I was originally going to do two interviews
this weekend, the first with the Cockney Rejects at the 100 Club on Friday
evening and then the second with Wire before their Lexington gig on the Saturday. I really liked
the compare-and-contrast opportunities the two features would offer, plus that
fact that fans from both sides would probably be scratching their heads trying
to figure out how these bands ended up side-by-side. I love this kinda thing…
As the Big Boys (possibly the finest band to ever come out of Texas) said, all the way back in 1982… ‘I’m
a Punk and I like Sham, the Cockney Rejects are the worlds’ greatest band… but
I like Joy Division and Public Image too, even though that’s not what I’m
supposed to do…’ Anyway, as it worked-out,
the Wire interview unfortunately fell through due to their busy schedule, but
the Rejects were still on track so, straight after work I headed down to catch
their sound-check and meet-up with the original members, Jeff ‘Stinky’ Turner
and his brother Mick Geggus. Once they’ve assured themselves that all the amps
are indeed turned all the way up to 11, we wander out to the back of the venue,
perch ourselves on the steps and proceed with the interview.
Now, I’m well aware that the Cockney Rejects have acquired an unsavoury reputation over the years, both for the violence that sometimes marred their gigs in the early Eighties and their later move away from Punk into a more Hard Rock sound. I have to say I’m not a fan of all their albums, but I love their early records and the band deserve plenty of credit for the exuberant, unique style they forged back then. When they first emerged, Cockney Rejects were a genuine breath of fresh air in a Punk scene that was rapidly taking itself too seriously. John Peel recognised it straight away, playing their records and giving them several sessions, while the likes of NME completely missed the point (after all, it’s only hip to be working class when mummy and daddy are rich enough to pay your SWP subscriptions…) I first heard them on the Peel show, the same way and probably around the same time I first heard The Fall or the Dead Kennedys. It all made sense to me and damned if I wasn’t going to enjoy it.
The Rejects, though, were destined to have a peculiar trajectory. After chart success and even appearances on Top of The Pops (imagine that happening these days !) they fell foul of the backlash after the entire Oi! scene was blamed for the Southall riots. They tried to distance themselves from the more unsavoury elements, going for a more hard rock style, but failed to pick up a new audience. Combined with several bad record deals, disillusionment set-in and led to the demise of the original band. Apart from occasional one-off reunions, it wasn’t until quite recently that they made a proper come back. Jeffs’ enjoyable autobiography and the full length documentary ‘East End Babylon’ have finally helped to put the record straight and their most recent album has found them pleasing all the old fans once again while still breaking new ground. And as a live band, they’ve returned to their roots, playing sets that include all the songs that fans want to hear, the way they want to hear them.
Now, I’m well aware that the Cockney Rejects have acquired an unsavoury reputation over the years, both for the violence that sometimes marred their gigs in the early Eighties and their later move away from Punk into a more Hard Rock sound. I have to say I’m not a fan of all their albums, but I love their early records and the band deserve plenty of credit for the exuberant, unique style they forged back then. When they first emerged, Cockney Rejects were a genuine breath of fresh air in a Punk scene that was rapidly taking itself too seriously. John Peel recognised it straight away, playing their records and giving them several sessions, while the likes of NME completely missed the point (after all, it’s only hip to be working class when mummy and daddy are rich enough to pay your SWP subscriptions…) I first heard them on the Peel show, the same way and probably around the same time I first heard The Fall or the Dead Kennedys. It all made sense to me and damned if I wasn’t going to enjoy it.
The Rejects, though, were destined to have a peculiar trajectory. After chart success and even appearances on Top of The Pops (imagine that happening these days !) they fell foul of the backlash after the entire Oi! scene was blamed for the Southall riots. They tried to distance themselves from the more unsavoury elements, going for a more hard rock style, but failed to pick up a new audience. Combined with several bad record deals, disillusionment set-in and led to the demise of the original band. Apart from occasional one-off reunions, it wasn’t until quite recently that they made a proper come back. Jeffs’ enjoyable autobiography and the full length documentary ‘East End Babylon’ have finally helped to put the record straight and their most recent album has found them pleasing all the old fans once again while still breaking new ground. And as a live band, they’ve returned to their roots, playing sets that include all the songs that fans want to hear, the way they want to hear them.
So, time to catch up… I firstly wanted to ask
about their early days. Growing-up in the East End
during the Seventies, do you think that gave you a particular outlook on
things…
Mick : Yeah… we were basically born into a lot of cynicism. It was a very cynical place, you know, people telling you not to trust this person or that person, cos they’re out to rip you off or have you over. It was a very insular community in that way and it gave us a good start… but it still didn’t stop us getting ripped-off in the end !
Jeff : It was a great place for giving us plenty of song titles and things to sing about, I’ll say that much. It proved to be a bonus and that’s pretty–much what we did in our early days. That’s why we were able to knock out three or four albums in our first year ! It all came along like a bus at first, but then it was more like every three years after that. When we started out, just writing about what was going on and what we knew about gave us a great incentive.
Of course, the downside of that was the fact that the East End was always being vilified by outsiders…
Mick : Well, even the Punk thing was more of a West London phenomenon and a lot of it was quite phoney. But in our neck of the woods, at that time, it really was a very poor area and a very violent area to grow up in. Like we say in the film, it was just a melting pot of boxers, armed robbers and other villains ! We grew up in the middle of all those sorta people and we had a lot the same kinda attitude, but we just took a different path.
Was music a big part of growing-up for you ?
Mick : It was massive, yeah.
Jeff : Music was a huge thing for us, once we found our way into it. But living in Canning Town, it wasn’t really a musical place. I think most of the people there were just chart-heads. And I think that was the same in a lot of places…
People forget that, for a lot of kids back then, the main ways to hear new music were either if you had an older brother or sister who would play new records to you, or if something interesting managed to sneak on to Top Of The Pops…
Jeff : Yeah, that was it ! We only really had that half-hour every week to try and catch a glimpse of your heroes. I mean, you also had the Old Grey Whistle Test, but it was always on really late at night and your old man probably wouldn’t let you stay up to watch it… But Top Of The Pops could have some great moments and we could all relate to that. You know, you’d see something like Sweet on there, and you’d all be talking about it at school the next day. That’s what was great about it.
When Punk did come along, did you feel an instant attraction to it ?
Jeff : I think there was an instant attraction to the rawness of it. The first real Punk band I ever heard was the Pistols, ‘God Save The Queen’, and I just felt, this is something different ! I mean, if you listened to the Pistols backing tracks, they’re probably not much different to an Aerosmith album, but it was Johnny Lydon’s unique voice and style that made you think, anyone could do this ! So that was a great attraction, obviously.
Coming from a more traditional community, what did you think of the subject matter they were singing about ?
Jeff : I always thought it was very tongue-in-cheek. At the time, it was also a kinda gimmick, but they really were four working class lads and how else were they going to gatecrash the scene ? They just had to do it a certain way, so I never took it offensively. And I think John Lydon even went on to say that you don’t write a song like that because you hate the Queen… I mean, it wasn’t as if they were saying, let’s kill the Queen… they were just four youngsters singing a really good song.
