The Rejects are firmly back and in demand once again with the promise of a new album, more new gigs and even a film project on the go to make a interesting 2007 for the boys.

Some of the lads that followed the Rejects the first time around proved to be some of the main lads of the ICF and tracks like East End, War on the Terraces, West Side Boys and We are the Firm let you know the reason why. Those gigs they played back in the day at the legendary Bridge House, Electric ballroom and the Cedar Club made the band pretty notorious back in the early eighties. Today the boys are still an exciting act to catch live and there is a real buzz word to see them play whenever there in town but this time its pure nostalgic fun. I’d like to think this return of the Rejects momentum truly gathered storm when I promoted them on a one-off secret West Ham reunion gig in 2004, a awesome performance that showed the east end full house that the boys had never really been away. The bulk of the interview that follows here is taken from the only one Jeff ‘Stinky’ Turner and the boys gave for that awesome homecoming gig and those lucky enough to witness it.

How you get the name ‘Stinky Turner?’
Come about at the time of the Punk scene when everyone had a name like e.g. Johnny Rotten, Poly Styrene, and Sid Vicious. My old man remembered a character called Stinky Turner from his old school in Custom House back in the 1920’s, so just as a joke I used the name cos it appealed to me.

Why the name Cockney Rejects for the band?
At the time we was just scratching around, we couldn’t really play, the punk thing kinda gave you a outlet and I settled on Rejects as my first thought of a name idea to which I added the name Cockney because I wanted something representative of London and what we are. A lot of people thought it was because of Cockney Rebel but I hadn’t even of them. The first real gig we ever played was in June ’79 The Bridge House, Canning Town. They put on the Little Roosters and we were part of the support line up.

Favourite live gig memory?
The Camden Town Electric Ballroom in July 1980 when we were at our peak. It was packed with West Ham, they had run the Arsenal out the place and the band had come onto the stage to dimmed lighting and the sound of ‘The Ride of the Valkyries’, which is a Richard Wagner music piece they used in the scene where all the heli - choppers flew over dropping the napalm in the classic Vietnam film ‘Apocalypse Now’. We used it as our stage entrance and launched straight into ‘War on the Terraces’ which was a brand new track that hadn’t been released then and wow! The place just fucking erupted, it went mad, bang. We couldn’t have planned our entrance any better.

Favourite part of the ground you would stand over Upton Park during the bands heyday 1979-81?
The West Side, I mean you didn’t really get to stand and watch West Ham if you were in the South Bank away fans section, you were there for the aggro and your mind was on other things. Obviously when you was really young and you used to watch from the North Bank and see everyone cooped up in there. I use to think that was where I want to be but you aint quite old enough at 13-14 to be in there. The West Side with its atmosphere, the camaraderie and the humour it held was unrivalled, and if you were standing in there you thought you’ve arrived. That made you feel you was one of the men, well it did for me and I was gutted when 81 or 82 they put seats in there, they should never have done it.

Favourite fan memory following the Hammers?
It would have to be going up to Elland Road for the reply in 1980 when we beat Everton to get to the FA Cup Final that year. For me that was better than the final, just knowing you were there, on that Wednesday night, you know your thinking you’ve got that awful long drive home but you’re happy though cos you’ve done it. Also I’ll never forget what happened after we bought the Cup home. All the street parties, down Varley Road there was a street party too, fantastic, it was just the whole weekend one long party, you was gutted that Monday had to come. The thing about all that is that if they had won the Cup last season or in the next few years, you would never get a show out like that, never in a million years of history. As a supporter we were lucky we had that.

Former bassist and West Ham face Vince Riordon, ever see anything of him still?
Not seen Vince for many a year, since ’91, I think. I had invited him to me wedding but he never showed and I haven’t seen him, but would like to see him and catch up with an old mate.

Current band line up of the Rejects today?
There’s myself and my brother Micky Geggus and I’ve got two mackem’s in the band who are luv’lly geezers who have been big Rejects fans all their life, based up in Sunderland where we have a big fan following up there. Nobby and Tony Frayter are the names and their good rhythm section.

How would you describe your audience today, both here and abroad?
It’s pretty mixed up because at home we’ve got both old and young and a hell of a lot of skinheads turning up. Which I would say are the original cult followers which have never given up on us, they’re still here. The younger element of our following is particularly evident when we play abroad, places like Spain especially, also Germany. There are kids that couldn’t have been born when the first record came out, again very skinheady but you see quite a few of those skateboard types also. We play more in northern Spain where it’s Basque country and we notice there’s ‘ell of a movement there, there’s still anger, the Basques are angry and there is a lot of rebellions there and that is what they luv, they absolutely love that. We played just outside Bilbao the other year to 12,000 punters on a Saturday. There were a few rockers, skateboarders but absolutely no aggro there was not one bit of trouble and that’s good.

A lot of people are still decked out in West Ham, your Spaniards, yer Germans, we’ve been to Norway and Tokyo and I’ve had Japanese geezers giving me ICF calling cards. It was really funny, there were all these Japanese punks and skinheads and a few strays, quite diverse but they understood the music and it was a fair size concert of 1800-2000 people. But they luv their West Ham, they took us in a Space Cruiser to the concert and they had the West Ham CD on with Bobby Moore singing, seems they are really big on West Ham, its just unbelievable.

Like me you have done a book, whose idea was it and how did it come about? I’ve seen and read a lot of books that have come about of late that involved either old mates or people you’ve heard of, and of course I’ve read the Rejects chapter that Vince Riordon had done in that ICF book. People would come to concerts with it; it sort of brought back a lot of nostalgia. Then I had a pal that used to work with me always asking for stories about the band being on the road so I told him a few and he would say that I should write a book cos it keeps the spirit alive.

Where’s the future going in 2007 with the Rejects?
For something to achieve for us would be to get to America again and do something there, because we’ve been there without really doing ourselves justice. The other thing on our agenda is to make one last good album before we’re really too old and that we will do for sure this year when we bring out the new album ‘Unforgiven’ on our own label. Last years tour was a real buzz for us both here and abroad with the highlight for me being when we played Stratford theatre, we also hit the stage to a big crowd at the Wasted Festival in Blackpool last year that we will look forward to doing Blackpool again this year as we are booked for the Rebellion at the Winter Gardens. We also nearly cracked topping the download charts with the rushed out revamped ‘Bubbles’ single for the FA Cup final. We achieved so much in a short time in getting to gatecrash up the charts but it was a big ask in so short a time but it was good fun and we gave it a right go and would like to thank all our fans and supporters on that one.
 

Copyright © Cass Pennant 2007

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