UK Punk Rock

Listening to punk rock and being part of the scene for the past 8 years, you meet a lot of bands and people travelling to gigs across the country and in Europe to go watch your favourite punk rock bands play. But none are more down to earth and real as the UK punk rock scene and the people and bands that go with it.

It's hard to pinpoint one band in general to say they are the best as the scene is constantly evolving but one band that has and is still taking those steps to become a better band and gain recognition are More Than Normal who I recently interviewed for my punk rock video magazine in Southampton.

Southampton Joiners November 2006

How you guys doing today?

Yeah were alright a bit tired it’s the last show of the tour. We are well up for it though.

How as the tour with Spunge been going?

Messy and wet in places. It’s been an experience Spunge are legends to tour with! We have learnt a lot, played some awesome shows so we are dead chuffed.

Tell us about your relationship with Spunge and Dent’ all Records?

Yeah it’s good we have got a good working relationship with them and we got the tour off the back of that. We go out and drunk with them all the time what could be better than that? We played a random show with spunge one time and got drunk and they ended up releasing our album its brilliant! We blame it fully on Jagemeister for the reason our albums out.

Are you happy with the record “Honour amongst thieves”?

Yes definitely we worked pretty hard at it, its 2/3 years worth of songs on there really and we cut it down to the best ones, it only took us a week to record it and get it mastered. So for the work we did for it we are absolutely over the moon. We recorded it in a really small studio in Rochester called Ranscombe studios, it’s a studio out the back of a social club its all live reel to reel tape and its sounds really gritty and punk which is good. All the artwork was created by Lee Fletcher from the band Fletcher.

As an independent band do you find it a struggle to compete with all the upcoming bands?

To an extent it’s pretty annoying when loads of other bands have got loads of money behind them and can pay for everything and we have just struggled through with nothing, but to get to where we are has been amazing and we wouldn’t have changed it. Its not that we begrudge any band over money or anything, its just that you can work for 3 to 4 years like we have busting our asses and some other band would rock up with some brand new equipment that mummy and daddy have brought them and telling us there a punk band and that’s just rubbish. But at the end of the day with the fruits of it with the tour bus and everything and getting to tour properly we have worked hard for it so it makes it much more worthwhile.

Tell us about where you’re from?

Dover in Kent, its small everyone knows everyone its your average town, its not a great place to live, one thing we have learnt from touring we all came out thinking it was a shit hole but its not as bad as a lot of places we have been to.

How long have you guys been together?

2001 we formed so 5 years

And you went through some line up changes?

It wasn’t really line up changes as such, our bass player Jim moved to London and couldn’t play anymore so then we got Gaz in so for us that’s where More Than Normal started as a band, nothing against Jim, Gaz brought a different dynamic. We fell out with our guitarist and he left and then Jay the DJ he sort of packed up and left not long after that. So then it was only us three that were left because we were the more dedicated I suppose.

So are you happy with just being a 3 piece and the sound you have?

I think sometimes it would be good to have another guitarist to add a different dynamic to the music. But we work really well the way we operate and there’s less people to get angry at, we have only got each other blame when something goes wrong.

What are you plans for the future?

We want to play reading festival, in fact every festival we want to do the whole circuit why not? We want to get more supports and more shows and keep going and keep touring, you cant be a band unless you tour and there’s no point being in a band in till you start touring, you need to get yourselves out there and play its that simple.

Tour stories from this tour?

Well this morning Garry woke up with T*at written across his face and no one told him for about five hours that was funny. Everyone’s downstairs snorting vodka… You can ask us tour stories but we just cant remember them we are terrible, last night I woke up in a service station with loads of empty beer cans and a really worried looking attendant saying you’ve drunk all of them now leave and then he handed me one of my earrings in a bag and I have no idea how that happened.

When creating a song where do you find your inspiration or influences?

We try and find really old bands and rip off there songs cause no one remembers them anyway. We all come together with ideas and try to work on them and if we don’t all like it then it ends up at the bottom of the pile, the stuff we like comes out faster then the songs we have to work on a lot, and the more natural a song comes the better. If we have an idea at practice then literally we can have the whole lot written straight away but we can chop and change bits of songs and use them for other material. It’s a pretty angry process we have almost punched each others lights out when writing songs.

