Rat:Daddy Interview
How much scope for innovation does the band feel there is in a fairly well-worn genre such as yours?
I once had a well-worn bath robe; it was really quite tatty, especially after Kurt Cobain had got his grubby mitts on it. However, with a little bit of stitching and fine trimming it became an elegant Kimono. You just need to know where to put your hands.
Do you consider yourselves part of any particular scene, local or national?
Surprisingly, the local scene just seems to be based on if you’re local or not. So yes we’re part of that. Nationally we’ve been lined up and gigged with bands such as The Wildhearts, so that’s done us no harm at all. Overall though the Swinger scene dictates Rat:Daddy’s time.
Were local venues supportive of you when you started playing live? Have attitudes changed?
Yes, I suppose they were. I think every band knows the attitude of a venue changes depending on if you’ve brought 50 people or not.
What have you learned about rock’n’roll that you didn’t know before?
Just how difficult it is to put on leather trousers in s**t stained toilets around Britain.
What would you define as success for Rat Daddy?
Never having to wear a tie.
Have you set a time limit on achieving it?
Yes, we all made a blood pact in 2003 that if we ever caught a member of the band wearing a tie the dream was over…It’s been hard sometimes, as the call of silk is strong. Gav once wore a cravat, and it took us months of soul searching to reinstate him.
How well does the new cd represent the true sound and spirit of the band?
The new CD kicks the ace of anything we’ve done before. We are really proud of this stuff, it's more diverse, a truer sound and we’ve put far more time into things like song structure and vocal parts.
Are you already sick of the songs on it, is there bigger and better stuff to come?
You gotta give yourself time away from the songs once you’ve recorded and mixed. I guess we’ve listened to it 100s or 1000s of times while recording, and after that you don’t know if it is genius or guttershite. After a couple of weeks you can come back to it objectively……and it’s Genius, Genius, Genius!
Live gigs, an organisational pain or what Rat Daddy were ‘born to do’?
Dude, Rat:Daddy is a Raark & Roll Paaaarty! It’s a proven scientific fact that Rat:Daddy were actually bred to perform live in some capacity.
Any self respecting rock band has an eccentric drummer. How mad is yours?
It's common knowledge our drummer is clinically insane…are you taking the p**s?
Which band member has the most embarrassing, least r’n’r background?
What are you saying? We can piss on the toilet seat and say bad words like the best of them. Jon wipes the toilet seat, so him.
Which is best a) Seeing your name as graffiti on a kids schoolbag or b) Being asked for your autograph?
I guess if I saw a kid with Rat:Daddy graffiti on his/her schoolbag, I would approach and hand out one of our pre-signed photos, and calmly ask why they haven’t bought the official Rat:Daddy school satchel?
Rat Daddy is an ‘interesting’ name, how bad were the ones you decided against?
They were absolutely brilliant, I mean, really, really superb. Far too good to use. We thought maybe it wasn’t fair on other bands, so we went with a bog standard name that no one can remember.
You’ve started to gig in far flung places; does it get you down to go all that way to play for the proverbial 3 men and a dog?
Our drummer would run through the fires of hell for an evening with 3 men and dog.
Have any of you at any time said any of the following: a) Dude b) Raark & Roll!! c) Paaaarty! ?
S**T!!!!!??!! See the above! I’m such a fucking loser. No, we take the music seriously. It’s well played, well sung, practiced, well written and performed with energy and conviction. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, and we haven’t yet bellowed these words.
What is rock’s most unforgivable cliché? Are you/have you been guilty of it?
The only unforgivable cliché is someone thinking that there’s unforgivable clichés. If you can do it and MEAN it, no mater what it is, that validates it. Tut… unforgivable, simply unforgivable.
How do you view the latest Live Aid/8 endeavour?
No Phil Collins!? It’s a f*****g travesty. That man was Live Aid.
Is there any cause or issue the band identifies with?
We don’t preach about anything in particular. In all honesty we’re all pretty decent guys. ‘Treat others as you would want to be treated’ says it all really. Luckily for me I love to be treated like a bitch, handcuffed and whipped within an inch of my life by one of those hot female Conservative MPs.
Name in single words only the good things about Rat Daddy.
MELODIC, POWERFUL, ENERGY, LARGE, JOHN, THOMAS
You mention the Scorpions on your website, do you harbour any hopes of appearing on the same bill as David Hasselhoff? If so, which wall would you like to see pulled down?
It’s got to be the wall around Broadlands; just so all the peasants could frolic on the acclaimed estate. That wall is a symbol of everything wrong in the world, and the Democratic/Communist divide. With one whisper we can create a whirlwind!
In 3 years time, Rat Daddy will be...
On Celebrity Fit Club. Cos all da girz fink we r fit as f**k!
Saints’ relegation from the Premiership left the band: a) Uninterested b) Devastated c) Joyful.
Tears of despair for Reynolds. A kind of half frown for the rest of us. Liverpool winning the Champions League? You had to wipe it from the walls! And I didn’t bother, just as a reminder of that beautiful night…
Visit their website by clicking here. Cheers, lads!
