Architects may have caused some distaste among fans for appearing on Radio One’s daytime playlist, but tonight’s set shows why they don’t care about criticism. They have enough fans who love what they’re doing. Launching straight into Day in, Day out from the new album, it’s clear they love playing the new stuff live.
Sam Carter has a real connection with the crowd constantly talking to them and making everyone engage with him fully, making everyone wave their arms side to side. Not what an Architects gig would have looked like in 2007.
Heartache sounded like a ballad but was a real celebratory moment when the crowd sang along in unison. They may have swapped brutal metal for beautiful melodies, but they still know how to put on an engaging show. The guitarist looks out to the crowd with confidence, proving this is a band comfortable in their new found skin. Even those clearly waiting for the headliners take the time to watch the whole set.
At one point Sam asks everyone to sit on someone’s shoulders, and quite comically even the men do it.But they don’t alienate the old fans completely, and conclude the set with heavier songs, Hollow Crown and Early Grave, which certainly puts a few smiles on people’s faces.
They may have gone for a more mellow sound these days, but the same can’t be said for their ambition.
The Parkway Drive boys are clearly gaining more recognition, proved when loud cheers erupt before they even come on stage. There’s a roar of excitement when the melodic intro starts and everyone looks more than ready to get involved. But Parkway Drive fans rarely stand there looking pretty and within seconds moshing and barging into people begins. Unfortunately the momentum of the circle pits never seem to last and front man Winston McCall had to keep shouting at the crowd to ‘pick it up’. But with more heavy breakdowns, the crowd finally show Rock City what they’ve got. With a mix of hardcore and metal it can be quite comical watching fans in the pit, with some doing windmills while others simply want to push you as hard as possible.
Having mainly played tracks from the last two albums throughout the set, it was a nice surprise to hear Romance is Dead off the band’s debut album. The great thing about Parkway Drive is that the new stuff goes down just as well as the old, proving that working with producer Joe Barresi has paid off. It was a short set and didn’t have as much variation of material as seen at their headlining shows but highlights included Sleepwalker and Boneyards.
There are no egos in this band. Instead, constant smiles in between songs show this band is loving every minute. The fans even sing along to the riffs in Carrion, a slower song which always gets a massive sing along. Once again, Parkway Drive killed it.
With a black curtain covering the stage, it was clear from the offset that Bring Me The Horizon were planning to do something a bit special. As soon as they came on, the curtain dropped and smoke filled the stage as they launched into It Never Ends from their latest album.
The crowd jumps in unison to track Fuck while Oli Sykes comically makes a wanking motion with his hands. Showing his fans mean everything to him, he puts his hand out to them before running to the far left of the stage to sing to a group of girls. There’s an obvious difference between the bands new and old material. At first it almost feels like a different band when they play tracks off Suicide Season but songs like Alligator Blood combine the two styles. Live favourites Diamonds Aren’t Forever and Chelsea Smile show how much the band’s sound has evolved on the new album.
Oli then took the moment to ask the crowd what song they wanted to hear next. After a few minutes of inaudible shouting they play Pray for Plagues off their debut album. Whatever you think of Oli, his captivating command on stage cannot be denied. When he shouts circle pit, that’s exactly what happens. Surprisingly they actually look more brutal than the pits seen for Parkway Drive.
Architects vocalist, Sam Carter, joins Oli on stage for The Sadness Will Never End, a track they recorded together on Suicide Season. They make a great duo and it’s one of the highlights of the set.
The crowd then proceed to put their lighters up for Blessed With A Curse followed by a dozen black balloons dropping down from the ceiling. The band’s name then lights up in huge letters. This may be egoistical to some but its proof the band is starting to take their shows seriously.
Above all, it’s clear Oli is glad to be here. He puts a peace sign up to a fan before hitting the balloons back into the crowd with a smile on his face. At one point the whole crowd copy the illuminati symbol showing that the fans will do pretty much anything Oli tells them to.
The great thing about the band is their ability to create different moods within minutes. Oli dedicates Suicide Season to lost family and friends but it doesn’t take him long to put people in a good mood again. Making a comical reference to the pissing on a fan controversy in 2007, Oli says: “You guys have been so good, I want to piss on all of you.”
Despite the set being almost over, Oli increases momentum as though he has just come on stage, demanding wall of deaths and circle pits before stage diving into the crowd.
The encore ends with Oli making everyone sit down, even people stood at the back behind the sound desk. They may have had bad press and divided people with their emo-shouting metalcore before, but tonight they were a different band. Even if you’re not really a fan, they certainly put on a memorable show.
Architects were once in the same league as metal bands like Suicide Silence, with brutal riffs inspired by Dillinger Escape Plan. Now they’ve written an album that will ‘lift the spirits’ with fans singing along to feel-good ballads. Radio One has even put their music on the day time playlist, and they’ll play Leeds and Reading festival for the first time this summer.
So what are the secrets to their success? Currently on tour with Bring Me The Horizon and Parkway Drive, their music is still heavy but with melodic influences. They may have lost some fans, but they don’t care what people think about them. I spoke to guitarist Tim Searle about the bands integrity, the highs of touring and the next album.
Inevitably perspective on life changes so do you think this has this influenced the change of sound? The sound has changed because we’ve grown up and matured as people and as musicians and our influences have changed in the same way. And perspective does change, you know when we were younger we practised our instruments loads, I’m not saying we don’t now but we just wanted to use it as best as we could, playing really fast and technical. Now it’s more about writing good songs and taking influences from bands that we listen to now, which is nowhere near the same heavy technical stuff that we used to.
The theme on the record is really making the most of life, why is that important to the band? We’re in a very fortunate position. You meet a lot of people in bands who are touring beautiful countries in parts of the world most people never get to go to. When people complain about it, it genuinely makes me really mad and the sentiment is the same for everyone else in our band. We’re so lucky that we get to travel the entire planet, playing our instruments in front of people who love our music and as a result of that, you have to embrace every day. You never know when things can go wrong, you could lose a family member or it could all stop and you have to enjoy life and take a positive view on it.
With a lot of heavy bands, the whole message is doom and gloom and negativity and to be in a heavy band you don’t necessarily have to be negative. The point is to be more positive and live for the now.
Your bassist recently left the band, why and what does this mean for the future line up? He left due to some heavy family commitments and we could do nothing other than to respect his decision. We all miss him being in the band a huge amount but he’s doing what he has to do and he knows he’s made the right choice. We respect him doing that and we’re still all really good mates and hang out when we’re not on tour and stuff. In terms of what it changes for the band it just means we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing until we find a permanent replacement.
