Before too long the club began to fill with Fleshtones hungry Frenchmen and woman. It is important to point out to you just how seriously these people take their dose of Super-Rock revelry. A Parisian crowd always plugs into the band and the 'Tones never fail to return the gesture. So sitting behind stage before the show, it was nice to watch the bands eagerness *and* the lead singers nervousness. After all these years too. Perhaps it was down to the days demands and the desire to please the Parisian public. With guitar radio sets checked and a final run through the set list complete, the Fleshtones filed down to the stagedoor, screams and shouts rising from the dance floor. Coming at you BIFF, BANG, POW they tore into the Faces 'Come On Now, Hey!' A great opener. The 'Tones, effortlessly mixing old and new material into their trademark Super-Rock sound, encouraged the hyperventilating crowd even further. 'Accelerated Emotion', 'Let's Go' and 'This Is My Life' quickly came and disappeared into the Parisian night.

This band has such a rich songbook it's always refreshing to see and hear them flip through the pages. Tonight's musical trip included a bumper dose from 'Blast Off!' : 'Comin' In Deadstick', 'BYOB', an amazingly impassioned rip through 'The Way I Feel' plus an unscheduled journey across the 'Shadow-line'. During 'Fingertips' an inebriated Frenchie clambered onto the stage and wrestled the microphone from the Z-man, only to collapse to the floor screaming over the PA, writhing in a paralytic heaven. Totally unfazed Peter grabbed Ken's mic to continue the song and close the set. With the crowd pleading for more the 'Tones returned to play three, or was it four, encores. My blurry memory recalls 'Screaming Skull', 'The World Keeps Turning Round', a nerve tingling spin through 'Your're Holdin' Me Down (UK Freakbeat from the Buzz) and the inevitable 'We Gotta Go'. At this point Bill had pulled a floor-tom to the centre of the stage joining Ken, Keith and Peter in closing the show and singing adieu.

The Fleshtones are one of the most entertaining ROCK bands anyone could wish to stumble across. Never mind prefixing the "R" word with a garage, punk or frat label. Much better to dispense with sub-genre tags 'cause these boys transcend categorisation while still pleasing the record collector types among us. Peter, ever the ringmaster, spent a good quarter of this show singing from the middle of the audience. While Ken played magnificently for two hours despite carrying a painful back injury. I really felt for him when the band leaped off the stage and threaded through the crowd during the finale. As usual Lucky Billy worked tirelessly and turned his shirt into a dripping rag. Bounced around the stage ensuring the music ran smoothly was Keith, the perfect foil for the impromptu behaviour of the Z-man. In addition Strengo bailed-out the long delayed interview as he kindly agreed to run through a few questions the following morning in the bands hotel. So grab yourself a strong black coffee, pull up a chair and hit the play button...

Teen Scene : Let's start with the new CD 'Fleshtones Favorites' Keith. You guys have covered so many songs over the years didn't you have a problem narrowing it down to thirteen?

Keith Streng : Well that's why were gonna have to make parts two, three, four and five. So maybe it's not a problem.

TS : The songs for the most part seem to be R'n'B material. For instance 'Let The Doorbell Ring' or 'Next Time'. Was there any decision to concentrate on this style?

KS : Well usually when we do cover songs they're usually more on the R'n'B side anyway so when you're talking about making Fleshtones covers records they're gonna be more slanted towards R'n'B. We don't really cover pop you know!

TS : When Lindsay Hutton looked after 'The Vindicators' he said in a bulletin that the Fleshtones were going to record a Fan Club disc of R'n'B crunchers. Now that was over ten years ago.

KS : Yes it is true. Anyway, anytime we want to get back to what we are about and what we do, we always reach back to our R'n'B part of the Fleshtones. That is kind of what this is all about. Plus like I said most of the covers we do are R'n'B oriented so it's a natural.

TS : But there are one or two numbers, for instance the dB's 'If And When', which break that mould.

KS : Well that's because that's a song which Chris Stamey wrote a long time ago and always said he had the Fleshtones in mind to do it. So twenty years later we did it!

TS : When Peter sent me a copy of the new CD I immediately connected with the song. It has a great Kinks/garage-rock riff . I was sure I'd heard it before.

KS : It probably came out on Car Records. Really early on. You know Peter Holsapple is not even on 'If And When'. This single is pre-Peter Holsapple.

TS : I was reacquainted with it on the 'Ride The Wild Tom Tom' CD. The dB's version is very different to the 'Tones interpretation.

