Over the years, The Vibrators have often been played-down by music press hacks and never really achieved the respect they deserve. The main accusation is that they were bandwagon jumpers, but just take a quick look at the facts ; they formed in February ’76, played their first gig in March, supported the Sex Pistols several times , and released their first single three weeks before ‘Anarchy in the UK’ came out ! They’d established themselves long before any bandwagon even existed, and, as for the other common slur, that they’d been pub rockers before developing a more spikey sound, well, wasn’t Joe Strummer was fronting The 101ers before The Clash ? Not that there was anything wrong with The 101ers, but certain members of the press only seemed to be happy to use this criticism when it suited them…
Regardless of the press reviews, the Vibrators built their own following and, while they only reached ‘Top of the Pops’ once, with ‘Automatic Lover’, they continued to maintain a loyal following that now extends all around the world.
Technically-speaking, the band were formed by drummer Eddie Edwards, the only consistent member to this day, but for many it was always the original front-man, Knox, who embodied the spirit of the band. Having been with them for their first three years, he then rejoined in 1982 and continued with them all the way up until 2011 when, due to health problems, he finally had to hang-up his touring-boots (although continuing to contribute his song-writing talents to the bands’ ongoing releases.) His most recent project has been the opening of ‘Rock’n’Roll Rescue’, a music-themed charity shop in Camden, established to help various deserving causes. In aid of this endeavour, the original members of The Vibrators regrouped to play together for the first time in thirty years at the legendary Hope & Anchor in Islington. It was before this gig that I managed to get Knox to sit down for a few minutes to attempt this interview. (In the event, we got about half-way through before Knox had to run-off to tackle another task. We eventually had to complete the interview at Rock’n’Roll Rescue a week or so late but for the sake of continuity, I’ve transcribed it all as one piece…
Regardless of the press reviews, the Vibrators built their own following and, while they only reached ‘Top of the Pops’ once, with ‘Automatic Lover’, they continued to maintain a loyal following that now extends all around the world.
Technically-speaking, the band were formed by drummer Eddie Edwards, the only consistent member to this day, but for many it was always the original front-man, Knox, who embodied the spirit of the band. Having been with them for their first three years, he then rejoined in 1982 and continued with them all the way up until 2011 when, due to health problems, he finally had to hang-up his touring-boots (although continuing to contribute his song-writing talents to the bands’ ongoing releases.) His most recent project has been the opening of ‘Rock’n’Roll Rescue’, a music-themed charity shop in Camden, established to help various deserving causes. In aid of this endeavour, the original members of The Vibrators regrouped to play together for the first time in thirty years at the legendary Hope & Anchor in Islington. It was before this gig that I managed to get Knox to sit down for a few minutes to attempt this interview. (In the event, we got about half-way through before Knox had to run-off to tackle another task. We eventually had to complete the interview at Rock’n’Roll Rescue a week or so late but for the sake of continuity, I’ve transcribed it all as one piece…
Firstly, I thought I’d start with an easy question… how did Ian Carnochan become ‘Knox’…
‘It goes back to when I was at school. It was an all-boys school and they’d call everyone by their surname. Mine was Carnochan, so the other boys quickly shortened it, first to ‘Carnox’ and then eventually just ‘Knox’. All my brothers ended up with funny nicknames as well, although that was more to do with our family rather than school. So it goes all the way back to when I was 12 or 13 and it was nothing to do with music or being in a band…’
You were a teenager in the early Sixties, so it must have been exciting to see and hear the way that music was developing during that period ?
‘Yeah, and it’s funny because, when I look back, I don’t think I had a particularly happy childhood. But when music came along, it was as if I’d found this whole other world, and that saved me. I mean, I wouldn’t try to make any big pronouncements and say that I wouldn’t be here without it, but it just gave me a way forward. One of my friends, who first encouraged me to learn to play guitar, was teaching me folkie stuff, which I still can’t stand, but one day he played ‘Rebel Rouser’ by Duane Eddy and I went, Bloody hell, what’s that ? I think it was probably the very first time I heard any kind of rock’n’roll. From then on, all the other stuff started coming through and I began to have a great time. It was funny, because you didn’t even have to buy any records. One of your mates would have something new, so you’d just go around to his house to listen to it. You’d sit there all evening listening to it over and over again, and that was it for the whole week. You could listen to things like Radio Luxemburg, but you’d have to sit there for ages before you heard anything you really liked. That was how it all worked at the time, but I suppose that made it all the more precious, because you had to work at it.’
Of course, the usual retrospective view of the early Seventies, after the excitement of the Sixties music scene, was that things became very stale and pompous. Is that how you found it at the time ?
‘Well, one of my friends has this theory that the music press only promoted Punk as away of turning their backs on Prog Rock and all that, which in some cases may not be far from the truth. But I think there were actually some very good bands playing out there at the time. They may not have been playing stuff that I particularly liked, but they didn’t get a fair crack of the whip. We would usually just go to see pub-bands, and some of them could be quite good, but for a lot of them, it was really just a hobby and they weren’t thinking about what they could do next.’
When did you start playing music yourself ?
‘I started playing guitar pretty young. I think I was given a guitar as a Christmas present, maybe in 1958 or ’59, so I started to learn how to play and then joined some bands really quickly. I mean, this was at school, so we were lucky and they allowed us to use one of the rooms to rehearse during the lunch hour. We didn’t have any amps, but we could play acoustic guitars and one of the guys could play the school piano, so it started like that .Eventually, we got some equipment… in fact, at first I think we just had one amplifier and we’d all go through that. I remember, if the other guitar player turned his guitar up, then mine would go down, which was very annoying ! But at least it meant we could start playing gigs.’
‘It goes back to when I was at school. It was an all-boys school and they’d call everyone by their surname. Mine was Carnochan, so the other boys quickly shortened it, first to ‘Carnox’ and then eventually just ‘Knox’. All my brothers ended up with funny nicknames as well, although that was more to do with our family rather than school. So it goes all the way back to when I was 12 or 13 and it was nothing to do with music or being in a band…’
You were a teenager in the early Sixties, so it must have been exciting to see and hear the way that music was developing during that period ?
‘Yeah, and it’s funny because, when I look back, I don’t think I had a particularly happy childhood. But when music came along, it was as if I’d found this whole other world, and that saved me. I mean, I wouldn’t try to make any big pronouncements and say that I wouldn’t be here without it, but it just gave me a way forward. One of my friends, who first encouraged me to learn to play guitar, was teaching me folkie stuff, which I still can’t stand, but one day he played ‘Rebel Rouser’ by Duane Eddy and I went, Bloody hell, what’s that ? I think it was probably the very first time I heard any kind of rock’n’roll. From then on, all the other stuff started coming through and I began to have a great time. It was funny, because you didn’t even have to buy any records. One of your mates would have something new, so you’d just go around to his house to listen to it. You’d sit there all evening listening to it over and over again, and that was it for the whole week. You could listen to things like Radio Luxemburg, but you’d have to sit there for ages before you heard anything you really liked. That was how it all worked at the time, but I suppose that made it all the more precious, because you had to work at it.’
Of course, the usual retrospective view of the early Seventies, after the excitement of the Sixties music scene, was that things became very stale and pompous. Is that how you found it at the time ?
‘Well, one of my friends has this theory that the music press only promoted Punk as away of turning their backs on Prog Rock and all that, which in some cases may not be far from the truth. But I think there were actually some very good bands playing out there at the time. They may not have been playing stuff that I particularly liked, but they didn’t get a fair crack of the whip. We would usually just go to see pub-bands, and some of them could be quite good, but for a lot of them, it was really just a hobby and they weren’t thinking about what they could do next.’
When did you start playing music yourself ?
‘I started playing guitar pretty young. I think I was given a guitar as a Christmas present, maybe in 1958 or ’59, so I started to learn how to play and then joined some bands really quickly. I mean, this was at school, so we were lucky and they allowed us to use one of the rooms to rehearse during the lunch hour. We didn’t have any amps, but we could play acoustic guitars and one of the guys could play the school piano, so it started like that .Eventually, we got some equipment… in fact, at first I think we just had one amplifier and we’d all go through that. I remember, if the other guitar player turned his guitar up, then mine would go down, which was very annoying ! But at least it meant we could start playing gigs.’
