Hiya, Tomcats ! No prizes for guessing that Johnny Moped are one of my all-time favourite bands. While I’ll admit that they are never going to appeal to everyone, not even within the Punk Rock ranks, to me they’ve always been a joy to behold. A unique mix of raw rock’n’roll, eccentric pop and general chaos, they remain a combo that you can never pin-down, let alone predict what they might do next. And in recent years, more than four decades since their humble beginnings, the tale has taken even further twists. After re-uniting for occasional gigs in 2007 (their first for 15 years), their profile was unexpectedly raised in 2013 with the release of the documentary ‘Basically Johnny Moped’, made by Fred Burns, son of the bands’ original guitarist, Captain Sensible. The band, however, continued at their own pace and it wasn’t until the end of 2015 that rumours of a new release began to be whispered… Indeed, as it turned out, the band had completed an entire new album, ‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’, and all you need to know is that it’s the album that Moped fans have always wanted to hear. While ‘The Search For Xerxes’, released in 1991, was more of a ‘home-studio’ project rather than a proper Johnny Moped album, the new album is the true follow-up to ‘Cycledelic’, full of great songs, loads of energy and solid performances. It sounds like an album that they really enjoyed making and their enthusiasm is totally infectious.
An interview was an obvious necessity, but a first attempt, after a recent showing of ‘Basically Johnny Moped’ at the Regents Street Cinema, failed to happen when we all just went to a pub instead. However, a second date is set and results in myself and Tom Phobic (President of the Ex-Syon Johnny Moped Fan Club) heading down to Croydon to meet up with Johnny and Jacko in the Mopeds’ head office, aka, The Dog & Bull Pub…
Now, before we go any further, I have to mention that shortly after the completion of the album, Johnny’s wife of nearly 40 years, Brenda, sadly passed away. It wasn’t a subject I was going to bring up in the interview, but any true fan of the band will know how much she was also a part of the Moped Legend. As a mark of respect, this interview is dedicated to Johnny and Brenda.
An interview was an obvious necessity, but a first attempt, after a recent showing of ‘Basically Johnny Moped’ at the Regents Street Cinema, failed to happen when we all just went to a pub instead. However, a second date is set and results in myself and Tom Phobic (President of the Ex-Syon Johnny Moped Fan Club) heading down to Croydon to meet up with Johnny and Jacko in the Mopeds’ head office, aka, The Dog & Bull Pub…
Now, before we go any further, I have to mention that shortly after the completion of the album, Johnny’s wife of nearly 40 years, Brenda, sadly passed away. It wasn’t a subject I was going to bring up in the interview, but any true fan of the band will know how much she was also a part of the Moped Legend. As a mark of respect, this interview is dedicated to Johnny and Brenda.
Once in the pub, the first round is acquired and we find a suitably quiet corner to start the chat. As the documentary doesn’t really mention Johnny’s musical interests before he joined the band, I firstly wanted to ask what kinds of music he listened to as he was growing up ?
Johnny : A mixture of stuff, but I must admit, I did have a pretty weird taste in music when I was a kid. I used to listen to piano music when I was a young boy, stuff like Russ Conway or Mrs Mills, but as I got into my teenage years, I thought, Sod all that stuff, I’m living behind the times ! So I started getting into rock’n’roll bands and I’d listen to Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eddie Cochran and various other rock’n’roll bands. I just thought, why the Hell have I been listening to piano music when we’ve got stuff like this. Rock’n’roll was a lot more exciting, so I just went on from there.
So you were always more of a Rocker than a Mod ?
Johnny : I never classed myself as a Mod, you know, like the Merton Parkas… The original Mods were around in the Sixties, as you’re probably aware, but a lot of them turned into skinheads, wearing those braces, two-tone suits and Doctor Martens. But at that time, I was walking around in a double-breasted motorcycle jacket…
How did you end up meeting the other members of the band. It says in the documentary that the rest of them all went to school together, but how did you get to know them ?
Johnny : I didn’t go to school with Dave or Fred, but we met at a jam session around at Phil Burns’ bedroom. In the early Seventies, we’d meet up to have a jam session every Saturday. We started out making a promise that we weren’t going to play the same old shit over and over again. But that wasn’t strictly true because we did play the same old shit over and over again !
Jacko : And some would say that’s continued for the last 40-odd years…
Johnny : I said, we don’t want to keep playing the same old shit, but Xerxes would say, let’s play that one again… It went around like a bloody carousel and we just ended-up playing it again and again.
Had you already wanted to be a singer, or did the others talk you into it ?
Johnny : I just thought it was interesting at the time. You know, just having those Saturday afternoon sessions in Phil’s bedroom. Obviously, Phil and Captains’ parents were around and I can remember one time when I got carried away and was swearing an lot. His father, Tom, who was quite a reasonable chap, came in and said, ‘Can you tone down the swearing ?’ Apart from that he just left us to it, so I thought, Okay, that’s a reasonable request. I mean, we were young at the time and we could all swear like troopers, but I did what he asked. Mind you, not everyone in the band toned down their swearing… Anyway, we used to have these interesting jam sessions. Phil Burns used to be the bass player back then, before Fred Berk took over, and he used to play electronic organ as well.
Johnny : A mixture of stuff, but I must admit, I did have a pretty weird taste in music when I was a kid. I used to listen to piano music when I was a young boy, stuff like Russ Conway or Mrs Mills, but as I got into my teenage years, I thought, Sod all that stuff, I’m living behind the times ! So I started getting into rock’n’roll bands and I’d listen to Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eddie Cochran and various other rock’n’roll bands. I just thought, why the Hell have I been listening to piano music when we’ve got stuff like this. Rock’n’roll was a lot more exciting, so I just went on from there.
So you were always more of a Rocker than a Mod ?
Johnny : I never classed myself as a Mod, you know, like the Merton Parkas… The original Mods were around in the Sixties, as you’re probably aware, but a lot of them turned into skinheads, wearing those braces, two-tone suits and Doctor Martens. But at that time, I was walking around in a double-breasted motorcycle jacket…
How did you end up meeting the other members of the band. It says in the documentary that the rest of them all went to school together, but how did you get to know them ?
Johnny : I didn’t go to school with Dave or Fred, but we met at a jam session around at Phil Burns’ bedroom. In the early Seventies, we’d meet up to have a jam session every Saturday. We started out making a promise that we weren’t going to play the same old shit over and over again. But that wasn’t strictly true because we did play the same old shit over and over again !
Jacko : And some would say that’s continued for the last 40-odd years…
Johnny : I said, we don’t want to keep playing the same old shit, but Xerxes would say, let’s play that one again… It went around like a bloody carousel and we just ended-up playing it again and again.
Had you already wanted to be a singer, or did the others talk you into it ?
