THE VIRGINMARYS - TOURING WITH SLASH + BAD RECORD LABELS
hey ladies and gentlemen hey Hope welcome to another week of Music here at the rgm Experience Podcast with me Carl Maloney how are you doing you're on a nice one today ladies and gentlemen we're joined by Danny and Ali from the Virgin Mary's hi boys how you doing you're on eight yeah good mate nice to be here yeah let's talk over each other on Zoom for a little bit huh how it goes he's done it it's so good yeah thanks for joining us Steve as I was just speaking to Ali before we started recording today and just saying uh I had the pleasure of getting my first Virgin Mary's gig live experience down at part in the pews last year for Joe's festival at in Macclesfield uh in a big church which is a lovely setting for live music and a bit of a stream yeah and perfect perfect setting for a band called The Virgin Marys again yes like um the amount of times people over the years have been asking us to do videos or photo shoots in church should have been like no and then yeah uh we did the game but it was good mate it was to be honest with you Marcus Field's been crying out for like a big size venue for for years you know I mean um there hasn't been one for like since I don't know 2013 and or something like that so um yeah and Joe's great you know George promotes tonight really great it was wicked it was just nice for us to be able to do a gig in our own town again yeah that must be nice to I was going to ask you about that because you know as Macclesfield Lads yourself um how how did it feel you know when was the last time you played to a home Hometown crowd I think it was I think it was like 2013 maybe 14 there used to be a place called snow goose live and that was like a 300 cap and it was wicked like we did um I think we did two Christmas shows there for uh like on the bounce and uh it was Ace and um it should have been it could have been a great menu for like you know touring bands on a day off coming and do a 300 cap because yeah um somewhere like Macclesfield it'd just be a really really good how's that capture you're sadly gone then now it's just been empty since like nothing's ever been done with it um so I I don't really know what happened yeah because I think the the people that owned it the plan was to um to have it as like a live venue um and as I say the the gigs that we did there were meant like um you know sold out and it was top but uh and the sound was great as well but so but I don't know I don't know what happened with it it's always a shame when you see a live music venue not in the world anymore as a as a you know a job and musician out there in the world showing off to all these people and playing your tunes and having those experiences with live people every time one of these venue goes it just seems seems it just seems like a massive loss to any kind of community really when these things happen chairman I think like also the stories of people moving in next to an established venue and then kicking off that this you know sound pollution and whatnot you know wouldn't that be infusible but uh yeah it's tough times for for venues it feels like at a time of survival really the whole music industry is in survival mode again after covert and when it hit the music industry so bad kovid you know stopped a lot of people from having a livelihood and being able to pay the rents and that kind of stuff and I'm sure you're alluding you know I don't know put words in your mouth but you know we're we're local to the Night and Day Cafe in Manchester where they're having issues where where somebody's moved in recently and it feels like just seeing the updates uh what's going on with the night and day that the council haven't really done proper due diligence when you know building these Flats around a music venue and then somebody complains about the noise a little bit and it's money uh it's just money money over culture and everything that's important every time yeah and it's just uh it's how far will it actually go until he realizes [ __ ] all left you know when people start complaining way way too late so yeah yeah it's it's definitely and you know I think just having as many we've got quite serious quite quick here this is the same age yeah so yeah so I know I'm just getting over the look and I saw uh and this recording has been delayed a little bit because you're not being too well of your lad you've had to cancel a gig unfortunately we knew Model Army recently um coverage struck again mate so are you feeling better now lads um yeah I am feeling a hell of a lot better than I did kind of knocked me out and I got it in 2020. um and then yeah I didn't actually think um I didn't think that it was covered to be honest and then uh it's all manager said that he tested positive so I thought oh God yeah you know my best do a test yeah and yeah I saw the two lines and uh kind of all made sense because it was I was knocked down and yeah we recorded that we have to miss that gig because we love that band and uh yeah obviously roundhouse in London as well is that yeah great venue yeah yeah it was a it was a proper issue to that like it would have been a really nice end to the to the year to play with them boys like we're it was like the first support gig we ever had was with New Model Army and after that gig we were just all massive fans um so to been able to play on their 40th year anniversary would have been Wicked but um it is what it is in it you know what I mean like what can you do yeah you know there's no rules about going out with kovid anymore but it's just the right thing to do in it particularly if you're going to be uh responsible as humans and do the right things right you know having uh you know not saying anything about it and then just sneaking in and doing the gigs so yeah we we kind of voiced it and then it was decided that you know we shouldn't be doing the gig so I thought I had it a couple of weeks ago I thought I've got no [ __ ] tests in my house anymore in fact I did put all the water stuff had all dried up so they were useless anyway and I I as a Yorkshire man I had to go out and spend