Robex Lundgren virkblogg.

Have any of you played in other bands? I had played in other bands but the Chosen Few was the first band for the other members. Originally the band was called Deathwish, and was a hard rock band but we became "punk" fairly quickly and by the end of 1977, we were full-on punk, writing original material and looking to play more widely.

What are your names? / Who plays what? The various members of the Chosen Few were: Iain Weaver (vocals), Bruce Friday (guitar), Ian Cunningham (bass) and Cal McAlpine (drums). This was the classic lineup that was established at the end of 1977.

Have you had other previous members? Yeah, from 1976-1977 we had several singers - the basic band lineup of Friday/Cunningham/McAlpine was in all versions of Deathwish and the Chosen Few, but from 1976-1977 we had en extra guitarist, Jon Hannaford, and a variety of singers who mostly a waste of space. We had one great singer, Harry Young, late in 1977 but he had ambitions which did not include us, so we gave him the flick.

Where are you from? We are all Australian-born, and the band formed at Mornington, in Victoria.

What year did the band form? First line-up - Deathwish - 1976, became the Chosen Few late 1977.

What's your style of genre? PUNK!!!

What inspires you? We took our inspiration from US bands, such as the MC5, Iggy and the Stooges, the Dictators, Blue Oyster Cult, and from local Australian bands like Lobby Loyd and the Coloured Balls, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, the Masters Apprentices, the Wild Cherries, the Purple Hearts and so on. We also got right into British punk when the Sex Pistols came along. And of course, the mighty Ramones - loved everything they ever did!!

How often and where do you rehearse? We rehearsed several times a week and were noted for the tightness of our live shows (unlike other punk bands who tended to be a bit shambolic).

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? The Chosen Few never had a label - we always remained independent. Our 1978 EP, "The Jokes On Us", was totally an independent production. In more recent times, we had had releases on various labels: Existential Vacuum (USA), Au-go-go (Australia), Hate (Italy), Dirty Dog (Australia), Shock (Australia), Buttercup (Australia). We always tried to be independent so we owned our material - we saw too many bands sign away their stuff for a pittance and then got ripped off.

What are your songs about? The usual stuff: teenage angst, social inequality, girls, beer, sex, music industry tin gods, anyone we thought was a dickhead, etc etc.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? I wrote most of the lyrics and a lot of the music. Cal McAlpine and Bruce Friday wrote a lot of the music and did most of the arranging,

Do you compose in a certain enviroment? Yeah, usually wrapped around a bottle of beer.

Have you done any covers live? We used to do heaps of covers: a lot of old classic Australian rock, some Ramones, some MC5, some old rock-n-roll (eg Shaking All Over), some blues (The Hunter) - whatever took our fancy. It was all souped up and played at ridiculous speeds - we'd play 10 songs in twenty minutes, that sort of thing. 

What language do you sing in? Some people thought it was English, but I could be wrong. Our singer screamed so much and swore so colourfully, it was hard to tell. Just kidding, always in English!

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Bloody hell - what a question! On a bad night, hardly anyone, on a good night, several hundred. We played one festival to about 3500 people.

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We played different sets every time - usually rotating songs from a list of about 80-90 songs.

Do you have a regular place you play live often? We played all the major punk venues in Melbourne, and occasionally interstate. Big country, Australia,

What was your first gig like? First gig was at a high school dance in 1976 and it was great.

What was your latest gig? The Chosen Few theoretically disbanded in 1999, but there have been a few gigs since with various band members playing under that name.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? Being able to download music costs musicians a lot of lost revenue they'd otherwise get via royalties. The Chosen Few has been heavily bootlegged over the years and has cost me personally heaps of money.

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? A lot of current bands that I know don't use online much, unless they charge a fee to download. But once that has been done, anyone can just send copies to their mates or whatever. You seem to make money these days out of live gigs and merchandise.

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Just do it. Write your own material, play it as often as you can, don't turn down any gigs and don't be an arsehole - the music biz will always support nice guys!

What are your plans for the future? Keep playing rock-n-roll!