Yes, Rikki and Malcum support the mighty (?) Ipswich Town, Kev follows Leicester City
and all three play in a Sunday league team. Fanny's not realy into footie and is still trying
to work out the off-side rule!!!. .
I think your older songs sound a little bit different from the newer ones which are more
melodic! Did you change that for any reason or have you become better with time?
It's probably from when Kev and John (Fanny) joined. I suppose our sound has matured over
the years.
A few songs are about drinking! What funny things happened when you have been drinking?
Some of our best and worst gigs have been down to drinking. As a rule now
we try to not get too shitfaced if we're playing, as we prefer to be quite tight live.
Have you ever drunk a german beer? What kind of beer do you like best?
Yes, very good to, we like to try the local stuff were-ever we play. Fanny drinks Guiness,
Malcum drinks Cider and alcopops, but we'll have a go on anything really.
Your latest CD "A short cut..." will be released on Beer City Records soon! How did you
get that managed?
Beer City got in touch after Mike saw a review for our "look mum" 7" in maximum rock'n'roll,
we sent him a copy of the album which he liked. He then asked us about a U.S. release on
his label, we were pleased and said yes, it should be out very soon with new artwork and
two bonus tracks.
And how did you get on the BYO Sampler, any connections to BYO or Welly?
Welly had us on the list of bands he wanted for inclusion. We were pleased to be asked
and happy to donate the track he asked for. (How Low, 7" version)
In my mind the english scene with all its bands isnīt known that well, though the bands
are much better than most of the american? whay do you think people always wanna listen
to bands from america?
People are just made more aware of them by bigger labels, better advertising and promotion
(radio play and magazine coverage etc.) and better all round worldwide distribution.
Where have you already been touring?
We do France/Brittany every year. we also have played in Belgian and Holland and Aachen in
Germany. We're doing 3 gigs in Holland and 5 gigs in France May this year. Check our website
for details. www.oocities.org/redflag77_uk
What are your jobs?
Malcum is a mechanic, (handy when the van breaks down!), Rikki runs "Know your product"
punk mail order distro', Kev is a partner in a home entertainment/home cinema company,
Fanny is a TV repairman.
It seems to me that you are one of those few people who havenīt forgot what punkrock means.
I mean you do lots of things for people who are interested in the band and the homepage is
really very beautiful. So why do you think lots of people just "forgot" to do that. (I hope
you understand what i mean to say ?!?).
We appreciate people who are interested in what we do. We find time to talk at gigs, even
though we're slow at answering letters and interviews most of the time. We were punk fans
before we were a band, so we don't forget and we stay down to earth.
Don't you think that by calling yourselves Red Flag 77 everyone
will say, "they're sad old Sid-wannabes"?
Rikki : Maybe! We named ourselves after reading about "Red Flag 74" in a book called
"Timebomb" about the Guildford Four. We changed it to 77 just to give an idea of
the style we played cos when we formed there were so many 10 pence thrashy bands, we
thought we'd do something decent.
L o/t D : Are you in fact sad old Sid-wannabes? (Joke honest, don't hit me)
R : No I don't think so. If we were we'd all have died long ago! We all loved Sid when
we were about 10 and had our black armbands on etc when he died. As you get on a bit though
I thought junkie Vish was a sad old Sid. So we made a flag shirt with him on and "how low
can a punk get" underneath it. I've still got a load of crappy old Sid badges though that I
wore for yonks.
What were you doing in 1977?
Rikki : I dunno really, probably playing loads of footie, drinking lots of pop eating lots of
sweeties and Golden Nuggets (Ed : I remember them! Best brekkie cereal in history. Thought
I must have had that false memory syndrome about them. Obviously not). Annoying people doing
knock and runs and being a general young whippersnapper (I was 9). I expect I was still
listening to paper lace not knowing what was happening in the city. So not a lot's changed
really except you can't get Golden Nuggets anymore.
Do you drink cider?
Rikki : Yeah me and Malcolm do, probably far too much of it too cos it's always the paupers
gut rot brands, but mind you there's not much we don't drink really. We enjoy a bit of
a fall over.
Does it piss you off that American bands nick the image and sound of traditional
punk rock and sell 2 million albums with it, while the british 77 punk scene is a bit
obscured by them?
Rikki : No not really. I like a lot of em, but I agree it's a shame that the British bands
don't get much of a look in these days. I suppose some new young fans might look a bit
deeper into the groups the US bands cite as influences. I'm chuffed if they have UK bands
as support like Rancid having Ex-Cathedra.
What's your favourite UK Subs album?
Rikki : I guess I'll have to say "Another Kind of Blues" cos that's the Subs I fell in love with,
it's the only one I've got on CD with Crash Course on it as well. I've still got all the
others except a couple of later ones. Brand New Age is a close second.
If NME rang up tomorrow and offered you a front cover interview, what would you
do?
Rikki : I don't know. I read it from time to time and fucking hate it with its stupid mocking
of punk, but I suppose maybe we would just to pull stupid faces and then show it to our
mums or something to try to make them think we're doing something with our lives. They're
obviously easily impressed!
Is the Sex Pistols comeback a) very sad or b) just them getting cash and respect
due to them?
Rikki : At first I thought "it's a bit sad" and wasn't at all interested, but after listening
to Finsbury Park on the radio and getting pissed off that I didn't bother to go, I went
up to the Shepherd's Bush gig and really enjoyed it. It was well tight and basically if
you like the songs it's a Never Mind The Bollocks singalong knees up ain't it?
And did they invent punk rock anyway?
Rikki : Forget all your "was it the pistols here or Richard Hell there" or whatever. They
were obviously different enough for people to see, be blown away by em and wanna form
a band and emulate them, which hence became termed the punk rock movement/explosion of
which I think they were the catalyst.
What one thing could happen at a gig that would make you split up?
Rikki : Don't now about split up yet, but members have left after gigs before due to
disagreements or naughty drunken happenings. One time a bassist and a guitarist left
together, which left me and Malc. I think we're quite settled now. We know what to expect
from one another.
Your message to the people :
Rikki : Get out there and support all those little punk gigs, put us on in yr town, buy the
split EP so we can do a second press on coloured vinyl cos I've always wanted to do one.
And play more football, and buy our demo with a scratch and sniff cover (see below).
Token daft question : What does your demo inlay smell of?
Rikki : Why are you smelling it?! Weird but of course after reading this I went off to smell it
and it does have a peculiar odour to it! In fact I smelt quite a few and they varied. As
they always come in the van with us to gigs I put it down to a good cross of essence of
sweaty punk, beer spillage, lingering dope fumes, John's hairspray and make-up, Jack the
drivers smelly Norwich shirt and fuck knows what else. My girlfriend said it smells of
something stale, it smells fucking horrible actually! I agree.
Did I get the answer right?!
