The Hip Priests. Zero fucks n’ less success since 2006. The most prolific band you haven’t heard of. High energy sweaty sermons of misanthropy, disillusion (self) loathing and despair. Get ready to have your ears torn clean off.
After 16 years some bands would be taking it easy but in spite of a global pandemic, there was no let-up in The Hip Priests determination and activity. Their fifth, and by far their best full-length album – ‘Roden House Blues’ – was written, rehearsed, and recorded during this period and will be released May 5th, 2023, via The Sign Records.
Rehearsed, recorded and mixed between the numerous U.K lockdowns in Roden House, one of Nottingham’s former lace factories where the Priests have their own space, and which spawned the album title. This is no Mississippi Blues but perhaps it makes more sense than you think: Howling laments, loss, self-reflection and revelation – alongside some recurring Priests lyrical themes: negativity, nihilism, rage and revolution. After 2019’s ‘Stand for Nothing’ the band were unsure whether they’d do another album – However, global lockdown inadvertently led to a renewed passion and realisation that, like Jagger said, ‘’what can a poor boy do’ – especially when feeling more lost in a world that increasingly resembles a dumpster fire. A few dozen demos were scrutinised of which, through a stricter than ever group consensus, 14 were recorded but then honed down, razor sharp, into the tightest collection of 11 low-fat, lean and mean banging tunes that could fit into 30 minutes.
This week we get to feel another white-hot blast straight from the album’s furnace in new single ‘Just To Get By’, which finds the band in rare reflective form.
“Every day can be a struggle and happiness really is an inside job. None of us are perfect. Every day we’re pitted against each other and ourselves by a world that increasingly looks like a dumpster fire that wants to incinerate us. What can we do to just get by?
Perhaps just trying to improve, rise above and be a better person is an act of revenge nowadays. A number one single in an alternate universe with a guitar riff of such hook and beauty it was surely dropped from the Rock heavens.
We don’t JUST do Nihilism, Negativity, Rage and Revolution you know…”
This month also sees The Hip Priests team up with Northern Ireland’s The Dangerfields for an Irish tour. Having known each other for years and toured together back in 2010, when the bands paths crossed again last year, the idea of finally sorting that long talked about Irish tour was set in stone. And so The Hip Priests first time in Ireland kicks off in Derry on Weds 22nd March followed by four other shows all across the country.
Come along for an evening (or in Dublin’s case, afternoon) of face-ripping, ball-crushing, ass-immolating rock ‘n’ roll played by a bunch of doozies far too old to know any better! There will be loud guitars and rock poses, bad words and everything!
‘Roden House Blues’ is released May 5th via The Sign Records and available to pre-order HERE:
Influential band stands among a select few of the most revered second-wave emo / indie bands of all time including their peers in The Promise Ring, Mineral, Christie Front Drive, Boys Life, Braid, Karate, and Rainer Maria.
“The lines between post-hardcore, indie rock, and emo blurred on the two mid-’90s full-lengths from the Van Pelt.”- Pitchfork
“New York City’s The Van Pelt are an influential, but too often overlooked indie rock band — cult favourites for many an emo-inclined crate digger.” – Consequence
“…should be mentioned a lot more than they are when you talk about the history of emo.”- Washed Up Emo
After twenty-five years of waiting, New York City cult indie favourites The Van Pelt have announced a March 17th release date for their upcoming fourth studio full-length, titled ‘Artisans & Merchants,’ which will be released jointly by Spartan Records in North America, La Castanya in Europe/World and Gringo in the UK.
The album was recorded and mixed in Summer / Fall 2021 by Jeff Zeigler (The War On Drugs, Kurt Vile) at Uniform Recording in Philadelphia, PA, and features guest appearances by Nate Kinsella and Ted Leo among others.
The first single ‘Punk House’ is out now, along with a brand-new music video.
Frontman Chris Leo says, “When a bunch of old VHS tapes were unearthed, the band had them digitized and they turned out to be from US tours of the mid-90s. The footage is mainly of daily banalities: random purchases at rest stops, packing and unpacking the van, highway views that could be on the outskirts of Any Town USA. Yet there is a nostalgia to it that’s compelling. The song mirrors the mood in both sound and text. Lines like “The floor is filled with resin on the place where you’re to sleep / if you have enough to drink you can pretend that it’s a sheet” bring any musician back to the rougher side of days on the road — yet again, the subtext here is that the spirit of it all is to be longed for.”