three quid and have one and they were negative so that were annoying I know yeah yeah anymore yeah the amount of people I've met in enthusias and that being like we've got a sniffle on the Sunday after a weekend and they're like um oh I've got Cove videos gotta pay for it yeah I was negative in the end it's just the old the old-fashioned cold you know it's like just reminiscing and just um enjoying a bit of coal the only way you can go out and about and people will just laugh at you for being a bit pathetic there's a bloke because I get a bit pathetic when I get when I get ill yeah I don't know where I'm going with this story um you know you do get some pretty bad colds yeah but we we started practicing and um I just don't know what stuff is anymore I don't know whether it's a cold or I'm feeling generally mentally or what whatever it is but just through the day of pushing myself through the practice and then Dan was like bloody armor you don't look well at all you know and add these with like red eyes and it's like I'm gonna have to go to bed you know about it yeah that was that was covered but you know sometimes yeah no you look like you look like Larry's self-portrait of himself it's not like really really odd dreams as well of life some kind of running like sports day of back when I was in primary school and these names you know with kids that you know you only knew yeah years ago just turn up and just these messed up dreams you wake up really wet sweat of sweat I'll say anyway we're all feeling a little bit better so let's have a laugh on that let's reminisce a little bit let's go back so as as young kids then so did you know each other before you you started the band and that kind of stuff what how did your relationship between you two begin yeah I know we um we met at northwich College uh music College which is uh sadly no longer there um I think it only lasted about three years so um it was like a new music course um I think that would start I think expanded by the national lottery I think and then um yeah it was uh like the the the tutor that we had if he had like jet black Air and after about two years it was like [ __ ] white you know I mean he's one of them um and the best thing the best thing about the whole course that come out of it was that being our major and started playing music together and that was it how old were you then when that when 16 yeah um and then I I was from Mac so we always used to reverse it Mark and then um after college finished I'll move to Mark and then um yeah just always in always in bands always doing music ever since then um and where did you live before Mac Nano uh um in a place called hell's been uh like Chester fraudson so it's actually kind of closer to northwich than uh Macclesfield there's so yeah um I used to get Dan's College Bush home a lot they never used to check whether you had tickets or whatever it was and then I ended up staying at bands for most of the course and the course was so um bad really but um I didn't really care if you turned up all the marks and we just ended up jamming for the two years yeah I think we pretty we pretty much passed our course remember speaking to two and being like can we just like record some of our place and and the end so he'd be like yeah so we just wouldn't go in for a week and just turn up with that and get eight Stars across the board all right are you both on families that had instruments in the house and that kind of stuff how how did you first like find um how did you how did you work out that you know oh music of a house of like music lovers my dad um you know I got brought up on music and there was an old I think three-quarter size um nylon string guitar that I started I picked up when I was maybe 10 or 11 and then within a couple of lessons the guitar teacher said you know this is basically this is a piece of [ __ ] in uh in the nicest possible sense in a um a cheap electric guitar and a little combo um the package uh when I was 11 12 and but yeah there's no no one of my family um really played instruments but that's how it that's how it started for me how about your dad um yeah a bit of a um so my dad always had guitars and that ramp since I remember it was like a Paul McCartney bass guitar you know a violin guitar um that was there since I was born just always in the album my dad couldn't play like a note he just liked you like guitars and I think you like you know he's again like love music and goes into that so I grew up on like you know Beatles and uh Beach Boys and like sort of Soul Motown stuff and all that um um and yeah it's quite funny actually because he actually really wanted me to be he always wanted to be a drummer when he was a kid and never got the opportunity and then when I was like uh seven or eight or something like that I remember one Christmas he bought me this drum kit you know and I want interested in anything it was like a big [ __ ] off you know Lars always drunk kit like a [ __ ] million ton all this I couldn't even touch the I couldn't even touch the pedals you know if I sat on the uh seat in that and it was just there for like two years like a sort of an antique ornament in the in the room and you know because I I was too young to sort of people think about it and then he sold it sold my Christmas present never even thought about that until now yeah give me the money for me if you give me the [ __ ] money back for that yeah and um and then I don't know what I think I was about 12 or for I always wanted to play guitar and I used to say to him like we buy me time he was like no like I got these drums for you didn't want to play drums and so you won't get the guitar and then I was about 12 or 13 and someone just collect whilst and we decided I wanted to play drums and I went to him and said I want to play drums and again he was like you can [ __ ] off bought you this drum curtain um but he paid for the lessons and that's and he saw that could stick with it and then he um yeah I I learned on like one of them little junior pro I've still got it at the drum kit and he can't even tune in like ones that you buy at Argos um buying a child