Mick : Yeah… we were basically born into a lot of cynicism. It was a very cynical place, you know, people telling you not to trust this person or that person, cos they’re out to rip you off or have you over. It was a very insular community in that way and it gave us a good start… but it still didn’t stop us getting ripped-off in the end !
Jeff : It was a great place for giving us plenty of song titles and things to sing about, I’ll say that much. It proved to be a bonus and that’s pretty–much what we did in our early days. That’s why we were able to knock out three or four albums in our first year ! It all came along like a bus at first, but then it was more like every three years after that. When we started out, just writing about what was going on and what we knew about gave us a great incentive.
Of course, the downside of that was the fact that the East End was always being vilified by outsiders…
Mick : Well, even the Punk thing was more of a West London phenomenon and a lot of it was quite phoney. But in our neck of the woods, at that time, it really was a very poor area and a very violent area to grow up in. Like we say in the film, it was just a melting pot of boxers, armed robbers and other villains ! We grew up in the middle of all those sorta people and we had a lot the same kinda attitude, but we just took a different path.
Was music a big part of growing-up for you ?
Mick : It was massive, yeah.
Jeff : Music was a huge thing for us, once we found our way into it. But living in Canning Town, it wasn’t really a musical place. I think most of the people there were just chart-heads. And I think that was the same in a lot of places…
People forget that, for a lot of kids back then, the main ways to hear new music were either if you had an older brother or sister who would play new records to you, or if something interesting managed to sneak on to Top Of The Pops…
Jeff : Yeah, that was it ! We only really had that half-hour every week to try and catch a glimpse of your heroes. I mean, you also had the Old Grey Whistle Test, but it was always on really late at night and your old man probably wouldn’t let you stay up to watch it… But Top Of The Pops could have some great moments and we could all relate to that. You know, you’d see something like Sweet on there, and you’d all be talking about it at school the next day. That’s what was great about it.
When Punk did come along, did you feel an instant attraction to it ?
Jeff : I think there was an instant attraction to the rawness of it. The first real Punk band I ever heard was the Pistols, ‘God Save The Queen’, and I just felt, this is something different ! I mean, if you listened to the Pistols backing tracks, they’re probably not much different to an Aerosmith album, but it was Johnny Lydon’s unique voice and style that made you think, anyone could do this ! So that was a great attraction, obviously.
Coming from a more traditional community, what did you think of the subject matter they were singing about ?
Jeff : I always thought it was very tongue-in-cheek. At the time, it was also a kinda gimmick, but they really were four working class lads and how else were they going to gatecrash the scene ? They just had to do it a certain way, so I never took it offensively. And I think John Lydon even went on to say that you don’t write a song like that because you hate the Queen… I mean, it wasn’t as if they were saying, let’s kill the Queen… they were just four youngsters singing a really good song.
Do you think Punk’s attitude
fitted-in well with the East End ?
Jeff : Well, yeah, if you think about the way I thought Punk should have been. But the thing I couldn’t stand was all these people in new punk bands suddenly slagging-off older bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, especially when you started to find out that a lot of these people, in some of the new bands that I liked, had been middle class hippy Art students. I mean, bands like Black Sabbath had all been as poor as we were when they were growing up, working in petrol stations and factories. So I never got that part of it… everyone comes from some-where and you just have to be true to yourself. That was the thing that let it down for me. I mean, I loved Status Quo, they were the first band I ever went to see, and those two geezers, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, are two really funny bastards ! They’re two Londoners and they’re as down to Earth as you can be… Give me them any time, rather than some ponce like Billy Idol !
When you started playing your own music, what were your initial influences ?
Mick : Well, funnily enough, it was stuff like early-Queen, Led Zeppelin and Sabbath, but we just couldn’t play that stuff. I had an old Woolworths’ Top Twenty guitar with about three strings on it, so we formed a band called The Shitters. All it was, I learned to play some 12 bar blues and I was just going up and down the scales.
Jeff : The thing is, unless you’d gone to some college that was full of musicians, if you were a kid growing up in the East End and you heard Brian May doing three or four-part harmonies on Queen 2, you’re not going to be able to pick up a guitar and play like that straight away. So we had to start at the bottom and work our way up…
But that being said, Mick quickly developed a very recognisable guitar sound…
Mick : That was probably more by accident than anything. I’d never had a proper amp before, I’d only been able to use old stuff, so when we went in to a studio to record ‘I’m Not A Fool’ and they had this big fucking Marshall, I just thought, let’s have a fiddle with this. First thing I did was crank it up and straight away I thought, that’ll do me ! I’ve just refined that over the years, you know ?
Funnily enough, I think a few people, like Jean Jacques Burnel for example, kinda stumbled upon their unique sound pretty much by accident…
Mick : It was the same with Steve Jones… he used a Fender Twin, and I was able to borrow it while we were recording part of ‘The Power & The Glory’ album. What it was, he had two Fender Gauss speakers in there and one of them had a slit in the cone, which gave it that fucking great sustain, and he went everywhere with it. So that was a fortunate accident as well…
Jeff : Well, yeah, if you think about the way I thought Punk should have been. But the thing I couldn’t stand was all these people in new punk bands suddenly slagging-off older bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, especially when you started to find out that a lot of these people, in some of the new bands that I liked, had been middle class hippy Art students. I mean, bands like Black Sabbath had all been as poor as we were when they were growing up, working in petrol stations and factories. So I never got that part of it… everyone comes from some-where and you just have to be true to yourself. That was the thing that let it down for me. I mean, I loved Status Quo, they were the first band I ever went to see, and those two geezers, Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, are two really funny bastards ! They’re two Londoners and they’re as down to Earth as you can be… Give me them any time, rather than some ponce like Billy Idol !
When you started playing your own music, what were your initial influences ?
Mick : Well, funnily enough, it was stuff like early-Queen, Led Zeppelin and Sabbath, but we just couldn’t play that stuff. I had an old Woolworths’ Top Twenty guitar with about three strings on it, so we formed a band called The Shitters. All it was, I learned to play some 12 bar blues and I was just going up and down the scales.
Jeff : The thing is, unless you’d gone to some college that was full of musicians, if you were a kid growing up in the East End and you heard Brian May doing three or four-part harmonies on Queen 2, you’re not going to be able to pick up a guitar and play like that straight away. So we had to start at the bottom and work our way up…
But that being said, Mick quickly developed a very recognisable guitar sound…
Mick : That was probably more by accident than anything. I’d never had a proper amp before, I’d only been able to use old stuff, so when we went in to a studio to record ‘I’m Not A Fool’ and they had this big fucking Marshall, I just thought, let’s have a fiddle with this. First thing I did was crank it up and straight away I thought, that’ll do me ! I’ve just refined that over the years, you know ?
Funnily enough, I think a few people, like Jean Jacques Burnel for example, kinda stumbled upon their unique sound pretty much by accident…
Mick : It was the same with Steve Jones… he used a Fender Twin, and I was able to borrow it while we were recording part of ‘The Power & The Glory’ album. What it was, he had two Fender Gauss speakers in there and one of them had a slit in the cone, which gave it that fucking great sustain, and he went everywhere with it. So that was a fortunate accident as well…
Since you were brothers in the same band, and
you came from such a close-knit community, do you think it was inevitable that
a lot of your songs were based on real people and stories ?
