Q and A: Dave Faulkner (The Victims)

By BRIAN GIFFIN

BEFORE his globe-trotting success in the eighties and nineties with Hoodoo Gurus, Dave Faulkner – or Dave Flick as he was then known – was writing Australian punk rock history with The Victims. 

Formed in Perth in 1977, The Victims – Faulkner, James Baker and Dave “Rudolph V” Cardwell – lasted barely two years but their debut single “Television Addict” remains a national punk treasure and has been revisited by both You Am I and the Hellacopters. The band was done by late ’78, but Faulkner and Baker eventually found themselves in Sydney where they formed Le Hoodoo Gurus in 1981, a group that would add significantly to the national rock lexicon over the subsequent decades.  

A one-off reunion of The Victims in Perth in mid-2014 – with uber-fan Ray Ahn of the Hard-Ons in for Cardwell – proved so successful they did a three-date east coast tour in early 2015. The trio went on to record the Horror Smash EP in 2019 but further plans were curtailed by COVID. Now, with the release of a final 7”, The Victims are playing their final shows ever. 

Dave Faulkner tells us why it’s time to call time on The Victims.

Hot Metal: Why now?

Dave Faulkner: “Because there may be a time in the not-too-distant future where we couldn’t do it. So we’re going to strike while the iron’s hot. We did one in June in Perth, which was going to be the last one. Circumstances have changed and we, luckily, are doing a show in Sydney and Melbourne. We’re grabbing that opportunity with both hands. We’re all fit and healthy, so let’s play a show while we can still say that.”

HM: It seemed appropriate for it to finish in Perth because that’s where it all started, but in a way you also deprive the rest of the country from seeing you one last time.

DF: “Yes, and unfortunately what happened was, we released an EP, Horror Smash and we were going to do a tour and we were even talking about going to the US. But then COVID happened and that just threw everything in the too hard basket. So we basically lost all those years, and we thought, ‘Well we can’t do that, so let’s just do a couple of shows and say ‘See you later, folks’.’”

HM: We didn’t get to interview you about the EP because of the circumstances, but you have a couple of new songs now too.

DF: “When we recorded the EP we actually recorded six songs, so we saved two just for… whatever. So when we did the Perth show we thought, ‘Let’s just get these two songs out and draw a line under it all’. We’ve got a little bit of extra lagniappe, a baker’s dozen – a bit extra. So we’ve got that for the Sydney and Melbourne shows. Unfortunately we don’t have any singles – we sold quite a lot at the Perth show and the rest went to the US for Rough Trade to sell on their online store. It’s on all the streaming platforms and it features the shortest ever Victims song! It’s called ‘Victim’ and it’s about 37 seconds long, or something, and it’s always our opening song. It used to be the first song we played, it goes way, way back. It’s just a blast of simple stupidity!”

HM: It seems like The Victims are far more appreciated now than when you first started!

DF: “Oh God yes! You know we were pretty isolated in Perth. We had a handful of friends who were our fans and followers and we coalesced a scene around us. People started forming bands and it became a microcosm. But it wasn’t just under a rock, it was under Ayers Rock in terms of the ability to find us in the rest of the world. Punk rock itself was very much an outsider music. It hadn’t been embraced by the mainstream at that point, if it ever was. You still hear it to this day, people talking about ‘punk influenced’. I guess I know what it means, it comes with the attitude or something, but for us it was the latest music that hadn’t been done before. I’d heard nothing like that, and it was so exciting. We really just did it for us and our fans. We would have never in a million years thought that anyone would have heard of the band or cared about us and it’s kind of funny that that seed we planted has grown into, well not a mighty oak, but some kind of eucalyptus, or something. A snow gum!”

HM: I remember when Ray announced he’d been asked to join The Victims, and how excited and humbled he was that he’d been invited. Knowing his encyclopedic knowledge of music, he probably knew as much about the Victims as you did.

DF: “The Victims was a very important band to him. He discovered us when he was about 14. A couple of years after the band broke up, he was in a record shop and said ‘What’s this?’ He bought it and fell in love with it and even made his own t-shirt. Of course, we got to know Ray many years later, and he used to talk with us a lot. James suggested Ray as a person who could play bass for us. We had a bit of a falling out with Dave back in the day, and while he’s still doing music he hasn’t played live much. James and I have been playing all this time so we just thought we should play it safe and get Ray in the band. Also, Ray’s a huge fan and it was a pleasure to be playing with him. He’s passionate. He’s cool. He looks great, he plays great, he’s got impeccable taste, and he’s a nice guy. There’s no questions about why you would have him in your band. I’m a fan of his. I love the Hard-ons and Nunchukka Superfly. They’re all amazing things he’s done, so to have Ray in the Victims, it’s sort of like a supergroup for me.”

BUY THE VICTIMS SINGLE “GIRLS DON’T GO FOR PUNKS” HERE.

THE VICTIMS LAST EVER SHOWS with Chimers

1/12: Brunswick Ballroom, Melbourne

2/12: Crowbar, Sydney