Glenn Tranter
The Bounty Hunters
By Geordie Pleathur
(SugarBuzz USA)
SugarBuzz Magazine
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE INTEVIEWS GLENN TRANTER OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS
HOOKED TO YOUR HEART...
The Bounty Hunters were one of those under-appreciated cult-bands that never cracked the mainstream like, say, the Black Crowes, or even, Thee Hypnotics, but they are still cherished, by a worldwide following, of devoted fans of romantic, shimmeringly gorgeous, real rock'n'roll, the kind that emphasizes the roll. If you've never heard 'em, just imagine Mike Scott from the Waterboys, covering Bowie's "Hunky Dory", or perhaps, Peter Perrett from the Only Ones, backed-up by the Dogs D'Amour. Sometimes, they variously became Jacobites, or Tenderhooks, but the glam-trash and flash-punk community all love their classic, old, vinyl, import albums like, "Threads", and "Wives, Weddings, and Roses". Dave Kusworth and his ragtag gypsy, ragged school of swift jewel thieves and dandelion boys inhabited velvet basements, where they wooed imaginary girls ,with their always dandified, candle-lit, Stonesey vibes-a musical potpourri of Johnny Thunders "Hurt Me", Dylan '65, Mick n Keef, Donovan, Neil Young, and T.Rex. Their fanciful lyrics were always concerned with violet lights, scarlet ribbons, streets of gold. You get the picture. They, 
notoriously, performed, "too many ballads", but when they rocked, it was like the Faces, and the Only Ones. Just beautiful. We finally caught up with the legendary Glenn Tranter, who was busy, packing a sea of scarves into old trunks, preparing to relocate to NYC.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: What was your family of origin like?
GLENN TRANTER: I'm from what we in the UK call a working class background. My father was a slinger in a steel works just outside Wolverhampton. He passed away when I had just turned five and I spent more time with my grandparents on my mothers side of the family. I had the good fortune to have a brother four years older than myself and his interest in music was passed down to me. I heard music all the time on the radio at the end of the sixties – The Hollies 'Sorry Suzanne', Herman's Hermits 'My Sentimental Friend', Edison Lighthouse 'Love Grows' – all great pop singles. Although I had bought my first single, 'Lola', in the summer of 1970 and the Electric Warrior LP a year later, it wasn't really until the summer of 1973 that I started to really take music seriously.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: What albums first corrupted you, made you want to play rocknroll? Sixties psychedelia? Did you buy all the British glitter forty-five r.p.m.'s
GLENN TRANTER: A real pivotal moment for me occurred while I was on holiday in Blackpool in the summer of 1973. My brother took me to the cinema to watch the film That'll Be The Day starring David Essex and Ringo. Bolan's Born To Boogie was also showing, but it was the main feature that 
really struck a chord with me. I remember travelling back home on the train with the first issue of The Story Of Pop magazine and memories of the film racing through my mind. After that, we'd buy a couple of LP's a week from our pocket money. By the end of the year we had most of the Beatles, Stones and Bowie albums plus some pretty good compilations including the That'll Be The Day soundtrack and 25 Rock 'n' Roll Greats Of The Fifties. During '74 my brother's taste in music ventured more into the prog/bluesy side of rock while I went in a completely different direction. During the next couple of years I started seeking out The Kinks, The Move, The Monkees, The Who and The Small Faces. This wasn't easy at the time because most of their LP's were deleted. My brother was listening to the Floyd at the time and although their recent LP's didn't interest me at the time, I tracked down Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and The Pretty Things SF Sorrow in 1976 which set me off in a new direction until a year later when the UK punk thing exploded. This punk period was probably the only time in my life when I have listened to 'contemporary' music and it only lasted around a year, but it was such an exciting time. The influence of the Sex Pistols should never be underestimated. Along with Elvis and The Beatles, they're the most important band in popular music.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Beatles or Stones? Or were you a KINKS guy? I reckon the Kusworth cover of "Child Of The Moon" is the best cover-rendition of a Stones song I ever heard...
