webpage: http://www.dementlieu.com/~obik/

email: obik@dementlieu.com

Angelic Upstarts interview from Real Threat 2.  Reproduced with the kind
permission of Pete Zelewski (editor of Real Threat).

Interview conducted on June 4th, 1982 at the Freezer Theater in Detroit.

RT: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE USA SO FAR?
MOND: It's better than being in England cause Englands a bit dead at the moment.

RT: WHAT FOOTBALL TEAM DO YOU GUYS SUPPORT?
MOND: Ask him about football. (points to mensi)
MENSI: Sunderland
TONY: I dont like football.
MENSI: Fuck you man...Have you ever heard of Sunderland?
RT: No, only Westham.
MENSI: Oh fuck that, fuckin wimps, fuckin Westham.

MOND: Not a very big turnout eh?
RT: No, not so far.  There was a big turnout for the UK SUBS though.
MOND: Has it been advertised?
RT: The club put out a lot of flyers.

TONY: Oh yeah, they're doing Ripoff (about the Necros in background)
DECCA: I thought that song sounded familiar.
MENSI: They kinda speed it up a bit.
TONY: That's what Sham needed...look at them fucking idiots (about stage
divers) I'd never seen this slam dancing till we played in Mount Vernon with
Black Flag.  They were all gettin up the side of the stage and runnin across it
and fuckin us up, we didnt know where to stand.

RT: HAVE YOU HEARD ANY US BANDS?
MOND: I've onty seen Black Flag.
MENSI: I saw the Bad Brains in New York and fell asleep.
RT: NO DOUBT.
MOND: We havent had time to see that many bands cause we've been traveling.
RT: WHAT KIND OF CROWD DO YOU GET AT SHOWS IN ENGLAND?
MOND: Mostly punks.

RT: WHAT ENGLISH BANDS DO YOU LIKE?
MOND: SLF.
TONY: UK Subs.
DECCA: The Exploited
RT: WHAT ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?
MENSI: Clash, Pistols.
MOND: Olivia Newton John.
TONY: Genesis (laughter)...no honestly, I love motown, its not an influence
but I love motown music like the early 60's.  Can you buy them cheap here?
RT: Yeah you can find them here.

RT: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS BAND OPENING FOR YOU (Necros)?
MENSI: Not a lot [something pretty big was cut out here before the mag was
printed...some bitching, mayhaps?] they're alright, but too many fuckin bands
you see know are just tryin to be fashion.  I mean they're just doing exactly
the same thing, none of them try to distinguish themselves from each other. 
They're all doing the same thing.

(A video then came on which prompted us to talk about rats and the Upstarts
hotel accomadations)
MOND: There was this big fucking rat running down the street by our hotel.
MENSI: IT WAS THIS FUCKING BIG! (Mensi spreads his arms about four feet apart)
TONY: It was so big I could've put a saddle on it. (laughter)
DECCA: I was going to rope it and bring it in.
MOND: It was to big for me, I was scared of it, it had tatoos and Doc Martens
on it. (more laughter)

RT: WHAT TYPE OF CROWD DO THEY GEY AT REGGAE SHOWS IN ENGLAND?
MENSI- All Rastas.
RT: DO THE RASTAS FUCK WITH ANYONE?
MENSI: It's not the fucking rastas, it's the fucking soul boys who'll get you,
not rastas.  They live for peace and smoke but they faint cause there's
pickpockets, the soul boys, the fuckin trendies, the disco kids.

RT: ARE THE SOUL BOYS WORKING CLASS?
MENSI: Yeah, working class.
DECCA: I'm looking forward to the day when theres no categorizations.

RT: DO YOU LIKE THE ANTI-NOWHERE LEAGUE?
MENSI: Yeah, their a good laugh.

RT: HOW DO YOU LIKE THE BEER HERE?
MOND: Half the stuff we been getting here is fuckin awful.  We've had some
decent stuff though.

RT: ANTI PASTI SAID WHEN THEY CAME HERE, THAT ALL AMERICAN MUSIC IS SHIT, DO
YOU AGREE WITH THAT?
MOND: There's probably some good fuckin' American music, if it's this big
there's gotta be some good stuff.

RT: HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ON TOP OF THE POPS?
MOND: Yeah, once.

RT: WHAT SONG DID YOU DO?
MENSI: Teenage Warning.

RT: ARE YOU GOING TO PUT OUT ANOTHER ALBUM?
MOND: We already started a new album, we got two songs already.
RT: IS IT GOING TO BE LIKE THE OLD STUFF?
MOND: Yeah, faster and harder.

RT: WHERE DO YOU GUYS LIVE IN ENGLAND?
MOND: London
RT: EAST LONDON?
MENSI: Aw fuck that, whats all this about East London, its all fuckin slums. 
North London is the place to be.

