Sick 56 Interview

The band formed in 2000 with ex members of The Pink Torpedoes and One Way System. In the beginning there was myself and Mark, we left TPT because we were fucked off with the other two members wanting to focus on covers and pub gigs while we pushed the original stuff. Craig joined next, he was the original guitarist for OWS and you see his name dotted around the early classic song records. Finally, Tom Roberts our bass player joined, he?d been to music school, was into old skool UK82 punk and was a mate of ours so it all fell into place. Putting the band together with the right chemistry was not done by design; we?re all mates for many years and work well as unit / band. Our influences are varied and extend to all avenues of the punk rock scene, there?s no metal influence in this fucking band!!!!!! For 3 of us, 1977 and the punk scene then was our first exposure to music really so its all we know.

I dont think the punk scene has changed that much over the years. the only real difference is the 30 to 40 crew don?t let themselves go like they used to. What I dont like is the music being watered down to absolute acceptability. All this so called new punk bollox like Busted and McFly and the American tish associated with it you know, lets all sing with American accents, what the fuck is that all about? Cant think up our own original stuff anymore can we The record companies they work for only want the cash of the kids so theyll deliver shit throwaway songs on an unsuspecting generation. Punk Rock to me has always been about having something to say as a frustration backlash to something. Nowadays its all too safe fucks me off completely, while SICK56 are here, we'll make our fucking noise, 2 fingers up to everything we're pissed off about and retire gracefully when weve said our bit.

My favourite tune to play at the moment is No Accident although I love all our songs. We?re always critical of what we add to our roster of songs so when one does get added it?s usually because we all like it. It?s important as a band that we all like playing the songs as this comes through live ? if I hated something in a song you?d know about it live!

Tom our bass player is 21 and loves UK82 punk, Boothy our drummer makes excellent home brew real ale, Craig still drinks Carlsberg Special Brew every week after 27 years at it, I listen to an average of 4 hours punk rock every day and have done most of my life, SICK56 have always tried to help other bands out with the use of our backline / equipment. The band likes to play charity gigs whatever the cause.

The real truth is Boothys original email address used to be mark@sick56.freeserve.co.uk, he wanted to have sick in the address but 55 other people had beaten him to sick.freeserve so he had to make do with sick56.freeserve. We were in the pub one night thinking about short single barrelled names and I thought of using his email address and thats where it comes from.

Not the UK for sure, Europe and the rest of the world make a real effort. I put this down to their social environments and respective music industries ? they don?t have the same level of shit music thrown at them and the kids want music with bollox. Punx are social outcasts, we feel different, we think different, we act different and the kids abroad don?t give a fuck about being as conformist as our youth over here ? I mean, tracksuit bottoms tucked into socks with Rockport shoes on plus fucking stupid baseball caps ? these trouble causing cunts think we look stupid! - flying round in their fucking hair dryer 1000cc cars.

I would describe SICK56 as having integrity, honest, opinionated, helpful, dedicated, we don?t give a fuck who likes or hates us, we do our own thing musically, we won?t be around forever but while we?re here we?re going to say our peace then fuck off gracefully. We?ll hopefully be remembered as a band that truly believed what we sing about and that if our songs mean anything to anyone listening to them they were written for those people in mind.

We need to complete our new album before we book anymore gigs, we've been doing it now for 14 months and we're not far off having it completed, but we?ll be playing at HITS, Antifest and other gigs not yet lined up. We also want to get over to the US as we get 100?s of emails from fans wanting to see play out there.

Thanx for taking the time to interview SICK56 and thanx to your readers for reading this. Our underground scene is kept alive by the dedicated people who do the fanzines and the effort to distribute them. As punx together we're family.