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1)
How did the band get started?
……………………I
had just done a stint singing with "The Boys". This was probably
76. They were transitioning from the "Hollywood Brats". I
didn’t fit too well into what they were doing- they already had some
quite strong characters in the group who had some firm ideas of how they
wanted to sound- Cas and John and Duncan….but it was good for me and
through them I met Steve Lillywhite who at the time was tea boy at
Phonogram!! I started working with Steve and he moved into my flat on
Comeragh Road because my girlfriend had left to become an international
drug dealer….anyway that flat became punk central….the Automatics came
out of that. I got Wally who was playing in pub rock bands (they were punk
bands before punk!) and then Rick…and eventually Bobbie stepped in after
we lost our bass player to The Vibrators.
2) What
were your influences?
…………….I
listened to some Iggy…and Lou Reed….and some New York Dolls I suppose
but a lot of the punk thing came out of an early Stones and Troggs
tradition. You couldn’t say that though! Johnny loved "Some
Girls", he'd put it on every chance he got- it was the last Stones
album before they were replaced by overdressed androids with expensive
tastes. Also the Hollywood Brats through the Boys connection.
3) You
said you thought the Pistols were wimps….was there any particular
reason?
………………Malcolm
was- and is- a very clever man. He was able to hijack the issues and the
style and channel it through the Pistols- who were sort of his personal
Monkees. People now think of the Pistols as having invented punk but they
didn’t- it was something that came out of the London Streets and
that’s what made it so great. It was people who were tired of Paul
McCartney, Elton John, Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Elton John….and
the fashion designers making stuff that only ugly people could afford.
Johnie Thunders used to make that joke about the Pistols needing Malcolm
to shake it for them and zipp them up notably on "London Boys"
which is a Pistols send up…..and like most jokes it had some truth in
it. Now don’t get me wrong- the Pistols made some great records-but they
were miserable bastards then and probably still are. Glenn is the
exception.
4) How
did the general public take to yourself and the local punks?
…………….The
General Public didn’t like punk at all but they were basically apathetic
and safe…but the rockers weren't. They’d beat you up. In fact playing
in those days you were more likely to get beaten up than paid. You see all
this ritualised violence on TV but when it happens to you it really hurts!
I was surprised at how much it hurt when you get beaten up- the next day
after the alcohol wears off!!
5) Was
there much aggro at your gigs? Worst thing thrown at you?
………….The
rockers used to come round and squirt super glue at you as you loaded the
gear after a gig. Nasty. Had a few bottles thrown at us when we were on
stage. Sometimes the gobbing was awful…the gobbing was in all the papers
so people tried to act the part. You'd go up to an "A’ on your
guitar, hit a greenie and slide right on up to a "B". I hated a
greenies in the ear!! Sometimes I just walked off stage and went fully
clothed into the shower! If they had showers- some "dressing
rooms" were toilets. We played gigs where last weeks band were still
in the hospital. We played one where the singer was killed!! I probably
didn’t help things by throwing beer over gobbers. I remember at the
Cambridge Corn Exchange I soaked a few and about thirty of their mates got
together and all threw their pints at us at the same time. It was an
avalanche of beer…of course electrical systems being what they were in
those days we were lucky we didn’t fry!
6) What
do you remember about punk clubs such as the Roxy & Vortex that you
played at ?
…………….The
Vortex was great. I first went there with Lillywhite and Jon Fox and Billy
from Ultravox. Eater were playing and their 12 year old drummer was
bleeding from the mouth!! I liked the place. They had a cool DJ who liked
us a lot- I think he later played with Mick Jones in that really horrible
post-punk group he had. The night you mention was not a high point for me
as I was taking antibiotics for a dose I’d caught and I couldn’t
drink! I hated to go on stage sober. I liked the madness.I liked the Roxy
too…had a lot of good memories there…the people who ran the punk clubs
were true believers…ruthless motherfuckers, but true believers….and
quite brave, I think. You never knew what was going to happen because we
were making it up as we went along.
7) What
do you remember of the London scene…the faces, places. Did you mix with
the other bands?
