REBEL KINGS

Who are you...

Rebel Kings are a melodic rock band from the North West of England. The band was formed when drummer James Ross (who first came into the public eye as the drummer on DARE’s debut album ‘Out of the Silence’) answered a message from his old friend and former band mate Gaz King who was searching on Facebook for any friends who could help out to record a couple of songs he’d written.

James having previously worked with Gaz and was impressed with his ability as a songwriter, vocalist and front person live jumped at the chance and hence was the beginning of Rebel Kings.

Gaz King by this point had such a large collection of songs already crafted and so the 2 songs turned into 11 carefully chosen songs for an album project. Gaz and James recruited Ian Schofield on Keyboards, Bill Thomas on Bass and the guitar duties were given to Lee Pickett. 3 studios and several months later the album Enchantress was born. It’s an eclectic mix of Rock songs which keep the listener entertained and intrigued throughout thrusting Gaz with addition 2 tracks of Ian into the spotlight.

Unfortunately, Lee Pickett wasn’t able to stay due to ongoing commitments, so guitarist Nick Kariotis now completes the line-up.

Roll Call....

Gaz King - Vocals

James Ross - Drums

Nick Kariotis - Guitars

Ian Schofield - Keys

Bill Thomas - Bass

Hailing from....

Rebel Kings hail from mainly the North west of England, Gaz comes from St Helens, James from Chorley, Bill and Ian from Liverpool were as Nick originally hails from Greece but now lives in Liverpool.

Journey so far....

Although the band formed 4 years ago, due to lock down and personnel changes the Rebel Kings Enchantress debut album has finally been released. The band are in rehearsals and live dates will be an- nounced shortly via Rebel Kings Facebook page.

Influences, sound....

Enchantress has an eclectic mix of influences mainly the classic melodic rock bands of the 80 with flavours including Asia, Bon Jovi, Dare, Magnum and Ten.

Biggest gig/Proudest

moment...

Our biggest Rebel Kings gig remains for the near future. James has toured extensively supporting Europe with his time in Dare. Gaz has recently worked as a vocalist with Anthems of Rock theatre show which continues to tour later this year, both which feature highly amongst our proud moments however, our proudest has to be the making and release of Enchantress.

What does the future hold for Rebel Kings....

Live shows, soon to be announced, to promote Enchantress feature highly for the future and new material for a second album is already flowing from the pen.

Rock legend Cherie Currie recently returned to the UK for an intimate run of dates across the country. The shows allowed the artist’s loyal fans to hear classic cuts from Cherrie’s repertoire along with tracks from her latest album Blvds of Splendour.

Having been touring since a young age, the artist relished touring the UK again at this point in her career. “When I was in The Runaways, I was so young, I was just 16 about to turn 17,” she says. “I was so homesick. Now that I’m 63 and not a child, I’m enjoying it so much. It’s so beautiful. And the people are so nice.”

Cherie’s latest album took a long time to get across the line. “It’s been on the shelf for a decade and it’s such a great record. And it’s Joan Jett’s record label and Kenny Laguna, her manager. What the hell? Why would they do that? And so still I’m waiting to find out why they would take such an extraordinary record and do that,” explains Cherie. “I opened for Joan Jett at Pacific Amphitheatre to enormous success, and I never worked again. They just stopped booking me. Let me sit for two years. And let this album sit for ten.”

Cherie adds: “I’m just in awe. Why did they do that? Because, at that time, I was 50, now I’m 63. Now one year, for a gal my age is like five years. So, I’m just glad now that Ingram Music, Steve Harkins, who is the president is releasing it worldwide in April. God bless him. He’s an angel. Because honestly, after that experience with people whom I thought were family, I didn’t want to be in this business anymore. When you get screwed by people that you consider your family, you don’t want to do it anymore. But here we are. And thanks to Steve, and Ingram Music, I’m going to be able to tour the US and support this amazing record.”

The record features a whole raft of esteemed guests. “It’s got, Slash and Duff. Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins is on it. Brody Dalle. The Veronica’s and even Juliette Lewis. Matt Sorum produced it and did an amazing job. It wasn’t just me that was let down when this album was shelved for no reasoneverybody suffered,” confirms Cherie.

Of course, Cherie’s live show features several Runaways tracks in the setlist. But does the artist still enjoy performing the songs of her former group after all this time? “Yeah, it’s my heritage. It’s my legacy,” she says. “I enjoy it as much as the audience loves hearing it. To me, The Runaways were substantial. And I’m very proud of what we did, short of 50 years ago.”

The Runaways were the subject of a Hollywood movie back in 2010 starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning. Speaking about the film, the artist said: “I wish the script would have delved deeper. I wish they would have used more of my book and have been a little more accurate,” she says. “I mean, the story itself, and what’s in my book; the movie is based on the book was so much more interesting. But Floria’s [Sigismondi] great cinematography brought the Seventies to life.”

When you think about The Runaways, the track Cherry Bomb immediately springs to mind. “I wrote the melody to that. I don’t have credit for that. Which I think it’s about time I go after. Because nobody sang the song but me. Kim Fowley kind of yelled the words to me and I had to come up with something. And yeah, they wrote it right on the spot. He called Joan over.” explains Cherie. “I took care of Kim towards the end of his life; I moved him into my house, he was dying of cancer. And I know how this guy writes. The thing is, you were lucky if he brought you in because he wrote the songs. But, as far as the melody, yes, I came up with that.”

Glam rock legends such as David Bowie and Suzi Quattro were major influences for The Runaways. “I kind of imitated David Bowie because we didn’t know who the hell we were, we were thrown on stage. Joan, imitated Suzy because that was the only way, we had no idea who we were. So eventually, we found out as we went along, who we were.”