RT: DO ANY OF YOU GUYS HAVE GIRLFRIENDS?
MOND: (points to Mensi) You got what, three girlfriends?
MENSI: Two.
RT: DO THEY KNOW EACH OTHER?
MENSI: Yeah, actually I just hang about the schools, I like em young.
RT: Soul girls, right?
MENSI: Yeah. (laughs)
TONY: Decca fucked this bloke once.
DECCA: Yeah, he had it cut off but it looked real.  It felt the same, I fucked
IT! (laughs)

RT: DO YOU LIKE PETER AND THE TEST TUBE BABIES?
MENSI: Yeah, I liked one of their songs.
RT: "TRANSVESTITE"?
MENSI: no "Intensive Care," it's great.
DECCA: I like Glen Miller.
TONY: He's a bit of a prick though, that Peter, I was talking to him after a
show and he said he totally hated the Exploited.
RT: DO YOU GUYS LIKE THE EXPLOITED?
MENSI: Yeah, there great to watch, total chaos.
RT: DO YOU KNOW IF THE EXPLOITED ARE GOING TO DO A US TOUR?
MENSI: There's not a good possibility cause they went to Germany and there was
a riot, they went to Holland and there was a riot too, cause Wattie was
smashing the hotels up and everything, I started a riot in Germany in the street.

RT: ARE YOU IN ANY WAY ASSOCIATED WITH THE NF OR BM?
MENSI: You can't be any more against them than we are, they're wanks, they
masturbate too much.

RT: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW ROMANTIC MOVEMENT?
MENSI: (starts to make jerk-off motions which cause everyone to laugh)
RT: Your drummer thought the same thing when an Adam and the Ants video came on.
MENSI: That's my claim to fame, I used to hate Adam and the Ants before they
were famous, that's my claim to fame.  A fuck in wank.

RT: JIMMY PURSEY PRODUCED YOUR FIRST ALBUM, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HIM?
MENSI: He's totally gay, he's a spare wank.
MOND: He was on the television three or four weeks ago back in England dancing.
RT: DISCO?
MENSI: No!  FUCKIN' BALLERINA!
(TONY starts dancing around and everyone laughs)

RT: DID YOU LIKE SHAM WHEN THEY WERE AROUND?
MOND: In the early days.
TONY: I like Sham still, I got all their LP's.

RT: DID YOU HAVE JOBS BEFORE YOU STARTED PLAYING OUT?
MENSI: I used to be a male prostitute, but I was to demanding. (laughs)
DECCA: I used to be a postman in Venice.
TONY: I was a postman too.
MOND: I was a sex object. (more laughs)
MENSI: You want a sex object, theres one {points to KILLER, a roadie)

RT: HOW WAS YOUR SHOW IN NEW YORK?
MENSI: New York was shit but Mt. Vernon was great.

RT: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SOUL BOYS?
MENSI: I like the girls better (laughs) I step on them in the discos, when
there all being fucking John Travoltas, punch them out dancing, shoving their
faces in the toilets, fuck in great man.  Look at that poof...he's a poof
(points to the singer of U2 on the television)
DECCA: He looks like Steve Jones.
RT: Same Hair.
DECCA: Only thinner, he looks like the bloke in the Buzzcocks. (points to the
guitarist in U2)
TONY- Steve Diggle, yeah, the guitarist looks just like the guy in the
Buzzcocks.

RT: DO YOU THINK YOUR SONGS CAN RELATE TO THE US OR JUST ENGLAND?
MENSI: They relate to everything and everybody no matter what color and creed,
no matter where, it could be fucking anywhere, it doesn't matter where.

RT: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MARGARET THATCHER?
MOND: She takes fucking tax off us, shes a cunt.
TONY: She makes a good breakfast. (laughter)
MENSI: She's a fucking slut.
RT: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS, WOULD YOU GO?
MENSI: I dont know where it is. (laughter) I dont have a job, can you get a
train ther?  I dont know where it fuckin is. DECCA: Its south of here.
TONY: They sell MADNESS records there.
MENSI: The Falklands?
TONY: MADNESS is the biggest seller of records there.
MENSI: We should do a gig there
RT: And do "ENGLAND" (laughs)
(yet another assinine video comes on the television)
MENSI: Who is this? (points to the television)
RT: Black Uhuru.
MENSI: Someone got killed when they played in England.

RT: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF REAGAN?
MENSI: He's a cowboy, all cowboys are faggots!
RT: WHAT DO YOU MEAN, A COWBOY?
MENSI: Fucking cowboy, any of em, I mean...how old are you?
RT: 17.
MENSI: You're 17, do you know how old he is?
RT: 70, maybe.
MENSI: He's 70, he's had his fucking life, he's fucking about with your life
now, fucking slagging them Russians off, saying this saying that.  He's 70
years old, he's had his fucking life, he fucked all the women he wanted to
fuck, it's your cunts that are going to die, not that one.
RT: I'm not going to die cause of Reagan.
MENSI: Hey, we've come that fucking close to dying with Thatcher, you fucker,
cause them fucking Falklands, no one knew where the Falklands was till she
started it all.
RT: Thatcher is a fucking bitch.
MENSI: They all are now arent they, tell me, how many fucking prime ministers
died in the last war?  Not a one.  How many generals died in the last war?  Not
a one.  We're the ones that are fucking going to die, not them cunts.

The interview ended here because they were getting ready to go on, plus,
MENSI's last few statements pretty much summed it up in our opinion.

P.S. THE ANGELIC UPSTARTS were the best fucking band I have ever seen.  Thanks
a million UPSTARTS!!!

DAVE & PETE