KS : You know obviously we relate to the Kinks a lot more than Chris Stamey does so that's the connection. It just sounded more like a Kinks song to us I guess.

TS : One of my other favorites is Bill's vocal debut.

KS : 'Mister Custer'. I have to say for a debut you can't top what he did.

TS : I particularly like the sound of arrows whizzing past Bill's head.

KS : That is actually Peter in the background off-mic. We did this recording on four track so there was a lot of things happening on each and every track. That's what makes it fun and exciting to do. It's not like you have forty-eight million tracks and you can put that sound on one track and this on another. So on Bill's lead vocal track you have Peter doing the arrows and percussion and whatever else is happening. It's easier to mix then - it's already done.

TS : Tell me a about the recording. You did it with Paul Johnson over in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Did it take a couple of days to lay down?

KS : It took I guess with the mixing, there were overdubs you know, probably a week. That's what made it fun. The whole thing about four track recording is when you're recording is to make sure you have the right levels because you're not going to be able to mix it after it's recorded. Once it's done it's done and mixed. Then it's just a matter of you have your four tracks and mixing that. That's what takes time, to make sure you have the proper level for whatever's gonna be on that track.

TS : Looking forward to your next recorded project. Peter said yesterday that you are interested in producing yourselves. Would you try and look for a small studio and follow a similar approach?

KS : I think in the future that Fleshtones recordings are just gonna become even more minimal or basic even if we go to a twenty-four track studio. And I think the next Fleshtones studio album is going to be a mix of studios. From twenty-four track to four track. I think it would make an interesting sounding record. Not just the same thing from track to track.

TS : There is a trend on the garage-rock scene at the moment for lo-fi recording. Where people go into very cheap studios and bang everything down quickly to try and get that immediacy from the recording.

KS : This is true but do you know what's funny, you take a group like the Woggles right, they've played me their new record. I asked them "How many tracks did you record this on?" and they said "Oh we always record this on twenty-four track". Because it doesn't sound it, it sounds like an eight-track recording or something 'cause it's kind of trashy and really... I just found that kind of amazing but you know you learn as you go.

TS : I picked up the Woggles 'Zontar Sessions' recently and there's a track on there called 'Carnivore' which sounds very cheap. Maybe they were using an old microphone for the vocals because everything sounds compressed.

KS : That's possible...

TS : That's looking a bit further ahead to the next studio album, but I hear there's the possibility of a 'Live In France' CD being released.

KS : We're talking about that right now. Our engineer on the last French Tour recorded quite a few shows. It was just recorded eight track off the desk. He compiled it and then he went to a studio and remixed it and it all sounds pretty good and people are kind of excited by it. I don't know what to think 'cause live records for me are kind of... unless they're bootlegs I don't find them exciting generally.

TS : Well on the whole, I've been a little disappointed with the official live albums, we've all heard superior bootleg recordings, for example the Victory Club Show in Philadelphia from '82.

KS : Right. A much better live record than anything that was released officially. And that is what I am getting at because I'm usually more excited by the things that are like off-the-cuff that you don't realise are being done. Then they come out and they are pretty exciting and fun. Whereas like something always goes wrong when you're planning a live record. I swear to God! So I guess if people want to put it out and they think it's exciting and good... I'm not myself excited by it. But the 'Live' album is probably gonna come out, there is even talk now about maybe releasing the 'Live' record and 'Fleshtones Favorites' as one package. Which would be kind of interesting. But it's just talk, only talk.

TS : Is 'Soul Madrid' the last live album?

KS : Well that is an official bootleg OK. This is the people from Record Runner saying "Hey look, we're gonna record you live tonight here's money", so that makes it an official bootleg. But basically that's all that is! It was mixed as it was going down live and it was pressed...

TS : ...Direct Metal Mastered.

KS : Exactly. So that's what all that was about.

TS : 'Cause that was when Fred Smith was briefly in the band.

KS : Well he was in the group for a year if you consider that brief. That is brief in the history of the Fleshtones.

TS : That was a difficult time for the Fleshtones. You had Andy Shernoff helping out after Fred, and Robert Warren was only with the band a year.

KS : Yes that was kind of like when the band wasn't really settled. Now the band is with Ken with what, seven years. I've lost track!

TS : Ken said that sometimes he thinks he played all the bass parts on 'Powerstance'. Turning back to 'Soul Madrid', no disrespect to Fred or Andy but when Marek was in the band there was a much more funky/r'n'b edge.

KS : Marek really was a popping bass player and that's what Ken is. He follows in that same mould.

