Highlights - Muses
 

Exclusive Interview

August 18th, 2001 - United Kingdom

Portal do Rock has the pleasure and honour to bring you this exclusive and recent interview with the cute Rebecca Louise Bond, or only Beki Bondage, as she is best known, lead singer of one of the most popular and influent European punk rock bands of all times, the Vice Squad.

Beki is, with no doubt, the supreme muse of punk adn she is considered by many as the Prime Minister of Punks. With punk anthems like "Rock & Roll Massacre" and "Stand Strong, Stand Proud", Beki and his band conquered respect and admiration from the punk movement.

Before going to the interview with Beki, let´s talk a little bit about the history of the muse and her legendary band.

 
 
 
 
 
Beki and the Vice Squad

Originating from the ashes of local bands The Contingent and TV Brakes, Vice Squad formed in their native Bristol in early 1979 with a line-up of : Beki Bondage (Rebecca Louise Bond) - vocals, Dave Bateman - guitar, Mark Hambly - bass, Shane Baldwin - drums.

After only three rather raucous gigs they managed to secure a place on the local compilation 'Avon Calling' on Heartbeat Records, an affiliation that would lead to their forming Riot City Records with heartbeat supremo Simon Edwards.

After supporting the likes of The Damned and The Ruts and gaining a fair amount of press due to leki's fondness for rubber outfits and leather whips, Vice Squad released their debut EP 'Last Rockers' in early 1901.

With the aid of DJ John Peel and Sounds journalist Carry Bushell, the single shot to the top of the Indie charts and saw the band rise from local status to Punk's First Division in a matter of weeks! The 'Resurrection' EP followed in May of the same year and when that too topped the Indie charts EMI Records, impressed by the increasingly high profile of Beki, moved in a signed the group in a joint production deal with Riot City.
EMI's determination to transfer the band's Independent success to the National Charts paid immediate dividends when the single 'Out of Reach/Sterile/(So) What For The 80's (Z26) climbed to No. 68 in the UK Top 75, giving Vice Squad their one and only hit single.  
 
 
 
 
 
This paved the way for the band's debut LP 'No Cause For Concern' (ZEM 103). Spending over five weeks in the charts and peaking at No. 32, 'No cause For Concern' was recorded and produced by the band themselves in the three days they had off whilst on a tour of the UK (in fact the weekend of Prince Charles' marriage to Diana!).

Featuring re-recorded versions of early singles tracks 'Last Rockers' and 'Young Blood' as well as a version of the 'Avon Calling' compilation track 'Nothing', the album also included a cover of Bob Dylan's 'The Times Are A-Changin' which the band later recorded with Beki's replacement Lia on the B-side of their 'You'll Never Know' single. And with the whole album completed by stage favourites like 'Angry Youth', 'Evil', 'Coward' and 'Summer Fashion', it was no wonder that Vice Squad became the band that all the others had to look up to.
  This year Beki and Paul were joined by journalist and EMI´s punk retro co-ordinator Alan Parker at the famous Abbey Road Studios to put finishing touches to the new Vice Squad CD, called "Banged to Rights", released last May 2001.

This CD was released by EMI/Capitol Records and can be found at the best imported CD stores, including the Portal do Rock´s online CD Store. Among the tracks one can find the classical "Rock & Roll Massacre", "Last Rockers" and "Evil", with superior quality comparing to the previous compilations of the band.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Besides the classical songs, the new CD brings also 10 new and unreleased tracks and a fantastic interview with Alan Parker interviewing Beki Bondage, which is the only Beki´s interview recorded in a album or CD in many years.

