A tale of two Blinks: little-known fact, but the multi-million-selling US neo-punk rockers, Blink 182, used to be known as Blink but had to change their name because of the Irish band of the same name. By a bizarre coincidence, this here column ran into both of the Blink bands within the space of one hour last week and because we're so rock'n'roll crazee around here, we're going to do a Blink special, featuring both bands.
Kicking off with the original Blink, they were one of the "bands most likely to . . . " back in the heady days of 1992/ 93. Signed to EMI, a blastin' debut album called A Map Of The Universe, some bangin' live gigs and their mugs on a phone card, it seemed like all systems go for the affable four-piece. By combining rock with electronica and very strong melodies, they could have, and should have, gone all the way but they ran into ye olde record company problems. Instead of collapsing, they headed off to the US.
"A lot of people thought we had broken up," says lead singer Dermot Lambert, "but we were just concentrating on working in the US. It's incredibly difficult to break it, especially with no record company behind you, but just by constant touring we managed to build up pockets of support all over the country. Over there we're seen as a cool underground band."
Now that they're reached a stage where they can sell out sizeable venues and significant amounts of records in the US, the band are looking afresh to home turf. "We've just released a new album, called The End Is Nigh," says Lambert, "but the funny thing is, the record has been on sale in the US for over two years. It's odd doing gigs at home now, because we find that half of the audience are Blink fans from the first time around and half are new faces we've never seen before. I do think our sound has changed - the guitars and the computers are working closer together and lyrically it's a bit darker than before. We've undone certain things that were associated with the band back in 1994."
Blink recently played a jammed gig at Whelans to launch the new album (which was also broadcast live on the fab Phantom FM, which is at 91.6FM pirate radio fans - and highly recommended) and they'll be in Eamonn Doran's on June 30th and back in Whelans on July 7th before touring all around the country. Blink, don't miss them.
The End Is Nigh is on Serene Records
`YES, it's true we had to change our name to Blink 182 because of those Irish guys," says Tom Delonge, vocalist and guitarist with the 182 version. "There's so many theories about why we choose `182' to differentiate ourselves from them but just to squash a rumour, it has nothing to do with the amount of times that Al Pacino says "f k" in the film Scarface." From San Diego, the band are part of the second-wave of punk rockers (after Green Day and The Offspring) to go multi-platinum and their current album, Enema Of The State, has sold more than The Clash's first album and Never Mind The Bollocks put together.
Lyrically, the band concentrate on adolescent themes, in their trademark "fun" fashion, as Delonge explains: "Hey, I'm from an affluent part of California, I've nothing to complain about. We sing about girls and first dates and stuff. Politically, I'd have problems even telling you who our vice-President is, but I do have strong views on government conspiracies and that sort of thing. We don't write songs for adults which is why the critics don't get it and because we're called `punk', other bands get on our case. But people can say anything they want, a lot of that hardcore punk scene just really hates success and I can tell you we've been ripped off more by indie labels than we have by majors. I don't care, though. I met Joe Strummer recently and he gave me a present of a cigarette rolling machine." [He gave me one too! BB]
"The reason we get called a punk band is because of our influences, I think. We were really into bands like The Descendants and NOFX and Bad Religion. At our gigs we get a mixture of punkers, little girls who scream at us, high school jocks - all types. It's just fun music for fun people."
The new Blink 182 single, What's My Age Again is out on MCA records next week. The band will be playing in Ireland later in the year.