What kind of music were you into at the time ?
‘I really liked Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, and, although this sounds really naff now, I liked some of the early Cliff Richard stuff with The Shadows, things like ‘Move It’. And they also used to have these package tours back then, where you’d get all these bands touring together. You’d go to see show headlined by Herman’s Hermits, but you’d also see Johnny Kidd & The Pirates on the same bill, and that’s how you discovered this stuff. You’d also have Top Of The Pops on a Thursday evening, so on the Friday morning at school, everyone would be talking about whatever new thing they’d liked, and then on the Saturday, you’d go out with your pocket money and maybe buy the record. And as a kid, that’s how you had to do things.’
You also started an interest in Art while you were at school…
‘Yeah, although it wasn’t really until I reached the Sixth Form. I’d been doing Maths and Physics, all that sort of stuff, but one day the Headmaster told me that he thought I’d been quite good at Art, and suggested that I do that as well. So I ended up doing all these A-levels, and the difficult part was studying the History of Art, because I was never very good a memorising those sort of things, but I got through it and was able to go on to Art College. I was lucky, because I found it very interesting and exciting. I don’t think my painting was anything special back then, but we were taught to draw properly, which was bloody hard work. I went to a college in Bristol at first, but I didn’t like the place so I left and returned to Watford. Luckily, I bumped into my old Art tutor and he said that he’d let me attend any of the classes I wanted to go to, even though I wasn’t enrolled on the course. Eventually, I was able to sign-up for a Graphics course, which was the only thing they could get me in on, but I didn’t like that, because I was only really interested in painting, so I left again.’
Were you continuing with music as well, while you were at Art College ?
‘Well, I did a few things. I’d been in different bands all the time while I was at school, so when I went down to Bristol, I started playing in a sort of psychedelic band, called The Dream Machine. I suppose that was around 1966 or ’67, so it was pretty cutting edge at the time… I also auditioned for another band, but they were more sort of Blues-Rock and I wasn’t really into that. Fortunately, when they started rehearsing in a little Church Hall, the vicar came along and said we were too loud and had to leave, so that was the end of it !’
Did you concentrate on playing music after you left College ?
‘Well, I ended up living in Edinburgh for a few years and I probably didn’t play guitar at all during most of that time, but I started getting interested again and I moved back. I ended up living in this cottage just outside London and I started writing songs again, so I formed a band with some friends and they’d come out to where I was living so we could rehearse. I was writing a lot of new songs and I guess I was very influenced by Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground… not so much by Iggy Pop although I had heard those records. But that was when I originally wrote things like ‘Whips & Furs’, ‘Sweet Sweet Heart’, and a few other things. It’s funny because I wrote ‘Whips & Furs’ back then, and a couple of years later, I heard ‘Another Girl Another Planet’ which pretty much uses the same chords... at first I thought they’d pinched my song ! Anyway, we called the band ‘Lipstick’, but it eventually ran out of steam because I wasn’t very good at booking gigs. That was at the end of 1975, I think, so I next started advertising in the back of the Melody Maker as a singer / guitarist available for other bands. I actually got to play a lot of really funny gigs like that, just sitting-in with other bands, but it was also very disillusioning and I really didn’t know what to do next.’
How did the Vibrators actually come together…
‘Eddie started talking to me one day and asked if I’d be interested in doing a new band. At first, I wasn’t too enthusiastic because I’d been in so many bands by then and none of them had survived, but in the end I agreed to give it a go. I already knew Eddie because he used to drive the van for Lipstick and I also already knew John Ellis, although I don’t think I’d met Pat Collier before then. Anyway, we all met up in a pub one evening, and started rehearsing together pretty soon after that, maybe even the same night… That was in February 1976, and by March 7th, we played our first gig supporting The Stranglers. I have to admit, I still wasn’t entirely convinced with the band by that point, but Eddie and Pat just drove around London every evening, trying to book more gigs. They put an enormous amount of energy in to it and we started getting more and more dates. We were still really just playing pub-covers at the time, because that’s what you had to do if you started a band around then. Everyone knew ‘Johnny B Goode’, so that was what you played. Of course, we’d get slagged off for it later on, but we just wanted to get things going and we didn’t want to spend ages rehearsing and getting all our own material together before we started playing live. This was the way we decided to get the band together because we didn’t want to loose our impetus. As it went along, we started playing things a bit faster because that’s how we liked it, and the audience seemed to enjoy it too, so that’s how The Vibrators established themselves.’
Did you ever have any problems with the name of the band ? It doesn’t sound very shocking now, but in that era of Mary Whitehouse etc, I could imagine some people taking offence…
‘To be honest, I wasn’t that keen on the name, but I just thought, well, we’ll probably never get anywhere so it doesn’t really matter. I did liken the way it looked written down on posters, but now, if I look back, I have to wonder if it prevented me from becoming a millionaire… We certainly didn’t get as much airplay as we could have done because of the name. It probably would have made things easier for ourselves if we had been called something else, but we never really came up with any sensible names. But we did manage to play on Top Of The Pops, so we got away with it sometimes.’
‘Well, I ended up living in Edinburgh for a few years and I probably didn’t play guitar at all during most of that time, but I started getting interested again and I moved back. I ended up living in this cottage just outside London and I started writing songs again, so I formed a band with some friends and they’d come out to where I was living so we could rehearse. I was writing a lot of new songs and I guess I was very influenced by Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground… not so much by Iggy Pop although I had heard those records. But that was when I originally wrote things like ‘Whips & Furs’, ‘Sweet Sweet Heart’, and a few other things. It’s funny because I wrote ‘Whips & Furs’ back then, and a couple of years later, I heard ‘Another Girl Another Planet’ which pretty much uses the same chords... at first I thought they’d pinched my song ! Anyway, we called the band ‘Lipstick’, but it eventually ran out of steam because I wasn’t very good at booking gigs. That was at the end of 1975, I think, so I next started advertising in the back of the Melody Maker as a singer / guitarist available for other bands. I actually got to play a lot of really funny gigs like that, just sitting-in with other bands, but it was also very disillusioning and I really didn’t know what to do next.’
How did the Vibrators actually come together…
‘Eddie started talking to me one day and asked if I’d be interested in doing a new band. At first, I wasn’t too enthusiastic because I’d been in so many bands by then and none of them had survived, but in the end I agreed to give it a go. I already knew Eddie because he used to drive the van for Lipstick and I also already knew John Ellis, although I don’t think I’d met Pat Collier before then. Anyway, we all met up in a pub one evening, and started rehearsing together pretty soon after that, maybe even the same night… That was in February 1976, and by March 7th, we played our first gig supporting The Stranglers. I have to admit, I still wasn’t entirely convinced with the band by that point, but Eddie and Pat just drove around London every evening, trying to book more gigs. They put an enormous amount of energy in to it and we started getting more and more dates. We were still really just playing pub-covers at the time, because that’s what you had to do if you started a band around then. Everyone knew ‘Johnny B Goode’, so that was what you played. Of course, we’d get slagged off for it later on, but we just wanted to get things going and we didn’t want to spend ages rehearsing and getting all our own material together before we started playing live. This was the way we decided to get the band together because we didn’t want to loose our impetus. As it went along, we started playing things a bit faster because that’s how we liked it, and the audience seemed to enjoy it too, so that’s how The Vibrators established themselves.’
Did you ever have any problems with the name of the band ? It doesn’t sound very shocking now, but in that era of Mary Whitehouse etc, I could imagine some people taking offence…
‘To be honest, I wasn’t that keen on the name, but I just thought, well, we’ll probably never get anywhere so it doesn’t really matter. I did liken the way it looked written down on posters, but now, if I look back, I have to wonder if it prevented me from becoming a millionaire… We certainly didn’t get as much airplay as we could have done because of the name. It probably would have made things easier for ourselves if we had been called something else, but we never really came up with any sensible names. But we did manage to play on Top Of The Pops, so we got away with it sometimes.’
