Introduce yourself...
Matt Dangerfield
How did the band start?
I was in a fledgling band called London SS with Mick Jones and Tony James when we contacted Andrew Matheson and Casino Steel (ex-Hollywood Brats) to see if they were interested in joining us. We had a musical get together with them and afterwards Andrew and Casino told me they didn’t want to join the London SS but that they wanted me to join up with them instead. After a few days deliberation I decided I would join them as they had already released an album that I liked a lot despite it being a commercial flop. That was really the beginning of The Boys and after Andrew went back to Canada for Christmas but never returned we just carried on without him.
As a band, you have used many different names, why did you settle with the Boys?
I don’t think we had many names but I do remember calling ourselves the London Boys originally and later we shortened that to The Boys.
Who would you say your influences are?
My influences were the sixties bands and music that I had grown up with but leading up to The Boys I had also gotten into bands like Velvet Underground, Flamin’ Groovies and Iggy Pop. As we were developing The Boys’ sound The Ramones’ debut album came out and that was a major influence.
What was the punk scene like back in mid '70s?
It was a fantastic time to be involved in the UK punk scene. It was probably the only time ever that the new bands had the upper hand with the record companies. From being a very small scene involving about 20 people who all knew each other UK punk was suddenly causing a big media stir and most of the record companies were desperate to sign a punk band. US punk bands who had little impact in their own country were heading over to London as were foreign journalists wanting to see what all the fuss was about. Even the early UK punk fans benefitted – I remember some of them charging foreign news photographers money to take a photograph of them.
How do you feel it has changed?
Well of course the record companies got back in control eventually and punk became part of the music mainstream. And as punk music got more popular most of the media and the people that had at first hated it, suddenly started accepting it once they realised it wasn’t going to lead to the collapse of civilisation.
What was the song writing process back then?
In The Boys it was mostly Casino and myself writing the songs. We very quickly struck up a good songwriting partnership, which we needed to do as we didn’t have many songs when we started and we wanted to play live as quickly as we could playing mainly our own stuff. We usually wrote apart but got together to knock the ideas into shape or combine parts of them into one new song. In the beginning we were creating new songs on a more or less daily basis. Every song was written as a possible single because we didn’t expect to get an album deal but we thought we could get a singles deal.
Tell us about the 47A Warrington Crescent Studio...
That was basically an old underground coal cellar in my basement flat. It was tiny – around nine square metres – but It could fit a drum kit, a couple of amps and a four-track tape recorder. It was very basic but we managed to get an OK sound in there.
In 1977 you guys signed a 5 year deal with NEMS, what was it like working with them?
Working with NEMS was OK at first but became impossible as they never paid any of their bills which meant we could never go back to a favourite rehearsal place or recording studio. But we were the first of the punk bands at the time to get offered an album deal. Up to that point we’d played about six gigs on the pub rock circuit and none of the venues wanted us back. Even on the night NEMS saw us play a support spot at Dingwalls, the DJ there announced after we came off: “that was the worst band that I have ever seen play on this stage”. Anyway NEMS signed us on the strength of that gig. They were a tiny record company at the time but a leading live agency so we thought at least they will get us gigs as we were rapidly running out of places to play. And funnily enough, about six weeks later we were headlining at Dingwalls and the same DJ introduced us with: “Yes, it’s the welcome return of The Boys to Dingwalls”.
Tell us about your first album...
It was recorded in two days with vocals and mixes done on a third day. It was probably the easiest album to make because we’d been playing most of the songs live for a while so we all knew what we were doing and got them down on tape very quickly.
Every Christmas were known to put out an albums as the Yobs, tells us about the Yobs...
The Yobs were born of NEMS not paying their bills. Our favourite rehearsal studio wouldn’t take our booking because our previous booking hadn’t been paid. So we phoned up again and booked in as The Yobs.
Your second album was 'Alternative Chartbusters', tell us about the album...
Probably the album I most enjoyed making as we had a lot more time to record (two weeks!) and lots of new songs that we’d never done live to play around with.
This led to a UK tour with the Ramones, what was that like?
Actually, it was our third album “To Hell With The Boys” that we were promoting on the Ramones tour. That was a fantastic tour and the Ramones were great to us. We didn’t get to socialise with them much though as they were on a strict no drugs or alcohol regime and they were all packed off to bed straight after the gigs.
Where else have you toured?
Back in those days we toured UK, France, Holland, Spain, Italy, Norway plus 2 gigs in New York
In recent years we have played Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, Japan, USA, Argentina, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland.
15 months later you switched to Safari Records, what it like working with them?
Safari were great. They did all the right things.
What caused the band to split in 1981?
Basically, our contract with Safari ended and by that time we all wanted to do new things.
What have you guys been doing since?
Various things, solo projects, proper jobs.
Why did you decide to start doing shows again in 1998?
A Japanese band covered a couple of our songs so suddenly we were selling lots of records over there and were invited to reform for two Tokyo gigs. As we had never been to Japan it was too tempting.
Who are some of the band you have done shows with?
I think we’ve done shows with just about every reformed punk band in the world. New York Dolls, Damned, UK Subs, 999, TV Smith etc...
Is there a favorite band you like to do shows with?
Die Toten Hosen
Is there a favorite place you like to do shows at?
For me, anywhere but the UK
What do you see is the future of the Boys?
More people discovering our music and a major artist or two covering our songs.
How can people contact the band?
Contact details at www.theboys.co.uk – I think it’s info@theboys.co.uk
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