In conversation with Rank Berry - Guest interviewer Why Von Rusty

So are you guys the real deal?

Brian - Ha, well that depends on what the real deal is.

Born on the wrong side of the tracks, hard living, working class rock and rollers?

Grant - Well we're certainly not hanging off the teat of inherited money and no one would argue if we said where we come from is most definitely economically deprived with people aspiring to be working never mind working class.
Jamie - And I suppose we do like a party if that's what you mean by hard living?

So yeah if that means we’re ‘the real deal’ then I suppose we might be the unreconstructed romantic notions of what a dirty ol' rock and roll band should be.

Is that sort of redundant and semi cartoon-ish now though?

Jamie - It probably is if it's a selling point, a label or management created pretence, but we're just four guys doing pretty much what everyone we know does in their spare time. Maybe this is the era of everyone living like a debauched rock star on the weekend and just coincidently we are in a band rather than working in a garage so I suppose we fit into the perception better than say that mechanic.
Marc - I think people can tell the difference between faux debauchery and just people partying anyway.

How so?

Grant - It's like the difference between an a-lister falling out of a club at 3am with the paparazzi waiting and Marc slumped naked in an empty car park communing with the spirits you find in a bottle.

And you are the latter?

Brian - Well that's true about Marc so yeah. No one will say it's big or clever but we are what we are. We do like a drink.
Jamie - Unapologetic arseholes is probably a better description of us than the real deal.
Brian - That was the original name of the band. Maybe it will be a side project in the future.

How does it feel like to be mentioned in the same breath as iconic rockers from the Rolling Stones to Guns and Roses?

Jamie - That's a strange one. We are obviously influenced by those acts and would be comfortable with people pointing out that they hear them in what we do, but to be compared to them, and others, as if they are peers makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. We only have the one ep out and another about to be released so it all seems a bit presumptuous to throw us in the ring with the greats.
Marc - It's certainly not something we feel deserving of.

In general we get our heads down and write and practice and then go out and play live and that's it.

Then we lift our heads up and take stock and find that people are saying very nice things about us.
Brian - I like it. Not as an ego massage, but in how it makes me strive to push things harder If someone says you are as good as Creedence then while I don't necessarily agree it makes me want to live up to the praise. It's good in that sense.

So your feet are on the ground then?

Grant - They have to be. Our reality wouldn't allow for anything else. Financially we scrape by from one week to the next like everyone else.
Marc - That's the perception thing kicking in. People see you on a stage, see a release, read an interview and think there's something more going on. That your life is better than theirs in some way, but we work jobs and do what we need to keep this going. The only difference between me and the next guy is that at night and the weekends I play in a band and maybe he plays darts.

It's relative. We are both skint.
Jamie - The greats you mention are from another time and place anyway.

Even if we did go on to write and record a classic rock album, and that's a solid if, then we still wouldn't be jetting about like the Stones in the seventies. Those days are gone. The very loose plan is to make shit hot music, have a laugh and be able to support ourselves doing that. There's no pot of gold waiting so not having your feet on the ground and thinking you were better than anyone else would be delusional to the extreme.

So fame and fortune aren't the driving forces for you?

Marc – Ha. No. If anyone forms a band to chase either then they are missing the point about making music.
Jamie- The music has to come first. Anything else is a welcome bonus.

As we are speaking about the music what is it you want from it?

Brian - For it to matter. From love songs to party songs it all has to matter to someone. They all need to connect with people or what is the point?
Grant - It's like if someone uses a song you wrote to soundtrack a moment in their life. Now that's as cool as fuck. That they link what we have done to a moment and it is always connected to it for them.

You don't sound like debauched rockers when you say that.

Grant - Why? Not that I think of myself as a debauched rocker, but I don't think that caring about the music and liking a party are mutually exclusive either.
Jamie - Yeah, when you consider some of the people touted as the greats then they may be known for their lives as legendary party animals but they delivered the goods and that's why they are the greats. It's not because their livers and septum were made by the gods to be indestructible.
Marc- Not that they were truly indestructible either.
Brian - True. Too many casualties and it's not something I'm attracted to. The live fast and leave a good looking corpse attitude is just bullshit. Our lifestyles and fondness for a tipple isn't something we want people to focus on either. While we don't mind admitting to walking on the wild side at times it's our songs and performances that should be what comes first. For us and those who like us.
Jamie - It’s something I don't want overshadowing what we do. I can start recounting dodgy stories of nights on the lash, but what people remember about good bands is their songs and while the stories are entertaining they should never be the primary attraction.

