SONIC SHOCKS Issue 29 - October 2014

Issue 29 - October 2014

withn w e i v va intetir n Sulli Jus

in love with

Gavin McInally on the rise and fall of UK Festivals

JOHN C

poet an O O P E R-C d nation L al treaAs R K E ure

The Real Thing

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P 3: TRAMPOLENE - Jack Jones

Interview and photos by Cristina Massei

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P. 32: REVOCATION - David Davidson Interview by Matt Dawson

P. 9: NEW MODEL ARMY - Justin Sullivan

P. 36: VESANIA - Orion

Interview John Morgan - live photo C. Massei

Interview by Matt Dawson

P. 12: PEACE - Harry & Dominic

P. 38: BERLIN FESTIVAL 2014

Interview and photos by Cristina Massei

Article and photos by Nelly Loriaux

P. 16: ROCK'N'ROLL MUSEUM - John C Clarke

P. 42: LIVE: THE LIBERTINES

By Paul Roundhill

Review and photos by Cristina Massei

P. 18: WILD SMILES

P. 44: LIVE: THE MOONS - ROAM

Interview and photos by Mark Fletcher

Interview and photos by Mark Fletcher

P, 20: IN-FLIGHT SAFETY

P. 45: LIVE: DIETER MEIER

Interview by Cristina Massei

Interview and photos by Nelly Loriaux

P. 22: DIRTY HEADS - Jared & Matt

P 46: DAMNATION - Gavin McInally

Interview & Jared and Matt photo by C.Massei

Interview by Matt Dawson

P. 26: THE GOLDEN AGE OF BURLESQUE

By Sophia Disgrace

P. 28: YELLOWCARD - Ryan Key

MAIN COVER PHOTO Cristina Massei

Interview and main photo by Cristina Massei CONTACT US EDITOR IN CHIEF & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Cristina Massei thewickedwitch@sonicshocks.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Matt Dawson - cygnus@sonicshocks.com Nelly Loriaux - nelly@sonicshocks.com US CORRESPONDENT: Denise Britt - denise@sonicshocks.com

Contributors on this issue WRITERS:

General enquiries, review requests and unsolicited material: info@sonicshocks.com

Mark Fletcher, John Morgan, Paul Roundhill, Sophia Disgrace, Cristina Massei, Matt Dawson, Nelly Loriaux

Advertising enquiries and info:

PHOTOGRAPHERS:

PLEASE NOTE: We listen to everything but - often in your own interest - we don’t always review it...

Cristina Massei, Mark Fletcher, Nelly Loriaux

advertising@sonicshocks.com

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Jack Jones introduces your new favourite band It comes out Jack Jones and I are pret-t y much neighbours. We arrange to meet in a tiny Italian coffee bar in Hornsey to talk about Trampolene and their beginning journey to world domination.

I discovered Trampolene on YouTube and it wasn’t just one song that brought me here: I was surprised by each and all of them, and that doesn’t happen too often lately. I was, let’s specify, pleasantly surprised. I was excited by a band that – finally - sounded NEW. Did they somehow unlock the secret to emerge from the general music mediocrity? And if so, what is it?

Jack looks even younger in person than he does on video. Young and a bit shy. ‘Would you like a cup of tea? I was about to get one…’.

Slightly intimidated by my camera and confessing it’s his first time being interviewed alone, my first question doesn’t help put him at ease... With all that is on offer these days when everyone seems to just wake up and start a band, what makes you different to all the others? It’s a long pause, a sip from the tea cup, a smile. More silence. Maybe he hates me and just wants to get up and go right now.

I like that you don’t have a readymade answer! We both laugh and Jack starts to relax, as I move to a different question, still secretly aiming to get that first one answered.

Let’s start from the beginning, from when you got the band together…

It was kind of a gradual thing – I didn’t wake up one day and decide, everything happens step by step like tiny gradual movements; over the years became this new rock and roll thing called Trampolene.

You’ve always been into music though?

What’s your first music related memory?

Yeah, I’ve been loving music from my earliest youth – the first time I can really remember hearing music was when I was living in Australia and my mother was driving us across the outback blasting Manic Street Preachers’ ‘Design For Life’, you know the lyric ‘We don’t talk about love, we only want to get drunk’, she would scream that out, turn to me in the car and say “That describes your father perfectly!”

How old were you?

Maybe about 5-6 or something.

Was she right? [laughs]

© Cristina Massei

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You’d been fighting cancer from a young age…

It was a bone tumour that wasn’t cancer, I was lucky that it was rare – I hate the word – but there were people like me who weren’t so lucky, I didn’t lose my leg which I thought was going to happen, they managed to get rid of it after the third operation. I spent a few years in different hospitals trying to figure out what was the problem because no one ever really knew.

Then came Crohn’s…

The lightning striking the bowels department [laughs] I go for a full treatment every month at the Royal Free – a transfusion so I sit there all day and they wire me up to this thing, I lie down and read something.

I’m sure you’re used to it but do your health problems affect being on the road?

I think it does, I mean I can’t drink, smoke or do any of those kinds of things that old rock bands did in the 70s. I’m only in the band for the music, but I have Wayne who takes that side of life for me.

So you may be the first rock star hiding tea in a bottle of JD? Maybe! I love a good cup of tea and a slice of toast, that’s all I need.

Your songs have a bit of everything in there: some remind me of Prodigy, then there’s ballads, guitars, spoken words... All the videos on YouTube look very spontaneous, is it the same for the song writing?

Completely yeah, there’s no other way to say it. [clicks fingers 3 times] I do everything fast: eat, walk, talk – maybe not as much today but that’s what I am, I do everything fast.

Artwork Of Youth – the spoken word piece – what does it mean to you? Are all the stories and characters in the song true?

It’s hard to think about it now because each line is so profound, a story that took years and years to write. They’re all real, I don’t know whether anyone’s heard it really other than friends, sometimes I listen to it and laugh, I think of it as a tragic comedy – in fact that’s the best way to describe us probably.

That ends with you were the first to come out… Thank fuck…

Yeah it was – it’s hard, when you live somewhere [Swansea] small like that – when the world and somewhere like London feels mythical, even though we’re so far away you still feel like you’re on the outside of a world that someone else has created, you’re just a stat that people talk about but don’t have to live in.

There’s another track called ‘Swansea to Hornsey’ that also ends with ‘Send my love to Nobody’ – how do you feel about Swansea now that you’ve left it?

I think of it as defining – it defined me when I look back, the things that happened – I just wanted to be a professional footballer as a young kid, you think you’re the lord of the working class type thing, that’s the way you transcend your surroundings. I was much angrier about Swansea when I was in Swansea and now I think… I know Dylan Thomas said it was a ‘lovely, ugly town’ but I don’t think of it as ugly anymore – I think of it as something else.

Part of you maybe?

Yes, it is.

How long have you been in London?

We’ve been here for five years, maybe more.

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Always north of the river?

We have – we lived in my auntie’s attic for about six months, the three of us shared a bedroom and then we got a little flat together – we set up the living room like a rehearsal space.

Would you ever move south of the river?

I’d move anywhere as long as it got a sofa!

There’s this big thing with Londoners about north or south of the river…

I don’t think I’ve ever been south of the river to be honest!

There you go, see? You’re a North-Londoner! [both laugh] You have an EP out, Alcohol Kiss, which you call a pocket album – what’s a ‘pocket album’?

I find it more exciting. Bands always do this kind of normal thing where they release EPs in the build up for the album. I don’t want people to have to wait for the album to be excited about US – there’s so much more for people to discover about our band and the pocket album is a way of sharing more. Instead of our music being an MP3 or whatever you get a wristband that snaps off into an USB, and on the USB isn’t just the album – there’s posters for the gigs, a little note from me, some of Wayne’s paintings - a whole world basically.

We’ve got the vinyl which is ‘classic’ and everyone loves it then there’s this which is all about looking forward. It seems mad to me that there’s not more of it, a technology that’s not being utilised. No one can know what’s on them – when I go to the cinema I hate watching trailers! When we put out another pocket album I can put anything on it in the world – I could put naked pictures of myself on there, not that hackers would be interested in that! [laughs] There’s no limit, it keeps it beyond the music which is a passing interest to other people. I believe in some ways Trampolene is not just a band - it’s a way of life. That is what it was when came up here, and it’s what we’ve set up, even though there’s still a long way to go.

How far do you want to go?

I want to climb mountains with my feet on the ground as they say but who knows?

What’s more difficult? Climbing mountains or keeping your feet on the ground?

Well when your feet are glued to the ground and you’re fed up of nothing being the only thing you can do, for me keeping my feet on the ground isn’t even a question or thing that comes into my head, it’s just like a clear ride, I could fly up the mountain with my feet on the ground.

What about your bandmates? Do you feel now that you’re getting some popularity and hype that you’re all still on the same page?

We’re on the same page of the same book on the same shelf with the same unwritten story you’re about to read.

It’s hard for me to really explain – we’re like brothers of this breathless thing, I consider them some of the greatest musicians that have ever lived and now it’s just up to us to be able to keep going and prove that. When you see us live you’ll understand.

What can we expect from your live show?

It’s funny – it’s become more a concept almost – this lad leaving Swansea and going to make a life for himself and his friends, that’s how the show starts when I come on and do the poem, everyone goes fucking berserk then we all go home and pretend life has more to offer us than an expensive Saturday! Sometimes people don’t know what to do

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I’m full of hope and love for everyone but it’s like the only way to address those things is through a pen. © Cristina Massei

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© Cristina Massei

Trampolene could be almost anything. It can’t just be a piece of writing, it can be a painting, a song, drum solo, guitar riff – it could be anything. That’s what life is – not just two emotions but a million things.

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because it’s not usual for someone to come on stage saying a poem then playing guitar!

Did you ever have a moment in the beginning when you thought that maybe you should do something else?

No because I always felt I was doing something important.

The thing is every moment with the band is like a chance for me to get to know my friends more and also just finding a way to connect my songs to their talents and a way to learn myself better in a way that feels true. Every moment is kind of a chance in a fucked up way. Every failure is another route to success. Don’t know if it’s going to do any good but we’ll find out won’t we?

Is there going to be an album? You’ve got so much material that you could possibly make three…

Yeah but the thing is we’re a band that, for all the media that’s available to us, we run it to its maximum ability; we could write a song and put it up like that [clicks fingers], why wait? People wait and they try to make the most out of this video and use the same one for six months, pumping the same videos around and playing the same gigs. The most successful YouTube pages are the people that continually post content and are sharing. I look at it as my own personal page.

But to answer your question yes, there will be one album absolutely.

So when this album comes is it going to be about putting together what you already have, or is it going to be a moment when you create 10-14 new songs out of nowhere and put them out together?

It depends on what happens basically. In my mind there’s a few different ways it could be done and whatever is done has to be absolutely like nothing else, otherwise I’m not really interesting doing it myself. I’m not driven by money or fame; I’m driven by the idea of the ambition to do something exceptional.

So do you feel you can reach success and by that I mean reaching as many people as possible without going through the usual rules, labels and such?

I don’t know if that’s possible. I’d love to be helped though; if all the label does is help put you out there I think they’re fucking awesome!

What if you had to compromise?

I don’t think someone like that would be interested in a band like us, and if time goes on and that changes, that would become less interesting to people and they can tell.

People like to discover new bands and that’s what happened for Trampolene – people have just naturally talked about us like old-fashioned word of mouth, it hasn’t had the money bands have had pumped into them but if that was to happen I’d be chuffed as well.

I imagine then you want to do this for a living.

At the moment I’m just dossing around doing whatever I can as backhanders, putting together the last scrapings from the bottom of the pot. For me it’s hard to think about it being a living, we’ll just have to see. It already is a living, I just don’t get paid for it!

I’m going to write that one down!

Anyone can be ‘cool’ and that happens all the time but it takes more practice to be awesome, to be things that I visualise as being.

Let’s talk about your Spotify playlists.

I’m glad you asked about that – why don’t more bands do that? It’s like there’s an arrogance – bands are arrogant to their fans. Trampolene is about breaking down the barriers.

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Playlists are just fun.

I love the Rock and Roll one!

I think my favourite is the Days one.

You all pick them together?

Yeah, it takes AGES to pick them, we’re all trying to think of a good theme!

Are there any arguments when you’re deciding the playlists?

Nah, we don’t like that because music is music to us, the way we play is a philosophy from where we come from, it’s not just like ‘oh that’s cool.’ It’s completely who we are – shows a way of who we are to people.

Kyle listens to classical music, he’s got perfect pitch, plays the piano and drums. Wayne’s the same – painting all day listening to whatever. It’s not just about one thing, it never is. Everyone has an open mind to almost anything – Trampolene could be almost anything. It can’t just be a piece of writing, it can be a painting, a song, drum solo, guitar riff – it could be anything. That’s what life is – not just two emotions but a million things.

Do you realize you just answered my first question?

We got there in the end! [we both laugh] Well this is the first time I’ve done this on my own. When it’s the three of us together we just talk shit and take the piss!

As you said you’re a lot more than just the songs, and I feel there’s a lot to discover.

That’s what you hope, all you can hope that what you create is discovered in the best way possible. I hope anyone that discovers us has a good day.

What is the most rock and roll thing you’ve done?

I suppose when I was a kid I was in my art class and the teacher was asking us to draw Van Gogh and I was just daydreaming as always so she sent me out of class, usually I’d argue with the teachers if I got sent out – give them loads of backchat because I was just an angry child at everything.

I walked out but I had a plan – she used to park her car outside the door so I went into the car park, took off all my clothes, jumped on her car and started screaming I want to be a woman!

Everyone in the class was looking out of the window like ‘What the fuck?’ and I was just standing there screaming then I got expelled but I did let back in after a while because no other schools would take me and one teacher had a soft spot for me. The next class we were copying The Kiss by Gustav Klimt and she didn’t ask me to even bother.

What’s the least rock and roll thing?

What is not rock and roll? I can’t think of anything mundane I’ve ever done. To me what people think is rock and roll I think as a normal, interesting life but different, a way of life.

Punk’s not even a genre of music to me now, they allow people to be weird and you find out when you get to know someone everyone’s weird, no one’s normal – that’s what I found, we’re always constantly led to believe but then art/ writing/punk/rock and roll – good, brave writing that gives us freaks, weirdos and slightly odd people a chance to be able to be who we are, not feel like you’re suppressed by anything, to feel delimited [as opposed to unlimited].

You talk a lot about anger – what makes you angry today?

A lot of the anger I feel is just the kind of feeling that Nicky Wire calls ‘working class rage’ that he feels some people have. When he talks about it something happens inside me, I have an affinity with what he says – a deep anger I can’t understand, a margin of me, I feel like I’m being marginalized. Of course I don’t want to hurt anyone – I’m full of hope

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and love for everyone but it’s like the only way to address those things is through a pen, this pen.

