|
‘The fucking Vines… we’d kill them’ – okay so I may
have taken this slightly out of context and removed
any sense of irony in John’s voice but lets face it,
its not every day I get to start a fight between the
NME’s favourite band and the infinitely more talented
but lesser-spotted, Liverpudlian Bandits.
The Bandits, last I saw of them, were playing
alongside The Vines at Shepherd’s Bush.
Six times that evening, I was asked who the first band
were ‘cos they completely outshone those Aussie ponces’.
Perhaps this would explain the threesomes disinterest
and vague dislike of their gig partners; John tells
me (at least I think he does, in his broad ‘pool accent
its often hard for this soft southern lass to tell)
that Mr Craig Nicholls and the other two whose names
no one can ever remember, didn’t want to know them.
‘Backstage they’d shut the dressing room doors, you
know, lock them and just ignore us’
Ohh do I sense a bit of a rivalry punch up?
‘Nah, there’s only three of them; we’d kick their ass.
I may only be little but I’ve got a fucking big organ
player to protect me!’
Does he often need protecting I wonder?
‘Lets just say I’ve got a big gob’ I’ve lost him for
a second as he shouts round the dressing room –‘hey,
this journalist wants to know if we’d kick The Vines
in’. The dressing room breaks out in laughter. Apparently
they’re confident. But lets get down to business.
Whilst the inexplicably popular Vines have been posturing
and thrashing around both on and off stage with all
the originality and un-meditated behaviour of a Nirvana
Tribute band, these enterprising young ‘uns have set
about running one of the most popular indie nights in
town, touring Europe with 2002’s most wanted and gigging
with one of history’s most influential rockers.
A quick introduction, lets see, well there’s John Bandit,
Gary Bandit, Tony Bandit (the big organ player/bodyguard),
then there’s Swee er Bandit, Richie - ye p you guessed
it -Bandit and of course Scott Robbins, sorry, I mean
Bandit. They grew up with the boys from The Coral and
still claim that ‘anyone of us could have ended up in
either band’. Why then do they not form one large swaggering
scally band?
‘We’re a lot more direct with more punky energy, The
Coral are far more intricate in their writing but what
makes anyone different from anyone, you know we’re all
doing stuff that’s been done before but we love what
we do’.
John describes their style as live, electric rock and
roll, ‘We love it, that feeling and we really, really
mean it. We don’t just get up and play our instruments
we really feel them and hopefully that comes across’.
The bands influences (everything from Bob Marley through
to The Beach Boys, The Clash and The La’s and not forgetting
John’s taste in ‘world music’) have clearly had their
affect on both The Bandits’ sound and their ethos. As
they admit themselves, everything’s been done before
and with such good bands around now and such good bands
around in the past to be compared to, they believe it’s
their duty to be good, not just good enough. This probably
explains why John is so hard on himself, he describes
the band’s various performances with a very critical
if not refreshingly honest style. Equally it explains
their desire to put on top quality indie nights with
very respectable line ups including themselves, The
Libertines and their old pals, The Coral. The inspiration
coming as their search for a venue to play in frequently
ended in disappointment. So fuck it why not, the boys
set up the ‘friendliest night in town’, The Bandwagon.
‘No-one has ever been thrown out of The Bandwagon, everyone
there is just really mellow, stoners I guess. It’s a
boss atmosphere and now its getting really popular’.
The flyers for The Bandwagon feature the same stern
faced Zapista as the video to new single Once Upon A
Time /On My Way (out last month). Having admitted to
starting the highly improbably rumours that this dancing
Spaniard was drummer, Swee’s grandfather, John admits
to just picking the icon for their flyers because ‘he’s
a dude’ but putting him in the video was just a fluke.
‘We were out in Spain where we’d done a few gigs with
The Libertines and the day we shot the video we found
this fella who looked just like the picture we’d been
using. He didn’t speak a word of English, I don’t reckon
he had a clue what was going on but he danced around
all day as we filmed anyway’.
Touring Spain with the hottest property of 2002, The
Libertines is impressive enough but these ex-dolers
can also claim to have supported at the last gig the
late and absolutely draw-droppingly great, Joe Strummer
ever played before his untimely demise. For six lads
whose best gig trick is their cover of ‘Guns of Brixton’,
this was an awe -inspiring occasion. ‘His death came
as a shock to everyone didn’t it, such a fucking shame.
He was a real talented man with boss tunes’.
Kim Hollingdale for Crud Magazine 2003©
|