One good song is worth a million nights out that end in the gutter.
Grant - That lying in the gutter looking at the stars nonsense doesn't resonate with me either. The gutters in Scotland are not as attractive as some would have you believe. Maybe LA has better gutters, and never mind that, when the fuck do we see the stars? It's always raining here.

Is there a classic rock album sitting waiting in the wings then?

Jamie- It's away off. Even if it was something we could do it’s not on the horizon just now. Right now we have the new ep to keep our eye on. One thing at a time.

Once that's bedded in we have some ideas for an acoustic release. Then there are the ballads we have written.
Marc - We had a whole ep ready to go and then a burst of song writing flooded out and we went with some of them for the new release and will go back to the ballads at some point. We want to show people the shading in what we can do. So something softer could be the next move.
Jamie - Is the world looking for a classic rock album anymore? Financially it's restrictive and a great deal of time and effort would go into one and then what if it falls between the cracks? We wonder about the relevance. The idea is attractive. Who wouldn't want to do the next great rock and roll album, but maybe we are out of time and place to be that band.
Brian - Bite size ep's seem to be what is wanted currently. All killer and no filler releases. Maybe limited runs and then a compilation release bringing them all together is something we have kicked about as a direction to go in, but who knows.

How has the recording of the new material been?

Jamie - Very good. Our manager wanted to go for something different and hooked us up with Andy Miller at Gargleblast Studio who has previously worked with Mogwai, Delgados, Sons and Daughters and the like and it's been a positive experience. We learnt a lot from him. He went way past just engineering the material. A very real Godsend for us in the studio.

It's an impressive cv of bands he has worked with, but light in traditional rock bands. Was that a concern?

Marc - Not at all. When Mainy, our manager, first spoke about it he drew our attention to the Chris Devotion and the Expectations 'Amalgamation and Capital' album and we all thought it was the dogs bollocks. So we had no concerns at all.
Grant - Andy exceeded expectations. We didn't go into it worried that he couldn't capture the essence of who we were, but equally we didn't really take on board how much he would bring to the table. I think we have found our engineer.
Jamie - It's now a case of not fixing something that isn't broken.
Brian - Our only problem was time. Four tracks in two days were what we budgeted for and that doesn't give any wiggle room.

We finished the recording of the tracks on the line, but there will have to be another day for mixing, but that’s okay.

Grant – If we didn't go in for one more day to let Andy pull it all together then we would be selling ourselves short.

Is that something that needs to be taken into consideration for future recordings?

Marc – It is, but it's a luxury we don't have just now. It's all swings and roundabouts though. We could scratch up the cash and go for another day, or we could do three tracks instead of four. It's something we have to look at.
Jamie- Money is the root of all evil. In an ideal world we would look to do a track a day and deliver on it, but that's the ideal world that we don't live in.

Brian – We know the score now though. The next four track release will be done in three days. Two for recording and one set aside for the mixing.

What is the ep called?

Grant – We have no idea just now. Seriously!

Up until the day before recording one tracks was called ‘the new song’.

Brian - Song titles and names for an ep isn't something we are strong on.

Marc – We leave that to Jamie.

When will it see the light of day?

Grant - We were looking to have it ready for May when we are playing Glasgow with Eureka Machines, but if not then it will be literally days or a week after that. May the second is the date.

You have played with them before haven't you?

Jamie - We have. Firm fans of them, good guys and they are so good they make us up our game just to save ourselves from any embarrassment.
Brian - Eureka Machines are the band no one wants to follow. They deserve to be playing stadiums.
Marc - When I grow up I want to be a Eureka Machine.
Jamie- That takes us back to the success thing. In every respect artistically Eureka Machines are a success a long as success isn't measured in financial gain.

Scaramanga Six and Crooked Little Sons are on the bill to.

Marc - Best line up in the city that night. Take us out of it and I would still say the same.
Brian - I've been looking forward to it for months. If we can get the ep out for it then that's the icing on the cake.

What's after that on the live front?
Grant - Joe Bone and the Dark Vibes, Wildfire festival, a gig with Rob Duncan (previously of Eddie and the T-Bolts) and then we have two quality support slots we can't mention just yet.

Are they unconfirmed?

Jamie - No. All confirmed. The tours have still to be announced officially and until then we can't say more than that.

So you are pretty busy then?

Jamie - They can't hit you if you keep moving. It's good just now though. It feels like something is happening. We are being offered gigs rather than our manager chasing them, interest is building at a grassroots level, we sold ep's to people in the States and mainland Europe. All positives.

Brian – I don’t think we have ever been as focussed as we are just now. There was a time when all the ideas were there and we just needed to get them in some sort of order. Outside the actual making of music we were punching in the dark on some levels. Now we have a plan.