Obviously, at the time you started playing, there was no ‘Punk’ scene, so what kind of influences were going into your music ?
‘It was very disparate. I liked Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Pat liked Gary Glitter and stuff like that, Eddie liked the Rolling Stones, and I think John’s main influence was Peter Green. And in a strange way, because everybody liked different things, it really helped the band. That was the problem a year or so later, when all the new Punk bands started forming. They just wanted to sound like The Clash or The Ramones or whoever, and they didn’t have the reference points that we had. I mean, I was ten years older than most of these people and I’d always done that kind of stuff. The only thing that was different with the way we played in The Vibrators was that we found we enjoyed it more when we played faster, and the audience were enjoying it that way as well. But it wasn’t until later on in 1976 that we were reading the Melody Maker and they mentioned us under this term ‘Punk band’, that we even really knew about it. There were a whole bunch of bands out there before Punk came along who were doing interesting stuff, but because they didn’t fit-in with the way the music press wanted to portray Punk Rock, they were unable to continue. I think there were certainly some bands that were done a pretty serious disservice because of that. There were a few that managed to get through to some extent, like the Heavy Metal Kids, because Gary Holton already had a similar sort of vibe and could be considered acceptable. But I remember talking to Joe Strummer at one of our early gigs, and he was telling me about his new band. I asked him what their name was, and he said it was either going to be ‘The Clash’ or ‘The Heartdrops’. Well, those two names are a long way apart from each other and you have to wonder, what would’ve happened if they’d decided on The Heartdrops, or if Joe had continued to call himself Woody ?’
You got involved with Chris Spedding pretty early on, which led to you being signed by Mickie Most and RAK records quite quickly…
‘We played at the 100 Club Punk festival in September ’76. We didn’t go to the first night because we were playing our own gig at the Lord Nelson in Holloway Road and we’d already played at the 100 Club before then, once with the Pistols and again with The Jam, although that may have been a bit later on…Anyway, Ron Watts, who was running the 100 Club at the time, wanted us to play one of the nights, backing Chris Spedding. He had already been booked to play but didn’t have a band, so we ended up learning three new songs on the day and making up the rest of the set with things like ‘Johnny B Goode’. And, of course, we got slagged off for doing that but most of the people didn’t know that we’d had almost no time to learn anything else. All we were doing was helping-out Chris Spedding, and maybe that was the wrong thing to do, in hindsight, but we never had someone like Malcolm or Bernie advising us what we should or shouldn’t be doing. We didn’t have any of that, we’d just argue amongst ourselves until we came to an agreement. Funnily enough, Chris Spedding told us later on that he’d been included on the advert for the gig before he’d even been approached to do it, which was why he didn’t have a band ready to play. I’ve never been able to find out if that’s true or not, but I could imagine that was the sort of thing that Malcolm McLaren would have done. Anyway, after the gig, Chris said that he liked us and offered to bring Mickie Most along to our next gig at the Lord Nelson, which went really well. Mickie liked us and asked us to go in the studio and back Chris on his new single. ‘Pogo Dancing’, which sounded very much like his other hit ‘Motorbikin’’, and the b-side was called ‘The Pose’. At the same time, he asked us to record two of our songs, ‘We Vibrate’ and ‘Whips & Furs’, which he then released on RAK. I think he actually did a very good production for us, but some people thought it was too poppy or whatever. It’s not something I worry about now, because all bands get slagged off for pretty silly little things every so often, but at the time, we ended up thinking, Oh God, we shouldn’t have done that !’
The thing was, at the time, you had to figure these things out for yourselves because there was no template for what the new bands should or shouldn’t do…
‘Exactly ! At the time, Mickie Most was the most successful producer in Britain and the amount of hits he produced was amazing, so obviously we were pleased that he was interested in us.’
‘It was very disparate. I liked Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Pat liked Gary Glitter and stuff like that, Eddie liked the Rolling Stones, and I think John’s main influence was Peter Green. And in a strange way, because everybody liked different things, it really helped the band. That was the problem a year or so later, when all the new Punk bands started forming. They just wanted to sound like The Clash or The Ramones or whoever, and they didn’t have the reference points that we had. I mean, I was ten years older than most of these people and I’d always done that kind of stuff. The only thing that was different with the way we played in The Vibrators was that we found we enjoyed it more when we played faster, and the audience were enjoying it that way as well. But it wasn’t until later on in 1976 that we were reading the Melody Maker and they mentioned us under this term ‘Punk band’, that we even really knew about it. There were a whole bunch of bands out there before Punk came along who were doing interesting stuff, but because they didn’t fit-in with the way the music press wanted to portray Punk Rock, they were unable to continue. I think there were certainly some bands that were done a pretty serious disservice because of that. There were a few that managed to get through to some extent, like the Heavy Metal Kids, because Gary Holton already had a similar sort of vibe and could be considered acceptable. But I remember talking to Joe Strummer at one of our early gigs, and he was telling me about his new band. I asked him what their name was, and he said it was either going to be ‘The Clash’ or ‘The Heartdrops’. Well, those two names are a long way apart from each other and you have to wonder, what would’ve happened if they’d decided on The Heartdrops, or if Joe had continued to call himself Woody ?’
You got involved with Chris Spedding pretty early on, which led to you being signed by Mickie Most and RAK records quite quickly…
‘We played at the 100 Club Punk festival in September ’76. We didn’t go to the first night because we were playing our own gig at the Lord Nelson in Holloway Road and we’d already played at the 100 Club before then, once with the Pistols and again with The Jam, although that may have been a bit later on…Anyway, Ron Watts, who was running the 100 Club at the time, wanted us to play one of the nights, backing Chris Spedding. He had already been booked to play but didn’t have a band, so we ended up learning three new songs on the day and making up the rest of the set with things like ‘Johnny B Goode’. And, of course, we got slagged off for doing that but most of the people didn’t know that we’d had almost no time to learn anything else. All we were doing was helping-out Chris Spedding, and maybe that was the wrong thing to do, in hindsight, but we never had someone like Malcolm or Bernie advising us what we should or shouldn’t be doing. We didn’t have any of that, we’d just argue amongst ourselves until we came to an agreement. Funnily enough, Chris Spedding told us later on that he’d been included on the advert for the gig before he’d even been approached to do it, which was why he didn’t have a band ready to play. I’ve never been able to find out if that’s true or not, but I could imagine that was the sort of thing that Malcolm McLaren would have done. Anyway, after the gig, Chris said that he liked us and offered to bring Mickie Most along to our next gig at the Lord Nelson, which went really well. Mickie liked us and asked us to go in the studio and back Chris on his new single. ‘Pogo Dancing’, which sounded very much like his other hit ‘Motorbikin’’, and the b-side was called ‘The Pose’. At the same time, he asked us to record two of our songs, ‘We Vibrate’ and ‘Whips & Furs’, which he then released on RAK. I think he actually did a very good production for us, but some people thought it was too poppy or whatever. It’s not something I worry about now, because all bands get slagged off for pretty silly little things every so often, but at the time, we ended up thinking, Oh God, we shouldn’t have done that !’
The thing was, at the time, you had to figure these things out for yourselves because there was no template for what the new bands should or shouldn’t do…
‘Exactly ! At the time, Mickie Most was the most successful producer in Britain and the amount of hits he produced was amazing, so obviously we were pleased that he was interested in us.’
The band also recorded a second single for RAK, although it was never actually released…
‘Yeah, ‘Bad Time’, with ‘No Heart’ on the b-side. I remember I had to go up to his office and play the new songs for him, and he liked them. But it started to become apparent that he wanted to market us as sort of pin-ups for young girls and that wasn’t what we wanted. So we finished the recordings, but decided not to sign with him. The deal wasn’t really very good, so the single only ever got as far as a few acetates and I don’t think I even got one of them. But I liked Mickie and I remember when we played on ‘Revolver’, he was there and I ended up having a chat with him, and he was very pleasant about it all. Anyway… we ended up signing with CBS instead, and I think we actually started work on the first album the same day that we signed with them.’