a drum kit because as a parent that'd be the last instrument I'd buy a kid if I had a kid I think it was more like he wanted it you know what I mean I look back at it now and think he watered it he wired it in the house it probably got it he probably got a good deal for it you know I mean it's probably some some angle or he had a good deal and then yeah and then um and then I never I never touched her because you know it was one of them things I remember like my mates would be around and we're like [ __ ] nine and ten just sort of hitting it but you know you know you don't deal with it so and then he sold it and yeah you mentioned last night I've literally just been watching that Metallica uh documentary again this morning have you seen it that that one from 2003 or something is it the one some kind of monster yeah when they've got that psychiatrist it's amazing it's amazing paying him 40 Grand a week unbelievable the Dynamics are so fascinating between a band aren't they and how and how much they can vary yeah yeah no you are I mean I think um yeah it's still I'm not having it no matter what he does he always still comes off as a bit of a [ __ ] any laws like there's something about him that you just I don't know he's a bit of like a almost quite sociopathic anyway it doesn't seem to have that much probably does but he doesn't come across as like a warm in person and Hatfield as well in the documentary they were so different yeah I kind of felt like I worked creatively I thought like the Hatfield stuff was fair enough like he addresses the problem yeah essentially and then and then it's just when he comes back and says like I can only do this amount you know yeah and they're still meeting up and you know getting unlike yeah that's the most bizarre thing about it that they carry on the documentary even though like that feels not there so you can't there's no documentary without him and then it's stuff like delving into uh lars's um um a relationship with his dad and stuff it's just so [ __ ] bizarre but it's brilliant it's probably one of the best probably one of the best bands yeah um it's definitely top five best band documentaries I've ever I've ever seen definitely so how how do your two personalities where do you where do you Excel you two together and where do you like where where where's the challenges were you two because it can't be perfect it never is we're two different humans how do you how why does it work for you too so well because we've known each other so long now and um there's been so much stuff that's happened especially you know music and and that and well not even just music it does it it feels like a kind of um sibling relationship or even maybe like a married relationship you know what I mean that it it just you know um then we both know when we're pissing each other off and um in a relationship where you look at each other and you can wind each other up have you got that kind of yeah I think yeah I think I think I think we know each of them so well that like I don't know there's nothing there's nothing more to know you know what I mean so um but I think that's kind of why it works well because you can just be like right I need to take a break now or you know there's no instead on it it's like 100 honest which is good because most bands are never that and what do you think Allah no let's dance completely right yeah yeah I think like it's been going on that long that uh um I think um you could probably you can probably tell when someone's getting wound up or when and then you realize what works and what doesn't and you've been through every scenario a thousand times before so um honesty is pretty much always the best policy anyway so there's a bit more of that um I guess maybe roles as well have established a bit better and you kind of you really go almost gets less and less and like well you're better at this I'm better than you know with this and somehow kind of uh forward to the best way forward but um yeah it's kind of like family I think it's gone past Danny um um you know it doesn't there's been so many highs and lows that it doesn't really matter what uh what becomes out of any of it as far as I'm concerned you know I'd always be there for uh of course it is of course it is it's just but yeah I I I think yeah we've done everything from fist fights to yeah um yeah everything so what's your favorite thing about each other um I think there's a uniqueness to Dan that um the no one else has so um something happens when he like the drums or when he um he's probably one of the funniest people I've met when he's out of himself when he's kind of riffing and he's somewhere where he's out of thinking about um and if it's serious something like that the man's a kind of natural Talent yeah man and for Ali for you Dan um yeah so I mean I think if we didn't have a we both have a really really similar sense of humor I think that's probably one of the reasons is it dark I'm getting a dark sense of humor vibe from you bro yeah it's as dark as you want it it can be a star because you want to be and then um but yeah I don't know it's probably that's probably one of the main things that sort of I actually think is probably one of the most important things about people is yeah there's nothing like when you meet someone doesn't have a sense of humor um but no I mean I was like um I guess ultimately like I'm a fan of his songs you know and all I've always been a fan of these songs um and like his lyrics and stuff so there's that as well and um you know just a good person you know someone that lives by the Golden Rule which is what we're all supposed to do nice we're having a quick look on Wikipedia because some of the bands that I interview and chat to that they're not as Posh as I've been a Wikipedia page so I thought oh Virgin Mary's I've got one I'll have a quick look and uh you know there's quite a lot of you know backstory to you all and you've been through a few different lineups over the years as well um what what's made you guys stick together now as a two-piece was it a challenge having different voices in the band just based on how strong