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We caught up with the master of madness and mayhem
himself Mr. Chris Dale from the band Sack Trick, shortly before his gig on
Saturday 7th July 2001 @ Fibbers, York.
MM - Introduce the band members to us, who
will we see on stage tonight?
CD - Well tonight we will be seeing me. My names Chris Dale and tonight I
will be playing the bass and I will be shouting.
We'll also have Robin Guy who will be playing drums and shouting also.
He's also in charge of our wardrobe, so you can blame him for that.
Chris Nubile will be playing guitar and he will also be shouting!
We also have Joe Inferno playing percussion. He won't be shouting because
he has a banana instead of a microphone, so he can shout but it won't get
him anywhere.
MM - How would you best describe your music
and who would it most appeal to?
CD - Well we describe it best as Belgium Monkey Jazz. Yeh, we have actually
managed to get it printed.
We told somebody that it was Belgium Monkey Jazz and they put a press
release in saying 'Belgium Monkey Jazz band Sack Trick' were playing in
town.
I think that's better than anything else really.
I've seen somewhere in the new Kerrang! Gig guide where if you want to be
in their gig guide you have to fall within one of ten categories.
You've either got to be black metal, or heavy metal, or nu-metal, or ska-punk,
and I'm like excuse me, does everyone have to fit into one of these
pigeonholes? So otherwise we are not allowed to play gigs and advertise
them in their magazine. How strange!
MM - You should say Death Metal and that will
really confuse them.
CD - No, we are going to go for black metal I think. Or we might try if we
can, to send in each gig separately and then put one down as black metal,
one down as hard core, next one down as stoner rock and just mix them all
up.
We'd probably get a large following in Norway if we say we are doing black
metal. Not many black metal bands sing about penguins though do they?
That could be what separates us from all the other black metal bands.
They are a strange lot over there, we've toured over there and you get
people in the audience wearing all the make-up like Emperor and all that.
We had this guy who started crawling around the stage and stuff. Maybe he
was trying to be a penguin? Maybe that was it, he had all this black and
white stuff on his face. That must have been me being rather slow.
It's really quite rude of me not to have realised this sooner.
MM
- Where do you call home? Where are you
actually from?
CD - I'm from Wales, I actually grew up in Wales so it's sort of home. But I
don't go there much as all my friends moved away and I moved away. We all
live in London now.
Everyone in the band is kind of from all over really. But not many
Londoners.
It's weird, most musicians I know who live in London are not from London.
It's full of everyone else.
I don't know where all the Londoners have gone in London there probably
wasn't room for them.
MM - Do you play the same songs at every gig
or do you mix them up?
CD - We mix them up. Obviously there are the standard hits that we have to
perform every night. We always try to put a few different things in there
though.
We've tried just being odd and putting stupid songs in and just stumping
people. It sort of went down well and then we thought maybe we should let
them dance for one or two songs in the middle.
We played support to Bruce Dickinson a couple of years ago and we were
playing some lounge numbers to his audience.
It was really funny because when we stopped at the end of each song,
literally this hall with over 1,000 kids in it was in complete silence.
Nobody would clap at all, you could hear a pin drop. Yes! Thank you very
much!
MM - So he signed you up to do every tour
after that?
CD - Hmmm, yeh strange that. Bruce was like
Oh yeh, thanks for turning up,
cheers! I'm sure you meant well
MM
- Maybe they were silently enjoying your
songs, inwardly happy?
CD - Yeh maybe. It is strange watching all these reactions going around.
People definitely look at their mates to see if they are enjoying it, so
that they can enjoy it as well.
If two people start dancing at the front you inevitably get half a dozen
who start dancing straight away. They were all just watching their mates.
That Bruce Dickinson crowd were all pretty straight ahead metal types.
They didn't really appreciate the lounge songs we did for them!
MM - Out of all of the bands you've played in
over the years, is there any one gig or event that particularly sticks in
your mind?
CD - Well to be honest I've been in a lot of very different bands and they
have all been fun in different ways.
Again when we were supporting Bruce Dickinson's band people were saying
Well surely you used to headline this gig and you used to play Tattooed
Millionaire and all that, but now you are only in the support band. But I
would say
Yeh I might be only in the support band but I'm getting to
write my own songs and I'm playing my own songs and Kiss songs as opposed
to Iron Maiden songs.
Personally I prefer Kiss, but that's just a matter of taste. So obviously
I'm preferring to be doing this to playing in someone else's band.
Although you can't really complain about paid holidays to South America or
something. Which was a plus side to playing in someone else's band. I
don't want to be ungrateful to anyone I've played with in the past.
MM
- How's the new album coming along?
