Skunk Rock
IntroIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times – brit-pop, big beat and trip-hop had all been invited and accepted, even taking to heart, by the public. True fans will always be there, but the general public are the ones that take an underground success to mainstream acceptance and success. The money was rolling in, magazines and music papers were selling. But the time in the sun that successful scenes and genres enjoy always ends, sooner or later, and with them the good times, so what would be next? What would keep the public interested and buying records, magazines, clothes, going to clubs and gigs, etc?
In the mid to late nineties there were a load of scenes being invited and flung at the general public – new wave of new wave (ok this was early nineties, but it never gets the props that it should), brit-pop, amyl house, trip-hop, big beat, romo, NAM (aka the New Acoustic Movement), skunk rock and a load of others. Some became successful and place their bands/groups at a level where they can make (at least) a living from their music.
Beyond a few fans most of these scenes never took off. Sometimes scenes had the spot light too early and got burnt into ashes. Some scenes seemed to be invented to group together bands that weren’t part of any other scene, but were exciting and doing something different and/or new - Skunk Rock was one of these.
The bands weren’t from a particular geographic area, didn’t have the same beliefs/ideas, didn’t go to the same clubs, dress the same or all sound the same. What they had in common were influences like rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop and dance beats Or in other words it was the return of baggy or baggy 2.0 or nu-baggy. But better than that sounds. They were looking forward to the future while borrowing from the best of the past.
Who were the Skunk Rock bands?
Basically it was anyone who sounded like they smoked skunk, got high and got oddball/out-there ideas for their music. The Lo-Fidelity Allstars, Campag Velocet, Regular Fries, Black Grape, Delakota, Beastie Boys and a few more that have been lost to the mists of time (aka I can’t remember them!).
These bands brought excitement and new ideas in the music they released, the gigs they played became semi-events and (mostly) gave good quote/interview. Many of the bands had that ‘last gang in town’ vibe, had their own style and verve and stood out from the more traditional bands that were around.
The Lo-Fi’s set fire to their decks and slayed audiences when they played live. Pete Velocet came across like an intelligent Liam Gallagher but turned up to eleven, a natural rock ‘n’ roll star, even before his band released a record. He worked with the Designers Republic and came up with some great stylish visuals. Regular Fries were an entire multi-media operation before multi-media operations were cool. As well as musicians band members included a film maker, music reporter and designer (who also did design work with Richard Fearless from Death In Vegas ). You didn’t join their fan club, you joined the Fries Space Ministry.
What went wrong?
Some bands lost their contracts/backing, the Lo-Fi’s lost their singer on the eve of their American tour, Black Grape seemed to fall apart due to inter band/management quarrels and maybe drugs (basically the same things that broke up the Mondays the first time), some bands were but into other scenes or make to their original scenes (e.g. the Beastie Boys went back to be hip-hop, if I remember right I think they were only skunk rock for a few days, maybe even just one article!).
But most importantly skunk rock never took off as a scene, not enough of the general public or journalists brought into it to take skunk rock into the same arena as rock ‘n’ roll, trip-hop or big beat. But because skunk rock was a journalistic invention none of the bands were bothered when it didn’t take off. They continued to develop and make records with a unique british flavour.
The End (for now!)
