it sounds a little out of time but then comes round in time. It’s uncomfortable then comfortable again in a sequence over the chorus. It’s another relationship story – mostly about how little we listen to partners sometimes.Fly Away was an older song that I brought forward and re-recorded. I asked Anne-Marie Crowley from the Speed of Sound to do the backing. I knew she would do a great job so just left her to do what she does best. It really zips along and has a great 1960’s feel.Hallelujah Goodbye is a bit strange. It was another older song that I re-recorded. It’s a bit psychedelic I guess as I’m just playing with words and phrases. Sometimes things don’t make much sense but the words just fit in the melody. I wanted the regular chugging sound like a helicopter in it and that was achieved through a trance keyboard sample and piling on effects to get where it is now. It acts as additional percussion.Soothing is an out and out three minute three-piece band wonder. Bit of feedback and then smack – straight into it. It’s good to crank the amps up and just let Pete go nuts on the drums.In Strawberry Time Again I wanted to tell a fuller story about someone remembering a complete and brilliant weekend at a cottage with their partner who is left full of regret that in the end it didn’t work out because they didn’t say the things they wanted to. Later they go back to the place but end up just getting drunk and falling asleep in a barrel in a garden. The versus are in mono and then switch to stereo for the chorus. The song ends with a mass of swirling backward guitars and Pete thumping his way round the kit.The Ballad Of Mental Health Issues was written on the piano – I don’t do that very often. I was wary of exposing these mental health elements of myself to friends and the Glory Days choir in this way but, I think people are more accepting of anxiety and similar issues now and I wanted to speak about mine. I orchestrated around the song with strings. The vocal is prominent in the mix because although the music sounds great we wanted the words to stand out above all.
The Kite Collectors – The Ballad of Mental Health IssuesYou is a nightmare. That was how I saw it – as a really bad dream. There is so much trivia in life that we just get stuck in a loop about. That’s what the solid guitar and hypnotic drum is about – that brain loop where it just won’t shut up and you’re almost screaming at yourself that none of it actually really matters. But you don’t listen to yourself. John Armstrong from Speed Of Sound did backing on this – He has a great unusual singing voice and I layered it and put it through a bunch of effects to make it sound like an ethereal keys sound.Take Me With You Please has the feel of a Smithereens song I think; that New Jersey sound. I love Pat Dinizio – he was heavily into The Beatles, as am I – and I guess that comes through. It’s driven by an acoustic guitar and jangly Rickebacker. The person it is describing is trying to reassure them self that the person they want will want them – even though friends are talking the possibility of it down.A Form Of Hello was written around a drum loop and a repeated jangly Rickenbacker riff. I added a harsher sounding guitar beneath it to give it an edge and then we took the loop out and Pete replaced the beat with his own. It has some weird stuff going on underneath from sounds and effects I was playing with at the time – including playing a spring on an old desk lamp with violin bow and then a drumstick.I was a little concerned about the song ‘pretending’ because it has a double meaning. It is about someone considering suicide – that’s what it means by ‘don’t be too keen’.; but metaphorically it’s also about being on the edge from a mental health or stress point of view. At the end of the song there is quite a lot going on with guitars and strings and flutes – the idea was that although the e-piano riff at the end continues going, the other instruments would be added as it progressed. It builds up to that last organ chord.Icy You is quite psychedelic. It had a simple premise – one guitar riff throughout that sounds like it is three different guitar riffs by changing the sound of it. The vocal melody for each verse is also completely different. It was like I had to write three songs with one tune – I loved the difficulty of that. Pete plays a very mechanical beat too – a challenge as he is usually a bit of an animal on the kit!Never Look down is very personal. It’s about the advice you get from a loved one that you now miss because geographically or physically they are no longer around you. It’s sort of about their positive impact on you and the lessons you learn and take forward. It’s parents, grandparents, friends that accept your ‘character’ and help you.
Where do you find inspiration for your music and lyrics?
From the things I listen to, things that people say and how I feel. Sometimes I work on a song for weeks on and off and sometimes it just appears out of nowhere. There is a song called Tell Me it’s Real (on Icon Paradox) that I started and I turned a recorder on and sang it. It came out fully formed. I then listened back and wrote down what I had sung. The song wonder (on Clockface) came because of that famous photo of the little boy on the beach who had drowned. I didn’t write about that as such but it set a feeling that inspired the song.
The Kite Collectors – ‘Wonder’ (Clockface Promo)
The band have had so many great reviews and have worked with various people throughout the years – tell me about some of those people?
Two that had a massive affect were not band members but on the production side of our stuff – that often gets overlooked and so I’d like to mention them. A fantastic talented guy called Keith Holmes mixed and Mastered the new album – he was with me for the Box Dwellers ep too and came in to try and save Shockerwick 135 which was in trouble till he came along. We worked very closely on the sonic feel for the new album. Sam Burnett (Back to Zero) mixed and mastered Clockface – he completely bought into the story and worked so hard on it with us. He also worked on Glory Days single.
The Kite Collectors: Album Shockerwick 135
Have you any future gigs or charity events coming up?
We’re going to get back out there in 2020 although we don’t intend to play quite as much as we were before. Do some special things that we’re hoping to announce soon. Have fun and meet great people.
The Kite Collectors – Inside Out – Dublin Castle – 19th October 2013
What has people’s reaction been to the new album?
It’s been great. We’ve tried to push things forward a bit more. So, some elements on it are different – you can’t stand still and just do the same thing. Sam Burnett once talked about ‘progressive mod’ and I completely understand what he means. You can still have that core that sits at the centre of what you are musically and sub-culturally; and then you push at it. It’s not easy selling music these days but the glory days choir is wonderfully loyal and we are continuing to gain new members to it.
What can we look forward to and expect from the Kite Collectors in the future?
Mod Ghosts a first book by new author Andy Morling who grew up in a working class family in the Suffolk market town of Ipswich. This book resonated with me in so many ways, it is a detailed account from many people who grew up in urban Britain featuring first hand accounts from the people who influenced a Mod Revival together with period and present day photographs. The book explains each individuals account on discovering how mod changed there outlook on life, How it shaped their existence and identity. Showing how it lead them from young teenagers into adulthood. Each persons interpretation of mod is different and it means something different to many who attach themselves to the phenomenon. Each persons account is different but it doesn’t mean its not mod. The book also highlights the places these people grew up in and how modern Britian has changed somewhat forty years on. The thing most interesting thing about the book is how the subculture affected people in many different ways and the different experiences each individual had growing up in the respective hometowns across the UK.
As mod continues to evolve and many young people discover the scene today each person brings their own adaptation. Despite the book being called “Mod Ghosts” the subculture has stood the test of time were others have faded. I highly recommend this book and its definitely something you need as part of your collection. This book is everything I want to say about mod but don’t have the intelligence, intellect, and vocabulary to explain. I wanted to find out more about the man behind the concept and was excited, honoured and privileged to interview him.INTERVIEW BELOW
What is the main concept of the book?
Mod Ghosts is the first product from The Mod Project which I began in 2016. The thinking behind the broader project is to offer a series of slightly different perspectives on the Mod experience. My ambition is to follow up the book with further multimedia sub-projects hopefully including film and the visual arts.To answer your specific question, the idea behind Mod Ghosts was threefold. Firstly my aim was to identify and contrast iconic photos of original and revival Mods with shots taken at precisely the same location in the present day. I’ve always been very attracted to these ‘then and now’ type image comparisons and, as a lifelong Mod, this was a natural choice in terms of subject matter.I’ve been doing this on Twitter for a few years now and, in time honoured fashion, the positive reaction led me to consider publishing a book. As a child of the sixties, my thinking was that books are somehow more permanent than social media. I’m not sure that’s actually true but either way, I really wanted the memory of these places and these people to endure.In addition to the photographic comparisons in the book, I was also lucky enough to secure first hand accounts from revival Mods by way of interview. Each story was unique and fascinating and I hope this adds context and a human dimension to the atmosphere created by the photos. In simple terms, I wanted to illustrate how both the urban settings and the people depicted in the photos have changed over the last four decades.The third and final element of the book is my own commentary on the Mod phenomenon. Quite apart from the external, visible signals of Mod observance, for me, Mod has been a powerful internal driving force. A philosophy. Astute readers of the book will no doubt notice references and quotes from the great Stoic philosophers from ancient history. I’ve long believed that Stoicism captures the very essence of Mod. I would hazard a guess that this is the first time this school of thought has featured in a book about Mod! As a friend of mine said in jest recently, the Romans were the first Mods.I also wanted the book to capture some of the lasting emotional impact of the subculture on me as a person. Sounds a bit introspective and indulgent, I know, but I hope at least some of that resonates with many others. I’m also an opinionated old sod so I had one or two controversial views that I simply had to surface!
This book highlights how mod changed the life of those who followed it. Why was it important to tell their story?
I’m under no illusion that Mod Ghosts isn’t the first book to tell the story of those who were there during the Mod revival. In fact, its not even the first this year. With the very greatest respect to those featured in the book, what I wanted to do with Mod Ghosts was to focus on the lives of the subculture’s more ordinary participants from across the country.By the start of the 80s, every village, every town and every city supported a population of Mods. These folk made the movement the culture tour de force it was to become. These were the last generation truly to have experienced youth subculture in its purest sense so their experiences need to be recorded. They are also good people whose lives have been shaped to some extent by their experiences forty summers ago.Forging an identity from the assimilation of musical, stylistic and other cultural cues in early adolescence was standard fare for those of us born in the sixties. I think sometimes we fail to appreciate what an unusual trajectory this is for our 21st century counterparts. For that reason alone, I think these are stories worth telling.
The book covers accounts from various people throughout the UK. I imagine this meant a lot of travelling. What was that like and did this become challenging?
Fortunately I was able to carry out interviews by correspondence so travel wasn’t an issue in that regard. Where I racked up the miles was in identifying the locations for the period photos and then taking the present day shot. There were one or two Homer Simpson moments when I arrived home after a day on the road only to find that i hadn’t quite captured the correct angle or, in one notable case, I’d taken a fantastic photo of the wrong house. I’m indebted to John Gale for saving me from having to make a third long trip to Hastings in as many months for a few shots I’d totally messed up twice previously.
Why was it important for you to tell the story of the people but also the places in which they grew up, discovered the subculture and attached themselves to it?
I think we are all the product of the place of our birth and upbringing. The history and culture of these places imprints itself on our personality, attitudes and beliefs more than we recognise. Location leaves a trace on our DNA. I like to think of it as the human equivalent of terroir in wine production.So in the book I wanted to contextualise the lives of these young Mods by telling a small part of the history of the geographical backdrop of their young lives. I’m particularly fascinated by the spiritual artefacts that attach themselves to certain places. Tens of thousands of special moments lived by tens of thousands of ordinary people leave a palpable feeling in a single place over the course of history. Hard to explain satisfactorily but I find it mind boggling. I particularly enjoyed researching the historical origins of the legendary Phoenix in London’s West End. I don’t think I’ll ever walk past the pub again without thinking of its near and very distant past.
A lot of books highlight how the mod scene grew in London. Did you purposely choose how the mod scene affected many of those beyond a particular place?
As our political and cultural capital it was impossible to ignore London when writing about Mod. I take my hat off to the influential London based figures that gave the rest of us this wonderful thing and those that have written so eloquently about them.But yes, it was a conscious decision also to focus on the small town Mod experience. I lived my Mod life in nondescript town in Suffolk with fewer than 100 others of a similar persuasion for company. The passion and commitment we provincial peacocks had to Mod’s core principles was in no way diminished as a consequence. I was never a face by any measure, not even in my home territory of central east Ipswich, but I certainly gave it all I had. I think the same can be said for those whose story I had he privilege to tell.
The book demonstrates how the urban landscape has changed over many years. Why was this an important factor to depict through photography showing the places then & now?
As I said earlier, I’ve always enjoyed comparing ‘then and now’ images. The urban environment has changed dramatically in the last forty years, particularly with the slow collapse of high street retail, the decline in the pub trade and the cultural vandalism of the working class home. I wanted to say something about this pictorially. Few of the present day photographs illustrate an improved landscape so I also wanted to stimulate conversations between the generations about why this might be. I don’t have the answers but I hope my book will at least pose the questions.
Why do you think mod means so much to many different people and why it has stood the test of time from a small group of young teenagers in the 60’s to become a worldwide phenomenon?
That’s a tough question. In the blurb to the book I say that it is the capacity of Mod to change with people that ensures its continuing relevance today. What I mean by that is that Mod remains accessible, even in middle-age, in a way that no other subculture can manage. I enjoy the knowing glance of recognition when my eyes meet those of a fellow Mod on a crowded underground train in London, for example. The signals are generally subtle but we both know instantly. I love that about Mod. It’s not about parkas or patches but about heavily nuanced influences and vanishingly small stylistic cues.I talk at length in the book about the way in which Mod provided a robust platform from which to launch into adult life. From my own perspective, I believe my life would have been very, very different had I not discovered Mod. I think this is the same for many of my peers. The continuing value of a comparatively sophisticated appreciation of music and clothing and a broader sense of style should not be underestimated.
The book has already had many great reviews in a few short weeks of being published. What has people response to the book been like?
Truly humbling. I’ve been genuinely staggered by the enthusiasm with which the book has been received and the kindness of the comments made about it. As a first time author rather than an established name in Mod literature, an investment in my book was always going to be a leap into the dark financially. I’m extremely grateful to those who are open-minded enough to make that leap and I hope the content of the book repays their faith. My aim all along was to offer something a bit different and something that is beautiful to look at and own. I’ll be more than happy if I’ve managed to achieve those things alone.
Can we expect any further books, projects or anything else in the future?
Oh yes. I’m already planning Mod Ghosts 2 and as I mentioned at the start of the interview, I hope to take the concept into other areas such as film, television, photography and maybe even poetry and fine art. Watch this space.Despite a healthy catalogue of Mod related books in recent years, I still believe there is more to be said about this thing of ours. I’m less interested in showcasing the razzmatazz of Mod culture and the bigger ticket aspects of the scene. For me it’s all about the ephemera and those beautifully elusive, almost indefinable subtleties that give Mod it’s unique meaning.
Is there anything else you feel you’d like to highlight about the book?
It would unforgivable if I didn’t thank the wonderful people that allowed me to tell their stories in words and pictures. To John and Ed Silvester, John Gale, Dave Ratcliffe, Billy Drinkwater, John Nicholson and Del Shepherd, I thank you all. True gentlemen each one. Many more contributed original photographs for which I’m eternally grateful.I also really appreciate the opportunity to have this interview and I wish you continuing success with Mods Of Your Generation.
Band Line upLead Vocals/Songwriter – Kevin SaneElectric Guitar – Gary CochraneBass Guitar – Matt HillRhythm Guitar – David Nevard
ALBUM REVIEW – ‘SALUTE’
lead vocals and songwriter Kevin Sane from ‘The Grenadiers’ approached Mods Of Your Generation and wanted us to review their new album and feature in an interview. He kindly sent me a copy before its release. The band are in the progress of setting up social media platforms to promote the album and are seeking out a drummer to add to the line up. The band are also looking for a manger so that they can focus on their songwriting. Their previous album ‘Mr. Cribbins released by Detour Records received a lot of great reviews from fans and magazines appearing in The cult shindig and Heavy soul Fanzine magazine. The new album is just as great as the last with soulful 60’s melodies and a Rock n Roll riff. There is definitely a punk element in there too. While first listening to the album it is straight away apparent that the band are heavily influenced by The Kinks & The Small Faces. The lyrics are superb with a very British sound and feel like many people could relate. Tracks such as Ruby, Scooter Boys, No More Bets are ones that stand out. I highly recommend this album and wish the band ongoing success as they plan to promote the album and start building up a fan base. The album will be available on Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play & Deezer from 19th July 2019.
INTERVIEW – THE GRENADIERS
(1) What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?
usually I sit down with a cup of tea and answer questions but on this occasion I am out of tea bags. have to settle for fellow birds coffee. the last gig I went to which I absolutely loved was watching The Stranglers play at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in 2017 . brilliant band .
(2) Which subcultures have influenced you?
which subcultures have influenced me. A lot of the time its from the 60’s and late 70’s early 80’s. very into Elvis Costello. I am a Big David Bowie fan but I love the music from the band The Cars.
(3) A song and band that has inspired you?
The song” Drive” by The Cars inspired me to write Crying out, its one of those universal songs that touch the soul.
(4) Where do you find inspiration for your song lyrics & music?
a lot of time my own experiences and watching or watching TV.
(5) How and when was the band formed?
The Grenadiers actually was a band I formed in Aberdeen. The Name came from my home town of Colchester being it has always been an Army barrack town
(6) Why the name ‘The Grenadiers’ and who come up with it.
The Name came from my home town of Colchester being it has always been an Army barrack town . it has its own military tattoo each year where all the different regiments parade down the high Street.
(7) Your first first EP which featured songs such as Mr cribbins/ Kosha / Mrs Raven/ Pillars Of The Lambeth Row/ Toy Grenadier. All are a great sound, how would you describe the bands style.
Its different and diverse . there are songs that are clearly heavily inspired by post new wave and then on the other spectrum we do quite a lot of 60’s inspired music.
(8) your first EP was released by the label Paisley archive records. Are you still signed to them?
know we are not currently signed to paisley archive records at the moment.
(9) The Band were invited to open up for The BlockHeads at Colchester Arts Centre. Which I briefed for the band was a huge honour. Can you tell me a bit about that?
The blockheads gig was amazing an absolute buzz. The Arts Centre was completely packed to the medieval rafters and the noise from the place. The atmosphere was electric. The Blockheads still cut the mustard and we played a blinding gig. I think Big Boys Don’t cry had its first performance that night and we nailed it. We couldn’t unfortunately stick around to enjoy the blockheads as we had to 2 gigs booked in one night so we played that gig in Colchester high street after our set list finished. An absolute great night, You just cant beat playing live really.
(10) The first EP had a lot of great reviews and was well received and featured in the music magazine Shindig. How did that feel?
The review in shindig magazine was weird . having your music reviewed then next to it you see Ziggy Stardust @ The spiders from mars on the same page. we are very proud of the Mr Cribbings EP. I wish now looking back it should have been called “Pillars of The Lambeth Row” but never mind.
(11) Your new album will be released soon. Where can fans buy or download it.
The release date for the album will be Friday 19th July on all online stores. I tunes / Spotify/ Instagram /apple music. Its our first album and all the songs have something appealing in themselves.
(12) Have you got any future gigs coming up and what’s next for the band?
Playing live is the next stage. Already have a true professional bass player by the name of Matt Hill and Gary Cochrane who are former members of the mod influenced group ‘Pure Mania’. Along with Dave Nevard, when we find a suitable drummer I think it wont be too long before our next gig will be announced.
(13) Who produced the new album Salute?
Two tracks ‘Ruby’and ‘Big Boys don’t cry’ were produced by Greg Haver at Modern world Studios near Wales. He has produced man of the Manic street Preachers material and they have recorded many of their material there. The rest of the tracks were produced by myself and David Nevard (Rhythm Guitar – The Grenadiers) I wish The Grenadiers & Kevin Sane all the best for the future check out our other interviews and please like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @mods_of_you_generationInterview conducted by Johnny Bradley – Mods Of Your GenerationInterview (c) Mods Of Your Generation 2019
Chris Packham: “Punk is coming back to save the planet”
The naturalist sees punk pioneers getting excited again – and it’s down to Extinction Rebellion and youth climate strikers. He recalls his youth pogoing to God Save the Queen and draws parallels to today in Forever Punk
CHRIS PACKHAM
10 Jan 2020
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It’s April, it’s sunny, and I’m humming…
‘We’ve heard it all before / We’re learning to ignore / You must confess this awful mess /Isn’t just a bore’
I’m unnaturally jovial…
‘It’s more than we could bear / But you don’t really care / Kiss of life to save our life /All you do is stare’
It’s one of my favourite songs from way back in 1978…
‘I’m back in full attack / Never give in until they crack / Emergency’
It’s Emergency by 999, perhaps the most underrated punk band, and I joyously recall vocalist Nick Cash reeling around the stage spitting out this song. So, so good! I’ve always liked the ‘never give in until they crack’ sentiment, and it’s particularly relevant today – because today is all about the biggest emergency ever.
When I reach Extinction Rebellion’s pink boat, moored on Oxford Street [in April], there’s a festival atmosphere and thousands of people are clearly delighted by the DJ’s choice of London Calling by The Clash. The bass is thumping through the colourful crowd, many of whom are singing along. I’m tempted, but I’m no Joe Strummer, so I keep my voice to myself. Well, my singing voice anyway.
When I address the fabulous party and salute their energies and endeavours to put the climate and environment emergency on the map and in everyone’s mind, I finish by asking them to continue to “shout above the noise”, to embrace the musical mantra that has informed, fuelled, directed and given integrity to my life for the last 40 years.
Fast forward a few weeks and I’m tiptoeing on tenterhooks into the basement of a North London pub to meet the maker of that essential and integral part of me, Pauline Murray – the vocalist from Penetration who penned that awesome anthem to independence, defiance, self-determination and rebellion.
They say you should never meet your heroes. They are wrong. She is wonderful and nurtures me through my starstruck interview and ends by handing me a handwritten copy of the lyrics. It’s framed now. It hangs prominently in my home and would be grabbed if fleeing from a fire. It will be in the casket with me for the terminal fire. It defines me and what I’ve done and what I do.
You see, for me the attitude and ethos of punk still pumps through my veins. Not just the music, the politics, the fashion, the art, but the method and the ferocious desire to change things – to never take ‘no’ for an answer, to make this a better place, to rail against injustice and always, always challenge authority. And maybe tear it down…
But am I just a sad old geezer trapped in the past, nurturing the nostalgic ideals of a youth, no longer of any contemporary relevance? Worse, am I, Chris Packham CBE, a sell-out, a hypocrite? Have I become the bastard I would have hated when I was pogoing to God Save the Queen?
Is it just me or are there a generation of other spiky old gits out there still angry, still fighting, still fired up by that social maelstrom that ravaged the UK in the mid-1970s? Well, that was my summer’s quest for BBC Four – to find them, quiz them, get the measure of them and then to see if their philosophies have been reborn and empower today’s activists, protesters and game-changers.
Spoiler alert. When I asked my stellar cast of punk’s original playmakers whether their ideology was alive and well, to a man and woman they cited “Extinction Rebellion” and the “youth climate strikers”. They smiled, got excited, shifted in their seats, punched the air – their eyes sparkled.
The consensus was that punk had finally woken from hibernation and was re-emerging to excite a new wave of very angry young people. They might be short of studs and safety pins, but they are not mincing their words and they are not afraid of the establishment.
They are breaking down doors, put ethics before the law, and, critically, these “stupid idiots” are not going to “shut up and go back to school” (that’s what Jeremy Clarkson said about Greta Thunberg). No these “truants” and “uncooperative crusties”(the last insult courtesy of our PM) will suck up such antipathy and use it like kryptonite to detonate essential creative and positive change. They might not know or even like it, but they are punks. I’ll leave Pauline with the last enduring and pertinent words…
‘Silence is no virtue in a crowded world / Where no-onehears / Feast your eyes upon the fools / Who follow theleaders without thought / Don’t let them win / Don’tthem drag you in / Shout above the noise.’
Chris Packham’s Forever Punk is on BBC Four on January 10
There are few things more exhilarating than being stuck in the middle of a mosh pit during a JPEGMAFIA show.
On stage at this year’s Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, the 30-year-old US rapper’s topless body, dripping with sweat, contorts urgently as he channels the aggression of the crowd into brutal bursts of movement that sit somewhere between an intoxicated Iggy Pop and an irate DMX.
With vocals that quickly shift from gentle to vicious, the artist, real name Barrington Hendricks, raps rapidly like a machine gun, with lyrics, couched in internet speak, that are often scathingly satirical. One of his songs is called I Might Vote 4 Trump, while on his typically experimental new album, All My Heroes Are Cornballs, he raps, as a black man, about wanting to be adopted by Madonna and merrily drinking the tears of “rednecks”.
JPEGMAFIA (Credit: David Hanes-Gonzales)
JPEGMAFIA is a scathingly satirical artist with a sound that incorporates thick waves of distortion and screaming synths
But the fact he does all this over ugly, uneven beats, built around thick waves of distortion and screaming synths, means Hendricks could just as easily be categorised as punk rock as hip-hop. Free the Frail, one of his new LP’s standout tracks, speaks directly to punk’s anti-capitalist values, as Hendricks claims: “I don’t rely on the strength of my image”.
Back in the 1980s, rap and punk were both genres that got frowned upon by the elite just for being what they were – JPEGMAFIA, aka Barrington Hendricks
In Barcelona, as dozens of teenagers enthusiastically bang heads to songs with subversive titles such as I Cannot Wait Until Morrissey Dies and Digital Blackface, it’s easy to draw a parallel between Hendricks and the bold onstage personas of legendary anti-establishment acts like The Sex Pistols or The Clash, artists who also knew how to channel youthful angst into something euphoric and liberating.
Hendricks is happy to indulge in the comparison. “Back in the early 1980s when rappers couldn’t perform in the fancy venues because the police were too racist and scared, it was the punk venues letting them in to perform,” he tells BBC Culture. “I guess race was the big thing separating [rap and punk] in the general public eye, but they were both resilient genres that got [frowned upon] by the elite just for being what they were. They gave a home to outsiders. I [have] always felt like they were just the same thing, but both wrapped up in a different way.”
Growing up, he explains, he was equally enthusiastic about political rappers like Ice Cube and Chuck D as hardcore punk bands like Bad Brains and Fear. “I saw Fear perform live at a young age, so I guess you could say I draw from that same energy.”
Modern punk heroes
Today, JPEGMAFIA is one of dozens of young rappers and rap acts drawing heavily from the DIY ethos of punk rock to create music to be moshed to. The likes of Death Grips, Run The Jewels, Denzel Curry, Danny Brown, Sheck Wes, Rico Nasty, Ski Mask The Slump God, and Travis Scott (who was arrested back in 2017 after the police accused him of inciting a riot at one of his shows) perform with the same transgressive vigour of 1970s punk icons. When Sheck Wes plays the stirring Mo Bamba live, it recalls the renegade firecracker spirit of Nirvana’s iconic Smells Like Teen Spirit video.
In the UK, snarling Northampton rapper Slowthai thrillingly struts around the stage like a modern-day Sid Vicious. He blasts what he sees as the toxicity of Brexit Britain in a way that’s pure punk provocation. It’s no surprise, for example, that he carried around a fake severed head of Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his performance at last month’s Mercury Prize amid ugly beats inspired just as much by Gang of Four as Dizzee Rascal. His punk-ish rap peers include Scarlxrd and Master Peace. On the other hand, you could also point to the hip-hop influence of lo-fi British punk bands like Idles and Sleaford Mods as a sign of the convergence between the two genres.
Slowthai the new face of British Punk Rock
UK rapper Slowthai is like a modern-day Sid Vicious, blasting what he sees as the toxicity of Brexit Britain (
Prolific Long Island producer Kenny Beats, real name Kenneth Blume III, has worked with many of the aforementioned artists, helping shape the punk-rap sound that’s currently ruling the underground. He believes the fact more and more rap artists are gaining a penchant for primal screaming and ugly production is simply a reflection of our times. “The other month I played a show just 24 hours after there were two mass shootings here in America,” he says. “The planet is literally on fire, so what more can an artist like Rico Nasty do but scream? It’s instinctual to rappers at this particular moment. It’s how they process the world.” He says he’s currently producing a record for hardcore punk band Trash Talk “that’s pure thrash with no electronic drums, but that way of working isn’t too dissimilar from when I work with JPEGMAFIA or Slowthai.”