you've known each other all your lives and that kind of stuff has taught me through the dining room part of this thing I think I mean I I can't like we have a laugh about it a lot because um back in the day like when we um we first started out and stuff I think we were like 21 and we got this we got this deal uh and it was literally like the deal that you know you hear about in like a movie where it's like we got offered a deal to go to um La uh like like Hollywood and record for six months and then uh with this uh Grammy award-winning producer and um you know if and then he had six and then he adapt a year to sell it to a major if you've got a major it was all that stuff and of course like we did everything that um everything you're not supposed to do like you know sign the contract that you works but post a sign you know got a [ __ ] up deal um you know had had a [ __ ] up manager um like we've done all of it like I can't either like I could I could spend three hours a day talking to you and I can guarantee he'd be pissing Yourself by the end of it advice of the stories but um if there's one story from it like like the best or if I'm that like experience um what was one of the best stories um I mean what careful that what I know um okay I'm one of the funniest stories that I I always remember that and and it's funny because like um so our manager was like a heart on his sleeve kind of guy he was um um you know I think he was he was like he was more excited about being in the band and getting the deal that we were if you know what I mean it was almost like he he wanted the deal you know he wanted to be in advance and um um yeah the the producer um um they we ended up going back to England and then there was a bit of a fall out and um he he they he refused to speak to the band anymore um oh sorry he refused to speak to the manager so they only speak to the band so we had to set up like um um a voice call but the manager wanted to still be on the call because he was worried about what would be said and um we had to get like uh um he actually said like is anybody which one of you's got like um a phone that you can have like a um a loud speaker on so it ended up at my my mum and Dad's house and um um I think they'd accused him of um that accused him of being anti-Semitic and then and then he said something like and I looked that up in my dictionary and it was um you know uh against any exam um anyway well yeah we had the conversation with him and um and we were the first thing they said on the phone call was like um are you guys anti-semitic I was like no he was like do you know that your manager is and we were like no he's not oh yeah um oh no sorry that was it literally just about before we started to call it beside the call he said I might have called him a pair of judases all right and then it got lost in translation where they ended up saying he called us a pair of due asses and of course uh okay there's no way an English guy would say that because like you'd never say Jew asses so it was just yeah that was that that was the funny thing about it like it was It was obviously like crazy like you know the Holy Grail of getting a record deal and all these promises that I presume will have been made to you and then it just it it goes a certain way when there's other egos Within the Music Industry that have got their own interests at heart and it's just the industry is a weird place in it it was a terrible time in many ways I mean it was a great learning curve like diving into the deep end and um it was great to have that manager around you know God bless him um but we kind of got seduced into signing something the they were like you guys are the [ __ ] you're the next Beatles You're the best you know like they believed in us as much as we believed in ourselves we were just kids no kind of idea of the industry um no idea of marketing ourselves or any anything like that we just had about 30 40 songs and they loved it they wanted to pay for everything that we did we were going to have our own laptops because it's that important that you keep in touch with your fans you will do this and that for you we signed it thinking that these guys were amazing then within the first um few days I would say um I got he came around the main man came round and then said you know what I was thinking about it you guys have got no hits at all um and um you need my help to blah blah blah right who wants to go for a drive around the Canyons with me and it's like what are you talking about I got taken away from him from the band separately um and he wanted to tweak this and that of certain songs like literally a word era a word there and I started to smell a rat said hang on is this is this co-writing they were and then it got all weird um started speaking about his lawyer a lot um and it became apparent that he did want to co-write because we apparently no longer had any hits um and there was a big kickoff I mean there was kind of a bit of friction in the band anyway because I got taken off um there was there's never been like a kind of front mount type vibe in this band though so I think it was a bit weird to start with it's like why is he getting single now and then um it became apparent that he did want to co-write it all kicked off within the first week when we were there for three months and then he was pretty much well you know if we can't work this out you know where the airport is and it was like wow you know so we just signed this contract we've been like this is in days honestly we're just like early 20s um and he was like he was adamant well he was he just thought um we've taken you from Manchester to Hollywood or you know it was outside Hollywood but it's like Manchester's great what the [ __ ] are you talking about yeah yeah he was dead yeah he didn't have any any ideas apart from like the odd kind of tweak of the line or this and that and then it was just taking more and more money and it we pretty much just strong it's not it's not really about um if someone comes up with a better idea fantastic you know all about the song but when someone does it you're not just