Grant – I would agree with that. We are very proud of the last release.

It drew attention to us and gave us a nudge forward and now it’s down to us to keep raising the bar and I think we have done that.

Brian – There’s a bit of me that is starting to think I am in a real band. It’s difficult to really express what I mean. I don’t mean that anything I had done before wasn't a real band, but now I see that we are selling t-shirts and CDs abroad and…..right I've got it. I looked at other bands that had the whole package going. Releases and merch, quality gigs, their names in magazines, and I thought that one day I wanted that and now that is us. We are that band.

Jamie – I get that. In some ways we are just starting out, but in other ways it has been a long journey. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for past members to. Any time anyone left the band it was never acrimoniously. People moved away, people didn't have the time to commit. All solid reasons and genuinely no excuses. 

If I was wearing a hat I’d tip it in their direction.

How is the line up now?

Marc – Everyone has known each other for years outside the band so we are mates first and band members second. That gives us an edge in some ways. We rip each other apart, but we can because it’s family. It’s allowed.

Grant – I get what Brian was saying because we have all been moving towards this for a long time and it feels right.

Brian – Tight. It’s not just us either. Rank Berry is becoming more than just the four of us. We went for a drink last night. Our manager and the four of us. Everyone ended up emptying their pockets of change to get a round in. In some way that’s showing how we are all in this together.

Jamie – Then there are the people at the New Hellfire Club in Glasgow who have been supportive. The record shop is our home from home.

Marc – The Soul Remover guys. They have the same angle on things as us. Like a brother band.

Brian – Then there’s our partners. Like Marc said it’s like family. Everyone is pulling together in the same direction.

Is it you against the world then?

Jamie –When you look at the mainstream charts it can maybe feel like that, but we are dipping our toes into a different pool. Instead of fighting to get noticed we will probably just keep enjoying ourselves and maybe some people will want to come to our party.

Rank Berry 

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Physical copies of the début CD are now sold out. Downloads only. 

Why Von Rusty. 

Fire & Ice - Rank Berry, Soul Remover. 12 and 13 Dec.

 As someone who has been kicking about on the fringes of the music scene for a number of years I will admit that when I hear the words 'showcase gig' I usually internally translate it to 'ripping off young talent by promising them the world gig'.
It's easy to do as nine times out of ten that is exactly what they are.
No movers or shakers are ever there, no one is going to sign anyone up, and the deal is always that the bands have to sell tickets.

However there is always that one out of ten who are the genuine deal and the Fire and Ice event is that rare beast.
I know this to be a fact as being co-manager to Rank Berry I am aware of all the ins and outs of participating in the event.

It's all pretty simple really.

Turn up and play and dependent on how good you are then you can possibly secure a slot on the Wildfire festival bill.

That's it.

It's not about how many people an act can bring to the show, but purely a case of the organizers being able to get a feel for how a shortlisted bunch of quality acts can cut it live.

Of course the band can sell tickets if they want, but don't have to.
If they do they can get a cut (a fair one) and even if they don't then if the night is a success ( and why wouldn't it be) they will get something.
It was wonderfully refreshing not to have to negotiate a deal as all the angles were covered very professionally from the start.
Even better was getting an email with every detail you could think of included.
Load in times, soundchecks, equipment that will be on hand.
It was all there.

So hats off to Dave Ritchie and his team for providing an exemplary example of how putting a gig together should be done.

I love bullshit free arrangements. :)

Tickets for the gig are £6 per night, or £10 for both and you can get them from here.

However Rank Berry will have them in a few days and if you want one for the Friday night just get in touch with us at Rank Berry.
For the £6 we are going to throw in a copy of the debut ep as well.
We are pretty damn cool aint we?
Also pop along to the NHC and you can pick tickets up there with no booking fee. (Same deal with the ep included)

Love, death, family and the soundtrack to our lives

This is not going to be a normal sort of blog update. (Whatever normal is.)

More a rambling monologue, but I will try and section bits off so people can skip to what they are interested in.

Prior to starting I will say that I hope people can appreciate that this is in fact a blog, and not simply a website devoted to music.

Regular readers will be aware of this.

So while there are reviews and interviews there have also been short stories, political rants and posts of a more personal nature.

Some like it, some don't, some understand where I am coming from, while others find it difficult to get to grips with what is going on.

I have had emails praising me for the anarchic no rules aspect of the blog, and equally some have urged me to make it more consistent.

Of course all correspondence is welcome and opinions valued.

Then again that doesn't mean that I will act on any advice given.

That's pretty much a given.

So let's leave it at that and get into this.