A 21st-Century protest
In this age of social media, where people fire off snarky political opinions every couple of seconds, Kenny believes that anti-establishment protest music can have trouble cutting through. To have a real impact, it’s less about what you say than how you say it. “You need to make people think about society in a less literal and more primal way,” he says. “It’s about using the least amount of sounds to make the most amount of noise and energy, and making a bass stab really feel like you’ve been punched in the face. A lot of the rap I produce really has that kind of punk essence. When I work with JPEGMAFIA he asks me for the worst beat possible as I guess a rapper that makes something that’s raw and ugly and chaotic is definitely going to stand out and feel more human right now, because things aren’t pretty out there.”
Rico Nasty, real name Maria Kelly, is a 22-year-old Maryland rapper every bit as enigmatic and hell-raising live as JPEGMAFIA – the fact she’s pushing similar buttons as a woman makes her, arguably, even more important. On songs like Bitch I’m Nasty and Rage, which are both produced by Kenny Beats, who also guided the music on her most recent album Anger Management, Kelly attacks the gnarly guitars and cutting drums with real venom, every word delivered like she’s face-to-face with her worst enemy. Sometimes she just starts screaming in between bars.
I’ll see straight guys moshing with the gay guys and I love that – Rico Nasty, aka Maria Kelly
Evoking the DC comic book character Harley Quinn, her bold onstage look is about reclaiming the colours white female punk artists wore before her and showing her fans, many of whom feel like outsiders, that they can be anything they want to be. It’s quietly revolutionary.
“If you come to a Rico Nasty show you’ll see all kinds of people, dancing together as one in the mosh pit,” she explains. “I’ll see straight guys moshing with the gay guys and I love that. A lot of these people aren’t able to let out their anger in the real world without being demonised, particularly black women, but they can at my show and to my songs. It’s a safe space to let out all the rage, and that’s healthy. It’s like group therapy.”
In a world with infinite choice, thanks to streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music, Kelly believes fans expect more from their favourite artists – because, if their interest palls, they can quickly move on to something else. By embodying the fearless punk values of her hero Joan Jett, she can ensure she lives up to their estimations, she says. “They gotta see me go crazy on stage or I’m not doing my job! it’s all about showing emotions because they paid good money to see you and they don’t want to just see me stand still. You’re the person who made their favourite song so you should be performing until your voice cracks [like the punk artists voices’ used to do].”
Rico Nasty is a 22-year-old Maryland rapper who embodies the fearless punk values of her hero Joan Jett (Credit: Works Of Ace)
It’s something Hendricks very much agrees with. Punk in the 1970s was a reaction to the overly conceptual progressive rock that bands like Pink Floyd and Genesis were releasing. The Sex Pistols’ two-minute songs, which used a minimal amount of chords played as shoddily as possible, were in stark contrast to the stadium rock that some young people found pretentious.
Similarly, Hendricks believes the reason rap with punk sensibilities resonates right now is because the melodic ‘trap’ sound that has dominated the radio for so long is also starting to become stale. Hip-hop fans could be looking for something to counter the neatly produced club trap anthems by stars like Drake and Migos, which means music that’s more unhinged and doesn’t read from a script, and artists who enjoy giving their all on stage and are comfortable making people feel, well, uncomfortable.
“So much of rap sounds the same, and that’s okay, but that means some people want something that can be the complete opposite too. We’re entering an era where you have to leave a part of yourself on the stage and really make the crowd move. People aren’t going to just accept your presence or you miming to a song; you have to really do your job, you know? Maybe that’s where [punk-rap] comes in. I feel like this is the only time this sound really has a chance to break through into the mainstream.”
Two genres united
But if punk-rap makes sense for this particular cultural moment, it’s hardly a new phenomenon. As John Robb, the author of Punk Rock: An Oral History – and a rock legend in his own right as lead vocalist in post-punk band The Membranes – points out, rap and punk first became intertwined in the 1980s, a time when The Clash experimented with a rap edge on The Magnificent Seven.
He believes Public Enemy were the first band to really bring the two different audiences together, with their rough, hard-hitting boom-bap sound resonating with both black kids in the inner cities and white kids in the suburbs. The fact that, in the 1980s, iconic producer Rick Rubin would split his time between producing new albums for hip-hop acts like Run DMC and The Beastie Boys and hardcore bands like Slayer and The Cult, also helped to create links between the two cultures.
“Public Enemy were really the first band to resonate with both camps,” says Robb. “Chuck D was a huge fan of The Clash and I know from speaking with him, he studied all of the punk bands. I saw them on the Anthrax tour and Public Enemy blew this hardcore band right off the stage. I’m sure every white punk fan in the audience became a rap fan after that.”
These kids live in such a distorted world that the music is lying if it isn’t distorted as well – John Robb
As the 1990s arrived, hip-hop’s punk sensibility was further enforced by in-your-face acts like Ice Cube, DMX, Onyx, and Rage Against the Machine. Then, although he’s easy to mock now, Atlanta rapper Lil Jon also spliced genres to innovative effect with ‘crunk’, his southern rap take on punk, which prioritised uncomfortably loud horns and repetitive screams. It’s no surprise that Denzel Curry, one of punk-rap’s most prominent artists, channelled Lil Jon’s trademark “what” screams on his 2018 song SUMO | ZUMO. “Lil Jon was definitely a pioneer for some of the punk-rap acts we see now,” agrees Kenny Beats. “He showed you could scream on a song and still have a hit on the radio. He even sampled [US heavy metal guitarist] Randy Rhoads, so it was obvious he knew what he was doing.”
But Lil Jon was hardly an anti-establishment renegade, more just someone who found a sound that stood out from the norm. It was around a decade ago that punk-rap really returned with a vengeance, via authentic anarchist acts like Tyler the Creator’s Odd Future collective. The Los Angeles group weren’t afraid to release incendiary singles where hooks were built around calls to burn schools, among other things, while beats were both manic and minimalist. They lived the punk life they rapped about, hanging out at skate parks and dingy clubs in three-day-old clothes. This DIY spirit made them feel like the black Sex Pistols. And Kanye West borrowed punk elements for his brilliantly bleak 2013 album Yeezus. On it, he took Odd Future-style industrial sonics and made them more palatable for the mainstream, sampling post-punk bands such as Section 25 and offering up riotous tirades like Black Skinhead.
Kanye West also went punk on his brilliantly bleak 2013 album Yeezus (Credit: Alamy)
But Kenny Beats believes one of the most important songs in this new age of punk could be Look At Me by XXXTentacion – the controversial Florida rapper, real name Jahseh Onfroy, who was shot dead last year at the age of 20, while facing multiple criminal charges. The 2017 song features uncomfortable levels of distortion and unhinged vocals as Onfroy, then just a teenager recording in his bedroom with a cheap microphone bought on eBay, refers to himself as the new Kurt Cobain. Peaking at 34 on the Billboard 100, it was the moment punk-rap showed it could really be a force on the pop charts.
“Whatever you think [about the person and the allegations], there’s no denying Look at Me was one of the most punk-rock moments in a long, long time,” says Kenny Beats, when asked why the song resonates so much with the current generation of rap fans. “You play it in a room and people are ready to riot. XXX sounds like a scary cult leader rapping over the worst sounding MP3 I’ve ever heard, but everything about that song bottles this idea of being young and not giving a damn. It’s the reason why you hear distorted drums on an Ariana Grande song or people putting out two minute singles. Its influence is everywhere. It doesn’t have a message, but that’s what makes it have one somehow.”
People get upset that the old rock ‘n’ roll attitude doesn’t exist anymore, but it’s right there in front of them – JPEGMAFIA, aka Barrington Hendricks
As conversation rages around Brexit, Trump and global warming, there is a feeling among some young people that they are paying for the sins of their parents and have inherited a world that is teetering on the edge. It’s in this context that the darker punk-rap sound has resonated deeply, says Robb. “These kids live in such a distorted world that the music is lying if it isn’t distorted as well.”
However, he’s keen to point out the impact of the internet in making this style of music popular too: “You’ve got to remember that genre boundaries don’t really exist like they did before. With streaming, every genre cross-pollinates into the next and you just hop from one thing to another. That makes it easier for punk-rap to thrive than it could in the 1980s or 1990s, as back then, everything had to be a hit on a radio. Now, you just put it on Soundcloud and it gets a million views and kids will treat like you like a rock star.”
So often, Hendricks says, he reads “lazy” articles from white music journalists speculating when guitar-driven punk is going to make a comeback and “save music”. Yet he believes this is a blinkered question founded in racism – critics are unwilling to acknowledge that punk never went anywhere, but its spirit is now embodied by hip-hop, and phallic guitars have been replaced by dusty 808 drums.
“[Rock music] is stagnant, yet here we are in 2019 still clinging on to this old idea of what rock ‘n’ roll is. People get upset that the old attitude doesn’t exist anymore, but it’s right there in front of them: we’re the new rock stars”.
Mods Of Your Generation – Interview – British Actor – “The Original Daddy” & “King Of The Rockers” – John Blundell
MODS OF YOUR GENERATION·SATURDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2019John Blundell is a Britishactor, best known for playing ‘Daddy’ Pongo Banks in the controversial production Scum and its film adaptation.Blundell played Banks in both the banned 1977 BBC version and the cinematic remake of the production two years later. His character was the ‘daddy’ (i.e., the self-appointed head inmate via use of force, violence and intimidation) of the institution until he was overthrown in a bloody attack by Carlin, the lead character played by Ray Winstone. He also appeared in Quadrophenia as the Leader of the Rockers (again in a film with Ray Winstone). He is an absolute gentleman, Mods Of Your Generation wanted to find out more about his role in these two iconic films. Its a privilege to call him a friend and an honour to have him as a Mods Of your Generation follower.
What fond memories and amusing stories can you remember from the filming of Quadrophenia?
I spent three weeks in Brighton on the set. One of my fondest memories is that the whole cast stayed in the same hotel, and you could come down in the morning for breakfast, and hear the then unknown Sting, playing the piano, and Phil Daniels playing guitar, along with Toyah jamming, and at that time , being so young, just taking it all for granted.
Did you enjoy working with Phil Daniels and Ray Winston again after filming with them in Scum?
Ray, Phil and I had filmed the original Scum, 4 years earlier, which was a Play for Today for the BBC, and banned by Billy Cotton. We then went on to make the film SCUM, 6 weeks after QUADROPHENIA. In those days, we all hung about together, and all got on really well.
You played Pongo Banks in Scum & the leader of the rockers in Quadrophenia they have both become British cult classics. How does it feel to be part of these timeless iconic movies?
I have been very lucky and privileged to be part of both Scum and Quadrophenia. Obviously not knowing that up to date, they would have stood the test of time, and become iconic films.
How did you get into acting and was that something you always wanted to do growing up?
It was never my intention to become an Actor. However at 10 years old, my primary school drama teacher Anna Scher, started the Anna Scher Children’s Theatre, of which I was a Founder member, for Children who could not afford Stage School like Barbara Speake’s, Italia Conti etc. , charging us 50 pence a lesson, and free for the Children, who could not afford that. When word went around the film industry, that there was a Drama Club in Islington. The BBC came around along with the Children’s Film Foundation, to name but a few. So that is where it all began and took off.
What can you recall working with Quadrophenia director Franc Roddam?
Franc Roddam the Director of Quadrophenia, came to Ann Scher, to watch our group performing improvisation, on a class night. And that is where he saw Phil Daniels, Trevor Laird and myself. A few weeks later, Franc asked me and Actor Ray Burdis, to meet him at Pinewood Studios, to do some improvisation with a guy that he has found from a modelling advertisement, called Gordon Sumner. Afterwards Franc, asked us about our opinion about this guy, as he thought he would be great for the part of Ace Face. We said he looked unusual m. Little did we know that we had talked ourselves out of a part. A few later, this guy called Sting would hit no. 1, with his group the Police, and become a global Superstar. The rest was history.
I heard from a mutual friend that they were a few accidents riding the motorbikes in Quadrophenia. Can you tell me about some of the stories?
There was one big accident, involving myself and the rest of the Rockers, in the scene where we chased Chalky off the road. After the film crew cleared the lane, where we were filming, a farmer pulled out his lorry out onto the road, unbeknown to the film crew. So at 35 miles an hour, Gareth Milne, the Stunt man, who was to my far left, rode straight into the truck at full speed, which caused a domino effect, of all 30 Bikers crashing.I myself drove into a big bush, to protect myself and my Biker girl Linda Regan, who was riding pillion. Leaving the both of us with only sprains, but other with much more serious injuries. Hence Linda up till this day, still tells everyone that I saved her life, which is a really lovely thing to say. Franc to this day, still says he wishes he had kept the footage of the crash.
Where you a fan of The Who and had you listened to Quadrophenia before being cast in the movie of the same name?
I was not really a Fan of the Who, at that point, but after meeting Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend, I found them to be, down to earth and just a couple of the lads, who just happened to fly into Brighton beach by helicopter. Lol.
Apologises if this ruins your hard man reputation as the “King of The Rockers” and the original daddy but I heard you’re a northern soul fan. If this is true tell me about some of your favourite records and some of your other musical tastes?
Yes that’s right I do enjoy Northern Soul, for eg. listening to Legendary artists like Frank Wilson – Yvonne Baker- Tobi Legend. My taste is pretty varied, and I also like a lot of Rap Music. Snoop Dog, Dr Dre era. Giving away my age there.
What other acting roles have you been involved in that fans may not be aware of?
From my early years aged 10 I had done so much work, I cannot remember, as i never kept track. The only ones I can remember are on my IMDB. I also do so many Commercials that at one time, my Agent Anna Scher named me ‘’The Commercial King’’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgRnNx7J1mQ&feature=youtu.be
2019 marked the 40th anniversary of Quadrophenia, you were invited to join the celebrations at an event in Runcorn. How was it reuniting with some of the cast 40 years on and what was fans attending the events response to meeting the king of the rockers?
I have always over the years, bumped into the Quadrophenia boys, who attended Runcorn. And it is always as if we had only seen each other yesterday.As I was the only Rocker, at Runcorn, I was not sure, how I would be welcome by the Mods. But to my surprise, I was blown away by the love and respect, that was shown to me , by everyone who attended. I could not have asked for more. I would like to say a special thank you to Rob Wright, who organised the event, and took such good care of me and Mercina. We had not met before, but we are now friends.
What are your plans for the future and are you working on anything we can look forward to?
I enjoy writing Comedy scripts, simply as a hobby. But the best thing about being retired, is as you all know by now, for anyone who has read my Facebook page, is that I get to spend 24/7, with the love of my life Mercina.
In the late 70s, the city’s bands set out to create the sound of the future – while trying to avoid getting beaten up. Jarvis Cocker and other leading lights recall a revolutionary scene
Phil Oakey of the Human League performing in Sheffield in 1980. Photograph: Martin O’Neill/Redferns
‘Sheffield in 1977 had a slight feeling of being the city of the future,” recalls Jarvis Cocker. “I didn’t realise that it was all going to go to shit. It was Sheffield before the fall.”
That pre-fall year is the starting point for a new box set: Dreams to Fill the Vacuum: The Sound of Sheffield 1977-1988. Familiar names appear – Pulp, Heaven 17, the Human League, ABC – but they are joined by a wealth of other acts, such as I’m So Hollow, Stunt Kites, They Must Be Russians and Surface Mutants, spanning punk, post-punk, indie and electronic with that droll outsider energy particular to South Yorkshire.
In 1977, Paul Bower was producing a local fanzine, Gun Rubber, and playing in the Buzzcocks-indebted 2.3. Like Cocker, he recalls the late-70s as being a time of optimism and flux. “There’s this myth of northern miserablism, that everything was shut down and shit,” he says. “But it wasn’t – that came later. It was a really interesting, bustling and creative time.”
Sheffield had plenty of dirt-cheap “little mester” workshops, once used by master craftsmen working in the city’s cutlery industry, and these provided room for bands to move in and experiment. Bower’s band 2.3 shared a space with the Future, an early incarnation of the Human League that featured Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh along with Adi Newton before he formed Clock DVA. “We were enamoured with the New York scene,” says Ware. “In our own little way we were imitating the Exploding Plastic Inevitable.” Bower describes it as: “Andy Warhol’s Factory in the land of Bobby Knutt.”
The pioneering industrial and electronic outfit Cabaret Voltaire had been active since 1973. “They were the godfathers of Sheffield’s new music,” says Simon Hinkler, who played in bands such as TV Product and Artery, as well as producing early Pulp. “You can’t overstate how important they were.” Ware echoes this. “They were our mentors,” he recalls. “Their methodology and lifestyle was something we aspired to. Not so much musically, but as a template for doing your own thing.”
Cabaret Voltaire on stage in the late 70s: the band are credited with kickstarting the Sheffield scene. Photograph: Ray Stevenson/Rex/Shutterstock
Cabaret Voltaire took on Western Works, another old cutlery factory, as their studio. While Ware looked to New York for inspiration, Cabaret Voltaire’s Richard H Kirk was more interested in Germany. “Kraftwerk and Can had their own spaces,” Kirk says. “We thought that was the perfect model. You could be there 24/7 without having to worry about the clock or some idiot engineer not knowing what to do with you.”Advertisement
The Great Skinhead Reunion Brighton. first line up announcement, tickets available now
“The environmental influences were very strong,” says Jane Antcliff-Wilson of I’m So Hollow. “Industrial and austere – steeped in working-class history. Imagination and vision were left to run wild in this bleak landscape.”
By 1978, an explosive flurry of music was coming out of the city. “Punk was year zero and Sheffield really took that to heart,” says Cocker. “They said: ‘Right, we’ll invent the music of the future.’ The Cabs and the Human League really did do that.” It was enough for people to move to the city because of it. Jake Harries of the industrial punk-funk band Chakk was one. “This music didn’t sound like it came from anywhere else,” he recalls. “There was an otherness to it. Sheffield sounded like the place to be – it was electronic, strange and inspiring.”
Not everyone warmed to peculiar new sonic explorations such as Cabaret Voltaire’s heavily deconstructed cover of the Beatles’ She Loves You. “This guy stormed out and physically grabbed me,” says Bower. “He’s screaming: ‘You’ve got to stop them. It’s sacrilege, they are destroying the Beatles.’ I said: ‘Yeah, that’s the point.’” Kirk thrived on the friction. “We went out of our way to pour petrol on the fire,” he says. “We knew people had never heard anything like what we were doing. It was meant to be confrontational.”
The throbbing intensity of Artery’s live shows were as terrifying to some as they were thrilling to others; Clock DVA got banned from venues after their first gig; during one gig, I’m So Hollow were thrown off stage after just two songs. The debut Human League show went down surprisingly well, even if their new singer hadn’t mastered his role yet. “Midway through the gig, Phil Oakey walks off stage, straight through the audience with his high heels on,” remembers Bower. “Comes up to the sound desk and says: ‘How’s it going?’ I said: ‘Fine, Phil, but it’s traditional for the singer to stay on stage during the gig.’”
Because of the conflict that would arise at shows, the Human League began performing with a Perspex shield around them. “Paul Morley wrote it was some extemporisation around alienation in contemporary society,” recalls Ware. “No, it was to stop skinheads gobbing on the synthesisers.”
After the Human League split in two in 1980, one half went on to form Heaven 17. Photograph: Virginia Turbett/Redferns
Things got bleaker in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher, even if some of the music got shinier and major-label attention followed. After the Human League’s 1981 album, Dare, made the revamped band world famous, major labels flocked to the city “signing groups in a bid to cash in on the scene”, says Newton. “We [Clock DVA] signed with Polydor but I consider this a low point, because innovation became secondary to commerciality.”
While pop stardom visited many, it seemed to evade one person. “The 1981 John Peel session Pulp did convinced me that I was going to be a teen star,” says Cocker. “But the 80s were depressing. The city was falling apart and our first album sold virtually nothing. I was crestfallen.” Violence was also an inescapable part of going out during this period. “It was like Pac-Man,” says Cocker. “You had to pick your route and avoid the beer monsters. Violence, or the threat of it, was a constant thing.” One night he had a pint glass land on his head; on another he was beaten up for wearing a patent leather mac. “I put two fingers up at them thinking my bus was about to leave, but it wasn’t, so they just got on it and smacked me.”
However, when the city was in sharp decline and the musical buzz of the early 80s was wearing off, Chakk did something crucial: “We signed with MCA and had them agree that we could build a recording studio out of our advance,” says Harries. FON Studio (named after a piece of local graffiti that read Fuck Off Nazis) was the result. Located in an old karate studio above a metal works, countless bands from across the UK recorded there. Richard Hawley’s teenage group Treebound Story was one. Rob Gordon, who would later co-found Warp records, found himself producing indie bands there in 1986 via a Youth Training Scheme. “It was obvious he was a genius,” recalls Hawley. “We were just kids but he made us sound amazing. He even tolerated us dropping acid, taking all our clothes off, playing the bongos and making a racket.”Advertisement
Trojan Records Lgends of ska. The Pyramids – Symarip limited edition 7” Vinyl. click to buy. Available on Subcultz Records
“It was a brave thing to do,” Cocker says of FON. “Sheffield was not going anywhere and it showed solidarity. They could have just taken the money and scarpered.” It was a combination of pride and practicality, according to Harries. “We thought it was crazy Sheffield didn’t have a large recording studio considering how much great music it produced. Plus, the country was divided at the height of Thatcherism. We wanted to bring some money from London to where we lived.”
Jarvis Cocker of Pulp in 1991
FacebookTwitterPinterest Jarvis Cocker in 1991. Pulp formed in 1978 but had to wait till the early 90s before tasting success. Photograph: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images
Over at Western Works, Cabaret Voltaire’s new neighbour was a bagpipe-playing Scotsman who was building and selling nuclear fallout shelters. “There was a rising sense of fear,” recalls Kirk of the time, one no doubt intensified for the people of South Yorkshire, given it was the location for the harrowing 1984 nuclear apocalypse TV drama Threads.
Even as the socio-political climate grew gloomier, that original spark of autonomy and ambition remained alight, says Hawley. “Even with all the shit going on from those horrible fuckers, a lot of magical stuff happened. Beauty came out of some very difficult situations.” Ware links this mentality to the city’s history. “There is pride in craft in Sheffield that runs through everything – from cutlery to engineering. It’s in our blood.”
Not all bands could contain their steam. “Artery had an intensity that was up there with Joy Division,” says Cocker. “But they didn’t have a Factory Records or a Tony Wilson. They got stuck in Sheffield, got frustrated, got off their heads, and lost it.” 2.3 had a single out on Fast Product before the Human League or Gang of Four, but collapsed. “We were like the Commitments but worse,” Bower says, likening the group to the dysfunctional Irish band from Roddy Doyle’s novel. “By 1979, it was like: ‘Screw it.’”
But others did make it, of course. The days of Cocker and co dodging pint glasses have been replaced by city-wide adulation, an irony not lost on them. “One day, some people were chasing me and Jarv down the street to get our autographs,” Hawley says. “Jarvis turned to me and said: ‘It’s not that long ago since the same people were chasing us down the road trying to kill us.’”
• Dreams to Fill the Vacuum: The Sound of Sheffield 1977-1988 is out on Cherry Red
VFM, the organisers behind The Isle of Wight International Scooter Rally have announced today (read the press release below) that the August Bank Holiday rally will be relocating for 2020. The main hub of the rally has been at Smallbrook Stadium for the last two decades but the redevelopment of the site and the granting of planning permission for a new multi-million-pound ice rink (to replace the perfectly good existing one located right in the heart of Ryde town) at the site means it’s no longer able to cope with the size of the rally.
Sandown Airport
Isle Of White Scooter Rally main site moves
It’s a positive move though, the rally will be held at Sandown Airport, located just 1.2 miles out of the pretty seaside town. The huge grass field site boasts plenty of room for campers (and camper vans etc), hardstanding for the trade area, a cafe, an aircraft hanger (which will be utilised as a northern soul room), there will also be a marquee for the main evening entertainment and the site will also have the best washing and shower facilities brought in for the weekend.
Moving to that side of the island (it’s just 6 miles from Smallbrook) will also mean there’s more chance of getting B&B or hotel accommodation, as long as you get in quickly. Get on to Booking.com as soon as you’ve read this, there’s also a Premier Inn in Sandown. Coaches will be laid on so rally goers can explore this ‘new’ town and still get back to site, although it is within walking distance.
We’ll bring you more information as we get it but hopefully, this move will get people excited for August Bank Holiday once again. It may still be the same little island across The Solent but it’s a whole new place for most of us to explore.Click here for the latest on Booking.com
“The Eton Boys are undefiled/ The Bullingdon Boys, running wild”
Suggs and co. have a dig at Boris Johnson in the lyrics to their new song. CREDIT: Getty Images
Madness have released ‘Bullingdon Boys’, their first new song in three years – and it features lyrics aimed at Boris Johnson and his Eton cohorts – listen to it below.
The pioneering ska band’s snap release is a “barbed swipe at the charlatans, rotters and chancers at the top of the tree who have done their best to take the shine off 2019,” according to a press release.
Inspired by the fact that 19 of the 54 UK Prime Ministers have come from Eton, the new song takes aim at Johnson, who was educated at Eton College before going on to study at Oxford, and his peers with anti-Tory lyrics.
“The Eton boys are undefiled/ The Bullingdon Boys, running wild,” Suggs sings on the chorus. “And England slides into the mist/ No hope they’ll cease nor desist.”
Other lyrics include: “They’re making England Great Again/ But make way for the bagmen/ When everything’s been sold and bought/ We’ll soon be off the life support.”
The song’s artwork features what is assumed to be a group of Eton students donning a variety of masks, including Halloween villain Michael Myers and Porky Pig. It includes the tagline: “Don’t get bullied by the Bully Boys.”
Accompanied by a supercut video that features scenes from Clockwork Orange, the Batman TV series and The Riot Club, you can listen to ‘Bullingdon Boys’ below:
Madness Electric Ballroom 2019. Credit Symond Lawes
The Camden Town legends played the Electric Ballroom on November 17 – 40 years to the day since they launched the legendary Two Tone Tour at the very same venue. Tickets were just £2.50 (plus booking fees).
The revelation came from a new general election campaign video in which the Prime Minister is seen walking around the Conservative Party headquarters answering questions.
These are some badass girls! In an era when it might have been strange to see the woman in pants, their doing that while riding motorcycles! So inspiring in so many ways! These photos were taken in 1949 by Loomis Dean for LIFE magazine.
THESE fascinating pictures show a little-known youth tribe called Scooterboys, who roamed the country during the 80s and 90s.
The group was dubbed as “the lost tribe of British youth culture”, however tens of thousands of scooter riders insist they collectively rejected that label.
Scarborough sea-front in 1983 during the period when Scooterboy overtook Mod in numbersCredit: John Stevens / Carpet Bombing CultureThe classic ‘80s Scooterboy look was an MA1 flight jacket covered in rally patchesCredit: Greg Hollingdale-Cooper / Carpet Bombing Culture
Interesting pictures reveal the freedom Scooterboys had 30 to 40 years ago, showing rallies taking place in Hampshire and Dorset.
The photographs are featured in Scooterboys: The Lost Tribe book, created by Martin “Sticky” Round.
The book paints a picture of what the youth tribe experienced in their customised Vespa and Lambretta scooters as they set off on adventures each weekend.
The book mentions the shared experiences of riots, local hostility and police harassment, which built strong fraternal bonds that lasted a lifetime.
Scooterboys were members of a 1960s mod subculture, who rode motor scooters and wore anoraks, wide jeans, and boots.
