The Defects were
always a band who defied expectations. Although very much a part of the Belfast punk scene, they
had a harder edge to their sound than the likes of Rudi or The Outcasts, even
while developing the more melodic aspects of their music. When they moved to
London in 1982, their dress sense – spikes and leather jackets – suggested yet
another generic GBH / Exploited styled band, so many were surprised with their
next single, the excellent and brooding ‘Survival’. Followed quickly by their
debut album, ‘Defective Breakdown’, they again confounded listeners with a much
more melodic, yet no less powerful, style of punk which in many ways had more
in common with American bands like the Adolescents or Channel 3 than it did
with the ongoing UK
punk scene.
Despite a reasonable amount of success and plenty of touring, the band only remained together for a short time, finally deciding to call it a day in early 1984, after the misguided release of the ‘Suspicious Minds’ single. Apart from a couple of one-off reunions in 1996 and 2003, there was no further talk of them playing again until 2010 when original members Buck and Glenn joined together with new recruits Roy and Aidy to start gigging once more. But almost from the outset, they realised that to make this a valid project they would have to include new material which was just as strong as the old favourites. With the ‘Revelator’ EP and ‘Politicophobia’ album, they’ve achieved this in real style. New songs like ‘Hill Street’ and ‘Riot Free Zone’ are now just as much highlights in their set as ‘Brutality’ and ‘Dance Until You Drop’.
Having seen them live on a couple of occasions, I decided it was time to catch up for an interview and got in touch with Buck to arrange a chat before their upcoming gig at the 100 Club, alongside old cohorts The Outcasts. We try to talk in the new dressing room area, but with people coming and going and soundchecks carrying on in the main room, it did get a bit disjointed at times. Nonetheless, we did our best.
Despite a reasonable amount of success and plenty of touring, the band only remained together for a short time, finally deciding to call it a day in early 1984, after the misguided release of the ‘Suspicious Minds’ single. Apart from a couple of one-off reunions in 1996 and 2003, there was no further talk of them playing again until 2010 when original members Buck and Glenn joined together with new recruits Roy and Aidy to start gigging once more. But almost from the outset, they realised that to make this a valid project they would have to include new material which was just as strong as the old favourites. With the ‘Revelator’ EP and ‘Politicophobia’ album, they’ve achieved this in real style. New songs like ‘Hill Street’ and ‘Riot Free Zone’ are now just as much highlights in their set as ‘Brutality’ and ‘Dance Until You Drop’.
Having seen them live on a couple of occasions, I decided it was time to catch up for an interview and got in touch with Buck to arrange a chat before their upcoming gig at the 100 Club, alongside old cohorts The Outcasts. We try to talk in the new dressing room area, but with people coming and going and soundchecks carrying on in the main room, it did get a bit disjointed at times. Nonetheless, we did our best.
Firstly, I wanted to ask about the idea that
was put across in the recent ‘Good Vibrations’ film, that the Punk scene in
Northern Ireland was very much a reaction against the politics and sectarianism
that was prevalent at the time. Do you think that’s true, or has that been
overplayed ?
Buck : It’s true, it’s definitely true, although I think the Good Vibrations film has maybe brought it out a bit more. But that was definitely a part of it, that’s all I can say. A lot of us just wanted to distance ourselves from all of that.
Your lyrics occasionally touched on political issues…
Buck : There were on or two, but I don’t think they were political as such… they were more just about things that were going on and how they affected our lives.
‘Brutality’, about the RUC, is probably the most direct song, lyrically…
Buck : Yeah, but when you look at it, the things they were doing back then, even with the soldiers they were sending over, they were using it almost like a training ground. They wanted to get the soldiers and the police ready to work on the streets, which is what happened in the UK later on with things like the Miners strike.
I’ve seen in previous interviews that you suspected that, on some occasions, soldiers would actually go out wearing RUC uniforms…
Buck : Yeah, I know that for a fact. We used to hang about, you know, a little gang of us, and the army base was just down the road. We’d see some of them coming out of the barracks in RUC uniforms and sometimes they’d knock the fuck out of us ! There were four Scottish ones, who were obviously not RUC, but they’d be wearing the uniforms, dressed up as cops, and they’d come after us. That happened a few times. I think a lot of stuff went on like that.’
Musically, your sound seemed to be very much rooted in 1977-style Punk, but you were adopting a harder edge to it…
Buck : Yeah, we were all listening to the Clash, the Sex Pistols and the Damned, all of that, but when we started playing ourselves, we kinda developed our own style. Which is why we seemed to fit-in with that kinda UK 1980-82 punk bracket. We didn’t set out to do that, but we just happened to be there at the right time.
