Shame’s Charlie Steen on the band who “altered the fate and direction” of music
Shirtless wonder Charlie Steen is an atavistic stage presence akin to Iggy Pop crossbred with an eccied accountant. As the frontman of Shame, he has presided over a post-punk outfit that have heralded a new dawn of music in the UK, and he’s a thoroughly decent lad to boot. The raucous energy of Shame is infused with a simple sense of fun; it lightens the potency of the politics and adds charm to the anarchy.
Thus, it is perhaps no surprise that the original rascals of rock, the forebearers of punk, appeal to him: The Stooges. Speaking about Iggy Pop’s riotous outfit, Steen told Far Out: “The Stooges changed my life. Only three albums to their name, and these three records seem to have altered the fate and direction of so much that came after them. The list of artists that cite this band as the reason they picked up an instrument is endless.“
Lou Reed summed up that influence when he wrote in testimony to their output on the liner notes for Metallic K.O.: “I have always loved Raw Power. I like the sound – the honest sound of young guys trying to break the barrier of stilted, moulded, sterile rock. And they did. Great guitar and wonderful vocals from Iggy. An inspiration for young men to this day.”
As one of those young men, Steen continues: “It seems as if this band has nothing to lose when you listen to them. No willingness to sacrifice their sound in hopes of achieving a high rank in the charts. No sign of trying to mould themselves to be something they were not. Nobody had seen anything like them at the time, and nobody has seen or heard anything as real as them since.“
He continued by picking out a favourite (a mere margin above the others, in his opinion), 1970’s Fun House: “This album has tracks like ‘Down on the Street’ and ‘Loose’ that sit in their own elevated world. We’ve been lucky enough to perform with Iggy Pop a few times now, and rest assured, he’s still a higher power.”
In truth, three albums were enough from the unique force. Their ferocious assault on banality and uncompromising frolics into punk paradigms made their demise somewhat of an inevitability. You can only stay in control of a tailspin for so long before you end up in a ditch, but it sure was glorious fun while it lasted, and the skid illuminated the future.
By February 1974, things were beginning to get a little too treacherous for the band to stay on a steady course, and an incident with a Detroit biker gang dubbed the Scorpions signified a dangerous portent for the band. The Stooges had been booked to play their local hangout, The Rock & Roll Farm in Wayne, Michigan. When Iggy emerged wearing only a skimpy leotard, it was not to their liking. The end was on high, but their legacy had only just begun, and Shame, with their old school live shows and chernobyling of banality, keep that buzz alive.