We have a couple of fill ins that we’re using at the moment. Inevitably we will get somebody else and it won’t be the same as having Ali in the band but you take situations as they come and make the best of them. That’s exactly what we’re doing and everything’s going great at the moment.
The sound is more melodic which is obviously the band trying to push boundaries, so are you listening to more melodic music at the moment? Absolutely. If someone said to me to listen to The Red Chord or Coldplay, it’s a no brainer. I much prefer well written catchy songs. People give us a lot of shit for selling out but I feel completely the opposite. I feel that by being more melodic, we are keeping our integrity more because we’re doing exactly what we want to do. We write the music that we want to listen to and that’s not necessarily heavy and technical music anymore. A lot of people have a hard time getting their heads around that and that’s fine, don’t listen to our band anymore. But that’s what we’re about and what we want to do.
Congratulations on being put on Radio One’s daytime playlist but as you say some people see this as selling out. Do you think it’s sometimes necessary to do something your fans may not like? Absolutely, we knew we were taking a huge risk with this new album. We knew there was going to be backlash and we knew it might not go down well with our fans. But we felt that we should take that risk because if we didn’t do exactly what we wanted to do and be more melodic and play the style of music that we wanted to play then that would just be pandering to our fans. That’s never what we’ve been about. We’ve always written what we want to write and done what we want to do and that’s just a continuation of that. Did you feel confident working with producer Steve Evetts and what was the most impressive thing about working with him? No I didn’t feel confident, in fact the complete opposite. The last two records we did before that, were with the same people that we were friends with and we were comfortable in our environment. So going to another country, meeting someone new and using methods that we’d never used before, was intimidating. As a band you work on these songs for however how long, you have band practise every week, making sure everything’s perfect. You go in there and have to change certain aspects to it and you’re taken out of your comfort zone.
We definitely learnt from the experience and it’s definitely changed our view on recording and pre-production. Working with Steve was great and it was a real eye-opening experience. We went with him because of his body of work and having done Everytime Time I Die and Dillinger Escape Plan and even bands like Saves the Day. He engineered a record by The Cure too and did loads of really interesting stuff. It was a great experience and I'm happy with the end result.
This album has been described as one that will lift peoples spirit, it important for you that the fans will take something positive from it? Absolutely, the whole point of the record is for people to listen to it and understand where we are coming from. We’re a positive band with a positive message and we want people to enjoy themselves and have fun at our shows. We're not about moshing and people beating the shit out of each other. We're not about being negative. We're about people jumping up and down, singing along and having a good time and that's what going to shows and playing music is about. It's about enjoying yourself and that's essentially the whole point.
You are gaining more mainstream recognition, so what is it that makes Architects stand out? We’re doing something different in terms of heavy music. We’re trying to have a positive message and we’re trying to push boundaries with our music in terms of the amount of melody but also still being a heavy band. A lot of people forget a lot of the songs are tuned in G# and have people like Greg from Dillinger Escape Plan singing on them, they’re still heavy. But getting a lot of mainstream attention for us is great because a lot of people, as I said, think we’re selling out, but the more attention we get, the more people like our band and the more people come to our shows. That means everyone has a better time and it’s positive for everyone.
Front man Sam Carter has done guest vocals for Bring Me The Horizon, Your Demise and Comeback Kid. Do you think this has opened up the band to a wider audience? I think so but all of the bands he does guest vocals for are friends of ours and if he can contribute on his friends music, it’s just a cool thing to do. Likewise with Andrew from Comeback Kid, Sam sung with them and Andrew sung with us. It shows your appreciation for other bands and gets you involved with other people creatively and people might check out those bands if they haven’t heard of them. Every night Sam will go out on stage with Oli and you can see that they are like best mates and on stage I think people really enjoy that because they don’t necessarily realise that people they consider famous are just normal people.
How did you feel when you were told you would have to delay the release of your record despite it being finished? Absolutely furious. But at the same time the labels who work with bands know what they’re doing and for them it is a business, and as much as labels are often scape goats for things that go wrong with bands, I feel you’ve got to trust your label to a certain extent. They said they thought it would be the best thing and we argued with them a little bit and they got their point across and our manager got involved. We decided it would be the best thing in the long run. When you have your heart set on a record that you’ve been working on for ages, coming out a certain time, it was really frustrating to know we had to wait for a few months but in the end it worked out fine. You released a split EP with Swans in between albums, is it important for you to keep you’re fans interested? Yeah I think it is important. I think a lot of bands will gain success off an album and kind of roll off a little bit and forget that you need to keep people interested. If a band doesn’t release something in four years a lot of people will move on and find the next best thing. We do always try to keep people interested and I’m sure we’ll do the same thing in the future.
I heard around 80% of songs you write are never heard, that must be a lot of writing? I don’t know necessarily it was 80%. What we mean by that is, you know if you go on the MySpace player you’ll hear the three singles and that’s all kids will ever listen to, it is annoying. Like when it was just vinyl, the only way you could really listen to it was to just sit down and listen to the whole thing. I wish that culture was still there. But a percentage like that does exist because people do just hear the singles. But hopefully people will come and see those songs live and be impressed with the other material and go and actually listen to the record.
You are quite a young band so what has been the most eye-opening thing? We’re constantly doing things I never thought we’d do that completely blow my mind, like the places that we go and the people that we play with and the people that we meet. It’s kind of like a series of eye-opening things, like just little milestones. We’ve never really been a goal orientated band. We’ve always just taken every day as it goes. First time we were ever on a tour bus we were like “Oh my god we’re on a bus” and we went to Australia for the first time. And these things happen all the time so there's not really one thing that sticks in my mind. I’m sure next week I’ll get an email from someone and be like “fucking hell that’s mental.”
You once said that the music is for the band, and that it doesn’t belong to anyone. How do you think your fans see it? I know it pisses off a lot of fans because they do think it’s their music and I think that’s absolutely mental because it’s not. You like a band for the music they play and write and if you start thinking it’s your band as a fan, like ‘I’ve invested in them because I’ve been following them a long time’ then as much as that’s cool that you support a band, you can’t get too overly involved in what you think your input is. At the end of the day, that’s not what our music is. For us, we write music that we think is good and we think other people will enjoy but we do what we want to do. And fans that get pissed off by us saying it’s our music and not theirs then let them be pissed off, because that’s just the truth.
Do you think playing Download festival helped your success? Yes to an extent. I mean last time we played Download it was absolutely mental. We walked out on stage and the stage was absolutely packed and everyone was singing along and it completely blew my mind. Not necessarily helped us become a bigger band but it kind of reaffirmed in my mind that we had taken it up to that next level. It was kind of a more reassuring thing about the level of our success as opposed to one event that made us successful.