You manage to play abroad before most of the other new bands. Did you find audiences in the rest of Europe to be more responsive to what you were doing ?
‘Yeah, we went over to Germany for the first time in ’76. The guy who took us over there was quite good at what he was doing and it seemed that a lot of people in Germany already knew about the Punk thing, so they were geared up for us. That being said, I remember one gig where we had to play on this raised metal platform in the middle of a dancefloor… I don’t think that was a good gig ! And a bit later on, we played two nights with the Pistols and the Heartbreakers at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. I really liked the Heartbreakers, but they always looked a bit more retro, a bit more rock’n’roll, I suppose, where as we looked and played a lot more aggressively.’
Your live reputation was obviously building up, as you
were one of the first of the new bands to get offered support slots with some of the established bands…
‘It was kind of funny, because one moment we just seemed to be playing in pubs, and then the next thing we’re onstage in big venues and we’re on tour in a nice minibus and all our equipment is in another van… We supported people like Iggy Pop, the first time he ever toured over here. I remember meeting him and he was just wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt, whereas I was wearing chrome trousers copied from the silver ones that he wore on the ‘Raw Power’ sleeve. But he had a great band, he had the Sales brothers and he also Bowie on keyboards, so they were really good. And they were all really nice, although we didn’t see Iggy and Bowie so much… I expect they were doing interviews a lot of the time… or drugs… But I was most surprised that Iggy never wore anything more extreme ! I guess he’d already done all of that, by then. We also toured with Ian Hunter, which was fun, but I remember him coming over to our table at the first hotel and asking us, ‘What’s with all this spitting ?’ And I had to say, rather meekly, that it was just a way some people had decided to show that they liked you… But I felt really awkward telling him that, because I think I was a bit nervous about meeting him. Then, at the first gig, there were some people in the audience that liked us, so they were cheering at the end of every song, but a lot of Ian Hunters’ fans completely hated us, so they would be throwing everything they could get there hands on at us. By the end of our set, there were bottles, glasses and bits of broken chairs all over the stage. When Ian Hunter went out there to play, he must’ve been thinking, What the Hell was going on ?’
‘Yeah, ‘Bad Time’, with ‘No Heart’ on the b-side. I remember I had to go up to his office and play the new songs for him, and he liked them. But it started to become apparent that he wanted to market us as sort of pin-ups for young girls and that wasn’t what we wanted. So we finished the recordings, but decided not to sign with him. The deal wasn’t really very good, so the single only ever got as far as a few acetates and I don’t think I even got one of them. But I liked Mickie and I remember when we played on ‘Revolver’, he was there and I ended up having a chat with him, and he was very pleasant about it all. Anyway… we ended up signing with CBS instead, and I think we actually started work on the first album the same day that we signed with them.’
You manage to play abroad before most of the other new bands. Did you find audiences in the rest of Europe to be more responsive to what you were doing ?
‘Yeah, we went over to Germany for the first time in ’76. The guy who took us over there was quite good at what he was doing and it seemed that a lot of people in Germany already knew about the Punk thing, so they were geared up for us. That being said, I remember one gig where we had to play on this raised metal platform in the middle of a dancefloor… I don’t think that was a good gig ! And a bit later on, we played two nights with the Pistols and the Heartbreakers at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. I really liked the Heartbreakers, but they always looked a bit more retro, a bit more rock’n’roll, I suppose, where as we looked and played a lot more aggressively.’
Your live reputation was obviously building up, as you
were one of the first of the new bands to get offered support slots with some of the established bands…
‘It was kind of funny, because one moment we just seemed to be playing in pubs, and then the next thing we’re onstage in big venues and we’re on tour in a nice minibus and all our equipment is in another van… We supported people like Iggy Pop, the first time he ever toured over here. I remember meeting him and he was just wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt, whereas I was wearing chrome trousers copied from the silver ones that he wore on the ‘Raw Power’ sleeve. But he had a great band, he had the Sales brothers and he also Bowie on keyboards, so they were really good. And they were all really nice, although we didn’t see Iggy and Bowie so much… I expect they were doing interviews a lot of the time… or drugs… But I was most surprised that Iggy never wore anything more extreme ! I guess he’d already done all of that, by then. We also toured with Ian Hunter, which was fun, but I remember him coming over to our table at the first hotel and asking us, ‘What’s with all this spitting ?’ And I had to say, rather meekly, that it was just a way some people had decided to show that they liked you… But I felt really awkward telling him that, because I think I was a bit nervous about meeting him. Then, at the first gig, there were some people in the audience that liked us, so they were cheering at the end of every song, but a lot of Ian Hunters’ fans completely hated us, so they would be throwing everything they could get there hands on at us. By the end of our set, there were bottles, glasses and bits of broken chairs all over the stage. When Ian Hunter went out there to play, he must’ve been thinking, What the Hell was going on ?’
The funny thing is that, by 1977, the Sex Pistols were hardly playing at all in the UK and The Clash were refusing to go on Top Of The Pops, which meant a lot of kids had very limited opportunity to hear or see them. But it was bands like The Vibrators who really got out there and let people further afield see what was going on…
‘Yeah, we helped to put it on the map. We’d play all these little towns and have people throwing stuff at us, but there were always a few that really got into it. We were very hands-on, like that.’
Before recording your second album, you made a second, longer trip to Germany…
‘I think that was our managers’ big idea. He made a statement that we thought London had become boring, so we were re-locating to Germany, because that was where it was happening. I don’t think any of the band really thought that, but we had a good time over there. We were staying at a flat in Berlin to begin with, and then moved to a farmhouse near Hamburg. But that was where we got raided by the terrorist police ! It was 6.30 in the morning and they were bursting in to the house with machine guns and all that ! They thought we were something to do with the IRA, or some sort of Red Army Faction tie-up, and suspected that we were involved in the kidnap of some MP, who was later found dead. They’d been following us, and they’d even had people in helicopters watching our movements ! It was really strange to find out that it had all been going on around us and we were totally oblivious to all of it. But this was still during the Cold War, so we were in Berlin while the Wall was still up and there was still all the security in place.’
Your second album, ‘V2’, actually sold quite well and ‘Automatic Lover’ was your first hit single, but it was soon after this that you decided to leave the band, which eventually led to them splitting up altogether. After all the work you’d put into it, and the success you were having, why did you decide to quit ?
‘Well, there were certain people in the band that I thought were getting out of control and it was just making everything very stressful and difficult. They’d say they were just being ‘rock’n’roll’, but the main thing when you’re in a band is, you’ve still got to be able to play properly. I decided I needed a break from all of that and came up with an idea of making a solo album, away from the rest of the band. I knew our management wasn’t keen on the idea because they just wanted to keep the band working, so I decided to talk to Anthea Josephs, who was a friend of mine at CBS. I thought she’d try to help me out and I also assumed our talk was all off-the-record, but when she went back to the label, she immediately told Muff Winwood, who was her boss at CBS, and he pulled all the money we’d been promised for tour support and stuff. Obviously, the rest of the band and our management blamed me for this, so that was pretty much it. I think we did a few dates on the tour, but then I left. I admit I was pretty naïve about it, but I still don’t think it was all my fault. Anthea shouldn’t have talked to Muff Winwood like that, because it just made everything sound much worse than it was and by the time the damage was done, there was no way out of it.’
You did start working with your own band after that, but it took a while for your solo records to come out…
‘I put a new band together first, but I had problems setting up new recordings. I went to see Muff Winwood at CBS again, but he wasn’t really interested in letting me use my own band. So I did some recording with these other people, who I think were in a band that were already on CBS, but it was awful. It ended up that I wasn’t really doing anything until Richard Bishop, who ran Armageddon Records, offered to release a single and I did a cover of that Syd Barrett song, ‘Gigolo Aunt’. The thing was, I wasn’t a massive Syd Barrett fan. I liked some of his songs, but a lot of it was a bit too quirky for me. Maybe if I listened to it again, now, I’d think it was fantastic, but I wasn’t a huge fan back then, which kind of worked because that meant I didn’t just try to copy his original version. Then I released another single on Gem Records, ‘She’s So Goodlooking’, and I was going to do another one called ‘Street Heat’, but that fell through because my manager had a disagreement with the label.’
