SONIC SHOCKS - Issue 12

Interviews with STEVE HACKETT, BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME, BENGA, TODD GORDON, JAIN WELLS, GORGOROTH, GOJIRA, MELISSA JAMES, NIGHTFALL, STONERIDER, GARY NUMAN, NIKKI SIXX, THE TREATMENT, TESTAMENT, GINGER, LITTLE ANGELS, GEOFF TATE, REIGN OF FURY MOVIES: BEST AND WORST OF 2012, 2013 PREVIEW, LIFE OF PI, CHRIS NOLAN, PAUL LIEBERMAN INTERVIEW

Issue 12/2012

£ FREE

PLUS LIVE REVIEWS, WARPED, BURLESQUE, UNSIGNED...

EXCLUSIVE: JAZ COLEMAN THE TOUR THAT NEVER WAS + NEW DATES ANNOUNCED

FESTIVAL ATTENDANCE SET FOR CONTINUED DECLINE IN 2013

By Cristina Massei

PUN LOND K ON

A recent report by YouGov SixthSense has found that music festival attendance is set for continued decline in 2013. Are we surprised? Well, not really. However, the report in question reveals an even more deteriorating state of health for our beloved summer gatherings than we were already fearing.

The report reveals that just under a fifth (19%) of UK festival-goers surveyed (i.e. those who have attended at least one music festival in the past) plan on going to a music festival in 2013, while 54% say they won’t be going at all in 2013. This means that the majority of those who were actually expected to buy a ticket have already sold their tent on e-Bay. Festival organizers will be fighting for the mere 27% still on the fence and hope for a new generation of Festival virgins to get in the game… Is that going to be enough, and are promoters going down the right path for survival?

The line-ups, for a start - no wonder 54% of those who have been to at least one music Festival won’t be going back: they’ve seen them all already, if it’s not Metallica it’s Iron Maiden after all. Sure the all-stars packages are still attractive for any Festival virgin, but here’s where the second part of the YouGov stat comes in: Of those who do not plan to attend a festival in 2013, 35% say they are too expensive, 18% are put off by poor weather and muddy fields, and 22% say they plan to take a holiday instead of attending a music festival. So, what makes you think that, in these days of chronic unemployment and prolonged procrastination, kids are going to have the money not only for the tickets and travelling, but to pay a tenner for a few soggy chips and a beer in a muddy field in the middle of nowhere? Get real. Especially – and that goes for all ages and pockets – when you can do a Festival somewhere sunny in Europe at a percentage of the price and have a nice holiday AS WELL. 37% of respondents say music festivals are over-crowded and involve too much queuing. Don’t even get me started on organization, security and logistics, I’d need a full issue for that…

THE COCKNEY REJECTS, THE VIBRATORS AND THE BERMONDSEY JOYRIDERS TALK TO SONIC SHOCKS

In a separate report YouGov SixthSense explored the habits and preferences of UK gig-goers and found out that 44% think smaller events are best for atmosphere. As the likes of Bloodstock, Hammerfest or Butlins Rock & Blues enjoy increasing success against the general trend, maybe there is still hope for UK festivals. Maybe promoters need to be reminded that a Festival used to be a chance to see more bands for less money, rather than spend a fortune to see 5 you like, 3 of which are playing at the same time at 45 minutes walk one from the other. Maybe they need to remember what was so fascinating about spending a weekend in a muddy field drinking cheap beer, and that ‘cheap’ before ‘beer’ doesn’t just refer to the quality, but also – and primarily – to the price.

Maybe, in an era when labels have lost touch with the fans and are replaced by pledges, promoters need to learn the lesson and start listening to those who buy tickets before it’s too late.

Sonic Shocks

Page 2

Issue 12/2012

THE KID WITH THE PINK ROSES How shy Todd Gordon’s life changed thanks to music and Ella Fitgerald...

by Cristina Massei - Photo by Frazor Murphy Christmas: a time for shopping and turkey, but also a time for tradition, old classics, storytelling around a fireplace and being good to others. We get all in one package with Todd Gordon, a national treasure with more than a story to tell and a record just out in aid of Help for Heroes...

Sonic Shocks Ltd www.sonicshocks.com info@sonicshocks.com Editor in Chief and Creative Director Cristina Massei

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Content Director Matt Dawson

cygnus@sonicshocks.com

Business Director Marcus J West

marcus@sonicshocks.com

Unsigned Editor Dan Balchin

zorro@sonicshocks.com

US Correspondent Denise Bales Britt Burlesque & Nightlife Sophia Disgrace Photographers (this issue) Cristina Massei Fabiola Santini Matt Higgs Writers (this issue) Cristina Massei Matt Dawson Marcus J West Dan Balchin Matthew Tilt John Morgan Sophia Disgrace Matt Higgs Cayleigh Shepherd The Rev Eddi Nelly Loriaux

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Your passion for music and singing has actually been private for quite a long time before 2001.

What made you keep it private for so long?

I suppose there are some children who from the age of 3 or 4 love to perform and are obviously drawn to applause and the spotlight or being on stage. I was NOT one of those, I was actually quite a shy child growing up but I loved music so for me it was a passion.

It was only when I was in my late 20s or early 30s that I decided to take singing lessons purely for my own pleasure, I did that for 4 years and then began to really get into the idea of singing but kept putting it off. I worked for a company that organised exhibitions and one year for a training session they bought in a karaoke machine so people said “Why don’t you sing ‘My Way’? You like Sinatra!” and I thought “I don’t want to do that”. Then I spotted ‘That’s Life’ and thought “Why not?”

I’d been used to singing along with records whether it be Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald or Peggy Le so this was the first time with a backing track, it felt so liberating and when I got back it coincided with the Edinburgh Jazz festival; they were advertising a week long vocal jazz workshop, so I applied thinking I wouldn’t be accepted, but I was and became a rather life changing event as it gave me my first opportunity to work with professional musicians and get a real flavour for a live setting.

You did have a little bit of stage experience when you met Ella Fitzgerald…

Ah yes! That was another life changing experience! I was 16 at the time. Back in 1974 I saw her in concert in Glasgow, I went with my father and his then second wife, she said ‘let’s get backstage and get her autograph’ and I remember my father saying ‘Don’t be ridiculous’. It sowed the seed for when she played in Edinburgh the following year, so I’ve bought tickets for 2 shows then I thought about trying to get her autograph.

I bought some flowers hoping that will get me one, I was really shy and I don’t know where I got the brassneck but I went to the venue a week before and asked if I could see the manager, I asked him if it was possible to give Ella the flowers the following week backstage. He said that he’d be given a list and if I was on there, sure. If not – he then shrugged his shoulders and walked off!

Awww!

So I’m left standing there thinking that’s a no, he was accompanied by a colleague – who probably felt sorry for me- said that if you want to meet her come about 2pm as she’ll come for a rehearsal so I showed up with roses that were quite wilted at this stage…

Red? Pink actually! I actually bought them the day before – this was before Sunday opening - and stick them in a bucket of cold water. Anyway I went along and a car showed up – the person inside mentioned she wasn’t coming until 5 but was having lunch at the Caledonian Hotel down the road.

You had to go a LONG way to deliver those!

I did indeed! [laughs] It was worth it in the end so as I was heading down I could see the back of her head in one of the hotel windows and her tour manager – who was sitting opposite - noticed the flowers then Ella turned round and mouthed ‘Are those for me?’ and I nodded then she waved me up. She was so nice and asked if I wanted an album and also asked which shows I was going to, I replied both to which she said ‘A real fan, why don’t you come backstage between shows?’ I can remember thinking ‘ I get backstage!’

I went to the first show and was sitting in the Organ Gallery, at the end of the show she thanked the orchestra and then thanks a fan that bought her flowers ‘but I can’t see you’ so I put my hand up, and because I was at the back of the stage the spotlight came to me!

She then asks the audience if she could sing me a song so she got me out of my seat and sang ‘You Are the Sunshine Of My Life’ as I stood, knees knocking, 2 feet away! It was wonderful. At that time I had been seeing a psychiatrist and I remember the show was on a Sunday and went the usual meeting the following Thursday. He asked if there was anything to report as he swung backwards and forwards on his chair, so I mentioned it and that was the last time I went, I just kind of thought I can achieve things so it was life changing!

Music can be.

It got me through a LOT of bad times and it helps me enjoy good times too.

Did you ever get to work with her?

No. I did meet her a couple of times after that and mentioned to her about how it must be great to

give pleasure through singing to which she replied ‘if you’ve got a voice go for it!’ but it took me 25 years before my first performance at Henry’s Jazz Cellar – an archetypal jazz club – then I just started to elevate my goals, played the Jazz festival then opened for Dionne Warwick.

When mentioned that to family and friends they went ‘The REAL Dionne Warwick?’ as if it was some drag act or something that I was performing for and I thought ‘I’ll never get this chance again, so I’ll use it as a springboard and see where it takes me’ I then left my relatively secure job organising exhibitions and events and went into that rather volatile world of entertainment.

Do you ever miss the safety of the old job or regret anything?

No, not at all. The only thing I miss is the regular pay cheque!

It’s more satisfactory when it’s irregular though, less to take for granted.

Absolutely. I never thought I could enjoy work as much, I’ve been very privileged to be able to turn a passion into a profession, I thank my lucky stars!

The biggest blessing is to do what you like for a living.

Absolutely.

So how did the collaboration with the Royal Air Force Squadronaires come about?

It was thanks to the Edinburgh Jazz Festival, they used to run an event called Jazz on a Summer’s Day which was their biggest event using Edinburgh Castle as a backdrop, and over an afternoon 20,00 people would listen to traditional, swing, all tastes were catered for. In 2009 they had Royal Air Force Squadronaires as the featured closing band and they asked me to be a guest vocal on a couple of numbers without any rehearsal – which thankfully went okay – the bandleader came up and asked if I wanted to do more.

I then ran a concert supporting Help For Heroes in 2010 in Glasgow with Clare Martin, Ian Shaw and Eddi Reader and it was a great event, so it seemed a natural progression to record an album. It took 3 years for it to become a reality but it was a privilege to work with the band and the guest vocalists who joined me. It was a bit of an organisational nightmare but it thankfully all paid off!

How was it working with Ken Barnes on the record?

Wonderful man, again I knew of Ken as he produced for Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee and Johnny Mercer but it was actually through the president of the Johnny Mercer centennial organisation who I knew from touring with the show who put us together. I mentioned it might take a while to come to fruition but I need a producer and he mentioned his interest. Ken works more in TV and film these days so I was delighted to have him return to the studio.

Would you like to work with him again?

Very much so. Ken’s always got various projects on the go so time will tell, it would be something I’d love to do. I remember when we were first in the studio together – bearing in mind the greats he had worked with – we did a run through of the first song and he gave me some instructions before we went again. He stopped half way through and I remember thinking I was out of my depth and then he said ‘Try with a little more punch – I told Bing the same!’ [laughs] I’m happy to accept similar criticisms that Bing got!

With all the artists you have collaborated with is there any that still leave you star-struck?

Certainly meeting some of the greats – Tony Bennett, Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. There was an aura there so I always felt awe struck by meeting them. What I realised is there’s a number of singers whose talent is quite extraordinary and you realise when you work with them there are some that manage to be in the right place at the right time. It’s talent I’m more awe-struck by, the way they hone it and nurtured it, that’s what sticks in my mind.

You also have an album coming out in Spring that you collaborated with Korean artists on.

I recorded this BEFORE the big band album, I put this on hold why the opportunity for the album with Royal Air Force Squadronaires came about. I was out in Korea doing a tour mainly because a recording of mine was used for a drama series when the lead character appeared. It’s more ballad orientated such as Gilbert O Sullivan’s Alone Again, Naturally, more contemporary by my standards.

You also have a concert promotion business – Jazz International.

I have to say it’s rather sporadic.

Is it more to bring jazz to Scotland?

Yes. To make money out of jazz concerts is something liable not to happen, so it’s more about creating opportunities and allowing international musicians to Scotland; I have to say the market is tough at the moment but something I plan to maintain on a sporadic basis.

What are you listening to at the moment?

Because I do a few radio shows my tastes are broad; Jazz is my favourite by a long shot but the last album I heard was Leonard Cohen and I’m trying to discover some of the newer artists coming up at the moment. I enjoy a really wide range; I’m not too keen on country, hip-hop, dance and trance but I like quite a mixture. I love what a voice and a well written lyric can communicate with a story.

Artists like Caro Emerald are making jazz more commercial. Do you see it as a positive?

I see it as a mixed blessing. It’s good as it breaks down the barriers but for people that hear more pop orientated stuff, I’m thinking younger people, but if they readily identify something as jazz that’s more crossover they’ll think that’s what jazz is, and I’m slightly worried the future won’t dip into the more conventional jazz that exists.

I certainly don’t knock artists who have introduced a crossover element, but I remember Claire Martin saying she was teaching a group of 19 year olds about vocal jazz and she got depressed as she asked the class on who had heard Ella Fitzgerald and only 3 or 4 put their hands up; that’s a group of youngsters studying jazz. I just wish there was more exposure for the legacy of jazz.

Where can we listen to your show?

Radiotodd.info’s the best place, with examples of previous shows and playlists. I have an opportunity to mix and match on the radio, more freedom with obscure songs and artists such as Leonard Cohen doing Irving Berlin’s ‘Always’. Eight minutes long!

Talking of classics, when does the great American Songbook end for you?

I hope it won’t end as I hold some degree of hope that good songs will continue to be written, but I’d say the classic era probably ended around the early 1960s then it’s more classic popular music.

The likes of Cole Porter, Gershwin and Berlin we won’t see again, but we do have Randy Newman and Joni Mitchell writing songs. Rufus Wainwright writes great material, there are new people coming through but the classic era would be late 20s to early 60s for me.

Have you come across any young talent lately?

I often get asked for advice on how to start, and what is important is that most of the greats had a distinctive voice and effortlessly created their own style; it’ll be interesting to see how the young ones develop, because some may have great voices but lack emotional connection. I think some of that comes with age as well, the established greats I’m not keen on their early recordings. I prefer the maturity that comes into their voice.

People can record in their own rooms now though, and that helps with the developmental process.

What’s your advice to any singers that may be private but want to take it to the public?

Don’t take as long as I did would be my first bit of advice! [laughs] I think be open to advice, go and absorb other voices and instruments in the genre you want to aim for, go to concerts and see how singers perform because that’s very important. It’s about getting over the message as well.

I also think it’s a case to pursue voice coaching and accept as much advice as you can get your hands on. I do believe the more I learn, the less I know, don’t get too cocky too soon! [laughs]

Sonic Shocks

Issue 12/2012

Page 3

JAZ COLEMAN

LETTERS FROM WESTERN SAHARA The truth on ‘that’ Cult tour ,exciting Killing Joke news and - of course - the end of the world...

By Cristina Massei Being a Killing Joke fan can be rewarding: the band’s last two albums most certainly prove this point. However, it can also be a bit of a bumpy road, a sinister dark rollercoaster which occasionally ends tits up like that Final Destination movie; and like the movie, if you’ve been a gatherer long enough you can see it coming. What you couldn’t quite see coming was that ‘Down By The River’ live box set, but I hear they’re now all despatched, so let’s move on…

Right towards the end of what we call ‘summer’ 2012, Killing Joke were supposed to play Wembley Arena with The Cult and The Mission as OPENERS: no true fan was too happy with that mere half hour, but hey, still one more opportunity to see them play live, some of them thought heading to Ticketmaster to part with a whoppy 40 quid… Later, those fans found themselves holding a ticket to seeThe Cult and The Mission at Hammersmith Apollo, after the venue was downgraded for poor sales (did you REALLY think The Cult would fill Wembley??) and Killing Joke consequently pulled out.

The most controversial part however was HOW they pulled out. A long message, allegedly from Jaz Coleman, appeared on Facebook saying the band wouldn’t play as openers in a venue they could sell out themselves, also stating in no uncertain terms how much he personally despised the Cult.

An internet rock soap opera started, with the band denying the message was from Jaz and later claiming their singer was missing, even appealing through web and newspapers for any information. At that point, the gig had to be officially

cancelled. Coleman later reappeared laughing the whole drama off, claiming he was taking time off and making music in the Sahara desert. He left us wondering, however, whether that message was really his… until now.

As we’re waiting for rockstars in the mood for a chat at the Classic Rock Awards, Jaz appears on the red carpet. ‘What are you doing here? Hoping to get another award?’

‘Nah, I got one here already. just haven’t had my dinner yet!’, he laughs.

Happy to see him in one piece, we ask about his recent disappearance: ‘I don’t use mobile phones or computers so when I go walkabout people think all sorts of things. I went to the Middle East and just went off for a few weeks… actually I was in the Western Sahara and this hippie came up to me and said ‘They’re all looking for you man!’, and he breaks into that evil contagious laugh of his.

Let’s be honest: that Facebook message really sounded like Jaz, and those of us who didn’t have to go through the hassle of a refund, probably found it funny and rather agreeable in principle; after all, we were never happy to pay £40 for just half hour of Killing Joke. But really we want to hear it from the horse’s mouth, so – expecting one of his laughs and a no comment – we ask if that message was really his: ‘Oh yeah.

I can’t stand them, I think they’re abysmal cock-rock and I wouldn’t have my band play with the Cult any day. We’re far too important. We would have ended up playing on the same stage we headlined in London and we would have been first on, second support… Are you sure?!? Nah, I just couldn’t, I couldn’t! I would have liked the money, I’m not that rich, you know, but you have to draw the line somewhere.’

Another message appeared shortly after that, this time about a special intimate show at the Metropolis Studios, where Killing Joke were due to record a DVD. Wasn’t a gig really, more like a Pledge type of thing, where you pay a conspicuous amount of dosh to spend the evening chatting to your favourite artist in a plush exclusive set up, in exchange for – at a wild guess – financing that DVD; and you also get your name on the credits… But ‘gatherers’ – as KJ followers are called - don’t like this fancy stuff, and another internet argument erupted on the band’s official page. That gig was also scrapped: ‘It was too expensive, a lot of our fans can’t afford £100 a ticket but for the record – and I think this the first time we talk about it - we plan to do 1 or 2 nights in London in March, so we’ll make up for it.

The tickets will be a lot cheaper and we’ll probably do two nights and two sets… May be one, I’m not sure yet, but will be an interesting set, and that will be a better ambience than seeing Killing Joke as a support band’. And if that’s still not enough for you, Jaz later adds that the much awaited ‘Death and Resurrection Show’ documentary, due in March, may possibly also be screened at the shows.

So new year, new dates, new material as well?

We’re going to Argentina to record a new album, we’re just writing it at the moment. I’m going off to New Zealand next week with Geordie, we’ll do a bit of fishing and start the ball rolling. Can’t stand the weather here, hate the cold!

All this of course if the 21st of December is not really the end!

That’s a very interesting point! Look at Venice, it flooded in a way that it never flooded before, Buenos Aires has flooded, they never had floods like these, and look at New York City: the world is definitely changing. The magnetic field is diminishing and the whole world, the land mass is moving in a south-easterly direction; whales and dolphins are becoming beached because they become disorientated… Something very strange is happening to the planet. And in couple with this, I read the Sunday Times and [Benjamin] Netanyahu in Israel, well, his generals say that he wants a nuclear strike on Iran, can you imagine that, if that actually happens? We’re looking at a different world, a world that we need Killing Joke in. And whatever happens we’ll be there, sunshine or rain, and our music will be understood in this environment…

So there is still life after the 21st of December…

It’s not the end of the world darlin’! (laughs) Which Award would you give to yourself? You can make one up, they make new ones up every year…

Singer of the Most influential and Respected band in the world – I’d give myself that award anyway! [Laughs] Any last message to your fans?

‘What I want everyone to do – including you - is have no less than 2 months of rations of food stashed away – Look what happened to New York City: it’s only three days away from actual anarchy and all the supermarkets emptying, so make sure you have a minimum of two months supplies of food stashed at home!’

By the time we go on press, Killing Joke have been confirmed as headliners for Hammerfest in March and some European dates have also been announced, while we’re still waiting for details of the London ones. Jaz has also reached over 100% on Pledge for a new project: his 2nd symphony ‘The Island’ - composed in 1997 to celebrate his NZ Citizenship – is used as a companion to new book ‘Letters from Cythera’, written between 2007 and 2008 in the South Pacific and outlining how the occult sciences have shaped his philosophical outlook. ‘The antithesis to a conventional rock biography’, he calls it, from ‘the anthitesis to a conventional rockstar’ we add. Go to http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/jazcoleman to pledge on the package that most appeal to you, there’s plenty to choose from for every pocket.

Say what you like, but I do like a rollercoaster ride. Roll on March 2013! London HMV Forum announced for March 16th as we go on print. Hopefully my copy of ‘Letters from Cythera’ will be in the post before that…

Page 4

Sonic Shocks

Issue 12/2012

3 roads out of the Docks

By Cristina Massei They said it would be more than just a ‘rockumentary’ about a band, and East End Babylon certainly kept that promise.

“There were only three ways out of the East End: football, boxing and Rock’n’Roll”, is the catchphrase used to synthesize the 101 minutes of the latest Cockney Rejects film; Jeff and Mick Geggus rolled them all into one and became an underground legend, not only for the punk movement, but also for football supporters and all those who lived in the East End in the days of the old docks.

The story begins before the Geggus brothers came to this world, as their mother candidly tells tales of poverty and destruction in the East End during the Second World War, with the help of some vintage video footage. Next, ‘East End Babylon’ narrates the story of the two lively kids in all the magnificence of good old Super 8: ‘We got that off my Dad but he was the world’s worst cameraman, we managed to glean enough out of it!’ - says Mick.

As the scars of the East End’s facelift start to heal, leaving us with a soulless agglomerate of buildings where corporate coffee replaces real ale, Jeff and Mick also went through some changes of their own: just like the East End, their gigs got a bit safer and open to different colours; yet their soul remains unscathed, and the passion is still vivid when remembering the infamous ‘battle of Birmingham’ (google ‘Cockney Rejects Birmingham riots’ for details if you must).

So, as we get some time with Jeff, Mick and Garry before they hit the pub, our first question is, why now? Why did you feel the need to tell the story in a movie? ‘Jeff ’s book came out and the producer of Oil City Confidential Richard England read it and thought it would make a fantastic documentary, so it was his vision at the start of the journey and it has taken three years to make’ – says Mick – ‘I think he did a great job personally; the main thing when we started this was to tell the bloody truth, because you get found out if you don’t; we’ve been conscious that we’ve told the story absolutely undiluted as it happened’. And hell they’re right, doesn’t get any more undiluted than this! But in these days of PC madness and violence blame game, could that honesty be taken the wrong way when it comes to hooliganism? ‘Maybe, but I think it makes you understand the folly of youth which is what the film’s about - as well as our upbringing and where we’re from - and it also shows you that people do change, have the capacity to change and move on. Certain things we’re done are in the past.’

After taking care of the East End and the boys’ first two loves – boxing and football - ‘East End Babylon’ takes care of that Babylon that was – and still is – the music industry, with the erratic beginnings of a band that got its first big break before even putting any songs on the table. The table was that of the old White Lion in Covent Garden, where the Rejects first met Garry Bushell, and can you believe it, they showed up without even a tape… So, what impressed Garry so much to hook them up with EMI shortly after that weird encounter? ‘The attitude of them, there was definitely something going and that spirit. And the songs backed it up, really fast songs. We had

no idea at the time but it all managed to come together!’

So here they were, still not quite realizing what was happening to them, with a cash advance in their hands that for music they still hadn’t written; and what better way to spend that cash than £300 worth of fireworks… Jeff laughs remembering that sound investment: ‘It’s not fun anymore, I remember I used to stick them on the bus but now you can’t cause any distraction (to the driver)!’.

Despite becoming a punk icon, rock’n’roll’ big bucks always eluded the Rejects: ‘ We still get scuppered by the likes of EMI for royalties and stuff . We sold hundreds of thousands of records’ -says Mick. Then he goes into more details about the Levi’s campaigns in the 90s featuring ‘Babylon Zoo’: ‘The Clash got £2,000 for the ad, plus we weren’t even asked’, while Jeff adds ‘Babylon Zoo got pushed but we were still seen as ‘unsafe’ so no one wanted to go near us. I got 1,300 quid, took the family down to Butlins and that was it. That’s the story of our career.’

Did you change or did people change you? ‘They sure tried but they couldn’t, not really, I think that’s why we didn’t last that long at the top. Me and Mick boxed for a lot of years and from the amateur boxing game went straight into the music game, so yes, people wanted changes from us, they did try, but they just couldn’t and they spoke to you like shit; we just weren’t ready to be jettisoned into the world. Garry (Bushell) comes from the same stock, values and morals as us. You do change in yourself as you grow older and hopefully wiser, there’s a lot of things I look back on now and I wince but then my excuse is I was 14/15… he ain’t got one being 4 years older! (laughs).We had a distinct upbringing, we did find that class did come into it a lot and we were looked down upon, there is progress though with urban acts getting respect now’.

Despite that progress, when asked about a message he wishes young people will get out of this movie, Mick’s answer is ‘They don’t get into the fuckin’ music game for starters! [laughs] After discussing what the Rejects meant to so many bands after them -Very proud and honoured that we left a legacy, it’s been great to meet bands we inspired and even play with some on occasion’, says Mick – there’s only one big topic left to face: football. More specifically, West Ham. Our screening tonight is in Stratford – how fitting – and plenty of original East Enders are in the room. They want to know about the possibility the band could someday play in Upton Park for a start.’The reason we never played there is that the old regime at Upton Park hated our guts, but the new ones [David Gold, David Sullivan and Karen Brady] are brilliant and we are in dialogue with them to make it happen’, says Mick. And it’s more than just an abstract dialogue, according to Jeff: ‘They did come to us about playing a gig but they don’t really know what they’re doing, they think you can turn up , use a little amplifier and play for 5 minutes but you have to use a proper PA system… they’re learning the ropes though. We would have loved to do it against Cardiff!’

Adds Mick: ‘They realise we do a lot of bloody good support for West Ham particularly abroad and they appreciate it. We’ll be in Australia and New Zealand next October’ and back to Jeff: ‘ It’s opened up a lot of doors and everywhere you go there are West Ham supporters there. We were the original football band so hopefully there’s more planned.’