And now you’re playing the main stage of Leeds and Reading festival in August, any worries about how you’ll win the crowd over? Yes I’m absolutely shitting myself about it because I’ve been going to Reading festival since 2002 and it’s been a childhood dream to play Reading, and now this year we’re doing it. I mean the list of things that could go wrong in a band like, technical problems, the crowd not liking it, it not sounding good, all of that is going to be going round my head a hundred miles an hour before we go on stage. That and my mum and dad are going to be at the side of the stage watching as well, so I will be absolutely terrified. I’m secretly quite cocky about how it’s going to go down. I think they are going to be really good shows for us and really important shows for us.
I know you’ve only recently released the current album, but having spoke about keeping fans interested, have you been thinking about the next album at all? We have yeah and Tom’s been working on some demos recently. We actually have a few songs finished already, and we’re going to start putting them together in practise soon. I think the main angle we’re going to go for with this album campaign, is to get some more videos. We’ve already done three for the album and we’re planning on doing a few more, and maybe a couple of them will be online exclusives. But we’re going to do a few more videos, and maybe we’ll release a B side or a single here and there. But Tom’s been working on new material and when the time comes we’ll have to make a toss up as to whether it’s all for an album or an EP as well. At this point I can’t say but ideas are floating around and something is in the works definitely.
Architects are currently on tour with Bring Me The Horizon, Parkway Drive and Devil Wears Prada.
Opinionated punk band Flats have been together for barely a year and have already divided people with their abrasive attitude and raucous sound. I spoke to them about what hardcore means to them and why Morrissey is such a big fan.
This is your first UK headline tour, so how is it going? Dan- Yeah it’s alright. Could be better, could be far worse. Samir- The London show was totally packed. Dan- The London show was amazing. Although a good friend of mine got glassed from another friend of mine which isn’t cool. Kyle get better. Craig- We just do not condone that at all. Dan- At our shows especially. I want the attention on me.
Some people have said the punk elements of your music are reminiscent of bands like Black Flag, what would you say your influences were? Dan- Yeah I’m a big Black Flag fan. As far as that Washington stuff goes I’m a big SSD fan. As for the British stuff, Discharge are one of our major influences. Like on the album there are two songs specifically wrote to sound like Discharge I suppose. But there are a lot of metal influences in it. When people think of metal you think of like Slayer and Metallica but I mean there is more obscure weird stuff like Hellhammer. We’re really big Hellhammer fans, a lot of the sludge stuff and slower stuff. When the Black Flag album ‘My War’ came out that sort of spawned that whole era of sludge bands like Eyehategod are a massive influence on us. Craig- Bands like The Melvin’s we like. There’s a great band called Pentagram, like bands who were way ahead of their time. Dan- They’re like the American Black Sabbath that no one knows about and nobody knew about them for years.
So what does hardcore music mean to you? Dan- I don’t know, I mean we’re in a bit of a weird situation because some people would say that we’re a hardcore band but we don’t really move in hardcore circles. The hardcore scene in Britain at the moment is all about boys with sleeve tattoos and a pair of vans on. My definition of hardcore is like when Discharge came out and it was just about playing the hardest music you can and just going nuts but now it has become just this sort of, as much as in any other genre of music, it’s just become this sort of horrible pastiche caricature of itself. ..Anyone can start a hardcore band if you have a pair of glasses with no lenses, a pair of vans and some skinny denim’s on.
I mean do you think punk is still alive in the 21st century? Dan- I think it is but I don’t think what people perceive it to be is what it actually is. I really like a band called Diet Pills from Leeds. They’re sort of my interpretation of hardcore at the moment but they don’t necessarily look like hardcore kids. They sound like The Jesus Lizard mixed with something like Iron Fist. Craig- Current stuff that is quite popular in the hardcore scene, like last year Trash Talk was quite a big record for us...but it literally seems to be that unless you’re taking the cream of that scene a lot of the bands are sorting of painting by numbers really...Hardcore gets branded around as a description of our music but to be honest it’s not hardcore which is our main influence. It’s a lot more sort of punk stuff you know. Dan- Yeah like a lot of anarcho stuff. I like The Damned. I like the Sex Pistols, just because it’s funny classic shit.
You’ve said before that you’d be happy if this band released six albums by next year, are you seriously aiming to release as much music as possible? Dan- We’ve done two EPs and the single. We’ve got the album ready but before the album even goes off to be mastered we’re recording another two EPs to be released within six weeks of each other. Then a live album which we’re recording in London over the next two months but yeah by the end of the year I want another four releases. I don’t see why we can’t. A lot of bands don’t have a work ethic and by all accounts we don’t have a work ethic but we’ve talked a big game. So when will the album be released and what can we expect musically? Craig- September, if not early October but yeah it’s in the bag. Dan- It’s got a lot of different styles in it that we’ve tried to compile seamlessly, I don’t know whether it’s worked. But we always planned for it to sort of spawn from straight fast punk numbers to really down tempo sludge numbers but then also trying to merge the two seamlessly. I didn’t want it to sound like ‘Oh right, now they’re doing a punk song, now they’re doing a hardcore song...’. I wanted it all to move together quite well and the album’s going to be quite long, it will be a good 40-50 minutes long we hope. Craig-We’re quite conscience of trying to make a record that works as a record rather than just 12-15 songs. Dan- We wrote it in two sessions. We’ve spent a month in the studio, which is hell like every single day. We’ve only had four days off in 30 days then we’re going back in for another three weeks. I want it to sound like it’s coming from the same session, like in a lot of albums you can hear when they’ve worked with different producers or they’ve gone to different studios. I don’t want that to happen.
After the song ‘Rat Trap’ which slates Pete Townshend and Paul Weller, I’ve got to ask...why do you hate mods so much? Dan- It’s not necessarily that I hate mods, it’s that I hate what mods have become in this day and age. It’s like weekend estate agents with Paul Weller haircuts, suit off Carnaby Street. Everyone’s got the same records, everyone’s got the same ideas. I’ve been to ‘60s parties and in one there was a clock on the wall stuck at September 16th 1968 and everyone thought it was so kitsch.
So what do you hate about music today the most then? Dan- It’s lost. There’s no music around at the moment that really cares what they do. People might interpret that that you have to be political and people think that means that you care about what you do. Being political in a band is just as much of a vehicle as dressing up to go in the NME. It’s a tool to make yourself something. There aren’t any bands just on their own doing something for no one else. I can’t think of a single band who does something just purely for their own taste.
