As usual, telling who's who with a
Dictaphone is hard so who said what may be mixed up
Who's who + who does what?
Tim: Well I'm Tim and I do some singing
and write some songs
Rick: I'm Rick and I play the saxophone mainly
Jeremy: I'm Jeremy, I play the trumpet
John: I'm John, I do some trombone
Paul: I'm Paul and I play the guitar
Tim: Drummer....we've got a drummer somewhere as well
Rich: There's Oli, he plays drums
Tim: The drummer plays drums
Rich: And our bassist plays the bass
What's a brief history of the band?
Tim: The history of the bands quite long, and it starts 4 years
ago, in Salisbury
Me: Where we live...yay!
Tim: Yay!.. Salisbury's rockin'... Yea, it started of with me,
the drummer and the bassist who shall remain nameless for the
purpose of this interview - no, it was Oli and Joe and we started a
band at school, although Joe didn't go to school with us. Me and Oli
started a band because we got offered a gig, and we were like 'fuck,
we need a bassist', so we went to Joe's house who we didn't actually
know, and told him he was in our band, an he accepted that fact,
which was helpful cos then he was our bassist and it started off
like that. And then Paul joined our band and played trumpet, and
then he left again 'cos he was a complete knob
Paul: I was a complete twat for about 3 months
Tim: And then he came back...no, no, no, first Rick came back,
or you both came back at the same time
Paul: I came back to play lead guitar and saxophone (how does
that work?!)
Tim: Rick joined our band to be a guitarist, but basically Rick
can't play guitar, so that went out the window
Paul: It's ironic, cos I play your guitar now
Rick: That is ironic, isn't it
Tim: Then everyone else joined and we don't talk about that
Why did you call yourselves Spankboy?
Tim: Because Tim Burton wrote a book called the 'Melancholy
Death Of Oyster Boy', and it's full of really cool poems, apart from
there isn't one called Spankboy - perhaps there should be
John: There's one called 'The Adventures of Spankboy and Ratboy'
Tim: Er, no, that's a gay site on the internet (laughter) No,
seriously, it's just from that and also everyone remembers our name
What's the best gig you've played and the best band you've played
with?
Paul: Gold Hill Fair, it was an out door festival in Shaftsbury,
we played to about 4,000 people
Jeremy: Lubby Nugget's the best band I've played with (everyone
agrees)
John: My favourite UK band is Lightyear...
Tim: John's actual favourite band is Elton John
John: But we haven't played with him...and it's not actually a
band....
Tim: Or Big D And The Kids Table are cool, but I hated them at
first...
Did you have fun at the gig yesterday?
Jeremy: yea, it was brilliant, really good stuff..
John: Where did we play?
Jeremy: Leicester Square
Tim: Yea it was cool
How do you describe your music?
John: It's got some ska, and it's got some punk..
Rick: Talking with your mouth full John! That's really rude..
Tim: It's bitchin' - that's how its described
Me: Bitchin' blends of fly ska beats..
Tim: That's the one! She knows her stuff!
Rick: Eclectic reggae rock
Jeremy: Horn driven - make sure you get that in
Tim: You probably don't need to write anything about the horn
section! (laughter) on the c.d's it's actually a midi
keyboard
Paul: When we record we use real instruments like keyboards, but
when we play live we have to use pretend instruments like pipes and
slippers or whatever (laughter)
Rick: I play the slippers! (laughs)
John: No, you play wide slipper and Jeremy plays the other
Paul: John plays the water snake as well...you know - they're
made out of rubber...like a tube balloon filled with water
Rick: John plays one of those very well
Tim: The more times you mention the water snake in this
interview, the more nervous John is! There's something on our CD
that goes 'there'll be no mention of the water snake'
Jeremy: No, no mention of the cupboard!
Tim: No, the water snake
Jeremy: The cupboard!
Tim: You're wrong, Jeremy!
Which bands influence your music?
Rick: There's 7 of of, so it's kinda hard to say, cos we're all
very different in terms of musical background
Me: OK, as a whole then..
Rick: I dunno, ask the songwriter...
Tim: Who's that?
Rick: You.
Tim: Shit..
Jeremy: What influences you, Timothy?
Tim: I don't know if bands influence me. Occasionally, if I'm
writing a song, I'll suddenly realise I've just written a song I
heard at a gig. In the band we listen to loads of stuff - old
reggae, ska, and even some hardcore gangster hip-hop
Jeremy: Motley Crue!
Tim: some old rock- punk bands - all kinds off stuff
Who would you most like to play with?
Tim: You! (laughter - boys will be boys)
Me: You're almost as bad as Jesse James!
Tim: Well, you did say play with!
Paul: Jesse James actually want to play with Jeremy (laughter)
John: Jesse James did play with Jeremy
Rick: The lead singer played with Jeremy
John: Aah, it was a beautiful site!
Rick: It was beautiful..
Me: I'm gonna try and get Pete to dish the dirt on that..
Paul: Nothing exceptionally interesting happened, other than.. Tim: Dko almost fucked Jeremy (laughter)
Rick: He gave it a good shot
Jeremy: Yea, he gave me a good shot
John: We're looking forward to round 2 in Northampton!
Have you ever considered signing to a bigger label?
John: As opposed to none?!
Paul: We would love to sign to a bigger label
Rick: The bigger, the better
Tim: Our aim is to sign to the biggest label possible
John: If they said we had to drop our instruments, and put on
some different clothes, and dance around, and then mime to our music
then, no.
