BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ:
An EXCLUSIVE Interview with
KNOX from British Punk icons
THE VIBRATORS
By Stephen SPAZ Schnee
(An edited version of this interview ran in Discussions Magazine)
In 1955, Rock ‘n’ Roll emerged from the American
underground and changed the course of musical history. From Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley in the ‘50s to The
Beatles and The Rolling Stones
in the ‘60s, Rock evolved from its somewhat innocent roots and had become a
money-making behemoth by the mid ‘70s, at which time Prog Rock and sensitive
singer/songwriters fought for equal – or better - placement on the charts. In
1976, the year Rock turned 21, Punk emerged from the UK and turned it all
upside down. Clearing away the excesses
of corporate Rock like weeds being ripped from a garden, Punk tore the
slightly-aged genre right back down to its roots. For the first time since its inception, Rock
was raw, sweaty, wild, and filled with youthful abandon again. Bands such as Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Jam, The Stranglers, Buzzcocks and The Damned were scoring actual chart
hits in the UK while creating a stir in the U.S. as well.
Fighting the good fight right alongside
these higher profile bands was The
Vibrators, one of the few original UK Punk bands who continues to tour and
record nearly 40 years after their formation.
Led by original members Ian KNOX
Cornochan (vocals/guitar/songwriting) and John EDDIE Edwards (drums), The Vibrators have gone through
numerous line-up changes throughout the years, but have remained determined,
focused and eager to share new music with their fans. From their early days signed to Epic/CBS and
the hits “Baby, Baby”, “Automatic Lover”, and “Judy Says (Knock You In The Head”
to their 2013 album On The Guest List, The Vibrators are unafraid to embrace their
past as they continue to creatively move forward.
While Eddie tirelessly tours with The
Vibrators, Knox recently retired from the road but has still been active with
songwriting and providing creative energy and support. With the band on the road constantly through
2013, their legacy is being celebrated with Greatest Punk Hits, a
collection that contains recent studio versions of many of their finest tracks.
It allowed Knox and the boys to approach the songs with a seasoned yet
refreshing attitude, keeping the arrangements pretty darn close to the
originals without sounding like their trying to duplicate themselves.
Stephen
SPAZ Schnee caught up with Knox, who kindly shared his thoughts on Punk and
The Vibrators long and influential career…
SPAZ: There’s a new
collection on the market, Greatest Punk Hits, which features
the band revisiting some of their finest songs.
How are you feeling about this release as well as the band’s most recent
studio album On The Guest List?
KNOX: It’s always great to have more music coming out. It makes you
feel that what you are doing, and what you did, is still relevant today and
hopefully people will like it. The Vibrators have been continually making new
studio albums, we’ve made something like seventeen. This keeps the band active,
as opposed to a touring museum piece, whereby the band becoming its own tribute
band. So it’s great to have both a new studio album (On The Guest List on
Cleopatra Records), and a greatest hits album (Greatest Punk Hits on O-Rama).
The Greatest Punk Hits album has different versions of the original tracks and
should be very interesting for a lot of people.
SPAZ: While your songs have
always been perfectly suited for the Punk movement, they really seem to be
rooted in classic Rock ‘n’ Roll tradition.
What types of bands were you playing in before Punk came along?
KNOX: I was in bands at school in the early ‘60s which primarily
only played covers, then at art school I was in several kinds of R&B bands,
then a Psychedelic band called The Dream Machine. Years later when I began
writing songs I was very influenced by the Velvet Underground, plus I suppose
all the cover songs I’d been doing. So the later bands I was in started doing
my songs. Despair was doing basically
only my songs, whereas a later band Lipstick did a mixture of my songs and
covers. They were both three-piece bands, and I liked Metal guitar solos and
Jimi Hendrix so that got incorporated into the music as well. Also it’s fair to
say a lot of it was technologically driven, you know things like fuzzboxes, phasing
pedals, wah-wah pedals, that sort of thing. I don’t think I’d be doing music if
people hadn’t discovered electricity and invented the electric guitar and
amplification!
SPAZ: I’ve always wondered: where did the name Knox come from?
KNOX: It’s a shortened version of my surname Carnochan. I was at an
all boys’ school and everyone called each other by their surnames, I don’t know
if this still happens. Anyway my surname was too difficult, it got shortened to
Carnocks and then just to Knox.
