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Making the rounds in support of their latest Epitaph release “No Mercy For You,”
their first since ’99’s “The Truth, The Whole Truth” LP, The Business have been a
driving force to the U.K. Punk scene for some twenty years and show no signs of
slowing. Proving as relevant to the cause today as when they first started as leaders
of Punk music’s second generation spokesmen, The Business, rough around the edges
but none the worse for wear, brandish a high-strung intensity to their music by way of
a well channeled concern for the world around them, the issues at large, and for all those
that will follow. For an early Sunday evening show at an old NYC staple that soon will
be shutting its doors, The Wetlands, guitarist and primary song writer Steve Whale and
I caught up a couple hours before the band were to destroy what would be left of the
stage as headliners on the “Spirit of the Streets” tour that finds them touring with the likes
of mighty Hellcat “label-mates” Agnostic Front among others. As a youthful and varied
crowd continued to filter into what would quickly become an overcrowded sweatbox, we
covered everything from the band’s industrious history in an intimate sidewalk setting that
included the wondrous sights and sounds of backed up Canal Street traffic, panhandlers
and diesel fumes. All in all a classic Punk Rock moment filled with nostalgia and future hope…
Me: So is this your first time doing the states in a while?
Steve: Been a year and a half since we toured America. This is one of the best tours we’ve done…
did two weeks on The Warped Tour then we picked up the Spirit of the Streets tour with Agnostic
Front, The Nerve Agents and F-Minus…
Me: The Warped Tour? So how was that?
Steve: Don’t think they quite knew what to make of us at first. It was just like a real sort of in-your-face
Punk Rock… and they sort of got the idea straight away -- I’d like to think we went down really well and
I hope a lot of kids maybe picked up the Street Punk banner and took a bit of interest in what it stands for
and what it’s all about.
Me: I missed it but (and the first of many intrusions stemming from an overcrowded intersection blessed
with backed up traffic and impulsive horn-blowers makes its way to the tape) I notice about Punk music
in general, since it started way back and now today, it’s still as strong as ever. You realize it doesn’t change --
what it represents will always be relevant whether it’s twenty years ago or twenty years ahead…
Steve: Yeah totally. Our new album “No Mercy For You” is written in the style of “Oi” like back in 1982,
but brought to 2001 with the sound quality. It’s obviously a lot more in your face and better produced but
the actual style of songs was written from back in the early style. And you know, social conscience, which
is a big thing with Street Punk, features quite heavily on the new album -- “Code Red,” “Belmarsh…”
(Both highlighted under a “Defend Your Rights Or Lose Them” caption closing the lyrics page) we’re dealing
with prison injustice, amnesty, and Howard League, plus web addresses for kids so they can check out the
campaigns that are going on and just be aware of stuff that takes place in our society. And that’s what we’re
trying to put in a positive light with our music but also equally, we want to put fun back into it… ya know
you’ve got your “Guinness Boys,” (right up there, song two) on the album and “Boys Are Out Tonight,” and
stuff like that, so we try and balance it up a bit.
Me: So is it as much fun now after all this time?
Steve: Yeah, to be honest it’s a lot more fun. I was just a kid when it was all happening before and really didn’t
know what was going on at the time. I thoroughly enjoy myself now. It’s nice to see this stuff going on in the
states that indirectly you’re sort of responsible for.
Me: It’s kinda cool how you can have such a mixed bill like this from the Hard-Core local scene to the Street Punk
and old schoolers like yourselves all coming together on the same stage and there’s so many bands out there now…
back when you guys first started you could count on one hand how many bands actually meant something… so
maybe that’s as good a testament as any of our societal regression.
Steve: I feel this sort of “Punk” label is extremely strong at the moment in regards to… like Blink 182, The Offsprings,
the Greendays… And it’s just encouraging in a certain respect cause I feel it’s keeping the name alive and that’s so
important and is a real, real big thing. Coming from second generation Punk and obviously being involved in the scene
today it’s nice to see the label is still out there in some way -- still having something to say to society… and I feel that’s
really important (and so too does the local cavalcade of cars as they roar their approval!) As I said the other day in
another interview, what do you want to do, get rid of all these Blinks’ and the Greendays (didn’t we already get rid of
‘em!) and so what are you going to listen to, The Backstreet Boys or N’ Sync… that’s your alternative, so what exactly
do you want?
Me: You can have your Blinks’ and your Offsprings, those of the commercialized variety, but you can also have your
working-class Hard-Core types that will have a little more of a lasting impact I think…
Steve: There’s a market out there for everybody at the end of the day -- so yeah, there’s a lot of debate about it, but
coming from the second generation, I’m glad the word “Punk” is still being spoken about and is alive and well.
Me: What were the bands that meant something to you when you were first starting out -- who represented what “Punk”
was all about that were your influences?
Steve: My history would’ve gone back to the first generation Punk bands in London. I grew up at a time when we had
The Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Ruts, The Clash, Slaughter and the Dogs… there were these tremendous bands all
playing in London and that’s how I grew up every night. I was out learning about Punk Rock and learning about each
show and so the natural progression for me was to form a band. I try to project that to the kids that come to our shows.
Those kids, who have to go out and be in a band, do a magazine, do a film, be a director… that’s the idea. You don’t
just sit on your ass… that’s what Street Punk’s all about, getting out and doing something!