There’s just so many things – another thing that frustrates me is how long new things take to come through – before a new idea can be alive and before it can be appreciated it almost seems like a new generation has to come, it’s not even a new idea to those people. I just love new thoughts and ideas, they feed me.

There’s another song I want to ask you about – You Do Nothing For Me. The Guardian mentioned it’s a dig at the Gallaghers…

That’s clever of them, it gets people talking. It’s written openly with references to The Libertines and Oasis - What A Waster and Supersonic - but it’s also a bit of just a normal relationship/breakup song, with Wayne Thomas absolutely nailing the bass and Mr Williams absolutely nailing the drums!

But it kind of calls them to leave the spotlight to you…

It’s more like’there’s a new rock and roll called Trampolene and it’s time to give it a listen’, that’s what that line is. It’s not like ‘I want the spotlight, give it to me’. This thing has been created called Trampolene which is a combination of all this stuff – Prodigy, Libertines – and this is what a fuckup of that generation sounds like now. Almost.

So it’s kind of a push to discover this new thing fast…

Yeah, exactly, faster than it usually takes.

What’s the best way to discover you?

Everything about us is live – that is what we are, a thing that I can’t explain. It truly blows me away as a person. If you see us play, that’s where it’ll all start to make sense. Some films you see you don’t understand first time, and all we’ve done is chuck videos onto YouTube and all that. Otherwise go onto that or our Facebook and Twitter pages. But we all feel like shit unless we’re playing live – that’s the general rule.

What’s coming up live?

We’ve got gigs at Manchester, Birmingham… I don’t know any dates, I’m quite shit at that! We do an announced gig in Camden tomorrow, in the Hawley, we’ll probably announce it at 5 o’clock. We used to do gigs at the Great Northern unannounced. I like that kind of things. I used to go to the twelve o’clock showing at the cinema so I thought it’d be great to put a video up at 12 o’clock on Friday night – probably not a great idea because everybody is getting wrecked at that time on a Friday night, but I didn’t care because there was probably some weirdo who like would watch, even if it was just one person I didn’t mind. I like doing things like that, I don’t like being so predictable, that’s what bores me about bands in general. Some bands know what they’re doing a year later, I don’t know what I’m doing later on today!

Is there any other bands that you find unpredictable © Cristina Massei

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enough to be worth buying a ticket and going to the show?

I did enjoy Slaves, I got the whole idea; I’d buy a ticket for Jamie T if I could, he seems genuine. Generally though I’d probably prefer to go to the cinema or something – unless obviously there’s The Libertines or something like that.

Are you going to be at Alexandra Palace?

I hope so. I’ve met Carl [Barat] and he’s the most gentlemanly person – tweeted our videos and been a real supporter, it’s not easy for people to support a band in our position, which is not signed and have all that kind of machinery behind them.So thanks to him, Tom Robinson and Nick also from the Kaiser Chiefs for doing that.

Anything else you would like to say?

I think we’re good, although I could be here talking for hours!

In fact, I turn the recorder off but the chat continues. And Jack’s first words after I press ‘stop’ are ‘do you think I’m deluded? Thinking that we might be going somewhere?’ I laugh. ‘Hell no, or I wouldn’t be here! I realize my first question was a bit unwelcoming, but I just wanted to know if you realized what makes you unique’. And I hope it’s the one thing they’ll never lose: an open mind. A mind that allows them to feel a song, write a song, put it straight out there – forget the one album a year preceded by an EP and two singles, possibly released in September. How many bands do that, if any? And you wonder where the freshness, the emotions have gone?

Maybe Trampolene will never make a penny this way; or maybe this is what is holding the others back? Spontaneity.

Pete Doherty keeps selling out and fans are not even sure he’ll show up. A perfectly planned album can top the charts, but only a genuine artist – a genuine person – can get the kind of following that will stand the test of time.

So real it’s unreal. Keep up the good work Trampolene! See you around Hornsey sometimes…

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“Between Dog and Wolf”, released last September, received some of New Model Army’s best ever reviews in their 34 year career and was certainly their fastest selling album in 20 years, charting top 30 in UK and Germany; the major European tour that followed reflected that success. When the second leg had to be postponed due to drummer Michael Dean illness, the band used that time to record 6 brand new songs for a mini studio album to accompany the upcoming live recording of the Between Dog and Wolf Tour.

‘Between Wine and Blood’ was once more mixed by Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool) in L.A. with original artwork from Joolz Denby and released as a limited edition double CD hardback book pack, a double vinyl gatefold album and digitally.

As the band prepared to finally perform the postponed European shows in October, plus some special double set “Between Wine And Blood” shows in selected European cities in December, John Morgan has a chat with Justin Sullivan about New Model Army’s latest achievements.

Hi Justin, it’s a pleasure having you on our pages again!

With new album ‘Between Wine and Blood’, you’ve taken an unexpected path, issuing it with 6 new studio tracks and 11 live cuts. Can you explain the thinking behind that?

We were always intending to do a live album involving the Between Dog And Wolf tracks. It was very much a ‘studio’ album and we assumed that the live versions

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would take on a life of their own and would be interesting in the own right. We also had a couple of unfinished songs from those sessions so we thought to finish them and include them. It just so happened that in the process we wrote and recorded four more.

You worked with Joe Barresi again on this one; can you tell us how that relationship has developed from the first time?

It seems like Joe’s part of the family now – and it was easy and a thoroughly enjoyable experience to go back to work with him on Between Wine and Blood. His mixes have a lot of clarity – a massive scale and yet still full of space. I think his abilities really compliment our music.

The last album ‘Between Dog and Wolf’ was described as a change in direction for the band at the time. Now you have lived and toured with it for a while, do you still feel that that’s the case?

We didn’t set out to do anything radically different – only that we wanted to experiment with layered drums and therefore we had to think about how to make space for them – sometimes by losing the rhythm guitars or bass. But there’s not much there that we haven’t touched on before. I think, though, that we did manage to make an album that holds together very well, where every track compliments every other and there was an overall mood running through it which isn’t true of all our albums.

As with any band with a 30+ year heritage, you’ve

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released some albums that have been more commercially successful than others, and I’m sure you yourself have your own highlights from the bands previous efforts. Have NMA released their definitive album yet, or is that still to come?

That’s not really for us to judge. We’ve always been a band looking to the future and to new ideas and it’s important never to get stuck anywhere.

You’ve released the new album via various formats including vinyl. How did you enjoy holding a new NMA record again?

Great. Vinyl just sounds better, much more real and three dimensional and Joolz’s artwork for these two albums is so brilliant that it deserves to be seen in a proper size.

I understand that you have a new magazine release to accompany the album and the tour, can you tell us a bit about it?

It’s just lots of stuff written by us, people close to us and other fellow artists covering a wide range of ideas and aspects of our music.

You’re back in the UK for some December shows, which coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Vengence album; will this be reflected in the live set?

We don’t know yet. The 30th Anniversary shows in 2010 were necessarily retrospective but at the moment we have a lot of forward momentum. Mostly we’re into what we’re doing now and we’ve never felt the need to give an audience what they think they want from us.

From 220 or so songs we’ll pick want we want to play, the stuff we’re currently feeling (which can be from any era). Strangely, right now I feel closer to the Vengeance era material than to the better known Thunder & Consolation and Impurity era but that could change tomorrow.

You’ve been busy on the live front this year, any particular highlights for you personally?

There was one particular Festival in Brittany in the summer we all really enjoyed but mostly just having Mi-

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chael back after his enforced absence in the first half of the year has been great. Generally we’re really ‘on it’ as a live band at the moment.

It’s been a while since you last released a solo album, do you think we’ll get to see another at some point in the future?

I’d really like to, but there never seems to be time.

Having been the focal point of the band for so long, do you feel the need to lead from the front with regards to writing new material or is that something that comes from all parts of the band?

I don’t feel the need to do anything except write.

People sometimes assume NMA is mine because I’m the only surviving member of the original band (actually that was true from 1985) but in fact we still operate and argue and squabble like a proper band – a slightly awkward amalgamation of characters who just come together to make something great together. Musical ideas come from all of us.

What makes the “perfect” song for you?

A combination of a lyrical idea that has a sense of ‘story’ or real situation that can be universally understood, combined with a memorable and moving melody. Oh – and delivered with some finesse and total belief.

I heard that the band took a backseat to the upcoming film about NMA; have you seen the final edit yet? And, if so, do you think it gives the viewer an honest insight into the band past and present?

It’s not our film at all, it’s Matt Reid’s personal version of a small part of the NMA story. I’d say that it’s selective and half-true – but then all versions of all stories are like that. It wouldn’t be possible to tell even 10% of the whole, true story in 80 minutes.

What are your hopes and aspirations for the future?

To go on making music that moves people. That’s about it really.

Thanks for your time and see you in December!

October 2014

Š Cristina Massei

Sonic Shocks - Issue 29

...a slightly awkward amalgamation of characters who just come together to make something great together.

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After progressing from NME Stage to Main at Reading/ Leeds in the space of a year – and with only one album released to their name – Peace are about to play a monster gig, as they open for the mighty Libertines on the first night of their comeback 3 days residency at Alexandra Palace. Fear not, they’re about to show the sold out audience why they deserve anything coming to them with an excellent live performance.

Before getting ready, Harry and Dominic find 15 minutes to talk to Sonic Shocks, in the sumptuous backstage area at Ally Pally. Aren’t they just lovely? Good they didn’t go for those office jobs in the end…

Guys, welcome to Alexandra Palace! Are you excited to play here tonight?

Harry: Very much so.

Favourite song by The Libertines?

H: Death On The Stairs.

D: What A Waster.

You had a gig at The 100 Club recently which was quite eventful…

H: It’s just very small and there were a lot of people in there and it was very exciting – everyone was up for it.

D: Almost surprisingly so – I don’t know why but it seems to have been a while since we’ve done something like that.

H: Yeah we haven’t done such a small show like that in quite a while and it kind of caught us off guard in a way.

D: I think everyone just stormed on stage at the end.

I heard there was a bit of an invasion.

Both: Yeah!

H: It was our last song anyway and we had to like cool off stage.

D: You did the last bit acapella didn’t you.

H: All of the guitars kind of broke but it was very exciting.

You’ve got another small show coming up at Hospital Club – competition to get in right?

D: Yeah, we’re doing a small show in Birmingham as well – free.

A lot of nice stuff has been happening – you’ve done Reading as well on the main stage. I saw you guys last year as well.

H: Wicked. Last year was really fun too. I like to keep the balance – for all the big shows you do, do some small

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ones as well.

What do you prefer though?

I like both – that’s why we do both because they’re very different – when you’re doing big shows you miss doing small shows and when you’re doing the small shows you’re like I want to go and do a big show, it’s like doing Alexandra Palace then the Rainbow in Birmingham in the same weekend – you get the best of both.

D: It’s the same principle as studio vs. live you know?

You enjoy both but you kind of crave the other one after doing one of them.

H: We’re indecisive and we want everything!

Talking about studio – there’s a second album due. Do we have a name or release date?

H: There’s no name or release date yet but I think it’s coming out in January.

You’ve got a second single ‘Lost On Me’ due out on Monday…

H: Yes, we’re just putting out as much as we can.

How is this album going to compare to In Love?

H: I think it’s maybe a bit more conscious if that makes sense in every sort of way – the recording of it, the writing of it. In Love was improvised to some extent whereas there are still elements of improvisation on this album but it’s a lot more considered with purpose, we’re really writing a record and didn’t have long to do it, we really wanted to write and create in intense ways so that’s what we did.

Did you all contribute to the song writing?

H: I just write on the road mostly because it’s just – I think it’s the case with most groups – it just always works, I’ll write lyrics and songs and then we’ll just bring them to the table and play them.

D: Put it together as a band.

The first single that came out was about money. So that brings up the question – what’s the plan? Are you doing this for fun, to pay the bills or hoping to get your own private jet someday?

H: Well I don’t think we’re doing it to pay the bills at the moment!

D: If we were doing it for the money we’d have stopped a while ago I think.

H: Every time we do make a bit of money we spend it

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I remember at the time being shut up – egotistical maniac but we did it

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on doing free shows basically!

D: I feel like however much money you have you WILL spend so it becomes irrelevant – it’s definitely not the purpose behind our existence.

H: To answer the question though – yes I would like a jet if that’s possible!

D: Our manager’s not making enough phone calls!

H: Jet and a tortoise.

So if it wasn’t the money how did you guys decide to get Peace together?

H: Well all of us share an ability in music and the love for it, we want to do it together and then something else we all share is a lack of…

D: Wanting to do anything else!

H: Or any sort of ability other than that whether it be academic, athletic…

D: I don’t know about that - athletics is probably my second coming!

H: Do you feel like you’re academic?

D: No! H: See I don’t think I’m very athletic…

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D: You’re good with your sums though.

H: I can get a GCSE or two if I wanted to.

D: I’ve got loads if that’s what you’re getting at!

Even with the GCSEs there’s a repulsion for the day job thing?

H: If I was really passionate about working in an office – which I tried – I’d still be doing it but I think this was more fun.

Can you have passion about working in an office?

D: I think so.

H: Doug [Castle] really enjoyed it!

D: You become passionate about your work I think.

H: A lot of people don’t but we might as well give it a try when we’re young and it started to work out then.

None of us were expecting it to be like we’ll become the biggest band in the world and we’re not – yet! We just thought let’s give it a try!

D: Mind you from the word go we were always ambitious – I think it’s quite transparent when people say they’re not bothered with success when they commit so much time and effort into doing it because obviously you are. We started because we wanted to start.

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© Cristina Massei Well I think with one album out and playing twice at Reading – second time being on the Main Stage that’s quite an achievement. Did you expect that so quick?

H: Not in the beginning but I guess once the ball got rolling we were like we can really do this, if we worked hard we can really push this.

D: Once we did it the first time then all we wanted to do was do it the second time.

H: As I said on the day we finished I wanted to play the Main Stage next year.

D: I remember at the time being shut up – egotistical maniac but we did it!

Now you’ve done the main stage at Reading what’s the next dream gig?

H: I want to headline Reading/Leeds.

D: That’d be nice. I’d like to do a show here though…

What do you enjoy the most about the job and what do you hate?

D: I don’t think there is really a down side for me, there’s like moments where you just kind of go ‘Oh for fuck’s sake!’ You get over it.

H: You play music pretty much every day, you get free

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clothes, girls fancy you that didn’t before…

D: That is true!

H: I really don’t think there’s a downside – I’m trying to find one.

Talking of clothes – I’ve got pics of you at Reading last year wearing a leopard print coat – who inspires your image and where do you shop?

