Could you tell us anything about each member of your band ?(work, hobbies, age, girlfriends :-)

Well, at the moment we‘ve got a little problem. We need a new drummer and a new rhythm-guitarist. Both have had to move to other cities because of their jobs. One is an IT-specialist and our ex-drummer is working for a big drum kit - distribution. Marcel, our other guitarist is working in an insurance, Genschi, our bass-player, is installing something in factories and I‘m writing my diploma in politics and I‘m sometimes doing bouncer-jobs or live from the music and do other jobs like working at the airport.
It‘s all not very working-class-like, but we are all different to our jobs.
I was already married, Alex, who‘s leaving as well, I think having a good relationships and doing Rock’n’Roll is very hard.

And what’s about skinhead or street-unity scene in your area or region?

The scene is very good in our area. All the Skinheads, Hooligans, Punks, Psychobillies are together. There are only a few right-wing people around.
Most of the people are hanging out together. That‘s very nice. It‘s important to find out things we‘ve got in common -not always the differences. That‘s what we did in Frankfurt. But in other cities in Germany it‘s totally different.

Your discography (you don’t need write all v/a but just old demos, some delicious etc)?

Have a look on our page www.stagebottles.de, please!

Why did you decide to become skinheads?

It‘s a question of who you meet when you‘re young. I think everyone of us
was influenced by someone he met. If the one is cool and he‘s a Skinhead you may become a Skinhead yourself. It‘s more interesting why we are still involved into the Skinhead-scene. It‘s the whole attitude. A mixture of aggressive-being-proud of yourself, the style which is anchored in a tradition -the working-class.
The music is a mixture of a hard and aggressive style and a very friendly and melodic style.
It‘s a fascinating youth-culture. You meet lots of people everywhere and they think and feel in a way which is very close to your way. You‘ve got great parties with them as well. The older you become the more you‘re involved in it. It‘s part of your personality and it will always be if you do it seriously! We don‘t look all like Skinheads anymore, but we all have got the attitude in our hearts. It‘s not really a question of the outlook.

Can you give me your Top-Ten (I don’t care? it can be Oi!, Punk, Ska, Reggae?).

I‘ll tell you about my favourite bands, but I can‘t say which is the one
I love most. It depends on the situation. It‘s:

The Newtown Neurotics
Angelic Upstarts
Leatherface
The Four Skins
Blaggers ITA
Derrick Morgan
Madness
The Specials
Kortatu
Slime...

...and many more I forgot!

Which land is the best for doing streetmusic?

I think to do live-gigs Germany is the best place to go on tour in the whole world. The scene is big so the bands have usually got a big audience. There are many places where you can play and you‘ve always got a place to stay and food (not always good).
I lived in England for a few months when I played sax for the Blaggers ITA in 1992. I played about 40 gigs in England with them. We‘ve had one time hot food and two time more than about three free drinks. I never slept in a hotel and the people where we stayed where friends of the band. And you‘ve got a few very good record-labels and Bands you can play gigs with. All the bands from all over the world are coming to Germany. But I think at the end every country has got brilliant bands and that‘s the most important thing. It‘s great to do a band everywhere! So do it!

Your future plans?

The most important thing at the moment is to find a new drummer and a new guitar-player. After that we want to do more gigs all over Europe, more than ever before because we want to promote our new album "We need a new flag".
The album is also released in the U.S. and Canada since last week, so we also want to go on tour in America next year. We already did a little tour in Canada last year.

Are you practising any fighting sports?

Some of us did Kick-Boxing or Thai-Boxing. At the moment nobody is active. But sometimes at football or on the streets...

Have you problems with any immigrants? Did they think that you are bonehead or did they know what you really are?

That‘s years ago. We‘ve had this problem in Frankfurt about 12 or 13 years
ago. But we talked to them we are and gave out leaflets and so the problem was solved. But first they attacked us and we‘ve had fights. But due to the reason everyone in Frankfurt is together there are not really Nazis in the city anymore.
Many of our friends used to be Nazis but they aren‘t anymore. The Hooligans are not into it and they‘re also friends of the punks and close friends of ours. The foreigners know that the possibility to meet a nazi is very small.
So everybody lives in peace with each other. Maybe there are other reasons for trouble, but that‘s something different then. But that‘s also different to other cities in Germany...

Redskins, RASH, SHARPs? Tell me what do you know about and your attitude? (I hope this question is not stupid. You can answer short?)