The Rejects’ comeback at the end of the 90s and their discovery of a European fan base they didn’t know they had takes center stage in the last part of ‘East End Babylon’; once more or less relegated to gigging in their own neighbourhood, they now find themselves going from ‘West Ham band’ to ‘Football band’, as new opportunities open up for them. They’re back enjoying life on the road in a safer, more mature way, and an extended sense of community partly medleys with the faction hostility

that accompanies the beautiful game in the earliest hormonal years of our life.

Sure, I can still see a sparkle when remembering the old days and how they fought the Brummies on that memorable night, there’s no denying of those years; but there’s also maturity and appreciation as Jeff shares a recent bonding episode: ‘4 years ago I was in Europe on holiday and a geezer recognized me and came to me while I was getting drunk at the pool – it gave me someone to talk to so it was cushty! Big fan of the Rejects, had all the records, we had a great connection and still meet up. They’re great people from everywhere, been to Marseille and that, sure we wind each other up at football now and again but they’re a loyal fellowship and I have lots of respect for them. ‘ In one of the turning points – probably the biggest – when the Geggus boys go from boxing to rock’n’roll, Jeff compares the feeling of going up the steps to the ring to that of going up the steps to the stage. Before letting them off to the local boozer, we ask if he still feels that way today: ‘You still get that feeling but I’m not getting punched in the mouth! [Audience laughs] The butterflies was worse when you got some young Scouse git tearing into ya, but the feeling’s still there because it’s showtime and you want to get up there and do something.

Once that passion leaves you it’s time to pack it up.’

If you missed the screenings in November, keep an eye on www.eastendbabylon.co.uk or www.facebook.com/EastEndBabylon for updates on further screenings.

East End Babylon will be yours to own on DVD and Blu Ray from February 2013.

Issue 12/2012

Sonic Shocks

PUTTING THE WORLD TO RIGHTS WITH

Page 5

&

I think this Saturday night at the Boston Arms Music Room is the closest I’ve been to a punk gig in recent times, at least for that raw sense of spontaneity that the wonderful world of rock’n’roll seems to have lost. I’m backstage to interview the Bermondsey Joyriders and the current incarnation of the legendary Vibrators; but if you’re in a room with Gary Lammin and Chris Musto (BJ) plus Nigel Bennett – soon-to-be ex Vibrators guitarist – it can only end up one way: putting the world to rights.

The topic is the US Presidential elections; the conversation revolves around the size and diversity of the US, which the Obama-Romney debate highlighted more than ever.

Nigel: The bit between New York and La is a bit spooky, half of those people voted for Romney, I would have thought Obama getting in would have been a no brainer but to know that half the country voted for that loony shows America’s very divided.

Gary: I reckon the rest of the world should have a vote.

Nigel: Because they’re so powerful if affects us all.

It was so weird just looking at Facebook comments: New York, LA and rest of the world so strongly pro-Obama and other states just as strongly on Romney’s side.

Nigel: They think it’s a quick fix because what Obama inherited no one could fix in 4 years; he’s a good man and honest, the other guy however looks really horrible, scary man and with his finger on the button, I don’t think so.

Gary: It’s interesting how many women voted for him Nigel: The fact is he didn’t win and that’s great.

Let’s talk about Noise & Revolution, an album that you decided to perform live before release, which is quite unusual. Did you feel pressure on delivering the record after its success on stage?

Gary: Because we didn’t have anyone to promote it and it was DIY and very different for all intents and purposes - people have said it’s the first punk rock concept album with the narration - what we were fearful of was doing a record launch and then have people go ‘What’s all that about? We don’t get this.’ So what we tried to do to acclimatize people to the idea was for a year we were promoting it live, so people would go ‘Have you seen this band?

They’ve got John Sinclair narrating political dialogue in-between these tracks’ and we thought if we’ve done that live people will buy it. We didn’t want people not to understand it by putting out the album first.

It’s a very new concept, is it something you’re thinking of doing again?

It really is complicated, ideally if John’s available we’ll use him; otherwise the acclaimed New Musical Express journalist Charles Shaar Murray does it sometimes for us but it’s a very dense album. Only now after doing the launch in May are sales beginning to start due to the internet.

Charles and John are quite like minded people – left wing socialist underground types and we need the authenticity for the narrator. With all due respect to Cheryl Cole I don’t think she’ll be able to narrate this album and understand it fully… (laughs) Do you consider yourself a supergroup?

Some people have said that, having people that have played with past name bands is a primer for reviewers to say ‘this is a supergroup’ but having people that have played in well established bands doesn’t necessarily make it super. I think it’s nice to have people that have played with other bands as it sparks interest, but you have to be aware of not taking that as complacency and more often than not you have to be aware and keep checking that.

Do you find most of your fans get the music and then realise where you come from or is it rather the opposite?

Chris: A bit of both, some are aware of our history but the reality is people are watching you there and then and not thinking that you used to be in this or that. I’d like to think people see us for what we are then find out more.

From a musical point of view how does your heritage influence what you’re doing now?

Gary: I’ve always followed classic British rock – The Who, The Stones and The Faces - while my American influences have been the MC5, the New York Dolls and Iggy Pop. I consider this kind of bands more like gangs in mentality, which is expressed through their music, which as a young man of 14/15 was attractive to me; that’s why I wanted to play guitar so I could be like them.

Nigel: It shows in their photographs and I know the gang thing, even tonight on TV there’s something about the Stones and there is a sense of unity there because they were fighting everybody when they were first starting, people thought they were scum. Things have changed a hell of a lot these days. It’s gone full circle – the punk explosion when we were scum and as the world changes music becomes the forefront of the social movement.

Gary: Nowadays you can walk into a bank and the clerks will be there with punk rock paraphernalia, tattoos and piercings or a Mohawk, and I remember thinking to dress down the road in 77 was a statement!

Chris: You can walk into Topshop and buy MC5 t-shirts, it’s a branded thing.

Have you guys caught the Cockney Rejects movie?

Gary: We played with them just recently at the 100 Club.

Chris: I did their last album cover!

Gary: Chris manifested the idea I had for 3 or 4 years on the cover that I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.

Do you agree with them on how things have changed?

Chris: They were their own scene – football separatism and the film’s best bits are the history parts, local geography.

Gary: We were worried when we’d been given the gig, Chris and I are both friends with the Rejects and when it was agreed we’d support them we were excited but with some reservation, as we’re the complete opposite – South

Vs East End. Our name wasn’t in the ads so Chris phoned the 100 Club and asked why – the guys said it’ll cost us a fortune in security! [Everyone laughs] (The East End) was how Rejects portrayed it: tough, unforgiving area, you either were from there or not and people would identify you by your mannerisms, very tribal.

There’s a little bit of that now with the 18/19 year olds and their rap music. When I was that age was very tribal, meet up with friends quickly and if someone gave you an odd look try not to return it!

Nigel: In 77/78 it was like music only just started, you couldn’t admit you liked Stones and Jimi Hendrix; I got my break when I was 20 because that was what was happening.

Chris: Quite famously Johnny Rotten went on the radio while Malcolm McLaren was in America and after all this nihilism said he loved Can, reggae and stuff like that, McLaren was furious!

Nigel: Johnny’s always been provocative though.

How far do you have to go now then to be considered provocative?

Nigel: Who knows? Everything’s cyclic and given the current climate there could be a possible youth revolution.

Gary: When we go to the US I notice a lot of the kids out there think that to be provocative is to swear a lot and stuff like that. I think that’s just not the way to be provocative, you have to SAY something in an alternative way but if it’s just the same old words you’re just proving you haven’t got much to say.

Nigel: They swear so much you think it’s not even normal and that’s their way of being street wise and it’s boring.

Chris: It brings the taboo words back into normal use so it’s not taboo anymore. They’re negating it all.

Nigel: Same with tattoos, you’re MORE unusual if you don’t have one!

Gary: The thing is they can be artistic but with any art form – for example I teach the guitar and if I walk into someone’s house and they have a few paintings I’ll stop and consider them, but some have everywhere covered in

them and you can’t be bothered to look.

Gary: Same with tattoos, if there’s too many you can’t define the artistic touch of the artist or what the person’s trying to express.

Do you have a message for your youngest fans?

Gary: No matter what you do in life, do it the best you can and really believe in it and make every tune your favourite song that you sing.

Nigel: I think that a lot don’t realise how brilliant live music is, I love going to gigs but my daughter doesn’t which is a shame. Live music is an emotional thing and I think to not do that is a shame.

You were involved in a gig after the closure of The Gaff...

Gary: We did one of the flashmob gigs after it had been turned into a Costa coffee, we met in Big Red then took the coffee shop over singing songs, but to our surprise the staff loved it and gave us free coffee and cookies!

Venues are closing and others are opening under big corporations like O2, do you feel they’re helping the scene or killing it?

Well apparently the 100 Club was saved by Converse and they declined the whole ‘venue sponsored by’ deal. That surprised me in a pleasant way, I feel the world is coming under the corporate authority so it was nice to hear something different.

I hear there are less and less tickets actually going on sale as more go to the various companies…

It’s the same with high profile football matches, a lot of fans who follow their team loyally can’t get to big matches because a big quota have gone to corporate and I think the FA should have a word, the common man should have first refusal.

Chris: I live in Wembley and watching matches on TV I think: That’s a quarter empty, take a quick run down there and try to get in and I can’t.

Then you have touts…

Gary: That’s another thing that needs tightening up on because a lot must come from people close to the source.

Should touting be illegal?

It should but there’s always ways.

Gary: I think the way they get round it is they sell it on auction sites, not operating in bulk selling, just one ticket.

Chris: Glastonbury have got round it pretty well with tickets that are virtually personal, visual ID and other forms.

Nigel: The only time I was pleased by a tout was when The Who played Shepherd’s Bush Empire, I hadn’t got a ticket and I got there and was given a ticket at face value!

With 2012 close to an end what was the highlight?

Gary: It had to be the album launch at Madame Jojos, it was fantastic, the place was attended and it was one of the most enjoyable gigs according to the staff. The people that follow us are the working class types and the fact they are able to transcend faults about people that was a great success.

We’ve got some interesting gigs for 2013, the first gig on January 11th is with Punishment Of Luxury, a very arty underground band; the gig will be in Shoreditch an area we have wanted to play for some time because it’s such a vibrant part of London.

As Garry and Chris start getting ready and Nigel goes out for a sneaky fag, Vibrators’ drummer – and only original member – Eddie Edwards walks in; a perfect occasion to sit him down for a chat…

I hear Nigel is leaving at the end of the year, any replacement lined up yet?

We’ve got people in mind, as soon as we’ve got it all sorted out we’ll let you all know.

You’ve got a new record coming out as well..

Yeah there’s no title yet – it may be called ‘On The Guestlist’ or something like that but we’ve got a bunch of guests on it with us: Ryan James who’s in The Damned, Hugh Cornwall from the Stranglers, Pete Sherry from Buzzcocks, Leonard Graves Phillips from The Dickies , a couple of American bands and Campino from Die Toten Hosen on guitar, so we’ve got a whole bunch and it’ll be out next year.

It’s all written, Knox did most of it, Nigel and Pete also did one song and hopefully more in the set next year.

How does it sound?

We’ve not heard all the additional things such as the extra vocals but some of what I’ve heard sounds great; it’s been finished off and mixed in America and it’s come out really well, it’s the usual Vibrators old rock and punk stuff.

The last album was 2009…

Yeah, the last one was Under The Radar and we’ve done a couple of cover albums as well, we done one every 3 or 4 years now.

Relentless touring though!

It’s what pays the tent really, we enjoy touring, people still come and see us and we’ll keep going until we drop basically.

Aside from paying the rent, do you still get the same buzz going on stage?

As soon as that goes off I’ll stop, but while I’m still enjoying it and the hour is good fun I’ll never stop.

Is it more tiring than it used to be?

Your technique gets better as a musician so that makes up for the energy you put in – keeps you fit and young, the journeys may be tiring, but it’s part of the job really!

We were talking about the Rejects’ movie ‘East End Babylon’ earlier... Which part of London did you grow up in?

North London, Edgware mainly, although I was at the North-East London Polytechnic and I lived in Ilford for a couple of years.

How do you remember North London back then, was it much different from the East?

Was a different vibe, I used to travel between them both for 3 or 4 years; different people, accents.

How do you feel the scene has changed?

It seems more underground but you get a wider age group of fans now, everyone enjoys it.

How does it feel having different generations under the same roof at your shows?

That’s just the way it is these days, my daughter’s more into The Ramones and Blondie, you listen to old music and pick the ones you like, there’s just more of it now because it stretches back further but punk is still the ‘rebel’ music of rock’n’roll, it’s still the one the kids listen to if they want to be anti-authority and anti-parents. It’s always been the one that stood up asking ‘what’s wrong with the world’ while others sing about holding hands!

What message are you hoping to get across to them?

Well one is to be your own self and go out there and be educated, make up your own mind and be your own person.

Is it easier to make up your own mind or harder given the internet?

God knows, I don’t really do much on the internet but I think people jump the gun like with the former Tory politician: there was no evidence or proof of it and yet everyone was convinced he actually done when it was a complete fabrication. When you get older you look at all sides; I remember writing a song years ago called ‘Don’t trust anyone’ which is about exactly that.

How does it feel to influence so many other bands, did you expect it?

Yes I think we did and I wanted to still be doing it now in my old age, that’s the whole point; not just for fun, for a week or two but to actually do it. There’s an expression in theatre: ‘If you want to go up on stage and be an actor because you just want to do it, don’t; but if you have to do it, persevere’ and I think it’s the same with music. If you have to do it persevere, but if you just want to do it, don’t bother because it’s not going to be any good.

What influenced you?

All the stuff from the 60s that I grew up with: The Kinks, Small Faces, The Faces, The Who, Rolling Stones, Beatles, but also 60s garage, American bands, The Doors… I was into anything that was Rock ‘n’ Roll!

Any bands we should keep an eye on?

There’s one we played with in Norwich called Dingus Khan that are really good.

When is the album out?

March/April at my guess. Hopefully followed by Festivals in summer. My favs are Rebellion in Blackpool and Strummerfest.

Eddie then goes back to the merchandise stand – how old school of him – while Nigel comes back in, and we’re curious to hear what’s on the cards for him after the Vibrators; he got himself a record deal in the US and his solo album, ‘Truth Or Consequences’ has already been since November 5th. ‘They want me to do some showcase gigs now’ he explains.

I didn’t enjoy the last Vibrators tour as much, I was feeling the need to do something for myself.

Were musical differences ever a factor at all?

I love the music, Knox writes most of it and I’ve always thought he was a great songwriter, and they give me room to play the guitar the way I want to which you don’t get in many bands especially if you join later on

but they’ve always given me carte blanche to do what I want. I just wanted to do something different. I wanted to show people that there’s a whole other side to me and this album is everything I wanted: acoustic and other styles but NO punk.

What other styles exactly?

Country, blues, jazz. It’s a mixture of what I’ve listened to over many years of playing.

So you’re trying to move to the US... LA or NYC? Philadelphia to start with, very handy for New York without having to scrape money to live in a shoebox full of cockroaches, One day if I can afford it I’d like to be in Southern California.

Any plans for the UK with the album?

I hope so! I plan to do some showcase gigs in Britain, starting in Britain is tricky now. You do more risks and I

like America as they like guitar playing more for the sake of it. That’s where I got the deal and where my manager is so it’s a good place to start. There is a lot of work ahead.

Did your departure come as a surprise to The Vibrators?

I think it did, they’re great friends and a great band but I felt it was time to move on. I felt the last tour was hard going on a personal basis, I also don’t drink and being surrounded by drinking is very difficult sometimes.

The Vibrators are a great band and never say never but they’re about to go on another gruelling tour of Europe starting January and I don’t want to go through it – the lowness – again.

Where can we buy the new record?

It’s being released in Britain in January but you can preorder now. There are previews on iTunes and Soundcloud.

And with that, it’s time to reach the bar and have a bit of Bermondsey Joyriders with our beer. A major cock up from London Transport and an unfortunate clash with the annual Motorhead gig means the venue is not as crowded as the occasion would deserve; but that doesn’t take much off the fun for those who made the right choice and found their way here tonight.

Both the Joyriders and the Vibrators offer a gig as vibrant, genuine and down to Earth as the lads themselves. A true rock’n’roll Saturday night, back and front stage.

Sonic Shocks

Page 6

REVISITING 70S GOLD

By Matt Dawson - Photo by Tina Korhonen

As we go to print, the Genesis Revisited Tour May dates have mostly sold out. Hammersmith tickets have all gone and a second leg has been announced for October, including a performance at the Royal Albert Hall… But you’d better be quick on those too, as Steve’s and Genesis’ fans are out in force for this unique occasion. One of Steve’s biggest productions, Genesis Revisited brings back on stage the legendary band’s Golden Era, for the first time by an ex band member.

We had a chance to talk to Mr Hackett himself about the album, the tour, Squackett and all things prog: keep reading to find out more and book your tickets now!

What inspired you to return to the Genesis back catalogue for Genesis Revisited II? I was being interviewed on Planet Rock and they played some material that I thought sounded really good, what with the multi band compression that radio brings to early – fairly bland mixes – it screws it up into a really tight ball and makes it sound really powerful so in some ways you get to reappraise material like that but I always thought I could play guitar better on it, higher in the mix, add orchestra and do various things, that was my approach.

I did it because I really do think the early material was quite something but it was recorded under duress, physical conditions – often overdubbing in headphones which isn’t the best way to do it, we were young and didn’t know any better but it held a standard to which I knew I could do better and also it gives me a tremendous excuse to go out and play it live which I’m doing the whole of 2013.

So is the setlist going to be that album and other songs?

Given this one was a double album and Genesis Revisited I was over an hour I’ve got enough to draw from with those two with a couple of other Genesis tunes that I’ve got in the pipeline so I’ll rehearse more material than I’m going to need to have a contingency there and make changes from night to night.

There are some great vocalists on there, such as Mikael Akerfeldt, Nad Sylvan and Neal Morse to name a few, what inspired you to get them together for the project?

I think for singers that it’s very hard to fill another man’s shoes. The man in the street has got a very firm idea of who his favourite singer is, people never agree on this stuff. I could have done it all with 1 singer and he would have come in for a tremendous amount of flack from those that prefer Phil Collins or Peter Gabriel but instead of doing that we mixed it up and it’s mostly guys but there’s also Amanda Lehmann as well.

We have Conrad Keely from Trail Of Dead and Simon Collins who’s Phil’s son – it’s safety in numbers in a sense, we have people that have great voices such as Francis Dunnery who’s a great guitarist but also has a great voice along with Nad and Mikael both of whom are Swedish - there must be something in the Swedish air because they have big voices that makes the early Genesis material proud.

What I like about albums such as Genesis Revisited II is it can open your ears up to some new voices – I hadn’t heard of Nad’s work prior to this and it definitely made me want to check out more. There are comparisons to Peter obviously in his style..

Yes. I think both Gabriel and Collins had similar sounding voices and they used to double track each other particularly live, people thought it was one voice. When Phil first started singing the occasional lead vocal while Peter was still in the band people were hard pushed to spot the difference and I’m sure that must have not been great for him at that point – where Peter had the pomposity and was the first guy to attract attention to the band everyone had attributed everything to him.

I think Nad sounds pretty much like a cross between the two but also a chameleon as he says himself, on one record he’ll sound like one and on another record he’ll sound like someone else. With Agents Of Mercy – the band he has with Roine Stolt of the Flower Kings - he sounds more like a heavy metal singer on that , a more heavy vibrato reaching for the notes style but on this when he sings gently it’s more like a soul singer interpreting this material.

How did it feel to recreate Supper’s Ready?

We had a LOT of singers to coordinate and they were sending their parts working from home in the main and I did the Willow Farm bit – one of my favourites from Supper’s Ready that took 2 or 3 days to sing because there’s about 20 kinds of vocal style on that one particular tune so that was a real challenge.

I didn’t want to farm that one out , excuse the pun, to any other singer as I thought it may be something an American singer might not get if you know what I mean, to do those voices and not get the accent right wouldn’t quite work so it’s a little bit of a psychedelic version of the Teddy Bear’s Picnic and a bit of the Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, it’s where we crossed over with the Beatles in a way , the nearest Genesis got to I Am The Walrus I suspect.

It took a long time to stitch back again because I kept going ‘I’d forgotten about that bit’, we started at the beginning but having to fill in the pieces like a jigsaw as people were found to play those parts.

You mentioned in the commentary on your website that you sympa-

thised with Hitchcock. Now that it’s out there for public consumption do you still have that feeling that you could still tweak things?

Anyone that makes a record , whether they’re the producer, singer or whatever, you realise that if there’s any criticism it’s that it could always be different and you come to the point where you have to play that particular ghost to rest and say we had an orchestra and 35 or so people on the thing, we tracked them up.

I probably will NOT do a Genesis Revisited III, I feel that might be stretching credibility a bit too much, the old stuff is very much loved and that’s great, I’ll be touring this throughout the UK and Europe. We start on this cruise with 19 million different bands such as Yes on this ‘Cruise To The Edge’ deal so I’m looking forward to touring it next year.

So there’s no plans when it comes to the new solo record then?

The thing is I’m writing new material every day, in between the two interviews this morning I had 15 minutes and picked up the guitar, wrote a new lick. That’s how it works for me, I find first thing in the morning is a very productive time , when I’m not quite awake and committed to too much of a schedule I find ideas start to kick in at the most unlikely times.

I find writing doesn’t work as a conscious process any more with me, trying to sit down and write a song’s a disaster but if I’m doing something else a melody will pop into my head so I write it down.

I might be reading a book, watching TV or washing my hands but it’s frustrating if an idea comes and you’re in the shower – no waterproof pens! I just grab it on the run, I find the greatest ideas come at the most inconvenient times such as being late for a plane but you just have to write it down at some point, have a notepad with you!

This year also saw the release of the Squackett project. How do you feel now that’s been released?

I’m very happy about that, you can tell by the very name that we weren’t taking ourselves TOO seriously when we did that, the response has been extraordinary so yes I could have toured that and there had been a lot of pressure to do so, people want to see what it would be like to see members of Yes and Genesis together – not for the first time because of course I did something with Steve Howe back in the mid 80’s.

Chris loves harmony singing, as do I, he’s a great Cosby and Stills, The Who and The Beatles fan, he trained as a choir boy all those years ago and the lovely thing about working with Chris is he’s so enthusiastic, you can always tell when he’s happy with something, we might be working on respective solo projects and we decided that we’ll do something together and we’d leave for a while due to him touring the world and myself being busy too.

It came out as a natural harmony between us and that’s something I think you can’t buy, we started it and we completed it without a record company being involved in it so that meant we were just pleasing ourselves and it was all the stronger for it to be honest.

As you say the record company didn’t get too involved with Squackett, do you feel that the involvement of companies possibly ‘changing’ bands is a problem?

Well I think it used to happen more than it does these days, at one time when you had executives running the show in the 1980’s each act was a 19 year old, gleaming white teeth, peroxide – shall I go on?

That kind of thinking still continues with X Factor where you know they’ve been through the factory where they’ve been groomed to be the new likely face on the block but there’s a whole other way of going about it where you do what you like, wear what you like and play the music that you want.

There’s an approach you can have where you fund your own staff, you get your own audience and you’re not answerable to any higher authority, I think it’s a better way for music to go so I’m all for music without limits, fame might take longer but it must be terrible for some guy that’s got a great voice to have a number 1 record having played by the rules and then to find out next year no one wants him because he’s just not a new face anymore.

I think people who’ve had the ear of the fans for longer, who have – it’s a terrible phrase to say – ‘paid their dues’, I don’t like that because I think music is its own currency, if you do it well and with honesty and passion you’ll eventually get through.

There’s enough technology out there that’ll support you – websites, twitter and facebook. Every one of us is capable of generating publicity, I realise at first it’s difficult when you’re playing at home but once you get beyond that it’s important to try and work with other people

The new dates are: Date City Venue Box Office Website OCTOBER 2013 Tue 22th Wed 23th Thu 24th Sat 26th Sun 27th Tue 29th Wed 30th

BIRMINGHAM Symphony Hall 0121 345 0603 BRISTOL Colston Hall 0117 922 3686 LONDON** Royal Albert Hall 020 7589 8212 MANCHESTER O2 Apollo 08444 777 677 NEWCASTLE City Hall 0191 277 8030 LIVERPOOL Philharmonic 0151 709 3789 SHEFFIELD City Hall 0114 2789 789

www.thsh.co.uk www.colstonhall.org/ www.royalalberthall.com o2apollomanchester.co.uk newcastlecityhall.org www.liverpoolphil.com sheffieldcityhall.co.uk

NOVEMBER Fri 1st

CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange 01223 357 851

www.cornex.co.uk

Available NOW through 24hr Tkt Hotline: 0844 338 0000 Online: BookingsDirect.com (Agency & credit card bookings subject to booking fee)

Issue 12/2012 in some shape or form.

You’ve got to interact with people just like going to school, I know it’s possible to make an album in splendid isolation but I think the world doesn’t work like that, albums born out of conversation’s the way to go , you can stop and have a cup of tea or coffee or a glass of wine, it’s quite nice to share music with people and have a laugh and a joke along the way.

I wouldn’t want to function in an ivory tower, I need to have partners in crime!

You mentioned the idea of ‘music without limits’, Prog itself has seen a big upswing in recent years to the point of an awards ceremony where Genesis and Squackett won Lifetime Achievement and Anthem awards.

What do you feel about the fact that there is a awards ceremony for the genre in its own right and the state of Prog in 2012?

When I started out I never chose to be ‘Mr Prog’, the term ‘progressive’ was used to describe free form Jazz at that point, in the 60’s that meant you were Roland Kirk or Miles Davis so the term is an add on but I think it’s nice that there’s a rock press that are there to support musicians who are heading into non formulaic areas so the best of it is very good indeed and if I were to say the players are in progressive rock then maybe I wouldn’t be living up to the idea of music without prejudice because through all the genres there are great players.

Nevertheless, there are so many in this area that love classical and jazz equally, they love pop and rock, they like all of it. I don’t feel the need however to do something difficult all the time, a straight ahead song will do me; it doesn’t have to be in an impenetrable form, it’s important to write simply.

I think this is what the Beatles can teach us: you don’t have to be a virtuoso, what you have to do is feel the notes that you play and sing, if you do that, that’s fine.

What bands stand out to you at the moment then?