CD - It's coming along great, it's all Kiss covers.
MM
- 'Sheep in Kiss Make-up'?
CD - Yup, 'Sheep in Kiss Make-up' that's what it's going to be called.
There's been a few other names mentioned around but they are all false
lies.
It's coming along great though, basically Sack Trick's idea is that we
make records when we want to make records and if we want to make records.
Then we play gigs, and that's basically what we do.
When we came to make the second album the idea of just writing ten songs
and sticking them on an album just didn't appeal to me. I've done that
before. Then we came up with the idea to write songs about penguins and we
wanted to really follow it through and have fun with it.
It's the same with the Kiss album really; we just want to play Kiss songs
because we are big Kiss fans.
When we were thinking of what we wanted to do for our third album we
thought about it and we said what we really wanted to do was make a Kiss
album as we really love Kiss.
Obviously just reproducing the songs that they have out on record isn't
the challenge we were after, so we aim to make the tunes a bit more
exciting and do different things with the sounds of them.
We've messed about with them quite a lot. It will probably offend all the
Kiss fans out there as well! We've done like a Reggae 'Love Gun' which I
thought worked great.
We've done 'Gonna love her all I Can', which I think is nicer than the
original. We've done it to a dance tune.
We did 'I'm a legend Tonight' in the style of a Spanish waiter singing.
You know when they come over in a restaurant and they are really
irritating and you just want to say.. Go away mate.
But you see the songs really come across like that and it does really
really work.
I think what it shows is that Kiss originally were just brilliant
songwriters. They have written some amazing songs which can be transformed
into Reggae songs or Spanish love songs. But they still come across as
great.
It's kind of like a new Kiss because Kiss are splitting up and it's all
very sad and everything, and so someone has to take over and this is a
good way to start.
MM - Well they have been splitting up for the
last 20 years though haven't they really?
CD - Yeh, gradually. It does seem like they are finally going to pack it in.
MM - There's only so much pan stick in the world.
CD - Oh that idea of wearing the make-up was obviously a brilliant marketing
idea in the 70's, but how could they work out that that was the only way
they could still be rock n' roll on stage in their 50's?
You've got to admit it was a brilliant idea.
A heroic band in every way. Kiss have given us so much in our lives.
MM - Have you actually had a chance to record
any of these songs yet?
CD - The Kiss songs? Yeh, it's pretty much done. There's a few more bits to
do, a few little bits of twiddling and mixing.
It will end up taking us months because we do spend ages over it. Also
because Alex Dickinson who produces the albums is busy playing with other
bands so we have to wait for his schedule to do it.
Hopefully it will be out before the end of the year, if not then by the
New Year. We might wait until they split up and then release it the day
after they split up.
MM - Would it ever get released then? Will
they ever really split up?
CD - Oh yeh they will split up. The cash has run out of that money belt. Did
you know they sold all their old gear and that?
They did an auction a few months ago and sold off all their old guitars
and all their old personal diaries and stuff. Surely that is a sign that
they have given up on it all?
MM - Do you have a favourite fetish? You do
tend to enjoy dressing up a bit. What tickles your fancy?
CD - Well it was pointed out to me that the two albums we have done so far
are subliminally about fetishes.
The first one Mystery Rabbits was all about girls in little masks, it has
little bunnies on the front in masks, so that was really all about little
bunny girls in masks.
The second one was that the penguins were nuns really, obviously, and then
we decided to call this one 'Sheep in Kiss Make-up', and I did start to
worry about my sexuality. None of this has been deliberate but you can see
how it's all turned out, and it's all uncannily true!
MM
- Who decides what characters everyone
plays in the band?
CD - Robin, he's in charge of the wardrobe. He doesn't get to decide but his
suggestions are always right there.
He has had some totally silly ones over the years. It started off as we
didn't think we would do gigs and stuff, we thought we would just record
the first album and then release it.
We released it and we started to get a couple of reviews and so we thought
we would do some gigs and see what happens.
So we would do the gigs and we would say .. I'm going to wear this because
it looks silly, then someone else would say
Well I'm going to wear this
looks even sillier, and so then we would say
Oh well in that case I'm
going to wear this as well, then you'll see how silly I look!
So now we have ended up with this ludicrous stage.
MM
- Your songs often feature animals in
them, do you have any pets?
CD - No. You can't really keep pets when you are in a touring band you know.
MM - Just ask someone to look after them for
you.
CD - No, it's London we live in. You don't have friendly neighbours in
London.
Well we do actually, but I don't think I would ever trust them to look
after animals. But they are friendly to us.
MM - How did you come to hook up with Alfie
Deliss, the artist who did the 'Penguins on the Moon' cover?
