Tag: Offspring

Rob writes – 31st May 1995

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Hope you haven’t been overdosing on all that ‘feeling’ I was trying to put down in my letter! 

I’m at work now – 3.05 pm on Saturday 13th May. I can look out of my window, and see the blue skies and the sun shining on the trees, which partially hide a few houses of Anchorage Road housing estate. The portacabin I work in though is cold – it’s in the shade of a two-storey building right next to it. 

I’ll no doubt write you more factual things next time. – like the Queers pulling out of their UK tour; seeing Offspring at Brixton Academy – going up in a chauffeur-driven transit (!) with Carl Barry, Dareen, Ashley, Rob Turne, Chrissy and a few other people; going to the Bradford 1-in-12 club last weekend with Rich, Paul J, Hohn Hartsteen, Q. Rob, Matt from Romsey, Andy from Bournemouth, Karen, Vikki and three Winchester guys; or maybe even a few words about how the band is going – we’ve got nearly five songs now and the enthusiasm everyone shows towards it is amazing! 

Did I tell you I usually get to Australia every day now – every time I write my diary up of the holiday – everything’s so clear – I made loads of notes which I’m slowly writing up – it’s gonna be an absolutely huge account!
Love
Rob

30th Jan 2024 – I wonder what Rob wrote in his diary? I didn’t remember about Rob keeping a diary but I know Rich ‘The Encyclopedia’ kept one fairly religiously. I was always curious about what he wrote!

Surf’s Up With Shaun – 1st February 1995

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

What is punk rock? Is it a way of acting or behaving? Is it about music? Or politics? Is it anything to do with THE SEX PISTOLS? Ог CRASS? Is it nihilistic or cynical? Optimistic, introverted or extroverted? Is it far-reaching + powerful? Small + exclusive? What do you think?

Well, when you live in the middle of a rainforest + the only rock around is sticking out of the earth, you start to think about these things. The answer is – it’s all punk rock, innit!

Cos I was sat on the beach trying to get my skin as bronzed as the surfies in the noonday sun (of course this isn’t true because if you have got any brains, you’ve got to cover up from the sun, or stick on your sun factor 15 but a lot of people don’t bother with this until a limb or two has to get cut off, so tell your kids OK!).

Well, I was on the beach checking out the surf (you see in Australia, the water is actually warm enough to go + swim in but you do have to watch out for sharks!) + watching the pelicans flying overhead + I was thinking “Man, this isn’t very punk rock is it?” and then I got to thinking “what is punk rock?” then pretty soon, I thought “Fuck it, let’s go for a swim”.

After that I went to the cafe + contemplated a bit more + I thought all the scantily dressed girls on the beach must be frustrated, cos all the surfies are interested in catching is waves. I checked out the surfies and hell, I saw me a couple of PANTERA t-shirts, a NIRVANA t-shirt and an OFFSPRING one too, so punk rock does exist here at the beach! I talked to one dude but gave up pretty soon, cos he’d never heard of MINOR THREAT, even though he skates!

Of course, this got me back to thinking about what punk rock is + I began to realise that, hey, it’s OK if that dude doesn’t know who Minor Threat is – he’s OK. I later found out he was well into conservation and abhorred racism, which is pretty punk rock for a sixteen-year-old surfie.

Sometimes, it takes me an age to realise the obvious and that I should have listened a bit harder when my best friend said “It’s all punk rock innit!?” So all you folks back in England can be satisfied that rock is alive + well on the other side of the globe + hey, they’ve even got bands here too + some are pretty good but man, it’s difficult to get away from the beach to get to see them sometimes!