Punk’s certainly not dead if recent rave reviews for the original Sham 69 are anything to go by.
The Surrey firebrands are still touring the best part of half a century after forming, and the personnel most closely associated with the band’s late ’70s glory years are involved in the line-up that’s set to blitz Beat Generator in Dundee tomorrow night.
Contemporaries of the likes of The Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Buzzcocks, Sham 69 were at the forefront of the punk explosion but are rarely given the same credit for their contribution to the controversial movement that’s been afforded those iconic outfits.
And yet their best-known singles Angels With Dirty Faces, Borstal Breakout, If The Kids Are United and I Don’t Wanna were genuine calls-to-arms that saw the band’s frontman Jimmy Pursey held up as every bit as much of a spokesman for a generation as Johnny Rotten, Joe Strummer and Pete Shelley.
The four-piece’s early albums Tell Us The Truth and That’s Life partially filled the void created by the Pistols’ implosion in January 1978, ahead of the following year’s more unfocused The Adventures Of The Hersham Boys.
When their fourth album failed to chart in 1980 they disbanded, with Pursey forming the short-lived Sham Pistols with the Anarchy In The UK legends’ Steve Jones and Paul Cook before going solo.
Sham 69: On again, off again
The singer eventually teamed up again with Sham 69 guitarist Dave Parsons in 1987, and a new line-up recorded a string of albums up to their 2001 offering Direct Action: Day 21.
In late 2006 the pair went their separate ways amid a series of rows, with Parsons soldiering on with the group after recruiting new singer Tim V.
Further acrimony followed in 2011 when the guitarist announced Sham 69 had split – but the other members continued without him.
Parsons immediately responded by patching up his relationship with Pursey and relaunching the late ’70s incarnation of Sham 69 with original bassist Dave Tregunna, who’d gone off and formed goth supergroup Lords Of The New Church with Damned guitarist Brian James.
All three remain central to the line-up, with drummer Robin Guy – a fixture since 2012 – making up the quartet which nowadays co-exists alongside Tim V’s rival combo who somewhat bizarrely record under the famous name.
‘Original’ Sham 69 line-up to blitz Dundee
The “original” Sham 69 play Dundee tonight fully 16 months after the gig was originally due to have taken place, with illness having led to a couple of postponements since April last year.
However, Parsons insists there’s no pressure on the sixty-somethings to rush into rescheduling shows these days. “What we do is a little different to other bands who tend to play all of the time,” he says.
“One of the reasons I went into the music business is that I didn’t want a job that was like a nine to five. If we ended up playing at the rate that some bands do, especially at our age, it would end up feeling like that.
“When people come to see you they still expect you to perform like you did as a 17-year-old – if you did that every night there’s no way you could perform like that.
“If you have so much time between your gigs you can give it everything you’ve got, and it also means that you’re still hungry for it and really looking forward to every gig you play.
“We are fortunate that we’re in a position where we can do that. It means that we have the energy to perform how we want to and how the fans want to see us and that way everybody enjoys it.”
‘Like a dysfunctional family’
Although their appearances are relatively few and carefully selected these days, The Real Sham 69 has been all about playing live rather than studio work in recent years, and Parsons admits they initially got “a bit high and mighty” after reforming, when their set was mostly made up of new songs rather than the vintage hits.
That’s not the case anymore, and fans can look forward to hearing plenty of raucous classics at Beat G with the veterans back in fine form and feeling “the buzz” at their gigs.
“Going back to not overplaying, there’s just nothing like it,” says Parsons.
“People ask if we get bored playing the same songs but we only play them 12 or 13 times a year.
“When you’re up on stage every audience is slightly different and the connection with that audience and the way you play the song and the way they are received is all a new chemistry at each show.
“It’s about getting a connection and that’s where we get the buzz even now after all these years. Not to get spiritual or anything but it’s those moments when the band and audience almost become one that is a real buzz.”
Parsons describes Sham 69 as “like a dysfunctional family” and insists the past conflicts have been put aside.
“There’s something really special about playing with Jimmy and Dave,” he declares.
“You can make new friends, but it’s never quite the same as the old friends from the early days and it’s the same with a band. We have fallen out over the years, but in the end the bond is so strong that you overcome those things and rise above them and it makes the band stronger.
“It’s nice to have a bit of an edge, but it’s also nice to know that you can take risks and go places that maybe you couldn’t with people you didn’t know as well.”
Sham 69 will play at Beat Generator on Friday August 25 2023. For more information and tickets, visit the Tickets Scotland website.