You’ve said before that you don’t think bands are scary anymore and that they don’t really try hard, so are you trying to change that then? Dan- I don’t think we’re trying to be scary, I mean I’m not trying to be scary. Samir- We don’t need to try. Dan- Bands that are scary, like Alice Cooper. There hasn’t been anyone that’s worried the public that much for a good 20 years. Shaun Ryder was the last person to really wind people up and I hate the Happy Mondays but I love Shaun Ryder so we need another Shaun Ryder.
You played the NME radar tour with bands that were nothing like you so how was it? Dan- Chapel Club were really lovely, they’re nice boys. Quite good bands, not really something I’d put on but I definitely appreciated what they were doing far more than most other stuff. The NME tour was weird, no one was into it. Out of that entire tour probably about 20 people bought the record who came to see us and the rest of the people turned their noses up and scoffed. Samir- We’ve done some shows recently in the same cities and we’ve been speaking to people and when we asked how they got to hear about us, they said they saw us on the NME tour and thought we were the only good thing on it, so it’s always worth it. Dan- It was just fun to be on tour. It was the first time I’d ever been on tour, I mean we’d only been in the band for four months.
Did you expect airplay on BBC Radio One then? Dan- Not at all. I mean when we wrote the single we sort of never wrote a song with the intention of it being a single with a hook but this is the first time I have tried to write a hook and I don’t know if it worked but we got played on the radio. I personally think it’s quite odd that we got played on the radio. My mum’s definitely shocked.
So what do you want this band to be remembered for then? Samir- For being heartbreakers Dan- Yeah, heartbreakers and love makers. Craig- I think what we’re trying to achieve and what would be a success for us is to be a band that warrants some kind of conversation away from just the music we’re making. As long as we warrant some kind of reaction, whether it’s a positive or a negative reaction, that sort of means quite a lot to us. Dan- 90% of bands we’ve played with have just been middle of the road. You can’t really fault it that much because it’s relatively alright but it’s not good enough to be exciting. Then theres a small demographic of bands who are really exciting but because they’re so exciting a lot of people are afraid of it. I think that’s the sort of category we might fall into. Craig- I mean it doesn’t really matter what music you play as long as you’ve got some sort of integrity behind it. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of bands who have got a great deal of integrity . They map out a plan on a bit of paper and just stick with that plan and it’s just crowd pleasing. We’re really lucky that we’ve stuck with what we wanted to do. Dan- There’s a band called Sunsmasher from Glasgow who are amazing. It’s US hardcore crossed with real sort of sludge, mental drone and some of their songs are like nine minutes long. So tell me about your next few shows and why people should be there Samir-Well we’re supporting Morrissey in June.
Yeah, how did that come about?
Samir-I think he was having a bath surrounded by scented candles. Dan- And vegan products. Samir- And he instantly got on the phone and rang up our manager. Craig- I dunno, it’s bizarre. He’s actually got a Flats tattoo I don’t know how that came about. Dan- I think he saw a sign of me standing in front of a fox hunting parade. Craig- Apparently just on his arm he has the Flats tattoo.
Are you Morrissey fans then? Dan- I’m a massive massive Morrissey fan yeah, really taken aback when we found out. When I first met Craig he had a Smiths t-shirt, I had the same the Smiths t-shirt.
Having formed the band barely a year ago, aren’t you nervous? Dan- I’m never nervous, I’m always cool calm and calculated. Craig- Probably not as nervous as Morrissey to be honest. Samir-Meeting us is going to be quite a big deal for him I think. Dan- I think he’s going to be quite in awe. Craig- He’ll probably try and cover up his tattoo because he’ll be embarrassed.
You probably didn’t realise that Nottingham had its very own action cinema icon walking the streets – neither did we until recently. But White Dolemite is to HoodTown what Shaft was to Harlem and alongside his buddy Video Mat (and let’s just say they share a similar relationship to that of Spiderman and Peter Parker) they have been creating some great movie posters over the last few years. The movies themselves are *ahem* not particularly easy to find though…
Who is White Dolemite?
I’m an actor known for sleaze and violence, pretty much. I’ve starred in exploitation movies since the 1970s with the director Video Mat. We both wanted to see the same kind of thing on film which was whitexploitation. Nobody at the time was making films like that and they just got more violent and rude as we went along. White Dolemite is based on the original Dolemite character (played by Rudy Ray Moore), but just a touch more gentlemanly, if that’s possible!
So what sparked the idea for whitexploitation?
We grew up with blaxploitation films and to us it was the pinnacle of cinema, but we thought there was a gap in the market. Whether it was wanted or not, we had a bloody good time doing it. When I had therapy for fear of flying, the doctor told me that I had the most overactive mind he had seen in forty years! I am now using it to dream up all these crazy-ass movie concepts!
There’s a lot of sex and violence in the movies, what attracts you to that?
First and foremost because it’s cool! What we threw into our films was everything we really loved which is guns, weapons, alcohol (particularly sangria), smoking and women. Rest assured that we won’t be doing a rom-com any time soon.
You’ve worked with many co-stars over the years... any favourites?
There have been two co-stars that I’ve worked with again and again. Firstly, I’ve got to mention Kenya Villanueva, an amazing actress from Manila. Basically, if it hadn’t have been for her encouragement, we certainly wouldn’t be where we are today. I think I fell in love her time and time again. Secondly, no matter how crazy things got Kimberley Rose Gardner was with us through thick and thin! I don’t think I could have asked any other co-star to go through what Kimmy went through. Without those two on board, White Dolemite might have ended up a vacuum cleaner salesman!
You have some really cool film posters, are there any other iconic posters out there you like?
Not so much, that’s partly the reason I make my own. Posters today can be really dull and it doesn’t seem you really have to put a lot of effort in to make a nice piece of artwork for a movie in order to sell it. It sells on the strength of the actors or the director, so I think film posters have got a little weak over the years.
Are there any artists who help stimulate ideas for your posters?
Frank Frazetta, the illustrative artist, has been inspirational along with James Gurney. And, although I know I am a total pain in his ass, I run all the new work by my very close friend Stefan Kopinski. He’s an exceptional artist, and he’s always on hand to help me “up” the gore levels! But the one thing I’d never do is directly rip people off. I’ve been asked in the past if I can stick a head on Luke Skywalker’s body and make a Star Wars poster but it’s already been done. The thing with the original blaxploitation posters though is that nobody ever really knew who the artists were. But I do keep the layout ideas in mind.
What’s your favourite movie tagline?
