“I think it’s been a very interesting year, I’ve heard loads of great stuff from all different genres, I’ve got a terrible memory so don’t ask me what, I’ve managed to help out some local bands and have tried to give a helping hand to new up and coming bands – check out "Middle finger salute". VLP: How do you think 2007 has been for music? What are your top three albums of the year and why? “2007 has just been a mad year for us, after spending the last 20 years hardly playing at all, to suddenly find ourselves out on the road again is the most rock’n’roll thing, we’ve just spent the Summer playing major European festivals followed by a five week US tour taking in Canada and then a Japanese tour then back to the States for two shows on long beach then back home – then trying to get over triple jet lag, Sham was always primarily a live band and it was just criminal that we weren’t able to take the songs out to the people who wanted to hear them, I’m 48 now, but feel like 18 again – long live rock.” VLP: What’s the most rock n’ roll thing to happen to you guys in 2007?
#SHAM 69 TOUR CANCELLED TV#
Oh and the other thing was narrowly escaping death, just missing an out of control car which subsequently ended up a write off in a ditch, driven by a famous TV gardener who shall remain nameless.” “I don’t know about the weirdest, but for me as a terrible flyer the most frightening thing was sitting in a plane at Heathrow on the run way for five hours while they sorted out a "technical problem", then when it was fixed, while we were taxiing out ready to take off one of the passengers started wildly shouting – there was fuel leaking out of the wing, you can just imagine my state of mind. A small tribute including some of his work can be seen on my web site VLP: What’s been the weirdest thing that has happened to you in 2007?
Also the death of one of my best friends, photographer and record sleeve designer Michael Beal, he worked with many bands including Johnny Thunders / The Only ones / Sham 69 / The Wanderers / John Cale / Pati Paladin and did the iconic cover for Eddie and the Hot Rods "Teenage Depression". “The death of my father in law whilst I was away on tour, he was a great guy who lived his life the way he wanted right up to the end, not being able to say goodbye to him (I missed seeing my father before he died as I was in hospital myself having an operation) and not being there to give my partner the support she needed, as I missed going to the funeral as well. Just to have found the right people with the right chemistry, and to finally be out there playing again, has without doubt been my biggest high.” On bass is Rob Jefferson, a veritable powerhouse who compliments my style of playing perfectly, Ian Whitewood remains on drums, being the longest serving sham drummer at over twenty years of fine service. Tim’s a cockney and has been accepted by the Sham audience worldwide. I found Tim V who had been on the Punk seen since the beginning, he knows virtually all the main punk bands and his best man at his wedding was Mark P – the godfather of Punk from ATV and sniffing Glue fame, so he came highly recommended. “The hardest and almost impossible task I had this year was trying to find a replacement for Jimmy, therefore my biggest high was completing the new line up with no compromises. I’ve spent my life working with Jimmy (and therefore some of the best times were with him) but in the end I had to protect the reputation of Sham 69.” At the end of 2006 Sham 69 parted company from Mr Pursey, there were many reasons for this, mainly that Jimmy would never play more than a handful of gigs a year while the rest of the band were desperate to get out and play Jimmy would accept tours and dates from promoters and take large advance payments which went into his pocket only for him to cancel the tour days before we were due to start, it had also become like working in a dictatorship where no one was allowed to question Jimmies decisions.
“This has been a year of major change for both myself and Sham 69.
VLP: How was 2007 for both yourself personally and for Sham 69 as a band? Vive Le Punk caught up with guitarist and surviving member Dave Parsons, and said "Tell us the Truth!" Last year was quite a year for 70’s punk legends SHAM 69 who saw both the departure of frontman Jimmy Pursey (who has since set up Day 21), and the formation of a new line-up which released the return to form new album ‘Western Culture’.