I didn't mean to upset Sting!

Next Saturday the Fermain Tavern will play host to a night of punk music, from old skool to the modern day.

UK band The Lurkers are joined by Jersey's Bulletproof, local band 2 Minutes 2 Late and Alderney's Shambolix.

The Lurkers were one of the pioneering UK punk bands of the late 70s, they achieved notoriety on the scene and had several top 40 hits.

Bassist Arturo Bassick – real name Arthur Billingsley - left the band in 1977 but reformed them in 1987, taking over on lead vocals, and has never stopped playing – he also is the bassplayer for the band 999.

Although The Lurkers have played in Guernsey before, backing Slade in the late 70s, Arturo had left the band by that point.

Does he ever hear from the original members, I asked him.

'Of course. The original drummer (Pete 'Manic Esso' Haynes) has just been at my place for two weeks, he's my best mate.

'The original singer, (Howard Wall), is a chef in an old people's home in Maidstone, he hasn't sung since 1980.

'The original guitarist (Pete Stride) didn't want to do the Lurkers any more about 16 years ago.

'And the other bassplayer, who'd been with them for the majority of the time, left about 17 years ago.

'They don't want to do it but I do, so here I am.'

I asked Arturo if the band intended to be part of punk rock scene when they formed in 1976 or were they carried along with what was happening at the time.

'Well, we set out to be a punk band because that's what we all liked.

'We liked The New York Dolls, Slade and The Sweet and we liked The Kinks, The Who, all that sort of stuff.

'So I think that the logical progression, out of that was the punk thing.'

What bands did he gig with during punk's year zero?

'We never played with The Pistols, The Clash or The Damned but we played with The Stranglers.

'I was a big fan of the band and before I joined the Lurkers I saw them 36 times in four months, from November 76 through to March 77.

'One of the reasons why I joined The Lurkers, in May 77, was because we had a lot of gigs supporting them and at venues run by their management, old venues that are quite famous now like The Nashville Rooms, The Hope and Anchor, and The Red Cow.' And Arturo has some colourful anecdotes from the time, all captured in his slim autobiography, Fat Bloke Thin Book, such as his meeting with a certain spiky-haired Geordy bassist from The Police called Sting – or Stink as Arturo mistakenly thought he was called.

'He got quite upset that I kept getting his name wrong but he still lent me his bass, I think he felt that he had to.

'But that was before The Police hit on that reggae sound, they were just a kind of competent rock group then really, trying to cash in on the punk thing of course. 'This was before Andy Summers joined them and they had Henry Padovani on guitar. They were playing stuff like Peanuts and Fallout.

'I think there were about 50 people at that gig. It was at The Marquee are we supported them. Very early days.'

Arturo explained he has never stopped playing in bands.

'When I left the Lurkers in 1977 I formed a band called Pinpoint who were managed by the Stranglers management. We were on the management's label, Albion, and they looked after a number of other bands, 999 were one of them. We made an album with Martin Rushent (Stranglers producer, went on to produce The Human League's Dare LP). We did about three singles, this was around 81-82, then I started a group called the Blubbery Hellbellies, a kind of cow punk sort of thing.

'We used to play with The Pogues and The Men They Couldn't Hang and all those sort of bands. That was up until up about 1987 and from then till now I've been in The Lurkers.' The band have played all over the world, he told me.

'Argentina, Brazil, Japan, America, all over Europe – never been to Australia, but hope to. But I've also played with 999 for the last few years, which has been absolutely fantastic, I go all over the place with them too'.

999 always struck me as more r'n'b than punk, I told him.

'Very much so, there's lots of walking bass lines but they have some real good songs with nice little twists in them. They're much more American sounding rather than the Lurkers, which still is quite in your face – it's poppy melodies but playing a lot harder, more of a wall of sound than 999.

'So I keep busy with both bands as well as having a new album out of country rock n roll with the stuff I played way back with the Bluberry hellbellies - punktry and western I call it.

• The Lurkers, Bulletproof, 2 Minutes 2 Late and Shambolix are at the Tavern on Saturday 15 October. Entry is £5. Doors open 8pm.

Lurkers' facts

• Formed in London in 1976.

• Signed to Beggar’s Banquet and had five top 40 hits between 1977 and 1979.

• Biggest hit: Ain’t Got a Clue’ Appeared on Top of the Pops and were regulars on the John Peel Show.

• Called it a day in 1980 but two years later got back together to record for Mike Stone’s Clay label due to a resurgence of interest in their music.

• Bassist Arturo Bassick revived the band with new members in 1987 after a chance meeting with German punk band Die Toten Hosen, who were huge fans.

• Arturo now also sings lead vocals with the band.