‘Yeah, we helped to put it on the map. We’d play all these little towns and have people throwing stuff at us, but there were always a few that really got into it. We were very hands-on, like that.’
Before recording your second album, you made a second, longer trip to Germany…
‘I think that was our managers’ big idea. He made a statement that we thought London had become boring, so we were re-locating to Germany, because that was where it was happening. I don’t think any of the band really thought that, but we had a good time over there. We were staying at a flat in Berlin to begin with, and then moved to a farmhouse near Hamburg. But that was where we got raided by the terrorist police ! It was 6.30 in the morning and they were bursting in to the house with machine guns and all that ! They thought we were something to do with the IRA, or some sort of Red Army Faction tie-up, and suspected that we were involved in the kidnap of some MP, who was later found dead. They’d been following us, and they’d even had people in helicopters watching our movements ! It was really strange to find out that it had all been going on around us and we were totally oblivious to all of it. But this was still during the Cold War, so we were in Berlin while the Wall was still up and there was still all the security in place.’
Your second album, ‘V2’, actually sold quite well and ‘Automatic Lover’ was your first hit single, but it was soon after this that you decided to leave the band, which eventually led to them splitting up altogether. After all the work you’d put into it, and the success you were having, why did you decide to quit ?
‘Well, there were certain people in the band that I thought were getting out of control and it was just making everything very stressful and difficult. They’d say they were just being ‘rock’n’roll’, but the main thing when you’re in a band is, you’ve still got to be able to play properly. I decided I needed a break from all of that and came up with an idea of making a solo album, away from the rest of the band. I knew our management wasn’t keen on the idea because they just wanted to keep the band working, so I decided to talk to Anthea Josephs, who was a friend of mine at CBS. I thought she’d try to help me out and I also assumed our talk was all off-the-record, but when she went back to the label, she immediately told Muff Winwood, who was her boss at CBS, and he pulled all the money we’d been promised for tour support and stuff. Obviously, the rest of the band and our management blamed me for this, so that was pretty much it. I think we did a few dates on the tour, but then I left. I admit I was pretty naïve about it, but I still don’t think it was all my fault. Anthea shouldn’t have talked to Muff Winwood like that, because it just made everything sound much worse than it was and by the time the damage was done, there was no way out of it.’
You did start working with your own band after that, but it took a while for your solo records to come out…
‘I put a new band together first, but I had problems setting up new recordings. I went to see Muff Winwood at CBS again, but he wasn’t really interested in letting me use my own band. So I did some recording with these other people, who I think were in a band that were already on CBS, but it was awful. It ended up that I wasn’t really doing anything until Richard Bishop, who ran Armageddon Records, offered to release a single and I did a cover of that Syd Barrett song, ‘Gigolo Aunt’. The thing was, I wasn’t a massive Syd Barrett fan. I liked some of his songs, but a lot of it was a bit too quirky for me. Maybe if I listened to it again, now, I’d think it was fantastic, but I wasn’t a huge fan back then, which kind of worked because that meant I didn’t just try to copy his original version. Then I released another single on Gem Records, ‘She’s So Goodlooking’, and I was going to do another one called ‘Street Heat’, but that fell through because my manager had a disagreement with the label.’
Was it while you were on Gem that you got to know Charlie Harper, because it was shortly after then that the two of you started the Urban Dogs project ?
‘No, I went to a friends’ party and Charlie turned up there. I don’t think I’d ever met him before then because, while I was in the Vibrators, we always seemed to be out playing somewhere. Anyway, I started chatting with him, and he was telling me that he was trying to set up this other band, but the guitar player had decided not to do it, so I offered to step in. The Urban Dogs had already existed before then, I just joined in. But it was always more of an occasional thing rather than a full-time band. There was a point when we actually started doing more and more stuff, and I think for a while it could’ve perhaps taken over from the Subs, but it had never been our intention for it to do that. Charlie is very much his own man, so he always decides when he’s going to play or record or whatever. I mean, if it was me and something seemed to be going well, I’d stay with it and see what happened, but because Charlie’s main thing has always been the Subs, it’s meant that there’s been some massive gaps, like, 10 or 15 years between albums !’
In what would seem like a complete contrast to those projects, you also ended up playing in Alex Chilton’s band for a while, including a gig at Dingwalls that was recorded and released as the ‘Live in London’ LP…
‘I think that all came about through Armageddon Records. It just happened because he needed a band, so he got a couple of the Soft Boys on bass and drums, and then asked me to play guitar. I enjoyed that, but it was a bit strange when I started learning the songs, because he’d come in on all these strange counts and had all these odd timings. But we ended up playing some shows and when we played at Dingwalls, it was recorded and later released as an album. It’s a shame really, because a lot of people didn’t really start to appreciate him until after he was dead. Although I think he was partly to blame for that. He’d tell me things like, after the tour finished he’d just be going home and he’d probably be starting a gardening job ! He didn’t really have any sense of direction with what he was doing and I think he treated it more like an artist would, rather than a career. He just did things when he wanted to do them, so he may not have been easy to manage. I thought he was an extremely nice guy, but I also thin he may have made things a little more difficult for himself than they needed to be.’
During all of this, you finally released your first solo album in 1983…
‘I released an album called ’Plutonium Express’, but it was recorded with various people who I hadn’t played with before we went to the studio. So it came out alright, but it wasn’t really my style of rock’n’roll. I wasn’t playing many gigs to support it that time, either, so the album didn’t make much of an impact. I think it was a funny time in the early Eighties, when everything seemed to be moving so fast and no-one wanted to check out someone who had been quite popular five years earlier.’
And you also found time to record the Fallen Angels album, together with various members of Hanoi Rocks…
‘Yeah, they were taking a break at the time and were all over in London, so I got together with them and we made that album, which I still think was very good. It helped that they were such a great band anyway, but I just loved the kind of feel we got on it. I don’t think you can consciously create that, it’s just something that happens when you have the right mix of people in the same place at the same time.’
‘No, I went to a friends’ party and Charlie turned up there. I don’t think I’d ever met him before then because, while I was in the Vibrators, we always seemed to be out playing somewhere. Anyway, I started chatting with him, and he was telling me that he was trying to set up this other band, but the guitar player had decided not to do it, so I offered to step in. The Urban Dogs had already existed before then, I just joined in. But it was always more of an occasional thing rather than a full-time band. There was a point when we actually started doing more and more stuff, and I think for a while it could’ve perhaps taken over from the Subs, but it had never been our intention for it to do that. Charlie is very much his own man, so he always decides when he’s going to play or record or whatever. I mean, if it was me and something seemed to be going well, I’d stay with it and see what happened, but because Charlie’s main thing has always been the Subs, it’s meant that there’s been some massive gaps, like, 10 or 15 years between albums !’
In what would seem like a complete contrast to those projects, you also ended up playing in Alex Chilton’s band for a while, including a gig at Dingwalls that was recorded and released as the ‘Live in London’ LP…
‘I think that all came about through Armageddon Records. It just happened because he needed a band, so he got a couple of the Soft Boys on bass and drums, and then asked me to play guitar. I enjoyed that, but it was a bit strange when I started learning the songs, because he’d come in on all these strange counts and had all these odd timings. But we ended up playing some shows and when we played at Dingwalls, it was recorded and later released as an album. It’s a shame really, because a lot of people didn’t really start to appreciate him until after he was dead. Although I think he was partly to blame for that. He’d tell me things like, after the tour finished he’d just be going home and he’d probably be starting a gardening job ! He didn’t really have any sense of direction with what he was doing and I think he treated it more like an artist would, rather than a career. He just did things when he wanted to do them, so he may not have been easy to manage. I thought he was an extremely nice guy, but I also thin he may have made things a little more difficult for himself than they needed to be.’