H: I go all over the place – I used to just have clothes people gave me or I’d borrow – mostly girls so I was always dressed quite feminine but now I don’t really know. Our first support tour was with the Manic Street Preachers and looking at Nicky Wire every night I just thought he’s got some serious style going on. I just go all over the shops.

I’ve heard your fans are quite passionate – tattoos etc. How would you describe a Peace fan?

H: Passionate – people tend to be really into it but there’s no particular demographic. When we did our first big tour in the UK it was really strange because there were middle age men with really young kids, boys dressed in fur coats, guys in tracksuits singing along. It was a weird thing – I think because we’ve got diversity in our sound it appeals to different types of people.

D: I think you actually see the effects of touring with different types of artists as well – we did that NME tour and doing a tour like that with Miles Kane you start to see people in trench coats.

H: A lot of bands have one thing that their fans are, we’ve got so many different fans.

D: It’s nice.

Is there a band or artist you would have done anything like that for?

H: Every band! I used to change my mind all the time.

Name 3…

H: The first band I fell in love with was The Who, I just wanted to be in The Who – I said to my dad I wanted a parka then Led Zeppelin – I started dressing like a wizard! I went through a heavy Blink 182 phase.

D: I wasn’t really into current bands until much recently because I loved the classics really – in that way I really don’t have something style wise to kind of hone in on.

H: I’m thinking about getting a Bastille tattoo though.

D: I think I missed that bus of following a current trend – I used to wear brown cords, bandana and a hemp shirt!

Last question: tonight if you get locked in a dressing room with Pete Doherty what would you talk about?

H: Oasis, he’s a massive Oasis fan.

Why we should check out the next single?

H: I think it’s another flavour that we haven’t done before and probably won’t do again.

Anything else you would like to add?

H: Don’t Worry Be Happy!

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By Paul Roundhill

rock’n’roll museum presents

JOHN COOPER-CLARKE poet and national treasure

John Cooper-Clarke first loomed large onto my radar screen sometime in the early days of punk and newwave around 1976. I read an article in the Melody Maker or N.M.E. announcing his arrival in terms of a latter day British Bob Dylan from up north. A poet no less who somehow was successfully emerging onto the Rock scene, the music scene, a rarity in fact.

He performed a stream of rhyming witticisms backed by a wall of psychedelic rock music courtesy of backing band “The Invisible Girls”.

Most Northerners in those days seemed to work as miners. John was no exception but his background wasn’t in the coal mines, it was more like the amphetamines.

Good natured, an avuncular source of endless, genuinely funny jokes that never descended into the politically incorrect, he seemed to have his roots in Northern working-men’s clubs and further back to the golden age of Variety Theatre and Music Hall.

innocence and naivety of the embodiment of what was increasingly appearing to be a pre-women’s liberation little-girl fantasy. The thought of it was hilarious and I very much regret failing to follow up his suggestion.

I used to run a 1960s vintage clothes stall called HiTak in Carnaby Street Flea Market and I specialised in original mohair suits that I would buy from Brick Lane and Portobello Road Markets. In the 80s it was still possible to pick up original mod suits at street markets for a few pounds each and I could turn an honest penny re-selling these museum items for £25 or £50. Bespoke, hand-made mohair in two-tone tonic, the very best examples now are a permanent part of the Victoria and Albert’s collection of historic fashion.

There was one suit in my shop that no-one could fit into. It was a beauty, petrol blue and simply too tight for anyone to put on; one day John came into my shop and his eyes lit upon the suit. He immediately tried it on and it fitted him perfectly as though it had been made for him.

I first had the pleasure of meeting The man is (no disrespect) a human stick dhill © Paul Roun personally this national treasure at a insect, an animated twiglet, a walking talking, party in North London. He had an idea. living pipe-cleaner. When he turns side-ways There were in those days a chain of high on he would become invisible if it wasn’t for the street shops called Pronuptia which sold wedding conk, the bouffant back-combed hair-do, the Ray-Bans dresses and their window display would feature and (last-time-I-looked) bright yellow winkle pickers. mannequins fitted out in the white frothy concoctions If he were to share his secrets with weight-watchers that were their staple item of trade. John suggested anonymous he could give up the poetry and retire to his that I might be interested in photographing from the yacht. He prefers however to endlessly tour and delight street through the shop window him lurking around successive generations of audiences. amongst these fantastic creations. I imagined him in a tight black suit like an elongated sinister spider in sunThis feature is brought to you by “JOHN COOPERglasses - a vision which somehow playfully mocked the CLARKE FOR POET LAUREATE”

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Š Paul Roundhill

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Mark talks to Chris from three piece Wild Smiles backstage prior to their set at Madam Jojo’s. Hailing from Winchester in Hampshire, we have Chris Peden on guitar and vocals, Joe Peden on bass and Ben Cook on drums.

The name Wild Smiles, where does that originate from?

There was a band called ‘Lovvers’ that I found on iTunes and they had a song called Wild Smiles. I liked it and it stuck.

The evolution of the band makes for interesting reading. Can you expand on the story?

Me and Joe are Brothers so that’s where that relationship comes from because we’ve known each other for a long time. We had been looking for a drummer for a while and my Dad was walking through the streets of Winchester and there was a drumming busker. My Dad asked him if he knew of any drummers and the busker guy recommended Ben. I got in contact with Ben through stalking Facebook but I eventually found him.

And prior to this happening, there is what appears to be an emotional explosion happening in your life. Did that influence the focus on putting together the new line up? (Chris had a split with his former band and whilst in a depression over that, his girlfriend left him!)

It helped because we were all focussed on doing things full time as we had nothing better to do.

Where does your inspiration for your music and lyrics come from?

Our lyrics are inspired by real events where other bands write about fictional events or situations. Others paint from their mind where we paint from experience. I have to write about what’s really happening, I can’t just make up any story. But I also tend to focus on negative things and subsequently end up writing about negative things.

Is that because you can emphasise more emotion in more sad things?

I guess so. But I’m just the type of person that tends to focus more on negative things really.

OK, so what about your music because other press has labelled you sounding like many different bands and genres from the Beach Boys to the Clash. Where’s you musical influence derived?

We’ve been compared to nearly every band under the sun so it’s a weird thing. I definitely hear influences of all the bands mentioned because they are all my favourite bands and the bands favourite bands. But I take that as a compliment because if we are half as good as any of those bands, we must be doing something right.

But essentially we like fast and simple and we repeat

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sections on purpose just to hammer the point.

Are you intentionally trying to achieve a retro feel?

Yes I think so. We’ve just taken from our favourite bands and that’s what we’ve come out like.

What about the album, can you tell me more about it?

It’s out in October, we recorded it in our kitchen which gave us a lot of freedom to try things out and also stopped it sounding too polished. I don’t really like the sound of modern recordings, I prefer the sound of the seventies, eighties and maybe the early nineties too.

So I think we managed to achieve what we wanted, not too polished but good enough to be completely audible and for people to enjoy.

There are eleven tracks on the album and we had a whole album previous which we scrapped and started again because the new things we were coming up with were better.

The album on a whole is about growing up, loosing a girlfriend, worrying about what you’re going to do in the future, and ‘Always Tomorrow’ which is the title track (and the positive song) is about worrying about everything including being left living at home with your parents.

The next single will be out on October 20th and will be ‘Girlfriend’. We did the video with Steve Gullick who did all of our photos. He’s photographed most bands you can think of.

What have you and what are you doing gig wise?

We’ve recently done ‘Bestival’ which was the best gig we have done to date. We played to a packed tent which we weren’t expecting. We have been to France and Germany and to be honest got treated better than in the UK. The crowd was more responsive, we were given more food and beer which is always good. We have a few gigs coming up which can be checked on http://www.wildsmiles.co.uk Any message for your current and future fans and the readers of Sonic Shocks?

Thanks. Seriously, it’s great to see things begin to grow slowly and to see more people come to gigs and each song we put out gets more plays so thanks to everyone for supporting us.

And finally, if you could be stuck in a lift with anyone for ten minutes, who would it be?

Dave Grohl. I love him, he can sing, he’s good fun, he’s got great stories, and of course I’d hassle him for a tour support.

Wild Smiles' debut album Always Tomorrow is out on 27th October 2014.

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Halifax, Nova Scotia is a coastal city – a Canadian indie music hub since the 1990’s, nestled among ragged shorelines of the Atlantic Ocean. From this home base, In-Flight Safety has been crafting thoughtful, melodic indie rock that’s made its way across North America and Europe.

Their third studio album, ‘Conversationalist’, came together on the backs of thousands of conversations between Mullane and Nicholson. Inspired by contemporary bands like Wild Nothing, The Walkmen and DIIV, the record is their most adventurous and honest, balancing the light and the dark that is In-Flight Safety.

It’s raw and haunting, but always uplifting with rich, thoughtful production that’s anything but indie. Mixed

by Gus van Go (The Stills, Hollerado) in Brooklyn NY, Conversationalist is both pragmatic and ethereal, leaving you wanting more. It’s a love letter and a breakup in one album.

As they visited the UK this September for a few shows, Sonic Shocks managed to catch up with In-Flight Safety for a quick chat. Hopefully Interpol’s management will read this…

Hello guys, welcome to the UK and thanks for taking the time to talk to us! ‘Conversationalist’, your third full length album, is finally out: how would you describe it in 3 words?

Woot. Woot. Yay. If you had to use two songs out of the album to describe it, which ones would you choose?

Animals. Crowd. Those two songs seem to cover the range of colours on the album.

How does it compare to the first two?

Conversationalist is quite different. Our previous records captured a band at a specific time in its journey.

Conversationalist is more timeless because it was the only record made off of the hectic tour/write/record schedule. It was made with a specific game plan and artistic aesthetic in mind. We took some time to create this blue print- in a way it feels like we updated our maps and charts for the future with this record.

Please pick one song that means more to you personally and tell us about the inspiration behind it.

Blue Flares captured a feeling that I was having trouble articulating. There is a sense of being lost or uncertain but there is this beauty in knowing you will be taken care of by the other character in the song. There is this horse who picks up the lead character midway through the song and carries them away. I like that image. Remember Aragorn in Two Towers?

How did the title come up?

The title literally popped into my head one night late while driving home from the studio so I wrote it down.

Later Glen and I realized it was the perfect title.

Talking of conversations, if you were stuck 2 hours in an elevator with someone, who would you like that to be?

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Someone with lots of tasty food or treats.

My mum made me notice earlier on today how no one writes letters anymore… What’s your favourite form of communication in these days of tweets, sms, snapchat and whatever else is out there?

Conversations over great coffee (or beer). Cannot be beat. I also miss letters as well but I am more lazy than I am romantic. Ha. You’re playing a series of gigs this week mainly in London, are you planning on coming back for a more extensive UK tour?

We are planning on setting up some shows for the new year. We are looking for a support slot perhaps. Do you have a contact for Interpol (the band)?

You’ve also been playing in most of Europe in this occasion, any particular story you’d like to share?

How about that time we dropped the only keys for the van into a canal in Amsterdam? That was a fun 5 minutes of determining if we’d be based in Amsterdam indefinitely or not going forward.

You were looking for fans advice on things to do in Amsterdam… How did that visit end up?

Amsterdam was lovely. We had this great meal and some tasty beers by this canal. And our friends in Cold Specs joined us. A wee Canadian reunion.

Some of your songs have been used for several TV series in the past, is there any other you would like to contribute to the score in the future?

I would love to have a song in Walking Dead. That would be amazing. That or Game of Thrones - but I feel the synth was not a big part of the musical landscape in King’s Landing. But you never know.

If I don’t know In-Flight Safety at all, what would you suggest I buy first to truly appreciate you and understand what you’re about: ‘Conversationalist’ or a gig ticket?

Come to a gig and buy the vinyl.

How would you describe an In-Flight Safety live performance?

The live show presents the songs in a more emboldened and energetic light. Also you might here us cover something clever if the set is long enough. We end the show with a mini-dance party on Firestarters. So there’s that too!

Where did the band name come from?

The band name was a tongue in cheek reference to my fear of flying.

Instead of the usual final message and words of wisdom, would you like to tell our readers your funniest joke?

I don’t have any jokes that are safe for the internet.

‘Conversationalist’ is available here: http://www.inflightsafety.ca/shop.php

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Š Meghan Tansey Whitton

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worldly.

What’s the best situation then to listen to Sound Of Change?

Jared: On really good speakers, really fucking loud! Or good headphones really loud!

Let’s play word association…

If 'Sound of Change' was a drink?

Matt: Two parts whiskey…

Jared: It would be a bomb of some sort – not a Jagerbomb, that’s some college frat boy shit – Riff Raff would be Jagerbomb or something, this would be classier.

Matt: Some tracks you could be sipping on some wine, some tracks you could be taking three shots of Jameson.

Jared: I don’t think this album can be one drink – if you bought the whole bar that’s this album. There’s parts that are serious and responsible and then there’s some parts where we want you to let loose and party.

A mode of transport?

Jared: These are good questions! A humongous sailboat with a big party on it.

Remember that feel-good Californian band, the Dirty Matt: With a baby helicopter on top!

Heads? Songs like ‘Spread Too Thin’ or ‘Cabin By The Sea’, Finally: what if the album was an ice-cream flavour? with their summery reggae vibe? Well, Dirty Heads are Jared: Pina Colada. back with their most ambitious album to date. The aptly Matt: Pistachio. titled Sound of Change, due out on 20th October on Allen Kovac’s Five Seven Music, is just what it says it is: the Jared: Whatever ice-cream has booze in it – Pina Colada band has expanded their sound with tracks varying from and Margherita ice-cream! Has anybody ever had that club bangers to rap tracks and even to a pop hit, all while because I think I’ve just invented something.

Matt: It might be a Pepto-Biz Markie lime Margherita maintaining that reggae-rock feel good vibe.

Jared Watson and Matt Ochoa – the most good-looking Can I put that in writing or do you want to trademark in the band, they ensure us – are visiting the UK to talk to it first? us press peeps and tell us more about Sound of Change. Jared: With a Tupac Sha-Coors Light on the side.

We meet over beer and muffins in London, on a lovely So we’ve invented a drink and ice cream! Now you had late summer day… quite a few producers on this album – how did that We’re here ahead of your third album release Sound Of happen – did you choose which ones?

Change – what does change sound like for you?

Jared: We decided before we did this album that we Jared: I’d say we’re usually an alternative band influ- wanted multiple producers to give us multiple different enced by reggae and hip-hop, but this album is leaning sounds, take us out of our comfort zone and take us out much more towards the hip-hop and alternative side, of the box so went and reached out to all of the produca little less of the reggae stuff and the mellow acoustic ers we worked with. It was a decision we made at the things that we’ve done in the past. This album’s just a lot beginning because we wanted to do something different bigger and a lot more up tempo. and we thought we needed other creative minds to take You guys got together ten years ago – what has changed us in places we wouldn’t normally go. between now and then?