Rick: I think it would be very difficult, 'cos we're all very
strong characters. it would be very difficult for a company to
change us
Tim: If they said 'we'll sign you, here's the music you gotta
play', then fuck em
You never come back to Salisbury!
Tim: Ah, we are coming to Salisbury!
Me: In October..
Tim: That's the first date I could book for the art centre...we
never play in a place as regularly as we do Salisbury
Rick: We play in Salisbury the most!
Tim: Tickets are going on sale on Tuesday
Me: Go to Stand Out
Tim: Not Stand Out, stand out are cunts
Rick: Don't go to Stand Out, go to the art centre
Tim: Stand Out stitched us up
A lot of people into the kinda music u do haven't heard of you
unless they've seen you, or know the venues well..
Tim: That's because we don't really fit into the punk, ska stuff
Paul: There are certain things we do do that are slightly
different from the way other bands in the scene do it...not 'cos
we're against it or anything
Jeremy: Also, we've only really started doing it big style, like
over the last couple months, and a lot more bands have heard of us,
so we play with a lot more bands
Paul: I still really like playing at the gigs that we do that
aren't sort of on the scene, playing places like Mambo in Taunton..
Rick: Playing to a bar that aren't expecting that we're gonna be
there, and turning the audience around
Paul: Yea, you'll get a crowd that aren't into ska punk...
Jeremy: Like playing with the Damned, we were al completely
terrified of these 40 year old punks, and we were like 'Oh my god'..
there was fucking millions of them
Tim: It was such wicked gig, a really, really wicked gig...full
of old people.. they were loving it. And then driving off on
Harleys!
John: And then going into a Harvester in Weymouth, well it
wasn't actually a harvester, just a pub very similar to a Harvester,
with everyone eating food and stuff, and them loving it as well
Tim: It's nice not to follow in footsteps
Why do you think the ska/punk scenes grown so much lately?
Paul: What, in this country? Cos all the bands are starting to
get good. Cos like 5 years ago there were no known UK ska punk bands
'cos all the American ones were so good. Bands like Capdown, Lubby
Nugget and Lightyear now are as good as their American counterparts.
What's the strangest thing that's happened to you on tour?
Jeremy: Being felt up by the lead singer of Jesse James (laughter)
Tim: We got our van smashed up in Leeds, by a shoe brush!
Paul: We did a gig in Cornwall in a working mans club on a
Sunday afternoon, to like old men and their families, and we turned
them around, they loved it!
John: A growing man falling into tears - we made a grown man
cry!
Tim: He said we were the happiest band he'd ever seen, and burst
into tears!
What's a strange or gross fact about each of you?
Jeremy: Oh no, this is really gonna get horrible!
Tim: Aah, man!
Rick: Maybe we should do one about each other!
Tim: For John just put 'water snake'
Jeremy: Put 'the water snake-dot-dot-dot' (laughter)
Tim: Eventually the truth will come out and you'll be the
interviewer that had 'water snake' down first
Rick: And in each interview we'll do an extra word..
Tim: 'The water snake - was- involved - in'
John: Shutuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!!! (laughter)
Me: I wanna know!
John: Well u can't!
Tim: What about Joe? Joe actually spent about 2 and a half years
without physically moving, or breathing, or anything.
Rick: What about Oli? He's possibly the angriest man alive! He
walks around soaking other peoples anger up, and then explodes!
Paul: Jeremy has an amazing tactic for attracting queers
Tim: He's our very own gay icon
Rick: You very much are our token gay icon
Paul: But the strangest thing that's happened on this tour, is
the fact that, by sheer coincidence, every night it's been our
drummers 21st birthday!
Tim: It's incredible
Rick: It is incredible, it's almost as if he's got a birthday on
every day
Paul: Tim has never even seen a girl naked
Rick: Not even on the telly
Jeremy: And he can't speak a word of English, either
Tim: And I have my very own butler to write my songs for me
Me: Is that everyone?
Rick: Only me left, I seem to have gotten away with it
Tim: Rick has been spotted on this tour pulling a tree. Scoring
with a tree.
Rick: Fair enough, I can't deny it
What are your porn star names?
Jeremy: Mine's Fred Pile - not very porn star is it?
John: No, it's kinda gross actually...(laughter) Paul: Mines, er, Dinky Simms Rick: Mines Pandora Beer
John: I can't remember mine..
Paul: What's your mum's maiden name?
John: Oh, is this what it is?
Paul: Yea, your pets first name...first pets name!
Tim: Yea, you could give your pet more than one name...you could
give it loads of names and stuff - that would be cool!
John: What was my mums maiden name?
Paul: Her name before she was married
John: Aah really? Mines G-Star! Sweet!
Rick: G-star? Ooh, I like that!
Tim: Mines Poppy Russell
Paul: What's Oli's?
Tim: Angry Bastard (laughter)
Paul: Oli's mums maiden name is bastard
What are your favourite film? Not including porn films..
Tim: Orgazmo! And BASEketball (wicked films, work of a
genius)
Rick: With nail and I
John: Debbie does Dallas
Rick: Point Breaks a better surf movie
Tim: You sell out! your selling out to your punk ethic!
Wahoo! Thanx for that interview guys was tres cool, cant wait till
Oct! Yay!