The original Alien tagline was cool, “In space no one can hear you scream.” If this had changed into a White Dolemite movie it would be more along the lines of “In bed no one can hear you scream.” I spend so much time thinking of my own taglines. A particular favourite is “We live just to make sure you die” on the blood-drenched poster with Samurai swords.
If Richard Roundtree and Fred ‘the hammer’ Williamson had a real life fight who would win?
Fred Williamson would definitely win. He was a real man and he could hammer your ass! And he kicks vampire ass! If it was between Williamson and White Dolemite, he would probably kick my ass too, but I’d like to see that fight go down.
Tell us about your next exhibition...
It’s hopefully going to be quite an exciting one this time round and we’ve got a few surprises in store. Hopefully we’ll be premiering the first White Dolemite video and we’ve got guest artists, from fashion designers, cartoon artists and illustrators doing White Dolemite pieces from their perspective. Every bloke that I have starred with has been cut out and it will be called One White Stand, just White Dolemite and lots of women. But the men will be back in the next one, and that will be more brutal with lots of broken bones and fighting. We have a few venues in mind but as the work is not child friendly at all we’re not sure where it will be yet but keep your eyes peeled.
You say your exhibitions are crazy, sexy and dangerous, so what can we expect?
I might get a couple of bands involved just to stir the crowd up a bit. Lots of models will be there, hopefully in costume if I can persuade them. But it’s when the sangria starts flowing that it can start to get a bit messy. There will be White Dolemite cocktails on offer and that could be a little bit crazy too.
Where do you get all your sexy women from?
The first exhibition was a real struggle, it was basically me wandering around asking people if they wanted to be in a poster and people couldn’t really grasp the concept. After the first exhibition, people actually started asking to star in the posters which was really quite flattering! Then I got in touch with a couple of professional models who surprisingly said yes. Sometimes people will be perfect. I met this girl last week and I instantly dropped her into a seventies Italian-themed poster a little like Rebel Without A Cause, with scooters tearing up the place. I’ve got a feeling that if that movie goes ahead, it’s going to be called Death Without A Cause.
Are there any modern-day film stars that you look up to?
Vincent Cassel is an inspiration definitely. Eric Bana, but solely on the strength of Chopper and Bruce Campbell of course. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for ‘The Chin’ But I’ll give anything a try so everything from Brad Pitt to independents. At the moment I’m really enjoying guys like Steve Carrell, Michael Cera and Seth Rogen, who are like a new wave of independent actors with studio budgets. It’s weird what’s going on in Hollywood right now, but it’s also really interesting and exciting.
What’s been the best film you’ve seen recently?
I really liked District 9 because it took a really interesting alien genre and took it into a place where it would not ordinarily make sense, in Johannesburg. It was stunning and I hope they do not ruin it by bringing out a second one. Most recently though, Gaspar Noe’s Enter The Void. That is one insanely crazy-ass movie. I loved it! I’m also utterly charmed by Up and Wall-E.
What’s in the pipeline for the next few months?
Video Mat and I will hopefully film the trailer for Enter The Bastards but it’s going to be very difficult on a low budget. There are lots of special effects and every scene is dripping with blood but we’ll give it a go. I will carry on producing the posters but right now I am concentrating on the next exhibition.
So, in all seriousness, are you ever actually going to make these films?
That would be awesome but making films in this country at the moment is an absolute nightmare. If somebody else was interested in taking my idea I would probably say yes but I would want a hand in it creatively. I’ve got quite precious about it, it’s my baby which I’ve been working on for two years and now it’s almost growing on its own now, which is really cool. What would really concern me is if someone took the concept away and watered it down, whereas if I had the opportunity to make the film I would make it as messed up as possible and it would definitely end up nasty. Nothing less than a XX rating would be good enough.
Jamey Jasta has been at the forefront of hardcore music since the 90s- a living proof of where underground bands can go. Hatebreed's frontman spoke about Slipknot's contribution to the band's success, his favourite festival and his thoughts on 2011.
In this band you have been through quite a lot with the death of a past member, the manager and obviously numerous line-up changes. What motivates you to carry on despite this?
I guess the main motivation now is the fans. Even when we want to take time off and we think we’ve over toured then fans pop up in different places and are like “Come here!”. I mean I still get letters, I had a look in my mail box right before this tour and there were a stack of letters from South East Asia from kids saying “Why don’t you come to Kuala Lumpur?”. So we keep thinking we’ve toured too much and then there’s new places that come up.
You played South East Asia for the first time recently didn’t you. How was it? I was a little sketched out at first like when I got to Indonesia I didn’t realise how popular the band was. There was like people waiting in the hotel, the airport, you know everywhere. People were very excited so that felt good and then we started to get excited for the show. I mean we did a 90 minute, almost 2 hour set and tried to play songs from every album.
It’s well known that you’re really hard working having fronted a TV show and contributing to many different projects, so what are you upto at the moment? I was doing a lyric book which was going to have loads of road stories then I stopped doing that. And I started writing my Headbanger Ball book. It talks about the four years I hosted a TV show and how I had no experience and the different interviews, so I really want to try and get those out soon. I’m going to try and work on them early next year.
But I do want to get another Hatebreed record out and I do wanna do some shows with my side project. I do have a record which I’m just calling Jasta that I have done. I don’t know when I’m going to put it out.
It’d be nice to do a Hatebreed documentary and we have a lot of old footage which we got fans to send in. I mean we’ve talked about so many different things; a tablature book, a re-release of the first record with lost tracks since that’s coming up with our anniversary...We’ll see. You know we’re going to come back here for festivals next year in between all the craziness.
You’re still doing stuff with Kingdom Of Sorrow as well. Where do you find the time to do so much?
I don’t really have a lot of time and I really need to get home and get my home life together too but while Crobar are touring right now and Hatebreed are touring right now its fine. The Kingdom Of Sorrow record is still kind of fresh and people are still getting turned on to the band. The record came out about six months ago, and we’ve been offered some festivals in Europe that we might do. But I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to do a full tour, it’d be nice to do a full UK tour.
What are the aims with Stillborn Records, the record label you set up?strong>
Originally my old band had no-one to put the demo out so we thought we would make it look like we were on a label and I would sell the demo at the merch table every night. Then I noticed that once people saw that I was doing a mail order and taking music and putting it out on 7 inch, a lot of bands would send their demos. So that’s kind of how it all started rolling.
Now I’m really not doing much with it but I do plan on putting out a couple things next year. I only had two releases come out this year and I moved my offices down to a smaller place. I’m working on a new distribution deal so if I get better distribution in the UK and Europe next year I'll probably put out some new stuff.
