Meeting GBH - Interview with Colin Abrahall

Interview with Colin Abrahall - a vocalist and co-founder GBH (also known as Charged GBH). Legendary punk band from Birmingham formed in the late 70's is currently on European tour promoting their latest album "Momentum".

We talked before their show in Nuremberg, Germany. Here you can see more photos:

#GBH #ColinAbrahall #Interview
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[henryonly]

It's crazy to see how the decades are going by in the punk rock scene but our hearts are always Young and pissed off.

[reneeconlan]

Good Interview with some great photos.

The Best Quote ...PUNK IS LIFE ! (Colin Abrahall)

[janjanssen-jc]

Seems to be a real nice bloke!City baby is still my favorite punk album

[brandonspivey]

I saw GBH at the Mayflower club in Gorton back in th eearly days. It is great to see this interview.

[mrjackoify]

Top man what a real nice dude still the best today as GBH was in the the early 80, s
🤘🏻😈🤘🏻 love Staffordshire HomeTown x

[richardcawthray]

Leather, bristles, studs and wrinkles

[iandarragh]

G.B.H YOU CAN'T GET ANY BETTER COLIN AND THE BAND MORE THAN FRIENDLY GUYS ☠ 👍🏻 ☠ 👍🏻 ☠ 👍🏻

[leakyjim]

"You act more sensible, but only a little bit!" Quality!

[ricardorobbiano]

We all grow old. It´s the natural law. Nobody looks better being old. And WTF? We will all carry wrinkles but few of us have a work that transcends us and for which we will be remembered. Collin Abrahall and GBH yes. And that's the only important thing.

[ragazzi]

we're all getting old..no need to panic!

[willieluncheonette]

from my article on the top 15 punk albums

City Attacked By Rats. Released August, 1982. Reached #2 on the Indie chart, #17 on the U.K. charts.

Originally Charged G.B.H. and later just G.B.H., this crucial band formed in Birmingham, England in 1978.The initials stand for grievous bodily harm, (in English law, a serious physical injury inflicted on a person by the deliberate action of another), not "Great Big Hairdo" or as their singer joked, "Girls, Booze, Hash." Along with Discharge and The Exploited they are generally considered one of the three most important bands of the second wave of UK punk.

Singer Colin Abrahall remembered, " Before punk came along, I didn't have any real interest in music at all. I was at school at the time and all these rumours would filter through the playground, stuff that was from The Sun newspaper, really silly things like ' Punks spit down their girlfriends' throats when they kiss, ' and so on. I remember hearing "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" on the radio and thought 'Wow, this is great' ...then I heard the Sex Pistols and The Clash. I suppose I was the right age at the time 'cos it was all so rebellious and the stuff your parents would hate, and it just felt so right to me."

G.B.H. played their first real show at Digbeth Civic Hall on September 12, 1980—a benefit for prostitutes' rights. They played all ten songs they knew, with Abrahall quite scared. After the show they got a few compliments, and someone said the band was decadent. " So, I went home, " Abrahall recalled, "and looked it up in the dictionary."

The band recorded four demo songs in 1980, then Clay Records signed them, and they recorded an excellent and much loved 12" EP, “Leather, Bristles, Studs And Acne”. This well played, hard charging platter surprisingly became a big seller, peaking at #8 on the UK Indie Charts. Songs like "Lycanthropy" and "Necrophilia" were quite unusual fare for a punk record. Two singles followed and then their classic debut album, City Baby Attacked By Rats, recorded in three days, hit the stores.

Some of their earlier songs suffered from less than stellar production but with City Baby… the band was let loose with 24 tracks to work with. The result is wonderful; on a good playback system it sounds superb. The album opens with a loud, ticking clock, "Time Bomb, " and it really does explode into the stratosphere after that. Well-crafted melodic punk, excellently played and sung with power and aggression. Songs about a maniac " Your face will turn a ghostly blue as he comes into view/ To slice you up in not enough, he must dismember you." Ramones' type lyrics in "Sick Boy" " I'm strapped into my bed/ I've got electrodes in my head/ My nerves are really bad/ It's the best time I've ever had." "The Passenger On The Menu" deals with cannibalism. The song "Slut" was harshly criticized in some magazines "I wanted you 'cause of your bust/ And now I want a night of lust/ Can't wait around anymore/ So take me home you dirty whore." Offsetting these types of songs are those like "The Prayer Of A Realist", which questions the reality of a God with so much suffering in the world.

A complete success, one of the most perfect punk albums of the 80's. Really a must to hear and own.

[ArnoldBo]

最近、Good Locking Guy を、YouTubeでよく見かけるなぁ。
あのコリンが老眼鏡なら、僕の頭がハゲあがるのも納得や。

[brrrstikup]

i always wanted to know why Wilf i get the feeling the split wasn't amicable.... just the way Colin said Wilf couldn't hack it, like he was having a little dig at him