A lot of the Northern Irish punk bands also had roots in older rock’n’roll, and I think that came through in some of your songs, things like ‘Dance Until You Drop’…
Buck : I would say so… There has always been a music scene in Belfast, so I think we were also being influenced by T-Rex and stuff like that. We were going back a wee bit further than a lot of the other punk bands.
Buck : It’s true, it’s definitely true, although I think the Good Vibrations film has maybe brought it out a bit more. But that was definitely a part of it, that’s all I can say. A lot of us just wanted to distance ourselves from all of that.
Your lyrics occasionally touched on political issues…
Buck : There were on or two, but I don’t think they were political as such… they were more just about things that were going on and how they affected our lives.
‘Brutality’, about the RUC, is probably the most direct song, lyrically…
Buck : Yeah, but when you look at it, the things they were doing back then, even with the soldiers they were sending over, they were using it almost like a training ground. They wanted to get the soldiers and the police ready to work on the streets, which is what happened in the UK later on with things like the Miners strike.
I’ve seen in previous interviews that you suspected that, on some occasions, soldiers would actually go out wearing RUC uniforms…
Buck : Yeah, I know that for a fact. We used to hang about, you know, a little gang of us, and the army base was just down the road. We’d see some of them coming out of the barracks in RUC uniforms and sometimes they’d knock the fuck out of us ! There were four Scottish ones, who were obviously not RUC, but they’d be wearing the uniforms, dressed up as cops, and they’d come after us. That happened a few times. I think a lot of stuff went on like that.’
Musically, your sound seemed to be very much rooted in 1977-style Punk, but you were adopting a harder edge to it…
Buck : Yeah, we were all listening to the Clash, the Sex Pistols and the Damned, all of that, but when we started playing ourselves, we kinda developed our own style. Which is why we seemed to fit-in with that kinda UK 1980-82 punk bracket. We didn’t set out to do that, but we just happened to be there at the right time.
A lot of the Northern Irish punk bands also had roots in older rock’n’roll, and I think that came through in some of your songs, things like ‘Dance Until You Drop’…
Buck : I would say so… There has always been a music scene in Belfast, so I think we were also being influenced by T-Rex and stuff like that. We were going back a wee bit further than a lot of the other punk bands.
Some of the venues in Belfast, like The Pound and the Harp Bar,
have since become almost legendary. Do you think they deserve their reputation
now ?
Buck : I think they do. Actually, I think The Pound was there before The Harp, but they were just both mad places. The Harp was brilliant, we used to go to see The Outcasts there… They helped to develop a scene, because otherwise there would’ve been nothing. You know, if kids didn’t get to see other bands, there would’ve been nothing for them to aspire to. The Harp Bar now has a gold plaque to commemorate it. It looks good, you know ? We’re kinda proud of it. Although it is weird that the same kinda people who probably would’ve been trying to close the place down 30 years ago are now paying tribute to it. But things are different now, I suppose.
When The Defects first started to get together, were you very much aware of the other Belfast bands that were already around ?
Buck : Oh, we were very aware of them, because we’d go to see them all the time. You know, The Outcasts, Rudi, loads of others. It seemed that everybody was starting bands back then, so we all went to see each other. I mean, it was still quite a small scene in Belfast.
People talk about there being a ‘Belfast sound’ from that era, but when you listen to the bands individually, they don’t really sound all that similar…
Buck : Yeah, but I think there was also a kinda sound that developed. I think, in the early days, very few of the punk bands would tour in Ireland, so there wasn’t so much of an outside influence. I think that helped the Belfast bands develop their own style a bit more. I suppose Stiff Little Fingers came first and made the really big impact, and then the rest of us followed them. I mean, one of our first recordings was a version of ‘Teenage Kicks’, although that tape has been long-lost. But all of the bands influenced each other. I think that was probably one of the first songs we ever learnt.
When you released your first single, you did it by your-selves. Was there ever any talk of it being released by any other labels, Good Vibrations perhaps ?
Buck : No, we actually tried loads of labels but none of them wanted to know, so we had to do it ourselves. Those were the days when you had wee cassette tapes and you’d be sending them around to everybody. But at the end of the day, we just decided to do it ourselves. We did try Good Vibrations, but even he wouldn’t sign us. Although, to be fair, I think at that point it was because he really had no money to do anything.
By that point, obviously there was quite a big independent DIY scene. Did that make it pretty easy to put things together for yourselves ?
Buck : Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. All we had to do was get the money together. We did that, eventually, and then it was just a case of asking a lot of questions until we found someone who was willing to do it for us. It was £1000 for 2000 singles, and we were able to get rid of them all for £1.00 each, so that wasn’t so bad. The only problem was that we didn’t really have any proper distribution for it.
