|
New
generation sleaze rockers Red Star
Rebels are one of the hottest bands around as far as the UK are
concerned at the minute. They're loud, proud and in your face glam
rock through and through.
We managed to catch up with the band during their 'Road To Rehab' tour
at the gig in Newcastle upon Tyne to find out a little bit more about
these Rebels with a mission ... a mission to bring back good time party
rock!
MM - Hi
lads, thanks for agreeing to take part in this interview with us we
really appreciate it. Would you like to start by introducing
yourselves to our readers?
JR - I'm Jonny Rebel, rhythm guitar and backing vocals.
BR - I'm Blackie Rebel and I am pretty much Red Star Rebels
(laughs).
|
MM
- I've noticed there's not that much information on how you guys
came to be, would
you like to give us a brief history on the band, how it all came
about etc?
JR - Well we formed at the
beginning of 2005 but we stayed for six months behind closed
doors, getting all the repertoire ready, getting the act ready
and then we figured out that a lot of bands try to put a band
together and they try and go out and gig as much as possible.
We didn't want to do that though so we held ourselves back as
much as possible until we were ready.
We kinda worked out that the hardest crowd you could play to was
the prisoners, so we went out on the prison tour as the first
ever gigs we did. Old muggins here (pointing to Blackie)
had to take over on lead vocals as the other guy we had couldn't
get in because of his colourful past. Apart from that he
was a good sort. After that we launched ourselves on to
the Camden scene in North London and then we started picking up
tour supports with Gilby Clarke and everything's just moved on
from there. So as we currently stand we've been together
about 18 months.
|
|
BR
- Well we're quite possibly the best looking band that has ever been
about. I mean honestly, do you know of any better looking band
than Red Star Rebels?
MM - No definitely not ... and modest
too! (laughs)
JR - Modest ? What's that?!?
MM - Have any members of the band been in a band before you joined
Red Star Rebels?
BR - Before you answer that and I go, I'd just like to say that I am
quite possibly, well no in fact I am definitely possibly, well actually
just definitely the best looking male in the South East of England.
Thank you and good night!
JR - Yeh but we're in the North East!
BR - Yeh but I'm not good in the North East. I'm only third
in the North East.
(Madness reigns supreme for a while as each member of the band
gate crash the interview at this point. Lead singer Blackie
informs us he's going for a wank and staggers off into the distance).
JR - Did that answer your question?
MM - Not sure I can't remember what the question was now after all that
madness.
SR - Was the question ... is Steve Rebel the best drummer this
side of Exeter. I think you'll find that he is.
DR - What in god's name is going on over here?!?
SR - Oh look it's Dazzle Rebel, our bass player, always here to
lower the tone.
JR - That's because he's plays bass. That may have answered
your original question? Not that I can remember what it was now.
MM - I think the question was perhaps, have any of you been in any other
bands before?
JR - Oh right! Well that didn't really answer the question at
all then did it? Well individually we've been around the block
with different bands, but we've been in this one for the past 18 months.
We all found each other in life musically shall we say and yeh we've
been around the block and in other bands but we're here now.
DR - In the past I've actually been the bass player for the Brides
of Destruction.
JR - Technically that's true. Actually that's quite funny
really because the first time I met Dazzle we got talking and I said to
him, when you go for a hair cut, what is it that you actually ask for
when you go to the hairdressers. He then showed me a picture of
Nikki Sixx the bass player from Motley Crue and then six months later
he's actually replaced Nikki Sixx on tour for the Brides of Destruction.
It's strange how things work out sometimes.
MM - Yeh I caught you guys on that tour at Rios.
JR - Yeh everyone knows Rios don't they.
MM - What bands have influenced you all musically in what you do
today.
JR - Well collectively you'd be looking at Motley Crue, Guns N
Roses, AC/DC, Sex Pistols. We're walking rock n' roll cliche so
you can guess the rest. The ultimate album that we would look up
to would be Appetite for Destruction, it's weird to see icons from
twenty years ago becoming icons again twenty years on.
|
|
I
feel we are at the front of a new rock scene that's going on
around the UK. It's building, it's building slowly but
it's building, and we like to think that us, Red Star Rebels are
at the forefront of this new generation that's happening.
Camden summer 2007 is going to be rock central and everyone's
going to lie and say they saw us on these tours but they
shouldn't lie, they should be there, this is where it's
happening right now. This is the birth of something that
is going to be really really talked about, I'm convinced.
