Paul Cook and Tom Spencer want you to know this is not your dad’s Professionals reunion. Mostly because it’s technically your dad’s Professionals reunion with a new dad fronting the band. “This is a new project, really,” Cook says. “It’s not the original lineup because Steve Jones is not involved anymore. We didn’t just want to go and rehash all the old Professionals stuff and play old stuff all the time. We wanted to move forward a little bit.”
Forward means inviting a bunch of ringers to plug the gaps. Jones pops in for a few tracks, but the real trick is Cook’s rock ’n’ roll address book, which apparently holds the entire late-70s London phone tree on speed dial. “It’s like Christmas Day,” Spencer laughs. “We got the original bass player, and then Paul phoned up these people and they colored the album in. It’s amazing to be on a record with them.”
The album is called What In The World, and if you missed it, you’re probably the idiot they wrote about. “There’s a definite weight with the history,” says Spencer, who knows better than to imitate Steve Jones. “You can’t. He’s a one-off character. I had to just have a bit of faith that I make a big guitar noise myself and sing like I do. Hopefully I can have the same sentiment.”
Some of the sentiment is pointed. “Monkeys” is the only track with a bit of politics, a middle finger to “idiots following idiots.” Cook says, “It’s an angry song about clowns that get to run the country. Shame on the people for following them.”
Everything else is a shot of punk-spiked personal experience — aging, screwing up, growing old disgracefully. “We wrote from a personal point of view,” Cook says. “We’re all older. You find yourself. You grow old disgracefully. That’s all the stuff.”
In other words, it’s the same Professional racket: “Catchy, poppy, punky, rocky songs — whatever you want to call it,” Cook shrugs. Except this time it actually sounds good. “I didn’t really like the first album. Production-wise it was so chaotic. We took our eye off the ball. This one definitely does sound how we wanted.”
Spencer knows the weight of filling big shoes, but he also knows those boots have some good stomp left in them. “The reaction to the first tracks has been great,” he says. “We still play the old songs live and they go down great. Paul’s realizing now how influential the Professionals were. I was too young for the Pistols, but I bought the Professionals singles when they came out. Genuine beat guitars and power. Simple formula.”
Forty years later, it still works. Idiots, consider yourselves warned.
Listen to the interview above and then check out their single, "Good Man Down," below!