Buck : I think they do. Actually, I think The Pound was there before The Harp, but they were just both mad places. The Harp was brilliant, we used to go to see The Outcasts there… They helped to develop a scene, because otherwise there would’ve been nothing. You know, if kids didn’t get to see other bands, there would’ve been nothing for them to aspire to. The Harp Bar now has a gold plaque to commemorate it. It looks good, you know ? We’re kinda proud of it. Although it is weird that the same kinda people who probably would’ve been trying to close the place down 30 years ago are now paying tribute to it. But things are different now, I suppose.
When The Defects first started to get together, were you very much aware of the other Belfast bands that were already around ?
Buck : Oh, we were very aware of them, because we’d go to see them all the time. You know, The Outcasts, Rudi, loads of others. It seemed that everybody was starting bands back then, so we all went to see each other. I mean, it was still quite a small scene in Belfast.
People talk about there being a ‘Belfast sound’ from that era, but when you listen to the bands individually, they don’t really sound all that similar…
Buck : Yeah, but I think there was also a kinda sound that developed. I think, in the early days, very few of the punk bands would tour in Ireland, so there wasn’t so much of an outside influence. I think that helped the Belfast bands develop their own style a bit more. I suppose Stiff Little Fingers came first and made the really big impact, and then the rest of us followed them. I mean, one of our first recordings was a version of ‘Teenage Kicks’, although that tape has been long-lost. But all of the bands influenced each other. I think that was probably one of the first songs we ever learnt.
When you released your first single, you did it by your-selves. Was there ever any talk of it being released by any other labels, Good Vibrations perhaps ?
Buck : No, we actually tried loads of labels but none of them wanted to know, so we had to do it ourselves. Those were the days when you had wee cassette tapes and you’d be sending them around to everybody. But at the end of the day, we just decided to do it ourselves. We did try Good Vibrations, but even he wouldn’t sign us. Although, to be fair, I think at that point it was because he really had no money to do anything.
By that point, obviously there was quite a big independent DIY scene. Did that make it pretty easy to put things together for yourselves ?
Buck : Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. All we had to do was get the money together. We did that, eventually, and then it was just a case of asking a lot of questions until we found someone who was willing to do it for us. It was £1000 for 2000 singles, and we were able to get rid of them all for £1.00 each, so that wasn’t so bad. The only problem was that we didn’t really have any proper distribution for it.
Was that why you started to think about
moving to London
?
Buck : Yeah, we realised that was what we’d have to do. If we wanted the gigs, we’d either be travelling back and forth all the time, or we had the option to move over and stay at a couple of flats or something.
But it was when you met Carol Clerk that you actually got your chance ?
Buck : Yeah, very much so. She was the one who introduced us to John Curd, and then everything took off from there. She just pointed us in the right direction and once we made it over here, things started happening. I think Carol was actually very influential for a lot of bands around that time, although she doesn’t really get the credit for it now. She was the writer who championed punk in the Melody Maker, while it was Garry Bushell in Sounds. They were both very important but I think Garry Bushell was more into making a name for himself. Carol wasn’t really interested in that side of it. She was just interested in the bands and the music, and she helped a lot of people, big time.
You signed to John Curd’s label, WXYZ. What was he like to work with ?
Buck : Actually, it was brilliant. I ended up working for him as his driver as well, so I drove him around to all his gigs and stuff. He gave me a good little job, so he was a great bloke as far as I was concerned. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have seen all the bands I got to see back then. I mean, he used to get slagged-off by some of the punks, and he probably was more into the money side of things, you know, but he did a good job for it.
Being on WXYZ, you got on the ‘So What’ tour with Anti-Nowhere league, Chron Gen and Chelsea. How did that go ?
Buck : Brilliant, really great. It was the first proper tour we ever did, the first time we’d played more than three nights in a row. I think we played 24 gigs in one month. We all travelled in the same bus together, but it was fine. I mean, they used to play pranks on people… you couldn’t risk falling asleep on the bus, that’s for sure ! They were all mad !
Being a bunch of nice young lads from Belfast, how did you get along with Gene October ?
Buck : Wellll… I wouldn’t want to remember anything like that even if it had happened ! Actually, I think it was Glenn who was in the toilets one night and Gene came up and stood right next to him, and made a point of really shaking his dick when he’d finished pissing ! I mean, he was a right laugh as well, but he did have that way about him.
Your first single on WXYZ, ‘Survival’, was really different to most of the other punk bands of the time and really stood out. Do you think that worked in your favour ?
Buck : I think it did. Because it was a lot slower than most of the punk bands at that time, but still really powerful. It was a good little tune, you know, and really stood out against the likes of the Exploited and GBH.
In fact, the bands' image around that time, with leather jackets and studs, was almost at odds with your sound, because you had a much more melodic style.
Buck : Yeah, that’s right. But that was just the way we dressed, you know ? I think we’d all seen that first Discharge single, and everyone decided, I want a jacket like that ! Everyone started putting studs on their jackets regardless of how they sounded. If anything, that was probably even before we’d started playing or developed any kinda style or anything.