Do you feel you’ve learned anything in particular?

Jared: We’re human beings evolving as a band, I think Jared: I think what we learned is we had more confidence this is the perfect album to say this is where our music in ourselves now, we’d write thirty starts then knock it is evolving to and just as human beings you change, you down to twenty then fifteen just so there was a better grow up, get older and mature. I think our live show has chance of us making something really great. matured and become dynamic. As a band we’ve played Now we wrote fourteen songs on the album, we didn’t with each other for ten years so we’re getting to know write any extra because we’re confident – we learned we each other more, it’s just pretty much the evolution of us don’t have to write in excess. and just like everyone else people change – we put out two really mellow albums so we wanted to do something How long did it take you to write the fourteen songs?

Jared: All together? Two/three months. It was the quicka lot more hype.

Back when you came out with Cabin By The Sea you est album we’ve written and [the one] we wrote the were defined as a ‘Summer band’ – does that still ap- least amount. We thought it was going to be this really hard kind of pushing ourselves and maybe getting into ply? arguments and turmoil in the band – it was the exact Jared: I think this album is a little broader – yes when opposite, really quick writing, really fun – it was very rewe did Cabin by the Sea we definitely wanted to do a freshing. summer album that you could play while camping, at the lake, in your backyard, when it’s sunny outside or when Matt: We just spent so much time on each song – not you’re on holiday. This album is not darker but just a little writing thirty starts – concentrating and making it the deeper, a little less California and I guess a little bit more best for each song just so we can keep those fourteen –

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This album is not darker but just a little deeper, a little less California and I guess a little bit more worldly.

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this wasn’t going to be filler or a maybe , this is the song that’s going onto the record.

I did find that – there’s no filler. After writing this type of album how do you feel looking back at your old ones?

Jared: We’re really proud of everything that we’ve done and we think we’ve established ourselves in the right way. This is the thing – every album that we’ve done we wanted to do at that time and now that we look back at it that’s rad, it’s like an old tattoo where you can look back and go ‘oh I got this in Thailand, I got that tattoo in London when I was there.’ That’s how it is for me – it’s nostalgic, I look back and go Cabin By The Sea – we were doing mushrooms, smoking weed and being mellow and Any Port In A Storm was we were finding ourselves and things like that – that’s the beauty about music and the band we are in being genreless and being able to have so much freedom and our fans allowing us to do that.

Whatever we feel like doing that’s what we’re going to do – if we wouldn’t listen/buy/stand behind it we’re not going to put it out so we’re never going to regret putting out any music.

You mentioned your live shows and you guys are coming back in November – what can we expect?

Jared: Our live shows have changed dramatically – it’s a lot more dynamic, more of a show. We can play a song, write a setlist that will really build it up then break it down and take you somewhere else. We can take you to a lot of different places now rather than before [where] it was kind of one style, one vibe but now it’s more of an actual show, more hype, fun, party but we can break it down and get back to our roots, we just have a lot more room to manoeuvre around emotionally now we have an album like Sound Of Change.

Matt: It’s more fun for us too, we had the one style which was mid-tempo, it’s fun to play the new songs, switch the set up every night or not, do what we feel.

You had some guest vocals as well – can we expect any

© Cristina Massei

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of them?

Jared: Tech N9ne flew out to Colorado when we played Red Rocks, it’s really fun when you get to collaborate and then play it live. I wish we could get them all out to London or Berlin – I just don’t know how was realistic that is.

How was it working with them?

Jared; It was great, we do it because we’re not just fans of the artists but we just like to see what people do with our songs because they’d do things we’d normally wouldn’t so it’s really fun to give someone your baby and let them take it in a way you would never think of.

What’s next after the tour?

Jared: Right now we’re just going to promote the album, do international - US, Canada, Europe then maybe Japan and Australia. At the moment we’re not worried about the new album – we’re so confident in the new live show so we’re just going to keep touring.

What do you do when you’re not recording/writing/ touring?

Jared: My favourite thing to do is nothing! Absolutely nothing, hanging out with my dog and fiancé being normal doing mundane things. It’s just so refreshing after being on tour for three months and you forget your address and what your house looks like. After that time I’ll skate, play video games and hang out with friends but for the first two weeks I don’t think I leave my house!

If you got stuck in an elevator with someone for ten minutes who would it be?

Jared: A really horny, super hot chick right?

We’ve got ten minutes to kill – boom! Elevator sex!

Matt: I’d pick a small petting zoo and hang out with them.

Any final messages?

Jared: If you’re going to buy the album or come to a show we appreciate it and we hope to see you!

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October 2014

Burlesque!

Welcome to your one stop drop for all the news on the best burlesque nights, in the capital and beyond! My name is Sophia Disgrace and I’ve performed at numerous events in the U.K and abroad, from festivals to the most exclusive clubs.

I tend perform in a neo burlesque style and incorparate other elements, such as fire play, into my routines.

Burlesque - or ‘the art of tease’ as it’s also known, first rose to prominence in the 1950’s; in recent years it’s enjoyed something of a revival, with stars such as Dita Von Teese helping to popularise the scene once again.

Here are my pick of all things burlesque this month...

BRISTOL BURLESQUE FESTIVAL @ various venues across Bristol 9/10/11 October 2014 - times vary Burlesque! Boylesque! Queerlesque!

Gorelesque! Yes all of these 'lesques (and many more!) will be present and correct at the Bristol Burlesque fest 2014! Following on from its debut last year, and spread over three nights at trois different venues, take your pick from a riotous mish-mash of acts from a whole host of artists. As an added bonus there is also a wonderful selection of workshops on offer over the course of the weekend. Yes, pop along to one of the aforementioned classes and polish up your balloon popping act, increase your flexibility or work on your hula hooping! Definitely worth a night (and day!) out methinks.

For further details please refer to bristolburlesquefestival.co.uk CIRQUE DU CABARET @ The Spiegeltent Festival, Canterbury 29th - 30th October 2014 from 9.30pm Cirque Du Cabaret is coming to town! Also known in London as The Tassle Club, this performance collective's events never fail to astound.

The programme includes Cirque de Soleil star Yusura Circus as well as an eclectic selection of live music, circus and comedy acts. Canterbury will never be the same again!

For ticket information please call 01227 787 787 THE HALLOWEEN SHOW - 'NIGHTMARE ON CHURCHILL STREET' @ The Boulevard, Newcastle Friday 31st October 2014 from 7.00 pm Billed as the place where 'Burlesque meets Cabaret', Newcastle’s premier night out has something spooooky up its bejewelled sleeve! Sit back and prepare to be dazzled by a menagerie of Broadway dancers, top cabaret entertainer Betty Legs Diamond and compere Miss Rory (Whose previous gigs include performing for her Majesty the Queen no less). Jaw dropping costumes, theatrical hilarity and a one of a kind atmosphere guaranteed!

For ticket information please call - 0191 250 7068

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By Sophia Disgrace

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This month’s velvet curtain reveals...

Burlesque Spotlight!

The spotlight falls on something shiny and new: allow me to introduce

PIN UPS Quick fire guides to the women who I feel embody the spirit of burlesque

DIANA DORS! Diana Dors was born in England's sunny Swindon, 1931 and christened Diana Mary Fluck.

After a series of film roles and stints as a pin up, she quickly became known as Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe. With her peroxide locks, ample bosom and glamorous curves it’s not hard to see why! Diana was the perfect embodiment of feminine sensuality and dusky prowess.....

3 AMAZING DIANA DORS TIT-BITS 1- After developing a passion for the stage and screen at the tender age of 8, Diana went on to become the youngest ever student to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She joined the college at just 14, after lying about her age to gain a place.

2- Her stage name Dors was originally her grandmother’s maiden name. She is famously quoted as saying the following in relation to her famous namesake: 'They asked me to change my name. I suppose they were afraid that if my real name Diana Fluck was in lights and one of the lights blew ...'

3- Diana worked extensively in cabaret and toured her own show 'The Diana Dors Show'.

She performed in Las Vegas at the peak of her success but as her career declined, ended up taking bookings in working man clubs across the UK.

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Sonic Shocks - Issue 29

It’s been an eventful couple of years for Yellowcard’s frontman Ryan Key, which saw his personal life hit by tragedy as snowboarder wife Alyona fell victim of an accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down. It’s no surprise that with new album ‘Lift A Sail’ the band turns a corner, leaving behind the youthful pop-punk sound for more mature soundscapes. The result is a record that is undoubtedly the most challenging of their career, and despite the change of direction has so far left most of the old fans in awe.

It’s now time to conquer new territory for Yellowcard, with their new sound likely to appeal to a much wider audience.

Ryan visited London to give us the lowdown on Lift A Sail and his enthusiasm is contagious…

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we are today – the pop-punk community has carried us for nearly 15 years so in making a record that is a complete departure from that we in no way wanted to appear that we had an agenda to turn our back on a fan, critic or whoever it may be, we write music the way we feel and we don’t force it. Anyone that thinks that because Lift A Sail is so different we were forcing to try something has their head up their ass because they don’t follow the band or know anything about us , if they do you know we put every ounce of ourselves into our music and this is really the direction we wanted to go in.

There have been changes before anyway…

I think we’ve always pushed the envelope, we’ve always tried out certain songs here and there – songs that weren’t necessarily in said genre, even all the way back when we Let’s start by saying there’s quite a change of direction for were making our first independent records – a song like ‘Cigarette’ which was an acoustic waltz with a string secyou guys – how did it come about?

– that was way out of the box at that time for the rest It was sort of calculated and organic at the same time, it tion of the punk songs on the record, we made that EP with the was paradoxical in a certain way, when we were talking song ‘Rocket’ at the end [2002’s The Underdog EP] which about making a new record months prior finishing up tour- was a six minute – we’ve always tried new things but ing in 2013 knowing we weren’t going to see each other for at the core we’veoutro had a sound and I think we have ventured a couple of months before we got into the studio to start into a new territory sonically with Lift A Sail from where we writing and making the record we would throw around lived for so many years. words like massive, epic, grand and sweeping soundscapes, we just thought about when you go home and start writing I think the fact that you introduced the violin to pop-punk music to keep that in mind – the most epic music that we shows how you try not to be confined. But talking about the fan’s reaction, you’ve got some going ‘that’s not Yelcould create. which was to be expected, but some are also ecWhen we got back together in the studio and started writ- lowcard’ static with it – did you expect that as well? ing it was really evident early on that a lot of our oldest rock I certainly hoped for it! We definitely feel a charge with this and roll influences were going to make themselves heard record – a spark of energy that just feels brand new and we on what became Lift A Sail. I’d describe it as if all of our thought as a listener – an open minded listener – how can favourite 90’s band and Coldplay had a love child! So once we realised on the first couple of ideas that these chord this not inspire you in some way? The gravity and the weight progressions are a little bit different, the tempo’s a little bit of this record – anyone who follows the band closely knows slower and the vibe’s a little bit more rock and roll than say the personal stories in the band, what we’ve been going pop-punk we felt really good about where it was going and through leading up to writing this record and how impordecided to stay on that path as we went into writing the rest tant that is. I hoped it would connect on the level it seems to be with the people that are reacting positively to it. As of the songs. as those who are reacting negatively I put zero stock into It’s not a pop-punk record – I’ve always had my own issues far that – it’s one of the things I dislike the most about the inwith gentrification and labelling music – I think it’s restric- ternet, I think it’s so unfortunate that people feel the need tive to an artist in any form, to someone that’s trying to to if they don’t enjoy something put so much negative enercreate but that said Yellowcard has to remain extremely gy out into the world as opposed to finding something else grateful to the community of music that brought us where

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that’s positive for them – something that makes them feel good and inspired – if this record bums you out I’m sorry to lose you and we didn’t give you what you were looking for but there is so much music in the world, so many artists – millions- that you can go and find instead of taking time to physically release negative vibes into the ethos, it just doesn’t make sense.

The reaction from fans who see it as positive is so overwhelming, it’s like tears to your eyes some of the stuff you read, to see how ecstatic some people are to these songs – any time I get to read a twitter post or something that says this is the sound I’ve been looking for or I fell off and wasn’t listening to your band for years and this is perfect for where I am at this stage of my life again, any of those types of comments is the most vindicating, justifying thing you could ask for.

I think even in the negative one thing that can’t be said is there’s no passion, change of direction sure but it sounds genuine.

Sure. Anything that anyone says that’s negative I look forward to reading and enjoying because it’s good humour!

You’ve always said you make music to get as many people to listen and enjoy – I think this sound can appeal to a wider amount of people, how are you planning on doing that?

It’s a great question and because all we know to do is get on the bus and go on tour – that’s our life and what we’ve been doing for fifteen years, as a band that’s where our focus still is: working as hard as we can, going on tour – what we’re hoping for is we’ve signed a new record deal with Razor & Tie so honestly we’re hoping they understand what you’ve just asked and understand that’s a real possibility and formulate a plan to have the music reach all those new people because all we can do is take the opportunities we’re given, show up and do the best we can, they have to provide the opportunity.

There’s a lot we can provide on our own but as far as new opportunities go I’m not a booking agent, a record label executive or on the phone trying to get us on the right festivals to play to the people you’re talking about or trying to get the right songs played on the right radio stations – we’ve put a lot of faith in Razor & Tie because they’re very excited about the record and I put a lot of stock into the fact this record was such a dramatic shift from what you’re used to hearing from Yellowcard ,delivered to the label and they didn’t say ‘we signed X and you gave us Y’ we gave them a record and they said this opens up so many doors and opportunities for us to take this record out into the world.

It didn’t work out due to scheduling but I was asked in New York City on this ten day press tour to do a feature for Esquire, that’s nowhere near anything Yellowcard would have been a part of for years and that’s really exciting to know a publication like that – it reaches that type of reader.

That means Razor & Tie is doing its job!

It feels good. When we first sat down I mentioned I wasn’t tired or bummed about doing interviews no matter how many there are a day right now because I feel like Yellowcard is in higher demand then it has been in a long time, there’s something new coming into my inbox every day: a new incredible ‘I can’t believe this is happening!’ so we’ll see.

Did you feel you needed something fresh to get on?

Yes.

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It is the ninth album so I guess after eight you needed evolution to keep you interested.

True, all the bands that I have known and loved in my serious music listening life have grown, evolved and changed – there are very few bands I’m a lifelong fan of that have one that can do the same thing over and over and it works for them, certainly they exist – I have always been a fan of bands that change over time and you grow with them as a listener, I’m sure I’ve tried to parallel that whether consciously or subconsciously in my own music and songwriting, Lift A Sail – I feel we’ve skipped a few steps maybe – but with the last year that I’ve had I needed to really challenge myself.

