Here’s a story for you that you probably haven’t heard before… Back in 1978, a young punk rocker called Tony Keating started writing songs and looking for an appropriate singer to front a new band. A stroke of luck occurred when one of his friends spotted a young black, girl called Chas at a tube station. She was trying to tear a poster down from the wall and singing to herself… Her appearance and voice impressed the friend who promptly asked if she would be interested in joining Tony’s band. The two were put in touch and everything fell together. As chance would have it, Tony already had an offer to use another friends’ recently assembled 4-track studio and so, a mere two weeks after their first rehearsal, the band (now named Bona Rays, which will be explained further on) went in to record two songs, ‘Poser’ and ‘Getaway Blues’. The results sounded good, especially ‘Poser’, but although they tried to get the tape heard by various record labels, no-one showed any real interest. The recordings made it as far as an acetate disk which remained with Chas, while Tony kept the master tapes safe. The band continued writing and rehearsing although not playing live until late 1979, by which time they had changed their name to ‘Violent Marriage’. A second single was produced by Kirk Brandon, but soon after this, Tony decided that he no longer wanted to play guitar and a replacement was found, whilst Tony took over as manager. In 1984 they changed their name to ‘Our Heroes’ and released a 12” EP, ‘Now The Scars Are Healing’ on the Icon label. However, although it received a healthy amount of airplay, the record didn’t sell as much as expected and soon after the band broke-up, although Chas and Tony remained firm friends.
Sadly, it looked as if Bona Rays would be mostly forgotten until chance took another hand in proceedings. Chas was moving to a new house and decided to sell her old records, taking them to the Flashback record shop in Islington. Once the transaction was done, shop owner Mark Burgess became intrigued by a 7” acetate disk included in the pile of vinyl. He played it on the shops’ stereo system and was impressed by what he heard, a raw blast of vintage punk rock / new wave. At that very moment, Chas walked back into the shop with some DVD’s that she also intended to sell, but instead ended-up recounting the history of the acetate. Mark was suitably excited by the songs and their story and promptly offered to release the single on the shops’ own label… which is where we find ourselves right now.
I was offered a chance to interview Chas and Tony and, after hearing the single, I jumped at the chance. One of the things I enjoy doing with this website / fanzine is documenting bands or artists who have great stories which might well be lost to time if they’re not recorded now. Bona Rays fitted this category perfectly and so, here’s what I was able to discover…
Sadly, it looked as if Bona Rays would be mostly forgotten until chance took another hand in proceedings. Chas was moving to a new house and decided to sell her old records, taking them to the Flashback record shop in Islington. Once the transaction was done, shop owner Mark Burgess became intrigued by a 7” acetate disk included in the pile of vinyl. He played it on the shops’ stereo system and was impressed by what he heard, a raw blast of vintage punk rock / new wave. At that very moment, Chas walked back into the shop with some DVD’s that she also intended to sell, but instead ended-up recounting the history of the acetate. Mark was suitably excited by the songs and their story and promptly offered to release the single on the shops’ own label… which is where we find ourselves right now.
I was offered a chance to interview Chas and Tony and, after hearing the single, I jumped at the chance. One of the things I enjoy doing with this website / fanzine is documenting bands or artists who have great stories which might well be lost to time if they’re not recorded now. Bona Rays fitted this category perfectly and so, here’s what I was able to discover…
Had either of you been involved with any bands before Bona Rays?
Chas ; No… I was only 17 or 18 at the time and it was only a few months after I’d left school. But I’d really wanted to join a band for some time and this was the first opportunity I got.
Tony ; I was in a band with two lads, Grant De Mayer (Bass)and Andy Nun (drums). Unfortunately, both got jobs and decided to focus on their careers, but I knew that I needed to be in a band. I wrote my first song with them, ‘Subway, Metro, Underground’… I can still remember it, so perhaps we should resurrect it - a 1977 original!