Our new record is called "We need a new flag" because we think there‘s no political flag that‘s really the right one. Every symbol was already misused and became a symbol for something wrong in a way. So let‘s think about something new right from the start and let‘s do the right thing. But of course we are involved into the left-wing scene.
We sympathise with RASH, we were founding SHARP in Germany with other cities. In a way we‘re part of it but we always have got our own thoughts.
And we are aware that also in this scene many idiots are involved.

Are you interested in policy?

I’m studying politics. Politics means to find a way to organise our living-together in a sensible way. But as I told you: There‘s no political party I wanna take part with.

Could you describe your style of music by your own words?

The music we play is Punkrock with Oi!-influence in an English style of the early eighties. Different to other bands is the sax and in earlier days our female vocals, but our female singer is a mother now so she stopped singing. I think we‘ve definitely got our own style in writing songs.
It‘s sometimes melodic and sometimes aggressive. It depends on the lyrics.
It‘s hard to describe a style, your readers should just listen to it.

Do you love any land in this blue planet? And why?

I think I like nearly every land where I was on holiday, especially Ireland and England. But I think it‘s different to work in a land or to be on holiday. I‘m used to live in Germany. It‘s my home and I feel kind of secure over here. But I just like every nice place in the world.

Olaf, you were as special quest on Wake Up Call CD from HaZ and you made great musical saxophone riffs there. Have you any interesting funny moments from this recordings?

To be honest: I was drinking all night and I didn‘t know the songs when I went to the studio. But it worked alright and afterwards we‘ve had a nice party when we HaZ played in Göttingen, the town where the album was recorded.

And your own favourite song / songs from this debut CD? (Take care, Marko will read this too)

Night City and Ghetto Anthem are my favourites. But to be honest I didn‘t listen to it for a long time. I‘ve got to do that again. Say hello to Marko!!!!

Were you or any member of Stage Bottles like a guest in any different songs in different bands?

On records I played with The Blaggers ITA, Red Alert, Peter and the Testtube Babies, Klasse Kriminale, Los Fastidios, The Porters and HaZ and a few smaller bands. On stage I also was with The Frantic Flintstones, Newtown Neurotics (Steve Drewitt), The Prowlers and Mad Sin.
I think that‘s it.

May we order any T-shirts or other things from you? Where?

We will do T-Shirts soon. At the moment we‘ve only got Polo-shirts. You could order them through me. It‘s in black or blue or white with a nice stick of the rose with the crossed bones. It will cost you about 30 Euros each. The postage would be included.

When skinhead starts to be a non-skinhead?

When he/she changes his attitude, a new job can change your way of thinking if you‘re established, when many friends are leaving, a family can be a reason, your partner or it‘s just for self-protection if you‘re always drinking too much or fighting too much. But many people who don’t look that way are still having the attitude inside.

Have you any idols (great persons from history)?

Take no heroes!
But there are some very impressing persons in history and also in the scene
I‘d like to be like, but I’m not. (And there are many, many I don‘t want to be like!!!)
I don‘t want to name any and forget others.

Who is public enemy No.1 for everybody?

Assholes like capitalists, fascists, racists, dictators, rapists, religious fanatics.

Could you please tell me something about the beginnings of your band? It was difficult, wasn’t it?

It wasn’t really difficult, but because we were always attacking the Nazis verbally and physically we became an important enemy for them. They tried to attack us a few times and many people thought we’re just causing trouble.
But our way is accepted now and we‘ve had always many good people with us who were fighting on our side. So we’re lucky. Without them we wouldn‘t exist anymore!

From your point of view: which band is or was the best through our great scene?

"Top ten" again?
But to be honest: Bruce Springsteen was the one who inspired me to write
songs about 22 years ago. But I can‘t really identify myself that much with him anymore though I think he‘s alright.
I also love some kind of Jazz. There are great Jazz-musicians as well.
But the most important thing for me is Punkrock, so have a look at the question before.

I have sent my zines to Revolution Times but I’ve never got answer? Are they so busy or just so arrogant, or what do you think about?

Probably it‘s the same with our interview. They are too busy. I think they probably even stopped doing it because Kim became a father. But they are not arrogant (I hope).

Please, some regards or your mottos to Skin-Read readers?

Stay rude stay rebel and never forget that you were a Skinhead even if you stop looking like it!
And be always anti-fascist, (but also sometimes anti-social!)