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James you joined
Chelsea in their third incarnation. Did you know about them
already b4 ?
I was heavily into
the punk scene and I knew this is what I wanted to do musically.
I was 17 and doing my a levels but hanging out at The Roxy and
seeing bands. I had been into the Dolls and was aware of the
Ramones and got into the Sex Pistols and Clash...I wasn't that
familiar with the new wave of bands like Chelsea and the Adverts.
I answered an ad in Melody Maker and had been in bands at school
but whereas I liked the Dolls, they liked Yes and Genesis !!!!!
People forget that you didn't have to be a blinding musician and
quite a lot of good musicians came out of punk. Its wrong to say
you didn't have to play at all though !!!
Step Forward.. you
didn't exactly release a lot of records. ? You didn't even get a
colour picture sleeve till your third single !!! Did you think
you could have done more ? Approached by majors ?
Soon as the Police
started happening all the bands on Step Forward got neglected /
forgotten about. Miles ( head of Step and manager of Police ) was
also our manager which didn't help. A&M were once interested
coz of Miles but maybe he wanted to keep some bands on his own
label. It probably in hindsight wasn't the most ideal situation.
Mark P of Sniffin' Glue was a scout for him/right hand a&R man
chalk and cheese.
What was your press
coverage like ....Music papers ?
At the time pissed off. We never got the credit we deserved. I'll stand by any of
the records we made and I don't think they have dated that badly.
The music papers at that time gave us an absolute hammering and
we had few allies. I can remember when we were going up to a gig
in Leeds and the hotel was raided and pulled out of our beds at 6
in the morning,. We though we'd mention it to the NME to get a
bit in the gossip column. They wrote instead the police were
probably trying to stop them playing !!! Its funny now but back
then we were getting it all the time. Really nasty.
What was 'Right to
work' about ....?
The song was misinterpreted. People though it was a socialist statement. It
was actually an anti union statement. He had been trying to get
into equity and acting and couldn't............. so it was the
right to work without joining a union.
(I think that might
have gone over a lot of peoples heads... especially adding I
don't drink or smoke)
Best Chelsea
song..?
Whole of the first
album tho I'm not sure whether they suited Genes way of
singing...like 'Trouble is the day' .Fantastic song but I'm not
sure it was right for Gene. He was much better singing the harder
songs like 'No Admission' and 'Urban Kids' .He Has a very
distinctive and aggressive voice....Gene is a great singer. Rock singer.
Who wrote the tunes ?
Gene wrote some ,
the drummer wrote some ,myself, the other guitarist . All of us.
Punk in London
Video ?
Can't remember much. Shot at Alaska at Pat Colliers. I still haven't seen it.
Memories of the
Roxy Club ?
Played 3 or 4 gigs
played farewell gig in October 6th 1977 and then reformed 2
months later. Supported Wayne County. Roxy was absolutely
brilliant... you felt like it was yours... that you really
belonged there and was part of it. That people were just trying
to get your money. It was your scene. I went spring 77 by the
autumn it fizzled out. I remember walking out of there with my
leather jacket and it felt dangerous with everything that was
going on in the press at the time. People shouting at you getting
thru about three fights on the way home. that added to the
adrenalin. It was hysteria in the media.
What were the
pitfalls of playing ie gobbing etc ?
I hated it. We were
playing at Barbarellas in Birmingham. I walked onstage , hit the
first chord and someone just pushed a tomato sauce bottle together
and I was covered in Tomato sauce !!! All good fun.
What did you think
of other bands ? How did you get on ?
There were so many
bands appearing all the time. There were a lot of bands that just
cropped up like The Depressions and I hated the Boomtown Rats. I
fuckin' loathed Bob Geldof. All the bands kept
to themselves there was a lot of clannishness. The Clash never
hung out. We used to hang out with the UK Subs and Mick Rossi (
slaughter) Charlie used to cut my hair when he was a hairdresser
in Tooting.. it was he who suggested I dye it black !!! There was
a lot of kind antagonism between the groups.
On the Pistols...
Miles had an agency
that booked the pistols. They were due to play and they just
pulled out and Malcolm said the council had banned it. Total
lies but no publicity is bad publicity.
Differences between
playing North and south ?
In the summer of 77
I remember playing Falkirk and Barrow in Furness and there was a
big punk scene so it had obviously caught on everywhere.
As '77 turned into '78 what were the differences ?
The whole thing
dwindled out. It had happened by the end of 77. All the big bands had
signed to majors and trod the path of rock'n'roll. The actual
scene had died turned into a more corporate rock'n'roll. We supported The Clash and they were the best rock roll band on the
planet. Their first album still sounds amazing. No matter what
trend there is its still rock'n'roll. A band will make it because
they are a great rock 'n' roll band. Whether punk or psychedelic.
Mind you 80's synth music has dated badly but listen to punk music
or guitar based music and it still holds up today. Live by the
sword of technology... die by it.
Not tempted to make
another Chelsea album ?
Chelsea is
pigeonholed in that era and to make something new now would
remove some of that mystique
On the Social Chaos
tour...
One disaster after
another. Makes Spinal Tap look like a teddy bears picnic. We
drove 2000 mile between one gig Portland to Milwaukee. Other
guitarist Dave Martin had to come home half way thru, gigs got
cancelled, we lost money.
How did you go down ?
At the end of a day
Gene is a brilliant performer . He could really command an
audience. He's a brilliant frontman.
Final thoughts ?
I feel glad that I
managed to play thru those year s and be in a band that was part
of that experience. You will never see the like of that again. I
still play and there has never been a time that has equaled that
time in music for me. Not just music but the vibe the excitement
just to be involved in rock'n'roll.
Still playing is a
bit of an understatement. Involved in Gen X, Gene Loves Jezebel,
The Cult ,reformed Chelsea ,Mike Peters, played on Tricky's first
excellent album and working with Beki Bondage. What a lucky
bastard and good luck to him !!!!! Pleasure to interview.
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