Johnny : I just thought it was interesting at the time. You know, just having those Saturday afternoon sessions in Phil’s bedroom. Obviously, Phil and Captains’ parents were around and I can remember one time when I got carried away and was swearing an lot. His father, Tom, who was quite a reasonable chap, came in and said, ‘Can you tone down the swearing ?’ Apart from that he just left us to it, so I thought, Okay, that’s a reasonable request. I mean, we were young at the time and we could all swear like troopers, but I did what he asked. Mind you, not everyone in the band toned down their swearing… Anyway, we used to have these interesting jam sessions. Phil Burns used to be the bass player back then, before Fred Berk took over, and he used to play electronic organ as well.
When you were doing the jam sessions, would that mostly involve your own material ?
Johnny : Yeah, it was mostly our own stuff. That’s where ‘Hard Lovin’ Man’ originally came from, and we’d also play another song called ‘LA Ding Dong’, which was really just a load of barre chords running up and down the fret board. When Xerxes first heard it, he just said, ‘What the Hell is that ???'
Jacko : ‘LA Ding Dong’ !!?? I’ve never heard of that one !
Johnny : I’ll lend you a tape… Dave used to tape everything.
Who was the first person to call you ‘Johnny Moped’. Is there someone you can blame for it ?
Johnny : I can answer that question straight away – Captain Sensible. He named me Johnny Moped and somehow it stuck. But it was just the same way that Larry Wallis from the Pink Fairies called him ‘a right Captain Sensible’ later on, and that stuck. It was a very similar situation for both of us.
The big question that everyone wants to know is, did you actually have a moped ?
Johnny : No, I’d just borrow someone’s moped for photo-shoots. I could actually ride it, but I wasn’t impressed with it. When I was a teenager, just after I left school, I had a friend called John who lived in New Addington and he had a BSA 650 Golden Flash, with a chair on the side of it. I got myself a provisional license and he taught me to drive it. It was a rather cantankerous machine to drive, but I managed it. I remember going down Vulcan Way in New Addington and I managed to swerve pass a car that was turning into Calley Down Crescent, and John clapped me ! He’d be in the sidecar, but he’d got rid of the proper sidecar and put this bloody single wardrobe box onto the frame.
Jacko : It must’ve looked like a coffin !
Johnny : This trouble was that he hadn’t bolted it on properly and it only had a plywood base. Anyway, I managed to get as far as Goldcrest Way, but then I looked around and thought, ‘John, where are you ?’ I looked back and there he was, a hundred yards back, sitting in the middle of the road in his fucking wardrobe, staring at me as if I’d crawled out of a manhole !
Jacko : That’s quite impressive, really. You went from a three-wheeler to a two wheeler and you didn’t notice…
Johnny : Well, in actual fact, no. He had this wardrobe bolted on to the original sidecar chassis, but he hadn’t bolted it on properly, so it was just the wardrobe that came off. I turned around to say something to him and all I could see was an empty space. So I looked back down the road and there he was sitting in his bloody wardrobe !
I assume that would have been the last time he let you drive the bike ?
Johnny : Err, yeah. That was enough for him, because he’d already let me drive it around some garages and I seized-up and crashed into a dumped armchair. Luckily enough, the engine cut-out, so it wasn’t too bad, but after all that, I thought, No thanks ! I wasn’t going to drive a powerful motorcycle, and I never got into riding a moped. After all that, my interest in motorcycles disintegrated, even towards the lower end of mopeds. So I could never understand why Captain Sensible decided to call me Johnny Moped…
Jacko : Maybe it should have been Johnny Beezer…
Tom : Or Johnny Wardrobe…
Johnny : Yeah, it was mostly our own stuff. That’s where ‘Hard Lovin’ Man’ originally came from, and we’d also play another song called ‘LA Ding Dong’, which was really just a load of barre chords running up and down the fret board. When Xerxes first heard it, he just said, ‘What the Hell is that ???'
Jacko : ‘LA Ding Dong’ !!?? I’ve never heard of that one !
Johnny : I’ll lend you a tape… Dave used to tape everything.
Who was the first person to call you ‘Johnny Moped’. Is there someone you can blame for it ?
Johnny : I can answer that question straight away – Captain Sensible. He named me Johnny Moped and somehow it stuck. But it was just the same way that Larry Wallis from the Pink Fairies called him ‘a right Captain Sensible’ later on, and that stuck. It was a very similar situation for both of us.
The big question that everyone wants to know is, did you actually have a moped ?
Johnny : No, I’d just borrow someone’s moped for photo-shoots. I could actually ride it, but I wasn’t impressed with it. When I was a teenager, just after I left school, I had a friend called John who lived in New Addington and he had a BSA 650 Golden Flash, with a chair on the side of it. I got myself a provisional license and he taught me to drive it. It was a rather cantankerous machine to drive, but I managed it. I remember going down Vulcan Way in New Addington and I managed to swerve pass a car that was turning into Calley Down Crescent, and John clapped me ! He’d be in the sidecar, but he’d got rid of the proper sidecar and put this bloody single wardrobe box onto the frame.
Jacko : It must’ve looked like a coffin !
Johnny : This trouble was that he hadn’t bolted it on properly and it only had a plywood base. Anyway, I managed to get as far as Goldcrest Way, but then I looked around and thought, ‘John, where are you ?’ I looked back and there he was, a hundred yards back, sitting in the middle of the road in his fucking wardrobe, staring at me as if I’d crawled out of a manhole !
Jacko : That’s quite impressive, really. You went from a three-wheeler to a two wheeler and you didn’t notice…
Johnny : Well, in actual fact, no. He had this wardrobe bolted on to the original sidecar chassis, but he hadn’t bolted it on properly, so it was just the wardrobe that came off. I turned around to say something to him and all I could see was an empty space. So I looked back down the road and there he was sitting in his bloody wardrobe !
I assume that would have been the last time he let you drive the bike ?
Johnny : Err, yeah. That was enough for him, because he’d already let me drive it around some garages and I seized-up and crashed into a dumped armchair. Luckily enough, the engine cut-out, so it wasn’t too bad, but after all that, I thought, No thanks ! I wasn’t going to drive a powerful motorcycle, and I never got into riding a moped. After all that, my interest in motorcycles disintegrated, even towards the lower end of mopeds. So I could never understand why Captain Sensible decided to call me Johnny Moped…
Jacko : Maybe it should have been Johnny Beezer…
Tom : Or Johnny Wardrobe…
Back to the subject of the band, when you did finally get around to playing gigs in front of an audience, did you enjoy it or did you get nervous ?
Johnny : I don’t get nervous at all. No, absolutely not. We started playing at The Roxy Club and places like that, and we never knew if we were going to get a capacity audience or just a handful. I think my expectations were running high… We played at the Hope & Anchor in Islington on January 2nd, 1977… That was the first professional gig we did and it was a capacity audience. Xerxes was there, our unofficial second-singer, but we didn’t have Toad at that time, so we were a bit out on a limb. But because The Damned were headlining, Captain, who was our original guitarist, stood-in for us and played all of our set. But he had a really heavy stroke on the strings back then and I remember at one point, looking down at the stage and I couldn’t see it because of all the discarded guitar-string packets ! He was pounding the fuck out of his guitar and breaking all the strings. He’s got a lighter touch these days, but back then, he was literally murdering that guitar !