Mick : Well, as Jeff has pointed-out before, a lot of the early Punk songs were sorta political,. We didn’t do politics, so instead the songs were all about our lives, things we faced every day. And I think a lot of the newer punk bands started to do the same thing. They cottoned-on to it, and I think that was a good thing. I was pleased about that. They started singing about their own lives and what they did or didn’t have, you know ? I think that was a lot better than some middle class kid singing about being on the dole, when he knew he could still move back to his parents house and use the swimming pool in the basement…
Jeff : I really didn’t have a problem if someone was the son of a diplomat or anything. I mean, so what, but just be honest about it. I’m not saying that I didn’t love the music from those bands, like, I loved Generation X and I don’t care that one of them might have been a fucking chess champion from Bromley... although the next minute when he was sitting on a Harley Davidson curling his lip up… that could fuck off ! I did love the music, it was just that, growing up and then becoming involved in it, we found out that so much of it was faked… I just carried on loving the music because I did my best to ignore all that kinda bullshit.
The other thing in your songs, which was often misinterpreted, was your sense of humour… Mick : It was gallows-humour, I think. When you’re up against the odds, living in a place like that, you’ve gotta try to see the funny side of it !
Jeff : You have to have some humour in it. A lot of it was full-on, but just as much was tongue-in-cheek.
Mick : I mean, a song like ‘West Side Boys’ and stuff like that. It was just us having a laugh. It wasn’t telling people to go and smash some heads, because that would have meant some of our friends getting hurt ! We were just some kids showing off…
Jeff : Yeah, that’s something that a lot of people don’t realise. When I wrote a lot of those lyrics, I was still at school, it was just bravado but it gets taken out of context. I suppose that’s all part of the legend or the myth or whatever… like the famous quote, there’s only one thing worse than being talked about and that’s not being talked about ! I think those songs, they were just things we did at the time. I don’t know about other bands that have been around as long as us, but for me, when you get to your thirties or forties, it would feel fake if I was still writing songs about being in prison or that kinda thing. You do that at the time, when that stuff is going on, and that’s what we’ve always done. I think that’s the way to be. Not that we’re looking to be cool or anything, but if we were still writing those kinda songs, I think it would be very uncool.
Mick : Well, as Jeff has pointed-out before, a lot of the early Punk songs were sorta political,. We didn’t do politics, so instead the songs were all about our lives, things we faced every day. And I think a lot of the newer punk bands started to do the same thing. They cottoned-on to it, and I think that was a good thing. I was pleased about that. They started singing about their own lives and what they did or didn’t have, you know ? I think that was a lot better than some middle class kid singing about being on the dole, when he knew he could still move back to his parents house and use the swimming pool in the basement…
Jeff : I really didn’t have a problem if someone was the son of a diplomat or anything. I mean, so what, but just be honest about it. I’m not saying that I didn’t love the music from those bands, like, I loved Generation X and I don’t care that one of them might have been a fucking chess champion from Bromley... although the next minute when he was sitting on a Harley Davidson curling his lip up… that could fuck off ! I did love the music, it was just that, growing up and then becoming involved in it, we found out that so much of it was faked… I just carried on loving the music because I did my best to ignore all that kinda bullshit.
The other thing in your songs, which was often misinterpreted, was your sense of humour… Mick : It was gallows-humour, I think. When you’re up against the odds, living in a place like that, you’ve gotta try to see the funny side of it !
Jeff : You have to have some humour in it. A lot of it was full-on, but just as much was tongue-in-cheek.
Mick : I mean, a song like ‘West Side Boys’ and stuff like that. It was just us having a laugh. It wasn’t telling people to go and smash some heads, because that would have meant some of our friends getting hurt ! We were just some kids showing off…
Jeff : Yeah, that’s something that a lot of people don’t realise. When I wrote a lot of those lyrics, I was still at school, it was just bravado but it gets taken out of context. I suppose that’s all part of the legend or the myth or whatever… like the famous quote, there’s only one thing worse than being talked about and that’s not being talked about ! I think those songs, they were just things we did at the time. I don’t know about other bands that have been around as long as us, but for me, when you get to your thirties or forties, it would feel fake if I was still writing songs about being in prison or that kinda thing. You do that at the time, when that stuff is going on, and that’s what we’ve always done. I think that’s the way to be. Not that we’re looking to be cool or anything, but if we were still writing those kinda songs, I think it would be very uncool.
The famous story of how you managed to get Garry
Bushell’s attention, and consequently your first demo session with Jimmy
Pursey, is a classic tale of blagging your way in…
Mick : Oh yeah, we winged it all the way ! We were just fucking chancers from nowhere !
Jeff : But the thing was, at the time, he was on the same level as us, so we couldn’t have gone to anyone else. He was from the same place, and I think he just thought, I’ll take the chance on them cos I like their front…
Mick : He was just a bus drivers’ son from South London, just a stone’s throw from us, you know what I mean ? He was down-to-earth and one of the nicest people you could meet. But he gets badly misinterpreted… people tar him with things that he had nothing to do with.
Jeff : I think a lot of bands wouldn’t be around, even today, if it wasn’t for that man. And we’ve had some fall-outs and ups and downs with him, but at the end of it, he’s still a good mate.
But after you did those first demo’s, instead of getting a deal through Jimmy Pursey, you ended up releasing your first single through Small Wonder. I’ve always thought that was a label that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. He released the first records by yourselves, Crass, Bauhaus, The Cure, Patrik Fitzgerald… it doesn’t get much more varied and on the ball than that !
Jeff : Well, Pete Stennet was a really nice bloke and he was willing to take a chance and put out our record even though we were just kids. He gave us a break and I have to say, out of all the record labels we were on, that fella paid us, and he paid us well. He was an honest man. That label should be revered.
Mick : I think he really believed that he was doing the right thing, and you can see that he was. He wasn’t just doing it from a business standpoint. When you think about some of those records he released, he really had vision.
Jeff : I remember when we first went up to his record shop, which was on Hoe Street in Walthamstow. I think he was a bit startled when we first walked in there, but he believed in what he heard and saw that it had potential. He didn’t have to ring us back and say he’d do it,but he genuinely liked it, so God bless him.
The only thing that was a bit weird about that single was that ‘Police Car’ wasn’t the A-side. That was the song that everybody loved and, to be honest, it probably still got played more than ‘Flares’n’Slippers’ in the end…
Mick : I think it was just because of the swearing at the start of it…
Jeff : Well, yeah… I mean, when we did that, I was still only 14 and to keep me Mum happy, we actually made two acetates, and the one I took home cut out the ‘Freedom, there ain’t no fucking freedom’ bit, so I could play it to me Mum and she thought it was alright ! You know, I’ll be honest, I’m just a Mummy’s boy ! Never mind all that hard-nut reputation, that’s what I really was!
Mick : Oh yeah, we winged it all the way ! We were just fucking chancers from nowhere !
