Red London plays a sorts of streetpunkrocknroll
which I really like. They have been playing many
years now and here was Gaz so nice and answered
a lot of questions fom me in september 2020.
Have you been playing together since 1981 or
have there been any breaks between 1981 and
2020?
-The band split in 2002 and re-formed a couple
of years ago.
There have been many changes in the line up I
understand during the years. What is the line up
today? And what are you working with when you
don´t play music?
-The current line up is….
The original singer, Patty Smith is in the new
line up. Gaz Stoker (original bass player) is
also in, along with drummer John Forster who is
the brother of Matty Forster who spent 14 years
as the drummer with the band. We’ve just added
two new guitarists. Danny Collings from a
Sunderland band called Symbient and Marty
Jackson. They are both great guitarists and have
brought a new dynamic to the band.
The band members have various jobs. I drive a
van and collect and deliver furniture. Patty is
a senior lecturer at a college in the
countryside teaching forestry and environmental
studies.
Kid Stoker is your brother, why did he leave the
group? But he is still writing songs for you? I
saw in the lines? Or is it old songs?
-Kid just decided to retire from Music. He’s
settled down in a different town and we never
see him these days. I think he’s been writing a
few tunes with Steve Smith from Red Alert but he
doesn’t write songs for Red London anymore. The
song writing credits you saw were from old songs
that we re-recorded.
The song ‘This is England 2020’, are there any
changes in the lyrics in the new version?
-No, the lyrics are the same and they are as
relevant today as they were when they were
originally written. There’s a few old songs we
wanted to re-record as the production on the
original versions wasn’t great. The new version
of ‘This is England’ is a lot more powerful and
dynamic.
When you took the name Red London, did you mean
something special with Red in your name?
-We got the band name from a Sham 69 B-side but
we liked the Red connection as we’re socialists.
Now you´re on Mad Butcher Records, anyway the
latest record, how is that?
-I personally think this new album (Symphony for
the Skins) is the best record we’ve ever done.
There was a lot of pressure on us with this
album because we’d got back together after a 16
year gap and it’s the first Red London album
without Kid playing and writing on it. Me, John
and Patty put a lot of time and effort into
writing the songs and getting them just right.
We knew we had to come up with something special
and I think we’ve achieved that.
Is it important to get out physical records and
not only be on Spotify and so on?
-I think it’s very important. Spotify is good
for checking bands out but you can’t beat
playing a good CD or vinyl record and turning
the volume right up while reading the info on
the cover.
Do you still buy records yourself? The latest
you bought?
-I don’t buy CD’s as much as I used to.
The last two albums I bought were ’Easy Tiger’
by Loudmouth and ‘Blood’ by Gimp Fist.
Patty’s last record buys were a Northern Soul
compilation and The Best of the Redskins.
Now it´s not so much live performances during
the covid-19 time. But have you done any live
streaming concerts as many other bands do?
-We haven’t done that as we’ve been too busy
writing and rehearsing for a new E.P.
I understand that you love playing in Germany
and especially Berlin, how come? Any good
countries to play in?
-We’ve played in a lot of different countries
and they’re all good in different ways but
Germany was always special for us. We’ve played
some great tours there and had a really warm
welcome. Berlin is probably our favourite city.
We’ve had some great gigs and great times there
and have a lot of friends there who we hang out
with whenever we return.
In your audience I can imagine that it´s both
punks and skins, any people you miss on your
concerts? Is it only old guys and women who
comes?
-The last tour we noticed that there was younger
people coming to the gigs as well as the old
fans so that’s great and very encouraging. It’s
the only way the scene will survive.
How is it to live in England right now? Covid,
brexit and how about politics overall?
-It’s a bit fucked up but so are a lot of
countries. We’re back with a shit tory
government who only care for the rich so not
much has changed.
You come from Sunderland, and you support SAFC I
suppose. I have seen the Netflix documenatry
Sunderland til I die and I recognize myself. My
team GAIS is on the way to go down into the
third division here in Sweden? What´s wrong with
SAFC?
-I don’t actually support Sunderland but I’ve
watched both of the documentaries you’re talking
about and I know exactly what you mean. It’s
heartbreaking for the die hard Sunderland fans.
The club has had some good, well respected
managers over the last 20 years or so but nobody
can make them successful. They’ve wasted a lot
of money on bad players over the years but it
goes much deeper than that. It’s hard to know
what keeps going wrong?
I really love beer and I do my own beer too. If
Red London do a beer, which type would it be and
what will it be called?
-This is a great question and I’m having to
think hard for the answer?
It would probably be a strong premium lager
called ‘Days like These’
You do a Chelsea song, ‘I´m on fire’ on your new
record, why did you cover that when you have so
many good songs of your own?
-We love Chelsea, they are a great band and
we’ve covered a few of their songs over the
years and I always think it’s good to include a
cover song every now and again. It really fits
the rest of the album as well.
Any other covers you play?
-As I said before, we’ve done a few Chelsea
songs over the years. We’ve also done a cover
version of the Attila the Stockbroker song
‘Sawdust and Empire’ which appeared on the album
‘Days like These’ and we’ve played it live a lot
of times over the years. Our version is a lot
different to his. For our version we punked it
up and gave it the Red London sound but both
versions are great. We’ve had a few covers
popping up in the live set over the years and we
recorded a version of ‘The Harder they Come’
which was on an album but we never played that
one live.
When you play live, which is the songs all
people want to hear except This is England?
