Mark Gable talks pub rock, Kinder Surprise and assault rifles, ahead of Choirboys gig at Warners Bay

Anyone who loves pub rock knows all about the Choir Boys.

Run to Paradise. Boys Will Be Boys. Struggle Town, the list goes on...

The band recently released a new album Pub Rock Live, a collection of live songs recorded over the past seven years - without any auto tune, and with all of the raw, rock n' roll grit of performing live on stage.

Having started playing in bands in the 70s, and releasing the first Choirboys single in 1983, Mark can confidently say he's seen it all, including the rise and fall of pub rock. He also has quite a few opinions on the world today and why in 2018, people are still lining up to see bands from the 80s.

"These days pub rock is retro," he says.

"It's all about people loving the past, and don't we love the glory days of anything?

"It was a fabulous, amazing time back then and people love looking back. But bands like that just don't exist anymore, not the kinds of bands that represent a simple point of view and a simpler time. So we look at bands from the 80s and say 'aren't they great' because we can relate to it, particularly the people who lived through it and can remember it as a time that was simplistic and fun."

"We look back at bands from the 80s and say 'aren't they great' because we can relate to it, particularly the people who lived through it and can remember it as being a time that was simplistic and fun..."

Throughout Newcastle and The Hunter Region, many pubs, including Warners Bay Hotel, have caught on to this state of mind and are now booking 80s pub rock bands like The Choirboys, much to the delight of live music fans. Ironically, this resurgence of 80s and 90s bands playing in pubs is creating a full-circle affect, bringing performers like Mark Gable and The Choirboys back to their roots - 30 years on.

"We broke through in the 80s when the pub scene was developing," Mark says.

"Australia was going to pubs. Sure we had television and we'd stay home and watch Countdown and all the rest of it, but in our time it was like 'Hey mate, let's go down to the pub and meet the future ex-wife, let's go and have some fun'.

"Girls would all go out, guys would all go out, and we'd have a ball because really, what else were we going to do? So we'd go out. Live music developed in pubs more than anywhere else in the world. We went out, we drank a lot of beer and we loved it.

"It's like I remember back then saying to my bass player, come down to the pub, and it was the Dee Why Hotel on a Tuesday night, to see this band, the chick singing there is amazing - it was The Divinyls.