Proud Scum – Auckland punk’s second wave

When Auckland’s punk scene got its second wind in early 1979 one group shone. Proud Scum - Jonathan Jamrag (Griffiths) (vocals), Alastair Rabbit (Duguid) (bass), John Atrocity (Jenkins) (guitar), and Bruce Diode (Hoffman) (drums) – formed from punk bands Rooter and The Atrocities. Proud Scum would play the notorious Zwines club in Durham Lane, and the wider ever busier Auckland live circuit to acclaim and chaos and release a perfect pair of Kiwi punk anthems.

Wicked Warwick Hitler was a first year Auckland university student and distortion-fiend guitarist well acquainted with The Stooges, MC5, and The New York Dolls when he noticed an ad in early 1978 from the soon-to-be John Atrocity (Jenkins) looking to form a punk group.

Hitler had seen a shambolic early Suburban Reptiles show at the university’s Maidment Theatre, and been unimpressed. But down at inner city punk dive, Zwines, he saw and heard a punk rock much more to his liking in The Scavengers and The Stimulators.

Hitler: “John tied up with Jonathan Jamrag who was playing bass for Rooter. They weren’t doing the type of stuff Jamrag wanted to do. He was into hardcore punk, and Rooter were doing 1960s stuff, so he quit.” To sing, not play bass. That was taken up by another Zwines regular, Alistair Rabbit (Duguid), an Auckland University first year, who’d seen the tabloid furore The Scavengers kicked up, and was attending punk dances.

The newly baptised Atrocities debuted in May 1978 at Zwines. Hitler: “We had to pay to get in, but we got paid $50, which is pretty good for then. We played Anti-Social, War Criminals, and a Jamrag song that Rooter wouldn’t do called A Bomb On Tonga.

Jamrag had an awesome presence - tall, slim, quite menacing looking, and a psycho look in his eye. He had a strong punk stage presence like Johnny Rotten. He was the real centre piece of the band, and had been the most punk out of Rooter.

“There was a show with Get Smart at the Masonic Hall in Newton where we didn’t ask The Terrorways (as Rooter were now called) to play. John No-One (Terrorways’ vocalist), and his brother Wayne came and they trashed the place and caused a lot of damage. There were doors kicked in and furniture smashed.”

With disagreement raging between the truculent Hitler and the left-leaning Atrocity, Jamrag left for Australia, and the group split.

The Aliens
The abrasive Hitler, one of the best guitarists on Auckland’s punk stages was soon back with The Aliens, a more flamboyant act which featured Al Rabbit (bass), Hitler’s flatmate Keith Bacon on guitar, Tommy Vomit on drums (replaced by Idle Idols’ Jamie Jetson (Julie Curlette), and Zwines’ DJ and extrovert gay Craig Clash aka Brutus D.Grading (Craig Emery) up front.

Hitler: “Craig Emery wore a studded dog collar and chain over his shoulder. He looked an awesome punk. We were doing originals, plus covers. David Bowie songs like Diamond Dogs and Suffragette City. The Aliens played the Radio Hauraki Rock Battle at Trillos Ballroom in late January 1979, where I trashed my guitar, and Julie had green hair, and wore a black bin liner, and chain around her wrist.”

The Aliens never really landed, surviving just three bare months from November 1978 to February 1979, playing mostly at Zwines. With Jamrag returned to Auckland, two groups emerged from the confusion in March and April 1979. Hitler and Bacon’s Spelling Mistakes, and Proud Scum with Al Rabbit, Jamrag, John Atrocity and new drummer Bruce Diode (Hoffman), younger brother of The Terrorways’ Pete Mesmer.

Proud Scum
Their glorious punk name - has there been a better one? - came courtesy of young skinhead, Reuben Chapple, undistinguished bassist, and evicted former flatmate of Al Rabbit.

Jonathan Jamrag: “He left this big goodbye note written in big black marker saying: “Proud Scum, you’ll be brought low soon, your name maketh it. If I saw you lying in the gutter I’d shit on you and walk on by. “We thought what brilliant name, and adopted it. If anything bad happened, it got put towards Reuben and he became like a legend. So I wrote this song, Reuben’s Coming Back (“He’s got his boots on...”) and made him into a legend.”

Proud Scum played their first shows in the city’s punk heart Zwines mid-May. Two nights with The Spelling Mistakes, followed by a week end with The Terrorways and Fire Engines, a reggae group formed by The Masochists’ Spike Bastard and Jimmy Sex. Then on to HQ Rock Cafe in Upper Queen Street for a week’s residency with The Spelling Mistakes.