Obviously you’ve promoted a lot of shows yourself so do you think this helps you understand the industry?
Yeah it gives me a bit of empathy when the promoters are losing money and the economy’s bad because I’ve been there and I’ve put on a lot of shows. I’ve had shows that have had no presale tickets and I thought oh I’m going to lose my ass I’ll have to sell my car and then the day of the show a thousand people turn up. You know that happened to me with Gwar and Misfits, I thought I was going to lose my ass and then the day of the show everybody showed up and the show made money. This is going back almost 15 years ago but you know now that I’m touring in a really bad economy I can definitely feel the promoter’s pain.
You’re celebrating 15 years of your release Under The Knife, how does that feel? It makes us feel good. Our original guitar player is back in the band and we’re still going strong and creating new places to play and putting out records. I mean we have been really busy since ‘08 from now. We’ve been to like 30 something countries and did a DVD, a covers record, a studio record and headlined a bunch of festivals. But it feels good now that we can do these four hometown shows and we dug out 100 or 200 of the original vinyls that have been sitting in storage, so we’re going to put them out at the shows.
You’ve done a lot of guest appearances on records, how do these come about? Well recently I haven’t really done a lot just because I felt like in the past when I was doing them I didn’t know if it was really helping the band. If I can help the band then I want to do it. Sometimes I felt like I was spread too thin and trying to do too many things and I looked back and I was like man I’ve been on a lot of records. But recently I’ve started doing some stuff again. I was on the Acacia Strain record, the Skahead record and the Winter Plague record. So in the last year I’ve done three songs and hopefully all those records do good.
Which record are you most proud to have contributed to? I mean I was really happy to be asked by the bands that I really looked up to when I was growing up like Biohazard, Sepultura and Napalm Death. I did that here in England and we drove out to the countryside where they were recording and I just sat there and listened to the whole record and talked with Barney and Mitch and the producer. That was a really surreal experience because I always idolised Napalm Death. Even as a young kid I had Scum and all the early records. Plus at that time I was more of a mainstream artist and I could see the backlash of the underground punk and grime fans going “Why are you having this guy who has been on TV and stuff?”. That was like a hard statement for them to put me on the record but it was really cool so that felt good.
When you released Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire on Victory Records it turned out to be the biggest selling album on that label, did you expect that to happen?
Well when the first couple 7 inches and the first demos started to sell a lot I thought we need to make a good choice about what we do with the album because there is the potential that it could be big. That big I didn’t expect no. But also the success of that record came in later years. That was a time when you could tour and then you could go back and then there would be nobody there. There was such a quick turnover. Kids would be into hardcore and punk then they’d go okay I’m into emo or techno and you would see that one day there was a scene and then the next day they're gone.
So we said right we need to tour with different bands and gain different fans outside of just the punk hardcore and underground scene. So that first two years of touring we did Warped tour 1998 which was Deftones and Kid Rock and Rancid and that gained us a lot of new fans. Then we did shows with Danzig and Soulfly, Motorhead and Dropkick Murphys and so we started grabbing people from outside our little circle which then helped that record to go on. Then of course we did the Slipknot arena tour and Ozzfest in 2001, so from 1997-2001 we toured just one record which was insane. We should have had like five albums out.
With Ozzfest you’ve played it quite a few times. Have you ever had to pay to play?
We were one of the very lucky bands that didn’t have to pay and I have to thank Slipknot for that because they really championed us and helped us get our first manager. They came from nothing and Paul and Shaun the clown were at our show singing along before Slipknot were even signed so they’re the real deal. They totally helped us become that breakout band and we were like the first hardcore band to do Ozzfest.
and now slipknot are headlining major festivals... That was the funny thing because I said to Paul when he first gave me the casette, "If you ever get huge and sell millions of records will you take us on tour?" and they totally did and that’s a beautiful thing.
Your music is influenced by metal and hardcore so how do you target the different audiences or do you think they merge quite easily? Now with the Internet people are very opinionated and they’re very outwardly angry and anonymously on the internet so I think it’s harder to be yourself without having a bunch of people critique you. So if you look at a band like Lamb Of God, they’re very talented at what they do and they ‘re probably the best at what they do. Randy's voice is very unique. So it’s either like you love it and its great or you’re like I don’t like it it’s not my thing.
But on the Internet everyone fights like well I like Hatebreed, I like Lamb Of God. I like both, I don’t like both. You know, it’s all stupid because all of the bands were doing the same thing like touring or working hard and writing music and we want the fans to be united which I think we’ve done pretty well with Lamb Of God by touring together. But there needs to be more of a crossover with the punk and the metal and the hardcore. We had Discharge and The Verrucas at the show the other night and we’re thinking of doing a tour with them to try and bridge the gap a little bit more and to try and get rid of some of this animosity that you see on the Internet .
You’ve toured with some amazing bands but who has been the most fun? 3 Inches of Blood. Those guys are great, I could tour with them until the day I die. Same with Toxic Holocaust, I could have those guys around for months and months and never get tired of them. Their anecdotes are always funny and there’s always something crazy happening where everyone’s talking about it.
What do you think about Leeds festival? I always find it weird that an indie pop band is on the main stage at the same time that the Lock Up stage is tearing it apart.
It’s cool because it’s like those guys have moved on, they were into hardcore music in their teenage years and now they’ve moved on and like Muse and other stuff. It’s funny to see them come over and when we’re playing they lose it and they start smashing people and it’s like they’re re-living their youth so that’s kind of interesting to see. You’ll see a guy in an Arcade Fire shirt, punching people and kicking people and you’re like what is he doing but he knows the words, he’s singing along.
What’s been the proudest moment of being in the band? I would say every time we put out a record and it does good that’s a very proud moment. All the last four albums have debuted at number 40 in the UK and the US and our DVD went to number one that was a huge achievement for us. So like things that you never thought would be really possible but that’s pretty cool that the fans made that happen for us. Headlining with Full Force was huge for us as well, just to have like 40,000 people stay to watch just us, that was crazy.
There are certain Hatebreed songs that always really get the crowd going what’s your personal favourite? I love playing Live For This and I Will Be Heard and This Is Now. I mean those songs never get tired, it always has some sort of new energy. Even last night 200 people with tickets couldn’t even come and I thought this is going to suck, everyone’s going to be bummed out and tired and they’ll have to leave but it was like 200 people who sounded like 20, 000 people. When we’re doing those songs they mean just as much to them as they do us and to see that translate in such a small little setting on this miserable cold night is cool.