One recent photograph shows crowds of scooterists in the Isle of Wight, while another takes you back to the 1970s and shows how the youth tribe compared to today.
Riders boarding the ferry after the riot at Isle of Wight 1986Credit: Piggsy / Carpet Bombing CultureIsle of Wight pictured in 1984 – probably Britain’s biggest ever rallyScooterboys chilling at Margate National Rally in 1990Credit: Dave Chapman / Carpet Bombing CultureScooters and Soul music have lived a conjoined existence since the 1960s, but intricately airbrushed photo-realistic murals are typically ScooterboyCredit: Carpet Bombing CultureBefore political correctness it was acceptable to ride a paint splattered chop called ‘Time of the Month’Credit: Nick Purser / Carpet Bombing CultureThe Great Skinhead Reunion Brighton June 5-6-7 2020. Hit the picture for tickets
Scooterboys loved highly tuned street-race scooters such as these DTC-painted Lambretta GPsCredit: Sticky / Carpet Bombing CultureAfter the 60s Mods came Skinheads, Suedeheads and Smoothies. In the early 70s the customising fashion was the accessorised Lambretta ‘skelly’Credit: Sticky / Carpet Bombing CultureSteve Maw’s Lambretta chopper ‘Illusion’ at Great Yarmouth in 1985Credit: Stuart Lanning / Carpet Bombing CultureScooterists from Hampshire and Dorset explore Girvan in ScotlandCredit: Nick Purser / Carpet Bombing CultureVespa cutdown ‘Little Rascal’ pictured at MorecambeCredit: Piggsy / Carpet Bombing CultureScooterists at the end of the Isle of Wight ride-out in 2012 respond to DJ Tony ClassCredit: Sticky / Carpet Bombing CultureClassic early-80s Scooterboy style in BrightonCredit: Mike Lovell / Carpet Bombing Culture
Symond And Nev Wycombe Skinheads 1981. Photo Credit Gavin WatsonWhen Scooterboys built radical projects it often meant use of an angle grinder and welderCredit: Carpet Bombing CultureCustom Lambretta named after the Jam record as Funeral PyreCredit: Nick Purser / Carpet Bombing CultureGetting stopped by the police was an occupational hazzardCredit: John Stevenson / Carpet Bombing CultureThe Alcoholic Rats all-girl scooter club at Great YarmouthCredit: Jo Jackson / Carpet Bombing CultureThe book’s cover, depicting a police check of riders attending Redcar National rally in 1985Credit: Carpet Bombing CultureIf you have photos and stories to tell or want to add to this, we would love to hear from you and add them to the site. Please email subcultz@gmail.com
Hello. I want to share with you my recollections and memories of the skinhead scene that I have always been a part of. At the moment I am recovering from falling off some scaffolding, so this has given me time to get to grips with modern technology and given me a chance to reflect for the first time on the subject of Skinhead culture and share with you some of the stories and memories of the past from like minded people which has been prompted by hearing the interview with Symond Lawes on the Brighton skinhead reunion recorded some time ago. I will start by telling you about myself. I’m a 50 year old skinhead and bricklayer now living in Wendover, Bucks. I grew up around the Camden Town/Somers Town area of London. When I was a kid, kicking a ball around at night, my mum always said: ‘Be home before the Mods come out!’
This was around 1969, she was referring to the lads, who would have been Mods, who had inherited the same patches outside the local pubs that their elder brothers hung around some years earlier.My parents still called them Mods, and I always thought of Mods as being the the elder statement of skinheads. These were previously the 7/6d’s, that have now come of age. We knew which families they came from, and who they were, and our families knew their families and so on. There were some real tough families in the area at that time. By this time the groups that my parents remembered were growing up, getting married, they were joining the Army and working for Her majesty ( GPO) or staying at one of her Hostels. (HMP Pentonville was near my home)The GPO tower was looming over us, like a calling card, it was a respectable career to aspire to and a lot of us did end up going to Mount Pleasant GPO, after being kicked out of school. But a further aspiration, was to join the local gang. I was way to young for this at the time but I would look out of my bedroom window, with envy watching this group, evolve from 1968 onwards. I will never forget the sound of the the light buzzing of scooters as the gang rode their inheritance from their older brothers. They were a group of lads who had this tough but smart look about them, They wore mostly denim jackets, with Crombies ¾ length coats, boots and braces. The gals didn’t have the skinhead feathered hair cuts, like they did later. Some of them looked a bit like the Toyah Wilcox character in Quadrophenia. Most of the girls had Crombies but looked feminine but they still looked like Sixties Mod girls, with kilt type minis, they wore their hair in a shoulder length style that hinted at skinhead look. It was a bit like a flat mullet, with a fringe, that looked like it had been cut around a saucer template. You always looked out for “Names” on the skinhead scene. “Names” who were hard enough to have been kicked out of the local boxing gyms. The word got out amongst the scene. They were always tough Jamaican offspring kids, and they were ALWAYS part of the group. These kids where always in the mix, as some of the top boys, but in many ways smarter. “wiv the threads” a right proper mixed bunch who always fought and hung around together, Skinheads or mods, peanuts, however they were, they were the was the only group you would ever see with blacks kids.
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson’s Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Somers Town like this:
SOMERS-TOWN, a chapelry and a sub-district in St. Pancras parish and district, Middlesex. The chapelry is a compact portion of the metropolis; lies between New Road, the Regent’s canal, and the Great Western railway, 2 miles NW of St. Paul’s; occupies ground which was mainly unedificed so late as 1780; and has a post-office‡ under London NW, and an S.-Police station. Pop., about 14,500. The living is a p. curacy in the diocese of London. Value, £300. Patron, the Vicar of St. Pancras. The church was built after designs by Inwood, at a cost of £14,291.—The sub-district extends beyond the chapelry, and comprises 184 acres. Pop. in 1851, 35,641; in 1861, 39,099. Houses, 3,907.
Some of the lads dressed smarter then the others, the way they dressed reminded me of the slick character in the 70’s TV show “Please Sir” some of the black lads had the Tennis Fred Perry shirts, and braces with “Peyton Place jackets. My mum wanted to see me dress like that, as she fancied the film actor Ryan O’ Neil. She seem eager to see me in one of those outfits, more then any other form of attire. Later on most of the Jamaican kids were smartly dressed in tonics and loafers especially on music nights and at that time they had the same inner London accents as most of them had come over in the 1950’s when they was babies and a few of the younger lads was born in the UCH the same as me. On youth club nights I would hear the sound of the club in the Cumberland Market down in NW1. This was mixed with the turn out of the dads and older lads coming out of the Kings Head opposite my house. At the time I didn’t know what the stuff they were playing was, but it had such a infectious bounce to it, and it echoed all around my room at night. I used to tuck my head under my eiderdown. I felt so spellbound by the rhythms and beats. So much so, that I would wake up with it almost resonating like an exact recording in my head the next morning.
This would stay with me for life. Later on I discovered exactly what it was and that it was the ska/rocksteady music. The ska would be played at the early part of the night just as it was getting dark, and the sound would be taken down a level later in the evening with the Rocksteady beat. At the time I was too young to get involved and my nearest encounter of rubbing shoulders with this crowd, was seeing these older kids break away from the group and go on the march to Highbury, on Saturdays. The older lot headed for the boozers and then the North Bank, while we went to the West Stand with my dad,and my mates who all had older brothers in the ranks so with that and the fact that there parents knew mine and who’s boy I was! As I got older, I would go around me mates gaffs, a lot of their elders had left home to start families. It was almost the unwritten law at that time, that the elder brothers room should remain untouched, and that included record collections. For me, at the time that was heaven. I understood that ska was the main stay amongst Skinhead record collections, although a lot of skinheads at the time, did listen to other stuff apart from reggae there was a popular local band called “The Action” that locals still followed also nearly everyone of them had “Who” and “Small Faces” poster or disc, and also would you believe: “A Kind Of Blue” by Miles Davis. which his brother always called his “Shagging music.”
Madness have become the most successful band to have come out of the Skinhead Subculture, From Camden Town, inspiring a Ska movement worldwide
I thought it was a kind of dance at the time and I remember being glad to see those records and posters as it kind of blessed what I thought was a guilty secret of mine, my love of “The Who.” In a way it wasn’t that strange, as we all gravitate to a kind of group or music that attracts us and that was the whole Mod ancestry! It wasn’t quite the mainstream but it was heavy enough to be called Geezers music but it never crossed over to hippiedom which I always thought of as being “THEM” the group you never want to be with. I inherited a hatred of them, not so much the music coz there was a lot of “Blues” which I always loved, and that’s when I started to get more knowledgeable about this kind of music, as I knew that it was the root of ska, a Jamaican take on the blues that they had heard from the Southern states. So this also gave it a blessing to like “The Blues” as well.
My dislike for hippies came from the fact that they all seem to talk posh and they always seemed to be moaning in middle class accents and I despised those military wing greasers.The music consisted of “geezer rock” or white English men who played “Soul” and “Blues” that came out of “Rock” getting it slightly wrong. This was a style that developed by mistake. This clashing together of styles seem to repeat itself later on with Punk which I embraced quickly as soon as I was old enough to welcome it all but I had always being a Skinhead or Suede head since the time I tried to dress like guys from 1968 and 1969.
I have never been anything else as my age stopped me being a Mod. Then Punk came along and there was no way I was going to wear flares and attend concerts with the hairy ones on ice at Wembley!!! I’m pleased to say, that I have lived my life as a skinhead, and never succumbed to wearing flares no matter how out of step I was with the early to mid 70s. I would also like to touch on something that Skinhead/Suede head discussions seem to overlook, This is when I started to hang around music venues the remainder of Skinheads from early days to the early mid 70s suede heads, were influenced by “Glam Rock” although it was from the less feminine side such as Mott the Hoople and Steve Harley. There seem to be the pre- punk, side which was full of the skinhead types, and that was “Pub Rock”. There were so many of us in our group, we would make our way up to Tally Ho boozer in the north end Kentish town, to see the bands that played there, that included all of us and those who were old enough to get in “legit”.
We were all part of the old gang of would be skins. This time more of them were wearing DMs, and crombies, with either a No2 or slightly grown out suede head haircuts. This was still the family “Skin” very much so, and this was the heavier aggressive sound that was for working class inner Londoners, or any other cities youth. We could relate to it.. it was our Generations “The Who.” I sounded out all of these bands, pre-punk even trying to get down to that London in Essex hotspot which was Southend. I thought Dr Feelgood were fucking magic. My mates started to hunt through those record collections to find stuff like it and in hindsight we enjoyed Kersal Flyers Brinsly Shultz etc….. I loved all that stuff. By then of course we’d turn up trying to get in to gigs (I was still too young by the way) to any gigs that we thought was of that ilk, but once we got to them and heard them there was something more unhinged about some of those bands: “London SS” and the “101ers” need I say more that was my introduction into punk and then for a year or two I indulged my self into it. I met up with mates all over London, that I knew from Boxing Gyms by way of boxing, regular trips down to the Bridgehouse, when it was in Barking Road also it was only a short walk down to the “Roxy” it was close to us and we used to just to hang out there. We Heard that “Dee Generate” out of “Eater”, was our age so we thought: “Let’s ave some of that.!” Some of the punks were a bit creepy, and a bit too arty, for my liking, but I went with it. There was some crumpet, but the girls were all weird wiv suspenders and stuff, and their knockers were sticking out of bin liners! This was great for a kid my age, especially the at the “Roxy” the mighty Menace at “The grope and wank her” (Hope and Anchor yes we used to think it was funny!!!!!!) We would chat to Charlie Harper at the George Roby,there was this lesbian down the west end. We used to go and hang around with her with an added idea I was gonna cop an eyeful, but that turned out to be the only place a lot of bands were able to play, thanks to the then Tory run GLC so although I did do a lot of growing up in experiencing ways of female flesh. It wasn’t the lesbo orgy I was expecting. I will like to add, that at times we could feel a change happening, felt a ruck coming on, there were more swastikas, appearing with some of the punks. My jeans were scruffier but I still wore my black “Peyton Place” jacket and me Fred Perry tennis shirt we used to call em, not polos, they was well cheap then down Petticoat lane or Roman road. I always wore me DMs, and my hair was a bit above No2, I was a punk, but I always stayed a skinhead,too so the Swastika was a symbol that we despised. We grew up with parents and grandparents that had experienced it.
Half the streets were still corrugated fenced up, from Bomb sites, back in the days of me observing original skins I used to read read battle picture library and War picture library, those booklets, you know the kind of thing I mean. I used to have dreams of single handedly wiping out Nazis. I used to go to bed thinking that there was an army of rapist, Nazis hippies and coppers, and Narkie Grasses. and how I can dispose if them.It also was a symbol of The Grease, another reason why we hated them, because of their treachery of wearing what Nazis wore. although we hated “The Filth” and any establishment figure,, we were still working class British people and we was not that rebellious. So I resisted wearing that stuff but we was always up for a ruck people tend to think or want to believe it was the far left that was bovver boys when it was the opposite. I hate politics in music or subcults ,that’s why I don’t hold wiv no S H A R P stuff, but I will say this, we never saw a Tory never mind supported them.
Everyone came from Labour voting working class families,, so we knew what we wasn’t, but never dwelt on what we were or what we were going to be. I hated politics and what’s great about being a skinhead then and at now my age is that it’s like being in stir “You don’t ask questions.” The nonces will be found out and dealt with at some point, and a skinhead gathering is the same for anyone on both sides. Both far extremes will feel marginalised eventually and this it started out as a youth sub culture, and we have taken it with us. It’s what you feel, being a skinhead is all about, and it is what brings us together. As it’s the furthest thing away from being a 14 to 15 year old Mod. Skinhead, Rude Boy in the 1960s, suede head 1970s is politics. Thats what your mum and dad talk about, and as I still haven’t grown up nor do I want to I am a old but proud pathetic old git, and I won’t never change! Going back to attitude. Well, We did speak in a way that isn’t talked now, but even your hard line trade union lefty activist would be slaughtered by the speak Gestapo now!!! it was another time, there was paki – bashing by gangs of mixed black and white youths especially after the arrival of Ugandan Asians not because of colour but because they were new and strange and our ignorance wasnt enlightened by the lack of integration and not willing to embrace, the culture,, unlike the Irish around our way which was a massive wave of families and for young people the West Indians shared there fashion and music it was ignorance and for us, the it was an overwhelmingly important pastime of fighting. This could be amongst any inner city youth Asians were just another group to ruck with, nothing more or less, as far we were concerned! As a group, privately who knows or cares what your views was away from the the lads was,, there was and there wasnt, least among us anyway and especially skinheads who were the hardest lot of the roughest manors, but I am sure Teds, Rockers, fuck even some working class hippies that went along for the trip as it were spoke like that,or picked on someone or something they didn’t understand that they felt weary of amongst not just kids but everyone at that time.
Most skinheads got a bashing from other skinheads most people amongst us was working class, and most of them were skinheads, or related to skinheads. I recall skinhead battles tales amongst the groups , and later on, about area gangs, they didn’t think in terms of London boroughs, just London areas and it was all very Territorial, for example there was Somers town, were I was, Kentish town, Upper Holloway Archway,Clarkenwell ,Shorditch/Hoxton/ Dalton, Queens Crescent, Camden town, then going eastwards there was Stoke Newington, Clapton and then the East End, Bethnal Green, Mile end , Wapping, Stepney, go further east and you get Canning Town, or West Hammersmith, Chelsea Fulham and Shepherds Bush.
Or you might know guys from these areas from work in the centre or boxing club circuit, or gigs, and you would talk and have a laugh but if you were meeting for a ruck then you be knocking shit out of each other if they were representing the area, and further to that, you might have a West Ham or Chelsea supporter in your local gang who would fight with you if you were called out by another manors lot but as they were mostly Arsenal around our way any friendship went at for that fixture. same goes for an Arsenal supporter from Fulham he’d be rucking his mates at football and come Saturday you looked at the scarf not the person that’s what how mad it was I have been told about it from older skinheads that I used to admire when I was looking at them from my bedroom window, fuck some of these guys are in there 70s now.
It was slightly different when I turned the age to shag and ruck but not that far off, but you get me gist !!! so I think Asians at the time got more of ribbing then a hiding it was other groups but most people would unite if they saw greasers setting on a skinhead or what you deemed as one of your ownAs for the Hambourgh tavern I’ve got my own views on that I was there although not for long we couldn’t get to it, but I remember feeling so fucking angry, to see skins that look like they were on the side of the the filth again it was whipped up by both right and left, press and lay politicians and more so the music press who hated the thought of working class council kids being a force, I don’t blame the Asians, they were young fuel filled lads protecting their area or what was force fed to them,they were young like us and was up for a ruck, like any group of whipped up teenage lads, we wanted to go down here or there and make some working class noise and have a few pints. I’m not a conspiracy weirdo, but there was so many reasons why the fucked up middle class left, the fucked up Nazi right wing plus the broadcast media and music press caused that, as the latter didn’t like something that was based around youth led pastime angst and they didn’t like something that they didn’t make or break because it was real and not manufactured, it was something that we could enjoy and dictate what happened with it. It served our purpose, it gave birth to the boneheads that have soiled a working class culture and ruined the fledgling stages of young rock n roll bands,And took away a good deal of their income at a time when they should of been making it good. We could enjoy a good few years of live working class punk rock, seeing as it was taken away from its own manufacturers and given to people who could enjoy it it started going down hill after the Clash signed to CBS it was salvaged and put to good use but the press wanted it dead. These days we can relax with it as our first love and enjoy the Ska and rocksteady that we adopted, and still love, through our own choice as Middle Aged skinheads, that the music press didn’t intend us to love and there’s fuck all they can do about it!!! I’ve got through a whole pack of 20 smokes, in the time it’s taken to do this, didn’t realise the time, that’s more then i get through in three days, but I have enjoyed sharing this with you all…. as you can tell I can go on for ever about this…
Those days were right proper heady,, faces were on stage,in bands that you knew from seeing them around the chippy/ newsagent in tobert street,,or the youth club, and you know faces from school ,, punk , Arsenal ,especially (Arsenal/Highbury grove ) school , most of the locals around our way went to William Collins ,, I was expelled from secondary schools,, St George’s in St. John’s wood, Highbury grove, ect , only two weeks at William Collins, I was used to seeing loads of local faces being on telly,, in bands, you took it for granted,(Pauline’s people then Grange Hill) 70s corona drink ads,ect ,, i stopped noticing,, people from Anna Scher and all that!!! and so on,,but I know who your talking about now ,Low Numbers, they were in the Dublin castle,,i recall ,seen em with Madness,( or invaders, cant remember what stage they were at, the time) loads of us started bands, we loosely played,,,,but nothing proper,,, some bands went further then others,,we were called THE St Pancres Chronical after the local Rag, but we were shit,,, I played guitar but every time I picked i it up , I just ended up playing Blues,,,bending notes,,,and sounding to much like Heavy Rock?,, I was fine with it, but it pissed the rest off,,,so we decided to stick to being in the crowd watching/ listening, ,,coz I knew people from other schools in other manors , we kind of broke away from Cumberland market faces , except for four mates in Robert st,,,and The Crown Flats,local people became just another face ,,you recognised ,and the families they came from,,, and who your dad and grandad drank with, ,There was a local crooner type who went of to the Army,,, geezer called Gary Driscoll,, he was the first local I knew off, that was dragged up there!! To get noted,, ,my ole man used to be mates with the landlord,of the Dublin castle ,then a Irish fella called Barney Finley,,I was. Mates with his boy Raymond,, they passed it on to the present family,,in the late 60s ,we used to run about in there after lock up, two o clock on Sunday afternoons, coz we’d often go to av sunday dinner with them!!so it was only right I would later make that me local,, so i witnessed the start of all that too,,was lucky Spose living between West End and Camden Town, ,,I was able to get into clubs in soho,,in the late 70s coz me dad knew all the faces and names ,Jimmy and Rusty Humphreys ect,, that’s why I was able to hang about the latest clubs, being younger,me dad ran an electrical repair /retail shop ,,in Berwick street,called Friel and Francis ,with me uncle Bob (pic,on the front of oasis album), would you believe,, the first parking metre in Westminster was unveiled outside the shop,and a young spiv that hung about in and out was Alan Suger came down parked his van with hilivery A .M .S .TRADING,,marked on the side,coz he knew the press would be snapping, me dad used to sell his car Ariels,(cute ,, got to love that) anyway they used to rig up the sound in Ronnie Scott’s, I used to bunk of whatever school I was in ,to work on Berwick street market,,, ,we used wheel the sack barras to pick up the veg and stuff from around what was to become the Roxy before the fruit and veg moved across the river,, John Holt used to have something to do with it , I remember , it was converted from that,,,so that’s why I familiar to it to hang around there,,later,,, coz I was a cocky little shit, and coz Eaters drummer was from the sticks and was our age , we dint want him to out do us ,to be part of it all.. , i knew Id be looked after,,by someone that would be to hand,,if it got to heavy we could UP any older punk that snarled at our presence,,when they did, we was quick to take of our young punk head , and say “we ain’t fucking punks were skinheads”,,,you tossers,,, although we were at the time,,, lot of the older punks were from the sticks,, so when we got snarled at ,, we’d give it our “( we’re from here,you ain’t and you don’t know what’s around the corner on the way out ,) ,,the other local connection was my grandads drinking buddy ,who liked drinking with riff raff,was Constance Lambert, he used to live up Park Village East and come down to The Victory ,in Albany St ,he used to drink like a gooden apparently , corse he pegged it before I or the The Who was born,so he dint see his sons success ,!
‘Skinheads & Cherry Reds’, Gerry Stimson, Rolling Stone, July 26 1969, pp. 22-23
This is from the UK edition of Rolling Stone, the American music paper. There are plenty of misspellings and typos, these are from the original. There’s also some racism expressed.
They are the people you may see on the fringe of things, at free concerts shouting out for their favourite football team when everyone else wants to listen to the music, hanging around outside of the Roundhouse trying to annoy people with long hair, or you may see them just hanging around on the street. They are the kids who have short cropped hair, wear boots and levis with braces. They don’t really have a name as such, outsiders call them crop-heads, prickle heads, bullet-heads, spike-heads, thin-heads, bother boys, or agro boys. The lack of a name is strange, for most groups of people with an image of their own eventually get a name, Mods, Rockers, Hippies, Heads. ‘We are not mods really. Some people call us Mohair Men because we wear suits at the weekend, mohair men waiting for the agro. We’re just sort of stylists really because we keep in with the styles.’ The thing that they are known by is the gang and the area they come from. Like Mile-end, the Highbury, the Angel. The gang will have a hardcore of members with the rest of the bullet heads in that area supporting this gang against gangs from other areas. ‘There’s about 30 of us here from the Town (Summerstown), you know, King’s Cross and all of them areas. If we ever got into trouble, the geezer’s down there’d back us up; like there was 120 over the Hampstead Fair, geezer’s we knew, and everyone would back us up if we was in trouble.’ Trouble is the key activity of the gangs. Known as a ‘bit of agro’ – a bit of aggravation. Trouble can start at some event such as a football match, a free concert ‘like up Parly Hill’ or at just about any other time. At the Hampstead Fair ‘all the rival gangs, they all meet up there. Holloway, Highbury, and all them mob, like, and they all stick together, they’re all one mob and we’re the other mob.’ Trouble starts in several ways. It may be planned days ahead over some rivalry between two gangs, or it may just break out over some small incident. ‘You just see a face you don’t like. You know, I mean we get a bit of aggravation with the guys up there. All you hear all the time is the Holloway’s looking for you, the Highbury’s looking for you: and everytime we go there and pull someone about it and say ‘what’s all this trouble with the Town?’, no-one knows nothing about it. So every now and again, like, when people say ‘we hear the little Holloway turned you over’ we can’t have that like, so we have to go up there and turn them over.’ Each gang seems perpetually on the alert for some trouble. Sometimes months will go by without a fight, then suddenly there’ll be a fight every night. ‘We are friends with no-one, no joke. There was a time when we couldn’t go out of our area like unless we were thirty handed. We fucking hit every crew from right round here, up that way St. John’s Wood, The Edgeware Road, Tufnell Park, Archway, Burnt Oak, Mile-end, Kilburn, Holloway, Highbury, just sort of everywhere. We just sort of, about eighteen months ago, went made didn’t we, for about three weeks, getting into fights and whacking crews. We whacked someone from nearly everyone of them areas and they was all after us. There was a lot of agro then.’ That was the time when someone in a car came after the Town with a shotgun. There was some uncertainty as to whether it was a shotgun or an airgun, and if it was a shotgun, whether it had real or blank cartridges. ‘The guy with the gun thought we’d all run like and hide but he came a bit unstuck ‘cos we didn’t. We stood there and fucking waited for it. We he can only shoot two of you can’t he.’ The outcome was that they threw dustbins under the car making it skid up the pavement into a brick wall, then threw bottles. ‘The geezer with the gun, got knocked out, and they says they’d never come down no more, cause they’re all made down that Town.’ Some of the action is centred around football, for most of the gangs support some team. But little of the fighting is with other supporters of London teams; instead it is with supporters of teams from the North and Midlands. The Shed boys are those who support Chelsea (see the slogan ‘Shed’ painted on the walls) who watch the match from the Shed, one of the stands on the ground. Any who is not a Shed boy goes into the Shed is liable to get a kicking. Some of the fighting with other supporters takes part after the match, like at Euston when after a match you can see the crowds of bullet heads roaming in the streets nearby. Other things may follow the match, like kicking in shop windows and taking the cigarettes, or the time a crowd went up to Parliament Hill after a match and threw bottles at the Fleetwood Mac. The clothes and the walk all fit in with the hard image. The usual gear is levis worn short with braces, tee-shirts, v-necked sweaters or cardigans in blue, khaki, brown, mustard or green. An innovation is the v-necked short sleeved sweater that doesn’t quite reach the waist so there is a hint of braces. Sometimes there are tattoos and sometimes gold signet rings worn two or three at a time. The cropped hair started coming in about three years ago and is probably copied from the spade haircut. And then there are the boots, the most important part of the gear. There are different types of boots and the styles change just as they do with shoes. Members of one gang tend to buy the same kind of boots. The boots probably arrived because a lot of bullet heads were wearing them for work, along with levis, and they’d come home from work in these clothes and what’s the point of changing if you are only going to stand round on the street corner. Then a style developed. ‘Like me, I didn’t start wearing them, we not really, because I thought, well I couldn’t half land a good kick with them, I bought them because everyone else did.’ The boots are one of the symbols of the hard image, and of course are very useful for fighting with. If you go out in your boots you are wearing a very handy weapon that is not so obviously a weapon like a knife. Even when the gang gets dressed up in their mohair suits on a Saturday night the boots are still worn, but then they will be highly polished. The trousers of the suits are worn short like the levis in order to leave room for the boots. The boots are different colours and the favourite ones change over time. When it first started everyone was wearing tuf boots, Big T with the rubber sole, ‘then these boots came out, they call them Cherry Boots, Cherry Reds, with a toe cap like and sort of yellow trimmings. Then the black ones of these, then Monkey Boots which lace all the way up, and then Doctor Martins came out. Now there’s some new ones, with high backs, they’re just called Stompers, big steel toecap and everthing. The walk too expresses the toughness. Its a sort of bouncy swagger with the shoulders spread broad. Its a ‘here I come stand out of the way’ walk. When there’s a group going somewhere walking is done in a long crocodile in single file, all hunching along behind the guy in front. Most of the time seems to be spent waiting for something to happen, a bit of aggravation or a ‘caper’. During the week there is little else to do but hang about on the street, in cafes or Youth Clubs (if they haven’t been barred). Usually its the case that a few members of the gang have been barred from a club and so the rest don’t go because they don’t want to split up. The weekend is when it all happens. Those that are working have money and so maybe there is drinking or dancing at clubs. Clubs are not so popular as they used to be a year or so back. Then it was the Tiles and the Scene and other clubs round Wardour Street. A few now may make it down to Birdland. The weekend may also be the time for a caper down to the coast, Southend, Clacton or Brighton. Sundays it may be the Lido for swimming and a film in the evening if there is something on that they fancy, like a cowboy. Clint Eastwood goes down big. Strangely so did The Graduate. Tough films are liked best. Sometimes there are parties when peoples parents are away. Drinking mainly and the occasional smoke or pills. The thing is that most do not have money to do much, especially during the week. If you’ve got a job and you’re not drawing just your £2 10s. 0d., from the Youth Employment the wage is likely to be around £10 or £15 a week, in labouring, apprenticeships and unskilled jobs. It is like they are in between everything. Not long out of school with a bit of money but not enough to go drinking in the pub every night, and in any case there is the age problem in pubs for most are between 15 and 17. To young and not enough money to buy cars or scooters. Sometimes someone will have a firm’s van which will be used to bomb off to the coast at the week-end. Too old to get much out of youth clubs. The girls they grew up with are now going out with older guys and only a few of the gang have girls. In some gangs girls are important. Squabbles over another gang’s girls may be a source of aggravation. But with other gangs girls are conspicuously absent and if some gets a girl he spends more time away from gang activities. So the excitement comes from the action. But even that is avoided by some who can’t afford any more nickings. ‘Like that’s why we don’t go down the coast at the holidays no more. We’ve got too many up against us as it is. If you’ve got a lot of previous you’re doomed you are. If a copper gets hold of you and he recognises that you come from the Town you’re doomed to a fucking good hiding before you ever get near that nick.’ Like other groups there is the feeling that you get caught for the wrong things. That the bust is always the phoney one when you are not guilty. ‘We used to be really fighting all the time and they could never get any of us. Then they really started coming down, nicking you for just being there. Then a lot of it died down cause we gave a couple of them a good hiding. These two blokes came at us so we went at them, then one starts shouting that he was a police officer. It was too late then.’ The arrests are for insulting behaviour or assault. ‘I got one for using an offensive weapon. I got a good hiding off all these students and I got a nickering for it. I threw a bottle at them when they run. One of the geezer’s got his nose cut off.’