Jeff : But the thing was, at the time, he was on the same level as us, so we couldn’t have gone to anyone else. He was from the same place, and I think he just thought, I’ll take the chance on them cos I like their front…
Mick : He was just a bus drivers’ son from South London, just a stone’s throw from us, you know what I mean ? He was down-to-earth and one of the nicest people you could meet. But he gets badly misinterpreted… people tar him with things that he had nothing to do with.
Jeff : I think a lot of bands wouldn’t be around, even today, if it wasn’t for that man. And we’ve had some fall-outs and ups and downs with him, but at the end of it, he’s still a good mate.
But after you did those first demo’s, instead of getting a deal through Jimmy Pursey, you ended up releasing your first single through Small Wonder. I’ve always thought that was a label that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. He released the first records by yourselves, Crass, Bauhaus, The Cure, Patrik Fitzgerald… it doesn’t get much more varied and on the ball than that !
Jeff : Well, Pete Stennet was a really nice bloke and he was willing to take a chance and put out our record even though we were just kids. He gave us a break and I have to say, out of all the record labels we were on, that fella paid us, and he paid us well. He was an honest man. That label should be revered.
Mick : I think he really believed that he was doing the right thing, and you can see that he was. He wasn’t just doing it from a business standpoint. When you think about some of those records he released, he really had vision.
Jeff : I remember when we first went up to his record shop, which was on Hoe Street in Walthamstow. I think he was a bit startled when we first walked in there, but he believed in what he heard and saw that it had potential. He didn’t have to ring us back and say he’d do it,but he genuinely liked it, so God bless him.
The only thing that was a bit weird about that single was that ‘Police Car’ wasn’t the A-side. That was the song that everybody loved and, to be honest, it probably still got played more than ‘Flares’n’Slippers’ in the end…
Mick : I think it was just because of the swearing at the start of it…
Jeff : Well, yeah… I mean, when we did that, I was still only 14 and to keep me Mum happy, we actually made two acetates, and the one I took home cut out the ‘Freedom, there ain’t no fucking freedom’ bit, so I could play it to me Mum and she thought it was alright ! You know, I’ll be honest, I’m just a Mummy’s boy ! Never mind all that hard-nut reputation, that’s what I really was!
John Peel was someone else who saw what you
were doing and gave you a lot of support from early on…
Jeff : Yeah, he was another one, top man.
Mick : We’ve got nothing but respect and praise for him. And he’s another one that some people have tried to unfairly vilify, post mortem.
Jeff : I mean, just how many bands did he dare to give a break to ? You can go all the way back to bands like Free or Wishbone Ash… He was the man to champion all of it.
Mick : He had such an eclectic taste.
Jeff : I’ll never forget when we got a message from Pete, and he said, ‘Peel’s got the single, he loves it and he’ll be playing it tonight…’ So, I remember sitting in my Mums’ bedroom and having a little cassette recorder ready. He came on at 10.00 and the first thing he said was, ‘We’re going to start tonight with ‘Flares’n’Slippers’ by the Cockney Rejects…’ For me that was fucking it ! Can you imagine what it was like going to school the next morning ? That was fucking wondrous ! But that’s the thing… when you’re young and start a band, just having your first gig is brilliant. If you get as far as having something played on the radio, that’s even better. But the unfortunate thing is that the deeper you get into it and the more success you have, you end up expecting more and wanting more. That’s just a natural thing I suppose, but when you end up doing it for a living, it changes things.
When you first started releasing records, there was no ‘Oi!’ scene as such, but when Garry Bushell coined the phrase, you were seen as one of the big influences on the emerging bands. Now, much that you can see that Garry had good intentions when he started to write about all these bands under the same banner, do you think that, eventually, your perceived involvement with all those others was used against you ?
Mick : Well, we never wanted to be seen as a part of any movement and we said that even at the start of it. I could see that it might get politicised because there were some more extreme elements knocking around. And at the same time, you also had the left wing lot in there, so it was only ever going to be a path to disaster. That’s why we tried to distance ourselves from it, when we did albums like ‘The Power & The Glory’. But unfortunately, even to this day, the terrible events that happened at the Hambrough Tavern in Southall get linked to the whole scene. In fact, there was a book that was published recently that claimed we were one of the bands due to play that night ! Well, no we fucking weren’t, and we were never even involved with it. When we first heard about that gig being put together, we knew it was just an accident waiting to happen. But we still get tarred with the same brush…
It would be stupid to try and pretend there weren’t extreme elements in the Oi! scene, but at that time, there were extreme elements in every part of the country…
Mick : And it’s too polarized, all of that. When we go abroad, nowadays, people ask if we’re fascist or anti-fascist ? But why can’t we just be neither ?
Jeff : It’s as if you can’t be just a normal geezer. I mean, why do you have to be either this or that ? Can’t you just live your own life ? Politics should never have anything to do with the music. Mick : Our thing was just to have a good time. Have a drink, have a laugh and have a singalong.
That being said, your gigs did end up having a reputation for being potentially violent…
Jeff : Well, that was nothing to do with politics, and we did bring a lot of it on ourselves. We were Cockneys so we just wanted to stand-up for West Ham…
Mick : At the time, the late Seventies / early Eighties, everything was tribalised, not just music, but football gangs and all that… We were young and trying to be flash and we paid the price for it. So we can’t really cry over spilt-milk.
Jeff : It wasn’t that we went out looking for trouble. I mean, if someone treated us with respect, we’d do the same to them. But if someone treated us shabbily, we’d give that back to them. You know, it’s the same thing as if you hold the door open for someone and they just walk through and ignore you. You’ll think, what a cunt ! But if someone holds a door open for me, I’ll always say ‘thanks’. That’s all it is, but, when we were young and people were treating the band badly, we just used to go too far in return. Coming from the East End Boxing Gyms, where you really learned to respect people, and then jumping into the music business and finding all these people talking down at us or talking shit, we just wouldn’t have it. I’ll admit, sometimes we really over-reacted, but that was just part and parcel of who we were. I’d like to think that we never, ever treated anyone bang out of order. When things did happen, it was to people that were out of order with us.
Jeff : Yeah, he was another one, top man.
Mick : We’ve got nothing but respect and praise for him. And he’s another one that some people have tried to unfairly vilify, post mortem.
Jeff : I mean, just how many bands did he dare to give a break to ? You can go all the way back to bands like Free or Wishbone Ash… He was the man to champion all of it.
Mick : He had such an eclectic taste.
Jeff : I’ll never forget when we got a message from Pete, and he said, ‘Peel’s got the single, he loves it and he’ll be playing it tonight…’ So, I remember sitting in my Mums’ bedroom and having a little cassette recorder ready. He came on at 10.00 and the first thing he said was, ‘We’re going to start tonight with ‘Flares’n’Slippers’ by the Cockney Rejects…’ For me that was fucking it ! Can you imagine what it was like going to school the next morning ? That was fucking wondrous ! But that’s the thing… when you’re young and start a band, just having your first gig is brilliant. If you get as far as having something played on the radio, that’s even better. But the unfortunate thing is that the deeper you get into it and the more success you have, you end up expecting more and wanting more. That’s just a natural thing I suppose, but when you end up doing it for a living, it changes things.