GLENN TRANTER: I don't listen too much to the Stones anymore. Certainly not anything recent. I still have the LP's, but I can't listen to anything post Goats Head Soup. That period from Beggars Banquet to Exile On Main Street is still the best output from any band. The Beatles, on the other hand, are simply the most influential band in rock 'n' roll and I'm sure that any person with a
real knowledge of popular music would agree. Not just from a musical viewpoint, but culturally too. After the initial excitement of rock 'n' roll died at the dawn of the sixties, something was needed and the Beatles were the catalysts to what became the greatest period in music, fashion, art – you name it. The Kinks I still listen to all the time. Ray Davies is one of the greatest songwriters from these shores. Something Else, Village Green and Arthur are fantastic LP's and 'Waterloo Sunset' is possibly the greatest single of all time. The Bounty Hunters version of 'Child Of The Moon' was produced by our friend Joe Foster, who was living in Birmingham at the time. It was recorded for a Stones compilation around 1989. I heard it again recently on facebook after a friend had posted it and it got some nice comments. Personally, I'd like to tweak the vari-speed up a notch, but it's a pretty good version and representative of what the band were about at the time. We did another cover for the same label, Imaginary Records, around that time called 'I'm Your Puppet'. I remembered the song from the mid-seventies when it was re-issued in the UK, but we learned the song from the Box Tops version. We had a couple of guys called Slim and Mickey helping out on backing vocals for both tracks. Slim was Dave's brother-in-law and had been the singer in the Rag Dolls in the early '80's.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: What were your earliest bands like? What were you doing while Kusworth was in in the Rag Dolls/Subterranean Hawks?
GLENN TRANTER: Well, as soon as I got the bug back in '73 I wanted to be in a rock 'n' roll band. My grandfather had bought me a Hofner violin bass guitar in November 1974. Exactly like McCartney only right handed, but it wasn't until 1977 that I started to take it seriously. Simonon and Foxton were major influences at this time and in May 1979 I answered an ad in the Melody Maker for a 
bass guitarist in a mod/powerpop band called The Circles and we recorded a few singles but split at the end of 1980. There is a band called the Cute Lepers who do a cover of one of the songs, 'Opening Up'. Anyway, after that I hung low for a while then started doing a few shows with friends around town. This was around 1983/84.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: How did you meet Dave? Discuss origins of Jacobites and Bounty Hunters...
GLENN TRANTER: I had been travelling into Birmingham and kept seeing this guy busking in the subways. He epitomised the rock 'n' roll image and attitude and someone said his name was Dave Kusworth. I'd decided to move to Birmingham and was playing in a band with a young guy named Karl Schilling who later formed Suicide Blonde. We used to go and see Dave playing with his band The Rag Dolls. They'd just recorded a local radio session and they were one of the most exciting bands I'd seen live. He was also playing with the Dogs D'Amour at this time and he was recording a second album with a guy called Nikki Sudden, so he was a busy guy. I had bought the first Jacobites LP and loved it. Anyway, Dave used to hang around a record store called Rockers on Hurst Street in Birmingham, which was was run by Mike Caddick. One afternoon Dave invited me over to his house in Winson Green for a drink and, just as we were leaving, Mike said jokingly that I'll never come back. And he was right! It took me over ten years, but he was right. Dave talked about forming another band and asked if I wanted to play bass. An old school friend of Karl's named Alan Walker was around at this point and we asked Mac to play drums. Mac was running a club in Birmingham called The Sensateria which played sixties garage music. Mike Caddick was starting a record label called Swordfish and he wanted to put out the Bounty Hunters and the Lilac Time LP's, so it all fell into place.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Did you know Duran Duran? Stephen Duffy? Andy
Wickett?