………………….I
remember quite a lot of the punk scene now. I didn’t remember for years
but when I stopped beating my brains out with controlled substances it
started to come back to me! I hung with the Eddie and the Hotrod guys who
were fun- especially Barry- these guys actually have a better shot at
pretending to invent punk than the Pistols do…. The Boomtown Paddies we
saw a lot of…and the Members…J.C. and Nicki Tesco…good
men…"Suburbs" still stands up for me….we played with "Spex"
some…the girls were hard because they were so young but Rudy and the
drummer were in the gang . A lot of the groups would come to Steve (Lillywhite)
and my flat in West Kensington…Ultravox too…and Johnie Thunders…and
then you’d bump into them at gigs and at the motorway cafes on the M1…
the bands helped each other…I remember Barry from the Rods was on the
cover of NME and that night he came and acted as roadie for us!
8) What
do you remember of playing the Hammy Odeon with the Runaways?
……………….The
Runways gig was actually a joke.We did guerilla gigs!! When big bands we
thought were jokes were playing inflated venues we’d put ourselves on
the bill and paper the area with posters of us as the main act and them in
tiny print as the support act. Afterward the gig when the audience was
coming out we’d roll up in the parking lot on the back of a flatbed
truck with a generator and our equipment and start playing. We usually got
in 4 or 5 numbers before the police moved us on. We did it to Queen as
well. Freddie was furious because we stole the review in the London
Standard! We did another guerilla gig down the Kings Road in the middle of
the Great Punk Wars of "77 and nearly died. We started a riot- Wally
got his finger broken- we had to shoot him up with pain killers to play
gigs! I thought we were all going to die but suddenly the traffic parted
like the Red sea and we got a clear run down to Sloane Square. I looked
behind us and there was a mob of rockers coming down the middle of the
road!! Unfortunately our lame duck manager was still in the pub with the
press and they missed it!
9) What
was it like playing with Johnny Thunders? What songs did he play on? What
was it like hanging out with him?
………..Johnny
was a good guy- he was a real New York street punk and sometimes it was
hard to fathom what was going on with him. He wasn't really very social-
if he came to my flat he would sit in the bedroom and play old stones
songs on my old Gibson guitar (one of the few things from that era I still
have!)….or work on some new tune he was working out…he sounded quite
rough like that…it was only in the studios that he assumed godlike
dimensions…but he was the real thing….and you just knew that
instinctively. It was hard for him to show warmth even I think with Julie
because drugs had become the crusade of his life…but Johnny did Johnny
really well!! We had a kind of mutual admiration society-I think he liked
the Automatics because we were the most American of the English punk
bands- he'd come by our soundchecks at the Marquee- he lived close by there
after Flood Street-he played on "Wild One" and I think
"Moth into the Flame"…he was flying and he fell over at the
end of the solo…just keeled over. Lost his balance. You could hear the
solo go "clunk". We left it in-Steve instantly saw the punk
genius in it. I probably would have redone it. He always had all the
controls on his amp marked at 11- real "Spinal Tap" stuff but he
had a great sound. When Marc Bolan died he did a version of "He was a
Wizzard" and I was invited down to sing it with him…mostly
backup…lots of guys on that session that were not long for this world!
Chris Wood died shortly after…some "Only Ones"…B.P.
Fallon...I forget who else was there… the last time I saw him he invited
me over to his hotel for dinner with my girlfriend and we hung out. He was
a virtual prisoner - nobody would give him money because they all knew what
he would do with it. People in Johnny's life ended up policing him. I
couldn’t do that. Years later I went to go see him in San Jose when he
played there but he did a no-show and shortly after that I got a call he
was dead. I’m glad his son seems to have turned out like a regular guy.
I miss him.
10) How
did you end up on Island records? Were you ever tempted by smaller
companies? The only other punk group they had was Warsaw Pakt…did they
ever try to package you together?
………………….It
was a horrible miscalculation to end up on Island and in many ways it was
the death of us. We were all set to release the Phonogram recordings on a
smaller label when the deal came up. Steve was getting us into Phonogram
studios on weekends and nights to record on dead time. Island had no idea
how to deal with us and I can only blame the decision on the greed of the
management - not that we saw any of the money. We should have been on
Chiswick or Stiff and were all ready to go there… but we were kind of
victims of our own success. Punk was a turning away from the record
business. We thought we could use them but those guys got up a lot earlier
in the morning than we ever did. The guy who signed us - Tim Clark - who I
liked- now manages Robbie Williams among others. I cant remember Warsaw
Pakt much…
11) Would
you say the early live sound was rawer than the record? Are there any live
tapes?