I enjoyed The Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow and I got on board with Muse on The Resistance then went back and listened to their earlier stuff, I found it interesting that here are bands who are taking an approach that comes across every style from track to track, sometimes during one. In a way they are the mainstream so they’re showing everyone that it’s cool to drift off into a piece of Chopin in a middle of a song [Referring to Muse’s Collateral Damage that contains elements of Nocturne in E Flat Major – Ed] whereas one time there’d be cries of ‘can’t have that!’, it’s hardly Roll Over Beethoven.

It’s like a musical time machine and deciding whether to decide to go to the past with Blues, Bach and Baroque, everyone’s welcome to the party so I think that’s the opposite of how the rock press functioned in the 1980’s where they were ‘One band is great, all the rest suck’, it’s a more balanced way so I think it’s harder for reviewers and they may need to examine their own motivations.

I guess we all feel accountable to some degree, I bought the Sex Pistols album when it was around at the time because I thought they were really interesting but obviously there was a battle with the older guard having them firmly in their sights and a very clever marketing move it was too but I think people were afraid to express themselves and there was a certain amount of the tail wagging the dog – the hair style came before the chords during the 80’s , people have survived that and 2 of them I’ve worked with such as Nik Kershaw.

To be highly visible in the 80’s you paid a certain price for being the new kid on the block, at some point as a musician you think that ‘I can no longer be new, what I do could be new’, you can’t give yourself a new face, if you’re known you have to justify why, you get more picky and try harder.

I’m sounding like Batman here [laughs] but music has to be fun or it’s just not worth doing.

So artists like for example The Algorithm - who combines electronic, dubstep and glitch with the technical side are the future of music?

I think the future is to use all the new technologies but never to say ‘I won’t use this because it’s Jazz or Classical’, you have to cast a very wide net over all the possible musical influences. I’ve seen rap artists using bits of Grieg during their shows even if it’s just a tiny part of Hall Of The Mountain King. Nothing can be off limits anymore, the world’s more aware of when someone comes up with an idea and broadcasts it, everyone gets to hear it and if you something off the cuff or derogatory about someone those words will come back to haunt you.

Musicians make good ambassadors for peace as long as they don’t shoot their mouth off too much and just get on with the music, it can be very healing.

If you can, can you give us 3 albums that have shaped you this year?

To be honest I’ve been so bloody busy working flat out I’d put on the radio but they’ve closed down my local record shop so if I send off to Amazon or something – I did enjoy the Marillion album Sounds that can’t Be Made with the track ‘Gaza’, I enjoyed that with the whole political stance but when it comes down to others I haven’t had time, I want to see what the Muse record has to offer.

I’m just on the road all the time, it’s like being a rock refugee, you feel like you’re in minutes rather than afternoons, no days off! [laughs] It’s the way I set it up I guess working with all these people but I wouldn’t have it any other way, I love doing it like this.

Sonic Shocks

Issue 12/2012

Page 7

A Parallel Future Universe

an interview with Paul Waggoner, guitarist and mastermind of American progressive metal force Between the Buried and Me.

by Marcus J. West "Took the cannonball down to the ocean/Across the desert from the sea to shining sea/I rode a ladder that climbed across the nation/Fifty million feet of earth between the buried and me" - Ghost Train, Counting Crows Great to have Between The Buried and Me back in London, Paul. How are you?

Awesome to be back in the UK, as always. We are very excited to play here at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, it looks a very cool venue; it’s awesome, much bigger than The Underworld where we played last time (laughs!)

Before we start the interview is it ok if, towards the end, I ask you about your lifestyle choices as I personally support veganism?

Yeah, absolutely, I am the perfect guy to talk about this.

Between The Buried And Me, despite still being a relatively young band, already has six albums in its repertoire; the latest, The Parallax II: Future Sequence, has just been released. How do you feel at this point of your career?

I actually do not feel we are a young band anymore, we are an old band! We passed the decade mark as we have been around for 11 years; however, we still feel we have a lot to say musically. I think we feel good about it, we have been out for a while and I feel good about our progress so far, but we feel that our best music has yet to be written. The way our career has been going has always been steadily up and we hope to continue to have more fans, especially over here in Europe as it took a us while to get over here; we were a band for nearly six years before the first time we ever came to Europe.

We are a little behind here, but with every record release and every tour it seems it’s getting better. That’s really our goal, to keep climbing the ladder.

Why do you think it took longer to you guys to get a strong presence here in Europe? Do you think that is because your music is so technically enhanced that it require time to get noticed?

Well… We were in a different situation with a different label back then; they were not really pushing us to get over here a get a strong presence sales-wise. The right opportunity to come to Europe did not really happen for us until later on, when we became more popular. It just took us a while to even consider coming over here for some reason. And like you said, our music is a little harder to catch on and gain a sort of mass appeal. It’s a different kind of music, it’s very technical, maybe that’s why it has been a slow process for us, but it gets better every time. I have always thought that if we get our fans slowly and keep them following our career it builds a sort of solidity, hopefully for ten more years down the road.

The release of the first chapter of the Parallax, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, marks the signing to Metal Blade Records. What do you think are the factors that made such a big name in the metal business universe get Between The Buried and Me in their catalogue?

Talking to Brian (Brian Slagel, Metal Blade Records founder and chairman) I realized that he enjoys and he is a fan of all different kinds of music; I think his favourite band is Coheed and Cambria; that says a lot about him.

I think he thought that Between The Buried And Me was pretty cool and he respected what we were doing creatively, maybe we were a kind of gateway for him to start signing other bands that play our type of music. We just felt a very good fit for Metal Blade Records since we started talking about getting signed; Brian has been in the business for a very long time, so we have always had lots of respect for him. I think that with our previous label, Victory, we were out of place.

Why did you mark this new phase of your career with The Parallax? This term seems to have the right connotation.

We saw this as a new beginning for us, we really wanted to kind of start fresh and we thought that the best way to do it would be to start developing a concept. We thought it would have been be cool to start with an EP first, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, as when we signed with Metal Blade we really wanted to put something out relatively quickly, something that we had never done before in our career.

The Parallax II: Future Sequence has been out since October 6th: how would

you say the response has been so far? With so much social media available now, a band can find out about the outcome of a new release pretty quickly.

True. We are always interested in the first week of sales in the US, but other than that we really gauge our success based on the live shows. The new songs seem to go pretty well with the crowd, I feel that the longer the record is out, the more familiar the crowd is with the new material. I think it’s going pretty well, we have not been booed off the stage so far….

I would never see this happening….

(Laughs)..It could happen, never say never! We have been playing two songs from the new album every night of this tour, we always play Astral Body...

Good to know as it’s my favourite song of the album!

Thank you! And then we switch between Telos and Lay Your Ghosts to Rest.

Tonight is a Telos night.

Listening to The Parallax II: Future Sequence, I noticed an even stronger connection between your amazing guitar work and the keyboards, particularly in Astral Body and Bloom.

Oh yeah!

Is there something you worked on achieving or did this connection just happen as the writing and recording processes developed?

I think it happened pretty naturally. Even if we have always been a guitar band, as most metal bands are, we have always been trying to incorporate keyboards and other sounds such as violins, and even banjos and mandolins in some of the songs to give a more orchestral vibe. There is definitely more interplay with guitar, bass and keyboard and all the other sounds that may not be easy to hear but are there. It make it all sound bigger and different.

How do you research and choose these different sounds?

I do not know. I do not think about it too much, it just kind of happens. It could just be a person’s random idea or it could just be decided as a whole.

Sometimes I hear some guitar lines back and I am like “Ah, I should double that with a banjo and it should sound cool” and this sometimes just happens in the studio. Some things are very planned and methodical, sometimes you just have to have fun and go with it, and it does not hurt to have an idea and try.

There is a strong sense of complexity in the album, but at the same time it just flows magically. What was the mood of the band like as you were recording it?

It was very good, we were very excited creatively before we started writing it; we knew it was going to be a pretty crazy album because everybody had lots of ideas stored up in their heads and we were ready to put them all out there. It was the first full length we had written since The Great Misdirect (2007) and the vibe was very good when we were in the studio. Everything went really smooth and there was never a what you call “writer’s block” or anything like that; it was fun from start to finish and we knew exactly what we were going to do, we were very prepared and ready to experiment. Sometimes when you write a record you have points of frustration, but this did not happen. We were all in the same page.

Was it a long process writing it considering the experimentation aspect?

We starting writing in January. We finished around April and then recorded it in May and part of June. It sounds like a long time but it’s over seventy minutes of music and it felt it went pretty quickly.

You also have a strong visual message and presence, both on stage and on video, especially with Mordecai and Alaska and now with the newest video for Astral Body.

The video for Astral Body came out very cool. Blake’s (Blake Richardson,

drummer) brother did it, he is much more talented than he is (laughs as Blake on the other side of the room laughs too!). We are not in it, so we did not have anything to do with it, which was great; we thought it fits the song pretty well. I do not know if we are going to do another video for the new album…. I kind of want to do a video for Bloom personally, that would be cool. I do not personally like to be in videos, so if we can do more videos like Astral Body, more like a movie where our music is the soundtrack, that’s kind of what I am interested in.

You have always toured so much. One particular tour that we would have wanted to come over here to Europe was the one with Baroness and Mastodon in 2010.

It was a great tour, the only problem with it was that we just had finished four months of touring; we started at the beginning of the year in the US, then we came over here to do the Lamb Of God tour, then went directly to South East Asia and also did a couple of shows in Japan, Australia, Japan and Hawaii. Then we went home for a week and we started again. We were super tired and burned out, but the one with Baroness and Mastodon was a great tour; we are big fans of both bands so it was lots of fun.

And now you back to Europe as headliner and playing in such a big venue..

It’s amazing, going from playing at The Underworld to the Shepherd’s Bush is quite a jump. We are very honoured and excited to play here.

The Safety Fire and Periphery are opening for you tonight: do you think their crowd will get to know you and become more involved?

Probably not (laughs!). No, I think they will, we share lots of fans. Both bands seem to have some of the younger fans that may not get what we do, but this is what is all about: try and play to new people, hopefully the fans that come and see them will stick around and watch us and hear something they like.

What are your plans for the near future? A well deserved break to start with?

That will come pretty soon. From here we are going to play a festival in the US on Sunday (FunFun Fest 2012), then from there we fly to Japan as we have few dates over there and then we go to Australia, finishing off with two shows in New Zealand. After that, we go home. We will be home over Christmas and then we will do another tour in the winter that should be announced very soon. I think we should also play also a couple of the summer festivals at least.

A couple of questions on your background now. How did you become such a technical guitarist?

I am a child of the nineties, I grew up with alternative and grunge music.

This is what inspired me to play guitar in the first place, you know, playing Nirvana’s songs; I did not get into metal until later. I took lessons from my guitar teacher for about a year, that kind of forced me to learn music theory and learned what I was doing with the guitar. That gave me a good foundation and from there I played every day, practicing and pushing myself to do more. So when I got a better, I became interested in different kind of music, heavier and metal but also in jazz and fusion and even started listening to some classical music, which has become a big influence in our sound. I tried to incorporate everything that I had been interested in into my personal style and the music of Between the Buried and Me. As time progressed I knew this is what I wanted to do, I did not care about making money, I am still basically still eighteen years old doing what I have always wanted to do. That’s sort of my story.

How did you decide to become vegan?

I have been vegan since I was eighteen, so it’s been for fifteen years now.

Back then, when I started going into metal and hardcore, it was kind of starting to become popular, caring about animal rights, and there were lots of pamphlets and literature being shown on the slaughterhouses. Once you see stuff like that it’s hard to have a blind eye, so I realised that that was what I was eating and I did not want to support it anymore. I became vegetarian for a year and then vegan ever since. I was lucky that it was exposed to me, I guess, at a time when it became very popular. And it gets easier every day even on tour, we were just walking earlier across the park and we saw this place with all you can eat vegetarian.

What about the straight edge lifestyle… isn’t it hard to follow in your environment? Is this something that you choose to become more creative?

I have never been interested in drinking and doing drugs, I have never found that to be an attractive thing and it interests me less now that I am 33 years old. I do not care about what alcohol and drugs do; I took this decision when I was younger. Other than taking a sip of my dad’s beer when I was a kid, I have never been interested in it. And I noticed that lots of people from the hardcore scene were also not drinking and then there was this straight edge tag that was born, so I guess I also became a straight edge! The label does not really mean anything to me, most people that are straight edge are like this for a little while until they become interested in something else. For me it’s more than that, than a title, it’s a lifestyle choice that I think is good.

It’s remarkable that you do not seem to be forcing yourself.

No, not at all. As long as you are a good functional person, if you want to have a beer every now and then I think it’s cool. I am just not interested.

Everyone is entitled to their own decisions in life, but the options are there!

It’s time for your show now, thank you for the interview Paul. Is there anything you would like to add?

You covered a lot of ground, thank you for your support. Hope to come back to the UK for the festivals!

Page 8

Enrolling a horde of new admirers to their unique style of rock and roll, StoneRider get their kicks and inspiration from making like Polar Bears and listening to obscure mix tapes.

“Matt, how long have you been growing your hair exactly?” quizzes the band’s drummer, Jason. “I need an exact play-by-play. How many times have you trimmed it?”

Right off the bat, it’s clear this was not going to be a simple straightforward interview. While Europe are upstairs playing to a Tuesday night crowd in the main room, I’m wedged in one of the dressing rooms backstage at Rock City with StoneRider, watching some strange 60s documentary on fashion with the TV on mute, courtesy of the Beeb.

The band was formed in rather strange circumstances: jumping into ice cold water to be precise. “I met Matt at the polar club we used to be in.” Jason enlightens us.

“We used to swim in the arctic cold water. It’s for building mental strength. He had similar style hair as me, we gave each other conditioning tips…”

Bassist Adam joined a little later on in the development of the group. “I saw them play in town and was like ‘Wow. Okay, we should start doing shows together.’

I was in a band at the time called The Pinks. So I contacted StoneRider because we had some mutual friends.

I started talking to them about recording them, because I also like recording bands. Then I got into recording them for the record release show, I played guitar and keyboards too and a whole bunch of other stuff. There was a ukulele involved and a harpsichord.” (“And a sitar and bongos…and a five gallon water jug!” - Jason.) “So I played a whole bunch of things with them live, then when Neil decided he was going to leave the band, I put down the guitar and picked up the bass. I probably saw it coming before the guys did. I don’t think I said anything!”

Jason thinks otherwise. “I saw it coming from some miles away! He played second guitar for us quite a bit.

He kept showing up to rehearsals, we were already rehearsing, the three/four of us. It was all very natural.

The wind in the trees, the stars in the sky.”

Matt agrees. “It was the natural way of things. It was just one of those things that, we didn’t need to all sit down and formally ask Adam to be in the band, it was just understood. We had like four days before a local show, shit went down, and [Adam] just saddled up and that’s the way it was. He’s just an amazing guy and great at what he does, so it works out beautifully for everyone.”

According to the singer, the name of the band was also decided at the ‘polar bear club’. “Really really cold water sort of sparked different neurons in your brain, and different thought processes. We were trying to figure out a name and it was one of the first suggestions where everybody was like ‘yeah that’s cool’. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but you can get your own meaning out of it.”

For a band that have just left an entire continent kicking and screaming for more after supporting the Swedish hard rockers, they’re remarkably laid back. An image of The Rolling Stones appears on the screen and we’re soon discussing the recent jaunt by the famed Londoners at the O2 Arena, and Mick Jagger’s now infamous joke to those in the not-so-cheap seats.

“I came into the Stones fairly recently, late into the game really,” admits Adam.

Sonic Shocks

“You didn’t wanna like them or something?” asks Jason.

“Yeah. My dad went to a Rolling Stones show when I was about 8 or 9, and we had a fight about whether he was going to take me, at which point I was really into the Stones, and so when he went without me I was like “well fuck that.” And I made like I didn’t care, made like I didn’t care for so long that I forgot about them.”

We also talk about Airbourne, another band who they’ve toured with in the US, and, of course, the Scandinavians who they join tonight.

“I didn’t know much about them before we went on tour with them. I hope they don’t get mad at me for saying that!” explains Adam, referring to Europe. “But we’re fans now!”

“Everybody’s heard a good handful of their songs,“ Jason adds. “It’s unavoidable. They’ve written some, I guess you’d call them 80s songs, but they’re very much timeless because so many generations have discovered them since then.”

It’s actually Europe frontman Joey Tempest who we have to thank for having the three here tonight. According to the band Joey was impressed by their music and invited them to join his group for the European leg of the tour.

Their sound sired from listening to a varied range of bands, from rock and blues to a lot more unknown musicians.

“We listen to a bunch of obscure world music.” Says Jason. “I really like - through Tame Impala - their label, Modular. They go to their artists and they create these mix tapes. There was one they had recently called The Solstice Mix, which is so far out; I think Dorothy Ashby was the only artist recognisable. You’ve never heard anything like it: it’s all obscure and amazing. 26 songs of culture you’ve never heard. There’s a wonderful record label called Analog Africa, and what they’re doing is they’re going into these really small desolate unknown regions, pulling all of the original vinyl that they can find from there: these artists from the 70s who nobody ever found, ever heard of, only in these small places, and they’re remastering and reissuing all of this stuff on vinyl and digitally. The company that’s going out and re-mastering it is based in Atlanta, which is where we’re from. There’s a tonne of these offshoot labels now, independent record stores who are carrying all of this stuff. All this music that never saw the light of day, finally being available and it’s in a way getting heard for the first time even though it’s forty odd years old. It’s fucking awesome. Tinariwen are great, it’s land, desert blues/rock. A forty year old band and they’re only now becoming popular. Robert Plant’s into them, it’s just this hypnotic desert blues-rock, so fucking cool. All these old dudes stoned out of their minds on opium. They were so wasted! It was awesome!”

“We went back behind to the parking lot to leave and their bus was out there,” offers Matt. “They were just out smoking and very nice humble cool guys. And we were like ‘not trying to jump in the circle, but we wanna let you know you’re amazing.’ All of that stuff is really inspiring, because it was all going on around the same time that some of your more favourite and more well-known artists. It’s great because the Internet is so awesome in that way that you can find anything and so much new stuff so easily. For example, for Christmas last year, Jason got me two compilation CDs: one was of Indonesian, Thai and South Pacific funk psych rock from the 70s that you’ve never heard before. It’s a little hard on our Western

Issue 12/2012

Easy Rider

by Cayleigh Shepherd

ears, but it’s really interesting to hear another culture’s take on our popular music.”

“If you were to ride in the van with us you’d probably find it a 50/50 split,” states Adam. “Between stuff we just got, and stuff we heard the day we were born. Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, lots and lots of blues like Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf especially.

Psychedelic stuff… the Beatles of course. That’s the stuff I listened to as a kid, and it kinda shapes you and stays with you, and you think of that as that being the building blocks upon which you’ll do everything else. There are lots and lots of modern bands that we really dig too. I ran into The Flaming Lips, right about the time I got a 4-track.

So, my entire recording from day one was with more of a mindset like Flaming Lips or something like that. Nowadays you have bands like Tame Impala, they’re fucking great. They’re gonna be huge.”

“You’ll hear anything from Curtis Mayfield, Ike & Tina to Tame Impala to Bill Monroe to Al Green to Zeppelin to Graveyard,” adds Matt. “Jason and I went through a punk and hardcore phase too. All these things hold you as who you are and how you perceive music. I like shit that moves me. Anything that sounds inspired, anything that sounds like the person who created it really really loved what they were creating at that moment, that’s more important than any ‘hip new band’ or ‘if you play rock music you have to love Zeppelin IV’…ok yeah you have to because well, just listen to it!”

But make no mistake, they’re not trying to be those bands, or recreate that sound. “We don’t try to sound like them though. We’re definitely not trying to sound retro.

It’s actually a goal of ours to not sound retro,” confesses Adam. “As a producer, I try to strip away some of the fads of the last couple of decades. Instead of making something like ‘alright, this is gonna be 1968’, I try to shoot for timeless. Something that’s not going to sound dated in three years. Don’t put autotune all over it, for example. Don’t squash it; just try to get a really good sounding recording if you can.” The rest of the band agrees. “It’s a great compliment, but I think if you ask most of the bands who people are calling retro, throwback bands, I think they’d all tell you the same thing. We don’t wanna be called retro/ throwback. It’s just that the mentality of those musicians in that specific period of time was a certain way, and the mentality of the musicians now is coming back around to the same mentality. It’s gonna sound similar because of the things we want to get out of music, the things we want other people to get out of our records, I think the idea is the same.”

It may be specific to each song, but overall their music is all about having a good time all the time. To unite people and get everyone on the same page. The same goes for writing and recording process with the band. For the most part it’s very much a communal process. Adam explains, “As soon as I started jamming with these guys, we weren’t rehearsing for any specific purpose. What Jason does is he’ll just hit record on the computer, and we’ll have a while before it runs out. I think our first jam was about 3 hours. It wasn’t the same thing over and over. It

kept morphing and changing and the beat would change faster and slower, and we would just run through all sorts of stuff until one of us is like ‘ok, I have to go get a drink of water’. Then we’ll come back and listen to it.

At that point we’ll hear something and be like ‘what was that one part you did? You did a really really cool drum part, let’s go back to that.’ And ‘oh! Ok! I know what I wanna play bass on that part now.’ And we’ll tweak what we did in that part and suddenly we’ll find ourselves with a part of a song right there. So things evolve from jamming, and sometimes I’ll show up at practise 10 minutes late and there’s a song that’ll just *poof!*, and it’s our jobs to write what we’re supposed to do. Like Matt’ll come in with something, just fall in with whatever seems to us to make the most sense. There are no rules and we haven’t really done anything in a consistent way, but the songs come in pretty fast and all had a really neat identity to them. We’re about halfway through writing a new record when we had to pull ourselves away from that to tour with Europe.”

So how has this tour been for them? “We’ll forget where we are playing sometimes, unless it’s somewhere like Paris where we were just like “AHHH WE’RE IN PARIS! WE’RE IN PARIS!” marvels Adam. “Aside from that, a rock and roll audience is a rock and roll audience. You’ll have small differences between the crowds sometimes, for example in The Netherlands, we went out and there was like this weird booing sound, and they were very quiet through the whole show, then afterwards, “WE LOVED THE SHOW! GIVE US A CD! CAN WE HAVE AUTOGRAPHS?” and we got a big rush of people after and we were like “wow, I thought that we bombed out there. This is cool!” There are things we don’t know what to expect, audience reaction wise. But ultimately they’re rock and roll fans just like the people back home.”

So what’s the immediate plan for the future? “Probably sleep for three days!” they all joke. “It’s business as usual I would say. Generally we will rehearse just about every day,” says Jason. “Re-assessing all the stuff we’ve written before this tour, talking about it some more, deciding if it’s something we wanna pursue or ditch it and keep on writing new stuff or maybe a little bit of both. Start recording again hopefully.”

“When you go on a two month journey through part of the world you’ve never been to it’s bound to shake your perspective on things.” Matt responds truthfully. “Everybody’s in ‘sponge mode’ right now, we’re just trying to soak everything up.”

“The tour is possibly the least that we’ve played a day,” agrees Adam. “Cause you only get thirty minutes! We’re used to doing an hour and a half minimum, jam for three hours usually. We’ll be processing things in song writing form probably.” So what are the chances of getting the trio back here any time soon? Pretty good, thinks Jason.

“We’ve had a really great response and I think it’s on everyone’s radar to get back over here as soon as we can and really utilise this exposure we’ve had as its wonderful.”

Fountains Left To Wake is out now. www.stoneriderband.com

Rock And Roll High School

by Cayleig Shepherd h

As we sit down backstage with The Treatment, having just opened for Thin Lizzy, we talk about 2012: The new music they’ve checked out, the places they’ve been, and of course, that tour…

“Not a chance!” cry Matt, Dhani and Rick when asked if we’ll be seeing less of them as they head back into the studio. “I recon you’ll be seeing more of us!” After an extremely busy year, the Cambridge group are looking to record their second album in January. “There’s no release date for when, but hopefully it’ll be around the summer” explains Dhani. “We’re pretty much halfway there already. We’ve got the pre-production done so it’s literally just a case of going in and doing the actual live takes. I don’t think the recording itself is going to take that long: it’s the final elements like setting a release date and packaging that’ll take

the longest. We’re really excited about it. The new material will blow the first album away. We can’t wait to get it out there.”

Their debut album, This Might Hurt, propelled the band into the spotlight, giving them the opportunity to support some high profile names, such as Alice Cooper and Steel Panther. Most recently however, they were offered the chance to open one of the biggest tours of recent years. Not just any old tour: The Tour.

“The KISS/Motley Crue tour was just unbelievable,” admits frontman Matt. “Every city we visited was great. We were so surprised by how openminded people were to a new band. It also seemed that a lot of the crowd were surprised that there were still bands – young bands – out there playing rock and roll, which is great. We met so many

lovely people. The classic places were always going to be fun: Nashville, Vegas, LA. The South was amazing, the East Coast was great, Canada was awesome. Honestly we had the best time imaginable. We hope [to return] soon. We’ve got nothing set in stone just yet, but we want to go back as soon as possible.”

When touring with two monsters of the rock world, Rick explained how the trip was used as their very own learning curve. “Just watching them made us aspire to be as good as we can possibly be. Both bands are so professional. We’ve definitely taken elements from their show and tried to incorporate it into ours. We’ve effectively had the chance to put them under the microscope, seeing them 50 times in a row, and it’s easy to see why they’re so big and so good at what they do.”

As an unimaginably successful year comes to a close, we ask the trio who has been their favourite artist for 2012. “When we’re on tour, we find no matter what, we always end up sticking on Steel Panther. We love those guys, and it was great to be on tour with them, so every other song seems to

be a Panther tune! We listen to such diverse stuff, a lot of Eek-A-Mouse (laughs all round), we like listening to new bands. Million Dollar Reload, Jettblack. To be honest, whoever we tour with, we listen to! So we’ve been absolutely caning KISS and Motley Crue! Alive I,II & III are literally all we listen to . We just stick on the tunes they didn’t play live!”

As for favourite album, they struggle yet again to pick just one. “What came out this year?” asks Matt. “I’m so oblivious…”

“Monster’s awesome,” offers Rick. “and Jettblack’s new album is wicked.”

“I don’t know about albums back I really like the new Stones track” adds Dhani.

So where’s can fans catch the boys before they return to the studio? “Come down to The Underworld in Camden on the 15th December for a wild Christmas party with mince pies and alcohol!” suggest Dhani, “Rick’ll be wearing nothing but a Santa hat!”

