Thanks Mateus Mondini for this shot.

Classic punks GBH back for more

May 11, 8:35 AMPhiladelphia Punk Music ExaminerJohn Moore

It’s funny to think that 30 years ago, when the guys in legendary British punk band GBH were putting together their first demo, Pete Wentz was still in diapers and Taking Back Sunday’s Adam Lazzara was little more than a dirty thought in his parents’ minds.

Three decades later, GBH is still loading up the van to spread the gospel of hardcore and still churning out fist-in-the air, politically-tinged punk anthems. Their latest record is actually one of their best albums… well ever.

Originally christened Charged GBH in 1978, before dropping the word “charged” in the early 80’s, the band is among the founding fathers of street punk, a gritty, working class version of the genre. They have been cited by everyone from Rancid to Metallica as influences.

Though the music is light years away from what passes for mainstream punk rock today, the band is still highly influential. Recently signed to Hellcat Records, after years of lobbying by Rancid co-founder, and long-time fan Lars Frederiksen, GBH is more relevant than they have ever been, with a dedicated following in Europe, Japan and here in the U.S.

Singer Colin Abrahall – a genuinely nice guy – spoke recently about the band’s longevity, their decades in the making relationship with Frederiksen and the current state of punk rock.

Check out the entire interview after the jump…..

Congratulations on the new record. As a fan since the mid 80’s, it is by far one of my favorites. When you first started playing together, did you have any idea you would still be playing punk rock together in 2010?

Well thanks. A satisfied customer. When we first started we only thought about the next day, or the next show, so never dreamed it would last for 30 years. It sounds worse when you say it out loud. Everything we did was a little victory against the world; the first show we played, the first song we write, etc.

This is your first record for Hell Cat and I know the guys in Rancid are fan of your band. How did you end up on the label?

Yeah we’ve known Lars since he was 11 years old and he used to come to our shows in San Francisco and I think Lars and Tim (Armstrong) actually met at one of our shows. Lars has been on about producing an album for us for ages, but we never seemed to have all the ducks in a row for it. We demoed a few of the new songs and I sent Lars a copy and he played it to Tim. Tim loved it and now we are label mates.

What can you tell me about the new record?

Well, we’re very pleased with it. It sounds exactly as we imagined it would. When writing it we tended to do a bunch – 3 or 4 songs at a time. We never planned it like that; it’s just the way it happened. We recorded it in our hometown of Birmingham. The engineer we were using, Miguel, works two weeks in Birmingham then two weeks in Portugal, so when Miguel was away we just carried on playing shows. It was good as it gave us time to listen to what we had recorded so far.

You took some time off between the last record and this one. What do you do during the time off?

We’ve never taken any time off! It’s not like it was in the good old days of write/record/tour/write/record/tour with a non-caring record company breathing down your neck. We may be a bit older now so we do what we want, when we want… kind of.

I’m assuming “San Jose Wind” is about Joe Strummer. What do you remember most about him?

I got the chance to meet him when he played in Birmingham a couple of months before his death, but chickened out at the last minute. People say you should never meet your hero – or sleep with your dream girl or drive your dream car… well two out of three ain’t bad. A friend did go and meet him and said he was utterly charming; just a nice bloke. My mate has the “Know Your Rights” logo tattooed on his leg and Joe signed it for him. The next day he got the signature tattooed over. What I remember most about Joe was the sheer passion he had when performing and also a great sense of humor.

So what are your thoughts on the current punk rock scene?

It’s good. It’s always been good. The trendy bands may come and go, but there has always been a hardcore of good honest bands who care about the music and the scene more than being number one or appearing on front covers.

Did you think punk rock would still be around decades later?

Like I said earlier, we never used to think about the future much, but punk rock I a part of rock n’ roll and we all know that will never die!

At any point over the past 30 years, did you guys ever think about calling it quits?

No! Well maybe a little. If you’re having a bad day or something, but we have always used those time to write songs about what was getting us down. Turn a negative into a positive. Only death can stop us now.

This is certainly not the easiest job in the world… what has kept you going for so long?

What we are doing, meeting new people, going to new places, etc. We were all friends before we were in a band together. I have known Ross (Lomas) since we were 10 years old and used to play on the same football team. We are more than friends. We are family (isn’t that a song?).

Do you have plans to tour during 2010?

Oh yes indeed sir. We start our U.S. tour in May. We are also doing the first four Warped Tour shows in California on the Legends Stage. In October, we are going to Japan, Australia and New Zealand and in all the time in between we are playing in the U.K. and Europe. No rest for the wicked, eh?

Anything else you want to add?

Just be nice to each other. Oh, and check out the new record!