The Interview

Portal: How was the things (atmosphere) in Bristol in the end of the 70's regarding youth, bands, music, etc and why did you go for punk rock music?
Beki: Most of the other kids at my school were into disco or bands like deep purple and Dr.Feelgood, but there were a few into punk and I found punk the most interesting as I always loved the sound of electric guitars but found some of the metal bands were sexist and there didn’t seem to be any girls in the metal bands. In punk there was siouxie, poly styrene, gaye advert etc. I was also a bit of a rebel from an early age, so was attracted to the idea of there being no rules in punk.
Portal: How was it to be woman, punk and lead singer in the end of 70's, in Europe?
Beki: We didn’t really do anything until the early 80`s. It was exciting in many ways because we were so young and naive, but I did pretty mad things like hitch hiking, taking drugs etc and hanging round with older people, getting banned from pubs etc. I was madly in love with punk and didn’t study at all at school I just wanted to sing. There were lots of venues with live bands in Bristol at that time, often at colleges, so I saw a lot of punk bands. 

Portal: Tell us a little bit about your musical influences in the begining (Vice Squad) and now.
Beki: I liked the Clash, the Damned, and the Pistols etc but used to try singing like siouxie and poly styrene. I think every singer starts out copying someone else. Now I still like those bands but I also like singers with huge powerful voices like Little Richard, Noddy Holder, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin.

Portal: When you were playing with Vice Squad why you decided to have your own label and how was the deal with EMI? Was it good? Would you advise bands to have their own labels as well? 
Beki: We didn’t have our own label exactly, we paid for the recording of the first E.P ourselves and changed the name of the label it was to be released on to “Riot city records”, but a guy called Simon Edwards owned the label, I just thought of the name. The EMI deal was ok I suppose, they usually let us have artistic control. I don’t know whether it’s best to have your own label, as it’s hard to run a band and run the label. I would advise bands to get legal advice before signing their songs away to a publisher as I regret signing my old songs away.		  
 
 
 
 
 
Portal: Why did you leave Vice Squad and how is the band today?
Beki: I am very bored with answering this question; it just drags up the past!! I didn’t get on well with the manager or the band very well at the time and wanted some independence. I don’t wish the old band any harm, looking back at the old material I think they were talented and wrote some good songs. They didn’t continue in music so I didn’t want to play with them when I started Vice Squad again. I don’t know what they are up to these days except that Dave got married and has a non-musical job and Shane is a journalist. I don’t know what Mark is doing. I can understand why they didn’t continue in music because it is a very hard way to live unless you are extremely successful. You have to face constant rejection and have a low standard of living.
 
Portal: Can you tell us of any good tour together with any other band you really enjoyed playing together?
Beki: Social Chaos USA 1999 has to be the one. It was a very hard tour with fourteen other bands, but inspire of a few fights over stage times and the inevitable bitchiness caused by lack of sleep and food, we all got on really well. I really missed all the other bands when the tour was over. The bands we played with included: T.S.O.L, Sloppy Seconds, Anti-Heroes, L.E.S Stitches, The Business, UK Subs, One Way System, D.R.I, and DH Pelligro.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Portal: Did you meet the Sex Pistols? Were they influences for you or not? What about The Ramones? Do you like them?
Beki:  I didn’t meet the Sex Pistols or ever see them play I was too young. I saw The Ramones; in fact “Sheena” was one of the first records I ever bought.

 Portal: Have you heard about any Brazilian band and have you ever thought of playing down here?
Beki: Yes, we’ve heard the metal scene is really good in Brazil, and our friends The Varukers have just come back from a tour of South America, so the Punk scene is happening also. We would love to play in Brazil!!
Portal: Do you have new projects? New CDs coming? Solo carreer? What can we expect?
Beki: We have a new al bum out on EMI called “Bang to Rights”, it’s the definitive Vice Squad collection, 19 tracks of old and new songs .I am about to start writing songs for my solo album and of course we’ll also be writing songs for the next Vice Squad album.

Portal: Any message for the Brazilian fans?
Beki: Yes-we want to come to Brazil and play for you, thankyou for your support, we really appreciate it. Good luck to you all, we hope to see you soon.

"Lots of love from Beki, Paul, Mildred and Tone".


Marcio Faveri 		 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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