The Great Skinhead Reunion Brighton
As well as the gang fights there are fights between just two people. In a team fight between gangs anything goes but if two people fight and it looks fair they are left to it. ‘You get one geezer fighting another geezer, it’s a straightener like, he might be looking for so and so and he might go up and say ‘right you, a straightener, then we leave ‘em alone.’ Some of the gangs like the Highbury and the Angel have leaders but many of the smaller gangs have different leaders for different activities. Some people are listened to more if an event is planned. Someone will organise something ‘like going to Southend for the weekend or a crew going out and whacking someone.’ Then of course there are those that are the best fighters. ‘There are fighters and then there are cranks, madmen. Like Tony. Everytime we have a fight some cunt he just wants to stomp them into the ground. He goes mad and starts shouting ‘Stomp Stomp’. You know that cunt what was on the floor at Ally Pally. Tony had this huge broom pole and was stomping him for five minutes. ‘We had a bit of agro up there like.’ There are other targets as well as rival gangs. The targets are other easily identifiable groups such as students, Pakistanis and Greeks. Weirdos and students they cannot understand. ‘What I hate about weirdos is that the majority of them is students. We’re paying for them to go to their colleges to get educated so they can help us run the country, it may not be my taxes but everyone contributes like, if it weren’t for them your tax would go down even if it was just a penny. Then those fucking peace demonstrations. The’re all shouting about fucking love and peace and that then they go down Grosvenor Square smashing windows and we get a bill from the Americans; we fucking owe them enough dough as it is.’ The feeling is that if weirdos want to dress strangely and be dirty ‘they’re right states they are, right two and eights’ then they are entitled to get done over. One way to get a weirdo is to jump him if he does not move off the pavement out of the way of the gang, or to wait in the entrance tunnels of the tube and to rush at him and jostle him. Sometimes landing a few kicks. ‘Weirdos is no fun to jump though because they don’t fight back, they just curl up while you kick them.’ Weirdos are also hated because they are friends with foreigners – Bubbles (Bubble and squeaks – Greeks) and ‘them Black Irishmen from the north – Pakkis.’ ‘We can’t stand the Pakki’s – we all went down Drummond Street one night, down the road that is, like its all infested with Pakkis. About fifty of us went down fucking putting bottles through their restaurants and that was a good laugh that was. It got in all the papers, how the Pakkis were asking the police if they could arm themselves and form vigilante groups.’ And of course the Irish. ‘I don’t know why we don’t fucking give them back Ireland if they give us back Camden Town.’ Strangely they don’t dislike West Indians. It might be because they dig the West Indian Music and dance their dances. Double D – Desmond Decker, Arthur Connely, Roland Owl, Otis Redding, The Ethiopians, The Skatallites, Buster, The Untouchables, and Max Romeo. Sometimes a bit of bubble gum creeps in but mostly its Blue Beat, Ska, Rock-Steady and Reggae music. The Blacks are admired by the gangs. ‘Like they were the first with the short hair. They’re alright the Rude boys. Rudies hang out with Rudies mostly, and with white girls, and Black fight Blacks and Whites fight Whites and that’s it.’
Despite its reputation as Hog heaven, the birthplace of Easy Rider and the whole Hells Angels bike club thing America has always had quite a healthy scooter scene. Believe it or not Harley Davidson even produced their own range of scooters in the 1960s.
Here we zip back to around 1960 and join the San Francisco based Pioneer Scooter Club on what is described as a Motor Scooter Squabble. To our eyes it looks just like a Sunday ride out so maybe our American readers can put us straight as to whether the word squabble is commonly used to describe a gathering. Interestingly enough when researching this we found that squabble is the collective noun for a gang of midgets. You live and learn!
So take a look back at some lovely Vespas, Lambrettas and slightly more exotic brands that found their way across the Atlantic back in the late 1950s. Now what would the collective noun for a bunch of scooter riders be?
Another example of how the media will always try to insinuate that all Skinheads are braindead, and Neo Nazi. surely after all these years they would finally print some truth.
Well Bootboys began in April after finishing with my previous band (the bandio). I searched everywhere a guitarist until I found Chuleta members of a psychobilly band. He supported my project to make oi! British,we started writing songs with electronic drums because in my city is very difficult to find a good drummer .Then a friend joined us, helping in the chorus and keeps us in the band supporting at all times. After we made our first demo called “my beers, my fights” in a small study because in my city is very high the cost of a professional recording studio. After a while we recorded our first video clip, there were many problems recording the video: infighting at the time, By the way we do feel proud to be the first skinhead band in Chile recording a video clip (“beers everywhere”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yf0qggsTUI). After that we played in our city and then in the capital of my country. Until that moment the guitar and bass was recording by Chuletabut finally we found a bassist from another city called Karlos, and today we are joined by a drummer named Bryan who is from the capital.. Now we have the second demo called “kings of the streets” and soon will record our second video “skinhead rock” and new Bootboys’s proyects.greetings from chile!
buenos bootboys comienza en el mes de abril despues de aver terminado con mi reciente banda (the bandio)busco a un guitarrista por todos lados hasta que encuentro a chuleta ex intregrante de una banda psychobilly que apoya mi proyecto de realizar oi! britanico empezamos a crear temas con bateria electronica.porque en mi ciudad muy dificil de encontrar un baterista decente, en los ensayos llega un amigo nuestro que nos ayuda en los coros y se queda con nostros en la banda apoyando en todo momento, despues realizamos nuestro primer demo llamado” mis cervezas ,mis peleas” donde el chuleta graba guitarra y bajo en un estudio pequeño porque en mi ciudad es muy alto el costo de un estudio de grabacion profesional.despues de un tiempo grabamos nuestro primer video clip donde hubo muchos problemas al grabar el video por peleas internas en el momento ,nose sentimos orgullos en ser la primera banda skinhead de chile en grabar un video clip(cervezas por todas partes)despues de eso logramos tocar en nuestra ciudad y en la capital de mi pais ,y se nos une una bajista de otra ciudad llamado karlos ,con el realizamos el segundo demo llamado “reyes de las calles” y hoy en dia se nos une un baterista llamado bryan que es de santiago y pronto grabaremos nuestro segundo video “rock skinhead” y nuevos proyectos con bootboys.saludos desde chile!
Established in 2011 The Great Skinhead Reunion Brighton was designed to bring Skinhead back home to where it was born in the 1960´s When the Mods and Rockers came to Brighton and hit the headlines, establishing their own youth culture. From those early Mods came the Skinheads, who embraced the new music coming in from Jamaica known as Ska. The Jamaican immigrants to the UK mixing with British working class kids with style and attitude, to form a new youth culture.
The second wave of Skinhead began to build in the mid 70´s with the birth of Punk Rock in 76, this time musically the Skinheads adopting the Punk rock sound and aggro of the football terraces, Working class bands forming and putting out their own angry antisocial messages in music, frightening the media into a frenzy of misinformation, who promoted the image of hyper violent bootboys and girls on the loose. This was a time of major political unrest in the UK and extremist groups tried to recruit within working class culture, often targeting Skinheads and football supporters, in the hope of win one, win them all pack mentality.
By 79 The skinheads were on the fightback and in London with bands like Madness and Badmanners, linked with British Midlands such as Coventry bands The Specials. The Selector and The Beat and created the 2tone label, which firmly mixed black and white youth together against this media onslaught.
In 1981 came the next wave. Oi! music was unleashed by Sounds magazine, bringing back the angry streetpunk energy and protest into the Skinhead subculture, once again giving the media and movie makers something to chew on.
Over the years the pendulum swung back and forth, but against all the odds Skinhead in its genuine form found its way across the world, connecting the Working class of Britain with mainland Europe, during the cold war even into communist Eastern block, then across to USA, South America, and in modern times, Indonesia to pretty much every westernised nation.
At the Great Skinhead Reunion Brighton you will find the most genuine, real and very friendly welcoming event in Skinhead history. Real people who have lived the life, mixing with new faces just coming in. We actively search for new acts to showcase and tour. We reunite old bands and give them a stage to play, we encourage scene DJ´s from across the worldwide scene, to play and network. Together all of us taking the scene forward, learning from previous mistakes, without selling out our principals of a true Working class subculture. The reunion invites everyone to attend, be you a skinhead or just someone wanting to be part of the event, interested and wanting a great fun weekend. We also actively support charities every year.
FULL 3 DAYS EVENT, YOUR WRISTBAND IS VALID THROUGH OUT, YOU CAN USE IT FOR AS LITTLE, OR AS MUCH AS YOU WANT. THE EVENT WILL SELL OUT.
WRISTBANDS GIVE YOU FULL ACCESS TO ALL THE EVENT, THREE FULL DAYS AND NIGHTS OF ENTERTAINMENT, 12 BANDS, 10 DJ’S PLUS A SPECIAL PRE PARTY BEACH BBQ ON THURSDAY PRE PARTY
The line-up maybe subject to change, as so many band members and dj’s are involved, alcohol, world wars and famine can be unforeseen, but the Great Skinhead Reunion, is more about coming to Brighton to see all your friends and making some more, for 3 full days of mayhem.
SKINHEAD ONLY HOTELS .
Add to your experience, by getting a room in our Skinhead only hotels. Conveniently located, with a short walk to the venue, and no moaning neighbours to worry about. The rooms vary in size and cost, to fit your needs. all within an easy walk to the skinhead reunion venue. We have hotels exclusive to the Great Skinhead Reunion guests and bands. Party party !! please email subcultz@gmail.com with your requirements, to be booked into the Skinhead Hotels
For those on a low budget, its worth checking Hostels and campsites, but my advice, is to get in the reserved hotels, for a nice stress free, clean and comfortable holiday in Brighton.
TRAVEL INFORMATION
Brighton is situated on the south coast of England, approximately one hour from London. London Gatwick is the nearest airport. There are regular direct trains and National Express buses. The next nearest is Heathrow, We Strongly advise NOT to fly to Stansted or Luton as this is a long way and expensive UK public transport, but if you have no choice then use National Express buses from those airports, which you need to book in advance to get cheaper rates, and you risk losing valuable drinking time
The nearest ferry port serving mainland Europe is Newhaven -Dieppe . Newhaven is about 20 min drive to Brighton. Dover is about 2 hours to Brighton
PARKING ZONES – one of the worst aspects of Brighton, is a lack of affordable parking. my advice is to use street parking on the suburbs of Brighton, its a reasonably safe place. a good bus service will take you into brighton centre (churchill square) and a short walk from there to the sea front. worth allowing the extra hours work, to save yourself serious parking charges. Wilson Avenue is about the nearest free street parking to the venue, jump on a local bus back into town.
All Event Enquiries email Symond at subcultz@gmail.com. phone (uk) 07733096571
Brighton can lay claim to being a big part of the birth of Skinheads. During the Mods and Rockers battles of the 1960’s when London lads would descend on the South Coast for bank holidays to Peacock and cause ‘Bovver’ the term Skinhead was born, to describe the short haired Mods.
Becoming probably the biggest and longest standing of all the youth fashion subcultures, Skinhead has matured and now become a worldwide community. Distinctly recognized by almost military shaven head, boots and braces. The real skinhead is a working class product of the British council estate ‘salt of the earth character’ fiercely proud of his identity,with an obsession for clothing, style and music, equaled only with his love of beer.
On the first weekend of every June, since 2011, Brighton has seen an ever increasing number of Skinheads and their lovely Skinhead Girls invade Brighton. Boots, Braces, pristine clothing and a cheeky smile. Attracting scene members from right across the globe, to Madeira Drive, overlooking the beach. A full three days of Skinhead related entertainment is laid on. DJ’s playing hyper rare vinyl, from the early days of Jamaican Ska, through to modern day Street Punk and Oi. Live bands hit the stage of the Volks bar each night. With various aftershows happening until the early hours, to keep the party buzzing.
Mods Of Your Generation Interview – The Electric Stars – “Beautiful Music For Beautiful People” MODS OF YOUR GENERATION·SUNDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 2019What can say about The Electric Stars that hasn’t already been said?Formed in 2011 the band have featured in countless magazines and had many glowing reviews, with their album “Sonic Candy Soul” making the Top 12 of 2012 best albums in ‘Scootering Magazine’ alongside the likes of Paul Weller. Recently front man Jason Edge featured in the September 2019 issue of Scootering with an incredible two pager. They have the incredible ability of taking inspiration from all the best music from any era and blending it together to create original, new modern music. Their Psychedelic Rock n Roll sound and their upbeat soulful vocals sets them aside from others. They have one mission and that is to make “Beautiful Music For Beautiful People” and that is exactly what they do. Personally i would like to thank them for providing an alternative. I believe “music is the soundtrack to our lives” If you agree then you need the Electric stars in yours. To find out more about the band continue reading below
The band formed in 2011 how did it all happen? We formed while we were in the studio recording Sonic Candy Soul. The Album was already written & as myself, Keef & Andy went in to record we didn’t have a drummer. We used a guy who was hanging around with us & began laying down the tracks. The whole concept began to fall into place, the sound, the look, the vibe and the name, while we were recording. As soon as we finished it, that’s when we found our drummer, Johnny.
You signed to Detour Records in February 2012 and released a single in March. Then released your debut album ‘Sonic Candy Soul‘ in September. What was the reaction to the single and album? Once we had the Masters of the Album we started to look for the right label. Dizzy at Detour has always been great with us. He has great History on the Scene and is a Fab guy! The first single came out & got a brilliant response. In fact you can’t get a copy of that anymore! When the Album came out, I think we were happy with it, well most of us were ha ha, but you never know how the public will like it. But the response we have had since day 1 for the Album has been fantastic. Wherever we go around the UK now people have it, play it and talk about it. It’s a great feeling to know that people dig our songs.
THE ELECTRIC STARS Blind Album Sonic Candy Soul How did you come up with the name of the band – ‘The Electric Stars’? The name.. A lot of people ask about it! When we were in the studio everything was kind of in a melting pot. The image of the band is very important. We are very influenced by the late 60’s early 70’s sounds. So it is natural we dress that way. Lots of colour, vibrant imagery, psychedelic patters ya know. The name is suggestive. Like our music & vibe The Electric Stars suggests something! I’m not a fan of dull music & dull clothes. I like my Rock n Roll Stars to look Godlike! Local pub bands might dress in jeans & t shirt. The Electric Stars dress to kill.
The album was featured as one of the Top 12 albums of 2012 in ‘Scootering Magazine’ alongside Paul Weller. That must have been amazing, Tell me bout it? One of the 1st reviews we got for Sonic was in Scootering and it was Ace. We were a bit shocked but blown away with the write up! Then at the end of the year, they do a round up of the best Albums & Sonic Candy Soul is in there alongside Paul Weller… Totally Cosmic! In fact now you’ve reminded me about that, It’s brought back the way we felt & it was very humble. To get a review like that makes you appreciate every bit of support from everyone!
In 2014 the band recorded their own version of Belfast Boy, A song first released in 1970 by Don Fardon. Tell me about the reasoning behind releasing the track and how the idea developed? Belfast boy came about from a chance meeting I had with Eamon Holmes. He is a massive George Best fan like me. We got chatting about music and fashion. He is a big fan of The Electric Stars. He reminded me of the Don Fardon song and said that he didn’t think that anyone had ever recorded it since. We got in touch with the GB Foundation and the MUFC Foundation, both said they were behind the idea! Then we got a load of Players & Celebs to write about Georgie in the sleeve notes. It was a bit of an ambitious release but it got to Number 15 in the BBC Indie Charts.. Nice! The most pleasing thing for me is the B side. I wrote The Brightest Star about one of my Heroes and to have his sister say it is one of the best things ever recorded about George means more than the chart placing.
Belfast Boy – The Electric Stars | George Best Charity Single ‘We Love You’ released in 2018 & ‘Sunshine’ released in 2017 are two of my favourite tracks. Which songs do you like performing live from your incredible repertoire? We Love You and Sunshine are both on the new Album – Velvet Elvis, The Only Lover Left Alive! To be honest I like all our tunes, we don’t let any bum songs get through quality control ha! Picking favourites is tough because they all mean so much to me. 136 is special.. It was written over in Florida & I really wanted to get the message across about this new band.. What we were.. Where we had come from.. What the message was going to be! Music for me is not just going through the motions. I can’t stand what is happening to music in 2019. Beautiful Music for Beautiful People is what we try to do. That lyric sums up The Electric Stars. We are trying to keep the flame burning and that’s important!
The Electric Stars – Sunshine ☀️ You headlined the ‘100 club’ which had an incredible response. Tell me about the night and what is was like performing at such an iconic musical venue? The 100 Club is a wonderful venue. Probably one of the most Iconic in the world! Most of my Heroes have played there and to go on last to a sold-out crowd was off the scale! All the bands on the night were Fab. Turner, Darron J Connett, The Sha La La’s all played out of their skin. It was a bit of an experience for sure. I hope we get to play there again as it’s a special stage to be on.On the back of the gig we got loads of press & our good friends at Scootering gave us a Fab double page spread. The support they have given us since day 1 has been Brilliant.
The Electric Stars – 100 Club – 2016The new single has been released ‘The only lover left alive’ where can we buy or download the album? The new album should have been out so long ago. Just down to laziness on the bands part I guess! The Only Lover Left Alive, Sunshine, We Love You & Loaded With Regrets are all on the new Album. Its gonna have a more stripped back feel to it.. More acoustic & less polished I think. More like the live Stars & less produced.
The Only Lover Left Alive – The Electric StarsDescribe the bands musical style and would you compare it to another? Mmmmm, well we are not ashamed of our influences. Retro, yes for sure, but with our own songwriting style! You can hear plenty of Who, Stones, Kinks, Faces for sure. But you can also hear Bowie, Bolan, Beatles & Floyd. I love American music, so Hendrix, Velvets, Doors & Love. Mix it all up with Blues & Grooves.. What do you get? Beautiful Music for Beautiful People!
Who are your musical influences as individuals or as a band from any era past or present? The Record Collection is huge man. But if you’re going to push me.. The Rolling Stones! I will gladly fight anyone in the car park who tries to tell me they are not the Greatest Rock n Roll Band in the world. There is a little bit of Stones in everyone & there is a little bit of everything in the Stones.
The Electric Stars are a Manchester based band, the city has an incredible history of producing many great artist and bands. Did this inspire you to get into music and to take up playing your instruments? Manchester is a wonderful city. We are great at most things. But, when it comes to Music, we are quite Spectacular! It’s a working class city that is big enough to challenge London and small enough to create its own culture and swagger. Being in a band in Manchester is something we just did! The Hollies, 10cc, Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Mondays, Roses, Oasis.. Not bad is it for a bunch of Mancs ha ha!
British actor & musician Gary Shail is a huge fan of the band and asked you to perform at the Quad 40 event on Brighton Pier. What was it like to be asked to perform at such an iconic event celebrating the 40th anniversary of a timeless cult film Quadrophenia? We met Gary a long time ago at a gig. He loves live music and used to be in a band before he was an Actor. He liked our sound and we became friends. Last year he called me up and said “Jay, I’ve got an idea & I want the Stars to be part of it”. What an idea it turned out to be! Quad 40 was absolutely Fantastic! To be asked to be part of the Anniversary of one of the most Iconic British Films ever made.. WOW It really was a Brilliant event. Still buzzing from it to be h honest.
Do you have anything you would like share with all your supporters? I think if I’m going to finish on something it’s just to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us. The people who come to the gigs & buy our music. The people who write about us & book us to play all over the UK and Europe. We write our own material and we never take it for granted that people prefer us to cabaret. We want to make a difference & in 2019 that is getting harder than ever! Thanks to you Johnny for giving us the opportunity to tell people about the band & see you all soon!
Mods Of Your Generation Interview – The Electric Stars – “Beautiful Music For Beautiful People” MODS OF YOUR GENERATION·SUNDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 2019What can say about The Electric Stars that hasn’t already been said?Formed in 2011 the band have featured in countless magazines and had many glowing reviews, with their album “Sonic Candy Soul” making the Top 12 of 2012 best albums in ‘Scootering Magazine’ alongside the likes of Paul Weller. Recently front man Jason Edge featured in the September 2019 issue of Scootering with an incredible two pager. They have the incredible ability of taking inspiration from all the best music from any era and blending it together to create original, new modern music. Their Psychedelic Rock n Roll sound and their upbeat soulful vocals sets them aside from others. They have one mission and that is to make “Beautiful Music For Beautiful People” and that is exactly what they do. Personally i would like to thank them for providing an alternative. I believe “music is the soundtrack to our lives” If you agree then you need the Electric stars in yours. To find out more about the band continue reading below
The band formed in 2011 how did it all happen? We formed while we were in the studio recording Sonic Candy Soul. The Album was already written & as myself, Keef & Andy went in to record we didn’t have a drummer. We used a guy who was hanging around with us & began laying down the tracks. The whole concept began to fall into place, the sound, the look, the vibe and the name, while we were recording. As soon as we finished it, that’s when we found our drummer, Johnny.
You signed to Detour Records in February 2012 and released a single in March. Then released your debut album ‘Sonic Candy Soul‘ in September. What was the reaction to the single and album? Once we had the Masters of the Album we started to look for the right label. Dizzy at Detour has always been great with us. He has great History on the Scene and is a Fab guy! The first single came out & got a brilliant response. In fact you can’t get a copy of that anymore! When the Album came out, I think we were happy with it, well most of us were ha ha, but you never know how the public will like it. But the response we have had since day 1 for the Album has been fantastic. Wherever we go around the UK now people have it, play it and talk about it. It’s a great feeling to know that people dig our songs.
THE ELECTRIC STARS Blind Album Sonic Candy Soul How did you come up with the name of the band – ‘The Electric Stars’? The name.. A lot of people ask about it! When we were in the studio everything was kind of in a melting pot. The image of the band is very important. We are very influenced by the late 60’s early 70’s sounds. So it is natural we dress that way. Lots of colour, vibrant imagery, psychedelic patters ya know. The name is suggestive. Like our music & vibe The Electric Stars suggests something! I’m not a fan of dull music & dull clothes. I like my Rock n Roll Stars to look Godlike! Local pub bands might dress in jeans & t shirt. The Electric Stars dress to kill.
The album was featured as one of the Top 12 albums of 2012 in ‘Scootering Magazine’ alongside Paul Weller. That must have been amazing, Tell me bout it? One of the 1st reviews we got for Sonic was in Scootering and it was Ace. We were a bit shocked but blown away with the write up! Then at the end of the year, they do a round up of the best Albums & Sonic Candy Soul is in there alongside Paul Weller… Totally Cosmic! In fact now you’ve reminded me about that, It’s brought back the way we felt & it was very humble. To get a review like that makes you appreciate every bit of support from everyone!
In 2014 the band recorded their own version of Belfast Boy, A song first released in 1970 by Don Fardon. Tell me about the reasoning behind releasing the track and how the idea developed? Belfast boy came about from a chance meeting I had with Eamon Holmes. He is a massive George Best fan like me. We got chatting about music and fashion. He is a big fan of The Electric Stars. He reminded me of the Don Fardon song and said that he didn’t think that anyone had ever recorded it since. We got in touch with the GB Foundation and the MUFC Foundation, both said they were behind the idea! Then we got a load of Players & Celebs to write about Georgie in the sleeve notes. It was a bit of an ambitious release but it got to Number 15 in the BBC Indie Charts.. Nice! The most pleasing thing for me is the B side. I wrote The Brightest Star about one of my Heroes and to have his sister say it is one of the best things ever recorded about George means more than the chart placing.
Belfast Boy – The Electric Stars | George Best Charity Single ‘We Love You’ released in 2018 & ‘Sunshine’ released in 2017 are two of my favourite tracks. Which songs do you like performing live from your incredible repertoire? We Love You and Sunshine are both on the new Album – Velvet Elvis, The Only Lover Left Alive! To be honest I like all our tunes, we don’t let any bum songs get through quality control ha! Picking favourites is tough because they all mean so much to me. 136 is special.. It was written over in Florida & I really wanted to get the message across about this new band.. What we were.. Where we had come from.. What the message was going to be! Music for me is not just going through the motions. I can’t stand what is happening to music in 2019. Beautiful Music for Beautiful People is what we try to do. That lyric sums up The Electric Stars. We are trying to keep the flame burning and that’s important!
The Electric Stars – Sunshine ☀️ You headlined the ‘100 club’ which had an incredible response. Tell me about the night and what is was like performing at such an iconic musical venue? The 100 Club is a wonderful venue. Probably one of the most Iconic in the world! Most of my Heroes have played there and to go on last to a sold-out crowd was off the scale! All the bands on the night were Fab. Turner, Darron J Connett, The Sha La La’s all played out of their skin. It was a bit of an experience for sure. I hope we get to play there again as it’s a special stage to be on.On the back of the gig we got loads of press & our good friends at Scootering gave us a Fab double page spread. The support they have given us since day 1 has been Brilliant.
The Electric Stars – 100 Club – 2016The new single has been released ‘The only lover left alive’ where can we buy or download the album? The new album should have been out so long ago. Just down to laziness on the bands part I guess! The Only Lover Left Alive, Sunshine, We Love You & Loaded With Regrets are all on the new Album. Its gonna have a more stripped back feel to it.. More acoustic & less polished I think. More like the live Stars & less produced.