So the live DVD that’s been out a couple of years now what was your reason for doing that? Well he had a deal originally with Roadrunner where we thought we were going to do it with them and then different things happened and then we thought it was going to be delayed. But then we made it so we could do it with a different company and when they said to us that they wanted to make it a front line release and give us a nice budget, cranes with different camera angles and a great director and sound engineer, we thought it would be cool to get the real experience down on film to document.
It was good that we were able to do it because Sean left the band not so long after so I’m glad we got a really good show with him in there because he was such a force in the band from Perseverance to the Supremacy album. Now with Wayne being back in the band it would be cool to do a new DVD but that DVD was cool to do just because we really spent the money and tried to make a quality show.
“I wanted to give away a free blow up vibrator with the album,” says a belly-chuckling charismatic Frances McKee who talks to us with such warmth normally reserved for close friends.
Of course she’s talking about the album which took 21 years to follow debut Dum Dum released in 1989, a year the band perhaps regard with distaste if new song I Hate the 80s is anything to go by.But this is 2010 and their return couldn’t be more fitting with the supposed downfall of indie music.
The intimate affair rouses bopping heads and smiles all around as the scuzzy pop duo share their dirty thoughts and innuendos. Frances shamelessly comments on the pair’s former romantic ties but both satirically poke fun at this with album title Sex with an X.
Add jaunty pop hooks and endearing vocal harmonies and the twosome pretty much pick up where they left off.Frances face is filled with beaming joy as she plays those indie-pop gems from her younger years, including the hypnotic Rory Rides Me Raw and the subdued No Hope with its Lou Reed stylings.
But musically the new songs barely stand out and it’s those three classics covered by Kurt Cobain which inevitably receive the most appreciation. But as Eugene introduces Jesus Don’t Want Me For A Sunbeam the crowd stand alarmingly still as if four horsemen are on stage signalling the end of time.
Luckily Frances perks up the mood with her inane take on Molly’s Lips but she makes it quite clear she expects more enthusiasm.She makes a member of support act Haight Ashbury parp a toy horn in the most frivolous of places that it effortlessly produces muffled laughs. The perfect way to show that a dose of Scottish charm is all you need to win over our affections.
After mocking the laughable opaqueness of an encore they walk off for a matter of seconds before asking us what we want to hear, despite the crowd having already shouted suggestions all night. It’s soon decided we hear their eclectic version of You’re Not A Man followed by The Stooge’s-esque Dum Dum which finally brings out the dancer in us all.
Here’s to hoping we’ll hear more in the next 20 years.
After four years of coming to my favourite festival (probably because it was the first one I ever went to and signified the start of my freedom after going straight from getting my GCSE results) I decided to be an Oxfam steward. For three reasons.
1) A friend told me how much fun it was 2) It's one way to get a free ticket and 3) It gives me pleasure to help people. (Apparently we raised thousands of pounds for Oxfam. I don’t know how, maybe the money they would use to pay people is given to Oxfam instead?).
I got to Bramham site on Wednesday to pick up my shift times, with fingers crossed that I wouldn’t have to miss The Libertines or Guns 'N Roses. Phew. My music angel is looking down on me. Turns out my shifts were almost perfect. My first task on Thursday was to "crowd control" the showers. I couldn’t say there were many queues but I did find out I was more liberal thinking than the festival allows. After letting both sexes in the same showers I soon realised they were not supposed to be mixed at all. oops. I don't mean to be stereotypical here but I was quite surprised that more men than women were using the showers. For me baby wipes and deodrant do the trick.
On more occasions than I wanted I caught a glimpse of some very unflattering naked flesh. (I had to peek to see if there were any problems or queues to control, I'm not a perv!).
After a very 'eventful' shift I was happy to have all of Friday off which meant I could get as drunk as possible for The Libertines.
So from worker to punter I started the day with Rolo Tomassi. I’ve always liked their math-rock style and hearing Eva's impressive screams, which are as good as any metal-loving testestorone-fuelled bloke out there, but live it didn't really do anything for me. Parts were out of tune and the sounds didn’t really gel together. The vocals were too low so Eva's transition from screaming to airy sweet singing didn’t really work.
Next I saw Random Hand on the Lock Up Stage to get my ska-punk fix. Robin Leitch has so much energy, alternating between playing the trombone, the next grabbing the mic and singing. Anger Management was the highlight with folk singing back the words and they managed to get a bit of a skank pit going. Always a bonus that early in the day! But the best bit was definitley seeing four men dressed as nuns crowd surf in succession. The frivolities of festivals!
Next I saw a band I have waited years to see, Modest Mouse. (It was the days before student loans and overdrafts when they last played in Nottingham!!) Isaac Brookes has a genuine passion for his music that he almost forgets there's a crowd who are being heavily rained on! But it didn't put a damper on things at all, with the band playing some of their best tracks including Black Cadillacs, The View, Dashboard and Dramanine,which was a nice surprise.
Next it was the festival's 'worst kept secret' with Gallows posing as The Rats who played an afternoon set on the Lock Up stage. Frank couldn’t be arsed with any contract signing and just wanted to enjoy a show with his mates,and he seemed to be a better front man for it. His aggression and infamous pub gig banter came out showing he is much more comfortable when he’s playing with his real fans. Frank's stage presence ensures they aren’t a band to be tired of just yet, with the early singles Abandon Ship and In The Belly Of The Shark sounding just as refreshing every time.
Next was Trash Talk, the brutal hardcore band who don’t mess around in their live shows, with fans jumping from pillars and band members stage diving all over the place. But with most songs being only 30 seconds long you don't have long to let out your aggression.
After seeing one of the best hardcore bands around at the minute, I went to check out former System Of A Down front man, Serj Tankian. He apologised for having a fever but you couldn’t really tell. He looked genuinely happy to be there and kept smiling when he caught a glimpse of the crowds reaction when he wasn't immersed in the music. He was backed by a beautiful orchestra who he calls the Flying Cunts Of Chaos and while it's a long way from his SOAD days, it looks like orchestral jazz-rock is here to stay.
After seeing a fair few bands I decided it was about time to start drinking properly for The Libertines, so with a bottle of whiskey and an adrenaline rush I was pumped and ready to see the band who were the soundtrack of my teenage days.
