Coming soon, interviews with the band
Dave Parsons
BY SIMON BECKWITH ON MONDAY, JULY 1ST, 2019
We get to know Dave Parsons of Sham 69 a little better ahead of an appearance with Sham 69 at The Georgian Theatre in Stockton on Saturday 20th July.
So, tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?
I’m the guitarist and co songwriter for Sham 69, aside from this I travel and look after my garden which is on the large side at four acres, that all keeps me busy enough, I’ve planted over three hundred trees which all need protecting from deer, rabbits and badgers etc, it’s a hard balance as I like to keep it all animal/bird friendly.
What’s the first record you ever bought?
The first two singles I ever got were for Christmas and excited as I was turned out to be a bit of a disaster, I got given Grandad by Clive Dunn and Love story by Andy Williams (not at all what I was expecting lol), but there was a bit of Christmas money from an Uncle so I went out and bought Hot Love by T Rex. They were also the first band I’d ever see and completely blew me away.
What’s your guilty pleasure musically?
Oh I have no shame for my musical tastes, I like anything from any genre that’s good and you can usually find something good no matter what the genre, in the early days the music press used to take the piss out of me because I’d be spotted at the Cambridge folk festival or at the Albert hall watching the Bothy band, they seemed to think this wasn’t the correct behaviour for a Punk rocker, I just thought ‘I don’t give a damn what you think, a Punk rocker does what he/she wants’, that was the whole point – knocking down walls not building them.
Favourite film of all time?
That’s a difficult one, probably American Graffiti and Performance, I was lucky enough to spend an evening the other night with it’s producer Sandy Lieberson who was a lovely man with many great stories, co director Donald Cammell’s brother David and Marlon Richards, the film never seems to get tired and when I first saw it (whilst still at school) it opened up a whole new world for me.
Your guilty pleasure film?
I don’t really feel guilty or embarrassed by much as such but I was always a big fan of American muscle cars (I had a few, Mustangs, Corvette Sting ray, Pontiac Firebird 455HO) so I loved a lot of those type of films like Two lane black top, Vanishing point, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry etc.
If you could recommend one TV series to binge watch, what would it be?
I’m probably forgetting some good one’s but I really enjoyed Homeland it always seemed to hit the nail on the head.
Your favourite book?
How can I answer that, I read every night and there’s just too many different styles etc, ok off the top of my head let’s just say The Master and Margarita and Heart of Darkness.
Who or what makes you laugh the most?
Sadly as you get older I find I don’t laugh as much as I used to, funnily enough the one person who never fails to make me laugh when we’re together is my singer Mr Pursey a natural entertainer on or off the stage.
Who or what makes you sad?
Lost opportunities especially on the world stage, where people who are running this show seem to act like arse holes with no real understanding/perception or empathy to it’s people and what is really needed. Cruelty makes me very sad whether it be to humans or animals, I just fail to understand how it’s possible, how can anyone get pleasure from hurting or harming another living being.
If you had super power, what would it be?
To get high with no negative consequences, or I’d have the power to make people happy all the time, but as we all know life is about opposites and you can’t be happy unless you’ve been sad.
And finally, you get to play a board game with any three famous people from history, who do you choose and what’s the board game?
Blimey, again off the top of my head it would be Dylan, Hitchcock and Einstein and I guess we’d be playing Scrabble.
Dave Treganna
Dave Treganna Interview with Mikayla Beyer HERE
Dave Parsons
Dave Parsons interview with Church of Rock HERE
Dave Treganna
Dave Treganna interview with Church of Rock HERE