GLENN TRANTER: None of Duran. I love Duffy's work from the Subterranean Hawks to the present, but I don't know him. In fact, I've said recently that I think he's the best songwriter to come out of Birmingham. I'm not fond of eighties music, but even the first two Tin Tin LP's have some great songs. 'Wednesday Jones' could be the soundtrack for the film Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush. Just substitute Chelmsford for Stevenage! Andy's also a great songwriter and has just been working with Karl Schilling in Birmingham and San Francisco.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: How were you influenced by Bowie, Gen X, Johnny Thunders, and Neil Young?
GLENN TRANTER: I mentioned earlier that the Stones 'golden period' was Beggars.. to Exile.. Well, for me, Hunky Dory, Ziggy, Aladdin Sane and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere through to Tonight's The Night are in that same bracket. Thunders was a big influence. I caught him live quite a few times during the eighties and some nights he was really good, but I missed out on the Heartbreakers in '77/78. That would have been the period to see him. I watched some Dolls footage the other day and they were one of the greatest rock 'n' roll bands ever. Generation X? I thought that Mark Laff was one of the coolest looking drummers around. Tony James, too. I actually prefer the second LP to the first – could be Ian Hunter's production.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Favorite Stones and Dylan Lp's? Pretty 
Things fan?
GLENN TRANTER: I'd say my favorite Stones LP has to be Beggars Banquet. After trying to outdo The Beatles with Their Satanic Majesties Request, they had to go back to their roots. Favourite Dylan LP is Blood On The Tracks, though that's a difficult call. Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 and Blonde On Blonde all come close. The Pretty Things is easier. I think that SF Sorrow is one of the top five greatest LP's of all time. I don't know why but, for a year or two, EMI Studios turned out some of the best LP's ever recorded. Apart from The Beatles, we had SF Sorrow, The Hollies Butterfly, The Zombies Odessey and Oracle, Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and the unreleased LP from The Aerovons.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Where is Alan Walker right now?
GLENN TRANTER: He's in North Carolina. Thanks to facebook, we're back in touch again.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: What do you miss most about Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks?
GLENN TRANTER: Nikki 
would phone up and say 'Hi honey' and would usually ask if I was up for some recording, or a tour. It's not easy to accept that this'll never happen again. I recently commented on a friends post on facebook that I don't think a day goes by when I don't think about him in one form or another, or Epic for that matter. They both left us way too early and I miss the music that was left unwritten and the fun we'll never have.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: What do you remember about Birmingham's Gunfire Dance? Jeff Ward lives in NY, ya know.
GLENN TRANTER: What a great band! I loved seeing them play live. I knew Ant, pre-Gunfires, and he's another friend that I miss. Ozzie and Birchy are still good friends, though I haven't seen them since I moved to Manchester. I think that the guys played a few days ago in Birmingham and Jeff came over from New York to play with them. I'll be catching up with Jeff soon enough when I move to New York. I still need to read his books!
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Ever see Crybabys, Marionette, Soho Roses, Suicide Blonde? Kill City Dragons, Pleasure Victims? What d'ya recall?
GLENN TRANTER: The only band from your question that I know
is Suicide Blonde. Karl and I go back many years to when we played in a band called the Hollywood Refugees around 1984-86. It was at that point I started playing with Dave and Karl formed Suicide Blonde with future Jacobite Marky Williams and Neil Aldridge, another friend who's no longer with us. I think they were a great pop band – Karl has a nice ear for a melody and they should have released more music. Just before Christmas 2010 he moved over to San Francisco and Andy Wickett joined him for a month or so to work on some songs. I think at the moment he's in Amsterdam.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Were you a Stiv Bator fan? Adam Ant and Marco Pirroni? London Cowboys?
GLENN TRANTER: The first time I saw Johnny Thunders was at the AdLib club in Kensington back in 1982. He had Jerry on drums, Steve New on guitar and Glen Matlock on bass – what a band! Anyway, the support band was the London Cowboys and I liked them straight away. I bought the Animal Pleasures LP soon after, but that was about it. The Dead Boys I saw support the Damned back in 1977 at the Top Rank in Birmingham. First number, Stiv rips his PVC pants and a roadie comes on-stage and tapes his dick to his leg! Hilarious. I've heard that Adam is on the comeback trail though I'm not sure if Marco is playing with him.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: What do you think of Brett Smiley? Bobby Gillespie? Snatches Of Pink? The Godfathers?