Issue 12/2012

Sonic Shocks

SUPERSIXX !!

By Cristina Massei

Back when I was young, if you were asked ‘who’s Nikki Sixx’ the answer would have been simply ‘the bassist in Motley Crue’; these days, it’s much more complicated than that. Musician, songwriter, but also author, radio host, photographer and fashion designer (did I forget anything?), Nikki is the one out of the legendary band who made a name for himself and replaced the old antics with a thirst for new things, channeling his creativity into several different avenues.

When Nikki walks on the red carpet at the Classic Rock Awards, now you have to wonder if he’s there to play his music, read his book, interview other stars, shoot them or dress them up; so we ask the man himself as he confidently walks towards the press. ‘We’re doing my show, Sixx Sense, from backstage; everyone coming off the red carpet is going to be shuffled into the studio to hang out with us and we’re going to enjoy the show’. But there’s more, as the star is actually up for an Award as well tonight. And once more, we ask, what for? What he truly does best: Showman of the Year, and he wins hands down.

Later on, as he proudly showcases his trophy on the winners’ carpet, he finds some time to talk to us about all is going on at the moment in Sixx’ World… Where do we start? Well, his ‘other band’ Sixx AM seems a good place. Sixx AM was initially put together to release a ‘companion album’ to Nikki’s first book ‘The Heroin Diaries’. A second book came out, titled ‘This is Gonna Hurt’ and containing some of Nikki’s photographic work; again, Sixx AM put together a soundtrack to go with the volume.

‘We’re working on what is going to be our third album and we’re just in the writing process right now. I’m not going to attach the Sixx AM album to a book this time, it’s going to be music all the way’. At the same time, our busy multi-tasker is also writing new Motley Crue material, as the original line up prepares to tour Australia in March with Kiss. And this is just the music…

‘I'm working on a couple of books right now, it’s just something I do: photography, playing the guitar, writing books. And the radio show, Sixth Sense, we want to bring that to the UK’. How was it tonight? ‘That was rad. We did interviews with a lot of great guys: Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, The Damned, Lynard Skynard, and Rival Sons’.

As long term plans go, ‘The Heroin Diaries’ is about to be turned into a Broadway musical: ‘It will be out late 2013-14, my whole story and the music, but I won’t be in it’. There’s another project however that has been in the pipeline for quite a while now, that movie on Motley Crue’ classic biography ‘The Dirt’, so we ask for an update… ‘It’s in that stage now where you are going to start hearing more in the next couple of months’. About the rumors on who’s playing who, Nikki denies any big names or even that anything has been decided just yet: ‘We let casting do all of that. We do want to have unknowns play the parts’. Which brings us back to Motley and their evergreen career: ‘We keep reinventing ourselves, keep taking chances’ - he says - I have great partners in Motley that are fearless. We have always pushed each other and ourselves’. Recently the Crue had a chance to take their live show to a new level with a residency in Vegas. ‘It was great to have a place where we could lock down. To be not touring every day. We could do things there that were not feasible to do while touring so that was good’. After reassuring us on Mick Mars’ health – ‘he’s playing his ass off!’ - it’s time to talk about tonight’s Showman of the Year Award.

‘I'm really happy to accept this award. It’s nice and it also puts the focus on, there is more to a show than just songs. If you have songs and great presentation you can take it to the next level.

Look at Elton John and David Bowie, Kiss and Queen: they had great songs but they also did something else that stimulated our brains. It’s about the presentation of the whole thing. I think the award was more multidimensional. Like me doing the Broadway play, the book writing and photography as well’.

You can say what you want about Nikki Sixx’s many hobbies and creations; maybe his books bore you, maybe you think your dog takes better pictures with your iPhone; is he a multitalented genius, a self absorbed jack-of-all-trades master-of-none, or just an acute businessman?

Who cares. Tonight, Classic Rock rewarded the Showman, and there’s no doubt Nikki Sixx is a hell of a fine one at that.

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Issue 12/2012

By Sophia Disgrace I was a little nervous to say the least, pre interview, after all Gary Numan is the originator of the dark electro genre - no mean feat. With more ups and downs in both his public and personal life than most, I wasn’t sure what the hell to expect! Then the interview time got changed not once, but twice - was he going to be 'one of those' interviewees? I need not have worried: Mr Numan was more than accommodating; a truly luminous, down to earth guy. We talked about the weather in the UK, his new home in L.A and erm… facelifts!

Hi Gary, how are you finding L.A, in comparison to London?

We've only been in L.A for a few weeks, so I guess we're still in holiday mode, you'll have to ask me again in a few months! No, so far it’s great, the weather is amazing. I spoke to a friend earlier today and he was saying how it’s raining and cold in London. I don’t miss that! I think when you get older and have kids your priorities change; I got sick of having to keep changing plans and things because of the awful weather! Also, there’s a lot more opportunities in L.A work-wise, in the film industry for example. I don’t hate the UK - contrary to some things that have been written about me - we just felt like a change.

How do you find the UK music scene at the moment, especially compared with a couple of decades ago?

I think as an industry, there are real problems: sales are down, companies are collapsing and bands are having to give away more and more. This is robbing people of creating stuff in the first place and making it harder and harder to make a living. There’s a select few at the top who are doing well, then everyone else. Officers supported me on tour - they’re really good, I love them, but I saw how tough it is for them, how hard they have to work. I’ve gone out and set up my own label, on my own, away from the big companies and all they entail. There are some positives though in the music industry today: the internet has opened up a whole new element for bands to promote themselves, in new and unique ways, it’s quite exciting to observe. Shows like the X Factor are popular and entertaining for some, but for everyone who does, many still don’t.

You’re very accomplished and have achieved so much - do you have a favourite aspect/area of your career, and what do you think you would have done if you weren’t in music?

I always wanted to be a racing driver or pilot; then I hit my teens and decided I was going to be a musician - to get girls! I did ok in school until puberty, then I started getting expelled and things. There was no plan B, nothing to fall back on, that was it for me: music. Which was good in a way, as it made me focused and I was lucky I made it quite quickly. I love touring, that’s a definite bonus aspect of my career, you get to travel with your family - some of my best friends make up my band - and you get to go on stage every night and perform to fans who are there for you. You get this amazing bus, with TV, DVD players, big old beds, the works, while some poor bastard has to drive you here there and everywhere!

You get to party on the bus and get paid for it. I never understand bands who say they hate touring! The studio can be enjoyable too but it’s a bit more up and down, you can have good and bad days.

What’s your favourite song to sing live and why?

'Prayer for the unborn'. It’s a song I wrote after my wife Gemma had a miscarriage, some years back. It’s an emotional song, a very personal song, when I play it live the audience gets involved, it’s very special to me.

What’s the best thing for you about being famous?

Being famous isn’t that big a deal for me. Sure it has its advantages, I got into The Ivy one Valentine’s Day without booking - I wouldn’t have if I wasn’t famous, everyone wants it, but when you get it, it’s different. It can be hard at times, you get used to things, but sometimes it can make me feel awkward, then I get clumsy and start bumping into things! People enjoying your work is great, I guess you need to be famous for that to happen and you get to earn a very good living for yourself too, but if there was another way to do this without the fame aspect, I’d choose that. I think about my kids as well, it can’t be easy being known as so-and-so's kid or relation. I’ve always admired how my brother handled being related to me, being 'Gary Numan's brother'. I also worry about security especially with regards to my children. However, I’m not as well known in the U.S so that’s good.

Do you have any musical tastes which may surprise our readers?

Not really, no. It’s one of my greatest shames as a musician! I tend to have rather limited taste, I like things that sound like my music, I guess that’s why I enjoy making my stuff. I guess I make music I’d like to listen too like NIN, Deftones and Officers - the band I mentioned earlier - they are dark and have great melodies, I heard them and thought they stood head and shoulders above most of the other music out there: bland, light weight pop. The music industry needs more substance!

Two things I wanted to discuss a little bit if you’re game - facelifts and Asperger’s.

Well, with regards to the facelifts, I blame it all on the iPad! iPad comes along and you lay it down and look into it... and then you start seeing your fucking face hanging off! The way I see it, anything you can do to make yourself feel better, go for it. Why should anyone else give a shit? What you do is no one else’s business. Some people can have huge issues with how they look - why not fix things if you can? A lot of people see having Asperger’s as a disadvantage, I’ve never seen it like that - it helps me to focus very intensely. I suppose I am a bit odd; I mean, I’m ok over the phone, I can chat away, but face to face I’m very different, I get really shy and hate making eye contact! Asperger’s gives you obsessive tendencies, which for a musician is ideal really.

Okay, last question and can I say what a pleasure this interview has been! What can we expect from you in 2013?

Thank you! I’m just finishing a new album at the moment, 'Splinter' ready for 2013. I shall be touring in relation to this and also doing a film score, have a novel out and the second part of my auto biography.

By Cristina Massei It only took a couple of spins of Jain Wells’ debut album ‘The Colours of My Heart’ to grow fond of her honest, fresh brand of pop-rock. Soothing yet sometimes brutal, Jain’s songs come straight from personal experience, with all the depth you can expect from an ex therapist who decided to leave her profession – and Canada – to follow her dreams.

We decided to find out a bit more about this gifted lady; if you like what you read, you’ll probably like what you hear…

Check out www.jainwells.com and grab a copy of ‘The Colours of My Heart’, it’s out now!

I see you were raised in Canada and moved to London – I moved here 15 years ago and it’s quite the life changing experience, what made you come to London?

I was married at the time and my husband was doing so much business in London that he ended up getting a flat and I was working as a psychologist and teaching quite a lot with the seminar business I had and thought since we had a flat maybe I’ll commute back and forth and start the seminar business over here and I was developing my music at the time.

Then you decided to stay…

Yes, it didn’t take long before the commuting got to me so within the first year I moved here instead!

How do you find London as an inspiration for your music?

This city is so alive with culture and music and has such an international flavour to it, it has so many beautiful parks that I’m inspired by, the architectural beauty and culture in a big way.

What do you miss the most about Canada?

It would be the spectacular natural beauty because there were a lot of mountains where I was living.

Are you still working as a psychologist?

No, I let that side of my business go when I decided to pursue music full time 3 years ago.

How are you finding that decision?

It takes a lot of work to move into a new direction so I’ve just been spending my time on singing and writing new material, it was a very inward time and now I’m moving more outwards by being able to get out there and present it to people. That’s generally the nature of the creative process – you have to go internal to create and now that it’s created I’m ready to share it with others.

It takes a lot of guts to leave something after so long for an uncertain business such as music these days.

Yes and that’s why I feel inspired to do it no matter what happens. I just love it and that’s what’s driving me.

How much does your experience as a psychologist go into your lyrics?

100%. When you study human behaviour and growth it affects how you see the world so how I see the world natu-

Issue 12/2012

Sonic Shocks

Page 11

THE

X-PERIENCE

By Cristina Massei Once again, my Blackberry lets me down when I most need it: I’m on my way to interview Benga at Sony’s HQs, and as I get off the Tube and try to map the address the evil thing freezes. Now I have no map, no address or phone number to call for a blinding 15 minutes (yes, that’s the time it takes it to unfreeze and reboot). I’m late, sweaty and embarrassed.

Great start, thank you RIM. Thankfully, Benga is one of the most pleasant guys I’ve met, and I soon get comfortable setting up my stuff as we talk football and smartphones…

How did the deal with Sony come about? I know you’ve been working with them to promote the Xperia T. I remixed the track 'Follow' by the Crystal Fighters, which has been used in all their new adverts. (download from www.sonymobile.com/bengaremix). Xperia is pretty social in the fact you can share information via One-touch sharing technology (the sharing of entertainment content such as music and pictures by just touching phones together, used on the Xperia T, Xperia S and Xperia P smartphones). See, if you had one now we could just touch phones to exchange numbers!

How are you finding working with Sony?

Honestly? I‘ve got a new product manager that I feel at home with, that makes me feel more like Benga. Being a bit more spontaneous for me is being able to release 3 singles in 3 months rather than the basic method of releasing one in one month then building up to another in 2 months. I play as a DJ and create hype THAT way, so when a song’s going crazy in the club it’s ready to be released and that’s how I think I should be releasing records, and they’ve come along with that now.Stacy [product manager] isn’t the type that comes in and goes ‘this can’t work, haven’t got the timeframe for that’, which many at major labels are.

There was a bit of a furore in July over you saying that you didn’t want to be just dubstep anymore and that you wanted to evolve. Where did that come from and how do you think you’re evolving? I think there’s a point with every artist when they feel the need to move forward...

It comes to a point where you have to seriously consider what you’re making, and it struck me while making the album that a lot of it was at 140bpm; every time I went into

rally comes through in the music.

There’s one particular song ‘Holiday’ that talks about betrayal and loss. Do you find that a way to get things out?

When I sit down at the piano to write I just let my feelings in the moment take me, it’s not a process of I’m going to write about this or that and so yes it just happens that way, if there’s something on my mind – and that’s probably true for other writers as well – whatever is present is going to come through.

I was writing most of these songs at a difficult time and that’s why some of them have that element of challenge in them. Whenever you can express yourself it feels good.

May I ask what inspired that song?

The husband that I had, we split up and it was just a very sad time.

How long ago was that?

We split up in 2007.

So you’re over it now?

Yep and we’re the best of friends!

Tell me more about the overall writing of the album.

These songs were written over the course of 4 years.

All piano based?

100% written sitting at the piano.

What do you expect from this album?

What I’m curious to find out is who will be interested in what I have to offer. Different artists attract people for different reasons and so I hope there will be people that will be moved and inspired by my music and feel good about their lives as well.

Are you going to do some live dates in the UK? We have about 35 upcoming, we’ve had the first band performance as well. What I’m doing is playing at various Caffe Nero locations (they recently put her as artist of the month) as they’ve given me support by playing my songs in many of their UK locations so I’m playing 24 of their places, some will be with keyboards and most with

the studio my mindset was at that tempo because of my attachment to it so that’s where the ‘quitting dubstep’ come from and just doing it for myself and create a mindset of doing stuff at 120, 170 or 160 even. I think it’s worked as I’ve been making all sorts of ranges in the studio.

Are you happy with it?

Yeah.

Is that what we can expect on the album?

Some of it, definitely.

What else can we expect then?

A lot of it is Benga music full of hooks, I can’t think of one song that isn’t catchy whether it’s dark or not, and I think the funniest thing about it is that obviously I made Magnetic Man, which was successful, and it was hard to drop that type of music as it was Benga style – shuffle, full of fire and I struggled to get away from that, BUT one thing that is also very Benga is that there are loads of unique songs. When I did the first album it took people a minute to get their heads round it but that’s what I do.

What are your thoughts on the state of Dubstep with artists such as Skrillex causing crossover appeal?

If I’m honest, when I look at Skrillex as a project or most that do it to that scale I think it’s all mindset from the beginning.

Myself and Oliver [Skream] have achieved as artists exactly what we wanted to achieve, and where we are now is where we wanted to be: doing shit like having a regular Radio 1 slot, albums on a major label and touring the world; if our mindset and goals were to take it further, then we will.

Skrillex has had a mindset of doing stadiums from the beginning and that’s exactly how it’s going, he made me open up and think ‘Why aren’t I doing stadiums?’, so that’s a huge thing behind the music I make. I think anything that will make me go for something bigger is great.

So the next plan for yourself is very much stadiums then.

100%. That’s the whole point of my live show and the way it’s set up is to grow that way. Supporting Example in February is the next stage of getting used to that type of crowd.

How do you find it?

Exciting, what I did last year was 8 dates as Magnetic Man where we played to 30/40,000 every night, I just found my-

the full band. It’ll be fun to go into these places in central London and play the songs!

How many people are in the band?

2 guitarists, 1 keyboard and drummer. I hired them and we got up and running with the band performance very recently.

How’s it going so far?

The producer came to the first show and was impressed with the band’s interpretation of the album so to have him say that is a big positive! The producer being Greg Fitzgerald whose worked with Kylie, Madonna and others. He felt excited to work with me, it was really good to work with him, there was lots of fun and a general ease of working together.

Now I’m curious about transpersonal psychology…

It was birthed in the 60’s and there were great psychologists around that time such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow so they came to some new realisations bringing in more of a spiritual component – not religious - into how we work people through issues. It’s a blend of the eastern traditions’ wisdom and western psychology ideas.

Is there any artist you particularly like to be compared to?

Well right now one of the female artists that holds my attention is Amy Lee of Evanescence, I went to see them perform and got interested in her over the last year, she has a beautiful voice and fantastic songs so she’s one that comes to mind.

How do you think about playing the types of venues they play?

I’m willing to jump into any challenge that comes my way even with how this occupation can go! I long to connect with those that are interested in the music.

Biggest wish for 2013?

The next natural progression for me and my band would be to open for another act and go on tour.

Who would you like to open for?

There’s so many great UK acts: Florence And The Machine, Ellie Goulding, Snow Patrol and I’m big fans of all of them so it’d be great to open for one of them!

self thinking about how I’d feel at the end of it. I was in the zone and a lot of picturing of walking out to the crowd and seeing people going mental.

Can you tell me 5 songs that showcase the evolution of dubstep?

I think the first song should go out to Skream – ‘Request Line’ and then my (Ed note featuring Coki) track ‘Night’ followed by Skream’s remix of La Roux’s’ In For The Kill’ (Let’s Get Ravey) , it just so happens it’s mostly Skream and I, ‘I need Air’ (Magnetic Man) would be the next one as it got Radio 1 daytime slots and finally – even though I could say Katy B ‘On A Mission’ I’m going to say Nero ‘Me And You’.

If you could save one record from this year, which one would it be?

Meek Mill’s Dreams and Nightmares on Maybach Music, he’s been for me the greatest rap artist of the year as it makes me go out and do the whole popping champagne lifestyle!

Did you ever think that you’d get to this point when you released your first single at 15?

It’s the funniest thing, because I was writing goals at a young age and recently my mum brought out for a documentary things she had collected, like pictures of me and Skream at Christmas, but the thing that warmed me the most was this goal sheet with things I wanted: being young it had things like a BMW Compact, a house, this and that. It was subconscious how I purchased them all!

Is there one thing on that list you haven’t achieved yet?

No and that’s what made me think I needed to write a lot of new goals and keep them coming as I achieve them. It was an emotional experience!

Benga will be touring the UK in February/March supporting Example; some shows are already sold out, so hurry up!

Watch out for his new album out as well in February. As for me, after losing my way to Sony House and a chance to exchange numbers with Benga, it’s time to go swap my Blackberry for one of those Xperia T…

Sonic Shocks

Page 12

Allons Enfants de la Patrie

By Marcus J West - Photo Fabiola Santini As As French metal establishment Gojira are about to hit London’s Koko tonight, the anticipation in the air for their return to the capital with what will be another incredible live show is sky-high. Very few bands from over the Channel have the same magnetism here in London as they do, each of their live shows is a big event and even bigger is what they share: pure, perfect, majestic metal.

This is what frontman Joe Duplantier, one of the most well mannered and fondly down to earth musicians ever encountered, speaks on Gojia’s strong foundations of family ties and connection with the universe.

I am always fascinated by family ties. What was it like to start playing in a band with your brother Mario?

Our brotherhood is one big part of our band. We both come from the same mother and father; however, Christian (Andreu) and Michel (Jean-Michel Labadie) are also like brothers to us; they both come from the same area. The four of us come from the same background, we have so many memories, so that why in this sense we are a real band of brothers; we have something very strong in common. Even if musically we are not the best, the fact that we know each other very well produces something very strong. I do not consider myself a guitar player, that’s my job, I do music with my bothers, you know?

Is this the secret as to why the line-up never changes, compared to so many other bands that change members as they change guitar picks?

One big thing is that we consider the dimensions of things in general, mainly that we are together to do this music together. Sometimes we don’t even remember why, like when we are away on tour for long times and have found ourselves in a remote parking lot somewhere and we ask ourselves: “what are we doing here in fucking Nottingham when I could be with my wife and daughter!” But we share something within the band that is spiritual, we have a mission, we do this as a purpose greater than our lives. The fact that we have this in mind, and we talk about it, and we treasure what we receive from the crowd every night makes it very precious for us; we see our purpose that we always remind each other. Instead of doing drugs after a show or getting drunk and wake up in the morning feeling bad and disoriented, we keep our minds pretty clear, stick together, talking to each other if we have a problem. I always say that we are still all together because we communicate, but I think it’s also because of this spiritual dimension that we have in the band.

You have been touring with Immortal; I could not think of two more diverse bands within metal! What was the reaction of their crowd when they saw Gojira on stage?

The tour happened in 1999 in France, it was our first real tour; we were the roadies of the tour and we also had to play. Our manager put us on that tour as a “yeah, big achievement!” At the time, we were playing more extreme death metal and we also had an aspect in our music that was mystical and almost black; of course, compared to Immortal it was not really black metal. We fit in the bill pretty well I think, the crowd reacted very well actually. We also had a very good sound guy at the time so every night was a success. It’s a beautiful memory and story to tell, I loved every bit of it.

The Way Of All Flesh¸ your fourth album, is considered a metal collector’s item. One of my favourite songs Adoration For None, was recorded with Randy Blythe.You have been friends for a while, what was your reaction to what happened to him in the Czech Republic?

I was very shocked and worried about him when it happened. I tried to contact him, and when I could not get hold of him I finally managed to speak to Chris (Adler), the drummer, who told me about the situation; he was so depressed on the phone…. I was with them a couple of days before it all happened. I was very surprised and started thinking what is that we are doing that is so violent that people can die at our shows? But people can die anywhere, anytime. You can cross the street and there is a bike coming your way, your head touches the wrong spot and you are dead; life is so fragile. I would not blame the music genre for this, I think metal is healthy for kids. Of course we say ‘fuck’ and ‘shit’ and this and that and there is blood and we talk about Satan, but it’s good for kids, they need something. There are things in society that are way, way worse than going to a metal show, things in everyday life that are like routines; going to a show allows you to disconnect yourself from these routines and rules.

The rhythms of metal are like the African tribal ones, kids dance together the same ways. What happened to the kid that died at that Lamb of God concert was an accident, it was a terrible accident that could have happened at any other show. Randy is one big personality, he is a star in the US and I think that the Czech Republic was happy to catch him and lock him in jail. Of course I understand the grief of the family of that kid who died, I am really sad for what happened and I cannot really say more than that, but what I can say is that I know Randy very well personally. He slept on my couch many times, he is just a lovely guy. He likes to talk to my parents and to different people of different cultures. He is very close to nature and he likes to go out in the wild, he likes to watch a flower or a plant. He is also very dedicated to his fans. For him it’s a disaster what happened, but he needs to stand on his legs and go back to the Czech Republic for the trial and he will do it. It could have been me. I push so many kids away from the stage, sometimes when they dance in front of the microphone it is as if they almost want to be pushed and jump on people.

Can you tell me about your involvement with the Sea Shepherd?

First of all, I think that anybody can save the world. On a certain level, when you pay attention to other people you are already doing something for the planet; you do not need to clear the air and clean the oceans… One little thing can be very powerful; I used to think a lot about it and write lyrics about it. When you become a public person or a band that encounters a certain success, I think you have some sort of responsibility to put the light on something else which is more important, that’s what we did with Sea Shepherd.We just said “Hey! We play metal, we are having fun, check what these guys are doing, it’s something really important!” It comes from the personal desire to do something. It’s not quite finished yet, there is a lack of time, but this is completely separate to the record company and any other deals we have; it’s something that we do ourselves in our free time. It’s pretty mind-blowing how time goes so very, very fast.

Sometimes when we have a week-off after touring, we just crash in our beds and we don’t have the energy to do anything else; it requires a lot of energy and organisation from us to be finishing things. So for this EP we need to finish a few things, it will be out soon.

In 2011 you became part of the Roadrunner family, it must have felt like an achievement for you guys.

It is.We had been talking to them for six years before we got signed; I guess we and them were waiting for the right moment to happen. We were on another label, Listenable Records, and we have always respected Laurent (Merle), the owner, to death. He is a great guy, he used to be an English teacher and he gave all that away to follow his passion. We worked with him for four albums, the fact that it happened when it happened has to be for a reason. There are lots of other changes that happened within the band: new management, new crew… For some reason in 2012 the stars aligned in a strange way and it has been great. I was very surprised to see how dedicated people at Roadrunner are, I thought it was more corporate, cold people!

Your last album, L’Enfant Sauvage has been out since June, it’s still a baby. And I liked your comments on it, “it’s Gojira but heavier and wiser.”

It’s a beautiful baby, it’s growing very fast and it’s teething now, soon it will bite very strong.We conceived and created the songs but it’s on the road that it’s coming to life. It’s a strange way we give it to people now: these are all your songs, take them! These songs are going through us to people; it’s not us that composed the songs, it’s an energy, and we make ourselves available and make the time to capture this energy. I do not make any particular effort, I did not study, I am just here and we channel this energy.

Tonight it’s a French full house with Trepalion and Klone..

They are like us. “We are just a bunch of rednecks from France!” Sometimes I say this loud on stage! We have a lot in common, when you come from the countryside, you have to be a bit stronger and gather yourself together more than if you were living in the city. And you have lots of examples to follow and it shows every night. Trepalion, the first band that is going to play tonight, is one of my favourite death metal bands on the planet, they are amazing! You can tell they have been touring a lot by the way they talk to the audience. Klone is also a very good band, amazing musicians; Trepalion and Klone are very different, I really believe in these guys!

Issue 12/2012

Rise Up!

by Marcus J. West - Photo Fabiola Santini Since their memorable performance at Bloodstock Open Air this summer, fans have demanded that thrash veterans Testament come back to the UK with their own headline show; it’s no surprise then that when the tour was announced, the adrenaline and anticipation started flowing. From The Koko in London, this is what guitarist Alex Skolnick shares while getting ready for their headline show.

I would like to start by going back to your stunning performance at Bloodstock Opem Air this summer: you were one of the most wanted bands of the festival, how did it go?

It was a bit hectic for us considering that we just got in that day; we were running on a very tight schedule and we did not get to check our equipment. We were happy that there were no major mishaps and the crowd was amazing! I think though that we were so focused and concerned with the equipment running properly that we did not have time to take it in. Afterwards, when we heard the response, it was great!

