Interview: The Lice

Photo By Jonathon Pratt

Born out of Teesside’s fledgling punk scene in ’77, The Lice quickly became a Rock Garden favourite thanks to their chaotic live shows and sharp‑edged attitude. Nearly five decades on, the band have resurfaced with four unearthed tracks recorded at London’s legendary Gooseberry Studios — the same walls that hosted the Sex Pistols, Tubeway Army, LKJ and PiL. Engineered by Mark Lusardi and unheard until now, the recordings offer a rare snapshot of the band in their original form.

The songs burst with all the ferocity you’d expect — growling guitars, crashing rhythms and punchy, snarling vocals — but sharpened by a crisp, modern gloss and an unapologetically front‑and‑centre production.

We catch up with Jonathan “Jonty” Pratt (aka Earl Abuse – vocals), David Martin (aka Spider- drums and percussion) and Chris Bell (aka Griz – lead guitar), ahead of their celebratory show at The Georgian Theatre Stockton on Saturday 21st February, to find out more…

After nearly five decades away, what pulled The Lice back together for this one-off show?
Jonty: Our original bass player, Graeme “Kid” Moses”, who now lives in Ontario, Canada, was approached by a guy called Dizzy Holmes, from Detour Records, in the UK, for permission to publish four Lice tracks on vol 16 of his Bored Teenagers album series. As it happened, Dizzy had a bootleg version of four songs the band originally recorded in 1977, at Gooseberry Studios London. It was a rough cassette mix from the session but it was very poor quality, as it had been copied so many times.

Graeme refused to allow its release, but he said our drummer, Spider, had the multitrack tape. Spider did have the tape and it was digitised and sent to Graeme, who has a studio in Ontario, where he mixed and produced the songs from the original 1977 tape.

Spider: When Graeme moved to Canada, he gave me the tape with a “guard it with your life” warning! I was asked about the master tape and I thought, thank goodness, I have been the keeper of that tape for decades, get this bloody monkey off my back! When is it being collected? The strange thing was, none of us had ever properly heard it. We had only heard a quick mix done by the engineer Mark Lusardi and Graeme. Anyway, nobody had a tape player that could play the 1-inch master tape. Then I was invited to hear the tracks with Jonty at our manager Derek’s studio and I loved what I heard. When it was mentioned we could play again, it was an easy call to say “I’m in”.

Jonty: Yeah, then we had the fun part of tracking the original band down. It turned out Alan “Kingy” King (aka Nick Anything – guitar/backing vocals), now lives on the South Coast, so has not been able to rejoin the line up. Then, when we eventually found Micky Dunn (aka “Vic Dim”- guitar/backing vocals) he was also not able to rejoin the band. One of our guitarists, Chris Bell, had made a new life for himself in Sheffield. When he was told about The Bored Teenagers album and the gig to promote it, he wanted in.

My thinking was this would be a great way to promote the album and have some fun getting back up onstage after 48 years. God, is it really that long?

Chris: I was contacted out of the blue. Graeme in Canada had got my mum’s number, Derek called her and she gave out personal details to a complete stranger, as you do! After speaking to a couple of people, including Graeme, I thought this would be fun, why not, a blast from the past!

Spider: We still needed a bass player, as it was impossible for Graeme to join us from Canada. After a few false starts, we ended up with the three of us, me, Jonty and Chris, plus my son George on guitar and his friend Shaun on bass and what a cracking line up that has turned out to be. Shout out to the whippersnappers!

What do you remember most clearly about being part of Teesside’s early punk scene in ’77?
Jonty: Well, we were right at the start of the punk movement. Early adopters, if you like. Apart from The Rock Garden in Middlesbrough and Coatham Bowl in Redcar, there weren’t many places to go, so we did end up playing out of town quite a lot.

Chris: There were a couple of pubs that had regular punk nights, The Teessider and Harewood Arms I think and I also remember doing an afternoon gig in a pub known as The Mucky Duck, in Norton. We had a gig at The Dovecote Arts Centre in Stockton, but they got cold feet at the last minute and cancelled! They’d never had a punk band before! We scurried around to find a local boozer that would put us on, and let people know through the local radio station. Anyway, the pub was heaving, there was another 100 people outside, and the landlord sold all his beer! Needless to say, he wanted us back on a regular basis.

Spider: We were always looking for gigs. Graeme spent a lot of time calling people on the phone, as there wasn’t email or social media back then. He was quite successful and we ended up playing with some great bands. Bands like The Rich Kids and Joy Division, who were called Warsaw at the time. Getting about was always an experience. I can remember travelling in the footwell of a Cortina estate, the back of Alf’s van with the gear and the rear parcel shelf of a Hillman Imp. Also, hitching back from Watford Gap with Jonty. Money was always a problem, as we didn’t have any!