GLENN TRANTER: I don't 
know Bobby Gillespie well, but the Bounty Hunters did play a few shows with Primal Scream when they were going through their leather MC5 period around 1989. The man has a vast knowledge of music and I recall backstage at a show in Birmingham singing Ronnie Lane's 'How Come' with him and an acoustic guitar. He was big friends with Nikki in the early nineties. They all were. I think the last LP I heard of theirs was Give Out But Don't Give In and they certainly chose the best place to record that LP and the best people to employ. I need to hear more of Brett Smiley. A few friends of mine recommend Nina Antonia's book, so I'll have to get a hold of a copy. I saw a clip on YouTube when Brett and Andrew Oldham were interviewed by Russell Harty. It was a lot of pressure to heap on someone that age.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: 'Like Tyla and the Dogs?
GLENN TRANTER: I thought that the Dynamite Jet Saloon was a really good album. They seemed to really click at that time and they were 
one of the best rock 'n' roll bands of that era, but when I saw them live with the original band in 1984, they were really raw. Dave was on guitar and Paul Hornby was the drummer, Karl Watson on bass. Great band – real rock 'n' roll! I'm still in touch with Hornby.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: What were the high-notes/peak moments of the Bounty Hunters? Proudest accomplishments?
GLENN TRANTER: You know, I really don't listen to any music that I've been involved with. I had a vision for the Bounty Hunters which was completely at odds with the way it panned out. It started with a more acoustic vibe. The first LP was almost like a continuation of the two Jacobites LP's and nearly all of the songs have Dave's driving acoustic rhythm with Alan playing electric over the top - Stones/Faces style. The second LP followed pretty much in the same vein but by the time we got to the Threads LP, it was out and out rock 'n' roll. Personally, I like the more acoustic based material like 'All The Violet Lights' and 'The Truth I Gave To You' from Wives, Weddings and Roses. If I had to choose my favourite track, it would be our version of 'I'm Your Puppet' and the peak moment would be our first show on our first German tour in Frankfurt at Cooky's in 1988.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: "Old Scarlett, Howling Good Times"?
GLENN TRANTER: When Nikki and Dave decided to make another Jacobites LP in 1993, they had a 
ready made backing band. Carl Picot, Marky Williams and myself all lived in the same house and the only person we needed to complete the line-up was a keyboard player. We found Terry Miles thanks to a recommendation from his cousin, who happened to be the keyboard player with Primal Scream. We rehearsed the songs at the band house in Birmingham. I was hoping for a Robespierre's Velvet Basement, but what we got was a polished LP which was a little too produced for my taste. For Old Scarlett, we recorded part of the LP on multi-track and some songs straight onto DAT. I think that by this time, it's safe to say that neither Nikki or Dave would be staying true to the sounds that they had created on their first two LP's. I thought there was scope to make acoustic based music with real strings, Hammond and perhaps even brass, but they were more into an out and out Stones type sound. I was having a few problems of my own at this point, confronting a few demons and just went along with it all, but my heart wasn't really in it. This was around 1993-95.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: What can you tell me about Poppy and the Jezebels?
GLENN TRANTER: When you have Dave Twist at the helm, it's gonna be good! I've known Poppy since she was in primary school and was hardly surprised she followed in her dad's footsteps. The first time I heard them they reminded me of New York CBGB's circa 1975. Love them. Hope they still have time to break in the big time.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Seen Marc Almond with Neal X?
GLENN TRANTER: I haven't, I'm
afraid.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Did you prefer Badfinger or the Raspberries?