The Only Lover Left Alive – The Electric StarsDescribe the bands musical style and would you compare it to another? Mmmmm, well we are not ashamed of our influences. Retro, yes for sure, but with our own songwriting style! You can hear plenty of Who, Stones, Kinks, Faces for sure. But you can also hear Bowie, Bolan, Beatles & Floyd. I love American music, so Hendrix, Velvets, Doors & Love. Mix it all up with Blues & Grooves.. What do you get? Beautiful Music for Beautiful People!
Who are your musical influences as individuals or as a band from any era past or present? The Record Collection is huge man. But if you’re going to push me.. The Rolling Stones! I will gladly fight anyone in the car park who tries to tell me they are not the Greatest Rock n Roll Band in the world. There is a little bit of Stones in everyone & there is a little bit of everything in the Stones.
The Electric Stars are a Manchester based band, the city has an incredible history of producing many great artist and bands. Did this inspire you to get into music and to take up playing your instruments? Manchester is a wonderful city. We are great at most things. But, when it comes to Music, we are quite Spectacular! It’s a working class city that is big enough to challenge London and small enough to create its own culture and swagger. Being in a band in Manchester is something we just did! The Hollies, 10cc, Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Mondays, Roses, Oasis.. Not bad is it for a bunch of Mancs ha ha!
British actor & musician Gary Shail is a huge fan of the band and asked you to perform at the Quad 40 event on Brighton Pier. What was it like to be asked to perform at such an iconic event celebrating the 40th anniversary of a timeless cult film Quadrophenia? We met Gary a long time ago at a gig. He loves live music and used to be in a band before he was an Actor. He liked our sound and we became friends. Last year he called me up and said “Jay, I’ve got an idea & I want the Stars to be part of it”. What an idea it turned out to be! Quad 40 was absolutely Fantastic! To be asked to be part of the Anniversary of one of the most Iconic British Films ever made.. WOW It really was a Brilliant event. Still buzzing from it to be h honest.
Do you have anything you would like share with all your supporters? I think if I’m going to finish on something it’s just to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us. The people who come to the gigs & buy our music. The people who write about us & book us to play all over the UK and Europe. We write our own material and we never take it for granted that people prefer us to cabaret. We want to make a difference & in 2019 that is getting harder than ever! Thanks to you Johnny for giving us the opportunity to tell people about the band & see you all soon!
The Touch are back after 40 years with their brand new album ‘Lost and Found’They were a mod revival band in the 70’s recording one album which was confusingly released by their record company under the wrong name. as well as know track titles or any other information about the band.I was kindly given a copy of the NEW album before its release and became instantly hooked to find out more about the previous album and the confusion around the first albums release. There may of been confusion around the previous album however there is no confusing who they are now. Whether your a fan of great music or a new fan of The Touch, whether you just like the Mod revival, or brilliantly written creative and relatable music. I suggest this album needs to be part of your collection.I was so excited about the new and old album that i immediately needed to interview them to find out more. I am also incredibly intrigued to see what they do next.
(1) Where do you find inspiration for your song lyrics & music? The music usually starts with an idea that magically arrives’ in the head, either as a riff, or a melody. It’s rare that one starts out with the idea to create a particular progression, and more often the rest of the music gets built around that one idea. Lyrics are a different matter. They are almost always either autobiographical or about something we’ve observed. For example, we must have been in the depths of teenage misery when we wrote Grey Day and I’m a Stranger as they are certainly based on real events. On the other hand, Walk in the Park, and Stop Stop are social commentaries. (2) How and when was the band formed? An early version of the band (The Flames) came together as a unit around 1976 with Son Jack on lead guitar and vocals, Gerry on rhythm guitar, Charlie on drums and Jim Henebury on bass. When Jim left, for a while we were 2 guitars and drums, weird but it sort of worked. We used to rehearse at Alaska Studios in Waterloo round the corner from the famous Wellington pub where many of the great early mod revival bands used to play. The studio was owned by ex-Vibrators bassist Pat Collier, and it’s thanks to him that we got started properly, but more about that later.
(3) When & where was your first gig? As The Flames our first gig was the Rochester Castle, Stoke Newington November 3, 1977 opening for the Stukas. We also supported them every other Thursday that month. As The Touch, our debut was at the Nashville on Dec 29, 1979 supporting the Bishops.
(4) Has anyone played a major role in your music career? We’d have to say that Alan May, Dizzy Holmes, and Albert Cummings are the three kings for us right now as they are responsible for us being back together. Another big shout out goes to Pat Collier who got us started in the first place. We were a scrappy 3 piece called The Flames rehearsing at his Alaska Studios in London in ’77 when he helped us out playing bass, booking our first gigs, and helping us with promotion. Having him produce this album was brilliant and brought things full circle. (5) Your new album was recently released. What has the reaction been? We’ve been blown away by the comments and overall reaction, really, just staggering. You usually expect a spread of opinions in the feedback and so far it’s been just amazing.
(6) What were the biggest challenges in doing this album? That’s easy. Time. Son Jack lives in the states, Dave is in Devon, and Charlie and Gerry are in London, so trying to find time when we could all be in the same place at the same time was hard. It’s amazing we managed to get together as often as we did, and over a 6 month period Son Jack flew to London 5 times to get this done.The second biggest challenge was re-learning songs that none of us had touched in 40 years. This involved converting lots of old dusty cassettes into MP3’s and hunting through old boxes of lyrics to track down the words and song structures. (7) Where can fans buy or download the old & new albums? Pretty much everywhere! There are a bunch of options:1/ Via Paypal (UK and Europe only and incl s&h) send £13 to g.czerniawski@uel.ac.uk2/ Worldwide CD fulfilment via CDbaby at https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/thetouch43/ For streaming and downloads it’s on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, Google Music, Deezer, Napster, Pandora, Shazam, Tidal, Youtube Music and a bunch of other places.
(8) Have you got any future gigs coming up and what’s next for the band? We have just one more gig on the books at the Mod Weekender in Brighton on August 24th. We’re at the Hope and Ruin in Queen Street and are playing a double bill with the Teenbeats. Last time we played together was at Marquee in ’79 I think so this will be a very special gig. We’re also pricing it for the fans at £13 on the night, or £10 in advance at http://bit/ly/TouchTeenbeats.
(9) What’s the story behind the first album being released under the wrong name? We have theories but would risk getting sued for defamation of character if we shared them J. Let’s put it down to being young, naive, and star-struck at having an album at the age of 18. Twenty/twenty hindsight and all that.
(10) Can we look forward to another great third album? Haha! Mate, we’ve just finished this one and that took 40 years! Seriously though, it’s too early to tell but if we think we can do a knockout third album, and there’s demand for more then we’ll definitely consider the idea. (11) After the band disbanded after confusion over release of first album, what did each of the members go on to do musically or other? Son Jack: I didn’t play for over twenty years. It was only after moving to the states that I got the blues bug, and started trying to learn how to play it. I started out playing solo, then duo, then full on 4-piece band and enjoyed a 10 year career playing blues all over the world and recording 4 albums. Best part was getting to meet some amazing people like BB King, and we even got to open for Chuck Berry in the legendary Duck Room in St Louis.Gerry: I spent a few years playing in different bands including the tail end of The Fixations, Bad Karma Beckons, Waving Not Drowning and Mojo Hand. I’ve got a ‘day job’ but the music side of things has never really left my soul so keep my hand in one way or another.
Charlie: Although I played on the early demo’s included on the Detour release, I had left the band before the first album was recorded so didn’t actually play on it. Instead I went back to education and retook some exams. Played drums for garage band called Bad Karma Beckons with Gerry, they released an album, Mutate and Survive, in 1986. Currently also playing in a couple of active London bands namely The Phobics and The Beatpack.”Dave: After the touch I played in a number of new romantic groups in London including The Marines, and concentrated on learning the keyboards and developing my song writing. In 2000 I spent ten years living in Catalonia and during that time played in a popular dropzone band.
(12) When did the band decide to get back together and why? We got “re-discovered” through an insane set of unlikely events about 2 years ago. It’s a really long story but in short, Alan May and Dizzy Holmes tracked us down. Alan urged us to consider getting back together, and Dizzy wanted to do an official re-release of the original album on his Paisley Archive label. Alan also put us in touch with London promoter, Albert Cummings, who offered us a gig. So basically, everything was lined up and we had a reason to get back together. Without Alan, Dizzy and Albert I don’t think we would have bothered so we’re incredibly grateful for their support and encouragement. (13) Where would you like to see the band in a few years and what can we expect from you in the future? We’d LIKE to see us being waited on hand and foot on a private Island in the Caribbean but that probably isn’t going to happen. We’re in this for the love of it, not the money so we’re not on the career path that the younger more ambitious acts are. As long as we’re making music together, even if occasionally, that will be a beautiful thing. (14) Do you have a message for fans and a response to the reaction the band has had from the new album? That’s an easy one. THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS! You’ve made a bunch of old geezers feel like teenagers again.
(15) How would you describe the bands musical style if you were to compare it to another band? That’s a tough question as our musical style doesn’t easily fit one definition, as it evolved over time. We started out playing rock’n’roll (Gene Vincent, Johnny Kidd, Chuck Berry etc) in Charlie’s basement around 1973, and then when punk rolled around we got into that for a couple of years. Then we did the whole mod revival thing which also blended with Power Pop. So, you’ll hear elements of all those phases in the songs.
Mods Of Your Generation Interview – Irish Jack Lyons – 40th Anniversary Of Quadrophenia MODS OF YOUR GENERATION·FRIDAY, 28 SEPTEMBER 2018· Mods Of Your Generation conducted an interview with the legendary “Irish” Jack Lyons to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Quadrophenia the film. The man who inspired Pete Townshend to create the film, We would like to thank Jack for his contribution to Quadrophenia and to the Mod scene. Also a massive thankyou for answering some questions for the MOYG Community. To conjunct with the filming in 1978 which is the 40th anniversary of FILMING not film release, Irish Jack started having meetings with Franc Roddam until just after the end of August. Moon died on 7 September while he was taking a week’s break back in Cork, He flew back the next morning. He started writing scripts for official screen writer David Humphreys round about the second week of September. The first camera ran on 28th September and the legend of Quadrophenia begun.
(1) As many Quadrophenia Fans are aware Jimmy the main character from Quadropheina was based on you. Were you similar to Jimmy in the 1960’s and do you think Phil Daniels played the role well? Yes, I’m a lot like Jimmy. Speed-freak skinny and a born chatter-box. More than 10 have said there’s a facial resemblance. As you will remember from the article you posted about my meeting up with Phil Daniels at Lee International production offices in Wembley, he hadn’t a clue about Mods and he was honest enough to tell me. All he wanted to know was now that he had been casted to play Jimmy/Irish Jack, all he wanted to know was had I ever slapped a copper. Jimmy was a bit of a failed mod. Yes, he had the scooter but like a lot of us at the time it took a rocker friend to fix it for him and he couldn’t hang to to his girl…AND he couldn’t fight. I was a lot like that. Girls scared me to death cos I never knew what to say and I got in a scuffle actually with another mod and I discovered that I didn’t have the right body shape to fight. Not everyone can fight. When I’d be on French Blues I could talk to any girl all night as long as the conversation was about Pete Townshend or The Who. Mod was not always about being the Ace Face, Mod had a lot to do with young guys trying too hard to fit in, lacking in self-confidence and asking themselves the eternal question…’What’s gonna happen to me?’
(2) Quadropheina has played a major part in many people’s lives and many young people can relate to Jimmy’s Character growing up. Who could you relate to growing up and what movies or bands influenced you? I bought my first record when I was 13 in 1956. I was back in Cork then and attending school. My mother bought me Elvis Presley’s ‘Hound Dog’ with ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ on the b-side. It was a thick ’78 and if you dropped it it smashed into a thousand pieces. I used to be in awe just watching the RCA label rotating on our old record player. My dad was a classical violinist and of course as you’d imagine if he thought his eldest son was playing the devil’s music and using a sweeping brush with string as a guitar he’d have turned purple. I could only play it while he was out. Living in Cork back then in 1956 there wasn’t really any bands or films affecting me, I was by then only a year in long trousers having made my Confirmation the year before. I did spend a lot of time then recording my father on our old Bush tape recorder…wide spools and control buttons the size of piano keys playing classical pieces on his violin. I was 13 and I was an unpaid sound engineer! (3) When moving to London from cork were you a mod before moving and was there a mod scene in cork at that time? No, there was no mod scene anywhere. I moved back to London when I was sixteen-and-a-half in August 1960. Mods didn’t appear until late 1962. (4) What is your favourite genre of music? I don’t have a favourite genre of music. I’m affected by all strains of music. Like a lot of people, I fall in love with certain songs and then something else comes along. For years I was hung up on Jarvis Cocker’s Disco 2000, his biographical account of Deborah, the way he made it sound so personal just threw me across the room. I learned later that Deborah is actually a real person…like all good songs. Common People by Jarvis (well, Pulp) is just another of his great songs. It’s the way he narrates those two songs into biographic form, he is a brilliant song writer….AND story teller. I’m not a fan of rap the way it’s turned young people into rapping about rival neighbourhoods and knife crime. I can’t stand the way these gang rappers refer to their girlfriends and women in general. I think it’s a form of misogyny. (5) If there was a Remake of Quadrophenia who do you think would be a good fit to play Jimmy from today’s young actors. If there was a remake of Quadrophenia I’d turn in my grave. The acquired dictum is..’If its not broken – don’t fix it !’ Nobody is capable of bettering Franc Roddam. Nobody is capable of bettering Phil Daniels.
(6) How would you like to be remembered. How would I like to be remembered? With a blinding obituary in the Guardian (7) Is there other characters in Quadrophenia that were based on anyone from The Who. I don’t think so. Gary Cooper’s job as a sheet metal fabricator was obviously a nod to a younger Roger Daltrey who was a sheet metal worker for Chase in Shepherd’s Bush. (8) Do you like the track “Irish Jack” by The Who and how did you feel about a song being written about you. The problem with ‘Happy Jack’ was that you couldn’t dance to it. Pete wrote it when he was living in a top floor flat on the corner of Brewer Street and Wardour Street. I used to go up there. In those days you could park a car unlocked. Pete had a fabulous open top1963 Lincoln Continental which he’d leave outside the door overnight and it would still be there in the morning untouched. It’s strange to be answering questions about how I felt about a song like ‘Happy Jack’. There was no escaping it. It has never made me feel special. In 1973 I celebrated my 30th birthday having dinner with Pete at the Five Bridges Hotel, we were playing later at the Newcastle Odeon. I had far too much to drink and should’ve slowed down on the expensive French wine. At some stage I found myself playfully chinning Townshend and almost in the same motion playfully grabbing him by the lapels and saying….’Why the fuck didn’t you write…’And he lived in the sand in the Republic of Ire-land’…Pete grabbed me close to his face and snarled….’Because I couldn’t make it fucking rhyme….’ Loads of people have asked me about that song. Y’see, the problem with muse is that you absolutely don’t do this : ‘What a lovely afternoon. It’s supposed to last until tomorrow. Oh, by the way, I’m writing a song about you.’
(9) Is there anything else you feel should of been added to the film that was not captured by the scene at that time? Yes there most certainly is….before production finished I went to considerable lengths to impress upon Franc Roddam how cool it would be to end the credits with a list of names of the Mods who had frequented the Goldhawk as a tribute to them. We had dinner somewhere near the office in Beak Street and I had made a list of about 30 names that stood out. Franc’s response in that lovely Cleveland accent of his was that it was a master stroke and would give the film actual authenticity – like a roll of honour. He took the piece of paper away with him and I never saw it again. (10) Is there anything you would like to share with “Mods of your Generation” Community that they may not know about Quadrophenia, The Who and Your Relationship with them. Go to YouTube, type in the bar…’Modrophenia the legend of Irish Jack’
SubCulture are three youthful, passionate, energetic cool teenage lads reigning from Nottingham. They are a mod inspired band which is reflected in their sound and image. Their performance is energy fuelled with a know nonsense approach to putting on an incredible performance. They remind many fans of a revamped, young band we all know and love called The Jam. They stand out amongst other bands on the scene as they favour a sharper look that makes them stand out and in turn defines who they are.They perform a variety of covers however they have released much of their own material which is superbly written and executed. Recently the band released their new single ‘The Kids don’t Dance’ which is brilliant and actually something anyone can dance to. They are taking the East Midlands by storm, I have know doubt these three lads will go onto have a successful career. I wish them all the best in all there future endeavours and i am sure they wont disappoint as they continue to gig and release more music. These lads are definitely ones to keep an eye on so make sure to follow them on their social media platforms and keep up to date with future gigs as they may be performing near you soon. Band MembersOliver Orton-Guitarist/Vocalist Lewis smith-Bassist Declan Mills-Drummer
(1) You all went to the same school together, What bought you together as friends? I’ve known Declan since we were in primary school. From about the age of 4. Long before any of us could even play an instrument. With Lewis, I met him in my 3rd year of secondary school. He had guitar lessons with the same teacher I had at the time and his lesson would always be scheduled for after mine, so we would talk for a bit before going back to lesson. One thing led to another and we became friends through those guitar lessons really. (2) Can you tell me something that people may not know about you as a band? One of our first proper gigs was at a micro pub in Nottingham and it consisted of us playing about 15 or so covers songs.
(3) How did you then go onto to form the band? Both Me and Dec took music in school and as a requirement you had to play an instrument. I already had been playing guitar for years, but Declan decided to give the drums a go… And that’s how that started. With lewis, like I mentioned, he used to have guitar lessons so he knew how to play the guitar, which came in handy one lunchtime, as we had decided to mess around in one of the practice rooms since we were bored. The result of that was Me on guitar, Dec on the drums, and lewis on the bass….
(4) Who are your musical inspirations as a band and as a musician? Our musical inspirations and band inspirations are out of the same mould. With bands such as, The Jam, The Who, Small Faces and Secret Affair, to Sex Pistols, The Clash, to Madness etc.
(5) The band is heavily influenced by the mod scene in regards to your sound and fashion. How did each of you get into the scene and who or what influenced you? My parents grew up with the music, and I discovered it when I was around 14, and since then it’s just been like a snowball effect. In regards to Lewis & Dec, I think the whole thing fell naturally after deciding back in the school this is what we will do with the band.
(6) You have released your new EP ‘The Kids don’t dance’ where can fans buy the EP and how would you describe it? The Kids Don’t Dance to me is something you could dance to. Even given the name. It’s not strictly 60’s, Motown or soul, but it’s most definitely got those influences injected into it. The single is available to buy online as a 7″ vinyl record from www.heavysoul45s.co.uk
SubCulture The Kids Don’t Dance (Official Video) (7) Who writes the bands material? All the songs are written by me. It always starts out sat with an acoustic guitar at home.
(8) What would you like to achieve it as a band and how do you wish to Achieve it? If at any point we could make this our sustainable living, it would be great. It’s what we love to do after all. As for how, well we’d like to keep progressing and moving with it. We don’t want to put the brakes on. We’ve got something and we want to run with it.
(9) Since the band formed in 2016, What has people’s reactions been to your sound and energetic performances on stage? We’ve had some smashing reviews and met some great people from gigging. The way they’ve have taken to us really is fantastic. We’ve had people say they want us to do well, and it’s cool to have a backing from what was a few minutes previous, a complete stranger.
(10) If you could be in any band in history which band would it be? Now this could be the million dollar question. Literally. It’s a tough one. Maybe a band that have a Christmas hit so we could live off of the royalties all year round….How about Slade? But in all seriousness, we model ourselves off of the mod scene and I think The Who would be a wise choice. It seems like it would quite good fun. (11) Can we expect more singles to be released in future or an album?Yes! We try to release as much of our own music as we can. In fact, a new single isn’t too far on the horizon…
SubCulture – Young (12) Where can fans purchase your music and keep up to date with latest gigs? All our music is available on the usual digital platforms such as Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, Google and the rest, as well as on vinyl from Heavysoul45s.co.uk. All our gigs are posted on our Facebook page, along with regular updates, photos, videos etc. (13) You perform a variety of covers. What is your favourite to perform and why? We don’t really have a favourite cover song to play, however we would say there’s definitely certain songs that go down a storm at gigs. To name just a few would be Sha la la la lee, My Generation, Town Called Malice, Too much too young. (14) What message would you like to give all your fans and supporters? Just to thank them for the continued support they give us and for the faith they have in us. It’s that kind of thing that spurs us on.
(15) Where would you like to be in 5 years from now and what can we we all look forward to? Well wherever we are, we’d like to be able to look back at the past 5 years and say that they meant something. Interview by Johnny Bradley for Mods Of Your GenerationInterview Credit – Mods Of Your Generationphoto & Video credit to SubCulture
Animal. Lead singer of Anti nowhere league attacked by glass wielding thug
CCTV images have been issued of a person we would like to identify in connection with a serious assault in #TunbridgeWells.
It is reported that at around 6.20pm on Friday 2 August 2019 a man aged in his 60s was struck with a glass in an area of The Pantiles.
The victim sustained injuries and received treatment at a local hospital.
Investigating officers are continuing to carry out a number of lines of enquiry and are now able to release images of a man who may have important information about the incident.
Man captured in CCTV just before attacking singer with a glass
Anyone who recognises him is asked to call us on 01622 604100 quoting 46/152946/19.
Alternatively, contact the independent charity #Crimestoppers anonymously, by calling 0800 555111 or using the anonymous online form at Crimestoppers-uk.org
This is a first book from Claire Mahoney and a first about the roots and the revival of the mod subculture in Wales with stunning photography and stories from the people who were influenced by it. Welsh musicians, fashion designers, film directors, DJs, record collectors and scooter enthusiasts as well as some well-known ‘Faces’ give their first hand accounts about what mod means to them and how it has changed their lives. It covers the 60’s through to the present day.Although it is about the mod scene in Wales its very much relatable to many other parts of the UK and the rest of the world. Mods Of Your Generation is honoured to feature such a talented Journalist, Director & editor in an interview and wish her all the best in her future endeavours.Buy it here www.welshmod.co.uk 1) The book has been released approximately 6 months now, it has had a lot of great reviews and gained a lot of interest. How has people’s reaction to the book felt and is it as you expected. The reaction to the book has been brilliant really. Quite overwhelming at times. Even 6 months after the initial publication it is still ongoing. I think in part because we have kept it going with the social media side of things. That has been really important in keeping people involved with the whole story of the book. 2) You are a huge fan of Paul Weller and recently he endorsed the book. The Jam was very influential in your teenage years. How did it feel to have Paul Weller’s encouraging and positive comments about the book and to even receive a picture of him holding it? To me getting a pic off Paul and knowing he likes the book is the ultimate accolade. I was and still am a massive Jam fan and have followed Paul’s career since I was 13 years of age. I still have to pinch myself when I look at that pic. Seeing him holding a piece of my work is really something else.
3) When was the first time you saw The Jam perform and what was it like? The first gig I ever went to and the best gig I ever went to. Jam gigs, as any fan will tell you, were something else. You spent most of the gig off your feet as the crowd would move as one mass of sweating singing people. The energy was incredible and I’m so glad I experienced that even though I was only 14 – it marked the start of a long journey that has resulted in this book. The title page quotes The Jam Lyrics “True its a dream, mixed with nostalgia” and that pretty much sums up how I feel about it all really. 4) What inspired you to write the book and why did you feel it was important to tell the story in the view of a welsh mod? Being Welsh inspired me first up, but also being part of the scene here and seeing the passion and love of mod in all its incarnations and re-incarnations in the people I met. I think there is a Welsh take on mod that is more down to earth and grass roots because of the surroundings here. It was always a struggle for people in Wales to be recognised for anything. Try being a mod in a valleys town – it ain’t Soho I can tell you! Plus no-one outside of Wales tended to take you seriously – you would be judged on where you were from first. We tend to try that little bit harder down here as a result and I think it shows. Plus we know how to have a good time!
5) You grew up in Cardiff in the 80’s where music & fashion was continuing to evolve and seemed to be an exciting time to be a teenager with a wide array of styles and subcultures. As a lot of new fashion and music came to the forefront of teenage life. What was it that stuck out about ‘MOD’ that resonated with you? It was the music and the attitude of the music and its message that chimed with me. It was all about being part of something, being different, going one better. The mainstream music of the time was awful and the fashion did nothing for me. Thank god I found bands like The Jam and Secret Affair as without them I might never have discovered so many fantastic other artists such as The Small Faces, The Action, Modern Jazz and soul music.
6) When people discover that I am a mod, I regularly get asked “What is a mod?” I try to do my best to explain what it is and what is about but feel I never give it justice. For me it’s exactly that a feeling. Everyone has their own story to tell and what inspired them to get into the scene. Can you describe what mod means to you? On a very basic level mod to me is about good taste I think – good taste in clothes, music, art, design. Its about being smart not just in the way you dress but the way you think. Having a bit of pride about things and always being open to new ideas.
7) The book documents the roots and revival of modernism in Wales however do you think other areas of the UK & the rest of the world can relate to the movement and the stories told within. Absolutely – in Scotland, Ireland, The Midlands – you could probably tell the same stories. Mod in the suburbs or the provinces is always going to be a little different from mod in the city. 8) The book features many interviews with very significant Welsh born people from the 1960s -1980’s including award winning welsh writer, Actor and film director Jonathan Owen amongst others. Who else is featured in the book? We have Jeff Banks the fashion designer, musician Andy Fairweather Low from Amen Corner, Wyndham Rees from 60’s mod band The Eyes of Blue, Bryn Gregory from 70’s/80’s mod band Beggar and film director Jonny Owen who got into mod at the tail end of the revival and on into the Brit pop years.
9) The book features stunning images and photography from BAFTA Cymru winning cameraman & photographer Haydn Denman. Where can people find more of his excellent work and are there any photos taken that didn’t appear in the book? We are currently creating an archive of the many pictures that didn’t appear in the book on the website. www.welshmod.co.uk. But Haydn has travelled all over the world photographing and filming. But he is very keen to work on projects that relate to Wales. You can see more of his work at www.haydndenman-photography.com 10) You used a crowd funding website called kickstarter to make the book a reality. What advice would you give aspiring authors using this way of funding their work? Going the Kickstarter route is tough and nail-biting. My advice – set your target as low as you can to cover your costs and plug the hell out of it on social media.
11) Claire you are a journalist, editor and broadcaster with over 25 years’ experience in media. You have written a lot of articles about the mod scene for Mod Culture and The New Untouchable websites. What other work have you done regarding the scene or anything else you have been involved in? I have featured on BBC Radio Wales several times talking about mod and 60s music. I contributed the forward to the first book on mod girls called Ready Steady Girls, I’ve been involved as an interviewer for The Jam Literary Event and will be featured in the 2nd Modernist Literary Event which takes place this September in London and is a must attend for anyone interested in mod culture. https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/the_2nd_london_modernist_literary_event 12) The Mod scene is constantly evolving as many young people discover the scene today. Is there a vast number of young people getting immersed into the scene living in Wales? I think there are more and more people here who are looking for something a bit different and who are looking back and discovering the music and style of the 60’s for sure.
