AROUND
THE WORLD
IN A DAY WITH
KEN DARK
INNOVATES
999*
NINE NINE NINE
Interview by Billy Runaway
It's been over eleven years since the boys
in 999 first started spewing their fast,
straight-ahead rowdy rock and roll. Keith
Stephenson caught up with Cash and
crew in Germany and found out what's
been happening.
Are the current members of 999 the
original ones from 1977?
No. The original bass player, John Watson,
has been replaced by Danny Palmer, who
comes from the same village in England as
Pablo the drummer.
How many albums have you put out?
We started out with the 999 Lp. Then we
did Separates, The Biggest Prize in Sport and
a live Lp released in America called The Big-
gest Tour in Sport, High Energy Plan, which
was also released in America, then Concrete
and Face to Face, which we put out on our
own label. That last one went straight down
the drain because we didn't have enough
money to promote it. Then we went bankrupt
(laughter). Now we're back here working
again. Also, within the last two years, we did
a live Lp called Lust, Power and Money.
What was your motive in forming 999?
We just wanted to rock and roll. At that
time, things were a bit different. We said,
"Forget all the bullshit that's been done.
before, let's go out there and have a good
time." We were sick of seeing people go to
concerts and just sit there bored. People
should be able to go to a gig and enjoy it,
get involved. In America, it's a lot easier to
do that. Music is very important to the
American people, it's part of that whole
lifestyle and you can't take that away from
them-they live it.
Did you consider yourself a punk band?
We were at the time, I suppose. That's only
a label. If you look at all the bands that were
playing back then...the Clash developed
their own sound, the Sex Pistols developed
their own sound, and we did as well. All the
bands were different from each other. It was
just a convenient label, but we didn't mind
being part of that. It's a bit of a drag now,
because most people associate punk rock
with mohawks or some other nonsense and
we're not like that. We just like to play hard,
fast music. That's our thing.
What do you attribute 999's longevity to?
We've stuck to our roots and we haven't
sold out. We've always made the kind of
records we wanted to make. If we wanted to
make a hard record, we made a hard record.
They'd say, "That's too fast for the radio. Can
you make it more A.O.R.?" We'd say, "NO!
We're doing it how we want."
Didn't your initial popularity in the States
stem from the song "Homocide"?
Yes. That was getting a lot of airplay from
our friend Rodney Bingenheimer on KROQ.
When we first came to America, all the press
in England said, "Those guys are selling out.
going to America. Just like the Clash, sing-
ing about being bored with the USA and then
going on tour there. That's so hypocritical."
But we never said we wouldn't go there. We'll
go anywhere! We don't think our music
should have any barriers.
When we came to L.A., one of the first gigs
we did was the Florentine Gardens. It was
getting pretty crazy in there, so they threw
some people out of the place and they went
out back and got a shotgun. We had a table
up against the back door to keep them out
and they were shooting at the table. As we
came on stage we had to duck like this (Nick
demonstrates). Duck! BOOM! I thought, "My
God, these L.A. audiences are wild, man!"
During that first tour in L.A. there was a
rumor about a stabbing that was linked to
999. Did that happen at one of your gigs?
It didn't happen at our concert. It was
typical of the media's sensationalism regard
ing punk back then. I think the L.A. Times
did a feature on punk rock and said some
thing like, "This is the type of thing we don't
need. These English bands coming over,
playing all this rough music, all of our kids
going mad, jumping up and down-there are
fifteen-year-old kids slam dancing." And then
it went on to say, "...three weeks later, two
punks who had attended the 999 concert
stabbed a chauffeur on the Sunset strip." As
if our music was in some way responsible
for that! So I wrote to the paper and said,
"Look, you've written this piece on us and
I feel that it has put the band in a bad light.
For the record, we've never had that kind of
trouble at our concerts. If we do have trouble
we stop the show. We're completely anti-
violence, we just want everyone to have a
good time." It might look a bit rough-
sometimes it looks like a soccer match out
there-but you have to realize that when a
few thousand people get together, there are
bound to be some crazies involved.
Where are you going from here?
Mozambique, believe it or not. Benny King,
the guy who engineered our first album, went
out to Africa to record some African music.
He came back and said, "Look, they're in-
terested in finding some rock bands who'd
like to go out there, some bands they can
dance around to," and he asked us if we'd
like to do it. We said, "Yeah, sure!" After that,
we're coming back to Germany and then on
to Holland. We had terrible trouble in Holland
a while ago. A lot of Hell's Angels came to
our last gig there and the police couldn't con-
trol them, nobody could control them... it's
the only time that's ever hapenned to us.
That was about ten years ago and they
haven't let us in the country again till now.
We'd also like to go back to America again.
Are there any closing comments you'd like
to give our readers?
Thanks for your support and come and see
us when we're in America! If you haven't got
any of our records, find a friend who has,
grab hold of it, make a tape and listen to it!
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