It is now a couple of years ago since the last Poundaflesh interview I have
done. How have things changed for the band in this time, and how has the line-up
change come about?
Well loads has happened. We have been very lucky & had
the chance to do some great gigs with some big name bands. If someone had
told me some 20 years ago that I would be playing with the likes of Conflict,
GBH, Exploited, Subhumans etc I would have said fuck off! But that’s precisely
what we’ve been doing. I suppose it’s a trade off in some ways for being
into punk so long & getting to know & becoming mates with so many
people. Also got a couple more Euro tours under our belts which have gone
really, really great! It’s a very different scene in Europe, very squat based & a
lot more PC than here. But they really know how to look after you & put
us to shame in some ways on hospitality.
The main guts of the band hasn’t changed, with Mark, Shaun & Myself still
here. We have J on bass now who has injected new enthusiasm & much need
youth to the band. Don’t know how we would do without him now. He has more
Modern Punk leanings which keeps us on our toes with his breakneck bass riffs.
Arrgghh! Drummers! We have been plagued by bad fortune with drummers from very
early days & we are now on our 5th! Stu, our last permanent one had been
juggling his business & the band for 2 years & in the end the business
won. It’s a shame but I appreciate the problems he had. Never easy.
So we now have Keith of Substandard & Contempt fame with us & hopefully
he will last. He is still on drumming duty for Contempt.
The only problem with all the changes we have had it’s knocked us back a bit
writing new stuff. We have managed some, which is our best to date I think,
but not as much as we would have liked. Onwards & Upwards eh….
Tell people about your new recording, and which of the tracks; - (Paedophile,
Bless The Press, Fat Cat, Father, The Pendulum) are you particularly proud
of and why?
I cannot speak for the others but, for me I am very proud
of The Pendulum & Father. Father because it quite different for us, Dead
Kennedy’s esq at the beginning with some cool as fuck chants towards the
end. Its also about our favourite subject, anti religion. Its something we
find very easy to write about as it’s one area we all agree strongly on.
The Pendulum is a strange song. Its an anti racist track but targets the ridiculous
state of political correctness where we haven’t got the freedom of speech for
fear of being branded racist. As recently shown with the case of Robert Kilroy
on the BBC.
How have you seen the scene change in the last couple of years since the
last interview? Have your audiences changed at all?
Yeah they have changed quite a bit. In the early days
we had a sort of crusty metal/punk audience probably due to the Concrete
Sox connections. Much of these folk have gone to be replaced by a wider variety.
I think because we try to retain a tune as well as the power/punk angle we
have become appealing to more “mainstream” punks as well as the HC crew.
It’s a good balance though. So people who don’t even normally listen to punk
come to our shows!
You have played with some pretty amazing bands. Who has the best band been
and what has been the worst gig experience and why?
As I said earlier, I think its because we have been around
individually for 25 odd years (Between us all we can clock up 95 years!)
that we have become good friends with many of the bands so really it’s just
playing with our mates. Also we have had some great help & support from
fans & friends. We wouldn’t be here now without some of them.
Worst gig, don’t know really. Sometimes what appears, when you first arrive
at a venue, like its gonna be a real shit of a gig can turn into one of the
best ever. It takes a lot for me to not enjoy playing a gig.
Where did the name Poundaflesh come from and what other band names do
you rate?
We get asked this a lot. Its what’s known as a idiom & is
from “The Merchant Of Venice” by Will Shakespeare. Literally means “Something
which you have the right to receive but which is unreasonable to demand from
someone”. To be honest it was the only name we could all agree on & chose
it before we really knew what it meant. Took a while before I got used to
it but now I think it kind of suits us.
As for other band names I like, I have a huge list but here’s a few: Legionaries
Disease, Church Police, Meat Puppets, Void, Star Strangled Bastards & always
been partial to The Varukers. Most of them are early US bands which is my particular
thing. Hence my name (Flipper). I was called it because it was painted on an
old leather of mine & people thought it was my name. Could be worse…
Name the best 5 releases of 2003.
Might surprise you here. One of my favourite releases last
year was the Muse album! If this had been released in the 80’s it would have
been labelled punk. Another of my fav’s is H8-Target’s release. Tight as
fuck Birmingham punk from ex-POA members. Not sure if it’s on general release
yet but they have a website which I’m sure you can get one from. Can’t think
of owt else. Shameful eh!
What is punk?
Easy this. “What ever us punx say it is!”. I have always
thought that. I think punk’s evolved so much since the early days. Its like
a huge, worldwide social club now. The general public know (pretty much anyhow)
that there is no danger from us, as HITS has demonstrated repeatedly every
year. No other form of music, especially with such extreme views & appearance,
has done this or lasted so long & had so much influence. It can be still
a little insular if you’re a “new comer” but it is incredibly friendly if
you stick with it. I’m waffling aren’t I.
Tell the readers five facts about the band / band members they will not
know
3 of the 5 members regularly shave there genitals
Mark used to earn a living looking after golf courses
Bassist J works as a tattooist
Flipper used to work as a lighting engineer for bands such as Hawkwind, Van
Morrison & Duran Duran!
Drummer Keith, known to most as Romford Keith is actually from Aberdeen
Plans, gigs and releases planned for 2004.
We are playing a couple of the Dead Kennedy gigs & are
on some of the forthcoming Discharge tour dates. Obviously Morecambe (which
every man & his dog seems to be on nowadays). Waiting on some others
but sworn to silence. We are also going to do a US East coast tour but that’s
later in the year.
As for releases, our long awaited album will be out in the Summer. Blind Destruction
are putting it out (In The Shits label) so looking forward to that. All we
need is to right some new fuckin’ tracks!!
Any final comments?
This has just taken me 2 hours to write, Fuck!
Ta muchly Bekki & thanx to & all who bother to read this, come to our
shows etc…
Luv N Laffs Flipper, Shaun, Mark, J, Keith
POUNDAFLESH
Return to interview list
|
