Auckland, New Zealand, the pre-punk mid-70s, where two art (okay, graphic
design) students are sniffing around in empty fag packets, looking for
a cigarette in the aftermath of a hippy rock concert. "You scavenger,"one
huffed at the other, and New Zealand's first punk group gained it's
oddly compulsive name. Hold that scene for a moment. The Scavengers
sifting through the debris at a 60s style free concert. It fitted the
myth of punk - the insolent outsiders in the junkyard of the 60s. And
while New Zealand wasn't America or England, and there were precious
few fat jaded 60s rock stars in Auckland in the 70s, like most western
rock scenes, New Zealand's was ready for a fresh infusion of energy
and musicians. And out there, was an audience. Teased by the cult of
the teenager the 60s threw up, reared on Glam, Bowie, Lou Reed and the
New York Dolls - a new generation was ready for their teen rebellion
- enter the Scavengers and a new kind of teenage rock n roll.
The Scavengers - Johnny Volume (guitar/b.vocals), Des Truction (drums),
Mal Licious (bass) and Mike Lezbian (vocals) - were four Auckland Tech
students , bent on playing a brash street rock. When punk exploded outta
London in 1976, they latched right onto it's insanely confident surge.
It was mid-1977, before they received a break, a slot in front of a
trad rock group, at old wave night-club, Moody Richards. It wasn't long
before the tabloid press, (like the Scavengers, echoing their British
counterparts), found them there. The following Sunday, Auckland's premier
punks appeared in the Sunday News, right in the face of the beergut
and small mind brigade. I wonder what they made of that, they'd only
just used to hippies. All the Scavengers are pictured. Mal Licious levelling
a particularly malevolent stare at readers, his safety pins and razor
blades, clearly in view.
The Scavengers took the controversy wagon on the road in late June to
the Universities Arts Festival, hitting Wellington with the Suburban
Reptiles, the other prong of the Auckland punk vanguard. The bands looked
out of place, and Johnny got beaten up after Buster Stiggs, the Reptiles'
drummer split a girl's head open with a wayward drumstick. Johnny made
the paper the next day. Just before the group's first TV appearance
on Ready To Roll, the Wellington-based teen rock n roll show of the
era, playing Marlon's 'I Hate You,' and the Sex Pistols' 'Pretty Vacant,'
Mal Licious was ejected.
English immigrant bass player, Ronnie Recent (Brendan Perry), jumped
on board. Johnny Volume, blasted on whisky after the train trip down,
and draped with a star painted acoustic guitar, was kept judiciously
out of view as the Scavengers mimed the two punk tracks. Lucky, the
original Scavengers had pre-recorded them at Auckland's Harlequin Studios.
I wonder what the kids thought of that ? If the punk explosion and it's
innovative aftermath soon to erupt in all the major centres, was anything
to go by. They dug it big time. By February 1978, the Scavengers had
the abrasive Heartbreakers-kicked and Clash-prodded 'Supported By The
State' and 'Routine' in the can at Mandrill Studios in Parnell, ready
for release on Polydor Records.
The untimely departure of frontman Mike Lesbian to an advertising career
killed what would have been a Kiwi punk must-have. Our loss. It would
be another year before the Scavengers finally hit vinyl.
Ronnie
took over singing for the series of Scavengers' sessions, taped at radio
station, 1ZM, in 1978, which captured the best part of the punk group's
original material - Born To Bullshit, Routine, Supported By The State,
Twenty-one, Money In The Bank, Anne, Swastika Boy (later called Brick
In The Wall,) and Violence, together with a cover of the Dave Clark
Five's Glad All Over. It's a little mother lode. The Scavengers weren't
what ya'd call prolific in the songwriting stakes, but they had it.
The stuff. Money In The Bank is a gem. It takes a while to grab you,
then Johnny flicks up a gear, rolls off a riff that sounds like punked-up
Flaming Groovies and then proceeds to slap the tardy opening riff back
to life for good measure. It's a fine Kiwi punk moment. Born To Bullshit
features some nifty sax from Scavengers' roadie, Ross Townsend. It's
Johnny's tale of the hype around the Simon Grigg managed Suburban Reptiles,
who Volume had played with in 1977. Johnny was the only Scavenger actually
Supported By The State, but that didn't stop them penning a nasty piece
of Clash inspired rock n roll by that name. It's 'We don't wanna work
anyway,' refrain has lost some venom with time, but in those days, hardly
anyone was on the dole, and if you were, you certainly didn't flaunt
it (unless you happened be a snotty punk act from Auckland.) Routine
is back, with a longer feedback and drums intro, and some more Thunders-inspired
guitar riffing from Johnny V. Back in the cradle of Kiwi punk, up an
alley in Durham Lane, street rock had finally found a home. Zwines,
a down-at-heel club in an old grey stone block building, that had been
a teenage rock n roll club in the sixties, then a rock n roll nightclub,
Grannys, and after hours club, Gran'pas in the early 70s. The Scavengers
were Zwines' first resident group in April 1978, holding court to the
increasing number of Auckland punks who'd negotiate passage past the
sometimes violent, sometimes armed, street gangs, the Headhunters, Stormtroopers
and King Cobras who hung at Babe's Disco, in the same building. Picking
up pace, the Scavengers upped their profile around town, playing the
city's burgeoning live scene. They were a hit at the Globe Tavern near
the University, ditto the Windsor Castle Tavern in Parnell. In June,
they jumped on the bus with Auckland punk's finest, the Suburban Reptiles,
the Stimulators, the Assassins and the Idle Idols, bound for a punk
festival at the Wellington Town Hall with the Capital City's 52. The
whole excursion was filmed by an Eye Witness documentary team. The punks
performed on cue. It was New Zealand punk's finest hour. The following
evening Barry Jenkin played a Kiwi punk special on his fast becoming
essential TV rock show, Radio With Pictures. The Kiwi punk cult was
coming in from the cold. The Scavengers stayed on in Wellington for
a short run at Slack Alices. On the final night, Johnny was felled by
a flying jug. He arrived in Christchurch the next day still covered
in blood. The Scavengers returned home via North Island provincial cities,
Palmerston North, Napier and New Plymouth. With the Auckland punk and
post-punk scene vibrant, and the Scavengers undisputed kings, you'd
have thought they'd be happy. Nah. They were bored. Rip It Up, the local
rock rag, noted Johnny chewing on a mainstream band's microphone chord
while they played. It was time to leave. On the way out they recorded
a video of Mysterex for Radio With Pictures. The Scavengers set their
sights on London, settled for Sydney, and ended up in Melbourne. In
December, the Scavengers finally made it onto record shelves in New
Zealand with Mysterex and True Love, as part of the AK '79 compilation
of Auckland punk and post-punk. By then, they were the
MARCHING GIRLS . Another face. Another story. - Dix Engels
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