I've been called a "Lazy Journalist" by a Punk Legend, my life is complete.... 

 

A month or so ago we learned about a punk festival @ the 02 in Sheffield (HRH Punk Festival) and because we have a high opinion our ourselves we attempted to blag  free tickets and give them away to you guys (honestly, we're nice)

That didn't work and HRH Punk just ignored us (nice one guys, real professional) so we ended up buying a couple of tickets so we could at least attend and give everyone some coverage. (we'd love to buy tickets and give them away to you, but we're not made of money)

Cut a long story short the line up is first class, Penetration, Peter And The Test Tube Babies, Cockney Rejects Chron Gen, Discharge etc  and one of my current favourite punk bands Anti-Pasti 

 

I personally got into the band 6-7 months ago, really great outfit and certainly one the best of the 2nd generation phase of punk groups, seriously go check them out, massively underrated, you'll love 'em

 

....Anyway prior to attending I'd thought I'd try to interview the band (or in this case, the drummer Kevin) just the usual light hearted questions like "Do drugs help or hinger music?" "Has your family life suffered as a result of the band"   "Do you ever wish you'd just been a postman instead?" along with "Would you sponsor my nieces swimathon this Saturday?" and my current favourite question/statement "Isn't Ed Sheeran a ginger wanker !?"

 

I duly found his email address and fired off my introduction.

What follows is a copy and pasted transcript our our email conversation...

 

Hello Kevin 

Just had to drop you and the guys a quick message.

We are really looking forward to seeing the band play at HRH Punk in
October.

I own a online music store (www.Tophatrecords.co.uk [1]) and manage a
very active Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tophatrecords/ and
Punk in particularly is always very popular with our amazing 3600+ fans and 47k
monthly views on our website.

We would love to arrange a little Q&A with the band and post before
our team attends the festival in a couple of months.

If the band would be open to answering a few brief questions we would
love to hear back from you.

Kind Regards

Nicholas

 

Kevin (Anti-Pasti) 

"Of course, as long as I don`t have to type it out. what did you have in mind?"

Hello Kevin

Thank you for getting back to us so quickly.

In past Q&A's we've just emailed the band 8-10 questions and they've
answered them at their leisure, we understand people lead busy lives.

We've found that by directly copying the bands answers nothing  can
becoming diluted by our interpretation and
the band can cover any points they want to expand on that will further
help them.

If you would prefer we can give you a call and jot your answers down
if that would be easier for you?

We are really open to any other suggestions you might have that would
make your life easier.

Thanks you once again for taking the time to reply to us so promptly.

Kind Regards

Nicholas

 

Kevin (Anti-Pasti) 

"Hello again, we/I are approached from all over the world (as are other bands) by people expecting us/me to type out answers to the same old questions. Many of the answers can be found on our website or other on-line forums, for instance `where did you get the name?` , lazy journalism with no research done.

It`s nothing personal, but we don`t ask journalists to go on stage for us!

I`ll be happy to take a call 07********8"

 

 

As you can by now see our mask was off, Kevin had sussed out our lazy ass approach to journalism (I've never been called a Journalist before, get in!) and to save wasting any more of his time (and the possibility of getting told to "FUCK OFF" by an utter legend)  we decided the best (easiest) thing to do was rip off the bio straight from the bands website, so here follows, quite possibly, the laziest bit of "Journalism" I've ever done,
Enjoy...

 

The Anti-Pasti story so far...

England, 1978… the Punk Rock explosion had enveloped the country. In Derby, anti-pasti arose from the ashes of several other well-meaning but otherwise non-committed early punk bands. Martin Roper vocals, Dougie Bell guitar, Stu Winfield bass and Stan Smith on drums gigged around the Midlands, utilising a network of bands from other cities who all came together at shows by established artists, including UK Subs (who the later line up of anti-pasti toured with) and The Clash. An early release by the band on their own Dose label was the now much sought after Four Sore Points EP on clear vinyl which included the standout track No Government, later voted 3rd in a poll of all time punk classics by readers of Sounds magazine.

