Artist:  Kitty Hudson 

Date:  4 October 2007 

Having witnessed an impressive set by this band at the recent Trashstock Festival we just couldn't stalking them, sorry I mean tracking them down, on the internet to find out more.  We say "Hello Kitty!" to head honcho and lead singer Richie ...   

MM - Hey there! Thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview with us, it was great to catch up with you at Trashstock.  It was oodles of fun from a punters point of view but how did you guys enjoy it?
Richie - Trashstock is always a right laugh and a great gig. There’s always a good crowd who are up for partying and the promoters always book a killer line-up. (they also  *ahem* look after us with plenty of “medicine” if we’re feeling a bit poorly ;))

MM - I believe you boys are no strangers to the festival circuit and had the pleasure of performing at the Download Festival last year?  What are your memories of that day?
Richie - Download was immense – we only found out we were playing the gig a few days before and it was a case of “right, let’s close the shop (Richie runs Time*Bomb alt. clothing store in Croydon – facts ed.) and get up to Donnington!!” The gig was fantastic and a real pleasure to play. It was cool meeting all the huge stars – luckily there were no egosJ and hanging with mates from previous tours and gigs. Al got himself tattooed up, Lou got really hammered and I got sunburnt – it was a good day!!

MM - In the relatively short time that the band have been together you’ve really taken the world by storm. Would you like to tell us about some of the international tours you’ve done so far?
Richie - Ah. I dunno about “by storm”, we did a 27 show tour of China which was pretty awesome – hard work, but a fucking blast nonetheless, we’ve played Europe and got deported from the USA – ask me about this when I’ve had a beer and you’ve got a spare 20 minutes!! I wanna get over to Germany (esp. Berlin) there’s some fantastic places to play and there’s a really good live music scene there. Oh, and Scandinavia, the scene’s really thriving over there.

MM - Is there a downside to all this touring or is it all “Happy Rock n’ Roll life”?
Richie - I reckon the only downside is the mornings, when you’re hungover and you’ve got an 8 hour drive to the next show – although berocca and kronenbourg mixed together gives you enough nutrients and hair of the dog to get you back on track. The only other thing is who we’re gonna listen to on the stereo (Richie – Social Distortion… Al – Backyard Babies… Keef – Dead Identities (hang on, he’s in the DI’s, yeah I know)… Andy – Machine Head… Kev – The Chase).

MM - When was the last time you were involved in a 'Spinal Tap' moment? All the embarrassing details please.
Richie - Ah man, we’re always involved in spinal tap moments. Once, Al had had a couple of beers and fell off a 3 foot stage so his body was on the floor but his feet were still on the stage. The roadie was trying to lift him back up whilst he was still playing – laws of physics says it ain’t gonna happen. Or in Chelmsford, they filled the stage with so much dry ice that when we walked on I fell straight off the other side. You gotta understand, this was in the days where we used to have a shitload of booze before we went on – it doesn’t happen until after the gigs now!

MM - What’s your all time favourite venue that you’ve performed at and why that particular one?  What did they have to offer that made them stand out above the rest?
Richie - I reckon it’s got to be the Ark club in Shanghai, the sound was incredible, they treated us really well, it was run like a military operation which I think pushed us to give 110%. Definitely one of the best shows in kitty history. And Download obviously just because of the history, bit of an honour, that one.

MM - Stepping back in time a little, would you like to give us a brief history on the band, how it all came about, how it’s evolved and where you call home etc?
Richie - First off, Al was tour managing an old band of mine (Glitterbug) and we decided to form a side project that was a bit more dirty and gritty, kinda social distortion meets the heartbreakers. we got a couple of mates in on guitar and drums, blasted through a few covers and thought “actually this is pretty good, we should do some original stuff”. We’ve since gone through more drummers than Spinal Tap (there’s another one), but we’re pretty settled in the current line-up – it sounds great, they’re all good guys and it’s fucking good fun.

MM - For anyone who isn't familiar with your blend of music, how would you best describe your songs to them and how do you feel your sound has developed since you originally started?
Richie - It’s just good time filthy punk rock n' roll. With pretty much songs about love and death. We were quite scrappy when we first started which I think has developed as we’ve grown as a band – we’re much tighter although we do like to keep it a little fucked up, just to keep everyone on their toes, ha!

MM - Where did the bands name come from and who is Kitty Hudson? Can you remember any of the other names that were considered at the time?
Richie - Ah I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you. Get a few beers down my neck and I’ll probably let it slip. Can’t really remember any other names, we hit upon Kitty Hudson and both Al and myself agreed it sounded right for the band. We don’t really procrastinate too much, if something sounds good we say yeah, that’s it. Move on, next song/idea/title etc.