What your view on your live show?

We have improved over the last year or so, on this tour so far we have been on fire, well we haven’t had a gig on the tour when someone’s walked up to us and said you guys are shit so I suppose that’s a bonus.

Any last words?

Yea sure, you can go out and buy our CD it’s available on Dent’ all records and its called “Honour Amongst Thieves”

Within the punk rock scene in the UK there are so many sub genres of punk rock with bands mixing ska and hip hop elements along with metal but still remain part of the punk scene with the same sort of fan base. With bands such as sonic boom six who do this fusing several genres of music to create a punk rock fusion.

Also some bands are bigger in other places rather than just the UK for example Fastlane are starting to make it big in Japan gaining recognition and selling a lot of records.

Wherever you turn its not hard to find a punk show in your local town or village, even if there are only 15 people watching they are still supporting the music and the bands to keep doing what they do. But those are just local bands that will eventually go on to greater things.

Throughout the UK there are several labels which are home to the best independent punk bands such as Household Name records and Deckchesse records, also smaller labels pop up all the time started by regular people such as Punktastic recordings which is also the top UK punk news site and is part of a whole online community with up-to-date news and gig listings.

It also has the information where to get bands CD's, as smaller bands don’t get distribution to shops such as HMV and Virgin Mega stores in your local high street so for this websites such as Punkermentality.com provide the punk scene with a efficient service of hard to get records and merchandise at honest prices.

It’s also great that it’s harder to find actual punk rock bands since the emergence and popularity of the “Emo” scene as there is a lot of crossover bands in the UK but when you do make the effort to find the bands and go see them it makes it more worth while and intimate to you as a fan.

Since there isn’t really a line between you as a fan and the band as a performer on the stage, the bands will talk to you and have a chat and a drink unlike other bands in other scenes or big U.S punk bands who just hide away in the backstage rooms or who are ignorant towards fans and put on a facade in the face of the media such as in store signings.

It's not to say that all bands should be like that with fans but at least get to know the kind of people that support your band and your lifestyle it doesn’t take much to make people happy.

Some recommendations for UK punk bands at the moment, You Me and the Atom Bomb are a fast skate punk band much like the Lawrence arms or Hot water music’s kind of sound from the U.S and they are currently signed to Householdname records.

Also probably one of the biggest UK punk bands at the moment are Capdown a ska punk and reggae influenced band with a political twist to create a very unique kind of punk.

So go check out some UK punk bands and keep the scene alive and well.

Websites to visit:

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Modern Punk

Since it's birth in 1977 with bands like The Sex Pistols, The U.K Subs and The Clash, punk rock has been loved and hated, feared and revered the world over. Loved because it gave people a public voice that wasn't a well paid M.P or Councillor, and a freedom to do and be whatever they wanted, without having to sell out to major corporations and big wigs!

Today these Ideals and musical styling's are represented by thousands of signed and underground bands, hundreds of fanzines, magazines and websites and millions of fans all across the globe.

U.K bands like 4ft Fingers, Guns On The Roof, Sick on the Bus, Eastfield and The Short Bus Window Lickers hold up the more traditional "old school" sounding punk, with raw guitars and honest vocals that could have been lifted straight out of the late 70's, while bands like More Than Normal, 3dBs Down, Short Warning, Unkle Brian, Captain Everything and One Day Elliot represent the modern style, often associated with the American scene and bands like, Green Day, Offspring, NOFX and Rancid.

Many bands have pushed the boundaries of the genre and mixed other influences with punk creating many sub genres, Psychobilly, Emo and the most common, Ska Punk. Bands like [Spunge], Capdown, Kenisia, Sonic Boom 6 and "Frog Stupid" fuse effortlessly the energy and passion of punk with the upbeat styling's and positivity of ska.

Fanzines (magazines written by fans), websites and magazines like Punktastic.com, Underdogzine, the Big Cheese and the massive Myspace.com/music keep the masses informed and up to date with the latest happenings, bands and styles in the music they love.

In short, punk is very much alive and kicking, constantly evolving but always staying true to the original beliefs and ideals. So head down to your local venue, ignore the sticky floor and the broken toilets and check out some of the incredible undiscovered talent that the U.K has to offer, before they hit the big time.

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