Tag: interview

Victims Family, Tse Tse Fly – Duchess of York, Leeds, Yorkshire, UK – 19th March 1992

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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.

Citizen Fish, Victims Family – Wheatsheaf, Stoke, Staffordshire, UK – 18th March 1992

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CITIZEN FISH/VICTIMS FAMILY
Stoke Wheatsheaf

Was woken at eight by Simon’s screaming kids. That’s not true, but it conveys the state we arose in that day. After a couple of refreshing teas, I set off again, leaving Simon and John (Round Ear Records) to go hunting for a record fair venue in Cardiff.

I took it easy all the way, stopping at every service station. This became necessary as half of them were undergoing reconstruction and had bugger all facilities. Actually, I had no cash!

Arrived in Stoke some 5½ hours after leaving Newport. This included a slight delay at one service station as I’d left the lights on on my car! I was sweating for a minute there! Found a cool place to park in Stoke. Just 25p for 12 hours. Bought a copy of the NME to read, which was actually quite interesting for a change. Especially enjoyed an article on who will be the next Nirvana, which slagged off journos building up bands and knocking them down again!

Walked up to the Wheatsheaf, where things were in the setting-up stage. Approached some guy at the bar in the hope of finding somewhere to stay, but he said he wasn’t from Stoke but from Warminster. I said, “Are you with Citizen Fish?” to which he replied, “Yeah, I’m the drummer!” Wow, here I was, talking to Trotsky! The reason I didn’t recognise him was that he’s had all his hair cut off!

The next couple of hours were spent bumming around the bar, reading fanzines, drinking beer and chatting with various members of both bands. People started turning up at about 8.30, and it was reasonably crowded by the time the Victims Family hit the stage. Due to time restrictions, they played the same set as Newport. The sound was a bit too loud at the front, I thought, and I think some people may have found it hard to comprehend the Family’s little subtleties. It sounded better nearer the back of the hall, though. A couple of guys I was chatting with were dead impressed and a fair bit of merchandise was sold. I think the band enjoyed themselves too. 

Citizen Fish came on and played a pretty good set, though I’m not a huge fan of theirs. Spent a fair proportion of their set chatting with Josh, sound man cum merchandiser for VF, and wrote out some questions for the band. Ralph was telling me he saw the Minutemen play on a six-band bill  – all great bands but he couldn’t remember any of them! Probably five bands people in the UK would’ve died to see, and he couldn’t remember them!

Talked to the band about their friends Nuisance, with whom they hoped to do a split 7″, covering each other’s songs. This, I thought, would be a great idea and I hope it comes off. We all agreed ‘Big Sky’ would be the Nuisance song to cover.

After taking some photos, Citizen Fish wound up their set and much bartering went on at the merchandising table, which should keep the Family in Citizen Fish shirts til the end of the century (slight exaggeration). Managed to squeeze in a place to stay with the band, along with another chap, Rob, who had been to the Newport gig and was also going to Leeds. We all squeezed into a front room and drank some beer.

Entertainment was provided by Chong movie (or was it Cheech?) ‘ Rude Awakenings’, which was extremely funny, though due to overindulgence and a few sucks on a spliff, I remember little of it now. One thing I do remember, though, is the phrase “Ungowa” kept popping up in the movie, which anyone familiar with V.F’s 3rd LP will recognise – weird coincidence!

Not content with this, Bucky wanted some cartoons and was totally thrilled by Yogi Bear and Oggie Doggie & Doggy Daddy. I said to Bucky, who was getting really excited by now, “Are you serious?” but the look on his face said he was serious! Apparently, these are the cartoons he grew up on. These are the cartoons you can only see here on TV-AM! And I thought we had it bad here in the UK!

HOW HAVE YOU FOUND ENGLAND IN ITS TREATMENT OF BANDS COMPARED TO EUROPE AND THE USA?

Tim: England is nice.  It’s sort of like the U.S. in the fact that people have to know a band before they come to the shows, it seems. The people rock out and move around, which is a good sign.
Larry: England seems to have the DIY aspect of Europe and the hype dependency of the U.S.

ARE THERE ANY ENGLISH BANDS YOU ADMIRE?

Larry: Citizen Fish and Herman’s Hermits.
Ralph: Yes, Citizen Fish definitely.
Tim: Snuff and Motorhead.

WHAT DO YOU MISS ABOUT HOME?

Burritos!

Spermbirds, Victims Family, Rectify – TJ’s, Newport, Gwent, Wales, UK – 17th March 1992

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THE VICTIMS FAMILY/MORRIS MARINA TOUR DIARY

Starring:
Shaun as the driver on the road to rock n roll oblivion!
Morris Marina as the nightmare in transit!