MM - At what age did you become interested in being a performer and who/what inspired you to join a band?
Richie - It sounds quite sad really but it was probably the girls that made me want to be in a band firstly. I was never too confident chatting people up so I figured it would be easier if they did the chatting up!! I was around 15/16 when I bought my first guitar, it was a pile of shit, but did the job for the first year.

MM - The band's debut album 'Three Chords And The Truth' is out on release at the moment.  Would you like to tell us a little bit about the songs that feature on it and tell our reader where they can purchase a copy?
Richie - I wrote 9/10 of the songs in less than a week and we recorded the album in 4 days. As I said, we don’t fuck about! There’s a lot of stuff that I write about from somebody else’s point of view, so if I’m singing “I did this” or “I felt that” most of the time it’s not about me, it’ll be sung from the point of view of a killer, a tramp, a hooker, whoever. It’s up to you to figure out which ones are real. You can get the album from http://0000.bigcartel.com or http://www.kittyhudson.com and click on our “swag” banner.

MM - I read somewhere that one of your songs 'Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead' was actually used as the soundtrack to a program on the Discovery Channel?  How did that come about?
Richie - That was put together by our manager in the USA, he finds music for TV shows and needed one for a show about illegal girl street racing (that’s cars, not girls). Actually, girl-racing would make for a pretty good show – I’d take time out to watch that!!

MM - Who writes the lyrics and what inspired the lyricist to write them in the first place?
Richie - Myself and Al both write lyrics, I’m probably a bit more prolific, but he’s a lot deeper – I’d say he’s one of the best lyricists I’ve heard in a long time. I can see something on the street that would just fire me off lyrically, an argument, slicing my knuckle on your belt buckle, anything really – just hearing a line in a song wrongly often gets me thinking.

MM - Is there a song written by someone else that you love and wish you'd been the one to write?
Richie - Ah, there’s so many good tunes out there, social distortion, tiger army, the hellacopters, backyard babies, the list goes on …

MM - What was the first concert that you ever attended and did you ever think that one day you'd be the one standing on the stage in front of all those crowds of cheering people?
Richie - The first gig I went to was Loudon Wainwright III, I had no idea who he was at the time and still only know he was touted as the new Dylan, but that’s far less embarrassing than all the gigs I went to in my teens afterwards. No. Not saying.

MM - Have you ever met a fellow artist and been totally star struck by them and unable to talk/behave normally towards them?
Richie - Not really, years ago I met Johnny Thunders and I thought he’d be the one that I’d be nervous around cos he’s such a legend, but we ended up having a drink and a natter and it was all cool. I kinda got invited into his inner circle of mates for one night and looking back I should’ve been totally star struck, instead I drank all his beer.

MM - Being in a rock band you’re bound to like a drink or two, so who is the party animal of the band?
Richie - We all like a drink and we’re all up for a party – I can’t really say who the biggest fiend is among us. The guy least up for partying will be the one driving home – we tend to take this in turns quite a lot!

MM - The website Myspace is becoming the biggest resource to connect with other bands, fans, media and others. What is your personal take on this type of website and has it had any specific impact of you as a band?
Richie - It’s been great for us – a real good way of keeping in touch with people/fans/friends and also it’s useful as a giant mailing list – no more “400 books of stamps please”.

It’s also a good way of getting the word out, sorting shows, finding new bands etc. Just get rid of the adverts for fucks sake!

MM - What, if anything, would you like to see change in the music industry?
Richie - We ignore the industry in the UK, it’s so fickle, we’d much rather do it ourselves – we have so many people saying “who are you signed to?” and we’d rather record albums, put them out for a fiver or so, and make the money to get t-shirts printed, sell some of those, record more stuff etc etc. I think control is coming back to the people via myspace et al which can only be a good thing.

MM - OK, a fun question now. If one day you were jetting of to perform at some far off festival and your plane crashed and you were marooned on a desert island without any food.  Which band member of Kitty Hudson would you eat first and why that particular member?
Richie - It’s gotta be Andy (6ft 5 drummer), there’s hardly any meat on Keef and Al’s pretty good at making fires and handy outdoors. No question!

MM - Tell me one thing about yourself that most people don't know, never have known, and probably never would have known about you if they hadn't read this interview?
Richie - My name’s not Richie Hudson!

MM - Finally before we leave you, do you have any words of wisdom for all our readers out there?
Richie - Yeah, find new music, check out the hellacopters, Babylon bombs, crucified Barbara, and I can’t believe how many people still don’t know social distortion. Also folks, come and see kitty play live… before and after… we’ll be at the bar!!

MM - We'd like to thank Richie for taking the time out of his hectic touring schedule to talk with us today.  If you ain't seen Kitty Hudson yet then stick em on your list of bands to watch out for, they RAWK!

 

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