VICTIMS FAMILY/TSE TSE FLY
Leeds Duchess of York
I fell asleep on the floor and woke up some hours later in darkness and silence, freezing my bollocks off! People emerged pretty soon, except for Ralph – crashed out on the kitchen floor!
After a refreshing cup of tea, it was off into Stoke to get some food and money and back on the road. Got to Leeds far sooner than expected, including a two-hour stop off on the way. I enjoyed travelling across the M62 as it had some spectacular views. Most motorways, there’s bugger all to see, but this was quite a treat.
Got to Leeds and got rapidly lost looking for a car park. I tried three, which all advised not to leave your car overnight! Not an optimistic prospect, though if people knew what my car went like, I’m sure they’d leave it alone. The car park I did end up in had a person on watch til nine but even he seemed a bit dodgy to me – hope I’m wrong!
Went up to the Duchess at about six o’clock, where I met Rob outside – much to our frustration, we couldn’t get in. We chatted about everything from good music to good comedy with a brief interruption by a really pissed-up lady who we managed to escape from unharmed – just!
I’m afraid we missed the first band, Tse Tse Fly, who were late replacements for Dawson. I sold the last of the fanzines I’d taken and headed towards the stage where the Family were about to unleash their frenzied onslaught on the expectant crowd. There was a real good sound tonight and things were going well up til Ralph broke 3 strings in about 10 minutes! Not to be outdone, Tim broke the bass drum pedal, upon which an impromptu version of ‘Sinatra’ was performed. Bass pedel replaced and it was on with the show. Once again, the crowd enjoyed the band and the merchandise stall was crammed with people. After some food, I managed to blag a place to stay with the band and said goodbye to Rob who was going home, before heading towards London.
We loaded up the equipment and went to this house in Leeds. I think it belonged to the girl who organised the show (Becky). Everyone was up til about 2 and everyone got reasonably drunk. I was talking to some guy there about Buffalo Tom who we both admired. Victims Family admitted their admiration for Nirvana, whom they played with a couple of years ago on their first UK tour. Nirvana were one of the support bands! Ralph puts Nirvana’s success down to simple pop tunes. Is that why Victims Family aren’t successful then? “Yeah, but our songs are getting straighter in the hope to attract more people.” Other bands on the Family approved list include Assassins Of God, My Name, Pitchfork/Drive Like Jehu, Jesus Lizard (Ralph’s favourite guitarist), amongst others. Eventually, everyone crashed out to the Nirvana LP.
DO YOU THINK NIRVANA HAVE HANDLED THEIR NEWFOUND SUCCESS WELL?
Ralph: Yep!
HOW WOULD YOU HANDLE BEING IN THAT POSITION?
Ralph: Buy lots of drugs and OD! No, seriously, I don’t know if I could deal with that.
HOW ARE SONGS MADE?
Ralph: Lots of different ways. When I write a song, it can either come from a musical or lyrical idea. Most of the time, a song will be pretty close to the finished arrangement when it gets to the band, but we do lots of tinkering until it’s got that finished feel to it. Essentially, we tweak songs continually until we record them.
1994ever 