Agression: Big Bob on a quarter century of Nardcore

THE PUNK BAND AGRESSION came out of Oxnard, California during the early '80s. This beach community north of Los Angeles hosted a thriving punk scene that became known as Nardcore, also spawning bands like Ill Repute, Stalag 13, Dr Know and RKL. Agression was one of the original Skate Rock bands with all four members being skaters who rode the streets, parks and ditches of Southern California. Back in '79 singer Mark Hickey, guitarist Henry Knowles, and bassist Bob Clark skated for Sims. The first Agression interview in Thrasher magazine was in the February, 1985 issue (below), marking this year as the 20th anniversary of that event. Mark and Henry have since passed on to the great pie in the sky, but Big Bob still pounds the bass strings in a revamped version of the old band. The dude has been through hell and back during this life and is still pursuing the DIY lifestyle. He sells punk T-shirts that he prints himself down at a swap meet in the Port of Los Angeles and regularly commutes via Greyhound bus 80 miles up to Oxnard to practice with the band. Bob's got a million stories about the old days, and I thought I'd catch a show and see what he had to say.

Tell me about the passing of singer Mark Hickey and guitarist Henry Knowles.

It's a really hard thing to talk about. Mark died a few years ago of liver failure (August 8, 2000). We had moved to Denver for a while and he kind of got caught up in the drug and alcohol scene like we all did. Some of us were just lucky enough to get out alive. He was doing OK, then he left the hospital and his sister called me a couple days later saying that he had passed away. I knew Mark for about 35 years. Me, Mark and Henry were the ones who started the band. When Mark died it was a pretty big blow to all the people from Oxnard and those associated with the band. As for Henry, he wasn't feeling well for the last year we were playing shows and he went to the hospital and found out he had Leukemia. He checked into the hospital for treatment. The radiation knocked out his immune system and after that they found out he had Hepatitis C. With his immune system down, the Hep C kicked in. I talked to him one day, he said he was getting out in December and he told me to set up shows, and then three days later he died (August 29, 2002).

That spot you're skating in your original Thrasher interview, where was that?

It was in Camarillo. It was called Lefts and Rights. It was a drainage ditch shaped like an S.

Was it ever a bust?

Only when people would go there and do stupid stuff like write graffiti and get in fights. If you were just skating the cops never cared.

You grew up in Oxnard, right? Did you surf?

Yeah.

Kind of a heavy scene over there, right?

Yeah. Well, that's where the whole "Locals Only" song came from with all the stuff that Mark and me used to see going down on the beach. I've seen people get stabbed in the neck with broken bottles. I seen these guys who didn't want to leave their stuff in the car because people were ripping off cars down there, so they piled all their stuff up on the beach and went out surfing. A friend of mine walked over with a two-liter bottle of gasoline and he poured the bottle all over their clothes and everything, lit it on fire, and just walked away.

Surfers get serious about their spots.

It used to be that way. I haven't surfed in a long time, but I never got into that whole heavy local thing, because I always had guys like Jay Adams, Alva, Gerry Valdez coming up to surf and skate at Silver Strand. I liked to go other places too.

What was the Oxnard skate scene like in the '80s?

It started out just like most places. For a while it was just us kids putting a piece of plywood up against a wall and skating that. It developed from there. There was a point where I moved up north to a hippie commune for a couple of years and when I got back they had just built Oxnard skatepark. It wasn't even open yet and I went over there and Valdez and this guy David Ferry were skating the snake run. I watched them with my jaw just dropping open because they were doing things I'd never seen. From that point on the skatepark became home for us.

Didn't you first find out about punk rock while you were up on that commune in Humboldt?

Yeah. I was living up there, growing pot, and had hair down to my ass. I saw an article on punk rock in TIME magazine. That night I cut off all my hair, and said, "Those guys look like they are having fun." I was sick and tired of going to see Led Zeppelin and all these other big rock hands. You're like half a football field from the band, and you're going, "Well, it kinda looks like 'em, it might be them." My first punk show was the Dead Kennedys, the Germs, Fear, and the Suburban Lawns. I was hooked from that moment on, because it was real. It's right there, you can touch the people; you can talk to them. Definitely a lot better than that rock concert stuff.

What happened to Mystic Records? Is it true all the bad shit you hear about that label?

Some bands have had problems with Mystic. I'm still in contact with Doug Moody, the guy who runs the label. We never got any money from Mystic; we got albums. Once he gave us his credit card to take on the road and about halfway through the tour it got cancelled because we had run up about four grand in gas, motel, and food bills. Every time we went to the gas station we would go and spend everything on his credit card. I called him up and said, "Your credit card's cancelled." And he goes, "Five thousand, dammit! I had to cancel that thing!" Most bands that were on Mystic knew that they weren't going to get a lot of money. Doug did help people; he helped the scene out. He produced and made records with over 500 punk bands, a lot of bands that wouldn't have got a chance to do anything. It's like, do a record or don't do one.

You got any good beatdown stories?

We played the Whiskey one night and there used to be a parking lot across the street. Henry and this guy were partying all night over there. This guy had really long dreadlocks and he passed out on the hood of the car, and when we came back after the show Henry walked over and cut the dreadlocks off.

You've been sober for some time now. Can you talk a little about what brought that on?

I've been sober for about two and a half years now. I was a heroin addict along with other drugs, but heroin was probably my drug of choice. Heroin took me down to the streets. I was living on the streets of Oxnard. I would see all my friends; I would be at a bank begging for money or something and I'd see Jim Callahan or Tony Cortez from Ill Repute or something. I was sleeping in bushes. I was doing a lot of petty theft and stuff to support my habit. When I got arrested they offered me a year in the county jail or three months in county and three months in a program. I took the program. And God bless. That's probably the best thing I ever did. I'm here, I'm doing good. I have a business going. Life is just a lot better right now. I stay away from the drugs. If people are gonna learn, they have to do things for themselves. If you're using, you ain't gonna quit until you're ready to quit. Don't do it for anyone else--not your mom, your kids or your wife. If it's going to last you gotta do it for yourself.

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