Buck : Yeah, we realised that was what we’d have to do. If we wanted the gigs, we’d either be travelling back and forth all the time, or we had the option to move over and stay at a couple of flats or something.
But it was when you met Carol Clerk that you actually got your chance ?
Buck : Yeah, very much so. She was the one who introduced us to John Curd, and then everything took off from there. She just pointed us in the right direction and once we made it over here, things started happening. I think Carol was actually very influential for a lot of bands around that time, although she doesn’t really get the credit for it now. She was the writer who championed punk in the Melody Maker, while it was Garry Bushell in Sounds. They were both very important but I think Garry Bushell was more into making a name for himself. Carol wasn’t really interested in that side of it. She was just interested in the bands and the music, and she helped a lot of people, big time.
You signed to John Curd’s label, WXYZ. What was he like to work with ?
Buck : Actually, it was brilliant. I ended up working for him as his driver as well, so I drove him around to all his gigs and stuff. He gave me a good little job, so he was a great bloke as far as I was concerned. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have seen all the bands I got to see back then. I mean, he used to get slagged-off by some of the punks, and he probably was more into the money side of things, you know, but he did a good job for it.
Being on WXYZ, you got on the ‘So What’ tour with Anti-Nowhere league, Chron Gen and Chelsea. How did that go ?
Buck : Brilliant, really great. It was the first proper tour we ever did, the first time we’d played more than three nights in a row. I think we played 24 gigs in one month. We all travelled in the same bus together, but it was fine. I mean, they used to play pranks on people… you couldn’t risk falling asleep on the bus, that’s for sure ! They were all mad !
Being a bunch of nice young lads from Belfast, how did you get along with Gene October ?
Buck : Wellll… I wouldn’t want to remember anything like that even if it had happened ! Actually, I think it was Glenn who was in the toilets one night and Gene came up and stood right next to him, and made a point of really shaking his dick when he’d finished pissing ! I mean, he was a right laugh as well, but he did have that way about him.
Your first single on WXYZ, ‘Survival’, was really different to most of the other punk bands of the time and really stood out. Do you think that worked in your favour ?
Buck : I think it did. Because it was a lot slower than most of the punk bands at that time, but still really powerful. It was a good little tune, you know, and really stood out against the likes of the Exploited and GBH.
In fact, the bands' image around that time, with leather jackets and studs, was almost at odds with your sound, because you had a much more melodic style.
Buck : Yeah, that’s right. But that was just the way we dressed, you know ? I think we’d all seen that first Discharge single, and everyone decided, I want a jacket like that ! Everyone started putting studs on their jackets regardless of how they sounded. If anything, that was probably even before we’d started playing or developed any kinda style or anything.
When your album, ‘Defective Breakdown’, came
out it again stood out amongst the more generic punk albums of the time. In
some ways, it was actually more in line with some of the contemporary American
punk bands…
Buck : Yeah, I suppose it was a bit more tuneful or a bit more musical. Like we were saying, I think we just had influences that went a bit further than a lot of the other bands around at the time. But it was just what came out, it wasn’t as if we ever sat down and decided to do a particular style or anything. I can still listen to the album now and I think it’s pretty good. There’s some really good tunes on it… the production is alright, but not great. We had the same producer who worked with The Exploited on their second album ‘Troops of Tomorrow’, because we’d been in the studio with them when they were recording that album and really liked the sound he got. But of course we didn’t sound anything like The Exploited, so I’m not sure if it really worked for us. We weren’t trying to be hardcore or anything.
You also went out on tour with The Meteors. What was that like, because their audiences had a really bad reputation in the early Eighties…
Buck : It was a good crack ! I mean, their fans were nuts, but we got on well with them because we were on the same record label and we were friends with The Meteors. So that was good for us, because some bands who supported them got a really bad time from the crowd.
And you also played with Gary Glitter !
Buck : That was great fun, you know ? I mean, I’d seen him play a few times back in the day, but to actually support him was brilliant ! We all met him, and he was alright. Just a normal sorta bloke, really. But the funny thing was, Tenpole Tudor was also on the bill, and I remember him walking into our room and telling us, ‘I’ve just seen Gary Glitter on the toilet having a crap without his wig on !’ Tenpole Tudor had just walked into the toilets, and there was Gary Glitter in one of the stalls, without the door closed, squeezing one out with no wig on ! And Tenpole decided he had to come into our room and tell us about it ! ‘You know, I’ve just seen the most peculiar thing…’
Looking back, the period of time that you spent in London, touring and releasing your album and two singles, was actually pretty short…
Buck : Yeah, it was only two years at the most, ’82 to ’84. And we were all still pretty young, so I’m not sure we really made the most of it.