And Introducing: The Victims Family Crew
Ralph Spight: guitar and vocals
Tim ‘Bucky’ Solyan: drums
Larry Boothroyd: bass 

Assisted by: Josh Ray: sound and sales
Hetty: Tour coordinator and Diks van driver

SPERMBIRDS/VICTIMS FAMILY/RECTIFY
Newport TJs

I departed home at about 12.30, allowing enough time to get to Newport and give me a chance to find a decent place to park and find Rockaway Records.  I was pretty nervous of my car on the way as it hasn’t always been the most reliable of vehicles (as certain people on an ill-fated journey to Leamington Spa to see Shudder To Think will testify). Travelling along all the A roads gives you chance to see some pretty nice scenery and towns (particularly Bradford Upon Avon).  Having made it to the motorway with a couple of brief rest breaks, I headed towards the Severn Bridge and Wales.  The bridge is pretty spectacular in size, and offers a mean view in all directions.

A straightforward drive took me into Newport and I found a place to park easily enough.

Check out the monument by the river! I headed in the general direction of the shops and found the Provisions Market, home of Rockaway Records (run by Simon, who helps put on the shows in Newport). Hung out til closing time, checking out the great selection of new and secondhand records – picking up a couple of bargains with the ‘Happy World’ 7” and the  World Class Punk’ Rior cassette. Headed over to TJ’s after my first portion of chips of the tour so far.

Simon had been hassling me to come to a Newport gig for ages and this one promised to be a treat. TJ’s is quite a small place, but just about the right size for this kind of show, i.e. not too full, not too empty.  As it’s a club things start and finish a bit later too which meant a fair while sitting around and waiting. Most people didn’t start coming in til 9.30. A stall had been set up with tons of merchandise available (like a mini-market!) all at very reasonable prices too.

Rectify came on stage at about 9.50 and blasted out their hardcore attack to an appreciative audience (gosh! people dancing to a support band!).  I enjoyed Rectify live but it’s not what I’d choose to listen to at home. Their set was halted due to a broken bass drum pedal.

After a short break, the Victims Family took the stage and plenty of people gathered around to watch.  Even knowing the old songs they are still a great spectacle live. The quirky stops and changes never cease to amaze me, and they played a couple of songs way faster than their vinyl versions. Highlight was a song which reminded me of The Minutemen and talking to Ralph later he confessed an affection for both them and the Big Boys.  A couple of people in the crowd were literally stunned by the Family’s musical accomplishment and the new songs are easily added in to their set. After a short gap, they came back to finish with an ultra-fast ‘Anti Satan Song For Mom’.

Again, after a brief gap, the Spermbirds hit the stage and knocked out their own brand of HC, putting in tons of energy and huge riffs aplenty. Lee (singer) was slightly perplexed at a girl screaming at the side of the stage, “I want to come on your fucking face!” She was quite adamant about it too! The masses of people dancing sucked up all the energy the Spermbirds gave and after about 40 minutes, it got a bit too much for me, so I went outside for a while til the encore of ‘Shit Job’, which went down a storm.

The piles of sweaty people went home contented. They even found it in themselves to donate £40 to Victims Family who had had their tyres slashed by some arseholes outside the venue earlier. I eventually left at about 3am to go back to Simon’s with him and a couple of other guys (sorry, forgot your names already!). Over a nice hot cup of tea, we chuckled at the local newspaper with Pig from Rectify and Chaos from Chaos U.K. in a full colour cover, with a centre page spread about the Newport HC scene. Good stuff, which will hopefully encourage others to support one of the best scenes I’ve come across.

After that it seemed like a good idea to get some sleep as we had to be up early next morning.

HAVE YOU BEEN IN ANY PREVIOUS BANDS?

Larry: Yeah, lots of ’em. The one right before VF was Skirt Boys, a sort of mid tempo, groovin’ peace punk band.
Tim: Only a local metal sort of Victims Family outfit.
Ralph: I was in a sort of power pop thing.

WHAT WERE YOUR CHILDHOOD AMBITIONS?

Larry wanted to play music and travel in a van! Ralph wanted to play baseball until he discovered guitar. Tim had no childhood ambitions.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE THE HEAD OF THE NEW JAZZCORE EXPLOSION?

Larry: It wasn’t us, we were outta town, you can’t prove anything! No, but really, if jazzcore means breaking down barriers, that’s cool, but if it’s just this year’s trend – fuck it!
Tim: I could hardly call it jazzcore. I think that’s a bogus description.  I personally feel 2nd to No Means No if there were some chart.
Ralph: Or John Zorn.