Two years ago in March, with the great help of Knockout Booking and Harwyho Kaváreň vlog, I managed to get an interview with Colin Jerwood, the frontman of cult anarchopunks Conflict.
The article is shamefully coming out now because we have been speculating about where to publish it in written form. The idea of placing the interview on my domain, which I had discussed several times, eventually became the best alternative, and it also automatically led me (finally) to start my own adequate blog.

Thanks for coming to Slovakia. This is actually your second time in our country. How do you like it here? How do you feel in Slovakia?
I like it. I think the feedback is really, really good. The people are really, really nice, like Prague. And I think next year we're doing it again with Prague and... Not Vienna, Valencia? Is it Valencia? Yeah, next year. So, yeah, no, we haven't been for a while, but last night was magnificent.
Anarcho-punk is pretty much a timeless genre. How do you see it nowadays? In what condition is the scene and how it reflects on the problems and new issues in society still popping up?
Personally, I think it's more relevant now than probably ever with the way everything's changing. The scene as such, I would say it's a bit closer than it was back in the 80s.
I mean, in the 80s it became so big, it kind of got out of control. You got a lot of people getting involved in it that really weren't into it, you know? But now I think it's kind of leveled out where there's bands that are into the right thing.
And, yeah, I like it better now.

Your collaboration with Steve Ignorant is very well known. Is there something similar in your near future in the plans with someone?
There is, yeah. There's a concert, but we're not going to announce it yet. But there's a big concert like Brixton Academy. We're going to do just a few
and that's it.
We'll do probably in America one, London, it's going to be somewhere in Europe. But we just thought we'd just do one more together. He's on the new album as well. But that's only as a guest spot, you know.

You also experienced riots that were thrown on some of your shows in the 80s. How is it going now from time to time? Do you experience something similar nowadays?
To be honest, disappointingly, we don't get as much attention off the police now.But I get it outside of concerts. I've been arrested four times this year. Twice in Scotland and twice in England. And they've tried to say: what band are you in and what type of music? And I go, punk, and they say, oh, ideal. Wait here, cell for four hours. Can't put anything on me, but they try. Not as violent as it used to be. Back in the day, they'd give me a right beating.
Now they try and be a little bit clever. They see what I'm up to and stuff. To be honest, I've calmed it down a lot because I've had to. But not with Conflict, Conflict needs to go ahead.But outside of Conflict, yeah, I get a lot of attention. Like driving a car and they pull up. And if I get a pull just for a normal thing, they go, wait there. Come back and say: oh, angry anarchist still, are we? So they do their own work.

What pissed you off today? And what made you happy on the contrary?
What pissed me off? Well, I haven't been in the country long. I think I love the architecture. I love the romance, the spirit of these two countries. And as I say, last night, I think that's the best time we played Prague. The first time was 17 years ago. So, yeah, I really respect that. And I think tonight's going to go the same way. I just like the attitude of people.
I live in London. It's not a nice place anymore. It's changed. Yeah, no one's friendly. Over here, you seem to have cultures. And you have, say, your local pub that you can go to. We haven't got that in London anymore. It's all been flattened. And it's flats. There's nothing here. You've got all the big church chains, Wetherspoons and all that. And McDonald's everywhere. But that's all you've got.
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