gonna or something doesn't feel right that's where we've always explored by each other and thoughts about them it's about integrity more than anything and having respect for yourself and that's what we've started that's where we've stuck by the whole time right or wrong and that's probably why we've got the fans that we do have and the respect that we do have because we're still here writing great songs recording great music releasing it whether it's with a label or without and we're just being honest and that's I think in this uh day and age sadly there's a small percentage of people actually doing that so um it speaks to a lot of people when it's like that oh they're actually telling them they're actually being real they're actually telling the truth they're uh the point in the money where the mouth is that you know like um somehow that is um but they know almost like a needle in a haystack these days like no one's doing it how is it getting away from that situation then like you know did they hold on to you but legally where did you start oh yeah no it's still yeah and bits and pieces in what we signed you know whatever it you know however long ago it was uh yeah I mean I think that's what that's the reason why we end up deciding to stop um be in the band that we were when we started Virgin Mary's because it was a case of um if we'd carried on with the band that under the same band name uh that guy would have if we'd have done if we don't if we'd have used any of the songs that we'd had previously and I think we had about 30 songs that we presented to him um we would have had to work with him he would have had to sort of be involved in it so that was the that was kind of the reason why it was like we came back um and it was kind of devastating obviously because say 21 22 you just spent six months in Hollywood you've met all these top Anis for like Columbia or Interscope and everyone was buzzing about the band and then that's all over it was it yeah when I look back at it now it was a heart it was a big thing for us to go you know what we're not going to play any songs anymore stuff from scratch again and that's when we started Virgin Mary's and um we still have a hold of them you are sorry you still have a hold on Virgin Mary stuff even though he changed your name yeah you know that was it so it was it was it was on that point that we started Virgin Mary's and we never played any of them songs ever again we never um I I don't even think I've ever even listened to any of them songs again since so that sounds like a because it was just the whole thing was like such a bad uh laughter too bad taste in your mouth um and again at the time like our manager was kind of like um I can't manage it was gonna like he was convinced there's nothing wrong with the band nothing all the songs um he just wanted us to be more have more attitude because like you know well we've always been really nice on his guys whereas he wanted us to be more like Liam Gallagher and what would I like to be like you know um go to a gig and like you know put your fingers up with the fans and spit on spit on them if you want and it's like that you know what I mean so when we said so when we said to it who says that yeah yeah spit on them if you want mate so any yeah so when we saw we said to him um we're going to change the name we're going to start a brand new band we're gonna call it virgin married he was like that name is unmanageable if you do that I can't manage her so then we were like right we'll definitely calling it Virgin Mary said um but yeah that that's how it started that's how we started video areas because of that um to start your career in the music industry wow well we've been to the kind of it feels like we've been to the bottom quite a few times you know um and we're still I don't know out of all of it you just kind of realize it's about the music and it's about creating something and it's about being who you are rather than who you're being told to be or who you feel it should be and that's probably why it's got really dark in places and no doubt it could do again or it will do again I don't know what me and Dan seem to be there for the only ones who can survive it and stay with it um so that kind of answers the uh you know yeah well it just fine on on Wikipedia it says it lists all the support slots that that you had like with Slash for example was that was that part of your time in America that is that no no so yeah so where's that once we sort of became Virgin Mary's um and then started doing some new stuff it kind of It kind of all came really quickly like um um we got a guy that um uh he basically he lived in Mark and he was like the biggest Oasis fan ever and uh waste his new album come out I can't which one it was back in the day and um he'd gone into the local CD store and then he'd seen that ours was rcd was in there because we'd asked him to put it in sell it for us and he bought that and that and then um he somehow found out where I lived turned up at me house and was like I love Oasis but I can't stop listening to your album what's going on so he became like an investor um and at the time we were involved with like another management they were trying to get us involved with this new label in Manchester called Modern English and they wanted us to do an album with um can't remember his name which the guy that did the first um radio it out the first radioed album Pablo only and we were a bit like [ __ ] [ __ ] that album so why would we want to work with him you know what I mean like not the band love radio but I don't like that albums the album's it's got two songs in it or maybe even one song but um so this guy came in and he and fair play like he he had no clue about anything he just said like I think it's [ __ ] brilliant and I'm willing to put like 20 grand into it and that's all I mean I really wanted because it was like right walking now just get on the road and tour because at that point really in the UK we're never only ever really played like you know Manchester Leeds Liverpool you know [ __ ] like that um I think we did one gig in London to nobody