13) You had a launch party to celebrate the release of the book. It had every generation enjoying everything mod together under one roof. Which is very much what Mods of Your Generation is about. Can you tell us about the atmosphere, the party and the people & bands who attended? It was brilliant. It certainly spanned all the generations and it was a great celebration of the music and style that has brought so many of us together. It felt like one big family really – still does. I’ve made some great friends through this project. The band that played was called River who came from Spain – the reason being their frontman – Steve Garland now lives in Spain having moved there many years ago. He was and still is a real ‘face’ in terms of the Welsh mod scene, so it was a real home-coming gig for him and loads of people turned out just to see him. 14) Are you a fan of any mod inspired bands making a name for themselves in the music industry today? The Spitfires are great and definitely have that energy about them, plus there is a Swansea band called The Riff that are making waves and again a mod look about them and their sound 15) Welsh born Fashion icon and designer Jeff Banks was keen to be involved in the book. How was it meeting with such an important fashion figure becoming British designer of the year in 1979 & 1981? I interviewed Jeff over the phone and he was gracious and enthusiastic and his memories of being a mod were pure gold for the book. I still have more of that interview which I’ll publish on the website. Jeff loved the book and his office ordered 10 copies! So I was really chuffed about that. Interview conducted by Johnny Bradleyinterview (c) Johnny Bradley & Mods Of Your Generation 2019
Mods Of Your Generation Interview – Being Film – Director & Artist Devlin Crow
MODS OF YOUR GENERATION·TUESDAY, 19 FEBRUARY 2019Devlin Crow is a film director and artist, who has made a series of renowned, award winning short films. Has worked with Pete Townshend, Nick Cave, Sir John Tavener, Christopher Lee and among others.Brighton Palace Pier unveiled a commemorative plaque to celebrate his most recent film Being, that has a nod to The Who’s Quadrophenia and shines a light on young carers and the neurological condition Multiple Sclerosis. BBC filmed the event and covered it in news. The film has received many positive reviews and as myself and many others look forward to the Follow up go for it girl. We asked Devlin Crow if he would kindly do an exclusive interview for the Mods Of Your Generation community.
(1) As you have said before in various interviews your inspiration for writing a film about Multiple Sclerosis was caring for your wife who suffers with the condition. Was this a difficult process as the subject was so close to your heart?
When you have to dig deep and open you heart to something close, moments can be difficult as your tapping into the uncomfortableness of grief, the remembrance of your love one struggles with the daily condition and what has been taken away by M.S. These times are never without sadness as you writing about emotional experiences the ups and downs of caring and witnessing the cruelness of the neurological condition. Though through the adversity there is always a crack of joy and fleeting happy memories that challenges the darkness of the subject, I think this is conveyed in the writing and film, and in-turn a truth, honesty and a humanity wins out.
(2) Is there a reason why you choose The Who, Quadrophenia and the mod scene as “Buddy’s” escape from caring for his mother “Margaret.” I wanted to make a film that acknowledged the importance Brighton, Modernism and The Who had on my youth and to “Quadrophenia”, the soundtrack that was central to my adolescence. It seemed right to make Buddy a Mod, who is into the whole 60’s scene, his mum Margaret would naturally passed on her love for the style, music to him. Buddy is also an individual, a bit of a loner and whom does not follow the crowd and popular trends. I think Buddy is like Jimmy in as much, that he’s angry and confused and in away lost. Though with Jimmy drugs and manic bipolar are his demon, for Buddy its feeling trapped as his life is on hold due to caring. With Jimmy, Modernism, scootering and Brighton became marred and the magic of the bank holiday bubble burst and disillusionment set in, for Buddy the Mod ride out saved him and gave him purpose a break from responsibility and demands, allowing him to experience joy and lost youth.
(3) Devlin you have directed a series of renowned, award winning short films, including Expelling The Demon, The Anatomist Notebook, Word Made Flesh:Sir Peter Blake, Little Whispers, Monstrous Creature & Of course Being. Did you face any challenges directing Being that you did not face with the other films? Being was based on a real life situation and moments plucked from home life, whereas with the others they were fictional and had a element of the fantastical. Or in the case of the programme “Word Made Flesh” presented a portrait of the artist Sir Peter Blake. (4) You have Worked with Pete Townshend in the past. What did you work on together and how was it? Kennedy my partner and I worked on documentary on the English Pop artist Sir Peter Blake, Pete Townshend loved the film and composed an original score. He worked for a week on it, it was a very special moment to work with someone you admire and respect for his artistry and grew up listening to. I will never forget him playing a bit of Baba O’Rilely on the guitar to both of us, as he used some of this in his opening arrangement.
(5) Being has had many positive reviews and I am looking forward to the follow up and so are many others. Can you give us a sneak peak into the plot for Go For It Girl? Or will we just have to wait? At this stage all I will say is that Margaret, Buddy’s mum get politicised and starts fighting for her rights. Also there going to be a strong Mod element running through feature, fans of “Being” will not be disappointed. (6) Many people have been inspired by Being and it has highlighted two important issues. Can we expect the same from Go For It Girl? Yes “Go for it Girl”, will be topical and will cover some important issues, though I stress the film will celebrate the importance of friendship and loyalty. Increasingly in this fractured world with so much hurt we need uplifting stories to highlight some beauty and love.
(7) You have said on Social media that you have happy memories meeting with Mark Wingett at Bar Italia “drinking good coffee.” Did Mark Wingett have much input into the storyline and what influence did he have on the making of the film? Mark Wingett did not add to the story, this has already been finalised. We spoke about logistics of filming scooter scene, he put me in touch with Trevor Laird for his guest appearance and we spoke about the issues film raises. Over good coffee we spoke about the Quadrophenia shoot and The Who, it was special to hear Mark’s stories, he’s a raconteur when it comes to a tale. We will have to return to Bar Italia prior to “Go for It Girl” going into production seems only fitting to keep up the tradition.
photo (c) Devlin Crow – Being 2019 (8) When should we expect Go For It Girl to be complete & will it also feature on Blu-Ray. The script has been written and I will be approaching a digital channel and private backers hopefully for finance, rather than the Crowdfunding route. You need a largest budget for a feature, I know how much love there is for “Being” and public are willing to support as they want the feature to get the green light. However I could not expect financial support through Crowdfunding for it will be a three figure sum. When it is released it will come out on Blu-ray, DVD and will be streamed. If Being Buddies keep sharing news on “Go For It Girl”, following and liking its social media sites, we can gain a strong media presence for a theatrical cinema release. Im sure you would love that!
photo (c) Devlin Crow – Being 2019 Thank you for agreeing to do this interview and I look forward to the feature of go for it girl.Mods Of Your Generation Community- Please like and share the interview far and wide. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who likes the MOYG page and to invite you all to like the Being film Page & I also encourage you to join Being Buddies Group to keep up to date about latest news on “Being” and “Go For It Girl”.Being Buddies GroupBeing Film Page
Photo (c) Being 2019 Photo (c) to Devlin Crow & Being film interview (c) Johnny Bradley & Mods Of Your Generation copyright by Mods of Your Generationinterview conducted by Johnny Bradley for Mods of your Generation
I came across ‘Stinger’ after seeing a post on Facebook an illustrated book based on Quadrophenia. Intrigued by the beautifully painted images I wanted to find out more. I discovered that it was a kickstarter project and Immediately wanted to show my support and pledge. I then discovered Tina Freeman the lady behind the idea to find out more about her and the wonderful book. I asked her if she would like to feature in an interview to help promote it. We spoke on the phone and instantly hit it off as if we had known one another for years. We discussed Nicky Weller’s involvement as collaborator of the book and many of our common interests such as music and fashion. It was so exciting to hear all about the characters in the book and who they were based on. Tina described them to me with absolute passion & love for the project.As a father of three young children I am often asked ‘Dad what is Quadrophenia about?’ as it has been referenced many times at home. My children are not old enough to watch the film, therefore I was immediately excited to share this book with them. I felt extremely privileged to receive a soft back copy of the book from Tina. I sat with my children and read the book pointing out the many references to Quadrophenia and the mod scene as they eagerly listened to find out what adventures awaited ‘Stinger The Bell Bee’I highly recommended this book to anyone with a passion for the 60’s and Quadrophenia. This book is a great way to share your experiences and love for music & fashion with your children or grandchildren and inspiring the next generation. I hope you enjoy reading the interview as much as i did asking the questions.
1) Where did you grow up and how old were you when you discovered the mod scene? I grew up on a very 60s Housing Estate in Birmingham, lots of Flats, Maisonettes and lots of concrete ‘the planners dream gone wrong.’ There were a few cool Mod lads wandering around after the 79 Revival which intrigued me. I became a little Mod girl at the young impressionable age of 13. I got my first scooter, a Lambretta LD 150 before I was even old enough to drive it.
2) At what age did you discover you had a talent for drawing? Very young really, I used to copy all the Disney characters from my “Now I Know” comics from the age of three. 3) Who are your favourite bands or artists and the most influential to you as a teenager growing up? I had an infant school teacher who loved The Beatles, so I think my interest and love of the 60’s came from this. The first Mod band I listened to was The Jam. I loved the energy and passion, still do.Then I went through a blinkered phase of only listening to original R&B and soul. I think the bands most influential to me as an artist have to be The Small Faces and The Who.
4) What bands or music do you listen to now? I have much wider tastes these days. I think we are incredibly lucky under the “umbrella of Mod” to have so much to choose from. I think I would have got bored and moved away from the scene if we didn’t have that ever evolving attitude.Even if you just take Wellers’ life body of music, there are enough songs here to suit your ever changing moods, see what I did there?I paint to music; I really think it adds the magic to the process.At the moment I have True Meanings on my turntable, by Paul Weller. I am like a teenager again, playing it over and over, absolutely love it. I seem to be playing The Beatles a lot too, perhaps that is just because of my “A Bee Road” painting in my book.I also have a CD player (I know! how very modern of me) to listen to ‘Georgie the brightest star’ by The Electric Stars. It is a beautiful hymn about George Best who features in one of my future stories. 5) In the 90’s you shared an art Studio on King Street in Manchester and worked as a freelance illustrator. You also worked as a portrait artist for Manchester United. Tell us a little bit about your art studio and some of the footballers you did portraits of? I relocated to Manchester after working in North Wales. The studio was seriously cool, with a lovely old balcony overlooking King Street. I worked for some great Ad agencies and The Royal Mail as well as Man United. Along with other merchandise I did limited edition portraits of Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona and Peter Schmeichel.
6) When did you draw the initial illustrations for the book and what inspired you to come up with the concept basing it on the mod scene and Quadrophenia? As a freelance illustrator I had worked on The Red Devil mascot character and Billy the Butlins Bear. I started thinking of a cool Wasp character to drive around on a Vespa.I had already produced a Who Collection of paintings and screen prints and had a few meetings with Trinifold Management. It was a bit of a light bulb moment for me when I realised, I could call the character ‘Sting’ and tie it into my love of Quadrophenia.I had two versions which I explained to Robert Rosenberg, one of a generic Wasp character tootling his way around Britain in The Sixties, the other very much based on Quad, using iconic scenes from the film which ultimately if animated should be very music driven.
7) Many of the characters in the book are based on members of your favourite bands & the Quadrophenia cast. Can you tell us a little bit about each character and who they are based on? Without wanting to give too much away, you can meet characters from Ace Mod Dog bands “The Whoof” and “The Cool Faces” with Ste Merrimutt. When I showed my portfolio of original paintings to Pete Townshend I was quite nervous. Luckily he liked his character “Pete Houndshend” and has been really encouraging. I am yet to meet Roger, although this is very much part of my wish list.
8) You showed Franc Roddam the director of Quadrophenia the illustrations and your idea to base the book on Quadrophenia. What were his thoughts and was he supportive of your plans? This was about 5 years ago, a very important piece in the jigsaw. I met Franc down in Brighton where he was doing a Q&A. He had mentioned that he had a two year old, and it would be a long time before he would get to know of Quadrophenia. I told him it might be sooner if he liked my story and showed him the first few watercolour paintings. I asked Franc if I could dedicate the book to his son, which he agreed.The story line and character evolved over the next few years, changing the name from Sting to Stinger to avoid copyright issues. I then made the decision to change him from a wasp into a much more lovable Bee Character. It felt right then, with him coming from Manchester, and having much more heart.
I met up with Franc again at The Teenage Cancer Trust event this January, where he introduced me to Sting, who just so happened to be sat at our table. It is very rare for him to attend a Quadrophenia event, so I was incredibly lucky. Sting loved the character and gave the book his full blessing, which was fantastic.
9) You met Nicky Weller at the Cunard Building in Liverpool, in the first few days of the Jam exhibition ‘About The Young Idea’. Can you explain how this led to collaborating with her to publish ‘Stinger’? I went along to The Jam exhibition as a fan and ended up being invited in to sell my ‘Quadrotina’ artwork in the shop. The next day was my birthday, and I had a surreal experience eating cupcakes with Nicky and Ann Weller. My “Quadwoofenia” collection of Dogs on Scooters sold really well, so I introduced a Bruce Foxtail, and Rick Boxer to the set. We had such a laugh over the 14 weeks coming up with new names and characters.It was at their literary event that I mentioned that I had a children’s book based on Quadrophenia. I sat down with Nicky and Den Davis who ‘got it’ completely, especially the concept of having it animated as a kids’ TV series or feature film.
10) Nicky introduced you to her brother Paul Weller. What were his thoughts on your artwork and your ideas and what other things did you discuss? The first time I met Paul he came into the shop at The Jam exhibition, for a cup of tea. Nicky showed him my “Paw Weller” Quadwoof pic. It was hilarious, not at all how I imagined it would be if I ever got to meet him. I met him recently at his studio with Nicky. He asked how the book was going on Kickstarter. In fact the night before we had smashed the target of over ten thousand pounds pledged. It was lovely to tell him the news; he seemed genuinely really chuffed for us. I told him how much I had enjoyed the walk through Delamere Forest for his gig the previous week. We chatted about the success of his latest tour, and the wonderful supporting Stone Foundation. He asked about my kids which meant the world to me.
11) What is the vision for Stinger? As I believe this book is the start of a series of books based around the 60’s and the mod scene. Stinger is the first of this series. I have this idea where different characters from Quadrophenia are developed and will have their own spin off adventures. I have had such fun with this concept, including what we know has happened to the actors after Quad. I would love different cast members to narrate the books, in the same way Phil Daniels recorded Stinger. To me Pete Townshend’s’ musical score is what really drives Quadrophenia. We are brilliant in this country at animation; just imagine combining a series with fantastic music and how much more it would connect with kids, hopefully watching with their parents and grandparents.I often find myself trying to explain what “a Mod is” to young children. It was easier for me to illustrate the concept of being ‘the best that you can be’ through Stinger. You never know, we might have a new little revival on our hands.
12) What was it like for you meeting Phil Daniels and the cast of Quadrophenia? Firstly can I say what an honour it is to know, and now work with some of the cast. Quadrophenia was my coming of age Teenage film, and certainly helped shape me as a young Mod, scooterist and artist. My friend and I would hire the video out most weekends and knew it word for word. Imagine how that feels now for me to be not only talking to but sharing my ideas creatively with my heroes.
I met Phil Daniels first, with Garry Cooper (aka Fenton) and Trevor Laird (Ferdy) at a brilliant Quad event in Widnes where I was invited by Rob Wright to sell my artwork. I showed them the initial ideas for Stinger and asked if they would consider doing the voice over’s playing their characters if I got it as far as an animated project.
I kept in touch with Trevor, who has been so kind and generous with his time, helping me to meet other actors such as Lesley Ash, Toyah, Gary Shail and Mark Wingett to move forwards with this dream.
13) When will the book be available to purchase and where can people get hold of it? Now we have reached our target, we have to get the hard backed collector’s edition version printed and have the record pressed with Stinger narrated by Phil Daniels.Those wonderful people who pledged to get the book printed will be the first to receive their copies. After that we will be holding a few special events such as an official launch with readings and signings.
14) What message would you like to give to those who have supported the book and to those who have pledged? Nicky Weller, our close knit team of designers Anthony Mulryan , Phil Dias and I am so very grateful to each and every person that pledged, shared our posts, and supported us through our first experience of Kickstarter.I always knew that I would have to come at this project from a different angle. A children’s book on Mods would be seen to have a very limited audience in the eyes of a publisher. I have been amazed how many normal (“Wot is normal then?”) fans the book has, of people of all ages and walks of life. I initially wrote it for Mods to enjoy with their kids and grandchildren, but found it has a much wider appeal.I think anything really written from the heart will find that connection with people, whether it be a shared love of music, scooters or just the pretty pictures.
The Touch are back after 40 years with their brand new album ‘Lost and Found’They were a mod revival band in the 70’s recording one album which was confusingly released by their record company under the wrong name. as well as know track titles or any other information about the band.I was kindly given a copy of the NEW album before its release and became instantly hooked to find out more about the previous album and the confusion around the first albums release. There may of been confusion around the previous album however there is no confusing who they are now. Whether your a fan of great music or a new fan of The Touch, whether you just like the Mod revival, or brilliantly written creative and relatable music. I suggest this album needs to be part of your collection.I was so excited about the new and old album that i immediately needed to interview them to find out more. I am also incredibly intrigued to see what they do next.
(1) Where do you find inspiration for your song lyrics & music? The music usually starts with an idea that magically arrives’ in the head, either as a riff, or a melody. It’s rare that one starts out with the idea to create a particular progression, and more often the rest of the music gets built around that one idea. Lyrics are a different matter. They are almost always either autobiographical or about something we’ve observed. For example, we must have been in the depths of teenage misery when we wrote Grey Day and I’m a Stranger as they are certainly based on real events. On the other hand, Walk in the Park, and Stop Stop are social commentaries. (2) How and when was the band formed? An early version of the band (The Flames) came together as a unit around 1976 with Son Jack on lead guitar and vocals, Gerry on rhythm guitar, Charlie on drums and Jim Henebury on bass. When Jim left, for a while we were 2 guitars and drums, weird but it sort of worked. We used to rehearse at Alaska Studios in Waterloo round the corner from the famous Wellington pub where many of the great early mod revival bands used to play. The studio was owned by ex-Vibrators bassist Pat Collier, and it’s thanks to him that we got started properly, but more about that later.
(3) When & where was your first gig? As The Flames our first gig was the Rochester Castle, Stoke Newington November 3, 1977 opening for the Stukas. We also supported them every other Thursday that month. As The Touch, our debut was at the Nashville on Dec 29, 1979 supporting the Bishops.
(4) Has anyone played a major role in your music career? We’d have to say that Alan May, Dizzy Holmes, and Albert Cummings are the three kings for us right now as they are responsible for us being back together. Another big shout out goes to Pat Collier who got us started in the first place. We were a scrappy 3 piece called The Flames rehearsing at his Alaska Studios in London in ’77 when he helped us out playing bass, booking our first gigs, and helping us with promotion. Having him produce this album was brilliant and brought things full circle. (5) Your new album was recently released. What has the reaction been? We’ve been blown away by the comments and overall reaction, really, just staggering. You usually expect a spread of opinions in the feedback and so far it’s been just amazing.
(6) What were the biggest challenges in doing this album? That’s easy. Time. Son Jack lives in the states, Dave is in Devon, and Charlie and Gerry are in London, so trying to find time when we could all be in the same place at the same time was hard. It’s amazing we managed to get together as often as we did, and over a 6 month period Son Jack flew to London 5 times to get this done.The second biggest challenge was re-learning songs that none of us had touched in 40 years. This involved converting lots of old dusty cassettes into MP3’s and hunting through old boxes of lyrics to track down the words and song structures. (7) Where can fans buy or download the old & new albums? Pretty much everywhere! There are a bunch of options:1/ Via Paypal (UK and Europe only and incl s&h) send £13 to g.czerniawski@uel.ac.uk2/ Worldwide CD fulfilment via CDbaby at https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/thetouch43/ For streaming and downloads it’s on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, Google Music, Deezer, Napster, Pandora, Shazam, Tidal, Youtube Music and a bunch of other places.
(8) Have you got any future gigs coming up and what’s next for the band? We have just one more gig on the books at the Mod Weekender in Brighton on August 24th. We’re at the Hope and Ruin in Queen Street and are playing a double bill with the Teenbeats. Last time we played together was at Marquee in ’79 I think so this will be a very special gig. We’re also pricing it for the fans at £13 on the night, or £10 in advance at http://bit/ly/TouchTeenbeats.
(9) What’s the story behind the first album being released under the wrong name? We have theories but would risk getting sued for defamation of character if we shared them J. Let’s put it down to being young, naive, and star-struck at having an album at the age of 18. Twenty/twenty hindsight and all that.
(10) Can we look forward to another great third album? Haha! Mate, we’ve just finished this one and that took 40 years! Seriously though, it’s too early to tell but if we think we can do a knockout third album, and there’s demand for more then we’ll definitely consider the idea. (11) After the band disbanded after confusion over release of first album, what did each of the members go on to do musically or other? Son Jack: I didn’t play for over twenty years. It was only after moving to the states that I got the blues bug, and started trying to learn how to play it. I started out playing solo, then duo, then full on 4-piece band and enjoyed a 10 year career playing blues all over the world and recording 4 albums. Best part was getting to meet some amazing people like BB King, and we even got to open for Chuck Berry in the legendary Duck Room in St Louis.Gerry: I spent a few years playing in different bands including the tail end of The Fixations, Bad Karma Beckons, Waving Not Drowning and Mojo Hand. I’ve got a ‘day job’ but the music side of things has never really left my soul so keep my hand in one way or another.
Charlie: Although I played on the early demo’s included on the Detour release, I had left the band before the first album was recorded so didn’t actually play on it. Instead I went back to education and retook some exams. Played drums for garage band called Bad Karma Beckons with Gerry, they released an album, Mutate and Survive, in 1986. Currently also playing in a couple of active London bands namely The Phobics and The Beatpack.”Dave: After the touch I played in a number of new romantic groups in London including The Marines, and concentrated on learning the keyboards and developing my song writing. In 2000 I spent ten years living in Catalonia and during that time played in a popular dropzone band.
(12) When did the band decide to get back together and why? We got “re-discovered” through an insane set of unlikely events about 2 years ago. It’s a really long story but in short, Alan May and Dizzy Holmes tracked us down. Alan urged us to consider getting back together, and Dizzy wanted to do an official re-release of the original album on his Paisley Archive label. Alan also put us in touch with London promoter, Albert Cummings, who offered us a gig. So basically, everything was lined up and we had a reason to get back together. Without Alan, Dizzy and Albert I don’t think we would have bothered so we’re incredibly grateful for their support and encouragement. (13) Where would you like to see the band in a few years and what can we expect from you in the future? We’d LIKE to see us being waited on hand and foot on a private Island in the Caribbean but that probably isn’t going to happen. We’re in this for the love of it, not the money so we’re not on the career path that the younger more ambitious acts are. As long as we’re making music together, even if occasionally, that will be a beautiful thing. (14) Do you have a message for fans and a response to the reaction the band has had from the new album? That’s an easy one. THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS! You’ve made a bunch of old geezers feel like teenagers again.
(15) How would you describe the bands musical style if you were to compare it to another band? That’s a tough question as our musical style doesn’t easily fit one definition, as it evolved over time. We started out playing rock’n’roll (Gene Vincent, Johnny Kidd, Chuck Berry etc) in Charlie’s basement around 1973, and then when punk rolled around we got into that for a couple of years. Then we did the whole mod revival thing which also blended with Power Pop. So, you’ll hear elements of all those phases in the songs.
The big picture: punks and skins in harmony against Racism, a point very rarely spoken about, especially when the name skinhead gets involved
The big picturePhotography The photographer who captured the spirit of punk has released a book of her most arresting portraits
Punks and Skins on the Steps, taken in Coventry in 1980. Photograph: Janette Beckman
If they weren’t a band, they should have been. Janette Beckman, who chronicled the early years of punk in the UK, took this photograph in Coventry in 1980. She had by then made her name on Melody Maker, with pictures of the Clash on tour and the Sex Pistols in a skip; she caught the moment when Paul Weller first met Pete Townshend, one modfather to another; she made the Police’s first album cover; she assembled the Specials on Southend pier.
Beckman, who grew up in north London, had left London College of Printing and walked into Sounds magazine one afternoon in 1977 with her student portfolio. She was immediately dispatched to photograph Siouxsie and the Banshees and never looked back.
She was as likely to turn her camera on the audience and the streets as on the stage and the tour bus. In those years the boundaries between music and art and style seemed unusually porous. Punk was above all an “irrepressible attitude” she has suggested of that moment. “It was about change, the idea that people should question authority and do it for themselves.”
The four lads in this picture capture that spirit. They have put thought into how they look but are not striking poses. The picture is included in a short monograph of Beckman’s work of that time, which also includes images of Sid Vicious’s funeral procession and the Saturday afternoon punks of King’s Road, Chelsea. In 1982, after the edge of that attitude had given way to the posturing of the new romantics, Beckman moved to New York, where she took similarly iconic pictures of pioneer hip-hop artists and their followers. “People were really happy to be photographed back then,” she says. “As it didn’t happen very often.”
Janette Beckman’s Raw Punk Streets UK 1979-1982(Café Royal Books, £6) is available atcaferoyalbooks.com
The Harrington Saints are an amazingly talented bad with members who all have other massive side projects. Up until now most of their songs have been about your classic punk and skinhead topics. You know? The same “rah rah we are West Ham” coming from some guys in California is a bit hard to grasp. What I bet you didn’t know behind all the mod influence and skinhead style music. There is a lot of heart and emotion that comes out of this band. I’ve been a fan for a bit and “1000lbs of Oi” is one of the best albums of it’s genre in the last five or so years.
“State Of Emergency” is something you would expect from Bad Religion not Harrington Saints, and that is NOT a bad thing. The song is about gun control and the lack of empathy Americans have for dead kids. It seems more important they have their guns. Instead of sugar coating it behind flowery language like Bad Religion does often. This is a raw as a nerve end track.
There are some classic oi songs, like the title track. These guys are not small humans so the “1000lbs of Oi” is a little bit tongue and cheek. I love it personally as a somewhat larger lad. Rock N Rolla is a splitting oi track that brings you back to the 1980s. However the highlight to me was the song “Fremount Train” about a very real incident that happened. This isn’t your typical “fuck Nazis” song. It’s about beating the fascists up, and walking away with a smile with blood on your hands because you know you’re in the right. One of the most poignant lines being “why is the right wing always on the wrong side of history? Why is this a lesson we still have to teach today?”
If you don’t have a copy of this record it’s available on bandcamp, iTunes as well as Pirate’s Press Records…..or you know where ever awesome records are sold.
Back in the mod ’60s, when Twiggy conquered London and fashion changed forever, the waif of a teen with huge eyes, a boyish bob and long legs craved the glamour and curves of a different icon.
“Whether you’re thin, fat, small, dark, blond, redhead, you wanna be something else,” said the world’s first boldface supermodel. “I wanted a fairy godmother to make me look like Marilyn Monroe. I had no boobs, no hips, and I wanted it desperately.”
What she wanted was all around her: fuller-figure models with names nobody remembers, many of them middle-class or upper- crust older girls biding their time before landing husbands. Absent any of that, what Twiggy had was extreme youth, a thirst for fashion and triple-layered false eyelashes that fed her right into the decade’s social revolution alongside the Beatles and pop art.
Now 60, she remains a one- name wonder with a joyous laugh, a gift for chat and a homegirl cockney accent. She’s achieved, slightly, some of those coveted curves, but she hasn’t lost her edge. The singer, dancer, actress and author isn’t done just yet.
Twiggy will soon hit HSN with an affordable line of skinny jeans, ruffled blouses, gypsy skirts, jackets and accessories in bold colors and price points of under $100. That, she said, would have pleased her younger self, who saved up spending money to splurge at London’s popular Biba boutique.
“I’ve always had the strong belief that fashion should be for everyone, not just for wealthy people,” said Twiggy, lounging on a white hotel settee between Union Jack accent pillows. “Lots of people can’t afford to spend lots of money on clothes, and they should have nice things, too.”