TS : This is the thing I loved about the Fleshtones when I first discovered the band. A garage band with a bass player who was not afraid to add thumb-slapping bass lines. I found that very exciting.

KS : We'll take chances, we like to mix it up, that's what we're about. We're not scared to fall off a cliff you know!

TS : Now that Ken's been with the band seven years you can definitely see a tightness in the live performances.

KS : Did you like the show last night?

TS : I loved it. Especially the Buzz song - 'You're Holdin' Me Down' - it's a great number.

KS : I'll tell you the truth, that was one of the best versions last night we ever did of it 'cause that song for us can be hit or miss live. But last night it was really a big hit, it was a grand slam...

TS : You should seriously think about putting that on the next album.

KS : Which one? 'Favorites II' or the Fleshtones next studio album? So maybe we should put that on a major distributed album.

TS : Why not, I think we should introduce the world to a bit more Joe Meek. When you stretched out the "Go Back, Go Back" chorus...

KS : That must have been like three minutes and the song is only two!

TS : I was at the side of the stage racking my mind, I thought "I know that number" it's stuffed away on a compilation at home somewhere.

KS : Actually there is a Joe Meek compilation available isn't there?

TS : There's lots of Joe Meek material available but it ranges from R'n'B/Freakbeat to embarrassing and maudlin ballads.

KS : Do you know that one song about Tokyo? That is a ballad, do you know this? It's actually a beautiful song. I'm surprised you don't know that!

TS : I really like Joe Meek's experimental stuff with beat groups.

KS : Do you like 'I Hear A New World' by the Blue Men?

TS : This stuff has all been re-released in the UK. There are some totally obsessed Joe Meek collectors and they go for absolutely everything. But it is such a broad spectrum. But you've got to admire the guys get-up-and-go. The fact he was operating from a bedroom on the Holloway Road and he did some amazing things.

KS : This was after he was given money. They said "OK here's money for you to put together your idea of a studio" and as you said he made a studio out of a bedroom.

TS : If you get the chance, watch the Channel Four TV documentary him. People like Heinz and Screaming Lord Sutch are interviewed and there are is some great footage of the Savages recording with Joe.

KS : So Heinz is still alive?

TS : Yes and of course the million dollar question about his relationship with Joe was...

KS : ...there are pictures with Joe behind him smiling! You wonder if he a little more than assisted. I'm not sure!

TS : Did you know that Joe blasted himself with a shotgun?

KS : Well you know what was rumoured... I guess of course. He was accused of some pretty bizarre acts!

TS : It's sad but the guy was becoming totally paranoid. Phil Spector wanted to meet him in '66 but Meek refused 'cause he was convinced Spector would steal his ideas. By this time his personality was very unstable.

KS : Yes it's sad how it ended. It's too bad there was no one there who could help him. He was probably too far gone.

TS : Let me ask you about garage-rock.

KS : What about garage-rock!

TS : Well it's going through a bit of a resurgence at the moment.

KS : Is it!

TS : There is the Tom Hanks film 'The Thing That You Do'.

KS : Should have had the Fleshtones in it.

TS : Maybe. It's got a Hollywood take on the music. I haven't seen it because it's only just come out in London.

KS : I guess I should go see it.

TS : I've seen a couple of clips and the guys in the band look like the Trashmen or Rivieras. Very pre-Beatle invasion. Then you have all the bands on major labels borrowing from the garage genre. For instance SCOTS...

KS : They've been around for a long time, since the early eighties. This is not new and that's fine and great I think. They're doing fairly well and they are on a major label and they are good live. Actually I like them much better live, much more fun, I don't think it transcends as well recorded.

TS : Didn't you play at a Pig Farm with them last autumn?

KS : That was with them and the Woggles. It was very funny 'cause you could see the pigs in the distance.

TS : Were they enjoying it?

KS : I think so, they didn't run!

TS : Wasn't it raining that day?

KS : They had a torrential downpour, like days in a row before we arrived. Then we arrived and it cleared. Except the place was full of mud and the truck almost got stuck.

TS : Was this the show where Manfred and Peter had their showdown wearing Santos masks?

KS : As part of the Southern Skids show hand out wrestling masks to people in the audience who want to come on stage and wrestle. So of course Peter and Manfred after having about ten beers each decided this is a great idea. And then apparently there was someone else in the audience who had their own wrestling who was a fan of SCOTS and somehow Peter talked him into attacking Manfred from behind without Manfred knowing. So they actually double- teamed Manfred onstage.

TS : And Manfred is not a tall guy!

KS : He's smaller than me and I'm not that big at all. So they double-teamed Manfred, cleaned his clock and then carried him off. It was fun.

