On 19 November 2000 UK Boys fan Phil Hanson interviewed Matt Dangerfield for the "Ramones UK Fan Club Newsletter".

There’s really only been two rock stars that I’ve ever wanted to be (Ok, three if you include Bjorn from Abba when he was married to Agnetha). The first one needs no introduction to everyone out there, and that’s Johnny Ramone. The second, unfortunately, does need an introduction, and that’s a tragedy. No two ways about it, a tragedy. If public awareness was linked directly to talent, then Matt Dangerfield would be a household name and his songs would be constantly blasting out on the radio. Matt was the cool one in the Boys. Played guitar, wrote and recorded some of the finest punk/pop/rock songs ever and if you wanted a singer straight from the school of pure rock and roll, then he was your man. The Boys tragically split in 1981 following several tough years of setback after setback, despite having talent oozing from their every orifice. In August 1999, the Boys awoke from their 18 year slumber to play two sensational gigs in Japan before going back into hibernation, where they remained until September 2000, when they were thawed out once more to play a further gig in Bergera, Spain. Shortly afterwards, on November 19th, I caught up with Matt to have a chat before he had his Horlicks and went back to bed for another year.

How did you think the Spain gig went?

It went really well. Better than we expected, really. With not having played together much, you never know how it’s going to be. Sometimes it can be good, and sometimes it can be terrible, but it was pretty good.

So what would you give the band out of 10?

Out of all time? Maybe 6 out of 10.

How did you feel the speed of it compared to ‘77?

Pretty much the same. We always tended to play a bit faster live, you know, it’s just the adrenaline going. You always end up on the edge of about as comfortable as you can get, especially with those chugging guitars. There’s a limit to how fast you can chug, so you’re teetering on the edge of playability.

How did you think you compared to the other bands that were on?

Well, we didn’t see all of them. There were quite a few Spanish Oi! type bands from the Basque region. They definitely had something political to say, so they were interesting. They went down well.

Were you nervous at all before the gig?

Not really. Not really, no.

Just like the old days.

What else do you do? It was a funny little town, just a really small town full of punks, so there was a weird atmosphere.

Did you mix with any of the other bands?

To be honest, we didn’t really know them. There was a Spanish band there that really helped us out, because we needed some guitar strings as Honest John had turned up without any strings for his guitar! So they were able to help us out.

Do you still need to perform live?

I don’t need to. I still enjoy it.

So what about a UK gig?

It’s possible, but that’s probably the least attractive proposition to us, because we’ve done Britain a lot, and the idea of playing in Birmingham again, or playing in London, doesn’t appeal. At least when we’re playing abroad there’s something a bit more interesting about it apart from playing on stage. That’s just one hour, but you’re there 24 hours, so a place you’ve never been before makes it more interesting.

So where, if anywhere, do you think is the most likely?

Playing again? I don’t know. We’ve been offered some gigs in Spain, which we’re considering. Like I say, a nice foreign town, with foreign food. Interesting things to do. People who talk strange.

What about the States?

It’s something we’d definitely consider, ‘cause we never really played the States. We only ever did two gigs there. It depends on the demand, because we realise we’re a minority interest. We’re a cult.

What about a Yobs tour? Cas is quite keen on one.

Sure, yeah.

Is it any different to the Boys?

It is. It’s a lot easier, because the Yobs can be more slapdash and anything goes. If it’s crap, then fine, it’s the Yobs, so that’s a lot easier to set up. The worse it is, the better!

So there could be a combined Boys/Yobs tour?

It's possible. Get somebody to play in-between, and it’d be alright.

OK, so can we go back to the beginning, and your recording studio at Maida Vale. Was it set-up just for yourself, or was the intention to have other people drop in and use it?

No, it was just for ourselves - I set it up with my friend, Barry Jones, ‘cause we were both aspiring songwriters, so we set it up just to record our songs. Then we’d rope friends in to help out. It was never done on a commercial basis. It was tiny.

This was just underneath where you were living?

Yeah. It was like one of those old coal holes that was actually underneath the road, as opposed to underneath the house. It was soundproofed so you could play any time day or night without bothering your neighbours.

What did you think of Sid?