The story goes that Chas was spotted singing whilst waiting for a tube train…
Chas ; There was an amazing poster pasted up on the wall and in those days there was no CCTV so you could climb over to the other side of the tracks… As long as you didn’t touch the live rail you’d be okay, so I was trying to get this poster off the wall… the funny thing is, now, I can’t even remember what it was for! Anyway, I heard a train coming so I got back up on the platform and I was singing to myself, really loudly. This guy had been watching me and when he heard me singing, he came up to me and said that he thought I had the image and the voice that his friend needed for a band he was putting together…
Were you surprised when this stranger came up and asked if you’d be interested in joining a band?
Chas ; No, not really… I seem to have this kind of magical thing in my life that when I’ve decided that I really want to do something, something happens that lets me do it. In this case, I really wanted to join a band and I really liked the whole ethos of ‘do-it-yourself’, so this was perfect for me.
What kind of music were you listening to at that time?
Chas ; While I was at school I suppose I was into the kind of things that a lot of black people were into, like Earth Wind & Fire and stuff like that. But I never bought those kind of records and at home I’d listen to things like Genesis, with Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Marc Bolan… Marc Bolan had actually lived quite near to where we were living at one point, before he got famous, and had worked for a time at the local Wimpy Bar… We’d see him in there and then a few months later he was on Top of The Pops, so I started thinking, well, if he can do it, maybe I can? Anyway, just as I was about to leave school, the whole Punk thing happened. The thing that got me really interested was when the Stranglers released ‘Peaches’… DJ’s like Dave Lee Travis and Tony Blackburn wouldn’t play that on Radio One, even though it was a hit, because they didn’t like the lyrics. So it was released it as a double A-side and they’d play the other song, ‘Go Buddy Go’ instead. I was working for a while in a place where they played Radio One all the time, and I’d just have to wait for them to play something good like that or Roxy Music or something by David Bowie…
People often assume that black kids around that time were only listening to Soul or Reggae and, although many of the early Punk bands embraced Reggae, it doesn’t seem that many black people got into the Punk scene…
Chas ; Well, I’m probably not the best person to talk about that because I grew up in Surrey and I was the only black person in my school until my sister came there a couple of years later. But my Dad really liked early Genesis, which was how I got into them… There was a radio show called ‘Reggae Time’ on Sunday afternoons and all of our family would sit down and listen to that, but I found a lot of it really boring. I liked music that had more energy and the sort of reggae that would get played on the radio back then was more like what’s called ‘Lovers Rock’ now, you know, really laid back love songs. It just wasn’t for me. I really loved energy and I found that in music of Peter Gabriel, for instance. When Punk appeared, the same year that I left school, it was like I’d found what I really wanted. I felt at home with it from the moment I heard it. One of the first punk gigs I ever went to was at the Roundhouse, with Kilburn & The High Roads headlining. I thought Ian Dury was amazing and I really loved his songs and the way he performed, but bottom of the bill that night were the Stranglers. It was the first time I’d ever heard them, but I knew straight away that this was the thing for me.
Chas ; No… I was only 17 or 18 at the time and it was only a few months after I’d left school. But I’d really wanted to join a band for some time and this was the first opportunity I got.
Tony ; I was in a band with two lads, Grant De Mayer (Bass)and Andy Nun (drums). Unfortunately, both got jobs and decided to focus on their careers, but I knew that I needed to be in a band. I wrote my first song with them, ‘Subway, Metro, Underground’… I can still remember it, so perhaps we should resurrect it - a 1977 original!
The story goes that Chas was spotted singing whilst waiting for a tube train…
Chas ; There was an amazing poster pasted up on the wall and in those days there was no CCTV so you could climb over to the other side of the tracks… As long as you didn’t touch the live rail you’d be okay, so I was trying to get this poster off the wall… the funny thing is, now, I can’t even remember what it was for! Anyway, I heard a train coming so I got back up on the platform and I was singing to myself, really loudly. This guy had been watching me and when he heard me singing, he came up to me and said that he thought I had the image and the voice that his friend needed for a band he was putting together…
Were you surprised when this stranger came up and asked if you’d be interested in joining a band?