I've waited since I was 14 to see the band after I fell in love with their poetic resonance and British rock and roll swagger. The first album reminds me of being 15, drinking too much, doing things I wouldn't do now and not caring what other people thought. Essentially what being a libertine was all about. Next came the joys of finding older tracks, demos and b-sides. I remember loving the fact I was drinking a pint in the Filthy Mcnasty's pub, for two reasons. 1) I was only 15 and 2) It was where The Libertines played a few infamously rowdy gigs. The second album meant a lot more to me lyrically and the only thing I needed to do was to see them live. But circa early-2000 over 18 gig bullshit stopped me. So to see their reunion, whether they were paid too much for it or not, was so invigorating to finally sing back every word. It was a special moment and it felt like it was just me in the crowd. But alarm bells rang when they went off after the third song!
I felt an enormous sombre feeling thinking that something was wrong and that I had waited all this time to only hear 3 songs! Luckily it was due to safety issues so when they came back on and launched with Last Post On The Bugle, every pulse in my body wanted to let go and give the gig all the raucous vigour it deserved. It was so heart warming to see Pete and Carl infamously sing into the same mic and you can tell how happy they are to be together.
I don't think it would have had the same feeling if they had carried on and had another two albums under their belt. Of course I would love to see them again in an intimate pub, close up and back to their rowdy days, but would it be too nostaligic? But whatever the future holds and which ever way albion sails on course, this will remain one of the greatest gigs of the year for me.
Next there was a bit of an anti-climax as I was dragged by my boyfriend to see the digital hardcore Atari teenage riot who I'm really not a fan of. It seemed to just be music for pill heads and the repetitive droning drum 'n bass just does nothing for me. I love their anarchist anti-facist ideals but it's just not my kinda music.
I walked past Arcade Fire and was pretty shocked at how thin the crowd was. I reckon it was the poorest turn out a headliner has ever had. I chose to watch Bad Religion instead but from what I heard, Arcade Fire were the festival highlight for many. I guess you shouldn't judge a band by it's crowd.
I decided to watch Bad Religion for a variety of reasons. 1)The fact that guitarist Brett Gurewitz is the founder of Epitaph records 2) They have been going strong for over 30 years and 3)They have influenced so many punk rock bands out there, they could be called the grandfathers of punk. The drumming is infamously fast and front man Greg Graffin (who founded the band when he was 15) sings in such an effortless and cool manner about political ideals.Okay their energetic punk antics are long gone with bare minimum movement but it's hardly a surprise after they've been doing it for so long. The highlights were Do What You Want, Los Angeles Is Burning, 21st Century Digital Boy and Infected but oddly they didn't play anything off their forthcoming album. But this shows that they've still got life in them yet, and quite frankly they don't want anybody getting bored of them.
On Saturday I had to work the evening shift which meant I missed Weezer, Cyprus Hill and Roots Manuva. But before my shift I watched The King Blues, who bigged up the punk-ska scene after proclaiming how happy they were to be playing the main stage. Their set was perfect for a sunny afternoon and it got people even standing as far back as the delay tower to dance away. After that I watched Thrice who didn’t really offer anything exciting, although it was great to see their progression which has evolved from their debut album.
On Sunday I worked the day shift but knowing I'd be seeing Queens Of The Stoneage and Guns 'N Roses pulled me through! There are only so many wrist bands you can check before your eyes blur and you start to care less and less about who manages to blag you with a fake wristband. Once my shift was over I watched a bit of Biffy Clyro, who can be difficult to watch when you’re an original fan and first saw them play six years ago, but when they pull out oldies like There's No Such Thing As A Jaggy Snake, it's always a nice surprise. But they seemed uncomfortable playing it, almost like they felt they were turning their backs on the new fans who propelled them to chart stardom. It was almost like it was their dirty little secret, but I must admit I was paying more attention to his white dyed beard!
Next it was time for Hatebreed, who were probably the heaviest band playing the whole festival so it was nice to see people there for some ‘proper’ music. They got the pits started by telling everyone to let out their aggression and to forget about the bullshit of going back to work. Tracks such as Live For This, Perseverance, This Is Now, and Diehard As They Come beg the question of why they have never achieved as much recognition as bands such as Machine Head.
After my hardcore metal dose it was time for the sexy Josh Homme and Queens Of The Stoneage. Josh has succeeded in being the only ginger I find attractive and he has a way of drawing every single person in the crowd in. They are a proper rock band and could teach hundreds of bands a lesson of how to do it properly. They have plenty of festival favourites to choose from and play some of the best including Feel Good Hit Of The Summer, No One Knows and Little Sister. Josh comments on how beautiful the day is before pointing to a girl's 'magnificent boobs'. Surprisingly they threw in Monster In The Parasol from their album Rated R which is the first time I've seen them play it. They chucked in a new song as well, but to be honest their wasn't anything invigorating about it and it seemed to have snippets of past hooks. I hope they haven't lost their touch! Maybe Josh needs to stop galivanting with his super group. The set was too short as ever which shows how easy it is for them to engage a crowd.
Next it was the waiting game for Guns N' Roses who were allegedly an hour late for their Reading performance the night before. Apparently they were half an hour late for us but I'm not sure if that was played up because it didn't feel that long at all. The light show was pretty spectacular with images from their latest album 'Chinese Democracy' as the band came out to the album's title track. DJ Ashba playfully played the opening riff to Welcome To The Jungle a few times before launching into it for a sea of happy faces. The stage show was complete with fireworks ensuring they get the attention they deserve. The set was full of classics including It's So Easy, Mr Brownstone and Nightrain.
The band did milk it a few too many times with solos from Richard Fortus, Dizzy Reed, DJ Ashba. Bumblefoot and even Axl Rose, who played his piano solo before going into November Rain. The fact is we don't really need to be reminded how good they are, it just adds to their notorious egoism! Never the less they try to keep grounded and not take themselves too seriously by playing the Pink Panther and James Bond theme. The most annoying thing was hearing a gaggle of people behind me relentlessly commenting on how DJ Ashba was trying to replace Slash, and after he did his solo he scraped an applause. Okay there are a couple of similarities, they both like to light a cigarette before their solos and both wear hats, but it doesn't mean DJ Ashba wants to be Slash! He adds the glamour reminiscent of the old Guns 'N Roses and is exactly what the band needs right now.
After all, there's only so long you can look the porky Axl Rose. Regardless of the fact that most people think he's a first class cock the band are here for the fans and play most of the tracks you would want from a Guns N' Roses gig. Strangely they only played two tracks from 'Chinese Democracy' which would have been more had the promoters let them play longer, apparently. But that's what makes Guns N' Roses. Hardly any bands have that Rock and Roll 'give a fuck' attitude anymore and telling the cops and promoters to fuck themselves is just part of their rock charm. Finishing with Paradise City it soon becomes clear that Guns N' Roses were one of the best headliners Leeds Festival has had. Hey, at least we didn't get the sound pulled on us!