DR - This is a new revolution, we're making new fucking
music and we're at the forefront. We're mixing early
eighties stuff with seventies stuff, come and see us live, we're
a whole new sort of sound that's going to fucking kick up the
kids, with lyrics and all the bollocks we do on stage. We
are creating a new fucking scene.
|
MM
- The band have got a new EP out with a DVD as well, would you like to
tell us a little about that. First the CD then the DVD part.
JR
- Yeh sure, the EP is called 'Too Young To Care' EP and it features four
songs and a DVD, which is basically three music videos that we shot
during a few days in Portugal around a year ago. I know it sounds very
rock n roll and cliche to say we don't remember any of it, but it's the
truth! We did it just to package it, we put the DVD together with
the CD.
There's a lot of bands out there that aren't authentic, but we truly
believe that the kids out there do want to be into things that are
authentic and with us we walk it, we talk it, it's the real deal. I
think the DVD projects what the music does in terms of the way we are.
We're like this 24/7 and there's no other side to it, so that's what the
DVD was supposed to do with the CD.
Our first single is due to come out in August and is called 'You're Just
Another Drug I've Gotta Kick'. This current tour which ends later
on next week, has lasted three months. Then it will start all over
again. We'll basically be touring consistently throughout the year
and then going to America later on in the year and back. I don't
know when there's going to be an album, but I would think probably late
next year.
MM - I did notice that you had all your clothes off for the most part of
the DVD.
JR - Yeh we did, oh no you've watched
it right? I'm really embarrassed now! What can I say, it was very
warm in Portugal!
Actually on this tour we did say at the start that one of the dates on
this tour we would do completely naked. We're yet to do that so
what you've got Bradford, Wolverhampton, Bristol and London left.
There's a one in four chance that anyone that comes to one of those gigs
is going to see Red Star Rebels play completely naked. (Just then
we get interrupted by the lead singer of the Babylon Babies who's come
over to proclaim his undying love for Jonny's skin tight red trousers.
Welcome to the kingdom of madness!)
MM - How's the tour gone so far then?
JR - It's gone great, it's so good to be touring with like-minded
people. Crystal Pistol are the real deal. It's not often
that we big up other bands, it's just something that we don't really do,
but the truth is these guys are so good at what they do and they truly
are such nice people.
There's so many bands that we've toured with and there's always one
member of the band that's been slightly less approachable shall we say,
but these guys aren't like that, they're the real deal and such good fun
to be around.
It's going great though, the last three months have seen us tour with
quite a few different acts and last month we toured with Gilby Clarke
out of Guns N Roses and that was great, but this is the best leg of the
tour without a doubt.
MM - What's been your favourite gig up to now?
JR
- Our favourite gig to date? Oh that's a hard one. Well probably our
favourite venue to play is the Underworld in Camden. Whenever we play
there we always seem to have a good night there. Hopefully next
week at The Garage in London is going to be the best night of the tour.
Hopefully that will be the pinnacle of the tour. We'll all be knackered
by then so let's hope it's going to be good.
MM - What's the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you while
you've been out on tour so far?
JR - The most embarrassing thing whilst
touring would be probably when I shit my dad's pants in Milton Keynes.
Any of our fans that were there and are out there reading this will know
exactly what I'm talking about. If I went into detail you'd be
absolutely horrified.
MM - I hope you washed them before you gave them back!
JR - Oh no I chucked them away.
MM - Where can our readers find out more about the band?
JR - Well there's three places, they can come out to watch us
play live of course, or they can keep track of us on our website www.redstarrebels.com
or more importantly on MySpace which is www.myspace.com/redstarrebels.
It's usually me and Blackie, and sometimes Dazzle who are behind the
controls of our MySpace site. Everyone always gets a reply.
It's the most important thing that we do outside of rehearsing and
performing.
(As the volume of the party around us grows to a bone shattering
fever pitch we decide to wind up the interview).
|
MM
- Is there anything else you'd like to say to all our readers
out there that we haven't had a chance to discuss yet?
JR
- We're just trying to write songs that connect with what the
young people think these days. We're trying to tap into an
audience that will be responsive to the kind of lyrics that we
do. If you listen to early LA Guns records, that's
probably the closest thing around to what we're actually trying
to do. We don't want to come across as arrogant but we do
genuinely believe that our songs are a lot better than that.
We truly believe that it's all about song writing and that's the
most important thing to us above all else and in the cold light
of day, it's only the good songs that people really care about
and that's what we like to think we're all about.
*MM - I'd just like to say a huge thank you to Jonny Rebel for
taking the time out to do this interview with us. Jonny
you are an absolute sweetheart.
Both on and off stage these guys like to party hard and they
rock big time. If you ain't seen em yet then be sure to
check them out, you'll not be disappointed.
|
|
|