The Van Pelt has announced a series of UK, EU and Brooklyn shows in March and April. See dates below. Pre-order ‘Artisans & Merchants’ here – https://thevanpelt.bandcamp.com
Do you know this year so far has been a blinder in terms of new releases we’ve only just left February and tipped into March and there have already been any number of contenders for Album of the year, this baby included, and judging by the number of pre-orders I’ve got pending there are going to be a fair few more.
This LP as I slip it onto the virtual deck instantly washes over you drawing you in to a gorgeous blend of Classic Americana, while holding on to a punk driven perspective, and that jarring of styles, so difficult to get right is what singles this Lp out as something a bit special.
If you’re a Springsteen fan, think back to the classic Darkness on the edge of town, The River, Nebraska period a songwriter redefining, honing in his style, very much as Rich has within the songs on this LP, embracing influences while building on his own style, (think if Bruce Springsteen did punk rock) moving to a beat that’s beginning to fully form, if you think Tom Petty, the Aforementioned Bruce Springsteen, hinting at Steve Earle but also dragging in Jesse Malin and some of the raw blues tinges of Lucinda Williams. This is a real step up from the Role Models a shift in focus embracing the past but moving into a future of real creativity.
Looking at the tracks stand outs for me “Til I’m on my feet again” hits hard with a huge sense of drive , desire and urgency reaching out to the future that’s not coming quick enough. Next up the searing, soul searching “The end of all things”. Not to say the prior tracks are weak tracks truth be told there isn’t a weak track on the LP.
“Forever Ghosts” and “Pretty Breeze” to me perfectly illustrate the light and shade within this baby play them back to back and you’ll see what I mean, So what do we have?
Contender for LP of the year? Definitely
A songwriter strengthening his style, embracing change? Absolutely
The LP that breaks outwards from the scene opening the music up to whole new audiences? Defiantly!!!
Do yourself a favour Buy, download, treat yourself to the t-Shirt, be one of the cool kids and more importantly support the artist.
Gyasi rose to the top of the pile when the album dropped and a whole load of RPM reviewers gave it the seal of approval at the end-of-year awards. Keeping the fire stoked it’s time for some more Glam slammin’ sleazy Retro Rock n Roll. ‘Baby Blue is a four-track EP crammed full of guitar-driven hedonistic Rock n Roll.
I love that they make no apology for their over-the-top showmanship and cocksure swagger. The lead track is one Bolan boogie woogie hip shaker in spangly spandex and more make-up than Bowie wore. That riff is familiar but boy is it good, no it’s great. No scratch that it’s fuckin great and the breakdown into the chorus is wonderful. It’s so unashamed of its inspiration and history, and I love thatit’s delivered this well.
The other three tracks on offer are all live cuts that show the band have the chops when out on the road. ‘Cheap High’ is badd ass like when Aerosmith were out there kicking up a storm in the late ’70s an air of mystery but don’t fuck with them because these cats can play. The sleazier ‘Tongue Tied’ with its rolling beat is one monster sleazy tune before signing off with ‘Sugar Mama’ and all it’s bombast and glory. I’d love to see these guys hit the UK with their live shows in some sweaty club at ear shattering volume it would be a glorious beast indeed. Please make it happen on the next album so until then this EP will do nicely thank you.
The details of their new album Roden House Blues, due out May 5th, via The Sign Records. Stream their most recent single “Chasing Death” HERE.
“The finest Rock N’ Roll band in the UK” – Eddie Spaghetti, Supersuckers
Since their inception in 2006, THE HIP PRIESTS have released a mighty thirty 7” singles, four albums, two compilations and three EPs by various independent labels from all over Europe & the USA. Fiercely independent and tirelessly driven, the ‘Priests have preached their high energy sermon of misanthropy, hate and contempt across numerous tours of the UK, Europe and USA and made countless rapturously received festival appearances.
Gaining a richly deserved reputation as a white-hot live band, the last few years have seen the band’s popularity increasing further with them regularly playing alongside kindred spirits such as THE HELLACOPTERS, GLUECIFER, THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE ZUGLY, NEW BOMB TURKS, DWARVES and ZEKE at both festivals and in clubs. Rave reviews pour in for every release, ranging from ‘a band on top of their game & steps ahead of any of their UK contemporaries’ to ‘if you’re in any doubt about how good these bad boys are then you need locking up’. After 16 years some bands would be taking it easy but in spite of a global pandemic, there was no let-up in their determination and activity. Their fifth, and by far their best full-length album – Roden House Blues – was written, rehearsed, and recorded during this period and will be released May 5th, 2023, via The Sign Records.