It’s been a long couple of years for you personally and your songs have always been inspired by your personal life – what happened to you and your wife is absolutely heartbreaking. When it came to putting it all into songs was it more difficult doing the lyrics or the music?

On the last few records I tend to let the music inspire the lyrics, we do a lot of writing where we decide we’re in love with an idea, chord progression, riff - whatever it is and demo that to a point where I can live with it and feel inspired to write on top of it so it’s very rare that a song is written entirely. I’ll pick up a guitar – here’s the melody, here’s the lyrics, all of it – I can play it as I wrote it, mostly I write to the music we write after the fact.

Lyrically certainly I had a moment where I had to really think about how much of what I’ve been through – not even so much me, what my wife has been through – that I wanted to put out into the world, the best thing to do for that was to realise the best thing to do was to just be honest, my wife knows she married a songwriter and I was pretty honest with her – I don’t know what’s going to happen when I start writing, I don’t know what’s going to come out – could be good stuff, could be dark – but I’ve got to write it and she’s been amazing, in the end I just relaxed and let it begin.

Usually when I’m making a record as a lyricist once the first song is done then I’m off to the races, once I’m over that first hurdle I’m just like *clicks fingers quickly in succession* I’m with the guys in the studio going finish that guitar on the thing so I can take it home and work tonight, that very much happened on Lift A Sail once I got started.

What does she think of the album?

She messaged me when she first got it and said something along the lines of ‘it was the perfect thing at the perfect time’ and I don’t think I can ask for much more than that as far as a reaction from her; she’s really punk-rock – her favourite bands are Rise Against, Anti Flag and Rancid so I don’t know whether Yellowcard is personally her cup of tea per se, but I know she knows what I was trying to do with the lyrics and I hope it was good for her to hear it .

You got married in hospital. If you could do it another way or renew your vows what would be the ideal scenario?

Of course someday we dream to have a real wedding with her and my family. I’m not interested in some 300 person reception which is very traditional in the southern part of the United States where I come from. I think our dream is to just spend time with our immediate family and do something to celebrate the fact that we’re married and are in a happier life; it’s just tough right now – she’s working so hard, 8 hours a day in therapy and when she’s through with this cycle with the doctor she’s working with I’m sure she’s going to look for the next thing and keep working. We’ve

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something that matters not because they’re being paid to do it – you can’t do that anymore, it’s not 1985, you can’t walk in with 10 grand and a bag of blow and be like play this song Motley Crue style! It’s got to come off what’s popular and what the radio programmer plays.

Do you see yourselves staying on this track – you have a 3 record deal with Razor & Tie however it goes?

I think Lift A Sail has opened up enormous opportunities for us in the future as far as making records, we can go wherever we want after this musically.

We’ll never go to a place that doesn’t make sense, we’re conscious of what works and what we need to do and for the most part trying to respect a record we love and that the fans will love – not solely one or the other - and finding that balance, it’s like a complete restart.

To reach this new fanbase, what would you compare yourselves to?

If you’re a fan of guitar check it out because for all the stuff in interviews about all the electronic elements we put into this record and new sounds Brian and his guitar work is extremely evident on this record if not more than ever , it is a guitar rock record. All those bands we grew up listening to: Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Filter, Nirvana, Weezer and Third Eye Blind, there’s just so many amazing bands from that great decade of music that I was so blessed to be a teenager during the 1990s, I think you can find something contemporary in Yellowcard that’s reminiscent of that if you’re into those types of bands.

That’s why I have a problem with genres and labels because there’s going to be this preconceived notion in your mind if you’ve heard us before, if you haven’t and you get to hear Lift A Sail with a completely fresh mind and you’re don’t have any of those preconceived notions then if you’re a fan of rock music I hope you’ll like this record and turn to our band.

You’re touring with Memphis May Fire and Emarosa in the USA, when are we going to see you live over here?

Spring 2015, we’re still putting it together right now.

What about summer festival season?

We haven’t been a part of the UK festivals, we were asked to do Reading and Leeds in 2004 and it fell on the same weekend as the MTV Video Music Awards – we were nominated for two awards – I don’t know if we upset them by not coming but we haven’t been asked back since. We’re hoping at some point to be part of Reading and Leeds but in general UK festivals are something to shoot for in a big way.

I would like to invite our fans and people that are less familiar with our band to come with us on this journey, this new adventure we’re about to go on, because this record holds a lot of weight for us.

got plenty of time.

Personally I found this album darker but it also gives a sense of strength in the face of adversity, was it what you meant to get through and was it inspired by those events?

Yeah I guess. If I’m going to put myself out there, first of all it would be impossible for me to write because it’s been hard, it’s been fucking impossible for me so imagine what it is for her. It would be unfair for me to put out a record talking about how impossible it was for ME in light of how strong SHE is even in her most broken down, darkest, weakest moments and just the style of songs Yellowcard writes I knew I had to take this experience and turn it into something inspirational somehow.

I feel like my biggest challenge was taking the parts of where I was focused on a personal struggle or a personal challenge and not make it sound like I was bitching about it and really going deep with it finding the most guttural, visceral reasons why it was a struggle, because I couldn’t let anything trivial make its way through – that was important to me because I didn’t want her to feel like I was lifting my struggle up above hers. I don’t want to do that as hard as it is some days.

What are the expectations with Lift A Sail?

They are always the highest as possible – I would love for this record to be the one that [lets us] in America play the biggest cities for 2500 people a night – maybe 2000, 2500 is generous – major markets: New York, Philadelphia, Orlando, Los Angeles. I would love for this record to be that thing that gets us to the next level, to have success at radio again but all those things are hopes and dreams and nothing I’ll be disappointed or let down at if they don’t occur because we have such an amazing career, we make a great living on what we do.

It seems achievable to me!

It goes back to earlier where we talked about how so much of that is out of my hands, so much is in the hands of the powers that be, I can’t make those people play it [on the radio], Razor & Tie can’t make them play it, I hope the songs have enough merit and quality to them that radio programmers around the world are inspired to play it because it’s Lift A Sail is out October 6th on Razor & Tie

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Š Cristina Massei

The reaction from fans who see it as positive is so overwhelming, it’s like tears to your eyes some of the stuff you read, to see how ecstatic some people are to these songs...

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With their second album within a year there’s no denying the powerful m a - chine that is Revocation. Vo- calist/guitarist David Davidson lets Matt Dawson know about his love for Lovecraft – along with recommendations for novices to H.P’s work, how many more albums they could have planned already, the first song David connected to emotionally, Damnation and the French Extremist Horror movie movement.

It’s quick to see how Deathless has come around as you only released your last album just over twelve months ago – what led to this happening?

It was a couple of factors – firstly we had the material , we’re a band that likes to stay creative and put out any kind of music we’re working on – anytime we sort of finish a record we’re soon after onto the next thing even though we tour a lot. We also finished with our contract for Relapse so we were in a position where we were going to sign with a label – we weren’t sure if it was going to be with Relapse or wherever but once we got the offers in and knew who we were signing with we were like let’s put out this record so we can get the ball rolling on the new label because you’re working with a whole new set of people, all that kind of stuff.

We had the material and the time off, why not just record this and put it out so we can keep this momentum going and not feel like we had to start completely over with a new label, we can pick up where we left off and keep the train rolling.

What were the factors that led to signing with Metal Blade in the end?

Ultimately a band is a business and we’re trying to get to that next level and when we got all the offers in Metal Blade gave us the best offer – as well looking at the roster we’re very happy to be a part of it – they’ve got some legendary bands on there, bands that have had long and successful careers and also thinking about Metal Blade as a worldwide entity, they’ve got connections, a good worldwide presence in distribution so for us in terms of getting this business to the next level it made the most sense.

When I spoke to Trevor [Strnad from The Black Dahlia Murder] we were happy about the fact the signing had just been announced and he also mentioned there’s quite a few albums of material that could be made – is he correct?

We’re always working on new material – I don’t think we have a new record ready to go – if you said we’ve got to go into the studio next week I don’t think any of us would be too thrilled with that but we definitely have material that we have simmered on the back burner as

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it were and I’m always coming up with different riffs and ideas. It’s sort of how I write and it helps a little bit with the process because I like to keep everything organised and it’s easy for me to refer back to – so if I write a riff tomorrow even though I’m not planning to record it any time soon the way I have it recorded on my computer and filed away I can recall it very easily, also the way I have it organised I can see how they build with other riffs. I do everything by tempo so even if I record something today and I’m about to leave to tour for 4 months when I get back home in the wintertime I can always revisit that and then before you know it this goes with that now I have three riffs that go together and that’s sort of the skeleton for a song right there.

When it comes to recording the riffs then what program do you use?

I just use Garageband, I keep it pretty simple. I used to record onto cassette tape when I was a kid – I’m dating myself there! – I had this cheap little tape recorder in my basement that was collecting dust and I saw that it had an input for like a guitar cable so I would have my Metalzone Boss pedal plugged into it and as time progressed I graduated onto 21st century technology and using computers, all that kind of stuff but yeah it’s still pretty simple – recording into Garageband although I will say I’ve changed how I used to catalogue stuff, I used to name things like ‘Heavy Riff’ or ‘Slippery Riff’ but now I catalogue with tempos.

I’m not really thinking about tempos when improvising and playing but I always figure if I like something I’ll go what tempo is this and get my metronome out and if it’s in the 170-175 range I’ll put that in a folder with my other riffs that are marked 170-175, that way it’s not just existing on an island as its own thing and the chances of it working with others of a similar tempo are fairly good.

When it comes to Deathless – what was the reason behind using the title track as the taster for the new record and what was the mindset when writing the lyrics for that particular track?

We all collectively thought it was one of the strongest and most driving tracks on the record, Metal Blade thought the same thing so it was nice that we all felt internally that this was the song we all felt strongly about and the other thing was that a lot of songs we’ve put out had maybe more of a thrash metal element to it and we’re always a band that wants to experiment and evolve with every release, we wanted to put out a track that was not what you’d expect, not that we’re making an effort to move away from the thrash metal stuff. I would say this record is our least – not that there isn’t thrash in there: ‘Scorched Earth Policy’ is one of the most riffing thrash songs we’ve written – but there’s more of a death metal vibe and element that’s at the forefront so we put that song out there to do something a little bit different.

As far as lyrical content the song ‘Deathless’ is a very personal song to me – it’s about our lives on the road, the dedications that we’ve made to this lifestyle and also our burning drive and desire to keep pushing ourselves travelling around the world and spread our music – a certain element of camaraderie both with ourselves and the fans and it’s even about the ritualistic nature about play-

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ing live – I like to warm up my voice, everyone’s a little bit different but you get on the stage and it’s a ritual that everyone shares in – music is such a moving and visceral thing, hopefully people walk away having felt an emotional connection, not just like ‘I went to a dance club’ or just a source of entertainment and that’s it, hopefully people have that certain release. I know I do when I go to a show whether it’s metal, rock, jazz or classical you walk away with this feeling of elation.

Certainly with metal it’s not a genre that pulls any punches it’s so primal, some people walk away from the show bloody and stuff like that, it really is a release in a lot of ways so [Deathless] is a reflection on all of that.

Do you feel that if a band don’t give you an emotional connection while they’re on stage they haven’t done properly what they set out to do?

Everyone’s different – maybe for some people it’s purely for entertainment purposes or whatever , for me obviously I hope people are entertained and have a good time , they’re paying to go and see a show but I would hope that people walk away from it with some kind of release there. It’s great when I see people in the front row singing along and they have this intensity and passion in their faces, there’s a connection – I can look into the crowd and see who’s really feeling it and who’s there because their boy/girlfriend dragged them along. I was actually teaching a lesson the other day over Skype and she was telling me that she read the lyrics to Deathless

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and cried when she read them, that’s just a moving thing for me because I put so much into my music so for someone to be moved to that much of an emotional state that’s such an incredible experience to have on another person, I was the same way as a kid and still am today – I’ll listen to records that I’ll get nostalgic about and have this real visceral response to a song I’ve heard a million times it just strikes that right note with me.

What was the first song that you felt an emotional connection with as a child?

I don’t know about the very first song but I remember when I was really getting into Guns ‘n’ Roses – the song ‘Coma – this was when I was like middle school, before that I listened to a lot of Aerosmith songs but for me something about ‘Coma’ really moved me in such a way, it’s the last track off Use Your Illusion I album – a ten minute long epic song, just the mixture of the lyrics, riffs, Slash’s soloing – he goes through several solo sections of the song and that always really moved me. I can always remember having the CD and for some reason even just the smell of the booklet – I would read the lyrics and not huff the booklet but experience all the different senses that come with it, maybe there’s something in the booklet!

It was 1992 so…

Who knows!

You mentioned teaching – I noticed you’ve been work-

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ing with Bandhappy – what led to you working with that company?

Well I’ve been teaching for a long time – basically since I’ve been in high school, around 17/18, the high school I went to was a music high school, I grew up having music as sort of my academic life, when I went to Berkeley they had a program where if you did something musical in the community they’d pay you for it, the high school that I graduated from asked me back to start teaching there so it’s been in my blood for a while now, I love the connection I can make with students and for me there’s few things more satisfying than seeing that light bulb go off in a kid’s head when you’re working on something.

I got involved with Bandhappy by touring with Periphery, Matt Halpern is the president – or if not it was his idea – I remember going on tour and talking about teaching – he was teaching on tour and he was ‘I’m going to be doing this service where you can do online lessons when home from tour or set up on tour lessons’. Once the website got off the ground he was one of the first people to call me about it, I’ve been using it ever since.

When I’m home I can teach which is a good way to make money when I’m not touring and it’s for making connections from all over the world – I’m teaching students from the UK, Australia, Italy and throughout USA and Canada.

There’s a track called ‘Madness Opus’ on the new album that is inspired by H.P Lovecraft – how long have you been a fan of his work and what drove you to it?

I’ve been a fan of his work for a while nowworks that are inspired

by Lovecraft is a recurring theme for a lot of metal bands and especially Revocation – if you look back through our Existence Is Futile record there’s a song called ‘Reanimaniac’ inspired

by Re-animator. To me he’s just a great sci-fi/horror writer that brought in this cosmic element. It’s been said fear is one of the greatest driving emotions and fear of the unknown is the most palpable, the stories he created of these cosmic entities – it wasn’t just a ghost story, he was creating this whole universe of horror that was so inspiring, the way he words certain things.

I got the title of Deathless from Lovecraft actually – it was from a story where the character was seeing this funeral pyre burning off in the distance and it was talking about how it was a deathless fire burning for his eternity – just his wording whether it was describing the entities or the atmosphere in a scene is just beautifully written.

Madness Opus specifically is about one of Lovecraft’s lesser known stories - everyone knows of Chthulu but he’s got so many great stories – The Madness Of Erich Zann, a violinist who has a portal to a dimension of chaos outside his window and no one knows about it ex-

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cept for him, his duty in life is to play this lullaby for this lurker that’s threatening to consume all of humanity and I thought that was just great fodder for a death metal song.