During all of this, you finally released your first solo album in 1983…
‘I released an album called ’Plutonium Express’, but it was recorded with various people who I hadn’t played with before we went to the studio. So it came out alright, but it wasn’t really my style of rock’n’roll. I wasn’t playing many gigs to support it that time, either, so the album didn’t make much of an impact. I think it was a funny time in the early Eighties, when everything seemed to be moving so fast and no-one wanted to check out someone who had been quite popular five years earlier.’
And you also found time to record the Fallen Angels album, together with various members of Hanoi Rocks…
‘Yeah, they were taking a break at the time and were all over in London, so I got together with them and we made that album, which I still think was very good. It helped that they were such a great band anyway, but I just loved the kind of feel we got on it. I don’t think you can consciously create that, it’s just something that happens when you have the right mix of people in the same place at the same time.’
As if you weren’t keeping yourself busy enough, The Vibrators reformed at the end of 1982 and have continued, with only a few breaks, up to the present day…
‘It happened because Pat realised there was a renewed interest in Punk Rock and thought it would be a good time for us to give it another go. But I didn’t want us to get back together just for the sake of it. I didn’t want to damage whatever reputation we already had and the credibility of what we’d already done. So we just started playing live again and when it seemed that was going really well, we started writing new songs and eventually recorded a new album. We were all very happy with it, so it just continued from there. The thing was, we’d never made any money and even though The Exploited were in the National charts with an album where they’d covered one of our songs and named the whole album after it, we weren’t getting a penny from it because the contract we’d originally signed hadn’t been in our best interests. At least by playing live again, it was a way we could maybe build on that kind of renewed interest.’
As you were saying, although the music press has often written-off The Vibrators, the band has always maintained a steady following and your influence has been acknowledged by plenty of other bands over the years… Stiff Little Fingers took their name from one of your songs, The Exploited covered ‘Troops of Tomorrow’ (possibly the best thing they ever did !) and even Soul Asylum used to cover ‘Baby Baby’…
‘It’s a little strange, because I don’t feel as if we need someone else’s approval to validate what we were doing, but it’s still nice when it happens. I mean, especially now, when I’m working in here, I don’t particularly feel a part of all that anymore. I just want to get on with this and have a quiet life. But I’ve always liked writing songs and working on them, so I am intending to get back to that again.’
You wrote and published a book about the Vibrators in the late Nineties…
‘Yeah, it was called ‘21 Years of Pure Mania’. I started writing it because I just thought, well, no-one else is likely to do it and at least if I write it, then it’ll be pretty accurate. There’s not really any sex’n’drugs in there, because that didn’t really happen, so it’s possibly quite boring. But at least it is accurate and, in fact, it’s almost more like a manual rather than a biography. I just thought it was an important thing to do, just to make sure the story was recorded properly. Maybe I should revamp it some day, to bring it up to date, but I just haven’t got the time at the moment.’
As it worked out, The Vibrators seemed to become more and more popular as time went on, particularly as a live band, with tours in America and other countries where you’d never previously had the chance to play. Were you happy with the way things were working out ?
‘Well, the problem was that I’d be seeing it from the other side of the window. I’d be stuck in a van going to another club in America, and we’d have another thirty dates to play, with only one day off, before you could go home. You couldn’t really see the big picture when it was like that. We didn’t have any proper management, so we never knew where we were or what was happening with everything. I’d only find out that we were due to make a new album when Eddie would ask me if I had any new songs ready ! We’d be away from home for half of the year and even when we did get home, we’d only be there for two or three weeks before we went off again. I’d be expected to write a bunch of new songs in that time, so it was fairly relentless. I actually enjoyed being on tour, and there were times when I didn’t want the tours to stop, but now that I’m a long way away from it, I really don’t feel like going on tour anymore. Having said that, every so often I’ll do something as a one-off and I’ll end up thinking, well, maybe I should be doing this again, maybe I could still do it and enjoy myself…But at the same time, if I did that, I’d have to put so many other things on hold, and there’s still plenty of other stuff that I want to do. I’d have to give up other things to tour and at the moment I think I’d prefer to be doing my own stuff.’
‘It happened because Pat realised there was a renewed interest in Punk Rock and thought it would be a good time for us to give it another go. But I didn’t want us to get back together just for the sake of it. I didn’t want to damage whatever reputation we already had and the credibility of what we’d already done. So we just started playing live again and when it seemed that was going really well, we started writing new songs and eventually recorded a new album. We were all very happy with it, so it just continued from there. The thing was, we’d never made any money and even though The Exploited were in the National charts with an album where they’d covered one of our songs and named the whole album after it, we weren’t getting a penny from it because the contract we’d originally signed hadn’t been in our best interests. At least by playing live again, it was a way we could maybe build on that kind of renewed interest.’
As you were saying, although the music press has often written-off The Vibrators, the band has always maintained a steady following and your influence has been acknowledged by plenty of other bands over the years… Stiff Little Fingers took their name from one of your songs, The Exploited covered ‘Troops of Tomorrow’ (possibly the best thing they ever did !) and even Soul Asylum used to cover ‘Baby Baby’…
‘It’s a little strange, because I don’t feel as if we need someone else’s approval to validate what we were doing, but it’s still nice when it happens. I mean, especially now, when I’m working in here, I don’t particularly feel a part of all that anymore. I just want to get on with this and have a quiet life. But I’ve always liked writing songs and working on them, so I am intending to get back to that again.’
You wrote and published a book about the Vibrators in the late Nineties…
‘Yeah, it was called ‘21 Years of Pure Mania’. I started writing it because I just thought, well, no-one else is likely to do it and at least if I write it, then it’ll be pretty accurate. There’s not really any sex’n’drugs in there, because that didn’t really happen, so it’s possibly quite boring. But at least it is accurate and, in fact, it’s almost more like a manual rather than a biography. I just thought it was an important thing to do, just to make sure the story was recorded properly. Maybe I should revamp it some day, to bring it up to date, but I just haven’t got the time at the moment.’
As it worked out, The Vibrators seemed to become more and more popular as time went on, particularly as a live band, with tours in America and other countries where you’d never previously had the chance to play. Were you happy with the way things were working out ?
‘Well, the problem was that I’d be seeing it from the other side of the window. I’d be stuck in a van going to another club in America, and we’d have another thirty dates to play, with only one day off, before you could go home. You couldn’t really see the big picture when it was like that. We didn’t have any proper management, so we never knew where we were or what was happening with everything. I’d only find out that we were due to make a new album when Eddie would ask me if I had any new songs ready ! We’d be away from home for half of the year and even when we did get home, we’d only be there for two or three weeks before we went off again. I’d be expected to write a bunch of new songs in that time, so it was fairly relentless. I actually enjoyed being on tour, and there were times when I didn’t want the tours to stop, but now that I’m a long way away from it, I really don’t feel like going on tour anymore. Having said that, every so often I’ll do something as a one-off and I’ll end up thinking, well, maybe I should be doing this again, maybe I could still do it and enjoy myself…But at the same time, if I did that, I’d have to put so many other things on hold, and there’s still plenty of other stuff that I want to do. I’d have to give up other things to tour and at the moment I think I’d prefer to be doing my own stuff.’
So, were those your main reasons for finally leaving The Vibrators, in 2011 ?
‘I was becoming a little frustrated because there never seemed to be any real plan to what we were doing. It was always a case of, let’s book another gig somewhere. We weren’t really doing anything to promote ourselves any further. I wanted to do things in a more business-like way, to try and sell more records and play bigger gigs, but it didn’t really work out like that. In the end, two things happened that brought it to an end for me. Firstly, I had an accident and ripped the main tendon in my shoulder, so I was unable to play with the band for quite a while and even when I rejoined them again, I couldn’t play guitar at first, because I still had my arm in a sling. Eventually, my shoulder healed and I was able to play again, but by then I was just becoming too stressed out by everything and I ended up having a breakdown and staying in a mental hospital for a while. After I came out of there, I was told that I had to take things easy and not do anything too stressful anymore. The thing was, for the first time in about twenty years, I found that I was really enjoying having time off and not having to leave home. I didn’t have to worry about all the things I had to get finished before we went off on tour again, and I could just do things when I wanted to do them.’