He was a very nice bloke! I didn’t think much of Nancy, ‘cause she was a pain in the arse, a whinging New Yorker. A slag, basically, but Sid was a perfectly nice young man. He would like to be outrageous at times, but usually he was fine.

Was his demise all down to Nancy, then?

Not entirely. He didn’t need much encouragement to do silly things. They were always arguing and she was always locking herself in my bathroom. Once Sid thought she was committing suicide, so we broke down the door to my bathroom, and she was just sitting there on the toilet saying, "can’t a girl have a shit in peace?". That doesn’t endear you to people who are house guests!

It all happened at your house!

Well, a lot happened. There’s a little story I remember about Sid, ‘cause like I say, he wasn’t an angel, but I had a new girlfriend who’d arranged to come round and meet me as she’d never seen my place before, and at the last minute I got some recording studio time to do some things with the Boys, which meant going to the studio for about an hour and then coming back. But in the meantime, a policeman knocked on the door and said somebody’s reported a dead body outside your… it was like a lightwell in the middle of the building, just to let light in, which is right outside my kitchen window. And sure enough, there’s this body there, and the policeman decided that because of the way he was lying there, it looked suspicious. It didn’t look like a suicide. I don’t know how they tell! So my girlfriend arrives, and the policeman says that someone else will have to come from CID, but I had to go to the studio, so I went off, and apparently then while I was out, Sid Vicious turns up, and he’s saying "why’s the window open?", and she was saying, "oh, there’s a dead body outside!!". So Sid climbs out of the window, and takes the guy’s spare change out of his pocket, which I always remember was 38 pence! So when the police eventually came, they checked his pockets, and said how he didn’t have a penny on him, so he must have been in utter despair!!

Did you play any gigs as the London SS?

No.

Did you record anything?

Yeah, we recorded all the time in the studio. We used to rehearse there, which we recorded. A lot of the time we were jamming, trying out things. I think we used to do a couple of Flamin’ Groovies numbers. Also Mick had started writing songs, so we were trying out a few of them, and there were songs that I’d written. There are tapes, but I don’t know where they are to be honest. They just seemed to have disappeared.

Did you play any Boys stuff?

I can’t remember, but I don’t think so. The Boys stuff developed when I fell out the band and joined Cas and Andrew. That was the other thing, I saw them as a songwriting team. Soon after that, Andrew, the singer, disappeared off for Christmas to Canada and didn’t come back, so Cas and I struggled with a songwriting partnership which developed. To start with we covered a few Brat songs as a starting point, you know, the ones that survived, "Sick On You" and "Tumble With Me". We did a few more Brat songs, but then the Boys songs started coming and we gradually dropped the Brats stuff bit by bit.

Do you still keep in touch with any of them?

I see Glen [Matlock] occasionally mainly because he lives round the corner, but to be honest, I haven’t seen Mick Jones since the 70’s.

Is it true that Mick would have joined anyone at the time?

I would say so. He was just desperate to be in a band. He would have joined Uriah Heep if he could.

Did you do Beatles songs?

I think we only did one, "I Call Your Name".

The Beatles were obviously a big influence on you.

My influences were all the big ones. The Beatles, the Stones, Hendrix, Dylan, but the Beatles were a big influence for me, especially in terms of harmony. That’s something the Boys worked at, and especially in the early days, the songs separated us from the rest of the bands. We had harmony and always strived for tunes.

And then you signed your notorious NEMS contract.

Yeah. It happened very quickly, actually, cause we only played about 4 gigs, but at the time, every gig we played, it was like "you’ll never darken our doorstep again, you’re the worst band we’ve ever had"! So we were worried about running out of gigs.

Was it justified at the time, or did they just not get it?

They didn’t get it. I remember for instance when we did get signed, we were signed when we played Dingwalls supporting Babe Ruth. It was kind of weird at Dingwalls, you’d do your soundcheck at 5 ‘o’ clock and you didn’t go on stage until about eleven, and the main band came on at twelve. We’d been hanging around drinking in the pub, so we were "relaxed", and by the time we came to play, there were quite a few of our mates there, just laughing and joking, and we were drunk, sloppy and not your typical band. I remember the DJ there saying we were the worst band he’d ever seen on stage. The same night we were signed by NEMS and got a rave review in the NME. We didn’t know there was a journalist there, but the review said we had an incredible laid back, slack attitude!! And the funny thing is, about a month later we were headlining Dingwalls and the same DJ was like "And a welcome return for the Boys to Dingwalls"! They just didn’t get it really. Same with the recording studios.