GLENN TRANTER: Good question. I love them both, but if there is one thing I can't listen to it's boogie woogie rock and both of these bands were guilty of this later in their careers. In Badfinger's case, with the exception of 'Sweet Tuesday Morning', Joey Molland was the culprit. The Raspberries Three and Starting Over both have their fair share of throwaway boogie. If I had to choose I think I would have to say Badfinger, but I'd put Big Star above both of these bands. The books on all three bands are well worth purchasing.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: What are Mick Taylor and Ian McLagan like? What do you make of the Faces touring without Rod?
GLENN TRANTER: Mick Taylor seems like a very nice, down to earth kind of guy considering he was a major part of the greatest rock and roll band in the world. Sadly, I didn't get to meet Mac, but just to be on the same track as the guy is enough for me. Treasure Island LP is Nikki's crowning glory and, although I prefer his eighties Jacobites output, this LP comes closest to what he was striving to achieve. As for the Faces without Rod, the less said the better.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Have you ever met Nina
Antonia?
GLENN TRANTER: I've met Nina a couple of times. The last time was at the Nikki Sudden tribute show in London back in 2006. Her books on the Dolls, Johnny and Peter Perrett were great, though I still need to read the aforementioned Brett Smiley book.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: What do you think of Andy McCoy?
GLENN TRANTER: What we have to remember, is that music at the beginning of the 1980's was dreadful. Then came Hanoi Rocks, the Dogs D'Amour, The Lords Of The New Church and, of course, Johnny was still touring. I started to watch bands again which was something I hadn't done since 1977/78. Hanoi Rocks were great until they got Bob Ezrin in to produce Two Steps From The Move. I love Ezrin's production on Alice's Love It To Death, School's Out, Billion Dollar Babies and Lou Reed's Berlin but, to me, Two Steps From The Move sounded like a metal album. I thought it was going to sound great but it sounded like Motley Crue or Poison or some band like that. I don't like metal or rock music – I like rock 'n' roll. The Stones, The Faces, Mott The Hoople, The New York Dolls, The Heartbreakers, Ziggy and T. Rex – that's my idea of rock 'n' roll.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Whatever became of Anita Chellemah, from the Cherry Bombz?
GLENN TRANTER: I did see the Cherry Bombz live in Birmingham with the Babysitters and the Dogs, but I have no idea what happened to her.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Your thoughts on the Only Ones? How d'ya rate Los Tupper?
GLENN TRANTER: The Only Ones were the best band to come out of that whole scene, which is pretty ironic when you consider the history of the band members. I joined my local nightclub to see them live back in June 1978 and saw them again a year later at Barbarella's in Birmingham on their Even Serpents Shine tour. There are not many bands I would go and see nowadays – especially a band that has reformed – but I had to see the Only Ones in Wolverhampton a few years back and I wasn't disappointed. There are some great bands in Europe at the moment like Los Tupper, Gil Rose and Les Hydropathes, Guttercat and the Milkmen and Soul Gestapo. All worth checking out.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Ever hear the album that Tyla made with Spike from the Quireboys?
GLENN TRANTER: No.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: See any of the Mott the Hoople shows?
GLENN TRANTER: I didn't. I did see the Ian Hunter band back in the mid-nineties. Well, people tell me I was there.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: How do you feel about the three NY DOLLS comeback records?
GLENN TRANTER: I love the Dolls – with Johnny, Jerry and Arthur. I heard a few 
tracks off the first comeback LP and they were OK. More like the early David Johansen solo LP's. I also heard that they were supporting Motley Crue and Poison. Should be the other way round.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Have you heard the Brian James Gang Lp?
GLENN TRANTER: I haven't heard it. My friends from Gunfire Dance backed him a few years back. More recently, they backed Walter Lure in England.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Hip to Kyle Vincent from CANDY?
