Interview: Ken Pustelnik

Ken Pustelnik erstwhile drummer with the mighty Groundhogs during their most fecund period and now drummer with a reactivated Bristol “Groundhogs” turned 70 this year and has spent most of his adult life on the music scene. The band are special guests at the splendid Temples Festival and Ken has shared some of his thoughts on the music scene past and present with us.

What song or band first captured your imagination?

Stockhausen, but I guess you want some more conventional examples, so Jimmy Smith, Link Wray, The Sputniks, early Elvis, etc., etc., etc.

How did you first start out drumming?

I’ve always “drummed” e.g. two rulers on a wooden school desk, knitting needles on a ceramic plate, the usual stuff.  First kit I bought was a “Premier” from Browns of Bristol, played it right up to and including the recording of Thank Christ for The Bomb.

What was it that made you think you could make a living out of music?

We were well paid from the off, we had more gig offers than we could actually play. People were crazy for live music at that time so the law of supply and demand clinched it.

You’ve played throughout the decades, give us a feel for what it was like playing though each decade – was there a palpable sense of change throughout or did it all seem very gradual?

The very early days and through to the 70s there was a lot of potential violence at some gigs so performing had the potential to be hazardous at times. Up until recently though it’s been rare for acts to be attacked on stage. Let’s hope events like the recent horrors in Paris aren’t a forerunner of things to come. In the early days there was less emphasis on guitar players, Trad Jazz was still very popular, still a big band /swing scene, Modern Jazz too had its following. All this meant that there was work for brass, woodwind, banjo players, organ & piano players plus double bass. Lead guitar was as much in the hands of improvising modern jazz players with electric bass still a bit of a novelty. The change for guitarists came from Rock & Rollers, Rhythm & Blues outfits and to a lesser extent some Country players; Blues guitarists and the new wave of Folk artists also opened the way for more adventurous playing.

What has been your favourite era of music – either as a player or fan; or both?

Probably 60s to early 70s, although I don’t really have a specific era in mind.

Hard to believe it’s forty years since punk gave the music scene a big kick up the bum, how did you view it at the time?

Loud, fast, intense, anarchistic / nihilistic attitude, strangely just like Groundhogs in fact in many ways, however some of them played very short sets of very short numbers as against our very long sets with some epic pieces. The passing of time has revealed several “punk” supporters e.g. Captain Sensible, Mark E Smith, Rubber City Rebels amongst many others. Our first gig on our 40th Anniversary tour in 2003 was Punkaid which was held in Brixham with bands such as The Damned and Penetration on the bill.

How did the Temples gig come about?

Temples promoter Francis Mace invited us onto the bill. He heard our “First Jam ” recordings and later visited an early rehearsal of the new line up . He actually seemed most taken by two of our Psychedelic Blues Rock pieces which surprised me at the time.

How do you feel about playing on the bill with such a diverse range of (and to be fair rather extreme) metal bands?

Well a lot of people, across many diverse genres, claim to be influenced by Groundhogs in some way that includes this genre . Fifty years ago people thought we were extreme believe me. We will just play our music and if people get off on it that’s a bonus isn’t it.

How aware were you of rock gradually evolving in to metal?

I hate labelling creative endeavours of any kind, therefore my answer is: “Did It?”

Did you feel any affinity with the bands that are widely acknowledged to have kick started the metal scene – Purple, Sabbath and (even if they deny it) Zeppelin?

Yes they are all great bands, we had the same management as Sabbath at one time and I remember a young Robert Plant visiting our dressing room when we played a gig at Birmingham Top Rank; never saw Deep Purple live (which is the way I prefer to experience a band or artist. )

The fashion police and the gatekeepers of cool have always frowned on metal to a great extent, what’s you take?

Just look at the support for these bands, says it all really don’t you think?

What’s next for “Groundhogs”, hopefully more local live shows but what about recording?

We are arranging another Bristol show at this moment and will be releasing new recordings of this, now Bristol based, new “Groundhogs ” line-up.