……………..No
we sounded pretty much like the record…we didn’t add much- except we
never played the slow stuff on stage. Ballads were death live….but when
we recorded we did not want to just do the standard balls-out punk record
so we added them. Sadly there are no live recordings- people filmed us
though and I wish I had some film of us!! Somewhere there's a studio video
of us that Blue Mountain films did- they were Islands film company.
12) How
did the line-up eventually end?
…………..Over
the thorny issue of songwriting. I wrote pretty much all the material. Its
an old story. The band wants the writer to share the writing royalties/
the writer gives them the arranging fees and royalties but the band feels
slighted. When things don’t go well the bond gets thin. Its stupid
really and screws so many groups. A year after we broke up we got back
together and recorded "British Beat" but by that time Wal was on
the Stiff world Tour with Wreckless, Rick was drumming for Sham 69 and I
was under contract to the biggest record selling producer in the
world…so that wasn’t going anywhere. It was just that window in time.
That’s what I love about punk. It was just that window in time….but I
love the Automatics. I’m far enough away from it all now to not be
invested so much ego-wise. Its like its not really me and I can just be a
fan. I just love our spirit. I put that album on we recorded from the
early days at Phonogram and I just listen. Lots of people work their lives
in the business and never get to do one great rock album and we did
that…straight out of the box. I’ve learnt not to be a bitter old fuck
about it- we don’t get what we deserve. We just get what we get.
13) Any
particular memories, gigs, incidents stand out?
…………I
loved playing the Roxy with the Heartbreakers. That was such a fun night.
The Heartbreakers were on first and they blacked up their faces with
cork…We went on backed by these models called "Blond on Blond"
who really couldn’t sing but had a recording contract anyway. Much to
the audiences credit they could spot a swindle a mile off and let us know
about it. It was purely coincidence that they were managed by the same
clown who managed us or indeed that I was keen to run them both through
with the old beef bayonette! I put my fist through the ceiling on the
stage. There was blood and plaster everywhere and the hole stayed there
for years. Johnny Moped did the soundcheck and then just disappeared. We
were told that his manager had to watch him or he'd be off on the bus back
to S. London where he was obsessed with a woman old enough to be his
mother! Obviously he didn’t watch him close enough that night.
14) What
punk bands of the time did you like/dislike?
………….I
liked the Damned…X-Ray Spex and the Members I’ve already
mentioned….. we toured with the Vibrators in the winter of ’77 and
they had their moments….the Only Ones- where is Peter Peret these days?
I liked the Clash although it was hard to be around the orgy of
self-congratulation that they surrounded themselves with. Those were
seriously self-righteous guys…. "The Only group that
matters"!! Oh please! Try putting on side #3 of Sandanistas next to
side #2 of "Setting Sons"…. And then tell me what matters. It
was like the Academy Awards around those fuckers!…The Stranglers were
seriously good but older and almost from another era…………I didn’t
dislike any really. There were no bad punk bands. The idea was that you
didn’t need the beatification of some fat fuck in a record company to go
out there and make a great record. The idea was that the fun you had would
find its way into the grooves. People were out there making bombs, driving
bulldozers across continents, exploiting the poor and hopeless- there were
no bad punk groups...just some I like to listen to more than others.
15)
Finally what happened with the Coventry Automatics who became the
Specials?
……………..The
Coventry Automatics were a great group. It was just luck of the draw. We
got the record deal first and the lawyers made them change their names.
When we played up there we got some shit for it but the group themselves
were gracious. They changed their names to the Specials and immediately
hit the big time so it just goes to show- you never know when you’re
lucky. I mean that in the profoundest way. Hey- who knows- if I had made
the " big time", even with a little "b" then I’d
probably be dead now like so many of my friends. A few bucks in your back
pocket and an opportunity to big dog it….its seductive. Not real. Not
healthy. Not good for you….but definitely seductive.
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