interviews
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Menace-Interview Questions (By Jenny Moncayo) What part of England are you guys originally from? Well, originally Charlie and Noel, the old guys, come from the West Coast of Ireland, Oddy the singer is from South Normington and Paul aka Uncle Albert comes from Somerset, the cider county. All the original members of Menace lived in London in 1976, so we consider Menace to be a London band. |
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How did you guys meet and decide to make a band? Of the original Menace, Noel, Steve and Charlie went to the same school (St. William of York, Kings Cross a rough part of town, and the same school as Johnny Rotten). We all lived in Islington and met Morgan the singer at the Hope & Anchor. How many times have you toured the US before this? What did you think of the US? We have only toured the US once before and that was on the East Coast. The tour itself was brilliant with the only exception being 9-11 when to our horror we saw the second plane go into the tower. You can see a photo of us standing in front of the towers taken the day before on our website www.menace77.co.uk We thought the US was great. Have you guys had to have any "real jobs" over the years, or has the band been sufficient enough to support yourselves? Menace have always worked from day one. We are working class guys and I guess we will always have to work to live. Where do you guys prefer to play, or your favorite places to play? What country? What clubs? Etc… Although our favourite gig to date has probably been CBGBs it’s only recently that Menace have ever played outside of England, so playing other countries is pretty new to us. So I would have to say playing everywhere is better than playing everywhere else. Have you had many lineup changes? Who will be playing with you for the US dates? In an ideal world we wouldn’t have any line up changes but unfortunately as you may know Morgan tragically died in 1991 and Steve went off in search of riches. Menace II added John and Andrew who were friends of ours for years. John even wrote some lyrics for the Aces. The current line up and we hope the last is Oddie and Paul who we have also known for a fair amount of time and are great people. Any strange or interesting tour stories you would like to share? Taking into account the quantities of drink consumed in the 70s we need to have a lot of drink in us to remember that far back. But check out the website in the coming weeks for the tale of the football match in the Netherlands (pissed the Dutch right off). Since so much good music came out of England (London, Manchester, and Liverpool) in the 70s and 80s, such as Oi and punk, with much of the music now becoming a staple in every punk rockers record collection, do you think the scene is still going strong or has it diminished compared to before? I think 77 will never be repeated. We were young and horny and couldn’t get enough of punk and life. Music today (punk) can have something to say still. There is not as much as there was but some of it is good. It seems like so many good bands flooded the US back in the 70s and set the standard for good music which many try to imitate, it seems that there aren't as many newer bands that are coming to the US from the UK as before? Is there still a lot of music being generated by younger bands? Yes, there is a lot of music being generated by younger bands but it is not necessarily punk and the kids today seem to be copying the US bands. A lot of it is good and I can see that a lot of it has it roots in the 70s, even if the kids don’t know that. Who are some of your favorite bands right now? Rancid Johnnie Cash Clash SLF What do you think of the punk scene today? What do you think the main differences are? The punk scene today is like a concentrated version of what it was, I mean that in the 70s everybody was a punk and some were punks because it was the fashion. The punks of today are punks by choice and are therefore dedicated to the scene. What bands do you absolutely hate? All boy bands Advice for up and coming bands? Believe in yourself, never apologize, fuck authority and conformity. Play live as much as you can cos each gig is worth five rehearsals. Are you excited to play a show here on Halloween, with Throwrag? Yeah, we are very excited to play a gig with Throwrag, I have heard some good things about them. Maybe they will help us to climb onto the stage and hold our walking sticks. What other bands will you be playing with? Mostly we will be playing with a band called the Observers but I am not sure about the other shows. Do you have a new album coming out soon? (Name, release date, record label)? We will record a new album in February 2004 in time for ‘Wasted’ the new name for ‘Holidays in the sun’. Record label – Captain Oi! Release date June/July. Name Rogues Gallery ***Thank you so much. *** *You Rock!*
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French Interview |
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1 Presentation of the band. Brief history We formed in 1976 at the hope and Anchor pub Islington. We played all the punk gigs in London but not too much outside and never in Europe or the USA. We split in 1979 and formed the Aces which played until 1981. We stayed friends as we had been friends at school years before. Morgan died in 1991 may he rest in peace. We re-formed in 1998 for HITS with two old friends John Lacey and Andrew Tweedie. John and Andrew left the band in 2002 although John makes a brief appearance on Rogues Gallery. 2) You have changed the line-up of the band. Why? Why did you choose Oddy particularly? John left due to personal reasons (he got married and moved to the Isle of Man) Andrew’s job meant he had to move to Glasgow which made it very difficult for him to continue with the band. The choice of replacements was easy Uncle Albert and Oddy are great guys great performers and very professional. 3) How would you define the musical evolution of Menace in more than 20 years now? Next year will be 30 years and the music is now as it always has been working class street punk 4) What made you begin the band? What were your influences? Simple we just love to play. Our influence were the Pistols and The Clash we didn’t meet Jimmy and the lads until our second gig at the Roxey. 5) You've recently played in France, in December 2004, what have you thought of it? Had you ever played in France before? We loved Brittany the audience were excellent and we want to come back 6) What do you know of the French scene? We didn’t know much about the French scene but we know much more now thanks mainly to Cap’s of Charge 69 who brought us over to Waterlos early in 2004 7) What are your lyrics about? The main themes? The lyrics are mainly observations of what’s going on in the world and I guess they have an Irish feel to them I.e. they are generally protesting.
Could you explain us the song called ''Observing way'' This song is about a man looking at young women and wondering if it O.K. 8) Please, your discography The easiest thing to do is check the Web site and look under Recordings www.menace.co.uk I will try to add the page at the end of the interview. 9) Which of your albums are you the proudest of? GLC RIP but I also like Alive Alive O! which has got all the three ages of menace live. 10) If you could change something or improve one, which one would it be and how would you do? I would like to play more but it’s impossible because of work 11) If you had to give a definition of punk and oi! musics, what would it be? What is the most important value for you in it? Raw energy, Friendship, No nonsense 12) How is the scene in England? The scene in the England is ok but I gotta say it better in Europe. I guess there is so many different types of music for the kids they don’t follow punk/Oi the way the do elsewhere 13) After all these years, what makes you going on? The main reason we play is because we want to. It’s a fucking buzz we love it 14) What are your plans now? We plan to continue playing for as long as we can. We have a new DVD coming out on Cherry Red which has got lots of good tracks from 1998 to 2004 so you can see the band with two different singers (interesting). 15) Any final comment? A question you'd like to answer? French punks and skins were great we would love to come back |
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