Were NEMS promoting other bands?

Not really, I mean all they had when they signed us was Marianne Faithful, and she was completely out of it. The reason we signed for NEMS was because although we’d never heard of NEMS records, we’d heard of the NEMS live agency because that’s what we were worried about – where were we gonna get gigs? At least if we sign for them, they’ve got an agency so we can get gigs. They had back catalogue stuff, like the Small Faces, Black Sabbath, that kind of stuff. That was about it. We were the only new band, if you like. Marianne Faithful at the time seemed to be a has-been. She’d had one hit in the 60’s.

So from there you did your first album. Would you say it was a classic?

I think so, yeah. It’s probably still the one I’m most happy with. Maybe the first two albums, because they were great fun to make.

Were you happy with the production on the first album?

If anything, I’d have preferred the mix to have been a bit clearer, although we were purposely aiming to emulate the Stones. You struggle to hear lyrics of the early Stones and it sounds great because of it, it makes it powerful. We were trying for that a bit.

What are the stand-out tracks for you?

Definitely "First Time". That was more or less born in the studio. John had the song and just came in at the last minute, but it was a very "rinky, dinky" kind of version. So what we did was just whacked on a chugging guitar over the top of it, and got rid of the "rinky, dinky" stuff and it just worked instantly. Everybody heard it and thought, "that’s it, the single".

What else do you like?

I still like "No Money".

I love the rawness of the vocals.

Yeah. The key pushes my voice to the limit. It’s a bit difficult when you play it live, but then again, you get to handle it.

One thing I’ve always wanted to know – was "Soda Pressing" written about anyone in particular?

No. I think it was just having a go at punks generally. They all looked so serious and po-faced, like it just wasn’t cool to smile. You couldn’t look like you were having fun.

Shortly after that you recorded "Alternative Chartbusters". Did NEMS just really leave you to it?

In a way, yeah, sure. We definitely got the production together. The songs were coming thick and fast and the material was good. We had high hopes for it.

How do you rate that album?

I rate the albums probably in the order of coming out. First album the best, and so on.

What was the feeling like when the album didn’t do so well?

Well, that’s when we despaired with NEMS. Things like they’d set up a tour, and then the album didn’t come out until the tour was finished. We did everything for them basically, mixed it, the lot, but they didn’t do their part.

And then you went on strike. What did you do?

Just pottered around. Played with other people, helped out on recordings, produced a few people, but generally not doing a great deal.

But you still kept in touch with the rest of the band?

Oh yeah, sure, we saw each other all the time. We’d already written the third album and started recording it, but NEMS didn’t pay the recording studio, so we weren’t allowed to pick up the tapes or go back into the studio. That was kind of the last straw.

So what happened with NEMS? Did they just say go away?

Yeah, in the end they caved in. Meanwhile we’d had an offer from a studio in Norway. It was a new studio and they wanted an English band to help raise the profile of the studio, so we did a deal with them where we recorded the album there, and then pay them back when we got a deal with a label. So we thought, yeah, let’s make the album first and then look for a deal.

What was it like working in Norway?

It was great. It was the middle of Norway, Trondheim. It was great.

How long were you up there?

Probably a couple of months.

Where were you staying when you were there?

In a place near the studio. Sometimes in hotels, but they threw us out of there. But we weren’t all there all the time. I was there all the time, or most of the time, and the others came and went. Like when Jack finished his drum tracks, he went back to England.

Were you happy with the finished album?

Yeah, sure, except it had been mixed by the Norwegian producer who’d added a few things that I didn’t entirely approve of, like girl backing vocals. I was being a bit precious at the time thinking the Beatles never had girl backing vocals, they’d sing falsetto and I preferred the sound of that. A blokey band.

And it was the producer’s decision to drop Duncan.