When you first started releasing records, there was no ‘Oi!’ scene as such, but when Garry Bushell coined the phrase, you were seen as one of the big influences on the emerging bands. Now, much that you can see that Garry had good intentions when he started to write about all these bands under the same banner, do you think that, eventually, your perceived involvement with all those others was used against you ?
Mick : Well, we never wanted to be seen as a part of any movement and we said that even at the start of it. I could see that it might get politicised because there were some more extreme elements knocking around. And at the same time, you also had the left wing lot in there, so it was only ever going to be a path to disaster. That’s why we tried to distance ourselves from it, when we did albums like ‘The Power & The Glory’. But unfortunately, even to this day, the terrible events that happened at the Hambrough Tavern in Southall get linked to the whole scene. In fact, there was a book that was published recently that claimed we were one of the bands due to play that night ! Well, no we fucking weren’t, and we were never even involved with it. When we first heard about that gig being put together, we knew it was just an accident waiting to happen. But we still get tarred with the same brush…
It would be stupid to try and pretend there weren’t extreme elements in the Oi! scene, but at that time, there were extreme elements in every part of the country…
Mick : And it’s too polarized, all of that. When we go abroad, nowadays, people ask if we’re fascist or anti-fascist ? But why can’t we just be neither ?
Jeff : It’s as if you can’t be just a normal geezer. I mean, why do you have to be either this or that ? Can’t you just live your own life ? Politics should never have anything to do with the music. Mick : Our thing was just to have a good time. Have a drink, have a laugh and have a singalong.
That being said, your gigs did end up having a reputation for being potentially violent…
Jeff : Well, that was nothing to do with politics, and we did bring a lot of it on ourselves. We were Cockneys so we just wanted to stand-up for West Ham…
Mick : At the time, the late Seventies / early Eighties, everything was tribalised, not just music, but football gangs and all that… We were young and trying to be flash and we paid the price for it. So we can’t really cry over spilt-milk.
Jeff : It wasn’t that we went out looking for trouble. I mean, if someone treated us with respect, we’d do the same to them. But if someone treated us shabbily, we’d give that back to them. You know, it’s the same thing as if you hold the door open for someone and they just walk through and ignore you. You’ll think, what a cunt ! But if someone holds a door open for me, I’ll always say ‘thanks’. That’s all it is, but, when we were young and people were treating the band badly, we just used to go too far in return. Coming from the East End Boxing Gyms, where you really learned to respect people, and then jumping into the music business and finding all these people talking down at us or talking shit, we just wouldn’t have it. I’ll admit, sometimes we really over-reacted, but that was just part and parcel of who we were. I’d like to think that we never, ever treated anyone bang out of order. When things did happen, it was to people that were out of order with us.
The funny thing is that stuff like your
appearance on Top Of The Pops playing ‘Bubbles’ was controversial at the time,
because you’d all obviously been drinking, but nowadays, it gets repeated on
retrospective programmes as one of those classic Top Of The Pops moments !
Jeff : Yeah, but… we were just supporting our team. I mean, if someone had said to me a year before that West Ham were going to be in the Cup Final and that we’d be doing a Punk version of ‘Bubbles’ on Top Of The Pops, I would’ve never have believed them. So of course we were going to be lary. I mean, if it had happened now, the press would’ve loved it, but back then, being punks, they thought it was terrible that four kids were allowed to run-riot at the BBC. But what did they expect ? Although, I have to say, I was the only one who wasn’t drunk… only because they wouldn’t serve me in the bar … I didn’t have any snide ID with me !
But while all this was going on, didn’t EMI try to give you any guidance or try to calm you down a bit ?
Jeff : Nah, there was no help or guidance. They just looked at us as a cash-cow for a bunch of people who wanted to make money. They were looking at us, like, give them their 18 months and then they can fuck off and we’ll keep the money. That was basically the way it went. There was no-one to guide us or help us along the way…
That seems to have been the attitude from a lot of record companies back then. A lot of people hadn’t expected Punk to continue for more than a year, so they just wanted to make some quick cash out of it before it all vanished. None of them thought a band like yourselves would still be popular enough to still play all around the world 35 years later !
Jeff : Yeah, we’re still doing it ! And, you know, we’ve headlined at festivals where Hugh Cornwell was playing below us, and that was a real boost for me because I was a massive Stranglers fan. And another time, we headlined a festival in Poland and Buzzcocks were below us. I was just thinking, well, when I was 12 years old, I was listening to them on the radio in my bedroom, jumping up and down ! So it isn’t all about the money, it’s about what you’ve achieved, and I have to say, I think that’s good.
One of the things that probably did the most damage to your career was when, at the height of your popularity, you were unable to play any gigs in London itself…
Mick : Yeah, we got a ban from Ken Livingstone and the GLC. We still don’t really know why they picked on us. There were loads of fights going on everywhere. Even Madness used to have a lot of trouble at their gigs. There used to be loads of Nazis going to see them… We didn’t have them coming to our gigs because we wouldn’t let them near us. We used to stand up to them, but people still keep coming onto us about it. We were the only ones who really stood up against that lot and we were only kids when we were doing it, so that took a lot of balls.
Jeff : Yeah, but… we were just supporting our team. I mean, if someone had said to me a year before that West Ham were going to be in the Cup Final and that we’d be doing a Punk version of ‘Bubbles’ on Top Of The Pops, I would’ve never have believed them. So of course we were going to be lary. I mean, if it had happened now, the press would’ve loved it, but back then, being punks, they thought it was terrible that four kids were allowed to run-riot at the BBC. But what did they expect ? Although, I have to say, I was the only one who wasn’t drunk… only because they wouldn’t serve me in the bar … I didn’t have any snide ID with me !
But while all this was going on, didn’t EMI try to give you any guidance or try to calm you down a bit ?
Jeff : Nah, there was no help or guidance. They just looked at us as a cash-cow for a bunch of people who wanted to make money. They were looking at us, like, give them their 18 months and then they can fuck off and we’ll keep the money. That was basically the way it went. There was no-one to guide us or help us along the way…
That seems to have been the attitude from a lot of record companies back then. A lot of people hadn’t expected Punk to continue for more than a year, so they just wanted to make some quick cash out of it before it all vanished. None of them thought a band like yourselves would still be popular enough to still play all around the world 35 years later !
Jeff : Yeah, we’re still doing it ! And, you know, we’ve headlined at festivals where Hugh Cornwell was playing below us, and that was a real boost for me because I was a massive Stranglers fan. And another time, we headlined a festival in Poland and Buzzcocks were below us. I was just thinking, well, when I was 12 years old, I was listening to them on the radio in my bedroom, jumping up and down ! So it isn’t all about the money, it’s about what you’ve achieved, and I have to say, I think that’s good.
One of the things that probably did the most damage to your career was when, at the height of your popularity, you were unable to play any gigs in London itself…
Mick : Yeah, we got a ban from Ken Livingstone and the GLC. We still don’t really know why they picked on us. There were loads of fights going on everywhere. Even Madness used to have a lot of trouble at their gigs. There used to be loads of Nazis going to see them… We didn’t have them coming to our gigs because we wouldn’t let them near us. We used to stand up to them, but people still keep coming onto us about it. We were the only ones who really stood up against that lot and we were only kids when we were doing it, so that took a lot of balls.