Chas ; No, not really… I seem to have this kind of magical thing in my life that when I’ve decided that I really want to do something, something happens that lets me do it. In this case, I really wanted to join a band and I really liked the whole ethos of ‘do-it-yourself’, so this was perfect for me.
What kind of music were you listening to at that time?
Chas ; While I was at school I suppose I was into the kind of things that a lot of black people were into, like Earth Wind & Fire and stuff like that. But I never bought those kind of records and at home I’d listen to things like Genesis, with Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Marc Bolan… Marc Bolan had actually lived quite near to where we were living at one point, before he got famous, and had worked for a time at the local Wimpy Bar… We’d see him in there and then a few months later he was on Top of The Pops, so I started thinking, well, if he can do it, maybe I can? Anyway, just as I was about to leave school, the whole Punk thing happened. The thing that got me really interested was when the Stranglers released ‘Peaches’… DJ’s like Dave Lee Travis and Tony Blackburn wouldn’t play that on Radio One, even though it was a hit, because they didn’t like the lyrics. So it was released it as a double A-side and they’d play the other song, ‘Go Buddy Go’ instead. I was working for a while in a place where they played Radio One all the time, and I’d just have to wait for them to play something good like that or Roxy Music or something by David Bowie…
People often assume that black kids around that time were only listening to Soul or Reggae and, although many of the early Punk bands embraced Reggae, it doesn’t seem that many black people got into the Punk scene…
Chas ; Well, I’m probably not the best person to talk about that because I grew up in Surrey and I was the only black person in my school until my sister came there a couple of years later. But my Dad really liked early Genesis, which was how I got into them… There was a radio show called ‘Reggae Time’ on Sunday afternoons and all of our family would sit down and listen to that, but I found a lot of it really boring. I liked music that had more energy and the sort of reggae that would get played on the radio back then was more like what’s called ‘Lovers Rock’ now, you know, really laid back love songs. It just wasn’t for me. I really loved energy and I found that in music of Peter Gabriel, for instance. When Punk appeared, the same year that I left school, it was like I’d found what I really wanted. I felt at home with it from the moment I heard it. One of the first punk gigs I ever went to was at the Roundhouse, with Kilburn & The High Roads headlining. I thought Ian Dury was amazing and I really loved his songs and the way he performed, but bottom of the bill that night were the Stranglers. It was the first time I’d ever heard them, but I knew straight away that this was the thing for me.
When did you first get to meet Tony ?
Chas ; The guy who’d spoken to me at the tube station put us in touch and I arranged to go along for an audition. Tony was only just putting a band together and he said that he’d already tried some girl singers, but they just seemed to turn up and look ‘glam’, but didn’t really want to turn-up for rehearsals. He wanted a singer who had a bit more authenticity. When I went along to audition, I think it was only him there and I sang along to some backing tracks that he already had and once I’d done that, he said, ‘You’re in !’ I mean, it hadn’t really crossed my mind that I wouldn’t be in because I was so certain that I’d be the best person for the job. I think he’d already decided that I was the right person when we first spoke, but he just wanted to make sure that I could hold a tune. He’d grown up in Kilburn so he’d always been among Irish people and Jamaicans, so the fact that I was black just wasn’t a thing for him at all.
What were your first impressions of Chas ?
Tony ; Then as now, she’s a phenomenon. I was immediately impressed by her voice and personality. She oozed confidence on the outside, whatever was going on inside… She only told me recently that she needed Dutch courage to go on stage. But she was always a force of nature and I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else.
The name ‘Bona Rays’ was quite unusual, even during the early Punk era… how did that come about ?
Tony ; We had been torturing ourselves over finding a name and Chas turned up one day suggesting the name, Bona Rays. Alan and I agreed, probably out of frustration at not coming up with anything better. Neither he nor I had any idea what it meant and it was only a holding name. We later changed it to ‘Violent Marriage’, from a newspaper headline, and this was the name we largely gigged under. So, I guess we were not ultimately happy with it, but we liked it enough to release our first single under that name. That said, I like it now, just for the question, what does that mean?