Okay, the last few weeks have been a somewhat of a mixed bag with the highs being very high and the lows being...well pretty damn low.

The main thing that has happened is that my uncle has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

It's at an advanced stage and apart from providing him with pain relief there's nothing much can be done.

He's the pragmatic sort so there's a great deal of stoic acceptance on his part going on.

What will be will be could be his unspoken mantra.

I would like to think that I could emulate his bravery if similar happened to me, but who can honestly say how they would react until the day comes.

This news has however had me thinking a great deal about family.

Once he passes that is the generation of males that my father belonged to gone

I will then be the oldest male in the family.

A sobering thought.

It doesn't feel like a chapter closing, but the last pages of a book in a series coming to an end.

There is another volume, but his passing will have a finality to it that if I am honest I keep trying to put to the back of my mind.

It would be fair to say that after my father he is the only other male role model I really had, and while I am considered to be very much my fathers son there is a great deal of my uncle in me to.

Without a shadow of a doubt it is his love of music that is the main thing that others see in me.

There is a thread of music fanaticism that runs from my uncle to me, and from there it has been picked up by my son who carries the torch in a certain sense.

My father enjoyed music, but it could never have been described as something we shared a love for.

We connected on other levels, but music wasn't one.

That shared love of rock and roll was/is reserved as the connection between my uncle and me.

You can't miss it,

Very clearly the defining link in the family chain that joins my uncle and myself apart from blood is this love of music.

There's really no getting away from it.

One of my earliest memories is sitting in his home with over-sized headphones on my little preschool head and listening to everyone from The Stones to Elvis, and The Kinks to Johnny Cash.

Thinking back it's now over forty years since I tonelessly sang along to the songs too much amusement from my parents.

There's been a great deal of water flowed under the bridge since then though.

So much that often it doesn't bear thinking about.

Apart from a great deal of water there's also a great deal that I would like to say about how my father and uncle shaped me as a man, but it's difficult.

So difficult that I was actually in two minds about posting anything about this at all.

Then I thought about how eulogies are often tempered with a need not to speak ill of the dead, and how very often there is a need for a positive editing job done on anything that is said in hindsight about those who have died.

It's with that in mind that I then thought I should say something now rather than later.

Something that is mainly for myself, but can't be construed as having a positive spin as it could be it it was said after his death.

I toyed with a few approaches and considered how to phrase it all, but ultimately it would all just be the meat layered over the bones of what basically needs to be said.

The bones being that I want to just say that I love and respect him, and that when the time comes I will miss him.

I will miss him very much.

I'm never sure if talking about things like this makes others feel uncomfortable, but that just takes us back to the start of the update and the thinly veiled point being made that I don't really care.

There's still a bit of me that thinks when I up posts that all I am doing is shouting and muttering stuff into a void.

So with that now out of the way we can now step forward into our shared passion that is music.

My uncle would probably skipped all that and started here anyway.

It's been a while since I have managed to be able to set aside the time to write anything on the bands and artists that I have seen and heard.

In fact I don't seem to have had much time to do quite a few things that I really should have.

The solution may be to register myself as a company and have the government provide me with an allocation of workfare employees, although the words workfare and employee don't feel as if they should naturally go together. so maybe not.

Sweethearts of the prison rodeo

Last night I was in the 13^th Note to see a band called Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo, and with a name like that how could I really look to go and see anyone else who was playing anywhere else in Glasgow?

I may be wrong, but without checking I will hazard a guess that they are named after a documentary about cowgirls in prison who compete in penitentiary rodeos.

Although I have no idea why, and maybe it is best not to ask.

The band are from Falkirk - as you would expect from the name (Aye right) - and are more a collective than an actual band.

This being the case it makes it difficult to pigeon hole them as myriad influences proliferate the material.

There was a bit of Booker T, a smattering of Roky Erickson, some garage rock and roll mixed with a post punk attitude going on, and that was just in the one song.

Elsewhere there's some poetry, the topic of the low sperm count in a rabbit to be discussed in song, a bit of socialist rancour and a warehouse of kitchen sinks to be cast into the mix.

To say I was impressed would be an outrageous understatement.

I went to see them based on a casual trawl through the venue listings to see what was on and finding a partially bonkers description of them that turned out to have just been an honest appraisal.

Well worth the four quid admission and I'm looking forward to wrapping my ears around their debut CD and the split cassette that I bought.

Next time our paths cross it will be a more deliberate undertaking on my part as we need artists like this to serve as the flipside of the mainstream coin.