Rehearsed, recorded and mixed between the numerous U.K lockdowns in Roden House, one of Nottingham’s former lace factories where the Priests have their own space, and which spawned the album title. This is no Mississippi Blues but perhaps it makes more sense than you think: Howling laments, loss, self-reflection and revelation – alongside some recurring Priests lyrical themes: negativity, nihilism, rage and revolution. After 2019’s Stand for Nothing the band were unsure whether they’d do another album – However, global lockdown inadvertently led to a renewed passion and realization that, like Jagger said, ’what can a poor boy do’ – especially when feeling more lost in a world that increasingly resembles a dumpster fire. A few dozen demos were scrutinized of which, through a stricter than ever group consensus, 14 were recorded but then honed down, razor sharp, into the tightest collection of 11 low-fat, lean and mean banging tunes that could fit into 30 minutes.
11 glorious tracks of High Energy R’n’R, anthemic, adrenalised, sweaty, singalong, life-affirming Rock and Roll. Huge Choruses, colossal dual guitar riffarama, more hooks than a fishing shop, and one hell of an attitude. Punk? Garage Rock? Scandi Rock? Just know this…. They ARE THE HIP PRIESTS and YOU are NOT.
Play Loud or just don’t fuckin’ bother.
Roden House Blues is released on May the 5th and will be available on all streaming platforms, CD, and in three color variants on vinyl; (1) black vinyl, (2) solid turquoise vinyl with solid white splatter, solid black splatter, and solid blue splatter, and (3) transparent/clear vinyl with transparent yellow splatter and transparent pink splatter.
The Fine Art of Self Destruction came out at a time before punk rockers were picking up acoustic guitars and doing singer/songwriter songs. I wouldn’t want it to be lost that at that time very few people were mixing Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska and punk rock or any of that. You either liked one or the other. I believe liking the Rolling Stones was a sin in my circle of friends at this time. The internet hadn’t been there to absolve us of such sins yet.
There were a few people who liked these mixes of genres and took in everything instead of shunning things. They took it all in and received the transmissions that spoke to their hearts rather than thinking of what was allowed or safe. One of these was a guy who once set fire to bars in the Lower East Side, had things tied inside his dreadlocked hair, and fronted one of the wildest punk rock bands since The New York Dolls… And then says he has a singer/songwriter record coming? Mercy on our souls…
The Fine Art of Self Destruction opened up a new room in Jesse Malin’s world. And maybe, unknowingly at the time, opened up doors for many others who would follow in the future, myself included.
Jesse Malin and Ryan Adams were two of the first people in the forefront of showing that you could sing songs on records in a new way for punk rockers. The songs on The Fine Art of Self Destruction were punk in spirit yet broken and delicate in execution. These are beautiful songs about people in an in between, nocturnal world who “moved to Brooklyn”, back when that meant something, and people who “come so hard but their songs are so slow.” Those were the people I knew. That was a lot of people. And they felt like they were my songs, not that I wrote them, or could’ve, but that they belonged to me in my world. Jesse put those characters in songs that could sit with you on the drives next to Nebraska and Closing Time when you drove home at night.
I don’t think without Jesse making that bold move of doing exactly what he wanted instead of what was expected that I would’ve been here doing what I do now. I think there are a lot of people who could say the same. It’s not that we never heard music like this, we just didn’t know “we” could do it too. You didn’t have to be Dylan, or Bruce, or Tom Waits. You could be a punk rocker who knew three chords and had a story to tell and that was enough.
I also believe that there was no better person to produce this record than Ryan Adams, even though he may have cheated by knowing five or six chords to our three, but he knew what needed to happen with this record. He was in tune and tapped into the spirit. There was a magic Jesse and Ryan both caught on The Fine Art… And I think we’re all better for it.
This new video and single is the light at the end of a very dark tunnel for Mike Peters so lets celebrate this Monday with the brand new video and song off the new album – Take it away MP…
NEXT is the brand new single from The Alarm and is available to listen to now at all DSP’s and online music services. Are you ready for what’s next? 28 February 2023 Subscribe – http://smarturl.it/SubscribeToTheAlarm
“Words cannot express the joy of leaving hospital after a long stay on the wards, especially when it means you have regained your health,” he says, referring to the last year of hospital visits, chemo treatments, and life-threatening pneumonia brought on with the relapse of his leukaemia, which was originally diagnosed in 2005.
While the single may signal that he’s newly energised from a healthy prognosis and ready to return to what he loves best – recording and performing – the fact is that Peters never stopped doing either of those things. Writing new music and performing it live to hospital staff while undergoing medical procedures to keep his cancer in check, Peters wrote “Next” with his trusty acoustic guitar and an IV stuck in his arm.