Well, your second single for WXYZ, the cover of ‘Suspicious Minds’, also proved to be your last. As a cover, I quite like your recording, but I’ve always thought it really wasn’t suitable as the A-side of a single…
Buck : No, I don’t really know what happened there. Everybody was on at us to try and move away from punk. And I think the label had released the Anti Nowhere League doing ‘Street of London’, and The Meteors doing ‘Johnny Remember Me’, which had both been quite successful. So then they pushed us to release ‘Suspicious Mind’ … I guess these releases were all within a year of each other, so it was all around the same time. We were pushed into it, definitely. It could’ve been a great song to play in an encore, or put out as a B-side, but not as an A-side. It was a bad decision and it proved to be the end of us, really.
Buck : Yeah, I suppose it was a bit more tuneful or a bit more musical. Like we were saying, I think we just had influences that went a bit further than a lot of the other bands around at the time. But it was just what came out, it wasn’t as if we ever sat down and decided to do a particular style or anything. I can still listen to the album now and I think it’s pretty good. There’s some really good tunes on it… the production is alright, but not great. We had the same producer who worked with The Exploited on their second album ‘Troops of Tomorrow’, because we’d been in the studio with them when they were recording that album and really liked the sound he got. But of course we didn’t sound anything like The Exploited, so I’m not sure if it really worked for us. We weren’t trying to be hardcore or anything.
You also went out on tour with The Meteors. What was that like, because their audiences had a really bad reputation in the early Eighties…
Buck : It was a good crack ! I mean, their fans were nuts, but we got on well with them because we were on the same record label and we were friends with The Meteors. So that was good for us, because some bands who supported them got a really bad time from the crowd.
And you also played with Gary Glitter !
Buck : That was great fun, you know ? I mean, I’d seen him play a few times back in the day, but to actually support him was brilliant ! We all met him, and he was alright. Just a normal sorta bloke, really. But the funny thing was, Tenpole Tudor was also on the bill, and I remember him walking into our room and telling us, ‘I’ve just seen Gary Glitter on the toilet having a crap without his wig on !’ Tenpole Tudor had just walked into the toilets, and there was Gary Glitter in one of the stalls, without the door closed, squeezing one out with no wig on ! And Tenpole decided he had to come into our room and tell us about it ! ‘You know, I’ve just seen the most peculiar thing…’
Looking back, the period of time that you spent in London, touring and releasing your album and two singles, was actually pretty short…
Buck : Yeah, it was only two years at the most, ’82 to ’84. And we were all still pretty young, so I’m not sure we really made the most of it.
Well, your second single for WXYZ, the cover of ‘Suspicious Minds’, also proved to be your last. As a cover, I quite like your recording, but I’ve always thought it really wasn’t suitable as the A-side of a single…
Buck : No, I don’t really know what happened there. Everybody was on at us to try and move away from punk. And I think the label had released the Anti Nowhere League doing ‘Street of London’, and The Meteors doing ‘Johnny Remember Me’, which had both been quite successful. So then they pushed us to release ‘Suspicious Mind’ … I guess these releases were all within a year of each other, so it was all around the same time. We were pushed into it, definitely. It could’ve been a great song to play in an encore, or put out as a B-side, but not as an A-side. It was a bad decision and it proved to be the end of us, really.
Did you start work on a second album at all ?
Buck : We’d written a few songs towards it, but we never got any further. I don’t really think it was going to work, anymore. Not the way the new songs were going. It just wasn’t right. The songs weren’t flowing they way they did before and it just wasn’t happening. Things weren’t going too well for us… we weren’t getting many gigs anymore and I think we just came to the end of the line. I mean, we’d gone from not doing very much back in Belfast, to really working a lot over in London. We did three really big tours in about a year, and it was good fun, a really good experience, but it just came to an end. We died a natural death… Actually, we decided to split-up while we were still in London, but then we heard that The Clash were going to play in Belfast and we managed to get on the bill with them for our last gig. But we didn’t fall-out as friends, we just decided to stop doing the band, so I suppose that kinda gave us the option to do something again somewhere down the line, even though we never thought we would.
The first actual Defects ‘reunion’ happened in Bath in 1996, but I think that was only you from the original band…
Buck : Yeah, that was like, the first ‘Rebellion’ festival. But then in 2003 we did a proper reunion with all the original members when the book, ‘It Makes You Want To Spit’ came out. But neither time did we ever talk about carrying on. We enjoyed doing those things but they were just one-off gigs. We all got back together for the launch of the book, but that was it.’
But you did keep yourself involved in music…
Buck : Oh yeah, I’ve got my own studio, Doghouse, which I’ve been sorta building up for about 25 years. I’ve just been adding to it and adding to it, whenever I get something new. But it’s more like a gang-hut than anything, really. And I’ve also been playing in a Ska band as well, which is also called Doghouse. Although that’s all covers so we haven’t released anything ourselves. But it’s a ten-piece band, so it’s pretty busy.’