Another reason that I love Lovecraft is because he really involves all of the senses, he’ll talk about the taste in the character’s mouth when they walk into a room, the smell of an old book, the sight of this but certainly sound plays a big part and I thought it was great that a musician has to play this haunting piece to lull this demon to sleep.

Did the dimension of chaos be a part of the inspiration for the artwork as well?

You can maybe make the argument it’s a bit Lovecraftian but really what inspired the artwork was the artist Tom Strom – he actually does all my tattoos so we’ve had a good connection on art or composition for 3 or 4 years, he’s a big death metal fan so I’d turn him onto some different bands and he would turn me onto different artists, we basically sat down and flipped through art books that came from Poland, I told him this would be our darkest/heaviest record – we’ve never had a dark blue colour scheme and from there he did his own thing.

It’s interesting, we talked at length about the material and the vibe but one of the most interesting additions that was completely unspoken was this super weird telepathic connection – the first song on Deathless is called ‘ A Debt Owed to The Grave’ – that song partially is about a time I was a transporter in a hospital and part of my job was to take people that had died to the morgue and the other half is the myth of Charon who took souls to the Underworld, the payment was a coin in the mouth or eye of the person that died. Now I never told him I was writing a song about Charon or the stuff with the coin but when I got the sketch there was a coin in the eye of the tombstone so I texted him and was like ‘Holy shit!’ He put that in there of his own accord…

Now you guys are coming over for a couple of dates in October/November – the first being on Halloween of all nights. To end the Lovecraft thread though – what would be the first story you’d recommend to novices?

I really love The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward but he has so many – The Madness Of Erich Zann, of course the classics like At The Mountains Of Madness and Re-Animator.

How does it feel playing London on Halloween with a band like Cannibal Corpse?

I think it’s going to be totally insane, we cannot wait to tour with Cannibal, we’ve toured with Aeon before and they’re great dudes.

Damnation Festival follows the next day – first time

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and what are your thoughts on playing that on its 10th year?

With Bolt Thrower – yeah I don’t even know what to expect, the lineup’s stacked.

Who are you looking forward to catching?

Bolt Thrower is the main band I’m looking forward to.

Metal Blade have it on lockdown – they could do a Metal Blade tour worldwide and it would crush! It’s good for Metal Blade too – more profile for the label, more traffic to online presence – for a lot of people a label’s a stamp of approval because there’s a certain level of quality control that a label like that needs to maintain, they’re not just going to sign any band just to sign them.

Probably not Babymetal.

From a financial standpoint it would be good at this point, I think they’re on tour with Lady Gaga so they seem like they’re generating a lot of buzz. I don’t have any opinions – if people dig it that’s great but I don’t have an opinion one way or another.

Now as there is the Halloween date – what are your favourite horror films?

I like really fucked up horror films- to me one of the best of all time is John Carpenter’s The Thing – such an A plus horror film, the special effects are so great – the scene where the dude’s chest caves in and the monster eats his arms scared the shit out of me when I was a kid, Aliens as well although Alien was a better film but the reveal of the mother alien in Aliens was great. Martyrs – I’m a big fan of French horror that’s fucked up, it’s a horror film but there’s a depressing, depraved quality that you walk away looking at the whole world differently, we were in France for the first time and I’m watching this with subtitles, I remember just walking in an upper class neighbourhood where people were getting food and I wanted to be just like ‘LET THE GIRL OUT OF THE BASEMENT, YOU MONSTERS!’ The timelapse sequence is just powerful – you’re a fan of the French horror extremist movement?

Yeah, there’s also another great film called The Divide,

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it’s in that same vein of good acting and fucked up story, there’s no parts where you’re rolling your eyes – an atomic bomb goes off in a city and the person who owes an apartment complex is a prepper and everyone tries to join him in the bomb shelter even though he was just saving himself. The next hour and a half is in this shelter and it goes from bad to insanely fucked up.

True Detective as well was completely killer – one of the best crime/mystery shows hands down.

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With the chance to gain a wider audience with Deus Ex Machina, the black metal supergroup’s vocalist Orion talks to Matt Dawson about why they have returned, what Dire Straits and Emperor have in common and touring plans.

What was the motivation behind getting back together for a new album?

Vesania is a band which we started with, years ago.

There has always been tons of motivation behind this project, and this motivation has never been money, since there’s no money in the band of this size. We’re closest friends. Most of us (me, Daray and Heinrich) were brought up together so we know each other since we were little kids. We have always shared our ideas and visions and in this band we’re making them true, even if it takes a lot. We’ve put some serious part of our lives into it. I agree, we’ve had some periods, when it was impossible to continue everything constantly, that’s why the breaks in the bands activity. We’ve recorded our third album “Distractive Killusions” and we wanted to tour, but all tours we started for this album came down to be pretty sadly finished. We were really unlucky in this time, so we let it all calm down. Once we started feeling this urge to make it all happen again, we started thinking about the next album. We all need this band. It has always been there, and it has to stay this way, even if we’re not able to be the most active with it on a daily basis. It’s like our child we need to take care of.

What would you consider to be the toughest song to record?

They were all quite challenging. We take a lot of time

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in general to work on the material and then to make the record. Vesania is a very multi-layered music, the arrangements are quite advanced, especially on this “Deus Ex Machina” album. First of all, we gather all ideas we have, record them, sort them. Then I lock up in rehearsal room with our drummer Daray for a couple of months to make the sketches of full songs, basing on the ideas. We do a little break, meet up again for reviewing the sketches and recording them. Then it’s all others time to do all arrangements - during this period we change a lot in the structures of the songs. When all the basics are ready, we start recording and again, we do breaks during the recording session to catch some distance. Judging from today’s point of view - there’s no particular song that I would say was tougher than the others. But we made some experiment on this record - we recorded some female vocals in the closing song, “Scar”. That was a hell to go through, because we needed the vocalist (Zosia Fras of Obscure Sphinx) to record some really nasty tracks, and we had to make her feel what we wanted. It took us two days to record just a few lines, but the effect is great.

Outside commitments prevented Vesania touring back in 2008 – is this still the case or could we see some tour dates on the horizon?

Well, we’re on tour at the moment, here in Poland.

We’re also working on booking some festivals in Europe next year and talking about a European tour for 2015.

Having Metal Blade now, should go much better. Each of us is ready for that and I’m sure we’ll find time for it between all other commitments.

What influences did you consider while working on

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Deus Ex Machina?

I think we all came to the point where it’s really impossible to name particular influences. We all somehow work within the music business, we’re all connected with lots of kinds of music and art in general. We look, listen, take part, observe every day. We pick things that we like and they stay in our minds for longer. I think I can say that we’re influenced by whatever makes us think. We’re not under one influence, the world today attacks you with everything from all possible directions.

Still I think, the most important ability, or talent (name it as you like), is not to make your art a patchwork of things you’ve already seen or heard, but come up with your own genuine ideas. Vesania floats on the edges of symphonic black metal genre that’s for sure. But on “Deus Ex Machina” there’s much more than that.

There’s rock influences in the arrangements, instruments used and the overall sound, there’s progressive influences in some parts, sometimes we’re even come back to what we started with back in the nineties.

How has it been working with Metal Blade?

It has always been a dream to work with this label.

They have their glorious history, they’re very professional, and they’re great people. I never liked the deals with people I don’t know. It’s always much better to meet up in person, see if the ideas of one side drive the other side too. Having a record deal is not about signing the papers, it’s about joining a team you want to stay with. That’s what it is with Metal Blade.

What would you say was the first song you felt an emotional connection to or inspired you?

The very first songs that made me emotionally connected were all these ones played to me by my father back then when I was a kid. He played me Led Zeppelin,

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Dire Straits, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple. I remember “Money for nothing” as one of the very first songs I loved back then. But my real inspiration and emotional explosion was Norwegian black metal scene in the nineties. Emperor’s “In The Nightside Eclipse” was the biggest breakthrough in my life. That made me do what I do now.

Name 3 records that you have been listening quite frequently recently – can be old or current material.

“Ultra” of Depeche Mode never leaves my car CD player, it’s always one of the discs there. Cars should come with it pre-installed from the dealer. Another one is “The Thousandfold Epicentre” of The Devils Blood - since we played some tours with them, I go back to this record again and again. It’s pure magic, more than just music. From more recent releases - I love new Mastodon. This band is just making better and better records.

If you’re a horror film fan – what are your favourite movies and why?

I’m a typical horror ignorant. Not a fan of it at all. Horror movies had their time back when they were scary and I agree there was some pretty awesome classics in this genre. Today’s horrors rather make me smile than frightened. Close to it, but rather thrillers than horror films, I’m a fan of David Lynch’s movies and I consider “Lost Highway” his masterpiece. Speaking about movies in general - somehow (I don’t know if it should make me ashamed or not) I became a fan of TV series. I really have no time to watch movies during the day, so a 40 minutes long thing right before I fall asleep is a great deal for me. And today’s TV series are getting on some really high level.

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In its ninth edition, the annual Berlin festival took off to new horizons. After many years staging its performances at everyone’s favourite abandoned airport, TEMPELHOF, the legendary event moved to a ‘new’ home - Arena Park - for a marathon 48h non-stop party in the beating heart of Kreuzberg, the cultural hotspot around Arena Berlin.

The seemingly ‘last minute’ controversial move received mixed reactions from the allegedly tough festival crowd, but as the adage goes ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink’. In retrospect, the move seemed to have worked well apart from a few glitches (the sound could certainly be improved for next year, particularly the vocals on the main arena stage). All in all the gamble paid off as the event SOLD OUT not only its 48h passes, but also the daily ones.

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© Nelly Loriaux handle a 48h non-stop party, they could do so without having to leave the premises.

It all started with the traditional free Festival, this year renamed ‘First We Take The Streets’ as the stage extended from smaller venues to the streets themselves of the city, packed with for street musicians and undiscovered artists. From Postbahnhof to the o2 World Spree Bar as well as numerous ‘Hotspots’ radiating alongside the graffiti-clad Berlin Wall, the fesArena Park was already familiar to Berlin Festival reveltive mood could be felt throughout the day, bringing lers as the location for its late night club events, therefresh new acts, old stars and music lovers on fore the move wasn’t a total surprise. It brought new ar- together the streets for a 2 day free-for-all gigs al fresco: a never eas with distinctive and quaint qualities which made up ending unchained for the disappointment of the nostalgic few: Badeschiff this vibrant city. melody flowing through the veins of and its beach-front, the vintage Rock’n’Roll kitchen White Trash, open air venues such as Club der Visionare The festival itself brought a diverse line-up with enough and Ipse alongside Glasshaus, a wacky place to dance variety to satisfy everyone’s taste. I was unfortunately the night away on the Hoppetosse boat and the main unable to juggle all the stages so decided to concenWarsteiner stage in the huge hangar at the arena itself trate on the two I could reach with ease: WARSTEINER (which turned out to be quite handy when the rain main stage and BADESCHIFF, taking a few uplifting reared its ugly head). And for those brave enough to breaks at THE ART VILLAGE to check out the spectacular and wondrous ‘kunstwerk’.

WARSTEINER Saturday Australian trio RUFUS opened up with their infectious Indie/Dance/House blend featuring ever so popular ‘Take Me’, combining live instruments, electro production and skilled vocals from Tyrone Lindqvist.

© Nelly Loriaux

Adam Bainbridge’s alter ego KINDNESS created his own universe full of grooves, new wave, funk and disco having a right ‘Gee Up’ and a ‘Swingin’ party’ perched on speakers and joining his fans on the impromptu dance-floor for a spot

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of boogie.

British Indie-pop CRYSTAL FIGHTERS clearly live by the principle of love and optimism. Good vibes flowed through the arena with feel good endorphin-filled ‘Solar System’, ‘Love Is All I got’, ‘I Love London’ and ‘Xtatic Truth’. I can’t help but wonder if frontman Sebastian Pringle’s peacock feathered headrest is still the talk of the town.

Moustached dandy DIETER MEIER, better known as Boris Blank’s counterpart in YELLO, brought his chansons extraordinaires for an ‘Out Of Chaos’ experience not to be missed.

With the help of T.Raumschmiere’s Electro sound and the haunting violin of Tobias Preisig, he took us on a magical journey giving us ‘Feedback’ on the ‘The Ritual’ of waiting and the fascinating phenomena of being ‘Busy Going Nowhere’ whilst following the punk tradition of going ‘Down, Down’ on stage.

With a fan based growing bigger and bigger, it was no surprise to hear screams of delight when BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB stroked the first notes of ‘Overdone’ with the enthusiasm never letting off from ‘It’s Allright Now’,

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‘Whenever,Wherever’ to ‘Carry Me’.

Traditional synth and guitar-driven sound blending seamlessly with the distinctive baritone voice of Tom Smith, EDITORS carried us through all time indie-disco DJ’s favourite ‘Munich’ and ‘All Sparks’ whilst introducing us to their softer and slicker direction with ‘Sugar’, ‘Formaldehyde’, ‘The Weight’ and ‘A Ton Of Love’.

I finished off my day with ZOOT WOMAN, the British electronic outfit consisting of Stuart Price and brothers Adam and Johnny Blake. Although only the Blake brothers appeared on stage, their mix of Alternative-rock, Electro-pop and Funky synth sounds sprinkled with the occasional Disco riff produced the perfect Electroclash ‘Coming Up For Air’ on a ‘Grey Day’. One thing is for sure, ‘Don’t Tear Yourself Apart’ as ‘The Stars Are Bright’ for the enigmatic trio.

Sunday Oslo based HIGHASAKITE have come a long way since the ��������������������������������������������������� Øya������������������������������������������������ Festival and the Noordeslag festival. Their atmospheric songs, combined with Ingrid Havik›s velvety voice and ethereal ‹candlelit› stage,gave us the ‹Silent

© Nelly Loriaux

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Treatment› as well as showcasing Berlin Festival official 2014 song ‹Since Last Wednesday›.

Weaving some Hip-hop, electronic beats, guitar loops, dub and dashes of Psychedelia, WARPAINT experimental Pop-rock brought some sexy ‹Disco/Very› grooves to a crowd who wanted to ‹Keep It Healthy› with ‹No Way Out› for the ‹Elephants›.

British songbird JESSIE WARE gave us some ‹Tough Love› and demonstrated that she is, indeed, the new star in the Pop heavens. We all embraced her ‹Champagne Kisses› and ‹Sweet Talk›, rejoicing in the ‹Wildest Moments›.

Yoann Lemoine aka WOODKID needed no introduction.