“The lyrics of the song were conceived while I was being treated for a leukaemia relapse and a lung that had filled with blood,” Peters explains. “The outcome was uncertain, but the medical and nursing staff did all they could to keep me going and, in fact, were probably the first people to hear what I was working up musically while they did their life saving work. It wasn’t planned, but once the realization hit me that I was going to be in hospital for a long time, I knew I needed my guitar to break the monotony of the isolation. Being able to play music to myself kept me going and I’m convinced that it helped me make the transition back to life.”
As a reminder of what he went through and what he leaves behind, Peters filmed the new video in hospital corridors, a familiar sight in the last year especially. “I wanted to film something that captured the elation of knowing you are going home, moving on, going forwards ready for what lies ahead, for what’s next,” he says. “At night and in between IV sessions, I would walk the very same empty hospital corridors of the North Wales Cancer Centre trying to preserve whatever human strength I could hang on to.”
Back in the mists of time, sometime around 1994, I was gifted a second-hand t shirt (sleeves cut off, obviously). On the front was a cartoon dog and a cat with a baseball bat, in neon pink writing the band logo of some obscure, local glam band who had long since split up. That band were called Sister Morphine and on the back of that very same t shirt was the immortal phrase ‘SUCK MY JUBE!’. To this day I still have no idea what that means, and until recently what Sister Morphine actually sounded like, but I loved that t shirt and wore it to death. Turns out the singer of that very same band would be my boss/editor/sender of cool music during my time as a reviewer for the legendary Uber Rock website.
South Wales based Sister Morphine were regulars on the club circuit back in the late 80’s/early 90’s, supporting the likes of Last Of The Teenage Idols and Gunfire Dance. But sadly, the stars didn’t align and the band went their separate ways. Who would’ve guessed that Gaz Tidey, guitarists Jamesy & Jonesy, bassist Mike DeSouza and drummer Denley Slade would get the band back together during lockdown and record the debut album that they threatened to make back in those halcyon days of hairspray, fags and thunderbird wine.
So, while you and I were baking banana bread, drinking beer at 10am and watching Tiger King on Netflix, Sister Morphine were scouring their lofts for lost rehearsal tapes, to find the best versions of their beloved songs from a lifetime ago, to see if they really could resurrect Sister Morphine from the graveyard of empty bottles and claim their rightful place as the kings of Glunk Rock 2023!
But why should you care about lost songs recorded by a bunch of 50-somethings, written a lifetime ago? Well, it turns out Sister Morphine can knock out a few tunes, and bloody good ones at that! I must say I was pleasantly surprised when I heard the first single and title track ‘Ghosts Of Heartbreak City’. Who knew Mr. Tidey had such a sleazy vocal delivery that would stand up after all these years. With a voice that sits somewhere between Ricky Warwick and Zodiac Mindwarp, he takes the catchy melody by the scruff of the neck, over a tune that could be an AI generated mash up of The Dogs D’amour and The Quireboys. It’s a 70’s glam rock boogie of a tune and the perfect introduction to the party going on down at Heartbreak City!
Recorded at RedRock studios in Blackwood and produced by Lyndon Price of Welsh metal legends Wild Pussy, ‘Ghosts Of Heartbreak City’ is a 15-song blast of high-octane rock n’ roll that features regulars from their live sets, lost tracks from the archives and four brand new songs for you to devour.
Opener ‘Holy City Zoo’ has already been likened to Motorhead by those in the know, and references Bowie, Duran and Roxy Music. It’s a 2 minute & 22 second statement of intent, job done.
You want punky, low slung rock n’ roll with more attitude than Rocky on steroids? Then look no further than second track ‘Do You Wanna Get Wasted?’. Now that’s a song title any angst-filled youth of today can get on board with, right? Good job it sounds like Zodiac Mindwarp jamming with Backyard Babies and Johnny Thunders then, innit!
The Scandinavian punk rock vibes continue on the likes of second single ‘Nothing Dirty In The Truth’ where the rousing verses and killer chorus showcase a band who really mean it. Elsewhere, ‘Black Hearts & Bruised Egos’ channels Circus Of Power and early Alice Cooper garage rock vibes to great effect.
What’s not to like here? I’m loving this album. Maybe it’s the nostalgia, or maybe I’m biased, but I’ll tell you one thing for certain, Sister Morphine have some killer tunes going on.