SPAZ: When did you first become aware of the initial Punk movement
in the UK?
KNOX: I think it was Pat Collier, our bass player and also a
songwriter in The Vibrators, who noticed it. It was sort of ‘over there’ as it
were and suddenly, as we were playing fast aggressive songs, we were included
in it. Subsequently we had a small part of helping shape Punk because we were
in at the beginning.
SPAZ: Do you feel that the movement’s hype became more important
than the music?
KNOX: Possibly. It was a gift for the press: the look, the
aggressive music, trouble at gigs, the political thing, so of course the press
had a field day dressing it up and exaggerated it to sell papers, plus
half-orchestrating things. If you stick a camera on someone something will
happen. I don’t think the bands minded - after all it was great publicity.
Nowadays it’s a kind of trade-off. People like using the term and the clothes
and the attitude, but hopefully some of it rebounds back to shine a light on
the music. Also I think it’s both funny and also a shame that sometimes people
wearing a Punk T-shirt with a band name on it probably know nothing about the
band or the music. Plus what it was like in 1976-7.
SPAZ: During the early days of Punk, were you friends or
competitors with a lot of your contemporaries like The Clash, The Jam, 999, The
Stranglers, et al?
KNOX: I think it must have been a mixture. You wanted the attention
but then again initially it was a small movement and felt very much like an ‘us
against the world’ kind of thing. So for that reason you were very friendly towards
the other bands.
SPAZ: What do you remember about those first few years of the Punk
movement?
KNOX: I suppose it was the fact that when I grew up I might have
dreamt of being in a slightly famous band, and then somehow I was. When I was
at the grammar school it was never even a remote career option, being in a band
was something that only seemed to happen to chosen people and was going on
somewhere else. I know that’s all changed now. Everyone today knows people in
bands. When we started The Vibrators we were just a very small band, lugging
our gear around to pubs to play, often to people who probably weren’t terribly
interested. Then a year or so later we had roadies, trucks, and were on the TV,
it was astonishing. We were often the first Punk band in some towns and there’d
be people there who’d read about Punk and violence and you’d get your fair
share of stuff thrown at you and spat on. Sometimes it was funny and sometimes
quite frightening, but you wanted to play so you carried on, and in the end, we
won the day.
(Photo credit: Fishbones)
SPAZ: The Vibrators didn’t adhere to any Punk formula when it came
to their records. Whose brilliant idea
was it to feature a sax solo on “Judy Says”?
KNOX: That would have been Don Snow’s idea. He was in that
particular line-up of the band and played keyboards and sax. He was a very
talented musician and added a lot of bits, for instance the ending of that
song, that very obvious up and down bit, etc., and the extra bits on the end of
one line in the chorus, I think they were all his ideas. Also I think people
now think of Punk music as this… what I call ‘identikit’ Punk - you know the
one look and the one sound. When Punk started, it was really varied - although
maybe it was also partly New Wave as well.
SPAZ: The band has been releasing music on a semi-regular basis for
over 30 years. Are you frustrated by the
band’s ‘cult’ or ‘underground’ status over the years? Or is this where you prefer to be, success
wise?
KNOX: I’d have liked the band to have been more successful, but I
think it’s entirely our fault we weren’t. The name kept us off the radio and
TV, enough to make a difference and we never got a manager after the first few
years and I think without that you will have trouble getting noticed, you know,
getting on the right tours, the radio, interviews, etc. Without it you’re
condemned to being a cult band. It has its advantages, I mean I don’t have to
fight my way though a load of photographers to go down to the shops. And I
don’t have to talk to accountants and gardeners. But sometimes I wish I had a
bit more money, but that’s life.
SPAZ: My favorite period of
the Vibrators’ recording career was actually the ‘80s and ‘90s because it
seemed the band concentrated more on songcraft than being a Punk band. What do you remember about this time during
the band’s career? Great albums like Fifth Amendment, ‘Buzzin’, Hunting For
You, Guilty and so many others…
KNOX: Yes, one time when we were on Revolver Records the guy there
Paul Birch suggested we record more rock kind of material, Punk was not a big
deal at the time. But although we made some great records I felt we were in
danger of going down a hole between rock and Punk rock.