Chas ; I was living in a flat with three gay guys, at a time when they still couldn’t hold-hands or be affectionate in public. I think most gay men still didn’t even feel that they could tell their parents that they were gay, back then. For me, that seemed like such a horrible situation and I suppose I related to it, as a black person, because there were still a lot of unspoken things that you weren’t really allowed to do. Anyway, my flatmates used to listen to these records by Julian and Sandy (characters from the ‘Round the Horne’ radio show, played by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams) and they used this gay-slang called ‘Polari’. I picked the phrase ‘Bonar Rays’, which I thought meant ‘beautiful face’, from that (actually, it meant ‘beautiful hair’…) because I wanted to show the connection I felt with my gay friends. It was also meant to be ironic because, at that time, I certainly wasn’t considered to have a beautiful face for a female singer.
The ‘Poser’ single was recorded very soon after Chas had joined the band…
Chas ; Yeah, two weeks later ! I think one of Tony’s friends had been setting up a small recording studio in his house over in Tufnell Park… It was just a 4-track recorder and he’d stuck cardboard egg-trays all over the walls to try to keep it sound-proofed.
Tony ; I was brought up in the same house as a lad called Phil Forward, who was later know as Phil Jap and achieved minor chart success on a couple of occasions. Phil was very much into mime and synths/string machines and was quite Bowie-esque. I had gone into a 4 track in Kentish Town with Phil and a member of his band, Gary Junk. We recoded a song called ‘Walking’. I played guitar and sung on the track. Looking back, Phil was incredibly encouraging and supported me in recording the second song that I ever wrote, when I only had two songs to rub together and only just knew my way around a guitar. So, when Chas and I got together it was natural that we should go back into the studio and record them.
Chas ; Tony already had the music and I quickly wrote some lyrics for the first song, ‘Poser’, so we went in and recorded it. The other track, ‘Getaway Blues’, had more of a reggae influence… as I was saying, I wasn’t such a big reggae fan at the time, so that was more Tony’s thing and, for me, it sort of lacks the energy of ‘Poser’. I think because we had such a short space of time between me joining the band and then going in to record the single, it didn’t give us much time to rehearse and get ready, so we concentrated on ‘Poser’ and didn’t really figure-out what we wanted to do with ‘Getaway Blues’. Maybe it would have been better if we had worked on it a bit more and maybe given it a different arrangement, but as it turned out, I don’t think it had much energy in the version that we recorded.
Tony ; This was a time when even going into a 4 track studio was relatively expensive and something that many bands didn’t do, certainly not at our stage of development! We had advertised for a drummer and a lad, whose name I cannot remember, came along to the studio for an audition that doubled as a recording session for Poser/Getaway Blues. It was all done in a couple of hours, rehearsing from scratch with Phil and the drummer, and recording. The drummer then decided that we were not for him, even though we wanted him, and went off to join a different band. But I still love the fact that, barely together for a wet week, we’d decided that we were ready to record a single… that’s what was in our heads! Phil also produced our next single and later, the 12 inch single by ‘Our Heroes’ (see below.) He was a good friend and mentor, despite being very different to us musically.
I assume that you would have taken copies of the ‘Poser’ recordings to record labels to see if they’d be interested in releasing it…
Chas ; We did, but no-one seemed to be particularly interested. There were so many new bands appearing in London during 1978, so I guess our tracks just didn’t stand out enough. We hadn’t played live at all at that point, so we hadn’t had any reviews in the music press and we didn’t have any following…
Tony ; We didn’t have any management or insight into the business, so basically we arrived at the doors of the major record companies and Indies with cassettes and cover letters, asking to see their A&R. Unsurprisingly, we didn’t get past reception and for the most part we were deafened by silence. We had a couple of songs, but no following or gigging experience. I think we got one ‘thanks, but no thanks’ letter from Cherry Red, although that may have been later-on, when we were trying to find someone to release ‘We’re Never Going to Miss You’/’Catch 22’… We eventually released it on our own label, Mystery.