CD - He used to write into the P.O. Box after he got the first album. He
really liked it and used to write me silly letters and stuff to the P.O.
Box. All over the letter would be little cartoon characters and they would
be really great.
It was Robin's brother Colin who when he heard some of the demo's for
'Penguins on the Moon' said
You know what you should do, you should do a
cartoon strip. So I said yeh that has just got to be done and got in
contact with this cartoon guy.
He thought doing the whole cartoon thing might be a bit ambitious for him
so I ended up doing it.
He really is such a good artist so we got him to tidy up the finished
thing for us. He's done a really great job though.
MM
- What do you hate/love the most about
touring?
CD - I wouldn't mind sleeping a bit more occasionally. I hate waiting for
people as well. But I kind of love most of it.
I love sitting in the van and then playing strange venues and meeting
people. I love drinking, I love smoking, and I love being sick afterwards.
MM
- It's pretty much like your average
Friday night then.
CD - Yeh. I met the actor Sid Owen who plays Ricky Butcher in Eastenders and
it was a couple of years ago and we were checking out a hotel in
Nottingham opposite Rock City. He was checking it out as well.
He had a weekend off work and so him and his mates had just got into a car
and had gone up clubbing to Nottingham for the weekend.
He was asking me if I knew any clubs in Birmingham that were cool. So him
and his mates just stay in a hotel and go to clubs and get drunk, and I
thought
Hey that sounds really great, but it's pretty much what we are
doing really.
That was his holiday, he has got all the money in the world and that's the
way he spends his holidays, and that's our job! So it's not a bad job
really.
MM - At least you get paid to do it.
CD - Well a small amount. But we just have so much fun; it's like your
holidays all the time. It drives me mad when you hear bands wingeing on
about it all the time.
It does get exhausting if you are doing it for a few months solidly, but
if they don't like it they should go and get a job in Sainsburys. It's an
easy way out!
MM - What do you do when you aren't touring, do you have a normal job?
CD - No, I do a bit of roadie-ing for bands and I do the odd session.
That's always a nice way to go out on tour and do some smoking and
drinking and then be sick, and you don't have to learn people's songs.
It's brilliant.
I do a few sessions every now and again but it's not so nice because then
you do have to learn other people's songs.
MM - What's your most treasured possession,
what could you not live without?
CD - Well my bass is quite cool. It would be pretty tricky to be a bass
player without one. So I could least live without my bass.
MM - How many bass's do you have?
CD - I have quite a few but that one is my favourite. (points to the one he
will be using tonight).
MM - Why is that your favourite one?
CD - Because it's nice! It sounds nice and it plays nice. It's got Kiss on
the top as well. It also has lots of beer labels on it, but it doesn't
have any penguins on it.
MM - I can't see any Newcastle Brown labels
on it.
CD- Actually it did have a Newcastle Brown label on it, you can just see the
edge of it there, (points to a white patch on guitar where label is
missing), but it's been worn away.
MM - What's the most bizarre thing a fans
ever given you?
CD - Oh we have an odd thing out there, it's kind of a cushion type of thing
in bright yellow with Sack Trick logo stitched on to it, embroidered, and
then four knitted penguins on top with little balloons and they are all
holding on to each other.
MM - Is that what Robin has on his drum kit?
CD - Yes, but unfortunately we have had it out that much that it is starting
to fall apart, but originally it was amazing.
Someone had obviously taken a lot of time and effort into recreating our
album cover in knitting. It's just totally amazing.
(Just then Robin comes in and asks if I've asked Chris about the gifts
they receive, how's that for timing!)
RG - We often get gifts from fans and someone's just given us this one. (He
holds up a penguin mobile in his hand).
CD - I take back what I say about the cushion, we've now received a penguin
mobile! This is a good thing because I don't personally own a mobile.
RG - I think we are going to have to hang this from a mike or something
above the stage. I'm going to have to try and find some string to tie it
up with.
CD - Yeh, that's just amazing. (With that Robin disappears with the mobile
off to find something to tie it up with).
MM - Have you ever had a stalker or any scary
fan experiences?
CD - No, but I'm sure we will get them because we are that sort of band. We
do get some funny emails though. I did this thing on our website
explaining why we thought Kiss were gods and about reincarnations and
things, it's all a load of nonsense really.
But we put that up on the website explaining that and it has really
encouraged some quite amazing people. They are really out there.
MM - Like David Icke of the Kiss world?
CD - Yeh, I did it quite deliberately really to provoke those sorts of
letters and we got them!
MM - What song would you choose as the soundtrack to your life?
CD - I Play Bass.
MM - You Play Bass?