When you did eventually put The Defects back together as an ongoing band, it ended up with just yourself and Glenn from the original band…
Buck : Well, yeah, although our old guitarist is with us here tonight and he’s gonna be playing a few songs in the set, so there’s three original members tonight. The main reason we did get back together was because we got offered a tour in Australia. The other guys couldn’t do it, so Glenn and I found Roy and Aidy. We practised for about a year, did just a couple of gigs like Rebellion, and then we went off to Australia for 13 dates. And I have to say, when we started again, I think we chose the right people to play with and straight away, it really felt good. It just had a really fresh feeling and we started working on new material pretty much straight away. I think that was important for us. Once we had enough of the old songs together for a whole set, so we could go out and play, we started working on new songs to add to it. Glenn’s the songwriter, you know, so it was good to be able to do that. We released ‘Revelator’ on 12” vinyl, and then we did the new CD…
Buck : We’d written a few songs towards it, but we never got any further. I don’t really think it was going to work, anymore. Not the way the new songs were going. It just wasn’t right. The songs weren’t flowing they way they did before and it just wasn’t happening. Things weren’t going too well for us… we weren’t getting many gigs anymore and I think we just came to the end of the line. I mean, we’d gone from not doing very much back in Belfast, to really working a lot over in London. We did three really big tours in about a year, and it was good fun, a really good experience, but it just came to an end. We died a natural death… Actually, we decided to split-up while we were still in London, but then we heard that The Clash were going to play in Belfast and we managed to get on the bill with them for our last gig. But we didn’t fall-out as friends, we just decided to stop doing the band, so I suppose that kinda gave us the option to do something again somewhere down the line, even though we never thought we would.
The first actual Defects ‘reunion’ happened in Bath in 1996, but I think that was only you from the original band…
Buck : Yeah, that was like, the first ‘Rebellion’ festival. But then in 2003 we did a proper reunion with all the original members when the book, ‘It Makes You Want To Spit’ came out. But neither time did we ever talk about carrying on. We enjoyed doing those things but they were just one-off gigs. We all got back together for the launch of the book, but that was it.’
But you did keep yourself involved in music…
Buck : Oh yeah, I’ve got my own studio, Doghouse, which I’ve been sorta building up for about 25 years. I’ve just been adding to it and adding to it, whenever I get something new. But it’s more like a gang-hut than anything, really. And I’ve also been playing in a Ska band as well, which is also called Doghouse. Although that’s all covers so we haven’t released anything ourselves. But it’s a ten-piece band, so it’s pretty busy.’
When you did eventually put The Defects back together as an ongoing band, it ended up with just yourself and Glenn from the original band…
Buck : Well, yeah, although our old guitarist is with us here tonight and he’s gonna be playing a few songs in the set, so there’s three original members tonight. The main reason we did get back together was because we got offered a tour in Australia. The other guys couldn’t do it, so Glenn and I found Roy and Aidy. We practised for about a year, did just a couple of gigs like Rebellion, and then we went off to Australia for 13 dates. And I have to say, when we started again, I think we chose the right people to play with and straight away, it really felt good. It just had a really fresh feeling and we started working on new material pretty much straight away. I think that was important for us. Once we had enough of the old songs together for a whole set, so we could go out and play, we started working on new songs to add to it. Glenn’s the songwriter, you know, so it was good to be able to do that. We released ‘Revelator’ on 12” vinyl, and then we did the new CD…
‘Revelator’ is a tribute to Joe Strummer,
which is particularly appropriate considering the part The Clash played in The
Defects’ history…
Buck : Actually, I think it’s odd that more bands haven’t written songs about him. We’ve also written a song about Malcolm Owen, ‘Traffic Island Castaway’. But Glenn would really be the one to ask, as he writes the songs now. It’s just about stuff you hear on the news, you know, anything and everything. We’ve actually got a load of new songs at the moment, nearly enough for another new album.
Glenn : It’s kinda strange because, when we did ‘Defective Breakdown’, I had nothing to do with the lyrics whatsoever. Me and Dukie, our original guitarist, worked out most of the music for it, but I had very little to do with the lyrics. It wasn’t really until 1984, when I moved back to Belfast and started a new band that I began to write my own songs and lyrics. But I think there are still similar elements in the songs, between then and now. I think the lyrics are still kinda angry, in their own way. It’s still pretty anti-establishment… people should be protesting ! I mean, there’s the song ‘Riot Free Zone’, which is about Belfast, and we’re kinda saying, well, is all that stuff really over, or could it possibly start up again ? It’s just asking a question, basically. We’ve got a lot of new songs ready written for the next album… some of them are about a year old, actually, cos I just carried on writing after we did ‘Politicophobia’. I’ve just been gradually introducing them to the other guys, you know, playing my own demos. So I think we’ll probably start recording them in January. There’ll be ten new tracks, so that be enough for the new album. The only new one we’re playing live at the moment is ‘Traffic Island Castaway’, which is a tribute to Malcolm Owen. I don’t want to get into the habit of writing tributes, but, you know, bands like The Clash and The Ruts, they were so influential for us, as kids growing up.