I also saw you live at Wacken Open Air. Wacken was almost the beginning of us playing the new songs, we only played them at a couple of gigs before. By that point, the new songs felt very natural and the crowd was reacting to the songs as if they knew them well, as if the last album, Dark Roots of Earth, had been out for a year!

Eric (Peterson, guitarist) last March mentioned that the song Rise Up would be ideal to start the upcoming shows with. The response of the audience to Rise Up has been amazing! Dark Roots of Earth is an amazing album.

Yeah, it’s amazing how the new songs do not feel forced at all. When we did The Formation of Damnation in 2008, we did not get used to the songs that much; there was a period when this current line-up hadn’t existed for a while. We were still defining ourselves, we were very comfortable with the new songs, but there was this new challenge that came with the new songs. With Dark Roots of Earth, as soon as the songs came in the set, that was it. It was like we have always been playing them. And now it would be very strange not to play them, which is a good thing.

I found the energy level on Dark Roots of Earth to be very intense. Was this album easy to conceive?

I would not say it was easy to conceive, we were very committed. We knew we had to do the album, it was a big goal for us. There were a lot of live writing sessions between myself and Eric; that helped us getting the right focus, we were able to envision the songs better. And then we gave them to Chuck (Billy, vocalist). There have been a couple of tracks that Chuck did not respond to, but then when he responded to the ones he did, it was great. There was one song that did not get recorded that Eric and I really liked, hopefully it will find its way as a bonus track or something. It has great harmonies and great solos; it’s a classic Testament song, but Chuck wasn’t feeling that one. With Native Blood the riffs were good but we thought they were not necessarily the most strong ones, but Chuck really got that and came out with this amazing vocal part and that became the song it is. Chuck wanted to write a song about his native heritage and he felt it on this song.

Another song that caught my attention on Dark Roots of Earth was True American Hate. It sounds like a particular angry song. Was it written against a particular matter?

I did not write the lyrics but I think this song is open to interpretations. It’s a song about the criticism of hate, based on nationalism. It goes both ways, we have met lots of people from the middle east that were some of the nicest people. I actually produced a band from Iraq called Accrasicauda..

Interesting, I will definitely check them out.

These are really amazing guys. But in the USA you have these extreme TV channels, one in particular is called Fox News, which runs very one sided political coverage. They show people protesting and burning American flags and they create this image that some people hate America. Maybe some do, but it’s not the majority; there are always going to be extremists. People buy into this image, but it’s a very distorted view. People are fed lots of misinformation that makes them angry, this can be taken as American hate as well, but it’s all manipulated. If you could put the average middle eastern person and the average American person in the same room, they would probably get along just fine.

I agree. But how did you find out about this band from Iraq?

I saw a movie about them called Heavy Metal In Baghdad, an independent movie that won a bunch of awards. The company that did the movie, Vice Media (which is also an indie rock label), is from Brooklyn where I live. I started helping them with promoting the movie as I realised not lot of people knew about the band and I really liked them. At the time, the guys were refugees in Turkey where Testament played at a festival; the guys came to the show and I got to know them. It looks like now they are going to be relocated in the US and will do some tour dates.

Going back to Dark Roots of Earth, there is one song that is very different from the others, Cold Embrace.

Eric had those parts for a while. We have worked on them musically for a while since the making of Formation of Damnation. Back then though, we decided that we were not ready to do a slow tune yet. It was the first album in a long time, with Formation of Damnation, where there was something to prove; even if we thought it was a good song, we thought that people were not ready for it yet. We had so many good, fast songs that we decided to keep it a solid, fast album. Following that, it made perfect sense to have a slow tune, even if we always have to push Chuck a little bit with slow tunes! He does not want to feel anything that is not strong enough, this time he got inspired.

Is there any chance we would see Cold Embrace live?

I think there is definitely a chance, but not yet. For now, the slowest song we play is the title track of the new album. Dark Roots of Earth, even if is not a power ballad, is quite a slow tune; it lets the show breathe.

How hard was it for you guys to put together the set list for this tour?

It is hard. There are certain songs that the fans want to hear, they would riot if we did not play them. We always have to think about a good opener, in this case Rise Up is perfect as it opens the album and we are promoting the album.

Issue 12/2012

The Event of the Year 2012, according to those who voted the winners at the Classic Rock Awards, is one that is bound to change the Music Industry – or maybe to bring it back to what it was meant to be, before the word ‘Industry’ became sadly predominant between the two. Ginger Wildheart and Gav McCaughey - long time manager and friend stand proud holding the golden statue. The story – if you haven’t heard it yet: Ginger asks his fans for 30k via Direct-to-Fan platform Pledge to record a new album; it takes him just 6 hours to reach his target, and fans keep pledging. When triple album 555% is released, the campaign has attracted funds of over 250k.

The man in the suit was never a fan of Ginger’s eclectic, independent spirit; he used to reciprocate that feeling sometime in not very orthodox ways, which didn’t really do him any favours over the years from a practical and financial point of view.

However it was that fierce attitude, together with his unquestionable talent, that contributed to build him a strong fan base most artists can only dream of, both in terms of loyalty and numbers.

What those amazing fans may not have realized as they pledged their money and trust, was that they were not only helping create new music, but also saving this world from losing such a prolific, gifted songwriter, as Ginger was disillusioned on the verge of retirement; that, of course, before he realised the potential of that gift in our strange era and how much it meant to so many people. Before the Pledge.

Congratulations to you and your fans!

Thank you, yes, especially the fans! Gav worked hard for this but the fans came to our rescue and this is their victory. I’ve always valued the fans but until now they’ve never really saved my life and put food on the table for my family, so now I not only value my fans, I’m in debt with them; you won’t hear many saying that, they may say it but don’t mean it, but I actually do: I’m in debt with my fans. I am grateful and determined to spend the rest of my life paying them back with quality stuff.

Aside from the financial part, emotionally you’ve been going through a bit of a dark phase recently…

I was gonna quit! …how did the fans’ answer to your pledge help, how did it feel knowing that they cared this much?

It’s like having a heart transplant! It’s really that big, it has changed everything in my life, my fortunes have completely been rearranged by those lovely crazy people out there! There’s not a word to describe how it feels… It’s miraculous.

(Gav) That was a word, wasn’t it? (laughs) Yes, miraculous! (laughs) Would you have ever thought when you were still having problems with labels and the industry that it would come to this?

Of course not! Initially I wanted to ask for 20k and Gav suggested doing it 30k, and that meant we could pay Pledge and spend 20k on the album. ’30 grand?!?’ I said, ‘what are you talking about, we’ve never gonna make 30 grand!’… and quarter of a million later, I was wrong and he was right!

So if it came to this point, we cut off the middle

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Sonic Shocks

man and it’s all between the artist and the fans now, could this industry crisis be a blessing in disguise?

(Gav): I think it’s a levelled playfield now, people are taking notice, and I think there are things that still can be done. It’s anyone’s game, what we achieved we achieved with just us, we had no backing, no one really taking us seriously or thinking this was going to be a big thing; the fans made it a big thing, then it snowballed but it wasn’t until 8 months later that there was a huge story.

But it showed that if you have a good fan base, if you built it up, you can take control and you can put out whatever you want to put out and not worry about someone in a suit who maybe doesn’t get your music.

So if the labels are saying no to something that fans would happily pay for, has the man in the suit lost sight of what fans want? (back to Ginger) The labels lost sight of what the fans want a long long time ago and they’re finally paying for it. The labels got greedy, and stayed greedy for far too long, and people are tired of being force-fed substandard stuff. But if the labels act as a filter, which they are supposed to do, they get to choose what you listen to, you know, I’m not gonna name any names but there’s a lot of bands out there that aren’t as good, big bands that are not as good as some of the small bands you like, and that’s the label decision: they tell you that this is gonna be big and this is gonna get money, and the other bands they can just struggle, they don’t give them any money; now – like Gav said – it’s a levelled playing field, it’s up to the fans who have the choice, not the label.

Are the labels going to disappear then?

I think we’ll always need labels…

(Gav) Good labels! There are lazy labels out there, but also good ones. I think there will still be a place for good labels, as new bands still need that kind of financial support to go on a tour and start building a fan base.

Having the freedom to really record whatever you want with the fans support, what’s the strangest album we can expect from Ginger?

Well, we’re doing a couple of strange albums right now with the new Pledge campaign. We have a project called ‘Mutation’, which is co-run with another project called ‘Hey Hello’ which is a bit more palatable, a bit more commercial; ‘Mutation’ is the opposite: heavy, noisy, very un-commercial, it would never get funded by a record label and it’s up to the fans if they like it or not. And they do, they want something extreme that wouldn’t have necessarily a market.

(Gav) No label in their right mind would see that as a sensible business. In fact, it’s NOT a sensible business! (laughs) So yes, we’re getting funded to do some strange stuff already and I have plenty of other ideas, some of them even stranger… but I won’t go into details!

What’s one record you found particularly difficult to get digested by the labels back in the days?

The Wildhearts’ second album, PHUQ. We recorded it as a double album, but they decided they didn’t want a double, was too hard to market, so they stripped it, kept the short songs, made a sin-

gle album and gave us the long songs, which we released ourselves to the fans and got fantastic reviews on all the magazines. So they said ‘Well, can we have the songs back?’ ‘No. You can BUY them back’ – and we sold the record label their own songs! They had the control and we could not release that as a double album; that was the first time I was bitten in the arse by a record company.

And it would happen times and times again, but this is when I said ‘Nah, this is not gonna work out for me’.

Getting them to buy their own songs back, was that a sound business decision or just sweet revenge?

Oh, that’d be revenge! We were doing well at the time, we didn’t care about the money, we just wanted to make a statement: you took your eye off the prize, and you’ve lost. And now you want it back? You’re gonna have to pay!

It’s nearly your birthday; in 20 years from now, how will you remember this year?

This was the year when everything changed and turned in my favour! Gav was instrumental in helping this along, I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him; this is the year I will remember it went from shit to really good, and hopefully will stay like that for another 20 years!

(A question for Gav): I heard lots of rumours around in the past on how impossible it was working with Ginger…

Gav: I’m still here! (laughs) We’ve been working together in various forms for a rather long time now and we seem to be a good fit for each other, it seems to work.

You’re reuniting The Wildhearts this year for your traditional birthday gig…Is it a one off?

We don’t know, let’s get through it first and if we’re all still smiling and shaking hands by the end, then maybe not.

What’s the line up?

Me, CJ, Rich and Jon Poole.

Last message for your fans: Thank you. Thank you for getting behind us, for supporting us all of these years, thank you for still being there, I promise we won’t let you down!

Any message for those who didn’t support you?

Fuck you!! (laughs) Before going on print, we spot a Wildhearts gig listed on SeeTickets for April 2013. A mistake or a sign rehearsal is going well so far? We hope the latter. By the time you’ll be reading this, maybe you’ll know more than we do straight from the horse’s mouth – or from The Wildhearts website and FB page. We can only hope, also considering that 2013 will mark the 20th anniversary of Earth vs The Wildhearts, the band’s glorious debut album released in 1993.

For now, the appointment is for December 17th at London HMV Forum; keep an eye on smiles and handshakes at the end of it!

Pledges for Ginger’s Mutation and Hey! Hello! projects are still open, get yourself a slice on http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/gingerwildheartmutation

Intervie w by C ristina Photo Massei Mark G uthrie

Who is Melissa James in three words?

A singer, songwriter and performer Tell me how you got into singing and into jazz.

I always sang as a child, around the house with hair brush in hand but I never took the idea of singing professionally seriously because it was never deemed a sensible career by my parents. It was a secret dream I harboured for a long time and I began to do it more while I was at university. I'd sing in the bar on campus on a Sunday night and it became a regular thing that I'd look forward to doing each week. At that time I was singing blues and jazz standards because friends that I hung out with would introduce me to what they were listening to. A friend of mine gave me a tape of Billie Holiday songs which I loved and then I started listening to Bessie Smith, later Nina Simone. Now my own writing – while it might have jazz inflections – is not exclusively jazz. It draws on other influences too – folk, country, blues and then

of course a lot of people say it's very mostly I express the need to combat fears and soulful. weaknesses; to pursue what you believe you should in spite of adversity and difficulties.

Where do you get inspiration for When I write songs which communicate this your music? I draw inspiration message I'm very much speaking to myself. from a number of things – from It's easy to write songs like this when you're music that I listen to, from new feeling positive – the hard thing is to pay ateveryday experiences, from past tention to the words when you’re feeling less experiences. My writing can be courageous. I find it hard to express the exquite reflective. Certainly a lot of periences of others or to write politically. I the songs on Day Dawns see me don’t want to be preachy. I’d like to turn the looking back and drawing from stories of others into songs but whenever I things that have happened, or think about doing that I worry that what I which I've been through, in the write sounds insincere. past. It was my time of processing past happenings which can be Can you describe your first time on stage, butvery therapeutic. I try not to think terflies and all? I was about 16 when I first too hard about what I'm going to performed in front of others. It was at school write about. Sometimes I can be and I'd asked if I could perform in an asseminspired by an idea but sometimes bly. I sang “Get Here” by Oleta Adams and thoughts and ideas seem to float I was incredibly nervous. I did get through into my consciousness. And then it though and was glad I did but the anxiety there are times when I hear or see was immense. Thankfully I don't get quite something that I think would make that anxious now. I feel the butterflies and a great song title. I’m often jotting the excitement but it's not so overwhelming down, or recording, ideas, that I that I feel ill. think could later be used somehow.

On a live show, what colour of light would you Who are your main influences? Mu- choose to better suit the vibe of your music? sically, I love the work of Amos Lee, Aretha Pinks and greens are great colours which Franklin, Nina Simone, Lizz Wright, Ray La- would suit me on stage, giving the right vibe montagne, Joni Mitchell, Natalie Merchant for my music.

– I could go on. They've probably all played a part in influencing my writing and sound Having to choose, would you rather keep comsomehow I think. When you're listening a plete artistic freedom and hold on to your day lot to a particular type of music or artist, it's job, or compromise for the chance to do music bound to affect you in some way. for a living? There are always compromises but for me holding onto artistic integrity Can you play any instrument other than your overrides everything. There’s a reason I’ve voice? I play a little guitar but put stress on chosen this path and it’s because I’ve tried the word “little”. My voice is my greatest as- working other jobs and I felt music kept callset. I want to use the guitar more and I'm ing me back to it. I’d walked away from music always thinking of other instruments I'd love several times but I’d always end up returning to play but I try not to put pressure on my- to it. This time, I think I’m finally accepting self over it. I think the power of the voice is that music has to be a large part of my life. In amazing and I am really glad that I have the the past, when my life has been dominated ability to use it musically in the way I do. by other work, I’ve been miserable. I think I owe it to myself to do the thing that moves What feeling do you mostly express in your me most – we all do. It’s better for us as inmusic and which one do you find the hard- dividuals and when we do the thing that we est to express? That's interesting. I think love it means we then have something to give

and share with others. That is, I think, one of the key purposes of living.

What do you listen to in your spare time?

I’m listening to Johnny Cash quite a bit at the moment. I always love listening to Amos Lee. Eric Bibb is another firm favourite, as it Lizz Wright. Sometimes Aretha’s Jazz to Soul album just has to be played. I love Paul Carrack’s latest record. And Gillian Welch, Tom Waits and I’m learning more about Nick Drake too.

You have a CD out, where can we find it? Or for the tech types, where can we download it from? The CD is available to buy from Bandcamp (http://melissajames.bandcamp.com), Amazon and you can purchase downloads via Amazon too. It is also available for download via itunes. Links to all these pages are available via the “Store” on the my website: http://www.melissa-james.com What’s the best situation to listen to it in the background? Any. In the car, while having dinner, relaxing in the bath, over a glass of wine with friends.

If I had to choose a drink to enjoy with it, what would it be? Well, my favourite tipple is a glass of red wine so I would say that.

What was your best and worst moment of 2012? Best moment was receiving boxes of my CDs, opening the first box and then seeing the CDs in their glory after weeks of working with the designer on the artwork.

It was an unforgettable time. I actually can’t think of many bad moments this year. There have definitely been times that have been tougher than others but I can’t, right now, think of what they are. I rarely see things as “bad” but instead just as experiences – things that have happened that I’ve had to learn from. In the end, it’s all good and a necessary part of growing and learning.

What do you hope 2013 will bring for Melissa James? More awareness from others of my music. More gigs across the UK and abroad.

I really want to take the album on the road to get it heard to grow my fan base. That’s the aim.

Sonic Shocks

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Issue 12/2012

THE HAIRSPRAY CORNER

An interview with Bruce Dickinson by Dan Balchin

photo by Ben Westwood

Burlesque!

ent, don’t expect an thing less than decadent debauchery and rampant frivolity at one of the capitals most controversial night spots. Guaranteed to burn a hole in your pocket - for all the right reasons - give yourself a gift with a difference: entry to the club favoured by Prince Harry et al! If not at Christmas then when?

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You are well famed as a talented musician, when was the first time you got your hands on an instrument?

You’re very kind! But I’m not a natural talent - I worked hard on playing guitar, from the age of 14 to 25 I played many hours a day and despite that I am fairly limited as a player. My style is fairly primitive, I suppose by design, but when I play I do give it everything I have got. My first guitar was an SG copy that I bought second hand from the proceeds of my paper round.

Did you grow up in a musical household and how much influence were your parents on you? And equally, how encouraging were they of your pursuits in music?

Yes - my Dad is a very good musician and the biggest influence was my parent’s record collection. Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Buddy Holly, Everly Brothers and all that great stuff. They were very supportive and encouraging, but I think concerned when the guitar became an all consuming obsession.

I remember refusing to wash up as I said it made my finger ends soft. I probably should have had a slap for that!

Was it a help or hindrance having a sibling who was a budding musician also?

Music was always just around and it was just what you did, so it wasn’t discussed really. Jim joined the band when he was 15 and it was all good musically - but we did argue a lot. Jim found some good records and was very influenced by guitar players as opposed to keyboard players. I think we have both instinctively been drawn to artists who are the real thing, who play and write with personality. We both played in the school big band, and the conductor, Tony Turner, made room for us – Jim was doing Jan hammer keyboard solos and I was dive bombing with a Floyd rose tremolo – not ideal in a Glen Miller medley … He must have been very understanding.

What artists would you cite as the reason you decided to join a band?

Clapton’s Beano album - still to this day a staggering guitar performance and tone. And here I am in 2012 with the more or less the same guitar rig that he used in 1965.

What were the early days like for Little Angels, moving through the unsigned scene?

Very different to today. You made your name by playing live and we just got on with doing as many gigs as we could. It was a great time and it never occurred to us that we wouldn’t make it - we were powered by naivety and self belief. We would always find ways round problems and beg or borrow money to record and make records, paying people back when we sold them at gigs and in indie record shops. Kevin Nixon signed us to a label in York called PowerStation and went on to manage us and between us we had enough energy and experience to make a plan that kept us moving forward. It always seemed like the band grew a bit more every day. Kevin and Toby fell out at some point and it’s sad that I haven’t been able to bring them together on this reunion.

How important was it for you to be directly involved with the writing of songs?

It was always the song first, so if my contribution made a song better then great, but if Toby or anyone else wrote a strong tune I’d be happy to go with that.

At what point in the early days of Little Angels did you feel as if you had ‘made it’?

You never feel like that, as in the music business nothing is ever good enough, or likely to last! I remember calling Kevin Nixon, who went on to manage Kula Shaker, to congratulate them on a number two single with ‘hush’ and the atmosphere was like a morgue, as of course the mid week was number one. That sums it up really, in retrospect them being disappointed with a top 5 hit is a bit mad. If you do get a number one, as Angels did in ’93, how do you top that next time? The industry immediately assumes you’ve peaked. And then of course one day it is all over….but despite the pressure to hang in there, being in a band in your early 20’s as just as amazing as you might imagine it to be. What

a way to grow up. Everything I hold dear in my life has come from that band, my family, friends and subsequent careers would never have happened.

Being Guildford born and bred, can you tell me a little bit about how the inner sleeves for ‘Too Posh For Mosh’ ended up including the Worplesdon Road Cafe ‘fry up’ and Toby Jepson ‘arms wide open’ shot outside? Surely a plaque on the wall is deserved now?

We used to rehearse on the National Trust land near the river there, and go to the Woodbridge café for beans on toast … Lee Anderton in Anderton’s music shop used to sell us our strings and stuff, and we lived down the road for a few years. Jim and I ended up staying there for ten years…

After the final Little Angels gig back in the day, was it your expectation that you’d ever share the stage again as ‘Little Angels’ with the guys?

No In fact I am on record as saying it ‘wouldn’t happen in a million years’.

Just goes to show you should never say never!

Where were you when you received the call that a reunion was on the cards?

Andy Copping kept asking us if we’d reform for Download and after Mike Lee tragically died and we met up at his funeral for the first time since the Albert Hall in 94, we all thought that life is too short not to get together one more time.

Had it been discussed in the past, but never come to fruition?

Not really. Maybe the idea was floated

by Mark Plunk 12 months previously.

How important was securing the Download Festival slot in both the reunion of the band and the decision to get everyone back involved?

Andy’s support was crucial as he believed some people would remember the band and care enough to come and see us. After 20 years you have no idea if anyone would remember.

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the Wedgewood Rooms show – did you expect it to be a sell out? How did it feel to get such a reaction from the fans?

I don’t take a single ticket sale, cheer or hand clap for granted. I think is such an amazing thing that people still remember and those songs still mean a lot to both band and audience after all this time. It’s quite emotional, especially with Mike Lee not being here anymore.

I can’t dwell too much on that as it still has me in bits if I do – it’s just too crazy that he’s not here.

And you’re doing a second run of dates for winter 2012?

Yes, not long to go now. I have been rehearsing with Dom Greensmith from REEF who is stepping for Mark Rich.

Mark is out with Skunk. Looking forward to playing again!

Your ‘Fish’ Les Paul did the rounds with a number of great guitarists. How important was it for you to get in back ahead of the 2012 tour dates?

Well I have three main Les Pauls all with different characters. The black one (a 78 custom) has maple neck so it is very aggressive. I didn’t play guitar or even own one for maybe 13 years or so; so it was weird opening that case up again and seeing Blackfish after all this time. I have patched it up - showing signs of the beating it’s had over the

years. The frets can just fall out and have to be hammered back in. It’s like keeping classic car going, and intonation needs daily adjustments. But I couldn’t play a PRS or something, as perfect as they can be, I don’t want perfect - I want character.

What’s the story behind its design?

It’s a 78 custom; the finish is thin and old and falls off, Charles Cutforth the artist, scratched in the design over a dink one night in about 1990. It has no tone pots, and recently has had Bareknuckle picks added, which have been astoundingly good. So it sounds better than ever. The pick in bridge is a black dog which is dark and middle heavy, and a riff raff in bridge. On the BNK website there are a couple of videos of me demoing them.

It is relatively well known that you are quite the avid guitar collector. If you had to choose one perfect setup - one guitar, one pedal; one amp – what would it be and why?

I am not a collector per se. I buy them to play and I search for great wood and tone, I tend to buy 70’s guitars because they are generally so much better than new ones. I take all the finish off and bang massive frets into them, flatten the neck radius and remove all tone pots. So I reduce the value of the guitar massively and they are not much use to other guitar players after my ‘modifications’. I don’t care for effects and could happily do a gig with the classic 60’s/70’s set up of a Marshall JTM 45 and a Les Paul. If I could have a treble booster to kick the map a bit even better, and a cry baby wah would be a luxury.

My favourite amp is a custom made one for me called the’ Iron Horse ’by valve Sonics – Its half a vox and half a vintage Marshall- it has just one volume pot and nothing else. It’s magic!

What are your biggest gripes with today’s music industry?

There’s no pint griping – you just gotta go out there and make the best of opportunities that come your way and make your own luck. Positive thinking will make things happen.

And finally, it’s perhaps less well known that you covered The Rolling Stones classic ‘Gimme Shelter’. So, did you attend the O2 gig?

I didn’t go - I went to see Andy FairWeather Lowe that night (incredible) but good luck and love to the ‘Stones, I owe them a lot.

Where can fans and readers of Sonic Shocks find out more about you and your projects online?

On the Little Angels website probably - but don’t expect too much from me next year. I got to go fishing, all this guitar playing has been a distraction!

I hope to catch a few more bass next year. BXX

Sonic Shocks

Issue 12/2012

Page 15

Matthew Tilt presents

THE 2012 SONIC MOVIE AWARDS

The Top 5 was always going to cause controversy (as will the Worst 5 if there are any die hard Adam Sandler fans in the audience) because five choices means that someone’s favourite film is going to be left out, especially in a year that includes The Dark Knight Rises, Avengers Assemble and The Master. The elephant in the room is TDKR, which everyone raved about on release, and its absence from the list; of course it was an amazing film but as it hurtled towards the finale it lacked focus, offered up some rather disappointing character ends and pandered to the fanboys a little too much causing a nasty clash in themes; The Master, on the other hand, probably could have took a spot but it’s technically perfect approach loses out to the warm, funny, meta-assualt of The Cabin in the Woods. Enough explaining; enjoy and debate.

THE TOP 5 1.Amour A gut wrenching film about the effects of a deteriorating illness on an elderly couple that stands tall amongst Michael Haneke’s masterful filmography.

2.Skyfall An exciting, self-referencing Bond film that wipes Quantum of Solace from the mind and pits 007 against one of his most intimidating and motivated antagonists.

3.Room 237 Delving into the depths of Kubrick’s The Shining; Rodney Ascher’s documentary never gives you all the answers but instead opens the door for your own questions.

4.The Cabin in the Woods Carefully tiptoeing the Meta line to satire the horror genre whilst staying fresh, unassuming and avoiding the sequel baiting ending to create a one off gem.

5.Avengers Assemble An incredible achievement that brings a vast amount of characters together with passion and humour, more than making up for the odd mediocre entry in the series.

THE WORST 5 1.JACK AND JILL Offensive in its unoriginality, laziness and use of Al Pacino; Adam Sandler can’t even raise a snigger now.

2.WANDERLUST The ‘Aniston Curse’ speeds up Paul Rudd’s decline in a film that contains less laughs than Martha Marcy May Marlene.

3.GHOSTRIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE Pointless sequel that offers nothing except the increasingly frequent chance to watch Nicolas Cage gurn for two hours 4.BATTLESHIP Transformers at sea; complete with a dodgy script, T & A and obnoxious, unlikable performances.

