| Kicking up a
storm in and around London at the moment are punk rockers The Bermondsey
Joyriders, we caught up with the band shortly before they hit the stage
at The King's Head in Acton to find out more about the band and their
music.
MM
- How long have you been together?
Martin I've known Gary
since school and I've always been hanging around in the same crowd.
MM
- What made you leave your old bands and come together to form this one?
Martin Well, I wasn't in a band when we first got together, I'd
left my band so I wasn't really playing, but Gary came and asked me if I
wanted to come and play with him. He was doing a ten-date tour of
America and needed a bass player, so of course he asked me and we've
been playing together every since.
MM
- What has influenced you throughout your career?
Martin
the creative spirit really, anything that says something and has a sense
of purpose as well. It also needs to be able to progress, and doesn't
necessarily need to be rock, and that it has something to say.
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MM
- Why punk and rock and roll?
Gary
It's the same thing really if truth be known. If you look at the Sex
Pistols, and get past all the swearing, they're a mid-tempo rock and
roll band. Where s the fast
Sex Pistols song? The Ramones were a fast punk rock and roll band, but
the Sex Pistols never hit above mid-tempo.
MM
- Best gig?
Gary - The first time we played with John after
recording Noise and Revolution. We had a good idea already that it would
work from being in the studio.
John
Sometimes we do duets with my blues verses and Gary's guitar. It's
unusual as there's really no market for it anymore.
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MM
- Why are bass players so quiet?
Gary They're moody and
groovy
Martin
If you left them alone they'd still turn up. They're dependable and
reliable, but glamorous at the same time. Very understated as theyre
not the main act but are important, theyre like the fourth wheel on a
car, it's essential.
MM
- Fondest memory?
Gary
When Chrissie Hynde asked Martin to marry him, and she said how much?
Every time you do a good gig in a crowd and you're doing something they
like, a book ha to be read, a band has to be heard and that's when you
know it's going in the right direction.
MM
- Have you see the fan video for Society is Rapidly Changing and what
did you think?
Gary Yeah, I thought it was very good.
MM
- Do you agree with the song being used?
Gary - People pick
up on the project and they use it, which is what has happened here. I
mean, in Somerset there's now volunteer workers keeping the library open
, and thy used to be the heart of the area, but in 30 years time they
will be the domain of almost train spotters and those who wanted to see
what life was like before, and this fits in with the rapid changes in
society.
MM
- How do you feel punk has changed since the 1970's?
Gary
One of the things I've experience which is really sad for punk is
that some people have set themselves up as a kind of authority and
haven't seen what the essence of punk is. When I started to play punk
slide guitar certain people said you can't do this but I proved them
wrong. As far as I'm concerned
the blue are the original punk music and the slide guitar comes from
this, and it's an obvious parallel, and I couldn't see any reason why it
wouldn't work. I'm not saying that people don't need to read up on it,
but when you start dictating to people it goes against the substance of
punk, its all about doing what you want to do in the name of performance
art.
MM
- Why are you called The Bermondsey Joyriders?
Gary It
was a name I saw as graffiti on London Bridge. At the time I thought it
was the name of a band until I saw in a newspaper the headline 'Last of
the Bermondsey Joyriders gang arrested'. I thought it was
great name for a band so I read up about the gang and who they
were. There were a gang of 17/18 year old lads stealing cars from the
yuppies. In the area now known as the Docklands, which when we lived
there was just the docks, with the warehouse conversions they closed
them down and turned them into upmarket apartments for people who don't
live in the area. And this created unrest and unease in the area, it
ripped the heart and soul and culture out of the area. If you shove
something else in their face, the new wealth of the new people. I don't
advocate theft, but this gang of lads they are more on a hair-trigger
and this was their way of reacting.
Interview by: Kerry H
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