As you were saying, you started to change
your sound to try and distance yourselves from all that stuff, but in
retrospect, do you think you did that a bit too suddenly for a lot of your fans
at the time ?
Mick : Yeah, I suppose it was, but that was just us. Why would we do it any other way ? We’ve always been impulsive. We’d done our apprenticeship with the punk stuff and thought, well, we’ve always been rock fans so why don’t we make a rock album ?
Jeff : The thing you’ve got to look at as well, is that at the time, it was our living. We were immersed in it and we wouldn’t have been true to ourselves if we hadn’t tried to make everything better. Now for us, in 1981 after the Southall thing, the punk thing was dead. We’d always liked stuff like Black Sabbath and UFO so we decided to try a different thing and make a rock album. It was impulsive but, you know, we just went out there and did it. We could either live by the sword or die by it, and we decided to do it. If people didn’t like it, we could understand that, but if they said we were selling out… Well, I was still living in a tiny little place, I still had to get a bus if I wanted to go anywhere and I still only had two quid in my pocket, so fuck off in they thought we’d sold-out ! All we wanted to do was try something else, make a rock album, and I think that was the braver way of doing something.
Mick : That’s why I can still look back now and not regret anything. I’m proud of that album and I’m proud of ‘Quiet Storm’ and ‘Lethal’, because we were just doing what we wanted to do.
Jeff : I’m proud of all of it. ‘The Wild Ones’ was a big challenge for all of us… I was still only a 17 year old kid when we did that, but we just thought, fuck it, let’s go for it. And it did actually get good reviews and stuff, so I think if we’d had the right people around us at the time, it could’ve done something. But then again, saying that, we were only young and if it had been a big success, we might’ve gone out to America and someone might’ve ended up dead from cocaine or something, who knows ? We might’ve made a load of money, but it’s all fated anyway. As it is, we’re still here 30 years later, and we’re still able to play around the world, so it’s great. We’re survivors !
As it turned out, you didn’t get a chance to go to America until 1985, by which time you were playing as a rock band. Of course, the problems arose because the Americans wanted to see the earlier punk version of the band… Did you have no idea of the popularity of your older music in the States at that time ?
Jeff : Oh, that was pony, that was a fucking nightmare !
Mick : We didn’t have a clue. We’d never been let off the leash like that. So we went over thinking we were the new Led Zeppelin, and everyone wanted to hear ‘Ready to Ruck’. And we were so fucking pig-headed by the time we got there, we still went onstage playing guitar solo’s, and he had his hair down there, giving it all that… The audience just pelted us with everything they could get their hands on ! And we were just too pig-ignorant to figure out why that was happening. It wasn’t until years later that it dawned on us, and we realised that we’d been asking for it…
Jeff : We didn’t have a clue about what was going on over there. Of course, now when we play there, it’s brilliant for us ! So I suppose it’s all swings and roundabouts. One door closes and another one gets opened. If something gets shut in your face, then you move on to the next thing.
Mick : That’s why I think we’ve been innovators, because we’ve never been afraid to try something different.
Well, that’s particularly true nowadays… some of the biggest punk bands in America, from Rancid to the Dropkick Murphys, are very much influenced by the Rejects…
Jeff : Yeah, that’s right, and good luck to ‘em. If they’ve taken something and gone on to crack the way for themselves, it’s nice that we’ve played a part in it. We’ve actually played with Rancid a few times, even in America, and they’re a very good live band. They’ve worked at it and they’re still going, so good luck to them. There’s no grudges, we’re all in the same game and it’s the path we chose. You either survive or you don’t, and we’re still hanging on in there.
Mick : Yeah, I suppose it was, but that was just us. Why would we do it any other way ? We’ve always been impulsive. We’d done our apprenticeship with the punk stuff and thought, well, we’ve always been rock fans so why don’t we make a rock album ?
Jeff : The thing you’ve got to look at as well, is that at the time, it was our living. We were immersed in it and we wouldn’t have been true to ourselves if we hadn’t tried to make everything better. Now for us, in 1981 after the Southall thing, the punk thing was dead. We’d always liked stuff like Black Sabbath and UFO so we decided to try a different thing and make a rock album. It was impulsive but, you know, we just went out there and did it. We could either live by the sword or die by it, and we decided to do it. If people didn’t like it, we could understand that, but if they said we were selling out… Well, I was still living in a tiny little place, I still had to get a bus if I wanted to go anywhere and I still only had two quid in my pocket, so fuck off in they thought we’d sold-out ! All we wanted to do was try something else, make a rock album, and I think that was the braver way of doing something.
Mick : That’s why I can still look back now and not regret anything. I’m proud of that album and I’m proud of ‘Quiet Storm’ and ‘Lethal’, because we were just doing what we wanted to do.
Jeff : I’m proud of all of it. ‘The Wild Ones’ was a big challenge for all of us… I was still only a 17 year old kid when we did that, but we just thought, fuck it, let’s go for it. And it did actually get good reviews and stuff, so I think if we’d had the right people around us at the time, it could’ve done something. But then again, saying that, we were only young and if it had been a big success, we might’ve gone out to America and someone might’ve ended up dead from cocaine or something, who knows ? We might’ve made a load of money, but it’s all fated anyway. As it is, we’re still here 30 years later, and we’re still able to play around the world, so it’s great. We’re survivors !
As it turned out, you didn’t get a chance to go to America until 1985, by which time you were playing as a rock band. Of course, the problems arose because the Americans wanted to see the earlier punk version of the band… Did you have no idea of the popularity of your older music in the States at that time ?
Jeff : Oh, that was pony, that was a fucking nightmare !
Mick : We didn’t have a clue. We’d never been let off the leash like that. So we went over thinking we were the new Led Zeppelin, and everyone wanted to hear ‘Ready to Ruck’. And we were so fucking pig-headed by the time we got there, we still went onstage playing guitar solo’s, and he had his hair down there, giving it all that… The audience just pelted us with everything they could get their hands on ! And we were just too pig-ignorant to figure out why that was happening. It wasn’t until years later that it dawned on us, and we realised that we’d been asking for it…
Jeff : We didn’t have a clue about what was going on over there. Of course, now when we play there, it’s brilliant for us ! So I suppose it’s all swings and roundabouts. One door closes and another one gets opened. If something gets shut in your face, then you move on to the next thing.
Mick : That’s why I think we’ve been innovators, because we’ve never been afraid to try something different.
Well, that’s particularly true nowadays… some of the biggest punk bands in America, from Rancid to the Dropkick Murphys, are very much influenced by the Rejects…
Jeff : Yeah, that’s right, and good luck to ‘em. If they’ve taken something and gone on to crack the way for themselves, it’s nice that we’ve played a part in it. We’ve actually played with Rancid a few times, even in America, and they’re a very good live band. They’ve worked at it and they’re still going, so good luck to them. There’s no grudges, we’re all in the same game and it’s the path we chose. You either survive or you don’t, and we’re still hanging on in there.