Chas : The other thing was that a lot of the independent record labels were only just starting-up at the time that we recorded ‘Poser’. If we had done it six months or a year later, I think there would have been a lot more opportunities for us for us. As the band moved on, we also made things difficult for ourselves because we were always bringing new things into the band and our music. At one point we had a synth player, which was very unusual for a punk band, and we also had a sax player for a while. For us, it was great that we were bringing all of these different influences in to the band, but from the outside, it perhaps made us seem like a bit of a hotch-potch. The one time that we came across a small label who were genuinely interested in signing us, they got taken over by Warners just before we signed the contract. Next thing we were told was that we had to go to the Fulham Greyhound and play three songs in front of the new bosses, without even having a soundcheck. They just sat there like Nero, deciding which bands they wanted and which ones they didn’t. We were definitely a ‘No’.
Did the band play live at all around that time?
Tony ; No, not at all. We didn’t play live until 79-80. Our first gig was at Gossips in Dean Street. Chas got us that gig and then I started sending out cassettes to pub venues and Student Unions, cold calling Social Secretaries and going along with a cheap plastic attaché case (because we thought that was what managers carried!) and blagging our way in. Lo and behold, the gigs started rolling in and we played around the country, as far north as Yorkshire and as far south as Devon.
Despite being the founding member, Tony actually decided to stop playing guitar after a while, but then remained involved as a manager…
Tony ; I left because I decided that I was holding the band back musically, as they evolved. This happened just after we recorded a second single, Cover Up/Mind Games, which was produced by Kirk Brandon. The band wanted me to stay and leaving it felt like a bereavement… It was an error on my part, brought on by a crisis of confidence and a feeling that I was letting my mates down. They didn’t replace me with a guitarist, or if they did it was incredibly short lived, but with a sax player, Garfield, who sadly passed away back in the 80’s. But I only lasted away for a few months before Chas and Alan asked if I would come back as a manager, which I did like a shot. Family is family!
The band would continue into the mid-Eighties, although the name was changed a few times. Was that
because of line-up changes ?
Chas ; In various different forms, it continued for about eight years in total and we really did put a lot of effort into it. After I left school, my mum had given me quite a lot of money to pay for driving lessons, but instead I used it to buy a van for the band. So we travelled up and down the country in this van and we’d play gigs and stay with the bands we played with, or sleep in the van… we fought hard and long, paying our dues. We played at lots of colleges and polytechnics, when there was a really thriving, student music scene. We really played a lot. But the only consistent members were Tony and myself.
Tony ; For the most part we gigged under the name Violent Marriage, but we only released one track under that name, on a compilation album called ‘Starforce 1.’ The last three years, after I had stopped playing and our keyboard player had left the band the name changed to ‘Our Heroes’ , who released a 12”single, ‘ Now The Scars Are Healing’, on Icon. I eventually left as manager just after this was recorded. It did well in terms of air play, but not so well in sales.
It sounds as if you actually made quite a lot of recordings while the band were together…
Chas ; Yes, and we’ve still got them. I’ve got some photographs and I have a copy of the tape we recorded when we were offered the record deal. But Tony has been really great about keeping copies of everything, so he has the real archive… and he also has a much better memory for names and places than I have !
Tony ; We did several recording sessions, of which about 10 tracks are still in existence. All our trips to the studio, bar the once with Kirk Brandon, had Phil Jap in the producer’s chair. The very early Bona Rays set was mostly dropped prior to recording our Bona Rays/Violent Marriage session, but I still remember some of them. Including a dreadful white boy reggae version of ‘All the Young Dudes’, which seemed like a good idea at the time…
Was there any particular reason why the band eventually came to an end ?
Tony ; I left just after they signed with Icon. Again, I felt that I had done everything that I could. I was bored of working on building sites and I felt that I needed to get an education. I suspect Chas went through a similar process after the 12” didn’t do what it was capable of, but you would have to ask her. Chris Calvert, our drummer from 1979/80 until near the end of Our Heroes, joined Seventh Séance, who were also signed to Icon. Garfield ended up joining a big brass sound, soul band. They actually appeared on The Tube, although sadly he had died in between the recording and its transmission. I also suspect that Alan was moving-on, musically. He ended up having some chart success in the mid-nineties with E-Motion and still works as a DJ, writing and releasing electronic music.