Once you started playing, a lot of things happened with the band in a pretty short period of time. Although Chrissie Hynde became quite involved, it wasn’t actually over a very long period…
Johnny : Well, yeah… Chrissie was a bit of a perfectionist and she was also rather temperamental to rehearse with. She’d already played with Dave and Fred in a band called The Unusuals, and they’d done some demo-recordings which included the song ‘Precious’, which eventually ended up on the first Pretenders album. At that point she decided that she wanted to do some stuff with me and I was fine with that. But it turned out that she could be very temperamental and critical about how things were going along in rehearsals, which made us slightly uncomfortable and I found her a bit difficult to work with. She was too much of a perfectionist. She knew what she wanted to do and she expected all of us to conform to it. Me and Toad tried to work with her, but it just didn’t happen. She was a bit too demanding about what she wanted.
Didn’t you sing a duet with her at one of the early gigs ?
Johnny : Yes, that was when she was wearing that pirate hat, at the Roxy. I think we did it at one point when Toads’ guitar was going out of tune. He had a load of flob covering his guitar, because that’s what the punks did at the time. His guitar was covered in it and kept going out of tune, so he was getting well pissed-off, while Chrissie was holding it together on her guitar as we played ‘Groovy Ruby’.
Johnny : I don’t get nervous at all. No, absolutely not. We started playing at The Roxy Club and places like that, and we never knew if we were going to get a capacity audience or just a handful. I think my expectations were running high… We played at the Hope & Anchor in Islington on January 2nd, 1977… That was the first professional gig we did and it was a capacity audience. Xerxes was there, our unofficial second-singer, but we didn’t have Toad at that time, so we were a bit out on a limb. But because The Damned were headlining, Captain, who was our original guitarist, stood-in for us and played all of our set. But he had a really heavy stroke on the strings back then and I remember at one point, looking down at the stage and I couldn’t see it because of all the discarded guitar-string packets ! He was pounding the fuck out of his guitar and breaking all the strings. He’s got a lighter touch these days, but back then, he was literally murdering that guitar !
Once you started playing, a lot of things happened with the band in a pretty short period of time. Although Chrissie Hynde became quite involved, it wasn’t actually over a very long period…
Johnny : Well, yeah… Chrissie was a bit of a perfectionist and she was also rather temperamental to rehearse with. She’d already played with Dave and Fred in a band called The Unusuals, and they’d done some demo-recordings which included the song ‘Precious’, which eventually ended up on the first Pretenders album. At that point she decided that she wanted to do some stuff with me and I was fine with that. But it turned out that she could be very temperamental and critical about how things were going along in rehearsals, which made us slightly uncomfortable and I found her a bit difficult to work with. She was too much of a perfectionist. She knew what she wanted to do and she expected all of us to conform to it. Me and Toad tried to work with her, but it just didn’t happen. She was a bit too demanding about what she wanted.
Didn’t you sing a duet with her at one of the early gigs ?
Johnny : Yes, that was when she was wearing that pirate hat, at the Roxy. I think we did it at one point when Toads’ guitar was going out of tune. He had a load of flob covering his guitar, because that’s what the punks did at the time. His guitar was covered in it and kept going out of tune, so he was getting well pissed-off, while Chrissie was holding it together on her guitar as we played ‘Groovy Ruby’.
You were one of the bands included on the ‘Live at The Roxy’ album. I think they recorded all of the bands’ sets at the time, so I wondered if there’s still a recording of your full set out there…
Jacko : You would’ve thought that they would keep the tapes running for the whole set, so that they could cherry-pick the best tracks.
Johnny : The record producer was Mike Thorn, but I have to say, the overall sound was a bit too trebly and lacking any bass. To me, it was totally unlistenable and I couldn’t understand how it got as high in the charts as it did. They recorded all the current bands that were regulars in that club… The thing that I found unfair was that none of the bands on that album ever got a say in how they wanted their particular track to sound. That was totally out of the window and to me that meant all the bands got totally screwed over. It was as if someone decided that they were going to give all these bands the worst sound that they could. When it came out and I heard the Roxy album for the first time, I wanted to throw it in the bin because of the sound. But we had no control over the production whatsoever.
At the other end of the scale, you also ended-up playing at some pretty large venues, like the Roundhouse, the Rainbow, and even supporting Motorhead at Hammersmith Odeon…
Johnny : Oh, Christ, I still want to forget about that ! We were one end of the rock spectrum and they were the other. We may have sounded meaty for a rock’n’roll band, but you couldn’t classify us as a heavy metal band. Although, I suppose in a way, with our new album, ‘Real Cool Baby’, we are sorta edging our way into heavy rock…
Jacko : No, we’re not !
Johnny : We’re just edging on the borderlines of heavy rock…
Jacko : I would say that there are a few disconcerting moments of slight proggish-ness about it, but I think a lot of that is unavoidable because of our past heritage and the things that we’ve each listened to. I mean, when I first started learning to play guitar, I was still listening to the likes of Gentle Giant !
Johnny : But that Motorhead gig has got to be one of the strangest gigs we played. I thought we had the rock-capability to do it, but on the night we weren’t allowed to use the full backline and that was the sting in the tail. I mean, if it had been Lemmy, he’d have said, yeah, go right ahead guys, plug-in and blast away ! But someone else decided we couldn’t use it.
Jacko : You would’ve thought that they would keep the tapes running for the whole set, so that they could cherry-pick the best tracks.
Johnny : The record producer was Mike Thorn, but I have to say, the overall sound was a bit too trebly and lacking any bass. To me, it was totally unlistenable and I couldn’t understand how it got as high in the charts as it did. They recorded all the current bands that were regulars in that club… The thing that I found unfair was that none of the bands on that album ever got a say in how they wanted their particular track to sound. That was totally out of the window and to me that meant all the bands got totally screwed over. It was as if someone decided that they were going to give all these bands the worst sound that they could. When it came out and I heard the Roxy album for the first time, I wanted to throw it in the bin because of the sound. But we had no control over the production whatsoever.
At the other end of the scale, you also ended-up playing at some pretty large venues, like the Roundhouse, the Rainbow, and even supporting Motorhead at Hammersmith Odeon…
Johnny : Oh, Christ, I still want to forget about that ! We were one end of the rock spectrum and they were the other. We may have sounded meaty for a rock’n’roll band, but you couldn’t classify us as a heavy metal band. Although, I suppose in a way, with our new album, ‘Real Cool Baby’, we are sorta edging our way into heavy rock…
Jacko : No, we’re not !