Lifting a page out of Tyla’s songbook, ‘Cry The Rain’ is a big tune about love gone bad, set to a Faces-lite rock n’ roll boogie, with some rousing backing vocals. Sava a place in your heart for this one. The hook-laden ‘8 Tracks & Zodiacs’ is another of the new songs, and a potential single for sure. A song about a girl, it has catchy 90’s brit rock vibes that sit well and is a serious earworm.
The strengths of this album lie in the songwriting, the diversity and the production. It’s all pretty high-octane stuff, but they do throw in a curve ball towards the end with the countrified blues of ‘Living With Snakes’. Acoustics, slide guitar and harmonica go a long way to show Sister Morphine ain’t one trick ponies.
While ‘Ghosts Of Heartbreak City’ has one foot planted firmly in the past, it brings a classic sound smack up to date for 2023 with a great production. Full of rock n’ roll nostalgia and clever tongue-in-cheek lyricism, we get sleazy punk rock, 70’s boogie rock and countrified goodness all wrapped up in one cool little package.
If Sister Morphine’s only ambition was to realize their dream of releasing a debut album that could stand tall with the artists of their era, then they have easily succeeded. But I feel they have surpassed those ambitions by taking the music to places their teenage selves could never imagine. ‘Ghosts Of Heartbreak City’ is a pretty unique album, in that it has been recorded by a bunch of 50 somethings, yet it has the energy and sonics of a band half their age. And you know what? I’ll be happy to file that shiny new CD in the rack, somewhere between Shotgun Messiah and Skid Row, where it should have sat for the last 30 years.
After releasing two albums in two years, 2023 promises to be another busy year for David Ryder Prangley. “The man who put the glam in Mid-Glamorgan” (as said Simon Price) will be releasing his third solo album this spring, alongside a reissue of Rachel Stamp’s debut ‘Hymns For Strange Children’. Just after this interview took place, Rachel Stamp announced a date to coincide with the album release on 14th April at Islington Academy. For all the details and more, read on…
‘Vampire Deluxe’ was my favourite album of 2021. There seems to be a strong lyrical link between it and ‘Black Magic And True Love’; were they written at the same time, or did you already have the idea to release two albums in quick succession?
Thank you Martin! I had most of the songs written for both albums before I recorded ‘Black Magic & True Love’ and I always had in my mind to release two albums in very quick succession, that sounded like companion albums. Kind of like The Police’s first two LPs where they sound the same and have a running lyrical theme. It was just a case of picking which songs went together and making two albums out of that. I did write ‘Sweet Heartbreaker’ and ‘Hey Stargazer’ after the first album was recorded. I actually had the guitar riff to ‘Sweet Heartbreaker’ kicking around for a few years and finally put lyrics to it. In general, over the two albums, and in fact on my next album too, I wanted the lyrics to all have a similar stylistic tone and I was conscious to not veer too far from the central themes of magic and space and other stuff that I’m too polite to talk about, but if you’ve heard the albums then you’ll know what I’m saying… The songs can be interpreted differently by different people and I did that on purpose. There’s no one meaning behind any of the songs and that’s why I didn’t print the lyrics on the albums. I want people to hear whatever they hear, even if it’s not what I actually sang.
pic by Rowan Spray
Tell us about your songwriting process. Do you demo songs at home once you have a solid idea, in order to choose which ones to put on an album? Does the finished song differ much from the demo? I noticed that old Ants demos were practically identical to the finished song, which I thought showed how strong Adam’s vision was for his songs. You seem to be similar, in having an image that is as important as the music.
I don’t have one process for writing, though I often make the songs up in my head and then have to work them out on guitar or piano. The songs on ‘Black Magic & True Love’ and ‘Vampire Deluxe’ are very simple in terms of structure, and I arrange all the basic parts for the different instruments but leave room for the players to bring their own personalities to the songs. The solos are left up to whoever plays them. It’s really important for me to work with people whose playing I like and it’s important that the band have a connection to the music. I’ve been really lucky to have great musicians with me on these albums – Rob Emms and Belle Star on drums, Laurie Black and Grog Lisee on piano, Anna-Christina on bass guitar, Liza Bec on recorder and saxophone and Drew Richards on guitar, who also co-produced ‘Vampire Deluxe’ with me. Adie Hardy co-produced ‘Black Magic & True Love’ with Marc Olivier co-producing the song ‘They Came From The Stars To Capture Our Hearts’. I started producing other bands whilst I was still in my band Rachel Stamp and I really enjoy it. A lot of what makes a good producer is being organised – which sounds a bit dull, but it’s vital to have a plan and rehearse stuff before you get to the studio so you know what you’re doing when you get there and don’t get freaked out when the red light turns on!