Those Gooseberry Studio recordings have been unheard for 48 years. What was it like revisiting them now they’ve finally been released?
Jonty: The tracks are a lot better than I was expecting. Graeme did a fantastic job remixing them in his studio, they sound really good! It has been a fantastic opportunity for my family to hear what I was up to as a youngster and what we achieved musically. My son has even bought an album (no freebies), I think he likes what his old dad used to do.

Spider: The tracks sound great and have stood the test of time. Proper rock ‘n roll! When I first heard them, I recognised my beats immediately from that part of my musical past. I even thought, after 48 years of playing in numerous bands, I still use some of them. Listening to the teenage me is a bit weird after all of these years. At the moment I play in a band with my brother and my son George called The Wot. With George, because he is in today’s Lice line up, he’s loving playing with the guitar god Chris Bell.

Gooseberry hosted everyone from the Sex Pistols to PiL. How did it feel walking into that studio as a young Teesside punk band?
Jonty: It was exciting to walk into Gooseberry and hear Steel Pulse recording tracks as we walked down the stairs! We knew we were there to record four tracks and we knew we didn’t have much time to do it, as the budget was very tight. We met up with the engineer Mark Lusardi and discovered he was the brother of Linda Lusardi, so that was exciting for us young lads.

Spider: When we pulled up outside, we saw Mick McManus, remember him, the wrestler? My first impressions of this little basement studio was “what a shithole”! There again, all the best studios are. Ha, ha! No, I was totally overawed, so many great bands had recorded there, including the Pistols, Tubeway Army, and Public Image Limited. I knew we were good enough and we were all up for it but we had a lot to do in a short time. It felt more exciting than what you might call pressure. We were all very young at the time, mostly 17 and 18. I remember desperately hoping that the engineer’s sister would pay us a visit but no such luck!

What can people expect from The Georgian Theatre show — is it a faithful throwback, or something different after all this time?
Jonty: The Georgian show will be a bit different to the past gigs, more songs old and new, with a few punk bangers from back in the day! We will be playing the four tracks from the album: Fight The Front, Rejected, Slave Labour and Teenage Dream, along with two brand new songs specially written for this gig, We Are The Lice and Next Generation. I am pretty sure I won’t be throwing myself around on the stage as I used to but I will do my best and there will be a lot of energy in our performance. Another big thing is the other bands who are playing with us. We have Dead Hombres supporting and GAYDAR opening the show. With the blend of Gothabilly Rock, Hi Energy Gay Punk and original Punk from the 70’s, it’s going to be a hell of a night and I can’t wait to get back on that stage.

Spider: Well, it’s a chance for friends and family to experience what I’ve been wittering on about all these years! Because I’ve continued to play drums in various bands, I felt I was physically gig ready and it was so great to get back with the boys, playing after all of these years. I think the gig at The Georgian will be lots of the same from back in the day but with a big difference. We have many, many more years under our belts now, so some of our music has matured a little bit but we have also written some new songs for this gig, which I think reflect our thoughts about the music industry of today. It’s going to be high energy and a memorable night.

Chris: As the boys said we will be playing plenty of tracks old and new, as well as a few classic covers from some of the big punk bands of the 70’s. Our two younger band members  have really added something to our sound and it has been great to play with them. So everyone will get the sound of the old Lice, with some new elements and some new takes on the world of today.

With the merch, artwork and limited tickets, it feels like you’re marking the occasion properly. Why was it important to make this gig feel like an event?
Jonty: For me it’s because, the chances are, we will not play together again. So it’s a chance for our friends and family to see us play for one last time (or the first time in some cases)! That makes it special for us and we need to make it special for the audience.

Spider: We wanted it to be memorable and we wanted there to be something people can keep from the gig – T-shirts, limited edition tickets and the like. Our press-ganged manager, Derek Griffiths, has been working hard on this side of things. Most of us have known Derek since 6th form days and as a retired teacher, we thought he might have the skills to pull this gig off. He has done a great job, even commissioning the new Lice Logo from the Teesside street artist ZX8BIT. And what a design, by the way – brilliant! His design has appeared on posters, t-shirts, tickets, etc., and does help to brand this gig as something special and that’s important!

Chris: If you’re putting a gig on almost 50 years after the band’s heyday, it makes sense to pull out all the stops to make it as memorable as possible. I have family coming to the gig, who have seen me play over the years but they have never seen me with the band I played in when I was 17 and that’s going to be special for me and I want it to be special for everyone who comes along. I think even the line up with Dead Hombres and GAYDAR supporting us is special. It is going to be a great night.