Johnny : We’re just edging on the borderlines of heavy rock…
Jacko : I would say that there are a few disconcerting moments of slight proggish-ness about it, but I think a lot of that is unavoidable because of our past heritage and the things that we’ve each listened to. I mean, when I first started learning to play guitar, I was still listening to the likes of Gentle Giant !
Johnny : But that Motorhead gig has got to be one of the strangest gigs we played. I thought we had the rock-capability to do it, but on the night we weren’t allowed to use the full backline and that was the sting in the tail. I mean, if it had been Lemmy, he’d have said, yeah, go right ahead guys, plug-in and blast away ! But someone else decided we couldn’t use it.
You knew Lemmy pretty well back at the time, so was that how you ended up playing with Motorhead at Hammersmith ?
Johnny : I don’t know how that happened or if Lemmy played a part in it… He was into our band and in our early years, while we were basically playing pub gigs most of the time, you could almost always guarantee that Lemmy would turn up in out dressing room after the gig. He was a regular guy. I think the rest of Motorhead hated us, Eddie Clarke and Philthy Taylor, but Lemmy was totally in to us. He was a Moped fan even if the rest of Motorhead wasn’t.
Jacko : It’s weird the way things transpired, because after playing with Motorhead back then, we ended up playing a gig at Cardiff University with bloody Hawkwind in 1991, which was another total mismatch.
Johnny : Hawkwind were the headliners and there were several supporting acts, including us, but they totally screwed us over. They demanded five grand upfront, before they even set foot onstage, so all the support bands went home with fuck-all, which was really disappointing. We’d hired a coach to take us and our friends down there… even Brenda came down with us, and came up onstage to sing ‘Darling…’ We were originally supposed to go on at 9.00 but when we got there, the promoters came to our dressing room and said, ‘You’re going on at 7.30.’ At that time, most of the people who were coming to see us hadn’t even turned up. So we got screwed over, left, right and centre, and went home with nothing. I think it’s diabolical when established bands screw over the support bands, when we’re warming up the audience for them…
Johnny : I don’t know how that happened or if Lemmy played a part in it… He was into our band and in our early years, while we were basically playing pub gigs most of the time, you could almost always guarantee that Lemmy would turn up in out dressing room after the gig. He was a regular guy. I think the rest of Motorhead hated us, Eddie Clarke and Philthy Taylor, but Lemmy was totally in to us. He was a Moped fan even if the rest of Motorhead wasn’t.
Jacko : It’s weird the way things transpired, because after playing with Motorhead back then, we ended up playing a gig at Cardiff University with bloody Hawkwind in 1991, which was another total mismatch.
Johnny : Hawkwind were the headliners and there were several supporting acts, including us, but they totally screwed us over. They demanded five grand upfront, before they even set foot onstage, so all the support bands went home with fuck-all, which was really disappointing. We’d hired a coach to take us and our friends down there… even Brenda came down with us, and came up onstage to sing ‘Darling…’ We were originally supposed to go on at 9.00 but when we got there, the promoters came to our dressing room and said, ‘You’re going on at 7.30.’ At that time, most of the people who were coming to see us hadn’t even turned up. So we got screwed over, left, right and centre, and went home with nothing. I think it’s diabolical when established bands screw over the support bands, when we’re warming up the audience for them…
You also played a few gigs in Europe during 1978…
Johnny : We went to play at some kinda stadium in Hamburg, but when we played there, they put up this artificial wall to make it a lot smaller. When I heard we were going to be playing in a stadium, I thought we were going to be in a bloody football field, full of people, but it didn’t turn out like that. It was just a sectioned-off part of the building with about 400 or 500 people in there. It was just a one-off… the thing I remember is when we got to the hotel, Dave Berk went over to a shopping centre and he was buying all these packets of fags from the vending machines. He’d worked out that back then, the 10DM coins were the same size and weight as the old five pence coins, so he was getting all these packets of fags for next to nothing…
Jacko : And he didn’t even smoke, back then !
Johnny : Fred Berk, on the other hand, was more interested in finding the nearest bar. He came back with all these bottles of booze and he tried to hide them in this old iron stove that was in the hotel room. Well, in the morning, the woman came around to clean the room and she found all these bottles in the stove. She was going fucking mental, ranting on at us in German ! I couldn’t work out what she was saying, but as she had found all those bottles in the stove, that was probably what we were getting the ear-hole bashing about. Get rid of them ! We also played in Belgium which really was a bloody football field, but only 300 people turned up. Dave Berk couldn’t play that one, so we got our friend Dave Tate to stand-in, but he was a bit of a cat-licker on the drums. He didn’t beat the crap out of them and I think that pissed-off the audience. I mean, they were already standing in the middle of a muddy football field that looked like the battlefield of Flanders…
Johnny : We went to play at some kinda stadium in Hamburg, but when we played there, they put up this artificial wall to make it a lot smaller. When I heard we were going to be playing in a stadium, I thought we were going to be in a bloody football field, full of people, but it didn’t turn out like that. It was just a sectioned-off part of the building with about 400 or 500 people in there. It was just a one-off… the thing I remember is when we got to the hotel, Dave Berk went over to a shopping centre and he was buying all these packets of fags from the vending machines. He’d worked out that back then, the 10DM coins were the same size and weight as the old five pence coins, so he was getting all these packets of fags for next to nothing…
Jacko : And he didn’t even smoke, back then !
Johnny : Fred Berk, on the other hand, was more interested in finding the nearest bar. He came back with all these bottles of booze and he tried to hide them in this old iron stove that was in the hotel room. Well, in the morning, the woman came around to clean the room and she found all these bottles in the stove. She was going fucking mental, ranting on at us in German ! I couldn’t work out what she was saying, but as she had found all those bottles in the stove, that was probably what we were getting the ear-hole bashing about. Get rid of them ! We also played in Belgium which really was a bloody football field, but only 300 people turned up. Dave Berk couldn’t play that one, so we got our friend Dave Tate to stand-in, but he was a bit of a cat-licker on the drums. He didn’t beat the crap out of them and I think that pissed-off the audience. I mean, they were already standing in the middle of a muddy football field that looked like the battlefield of Flanders…
So, Jacko, how did you end up joining the band ?
Jacko : You know, I’ve been trying to work that out…
Johnny : Wasn’t it when we did the Generator Tour ?
Jacko : No, it was before then. I think the first gig I played was the Underground club which would have been in the early Eighties… But the reason it came about was because I’ve been mates with Toad since I was 13 or 14. It just happened that they needed someone to do that gig, and I fancied doing it. In the past, I’d been up to a lot of their early gigs at places like Dingwalls, just hanging around with Toad really. But I’ve always enjoyed playing with them, it’s such good fun…
Your band-name, Jacko Pistorius… do you align yourself more with the musician Jacko Pastorius or the athlete Oscar Pistorius ?