-It varies from gig to gig but ‘Revolution
Times’ ‘Days Like These’ and ’48 Reasons’ always
go down well.
You have been playing with Red Alert, Angelic
Upstarts on some record and other bands you have
been playing with and do you play in any other
band right now?
-Over the years I’ve played with The Rebels, Red
London, Red Alert, Angelic Upstarts and The
Dipsomaniacs. In my opinion they are all great
bands but my heart has always been with Red
London.
I’m 57 years old now. You’re getting older too,
what´s the biggest difference with playing punk
if you compare when you were a Young punk/skin?
I mean with Concerts and so on?
-I was a fan of punk music from the start and
went to punk gigs as early as 1977 when I was 17
years old. I saw The Jam, The Vibrators, The
Saints and Penetration live in 1977 in
Sunderland.
It’s impossible to get better than the original
spirit of punk when it hit the UK in 1977. The
first punk record I ever bought was ‘Remote
Control’ by The Clash and that changed me
forever. Punk is still great and it’s lasted
much longer than anybody thought it would, but
the very early days were so special that you
can’t beat them. Don’t get me wrong, I still
love playing gigs and making records but it gets
a lot harder when you get older especially the
travelling.
The meaning with punk today if you compare how
you saw it when you were younger?
-Punk will always mean a hell of a lot to anyone
who has been involved in it. Whether that is
buying records, going to gigs or forming a band
and writing your own songs. It was a movement
for the working class and spoke to my
generation. It inspired so many people and still
does. It was our music then and it’s still our
music now.
Is it important to get out opinions in the
music? Politics and Music belongs together?
-This is a tricky one as I think politics and
music go together to a certain extent but any
form of extreme politics is fucked up. There’s
nothing wrong in getting your opinions across in
music but don’t try to shove politics down
anyone’s throat. Your opinion is after all your
opinion and some people might have a different
opinion. Political situations can inspire people
to react against bad political times and
hardship and injustice. At it’s core Punk is a
form of protest music and some great songs have
came out of the punk rebellion.
Best political band/artist?
-There’s been some great political bands/artists
over the punk years.
Bands like The Clash, The Jam, Angelic Upstarts,
Stiff Little Fingers, Tom Robinson Band,
The Ruts, Attila the Stockbroker, Redskins,
Newtown Neurotics etc. All great. The list goes
on.
I’d like to think that we’re on that list as
well.
Is there any good new bands in England today?
Any good old bands which is still around?
-Symbient are a good new band from our home town
of Sunderland. There’s also a good band not far
from us in Darlington called Boilermaker, but
there’s not many up and coming punk bands coming
through that I know of. Loudmouth are a great
band but they’ve been around for a long time
now. The same goes for Gimp Fist. As for the old
bands, I think Chelsea still sound great.
What do you think about Rebellion Festival and
that sort of bigger events with so many bands?
Is it like a family reunion?
-Yes, to me that’s exactly what it’s like. When
we play Rebellion I love to go for the whole
weekend. It’s great to catch up with bands you
know and bands you love. Also to check out any
new bands and meet up with old friends, some of
them that you only see once a year at Rebellion.
What do you know about Sweden, what did/does
people says about our way to handle the
Coronavirus?
-I don’t know a lot about Sweden to be honest. I
know the Stranglers had a song called ‘Sweden’
on their black and white album but the lyrics
didn’t do Sweden any favours. In the UK whenever
you think of Sweden you think of beautiful
blonde women haha, I know that’s a cliché but
it’s still true in the UK. This whole
coronavirus is fucked up and I know Sweden will
be doing a better job of containing it than here
in the UK where they are fucking hopeless and
don’t really know what they are doing?
Have you ever been here and played? Do you know
any good Swedish bands?
-I played a festival in Sweden with Angelic
Upstarts a few years ago and it was amazing.
I think the festival was called ‘Pretty Shitty
Town’ or something like that. Some of the gig
was recorded and came out on a compilation dvd.
It’s the best quality Angelic Upstarts footage
I’ve ever seen and I’ve got the whole Upstarts
set on dvd which I’m proud of. Sorry but I don’t
know many Swedish bands.
Which are the future plans with the band?
-We’ve been writing and rehearsing for a new
E.P. which we’ll be recording in the middle of
October. It’ll be coming out on Mad Butcher
Records. Like everyone else we can’t wait to get
out and start playing live again. We haven’t
even done a gig yet with the new line up but the
rehearsals have been sounding great. It’s gone
up another level since parting with ‘Rap man and
Nothin’. The two new guitarists have really made
a difference to the live sound. We’ve got a few
gigs booked for early next year and hope to do a
European tour in 2021 if things get back to
normal.
For yourself?
-As long as Red London stay together I’ll be
there.
If there any questions I have forgotten to ask
and you want to have, please ask it and answer
it?
-To check the band out go to ‘Red London punk
band facebook page’ To buy merchandise or the
new recordings go to Mad Butcher Records
website. There’s the latest album ‘Symphony for
the Skins, the ‘Kings of the Streets’ E.P. and
the new E.P. will be out on the Mad Butcher
label probably early in 2021.
Wisdomword?
-‘Don’t eat yellow snow’ (that’s an old one.
Have you worked it out yet?)
Any last words?
-If you know any good promoters who would fly us
to Sweden to play a few gigs in 2021 tell them
to get in touch via the Red London punk band
facebook page.
All the best, Gaz Stoker.
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