Rabbit. “I only ever got attacked once by the Bootboys. It was outside the HQ. They were beating some kid. I was pulling them apart, and one of the Bootboys, Mac, whacked me. I looked at him, said: “What’s the matter?” and he said: “Nothing,” and I said: “Okay, then,” and walked inside. I had a lot of latitude being with the band.

“One time we finished our set to any empty room. It turned out that Twink was downstairs banging some girl up, and pushing her through windows. It was brutal, and anyone who’d try to stop it, the Bootboys were taking care of.

“We also enjoyed the loyalty of those who came to see us regularly which included the Bootboys. The dynamics were fluid, and it had to come to something the way it was going, and it did. A few guys got jailed, probably for the good, it was building to a crescendo.”

Did the group encourage them? “Kinda. We wore boots and had short hair too.”

I Am a Rabbit
Proud Scum were first into the recording studio taping Suicide 1 and I Am A Rabbit at Harlequin Studios for the upcoming AK ‘79 Auckland punk compilation. Two of the best tracks on a strong album. Before it was released Atocity left the group.

Alastair Rabbit: “John wanted to be more political. He wanted to be The Clash and we wanted to be kinda stupid Ramonesy, and Proud Scum always was more Ramonesy than political. We were irreverent. The whole atmosphere was like that. It was more fun that way. We weren’t into the regimented thing.” His replacement was an English cockney called Sid Row.

Rabbit: “I don’t know where he came from. He just turned up. I don’t know who knew him. But he was a cool enough guy, and he would teach us his rhyming slang.”

By mid year Proud Scum were playing most weekends at the Occidental in Vulcan Lane, the Windsor Castle in Parnell, and the Globe. In October they played on while the Windsor Castle burned.

They were regulars there by then playing that day with The Superettes - Jed Town and James Pinker’s band before The Features. Town had piled huge drifts of shredded paper on the dance floor, and someone couldn’t resist leaving a flaming trail behind him as Proud Scum played on. Jamrag on his knees drinking beer from a puddle on the stage.

It was that last bit that rankled venue owners most. Ultimate disrespect and punk high point both. The slow burn set in. Proud Scum weren’t welcome around town. The fallout would precipitate their move to Australia, that, the underage punters and Bootboy violence.

Suicide 2
Proud Scum saw the new decade in with farewell shows for The Marching Girls (nee Scavengers) at Liberty Stage in the Old Edinburgh Castle up the top of Symonds Street. Rabbit and Jamrag treating the sellout crowd to one of Proud Scum’s party tricks. Jamrag lifting a still-playing Rabbit onto his shoulders while singing.

Rabbit: “He’d walk to the edge of the stage and lean forward, and I’d find myself doing a forward roll onto the dance floor. This time it was Ronnie Recent’s bass and he came storming up to me, and sez: “It’s not a toy you know!”

They visited Mascot Studios in January 1980 and recorded Jamrag’s Suicide 2, a song about the departure of John Atrocity for a Ripper Records single. The producers were Mike Chunn (former Split Enz and Citizen Band bassist), and 1ZM DJ Bryan Staff, a staunch supporter of Auckland punk.

Rabbit: “Suicide 2 was a disappointment because we had Mike Chunn and Bryan Staff there, and this new studio, but it sounded like it was recorded in a bathtub.”

The track would emerge in April on a split single with The Terrorways. Proud Scum briefly changed their name to The Beagle Boys for shows at the new Bottom Line club on the 5th and 6th of February 1980.

Jamrag: “We were having difficulty getting work because of the Bootboys. So we changed our name to The Beagle Boys, and it didn’t really stick, so we changed it back.”

Proud Scum played two farewell midweek shows on February 13th and 14th at the Liberty Stage. The gig poster revealing Larry Young wanking in front of a rabbit. The Sunday papers found Young unamused and considering prosecution.

Over the next six months the group minus Al Rabbit drifted to Sydney. Rabbit would play in early version of Auckland rockabilly group The Wild Matadors, before skating for overseas himself.

In Australia, the Proud Scum rump - Jamrag, Hoffman and Sid - encountered Reuben now with the Sydney skinheads, and regrouped with Vince Pinker on bass for a residency at the Civic Hotel on Saturday afternoons. That was as good as it got. Proud Scum petering out in January 1981.

Proud Scum - live at YMCA – Auckland - playing Suicide 2, Butch Slags, Teenage Kicks and I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend - 1979

Proud Scum – live at YMCA – Auckland - playing What Do I Get and White Man In… - 1979