In terms of the connection between the image and the music – that’s vital for me. I want people to look at the cover of the record and when they play it, the songs fit perfectly with the cover image. It’s funny that you mention Adam Ant because I played bass with him for a short while. He’s a brilliant musician and a great arranger, especially with vocals. He’s certainly a musical and visual inspiration for me.
Pic by Ben Ga
What can you tell us about your upcoming solo album and the Rachel Stamp reissue? Any gigs lined up? My next album is on the way! I have the title and cover image already and I’ve demo’d three songs and have about four more written and I have some songs leftover from the first two albums. This album will continue the themes of the first two but have a few twists. I’ve been singing in a lower register lately so I’m going to explore that side of my voice as well as what people know me for already. I’m hoping to release the first track from the next album in April, around the time of the Rachel Stamp re-issue. That came about when we were approached by the label Easy Action to contribute the Rachel Stamp cover of T Rex’s ‘Calling All Destroyers’ to a compilation LP they’re putting out. We got on well with the label and they suggested re-issuing ‘Hymns For Strange Children’ so here we are, and the release is set for Friday 14th April and we’re playing a show at the O2 Academy Islington in London to celebrate the release on the same day.
To be honest, it was quite odd going back and working on ‘Hymns For Strange Children’ again. I never listen to that album, but it was a surprisingly enjoyable experience. I had to go back and tweak some of the songs for the vinyl version so ended up spending several hours with headphones on immersed in Stampworld! I think when we originally made that album I wasn’t thrilled with the sonics but in retrospect I love it. It’s a really unusual album that doesn’t sound at all dated and doesn’t sound like anything else. I always described Rachel Stamp as ‘Prince meets Black Sabbath’ with the heavy riffs, tri-tones and then the synths on top of it all. We never used programming or sequencers – it was all played live and has a very different feel to, say, the industrial bands or indie guitar bands of the time. Everyone in Rachel Stamp has very eclectic tastes and generally were into more off the wall bands like Devo, The Nymphs, Big Star, Parliament, Sabbath, Bodycount… bands that were doing their own thing. It was important for us to do our own thing too and people had a weird reaction to us because they couldn’t easily catagorise us. The press tried to dismiss us some kind of glam revival which we never were. I mean, we loved Marc Bolan and David Bowie and Sweet, and me and Robin were certainly into some of the 80s LA glam metal bands like Ratt and Poison but we weren’t trying to revive anything, we were all about the moment. I would say that visually we were more influenced by English punk and by bands like We’ve Got A Fuzzbox and We’re Gonna Use It and Prince and by movies like Blade Runner, Near Dark and The Abominable Dr Phibes.
The fans totally got it, but other bands were kind of scared of us. They couldn’t understand how we could walk around the streets looking like we did and then get on stage and play super loud high energy heavy music. So many musicians jump on trends and it blows their minds to see someone just using their imagination. It’s actually not that hard.
Are there any more plans for Sister Witch? I was so pleased to see them play once! I love the Sister Witch album and I love writing and working with Lux Lyall. We still write together and we co-wrote a lot of her first solo album and I played guitar on it too. In fact, we just wrote a song for my next album called ‘Let’s Fall Apart Together Tonight’.
I don’t think there will be another Sister Witch album as such but there will definitely be more DRP/Lux Lyall music out there.
As an amateur musician, currently swapping between guitar and bass, I’ve been learning a lot of your bass lines. Nerdy question; what’s your favourite guitar and bass, live and in the studio?
My favourite bass guitar is my BC Rich Eagle and Anna-Christina actually played that bass on the ‘Black Magic & True Love’ and ‘Vampire Deluxe’ albums and at my live shows. It has a really great mid-range and doesn’t just take over the low frequencies like a Fender Precision might do. I bought that guitar way back when Rachel Stamp got signed to WEA and I used it on the ‘Bring Me The Head Of Rachel Stamp’ EP but it got stolen a couple of years later. Fast forward about 17 years and I was looking on ebay and someone had it for sale! I recognised it because there was big chunk out of the headstock where I’d thrown it across the stage at a gig, so I knew it was mine. The seller was a young guitar dealer in Bristol who had no idea of its history – he’d just innocently bought it from a company that had found it in a skip! I told him the story and sent him some photos of me playing it and I luckily still had a copy of the police report from when it was originally stolen, and he was really cool about it all and we made an arrangement for me to get it back. I was so grateful. Since then, I’ve had the headstock repaired and I wrote ‘Suzi Q’ on the back in gold in tribute to Suzi Quatro who was the first musician I ever wanted to be when I was a kid. She played BC Rich basses in the late 70s.