CD - I Play Bass. It's a song I wrote about me playing the bass.
MM - That pretty much sums you up really.
Will we be seeing this being released as a Sack Trick single perhaps?
CD - No, it had its chances and it didn't really make the charts. Actually
we don't really release singles; we're not really into singles. I view
singles as being like demos and EP's.
It's all to do with the music industry saying that if you want to get a
record and get ahead you have to release singles and stuff.
That's not what we are about, we just want to release a few records and do
a few gigs really.
MM
- You did look a bit scary like Steps last
night with all the matching costumes.
CD - Again it's all Robin's fault. Actually one of the girls from Steps came
to check us out once and really enjoyed it. Faye turned up to see us. I
was having a chat with her and trying to get a support slot for us with
the band.
I thought we might go down better with their band than we had with Bruce
Dickinson's. It's a kid's album we've made though; 'Penguins on the Moon'
is a kid's album.
MM - No, 'Penguins on the Moon' is not a kids album, you couldn't give that
to a child!
CD - There's loads of people who have bought it and then they write and say
they really liked the album, but that their four year old loves it and
won't go to bed without hearing it.
They talk about penguins all day.
MM
- If one day you woke up and found out
you'd turned into a woman, and thinking it might only last for one day,
what would you do?
CD - I'd have to stay in all day and see what all these new bits were for.
MM - Yeh but you could only do that for so
long, there aren't that many new bits.
CD - Well if I only had one day then I would really want to work at it
though.
You're not going to waste time doing the shopping that day are you?
MM - So you would stay home all day and get
in touch with your feminine side then?
CD - Yeh, I'd probably be getting very in touch with it.
MM - By nature are you a pessimist or an
optimist?
CD - That's a tricky one.
I'd like to think that I am an optimist because I am always happy, but I
do tend to be a pessimist because I never think anything especially
brilliant is going to happen to me. I always try to have low expectations
and then if anything happens it is always good.
I think
lets go out on tour and see if anyone comes out to see us
and
people do come out to see us! So that's brilliant. It makes me really
happy.
But I've only got that because I was always kind of pessimistic towards it
all.
MM - Do you get down when you finish the tour
and have to go home?
CD - No, not really because I am always writing new songs and wanting to
record them and stuff. It's still completely a hobby. It's not something
that ever seems like a chore at any time.
Replying to emails to people to have written to say
Hello, I like your
band!
isn't really a chore is it?
Doing a mail out to people who like your band is easy enough. Write some
songs, yeh that's nice. Being in the van. It's all good.
Some people tend to set their sights so high, especially bands, what a
bizarre thing to want. I'm in a band because I want to rock! I'm in a band
because I like playing Kiss songs.
Obviously it would be nice to make more money and not to have to rodeo and
that, but it's not really a prime concern. There are bigger things to
worry about you know.
MM
- Tell us one thing that not many people
know about you.
CD - I joined Gingers band and got thrown out after 4 days!
MM - Which band? Which one?
CD - Silver Ginger 5. It's quite good isn't it!
MM - How did you get thrown out of the band?
CDI dunno. He recorded his Silver Ginger 5 album and then he decided he
wanted a different line-up to go on tour with.
He couldn't find a bass player so he rang me up and asked if I wanted to
do it, just for the Japanese leg of the tour until he found someone more
permanent when he had more time.
I explained that I was doing Sack trick mainly but that I would come
along.
I think he really thought we were going to be a band and go ... Wahey!. But
I just said
cool, we're going to go to Japan and play some gigs.
I've got this album 'Penguins on the Moon' you really gotta hear. So in
the end I got thrown out and he just got the bass player he used on the
album. It made perfect sense to me to use him as well.
I don't know why he didn't just use him in the first place. But it was
pretty cool being thrown out after only four days in the band.
I think four days is pretty good going even by his bands standards. Danny
only lasted two days on his last tour.
MM - On to drink, what's your poison and do you have a favourite bar?
CD - I drink in the Kings Head pub because it's nice in there and oddly
enough I do tend to drink Newcastle Brown. What else do I like drinking?
Oh I like a lot of the Belgium beers.
MM
- How do you like to chill out and relax
when you are at home?
CD - I like writing songs and playing music I suppose is really good.
MM
- Lastly is there anything you would like
to say to all your fans out there?
CD - Thank You! Hello! Buy the next record, you'll like it!
We would like to thank Chris for being such a great sport and for taking
the time out to talk to us. We wish him and his merry band the very best
of luck with the rest of the tour and look forward to the new album.
Anyone wishing to contact find out more about Chris and the lads from Sack
Trick can do so via their website at
www.sacktrick.fsnet.co.uk
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