Their perfect pooling of ska, hip hop and punk rock saw King Prawn achieve a reputation as one of the most bristling, essential bands to break out of the capital during the early 1990s.
They played alongside the likes of Madness, Therapy? and Desmond Dekker before bowing out in 2003 - with a memorable show at The Pitz in Milton Keynes, which boasted a fervant KP fanbase.
Their reunion a number of years back was welcomed, and now fans finally have a new elpee to bend their ears around; 'The Fabulous New Sounds Of...' has taken 'em five years to piece together, but has been worth it.
As fans toast the arrival of the fifth-long player (released this week), drummer Nik Jones talked all things music with Total MK...
The song that first awakened your musical senses
The song my mother used to sing to me in the womb, which if memory serves correctly was ‘Something's Burning’ by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, he must have sampled her cooking too. Gawd rest her, she’d burn a salad that woman.
Physical or digital - how do you take your music?
Mix of both, mostly physical at home but digital if I’m out or want to check out new stuff.
The first time you thought 'Music - this is the job for me'
About the age of 13, when I realised school was merely a pointless distraction, one designed purely to prepare you for a life of servitude to the gods of drudgery and mundanity.
So I bought the biggest drumsticks I could find and built my own kit out of sofa cushions.
Your best on stage memory...
Easy. Our guitarist falling through the stage. It was a support gig in Rome in front of 10,000 distinctly unimpressed punters. Start of the third song and TC our guitarist was bouncing away when a plank of the stage kicked up and through he went, there he was propped up by his elbows dangling 30ft above terra firma.
Being the professionals we are we played on, each of us making eye contact daring each other not to fall apart laughing, it took him two verses and two choruses before the stage crew could drag his lanky ass up, he came chiming in on the first chord of the mid eight and, of course, was hideously out of tune so spent the rest of the song tuning up.
I can’t believe no one filmed it and to this day I wish I was an audience member to witness the look on his face.
And the worst gig you've ever done
The first gig we did upon reforming.
Heartbreaking. We played to an empty room and I remember thinking we’d made a terrible mistake.
What made you take up the drums?
My Nan bought me like a cheapo Argos type drum kit for my seventh birthday. After a few days of me going berserk on it my dad snapped and chopped it up with an axe.
That impressed me more than anything, I was in awe that you could wreak such destruction, it was pure poetry. So really it had the opposite effect and he paid for that wanton act when I saved up as a teenager and bought my first real kit.
Which one song by another artist do you wish you had written
The Kinks - This time tomorrow
Masterpiece
And one - by yourself - which holds special significance
Aah, they’re all our babies, apart from the ones Babsy our old bassist used to sing, they were generally pony, which is why Al the singer let him have them.
Are there any current influences you look to
We all love a bit of Damian Marley
If you could step into the shoes of another musician, living or dead, who would it be and what would you do?
John Lennon and I’d duck.
And any genre of music that you simply can't stand?
House music bores the life out of me
Finally, plug your new album - what can people expect from 'The Fabulous New Sounds Of...'
For me it’s a work born of obsession, it’s no exaggeration to say I was consumed by it for the duration, to the point I won’t listen to it now for years.
But some time ahead in the distant future I’ll unwrap the vinyl, stack some logs on the burner, pour myself a rocka sized rum and stick that sucker on full blast.
To order 'The Fabulous New Sounds Of...' click here
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