5.AMERICAN REUNION Nothing more than a lazy excuse to give the less successful members of the original money for food; like celluloid benefits.

2012 SONIC AWARDS Best Actor Jean-Louis Trintignant Amour Best Actress Emmanuelle Riva Amour Worst Actor Logan Marshall Green Prometheus Worst Actress Adam Sandler Jack and Jill

Best Director Michael Haneke Amour Worst Director Peter Berg Fanboy Achievement Award Joss Whedon Best Soundtrack in an otherwise Awful Film Battleship

Most Overhyped Film Prometheus Most Underused Actor Liam Neeson about 5 minutes in Battleship Most Anti-Climatic End Bane The Dark Knight Rises Most Blatant Attempt to be near an Oscar Albert Nobbs

Best Fight Batman Vs. Bane (Round 1) The Dark Knight Rises Most Surprising Film The Hunger Games Best Cameo Johnny Depp 21 Jump Street The “Doing a Walken” Award* Al Pacino

*Doing a Walken - celebrating an actor who takes on any role regardless of quality or possible damage to reputation

2013 PREVIEW

GANGSTER SQUAD (11th January) Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less) brings together an incredible cast to adapt the true story of the LAPD’s drastic measures to take down Mickey Cohen.

Sean Penn plays the aforementioned gangster while Ryan Gosling and Josh Brolin are two of the officers lumbered with the task and Emma Stone pops up as Gosling’s love interest.

Expect gorgeous period settings, tommy guns and some scenery chewing from Mr Penn as Paul Lieberman’s true crime novel is brought to the screen.

LINCOLN (25th January) While Spielberg will no doubt bookend this with his usual sentimental pap, there’s no doubt that the idea of Daniel Day Lewis taking on America’s most famous President is an interesting one.

Concentrating on the later years of his Presidency, as he battles with Civil War and slavery, there’s certainly isn’t a lack of dramatic bite to the story.

Supported by an outstanding ensemble (including Sally Field and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) this looks to be a film that can live up to the hype and perch Spielberg back on the top spot.

HITCHCOCK (8th February) Very much in vogue, with the release of The Girl on satellite this year, Hitchcock comes to the big screen in February.

Starring Anthony Hopkins, who has the big man’s mannerisms down judging by the trailers, and Helen Mirren as his wife Alma, the film concentrates on the trails of making Psycho.

Co-starring Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh, director Sacha Gervasi and writer John J. McLaughlin look to have captured the dark humour and obsession of the man perfectly.

WRECK-IT RALPH (8th February) A brilliantly barmy idea as Ralph (John C. Reilly), the villain in the titular arcade game, decides to escape his game and travel across others in an attempt to become the hero.

Offering a varied selection of cameos from famous video game characters, and that’s only in the trailer, and some playful jabs at gaming this should be one of those animations that offers something for everyone as the parents remember their classic games and the kids enjoy the fast-paced story.

THIS IS 40 (14th February) A sideways sequel to Knocked Up as we forget Rogan and Heigl and concentrate on the two funniest characters, Pete and Debbie (Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann).

It’s great to see Judd Apatow go back to his most realistic and relatable characters as they approach the big 4-0, and continue to fight through the usual trials and tribulations of relationships.

Released on Valentine’s Day, this could be the perfect film if you like your rom-coms to be unconventional but still have that happy ending.

OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (8th March) A prequel to the Oz films we know and love, this looks to be Sam Raimi’s most ambitious film yet.

Starring James Franco as Oscar, an amoral magician who is pulled into a magical world by three witches (Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams) who are convinced he is the great wizard who can save Oz from the problems it faces.

Filled with Raimi’s mix of humour and action, with some deft references to his horror background, this is a visually astounding and ambitious picture.

...AND TWO OF THE WORST...

G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (27th March) After the critically panned original it’s frankly incredible that There hasn’t been a good entry in this slow, meandering series since anyone had the balls to pitch this idea, but money does talk louder Tobe Hooper’s seminal 1974 classic, and this doesn’t look like it will be than most. anything better.

Giving Dwayne Johnson a chance to look ripped until the next Fast Rehashing the original plot, under the guise of a belated sequel, but strip- and Furious film, and letting Michael Bay take a rest from inflicting ping it of the subtle chills for boring jump scares and gore, the only thing migraine inducing cinema on the world, this looks like the same this will massacre is the ever weakening reputation of the original. mindless twaddle that the first one consisted of.

If you want a horror reboot, check out the upcoming Carrie and Evil Of course this means it will do great; I mean we’re onto the forth Dead remakes, which at least seem to have captured the, albeit modernTransformers film so I guess this is what people like. ised, feel of the originals.

TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 3D (4th January)

Page 16

by Matthew Tilt With Batman Begins Christopher Nolan reinvented the superhero film; bringing them crashing down to an emotive, human level that had only ever been hinted at before. His ability to pay tribute to source material, with the help of his brother Jonathon, whilst simultaneously bringing a new, more adult, audience to superhero films has helped bring about the massive renaissance within the genre.

As a director Nolan regularly references his past films, bringing various actors and themes across his movies; Michael Caine has appeared in five so far, Christian Bale in four while Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard were brought over from Inception to continue fleshing out his Dark Knight saga. The ultimate in self-referencing was in The Prestige, in which he essentially plans out his Batman trilogy for the viewer.

The Prestige revolves around the nature of a magic trick. There’s the set-up (pledge), the performance (turn) and the prestige, or effect. In the film Cutter, played by Caine, explains that the in the pledge you should show the viewer something ordinary which in this case is Batman Begins. Yes it ranks above the average origin story, but that is what it is; for the most part it adheres completely to the rules where a somehow damaged man becomes extraordinary by necessity and circumstance. It also shows Nolan finding his feet, discovering the right mix of darkness after his lower budgeted, and more adult, priors.

The Dark Knight is the turn. The moment where Nolan took his ordinary object and made it his own, with the help of an incredible cast. Bale finally gets to grips with the Batman character, giving him a depth that lifts him above the figure of horror he was in the first film, while Heath Ledger brings a turn of his own, completely recreating the Joker. His performance is so far removed from the cackling villains of the past; here the Joker is a criminal, and a severely sociopathic one at that.

Some critics referenced Michael Mann’s Heat when reviewing The Dark Knight and it’s not hard to see why. Batman and the Joker are intricately linked. They are two sides of the same coin (something that Nolan overplays slightly with Aaron Eckhart’s Two-Face, the only weak point in this film). The chemistry between the two leads in electric and the cinematography is kinetic. The Dark Knight is the point where Nolan’s background in thrillers become coupled with the superhero film, the elements of organised crime and police work came to the forefront as for the first time Batman truly was a vigilante.

The prestige is the moment when you return to the original object. When you bring back the thing you briefly made disappear and Nolan stayed true to this with The Dark Knight Rises by returning to his franchises roots. While it could never match The Dark Knight as a film, it was a perfect end to the trilogy as everything came full circle. The return of Ra’s Al Ghul, in the shape of his daughter Talia, showed Batman face the final chapter in his own past. Her henchmen Bane was a continuation of the Joker, taking on similar ideals but with more planning and a physicality that could match his nemesis.

In returning to the original idea Nolan loses his grip over the ever expanding universe. The film is at its most gripping when Batman is in a seemingly unwinnable situation, before Marion Cotillard reveals herself to be Talia Al Ghul. In many ways it almost feels like Nolan would have preferred to kill the Bat, but buckles and gives us a happy ending but one that kills Bane off far too easily after nearly three hours of build-up and makes the Talia arc feel tacked on, much like the Two-Face arc before it. His fan-boy baiting reveal that John Blake’s (Gordon-Levitt) real name was Robin feels unnecessary, as does the ill-fitting sickly ending.

In comparison to other superhero franchises however, as a third instalment, The Dark Knight Rises shines.

Away from the self-referencing theme of the prestige, Nolan’s biggest achievement was bringing real people to the forefront of the mythology. Gary Oldman’s Jim Gordon finally becomes a fully-fledged character in the hands of Nolan. A character with his own moral compass who doesn’t just offer information to Batman but gets involved and even saves the hero once or twice. He’s a man who knows the difference between the right thing and the necessary thing and who will do his upmost to protect his family and the city he lives in. His arc is at its most impressive during ‘Rises where the newly appointed commissioner struggles to maintain the reputation of Gotham’s White Knight Harvey Dent after the events of the second film.

He’s the tired hero to match the tired villains of organised crime that dominate the first two films.

Yes, it’s the Scarecrow that takes top billing, but it’s Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone who offers the real dramatic bite. He’s a man made lazy by power, bragging to a pre-Batman Bruce Wayne that no one could stop him. It’s Carmine who creates the Batman and all the other villains appear from Batman’s existence, something Nolan is the first director to make clear.

After such a powerful trilogy, one with so few peers, it’s almost a disappointment to see that Nolan has chosen to stay with the DC universe for a little longer. As producer of the new Superman film he has promised the same style of gritty realism, but the question remains whether this could ever work with such a fantastical character. A talent like Nolan’s shouldn’t be typecast and chained within the superhero genre. In many ways he is the Kubrick of our generation; a dominating perfectionist who has so far left a mark on every genre he has touched. Should he, like Kubrick, move on after each film, or can he continue this streak? 2013 will tell, and film fans everywhere should wait with baited breath.

The Dark Knight Rises is out now on Bluray, DVD and Digital Download

Sonic Shocks

Issue 12/2012

LIFE OF PI:

BELIEVE this Christmas!

By Cristina Massei Don’t worry if you haven’t read the book; actually FORGET there’s a book and just get lost in the world and the Life of Pi – aka Piscine Patel – this Christmas, courtesy of director Ang Lee and his 3D masterpiece.

It is human nature to compare and criticize, debating what’s best – the book or the movie – but how do you compare the spectacle of a storm with that of a sunset? Sometimes, in the presence of beauty, you just have to sit back and let it in, no matter where it comes from. This is one of these cases, as Life of Pi – the movie – is an expression of beauty in itself, so poignant that will leave you dangerously open to emotions well after it’s over.

If the scenic beauty and the magnificence of 3D truly hit you when the Patel family hits its demise in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, it’s the beauty of the story and the pure yet explorative soul of young Pi that get to you straight from the start. The un-judgemental, genuinely curious way he approaches all religions and his view of God as one universal entity is something this world should quickly learn from. The ingenuous way he first approaches future unlikely companion Richard Parker – a ferocious Bengal Tiger – symbolizes the ability of seeing the good in people, which too many of us have sadly lost along the way; the firm, realistic educational move of his father, the heartbreaking but necessary clash with reality, and its acceptance that comes with adulthood.

As Pi is stranded on a lifeboat, his father’s lessons are his first, indispensable tool for survival; in the end, however, is his faith in God and in the good of people – and animals – resurfacing from his youth that prove crucial to the happy ending of this breathtaking story.

Now, as I’m hoping here to talk to many who haven’t yet read the book and I don’t like spoilers, I’ll keep the last part to myself; I would also advise to avoid in-depth synopsis of either the movie or the book. Please sit down, take a deep breath, free your mind and allow yourself to believe: it’s Christmas after all. I know they told you at some point that Santa did not exist – and I bet you were as pissed off as I was with that smug kid who passed the info on – but we still get the presents after all; does it really matter if they don’t come on a sleigh carried by flying reindeer?

Men can befriend tigers and sharks, and even other humans who might at a first glance seem hostile, because in a world that can hold so much beauty there must be some good in EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US. And we need to believe that. Ang Lee’s artistic work in this epic movie manages to show both the beauty in the world and that in our soul, and for this you need to watch it, just as much as your kids do. When you leave and your heart seem to explode, embrace the feeling and welcome back the faith age had taken away from you.

RICHARD PARKER NEEDS YOUR HELP… Feeling like doing something nice for this world this Christmas, or just stuck for that last present? Terrified of hitting the High Street and stressed by the online bombardment? Just fell in love with Richard Parker?

Get your mum/dad/uncle/friend/boss/lover/kid/whoever a Bengal tiger. Or/and a turtle, panda, bear, dolphin, orang-utan… a world-sized zoo! Many species are fighting for survival and WWF needs your help.

Adopting one of this creatures only costs £3 a month (or you can do a one off payment thing) and you get a certificate, updates and other stuff plus a lovely cuddly toy! If Royal Mail ain’t quick enough, you can download and print the certificate immediately and put that under the tree while the package arrives; and for those you love that are far from you this Christmas, you can have it delivered straight to their door!

Go to https://support.wwf.org.uk/ and get yourself one as well while you’re at it. I can’t wait to get my penguin… Merry Christmas everyone, and a beautiful 2013!

By Matthew Tilt In January 2013 Gangster Squad will hit cinemas.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and pulling together an incredible ensemble that includes Sean Penn and man of the moment Ryan Gosling, it promises to be a visceral and entertaining period piece about a group of police officers who were tasked with taking down Mickey Cohen.

Based on a series of articles (and now a book of the same name) by Paul Lieberman we took the opportunity to talk to the author about his experiences writing the piece and his time on the film.

What first attracted you to the story of the Gangster Squad and Mickey Cohen?

Well, the “Noir Era” is the period that defines Los Angeles. It is America’s city of sunshine, palm trees and self-invention and the home of the Hollywood image factories…yet also a place with a cynical worldview under that surface. As I describe that worldview in the book version of “Gangster Squad,” it’s the notion that truth is not found in the sunshine but in the shadows, and that justice is not obtained in a marble courthouse but in the back alleys.

This is not a worldview merely from some murky past or the dark films and detective novels of the 1930s and ‘40s. In 1995, I was at the L.A. courthouse when a jury delivered its verdict in the sensational murder trial of the American football star O.J. Simpson – the crowd outside cheered when it heard that he had been acquitted of killing his ex-wife. Most everyone no doubt was convinced he had stabbed her in a jealous

Issue 12/2012

Sonic Shocks

Page 17

an interview with Roger Tiegs, aka

Infernus

guitarist and founding member

London, November 27th 2012

by Marcus J. West - Photo Fabiola Santini The last time we saw Gorgoroth live here in London a year ago at The Underworld, you delivered another superb performance. What do you remember and treasure the most from Gorgoroth’s very first live show in 1994? Did you picture at a certain point while you were on that stage that you would have continued playing live and touring all over the world for nearly two decades?

I could of course not predict exactly how things would turn through the years with 40 line-up changes or so, etc etc. But I had an aim then that this was something I, in some way, was going to do for a very long time.

From your first show in your mother country back then to your most recent tour in South America, you have encountered so many audiences; what was the overall response to your shows? Do you think that in 2012 Gorgoroth and black metal are still strong attractors of both old and new fans?

I think so, yes. Through the years, I have seen at our shows a fairly good mix both of people our age and new kids that show interest in what we are doing. Latin America in general is quite exciting for me, I enjoy being and playing there. Most of the shows of our latest tour, I felt they went well; I had a good time most of the time. It’s difficult for me to pick out one of these shows as the particular show I enjoyed the most. Maybe the show in São Paulo (Brazil) when we performed with Autopsy. San José in Costa Rica was also good, it was the first show we ever did there.

Right before the South American tour started, Pest was asked to quit the band. What were the reasons behind this decision, which must have been quite hard considering that he had been involved with the band since 1995. Was his departure an amicable one?

The reason was given officially through our web page a day or two after the decision was made. It was difficult, considering the timing.

It was two weeks before the tour was about to start, a tour which had been planned for more than half a year, and it was also difficult due to the close personal relation between us. Nevertheless, it was a necessity and I believe both me and Pest are able to deal with the new situation in a constructive, mature manner. I believe I will be on friendly terms with him for the next 17 years as well. After all, this thing which happened ... it was just the end of a working relationship. There is no need to make it more dramatic than it actually was.

Hoest from Taake replaced him as a touring vocalist, I personally could not think of a better fit.

He fits in perfectly! I personally really enjoyrage. But the verdict was modern affirmation of the cynical view that the established justice system still is overmatched by the evil ways of man…

So understanding the actual Noir Era is crucial to understanding Los Angeles. Even so, I never guessed that there was a great story from that time that had never been told. There was one, however, and it fell into my lap, as they say, in a way I detail in the afterword to the book version of “Gangster Squad”: “Gangster Squad,” both the book and the film, began with a phone call twenty years ago. An article in the Los Angeles Times on July 26, 1992, reported on a controversy over sensitive information in the police department’s files – dirt, in essence, on politicians, celebrities and hoodlums. The unit keeping the files was known then as the Organized Crime Intelligence Division, OCID, but the article said it had its roots in the Intelligence Division formed in the early 1950s by the legendary Chief William H. Parker. Then the phone rang that morning and the voice on the other end – clearly of an older man -said that was wrong. The roots went back further, to just after World War II, and something called the Gangster Squad. When I asked how he knew, the caller paused and said, “Well, I was on it.”

Then next day I was in the San Gabriel Valley living room of long retired Sergeant John J. O’Mara going through his fitness reports from when he joined the LAPD in 1940. His wife Connie lurked a safe distance away by the kitchen, cooking a pot of chili for us but always listening in…worried about him getting into sensitive matters, for as he said, “We’d be indicted today for things we did every day then.”

How much did you know about the subject before you took on the project?

I knew of Mickey Cohen, of course – he and Bugsy Siegel were the two gangsters most associated with Los Angeles, both notorious showboats. But I had never heard of the Gangster Squad that pursued Mickey with a vengeance for 15 years, and with good reason. Another Los Angeles police unit of the era, a robbery trio known as The Hat Squad, had gotten a lot of attention over the years – its members were

ing touring with him and when I went through some of the tape recordings from the South American shows, I got confirmation I was right.

Hoest did a splendid job for the band.

The newest Gorgoroth member is Atterigner, who has become the permanent vocalist. He is originally from the band Triumfall which is signed to your record label, Forces Of Satan Records.

What was the criteria you used to select the next Gorgoroth vocalist?

As of now, Hoest is our live vocalist and Atterigner will be doing the vocals for the upcoming album. During the last years I have become more aware of the importance of getting along personally with the guys I am working with. These guys, just as Pest - as long as it lasted - I will be able to co-operate with due to the their personal characteristics in combination with their abilities to do vocal duties according to my liking.

Instinctus Bestialis will be Gorgoroth’s eleventh studio album: how would you describe the mood of the band as you get ready for this next big step?

With the only exception that one of the guys is going through some major challenges at the moment, the mood of the band is better than ever. It’s been continuously super since 2007.

With the recording of Incipit Satan in 1999, Gorgoroth began journeying into new territories such as industrial and noise, yet still retaining a traditional black metal edge and the Gorgoroth signature sound. Have you been exploring those territories again for Instinctus Bestialis?

The new album will speak for itself when it has been released. I think it sounds a bit boorish when an "artist" talks about a yet to be presented piece of work. Instinctus Bestialis is close to being finished. All the music has been written and about half of the tracks have finally been arranged. We are looking at starting to record maybe as soon as March 2013. When that has been done, people can judge it for themselves.

You have always refused to publish your lyrics: what is the reason behind this choice and will you have the same approach for Instinctus Bestialis?

Why should we not have the same approach with the next album? Should we facilitate

good self-promoters. The Gangster Squad had remained virtually invisible, in contrast, because that’s the way it was set up, to operate as if it didn’t exist. Some of the men, particularly the original bugging expert Conwell Keeler, embraced almost the same code of silence as the mob, omerta. Indeed, after I began my own mission of tracking down old squad members, he refused to talk to me for a decade. A series of visits, notes and knocks on his door produced only one curt response. “We had a job to do and we did it. Those are, how do you say, bodies that are buried.” But eventually he shared his secrets too.

The Gangster Squad itself was not the only element that had been lost to history. The killing that climaxes the story, of the rising hoodlum Jack “The Enforcer” Whalen, also had never been explored. It was a footnote, at best, in accounts of Mickey’s rise and fall. I was intent on bringing “The Enforcer” to life too, the gangster with movie star looks – and a fledgling career as a TV cowboy – who fancied himself so tough he didn’t need a gun…

You spent a long time interviewing surviving witnesses and family members for the article (and the book), did you realise it would take you so long to accumulate the necessary stories?

It’s a nonfiction book, not a novel, though many of the stories may seem like the stuff of fiction – for instance how the squad planted a bug right in Mickey’s television set.

I often spend years tracking a subject. I also did it, for instance, in investigating a hospital worker who killed dozens of patients with lethal injections. I am very patient. In exploring the Gangster Squad, I really wanted to find the men dining with Mickey Cohen the night Jack “The Enforcer” was shot between the eyes…and I eventually did track down the two of them still alive. I also wanted to unearth the background of Jack “The Enforcer” and it took a long time to locate surviving relatives who would help me. It also took the help of three researchers to unearth thousands of pages of documents to check – and flesh out – the amazing stories some of these people told. One of the main cops,

someone doing a cover version of it and performing it at the local pub? I don't think so.

Your third album, Under the Sign of Hell saw a new release in 2011, followed by a worldwide tour: what made you decide to bring back to life such a masterpiece after 14 years?

There are many reasons behind this decision. I am aware that this is not going to be a proper answer to your question, anyway: There were many reasons and I had this idea in mind for at least ten years. After we finished Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt (2009), I realised we had time available and a studio which is available at all times. The guys also wanted to do it, so I thought it would be better to keep more busy working on two projects simultaneously than hanging around with the local metal morons or doing other things.

Let’s talk about the name dispute.

Why? We all know it was the seventh bass player and the third vocalist who tried to steal the name.

I won, they lost. That's it.

Now that is over and you own the name Gorgoroth, do you feel that your former bandmates Gaahl and King ov Hell will be out of your picture for good?

This is going to be a very short answer and I really hope I will not have to make myself clear on this matter again: I will never work ever again with any of those two people.

Will we ever see Gorgoroth and God Seed touring together?

You will never see that happening.

Any anticipation on Gorgoroth forthcoming tour?

We are now looking at doing some eight shows

in South East Asia in February, this is where the full focus is as of now. We have never toured Asia before and this is really exciting for us. So far it looks like we have hooked up with professional people, so we are going to give it a try.

A great way to start 2013.

Yes, it sounds like fun indeed! I just spoke to a couple of our security guys, and they can't wait to get out of here. There will be hell damnation!

How are you getting ready for this tour?

Since I have always been handling the managing side myself and still insist upon doing so, there is a lot of paperwork to get through. These are boring things to talk about, nevertheless things which must be done. Technical issues and formalities taken care of in co-operation with the promoters, booking agencies etc.

It must be hard work to follow both the creative and managerial side of a band.

It’s not hard work, it’s about being a bit structured and showing some reasonable amount of common sense. And to be able to learn from the past and to pick the right co-operation partners.

How do you see then Gorgoroth from 2013 going forward?

There is no need of suddenly changing and coming up with new inventions around here. I am quite happy with what we are doing now, and I want us to improve within that framework which we have been given. And I hope we will be able to continue doing just exactly that for a long time to come.

Sgt. Jerry Wooters, (played in the film by Ryan Gosling), supposedly had been shot down over the Pacific in WWII and left floating in a raft. I insisted on getting his military records to make sure that wasn’t an invented “war story.” It wasn’t – in reality, he’d been shot down twice.

produced a lot of memos for the main producers but I always said, in effect, “Ignore at your pleasure,” and I meant it. So many people give their input on a film like that – including the actors, of course – they did not need me to be a pest.

The book must have taken a huge amount of editing from the initial notes, how did you decide what to cut, and were you involved in any further cuts that had to be made for the movie?

Yes, most of the material had to go on the cutting room floor. I tracked down many of the policemen of the era but realized quite early that the story should focus on just two of them, Wooters and Jack O’Mara, because they were the most obsessed with getting Mickey Cohen…and their careers had come to a head on the same bloody night, when “The Enforcer” confronted Mickey Cohen and his men and got a bullet between the eyes.

How were you approached for the film?

Did you have any concerns or doubts?

I received numerous feelers from Hollywood, but it was hard to resist Warner Bros., the studio that had produced many of the classic gangster films of the past. I understood early on that the movie version would take dramatic liberties with the nonfiction story, in the tradition of Hollywood.

The real Gangster Squad cops may have slept with Tommy Guns under their beds and used them to intimidate hoodlums such as Mickey Cohen, but they did not have wild shootouts on the streets of Los Angeles. A gangster film is going to have wild shootouts. It’s also going to have a femme fatale, thus the invented character played by Emma Stone. I understood that the filmmakers were playing off not only my true story but the tradition of gangster films. That said, it was important to me that the nonfiction story get told too – thus the book version of “Gangster Squad.”

Did you work closely with Will Beall on the screenplay, or did you take a step back?

The script was entirely Will’s vision and work product. I was well in the background—I

You were an executive producer on the film; how much creative control did you have in making sure the film stayed faithful?

See the above answers. While my input was solicited, the film’s director, main producers and the studio had the creative control. I respected that. And as I said above, the movie from the start was crafted as much as a riff on the gangster film genre as the history of the Gangster Squad.

You might notice that the film is set in 1949.

Well, that’s the year Warner Bros. released one of the classics of the genre, “White Heat,” starring James Cagney. That film too was inspired by a real story -- of America’s “Ma Barker” gang -but what audiences remember is the ending in which Cagney is perched atop an oil refinery and yells out, “Made it ma, top of the world!”

Trust me, no gangster ever was blown up atop an oil refinery like that. But that’s what makes a gangster film.

That said, the main cops depicted in “Gangster Squad,” O’Mara and Wooters, were real people.

And one really was the family man, the other the rogue. When Ryan Gosling tells Emma Stone at a bar how he was shot down in the war, that’s the real Wooters’ history. Mickey Cohen really was causing havoc in 1949 Los Angeles. City officials were obsessed with getting him. The Gangster Squad had an “anything goes” mandate to get the job done…..

When the idea was first pitched did you have any ideas on who should play certain characters, or any favoured directors?

I was asked about actors I could envision playing Mickey Cohen and put Sean Penn atop my wish list. But I wasn’t the only one.

Do you have any projects in the pipeline for 2013?

Of course, but I can’t disclose them at this point.

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Page 18

An interview with frontman Efthimis Karadimas

by Cristina Massei ou celebrate this year the 20th anniversary from the release of your first album. In retrospective, how do you feel Nightfall has matured over these years?

We are very glad we are still around carrying the underground spirit of the 90s. You know, Nightfall is not the stereotype of a band trying to expand its fan base through promotional tours, events and stuff but rather an artistic vehicle through which we express our deepest fears, worries and generally anything modern man’s soul suffers from. Taking that into account as well as the fact that we remain silent when we feel like having nothing interesting to say, I am very happy this band is still alive and kicking!