once so I was about you know um like every band from Manchester was yeah and then and then and then from there we we got this manager and it all escalated really quickly he was working with um uh an online um sort of um label and then um it was through that like he his company would do in Slash's first album and that's how we got that support so that was the first ever sort of supports like we ever got to do with Slash and it was amazing because um I think we did we only did three shows which was like Edinburgh Belfast and Manchester and then in Manchester um he was wearing our t-shirt and then the lead singer Miles Kennedy was wearing our t-shirt in Luxembourg the next gig after that and turned out they really loved the band and um yeah I think um classic rock magazine put out a CD black Slash's favorite 20 songs and he put uh one of our songs Bang Bang on it so what was it like I I think like you know meeting slash might be quite intimidating what was it like to meet him and like play on the same stage and he didn't make it into midnight in in the slide just um it's one of the most impressive kind of encounters I think that uh I think me down and Matt uh who was playing bass um we were outside uh one of the venues I think and we noticed that he was we were just out outside having a cigarette and we noticed that he was there and he just kind of wandered up and just made uh it was that easy it was dead nice and he didn't make it I thought there was no sense of um huge ego war and everything like that probably couldn't sing his Praises High not really it was amazing such a iconic person and you know you you've gone on and supported many big bands just going on the list that I've made a note of skunk and answer Terror Vision Ash feeder Queens of the Stone Age We Are Scientists all these big bands what what kind of experiences did you did you take away from touring with these with these you know massive Acts I think like I I like to I think we both like to kind of look um we're both nice the good people and uh willing to kind of listen and learn from and hear people's stories and I think that people like that and they've kind of taken us under their wing and in certain regards like some cannot see we were incredible with us and um yeah we just kind of learn of of people and um the drummer um skunk and Nancy didn't he give you a kind of snare drum or something dumb yeah he was amazing um Mark like pretty much from the first gig was um was that sound sour me and um really like my drumming and um I think my made my hi-hat symbols one of my Heights almost snapped um maybe a couple of gigs in and you know we didn't obviously didn't have any spares so we're just cracking on with it and then he heard that they were quack so he he would give me his his spare pair [Applause] yeah it sound you know like um most of the bands that we've ever been with have been amazing and I think yeah we're just grateful to be there and we're kind of happy to um I don't know just learn what you can that be to be there and it kind of works just like it's definitely not a coincidence that these big names that are nice to people are still around yeah yeah there is there has been the odd one where you just think all right we just we tend to let people be exactly who they are I don't think like we really come to the party with any egos or what whatever it's just that everything that we do is in the music and the performance and it doesn't really matter uh we're not going to change people while we're on whether they're supporting us or we're supporting them really doesn't matter um who did you have in mind Ali I've got to ask like not that I'm not gonna say that everybody everybody's watching this is that is wanting me Tomas yeah someone someone will enter the room and they'll do their little dance whatever that is and um no one will say a word you know everyone will be nice to this pie you know with that but they'll leave the room and they'll just be a knowing look between uh me and Dan and uh Gareth as the whoever we're touring with and it's just it's just known isn't it like that that's how it is that's how you are and uh was it anybody I just mentioned if on the list no I'm sorry I'm just joking they do exist but it's not I would say that most people in bands are absolutely sound yeah um it's not just bands though it's people in the industry um you'll have met loads yourself that people commonly think that they're bigger than what they are there's still people in bands that have been around for five minutes like literally played a few gigs down Northern quarter that think their entire the problem is most I'd say over 50 probably over 60 percent of people are getting bans or what be singing is what being music don't get into it because they love music it's just because they see it on the Telly and here on the radio and go I want to do that you know and then um part and parcel is to kind of come across as I think that's part of the thing that they have it in the head whether I need to have that kind of like um the [ __ ] when really the [ __ ] not you know they're playing two people in that but it sounds they soon get found out that when they realize how hard work it has been in a band and it's not yeah yeah definitely mate it's not just being on stage to a few people that are clapping you and getting the adulation and the girls and all the other stuff that you know historically it's hard working it a lot of hard work and you've got to be in it for the love really or especially now because there's just no money in it there isn't and um you really have to work uh you know four times as hard as what you would think that you would have to and get paid four times less than what you think you should do so it's like yeah it's got to be a labor of love really and maybe that's the way it should be maybe that's the way it should have been um I don't know I mean in so many ways kind of lucky to be able to see what happens in the what's happening in the Ukraine at the minute and just be to be able to be practicing with like someone as incredible is down on the drums and be speaking of you know to people