Lots of people who wear lots of different sizes. The “Twiggy London” line will be available up to around size 20, said the creator, who cites genes — not starvation — for the rail-thin look that made her the face of 1966 at age 16.
It’s not the first time Twiggy has indulged her interest in design, or remote shopping. Her “Twiggy Collection” of last decade was sold online through the portal Great Universal.
There were other home- shopping ventures as well. Back in the ’60s, she put out a line for teens but left it in the dust of some bad business partners after three years.
“We were very green then. We’re a bit wiser now. A little bit older, a little wiser,” she said with a laugh.
The youngest of three girls, she was born Lesley Hornby in north London’s Neasden to a carpenter dad and a factory- worker mom who also worked a Woolworth’s counter to earn extra money. At 5 feet 6 inches — short for a model — Twiggy weighed only 91 pounds when she exploded into the culture.
Working Saturdays as an assistant in a hair salon, she met Nigel Davies, who became her boyfriend and manager, changing his name to the flashier Justin de Villeneuve. They arranged for a hairdresser to engineer her androgynous ‘do for photos he put up in his salon. The shots were spotted by one of his clients who wrote for the Daily Express and splashed Twiggy across two pages to launch her career.
By 1967, she was on the cover of Vogue, jetting around the world working six days a week and spreading the London look to America, where knee-length hems and pillbox hats inspired by Jackie Kennedy were still the norm when she made her first visit to the U.S. that year.
Before she was discovered, she was already painting on tiny lower lashes — “my twigs” — to help make her eyes look as large as tea saucers. Her look was perfect for emerging unisex trends and ever-rising hemlines, but it opened the debate still raging over whether skinny models promote an unhealthy body ideal, especially for young girls.
“It was debated when I hit the headlines and I always came out and said that I was very healthy, which I was, and always ate, which I do. I love my food. I just come from a lineage. My dad was very slim, so it’s kind of in the genes really,” she said.
In today’s crowded model marketplace, where competition is far more fierce than when Twiggy came up, girls have died as a result of starvation. She thinks the publishers of fashion magazines, booking agents, modeling agencies and designers all share responsibility.
“They ask for these girls. It’s gotta stop. I don’t know how you go about it, so the debate goes on,” she said. “The agencies have to protect these girls.”
Twiggy’s interest in fashion design was stronger than modeling ever was.
“I didn’t plan to be a model. I thought the world had gone stark raving mad,” she said. “I was used to being teased at school for being so skinny and I thought I was really funny looking, but I was obsessed with clothes.” She retired from modeling in 1970 after four years, joking at the time: “You can’t be a clothes hanger for your entire life.” She moved on to stage, films, TV and singing, earning two Golden Globes and a Tony nomination. The ultra-skinny look remains dominant in fashion.
“Twiggy will be an icon until her dying day and beyond,” film director and writer Ken Russell, who cast her as Polly Browne in a musical adaptation of “The Boy Friend,” told The Biography Channel in 2007.
Twiggy spent four seasons as a judge on “America’s Next Top Model.” There was also a memoir, a book on looking good at 40 and a return to modeling in 2005 for the British department store chain Marks & Spencer.
And there was her daughter, now 31-year-old Carly, a textile designer for Stella McCartney who made a scarf in a repeated hummingbird motif for her mother’s HSN line that launches Saturday.
Twiggy cites teen innocence and solid supervision for not succumbing to the more destructive aspects of the era that made her famous.
“My dad was always a very strong presence in my life. He instilled a kind of being down- to-earth, being sensible, especially when this whole thing happened to me,” she said.
How does she see it now, looking back over the last 44 years? “It was just so weird,” she said. “I was this funny little kid from working-class London. It could have gone horribly wrong.”
My mother is the late British punk icon Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, better known as Poly Styrene. Before I came into the picture, she had been a leading figure in the UK punk scene as the first woman of colour to lead a punk band, X-Ray Spex. And, she was one of the first black women in rock in the UK. I had known this but didn’t fully comprehend the extent of her role as the creative force behind the band’s success. That isn’t the version of her that features in all my earliest memories.
What I remember is the warmth of her lap, the late night baths in the kitchen sink and the songs she sang to me before I slept. So many songs. Some were borrowed, most were her own. There was rarely a moment when mum wasn’t singing, writing, or creating. At times I was jealous of her art. She would sit at her little desk channeling her creative energy, while I wondered where ‘mummy’ had gone. My nan would come to visit and tell her off for leaving me to my own devices. I was half dressed with unbrushed hair, causing chaos in the kitchen cupboards while my mother was lost in her own world. When I complained that I was bored, she sent me off with some paper and crayons, telling me boredom was merely the consequence of an unimaginative mind. Mum often struggled to reconcile her art with her duties as a mother, and sometimes I resented her lack of presence when she was in the zone. Creative people don’t always make the best parents.
Celeste Bell, Daughter of Poly Styrene sings with her band Debutante Disco at The Roundhouse London 2008 Supporting Xray Spex
But, when she died in 2011, shortly after being diagnosed with breast cancer that had already spread to her bones, I was inconsolable. As an only child, I was suddenly entrusted with my mother’s legacy. It was a position I had never imagined I would find myself in such a young age. I had boxes of her belongings that I was not ready to open. Alongside the boxes was a small vase containing her ashes, waiting to be scattered in India’s holy Yamuna river – as a devout Hare Krishna devotee, this was her only dying wish. It would take me several years to take the ashes to India. Even longer to open those boxes. Three years ago I began long the long process of archiving her artwork, lyrics, poems and diary entries. After so many years spent grieving the loss of my mother, this helped me to reconnect with her once again and discover a part of her life I had only known through stories, her life as Poly Styrene.
Through the archival process, I was able to piece together a snapshot of that artistically prolific period in her life. Not only did she write all the lyrics to the songs on the highly acclaimed album Germ-Free Adolescents, but she also created all the artwork for the band herself. This was a woman who took Punk’s DIY ethic to a level beyond that of most of her contemporaries, and she did it all as a working-class teenager whose formal education ended at the age of 15 when she dropped out of school and ran away from home.
My mother created X-Ray Spex as a musical vehicle for her alter-ego who she saw as a kind of plastic punky princess living in a dystopian future somewhat reminiscent of Huxley’s A Brave New World. She was inspired by postmodernism, science-fiction, and television advertisements. In songs such as ‘Genetic Engineering’, ‘The Day The World Turned Day Glo’ and ‘Arti-i-ficial’ she describes a synthetic, scientifically enhanced world where nature has retreated and consumerism is the state religion. An astute prophecy. While in others she is brashy. “Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard. But I say… Oh Bondage! Up yours!” she sings in the now iconic punk single from 1977.
“After so many years spent grieving the loss of my mother, this helped me to reconnect with her once again and discover a part of her life I had only known through stories”
On my journey to memorialise her, I have co-authored Dayglo: The Poly Styrene Story alongside writer Zoe Howe, which was published by Omnibus Press last month. Originally intended as a coffee table style art-book to showcase my mother’s visual artwork and writings, it has evolved into the definitive story of her life and work. Shortly after embarking on the book project we joined forces with Invisible Britain director Paul Sng on a documentary film, Poly Styrene: I am a Cliché.
As I reconstructed my view of who my mother was, it became clear that exhibiting her archive was the final piece of the jigsaw. Identity! A Poly Styrene Retrospective, which is currently showing, is the first exhibit of my mother’s work. It lays bear her status as a hugely significant yet under appreciated multidisciplinary artist. 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning is one of the only art spaces originally established to champion the work of African, Caribbean and Asian artists. And, the location was also significant as Brixton was where my mother had spent her formative years.
It took a year to plan and organise, but Mattie Loyce and I have put together an exciting program of events. I’m really looking forward to the Identity! Weekender on 1 June, which explores her legacy through panels and an evening of music curated by the DIY punks of colour festival Decolonise Fest. The program of events involves people who knew Poly, like Youth who produced her last album Generation Indigo. They’re joined by artists who found inspiration in her work such as Melodie Holiday, artist and lead singer of Art Trip and the Static Sound, and creatives who are continuing her DIY and radical legacy today like black feminist punk Big Joanie.
I am nowhere near the end of the journey I embarked on three years ago. The documentary project has taken a lot longer than I had initially envisaged. The stress of my first foray into filmmaking has at times had me questioning why I ever got myself into such an endeavour in the first place.
Ironically, now I understand the all-encompassing reality of trying to bring your creative ideas to life. Seeing my mother’s art exhibited in a gallery, art that had been lying in unopened boxes for so long, has been truly rewarding and therapeutic. The sense of achievement and overwhelmingly positive reactions to her work tells me that this journey has been worthwhile.
Identity! A Poly Styrene Retrospective will be exhibited at 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning until 7 June. Find out more here.
Lydia Lunch: ‘If it’s for the money, you’re not doing art. You’re doing commerce’
The no wave legend has worked with Sonic Youth and Nick Cave, written books and created art. At 56, she still rages against the commercialisation of pop culture
Lydia Lunch: ‘Just call me Lady Gaza.’ Photograph: Ulf Andersen/Getty Images
Lydia Lunch takes the stage in Berlin. Gazing behind her black bangs into the front crowd at Urban Spree’s DYS Festival, she points her red nails through the dry ice, screaming: “Narcotics and psychotropics, ecstasy slips through my hands. I’m still searching for the drug – I need a year in a sexual coma to take care of my problems – I tried crack five times, I couldn’t get high.”
Even at 56, Lunch remains the voice of New York’s underground, from which she emerged in the late 70s as part of the no wave movement. A singer, poet, actor, visual artist and spoken word performer, she has no manager or PR agent – she’s even been homeless at points in her career.
“If you’re doing it for the money, you’re not doing art. You’re doing commerce,” she said. She says that being an artist is not a career choice, but a necessity “if your blood boils”. Even if spoken word performance is dying, it doesn’t stop her from being what she calls “the last war whore left”.
After 37 years on stage, Lunch – who got her name because she used to steal food for her friends, American punks the Dead Boys – is in discussion with various American universities and institutions to place her colossal archives of over 1,500 books, posters and diaries, unseen live footage, unpublished photos and fan mail, for public view.
“It’s everything I’ve ever done,” says Lunch over a glass of white wine in Berlin’s Michelberger Hotel. “I’ve been taking photos since 1990, each one needs to be scanned. I have letters from guys I don’t know – letters with bodily fluids. Thirty-seven years is a lot of time for creating. I want it all available.”
Lunch is now hosting a writing workshop with former Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, a Buddhist writing institute in Boulder, Colorado. She plays San Francisco’s DNA on 29 July and at Los Angeles’ Teagram Ballroom on 31 July. That same night, Lunch opens an exhibition of her photos in a two-woman show with Jasmine Hirst called Beautiful Wrecks at Los Angeles’s Lethal Amounts Gallery, where her black-and-white photographs of adolescent boys, All My Heroes are Killers, are on view. She then heads to Melbourne for the Supersense arts festival. Bloodworks, an anthology of her poetry, is slotted for release next year in France.
After Melbourne, Lunch will return to Woodstock to write her next book, a tome about sex which she says will stand in stark contrast to her previous work. “I’m into pleasure rebellion,” she says, lighting a cigarette. “I’ve shared all my misery and tragedy but in my personal life I’m a cheerleader, an optimist. That aspect of myself is not shared. Once you are free from trauma, you are going to luxuriate in pleasure and happiness – personal pleasure. A divine gluttony, I should say.”
For this book, she’s done “a lot of research with one person”, whom she declines to name. “It took me this long to find someone who is going to inspire what I think is going to be a great work of art and needs to enter literature. Sex is often portrayed so badly, 50 shades of what? It’s insulting, so shallow.”
Lunch fled New York in 2004 when Bush won a second term: “I couldn’t take it.” Based in Barcelona, she travels frequently to writer’s residencies and arts festivals and tours with her band Retrovirus. This nomadic lifestyle, she says, is why she is looking for a permanent place for her archives. Upbeat and garrulous, she has always taken a stance against mainstream pop culture and doesn’t hold back her opinions on corporate America.
“The celebrity of riches and being famous for doing nothing is a cycle and I hope one day there will be a cultural rebellion,” she said. “People will be sick of vacant, culturally bankrupt bullshit based on how much you paid for your dress or surgery. Will there be a generational rebellion? We can hope the next cycle will be anticorporate. Corporations have won – your worth is based on what you make, not what you do or what you say.
“Madonna and Lady Gaga have stylists who are cultural vampires who steal the ideas from the underground then elevate transgression to a mainstream,” she adds. “Complete fraudulence on every front. These are my enemies. That’s why I say: ‘You can call me Lady Gaza.’”
However, there are some musicians she does admire. Electronic musician Nicolas Jaar contacted Lunch as a fan, asking if he could remix a track from her 1990 spoken word album Conspiracy of Women (COW), which he reissued on his label, Other People. “He is doing something to support people,” she said. “He is the beginning of the cultural revolution of people his age. That’s where my hope doesn’t ever die.”
Born in Rochester, New York, in the 70s Lunch moved to New York City, where she founded Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Along with bands like James Chance and the Contortions and Mars, the band were an integral part of the no wave scene – a raw, noisy and arty alternative to the more commercial new wave movement of the time, typified by bands like Talking Heads and Blondie.
As well as Sonic Youth, Lunch has worked with Nick Cave and Henry Rollins, with whom she co-starred in a short film called Kiss Napoleon Goodbye. She curated and starred in the work of artist Richard Kern. “A lot of the people I worked with were no more famous than I was, they just became more famous,” she says. “They did the same record 100 times, I did not.”
The new Retrovirus album Urge to Kill was released in May on her own label, Widowspeak, its nine tracks filled with meandering, scratchy vocals and wailing guitars. Lock Your Door is a vengeful breakup anthem, while Dead Me You Beside is infested with fuzz guitar. “I’m just a writer, I just use music as a machine gun to get the words across,” she said.
Despite her illustrious body of work, Lunch still feels like she’s had no cultural impact. “I always say ‘Don’t blame me for Courtney Love, she’s a trainwreck crash into a bank’. I know I’ve impacted individuals and that’s what’s important but I see no culture reflecting back the impact I’ve had.”
Nevertheless, she battles on and encourages others to do the same. Lunch has created a workshop called From the Page to the Stage, which helps writers perform. “Women should write stories, even if it’s for the exorcism of their own demons.
“People have always been afraid, I don’t know why. This is why I feel like I haven’t had a cultural impact otherwise women would be ranting on street corners and shouting and whispering. After 37 years, one can learn to master it.”
The New Pornographer: A Richard Kern Interview John-Paul Pryor , May 24th, 2010 08:42
The cult photographer and no-wave filmmaker Richard Kern talks to John-Paul Pryor about Lydia Lunch, Sonic Youth, self-harming super-freaks and the search for a new kind of beauty.
There are few people who have captured the naked female form in the eye of their lens as much as long-time Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch collaborator Richard Kern, sharp-shooting star of the upcoming Vice-produced documentary Shot By Kern, wherein he travels Europe in search of young girls to shoot in their birthday suits. The Quietus caught up with him at his home in New York to find out how a provocative no-wave film director – who brought us lo-fi celluloid fare such as Fingered, Stray Dogs and You Killed Me First – turned into a polite, self-effacing 55-year-old on a quest to shoot a new kind of beauty (albeit via Hustler shoots, Kenneth Anger conventions and drug-crazed fans with a taste for blood).
What made you want to pursue the life of a photographer?
Richard Kern: I would have to say it was Blow-Up. When I saw that movie as a kid, I thought that it just looked like a really perfect life. I mean, the character was rich, he was driving around doing cool stuff, and he had girls come over that he would shoot.
Did Blow-Up also inspire you to start making films?
RK: I would love to make a film like that because there is so much thinking going on in that movie – you can actually see it on the actor’s faces – but Blow-Up didn’t have much to do with my films. My early films were more closely related to Russ Meyer or John Waters, or even the slasher films of the era. I also used to go to as many of Kenneth Anger’s film screenings as I could to try and hear him speak, but he never spoke, he would just wander silently around the crowd.
All your films featured some pretty intense people, such as Lydia Lunch and the incredible Lung Leg. What was it like to work with those extreme personalities?
RK: Lydia was a completely ‘take charge’ kind of person who would say, ‘I want to do this and this… and this!’ Fingered was easily the most successful of all those films and that was pretty much just Lydia saying, ‘Let’s go to California and shoot a film!’ That’s how it actually got done. She also introduced me to Sonic Youth, bringing me in on the ‘Death Valley 69’ video to do special effects. Lung Leg was just… well, I had never met anyone like that before. I think I was 30 by then and I had met a lot of people, but I had never met someone as weird as her.
Lydia Lunch
I find Stray Dogs the most bizarre of all your films…
RK: [Laughs] That was one of the Manhattan Love Suicide series, which were all about getting so hung up on your relationships that you just couldn’t do anything else. When you’re young you are so overwhelmed with all these emotions that are centred on your relationship – your life at that age is not about what you are doing but about who you are going out with. All the movies in that series were about people who just get so hung up on it all that they kill themselves. When you are older, it seems like the stupidest thing to be suffering so much: to feel that you have to die for love.
You have shot spreads for Hustler in the past. Would you say there is a line to be drawn between pornography and erotic art?
RK: There’s definitely a line. If you go on the internet and look up porn it’s not going to look like my movies or photos, it’s going to look like something else, and the people involved are going to be a lot uglier. There was a period of about five years when I was shooting for skin mags. I would go out to Los Angeles and see the LA Hollywood star system and the LA porn star system – two parallel universes that operate side-by-side – and that was just depressing. Lots of the people you come in contact with don’t realise that they are making these decisions that are going to determine the rest of their lives. Even the little brush I had shooting stills for magazines still comes back to haunt me. I wouldn’t say I regret it, though, because I produced an incredible library of stuff. Even though I am not a big fan of it at this point, I will probably look back at it in twenty years and see some good stuff in there.
Can you tell us a little about your early zine Heroin Addict?
RK: Well, I put together the zine when I was still young and living in North Carolina. I was listening to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground and thinking, ‘Wow! That sounds so cool!’ So I decided to do this magazine and I think the tagline for it was The Magazine For People Who Are Too Chicken To Do Heroin. Then I moved to New York and saw the real thing, got involved in the real thing, and then got out of the heroin scene.
Why do you think heroin gets such a hold on people?
RK: I would say it’s definitely physiological, and once you get the hook it’s tough – you can get heroin out of your system but then this mental thing keeps coming back; this kind of hopeless despair that doesn’t go away for a couple of years. That’s the part you have to live through.
https://youtu.be/y2Gf0MmRz9g
Have you ever shot anything that you decided was too extreme to show?
RK: There was once a girl from Tokyo who wrote me and said she wanted to model, and after I replied that I thought she looked okay, she got straight on a plane. When she showed up at my house the next day, I said, ‘Wow, you’ve got a lot of cut marks on your arm,’ and she just replied, ‘Oh, I just do that sometimes.’ I said, ‘Well, let me shoot you doing that.’ She just started slicing herself up. It was fucking gross, man. I never showed that stuff. She also had this gigantic bag of all kinds of pills with her, and she would be taking like, ten pills at time.
Would you say you were attracted to that kind of energy?
RK: I am attracted to the weirdness but not to the energy. I fucking hate it. These days, if someone has that kind of tweaked-out druggie energy, I can’t even be around them. I’m shooting way more pastoral now. I’m looking more for beauty and nostalgia than those kinds of extremes. I’m reaching for something new that I haven’t seen before.
Now you have the Shot By Kern about to be screened over here. Why do you think so many girls were keen to be shot by you for that show?
RK: I don’t know. I think with the documentary, it’s maybe just that they want to be on the show. I think women of a certain age are just really interested in trying something new – they want to try something different, just to see if they can do it; it’s like that thing of, ‘I wanna see if I can bungee jump off a bridge, so I’m gonna try it.’ Personally, I would never try it. I would never jump out of an airplane and I would probably never go and model for someone either, but these girls seem to really want to do it.
There is an exhibition of stills from Shot By Kern at Kenny Schachter Rove, 33-34 Hoxton Square, May 21 – June 26
Singer with band found dead at his home in Essex on Monday
True Punk Energy and creativity Keith Flint of the Prodigy
Originally a dancer with the group, Flint performed the vocals on The Prodigy’s No 1 hit singles, Firestarter and Breathe. Photograph: Andy Sheppard/Redferns
Keith Flint, vocalist with the Prodigy, has died at the age of 49, after being found at his home in Essex on Monday.
The Prodigy released a statement confirming the news, saying: “It is with deepest shock and sadness that we can confirm the death of our brother and best friend Keith Flint. A true pioneer, innovator and legend. He will be forever missed. We thank you for respecting the privacy of all concerned at this time.”
Liam Howlett, who formed the group in 1990, confirmed his death was a suicide. “The news is true, I can’t believe I’m saying this but our brother Keith took his own life over the weekend,” he wrote on Instagram. “I’m shell shocked, fuckin angry, confused and heart broken ….. r.i.p brother Liam”.
An Essex police spokesman confirmed that a 49-year-old man had died. “We were called to concerns for the welfare of a man at an address in Brook Hill, North End, just after 8.10am on Monday,” he said.
“We attended and, sadly, a 49-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin have been informed. The death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for the coroner.”
With his punk aesthetic of piercings, spiked hair and intense stare, Flint became one of the UK’s most iconic musical figures in the 1990s. He joined the Prodigy as a dancer, later becoming a frontman alongside rapper Maxim. Aside from their 1992 debut, all of the group’s seven albums have reached No 1 in the UK, the most recent being No Tourists, released in November 2018.
Flint performed the vocals on the Prodigy’s best known singles, Firestarter and Breathe, which both went to No 1 in 1996 – the former became their biggest US hit, and the group are often credited with helping to break dance music into the mainstream in the country.
Firestarter’s black and white video, featuring a headbanging, gurning Flint, was banned by the BBC after it was screened on Top of the Pops, with parents complaining that it frightened children. The self-lacerating lyrics – “I’m the bitch you hated / filth infatuated” – were the first Flint had written for the band. “The lyrics were about being onstage: this is what I am. Some of it is a bit deeper than it seems,” Flint told Q magazine in 2008. The track sold over 600,000 copies in the UK, with
Speaking to the Guardian in 2015, Flint lamented the state of modern pop music. “We were dangerous and exciting! But now no one’s there who wants to be dangerous. And that’s why people are getting force-fed commercial, generic records that are just safe, safe, safe.”
Tributes have been made from his musical peers, including Ed Simons of dance duo the Chemical Brothers, who called him a “great man”. Beverley Knight said the Prodigy were one of “the most innovative, fearless, ballsy bands to grace a stage and Keith was perfection up front. We have lost a Titan.” Sleaford Mods, whose frontman Jason Williamson collaborated with the Prodigy on 2015 track Ibiza, tweeted: “Very sorry to hear of the passing of Keith Flint. Good night mate. Take it easy,” while drum’n’bass producer Friction said “I wouldn’t do what I do without him and the Prodigy in my life.”
Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner also paid tribute, saying “R.I.P. Keith, you leave so many great memories behind”.
As well as his success with the Prodigy, Flint also founded the successful motorcycle racing outfit Team Traction Control, which made its debut in 2014, and went on to win multiple Supersport TT titles.
Really terrible news, such a legend of British music, a cross over from Punk Rock into dance music, This band defined a time of the raves of 89-90. I first saw them in a tent at an illegal rave, then worked with them while with the Mean Fiddler in the 90’s. My kids would run round the room shouting ‘Smash my picture’
Raw energy and talent
The Punk connection was very apparent with the inclusion of Gizz Butt of English Dogs on guitar
I am completely gutted over this. when the raves broke out in 88-89 it was the tail end of the skinhead days for me. violence was escalating to such crazy levels that we were just banned from everywhere. My mob had started drinking in the estate pub as we couldn’t go many other places, i broke up with my first real love live in girlfriend, i had gone on a crazy one around town and attacked 5 -6 people for no reason, i had been badly bottled, blood rolling down my face, but my girlfriend had betrayed me. Police were chasing me, i was having to hide, but because of the blood, no one would take me in, they made me go to the hospital to get stitched up. i was arrested for violent affray. The following week i was called by some mates for a big kick off, as one of our skinhead girls had been raped by a guy from an opposing mob. tooled up we went on the war path…. things were getting out of hand, chains, batons and one bloke had a gun.. i knew it couldn’t go on, but where was i going, how was i going to change direction, my mob, the wycombe skinheads were my blood, i was never going to back away, never abandon them, it was all or nothing… then as i stood at the local pub a week later waiting to see if anyone was coming up for another round of violence, it was like a siege mentality. but 12 years of being in the crew had lead us from those fun days of 2tone, through Oi! past the skinhead fashion, into a mob, crew, firm…
Then a camper van pulled up, some of the skinheads had been asked to go help at a rave, back up against drug dealers, so fuck it, why not, i got in the van and we headed to Slough Centre. The older lads, of The Woobo and the The Xtraverts crew were running the Rave, they greeted us with warmth, told us what was happening, and if we could be back up if it came on top. As i walked through a tunnel of white sheeting i found myself in this big warehouse, music i had not heard before called Acid House, lazers and dry ice filling the room, packed full of sweaty bodies and a repetitive electronic music thumping. Something completely different than i had ever seen.
Out of the haze came the most beautiful girl i have ever known Lizzy Mitchell wearing a bikini, her long blond hair to her waste. she came and kissed me on the lips, hugged me, and put her tongue in my mouth, and pushed a pill down my throat, 20 minutes later life would never be the same again, my days of violence were over, as the love rush just sent me higher than any cloud i could ever imagine.
At that Rave were all the local Punks, all the Rastas, Soul boys, Casuals, and above that the same mob we had been smashing fuck out of eachother for the last few months, one came up to me a black bloke called B he spoke in my ear, ‘So good to see you here mate, you know you lot are an army and we know we were never going to beat you’, I looked at him and could feel no anger, no aggression. I said in return ‘Well you lot are all cousins, we had no chance either’, to that we both laughed, he was clearly flying as well. That was the summer of 89.
For the rest of that year we were on the magic roundabout, raving round the fields of the M25, then off to Ibiza in 1990. i saw this band back then in the small tents at the raves, in the middle of some crazy days. and watched them grow into becoming a huge part of British music when i was backstage management team for The Mean Fiddler at Leeds Festival, Glastonbury etc. The Prodigy really were the band that spoke to me, like many of us early ravers, we came out of the crazy violence and punk rock of the 80’s to a new era, a new time, but more punk than punk, this was fucking the system off in a way that had never been done before 20,000 people illegally in a field loved up and jumping about to huge sound systems waking the entire home counties up. When my kids were little they were obsessed with the Prodigy, running round the house shouting ‘smash my picture’ they found out years later it was ‘Smack my bitch up’, RIP to a man, a music and a time 🙂 xx
Symond Lawes Subcultz
Keith Flint death: The Prodigy frontman died by hanging, coroner hears
The Prodigy’s Keith Flint performs in 2015 ( EPA )
The Prodigy frontman Keith Flint died as the result of hanging, an inquest has heard.
The 49-year-old was found dead at his home in the Essex hamlet of North End on March 4.
Coroner’s officer Lynsey Chaffe told a two-minute hearing in Chelmsford on Monday that Flint’s provisional medical cause of death is hanging.
She said: “Police attended, all protocols were followed and his death was confirmed as not suspicious.”
A post-mortem examination was carried out at Broomfield Hospital on March 7 and the provisional medical cause of death was recorded as hanging.
Ms Chaffe said this remains under investigation while toxicology reports are awaited.
