Interview: The Professionals’ Tom Spencer

In 2015, after a Thirty-Five-year hiatus Post Punk Pioneers The Professionals returned to play a couple of shows, (including the spiritual home of Punk, The world famous 100 Club in London,) to promote their Best Of/ Re-release three-disc set, ‘The Complete Professionals’. With original lead singer/guitarist (and former Sex Pistol ) Steve Jones deciding to remain in Los Angeles and pass on the subsequent live re-formation the band then turned to Tom Spencer to fill the large Juke Box sized hole front ‘n’ centre. The 100 Club was packed as the band walked out to the TV theme of the same name to a raucous reception and they then proceeded to kick down the doors of the historic musical landmark. After the initial success of these live shows in 2015, Ray McVeigh left the band due to personal reasons and his place was eventually filled by Chris (3CR, Camden Rocks) McCormack. Fast forward to 2017 and the band have just released the superb ‘What In The World’ album via Pledge, which features a host of guest stars, including Steve Jones, Duff McKagan, Phil Cohen, Marco Pironi and Mick Jones to name a but a few. They also headlined The Rebellion Punk Festival, did a co-headline set with The Rich Kids and played a blinding rehearsal to a lucky few Pledgers (and me) then took them all to the local, till One in the morning! The man charged with leading The Professionals line since 2015  is the former Ginger Wildheart, Lurker, Urban Voodoo Machine and Yo-Yo band member, the highly affable Tom Spencer. OriginalRock.net caught up with Tom to discuss all things Professionals, the past, the present and their very, very bright future.

Tom Spencer. In the first place, I was asked to sing while they tempted Steve (Jones) over, they had done a couple of rehearsals with Paul Young who used to sing with the Four By Two’s, he’s an old mate of Paul Cook’s and an old character from back in the day. He’s friends with John Lydon and everything, it was just like a mate coming down. Then Ray (McVeigh) asked me to come and play the guitar and sing at rehearsals because they were having a bit of fun and that was leading up to The Universal release. As it transpired it became less and less likely that Steve was going to come over for that gig but the 100 Club was already booked to coincide with the re-release, so we took it seriously and started rehearsing. Then I thought, blimey I’ve gotta stand up and do this on stage, I don’t get stage fright but I was nervous before that because they’re impossible boots to fill, Steve Jones’s. But then again I’ve gone and seen The Stranglers with Baz and really enjoyed other bands who have replaced members so I had to think of things like that. It’s an evolving band rather than a replacement.

OR. If you only went to see bands from the Seventies, Eighties and even Nineties with only the original members playing, you’d never leave the house. It just doesn’t happen that much anymore.

TS. That’s what was so great about The Pistols at Finsbury Park, with Matlock and all original members. I was a bit too young for The Pistols, they were the Gods that got away so when I saw them in 96, it’s still one of my all-time gigs, for that reason. (After getting waylaid by a conversation about The Sex Pistols and Euro 96 we got back on The Professionals track.)  At one point after we had moved on (from Ray McVeigh) and we talked about the album, you know if you’re going to change the line up then you need some original product, a vehicle to work around, not just to represent an old album. That’s why the album conversation started, then came the songwriting. During the process we discussed using The Professionals name, or is this a new band. Because I was the one who had to kind of face the frontline of criticism of not being Steve Jones and argued for a new name. Then Paul said, “look The Professionals was mine and Steve’s band I’m as much of it as him, Paul Myers is in it, I want to carry it on”. And that’s what he wanted to do rather starting again, so I stood by him. It gives it some history in a certain way and as we were playing those old songs live, (pauses) without a doubt it had an influence on what me and Cookie were writing. We had a legacy because it’s fifty percent The Professionals. I must say when we got Steve in the studio to do it (the album) the sigh of relief, particularly from me, was massive, for me personally it felt like his blessing, I thought it would also answer some critics a little bit, but the main thing was my personal blessing from him. The possibility is if we play on his doorstep (L.A) he might get up and play with us.

TS. I’ve never met Steve Jones personally but I’ve spoken to him on the phone during this. He phoned me up (adopting SJ cockney accent) “Tommy boy!” You know you see him on Jonesy’s Jukebox or Californication and you feel like you know him anyway, it turns out he was only phoning up to blag a free Black Star amp! (laughing) So we got it sent over to him. Just before the gig the other day Cookie put him on Facetime in the rehearsal and passed him round to everyone, and he got out his bollocks (nevermind) out and showed them to me! Quite nice, yeah…I Can’t wait to meet him, there’s a little bit of me that thinks, I’ve seen Cookie rejuvenate through this process, by getting involved creatively in doing something he’s really proud of. Without knowing Steve Jones there’s part of me that thinks it might do him the same good as Cookie, perhaps. It’s something new, not looking back. But then I can’t imagine doing your most famous bit of work (Never Mind the Bollocks) at nineteen and then doing the rest of your life afterwards, I’m still heading for mine.