The story of The Defects was recently told in the book ‘Survival’. Did you think it was important that the bands’ history was documented in that way ?
Buck : Well, we hadn’t really thought about it. It was just this girl we knew who asked us if she could do it, and we said yes. She interviewed all of us and put it together. You know, if someone asks you if they can write a book about you, of course you’re going to say, fucking right you can ! To be honest, it wasn’t a really great book because it was really, really rushed, but it wasn’t bad and there were some great photographs and stuff. It’s just good to have our story out there.
Buck : Actually, I think it’s odd that more bands haven’t written songs about him. We’ve also written a song about Malcolm Owen, ‘Traffic Island Castaway’. But Glenn would really be the one to ask, as he writes the songs now. It’s just about stuff you hear on the news, you know, anything and everything. We’ve actually got a load of new songs at the moment, nearly enough for another new album.
Glenn : It’s kinda strange because, when we did ‘Defective Breakdown’, I had nothing to do with the lyrics whatsoever. Me and Dukie, our original guitarist, worked out most of the music for it, but I had very little to do with the lyrics. It wasn’t really until 1984, when I moved back to Belfast and started a new band that I began to write my own songs and lyrics. But I think there are still similar elements in the songs, between then and now. I think the lyrics are still kinda angry, in their own way. It’s still pretty anti-establishment… people should be protesting ! I mean, there’s the song ‘Riot Free Zone’, which is about Belfast, and we’re kinda saying, well, is all that stuff really over, or could it possibly start up again ? It’s just asking a question, basically. We’ve got a lot of new songs ready written for the next album… some of them are about a year old, actually, cos I just carried on writing after we did ‘Politicophobia’. I’ve just been gradually introducing them to the other guys, you know, playing my own demos. So I think we’ll probably start recording them in January. There’ll be ten new tracks, so that be enough for the new album. The only new one we’re playing live at the moment is ‘Traffic Island Castaway’, which is a tribute to Malcolm Owen. I don’t want to get into the habit of writing tributes, but, you know, bands like The Clash and The Ruts, they were so influential for us, as kids growing up.
The story of The Defects was recently told in the book ‘Survival’. Did you think it was important that the bands’ history was documented in that way ?
Buck : Well, we hadn’t really thought about it. It was just this girl we knew who asked us if she could do it, and we said yes. She interviewed all of us and put it together. You know, if someone asks you if they can write a book about you, of course you’re going to say, fucking right you can ! To be honest, it wasn’t a really great book because it was really, really rushed, but it wasn’t bad and there were some great photographs and stuff. It’s just good to have our story out there.
Well, with the venue due to open shortly and
everyone starting to wonder when they’re going to get a chance to eat, I decide
to end the interview and head out into the West End.
Time for me to feed myself as well ! Unfortu-nately, it’s one of the last
Fridays before Xmas, so you can imagine all the idiots wandering around.
Eventually, I settle on a burrito, take my time and then head back to the 100
Club.
Things have moved swiftly… the first band (possibly two bands) have already played and the first band I really want to see, X-SLF are already setting-up. This is a band formed by original Stiff Little Fingers members Henry Cluney and Jim Reilly, playing all the old songs with just as much right to do so as Jake Burns’ current SLF line-up. It’s a bit of a weird situation, much like the current Damned line-up and the Rat Scabies / Brian James band. I’m sure fans would much prefer to see the former band members make-up and play together again, even if only for a one-off. Regardless, I always thought Henry Cluney was much more responsible for the classic SLF sound than he gets credit for, plus I’d really enjoyed his solo gig a few years ago, so I had high hopes for this gig. Unfortu-nately, I was quickly disappointed. The sound was absolutely terrible, the bass in particular was way too loud and, while Henry and Jim played alright considering the sound, the bass player himself acted like a complete nob, rocking-out in an entirely unnecessary fashion. Making it worse, a lot of the audience are already very drunk and staggering around as if this is the best gig ever. I end up lurking at the back of the club as the band play a lot of my favourite SLF songs but sound awful. I don’t know, perhaps it was because I’d had high expectations and maybe it was just the PA that made it sound so bad. I’ve seen reviews of other gigs they’ve played that have been very positive, so perhaps this was just a bad night. I hope so because these guys should be able to deliver the goods.
