Skate Scene Media - Interview with The Adicts - March 19, 2003

March 2003

We recently caught up with Pete and Monkey of The Adicts at Earl Mankey’s garage where they were mixing their new album. For those of you not in the know, Earl Mankey has been recording and mixing allot of Punk band’s material going back to the 80’s. The Adicts are gearing up for a 10 show tour that starts at The Galaxy Theater on April 3rd. We can expect to see the original members, Monkey, Pete, Kid as well as Mel's brother Scruff.

Unfortunately original bass player Mel can not make it this time due to the fact that he could not get the time off from his regular job in England. Good friend of Pete's is Olga of The Toy Dolls and will taking up the duties on bass for this tour. Pete told us that some of the songs that fans can expect to hear in their set will include, Viva La Revolution, Chinese Takeaway, Go Jeanie Go, Shining Shining, Joker In the Pack and many more as well as some surprise songs. The Adicts story starts in Ipswich, England where they originated in 1975-76 first playing as a band called The Afterbirth and then later as The Pinz. It was not until late 76 early 77 that they became The Adicts.

Pete relayed that in the early days in England, that it took years to break through because they were not a London, Liverpool or Manchester band and said "allot of the London bands did not want to play with us because we would blow them off stage". The London clique hated The Adicts in England because they did not conform to what they thought Punk should be (Which The Adicts beleived was to be yourself). The Adicts stayed true to their course and worked on building a fan base. By 1979 they had a whole group of fans that would load onto busses and go to all their shows, similar to what you see with Pennywise today. Pete recalls that the buses usually had anything from 70-110 people on each of them and the busses would get a little lighter going home since he could count on at least 7 of the people on each bus getting arrested. "They were fun times. It was a family but we had to adventure further a field, maybe we will do that again, like a magical mystery tour".

The music has been a combination of all the things that they were influenced by musically and Pete proudly said that they never copied Lynard Skinhead which he says is the good part, all that 15 minute guitar solo shit and another 20 minute drum solo, it was ridiculous. The whole thing that came later in the Punk scene with all the pretentious rules really pisses Pete off and says, "You had all these people like Johnny Rotten and the like that were creating rules and then later proclaiming that Punks Dead. I loved it when Wattie from The Exploited immediately responded and countered by saying Punks NOT Dead. Mensi of The Angelic Upstarts was furious when he heard Rotten's comments and wanted to kick the S*!# out of him. Punk is not dead and is still here today stronger than ever. Anyway Rotten talks out of his arse, which we all know."

The look that is very much The Adicts is the Clockwork Orange with a Joker as the front man. We wanted to find out the origin of the look that would go down in Punk history as one of the most memorable of all time. Pete tells us that the band was very much influenced by the book / movie, A Clockwork Orange, not so much the violence part, yet wearing the whites and the Bowler hats represented classic British look. The Clockwork Orange, meaning that we are being programmed to behave and they did not want that for themselves. They made Monkey the ring master – the Joker of the band. They are just a bunch of working class lads who were football hooligans.

Monkey's look came after what we know as "The Adicts face" that first appeared on their debut album "Songs of Praise". It was their goal after that to then duplicate that face on Monkey that would become such a trademark of the band. Monkey said that the first show that people saw him with The Adicts face on was in the late 70's at a seaside club in England about 60 miles from where they used to live. He remembers the crowd responding favorably to it, so from that point on the look was cemented into the image of the band.

Monkey tells us that he had really just fell into being the front man for The Adicts. He was at an audition in the early days that he went to with his best friend who was auditioning for the band. His friend lasted about 10 minutes because he was spitting all over the furniture and Pete and Kid's Mum wasn't impressed. The guys looked around the room and looked at Monkey and said "how about you, you give it a try". Monkey initially declined their offer since he felt too embarrassed and had never sung in a band before. He tried out and the band said, "we don't have anyone else so I guess you'll do".

While we were at Earl Mankey’s garage conducting the interview they were mixing a follow up song to “Bad Boy” called, “Naughty Girl” as a way to now give all the ladies who are fans of The Adicts their own song. This song has all the same energy and feeling as the “Bad Boy” song with some real driving guitar chords and harmonizing that The Adicts are known for. Be looking for that album when it comes out.

One of Pete's all time favorite Punk bands is The Buzzcocks and he just loves them. He also regards the Ramones as the first real Punk band of all time. He liked that The Ramones stuck with it and never changed. In fact, Joey Ramone is the Godfather of his son Luke Ramone. The Adicts have always been around, they may have taken some time off, yet they are in no way a re-formed band. Something Pete mentioned is that when they are too old and have had enough of it, they are gonna get a group of 14 year olds, practice them and create them into the new Adicts when they prove that they are ready to carry the torch so that the music never stops .... interesting concept. They recently found 36 lost songs that were never recorded that were recently found on cassette tapes that they may go back and actually record in a live format. One thing we realized from talking with Pete and Monkey is that they are a wealth of Punk rock history. We even suggested that they write a book about their history, which something Pete has considered. The Adicts are here to stay and they show no sign of stopping.

The Adicts have put together a 10 show tour for you to go out and enjoy. Go to a show near you or do a road trip and go to them all. Their shows as just as fun as they were back in the 80's - don't miss them. You can expect to see us at many of the shows on the schedule. Make sure that you get out to a show, you may wind up in the photos we take of the shows for the reviews.

The Adicts skateboard is currently available from Punk Rock Skateboards.