TS : You seem to have a good relationship with the Woggles and the Hatebombs. You've played Georgia and Florida a couple of time during the last six months. What's the deal down there?

KS : Well the deal is it's a nice part of the country to visit plus these bands are down there and we like to play with them because it's always good fun and it makes for a good show. But I think we are going to have to put off going to that part of the United States for probably at least another year. We have kinda worn it out.

TS : There is a lot of interest for the Fleshtones to tour the mid-west and west coast.

KS : The mid-west is probably going to be the next thing we are going to do. When I get home and I'm only going home in the middle of March. Let's say at the end of March we'll go out and do a long weekend. There is a club in Columbus, Ohio called Staches that has been around for a long time. It's always been a really good venue for us, good fun, and the owner Dan is a great guy. But apparently they have to close and they wanted us to be the band to close the club. So I think we are definitely go out and do this.

TS : This is going to be well received by a lot of fans across the States. 'Cause now that the Internet site is running they can see the band popping up to Toronto, across to Boston and down to Athens, Georgia...

KS : I guess I should get a computer one day. But I'm not computer oriented. I'm guitar oriented.

TS : Ken's working on it.

KS : Ken's doing really well. Actually Ken got a computer from his father-in-law and all of a sudden he's addicted to his computer. Here's Peter Zaremba...

Peter Zaremba : I want to eat something if that is possible... (hungover).

KS : Ken has this computer now and he's talking about upgrade this, upgrade that. I don't even understand it.

TS : Well it's such a shame 'cause he has a modem...

KS : A what! (pulls face).

TS : A modem for connecting his computer to the Internet.

KS : OK thank you.

TS : He has a Mac, but it's quite an old system and not smart enough to support the modem. He's working on it and he'll get there.

KS : Well can you talk to him about it later but...

Ken Fox : About what?

KS : Your computer.

KF : O there's nothing to say, it's a piece of edsel!

KS : He's talking about getting a new one actually.

TS : You mentioned Southern Culture and the Woggles and Hatebombs who are more grassroots garage bands. But there is a US band who I went to see in London last year who have Fleshtones appeal. They're called Rocket From The Crypt and come from San Diego.

KS : I've heard of them. Are they good? I heard they're really good.

TS : They have a rock'n'roll gang mentality. But while the 'Tones have a tongue in cheek approach this isn't so apparent with RFTC . During a Super-Rock show the macho element is diffused by the goofing around. The RFTC gig was like waiting for a football crowd to erupt. There was no sense of "OK this is really just a show". It was a bit menacing.

KS : But possibly quite a powerful band live, correct?

TS : Definitely. They use a horn section and the pacing is very punchy. At times it's reminiscent of the 'Tones or the Ramones.

KS : I have to see this group. A French fan of ours said he really liked RFTC and that they're a powerful band.

TS : Did you know they did a 'Music Machine' CD single on Sympathy For the Record Industry - 'Masculine Intuition' & 'Trouble' - which perfectly illustrates the bands roots. Their show echoes back to seventies punk and there is a fifties visual element too. They definitely mix things up.

KS : What I recommend for you to see is a band from New York called Los Dudes.

TS : This is Jesse, the guy who helped you with 'New York, New York' on the Dictators tribute.

KS : Yes Jesse Bates. He's a great songwriter. It's the one band in the past two years that I've really thought were a good live band and really enjoyed. Get the CD. Half of it is really great songs. Especially a song called 'I Hate You All'. An excellent song, this is like an anthem of some sort and the lyrics are great. You have to get this within four days!

TS : Are they garage-rock?

KS : They're garage oriented. Kinda like the Replacements, that kind of sound, that kind of approach.

TS : Talking about the New York scene like Brownies and the Continental...

KS : ...And the Mercury Lounge.

TS : The Fleshtone's old sidekick Gordon Spaeth seems very active at the moment. Pat Lozito told me he is playing with Crook & the Flair City 5, he also recorded with the Vikings and helped on 'Fleshtones Favorites'.

KS : Well Gordon seems very busy at home. Anytime we play in the area, is available and wants to play is fine, and whatever studio recordings for sure. You know he just cannot hit the road anymore and go out for extended trips. It's too much. But as far as staying in the New York area and playing clubs and being vital, he's really great.

TS : A friend in New York, Eric Fusco, sent me a copy of a Brownies show featuring the horn section : 'Iron Arms' Joe, Markus and Gordon.

KS : ...'Iron Arms' Joe. That's a good one!