With his rapturous shows having already achieved cult status throughout the world, the crowd were ready to lap up his multi layered and complex symphony. Entering the stage with baseball cap and trainers, he looked rather out of sync with the sharply dressed orchestral © Nelly Loriaux musicians; but as soon as the drum rolled and the impressive visual art set in, the fans were taken on deep house erupted through a mind-boggling lasers and a ‹Golden Age› tour of ‹Ghost Lights›, ‹Volcano› and visual display, bringing a huge uproar throughout the ‹Conquest Of Spaces› with no time to ‹Run Boy Run›. arena worthy of a Concorde take off. A few ‹Rusty Nails› An illuminating glimpse of what may well be going along the way with no ‹Damage Done› for the ‹Seamonthrough Yoann›s mind on any given day. key› in the ‹Bad Kingdom› at ‹Nr 22›.

German Electronica supergroup MODERAT (Sebastian Szary and Gernot Bronsert of Modeselektor and Sasha Ring aka Apparat) were assiduously awaited by an ever expanding crowd. The soft and dark bass drum beats fused with melodic avant garde minimalist pop and

BADESCHIFF Against a backdrop of glittering city lights, beach-front and floating swimming pool, Badeschiff was the area to rave in style. Yes, you hear right, a beach in Berlin.

Looking at the myriad of giggling girls wearing skimpy attires and boys sporting the latest statement shades and T-shirts, you could, for a fleeting moment, believe that you were in Ibiza, alas minus the turquoise sea.

Saturday Magdalena Chojnacka aka MAGDA, one of the leading figure in Minus label, transported her audience to ecstasy with her mystique time signature from funky space Disco to stripped down Techno.

Sunday Drawing influences from House, Hip-Hop and UK Garage, NOD ONE’S HEAD’s Charlotte Bulher (singer) and Moritz Bommer (DJ) effortlessly took the ravers on the ‘UP’ swiftly followed by techno master ANDRE GALUZZI. Well known for his eye-popping 10H set and residencies at OSTGUT, AMNESIA and BERGHAIN, it was the perfect warm up for the last act to appear at and close the beach party.

© Nelly Loriaux

Techno legend and Cocoon founder SVEN VATH was undoubtedly the DJ everyone had been waiting for, creating a bottleneck at the rather narrow entrance leading to the beach-front. Playing one of his famous endless

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set, the party went on, and on, and on without a hitch under the teutonic stars.

THE ART VILLAGE With an abundance of talent for all to see, the Art and Food Village was the place where creativity bred and breathed out of unknown artists. A melting pot of upand-coming artists given the chance to paint, spray, glue (and whatever else took their fancy) on huge canvasses to present to the audience and the art village team.

QUIET IN THE CORNER and other top class dancers took over the dance stage whilst Kreuzberg’s based graffiti crew 1UP, art collective KLUB-7, conceptual artist JIM

© Nelly Loriaux

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AVIGNON and a few more unusual artists in the contemporary German art scene created intricate murals, urban art, illustrations, paintings and futuristic compositions scattered all around the entire festival site. And for the ones desiring an everlasting ‘souvenir’ of their Berlin’s escapade, The NO PAIN, NO GAIN tattoo parlour was at hand, needles at the ready, to ‘ink’ their intricate designs or philosophical mantra. Let’s hope no-one went for ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’. Whereas it made sense in the iconic speech by J.F Kennedy 51 years ago, it will nowadays make them look like a right doughnut after ‘Ein’ too many.

For more pictures on the Berlin Festival, on our website: http://tmblr.co/ZIt1Ew1S0j5AU

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THE LIBERTINES @ Alexandra Palace - 26th September Support: Peace

Review and photos by Cristina Massei

North London is heaving as The Libertines’ 3 days residency at Ally Pally finally kicks off on a sold out Friday night.

With different supports for every date, this one brings us NME darlings Peace; after shooting to Main Stage at Reading just a year after their first appearance, they show a packed venue they more than deserve the hype.

The Libertines, a British legend of two albums, are announced by a sequel of nostalgia shots on the big screen; enough to get the first excited roars from tonight’s crowd. Peter and Carl appear on stage to a rapturous welcome. They open with The Delaney, followed by Campaign of Hate and Vertigo, as Barat appears to take the steering wheel. Then they unleash the big guns (hold on… is there any small one in their repertoire really?) with Time For Heroes and Horrorshow: a tight performance so far no doubt, slightly too polished if anything but still sufficiently warm to get the audience sweating.

As the evening progresses, the jackets come off and our heroes loosen up, gradually letting their hair down to join the party: Carl mumbles something about the Jackals, Peter reads a fan letter, the ageless old favourites remind us what The Libertines was all about. What Katie Did, The Boy Looked at Johnny, Can’t Stand Me Now, Last Post On The Bugle, The Saga, ‘til the overwhelming climax with Don’t Look Back Into The Sun; at some point, somehow, Peter must have stolen the steering wheel off Carl, and he’s now commanding the flock like Pan with his magic flute.

As the two of them lean towards each other, touch noses and ride on each other’s backs, it looks and feels like the love is genuine; two brothers finding each other again after life got in the way. Is it for real? As ‘I Get Along’ and tonight’s show come to a close, Carl leaves the last words to Peter. He steps centre stage with his guitar… I get along singing my song, people tell me I’m wrong… Fuck’em! An emotional crowd loudly salutes their unlikely hero.

On the crowded shuttle back, I tend my ears to hear the fans’ verdict. No one is asking for their money back, all overly satisfied. Was good, great in fact. So great that ‘surely it was staged’, is the recurring comment. Well, I find that hard to believe, since Confessions of a Child of the Century proved with no room for reasonable doubt that acting is not Doherty’s call. Anyway, I go back on Sunday, curious to see if a replay is all I’m going to get… I’m a cynic and I’m sure a rather large pay check brought this together in the first place, but on that stage the old magic seems to have struck once again. On their last night at Ally Pally, there’s even time to celebrate Peter’s Babyshambles with a stripped down rendition of Fuck Forever. This time they finish ‘I Get Along’ together. Carl is on the floor, Peter pulls him up. I wish I had done Saturday as well. The next time they play in the UK they’ll be playing songs from a new album, is Billy Bilo’s last promise before leaving a spellbound crowd, taking in the love and giving back a warm grateful smile as he hugs brother Carlos on the way out.

The flock leaves the Palace. Pan’s flute worked its magic again.

Friday’s set list:

for more Libertines pictures head to http://tmblr.co/ZIt1Ew1S154S8

The Delaney Campaign of Hate Vertigo Time For Heroes Horror Show Begging Ha Ha wall Music when the Lights Go Out What Katie Did Bucket shop The Boy Looked At Johnny Boys in the Band Can’t stand Me Now

Last Post on the Bugle Love on the Dole The Saga Death on the Stairs Don’t Look Back Into The sun Tell the King The Good Old Days __________________ Your My Waterloo (acoustic) Up the Bracket What A Waster I Get Along

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THE MOONS

@ Bush Hall, London - 24th September 2014 Support: Scarlett and Monroze

Review and photos by Mark Fletcher

On the second day of autumn and on the night of a new moon, The Moons descend on London’s Bush Hall to entertain a capacity crowd.

The venue is an amazing piece of architecture originating in 1904 and used as a variety of things over time including a WWII soup kitchen and a rehearsal suite for people like the Who, Adam Faith and Cliff Richard during the 50’s and 60’s. It is now restored to its former glory and has wonderful acoustics.

The Moons had some respectable support in the shape of the Scarletts and Monroze who both entertained the crowed and delivered decent music. But as Monroze left the stage, the crowd surged forward to get closer to the main act.

Disappointment was not an order of the evening unless you happened to be guitarist Chris Watson whose amp, or something electrical, decided it wanted to work no longer. Until, that is, along came faithful roadie Matt who proceeded to fix whatever the problem was (twice) whilst the rest of the band provided a rendition of ‘Voodoo Chile’ much to the crowds delight.

Despite technical gremlins, the delivery of good music was bang on the money with the Indie/Alternative Rock outfit pleasing the fans with tracks from the new Album ‘Mindwaves’ including ‘Times not Forever’, Body Snatchers’, and ‘You Can’t Slow Me Down’. There were some old favourites in there too like ‘Something Soon’ which featured Paul Weller (in the studio), and the Jack Wills 2012 campaign song ‘English Summer’.

Encoring with ‘Jennifer Sits Alone’, ‘Chinese Whispers’ and ultimately ‘Don’t Go Changing’ the guys from Northampton provided a more than decent nights entertainment before heading off to be put up by their buddy Paul Weller!

ROAM

@ Islington O2 Academy, London - 23rd September 2014 Review and photos by Mark Fletcher Hailing from Eastbourne and supporting ‘Me vs Hero’ on their latest tour for seven days across the length and breadth of England, the five piece Pop Punk band delivered a set full of energy to a good sized crowd at the O2 Islington. These guys have had a good track record to date supporting award winners Neck Deep and securing a slot on the ‘Make a Scene’ festival in October and then onto a European tour supporting ‘Manoverboard’ across April and May in 2015.

The crowd, familiar with the songs delivered, seemed to enjoy the whole set and did not disappoint with their participation, as elements of moshing went on as well as attempting to harmonize with front man Alex Costello. The rest of the band were at differing energy levels to the front man. Guitarist Alex Adam and drummer Charlie Pearson contributed to the liveliness whereas on the other side of the stage, bass player Matt Roskilly and guitarist Sam Veness were a little more tame and looked like they were with a different band, failing to get the audience’s attention.

Performing tracks from their EP ‘Head Down’ and new tracks from their soon to be released EP, ROAM were a great warm up act for the headliners with the old favorites ‘You Never Said’ and ‘Headrush’ being the biggest crowd pleasers as well as their finale.

ROAM are becoming an established name across the Pop Punk scene and if this is your bag, keep an eye out and get to see them. If they keep up the hard work and develop their professional approach, who knows what’s next.

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October 2014

DIETER MEIER (YELLO)

@ The Jazz Café, London – 16th September 2014 Review and photos by Nelly Loriaux

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LIVE

There’s ONE word that can certainly NOT be used for DIETER MEIER and that is ORDINARY. Born into wealth, factory owner, professional poker player, eco farmer, conceptual artist and BORIS BLANK’s counterpart in YELLO, he goes one step further by releasing his solo début album ‘Out Of Chaos’ at 69. Recorded in Neukolln (Berlin) with producers’ trio Nackt (Warren Suicide, Apparat Band et al.), Ben Lauber (Apparat Band et al.), and electro pioneer T.Raumschmiere ( all of them big fans of Meier’s work) and backed up by all star line up of Swiss Jazz musicians, he described his experimentalism as ‘’I wanted the music to be out of chaos. And this is exactly what this production is all about’’ (Louder Than War interview) Some people may, or may not, realise they know YELLO; their mega hit ‘Oh,Yeah’ was featured in many different media from film (The Ferrari scene in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day off’), popular sitcoms (Duffman’s theme song in ‘The Simpsons’), commercials (Twix) and even computer game (Gran Turismo 4) to name just a few. But for the true aficionados, YELLO will always be remembered for their pioneering use of synthpop, tape loops and unusual music sampling that not only opened people’s ears to the electronic music but also influenced countless DJ’s along the way.

However, Mr Meier is not here to reminisce about Yello’s past hits: he is bringing HIS chansons on the road. Sporting dark sunglasses and dressed to the nine, his suave and debonair demeanour captivating us all from the moment he enters the stage, he starts his spellbinding performance with Electro acoustic ‘Paradise Game’. Transfixed by his hypnotic and smoky baritone voice, complemented by Nina Ernst on backup vocals, Ephrem Luchinger and Christopher Noodt on piano/keyboard, and the maverick techno sound of T. Raumschmiere, he takes us on an chaotic storytelling ride full of esoteric and anecdotal oddities: from piano driven ‘The Ritual’ we all have of waiting for something, Electro beats for ‘Jimmy’ who thinks he knows everything, Funky and Groovy phenomena of being ‘Busy Going Nowhere’ to the tradition of the glorious time of punk when band would go ‘Down, Down’ on stage with no concept and use it as a way of rehearsal. ‘Schuffele’ , sung in German, feels a bit out of place, a standalone and intriguing track spoken in a slow, dark and meditative monologue. ‘Annabelle’ and ‘fat Fly’ close the evening with a standing ovation from an entranced audience, wishing the chaos could go on a little longer....’Oh Yeah’.

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Ten years is a long time and a cultural milestone for any event to make – a decade of fan loyalty and as one of the best festivals for the extreme metal/ doom/post-rock crowd it’s easy to see why bands like Cannibal Corpse, Pig Destroyer, Carcass and many more have descended onto Manchester and Leeds over Damnation’s history.

As part of our coverage of 2014’s event Matt Dawson had an in-depth chat with organiser Gavin McInally about how the festival began, the highs and lows and his thoughts on the festival circuit today as the likes of Alt-fest and Jabberwocky fall on the wayside.

10 years of Damnation, thoughts on reaching this milestone?

It’s been fantastic. When we first started it there wasn’t any long term plan, just trying to do something a wee bit different we believed in. We went through a rollercoaster the first few years: sold out, moving from venue to venue in 2008 with Carcass which was obviously brilliant, then back down in 2009; even though it was a success with the fans it wasn’t a financial success. Then we just built and got bigger and bigger. It’s going to be a big party atmosphere this year.

This year’s was originally planned to be a weekend type of deal right?

It was never planned but the option was there, we thought with it being the tenth anniversary we might do something different so we asked the fans and I fully expected them to come back and say definitely, brilliant, let’s go! Turned out they were like nope, if it’s not broke don’t fix it! A lot of our fan base is a lot older than your average festival goers, girls and guys that have got kids, mortgages, they have to work on Monday so have to take holidays and basically want to get drunk one day and a hangover the next! We listen to the fans and we’re like one day is as good as it can be.

What was the inspiration creating Damnation ten years ago?

I’ve been going to Download Festival and Ozzfest – I think it was 2004 when they had booked or were planning to book Bowling For Soup again for 2005 and I was getting fed up not being able

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to see the bands that I really wanted to see like Charger, Sikth, Raging Speedhorn. These kind of bands on the one bill was initially the idea behind it – getting a wee pub gig sorted, try to contact a few of these bands, have a good night, fans show up – that was as big as it was supposed to be. Once we started thinking about it and we got a hold of Entombed, Sikth and Speedhorn the idea snowballed a and turned into the first Damnation which was a sell out at Jilly’s Rockworld to 1,000 fans. The rest is history!

Then you moved from Manchester to Leeds – was that due to the growth Damnation was experiencing at the time?

Exactly that – Manchester didn’t have a venue that was willing to take Damnation on, the Academy had a 5pm curfew which would just beat the purpose of the festival, so we looked about – Sheffield, Nottingham, Leeds and at the time there was a venue called Leeds Met next to where we’re now.

