Very Cool: Bad Nerves On Famous Fans And Bridging Punk's Generation Gap
Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Written by Emma Wilkes
Photos: Scott Sullivan
Bad Nerves were made for rooms like the Electric Ballroom. Nestled on the bustling Camden High Street, among some of the most outlandishly decorated shops you might hope to find, it feels like it has been preserved in amber since these streets spat and strutted to the sounds of punk’s late-70s heyday. The same could be said for Bad Nerves’ sound, which is loud, frenetic, and sometimes fast enough to really test the tensile strength of a drummer’s arms.
Headlining the 1500-capacity space following the release of last year’s ‘Still Nervous’, the Essex quartet put on an effortlessly cool showing, proving that their riotous sound doesn’t have to be confined to tiny sweatboxes. They blast through both of their albums on shuffle mode, their wheels greased, their spirits high, the volume eardrum-rattling. Frontman Bobby Nerves wants everyone to stick their hands in the air for the ballad Sorry and keep them there for three minutes. “We need more crowdsurfers before this next song even starts,” he later demands.
Earlier, he and bassist Jon Poulten are perched side by side on a sofa in their dressing room that’s so low to the ground they’re almost squatting rather than sitting. It’s January, and we’re indoors, but Bobby’s still wearing sunglasses as he chops up the band’s rapid rise to playing venues of this size.
It’s been just seven months since they sold out the 500 capacity Garage in nearby Islington. Not long before that, they were packing out the vastly more intimate Sebright Arms in the east of the city. “We couldn’t believe it,” Bobby says. “Selling out the Garage felt like a pretty good milestone and not much time has passed since then, and now we’re doing this. It’s pretty mind-blowing.”
Their upward trajectory seems unlikely to plateau any time soon. Of late, Bad Nerves have garnered the reputation of being ‘your favourite band’s favourite band’. Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong counts himself as a superfan, so much so that he’s taking them out on tour this summer. He even reached out when they were both playing Rock For People in the Czech Republic, inviting them to hang out. “It does give you some weird validation if you’re not seeking it — it’s great for socials,” Bobby jokes. “It’s great for showing that guy in school that you made it.”
The Essex punks have also caught the eye of Justin Hawkins. While wandering around the band area during BST Hyde Park, Bobby felt a tap on his shoulder, turned around, and there was The Darkness’s frontman, who’d recognised him from across the room after seeing Bad Nerves opening for Creeper at the Roundhouse in November 2022.
It helped Bobby to pull off a cheeky trick in the Instagram comments when Hawkins’ band posted a tour poster. ‘Support?’ he commented, and soon the gig was theirs. “It’s surreal,” says Jon. “I grew up looking up to some of these bands and it’s very weird when they turn around and say they like what you’re doing. It’s very cool.”
As Green Day and their contemporaries have show time and time again, punk might have been born in small sweatboxes, but it’s not confined to them. As they’ve grown as a headline band, and landed some support slots in vast spaces, Bad Nerves have had to think about how their stage show needs to grow with those environments. “You’ve got to try and work a crowd a little,” explains Bobby. “You’re up on a pedestal, there’s more of a difference between you and the audience.”
“The Hives were a game changer,” offers Jon. “We saw how Pelle [Almqvist, vocals] really worked the crowd. He could have been on that stage without a band and he was just so good at it. We watched that and thought, ‘That’s how you do it. It’s about being an entertainer.”
Another of Camden’s heartwarming quirks is that it’s easy to tell when there’s a rock show down the road. The streets are littered with punks and emo kids in the hours leading up to doors, traipsing around the famous market, heading to the pub or grabbing food. On the night Bad Nerves play, it’s no different. A few of their younger fans congregate around the sealed entrance to the Ballroom in the cold, discussing their favourite bands, even though they still have some hours to go before taking their spots at the barrier.
“For the longest time, it felt like the band only really appealed to the people who were around when The Clash were around,” Bobby observes. “It was an older crowd, which is really cool. To have any crowd at all is amazing. But in recent times, it feels like all different generations are coming now. It’s so nice to see really young people there, all the way through to your 60 plus crowd.”
In a way, this isn’t a surprise. Their crowd is a mirror of what Bad Nerves do musically – they’ve found a full-throttled way to unite the past, present and future. “We’re very lucky because everyone seems to look after each other,” Jon says with a smile. “Everyone gets on, and that’s that.”
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