So then, The Boys. I'll be honest here in that they are a band that I have never paid much attention to. I knew 'First Time' and 'New Guitar In Town', a collaboration single from The Boy's Honest John Plain and Pete Stride of The Lurkers. Not much is it. In fact whilst transcribing this Record Mirror interview I have heard more of the Boys on Spotify than I have heard in the last 45 years of listening to punk!
Now I can certainly see some similarities with The Lurkers, both bands drawing contemporary comparisons with Da Brudders from Queens. The Boys supported The Ramones at one point over here.
The early involvement of founding members Casino Steel and Matt Dangerfield put them on the spot at the birth of the British punk scene and yet they rarely feature in the established creation accounts! Likewise, they never enjoyed the kind of success that came the way of their '76 contemporaries.
I was going to post a great sounding gig that the band played in Vienne in France in the Summer of 2016. But I then realised that I posted it 9 years ago. I have however supplemented that post with some artwork and both the artwork and the gig can be found here.
ARRIVING at the pre-arranged meeting place I find The Boys have exited for liquid refreshment to a pub a few streets away. They're all there except Jake (the drummer) and they're trying to pass off another reporter as their new drummer; no chance Boys.
That ploy having collapsed they try the old kidnapping stunt but soon realise that RECORD MIRROR wouldn't pay much ransom. And anyway wouldn't they rather abduct Blonde - on - Blonde? Immediate agreement, and they reminisce over the RM cover when the aforementioned beauties adorned it.
While on the subject of RM, Kid talks about his unrequited love for his cat. He once wrote to the problem page about his undying passion but no reply was forthcoming. He moves onto another subject - so you'll never get to find out how the affair ended, maybe they just drifted apart.
The Boys talk about their last gig at the Music Machine, where they kindly laid on a bar for the boys and girls of the music business, they played a really good set, including an appearance by The Yobs. The Boys are rather indignant that nobody reviewed the gig, at this point Cas (the organist) joined the conversation.
Cas is fed up, Cas is bored, Cas is annoyed, Cas is down, (this sort of talk could cause problems), the rest of the band dive on him, strapping him to the table and gag him, metaphorically speaking of course. But there is no trouble, Cas is just depressed because he's been up at NEMS (their record company) putting mailing shots into envelopes, sticking them down and attaching stamps, all without the help of even a sponge to wet the stamps, no wonder he's feeling like he does…
The rest of the band divulge that he's having a piano made with a built in cocktail cabinet so he has something to do with his other hand while he's playing.
They're off to Europe soon and I ask Kid if there are any particular countries he's looking forward to.
"Holland especially, but also Scandinavia although we've never played there, France we're not so crazy about… all they want is rock 'n' roll. They're so conservative".
Cas pipes in: "Their TV's awful as well". Cas likes TV…
The Boys have a new single that should be out by the end of may titled ‘School Girls' and they're really hoping that this will be the, one that gets them the recognition they're trying so hard to get. And if it doesn't?
"Well the next one will, or the one after or the one after that, were not going to give in," says Kid.
The Boys know that records not as good as theirs have made it but as Elton John said not so long ago: "You don't have to be good to make it, you just need good promotion".
The Boys don't have that promotional bulldozer behind them so they're going to have to make a record that will stand out alone, and that ain't easy.
Conversation about their record company gets them near to throwing themselves off the table so an attempt is made to steer the conversation to more cheerful subjects.
"What about the girls, Boys"?
A stunned silence greets this question initially. Then Matt offers: "But we're only boys. Kid does have a number of young girls amongst his fans, but that doesn't mean all our audiences are very young or very female".
What about audience reaction so far?
"Our ultimate gig for audience reaction was in Swansea," continues Matt. "We'd finished the set, and we never do an encore unless they really want us back, that's not through any ego trip, it's just that a lot of audiences seem to think that they're under an obligation to ask for an encore. But these people at Swansea looked like they were going to pull the place apart so we went back on only to find that Kid's bass amp had bust so the audience had to wait 15 minutes while it was fixed. Yet ' they were still clapping, stamping and shouting for us. That's what you call a good reaction!"
Do The Boys have a devout following like the Depressions?
“Sure," counters Matt, "they're mainly female and like Depressions fans go to a lot of trouble to see us. Unfortunately, they very rarely have anywhere to stay and usually ask us if we've any room, but it's just not possible to put them all up and it's not fair to look after a couple of them no matter how much we'd like to. What can you do"?
"No idea," I reply: "Never had such attention. How about taking me on in the Yobs"?
"Oh yeah the Yobs. " Matt again "You know, one of the Yobs' songs was our best selling Single? We really want to do another Yobs' thing maybe The Yobs do Jim Reeves or even Dean Martin, that would, be really great"!
Cas stops mumbling about rather being at home watching TV and joins the conversation.
"Dean Martin, now there's somebody with style. You gotta be at least 35 and been through hell to be anything".
"What?" (that's me).
"Sure" says Cas getting into the stride of things. "Thirty-five, I can't wait to be 35, then I'll really be a musician - an artist with a right to do and say as I want, I'll have some authority, I'll have suffered and that's what it's an about. You've got to be 35, tired, unshaven, have a drink problem and your wife's got to have left you. I'm nothing, I'm just a kid, I've got to suffer".
Oh Christ, bring on the cross and nails. Okay Cas we'll come back to you in a few years time. His feelings are understandable, but not the manic determination behind them. And he looks so young for his age, maybe that's half the problem. Keep up with the scowls Cas, you'll make it.
Cas leaves, crawling over a trail of broken glass to get to the door. What that Boy will do to get home to watch Coronation Street!
Kid and Matt stay a little longer and we talk about life, books, films, etc that I'm sure you lot don't want to read about. Then we parted with Kid passing the final remark.
"You can never accuse The Boys of being hyped".
He's right, but they really, do need a good push in the right direction.