We did 2007 which wasn’t a sell out but close, with Kreator and Anaal Nathrakh headlining. In 2008 we moved up to the university which was a whole new ball game.

When it comes to ten years what would you say have been the top five performances?

Dillinger Escape Plan headlining 2010, Amenra headlining the fourth stage in 2011, Stamping Ground playing downstairs in Jilly’s Rockworld in 2006, Mistress’ last show in 2009 and Anaal Nathrakh headlining the Terrorizer stage in 2007.

You’ve managed to get some great bands to play over the years – Life Of Agony in 2009, Carcass in 2008 – one of their first shows since they reunited, this year you got Bolt Thrower – a band you’ve said you’ve always wanted for the festival in what we presume is their only UK gig for quite some time. Describe the feeling going through your mind when the confirmation finally came…

It was an odd one because this is how the Bolt Thrower booking usually works: I send an email to their agent – will Bolt Thrower play Damnation or Deathfest when we did that? They

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send an email back politely saying no.

That happened eleven times! This year I almost never sent the email – someone asked me and I thought what have I got to lose? It came back and it said we’ll think about it, you try not to get too excited over the prospect of a band THINKING about playing and then was a case of 3 out of 4 band members said OK, we’ll do this but let’s make sure it’s all in place first. Rather than getting all excited, jumping for joy saying ‘Yes, we’ve got Bolt Thrower!’ it was more ‘Is it happening?’ and when it did it was more relief than joy because I didn’t believe that Bolt Thrower playing our 10th anniversary was a possibility for at least a month; the way the agent put it across was that it was always going to happen so it was a bit of a surprise for me – a band that have never played ANY OTHER UK festival are going to do Damnation, their only show for the next few years probably.

This year has a fair few first timers – Cannibal Corpse on the Terrorizer stage for example, getting them to do the 10th anniversary, Alex Webster said to us recently how ecstatic he was at doing it – have you tried getting them before now?

I haven’t because firstly they’re massive and secondly you need to be on their touring schedule – unless you’re a big player in the festival market or willing to spend a fortune, they’re not just going to board a plane and fly across just to do Damnation. Luckily it just fell into the touring schedule, they’re going through Europe and have a date spare. Cannibal Corpse are the biggest death metal band in the world in album sales anyway, they’ll tear the Terrorizer stage apart and I’m sure it’ll be an absolute thrill.

Now it couldn’t be a tenth anniversary without Dave Hunt being a part of it… so getting Anaal Nathrakh on the bill obviously fulfils that requirement!

It’s an in joke with fans as well – he’s been there with Mistress, Benediction and Fukpig, in 2010 he played with Fukpig and Nathrakh on the same day. Nick Barker’s played Damnation a lot of times but not as many as Dave purely down to the fact that he plays in some brilliant bands.

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Raging Speedhorn are returning as well as part of their comeback …

I’m a massive Raging Speedhorn fan – this’ll be the third time they’ve played Damnation which is something considering they weren’t even a band for as many years as Damnation’s been going! Coming back with both original vocalists and playing the first album and We Will Be Dead tomorrow it’s going to be an absolute blindin’ set!

Saint Vitus – the whole of Born Too Late in full…

Another one of those bands where you need to sell your house to book or you fall into their plan. When they come available we’ll bite their arm off but with our budget and tickets prices we can’t just have Cannibal Corpse and Saint Vitus fly over and do one off UK shows – we’re pretty realistic on that front. Cannibal Corpse are only playing London and Damnation, Saint Vitus are only doing London, somewhere else south and Damnation so it’s a huge part of the country where if you’re a Cannibal Corpse or Saint Vitus fan the only place you can see them without travelling to London is here – they’ll get proper sets at least an hour each, both great additions and the bill looks fantastic.

Ahab as well are doing their first ever show that’s outside of London…

They’re the kind of bookings I love to do where you can pick those absolute gems, the problem with trying to organise a full lineup is that these bands won’t sell 3/4000 tickets, you need your Cannibal Corpses and your big names. But sales like this year’s it give us the confidence to go and approach bands like Ahab and say do you want to come across and play, we already have the sales so you already have an audience, booking you is going to consolidate the sales and give you a slot you deserve. If next year’s does an amazing pre-sale we could bring more across as whereas if you’re fighting for every ticket sale you’re always looking for safe names that won’t be too expensive, that will definitely bring crowds and that’s no disrespect to Ahab – we’d think they’d bring a crowd anyway – but you can take the risk if you know the sales are already in the bag.

As we know there have been recent issues with crowd-funded Alt-Fest being cancelled 2 weeks prior to the event and ATP’s Jabberwocky 2 days before. What are your thoughts on crowd funding a festival?

When we started I was of the understanding that the only way you could start an event is having the capital there because when we started and sold tickets through Seetickets and

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other companies they held that ticket money until the event happened and they paid you back afterwards, so the only way you could start the first Damnation was by having the money available by taking out a bank loan in which case it was always YOUR risk. If the first Damnation didn’t work I’d have been out of pocket – not a huge amount because we were clever about how we financed it but it never occurred to me until at least 3 years in that festivals could actually do this. Crowdfunding was never in our minds. Those festivals use ticket suppliers that pay out the money the month the tickets come in; I could potentially use the advanced ticket money every single month, but the problem with that is – like AltFest – the sums don’t add up and you can’t pay financially then you’ve used up everybody’s ticket money, you cancel and everybody’s left high and dry.

Crowdfunding’s an excellent idea but you need the foundation because I couldn’t believe the amount on money that Alt-Fest actually got for not a lot, I mean for them to put a poster out saying we’re going to be the biggest alternative festival in the world, bill My Ruin and Onslaught and get £87,000 is mindboggling! Damnation could sell for a whole year and get that in ticket sales so when the figures came out – if I did that for Damnation I’d be lucky to get £5,000 together!

I think enough people are kicking the guys who organised Alt-Fest and I don’t want to say that what they did was wrong or right, but there should have been a plan B. Who starts a festival with 1.7 million?! You could run Damnation for the next 20 years with that kind of money!

The thing that made me sceptical was Manson being announced – it’s your first year and for me that’d be someone I’d book when the brand was more stable.

I was thinking the opposite while looking at the poster – this does not look feasible, I mean Arch Enemy – no disrespect – are not selling a field for you, Cradle Of Filth are not selling a field for you, Marilyn Manson and his booking agency would not be signing up to a festival that cancels or if they are they’ll be covered to lose nothing from it. You’re shelling out that kind of money especially in the first year – if you’re a first year promoter agents will make sure they get a hefty deposit from you before they sign up for anything and no one is paying that unless they know they’ve got every chance of getting that money back or at least the event’s going to take place.

When Manson was announced I thought I obviously didn’t know enough about that scene to make a

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judgement, good luck to them, I love seeing other independent promoters taking on events and doing well but then it all happened. The one thing that sticks in my side with the AltFest debacle, the Northern Darkness debacle and the ATP debacle is these continuous posts about the events selling out/so many tickets left: when these people do that it has a knock on effect on events like Damnation, Temples and Bloodstock that aren’t saying that. When we get to the stage that there genuinely will be 100 tickets left people say to us ‘ah you’re saying that just to sell tickets’ and it’s not right for business when you start up – it’s downright lying to people that invest a lot of money that they don’t ever see back and that’s not on!

With a young festival then do you feel a big headliner sells tickets or could it go the other way and cause problems?

It’s the number one problem you’ve got, not just a small festival but even Damnation. Your headliners sell your tickets, you can sit on Facebook and ask for every unsigned band in the world to play your event but you put an unsigned stage on, you walk in and it’s always empty so you know you need a big headliner, somebody that’s going to make you get noticed and sell your tickets for you then you can surround it with other great bands. The first Damnation, we got Entombed because that was within our budget and a big band for what we were doing at the time. It was different, an one-off show, something that separated Damnation from other all-dayers that also had Sikth and Speedhorn, we were putting a lineup together that people wanted to pay £13 for and it worked. We got stung – we booked Life Of Agony in 2009, they’re a brilliant band but they never had demand in the UK to be a headline band for Damnation Festival and we never got the numbers through. 5 years into organising and we still made that mistake; the difference is when we make losses, we stand by them.

In 2010 you apologised for not having an exclusive headliner...

We learnt a lot from 2009 – you can’t force it. Just because you have 3,000 coming through in 2008 doesn’t mean you’ll have that in 2009 and we learned that the hard way! If you look back at that lineup it’s absolutely spectacular: Electric Wizard, Therapy, Rotting Christ, Jesu, Life Of Agony, Destruction. Even now I’m still confused when I look at it how few people showed up on the day so in 2010 we weren’t going to make that mistake again – we didn’t get an exclusive headliner but the bill was strong: Dillinger Escape Plan, Paradise Lost, Anaal Nathrakh, Discharge,

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Sabbat, Alcest. But when you take over the massive room the venue becomes 2-4 times the cost instead. You swallow your pride and say ‘we couldn’t get the bands we were looking for to headline this year, we’ll downsize – we’ll do a crowd anyway, the same that came in 2009 and rebuild in 2011’ which is exactly what happened when we got a bonafide headliner in Devin Townsend.

The first one I went to was 2010 and I enjoyed how it was organised – there wasn’t a mad amount of clashes, there were some but that’s to be expected but you also tried to do a spin off event in Deathfest. What led to that idea and why do you feel it wasn’t as successful?

For whatever reason extreme metal bands are easier to deal with, they’re genuinely more available. even with a main stage act like Skindred or Therapy there’s still people on our facebook page asking for Autopsy, Bolt Thrower, Carcass; we just seem to have an extreme minded fan base so after we had done the first one with Repulsion, Vader and Akercocke that was a stone cold success everything just went well and it was a great day because it was just 2 stages and all extreme metal. The atmosphere was really intense and at the same time all the bands knew each other so it was a friendly backstage area and I loved it. The second one we put on Brujeria, Immolation, Negura Bunget; tickets were £10 and we did 600/700 tickets, it was a shock to the system that so few people felt that lineup was worth going to and at the end of the day it was a lot of effort to fly these bands in and sort that lineup – I’m not wanting to do it unless people are interested in it, maybe Damnation’s enough at Leeds. The amount of times we’ve heard calls to bring back Deathfest – if people supported it it’d still be going! The only reason it stopped is because the numbers weren’t there to justify such a large death metal event.

People say that if you have a big backer behind a festival you’ll be safe but look what happened to Sonisphere!

Damnation’s got a couple of sponsors but there’s no corporation behind it.

We get in it just enough to cover drum kits and amps. We started it with our own cash so I’m not in the position to say whether it’d work with backers because we’ve never had any, just supporters that have made it slightly less expensive. We work with sponsors that enjoy it: Terrorizer, Eyesore Merch, Jagermeister, no Red Bull or Mcdonalds, proper sponsors coming to the festival, we’re very glad and grateful to be working with those guys.

What's the thing to not neglect when starting up a festival?

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It’s a bit of a cliché to say take the opinions of fans and vote because they’re not always right but you need to know who and what you’re selling to. When Alt-Fest sold 7,500 I thought that was quite good, Bloodstock only sells 3/4000 more than that and they’ve been going forever! But expecting 30,000 coming through to your first festival… don’t neglect the realism and the business side of it, I’ve played the Fantasy Festival game myself but at the end of the day these bands want paid, the agents want paid, the fans want to get in and see them and you’re the one who needs to make it work financially so have a realistic target of who's actually coming and what they’re going to pay for. If you don’t get the basics right you’re going to go the same way Northern Darkness did – a great lineup but nobody knows you exist.

Do social media plays a big part in getting festivals out there?

It does but now people think that’s the only way you can run it and promote. Make an event page and get 800 people that’ll come, the reality is if you get 800 people you’re lucky if you get 100. People just click it for the sake of it or to shut you up! I promote gigs in Glasgow and I’ve had Electric Wizard, Watain or Cult Of Luna and on Last FM it’d say 700 people are coming and the venue only takes 300, then you get there and it’s 170. That’s why we still persist in getting flyers and handing them out, because you’re talking to people and saying support this! On print we’ve got a hookup with Terrorizer with a full page ad, also had them in Metal Hammer, Iron Fist, Rock Sound – I’m a journalist by trade so I’ve got a lot of respect for print and what an advertisement can achieve.

Do you feel there’s a risk of too many festivals happening?

I think that might have happened – Jabberwocky, FOAD fest in Manchester, Northern Darkness –there’s been a million festivals that have shown up and left in the time Damnation’s been kicking around and it’ll happen. Anytime both Download and Sonisphere are there they’ll see a dent in ticket sales, at the other end of the scale the smaller festivals like ourselves you’ll get people saying I saw At the Gates at Northern Darkness so I won’t see them at Temples. Temples has done well for itself and luckily for both them and us it’s on the other end of the calendar they might book an exclusive we might like or we might book one they might have liked – Bristol in May to Leeds in November is neither here nor there but how many Damnations and Temples can the UK realistically take? Probably not much more before fans go like ‘I’ll just go to one’ and there’s no mo-

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nopoly – if people want to go and start festivals that’s up to them.

With healthy competition though you have to be careful not to alienate people along the way…

I always moaned that there was no other festival that did what Damnation did, then Temples came along last year and 15/16 bands had previously played Damnation and it had a real Damnation flavour about it. I couldn’t get down then but I see myself doing Temples next year.

Will there be another festival like that happening again? Well if there’s business sense and they see all the cancelled festivals, do they want to be the next one? If someone wants to do a festival good luck to them; largely Damnation exists in its own bubble, so unless someone shows up the exact same date I don’t see what damage it would do to us.

Was 2009 your toughest year?

No – 2009 was OK, we lost a lot of money but the organisation bands were great, we had a great time, it was only the budget side that took a hit but 2011 was a nightmare! There was so many problems behind the scenes, arsey tour managers and agents, from the minute doors opened to the time doors closed it was a long hard day of putting up with bullshit. But if you were there as a fan it was an absolutely brilliant day.

Name 3-5 bands that you’d like to book that have still proven elusive…

In my dreams I’d love Deftones, A Perfect Circle but they’re just far too big for what Damnation is so the first issue is how do you get a realistic band and who’s left that hasn’t played because a lot have done it to the point of Bolt Thrower being the very last band to be if we could just get these guys. Neurosis probably but they may be less interested now they’ve done Temples, Immortal probably wouldn’t work as they’d try and set the place alight, Testament would be good. The difficulty is you need to be realistic or as I said with Ahab it’d be really good to book Agalloch and Converge, Yob, Pallbearer – people would love to see them that’d be wonderful but you still need your big band to get fans interested.

We’ll see with Converge next May when they headline Temples…

I don’t think Clutch could headline Damnation but they headlined Temples so just because you think something doesn’t mean it’s true – look at Life Of Agony – I was proven wrong there! We’ll see!