Surprisingly, the line-up changed with Kevin Nixon and Will Hoon replacing Smith and Winfield on drums and bass respectively. The four-piece began to carve a reputation for riotous live performances and quickly became the people’s band, ably supported by the growing army of followers fondly nicknamed `The Pasti Heads’, some of which still follow the band to this day.

None of this had gone unnoticed by executives of Rondolet Records, who signed the band up and speedily released the single Let them Free. This was closely followed by Six Guns and the album The Last Call which reached thirty-one in the National Music Chart and topped the Independent version for a full six months. In between recording sessions anti-pasti had been touring the length of the country and became an integral part of the now legendary Apocalypse Now Tour. America, Europe and the UK again beckoned, and were toured at length until Rondolet required a second LP.

It was at this time anti-pasti decided on a new direction, firstly to display a now more musical dexterity and secondly to move away from the politically right wing movement which had manifested itself in some audiences. A second guitarist, Ollie Hoon was enlisted to augment the more mature sound and an ill-prepared five piece outfit went into the recording studio. Two singles, East To The West and Caution In The Wind, together with the album of the same name, came out of these sessions but never realised their potential fully. Both singles were coupled with outstanding B-sides in Burn in Your Own Flames and Last Train to Nowhere, immediately becoming firm favourites with fans and eclipsing their respective A-sides. Meanwhile, an unimpressed Roper became preoccupied eventually being asked to leave in early 1984, whilst the remaining four members embarked on another European jaunt with Bell assuming vocal duties.

It all went quiet on the anti-pasti front until 1995 when a reformation was announced, coinciding with several album re-issues on CD for the first time. Although a somewhat short-lived reunion, the band performed in London twice, joint headlining the Fuck Reading Festival and also in selected other European cities including Antwerp, Amsterdam and Berlin.

2012 arrived with an offer to play the much celebrated Rebellion Festival and Roper plus Nixon and Ollie Hoon joined together again, this time without the involvement of Will Hoon and Dougie Bell inviting Ben Hanson to take up bass duties. Hanson brought his own brand of musicality to the instrument, complemented by anthemic song writing skills, displayed clearly in I See Red. Hoon and Nixon retaliated with Viva Che, and a new dynamic was born.

After the huge success of Rebellion, the venture began to flourish, with a UK tour and selected European dates going down a storm. A demo was recorded and the proposal of making an album was broached. All four members decided to go with the idea and the song writing triumvirate of Hoon-Nixon-Hanson got to work presenting Roper with a further ten new numbers. Lies Lies Lies and Time to Hate are taken from this batch and had been played live, but before the recording process began the vocalist left the band to pursue other interests.

The remaining three musicians were left with a dilemma. A ten date American tour was cancelled as were high profile UK dates, but with an album’s worth of material written (given a working title of We See Red) the people’s band went to the people for inspiration. The people (THAT’S YOU READING THIS) decided that anti-pasti should continue, and so the position of vocalist was put out to tenure. From the many hopefuls that expressed an interest only one man fitted the bill; only one man was offered the opportunity and cometh the hour cometh the man, that man...the artist formerly known as James Patrick Geraghty.

The new look band performed at festivals across Europe, toured Germany and recorded the long awaited third album RISE UP which was released by Westworld Recordings to universal acclaim.
A week before the album launch the band parted company with the latest vocalist forcing the cancellation of some high profile UK dates. Martin Roper offered his services to fulfil commitments in Belgium and Paris but then disaster struck when drummer Kevin Nixon underwent hand surgery, again forcing the band to withdraw from the live circuit. During this period Roper quietly retired once more.

Anti-pasti` pulled a master stroke, recruiting Glynn Barber of Chron Gen temporarily into the vacant vocalist’s role debuting in August 2017 at Rebellion Punk music Festival to fantastic reviews. This line-up continued to perform at home and abroad for almost a year until Micky Bones became the permanent front man in June 2018.