Me: I’m not up on the entire Business catalog which I suppose has a lot to do with limited availability as anything else, but
“No Mercy For You” looks like only the sixth LP for you guys -- considering you’ve been around for like two decades,
why so few and far between?
Steve: We split up for a long time (looks like a five or six year gap -- late eighties to early nineties) but there’s a lot of history
involved in the group. Really over the last six years it has been pretty much getting it together and just trying to represent the
Street Punk attitude -- giving it a chance in America and see what they think of it. You know bands like the Dropkicks and
stuff like that have taken that a little bit further and presented the working class ethics in a great positive light. So that’s what
we wanted to do (and now for the latest entry of continuous aural acoustics, the most deafening horn blast yet -- so damned
if I’m sure how the rest of this sentence comes out) Come to America and represent Street Punk and Oi… and we feel we’re
achieving it.
Me: For as long as you’ve been in the band, what’s changed during the years, do you as a band see things differently today?
Steve: I think we’ve got a lot more to say for ourselves now-it’s maturity really. Regarding the “No Mercy” album, it’s very
strong lyrically. It’s telling kids about stories they can relate to. As far as I’m concerned, that’s my job as a lyricist, to make
kids aware of what the fuck’s going on behind their backs.
Me: You couldn’t have picked a better label to support your cause, I think with Epitaph and all their imprints, they’re one of
the more supportive and best respected in the Punk Rock circuit.
Steve: It just really is a weird feeling -- we feel like we’re at home on a label. It’s a great thing for us to achieve after all these
years and we’re really happy to be with them.
Me: So how long is this Spirit of the Streets tour going on for?
Steve: Five weeks in America and then it goes on to Europe and Murphy’s Law replace Agnostic Front on the European leg.
Spirit of the Streets is gonna be an ongoing thing anyway, whether it’s The Business or Agnostic Front or whoever that
embodies that street spirit type thing. It will carry on and be a banner that’ll be used…
Me: How would you compare the response so far in the states to that of Europe? (And now the ultimate, a bus rages in the
background, thick black cloud… beautiful)
Steve: At the moment I think The Business is probably bigger in Europe, so yeah… but we’ve always got great support in
N.Y., Boston, LA… Hollywood and stuff.
Me: You mentioned some of your influences back in the day and some of the bands -- love ‘em or hate ‘em that help keep
the Punk label alive, so who do you like to listen to today?
Steve: I get sent a lot of stuff from Epitaph, so a lot of that… I like The Forgotten, F-Minus… The thing is I could go on and
on and say all these bands and be here all night. America’s got a great output of Punk bands.
Me: Especially now with all the labels picking up on ‘em out there -- what do you think about some of your old schoolers
still out to make a go of it -- now I’m talking about those so-called “comebacks” mainly, do you think they still have something
to offer?
Steve: Yeah, The Damned of course. The Exploited is second generation anyway, so it’s all cool… I mean, TSOL, we
played with them in Washington the other night. They’ve just got a deal with Nitro as well so they’re back on track so to
speak… Yeah it’s all pretty much happening, so good luck to ‘em!
Me: What’d ya think about The Pistols’ reunion a while back?
Steve: Well I don’t know… I wouldn’t go to see the Pistols’ anyway cuz it would probably ruin the great image I’ve got of
‘em! Ya know there’s a lot of bands where if someone offers them like 5 grand to play one show somewhere, and they all
got normal jobs and they think, “Here’s a weekend away in some city,” then most of ‘em would go, “Yeah of course we will.”
So that’s that scenario… then there’s the other bands who say, “We respect our name, we wanna come back with a bit of
dignity and do it properly and really go for it!”
Me: (And in true professional fashion, here’s where I wanted to wrap things up with Steve and do one of those parting, “any
final thoughts” type of thing and then of course a few minutes of random chatter afterwards just had to find its way on tape
and luckily it did as it would’ve been sinful to leave out and then I’m thinking how did this slip by earlier…)
Me again: So Steve, I see you guys dig the Guinness, what’s your take on some of the American beers you’ve been so
graciously offered here (and this is before I knew the club was laying out Pabst Blue Ribbon, which I never knew still existed --
the type your Granddaddy’d buy cuz it was cheap and tasted awful, right? So in relation, Steve’s response is pretty much
what would be expected…)
Steve: Well I just experienced this Blue Ribbon or whatever it was and it was the most disgusting thing I ever fucking tasted!
The thing with “Guinness Boys” is that it’s being presented to Guinness by an advertising company as a possible ad -- so
that’ll be interesting to see what happens with that! We’ve also got a track on the new album called “Hell 2 Pay” where it’s
the title track of this new gangster film which will be coming out soon… and also “Hate Kill Destroy” (that’s “Hate K.D.”)
is on the new album and it’s gonna be on an extreme sports Hollywood film! So really everybody just go out and buy the
new album and tell every topper what a great album it is!
Contact: [www.oithebusiness.com.uk]
Discography:
Suburban Rebels - 1983
Saturday’s Heroes - 1985
Welcome To The Real - 1988
Keep The Faith - 1994
The Truth, The Whole Truth - 1999
No Mercy For You - 2001
