TIM HUGHES talks to punks Max Raptor, who bring their blend of ferocious rock and intelligent lyrics to the biggest mosh pit of all – Reading Festival

WE expect our punk rockers to be raucous, rowdy and seething with attitude. But it comes as a welcome surprise to find that edge and energy tempered with eloquence, intelligence and a political conscience.

Welcome then, to the wonderful world of Max Raptor.

Everything is slightly different about this ferocious bunch of rockers, who hail not from the mean streets of some grimy industrial wasteland but the village of Tutbury – a sleepy cluster of cottages gathered beneath a ruined castle in rural Staffordshire.

And their unlikely stamping ground is key to understanding what this band are all about.

Max Raptor don’t so much rail against the isolation and frustration of small town life; that would all be much too predictable. No, it is informed by a sense of otherness – of being observers on the outside looking in; of seeing society through a prism from the viewpoint of their Midlands bolthole.

The four piece of Wil Ray, Chris Gilbert, Matt Stevenson and Pete Reisner play sucker-punching riff-laden rock laced with vocal hooks, yet sing about the end of empire, the folly of celebrity culture, misdirected nationalism and domestic abuse. They also take swipes at the pitfalls of ambition, arrogance, anger, greed, violence, narcissism and pride.

The energy off their live shows alone have elevated them to cult status, and that’s before you’ve even listened to the lyrics.

“We play fast aggressive punk with ideas,” says frontman Wil, talking to me at his rehearsal space, overlooking an alpaca farm. He is hoarse from singing. Listen to one of their songs and you’ll see why.

“We certainly have ideas above our station,” he croaks. “We don’t write anything we don’t believe, so it’s an honest portrayal of society through music.”

He adds: “Things are heating up for us. After three years as a band, we are spreading out. As people take us more seriously, we take it more seriously.

“Our music all comes from people we know or went to school with, and people who live in the towns around us. “We make sketches of society. Sometimes it’s endearing and sometimes depressing.

“I like dark music and not singing about rubbish. I’m quite cynical sometimes – I write about the best and worst of life. And I am constantly writing. Things I see on the news or around us, it all goes down in a little pad and it all comes together.”

Following support slots for the likes of The Stranglers, Ash, Billy Talent, Oceansize, Attack Attack, and Blood Red Shoes, and the release of debut album Portraits, Max Raptor are looking forward to taking their rightful place at the loudest, most boisterous bash of them all – Reading Festival, and its sister gathering in Leeds.

The set, which follows a major line-up change, is the pinnacle of their achievements so far.

“We did the Download a couple of years ago but we didn’t have the album out then,” says Wil.

“We had a great crowd, a wall of death and a mosh pit but nothing to back it up with. This has come at the perfect time as the album has had a new lease of life and is going good and selling by word of mouth – like Haagen Dazs ice cream!”

For a rock fan like Wil, 27, who has been going to the festival since the age of 16, it is a huge prize.

“I have always loved it,” he grins. “Having gown up in a village, it blew my mind. My mum used to go too – she’s got a bit of a name in the village – and is now telling everyone that her son is playing there.

“But it’s the perfect setting for a grotesque punk band.”

And it shows hard work pays off. He adds: “It takes a lot of time but if you hammer away at it you get the reward. You’ve got to love it. There is no place for apathy.”

  • Max Raptor play Reading Festival on Saturday.
  • Tickets are still available for Friday and Saturday.
  • Go to readingfestival.co.uk for details.