The Runaways became a huge hit in Japan. Whilst touring the country the group experienced Beatlemania-style fandom. “Going to Japan, when we stepped off the plane it was just like a sea of people and guards. And people ripping our hair out, literally, and running for our lives. And we realised that we had made an impact,” confirms Cherie. “It was Japan that showed us that. I love Japan, and I cried when we had to leave. It was just the most wonderful people. I hope to return one day.”

Besides music, Cherie Currie is also a wood carving artist, using a chainsaw to create her works. But how did the rock legend discover this skill? “I just happened to be passing by some guy’s chainsaw carving at the side of the road and didn’t stop. But this voice kept telling me I had to go back. And it was like, why would I go back? But finally, after two weeks of harassment, because that voice will harass you. I walked in, I went over there, and I walked into this gallery and saw these beautiful mermaids, dolphins and tikis and this voice said, you can do this as plain as you and I speaking. And I was like, Okay, I listened to that voice. And thank God, because it’s because of that voice that I have my home. Because I started competing finally in 2005, winning ribbons and I’m good at it. But never in my wildest dreams did I ever aspire to be something like that. But chainsaw is pretty rock and roll, I guess.” Presently Cherie is focused on promoting her latest album. “The record comes out worldwide in April,” she says. “I will do whatever I need to do to give this record what it deserves. And to give Ingram Music and Steve Harkins what he deserves.” Cherie concludes: “It’s what I dreamed of since I left The Runaways and it’s here. So, I’m going to do what I can to try to make that a little bit of success.”

Burning Witches unleash a searing attack once more with their fifth studio album and Napalm Records debut, The Dark Tower, out May 5, 2023. Fasten your broom’s seatbelt for this wild and fiery ride!

With their latest offering Burning Witches wanted to take their subject matter in a much darker direction. “We were looking into a theme that could fit this. So, we came up with Countess Bathory and The Dark Tower is basically our version of the story. It is the place where she gets locked up because she turned out to be the first recorded serial killer in history. There are so many stories around it,” explains lead vocalist Laura Guldemond.

The macabre world of Countess Bathory proved to be a huge source of inspiration for Burning Witches. “She would take young servants, mostly girls that would just be in this castle to help her run the castle. If they would do something wrong, she would torture them. It was basically her hobby,” explains Laura. “According to some stories, she couldn’t really go without torturing someone for longer than two weeks. She eventually murdered a lot of people, and the numbers vary. But eventually, she started to do this to noble women and men’s daughters, and then she got locked up in her own home.”

The Dark Tower was recorded in the band’s homeland. “We always love to go to Little Creek studios, it’s in Switzerland. Obviously, there’s a creek close to it. So, it’s not entirely in the mountains, but it looks really nice,” she says. “I still feel like a tourist because I’m myself from the Netherlands.”

The first track to be released from the band’s latest offering was Unleash The Beast. “That was the last one we wrote,” says Laura. “It was just a few days before I would leave to go to the studio. They said, hey, Laura, here is another new song. And I was like, ok, I thought we were done.”

“Unleash The Beast was one of the things that I wanted to get into,” explains Laura. “I kind of wrote half the lyrics and then we went to the studio, and I finished the lyrics in the hotel room. Because there was just not that much time. And we were finishing everything as much as we could.”

Having explored the stories and tales surrounding Countess Bathory throughout the album, Laura tried to develop ideas surrounding the subject for this track in particular. “One of the things I was thinking of that could be part of the album is how do you turn into such a crazy person? Like, how does it happen? It can be genetics, maybe it’s the environment.

But, I think environment should be part of it because there were a lot of military things going on,” explains Laura.

Courtney Cox of the Iron Maidens recently stepped into the Burning Witches fold to cover for Larissa who is expecting a baby in the Summer. “We really love her. She’s just a positive cool person to work with. And she’s obviously a great guitarist, so we’re very happy that she wants to help us out,” explains Laura. “We’ve known her for a long time. Romana knows her since the Action Hammer album. She did the solo on one of the songs and we’ve been in contact. She did a great job now for Unleash The Beast. There’s more stuff coming up, I can’t spoil it yet, but it’s cool.”

The band had a very strong vision of where they wanted to take The Dark Tower sound-wise. “One of the things that we wanted was, we just love when the guitars harmonise a bit like Judas

Priest. We love that stuff. So, we did put some moments in there. And like I said, Larissa is also a big Judas Priest fan, so that made sense also. So, there are some cool melodies going on. And for just the overall sound, we want it to be a bit darker.”

Will we see Burning Witches touring the UK in support of their new album?

“We are actually thinking about how to arrange that at this moment. But let’s see what happens eventually. Because everything is still in the works. And we just need to see what’s possible and what makes sense to do. We hope it’s possible,” explains Laura.

Burning Witches have a busy year ahead.

“We have a show now in December in Latin America, actually Mexico, a really cool festival. It fits the vibe of the new album. It’s the Horror Fest. I really hope I get to see WASP there. So, they are also playing there,” she says. “Maybe we can do more shows there because we’re going there anyway. And it’s a long journey already. So, these kinds of things. Definitely, we’re thinking about it”

Shows in the USA are also on the cards. “Hopefully the West Coast because last time we did the East Coast of America. And indeed, in the UK, this is all in the works. But we’re looking into more. If it’s going to be later this year, at least, there are a lot of festivals - Wacken is one of them. So, I guess if people can’t wait, they can always see us at one of those festivals, because it’s worth travelling for probably.”

The Dark Tower by Burning Witches is out via Napalm Records on May 5, 2023.