Jacko : It was down to the bass-player Jacko Pastorius, but then the ‘pissed’ element came in. It all happened long before the evolution of the paraplegic murderer…
Johnny : It was because he likes to get pissed. It rocks his boat and it makes him happy, you know ?
When Fred Burns told you that he wanted to make the documentary about the band, what were your first thoughts about it ?
Jacko : My first thoughts were, How the fuck are you going to make a film out of this ? And, Why ??? I only knew him vaguely and I didn’t know how he was going to be able to make a film out of it, or how he could string a story-line together…
Johnny : It astounded me how he managed to put all this archive stuff together. I remember he came around my house and was taking photographs of all this stuff, like the picture of my mother and father-in-law that appears in the film…
Jacko : And then he really got the bit between his teeth and started researching like mad.
Johnny : It just went from there. He already knew that there were these old monochrome photographs of the band from when we were on Chiswick, but I was able to show him some colour photos from the same session that he didn’t know about. He took a photo of me holding one of the old pictures of myself, from when I was in my Twenties… in contrast to the ugly old git I am now ! It was a very stark contrast…
Jacko : I notice that nobody is disagreeing…
Jacko : You know, I’ve been trying to work that out…
Johnny : Wasn’t it when we did the Generator Tour ?
Jacko : No, it was before then. I think the first gig I played was the Underground club which would have been in the early Eighties… But the reason it came about was because I’ve been mates with Toad since I was 13 or 14. It just happened that they needed someone to do that gig, and I fancied doing it. In the past, I’d been up to a lot of their early gigs at places like Dingwalls, just hanging around with Toad really. But I’ve always enjoyed playing with them, it’s such good fun…
Your band-name, Jacko Pistorius… do you align yourself more with the musician Jacko Pastorius or the athlete Oscar Pistorius ?
Jacko : It was down to the bass-player Jacko Pastorius, but then the ‘pissed’ element came in. It all happened long before the evolution of the paraplegic murderer…
Johnny : It was because he likes to get pissed. It rocks his boat and it makes him happy, you know ?
When Fred Burns told you that he wanted to make the documentary about the band, what were your first thoughts about it ?
Jacko : My first thoughts were, How the fuck are you going to make a film out of this ? And, Why ??? I only knew him vaguely and I didn’t know how he was going to be able to make a film out of it, or how he could string a story-line together…
Johnny : It astounded me how he managed to put all this archive stuff together. I remember he came around my house and was taking photographs of all this stuff, like the picture of my mother and father-in-law that appears in the film…
Jacko : And then he really got the bit between his teeth and started researching like mad.
Johnny : It just went from there. He already knew that there were these old monochrome photographs of the band from when we were on Chiswick, but I was able to show him some colour photos from the same session that he didn’t know about. He took a photo of me holding one of the old pictures of myself, from when I was in my Twenties… in contrast to the ugly old git I am now ! It was a very stark contrast…
Jacko : I notice that nobody is disagreeing…
The great thing is the positive response the film has had. I don’t think I’ve read or heard a single bad comment about it. And when it was premiered at Koko, there was such a good turn-out… Although the thing that everyone seems to remember about your set, after the film was shown, was when Fred had to run onstage during the set and gaffer-tape your trousers, to stop them falling down…
Johnny : Well, that was Captain’s idea, again. Before the gig, Dave took him down to Camden Market to try and get another pair of leather trousers for me, because I had an old pair of leather trousers but I couldn’t get them around my waist… I must have broadened out a bit since I last wore them ! So, after the soundcheck, Dave Berk spent £30 down at Camden Market to get me a pair of leather trews with a bigger waist size. They felt like the right waist size, but when I got onstage, it turned out they were a couple of inches too big and I was out there thinking, Oh Shit ! There I was, out on the stage, having to hold my bloody trousers up ! But Fred Burns saw what was happening and came out with a roll of gaffer tape. He ran it around the waist of the trousers and then over my shoulders to give me gaffer tape braces !
Jacko : There were two scenarios that could have happened with those trousers and two ways to deal with them. If something is too loose, you’ve gotta have gaffer tape to make it secure, and if it’s too tight, you have to use WD40 to make it come loose…
There must be a law against you pouring WD40 down Johnny’s trousers on a public stage !
Johnny : Yeah, you’re only supposed to use it to prevent things going rusty…
Tom : But it’s also good for loosening your nuts…
Jacko : Exactly !
The thing was, as soon as the documentary ended, the band started playing ‘Maniac’ as they raised the screen, with Johnny singing from offstage. It was a surprisingly professional opening, but then he strode onstage to begin ‘Incendiary Device’ and everyone could see that his trousers were falling down…
Johnny : Yeah… I saw some film of that later on, and when I came onstage, I did look uncomfortable. I didn’t know whether I was going to give the audience a thrill or not. That was probably why I wasn’t moving around the stage like a ballerina. If I wear them now, I use a belt to save any embarrassment.
I think one of the things that a lot of people liked about the documentary is that it covered one of the lesser-known bands from the Punk era, rather than just concentrating on the more-successful bands like The Clash or Sex Pistols, but it was still such a great story…
Jacko : I think what Fred achieved was to capture a lot of different emotions and he really portrayed them well. It was a real story and the main characters involved are so engaging. That’s the crux of the matter, that it’s superbly unaffected.
Johnny : Well, that was Captain’s idea, again. Before the gig, Dave took him down to Camden Market to try and get another pair of leather trousers for me, because I had an old pair of leather trousers but I couldn’t get them around my waist… I must have broadened out a bit since I last wore them ! So, after the soundcheck, Dave Berk spent £30 down at Camden Market to get me a pair of leather trews with a bigger waist size. They felt like the right waist size, but when I got onstage, it turned out they were a couple of inches too big and I was out there thinking, Oh Shit ! There I was, out on the stage, having to hold my bloody trousers up ! But Fred Burns saw what was happening and came out with a roll of gaffer tape. He ran it around the waist of the trousers and then over my shoulders to give me gaffer tape braces !
Jacko : There were two scenarios that could have happened with those trousers and two ways to deal with them. If something is too loose, you’ve gotta have gaffer tape to make it secure, and if it’s too tight, you have to use WD40 to make it come loose…
There must be a law against you pouring WD40 down Johnny’s trousers on a public stage !
Johnny : Yeah, you’re only supposed to use it to prevent things going rusty…
Tom : But it’s also good for loosening your nuts…
Jacko : Exactly !
The thing was, as soon as the documentary ended, the band started playing ‘Maniac’ as they raised the screen, with Johnny singing from offstage. It was a surprisingly professional opening, but then he strode onstage to begin ‘Incendiary Device’ and everyone could see that his trousers were falling down…
Johnny : Yeah… I saw some film of that later on, and when I came onstage, I did look uncomfortable. I didn’t know whether I was going to give the audience a thrill or not. That was probably why I wasn’t moving around the stage like a ballerina. If I wear them now, I use a belt to save any embarrassment.