Next onstage, The Defects, and I’m glad to say there’s an almost instant improvement in the sound. There’s still a lot of drunks in the audience, but it’s more bearable when the band sound great. Confidently, they play four of their newer songs in the first half of their set before going back to older favourites like ‘Dance Until You Drop’ ‘Guilty Conscience’ and a cover of ‘London’s Burning’. As promised, original guitarist Dukie makes a guest appearance for great versions of ‘Survival’ and ‘Brutality’ (the second guitar really filled-out the sound ) and they finally end with a quick run-through of ‘Defective Breakdown’ for an encore. It’s great to get a chance to see a band like The Defects after all these years, but to have them producing new material that continues to take it all forward, well, that’s a real treat.
The Outcasts, on the other hand, have yet to perform any new material, but with so many great old songs to pick and choose from, they still have no problem keeping their set interesting. They also have a really wide, although coherent, range of styles, from the punk rock of ‘Frustration’ through to the rockabilly of ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ or the reggae-tinged ‘Magnum Force’ through to the post-punk of ‘Winter’. Tonight, in lieu of actual new material, we do get a couple of unexpected cover versions, firstly the Rudi classic ‘The Pressures On’ and then towards the end of the set, ‘Suffragette City’. The only downer is, by this point, the amount of drunks staggering around and onto the stage. Even Greg has to tell people to stop getting in the way of the band. It’s not that it was an aggressive atmosphere, just a lot of people who had obviously been drinking all day. For those of us who weren’t quite so merry, it was quite a pain to have to watch the band while trying to prevent a drunk spilling his pint over your head ! So it wasn’t the best time I’ve seen The Outcasts, even though they actually played just as well as usual. This was a bit of a one-off occasion, I suppose, so I’ll be back to see them again, and hopefully next time things will go more according to the plan.
Things have moved swiftly… the first band (possibly two bands) have already played and the first band I really want to see, X-SLF are already setting-up. This is a band formed by original Stiff Little Fingers members Henry Cluney and Jim Reilly, playing all the old songs with just as much right to do so as Jake Burns’ current SLF line-up. It’s a bit of a weird situation, much like the current Damned line-up and the Rat Scabies / Brian James band. I’m sure fans would much prefer to see the former band members make-up and play together again, even if only for a one-off. Regardless, I always thought Henry Cluney was much more responsible for the classic SLF sound than he gets credit for, plus I’d really enjoyed his solo gig a few years ago, so I had high hopes for this gig. Unfortu-nately, I was quickly disappointed. The sound was absolutely terrible, the bass in particular was way too loud and, while Henry and Jim played alright considering the sound, the bass player himself acted like a complete nob, rocking-out in an entirely unnecessary fashion. Making it worse, a lot of the audience are already very drunk and staggering around as if this is the best gig ever. I end up lurking at the back of the club as the band play a lot of my favourite SLF songs but sound awful. I don’t know, perhaps it was because I’d had high expectations and maybe it was just the PA that made it sound so bad. I’ve seen reviews of other gigs they’ve played that have been very positive, so perhaps this was just a bad night. I hope so because these guys should be able to deliver the goods.
Next onstage, The Defects, and I’m glad to say there’s an almost instant improvement in the sound. There’s still a lot of drunks in the audience, but it’s more bearable when the band sound great. Confidently, they play four of their newer songs in the first half of their set before going back to older favourites like ‘Dance Until You Drop’ ‘Guilty Conscience’ and a cover of ‘London’s Burning’. As promised, original guitarist Dukie makes a guest appearance for great versions of ‘Survival’ and ‘Brutality’ (the second guitar really filled-out the sound ) and they finally end with a quick run-through of ‘Defective Breakdown’ for an encore. It’s great to get a chance to see a band like The Defects after all these years, but to have them producing new material that continues to take it all forward, well, that’s a real treat.
The Outcasts, on the other hand, have yet to perform any new material, but with so many great old songs to pick and choose from, they still have no problem keeping their set interesting. They also have a really wide, although coherent, range of styles, from the punk rock of ‘Frustration’ through to the rockabilly of ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ or the reggae-tinged ‘Magnum Force’ through to the post-punk of ‘Winter’. Tonight, in lieu of actual new material, we do get a couple of unexpected cover versions, firstly the Rudi classic ‘The Pressures On’ and then towards the end of the set, ‘Suffragette City’. The only downer is, by this point, the amount of drunks staggering around and onto the stage. Even Greg has to tell people to stop getting in the way of the band. It’s not that it was an aggressive atmosphere, just a lot of people who had obviously been drinking all day. For those of us who weren’t quite so merry, it was quite a pain to have to watch the band while trying to prevent a drunk spilling his pint over your head ! So it wasn’t the best time I’ve seen The Outcasts, even though they actually played just as well as usual. This was a bit of a one-off occasion, I suppose, so I’ll be back to see them again, and hopefully next time things will go more according to the plan.