TS. Yes, it was, but, it was a little bit of fate and coincidence as well. Me and Paul were out, for I gig I think, anyway we ended up back at Chris’s flat, we did a late night chatting and drinking conversation thing. Chris was really done with bands. During the course of the night, I was saying this isn’t like starting a new band this is perfect way of you carrying on your life, you carry on your promoting, carry on your business’s, carry on everything because this is never going to be a very demanding band in terms or worlds tours etc. I phoned him about a week afterwards, to make sure it wasn’t just pub talk and he was still a bit reluctant. I bullied him, I just bullied him. He came to the first rehearsal and it was great, he just became a kid, full of childlike enthusiasm. Then the next rehearsal he came in and he’d bought a new amp, just like Chris always does, he throws everything into it. The secret to getting him was not saying do you want to join the band but will you come and guest on a couple of gigs and it was just the arse end of the album so we managed to get him on a track which made more a part of it as well. The shoe fitted, he was the last missing piece of the jigsaw, it’s great. Plus he totally modelled his whole playing career on Steve Jones, apparently when Steve found out he said good choice. I’ve heard subsequently of their shenanigans and what they got up to in L.A when Grand Theft Audio was over there, none of it musical! they got on very well. Again, the Chris choice was given a blessing from the lord of L.A.

TS. Nothing was written with the guest in mind, they were just written as The Professionals. Then when people said yes they would be involved we delegated the songs we had left. We did it without having anyone in mind at all. The process of the writing was we did the old-fashioned sit-down, two acoustic guitars and knock out ideas. Then I would demo them up on my laptop, take them back to Paul. He’d say change that, blah blah and send me back into the drawing room and the songs developed like that, then we went into rehearsals. We went to Zac Starky’s house to record them and we did them in batches of three. We put three down which got the process started, while we were writing the next three the first batch could be sent off to Steve Jones and just be built up. When we had all the backing tracks done we went to Dave Draper’s place in Pershore, a few visits down there overdubbing ourselves and thinking of guests that could come in. We got Marco (Pironi) down, Cookie went off to Mick Jones’s studio in Acton and got him on and came back with the tapes, I still call it tapes!, Well files, then we sat in the studio, it’s just really exciting putting up the fader and having someone else’s input. That was a key thing after losing a guitarist, Chris wasn’t a permanent member at this stage but part of the formula of The Professionals was four inputs, in other words, we effectively were a three-piece. I can overdub and overdub but you need that tangent of someone else’s thought process. So we didn’t instruct any of guests on what to play, they were just given the songs and they sent us as much as they wanted. Then we edited and decided what of theirs we wanted, it was a nice feeling.

OR. How hard was it then thinking, this is great we’ve got all these guest stars Phil Cohen, Duff etc But people are going to hear the album and expect us to do this live, which means you’ve got to learn his solo.

TS. Yeah learning Phil Cohen’s solo, there’s fun. There were a couple of really fancy things, I just chopped them off the album, I had the power of edit (laughing).Chris can learn the widdly bits, I can do all that I just really like, especially when singing, keeping it simple and power it through, I guess that’s when I get my biggest buzz on guitar. We gonna cover them, all those bits will be fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2lR5Y1Ycl8

TS. I suppose in that order really. The 100 Club was definitely a baptism of fire, although it’s a smaller gig it was packed out and you looked in the crowd and there are all these characters were in the audience. I was only nervous leading up to it, plus The Professionals play sober because Paul Myers doesn’t drink, I thought it was a teetotal band when I joined because Ray had given up drinking as well. But then me and Paul would sometimes have a little drink. But now we play totally sober which is weird for me because I’ve always been in bands that have perhaps drunk too much, The good thing about that is you play better, the bad thing about that is you’ve got more chance to think and get nerves. The good thing about the gig we’ve just done, which you haven’t mentioned (the band headlined The Highbury Garage in late October to promote the new album) is it was the first time we’d played to a home crowd who’d heard the album, and knew it was me. At Rebellion (Punk Fest) I was aware going on stage that some people might come already liking it but some would be coming to check it out to see if it was still The Professionals, so it does come into it. I guess because all those gigs have gone well, the confidence grows as a result of each gig let alone halfway through the gig when you see people grooving and clapping. Although it started in 2015 gig wise we’ve done so little, what I believe is this band needs a real serious tour.