It was. When we started laying down vocal tracks, he’d decided that he didn’t think Duncan’s voice was good enough.

That must have caused a bit of a stink at the time.

Not really. Duncan was a bit upset, but to be honest I wanted to go back into the studio and put Duncan on at least half the tracks on the album, so that stink came from me more than anybody. I never wanted to be the sole singer. It was nice the fact that other people in the band could sing, cause it makes playing live at lot easier. I think the way Duncan sings a lot of the songs is better than the way I could have sung them.

One thing I’ve always wondered about - as the Boys were such renowned drinkers, how did you cope with the price of beer in Norway?

That’s where all the money went!!

It must have been rather difficult.

Well part of the deal we had with the studio was that they support us while we were there, so we were given an allowance, so we didn’t really have to worry and it was all part of the recording costs.

And after that you got the "End Of The Century" tour with the Ramones. What was that like?

It was great, just brilliant. To play these nice big venues and it was a great crowd, ‘cause we always seemed to do quite well in places that were nerve wracking, like Glasgow. If they don’t like you there, you know about it!

How did you find the Ramones themselves?

They were great, really nice to us, but they all had their girlfriends with them, so they would all disappear after the gig and just go back to their hotel. I think they were all drying out! They had an alcohol ban within the band, but our roadies used to sneak Marky vodka and orange into these cyclists bottles for him.

And how did they get on with each other?

They were like a machine. They were hardly conversant with each other. They went through a routine, and it was a routine, every night. They’d turn up at the gig, run through the whole set in the dressing room, and then go on stage and like, third number, Johnny would change his guitar whether it was out of tune or not. Sixth number they’d all take their leather jackets off. It was like a well-oiled machine, which only went wrong once actually.

Where was that?

That was at the Electric Ballroom. It was really, really hot. It was so hot, I thought there was dry ice on the stage when we played. You couldn’t see your feet, it was just steam from the audience, so it was incredibly hot which meant we had a few tuning problems. Guitars were going out of tune, but we got through it, it went really well and then the Ramones went on. Then we had a call for help from the Ramones roadies because all the guitars were out of tune. They had these strobo tuners which were equally affected by the heat, so they’d gone through the usual routine where Johnny would change his guitar after the third number, so he’d then swap his guitar for a guitar that was totally out of tune, and while it took him a few bars to realise this, they’d meanwhile taken his other guitar and put that totally out of tune with this strobo tuner. Nobody knew how to tune a guitar by ear, so we were roped in to help out. First they borrowed our guitars, and then we tuned their guitars in.

So you were roadie’ing for the Ramones.

Exactly. It was the first time I saw them totally not knowing what to do. They couldn’t go on, they had to take a short break.

Did you socialise at all with them?

We couldn’t really. They were fine, we got on great with them, we’d just meet at soundchecks and all that, but they didn’t drink, or do anything really, as far as I could see. We’d socialise with Marky when he could sneak out, but he had to do it secretly.

How did you come to get on the tour? Did they approach you?

Yeah, they offered it to us. I think we paid some money, as you did, to join a tour, but they did request us.

Did you just do the UK leg of the tour?

Yeah.

And is it true that you helped out with "Baby I Love You" when they played it live?

Yeah. Basically they’d done that Phil Spector album and it was one of the big songs, and as far as I could understand, there was only basically Joey who was on that album. Maybe the drummer. He’d [Spector] kind of had all his guitars, session musicians etc., so Johnny didn’t know how to play the chords, which was a simple chord, it was just a minor, and he didn’t know about the existence of minors! So I’m there trying to show John, saying "it’s easy, you just do this" and he was like "wait, what was that you just played?", "it’s ‘A’ minor", "oh WOW!!, can you show me how to do that?". And so once he learned that, he could play the song. We were on tour with them and they appeared on Top Of The Pops, and it was selling quite well, it was their biggest hit single, and we were saying "why don’t you play it live"? Turned out it was because they couldn’t play it. So once Johnny had learned this chord, they could play it, but then it was "oh, what about the strings, the violins?" so we said just hire in a string machine, Cas could play it behind the curtains or whatever, which he did. Then it was "what about the harmonies?". I think Joey could sing harmonies, but the others couldn’t, so Cas would play the keyboard and sing harmony, and one of us, either Duncan or me, if we were there, would pop up and stick on a harmony.