Did you continue to be involved in music after the band came to an end?
Chas ; Yeah, I continued to sing after the band broke-up. I did singing-lessons and had a very short-lived career as a backing-singer… which I hated! For me, the bane of my life has always been coming up against clichés and when I was trying to be a backing singer, that’s what I faced. Because I had this colour of skin, people would assume that I’d sing in a certain way and when I sang in my style, they wouldn’t like it. One guy actually asked me if I could sing a bit more like Aretha Franklin! I couldn’t and wouldn’t do that because I’m not a Soul Queen, I’m a Punk Rocker! I can’t pretend to be something else because, if I’m going to do something, it has to be authentic. I was learning jazz singing for a while, more for the discipline of it than being a particular fan, but I’d also get bookings to sing at parties and things like that, although it was a bit too much like elevator music for me. But I did that kind of thing for a while before I decided that I really hated it. The thing is, I’ve never thought that I was a great singer and technically, I’m not. But that’s never been a problem for me because I’d always rather listen to Tom Waits than Mariah Carey while, technically, she’s a great singer and he isn’t. It’s the same reason why I love Nick Cave… it’s the spirit and attitude behind it that matters to me. Authenticity has to be the cornerstone of it.
Tony : I smashed my arm badly in an accident, a few years after leaving the band, and found playing guitar challenging. I turned my creative energies towards poetry and have published regularly, including a collection, with a second one in the pipeline However, the desire to be part of a band has never left me and after a conversation with Mark, from Flashback, I decided to try out playing bass. I found that I can manage a short scale bass, so I’m looking forward to gigging with Chas again. Additionally, if there are any old punks in west Lancashire ( I now live in Ormskirk) looking for a bassist, let me know!
How do you feel about the single finally being released after 42 years ? Were you surprised when Chas first got in touch to say that someone wanted to release it ?
Tony ; I thought that she was winding me up! To say I’m chuffed doesn’t come close. Chas and I got together as two18/19-year olds and had faith that we’d made music that was worthy of releasing. We even had the brass neck to record and hawk our couple of songs door to door to record companies. We spent years recording and gigging (often to empty houses) but never doubted that what we had to offer could have a wider audience. Most of all, we loved it. Those days were the happiest of my life, we were constantly broke, travelling around in a Ford Transit van with holes in the floor (we called it Jezabel because it let us down so much.) If we weren’t paid, we wouldn’t have the petrol to get home or to the next gig, but it was magic.
Chas : I’m really happy about it, as people are hearing it at last and they all seem to be enjoying it. I really like the way that I’ve been getting along with my life and suddenly, this thing has reappeared and is taking-on a life of its’ own. It’s been so organic and it thrills me because it’s happening in an authentic way. The guy from Flashback heard the acetate and decided that he wanted to release it. He arranged the pressing and the sleeve and I’ve been doing interviews with various people to help promote it. I love it that, 42 years later, this thing that we did is finally going to be released as a proper single. It’s not been by any kind of design, it’s just happened because people who are into that genre of music are really into it. It’s been like a quantum leap between then and now. It wasn’t something I’d thought about for some time, but when things started to come together, I realised that the whole Punk thing is now way-bigger than it was back then and you can see its’ influence almost everywhere that you look. It’s been one of the most important things in my life and in the way I think. I’ve never been afraid to think outside the box and just get on with what I’m doing. There are always people who are going to say, ‘No, you can’t do that’, so the best thing you can say in response is, ‘Yes, I can!’ I’ve always been like that and it’s proven to be a really good approach in the things that I’ve chosen to do. In some ways it’s probably worked against me, you know, like getting married and settling down with a family… But I would never change it!
Tony ; Bona Rays/ Violent Marriage/Our Heroes were my family and this release is the icing on the cake, 42 years after it all began. I’m fucking chuffed and so proud of the band. I still think ‘Poser’ is a cracking tune and it stands the test of time. Not bad for two chancers in a Kentish Town punk band!