on the internet and all this it was very very lucky to be doing it well you've got amazing fans that are there for the ride with you aren't you and I can remember just before the gig that I saw you at the Christchurch in Macclesfield you'd be not tell her just before you'd be on calendar talking about this tour to Sweden that you've just been on I mean it wasn't that instigated by one of your more more enthusiastic fans yeah it was it was um it was it I mean it's amazing an amazing story really it was um a guy from Sweden who uh he didn't actually I don't think he got into us that long ago it was um maybe four or five years ago uh or it was the last album anyway before so 2018 maybe and um just you know absolutely loved it I think he'd heard a single that had been played on the radio in Sweden and um uh next thing we were touring he came over um with his mate um loved it the next time um he came over it was like his whole family um and he just like you know when someone just like like they'd so get it so believe in the band and just he couldn't I guess he couldn't get his head round like why we're not bigger than what we were um and he was convinced that like Sweden would absolutely love us and so he was always like you need to come sway them and um you know the Scandinavian countries that are always known as the the hardest countries to get into like there's loads of big bands that still don't play um Scandinavia I mean we've been lucky where we've had a bit of it in with Norway so we've always kept going back to Norway but I think we'd only ever played Sweden once and that was supporting canancy it's Stockholm so you know we never thought about going to Sweden again because the cost and then if you've not got a big radio sport or you know you're going to play to nobody um but he was so adamant about us coming over and playing So eventually we're like well yeah you know and we thought it'd just be one gig um but now he'd organize like he'd set up with this promoter and it was like nine I think it was nine gigs like eight gigs in Sweden one in an island off Sweden um and then he he was gonna essentially tour manage it really you know like and drive the van and stuff and um it's not all um it's not glamorous at all and I thought that you know I'd be on the tour with him I thought like once he gets about three four gigs in he'll he'll get it like so many other people it's like it's a lot of hard work that's driving about lifting gear and he didn't like he was the opposite he was like I absolutely love it like he he genuinely just was so passionate and um it was it was unbelievable I mean I said to her while we were doing it like we'll never do a tour like that like he he went out of his weight and like every town we went to um he'd spined an hour before we had to sound check where we'd go to like this town's really famous for doing like um sweets you might boil sweets and stuff so we go to like sweet shops and stuff and he get it was just like incredible um and I took us to like the Abba Museum in Stockholm and um yeah I mean it was it I don't know what I found never that will never happen to us ever again like it'll never happen to any band it's just I don't know that's the power of the band though and that's the power of the belief and something translates um through the music where because it he felt so passionate about like he he got really unwell and he nearly he nearly died and the music helped him a lot during his recovery um and then he was adamant that he was paying for everything to take us um to Sweden have his favorite band play his favorite country and he was so he is so passionate about um Sweden and Sweden is absolutely awesome um and he was just showing up I mean me and Dan was still knackered from the UK tour um and we just wanted to we just farted like a sleep sometimes but there was never a spare minute we saw everything that we could possibly see in the country he never stopped the man is like a kind of fire um like a ball of energy and uh he's incredible my he he's awesome ballet and his family um but yeah that that kind of doesn't surprise I mean even though it's who would do that um and it still kind of blows my mind a bit it's some part of me that isn't surprised because these type of things seem to happen with the band like when we the UK tour that we've just done um a guy came over with his wife from Ohio in the US and just the music spoke to him so much that I'm still in touch with him now and he's like he's a pastor in Ohio but I think two churches and um it spoke so deeply to him that he traveled 3 000 miles to come and see the band you know play a gorilla in Manchester and it's um I don't know what it is that's within the music um but yeah it seems to speak to certain people very kind of strongly which is incredible I don't think I've ever spoke to a band that's hard it all or appears to be some kind of like conduit is that word is that the right word I'm looking for we're just lightning keeps hitting you a really unpredictable times and and that's not that's nothing you can control is it you know all this experience keep landing on you but yeah I mean the reason for that is because it's your talent and how you how you engage with your with how you uh project your voice and music I think was that that slash experience where like me and Dan had been working so hard for you know 10 15 years and we'd gone through that horrible experience in America and we had to kind of scrape ourselves back up believe in the whole thing again put in like 200 percent and then you know like 10 years later um after being told you know you [ __ ] and you're this and that and being bullied you have someone like slash say oh Virgin America cool [ __ ] name for a band you know uh where it's like yes it [ __ ] well is isn't it you know like I'm you know kind of um you knew it was back then and then wearing the T-shirt loving the music um where you were the only one who believed it you know five years ago when you wrote it people were saying no I don't do that don't do that you don't want to change this and yeah you've got to kind of like strong and