So you were on stage when you did this?

Behind a curtain.

As a support band what did you do after you played your set?

Drink! Wander about in the crowd. I always enjoyed supporting more than headlining, because when you’re headlining, and you come off stage, the place is empty, everyone’s gone home, but if you’re supporting you’ve got a chance to meet up with the fans, have a few drinks and see the other bands.

What were your favourite Ramones tracks? Was it just the stuff from the 70’s?

It was mainly the 70’s, but I’ve got quite a few of their newer albums. I was listening to "Mondo Bizarro" recently, mainly because I heard it in Spain. But the Ramones are the Ramones, and they’d hardly changed. It’s a formula really.

So after the Ramones tour, Cas left the band. How did you feel about that?

Well, it was a shame, really, but it kind of stemmed from his Father dying, so he went on a holiday with his Mother. He went back to Trondheim – this was the time we were on strike. Also his girlfriend of many years, who was from the same town in Norway, she was like a childhood sweetheart, and she dumped him, so he went through a bad patch. He was about 26 and he took up smoking. It was like he had a death wish. He was drinking a lot. In fact, when he was still living in London, he was just drinking and not eating and he got scurvy! The doctor couldn’t believe it. He said "this is the 20th Century, how did you get scurvy?". So then he went back to Norway and the same people behind the Boys third album made him an offer to do a solo album.

Did it have a big impact on the band?

Certainly, yeah. It shifted the balance of the band. In the beginning, it just happened naturally, but Cas and I would make all the decisions. It was just easier and the others didn’t particularly bother about that. They just came along for the ride and were quite happy with the way things were going. It had been easier to make decisions when there were five, as we had a voting system on songs. You know, should we drop this one or whatever. You can make decisions with five, but with four, there are lots of possibilities of stalemate.

You had quite a prolific partnership with Cas. How did that work?

It worked both ways. Sometimes I would write songs almost entirely on my own, sometimes he would, but I’d always have to supply some sort of lyrics for him. He might have some ideas for lyrics, but I’d finish it off. Sometimes he’d supply a middle eight for a song of mine and vice versa for him. Some songs we would write totally together. Take, for example, "Cop Cars" from the first album – he came to me with the song and played it to me once and I totally forgot the chords, and I started working on it, and ended up with a "Cop Cars" part two. It was totally different. So we got back together again and we said, "let’s do ‘em both and segue them together", so "Keep Running" was my mis-interpretation of what he’d originally played.

So when you played that on the album, did you play it as one song, or was it two spliced together?

I think we recorded it in one go, with the guitar changing speed.

When you wrote, did you lock yourselves away together, or did you do your own separate bit?

The latter. We were coming up with songs almost on a daily basis.

I know you consider "Boys Only" to be the weakest Boys album. Was that because Cas wasn’t there?

That was part of it, but also in part, the way I see it, it would have been nice to have a bit more of a songwriting input. By then, John was coming up with a lot more songs, some of them great and some shouldn’t really have been on the album. And they wouldn’t have been if we’d had more choice, I suspect.

And is it true that after "Boys Only" you demoed another album?

No, no. That was the last thing we did really.

Looking back on your body of work with the Boys, how do you feel it stands up today?

Some of it stands up pretty well, I think. The fact that so many people cover the songs is nice. It’s very flattering. It’s always nice to hear someone else’s version of it, although to be honest, most people’s versions stick very closely to our arrangements.

How good a band do you think the Boys were?

When we were hot, we were hot. There were times when we were on some tours of Europe, and you become really, really tight. Nothing can stop you playing well. You’re just like a sleek machine. In those periods we were, I think, one of the best live bands around.

How big a band do you think the Boys should have been?

Big. Should have been Super-Big, but it wasn’t to be.

Do you feel bitter about the way it worked out?

Not really. We had a great time. It was a great life for a young man. Travelled about all over the place, stayed in nice hotels, visited foreign places.

If it was me, I’d be pissed off when I see the crap that made it.

No, you have to accept things. As long as you did your best. I mean if there was anything we could have changed, you might have regrets, but there wasn’t. We tried our hardest.