How do you feel the music industry has changed over this period?

The cheap, leveraged money poured into western economies the last one and a half decade affected subcultures as well. Recall the early 90s where fans were eager to find new bands, new demos, and album covers or band photos were mainly black/white and stuff and people cared only about the attitude and the art seed in it all. Those were the days of the Underground. Nowadays “success” is counted in mainstream pop alike terms: sale figures; tour dates; merch sales; and facebook/youtube “likes”…Good or bad it was oxymoron seeing artists of subculture music genes sustain incomes to make a living similar to that of mainstream acts. That’s an anomaly current recession will most probably correct in the very near future.

In the first chapter of your life as a band, you had continuous changes of line up; who’s currently in Nightfall?

We are six now, of which four Greeks, one German, and one North American.

With your experience, what is needed in a band’s line up for it to be stable, and do you feel you achieved this with the current one?

It only requires a reason that varies from band to band. In mainstream acts that reason is profit. As simple as that, like any job around. Next to profit is popularity and fame that both are linked back to profit. Now, if you talk about the rest, the true artists that struggle between anonymity and selective popularity so to speak, my experience says only few maintain their original line up. It is very difficult. But on the other hand, leaving a band that no longer fits your true artistic feelings-cum-inner pain relief is as healthy as Usain Bolt’s check up. Demonizing such changes makes sense only to a manager who wants his band kids having a clear identity fans will stick with in the long run.

Your next album ‘Cassiopeia’ is out in January; what can we expect? Will it be following what you started with ‘Astron Black’ in terms of sound?

Yes, but it has more! Cassiopeia is full of energy in terms of guitar leads that bring memories of the glorious metal days of the 80s and the 90s mixed with very heavy vocals that keep the atmosphere spooky and brutal within the death metal range. Jorg Uken, our

Issue 12/2012

drummer (and the man behind the mix in his Soundlodge studios in Germany) has made a marvellous job; everything sounds tight and straight to your face.

On that album you used artwork from Travis Smith; what are you using on ‘Cassiopeia’?

Travis rules, but this time we worked with a french guy named Vincent and his design company Above Chaos.

He caught the spirit of the album and illustrated it on a nice looking piece of visual art.

The album title is linked to both the constellation and the mythical character of Andromeda’s mother, could you explain this choice?

Cassiopeia was a very beautiful queen. So did her daughter Andromeda. That, as a fact was just fine, but she arrogantly took it a step further by claiming they were more beautiful even to nymphs Nereids, triggering Poseidon’s wrath. The key word is arrogance, and then “punishment” that always comes right after to prove the broken nature of human race. Cause such myths work as parables; they have a metaphorical meaning. Look for example what is happening now in the EU or what was happening during the crazy years before September 2008 where Lehman collapsed.

Those problems grew strong in arrogant roots and now everyone is looking for some other to blame, failing again to take the share of responsibility accounts to him.

How much is your work inspired by Greek mythology, and what’s the character you find most fascinating?

I don’t have a fave. I love the variety of gods, goddesses and the plethora of demigods and other divine creatures that all interact in ways identical to humans. It is so obvious these creatures were made by humans and that way their stories can be considered as a manual of human behaviour in general. It is like having our historical data stored up there in the air for everybody to have access any time, any place, any age. Like a humancloud, to paraphrase Apple’s application J There’s also one song, Oberon & Titania, based on Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’, how did that come about?

Shakespeare’s is yet another great source of the ways human behaviour developed through the centuries. And, ok, you got me now and I have to admit, I am a bit of a romantic myself (true, just became red now that I see me) J Is there a tour or festival planned after the album release?

We’d certainly like to appear in festivals. If you dear know anybody

haps an up and coming singer with that same style that could possibly be around 30 years?

I don't know. To be An interview by Denise Britt - Photo Cristina Massei honest, Halford and Dickinson weren't November16, 2012 my influences at all. I've been more influenced by As I was doing research trying to come up with songwriters and songwriting, more than I have by some fantastic interview questions for you I saw performers. That’s always been my thing. Luckily that you have been answering the same questions I grew up in a pretty interesting time, the the 60's over and over regarding your firing from Queen- and 70's were pretty influential music decades.

Rock music was being born. People listened to a sryche and the Brazil incident. lot of different types of rock music. Today things *laughing – Oh you noticed that huh?

Yeah, I'm sure everyone has already read about it seem to be very segmented and specified. Suband that you are sick of talking about it so I am not genrefied you know.

Who did you listen to back in the 70's? even going to go there.

Oh everybody. First off I was influenced by muI appreciate that very much.

I've been listening to your solo album ‘Kings & sic from band class, you know, in school. I was in Thieves’. My favorite track is ‘Dark Money’: I don't band all through school. That is a wonderful way think anyone can say anything negative about your to get exposed to all kinds of music. You get a little vocals on it Speaking of Dark Money, what is your bit of everything. That really whetted my appetite for what I did later. take on the outcome of the presidential election?

Well, first off I don't know if I would bet on peo- So did you play sax in band? ple not saying anything negative because they Yeah, well I started with the piano when I was 9 will always find ways of saying it.I think it’s going and then the trumpet and ended up with the saxoto be an interesting 4 years. I think Obama has a phone. lot of things to figure out and a lot of things that Were you one of those people that are naturally talto finish that his administration had started. I'm ented with an instrument? anxious to see how it all turns out. I have high No, not on the instrumental level. I had to work at that. Singing has always been very easy for me. I hopes. didn't start singing until high school.

Yes, I think we all have high hopes.

In the past 2 years I have seen many bands from my You are on a solo tour now correct?

Yes, I have my solo band out with me now. I am youth play live. Everyone's high notes have gotten however meeting up with Rudy, Bobby, and Glen lower, and the screams have lessened in intensity. tomorrow in Seattle. They are flying in to see the How has ageing affected you vocally? show and we are going to be doing interviews, I'm pretty strong and I have a lot of endurance so some photo sessions and things to get ready to that ageing thing hasn't deterred me...yet. I'm still fairly young, in my 50's. Hopefully time and life put the advertisements out for the new tour.

Then you will be going on tour with the new band will be kind to me and I will be able to continue doing what I do for another 20 years. being billed as Geoff Tate, voice of Queensryche?

Umm, I'm not sure how we are going to bill it yet. In 2006 you were listed as one (#14 actually) of the Top 100 Metal Voices of all time; quite an honor. Do I think we are going to bill it as Queensryche.

Do you ever wish you had taken a different career you personally see yourself as one of the best metal voices in the world? path and what might that have been?

Oh no, I love my job. I love the creative process, No, I don't pay attention to that kind of stuff. I making records and performing. I have never don't think in terms of good and bad, best or worst, found anything I have wanted to do other than especially when it comes to art. It’s so subjective. It is not a sporting event to me at all and it doesn't this.

You are quite theatrical, did you ever think about have a rating system. People like what they like, music-wise people typically relate to music based doing Broadway?

I have had a lot of offers in that direction. Hon- upon their life experiences. They relate to a song estly I think that if I ever did it, it would be in because it speaks to them about something they later years. The money is not that good. Maybe have felt or experienced, it does something to their in my retirement years I would do something like imagination. A song will affect a thousand different people in a thousand different ways, there is no that. real way to quantify it. You can't put the sporting So you really do enjoy being on the road.

It is the only life I've ever known. I love it. I love mentality formula to it, it just doesn't work.

That’s a good way to put it, the sporting mentality. meeting new people.

Halford & Dickinson were your major influences That is culturally where we are at. We think in coming out as a vocalist, who do you think is per- those terms, especially in America, we are com-

willing to invite here we are to come and play our best. In respect to tours, well the truth is that we are no more a touring band – at least to the extent touring it is nowadays. We prefer to spent precious time to get inspired, compose and well record our small tragedies for the benefit of our psychological health and the ones’ who may feel the same way.

How do you feel about the current situation in Greece?

Stressed and pity. The party years have damaged the ethical compass of society badly and now people are confused. They don’t know which path to follow, that of self appraisal and re organization or that of self destruction and chaos? But it is not only Greece. It is the entire western world and all broken idols in it. We all seem to have forgotten about great scientists, or explorers, and put our collective interest to amusement; sport idols, actors, models, and other kind of shit that have very little to offer to the true progression of human civilization took us all by force. This policy, this life style in general ought to be re considered. Politicians and economists may have done numerous mistakes but at least they tried that unique experiment named EU. Never again in human history so many nations with vast and rich culture have decided to form a unification of that kind. Never. The fact it is tested so badly now is not due to one’s mistake but to the nature of the experiment itself.

Solution requires a lot of effort, positive attitude, time and great minds. Hope the masses will not drag everything into chaos.

What do you hope 2013 will bring for Nightfall and for yourself?

We wish everyone to reach the level of happiness he/she really can afford. A bit more or a bit less may be catastrophic ;-) What from 2012 will you mostly remember and what would you rather forget?

It gave me a lot of hardships and a lot of experiences to become a better man; I shall remember it like a great love affair with a beautiful lady I fell in love with only to find out she was a tranny…

Any last message for your fans?

Thank you very much for being there!

petition based society. Kill or be killed, win or lose, we make 'best of ' and 'worst of ' lists every day. Other places in the world don't look at art that way. It is kind of refreshing to go to those places and experience a different way of thinking.

Have you ever thought about living overseas?

Oh yes, all the time. My wife and I have lots of kids and our youngest will graduate next year. I think when she graduates school that will be a good time to move and live in a different place for a while and see what that is like.

‘Silent Lucidity’ has always been a favorite song of mine. What did and does that song mean to you?

Is it all right there in the lyrics? No hidden meaning or anything?

Hmm, I would think so. Well you know Denise, it's kind of what I just talked about people interpreting things so differently. As a writer you have an idea of what you want to say right?

Yes Then the way people read it, they read their own thoughts into the words and it means different things to different people.

I like to tell this story: I was backstage doing a meet and greet with fans, talking with them typically about the music. I was talking to this one man and he was telling me about how this one song of ours really helped him through some rough times and meant so much to him. I asked him what song it was and he said, “Oh it's the best song you ever wrote, ‘Silence in Tennessee’”*laughing – True story! That was his favorite song and he didn't even know the true title for it.

That's the way it goes you know. As a writer you feel a little frustrated with that but you can't fight it, it’s just how people are. *laughing - Wow, that is hilarious, I guess something in Tennessee was speaking to him pretty loudly. *laughing - yeah yeah!

Let’s talk about my true love, wine. I didn't realize you were a vintage wine maker. How long have you been doing that?

My first vintage came out in 2007. I started working on it about 2 years before that. I started making wine when I was 14, I was a boy scout and you could get a merit badge for working on a food product, making something to eat or a beverage.

I was cruising through the library and I saw this book about making wine and you could make it out of berries and things like that and I had a lot of berries in my yard. I thought I'm going to make a batch of wine. I did and I got my merit badge. So I had an interest in wine making at a very young age. I started collecting and learning all about it.

What is your brand called?

Insania Do you produce reds and whites?

I do! My 2010 White just won a 92 point award in the Wine Enthusiast.

Congratulations!Lastly, is there anything you want to say to the many confused and possibly misinformed fans out there?

Go to Geofftate.com and you can get all your answers there. Take care!

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Issue 12/2012

Page 19

LIVE!

FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London October 31st

By Marcus J. West – Photo Fabiola Santini Halloween 2012 is meant to be an incomparable celebration for Londoners, one that will certainly be marked and remembered because of tonight’s performance by Carl McCoy’s Fields of the Nephilim. As the eerie frontman magically surfaces from a wall of smoke and deep, penetrating lights, Shroud (Exordium) and Straight to the Light powerfully embrace a captivated crowd who are totally immersed in an ethereal awareness of the magnificent harmonies that seems to be captured from another world. Momentum, passion and a gorgeous set: this is sublime, state of the art showmanship from beginning to end.

McCoy is unique, as always; however, some are

noticing a reduction in his vocal range, probably due to recovering from the Leeds show the night before; but even given this, his vocals still resonate deeply in the veins. Closing with Last Exit For The Lost, they are met with rapturous applause and radiate inebriating chills and dynamic majesty, driven to greater heights by the overall feeling of conquest; the final moments of excitement are fuelled by the desire for more.

There isn’t time nor words to nitpick over tiny faults, so suffice it to say that a show with Fields of the Nephilim is always an irreplaceable experience.

MONSTER MAGNET The Electric Ballroom, London November 23rd

By John Morgan - Photo Cristina Massei The last time Monster Magnet rolled into town, we were treated to a full rendition of the seminal ‘Dopes To Infinity’ album. This time the band takes us back to the beginning with a full run out of their debut album ‘Spine of God’. With the venue rapidly approaching sell out status, the band hit the stage and immediately it’s 1991 all over again.

With a revitalised Dave Wyndorf at the helm, the band show that beyond doubt when you talk about stoner rock bands you talk about Monster Magnet.

From a band’s debut record it’s often quite easy

to hear who they were influenced by, and ‘Spine of God’ is no exception. There’s a heavy tip of the hat to bands like Hawkwind and Grand Funk Railroad, which are still an ever presence in Monster Magnet’s work today, as well as slowed down Ramones riffs and Stooges melodies that never seem to go out of style.

In many ways, ‘Spine of God’ is regarded as one of the Stoner rock scene’s defining moments, and hearing it again tonight only underlines that opinion. It was a pleasure and a privilege to be part of the audience tonight. A great gig. 9/10

RODRIGO Y GABRIELA HMV Forum, London November 29th

By Cristina Massei

The vibrant bag of cultures and colours that is London offers a fitting backdrop tonight for the musical tele-transportation device that is Rodrigo y Gabriela. From thrash metal in Mexico to street performances in Dublin which quickly became legendary, the guitar duo is about to perform its magic at a sold-out Kentish Town Forum and warm up an otherwise chilly evening.

When so much talent is present, nothing else is necessary: the music speaks for itself. No lyrics and not even the C.U.B.A. Orchestra accompanying Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero: a man, a woman, two guitars and tons of passion and dexterity alone take a mesmerized audience on a journey across the world. Swinging between sensual flamenco, metal-esque show-offs of virtue and intense melodies, they hold the crowd in their fast, magic hands; old and new material dance together in overwhelming harmony.

Pianist Alex Wilson, joining in half way through as a special guest, is the icing on an already mouth-watering cake.

If you’ve only been listening to their records, you have no idea what I’m talking about; and that’s fine, because nothing could prepare you to the magic that is Rodrigo y Gabriela live.

Be ready to reconsider most of what you regarded as Guitar Gods, and in favour of a shy Mexican young lady nonetheless. But most of all, be ready to let them take you away to a world where there are no limits, no labels, no genres, no metal or salsa: just Music. As it should.

TURBONEGRO Electric Ballroom, London November 22nd

By The Rev Eddi – Photo Cristina Massei Replacing such a charismatic front man is not easy to do. With Hank Von Helvete leaving the group for again, the group have moved on with Tony Sylvester, ‘The Duke of Nothing’, who singing an octave or so lower has helped reshape their sound.

Turbonegro now live have a more direct and raw sound to them. The new line-up being Duke of Nothing on vocals, Happy-Tom bass, Knut "Euroboy" Schreiner lead guitar, Rune "Rune Rebellion" Grønn rhythm and Tommy Manboy drums.

Such is the passion / ferver around this band, a friend from The Supersuckers emailed me to ask of my opinion of the new sound etc. How would tonight rank amongst shows? They certainly haven’t lost Euroboy’s notable leads, or the fun element – the Turbohumour continues throughout the night.

Camden on a rainy Thursday night was the UK opening of a pretty much sold out 3 date tour to introduce ‘Sexual Harassment’ and we didn’t have long to wait for the opening single off the new album ‘I Got A Knife’ to be aired. Tony came across like he had been singing with them for years and

there are party anthems aplenty throughout the set. Other songs such as ‘Shake Your Shit Machine’, ‘Mister Sister’ and ‘Dude Without A Face’ were greeted as warmly as classics ‘You Give Me Worms’, ‘All My Friends Are Dead’, ‘Do You Do You Dig Destruction’, ‘Turbo Negro Must Be Destroyed’ and a crowd pleaser / gig ender that went on forever with ‘I Got Erection’.

The fun element to their music hasn’t been lost at all and at times Happy Tom (Thomas Seltzer) had the crowd laughing with his anecdotes about a certain figure of fun in the UK press and can be quoted as saying that he has given them ‘a Turbo viagra’, which in turn gets passed onto the masses. Numerous Turbo Jugend chapters were out tonight and from all over Europe, Turbonegro are quickly moving out of the underground and into larger venues than this guaranteed in their near future. Not once throughout the hour did the band let up and 30 minutes of encores ensured no-one went home feeling anything less than Turbo-Turned on!!!

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Issue 12/2012

LIVE! VANS WARPED TOUR 2012 Alexandra Palace, London November 10th

By Cristina Massei

The Vans Warped Tour finally finds its way back to the UK after 13 years. Plush Alexandra Palace is an unlikely venue, but aside from human traffic getting kind of ‘bottled’ in the middle at times, it seems to work. Genius idea of the day: security standing with big directions boards rather than just standing bored and pissed off. Love it. Nice surprise of the day: the crowd’s interest for up & coming bands, with the ‘Kevin Says’ stage often full to capacity – as indicated by more boards held by security guys – which means for us missing the reportedly brilliant Bury Tomorrow’s performance, but hey, we love it when new blood gets a good crowd, that’s what Festivals are for!

As we rush to the two main stages (Monster Energy East and West – very confusing) to catch New Found Glory, we get a glimpse of the Vans Skateboarding Championships taking place right next the Jagermeister stage; we’ll be back later to soak in the adrenaline and have a pleasant photographic diversion. NFG never disappoint: they’re still in celebrating mode for the anniversary of ‘Stick and Stones’, but despite playing plenty from their biggest album they don’t stop there tonight, including as well the likes of ‘Dressed to Kill’ – a total crowd winner – and that ‘Kiss Me’ cover.

It’s then time for my first live experience of ‘The Used’, and as much as I struggle to see the link with punk there, I must recognize they play a flawless and rather energetic set. Carefully balanced between old and new, it ends with a bang when ‘A Box Full of Sharp Objects’ follows acoustic ‘On My Own’… Wake up everyone!

The two acts I’m really looking forward to,

however, are playing the Jagermeister stage, which gives me the opportunity to spend some more time flexing my neck and my Nikon after the skateboarders.

There’s even a special appearance from skate hero Steve Caballero, but is winner Sam Beckett who steals the show and a £3k slice of the final prize.

And finally, here they come: Less Than Jake. Sod Bring Me The Horizon on the Main Stage, I saw them at every possible Festival over the past few years, and what do they have to do with punk anyway? This is the Vans Warped Tour! Ska-Punk it is, with its unquestionable heroes all the way from Florida US: let the bouncing begin. Less Than Jake near a huge vertical skating ramp and a half shirtless crowd having a hell of a good time: this room is right now THE picture of Warped, or at least everything I expected from this gathering; light-hearted, playful, bubbly pop punk songs and smiles, colours, FUN all around. Less Than Jake interact with the crowd and entertain all punters who choose to desert the main stage with a mix of old and new stuff. Apparently the show is being recorded for a DVD, so you’ll be able to see what I’m talking about at some point, but nothing beats being here

FRANK TURNER Wolverhamption Civic Hall November 23rd

With Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun and Tim Barry

By Ed Fennell and Matt Higgs - Photo Matt Higgs Frank Turner has had quite the year, from playing a sold out Wembley Arena to being part of the Olympic opening ceremony broadcast to over 28 million viewers in the UK alone, the former Million Dead frontman has proven the sky really is the limit for his Folk punk ballads. How then to bring an end to such a successful year? I guess a 28 date British tour is one way! Tonight that tour pulled into a Wolverhampton’s bustling Civic Hall.

With little previous knowledge of the evening’s first support act Jim Lockey & The Solemn Sun and few expectations, the band pleasantly surprised. Without sounding too clichéd, Mr Lockey and The Solemn Sun had a very refreshing sound, acoustic music was meeting a strong rock/alternative edge with melodies flying all over the place. Mr Turner even made an appearance himself during one of the band’s tracks that I may not know the name of but are sure to learn, having picked up a copy of their album ‘Death’ at my first opportunity. I’d advise you do the same, they were selling like hot-cakes once the band had finished their more than warming set .

Opening on a roaring and thought provoking rendition of ‘Dog Bumped’ that easily captivated the crowd, the night’s second support act Tim Barry started with the audience in the palm of his hand before gradually letting them fall through his fingers. It’s clear that while Barry had a lot to say it was often delivered in the same way, leaving the crowd feeling tired by the end of his half hour set. On record it would be easy to get lost in his folky storylines but live the lines of Avoiding Catatonic Surrender rang a little too true for some in the crowd, as mock cheering at “I write standard boring songs with boring standard chords” rang around the Civic. As Barry finished his set it was clear that he had won over some new fans, but it would be hard to say that his set hadn’t polarized the crowd.

When Frank Turner arrives onto stage himself it is to a rapturous applause, cheers and whistles from a Civic crowd clearly present for a good time. Opening silhouetted on an otherwise dark stage with I Am Disappeared, Turner begins to feed the crowd his unique storytelling as they recite back almost word for word the songs that have brought him so clearly from music’s obscurity, into music’s public eye.

Backed by his band The Sleeping Souls, One Foot Before The Other steps up it’s on record rocky edge to a track of all out anthemic proportions live. Long Live The Queen may have a sad basis for its lyrics but sang back with vigor by tonight's crowd it ends up with warm smiles all round. Reasons Not To Be An Idiot continues the crowds sing along once more before new track Recovery, taken from Turners forthcoming 5th album, is premiered to the audience who by its end are already once more joining in. It’s this constant participation from the crowd that really shows the extent of Turners appeal, his songs are not only catchy but have

an endearing honesty when addressing the kind of subject matters that more than a few of us can relate to. His music is passionate and personal and its a passionate and personal response the crowd offer in return.

Wessex Boy and Substitute are both greeted with cheers before the band slowly exit the stage to leave Turner alone. The Real Damage and To Take You Home see Turner manage to command the audience’s full attention for two stripped back renditions that show the singer songwriter in his raw prime. Acoustic in hand, there are less distractions from the factor that has brought Turner to the top of the pile: his intimate storytelling.

Rejoined by The Sleeping Souls I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous is given an inspiring outing before another new song Four Simple Words is performed, during which Turner encourages the audience to partake in a dance off. This encouragement sees the whole venue descend into a sea of movement much to Turners pleasure as he informs the audience that they are being filmed for a video. Drawing the set to a close I Still Believe is shouted back by the crowd as they make the most of the evenings remains.

With calls for an encore unrelenting from the second he leaves the stage its little time before Turner returns with three of his best. If I Ever Stray proves itself as a crowd favorite as it turns the evening’s energy up to twelve as those on the balconies rise to their feet to join in with the songs chants. After If I Ever Stray made sure the whole venue was on its feet, Photosynthesis made sure that it was there they stayed as young and old alike joined in to shout back the lyrics “I Won’t Sit Down, And I Won’t Shut Up’. With only one more song in the nights bag Frank thanked the crowd for their countless support at shows over the years before closing on a beefed and sped up Dans Song.

While for a long time there were those who tried to place Turner in Billy Bragg’s shadow, 2012 has seen the Hampshire poet step well and truly into his own limelight, with a new album on the horizon it’s a light that seems set to glow ever brighter.

BOYD RICE

Upstairs @ The Garage, London November 19th

By Sophia Disgrace

tonight.

As to prove that there’s no such thing as too much fun, next on the Jagermeister Stage and bringing the party to an explosive end are Bowling For Soup; and lostprophets on main stage, but sod that too, sometimes in life you have to make a choice – and this wasn’t a difficult one in all honesty.

Here’s a band that would bring a smile even on an emo kid’s face. From ‘1985’ to ‘The Girl All the Bad Guys Want’ to the good-mood anthem that is ‘The Bitch Song’, Bowling For Soup is a band everyone should be forced to listen to first thing in the morning: people will be a lot nicer to each other on those tedious Tube journeys. They may even – believe me – crack a smile.

The way back from Ally Pally feels a lot shorter than the way up here, and not only because it’s downhill.

Thanks to Warped for finally bringing back to the UK such an epic celebration of energy and fun; God knows if we need it.

Boyd Rice is the alternative to the alternative: as many of his contemporaries have grown up, given up and conformed, Boyd has remained as visionary and controversial as ever.

Having read and heard much of this near mystical personifier of noise, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from his live show. What followed however managed to cement his creativity and presence in my mind for many years to come, and also lent some solidarity to Boyd as an individual person, rather than vilified media villain.

I arrived at the venue a little late, just as Boyd was due to come on stage. The small room above The Garage was heaving with darkly clad individuals and huddled shadows. Suddenly, the lights dimmed, murmuring ceased and the atypical EBM background music lulled to a stop.A bizarre film played out on the screen above the modestly sized stage: it complied of Boyd and friends, standing/posing alongside various world landmarks, including amongst others Disneyland (Seven Dwarves and all). A brief spoken short followed which featured Boyd as some sort of undercover agent type, and culminated in a bloody shootout scene amidst talk of 'staying pure'.

As the bemused audience slowly processed this, Boyd shuffled purposefully on stage, opening with his infamous track 'Total War'. Boyd had thus grabbed us all by the (metaphorical) balls and hell, he wasn’t letting go! For the next 40 minutes or so he harried on, unstoppable amidst a veritable banquet of sounds, high pitched and near inaudible and yet somehow perfectly logical given the context; this was a Boyd Rice gig after all, where chaos reigns supreme and nonsensical is the order of the day.

As his set progressed, the projection behind him sprayed abstract imagery and Nazi-esque signs

out to the audience w i t h vitriolic haste.

The end result w a s rather u n i qu e and led you on a trip of sorts, with Mr Rice as your guide. Just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier, Boyd wandered off stage 'to get more wine' and on his return set about playing his guitar with a buffered power tool needless to say the crowd loved it and camera phones came out in full, unadulterated force!

Perhaps aware of potential complacency setting in, Boyd once again changed the tone of the night, ushering another musician on stage with him to play a series of melodic spoken word style songs, thus showcasing yet another side to his seemingly never ending ability to experiment, conquer and succeed.

