Still Buzzing

The Vibrators may never have won the accolades for the battle that punk raged on mainstream music in the '70s, but they were definitely at the fighting's forefront. Forming in 1976, their single We Vibrate was one of UK punk's first releases, they played with the Sex Pistols at the infamous 100 Club (as well as in Amsterdam) and one of their tracks even gave Stiff Little Fingers their name, but to them it was all about the music.

“With the band as it was then people had various different things that they were into – Knox [Carnochan – guitar/vocals] was into stuff like Iggy Pop and The Velvet Underground, and Pat [Collier – bass] was very much into Mud and glam stuff like Sweet. I was into The Rolling Stones, The Kinks and The Faces – all of those classic rock'n'roll bands – and then we put all of those elements together to try to come up with something different. Of course punk hadn't been invented then so we didn't realise it then but we were kind of inventing it in our own way.

“Music was getting a bit up its own ass, and there were all these bands getting up on stage dressed as flowers and playing four-hour sets and releasing one song on each side of an album, and we just thought, 'This is so boring!' We wanted to go out and recreate that original spirit that you found in rock'n'roll in the '50s and '60s with bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry – just get in there and play loud and fast and snotty – and not copying what they did but doing it our own way.”

The Vibrators epitomised punk's DIY spirit and emphasis on passion over musicianship.

“It was the spirit and energy of it that was important,” Eddie reflects. “I hadn't played the drums before – I'd played in marching bands and I used to roadie for other bands, but I hadn't played with a proper drum kit – so I actually bought my first drum kit on the morning of our first gig, so I wasn't very accomplished. I had a lot of learning and catching up to do!”

Luckily that first show was just supporting some local band called The Stranglers.

“Yeah, we supported The Stranglers at The Hornsey College Of Art,” Eddie laughs. “No one knew The Stranglers at the time to be honest – they were just a little band that were going around playing the pub circuit. [Drummer] Jet Black had an ice-cream business and they used to put all their gear in his van, so they came around the corner in an ice-cream van. It was a sit in at the college for some protest – The Stranglers thought we were funny and we were a bit crazy, we'd only had two rehearsals so we just played half an hour of loud, snotty stuff. They gave us supports at other gigs and that got the ball rolling for us.”