like stand by it so that I think that um time that all that stuff happened with Slash it was one of their moments where you know like the lightning strikes and you think yeah what we're doing is [ __ ] right and it does translate to certain people and it's almost like that um Paul scholes football player that you know not everyone sees the magic but there is Magic there you know I love that and it must have been it must feel like a ride particularly like on your own and your own mental health really just having all those ups and downs and uh you know major opportunities you know lies told here but circumstances happening amazing things with Slash what a ride this band has been for you to [Laughter] in America you know like I was at the bottom I was like in bits like mental breakdown type of thing but you know you have to it's funny you have to laugh at like them type of things not the kind of humor gets you through it all you know certain bits that uh your stuff funny maybe you wouldn't get maybe you wouldn't get through it if you if you couldn't find the funny parts of that um well yeah it gets done like and you're just like you've got two choices haven't you and me and Dan chose to actually keep going with it I hear you're celebrating eight years sober as well Ali no actually uh 10 years 10 years wow thank you very much yeah was it was that a decision you made because of the ride of the band you know did something have to change in your life to allow you to carry out yeah I was probably I was getting away with it which probably most people's stories I was getting away with it for a while and um I don't know if it was like John Cooper Clark or somebody said well you know like first it's fun then it's not then it's horrible you know and that's probably how it goes by the end um the blackouts are insane um even when I wasn't drinking much and um it I couldn't get away with it anymore and you know I should have stopped a lot sooner than I did but then that's never the way that it works um but yes it's a kind of it's a practice um a daily kind of practice um maybe not just with booze but you've got to change your whole lifestyle your whole perception um but it's the best thing that I ever did really wow congratulations mate um and um yeah so Danny what what have you got um what's the biggest thing that you've learned from this ride uh um that's an open question sorry about it um I don't know I always definitely that and I know I did if the right I know I'm in this for the right reasons because I always used to say like for all the good for all the um amazing stuff that's happened all the bad that's happened if there was ever a point where um you know I didn't get the same Buzz that I got doing a gig doing them doing them shows or being in the practice room uh recording writing the new Tunes yeah it'd be over but it that's always still there it's always never really changed and it's kind of like I know that if I didn't if I didn't have that there'd be like a massive hole in my life that I'd never ever be able to be nothing that could replace that and the only people that are in in this game for the for this the same reasons no no what I'm talking about you know like and um I think I think that's what it is like um yeah it's it's I couldn't I couldn't have done that but there's nothing else I could have done I don't think like it's um you're talented at art as well you do the artwork for the band don't it do you yeah I do all the graphics and stuff yeah but again that was like um that was more of like um I think we I did the first few I mean like like for instance like the first few EPs and stuff um so I had like there's a couple other covers that I absolutely just test and that was like I didn't uh it wasn't what I would I was basically putting it together but it was like management and and yeah if it was if it was now there's no way I would have done them you know um but I think it was more like we needed something to do it I could do a little bit of it but I never really wanted to do it um whereas now I actually do I do like doing it and um you know like it's I I couldn't think of anybody else doing our stuff because I know exactly how our how our stuff should should look now um but yeah certainly in the early days it's kind of a bit like looks like a bad Queen cover that well there's definitely no stopping YouTube what have you got what's coming up in 2023 for you guys like is there anything that you can't mention yet or yeah we've got we have got shows coming up that we can't uh announce just yet um but yeah it's just getting back in the studio and uh working towards the more singles videos in an album yes all of that yes nice and have you got a bit of time off now we're we're just for people watching and listening to this we're recording it just before the week before Christmas so have you got a nice festive season ahead of you both we've got one more show um uh in which is actually in Maxfield from the north it's like the so it'll be the first proper Hometown show in about six years we managed to get like the local Cinema to um uh to let us do a geek there so um I'm really hopeful that's going to be amazing but it's um the venue's amazing so um that's it that'll be the last sort of um gig of the Year well we'll share all the new dates and stuff on the obviously through rgm and spread the word and help and you know help wherever we can I've really enjoyed getting to know you both today guys thank you cheers mate nice one um yeah is there uh is there anything you want to share with the fans just before we let you get on what you do today just a little bit uh just uh sending our love uh we appreciate everyone and we've got the best fans in the world so yeah very grateful for everybody anything to add down um I hope you had a nice Christmas yeah and um yeah have a good 2020. nice one guys well thanks for joining us today I really enjoyed um delving into the history of band and getting invested with you and um two solid Lads just you know talented boys with the world at your feet again another chapter begins in 2023 I presume mate thank you
2023-01-15 09:24