Senior coroner for Essex Caroline Beasley-Murray opened and adjourned the inquest until July 23 for a full hearing.
For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123, visit a local Samaritans branch or go to samaritans.org
• In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or emailjo@samaritans.org. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Topics
A weeks holiday or a weekender. Your Choice, we have a beautiful hacienda style hotel to stay in, and the weekend sees the party nights. friday will be a night of Ska , Reggae and Soul with top DJ’s and Saturday live bands with Dakka Skanks and Jenny Woo, for some fun, and beers
A week holiday in the sun with the very best DJ’s playing the smooth sounds of Reggae, Soul and Ska, while you relax around the pool during the day, and dance the night away in the evening. A perfect paradise sandy beach, with warm Mediteranean waters within a 5 minute walk. In Southern Spain.
64 Cabins are available, that sleep up to 3 people, bookings for a week, with a 2 night full late night event over the weekend of 5th -6th April, with pool games, and music throughout your week. This is a family friendly event. All hotel amenities onsite, including a restaurant.
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On the eve of their first album in decades, 2 Tone’s finest talk to Miranda Sawyer and, further down, answer questions from readers, and famous fans including Richard Curtis and
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The Specials (left to right, Lynval Golding, Terry Hall and Horace Panter). Photograph: Suki Dhanda/Observer
In an east London photographer’s studio, one man is dancing and two men are not. Beres Hammond is playing over the speakers and the dancer – Lynval Golding, guitarist – freeze-frames for the camera shutter, but otherwise is in constant motion. Bassist Horace Panter, determinedly non-dancey, stands dead still, chin jutting, as though he’s ready to punch you if you get too cheeky. And in between them is singer Terry Hall, who doesn’t move much. Hall’s face, though, is always changing, flicking between exasperation, resignation, wry amusement and a withering teenage side-eye. His left hand sticks out. It looks as though there’s a gap for a cigarette in between your fingers, I say, and Hall says “You’re right”, and goes outside to smoke.
These three men are the Specials, 2019. The Specials started in Coventry in the late 1970s, a mixed-race ensemble playing a thrilling mixture of ska, reggae and punk, with pointed, politically sharp lyrics. Originally, there were seven members – the three here today, plus band founder/songwriter/keyboardist Jerry Dammers (creator of the 2 Tone record label, to which the Specials were signed), as well as singer Neville Staple, guitarist Roddy Radiation and drummer John “Brad” Bradbury. Much of the Specials’ impact back then was collective: a group of street-tough individuals, the band as gang. Their gigs were raucous, confrontational affairs, occasionally marred by far-right elements wanting to cause trouble with a group that had both black and white members.
In 1981, after their scorching single Ghost Town went to No 1, Hall, Golding and Staple left to form the Fun Boy Three. The remaining Specials added more members and continued as the Special AKA, before splitting in 1984 (though Dammers was held in a record company contract until 1987). Since then, there have been various Specials reincarnations. People have been in and out (30 members since 1979: Wikipedia has resorted to a graph). Panter was an art teacher for special needs children for a while, Golding moved to Seattle. He and Hall didn’t speak for more than a decade. Neither Dammers nor Hall rejoined for years. Hall was focused on his solo career. Dammers – who started the group and owned their name – tried to restart the Specials in the late 00s on the condition that they play new material. They got as far as two rehearsals before everyone fell out again.
The most common question from the Observer readers concerns whether Dammers will ever rejoin: when I ask it today, Hall, Golding and Panter give answers that are noticeably varied. Is the door open for him or not? Dammers himself, when I speak to him later, says that he was served with a legal letter and forced out of the band.Advertisement
“There was never a long-term plan,” says Panter. “But once we got ourselves established, the obvious thing to do would be to make a new album. It was just getting the right consensus between the individuals.”
As you can imagine, embroiled as they were in legal battles, this consensus took time. From 2009 on, the Specials, sans Dammers, toured, and then toured, and then toured again. According to Panter, it wasn’t until 2012-13 that there was a settled membership: but then, in 2013, Staple left, due to ill health, followed by Radiation in 2014. This left Hall, Golding and Panter, plus Brad, the drummer. But then Brad died, in 2015, and, once more, things were put on hold. Until last year. “We were in California playing with Neil Young and the Pretenders,” says Hall, “and I remember thinking: ‘Well, they’re writing new stuff, why don’t we?’”
Now, much-loved reggae and jazz drummer Kenrick Rowe has joined them to play live; Steve Cradock (Ocean Colour Scene, Paul Weller) is on guitar; Nikolaj Torp Larson plays keyboards and, along with Hall, Golding and Panter, wrote and produced the new album, Encore. And it’s the release of new material that changes everything. “All this,” says Panter, gesturing around the studio. He means photoshoots and interviews. “You forget, that’s what albums do.”
Encore is strong, musically, with an unexpectedly broader palette that takes in disco, funk and oompah as well as reggae. For original fans, there are callbacks. The lead single, Vote for Me, opens up with ascending Ghost Town-style chords, and there’s three covers: of the Equals’ 1970 track, Black Skin Blue Eyed Boys, of Blam Blam Fever (Gunfever) by the Valentines (1967) and of the Fun Boy Three’s The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum. Prince Buster, a huge influence on the band (Gangsters, their first single, was a reworking of Buster’s Al Capone), is referenced in 10 Commandments, featuring the words and vocals of activist Saffiyah Khan. It’s a clap-back to Buster’s 1966 track that, for the benefit of any Buster-fancying woman, listed his 10 jokily chauvinistic lady friend requirements. (Prince Buster also made Princess Buster’s original 1967 answer track.)Advertisement
Lyrics take on the personal and the political, the US and the UK, though more ambiguously than the Specials’ original precision attacks. On BLM (Black Lives Matter), Golding talks us through three racist experiences from his past. And then there’s Vote for Me. Golding points out that the Specials’ (as opposed to the Special AKA) last release was Ghost Town, so it seems right that the next release, 38 years later, is Vote for Me. Hall agrees: “With Ghost Town we didn’t say, ‘This is the right way, this is the wrong way’, we just said, ‘Things are pretty shit, really’. And we’re saying the same with Vote for Me. I find it difficult to vote on anything, really. Whereas before, we were staunch Labour. Now, I feel like I don’t trust you, I don’t like your face. On a personal thing with Corbyn, I definitely can’t do it any more. But what are the alternatives?”
It must be strange to make a comeback now, to return in your middle age at a time when Britain itself appears to be determined to return to the more depressing parts of the early 80s.
“Well,” says Hall, “if we’d released a record at any point in the last eight years it would have been relevant. Because not a great deal has changed. There’s different names for it, like Brexit, which sounds nuanced, but isn’t far from the one called ‘unemployment’ and the one called ‘racism’. Look, we didn’t plan it. We didn’t say: ‘Let’s get a mix done quick, because Brexit’s out at the end of January.’”
There are non-political songs on the album. The penultimate track, The Life and Times, addresses Hall’s depression. Though his unsmiling demeanour has always been part of Hall’s appeal – “God, people saying, ‘Cheer up’ and ‘Why don’t you smile?’… I get fed up with saying, ‘Fuck off’” – a resting bitch face is far removed from the actual terror of depression.
The Specials on stage, June 1980 (l-r): Lynval Golding, Neville Staple, Roddy Radiation, Terry Hall, Jerry Dammers, John Bradbury. Photograph: Ray Stevenson / Rex Features
“With every record I’ve done, I’ve made reference to it,” says Hall, “but this is out-and-out. I was diagnosed with manic depression and schizophrenia about 11 years ago and that diagnosis made a big difference, because then I started taking medication. And the change in me, to be able to function… I couldn’t have done this 12 years ago. People used to say to me, ‘Why don’t you try yoga? Or St John’s wort?’ But there’s a massive difference when you’re in a deep depression and feeling shitty with the world, and the stage that I got to, where you want to give yourself a lobotomy, it’s that bad.”
Medication – “lithium, hardcore drugs” – has really helped. Hall knows that his episodes are cyclical and he can feel when a depression is coming on. “And before, I used to have to give in to it and people would say, ‘You’ve been in bed for three weeks’, and I thought it was 10 minutes. But now I can feel it coming and I can also feel the medication, it blocking it. It’s brilliant. Recognising you’re blocking it is amazing. It’s really weird. It’s like looking at a bruise develop on your leg.”
The album’s final track, We Sell Hope, is uplifting musically and lyrically, a contrast to all the excoriation that comes before.
“Well, in the end,” says Hall, “if you’re talking about each other, all you can offer is love. To respect people, and be kind to people, and hope that they give it back. They sometimes don’t but they sometimes do. But there’s that sense of hope. What else have we got?”
The photo session is done. The dancing and non-dancing are over. Hall has another cigarette and then we gather around a table to answer questions from Observer readers and famous admirers. There are more than usual. “Hmm,” says Hall. “I bet you say that every time.” (There are; I don’t.) “Fire away…”
Encore by the Specials is out now on UMC
Questions from famous fans
Photograph: Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP
Gurinder Chadha
Film director
What moment from your height of fame are you most proud of, the moment that provides the legacy of the Specials in years to come? Horace:Ghost Town getting to No 1. Terry: Yes, I’d go with that. It was an unbelievably brilliant finale to what we’d done for a few years, and every band should fold after Ghost Town really, because what else are you going to do?!
Photograph: Mike Lawrence/Getty Images for Gates Archive
Richard Curtis
Film director
I remember going to see you in concert and you getting about 10 seconds into Ghost Town and stopping dead and pointing at some guy in the crowd, and saying: ‘If we don’t get those Nazis out of here we’re not going on with this song.’ And then waiting until they were removed. Am I imagining this? Did I dream it? Terry: It used to happen every night, didn’t it? Horace: It wasn’t that much of an occurrence but it did happen, I remember a couple or three times where we’d stop a show because of the NF. Terry: They would be sieg heiling during the show. That doesn’t really happen any more. The closest thing to that was in Nottingham [2014] where somebody threw a bottle at Brad and I couldn’t do anything until he’d been taken out. It’s important to stop stuff [like that] if you see it.
Joe Talbot
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Lead singer, Idles
Is pop much worse now than the early 80s or am I blinded with nostalgia? Now it seems really dull when we glance at the mainstream… Terry: I’m actually going to see Joe in a couple of weeks, his band. I don’t know. We get asked that a lot. “What are you listening to now?” And what I’m listening to now is a Grateful Dead album, because I never heard it first time round… Horace: I’m sure there are some things that are great out there but I don’t know where to look for them. I haven’t got the time to spend a fruitless three hours ploughing through YouTube. Terry: The last thing that I saw that I really, really liked was the Fat White Family. They were funny and everything you wanted. Bit druggy, funny, they look really good. Lynval: There’s one band that I like. Easy Life. They’re a young band from Leicester, I saw them on Jools Holland, they’re really, really good. If I could have a vote for a band to be with us on any bill, it would be that little band. The kid’s got the right attitude. He’s a star.
Photograph: Dean Chalkley/BBC
Lauren Laverne
6 Music presenter
When are you happiest? Horace: Most of the time. Lynval: With me, when we made the album, to get up and get on a train and go to work every day, come to the studio, that was really weird – but when we finished the record, I was completely lost. I didn’t know what to do with myself. We had so much fun doing this record. We’d take it in turns to sleep on the couch. Wake up, “Oh, that’s nice, yes,” and go back to sleep. Terry: Probably happiest when I’m watching football. Even through all the shitty times, five minutes before kick-off you think: “This is great.” But in the last week or two do you know what’s made me happiest? In our bathroom, on the floor there’s mosaic tiles and one was lost. It’s white so I tried putting Polyfilla in, but I couldn’t get the grouting to look good. Then I thought: “Well, why don’t I look in the vac bag?” So I got the bag out and put my hand in and I found the tile. Honestly, that made me really happy. A great moment.
Photograph: Jason Alden/Rex
Richard Russell
XL Recordings boss
For Terry. You’re one of my favourite lyricists of all time. Who are yours? Terry: Joe Dolce [who wrote Shaddap You Face]! No, obviously people like Leonard Cohen, and bits of Jeff Buckley, and almost all Daniel Johnson and the Roches.
Photograph: David M Benett/Getty
Ady Suleiman
SingerAdvertisement
What are your best memories of 2 Tone? Horace: The Bilzen rock festival in Belgium in summer 1979. We’d just signed our record deal with Chrysalis, we were unknown, and we still had all this equipment that we’d begged, borrowed and stolen. We were on a bill with the Cure, the Pretenders, the Police and AC/DC. Nobody had heard of us, and we went on stage and just destroyed the place. There was a big fence, 12 foot in front of the stage and during the performance it got ripped down and everyone surged to the front of the stage. For me, that was the most amazing experience ever, that music could do that was incredible. Terry: Because of bands like UB40 and the Beat too, we were doing something that wasn’t in London. It was a sense of pride in where we were and wanted to make some sort of change. Lyrically, I think what we were doing was all very similar. We were all in the Midlands, and the only band I remembered from the Midlands was Jigsaw, who blew it all sky high [chuckles]. Lynval: Lieutenant Pigeon. Terry: Frank Ifield. All of a sudden, something was happening. Kids were connecting with us and it just felt really important.
Photograph: Linda Nylind/Guardian
Diane Morgan
Actor
You wrote a song about a Ghost Town, but have any of you actually seen a ghost? Lynval: I was born in Saint Catherine, Jamaica… Terry: And he’s off… Lynval: This man was crippled and he sat in front of this house in the village, where I come from, this brownstone house, on a mat. He died and I went down to the river with my sink pan on my head to fetch the water. It was broad daylight. I’ve got the water, I’m walking, then suddenly there he was, sitting in front of his house on his little mat. My mind just went, “Wooah, wooah,” and the sink pan of water has gone off my head. I just run. And often now, I don’t believe that I saw him, but I saw him. I still can’t grasp it. Terry: Weed’s a funny thing, isn’t it? I definitely haven’t seen a ghost, no.
Photograph: Richard Saker/Observer
Jason Williamson
Singer, Sleaford Mods
One thing I find with accomplishment is that it can feel so insignificant overall, but I know that’s something to do with bouts of depression. Do you feel this sometimes about what you’ve done and still do as musicians? Terry: It does matter, really, and even when it doesn’t matter, it still matters. People see success as getting to No 1 and being platinum. I don’t see that at all, I never have. I think the success is getting something inside, out, and getting someone to listen to it. That is success. For the first 20 years of my life, nobody would listen to me. Nobody. At school, jobcentres, they just didn’t listen, they were never bothered. But then you say something and somebody says, “I agree, I disagree”, and so wow, somebody’s listened. That’s success.
Questions from readers
Left to right: Lynval Golding, Terry Hall, Horace Panter. Photograph: Suki Dhanda/Observer
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In my opinion you’re the best band to grace this world. Which song do you still love banging out the most? Lee Griffiths, via email Lynval: I like Nite Klub. It’s a bit of a naughty one: “I won’t dance in a club like this/ All the girls are slags/ And the beer tastes just like piss.” It’s what we guys, when we get together, we talk about. We don’t shout it out loud to people. I quite enjoy that. Horace: Yes, I’ll go Nite Klub too. There’s a version of it on the deluxe edition of the album and it’s fantastic, I love it. Terry: I quite like stuff from the second album. International Jet Set and Stereotype. Just because I’ve always had this thing about people seeing us as a ska band. We don’t play ska music, and if you look at International Jet Set, you couldn’t be more removed from ska. On the second album, I couldn’t pick one song, but I could say with that album: “Wow, something good is happening here.” And then we split up!
I remember hearing Gangsters for the first time in 1979 when I was in an amusement arcade on my school holidays. The energy of that song stopped me in my tracks and the Specials have been my band ever since. What’s your music moment that’s stayed with you? Angelina Jones, via email Terry: I’d go with Gangsters. When we did it on Saturday Night Live in New York. Because it felt so alien to the people on the show, the ones working there and the audience, and that was the first time I thought: “Something good’s happening here.” We took off the shackles when we did it, people were just roaming on and off stage. And it felt really like the right song at the right time. I remember doing photo sessions and people thinking we were like, a gay choir, because we all had short hair. Either ex-marines or a gay choir. Lynval: Remember when we did it in Chicago? When they got the audience to throw these fake dollar bills on the stage? Because… gangster, yes? Terry: Al Capone.
Miranda Sawyer: But can you think of a song that isn’t yours where you thought: this changes everything? Horace: I was delivering car spares to a store in Birmingham. This was about 1990. And this song came on the radio, and I was standing there with this box, and this bloke was going, “Come on, give me the box,” and I go, “Shh.” And it was Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. It was the first time I heard it, and I thought, “Flippin’ heck. That’s good.” Lynval: “Get up, stand up. Stand up for your rights” by Bob Marley, because it was around the time when we started having our own identity. We started getting away from the colonial ways that were forced on to us. And that’s when the Rasta theme started coming up, something we can call our own, you know? That really hit me. Miranda: How about you, Terry? Is there a song you can think of that changed things for you? Terry: I will come back to Shaddap You Face again… No, Anarchy in the UK. It was like everybody was waiting for something like that. It was a turning point.Advertisement
If someone had told me 40 years ago that a bloke like [pro-Brexit ‘yellow vest’ protester] James Goddard and his mates would be close to the profile they have today, I would’ve found it hard to believe. You played a leadership role then. What do you think needs to happen now? How do we reverse the division that people like Goddard look to exploit? Steve E, Vancouver Lynval: Back when we started, it was a small minority of skinheads that was pulling the wrong way. I remember one guy I met, a real National Front supporter, you know? And after I finished talking to him, we shook hands and we looked at each other, and he said he hadn’t talked to a black guy before. He wouldn’t do it. But once we talked and had a discussion… Horace: Those people always were out there. They feel more of a licence to speak now, because we all have our platform, don’t we? This division is a knock-on effect of Instagram and Twitter and whatever. Everyone has a voice now. But there’s no filter on it. Back in our day, you would voice your discontent down the pub to your mates. Whereas now you can voice your discontent to millions of people from the privacy of your own downstairs toilet. Terry: I think politicians love the division. It’s a great thing for them. They thrive on it. I don’t think they want everyone to be together. Brexit has conjured up so much stuff, and all these personalities are appearing, like Jacob Rees-Mogg. They like the division and I can see it getting a lot worse.
Do you feel mellowed with age or do you still get intensely wound up by current political events? Stephen Bennett, Dublin Lynval: I switch on CNN and wonder: “What am I watching all this for?” People calling the police because a little kid is selling water, just because the kid is black [#PermitPatty]… The one thing which I think is good with social media is, when we say: “You’ll never understand what it’s like to be black.” I think the images that come in now, but you see it and maybe understand more. You know, you walk in a shop and you know that all eyes are on you. Because you appear like a guy who’s going to come in and shoplift. Because you’re black… No, I’m not mellowed with age. Horace: I think age has filtered a few things. The only thing I watch on television is the news, really. Terry: I’ve definitely mellowed. But I’m at that age. I’m going to be 60 in a month, and there’s loads of shit going on, but then I look up at night and see the moon, and I just think: “Whoa.” Do you know what I mean? You see a tree that’s been there a few hundred years, and you think: “Fucking hell. This is brilliant.” Miranda: Is that age? Terry: No, it’s medication. When you have kids of your own and with their mates, that’s where you can be political, and that’s what I’ve tended to do, especially with my older boys when they were teenagers. Watching them go through stuff, and hopefully guiding them. My house used to be a real open house, like a youth club. Their mates always used to come round because I was like a bit “right on”, and they could smoke weed or whatever. And that’s where you try and influence so that there’s not so much anger. It’s not being mellow, you’re doing something, but you’re doing it at home, you know? Rather than just blasting it out all the time. Horace: Micro as opposed to macro.
What are your thoughts on Coventry becoming a UK city of culture in 2021? Have you been approached to do something? Liam Nagle, Coventry Horace: I’m the only participating member of the Specials who still lives in Coventry and no, I haven’t been approached to do something. I would like to see money put by to provide for music lessons for children in schools, a proper legacy. I’m more interested in that than “Here’s a couple of boutique hotels”, and who needs another wine bar for goodness sake? Terry: I get really bugged by this City of Culture thing. If you have to really search for the culture, you’re making it up. The landmark for me in Coventry is the cathedral.
I’m a Cov kid, who grew up as all the industry collapsed around us in the 80s and 90s, losing perhaps 100,000 jobs in that time from Jaguar, Triumph, Dunlop, Rover, Rolls-Royce, Morris, Alvis, Massey Ferguson. I wonder how you see the city today with so many of those jobs replaced by call centres? People who had repetitive production line jobs at least had the pride of being part of making something that was known, in some cases, worldwide. Now they just get shouted at by irate customers on the phone. FlightGuileAndPies, online Lynval: You used to have Courtaulds. They were everywhere. Massey Ferguson that does the tractors. And in Canley, Matrix Churchill, one of the last pieces of work they were doing was [making parts for arms] for the Iraq war. Obviously that war game didn’t work out for them, because war brings employment for them! It’s all gone now. Even the smell of the city is not there any more. You could smell the engineering. Back then, Coventry was thriving, an industrial city. Now it’s a student city. Horace: Loads of barbers. Lynval: And chicken shop takeaways. It’s all revolving around students. Working class, labour people – once the industry goes away, then all the traditional pubs, they die. The working men’s clubs, they die. Like what my father used to go to, Rowley’s Green Working Men’s Club. They’re not there any more. Horace: There’s still manufacturing in Coventry. Lynval: You’ve got Triumph motorbikes. Horace: London taxis are made in Coventry. Terry: All my family worked in factories. My mum worked for Chrysler, my dad worked for Rolls- Royce. Aunt. Everybody worked in the car factories, and there was a real sense of community. Everybody felt on an equal level, all getting cash every week. I didn’t really notice the decline, really, until it had happened, but then it was massive. It’s difficult with Coventry because I moved away for specific reasons. I couldn’t fucking stand it.
What was it like touring with the Clash? Peter Milne, Norwich Lynval: It was absolutely an eye-opener. Joe Strummer was a wonderful, wonderful human being, and being in that group of people at that time, there was so much excitement. Because we did our little pub thing, but this was like the next level up. It was just a wonderful vibe. Like one big party. Horace: We learned how to present a show while on tour with the Clash. You would see how they go on stage and it was just like, Bang. We learned to give 100%. Not just shamble on stage and “If you don’t mind, we’d like to play a few songs.” We were totally different after that tour. I always say that we started that tour as civilians but ended it as a group. Terry: And after the Clash thing, that’s when we cut our hair, because we discovered what we should look like by doing that tour. And then you end up in Crawley with about 1,000 skinheads gobbing at you. Horace: That was scary. Terry: Yes, that was really scary. But it was great because Suicide were on that tour as well. And Sham did stuff. [Jimmy] Pursey was there. For me, it was like, “How do you react to an audience?” The fans tell you the songs they like. They like Monkey Man, definitely. And A Message to You, around the world.
Saffiyah Khan, in a Specials T-shirt, staring down English Defence League protester Ian Crossland in Birmingham, April 2017. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA
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I heard activist Saffiyah Khan has sung on the album. How did this come about? Barry Mingard, Welwyn Garden City Terry:We saw Saffiyah in that photo. She had a Specials T-shirt on, and she was standing up to a member of the EDL, who was screaming at her, and she just smiled back. A fantastic reaction, because it made him look stupid. So we got in touch with her and said: “Come to our gig in Birmingham.” Then when it came to recording the album, we were thinking about people who might like to be on it, and she was definitely in my head as somebody who could have something to say. And at the same time I was listening to Prince Buster, Ten Commandments of Man, and I couldn’t believe… Miranda: How rampantly sexist it is? Terry: It goes back to Dave Lee Travis, like hand-on-the-arse times. So then the idea came like: “Wouldn’t it be nice to do an answer to that?” But obviously from a woman. Saffiyah was the obvious choice, and we just said to her: “Here’s the Prince Buster song. Do you want to try to reply to it?” And she got on with it.
Bloody hell, I don’t think I’ve seen such effortlessly cool looking gentlemen ever. Please give me a clothing tip. Tenement Funster, online Horace: Smart casual. And wear your T-shirt outside your jeans. Lynval: Horace is stepping up now, he’s the man. Me, I love that sort of stuff from the 70s, like reggae style, you know? Gregory Isaacs. Terry: It’s simple. Avoid horizontal stripes. Didn’t work when you were 18 mate, and now you’re middle aged.
Terry, as a lifelong Man United fan, what do you think Ole Gunnar Solskjærhas to do to get the manager’s job full time? Thehumblegent, online Terry: No idea what he has to do. I mean, he just wins at the moment. He’s such a lovable bloke and a real legend, but whether he’ll keep the job, who knows? Lynval: He’s a real Man U guy, he spent half his life there, it’s in his blood, and it’s got to be in your blood to be able to manage a club like that. I think they should hold on to him, and give him the job full time. It could be another Fergie in the making. Terry: I think realistically, for me, Ferguson is managing the club again. He’s using Solskjær as his mouthpiece. Ferguson is smiling way too much. Lynval: It’s brilliant. The next legend manager.
Now you’re doing new material like Jerry wanted to do when you reformed, isn’t it time to let him back into the fold? Bloodydoorsoff, online Horace: (Quietly but decisively) No. Next question. Lynval: I think having Nikolaj Torp Larsen, we’re really fortunate to have a kid like that who’s so talented. I was one of the last ones to work with Jerry, I enjoyed working with him. If you’re going to make music, you want to make music with people that you respect as musicians. I do respect him a lot. Terry: The whole Jerry thing, it’s like, from day one, I’m not sure why he isn’t in the band. I honestly don’t know, because we all started rehearsing together [for the 2009 reunion] and he sort of dropped out. I don’t know what happened there. I don’t know why he isn’t in the band, do you know what I mean? He just, dropped out. It’s his stuff really, it’s not our stuff. He chose not to be in the band, for whatever reasons. Miranda: What about if he said: “Oh, can I come back?” Terry: I’d just tell him to fuck off. [laughter] No, I wouldn’t. No, I wouldn’t. I’d get management to tell him. He can come back, it’s up to him what he’s going to do.
Why aren’t Neville, Roddy and Jerry back in the band? Diesel Estate, online Horace: They left. Lynval: They left. It’s as simple as that. Roddy left the band, Neville left the band. Jerry didn’t fully join the band back. There’s nothing we can do about it. Terry: Roddy and Neville feel comfortable where they’re at. They play pubs and small clubs, and I think if you lack that much charisma then that’s probably a wise thing. They enjoy small intimate venues with very few people there. That’s where they feel most comfortable.
For Terry and Horace. What does painting do for you that making music doesn’t? Sam McNichols, London Terry: When I was at my ill-est, it triggered something in my brain that wouldn’t allow me to talk or walk for three weeks. Because I couldn’t say anything, I had to write everything down. And a doctor said to me: “Paint.” And actually painting was something that was coming out of my head that I could show to people. For them, in Horace’s case, to despise. [laughter from all] Miranda: It’s a reaction. Terry: I’ve got a fixation on the Jackson 5, so I painted the Jackson 5 for six months, and then it was pointed out to me that I’d painted six. Six Jacksons, so I renamed the extra one Phil Jackson. It’s all getting it out, and who cares whether it’s right or wrong, I don’t give a shit. Horace: Music for me is a collaborative process, I’m a bass player. I have to work with a drummer, a singer, a keyboard player, I’m a cog in a machine. The art is kind of my solo album.
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Legendary music promoter Ron Watts passed away on 20th June 2016, aged 73, following a long illness. Watt’s spent much of his life living and working in High Wycombe and brought world wide fame to The Nag’s Head, a former HQ of the Wanderers.