GLENN TRANTER: Kyle and I are friends on facebook. I used to work in an independent music store in Birmingham called Highway 61 that specialized in late sixties psychedelia and powerpop. We had Kyle's CD's in the store as they were released. I remember hearing his Kyle Vincent LP from 1997 and loved it – still do. Wow & Flutter, too – great. We had the Candy CD in too, which I remember listening to, but for some reason it didn't register with me at the time. Someone posted it to me earlier this year and I really liked it. He's playing the International Pop Overthrow festival in Liverpool in May this year, but I'll be on my way to New York. I'd love to catch him live.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Hanoi Rocks, Michael 
Monroe?
GLENN TRANTER: As I said earlier, they were great for those two or three years. I recently saw a video, something about 78, and it was a good catchy anthem kind of song. I'm glad that those guys are still around. Some people haven't been so lucky.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Were you sad when Rowland S. Howard died?
GLENN TRANTER: Yes. Nikki did a UK tour supporting These Immortal Souls back in 1992. It was bizarre. Liverpool, Dundee, Manchester. Britain was never ready for Nikki – or Dave, for that matter. As with Nikki, I wasn't really surprised when I heard that he had died. There have been quite a few rock 'n' roll myths surrounding a lot of people who we have mentioned during this interview. Drugs have played a huge part in those myths. I knew that Nikki wasn't going to be around too long and I wouldn't be surprised if the use of drugs over the years exacerbated Rowland's decline in health.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Whatcha think of Beady Eye?
GLENN TRANTER: I've only heard the singles. I liked the backing vocals on one of the tracks.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Memories of recording, "God Save Us Poor Sinners"? What an absolutely brilliant album.
GLENN TRANTER: A lot of people seem to like that album. The spirit of Epic looms
large over the whole LP and I really wish we could have done his tracks justice. He wrote some fantastic songs and I think that one day a lot more people will realize just how good an album Rise Above is. I always find it difficult to give an opinion on something that I was involved with. To me, the recordings can always be better. I think God Save Us was the first LP I have ever done completely sober. I quit drinking back in January 1997 and have been straight ever since.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Do you prefer "Teenage Christmas", Slade "Merry Christmas Everybody", or Chamber Strings "Everyday is Christmas"?
GLENN TRANTER: I actually like all three! We recorded two versions of 'Teenage Christmas'. I prefer the slower, acoustic version - so no surprise there. As for the Chamber Strings, I think that, along with the Liam Hayes and Plush Bright Penny LP, Gospel Morning and A Month Of Sundays are the best LP's I have heard since Epic's Rise Above back in '92.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: If a fan was only able to purchase the three most essential releases of your career, what three would you suggest?
GLENN TRANTER: I think I would suggest The Bounty Hunters Threads, The Jacobites Howling Good Times and the Dave Kusworth Anthology 1977-2007 2 disc CD.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: The real rocknroll community will be excited to know you are relocating to the U.S., Who will you be collaborating with in NYC?
GLENN TRANTER: I have friends in New York, though I'm not sure if anything involving music will materialize with them. My good friend Nick Farrow moved to New York in 2002/03. He has a t-shirt company called Rockstar Revolution in Williamsburg with his wife Libby. Ex-Gunfire Dance guitarist Jeff Ward lives in the Bronx. Jeff writes and he also has his own band called Electrajet and Lizzy Lee Vincent played guitar in Birdland. He's also in New York. So I won't be
lonesome.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: Any regrets?
GLENN TRANTER: I regret not buying an Even Serpents Shine t-shirt back in 1979. Other than that, nope.
SUGARBUZZ MAGAZINE: What are you working on right now, plans for the future, where can your fans go to stay up-to-date on your activities?
GLENN TRANTER: At this moment in time, I'm just getting ready for the move to New York with my wife and daughter. She's originally from the USA, but has been in exile for thirty years in Germany and here in England. In fact, I met her in Berlin while she was filming the Jacobites 1995 European tour.
I intend to start playing music again, maybe a good old fashioned garage band or perhaps a powerpop band with harmonies. We'll see. Facebook seems to be the place to be and there is a really nice Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks Society page and a Dave Kusworth musician/band page if anyone out there is interested.