Neither-one-or-the-other so the fans would be disappointed and confused. I
think it freed up the choice of material we recorded so we did some good stuff,
but I don’t think it was properly reflected in our record sales.
SPAZ: Punk’s resurgence in
the ‘90s has actually lasted a good 20 years longer than the original
movement’s lifespan. Do you listen to
many of the new bands these days? Do you try to stay on top of current music,
no matter the genre?
KNOX: I try and listen to lots of music, though unfortunately I
don’t seem to manage it most of the time. Recently I have been listening to
Dubstep as someone at my publishing company suggested trying to do a Dubstep
version of “Baby Baby”. (I’ve probably lost all my fans now!) I can’t get away
from my own style but I did a Country album a couple of years ago (KNOX and the
Trailer Trash Orchestra) which I really enjoyed. You only get one life and I
like messing about with other genres. I write quite a wide spectrum of songs so
it’s generally OK with me. I surprised myself with On The Guest List as I was
still able to write the same sorts of aggressive songs I was doing when I was
considerably younger, though of course many of the songs were written a while
before.
SPAZ: Just like the old
days, it seemed that the style and hype of Punk became more important than the
music again. Did you see it as history repeating itself?
KNOX: I never worry about it. It’s something going on out there in
the world over which I have no control. It’s just the way things go. I think Punk
was such a strong style that it’s influence could go on for a very long time.
SPAZ: In 1977, a lot of the
press picked up on the violent overtones of the music and missed the point of
the movement entirely. Do you think that
this may have killed the scene before it had a chance to grow up?
KNOX: Maybe. It’s difficult to say. My friend has a theory that the
press used Punk to kill off Prog Rock, which might have some truth in it. So
the press would have exaggerated Punk’s violent side which quite possibly
alienated a lot of people who might otherwise have got involved and listened to
it. After all there are masses of what I call ‘identikit’ bands and songs in Punk,
but there are also a lot of clever song writers who wouldn’t initially have
been recognized because the press liked to use this one-dimensional picture of
a band and the music, you know Mohicans, leather jackets, Doc Martens, etc., so
a lot of these people probably initially got glossed over. Also I sometimes
think that Punk might have killed off some quite talented Prog Rock bands or
other types of Pub Rock which might have actually been very good which was a
shame. But I suppose that’s progress.
KNOX: It basically gave me the most exciting years of my life and
I’m very grateful for accidentally being lucky enough to have been in it when
it happened. Also I think you can use its philosophy in everyday life, you can
recognize that things don’t have to be perfect to be OK.
SPAZ: In the end, The Vibrators are just a great Rock ‘n’ Roll
band. How do you want the band to be
remembered?
KNOX: Well, as a good band doing good songs in an unpretentious
manner. I quite often think we should have been more famous but who in a band
doesn’t think that!
SPAZ: Eddie has been the
longest serving member of the band… from the very beginning even when you took
a little time off in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s.
Does it sometimes amaze you how long you’ve worked together?
KNOX: I suppose we’re just very stubborn and carried on. Eddie’s
really good at the day-to-day running of the band and I just write the songs. I
always thought we should have a manager but I suppose it’s that Punk DIY ethos
not to have one, so after the first one we never had another.
SPAZ: You’ve recently retired from touring with the band. Can you explain the reasons behind this
decision? Does this make you a current Vibrator, an ex- Vibrator or a part-time
Vibrator?
KNOX: I wanted to somehow do a bigger band with a manager and get a
business machine behind it as I have a lot of quite good rock songs which
aren’t suitable for The Vibrators. I thought if I could get going and get on
the radio I could maybe get into playing stadiums! (You’ve got to have a
dream.) Unfortunately for me things took a bad turn and I got ill and that was
that for the moment. I’m still dreaming though. I think I might concentrate
more on songwriting for a bit as I sometimes now think I was actually a
songwriter, but became a performer by default. As for The Vibrators I’ll see
how it goes. I like doing the songs and singing so that might very well
continue for a few years, it’s sort of down to them, they might want to stand
on their own feet and not want me anymore. It’s their call. I don’t want to
interfere. I suppose in that way I’m a part-time Vibrator. The band play very
well without me. They got a great review when they recently played the big Punk
festival here in the UK called Rebellion, so check them out when they come out
there to the States.