Are you surprised by the current interest in the Boys?

Yeah, it’s nice. It’s nice to know it wasn’t a waste of time. In many ways, it’s like sowing seeds, and it bears fruit later.

Are you still writing songs?

When necessary. Same as playing the guitar. You don’t really touch it. It’s like having a power tool in the cupboard. When you need it for your work, you get it out and then you put it away again. That’s something that changes. It starts off as your hobby, playing guitars and writing songs, and then once it becomes your living, your attitude to it does change. It becomes your job, so you have to be able to put it aside, otherwise you go mental! Like when you’ve been on a long tour, you came back home and the last thing you want to do is listen to some music. You just want to slob out in front of the telly and do something else.

When you write songs now, are all the songs "Boys" songs? Songs the Boys could record now?

We had an approach to songs which was restricted to our limitations, like vocal ranges, and musicianship, which gave us our parameters. But, you do get better as time goes on, so you push those things a bit further.

As you know, there’s been a lot of previously unreleased Boys material out recently, is there still much left?

I can’t see that there is, to be honest. Just about everything we ever recorded from demos to outtakes to even the jokes has been released. Even radio-ads.

I heard Mark Brennan was hoping to put out a Punk Rock Rarities 2.

Well he might. He might know something I don’t know, but I can’t think what else there is. Maybe different mixes.

Jack played me a tape of the band rehearsing "Boys Only" with different lyrics. Would you consider giving that a release?

It’s possible. I seem to remember doing alternative vocals for those. Looking back I think those demos were probably better than the finished thing.

I quite agree!!

Yeah. It was more relaxed and less contrived, and the vocals were certainly better.

So what about the prospects of a new Boys album?

It depends. I’m not against it, but I’m not desperate for it. I’m happy with what we’ve done. Also, look at the trend of my favourite Boys albums. The first one was best, then the second one down to the fourth, so the next one could be the worst ever, and there’s a strong chance of that because we’ve all moved on a bit. Maybe if we take the attitude of keeping it simple, not being too clever, it’ll work.

Have you got any favourite Boys songs?

A few. I love "See Ya Later". I love "Let It Rain". "First Time", I’ll always never tire of hearing. "Sick On You" is another one I never tire of hearing and "Brickfield Nights".

Any you dislike?

None that I dislike intensely.

What did you do after the Boys?

I did an album recorded in Norway, the Single Mirrors. Have you heard it?

I haven’t, no. It’s impossible to get hold of!

It’s quite good, actually.

How would you describe the Mirrors?

You could see the Boys connection there, but it was more grown up, more sleek. Very sparse. One thing I did was take away the drummer’s cymbals, because they’ve always annoyed me all my life!! If you want them, you can overdub them on top, and as it happens, when we recorded the songs, we added other things to the dynamics, like tambourines. It’s a very simple album, just a four piece with drums, bass, vocals, and also I got in a singer. I thought I’d like to try a good singer, a guy called Kelvin Blacklock. I’m still there, but very much in backing vocals.

When did you do this album?

Must have been about ‘83.

Fairly shortly after the Boys split.

Yeah. In fact when I was in the middle of recording it, we still got together to do a tour of Spain, I remember. If we got an offer, and we could do it, we’d do it, so we never really split.

What happened then?

I got another offer to make a second Single Mirrors album, but by that time I, with a few partners, had bought a recording studio, so we recorded that there, and we changed the name to the Management. It’s got some good songs on it.

When was this?

Must have been about 86/87.

So was that, for the time being, your last serious involvement with music?

In a way, yeah. The other thing I’ve done was when Cas was recording with Ian Hunter. That was recorded at Abbey Road, which is round the corner, and I got a call from Cas saying we need a ballad, like now, so we wrote a ballad in about 20 minutes, went back to the studio and recorded it. So it’s good to know that I can still write, but I always wrote under pressure anyway. It was like, "we’re in the studio in two days time", "oh shit, maybe we’d better get some songs done".

Then you did the Yobs "Christmas 2". Who’s idea was that?

I think the record company suggested it, so we thought why not? It’s always good fun doing the Yobs. It was mainly John and I. Duncan popped in and a few other friends. It was knocked out in about two days.