pic by Rowan Spray
As far as six string guitar goes, my favourite for recording is my old 1972 Gibson SG Special with mini humbuckers that I bought about ten years ago. It has a very unique sound, kind of halfway between a Gibson and a Fender tone. The previous owner had refinished it in Cardinal Red, a non-regulation colour for that guitar so I got it for not much money at all because it wasn’t ‘vintage correct’. I don’t really care about ‘vintage’ or ‘all-original’, I just play something and if I like how it sounds and feels then I’m happy to use it. That guitar was all I used on ‘Black Magic & True Love’, plugged into a Marshall JCM 900 through a 4×12 speaker cabinet. I had the amp quite overdriven and I’d turn the volume knob of the guitar up or down depending on how much overdrive I wanted. On ‘Forever In Starlight’ I might have plugged it into a Roland Jazz Chorus or a Fender combo, I can’t remember exactly, but something with a cleaner sound than the Marshall. I did the solo on that song through a Mesa Boogie Mark 3 to get a kind of Santana sound. If you listen to that album my guitar is panned to the left and the guitar panned to the right is Drew Richards playing a Washburn Idol Goldtop. We did the same for 95% of ‘Vampire Deluxe’, except I also used a couple of different guitars to overdub some solos on that album, and there’s the acoustic guitars too which were my old Encore plastic back Ovation copy and Drew’s Washburn acoustic. Those two albums were, for the most part, recorded live in the studio with the band playing all at once. We then overdubbed percussion, vocals and a few solos. It’s a very simple approach but it’s amazing how effective and fast it is. I wish I had recorded all the Rachel Stamp albums this way. I plan to do the same for my next album.
When I play gigs, I use a different set up which is my Fender Stratocaster through a Marshall combo and I use a Suhr Riot distortion pedal that I leave on all the time. With that set up I can go from clean to fully distorted just using the volume control on the Stratocaster. Some people find that an odd set up but it’s pretty old school actually. It’s kind of how Brian may does it, except he uses a wall of Vox AC30s all on full volume!
How was it to play again with Adam Ant recently? You and Will obviously played with him some years ago. I’m guessing you fitted in pretty easily. Was he an influence on Rachel Stamp?
That recent chance to play with Adam again came out of the blue when Joe Holweger, Adam’s bass player, got covid and Adam was due to headline a big festival. I got a call from Will asking if I could step in and I was more than happy to. I knew most of the songs to play because, as you mention, I had played with him previously. I had to learn a few more songs and we did one rehearsal and then it was the gig in front of 10,000 people so no pressure, right?! A funny thing happened at that show – people probably don’t realise but when bands do those festival shows with so many other bands on the bill, you don’t get a soundcheck, you just go on and during the first song the band is usually frantically signalling the monitor engineer to turn things up or down so they can get their sound balance on the stage. The audience is hearing something else entirely that’s mixed by another engineer who is in the sound booth in the middle of the field. Well, at that show we walked on and kicked into ‘Dog Eat Dog’ which has a very prominent bass line and I just couldn’t hear my bass at all. I turned around and went to the bass amp and turned it up and still couldn’t hear it and then realised the amp wasn’t working! Luckily the bass guitar is fed directly to the front of house PA system as well as the amp so the audience could hear my bass fine, but I couldn’t hear it on stage. I had to rely on just knowing I was putting my fingers in the right place, but it was pretty nerve wracking. We got it all fixed after that though… Then during ‘Kings Of The Wild Frontier’ the entire stage power cut out and all the amps and guitars and everything just went silent! The audience started singing the song and it became this quite magical moment of us standing on the stage waiting for the power to come back on whilst the crowd serenaded us.
Adam was definitely a huge influence on Rachel Stamp. I even stole some of the lyrics from ‘Vive le Rock’ in our song ‘Ladies & Gents’ and we named a song ‘Pink Skab’ because when Will came up with that riff I thought he was playing an Ants b-side! We used to cover ‘It Doesn’t Matter’ and ‘Fall In’ too. Will had been a huge fan as a kid but I got into Adam a bit later, when a friend at school played me the b-sides to the singles. That’s what really got me, songs like ‘Christian Dior’ and ‘Physical’. When we first played with Adam, I think he was impressed that we knew all the ‘obscure’ songs and we could play most of them already. There’s a great video of us playing at the Scala and we open with ‘Plastic Surgery’ and go straight into ‘Lady’ and then segue into ‘The Day I Met God’ and the audience goes fucking nuts. They never expected in a million years to hear those songs and all that was basically Will’s idea. Adam would just say ‘what do you want to play?’ and we would play it and he would sing it. It was a pretty incredible thing to be a part of.
