Thanks to the success of my latest band FREAKSHOW, I am beginning to get back on the Punk scene that I had walked away from, meeting and playing shows with bands that are really doing something worthwhile.

It was playing at The Old Warf in Birmingham that i encountered another band on the bill, named FIRST WAVE, and bloody great they are too!

Hailing from Leicester and Northampton in the UK, they do exactly what the name says, play FIRST WAVE punk, much influenced by The Lurkers, 999, and The Clash.

The 3 piece outfit fronted by Bassist / Vocalist SCUNDY, aided by awesome Guitarist MONKEY and powerhouse drummer STOOGE, were so refreshing to watch, in the fact that most bands calling themselves Punk these days are a Sub EXPLOITED style thrash or 2nd rate Green Day copyists,,,,,these lads are not, they are 1977 Punk, heart and soul.

Their CD "20 MINUTES ' FAME" is an album that will fit nicely with your Punk Cd's by the UK's 'Big Three' - Pistols, Clash and Damned.

ROCK N ROLL VALLHALA is a tune about Rock n Roll legends who have passed on to a better world, and starts the album off in style, MACHINE GUN BLUES could have been an Addicts song, with its big chorus. 20 MINUTES FAME should get a mention for maybe being the only song ever to mention Wolverhampton in its lyrics, a great song about life on the road.THE PROBLEM WITH ENGLAND is another great tune (the key here is the songs all have tunes you can hum all day), and i admit its my second Favorite on the album. DISASTER DAY is my Fave though, this has a rock n roll on speed feel, easily equal to anything The Lurkers ever did.......These boys should be checked out as soon as you can, find out their website or Myspace and get some FIRST WAVE.....you wont be disappointed.

At the said show, I spoke a lot to SCUNDY and had a quick chat with MONKEY and STOOGE, and MONKEY kindly agreed to be interviewed here for PUNK GLOBE....so here Goes.

Punk Globe: Hi Monkey, Thanks for agreeing to be Interviewed. Can you tell us a bit about How the band got started and Why?

Monkey: No worries. The band started in 2002. Tony n Stoodge were in bands together back in the day so that's how the name happened. I saw their first gig as First Wave in Leicester with their 1st guitarist Rob when I was playing for another band. We kept in touch, and 3 years later when my next band hit the rocks and Rob quit, so I started filling in for him... that was 5 years ago, so I figure I'm "in" now, what d'you reckon? ;-)

Punk Globe: Why pick out just first wave of Punk to play, Was it a conscious decision?

Monkey: No, we don't sit there and think "How can we sound like it's straight outta '76" or anything like that, it's about what we love. I mean, we're a punk band, and we'll always have that energy, but we're not stuck in a rut and we don't play covers all the time - we're inspired by the first punk acts from both sides of the pond, but we're writing now, about things that we care about now, so it's up to date. But there's other influences in there too, like garage rock and old-school rock n roll as well. I'm sure some people think punk was invented one stormy night in a laboratory with electricity flying around and pots of bubbling liquid: "Eureka! Punk is born!" but it evolved like anything else, and we're influenced by the same sounds that went into the mix in the first place: like Eddie Cochran's 20-Flight Rock... his girl lives at the top of a tower block and by the time he gets up there he's too knackered to get down to business... That could have been a punk song, easy!

Punk Globe: Who are the bands main influences?

Monkey: Pretty varied- Ramones, Clash, Damned, Cockney Rejects, Lurkers, Vibrators, Wildhearts, Ruts, Killing Joke, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, George Formby, Backyard Babies, The Nomads, Motorhead. Basically there's two kinds of music: good and bad.

Punk Globe: You have played shows with many of the Punk big hitters that are still around, anyone you would still like to play a show with?

Monkey: Oh yeah! We've played with UK Subs, Angelic Upstarts, Anti Nowhere League, Cockney Rejects, Vibrators, Vice Squad, Eddie & The HotRods, even John Otway on one occasion! If Joe Strummer were still with us, then I'd love to support the Mescaleroes, because Joe's a massive influence on us and the Mescaleroes were pretty awesome too in my humble opinion... Getting real though, we wanna play with the Damned, that'd be a biggy, and another aim is to get on at Blackpool as well - some of the bands that play there are really "not all that", and I know we've got something different to bring to the party.

Punk Globe: Tell us how you get such ideas for songs like THE PROBLEM WITH ENGLAND and others.

Monkey: It's simple: we don't write fiction. We write about what we know. Stuff that annoys us, stuff that we care about, people we know, things that've happened. Problem with England was about my frustration with politics in England - about how the government f--- you over for your hard-earned, then take away your civil rights using terrorism as an excuse, and at the same time you can't even be proud of the things you still love about your country because you're worried you'll be lumped in with right-wing nutjobs. OK, Rant over... And then there's songs like 20 Mins Fame - about trekking around and playing our stuff to people and having a great time. And then there's the songs Tony writes about these nutty women he's known...

Punk Globe: What does Punk mean to you?

Monkey: Musically, I reckon it's like a modern folk music: by the people, for the people. But it's more. It's an attitude: a healthy disrespect for authority in whatever form it appears in. And it means DIY as well: if no-one playing the music you wanna hear, make it.

Punk Globe: Which Punk bands around now have you seen that you think are flying the Punk flag well?

Monkey: OK, let's get up to date. Check out Insane Society, Street Dogs, Citizen Keyne, New Generation Superstars, Southside Rebellion, Dead Petz, Dun2Def, and the older bands are still putting out new material, and people oughta listen to it because it's great! Don't just stick to your "best of punk vol 3" and all that... Go check out what the Lurkers, 999 and the Vibrators have been up to lately- you won't be disappointed.

Punk Globe: Whats next for FIRST WAVE and where can people find out more and buy your music?

Monkey: We've just been in the studio up in Sheffield putting down 4 tracks - that's how fast we work - 4 tracks a day, bam! No messing around. So we'll have a new EP and an album soon once we get it all together.

Go www.firstwavepunk.com - you can buy our tunes from Songrila via the site for a real cheap price, like £4-something for a whole album- stick it on yer ipod and get it in yer lug-holes! And all the gig dates and news are on there too. The next gig is 31 March with the Kleins at Sawyers in Kettering: an awesome venue: independent, underground and all about the music- we love playing there.

Well, there you go, FIRST WAVE, great bunch of guys and a band I wont forget seeing.