Game Over

Adam Linden
Iron Duke: 18/7/98


: Tell us about the tour so far..

A: We've had nothing but fun, like thanks for the interview and stuff, it's been awesome, we've just played Brisbane, two shows there, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Coffs Harbour, this is our fourth show in Sydney, it's been awesome fun. Played an all ages show today which was really good, people going off...

: I hear that was the biggest crowd that's ever showed up to the Duke, one hundered plus?

A: Yeah, that spins me out man, I mean we never expected that but hey, it was really cool, people actually showed up, I mean it's raining, it"s pretty miserable, we're from Melbourne, we sort of bring it with us.

: So you've been around for about two years now and you've toured with No Fun At All and MXPX...

A: Yeah, that was about three months ago, it was awesome fun, we got really lucky that we scored the whole tour, so it was all the way up to Brisbane, hanging out with awesome bands, watching everyone play for free, drink free beers, yeeha.



Harbour Cruise

: So where to from here?

A: Wollongong tomorrow night, we're in Melbourne Monday morning, then playing our last shows around Adelaide.

: What would have been the standout event from the NFAA tour?

A: Probably either the last night, or Crash N Burn in Brisbane which was rad, we played two shows that day, the first...like this place is licensed to hold maybe 200 people, 570 kids in there going off, it was nuts, partying on with them...or Manly, there were just so many kids there going ape shit...

: Was that at Manly Youth Centre. A: Yeah..


: What was the security like there? Australian Concert Security?

A: The kids got right into it and the security were just fucked...

: What is the band scene like in Melbourne at the moment? Up and coming bands we should know about?

A: Yeah, at the moment it's rad, we've been really lucky down there, there's probably something between ten and fifteen bands that are regularly, good stuff like Caustic Soda, who are more on the emo side of things, Crettin's Puddle are pretty sort of pop punk, Oddball rule, Menendez, 180 Dischord, the whole scene's taken off...28 Days, who were gonna tour with us but couldn't make it...

: Are H-Block from Melbourne?

A: Yeah, H-Block rock the house, fucken awesome.

: Played with Bodyjar or MYC?

A: Yeah, played with MYC when they were One Inch Punch a few times...but most of the other guys in the band grew up with Bodyjar...so they help us out heaps, with our first demo, we bought Cam's guitar off him, they're legends.


: Who would you say your influences are?

A: We all sorta come from different places, like NOFX, I love Propagandhi, they changed my life man, when I was 16 I got a tape that had Propagandhi on one side and Ribbed (NOFX) on the other, that sort of did it for me, I mean we all like the Descendents, we've all been listening to them since we were about fourteen, All, I love metal, so if you get into that I guess Slayer, Creator, Anthrax, Iron Maiden...but I have probably more respect for Propagandhi than any other band...(talk at length about different Propagandhi shows last year) It's a rare thing that you get a band that intelligent, that are that forthright about their ideas but so willing to back it up, you can call 'em on any fucken card they've got...(more talk about the 'gandhi Annandale show last year, specifically, Propagandhi jumping into a fight out the front between a bouncer and Subversion's bass player while we were interviewing them)


Offshore '99

: Do you guys skate/surf? What do you do?

A: I've been skating for years, mostly as transport, it's the only way, but I've got fucked knees, so I never really got into goin sick coz I fucked my knees up...But I rollerskated for years, but if you're ever going to do anything, go skydiving.

: Skydiving?! Tell us about it! What's it like?

A: It's...up on par with playing gigs...best rush in the world, nothing comes close, I can't really describe it accurately.

: Joke for ya...why can't blind people go skydiving?

A: Something about their dogs?

: Coz it scares the shit out of their guide dogs! Okay, a lot of bands, particularly in punk, try to get some kind of message across, eg. distaste for the establishment, what are your objectives when you write a song?

A: Well I think a lot differently to other guys in the band, but basically we write about personal politics, people that we know and stuff that happens too us...like I've been on the dole for a few years on and off, so I've had a lot of dealings with the government, there's one song on our new album which is pretty much straight about that...but I'm not into preaching to anyone how they should live their lives, it's fucked, but you have to give everyone an equal soapbox, I mean I hate Pauline Hanson and what she stands for, but for me to tell her that she's fucked, it demeans where I'm coming from because she has as much right to voice her views as I do...I'd like to think that the majority of the world is not that stupid or can't see past all the shit...the thing we've got to accept is that everyone in the world is different...




Dave, Elton & Offshore signing

: A standing viewpoint of Anarchism! Acceptance of everyone as they are. On the subject of Pauline Hanson, with all the crap she's been talking lately, single mothers, Aboriginals, she's having a dig at everyone and David Oldfield was quoted the other day labelling the federal seat of Grayndler (basically, the punk area of Sydney, Newtown and surrounding areas) as being dominated by people with earrings in their eyebrows and noses...

A: He shouldn't make that distinction...David Oldfield is scary because he's a very intelligent man, he knows how to hit a target demographic...middle class Australia...

: I reckon a lot of hype is media generated..


A: Not only that, but she's basically a pawn in a lot of powerful figures, really powerful right wing organisations in Australia. I don't get it, the way I see it, we've got a big country here, plenty of room and if people want to come here then they're more than welcome coz maybe they'll get to see what I see of it, Oz is a rad place, not many people get the opportunities that you get here, there's a lot of countries that don't even have a welfare system at all, but here you can get help if you don't have a job...

: Okay, parallel importing. How do you think it will effect the industry and bands like yourselves? I heard that Shock had to drop something like 100 bands coz it was no longer viable to support them (I could be wrong there).

A: It's scary because it works in conjunction with a lot of other things, I mean the Australian dollar is worth shit on the financial market at the moment and I've spoken to a lot of people lately who've said Australian acts overseas simply can't afford it. It's fucked because the artist isn't getting any money for it. Australian acts will get fucked over. As far as it goes, we're only a local band and haven't really had to deal with it yet, we're only talking about a small amount of CDs so we probably won't feel anything from it.

: Okay, cool. Anything else?

A: Something else...love your town, we can't even get schooners in Victoria, nothin' but middies and they're called pots. But you can get dollar pots so it's not too bad...

Thanks heaps Adam.....


The Offshore Crowd
Game Over rocked at Offshore
'Double thumbs up to Game Over'

Check out all the other action and heaps of great pix in A&GT's Offshore '99 feature


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