Tell
me a bit about yourselves?
James
is the main vocalist, plays guitar and writes all the lyrics
for the songs. George plays keyboards, Max plays drums, Harry plays guitar
and Joseph the bass.
The rest of the chaps all have input into
the writing and composition of the music and pile in with
backing vocals too. None
of them were making too much of a dent into their 20’s –
God, these lot were young!
James
& Max are brothers. They
are all essentially bunch of mates based in North London.
A typically convoluted story of who knew who from
school and college, contacts via friends, brothers and random
introductions at the WayOutWest club night in North London
followed. They
started out when the majority of them were 16 and played for
ages without a bassist until Joseph joined the party.
Why
the name Video Nasties?
Well,
because it’s class, it’s just such a great name was the
resounding opinion!! A
bit more digging revealed that the lads are big fans of the
whole video nasty film genre. James and Max used to nick off school and watch films, in
particular any horror films & any David Lynch offerings.
How
are you finding the tour with Jack Penate?
‘Absolutely
fantastic. We’ve
had a great day today in Newcastle, we’ve been down to the
quayside for a look around, it’s a really great part of the
city. We had no
idea! The
weather’s been really warm too.
Nice little venue. Touring with Jack has been excellent, we’ve enjoyed every
minute, he’s a sound bloke.’
Just
earlier in the evening my fellow revellers & I had spotted
Jack P & his band screaming up the bank away from the pub
in a knackered looking clapped out purple Transit van!
This was met with highly vocal and enthusiastic
description of the Video Nasties ‘Megabus’ and how it was
far superior than their touring partners inferior form of
transport!
Any
releases lined up for the near future?
‘Yep,
we’ve got our new EP which is due out in May (or June
we’re not too sure at this moment!).
We’re very proud of it.
The main A-Side will be Doo Doo Dah Doo, with Without
You, the very catchy 100 Dollar Bill and a cover of Smalltown
Boy by 80’s act Bronksi Beat.’
My
admission that I obviously remembered this dance floor classic
first time round was met with derision as though I was joking!
Hmmm.
What
would you all be doing if you weren’t in this band?
Joseph
was actually fired today from his job in a paint shop.
The fact that he was telling me this after a gig in
Tyneside doesn’t really take a genius to figure out why!
James has held down such salubrious positions as a
Porter at Christies before but the resounding conclusion was
that they would more than likely be at university or grinding
out some mind-numbing jobs if they don’t manage to pull this
music lark off! From
tonight’s performance and the handful of tunes I’ve heard
so far they’re certainly on course for that not to be too
much of an issue.
Any
messy rock-n-roll stories you’re willing to share with us?
Er
none…. Well, alright then - loads!
There was the time that we were in a rather messy dance
off in Aberdeen and some fella ended up naked.
Also, there was the time that James & Max were at
Victoria station with all of their musical gear when they were
attacked by some man wanting to rob them of their equipment
cash etc. He
ended up getting punched & left empty handed as our Video
Nastie heroes decided to try a bit of vigilante-ism!!
Fair
enough – I wasn’t going to argue with them after this
admission although I’d already got the impression that the
violent streak was a definite one-off from this bunch!
Tour
plans and life in general?
First
headline tour is on the cards and starts in April.
The lads were very animated about some of the bands
they were touring with. These
include The Situationists and Ox. Eagle. Lion. Man. Great fans
of their music as well as mates.
Two
up-coming dates that they were keen to mention were 28th
April at Chalk at Scala supporting The Young Knives and 24th
May at Koko in London on a large bill including The Noisettes
and Metronomy amongst many others for the War Child gig.
It
is Musicmog, so here’s the obligatory cat question – got
any?
Harry
has a couple. One
called Phoenix who actually looks like Felix off the annoying
cat-food adverts and another called Kiffy.
George’s cat’s names have a decidedly fishy theme
such as Sushi and Tuna!
Massive
thanks goes to the lads for sparing the time after a rather
sweaty and energetic set to have a chat with me.
Very much appreciated.
Check
out www.myspace.com/videonasties
for further details on tunes, free demo downloads and tour
dates.
Thanks
to Joanne Gillie for the interview.
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