SPAZ: What are some of the
Vibrators songs you’ve written that you are most proud of….
KNOX: I like “Baby Baby”, it feels like the sun’s come out when we
play it, or like a holiday. Now funnily enough if you listen to Justin Bieber
doing an acoustic version of his song “As Long As You Love Me” it starts off
really like “Baby Baby”, and then he has this other song called “Baby” where he
sings “Baby, baby, baby” so I’ve started wondering if say one of his parents
was a big Vibrators’ fan and he heard the song a lot when he was little? Or
maybe his guitar player did? REM did a version of “Baby Baby” for their fan
club which might come out in a box set they were talking about doing. I really
like my song “My Stalker” (on the On The Guest List album) which has Eddie
Spaghetti from the Supersuckers singing; plus “Every Day I Die A Little” (on
the Greatest Punk Hits album). And I also like “Sleeping”, and “Juice On”, the
electric chair song, which I thought would be a great song if they ever made Deliverance 2.
SPAZ: Are there any Vibrators songs that you’d like to erase from
the band’s catalog?
KNOX: Probably, but I think it’s OK that people can see that you’re
just a fragile human being like everyone else and quite capable of messing up
every now and again. You have to have a bit of a sense of humour about what you
do. Though I have to say that as I’m not that much of a singer and don’t always
write OK words, so of course there are things I’ve done which make me cringe,
but that’s life...
SPAZ: When you went into the studio to re-record some of the band’s
older songs for Greatest Punk Hits, were you able to reconnect with some of the
memories of recording the original versions?
KNOX: Probably, though like a lot of bands, you have these very
real time constraints in the studio so you push on with recording and there’s
not really any time for reflection. If you stop and reflect there go the
backing vocals or the tambourine. I’m always moved by my opening guitar sound
on the original recording of “Baby Baby”, it’s very evocative. Also the
original version of any song, even if it was rubbish, is always the best
version. It has this other thing added to it, the time and place it was made.
The recording sort of carries that with it.
SPAZ: Is there a lot of unreleased Vibrators studio material that
we’ll be able to hear one day?
KNOX: There can’t be much as we’ve probably exhausted it all. I
think somewhere on a cassette I have what we called “The White Show” which we
did at the Roundhouse in London one time. That was where John Ellis suddenly
announced he was leaving the band. Also sometime I might put out an album of
some of my Vibrators’ demo’s as I used to make fairly reasonable demo’s with
all the instruments on, almost like the finished tracks.
SPAZ: What’s next for Knox?
KNOX: I’m always hoping for a break in music, and trying to make
one. So far all that broke was me - but I’m sort of back starting to do stuff
again. I’ve got lots of quite good songs demo’d up that I feel I must record
soon..... plus of course I’m still doing a bit of painting. I’ve got 200 paintings
on my site (www.knox76.com), so check them
out! And I was vaguely thinking of doing a Ska album of Vibrators’ songs, that
sort of thing..... Plus Charlie (Harper) has been talking about making the next
Urban Dogs’ album, at the moment this one is planned to be noisy! Also the same
company putting out Greatest Punk Hits (O-Rama) are going to be putting out
my early 80’s solo album Plutonium Express, that’s great! One ambition I have
is I’d love to do a version of “Baby Baby” with Slash on guitar, and have a mix
done by Jason Nevins who did Run DMC’s “It’s Like That”. I’m keeping my fingers
crossed, you never know.
SPAZ: What are you currently spinning on your CD, DVD or record
players?
KNOX: Like I said earlier I’ve been listening to some Dubstep. Also
the last couple of days a little bit to Oasis
and Beady Eye because Liam Gallagher’s currently in the news.
He’s got a great voice, like when he sings the line “I’m a Rock ’n’ Roll Star”.
He needs another song like that, but I don’t know if he can get another song
like that, or still sing like he did. I never really listened to Oasis except
by accident at gigs. Also sadly I never really know what other Punk bands are
doing as I’m pretty much out of the loop, and also I’ve no idea about the Top
10 or anything. At the moment I sort of live in my own little world where I
fiddle about with my songs and do a bit of painting. Oh, and take our dog
Chippy (a hilarious rescued Jack Russell) out for a walk.
Thanks to Knox
Special thanks to Bob Ardrey
