Cambridgeshire

United Kingdom

Interview By Lucky

July 15, 2005

SugarBuzz Magazine

RJ - My name is Ranting Jack and I am from a small group of confused and angry islands in the north Atlantic.

M – My name is Mills and I’m from an apathy-ridden, middle-class village in Cambridgeshire.

A - Aaron but most people call me Ron. I come from Swindon, the home of XTC.

D – David. Cambridge. Apparently, we have a university here and something called 'punting'.

02. WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST ROCK OR PUNK MEMORY?

RJ - This is my cousin playing his punk records at me when I was a young and impressionable tyke. My dad had some Glen Campbell, which was pretty rocking too.

M – “Rock the Casbah” is one of the first songs I ever heard.

A - My mum's Ted Nugent and Iron Maiden posters and her bringing me a stick of `Monsters of Rock' rock back from said festival.

D - Watching Guns n' Roses play Paradise City on Top of the Pops. I think Axl was wearing a white suit.

3. ARE YOU ANGRY, AND IF SO, WHAT ABOUT?

RJ - Frequently. I am fucking furious about the way cynical, soulless cretins in boardrooms decide what you will see on the television - and that it will be puerile, insulting, retrograde sludge designed to keep you passive and obedient, sitting slack-jawed and drooling like a lump of scar tissue instead of LIVING YOUR LIFE.

I am livid about the way music has been hijacked by conveyor belt, playlist, supermarket shit and how every type of rebel sound, from rock to punk to hip hop has been betrayed by fame obsessed muppets, watered down and turned into a tool for selling you lies and promoting a lifestyle fit only for cunts.

I am driven to despair by the obsession with "celebrity" that is nothing more than dubious, desperate and fleeting notoriety.

I am apo-fucking-pleptic about the fact the world is run by selfish fools and bigots who wouldn’t see the big picture if you rammed their heads through it and by poverty and want and environmental degradation and a billion other things.

4. SHOULD MUSIC HAVE A MESSAGE?

RJ - Yes, even if that message is nothing more complex than “have a good time dancing to this”.

A - Music that does is always the best.

D - Yes, otherwise what's the point?

5. WHO WOULD YOU SAY IS THE BIGGEST OFFENDER OF BEING A “POP SLUT”?

RJ - Where to start. Let’s say Geri Halliwell or Peter Andre - both truly tragic figures. (www.peterandre.com for the blissfully ignorant).

M – Any Pop Idol/reality TV show winner or contestant who considers themselves an artist. Fuck off.

A - All the above plus fakers like Joss Stone - her voice isn't soulful, it's just what some people think soul singers should sound like.

D - At the moment, I would say Charlotte Church. She was once declared the "Voice of an Angel" but today she only makes the news for getting pissed up and falling over like some kind of vast slapper.

RJ - Now more than ever. It’s not passé. People want you to think that: “oh, that’s so 1970s”. It’s not a fashion, you cunts; it’s a design for life! Brave people have fought and died for it.

M - Anarchy is about people taking control, it'll always be relevant and always be necessary.

7. ANY COOL PUBS WORTH MENTIONING?

RJ - Many. The King Street Run in Cambridge has a good jukebox.

M- We’re usually in Kambar, an indie club in Cambridge. One night there, I got very drunk and threw myself down a flight of stairs, kicking a girl in the back of the head on the way down. I thought it was funny at the time.

A - The Vic in Swindon is a decent boozer with live music - one of the few good things about Swindon. The Fort St George and The Anchor in Cambridge are good for chilling out by the river.

D - Portland Arms deserves a mention too. It's also in Cambridge but remains untainted by the rich boys and girls from the colleges. We played our first gig here and an onlooker compared us to being punched in the face for 20 minutes. Result.

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