I think one of the things that a lot of people liked about the documentary is that it covered one of the lesser-known bands from the Punk era, rather than just concentrating on the more-successful bands like The Clash or Sex Pistols, but it was still such a great story…
Jacko : I think what Fred achieved was to capture a lot of different emotions and he really portrayed them well. It was a real story and the main characters involved are so engaging. That’s the crux of the matter, that it’s superbly unaffected.
Do you think the positive response to the film encouraged the band to start working towards the new album ?
Jacko : I think it gave us a bit of a boost, but things were starting to happen, anyway.
Johnny : We’ve always been slow-movers when it comes to producing new material. It will happen, but at first, I always have trouble remembering new lyrics. I really wish I could remember them better when we rehearse. I have to go through it intensively…
Jacko : So do we !
How long did it take to record the whole album, once you’d decided to actually do it ?
Jacko : It was pretty extended because of our availability. We had to do most of it at weekends because everyone was working…
Johnny : And also, I had dental problems… They were resolved while we were recording, but now if it looks like there’s a few teeth missing, it’s because the dentures got a bit tight and they’ve got to make some adjustments on them. But I’m still waiting for a bloody appointment !
Has everyone been involved in writing the new songs ?
Jacko : It’s been a complete combination. There were a few older ideas that had been floating around for a long time, you know, just little riffs and stuff that have led-on to something when we’ve been jamming-it. We did quite a lot of messing around with little ideas that developed into songs. Some just started as these little chuck-away things, but they developed from that. It is a pretty collaborative thing.
Johnny : On the ‘Cycledelic’ album, we specified who actually wrote each song, but on this one, we co-wrote everything and the credits all get lumped together, just to simplify matters.
Jacko : I suppose the main thing is whether it was Rob or Toad who came up with the chord sequence. I think you can tell the differences there. Things like ‘Real Cool Baby’ is more instigated by Robs’ style, whereas ‘Everything is You’ is more in Toads’ style.
Johnny : ‘Everything Is You’ is more of a rock-ballad.
Jacko : Or, as one German magazine has described it, it’s a ‘grotesque ballad’ !
Johnny : Well, they’re entitled to their own opinion… Personally, I don’t really take offence with that as I didn’t write the song. I just sang it.
Jacko : I think it gave us a bit of a boost, but things were starting to happen, anyway.
Johnny : We’ve always been slow-movers when it comes to producing new material. It will happen, but at first, I always have trouble remembering new lyrics. I really wish I could remember them better when we rehearse. I have to go through it intensively…
Jacko : So do we !
How long did it take to record the whole album, once you’d decided to actually do it ?
Jacko : It was pretty extended because of our availability. We had to do most of it at weekends because everyone was working…
Johnny : And also, I had dental problems… They were resolved while we were recording, but now if it looks like there’s a few teeth missing, it’s because the dentures got a bit tight and they’ve got to make some adjustments on them. But I’m still waiting for a bloody appointment !
Has everyone been involved in writing the new songs ?
Jacko : It’s been a complete combination. There were a few older ideas that had been floating around for a long time, you know, just little riffs and stuff that have led-on to something when we’ve been jamming-it. We did quite a lot of messing around with little ideas that developed into songs. Some just started as these little chuck-away things, but they developed from that. It is a pretty collaborative thing.
Johnny : On the ‘Cycledelic’ album, we specified who actually wrote each song, but on this one, we co-wrote everything and the credits all get lumped together, just to simplify matters.
Jacko : I suppose the main thing is whether it was Rob or Toad who came up with the chord sequence. I think you can tell the differences there. Things like ‘Real Cool Baby’ is more instigated by Robs’ style, whereas ‘Everything is You’ is more in Toads’ style.
Johnny : ‘Everything Is You’ is more of a rock-ballad.
Jacko : Or, as one German magazine has described it, it’s a ‘grotesque ballad’ !
Johnny : Well, they’re entitled to their own opinion… Personally, I don’t really take offence with that as I didn’t write the song. I just sang it.
There’s a few songs on the new album that are new recordings of tracks that were on ‘The Search For Zerxes’, but the one old track that had never been released before is ‘Honey Bun’…
Johnny : Well, basically, that was written by Fred Berk and it had never been recorded by the band, so we decided to revive it. I wasn’t really expecting to do ‘I Believed Her Lies’ again, because that and ‘I Wanna Die’ were both on ‘The Search For Xerxes’ album. But on that record they were covered-over with all that keyboard shit, so they sounded feeble.
Jacko : Well, that was really just Dave having a bit of fun with his home-studio. I think it’s alright, for what it is. There were a lot of great songs on there.
The song from that album that really deserves to have a new recording is ‘Save The Baby Seals’…
Johnny : In actual fact, at the Koko concert, there was a lot of demand for that. I said, Yes, we could do that, but it wasn’t on our setlist, so I thought, what’s going to happen if I start on the first line and the rest of the band don’t follow me in to it ?
Jacko : I know Ian at Damaged Goods wants to release another single and I think if we just take another one off the album would be a bit of an overkill. It would be much better to have something new for that, so maybe ‘Save The Baby Seals’ would be a good idea…
The new album starts with ‘Real Cool Baby’ and ‘Ain’t No Rock’n’Roll Rookie’ which really set it off at a great pace. Did you deliberately plan it that way ?
Johnny : You’ve raised an interesting point there… Yes, I think the band wanted to up-the-ante right from the start...
Jacko : Yeah, it had to be an energy-rush at the beginning. Then it can kinda mellow a little bit in other places. I must admit when we were recording it, I was beginning to think, how are all these songs going to go together ? Is it going to sound disparate, because everything was so different. But I think it has actually worked really well.
It certainly starts with some classic Moped lyrics –
‘When I saw her walking down the street,
She’s the kinda girl I really wanna meet,
Tight skirt and long brown hair,
But I’ve gotta go and get my bike repaired…’
Jacko : That’s so rockin’,ain’t it ? ‘Sorry, love, I’ve got to repair me puncture…’
Johnny : When we first rehearsed it, we just had the title, ‘Real Cool Baby’, but then Robot started to write the lyrics and it suddenly came together. I thought, yeah, I can go along with this…It was something we just started playing and it suddenly developed in to a song. I realised it could be a powerful song so we had to get some verses together.
That’s the thing with the whole album - It sounds like you were all really enjoying yourselves as you made it...
Jacko : That was really a big part of it. That song ‘Give It Up’, which was something that Dave brought in… I think he’d just done something on a keyboard, but we picked it up and straight away, transposed it into a song. It happened totally instantaneously.
Johnny : Well, basically, that was written by Fred Berk and it had never been recorded by the band, so we decided to revive it. I wasn’t really expecting to do ‘I Believed Her Lies’ again, because that and ‘I Wanna Die’ were both on ‘The Search For Xerxes’ album. But on that record they were covered-over with all that keyboard shit, so they sounded feeble.