And round about then you did the "Learning English" album. Was that done in Germany?

It was done in Dave Stewart’s studio in Crouchend. It’s like a big church. They got a lot of the old punk rockers in to guest on it, so it was better to do it in London, because that’s where most of them live.

Were all the bands there, or was it recorded one band at a time?

One band at a time.

So when you did "Born To Lose"…

We did it one at a time and they mixed us all together. A lot of us did meet up, though, as we were invited over to meet up with the Totenhosen while they were on tour in Germany. We were invited along to the big gig in their home town in Dusseldorf where they played for two nights. We all came on as guests, where we’d pop up and do our little cameo appearance. There was a whole bunch of us there. It was good fun.

How did Campino become involved in "Power Cut"?

He wanted to, and we knew it would sell well in Germany. That was a deciding factor.

I must admit, I was disappointed that he sang most of the songs. It’s not the Boys.

We did consider doing a version where we sung, but we didn’t want to upset Campi, because he was a bit of a mover behind that album.

Yeah, I appreciate without him, it wouldn’t have been released.

Exactly.

What do you think about the current music scene?

It’s pretty much in the doldrums, which is a sign that something’s got to come along.

It’s been in the doldrums for a long time!

It’s just like the club culture changed everything. I can’t get my head round it. I just noticed that a few friends of mine who are always never interested in music, picked up on the techno thing, so I just think, yeah, it’s doldrum music.

What do you listen to nowadays?

I get sent a lot of records to the magazine, so I pretty much know what’s going on.

And what do you like out of the current crop?

I like bands like Travis. They write songs, and I don’t care when they would have been out, it’s got nothing to do with trends, it’s just good songs. They’ll always be timeless.

And what about your all time favourites?

Quite like the early Waterboys. I still listen to Bob Dylan, well, early Bob Dylan up until "Nashville Skyline". I still listen to the Beatles occasionally, the Stones.

Do you listen to the Boys?

No!! Well, only if something new is released. I don’t want to. I know it so well anyway.

Any plans on developing the Boys website?

Yeah, there becomes a time when it needs a revamp. When you first put it up it’s great, but you have to keep evolving, so we’ll be doing a bit of work on that.

Do you read Backstage Pass?

I do, yeah. Matthew, who runs the website, passes it on to me. It’s quite interesting. I had a laugh recently at a post about the John Waite website.

That was mine!

Actually I know where that comes from, because when we released our first single, there was a single by an American band called the Boys, which was selling really well, because people were trying to buy our single! They were going in the record shops for this unknown band. It was really wishy-washy pulp. On that site it says power-punk, but it wasn’t like that at all, it was like pulp-pap! So they must have been surprised and thought they were doing well in England as they sold five or six hundred copies. I think it had something to do with that.

So now I’ve got a few questions that fans have sent me, and the first one is from Nick Mess. How many times did you normally do the chorus in the studio?

Do you mean like overdubs? We generally double-track each of our voices. So Cas, Duncan and I would each double-track twice. Most of the backing vocals were done by me and Cas. In the end we’d always double-track. Him and I would sing together in the same mic, and then double-track it each time.

Did you used to sing in falsetto, if so who sang in this style?

Yeah. Me and Cas.

Did you use the Vox AC30 amplifier at the maximum levels to get that great sound?

Yeah, you just turn all the knobs, there’s only two knobs, if I remember, and you just turn them all on full, and you get a great sound.

What was the order for recording the instruments and vocals in the studio?

Generally speaking, we’d start off with drums and bass, and then if necessary, we’d replace the bass, then add on the guitars. We might add a guide vocal while we were doing the drums and bass, but that would just be so you knew where you were in the song, and then add on guitars, then probably vocals and any kind of overdubs like tambourines or kitchen sinks or whatever last!

Finally, and I think I can guess your answer to this one, what did you think of people who spat on punk bands?

Oh it was brilliant!! Very enjoyable!! No, it was a pain, but there was nothing you could do about it. To be honest, you couldn’t get wound up, because that just gave them more fun. Eventually they’d run out of spit after a few numbers, but you had no choice, really. What could you do?