The single ‘Poser’ / ‘Getaway Blues’ is released by Flashback records on 28th February 2020.
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Chas ; Yeah, I continued to sing after the band broke-up. I did singing-lessons and had a very short-lived career as a backing-singer… which I hated! For me, the bane of my life has always been coming up against clichés and when I was trying to be a backing singer, that’s what I faced. Because I had this colour of skin, people would assume that I’d sing in a certain way and when I sang in my style, they wouldn’t like it. One guy actually asked me if I could sing a bit more like Aretha Franklin! I couldn’t and wouldn’t do that because I’m not a Soul Queen, I’m a Punk Rocker! I can’t pretend to be something else because, if I’m going to do something, it has to be authentic. I was learning jazz singing for a while, more for the discipline of it than being a particular fan, but I’d also get bookings to sing at parties and things like that, although it was a bit too much like elevator music for me. But I did that kind of thing for a while before I decided that I really hated it. The thing is, I’ve never thought that I was a great singer and technically, I’m not. But that’s never been a problem for me because I’d always rather listen to Tom Waits than Mariah Carey while, technically, she’s a great singer and he isn’t. It’s the same reason why I love Nick Cave… it’s the spirit and attitude behind it that matters to me. Authenticity has to be the cornerstone of it.
Tony : I smashed my arm badly in an accident, a few years after leaving the band, and found playing guitar challenging. I turned my creative energies towards poetry and have published regularly, including a collection, with a second one in the pipeline However, the desire to be part of a band has never left me and after a conversation with Mark, from Flashback, I decided to try out playing bass. I found that I can manage a short scale bass, so I’m looking forward to gigging with Chas again. Additionally, if there are any old punks in west Lancashire ( I now live in Ormskirk) looking for a bassist, let me know!
How do you feel about the single finally being released after 42 years ? Were you surprised when Chas first got in touch to say that someone wanted to release it ?
Tony ; I thought that she was winding me up! To say I’m chuffed doesn’t come close. Chas and I got together as two18/19-year olds and had faith that we’d made music that was worthy of releasing. We even had the brass neck to record and hawk our couple of songs door to door to record companies. We spent years recording and gigging (often to empty houses) but never doubted that what we had to offer could have a wider audience. Most of all, we loved it. Those days were the happiest of my life, we were constantly broke, travelling around in a Ford Transit van with holes in the floor (we called it Jezabel because it let us down so much.) If we weren’t paid, we wouldn’t have the petrol to get home or to the next gig, but it was magic.
Chas : I’m really happy about it, as people are hearing it at last and they all seem to be enjoying it. I really like the way that I’ve been getting along with my life and suddenly, this thing has reappeared and is taking-on a life of its’ own. It’s been so organic and it thrills me because it’s happening in an authentic way. The guy from Flashback heard the acetate and decided that he wanted to release it. He arranged the pressing and the sleeve and I’ve been doing interviews with various people to help promote it. I love it that, 42 years later, this thing that we did is finally going to be released as a proper single. It’s not been by any kind of design, it’s just happened because people who are into that genre of music are really into it. It’s been like a quantum leap between then and now. It wasn’t something I’d thought about for some time, but when things started to come together, I realised that the whole Punk thing is now way-bigger than it was back then and you can see its’ influence almost everywhere that you look. It’s been one of the most important things in my life and in the way I think. I’ve never been afraid to think outside the box and just get on with what I’m doing. There are always people who are going to say, ‘No, you can’t do that’, so the best thing you can say in response is, ‘Yes, I can!’ I’ve always been like that and it’s proven to be a really good approach in the things that I’ve chosen to do. In some ways it’s probably worked against me, you know, like getting married and settling down with a family… But I would never change it!
Tony ; Bona Rays/ Violent Marriage/Our Heroes were my family and this release is the icing on the cake, 42 years after it all began. I’m fucking chuffed and so proud of the band. I still think ‘Poser’ is a cracking tune and it stands the test of time. Not bad for two chancers in a Kentish Town punk band!
The single ‘Poser’ / ‘Getaway Blues’ is released by Flashback records on 28th February 2020.
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