Would you consider playing in Europe, or post-B****t is it just too complicated/ expensive? It’s a selfish question, as I’m based in France now.
I would love to play in Europe! I’m doing more shows now with just an acoustic guitar and I really enjoy playing that way. My solo music lends itself to being performed in a stripped-down way. I’m not sure if that answers your question? I guess what I’m saying is that I’m very open to offers if someone wants to book me!
Originally released via Zero Records in Japan back in 1995 ‘Walk On Water’ marked the reunification of what many fans refer to as the “classic” UFO line up of singer Phil Mogg, bassist Pete Way, drummer Andy Parker, keyboardist/guitarist Paul Raymond along with the mercurial talents of guitarist Michael Schenker.
Bringing back producer Ron Nevison to the fold (he had worked with the line up on their influential ‘Lights Out’ and ‘Obsession’ albums) to help re-capture the magic of the band is perhaps the secret behind why ‘Walk On Water’ worked so well and the two Mike Varney produced albums that followed it perhaps didn’t.
There’s a real vibrancy to Schenker’s playing throughout ‘Walk On Water’s’ eight new studio tracks the guitarist dishing out some fine crunchy riffage over which Mogg’s vocals truly soar, especially on songs like ‘Venus’ and ‘Pushed To the Limit’ both of which would figure in the resulting tour in support of the record (sadly though not the splendid Way/Mogg penned rocker ‘Knock Knock’).
A tour which is captured on ‘Werewolves Of London’, a semi-official 2CD set originally released via Zoom Club Records in 2008, and according to the original sleeve notes, sourced via Pete Way, probably for a couple of Special Brews and a curry, knowing the man. Recorded at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on February 10th 1996 (jeez I was 31 the day before) whilst the band at this point had replaced Andy Parker with Simon Wright (as the former found it impossible to tour due to family commitments) they still sound bang on the button across the 15 track set list. A set list that would feature the usual crowd pleasers such as ‘Natural Thing’, ‘Love To Love’, ‘Only You Can Rock Me’ and ‘Rock Bottom’ alongside three ‘Walk On Water’ tunes (‘A Self Made Man’ in addition to the two I’ve already mentioned), whilst for the UFO purists out there there’s a sublime ‘Electric Phase’ along with a stunning ‘One More For The Rodeo’ to really get excited about.
For what is essentially a straight from the mixing desk recording (something Paul Raymond confirmed within the original CD’s sleeve notes) this a fantastic (albeit slightly flawed) live recording, in fact it’s one that I would rank up there alongside ‘Strangers In The Night’ just because it isn’t as perfect as that record. Once again Schenker sounds absolutely spellbinding in his six string delivery with the finely tuned Mogg as always as cryptic/succinct with his between song banter. Then again, we surely wouldn’t want it any other way, would we?
Listening to both releases once again all these years on, and whilst its great to hear the guys back together and writing some cracking new material on ‘Walk On Water’, I can’t help but think there’s a little something missing from the record when compared to those aforementioned late 70s UFO albums, and the fact the original CD came with two bonus re-recorded versions of ‘Doctor Doctor’ and ‘Lights Out’ (along with a spoken word track ‘Message For Japan’ not included in this reissue), probably spoke volumes for what would happen over the next couple of years as the band once again struggled to function as a working unit. Something you can just sense is already happening within the grooves of ‘Werewolves of London’.
With both title’s having been out of print for some years it’s now Cleopatra’s turn to give both titles an all-new audience both on CD, and now for the first time ever on glorious looking (and eye wateringly expensive) coloured vinyl pressings. ‘Walk On Water’s’ eight track album complemented by the re-recorded bonus tracks as an additional 7” EP, complete with all new cover art, whilst ‘Werewolves Of London’ gets a kind of ‘Strangers In The Night’ cover art makeover and comes complete with a 17″ x 22″ poster of the band!
The flame of the ’Walk On Water’ era of UFO certainly burned brightly, and yeah, oh so briefly it looked like the five guys might finally attain the levels of success they so justly deserved for all their hard work and stellar back catalogue, but UFO being UFO it just wasn’t to be, as once again the band started to slowly unravel, in some cases in truly spectacular fashion. Relive the magic (and not the misadventures) of those years via these quality reissues.
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