TS. Yes, there are but the whole idea was to get the album out, get a good old fashioned press pack together, go to an agency and start off properly. We get offered gigs here there and everywhere but the idea is to make next year really busy, we’re already starting to get festival offers. We’re going to be out there one way or another!

TS. The American thing was brilliant because A, they offered us a record deal and we didn’t expect one, it was a lovely factor that they believed it could be marketed in America. Part of the record deal was to fly two of us to New York and give us a budget to go and do press for a week, which just felt great like someone’s got some faith in you in a whole other territory. It was a blissful week being worked very hard in terms of being driven all round and round to interviews, which isn’t hard but done at a proper level. Literally, from nine to six in the evening being whizzed around the whole of Manhatten, it was heaven really and it made me feel great. We had a playback party at the Gibson factory on the last night, they didn’t give me a guitar, but Paul Cook said to me if I was Steve Jones I’d of stolen one by now!

TS. There are two hopes right, one is we can join in with this wonderful nostalgia thing that anyone over forty is going through and dining out on gigs as the chance to get and see their mates. And that’s something I enjoy in the same nostalgic way. There’s an even bigger market for the fifty something’s because their kids have all left home now and so there reeling in their past, even more, the old Punk Rockers. That’s level one, and you go to Rebellion and see how well The Professionals fit in there because we’re a good band in that mix. The second level is can we appeal to another generation, I’d love to, do the songs stand up? do people want to come and see a bunch of old fuckers doing this? I know that when I was a teenager I’d like to go and see the Sixties bands as well as the Punk bands. Like in Cookies case you’re watching a bit of history. I enjoyed watching my Dads band he had some great musicians, I just loved watching the musicianship. It’s not rocket science The Professionals, but what we do, we do well.

TS. Paul could have put his hand is own pocket, of course, we could have got other funding, or whatever. The good thing about Pledge is it’s not only internet access to the punters but for a band who have that have neglected their online presence, it also galvanises that. The Professionals didn’t have a Facebook page, so we started one last year. We started the Pledge campaign and it’s now got four and a half thousand likes,  I know we should have much more than that, but it also goes to show how Pledge has helped to galvanise that as well. Once you’ve done Pledge you then have a mailing list to go to and do it again, which is what you want. People like Cookie who have done big record deals thought it might be conceived as greed, but once I explained to him that it’s not, it’s just direct access to your fans. You don’t overcharge for everything, some people might say that it’s overcharging to have your name on the (album) credits, but the truth is no-one has to do that, they can just get the Eight quid download if they want. The point is people like to get involved, they like to support it and feel part of it. When we did that rehearsal for the pledgers I kept getting all these messages saying thanks for a blinding night. ( The band did a special rehearsal set to fifty pledgers, where they played a full set, did meet and greets, photo’s etc, then they all ended up in a local pub till one in the morning!) It was also blinding for us, it was really lovely. I don’t think Cookie liked the sound of it in the first place but he was blown away by it, he was down the pub with them all it was great. So I can only good things about Pledge. I mean Pledge has cleaned up, now all the majors put their records on Pledge for pre-order. They make good money out of it as well but they’ve got a system so when we went through it they gave us direct access to their main list of interested people, so they did some of the work for us. I like Pledge. It works for us old fuckers!

TS. It’s incredible, since my forties I’ve been a bit player, the go-to guy, joining other peoples bands, covering things. I can learn a set really fast. I didn’t in my wildest dreams think I’d end up in a band with Paul Cook of The Professionals and feeling this excited about a project were I’m fronting a band, it’s blown me away. Not that I can’t believe my luck, I’m just very very happy.

TS. What I hope and want is that in the early part of the year we’re going to be touring and supporting this album, plus as many festivals as we can get. Then we want to start on the next album. We spoke about it the other day, the songwriting process, were already missing it, it was such a nice, bonding creative thing. If we go at it at the same pace as before then it’ll be a year before it’s finished which is quite good timing for keeping a bit of momentum. There the only two plans we’ve got, just as many gigs as possible then start it all over again. It’s like buses you wait Thirty-five years, then two come at once.

Tom Spencer is the perfect fit for the modern day Professionals, he is old enough to appreciate the legacy while still having (more than) enough juice in his musical tank to push the band forward both creatively on record and in a live setting. 2017 finds The Professionals in safe, experienced and respectful hands. ‘What In The World’ is my album of the year, it’s a truly stunning release which is improved by the guest stars but ultimately not defined by them, it’s that good.

‘What In The World’ is out now on Automaton Records.