Jacko : Well, that was really just Dave having a bit of fun with his home-studio. I think it’s alright, for what it is. There were a lot of great songs on there.
The song from that album that really deserves to have a new recording is ‘Save The Baby Seals’…
Johnny : In actual fact, at the Koko concert, there was a lot of demand for that. I said, Yes, we could do that, but it wasn’t on our setlist, so I thought, what’s going to happen if I start on the first line and the rest of the band don’t follow me in to it ?
Jacko : I know Ian at Damaged Goods wants to release another single and I think if we just take another one off the album would be a bit of an overkill. It would be much better to have something new for that, so maybe ‘Save The Baby Seals’ would be a good idea…
The new album starts with ‘Real Cool Baby’ and ‘Ain’t No Rock’n’Roll Rookie’ which really set it off at a great pace. Did you deliberately plan it that way ?
Johnny : You’ve raised an interesting point there… Yes, I think the band wanted to up-the-ante right from the start...
Jacko : Yeah, it had to be an energy-rush at the beginning. Then it can kinda mellow a little bit in other places. I must admit when we were recording it, I was beginning to think, how are all these songs going to go together ? Is it going to sound disparate, because everything was so different. But I think it has actually worked really well.
It certainly starts with some classic Moped lyrics –
‘When I saw her walking down the street,
She’s the kinda girl I really wanna meet,
Tight skirt and long brown hair,
But I’ve gotta go and get my bike repaired…’
Jacko : That’s so rockin’,ain’t it ? ‘Sorry, love, I’ve got to repair me puncture…’
Johnny : When we first rehearsed it, we just had the title, ‘Real Cool Baby’, but then Robot started to write the lyrics and it suddenly came together. I thought, yeah, I can go along with this…It was something we just started playing and it suddenly developed in to a song. I realised it could be a powerful song so we had to get some verses together.
That’s the thing with the whole album - It sounds like you were all really enjoying yourselves as you made it...
Jacko : That was really a big part of it. That song ‘Give It Up’, which was something that Dave brought in… I think he’d just done something on a keyboard, but we picked it up and straight away, transposed it into a song. It happened totally instantaneously.
As you said, after the first couple of songs, ‘Everything Is You’ takes a much more mellow pace…
Jacko : That’s a pure Toad song, that one. And all the arrangement on there, that was him as well, in the studio. He was just enjoying himself, thinking, what can we do here ? Let’s have a little bit of this here, and a little bit of that over there…
Johnny : I did have my reservations about that one. I didn’t get it at all, to begin with. But on reflection, it works pretty well.
I was wondering if the song ‘Bert Bullethead’ was based on someone real…
Johnny : No it isn’t…
Jacko : Yes it is ! There’s this wanker down in Brighton who’s a bit of a psychopath…
Johnny : Dave wrote the lyrics and Robot did the music.
Jacko : That was an older one that we had… you know, just the chords… It’s a straight-ahead, rock’n’roller, isn’t it ? And it is based on someone we know…
Johnny manages to do his ‘On The Buses’ impersonation at the end of it, as well…
Johnny : And just after we did that, Steven Lewis died, at 88 years old. I did that bit at the end of the song and then, after I went home, I got a call from Toad to tell me that Steven Lewis had died. I thought, I hope it wasn’t on my account…
The song ‘Simon Can’t’… you were saying that some people thought it was going to be about Toad (as his real name is Simon) but I think it quickly becomes pretty apparent who it is about when you hear it…
Jacko : Yeah, it’s purely about Simon Cowell. I love that song, with all the high-harmonies and stuff…
Johnny : And I also think it sounds as if, when we’re singing ‘Simon Can’t’, some of us could be saying ‘Simon Cunt’…It’s up to you to chose which one you’d prefer. But the song was definitely no reflection on our lead guitarist whatsoever.
I assume you don’t intend to audition for the next series of The X Factor after this ?
Jacko : Ahh, now that’s an interesting idea, isn’t it ? Do they audition bands ? If they do, we should get on there ! Let’s audition !
One of the older songs you re-recorded for this album, ‘I Wanna Die’ has the line, ‘I don’t want to work for British Rail’… A certain Mr Sensible once told me that you actually did work for British Rail at one point…
Johnny : No… my Grandfather worked for British Rail, but I didn’t. I think someone must’ve got their wires crossed, somewhere. When I was a boy, I used to wait outside Selhurst Depot in Croydon, where my Grandfather worked as a labourer, and when he came out, we’d walk home together. But I never worked there at all, no way. I have never, ever thought about working on the railways.
You’ve also included a couple of sampled-speeches at the end of that song…
Jacko : Well, it was straight after the terror attack in Paris, when they attacked that ‘Charlie Hebdo’ magazine.We just wanted to put something on there to show that we thought that was appalling and that little sound-clip seemed to fit.
Johnny : I thought the attack at the Bataclan was even more despicable. There were all these people there who had just gone along to see that American band, Friends of The Earth or something…
Jacko : Eagles of Death Metal !
Johnny : Whatever, none of them deserved any of the shit that happened over there.
Jacko : That’s a pure Toad song, that one. And all the arrangement on there, that was him as well, in the studio. He was just enjoying himself, thinking, what can we do here ? Let’s have a little bit of this here, and a little bit of that over there…
Johnny : I did have my reservations about that one. I didn’t get it at all, to begin with. But on reflection, it works pretty well.
I was wondering if the song ‘Bert Bullethead’ was based on someone real…
Johnny : No it isn’t…
Jacko : Yes it is ! There’s this wanker down in Brighton who’s a bit of a psychopath…
Johnny : Dave wrote the lyrics and Robot did the music.
Jacko : That was an older one that we had… you know, just the chords… It’s a straight-ahead, rock’n’roller, isn’t it ? And it is based on someone we know…
Johnny manages to do his ‘On The Buses’ impersonation at the end of it, as well…
Johnny : And just after we did that, Steven Lewis died, at 88 years old. I did that bit at the end of the song and then, after I went home, I got a call from Toad to tell me that Steven Lewis had died. I thought, I hope it wasn’t on my account…
The song ‘Simon Can’t’… you were saying that some people thought it was going to be about Toad (as his real name is Simon) but I think it quickly becomes pretty apparent who it is about when you hear it…
Jacko : Yeah, it’s purely about Simon Cowell. I love that song, with all the high-harmonies and stuff…
Johnny : And I also think it sounds as if, when we’re singing ‘Simon Can’t’, some of us could be saying ‘Simon Cunt’…It’s up to you to chose which one you’d prefer. But the song was definitely no reflection on our lead guitarist whatsoever.
I assume you don’t intend to audition for the next series of The X Factor after this ?
Jacko : Ahh, now that’s an interesting idea, isn’t it ? Do they audition bands ? If they do, we should get on there ! Let’s audition !
