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Interview with Nina and Phil from Healthy Junkies

1. First Punk Rock band you ever saw Live? Where/when?

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Phil : The Boomtown Rats @ Hemel Hempstead Pavilion in 1979.

Nina: Sham 69 at The Astoria, Charing Cross road 2008.

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2. First Punk Rock Record you bought? What made you buy it?

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Phil : King Rocker by Generation X. I loved the tribal energy. It was so fresh, new and exciting at the time.

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Nina : Never mind the bollocks by The Sex Pistols. I didn’t buy it as such but acquired it and was blown away by the energy. 

 

3. Favourite Venue to play shows? UK or abroad

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The Unicorn, Camden road London. It’s been the home of our monthly night Punk and roll rendezvous for 9 years.

We’ve played with so many bands there and it’s like a second home.

 

 4. Influences?

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Phil: Bauhaus, Bowie, The Skids, Nirvana, The Groundhogs, Hawkwind, The Sex Pistols ,The Buzzcocks, Robert Fripp and

Sonic Youth. 

Nina: Nirvana, Hole , Patti Smith, The Doors , Iggy Pop, Suede, The Vines and The Verve.

There’s loads more of course but this is a taster of some key influences.

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Healthy Junkies

5. Any new bands impressed you and worth a shout out?

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There’s so many new or new ish bands that play our punk and roll rendezvous nights but recently: Kontrol Freaks, Alice is Sleeping and Menopause Army have all been excellent.

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6. What’s the future look like for you ,Tufnell Rock Tower and Healthy Junkies?

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We plan to carry on putting on our aforementioned

monthly night Punk and roll rendezvous.

Obviously we don’t know when the Unicorn will be open again so it is hard to plan ahead.

For Healthy Junkies we are planning to record more new songs for our next album.

Also we have a bunch of ideas we want to turn into songs.

We will also be getting on with making more videos

 from our latest album Forever on the road. There are some shows coming up.

And more next year including a Lips can Kill 2 tour in April/May.

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7. What is the craziest, most memorable thing you have seen at a show? Favourite show?

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Nina: Watching Iggy Pop Wade through the crowd at the Albert hall on the Post pop depression tour. There was so much in the room and he somehow connected us all together. He went through the whole venue.

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Favourite: Giants in the trees at Ballards, Seattle in 2018 with Krist Novoselic on bass.

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Phil: When we played at Fred Zeppelins in Cork, Ireland

the band on directly before us, Audible Joes,  played to full small room. 

The mosh pit got crazier and madder until eventually during the last song of their set one of their fans, Shamus, fell over and hit his head on a floor monitor and knocked himself out. The music stopped and a couple of off duty nurses attended to him. He came to again during our set and got right on with moshing to end of the night. According to Audible Joes Shamus always breaks something at one of their gigs. The week before he lost a tooth and the week before that he broke his wrist. That kind of commitment to live music and moshing is phenomenal. And you have to admire his determination and resilience.

Favourite gig: Bauhaus at Aylesbury Friars.

8. Horror Movies or Science Fiction?

 

Nina: Horror.

Phil: Science fiction.

 

9. What do you dislike?

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Nina: Having neighbors.

Phil: Not playing gigs.

 

10. Guilty pleasure?

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Nina: French cheeses and Boy George.

Phil: Chocolate and Aha and maybe Abba as well!

 

11. Is Punk Rock Dead? 

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No it is very much alive and kicking. In fact it’s going to kick the door down. Loads of great music will come out of this lockdown and live music will explode back onto the scene with a vengeance.Punk rock will be very much happening, Rebellion festival goers and bands are itching to get back into the thick of it.

 

 

12. Any advice for aspiring young Musicians out there?

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Never compromise on your music. Play the songs that you like playing. Don’t forget to have fun doing it. Be singleminded and determined and do everything you can to reach your goal. Never surrender and set your sights high.

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Interviewed December 2020

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