TS : I fell of my seat when I saw Gordon. He came on-stage and bust straight into 'Legend of a Wheelman'. It was very powerful. He was playing so well though his synchronisation with the other horn guys was a bit hit and miss.

KS : Well he's not used to that anymore.

TS : He was sounding so good, it was the old Gordon that we remember here in Europe. It's very pleasing to see and hear this.

KS : Well you know I miss him very much as far as really being in the band and being with us all the time. But it's just impossible now. He had a very bad period for a while but he came out of it and he's doing OK now. As long as he stays in the New York area he's just fine.

PZ : Tell him what Mareks doing now?

KS : Marek. What are you talking about!

PZ : Marek Pakulski. He has a new group called Hooked On Sonics. It's a Sonics cover band.

KS : This is pretty funny. Remember a name Jon Weiss? Well he played saxophone on 'Roman Gods' and he used to play with us. Anyway he and Marek had this group that were called Hooked On Sonics.

PZ : I thought they were hooked on somethin' else.

KS : They were a long time ago. Anyway they were just a band doing Sonics cover songs. Marek is not playing bass he is just the lead singer.

TS : Didn't he sing 'The Eel' with the 'Tones?

KS : You remember 'The Eel'. How do you know about this? Did you know that 'The Eel' was supposed to be on 'Angry Years' but all we could find left on the tape, 'cause we had to dig these tapes up from who knows where, were just the bubble sounds at the very end that we used. The rest of the track was somehow wiped clean or was recorded over. So all we have is a four track recording with just the underwater bubble sounds at the end on the fade.

TS : Was that the recording you did in New Orleans when you arrived in a tropical storm?

KS : Are you talking about 'The Eel'? No, it's funny you're talking about it seriously, 'The Eel' was done on our rehearsal studio four-track. Marek used to be the engineer on most of these sessions.

TS : This is the '84-86 period?

KS : Yes something like that. These were actually demo tapes for IRS Records which were immediately rejected and thrown out the window. Miles Copeland was mad at us (laughs).

TS : Some of those songs ended up on 'vs Reality'. There was an instrumental version of 'Leather Kings' which you reworked and obviously added a lyric to.

KS : Was there a demo of that? That was an instrumental for a long time and I think there was another title for it.

TS : So Marek is back on the road with his new band?

KS : Anyway back with that. They were gonna record a 'Hooked On Sonics' record. There was an offer made from some company in Europe. And then they called me up and said "Hey would you be interested in playing guitar on it?" and I said "Fine I'll learn all the Sonics songs, I kind of know them anyway". So then they call me back, I'm learning these songs, they send me a tape, I'm kind of excited to do another project and they say "Well we're not getting the budget that we wanted, we wanted to do it sixteen track, but they're only sending us $2000, so we're gonna have to scrap the project". And I'm sitting there thinking the original Sonics recordings were probably done four-track or less, maybe even live to two-track and I'm sure they didn't have $2000 dollars. This is crazy they should just take the $2000 dollars and smash it down.

TS : They should hook-up with Paul Johnson in Flatbush and book a session in his basement studio.

KS : That was exactly the thought I had 'cause we were working on our four-track recording and thinking how good it was coming out. Then I'm thinking they get $2000 and that's not good enough for a Sonics album.

TS : Well it's good to see that Marek is back involved with music 'cause I know he was out of things for a while.

KS : You know what he's really doing now is that he programs computers and he's making a killing apparently. He's successful at it. I've known Marek since I was fourteen, like way before the Fleshtones, and he was always oriented towards that. Everyboday always figured he would wind-up doing something like that ...and he did!

TS : Isn't Peter the Fleshtones manager now?

KS : Who? Well Peter and I handle that side.

TS : How do you find taking on that responsibility what with all the agents and managers you've had over the years?

KS : Well to tell you the truth if Peter and I were able to handle it full-time, if we were not in the Fleshtones, I'm sure we would be successful at it and probably do well (laughs). But it's really difficult because we're always on the road a lot of the time and realistically we really should get someone to take care of our business.

TS : I guess when you're in Europe for two or three weeks there is nothing you can do on that side.

KS : There's nothing you can do because there's no one at the homebase. We do need a booking agent in America. In Europe we're fine, it's good. But in America it's just Peter and I. All the guys in the band handle different responsibilities so that's the way it is right now. We do the best we can. But do we really want to do it? NO. It's just that we have to do it.

TS : So it's not as if you're looking for alternative careers then?

KS : No. I don't want to be a booking agent. I really enjoy playing guitar live.

TS : You're gonna continue with the Fleshtones?