All too soon, Boyd drew the show to a close, with a modest thank you to the audience and slightly intoxicated swagger off stage. People waited expectantly, hoping for an encore. Boyd didn’t oblige, but then I didn’t expect him to: he doesn’t do predictable, he marches to his own drum and his alone.

Boyd the fascist? Boyd the gay icon? Boyd the artist. Boyd -one of a kind. It’s all about the music - but that’s simply the tip of the iceberg.

Sonic Shocks

Issue 12/2012

LIVE!

SOIL + FOZZY + BREED 77 The Underground, Stoke on Trent November 28th

By Matt Dawson - Photo Cristina Massei Nostalgia can always be a double edged sword: while it’s always enjoyable to see people that grew up on particular bands capturing old memories of youth by going to their, there’s that sense that only reason they’re there is to hear THAT song again.

On a personal note, as a teenager the first gig I went to was at this very same venue with Fozzy headlining so the tint of nostalgia was kicking in; 3 bands I had listened to in those days all playing in one night had to be seen, in order to figure out whether the bands had changed in hindsight or whether I had.

Breed 77 kick off the proceedings with slightly different takes on the songs people would know them for - such as ‘La Ultima Hora’ - while mixing in what fans could expect from their new album due out in 2013; given the reception of the audience they don’t need to worry about a mixed reaction, and a cover of Alice Cooper’s Poison caused the first sing along moment of the event.

Following that the small sounds of a musical box playing ‘Incy Wincy Spider’ hits the PA and Fozzy take to the stage. As expected, the majority are here for one person – Chris Jericho.

One difference is how Fozzy as an actual band have progressed live, to the point that you can see some of the fans noticing more of Rich Ward’s guitar playing and growling vocals to say the least, with ‘Enemy’, ‘Blood Happens’ and even

‘To Kill A Stranger’ getting chants, fist pumping and more interactions from the packed venue.

What is very noticeable however is the lack of acknowledgement to people chanting Y2J at Jericho and him being more pleased when Fozzy chants were made; for those who were disappointed (including one person that displayed, of all things, the flag of Brazil in a cheap attempt of humour) the message is clear: Fozzy is now its own entity and that is something that the ‘Y2J’ chanters have to realise sooner than they think.

By the time Soil take to the stage the chants of ‘Halo’ already have begun – remember the only reason deal at the start of this? – and as Ryan McCombs says, with a slight mischievous grin ‘We’ve got more than fucking Halo tonight!’ as they go through the other hit of Scars - ‘Redefine’- and even a track from McComb’s time with Drowning Pool in ‘37 Stitches’.

When Halo hits, however, the venue goes crazy: this is the ‘memories’ moment of the night and, as the night comes to a close, the side of nostalgia that wins is the good side; people remembered other tracks from Scars and even got a new track in the process.

For one night youth can be captured once again.

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NEUROSIS + GODFLESH Kentish Town Forum, London December 2nd

By John Morgan – Photos Cristina Massei Tonight sees the coming together of two of the major heavyweights of the genre known as heavy industrial.

First up we have Godflesh who, due to major problems with getting ticket holders into the venue, have to delay their set and cut 4 songs; this was disappointing enough, but to compound the agony, the sound was terrible. All we could hear for the first two songs was a snare drum, and the soundman (who should be arrested under the trades descriptions act) didn’t rectify the situation until the last song. As for Godflesh, there is no doubt that they have been an inspirational force for many years; however, with main man Justin Broadrick’s continuing involvement in his other musical interests, it does feel a bit like a band going through the motions and trading in former glories. As a long term fan, I would still give them the benefit of the doubt as it did seem that the Gods were against them tonight.

Speaking of Gods, next up we have Neurosis, in town to promote the new album ‘Honor Found in Decay’. After the surprising yet mutual decision to part ways with Josh Graham - the man responsible for the visual effects that have been a part of Neurosis’ live shows for years - many were curious to see the band in a new light; and, as usual, they didn’t disappoint. The new songs fit perfectly with the old to create a sonic explosion of music so rarely achieved by bands these days, The darkened stage only forces the crowd to explore their own minds, with a soundtrack of texture ranging from aggression to acceptance.

A fine night out. 8/10

CONVERGE + TOUCHE AMORE + THE SECRET 02 Academy 2, Birmingham November 26th

By Matthew Tilt - Photos Matthew Higgs

PENTAGRAM The Garage, London November 1st

By Marcus J. West – Photo Fabiola Santini Pentagram are back tonight to the venue that marked their emotional debut in the UK in 2011 after four decades of existence. Last year clearly one show was not enough so for the eager Pentagram fans this show is THE much wanted follow-up. Locals Hark have the challenging task to get the evening started, and they do a good job, getting the stage ready for the tour's special guests Gentleman's Pistols, still supporting their 2011 album At Her Majesty's Pleasure.

Half an hour on stage for such a great band was quite disappointing, as by the time Living In Sin Again hit the set-lit, is nearly time to let them go. Legend Bill Steer stage presence is unique, his riffing is powerful and magnetic and convey the audience in a unavoidable but much anticipated mosh-pit.

The should have definitely played longer, the closing with Lying And Fooling and The Ravisher arrive way too fast. They enjoyed quite a good success with the crowd. When Pentagram arrived on stage it was obvious they were tired.

The Bristol show the night before had been cancelled because transatlantic flights were grounded by the hurricane. Still, Pentagram managed to get to London, they could therefore be forgiven for being a little less energetic on stage than they

were last year. This is guitarist Victor Griffin his last tour with the band before leaving to focus on other projects: although it’s all already well announced, the sadness seem to be in the air, after all he is Pentagram right arm. As soon as tracks like You're Lost, I Am Free and Run My Course and The Ghoul start to unfold, they become a rare treat, a Bobby Liebling’s madness blends with the growing thirst of the crowd for a never ending show. It will be hard for such a great band to find someone big enough to fill Griffin’s shoes: but it’s obvious they will succeed, as they are clearly not ready to drop the towel. And we are very grateful for that.

“Converge have their work cut out for them tonight.” There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write, a sentence that so openly questions Converge’s ability to match what has come before. A line up like this, however, falls under a special set of circumstances as openers The Secret set the bar high with a style that sounds like the Deathwish roster got together to cover Transylvanian Hunger. It’s a crushing set and one that has garnered enough attention, via word of mouth and their spectacular album Agnus Dei, to fill out two thirds of the room before the last, feedback drenched notes.

The room is pretty packed out by the time Touche Amore come out and proceed to wipe all memory of what came before away. There’s no such thing as a perfect set by Jeremy and co. put in the closest thing I’ve ever seen. Their new song Gravity Metaphorically, off the their upcoming split with Pianos Become the Teeth, carries all the weight of their earlier material but shows a maturity that helps it stand out amongst so many good songs while the usual fan favourites such as Suckerfish and The Great Repetition cue passionate sing a longs and the use of Honest Sleep as a furious closer sees Jeremy take to the crowd to say goodbye to as many as he can.

Things go crazy in the pit when Converge start, led on by Jacob who strides across the stage bristling with unspent energy, humble and funny one minute before exploding with rage and catharsis. With a set list that covers pretty much every album since Forever Came Crashing it’s a crowd pleasing night with the crushing When Eagles Become Vultures getting aired next to the more melodic, but less intense tracks like All We Love We Leave Behind and Trespassers.

Kurt’s guitar work remains as impressive as ever, cutting through the, at times, muddled sound with those gorgeous melodies that make Converge stand out from their peers, while the triple vocal approach adds depth to the battering. It’s an impressive set that holds you in its grip despite running over an hour and even when Jacob finally delivers the killer blow to his much abused microphone he holds the attention of everyone in the room until the lights come up.

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Issue 12/2012

LIVE! truly a special 20 minute performance.

COHEED AND CAMBRIA + FIGHTING WITH WIRE Birmingham Academy November 11th

By Matt Higgs

With their latest album The Afterman: Ascension continuing the critical acclaim which has followed the band for the last 15 years, Mark Wahlberg developing frontman Claudio Sanchez’s The Amory Wars story line into a film and with the return of old drummer Josh Eppard, Coheed and Cambria arrive in Birmingham on a high, it’s one that they waste no time sharing with those gathered in a packed Academy.

Kicking the show off are Ireland’s Fighting With Wire, the slightly grungy three piece are no strangers to opening for some well loved bands, having previously supported the likes of Biffy Clyro, You Me At Six and Against Me, they confidently seem to take tonight's show in their stride as they successfully warm up the room. As dim lights flicker across the stage it’s a sound reminiscent of classic Foo Fighters that is pumped out to the masses as the band run through tracks from new album Colonel Blood and their brilliant debut Man Vs. Monster. While title track Colonel Blood stands out from the latest material, set highlights are the older My Armoury and Make A Fist which see the band in full infectious flow.

While Fighting With Wire have found them-

selves under the radar for far too long, shows like tonight will make sure that it’s soon no longer the case.

Tonight’s special show is split into two parts, the first an acoustic treat for Coheed fans showcasing the bands delicate renditions of classic tracks, before a second set of full power prog rock masterpieces turned up to eleven.

As Claudio Sanchez makes his way alone onto the stage, guitar in hand, he receives a hero’s welcome before he even utters a single word. Spotlight lit Claudio opens the set on Pearl Of The Stars and it becomes clear tonight will be something special.

It’s a heartfelt performance of one of the bands more touching songs, which leaves the crowd completely transfixed.

Now joined by the rest of the band, crowd favorite A Favor House Atlantic is also treated to the acoustic treatment, as Claudio begins to flex his distinctive vocals the harmony from the crowd is both impressively loud and surprisingly melodic.

While bands regularly see the audience match them word for word, rarely is it done with both passion and respectful reserve, something that sees a nod of approval from Claudio himself. Mother Superior is broken down to its bare prime, showcasing the band’s songwriting prowess as both riffs and lyrics shine in their powerful rawness. As the band retreat offstage, Claudio finishes the acoustic set with a captivating stripped back version of Wake Up, several thousand voices still matching each and every word before they are finally left to sing the last chorus alone.

In the short interlude that follows chatter softly fills the room as the crowd discuss the set that has just been gifted to them. There is no rush to the bar and no exodus to the toilets from the amassed audience, as all present still seem rooted in awe of what was

BUCKCHERRY

+ KOBRA & THE LOTUS The Waterfront, Norwich November 24th

By Cayleigh Shepherd

With their last performance on English soil tainted by sound issues at a wet and miserable Download Festival 2011, Buckcherry had their work cut out to win back the fans who (unfairly) judged them based on this series of unfortunate events.

Barely a few songs in, and they’ve reminded the sceptic few why they’re one of the best rock bands to come out of the past 20 years.

Setting the tone for the evening, Canadian band Kobra and the Lotus give a textbook lesson in heavy metal. Frontwoman Kobra owns the stage as she flies through the set with her Dio-reminiscent vocals, destroying the beliefs of anyone who think that ‘women can’t do metal’. Tearing into 50 Shades of Evil, it’s clear the band will have no problem adopting a new set of fans from East Anglia tonight.

With his giant King Of Hearts backpiece and ‘Chaos’ inked across his abdomen, it’s hard to find a more rock & roll being than Josh Todd. The man is everything a lead singer should be, as he holds the entire audience in the palm of his hands from the get-go. The band are pumped and full of energy as the audience reciprocate the enthusiasm, singing and jumping along with every song. As expected, by the time we get to the band’s most recognised hit, girls across the room scream with delight and gyrate to the riffs, each determined to showcase their inner Crazy Bitch.

The musicianship from the band is top notch. Whatever they’ve been doing during their absence from the UK has certainly brought them back to us fresh faced and rejuvenated. The set is perfect, and leaves the crowd eagerly awaiting the next instalment from the California band.

Their songs may be about sex, drugs and rock and roll, but based on tonight’s performance, the latter alone has left the crowd pretty darn satisfied.

Returning with his hair now down and electric in hand Claudio wastes no time whipping the crowd into a frenzy as he taps out the riff to No World Tomorrow and opens up his now unrestrained vocals. With six albums filled with killer tracks to draw upon its a set that highlights just how many great songs the band have in their back catalogue.

Everything Evil and Ten Speed continue to find both the band and crowd in fine voice as songs with their basis in science fiction but their homes truly in the hearts of tonight's fans are given their electrifying outings.

Eye Sniper”. With one more song up their sleeve Claudio mans his double necked guitar and creates a maelstrom as he breaks into the riff for Welcome Home. Just when it looks like he could have the audience no tighter in his hands, Claudio flips his two necked beauty behind his head for some more than intricate guitar work. The Final Cut brings the evening to a close as the band grin down at their adoring fans. Coheed and Cambria have once more proved that they are a band at the top of their game, both on record and live, it’s no wonder their songs are based on fiction as their performance is out of this world.

Newer single The Afterman slows down the evenings tempo for a few minutes but it clearly already has its lovers amongst the audience, while those less familiar are happy to take a short break from the sets endless rocking. The Suffering continues to sound timelessly classic as Claudio's powerful vocals effortlessly hit notes that most would swear as unreachable live. When not preoccupied with the bands lyrics Travis Stever’s riffs are also met with voices of the crowd, along with more than a few air guitars, not a second of the band’s performance wasted by the adoring audience.

A few noticeable re-workings keep the bands material sounding as fresh as ever as a flurry of samples descend into an epic Here We Are Juggernaut and a softer Goodnight, Fair Lady. At over 8 minutes, In Keeping Of Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 may not exactly be radio friendly, but tonight becomes nothing short of an anthem as the screams to “Man Your Battle Stations” physically shake the foundations of the Academy. An expertly executed outro appears to bring the song to a finish, before once more the song is brought back to the chorus thrilling the audience.

As the band start to leave the stage the calls for an encore begin before they have even had a chance to disappear out of sight. It may be the band’s latest single, but judging by the chants of “Domino”, Key Entity Extraction I: Domino The Destitute to give the song its full name, is an instant hit with the bands following. While the intensity of the show threatens to reach its climax, A Favor House Atlantic’s second outing of the night tips it over the edge with its now beefed up cries of “Good

THE HOWLING Electric Ballroom December 6th

By Nelly Loriaux - Photo Cristina Massei Described as a 'Heavy, dirty, thunderous piece of Rock'n'Roll, The Howling has an enviable pedigree: The Rev (ex Towers Of London, Prodigy) on guitar and Blacky (ex Red Star Rebels) on vocals, accompanied by none the less impressive Lewis Chappell on bass, Aaron Grimes on rhythm guitar and Jack Wayne on drums. Formed in 2009, they have already had a notorious mix of support slots (Sebastian Bach, Rise To Remain, Bleed From Within) and headline shows (Jubilee Club UK and O2 Academy 2 Islington).Tonight sees them supporting Buckcherry, the perfect warm up to kick off the evening.

Swaggering onstage, full of balls and cocky attitudes, they ignite the crowd with their dynamic, adrenalin-fuelled punk riffs, aggressive lyrics, screeching guitars, thunderous drums beats and pounding bass lines interspersed with samples and synth. They charge into their blistering set, delivering each song - 'Outsiders', 'Pitbull', 'Beat The Panic', 'Dance of the Skeletons', 'Champion' and 'Rock'N'Rolla' with sheer energy and a no frills, straight in your face electrifying assault, captivating everyone in the audience. True to their Punk spirit, they delight their fans with a slower but still 'punktastic' cover version of 'God Save The Queen'.

Back in the 80's 'The Howling' the movie changed the perception of werewolves, portraying their bite as a gift given to the selected few; therefore it seems a foreboding sign for 'The Howling'- the band - to change the perception that 'Rock'N'Roll' is dead and show that being bitten by its pure, raw and sexy Rock bug is a gift bestowed on an elite appreciative audience. Looking into the venue, I can see that the crowd has turned up early: seems that the infectious bug is already spreading.

EUROPE

Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London December 1st

By Dan Balchin

The crowds surged on a nippy December’s eve to London’s Shepherds Bush Empire for one of Sweden’s much loved rock outfits; Europe. With yet another sell out show on this tour and their recent release ‘Bag of Bones’ receiving critical acclaim worldwide, there seems to be no slowing down for this group. Whilst we’ve seen a number of artists and bands attempt the so called comeback, very few have quite hit the mark. Especially by way of creating not only a record which we can all be proud to own, but to put on a performance which would rank amongst the best.

Famed for their smash hit ‘The Final Countdown’, it’s merely an added bonus in a set which portrays the dominance, musicianship and capability of this fine band. What struck me most about the performance from Europe was the shear glee and delight of the faces of the entire group. Whilst charismatic front man Joey Tempest darted from one side of the stage to another, engaging fans on the front row with eye contact and a smile, this feels like the kind of gig where the adoration from the crowd is reflected back by the individuals on stage.

Whilst five years ago some might have mocked and rubbished the idea that Europe would come back in such style and have the weight of supporters behind them that they do, but in fact it feels like they’re fresh off the press and whilst the beers did flow and aged rockers did song, there was the very real indication that this band have got the chops to cut it at the highest level.

Highlights from the set include Riches to rags, Sign of the times and The Beast. A small intimate chapter in the middle of the gig saw the guys pull up their stools, pick up an acoustic and deliver something quaint and competent.

I applaud Europe’s return and there are many bands out there who wish they could do the double: Strong album, Strong live show.

Issue 12/2012

By Dan Balchin Here you’ll find some full length reviews, alongside more succinct summaries of the latest in Unsigned and New music. All of these artist’s deserve your time and attention, so look them up and maybe you’ll find something special.

1. Reign Of Fury – World Detonation [Album] Finally, a band from the UK bringing back the sound of classic rock and metal and injecting it with some modern day passion.

‘Reign of Fury’ are a superb five piece, who have an abundance of skill and creativity at their fingertips. Very often bands of this kind have a vocalist who ultimately lets them down, but not in this instance. If you have the urge to relive your younger days and reawaken the demon which sleeps within you after craving some 80’s influenced artists, Reign of Fury is your vice.

Visit them here - https://www.facebook.com/ reignoffury For fans of: 80’s Thrash and Metal 2. The Last Crash – Lost Scenes [EP] Alternative rock act The Last Crash are bringing a light indie edge to the scene. With each track representative of relatively simple structure, with an overlay of clever and considered lyrics, this was a pleasant EP to while away the afternoon to.

I see no reason why The Last Crash should not be given the break they are going to need in order to realise their potential in the current climate.

Visit them here - https://www.facebook.com/The. Last.Crash.Music For fans of: U2, Kasabian 3. Promethee – Nothing Happens, Nobody Comes, Nobody Goes [Album] Here we have a group who are not shying away from all things hard and heavy. It’s no holds barred ferocity and a constant hammering of hardcore riffery and reverberating percussion work is fixating for the listener. An album that grows throughout its duration and leaves you wondering how this lot have escaped the mainstream recognition they deserve. They are certainly worthy of supporting higher profile artists.

Visit them here - https://www.facebook.com/prometheemusic For fans of: Hardcore Metal 4. When We Were Wolves – The more things change, the more we stay the same [EP] When We Were Wolves are a freshfaced quintet from South Wales. Not only are this band printing ‘Eastenders’ themed Dot Cotton t-shirts, which puts them at the top of the list in the fashion world, this five track EP is a brilliant piece of work for these lads.

Choosing the screamo/clean crossover sound, they are up against stiff competition in this category. That said, this release represents a good crack at making an impact from When We Were Wolves.

Visit them here - https://www.facebook.com/ whenwewerewolves1 For fans of: Bury Tomorrow, Cancer Bats 5. Guzzlemug – Nervously Counting Rosemary Beads [Album] This is by far one of the weirdest, yet frustratingly difficult albums to not listen to in its entirety. There are so many outrageous and twisted effects and sounds throughout, that it is hard to pick a particular highlight. Guzzlemug not only have a creative and memorable name, but it would also be hard to overlook them if they were gigging nearby, as I just don’t know what in the world they would be like

Sonic Shocks

in a live environment. A very interesting listening experience.

Visit them here - http://www.facebook.com/guzzlemug For fans of: Psychedelic metal

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Introducing

6. My Lyrical Mind – Untitled [EP] Solo artists Matthew Wood, who goes under the name ‘My Lyrical Mind’ has been creating music for the last few years and has put together an EP which is both ambient and thought-provoking.

His songs, if released by more established bands would surely go top ten. I am sure that Matthew Wood will be a name we are all very aware of by the end of 2013.

I think he should go under his own name, rather than ‘My Lyrical Mind’ though.

Visit him here - http://www.facebook.com/ MyLyricalMind For fans of: Radiohead, Coldplay, Ben Francis Leftwich 7. The Beatenpath – Solace [Album] An alternative, electronic driven duo who are certainly not following the trends set by most musicians in the spotlight today.

The Beatenpath is a collaboration between two sisters, whose father is the renowned Jerry Yester of Lovin’ Spoonful fame. There album Solace is a genuine music journey which you can’t help but become engrossed in. My personal favourite is the track entitled ‘Waiting’.

Visit them here - https://www.facebook.com/beatenpathmusic For fans of: Atmospheric songs with haunting vocals 8. Fhloston Paradise These lads were floating around cyberspace, hidden on Reverbnation. With their influences including punk-rock greats such as The Offspring, Green Day and Blink 182, you can imagine the kind of tunes Fhloston Paradise are pumping out. Whilst they don’t have any official releases out yet, the three tracks available online allow prospective fans to get a taste of what this unsigned lot are all about.

Visit them here - http://www.reverbnation.com/ fhlostonparadise For fans of: The Offspring, Green Day, Blink 182, Punk-rock 9. Owen Anthony For the first time since the magazines inception, it was finally time to feature a cool Jazz artist and one man to fill that void is Owen Anthony. A maestro at heart, who crafts instrumental, smooth expanses of work, effortlessly propelling his audience into a musical Zen. Together with an infectious rhythm line, Owen Anthony provides a welcome soundtrack away from the frantic lives we all lead.

Visit him here - http://www.reverbnation.com/ owenanthony For fans of: Chill-out, Lounge, Jazz 10. Apex – Hasta El Fin [Album] In the most unlikely of circumstances, I stumbled across an Hispanic, London based outfit, who are quietly carving their way through the unsigned scene. With a sound not too far from the likes of The Killers and The Kaiser Chiefs, they are throwing out some great tunes without the recognition they deserve. A refreshing listening experience.

Visit them here - https://www.facebook.com/apexmusic For fans of: Kaiser Chiefs, Killers, U2

• Who are ‘Reign of Fury’ and how would you describe yourselves to potential new fans?

Matt - The best heavy metal band you haven't heard of yet! Reign of Fury blend classic NWOBHM metal and thrash into a sound that is familiar yet still forging ahead!

Ed "Fury" Westlake - How do we describe ourselves? Rof is a very delicate blend of the music we all grew up listening to and played. Thrash and death metal and undertones of punk. The sound naturally has a punk feel through magic drumming. He used to be in a punk band for years. I forget what they were called but they were a great band. We are fans playing and writing for the fans of what I feel was the best era of metal, the 80's and early 90's. our fans make the band what it is and are part of the fury army. When we play live there's no divide. We are just a group of metal heads having a good night out.

Big love Fury.

• You say the 80’s Thrash and Metal genre has influenced you. Why this genre and do you feel there is a niche market for its revival?

Matt - it's the melting pot of all of our influences and what we love to listen to and play, the reason the band got together was that we all loved the same kind of stuff. I don't care about revivals or trends I play what I love I think the rest of RoF feel the same. We'd be playing this anyway revival or no revival.

Bison - For us I thinks it’s been such an overwhelming influence Because it’s what’s we listened to while growing up, these are the bands we wanted to be in. Punk and metal are what shaped us as kids and it’s what has shaped this band because of that • Which songs from that era would sum up each member of the band?

Matt - hmm such a tough question actually, so we went for one song that would sum up the band as a whole. At every hurdle or obstacle we improvise, adapt and overcome so we are all "Troopers" so the Iron Maiden classic would def sum us up • You have recently released your latest album ‘World Detonation’. How did you approach the writing and recording of this record?

Matt - we had previously released our 4 track EP so had a game plan with what we wanted to achieve from our debut album, we felt we had to improve on the actual recording of the EP and general sound.

The songwriting for World Detonation had pretty much been done before we hit the studio, only some melody lines & lyrics for a few songs were left to do so Bison (vox) had more work cut out and Ed did some guitar solos from scratch in the studio but i think it all came together well and we are proud of what we have done so far on the album and EP. Everything Reign of Fury do is self recorded , mixed and with the help of a few close friends mastered and distributed so it's a real network of friends helping get the music out there we put out our own records from start to finish.

• What has the feedback been like so far from press, fans, family?

Matt - the feedback has been pretty amazing way over what we ever intended we could achieve with a self produced EP, album and videos with zero budget and a close knit army of friends and fans helping us behind the scenes.

Bison - Incredibly positive from everyone, we are all very proud of the record and its great to see others enjoying it.

• How do your songs translate live? And are there any personal favourites for both yourselves and the fans?

Bison - They translate well in my eyes, a bit heavier maybe but still keeping our signature sound. As far as a personal favorite I enjoy singing the whole set but it would have to be the album title track "world detonation", it's very easy to lose yourself in that song.

Matt - I think Psycho Intentions is a fan favourite live as that was the song that broke us on Scuzz TV with our first DIY video so they know that one more than the newer stuff at the moment, • What are you tour prospects for 2013?

Matt - i have set up a mini tour in Belgium / Germany March 2013 inc playing the Wizzfest and I'm trying to get us on to some more festivals over here as we played Bloodstock 2012 and went down really well. We have a few other shows planned so will update on the facebook page when we have details • What are you feelings about the music industry? What lessons have you learned so far?

Bison - The music industry is a minefield but luckily this time we have made some amazing friends and I think that’s the most important lesson, learn who your real friends are it will save you a lot of hassle in the long run.

Matt - the music industry is a bit of a fantasy really and very odd . I did tour managing for metal & hardcore bands from 1996 to 2004ish and got to tour with some major artists and leant a great deal of stuff not to do as an up and coming band but will save that for the book ;) .

• Where can we find out more about you online? www.facebook.com/reignoffury www.youtube.com/rofhq www.reignoffury.co.uk www.reverbnation.com/reignoffury • Any parting words for the Sonic Shocks readers....

Bison - If you like melodic thrash with hints of nwobhm then check us out.

Matt - if you see me out and about mines a cider :) Interview by Reign of Fury members Bison Steed - Vox Heavy Matt Earl - Bass

London, the O2 Arena 26th November 2012