Which presumably is how you ended up opening this shop, Rock’n’Roll Rescue, as a new charity in Camden…
‘Yeah, it’s been going for almost a year, now. I had wanted to do something like this for about five years. It actually all started out as a joke, I’d see an Oxfam shop and say I was going to set-up a charity for myself called Knoxfam – Charity Begins at Home ! But then I started thinking about it, and thought, well, maybe we should start a Rock’n’Roll Charity Shop ? The more I thought about it, the more I knew it was something I should try to do. One day I was talking to a guy’s who books gigs at the Dublin Castle and he told me that this place was available to rent… that was on a Friday and by the end of the following week, I’d signed the papers and it was all set to go. People were asking me, do you know what you’ve signed-up for, and I had to say, No, because I just thought it was more important to try to do something to help people rather than worrying about the details. I just thought, if it all goes wrong, I’ve already got the perfect get-out clause… I’ve been in a mental hospital !’
I was going to ask how the shop all came together. From what you’re saying, the chance just came along and you went with it !
‘Oh, yeah. I was all on my own to begin with. I just had a few t-shirts, about half-a-dozen albums and some CD’s to sell. I brought my acoustic guitar down with me, but that was all it was in the beginning. Gradually, more stuff started coming in and more people began getting involved, until now, it’s like a madhouse ! Some of The Libertines have offered to do some stuff for us, so it’s turned out really good. It’s been very spontaneous so far and people really seem to like it. I just thought that musicians tend to have tons of junk laying around and they often have some free time on their hands, so this would be a way they could help other people. But I never thought it would become anything like this. I just wanted to see what would happen. All I do is unlock the doors and watch all this stuff coming in, followed by other people wanting to buy it ! It’s all worked out really well, so far, and I’ve been very lucky with the way things have gone.’
‘I was becoming a little frustrated because there never seemed to be any real plan to what we were doing. It was always a case of, let’s book another gig somewhere. We weren’t really doing anything to promote ourselves any further. I wanted to do things in a more business-like way, to try and sell more records and play bigger gigs, but it didn’t really work out like that. In the end, two things happened that brought it to an end for me. Firstly, I had an accident and ripped the main tendon in my shoulder, so I was unable to play with the band for quite a while and even when I rejoined them again, I couldn’t play guitar at first, because I still had my arm in a sling. Eventually, my shoulder healed and I was able to play again, but by then I was just becoming too stressed out by everything and I ended up having a breakdown and staying in a mental hospital for a while. After I came out of there, I was told that I had to take things easy and not do anything too stressful anymore. The thing was, for the first time in about twenty years, I found that I was really enjoying having time off and not having to leave home. I didn’t have to worry about all the things I had to get finished before we went off on tour again, and I could just do things when I wanted to do them.’
Which presumably is how you ended up opening this shop, Rock’n’Roll Rescue, as a new charity in Camden…
‘Yeah, it’s been going for almost a year, now. I had wanted to do something like this for about five years. It actually all started out as a joke, I’d see an Oxfam shop and say I was going to set-up a charity for myself called Knoxfam – Charity Begins at Home ! But then I started thinking about it, and thought, well, maybe we should start a Rock’n’Roll Charity Shop ? The more I thought about it, the more I knew it was something I should try to do. One day I was talking to a guy’s who books gigs at the Dublin Castle and he told me that this place was available to rent… that was on a Friday and by the end of the following week, I’d signed the papers and it was all set to go. People were asking me, do you know what you’ve signed-up for, and I had to say, No, because I just thought it was more important to try to do something to help people rather than worrying about the details. I just thought, if it all goes wrong, I’ve already got the perfect get-out clause… I’ve been in a mental hospital !’
I was going to ask how the shop all came together. From what you’re saying, the chance just came along and you went with it !
‘Oh, yeah. I was all on my own to begin with. I just had a few t-shirts, about half-a-dozen albums and some CD’s to sell. I brought my acoustic guitar down with me, but that was all it was in the beginning. Gradually, more stuff started coming in and more people began getting involved, until now, it’s like a madhouse ! Some of The Libertines have offered to do some stuff for us, so it’s turned out really good. It’s been very spontaneous so far and people really seem to like it. I just thought that musicians tend to have tons of junk laying around and they often have some free time on their hands, so this would be a way they could help other people. But I never thought it would become anything like this. I just wanted to see what would happen. All I do is unlock the doors and watch all this stuff coming in, followed by other people wanting to buy it ! It’s all worked out really well, so far, and I’ve been very lucky with the way things have gone.’
So much for taking things easy ! You’ve also recently played with the original Vibrators line-up, all together on stage again for the first time in many years, and you’re involved with several other musical projects…
‘Well, the Vibrators gig at the Hope & Anchor was a kind of benefit for the shop and that’s how it all came about. But I think we’re also going to be playing a bigger gig at Islington Academy in February, to celebrate our 40th anniversary. I think we’ll all be involved with that, again, and there has been some talk of maybe a few more dates, possibly abroad, with the original members. But it hasn’t gone any further than that, at the moment. Also, Charlie Harper has this really good song that he wrote recently, and as soon as I heard it, I thought we should do it together. But he’s always busy and when he has got time-off, he doesn’t always want to get involved with something else. But hopefully, we’ll get around to that. I also had an idea to record an album of Ska versions of old Vibrators songs, which I think could actually work quite well. The only problem is that I’d rather do something like that with a full band, but I’m not sure, in the current situation, if we’d make enough money out of it to pay everyone. You know, I’m not talking massive wages, but everyone needs something to live on… ‘
Finally.... Punk Rock always made the point that it was all about the kids and anyone over 30 was an old fart. But, inevitably, all of the people who were saying that are now a lot older and some of them are still doing great things, musically or otherwise. In your case, you’re almost 70 years old and you’re still keeping yourself busy with a lot of the same ideals and motivations that you’ve always had…
‘Well, in a lot of ways, I’m doing more now than I’ve ever done. It’s insane, because I get so tired with all the things I’m doing. But I’ve still got lots of things that I’m intending to do, you know, records and things… I’ve got enough songs ready for three or four albums right now !
Before I started the shop, I was spending all my time either painting or making demos, so I ended up stock-piling all this stuff… But I think Punk Rock was always about the attitude more than anything else, and that’s why, nowadays, it doesn’t have to be as narrow-minded as it once was. The people who are into it can accept that things are different now, and that things do change. If you go to something like Rebellion, some of the bands that play there are not remotely Punk Rock, but most of the audience can just accept them and enjoy what they’re doing. Again, it was more the music press that came out with all that stuff about Punk just being for the kids, and in the end, Punk has carried on almost like the Blues or something. I was a bit older than most of the people involved, so I suppose I got to see it a bit differently. Nowadays, you’re still going to get all the identikit bands coming along, but you know that somewhere there’s someone sitting in a bedsit who’s going to come along and do something really great with it, all over again. It was only supposed to last six months, and it was supposed to be completely disposable, but it never really went away. It just changed into different things and a lot of people still don’t realise the effect that it’s had.’