One of the older songs you re-recorded for this album, ‘I Wanna Die’ has the line, ‘I don’t want to work for British Rail’… A certain Mr Sensible once told me that you actually did work for British Rail at one point…
Johnny : No… my Grandfather worked for British Rail, but I didn’t. I think someone must’ve got their wires crossed, somewhere. When I was a boy, I used to wait outside Selhurst Depot in Croydon, where my Grandfather worked as a labourer, and when he came out, we’d walk home together. But I never worked there at all, no way. I have never, ever thought about working on the railways.
You’ve also included a couple of sampled-speeches at the end of that song…
Jacko : Well, it was straight after the terror attack in Paris, when they attacked that ‘Charlie Hebdo’ magazine.We just wanted to put something on there to show that we thought that was appalling and that little sound-clip seemed to fit.
Johnny : I thought the attack at the Bataclan was even more despicable. There were all these people there who had just gone along to see that American band, Friends of The Earth or something…
Jacko : Eagles of Death Metal !
Johnny : Whatever, none of them deserved any of the shit that happened over there.
‘Super Woofa’ and ‘Honey Bun’ include female vocals, which is the first time you’ve included them on a record, although you did once do the famous duet with Kirsty MacColl...
Johnny ; There’s a few different girls singing on the album, but it’s Freya Astrella singing on ‘Super Woofa’.
Jacko : It’s something we’d never done before, on a record, but I think it works really nicely.
And you’ve also got a sax player on that song… did you try to bring back Xerxes to play on it ?
Jacko ; Well, that’s something that I’d really like to see, because I’ve always wanted to know if he really can play a sax. He’s been offered the chance…
Johnny : He was given a knackered old sax by Fred Berk, but he was always all over the place. He played that sax with us in 1978, at a gig at the Roundhouse. We were playing ‘Hard Lovin’ Man’ and he was just playing all over the place, ‘Weeeeee-ooooo-weeee-ooooo’… I think he claimed it was free-form jazz… I mean, the sax was half-knackered in the first-place. I don’t know where Fred Berk had found it, but we were never really sure if Xerxes could actually play it...
One of the stranger songs on the album is ‘Paint My Aubergine’. I wondered if that was based on the time you spent working in Fruit & Veg at Asda’s…
Jacko : Hahaha ! Best question of the evening !
Johnny : That’s a rather interesting question. I know that Toad knew that I worked in the Fruit & Veg department…
It’s a very confusing song… what could it possibly be referring to ?
Johnny : Was there some kind of hidden message about my time working at Asda’s ?
Jacko : It kind of evolved and got larger ! Actually, the riff was just this thing that Toad used to warm-up for a soundcheck…
The album ends with ‘Running Scared’, which is the fastest song on the record, followed by ‘Something In My Head’, which is like the epic anthem…
Jacko : I don’t really see it like that. It’s more like a laid-back rocker…
Johnny : It’s a chilled-out rock-song. After the fast pace of ‘Running Scared’, you get ‘Something In My Head’ so you can chill-out…
Jacko : Before the next record !
Okay, well the final thing I wanted to mention was about a time I went in to HMV and found that they’d placed the Johnny Moped CD’s under ‘Moped’ rather than ‘Johnny Moped’. As such, they were filed in between ‘Monty Python’ and ‘Motorhead’ ! In some ways, that seemed highly appropriate…
Jacko : I think, now that we know that, the records have definitely got to be filed under ‘M’. Because there’s a definite, surrealistic thing going on with the Mopeds, just as there’s the loud rock’n’roll side to it. Otherwise, you’d find us between… The Jam and Joy Division !
Johnny : All I can say about that is… Next question, please, hahaha!
Johnny ; There’s a few different girls singing on the album, but it’s Freya Astrella singing on ‘Super Woofa’.
Jacko : It’s something we’d never done before, on a record, but I think it works really nicely.
And you’ve also got a sax player on that song… did you try to bring back Xerxes to play on it ?
Jacko ; Well, that’s something that I’d really like to see, because I’ve always wanted to know if he really can play a sax. He’s been offered the chance…
Johnny : He was given a knackered old sax by Fred Berk, but he was always all over the place. He played that sax with us in 1978, at a gig at the Roundhouse. We were playing ‘Hard Lovin’ Man’ and he was just playing all over the place, ‘Weeeeee-ooooo-weeee-ooooo’… I think he claimed it was free-form jazz… I mean, the sax was half-knackered in the first-place. I don’t know where Fred Berk had found it, but we were never really sure if Xerxes could actually play it...
One of the stranger songs on the album is ‘Paint My Aubergine’. I wondered if that was based on the time you spent working in Fruit & Veg at Asda’s…
Jacko : Hahaha ! Best question of the evening !
Johnny : That’s a rather interesting question. I know that Toad knew that I worked in the Fruit & Veg department…
It’s a very confusing song… what could it possibly be referring to ?
Johnny : Was there some kind of hidden message about my time working at Asda’s ?
Jacko : It kind of evolved and got larger ! Actually, the riff was just this thing that Toad used to warm-up for a soundcheck…
The album ends with ‘Running Scared’, which is the fastest song on the record, followed by ‘Something In My Head’, which is like the epic anthem…
Jacko : I don’t really see it like that. It’s more like a laid-back rocker…
Johnny : It’s a chilled-out rock-song. After the fast pace of ‘Running Scared’, you get ‘Something In My Head’ so you can chill-out…
Jacko : Before the next record !
Okay, well the final thing I wanted to mention was about a time I went in to HMV and found that they’d placed the Johnny Moped CD’s under ‘Moped’ rather than ‘Johnny Moped’. As such, they were filed in between ‘Monty Python’ and ‘Motorhead’ ! In some ways, that seemed highly appropriate…
Jacko : I think, now that we know that, the records have definitely got to be filed under ‘M’. Because there’s a definite, surrealistic thing going on with the Mopeds, just as there’s the loud rock’n’roll side to it. Otherwise, you’d find us between… The Jam and Joy Division !
Johnny : All I can say about that is… Next question, please, hahaha!
Many beers had been drunk and many tales had been told. But although it was the kind of evening that we all would’ve been happy to continue into the wee small hours, trains were due to be caught. Everyone finishes-up their drinks and after fond farewells, we head our separate ways. It had been great fun sharing several hours in the pub with Johnny and Jacko and I really hope we don’t have to wait too long to do it again. In the meantime, the important thing is to make a note of the release date, 25th March 2016 (which will make it A Real Good Friday !) and be sure that you obtain a copy of ‘It’s A Real Cool Baby’ as soon as possible. This isn’t just another punk rock’n’roll album, it’s a fuckin’ Great Punk Rock’n’Roll album. If you only buy one album this year – you’re a light-weight. But if that’s the case, then this is the one to go for. Trust me – it’s the Surreal Deal !