Strangely enough, the thing that brought you
back to a lot of attention was when a segment of ‘I’m Not A Fool’ was used on a
Levi’s TV advert… Did you know anything about that before it happened ?
Mick : Yeah, that was a big boost, actually. But I’ve no idea how it came around… I was sitting at home watching the telly one night, and suddenly, there it was ! I phoned him up and he told me to fuck off cos he had to get up for work at 6.00 ! I went to bed thinking, maybe I’ve had one too many, but then the next day it came on again. Of course, as it turned out, we never made any dough from it…
Jeff : Yeah, someone made some money from it, but it wasn’t us… But it brought the band back together again. It was the catalyst, the spark to get us thinking, alright, let’s give it a go again.
And the other weird occurrence was when it turned out that Morrissey was a fan of the band and invited you to play when he curated the Meltdown festival…
Mick : Yeah, that was good for us, but I’d always heard that he was a fan… and the Stone Roses as well, bless ‘em.
Jeff : But we didn’t get to meet him when we played there. I think he likes to be a man of mystery…
Mick : I met him once when he played a show at Brixton Academy. I went along and met him afterwards… he seemed to be very shy but he was alright.
What with Jeff’s book being published and the ‘East End Babylon’ film being released, do you ever look back at all those things you did or were involved in and think, Was that really me ? Mick : I went out for a drink with Vince a while ago and I think he said it best… we were just sitting at the back of this pub having a quiet drink and he said, How come we’re all still here ? You know, like, surely someone should have died ! And I have to say, he’s probably right ! It’s amazing that none of us got killed, or even badly injured !!!
Jeff : I look back and think, it’s just good to still be here !
Mick : Yeah, that was a big boost, actually. But I’ve no idea how it came around… I was sitting at home watching the telly one night, and suddenly, there it was ! I phoned him up and he told me to fuck off cos he had to get up for work at 6.00 ! I went to bed thinking, maybe I’ve had one too many, but then the next day it came on again. Of course, as it turned out, we never made any dough from it…
Jeff : Yeah, someone made some money from it, but it wasn’t us… But it brought the band back together again. It was the catalyst, the spark to get us thinking, alright, let’s give it a go again.
And the other weird occurrence was when it turned out that Morrissey was a fan of the band and invited you to play when he curated the Meltdown festival…
Mick : Yeah, that was good for us, but I’d always heard that he was a fan… and the Stone Roses as well, bless ‘em.
Jeff : But we didn’t get to meet him when we played there. I think he likes to be a man of mystery…
Mick : I met him once when he played a show at Brixton Academy. I went along and met him afterwards… he seemed to be very shy but he was alright.
What with Jeff’s book being published and the ‘East End Babylon’ film being released, do you ever look back at all those things you did or were involved in and think, Was that really me ? Mick : I went out for a drink with Vince a while ago and I think he said it best… we were just sitting at the back of this pub having a quiet drink and he said, How come we’re all still here ? You know, like, surely someone should have died ! And I have to say, he’s probably right ! It’s amazing that none of us got killed, or even badly injured !!!
Jeff : I look back and think, it’s just good to still be here !
You both keep yourselves busy with the
Rejects, but you’re also working on other things. Mick, you’ve just recorded
the second album with The Crunch…
Mick : Yeah, that came about because someone did an article about me for this book that came out in Sweden, about old ‘rock stars’, hahaha, and what they’re doing now. When it came out, I got asked to go over there and as it happened, I ran into Dave Tregunna on the plane. We then met Terry Chimes at the do and we all ended up jumping onstage with this guy, Sulo, to play a couple of tunes. We all enjoyed it, so it seemed like a good idea to take it further. We made the first record, carried on enjoying it, so we’ve now got the second album coming out. And while I’m doing that, Jeff’s also got his new project, called The Outfit, and he’ll have an album coming out soon…
Jeff : It’s supposed to be coming out on June 1st, although the album itself has been ready for almost a year. It’s something different again, so I don’t care what people are going to think of it. It’s more like Rap or Hip-Hop but with a rock sound in it. We sorta tried a bit of this on ‘East End Babylon’, so it was something I got interested in doing. I just got tired of people thinking that all I’d want to do is another punk band. But why would I want to do another punk band when I’m already in the best punk band I could ever want to be in ? I just wanted to do something different and this is how it’s turned out.
The other thing you did recently, which is an extra on the DVD, is your spoken-word bit about the band… I though that sounded really good !
Jeff : Oh, yeah, my talk-show… That was really just a one-off thing. It was Garry Bushell’s idea and at first I really didn’t want to do it, but in the end I agreed. There were no rehearsals or anything, I just got up and did it, and I really enjoyed it. But the bit they don’t show is, right at the end, there was a heckler in the audience and it just transcended in to a mass brawl ! But I’ve also done a couple of stand-up things with Steve Bunce, the Boxing commentator. We did a couple of stand-up shows about boxing, which were good. It’s just something where you’ve got to wait for the right call for it, you know what I mean ? But I’ve enjoyed it…it’s not something I rehearse, I just get up and do it. I’ll definitely do a bit more of that if I get the chance.
Okay, to end the interview, I’ve saved the most important question… as true fan, what do you think about West Ham moving to the Olympic stadium ?
Mick : It’s not for me !
Jeff : It won’t be West Ham…
Mick : All they had to do was build up the fucking East Stand, do it up properly and they could’ve put another 5000 people in there easily, which would’ve been perfect.
But moving to the Olympic stadium is just going to rip the heart out of the area, because all the Pie & Mash shops and all the pubs are going to close down…
Jeff : Yeah, there’s hardly any pubs left around there as it is. And the whole idea behind it is to try and turn the team into the Harlem Globetrotters. They just want to try and get some rich Arab businessman in to bankroll it and they’ll end up signing someone like Lionel Messi when he’s 42 years old… But none of the real West Ham fans want it to be another Chelsea or Man City. We’d rather be who we are, and they’d have been able to punch their weight if they had just decided to stay where they are and built the ground up. Unfortunately, in the end, money talks and that’s what the whole move is really about.
Mick : Yeah, that came about because someone did an article about me for this book that came out in Sweden, about old ‘rock stars’, hahaha, and what they’re doing now. When it came out, I got asked to go over there and as it happened, I ran into Dave Tregunna on the plane. We then met Terry Chimes at the do and we all ended up jumping onstage with this guy, Sulo, to play a couple of tunes. We all enjoyed it, so it seemed like a good idea to take it further. We made the first record, carried on enjoying it, so we’ve now got the second album coming out. And while I’m doing that, Jeff’s also got his new project, called The Outfit, and he’ll have an album coming out soon…
Jeff : It’s supposed to be coming out on June 1st, although the album itself has been ready for almost a year. It’s something different again, so I don’t care what people are going to think of it. It’s more like Rap or Hip-Hop but with a rock sound in it. We sorta tried a bit of this on ‘East End Babylon’, so it was something I got interested in doing. I just got tired of people thinking that all I’d want to do is another punk band. But why would I want to do another punk band when I’m already in the best punk band I could ever want to be in ? I just wanted to do something different and this is how it’s turned out.