They are the perfect palette cleanser after a day of having heard vacuous chart music being played out in the background as we traipse through our lives.

www.facebook.com/theprisonrodeo?fref=ts

The Shires

Sadly I missed Ayrshire band 'The Shires' play in Pivo, (www.facebook.com/theshiresmusic?fref=ts) but I did catch the soundcheck of their acoustic set and the positive talk about them is something that shouldn't be considered as hype.

There's an impressive slack jawed delivery of the material that is infectiously insolent in the style of a Johnny Rotten or Liam Gallagher.

That's not to say that the band sound like the Pistols or Oasis, but there's a swaggering attitude that the band share with them that many try to copy, but few actually carry off.

A great deal of it is appears to be the sound of Britpop devoid of any sheen.

Instead it's been torn apart and then rebuilt with more functional muscle added to it.

Considering this was the acoustic set getting an airing it would be naïve to consider that the electric set wouldn't deliver harder.

Scarlet Shift/Colour Coded/Quinny

Going back a bit the last show that was consistently good was the Scarlet Shift/Colour Coded/Quinny outing in Pivo.

Unfortunately it was a show that suffered badly from an audience arriving late in the evening to see Scarlet Shift rather than looking to sample what else was on offer.

It was akin to how people turn out to see the main act on a large tour and make no effort to see the supports.

Unfortunately in this case it means that they missed two acts who were every bit as good as Scarlet Shift and that they would have very probably enjoyed just as much.

Quinny (www.facebook.com/QuinnysMusic?fref=ts) played an acoustic solo set that served to confirm to me that given the opportunity to be in the right place at the right time he would be considered as star quality.

His songwriting, musicianship and stage presence is on par with any successful singer songwriter that you could care to mention, but as a bonus he has a great cross over appeal that could see his material attract a wide spectrum of listeners.

Similarly it wouldn't be too difficult to imagine Colour-Coded (www.facebook.com/colourcodedband) gracing festival stages and performing in front of masses of fans.

It just seems to be the next logical step forward in their career as while they are treading the much trampled indie rock path they do have the songs and stage craft to put them a few steps ahead of the pack.

In fact scratch that.

It's not just a few steps ahead.

They may as well be the dots disappearing over the horizon in the eyes of the competition.

Scarlet Shift (www.facebook.com/ScarletShift) are in the same enviable position to.

If you want to look for one small thing to critique then you would be wasting your time.

Blurring the lines between rock and pop they are writing anthems that have wide mainstream appeal written all over them.

I'm praying that they break through as pop music is in danger of taking its disposable nature far too seriously.

The mainstream charts need to have a band like Scarlet Shift introduced to the world so that they can claw back some artistic integrity before the labels create a perfect storm of blandness scenario.

Photographs from this show can be found at Gobo Photography

Rank Berry/Soul Remover/For What You're Worth

Ouch.

The rock scene of late has been struggling under the weight of all the hardcore bands whose power chords are hammered out in the bowels of hell.

Every amp is on eleven and every vocalists has to sound like Linda Blair revisiting her role in the Exorcist, but via the labour ward.

Or in other words there's a great deals of grunting, squealing and motherfuckers sucking cocks in hell thrown about.

So thankfully both Soul Remover (www.facebook.com/pages/Soul-Remover/189322554450387?fref=ts) and Rank Berry (www.facebook.com/rankberrymusic?fref=ts) steer clear of that and instead look to go down a more melodic route to entertain us.

I've not been shy in my praise of Rank Berry previously and there was nothing on show in this performance that would lead to me to distance myself from what I have said in the past.

While the rock and roll they play has a classic sound to it we can't help but hear it with fresh ears as so few others are doing similar.

Meanwhile Soul Remover are solid in their understanding of what makes good rock music and are not shy in delivering it to us.

While grunge music was the response to a rock world that was disappearing under a cloud of hairspray and lip gloss you could argue that Soul Remover have refused to entertain turning their back on the punk sleaze attitude of that era, and instead just took it into the gym and pumped it full of steroids and put it back out on the streets while telling it to walk like a man.

It's a macho thrill ride, but not in any misogynistic sense.

Both acts are a breathe of fresh air in what is increasingly becoming a stagnant scene

For What You.re Worth (www.facebook.com/FWYWBand?directed_target_id=0) are a whole different story again.

While they are a rock band they operate on a different level.

While we are all aware of the pop punk scene that came out of the US these young guys are more indie punk.

This is the sound of a band raised on Radiohead and Arctic Monkeys melding that UK indie rock genre to a more US based punk one while neatly giving the shiny teeth and smiley pop angle a body swerve.

It's difficult to watch them and appreciate that this is a band who are just setting out into the world.

Close your eyes and they sound like seasoned veterans who are finally drawing all their talents together to make something special.

Definitely an act to watch out for.