‘Well, the Vibrators gig at the Hope & Anchor was a kind of benefit for the shop and that’s how it all came about. But I think we’re also going to be playing a bigger gig at Islington Academy in February, to celebrate our 40th anniversary. I think we’ll all be involved with that, again, and there has been some talk of maybe a few more dates, possibly abroad, with the original members. But it hasn’t gone any further than that, at the moment. Also, Charlie Harper has this really good song that he wrote recently, and as soon as I heard it, I thought we should do it together. But he’s always busy and when he has got time-off, he doesn’t always want to get involved with something else. But hopefully, we’ll get around to that. I also had an idea to record an album of Ska versions of old Vibrators songs, which I think could actually work quite well. The only problem is that I’d rather do something like that with a full band, but I’m not sure, in the current situation, if we’d make enough money out of it to pay everyone. You know, I’m not talking massive wages, but everyone needs something to live on… ‘
Finally.... Punk Rock always made the point that it was all about the kids and anyone over 30 was an old fart. But, inevitably, all of the people who were saying that are now a lot older and some of them are still doing great things, musically or otherwise. In your case, you’re almost 70 years old and you’re still keeping yourself busy with a lot of the same ideals and motivations that you’ve always had…
‘Well, in a lot of ways, I’m doing more now than I’ve ever done. It’s insane, because I get so tired with all the things I’m doing. But I’ve still got lots of things that I’m intending to do, you know, records and things… I’ve got enough songs ready for three or four albums right now !
Before I started the shop, I was spending all my time either painting or making demos, so I ended up stock-piling all this stuff… But I think Punk Rock was always about the attitude more than anything else, and that’s why, nowadays, it doesn’t have to be as narrow-minded as it once was. The people who are into it can accept that things are different now, and that things do change. If you go to something like Rebellion, some of the bands that play there are not remotely Punk Rock, but most of the audience can just accept them and enjoy what they’re doing. Again, it was more the music press that came out with all that stuff about Punk just being for the kids, and in the end, Punk has carried on almost like the Blues or something. I was a bit older than most of the people involved, so I suppose I got to see it a bit differently. Nowadays, you’re still going to get all the identikit bands coming along, but you know that somewhere there’s someone sitting in a bedsit who’s going to come along and do something really great with it, all over again. It was only supposed to last six months, and it was supposed to be completely disposable, but it never really went away. It just changed into different things and a lot of people still don’t realise the effect that it’s had.’
Interview over, we return to the Hope & Anchor…
This is the first time I’ve been to the venue since it was refurbished and the first thing to notice is that it’s great to see the stage back at the far-end as it always used to be. The whole place has also been re-styled to allow more space and with a new sound-system, it looks set to be a great place to see live music once again.
First band onstage are the Glitter Bombs, featuring Timmy from the DeRellas. With female vocals, they mostly play cover versions from the glam-punk side of the street. Suitably snotty reinterpretations of an era when pop got twisted and still delivered great songs. A perfect way to warm things up for the headliners.
The Vibrators begin the set with the current line-up – Eddie on drums, Darryl on guitar and Pete, with all three taking turns on vocals. They power through the first part of the set mixing older songs such as ‘Sweet Sweet Heart’ and ‘Whips & Furs’ alongside tracks from the latest album like ‘Blackout’ and ‘Rats’. It all comes together very nicely, but after twenty or thirty minutes, the party really begins, when Darryl and Pete make way for the older guys. Knox, John Ellis and Pat Collier all
join Eddie onstage for the first time in over thirty years. Typically, there are a few sound problems as the guitars are switched around, but soon enough they’re playing through old favourites like ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ and ‘Baby Baby’, before Pat departs to let Gary Tibbs to take over on bass. This line-up, which record the second Vibrators LP, probably hasn’t played together for even longer, so it’s great to see them performing classics like ‘London Girls’, ‘Flying Duck Theory’, ‘Automatic Lover’ and ‘Troops of Tomorrow’. Despite ongoing teething problems with the new PA, they sound great (as Knox said, it’s the attitude that’s the important thing) and in such a small, packed venue, it’s easy to imagine what they
must’ve been like back in their early days. Finally, the current line-up returns to complete the gig with a few more oldies and several newer songs, together with one last appearance by Knox, singing ‘My Stalker’, one of the best songs he’s written for the Vibrators recent albums and quite possibly one of his best ever.
The night came to a wonderful sweaty end and it was good to get outside for some fresh air. But the gig had been great fun and I’m really glad I didn’t miss it. The
Vibrators official 40th Anniversary gig will be taking place at Islington Academy on 27th February,2016, featuring a mix of original and current members once again. After the Hope & Anchor set, I can’t recommend this one enough. While I’m sure the current band will continue for years to come, this may be your last chance to catch the band with all the originals together again. Don’t miss it !
Special thanks to the Rockaway Beach guys at the Hope & Anchor (cheers, Timmy) and particularly to Knox himself. Just to get the guy to sit still and answer questions for a few minutes was a bit of a task, as he’s always involved with a dozen different things at any one time, but he’s a lovely bloke and you can’t help but like him. Next time you’re in Camden, do not fail to visit Rock’n’Roll Rescue. It’s a fine shop and you may well get yourself a bargain, but more than that, it’s also a friendly little place where you can hang out for a while. You’ll find it towards the top of Parkway, right next-door to the Dublin Castle. With Camden becoming more and more corporate, it’s great to have something genuine like this place setting-up and thriving. Check it out as soon as you can !
www.thevibrators.com
www.rocknrollrescuecamden.com
This is the first time I’ve been to the venue since it was refurbished and the first thing to notice is that it’s great to see the stage back at the far-end as it always used to be. The whole place has also been re-styled to allow more space and with a new sound-system, it looks set to be a great place to see live music once again.
First band onstage are the Glitter Bombs, featuring Timmy from the DeRellas. With female vocals, they mostly play cover versions from the glam-punk side of the street. Suitably snotty reinterpretations of an era when pop got twisted and still delivered great songs. A perfect way to warm things up for the headliners.
The Vibrators begin the set with the current line-up – Eddie on drums, Darryl on guitar and Pete, with all three taking turns on vocals. They power through the first part of the set mixing older songs such as ‘Sweet Sweet Heart’ and ‘Whips & Furs’ alongside tracks from the latest album like ‘Blackout’ and ‘Rats’. It all comes together very nicely, but after twenty or thirty minutes, the party really begins, when Darryl and Pete make way for the older guys. Knox, John Ellis and Pat Collier all
join Eddie onstage for the first time in over thirty years. Typically, there are a few sound problems as the guitars are switched around, but soon enough they’re playing through old favourites like ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ and ‘Baby Baby’, before Pat departs to let Gary Tibbs to take over on bass. This line-up, which record the second Vibrators LP, probably hasn’t played together for even longer, so it’s great to see them performing classics like ‘London Girls’, ‘Flying Duck Theory’, ‘Automatic Lover’ and ‘Troops of Tomorrow’. Despite ongoing teething problems with the new PA, they sound great (as Knox said, it’s the attitude that’s the important thing) and in such a small, packed venue, it’s easy to imagine what they
must’ve been like back in their early days. Finally, the current line-up returns to complete the gig with a few more oldies and several newer songs, together with one last appearance by Knox, singing ‘My Stalker’, one of the best songs he’s written for the Vibrators recent albums and quite possibly one of his best ever.
The night came to a wonderful sweaty end and it was good to get outside for some fresh air. But the gig had been great fun and I’m really glad I didn’t miss it. The
Vibrators official 40th Anniversary gig will be taking place at Islington Academy on 27th February,2016, featuring a mix of original and current members once again. After the Hope & Anchor set, I can’t recommend this one enough. While I’m sure the current band will continue for years to come, this may be your last chance to catch the band with all the originals together again. Don’t miss it !
Special thanks to the Rockaway Beach guys at the Hope & Anchor (cheers, Timmy) and particularly to Knox himself. Just to get the guy to sit still and answer questions for a few minutes was a bit of a task, as he’s always involved with a dozen different things at any one time, but he’s a lovely bloke and you can’t help but like him. Next time you’re in Camden, do not fail to visit Rock’n’Roll Rescue. It’s a fine shop and you may well get yourself a bargain, but more than that, it’s also a friendly little place where you can hang out for a while. You’ll find it towards the top of Parkway, right next-door to the Dublin Castle. With Camden becoming more and more corporate, it’s great to have something genuine like this place setting-up and thriving. Check it out as soon as you can !
www.thevibrators.com
www.rocknrollrescuecamden.com