The other thing you did recently, which is an extra on the DVD, is your spoken-word bit about the band… I though that sounded really good !
Jeff : Oh, yeah, my talk-show… That was really just a one-off thing. It was Garry Bushell’s idea and at first I really didn’t want to do it, but in the end I agreed. There were no rehearsals or anything, I just got up and did it, and I really enjoyed it. But the bit they don’t show is, right at the end, there was a heckler in the audience and it just transcended in to a mass brawl ! But I’ve also done a couple of stand-up things with Steve Bunce, the Boxing commentator. We did a couple of stand-up shows about boxing, which were good. It’s just something where you’ve got to wait for the right call for it, you know what I mean ? But I’ve enjoyed it…it’s not something I rehearse, I just get up and do it. I’ll definitely do a bit more of that if I get the chance.
Okay, to end the interview, I’ve saved the most important question… as true fan, what do you think about West Ham moving to the Olympic stadium ?
Mick : It’s not for me !
Jeff : It won’t be West Ham…
Mick : All they had to do was build up the fucking East Stand, do it up properly and they could’ve put another 5000 people in there easily, which would’ve been perfect.
But moving to the Olympic stadium is just going to rip the heart out of the area, because all the Pie & Mash shops and all the pubs are going to close down…
Jeff : Yeah, there’s hardly any pubs left around there as it is. And the whole idea behind it is to try and turn the team into the Harlem Globetrotters. They just want to try and get some rich Arab businessman in to bankroll it and they’ll end up signing someone like Lionel Messi when he’s 42 years old… But none of the real West Ham fans want it to be another Chelsea or Man City. We’d rather be who we are, and they’d have been able to punch their weight if they had just decided to stay where they are and built the ground up. Unfortunately, in the end, money talks and that’s what the whole move is really about.
With the doors due to open, we all head back into the club and wait for the music to begin. The first band, unexpectedly, are 16 Guns, who have been around for a long time and still work hard on the punk circuit. The set starts well-enough, tuneful three-chord punk with a good attitude, but as it progresses, I have to say they lose my attention. The better songs seem to have been at the start of the set and as it goes on, they don’t really maintain the momentum. Not bad, but maybe a shorter, snappier set would have been better tonight.
Next up, The Morgellons, who have been steadily building-up their reputation over the past year or so, mixing melodic punk with a more adventurous approach. The fact that they include a cover of Joy Divisions’ ‘The Drawback’ is a good indication of what The Morgellons are trying to achieve. It’s still punk rock but taking a somewhere different route. They work really well and are certainly a band that you should keep an eye on.
Main support comes from the East End Badoes, a band who have been around for quite a while although I have to admit I’ve never actually heard them. As the name probably suggest, they play Oi-style street punk but with a pronounced sense of fun and humour. The whole set is a lively, enjoyable affair chaotically orchestrated by front-man Terry Hayes who effortlessly draws the crowd into the party atmosphere. They’ve got some great songs as well, definitely something I’ll be checking out soon. I enjoyed their set and it really set-up the audience for the headliners.
Cockney Rejects arrive onstage and launch into ‘Your Country Needs You’, the opening track from the latest album, sounding even more direct than the recorded version. Jeff is bouncing around the stage, appropriately clad (considering the amount of sweating he’s going to be doing during the set) in his Peacock Gym training-ware, and several of their mates are crouched to the sides doing their best to keep the crowd from spilling over onto the stage. Second and third songs, ‘Fighting in the Streets’ and ‘Ready to Ruck’ really sets-off the boisterous crowd but even though the titles might sound aggressive, this is an audience who catch the humour behind it and are just there to have a great time. Plenty of the older, classic songs make up the set (I even get a mention when Jeff introduces ‘Flares’n’Slippers’ – fame at last even if no-one else heard it !) and a selection of later tracks like ‘The Power And The Glory’, ‘The Beginning Of The End’ and especially ‘East End Babylon’ sound better than ever and really fit-in comfortably beside the older tunes. Of course, the biggest applause goes to favourites like ‘Bad Man’ and ‘I’m Not A Fool’, but the whole set goes down so well and the atmosphere is great. I know there are going to be people reading this who won’t be convinced, but while I’d gone along to this gig expecting it to be good, they still managed to exceed my expectations and delivered one of the most enjoyable gigs I’ve seen in a while. They obviously enjoy themselves, the songs are still lots of fun and the band have plenty of energy and a desire to bring new material into the set. While I’m not saying that I’m going to dedicate myself to Oi!, I have to say that every so often, this is just the kind of gig you need. If you ever liked this band, this really is the time to catch up with them again… never mind what you think you’re supposed to do, just jump in and enjoy it !
Next up, The Morgellons, who have been steadily building-up their reputation over the past year or so, mixing melodic punk with a more adventurous approach. The fact that they include a cover of Joy Divisions’ ‘The Drawback’ is a good indication of what The Morgellons are trying to achieve. It’s still punk rock but taking a somewhere different route. They work really well and are certainly a band that you should keep an eye on.
Main support comes from the East End Badoes, a band who have been around for quite a while although I have to admit I’ve never actually heard them. As the name probably suggest, they play Oi-style street punk but with a pronounced sense of fun and humour. The whole set is a lively, enjoyable affair chaotically orchestrated by front-man Terry Hayes who effortlessly draws the crowd into the party atmosphere. They’ve got some great songs as well, definitely something I’ll be checking out soon. I enjoyed their set and it really set-up the audience for the headliners.
Cockney Rejects arrive onstage and launch into ‘Your Country Needs You’, the opening track from the latest album, sounding even more direct than the recorded version. Jeff is bouncing around the stage, appropriately clad (considering the amount of sweating he’s going to be doing during the set) in his Peacock Gym training-ware, and several of their mates are crouched to the sides doing their best to keep the crowd from spilling over onto the stage. Second and third songs, ‘Fighting in the Streets’ and ‘Ready to Ruck’ really sets-off the boisterous crowd but even though the titles might sound aggressive, this is an audience who catch the humour behind it and are just there to have a great time. Plenty of the older, classic songs make up the set (I even get a mention when Jeff introduces ‘Flares’n’Slippers’ – fame at last even if no-one else heard it !) and a selection of later tracks like ‘The Power And The Glory’, ‘The Beginning Of The End’ and especially ‘East End Babylon’ sound better than ever and really fit-in comfortably beside the older tunes. Of course, the biggest applause goes to favourites like ‘Bad Man’ and ‘I’m Not A Fool’, but the whole set goes down so well and the atmosphere is great. I know there are going to be people reading this who won’t be convinced, but while I’d gone along to this gig expecting it to be good, they still managed to exceed my expectations and delivered one of the most enjoyable gigs I’ve seen in a while. They obviously enjoy themselves, the songs are still lots of fun and the band have plenty of energy and a desire to bring new material into the set. While I’m not saying that I’m going to dedicate myself to Oi!, I have to say that every so often, this is just the kind of gig you need. If you ever liked this band, this really is the time to catch up with them again… never mind what you think you’re supposed to do, just jump in and enjoy it !
