Craig

Craig - Well I play the keyboards! (said whilst standing behind two keyboards). It was me that started the band, about 18 months ago. Before this I spent the last 20 years or so in a number of bands doing all sorts from playing / writing original material to being rhythm guitarist in a Blondie Tribute.

Jase - Along with Stu, I play guitar. I suppose you'd call me the lead guitarist but me and Stu try to divide things up a bit so neither of us have all the solos. I started playing guitar about 10 years ago now and spent a great deal of time locked away practising. About 4 years ago I got offered the job of guitarist in a local rock band called 'After Eden', and since then I've been in and out of a few bands but eventually got hunted down by this lot...

Nikki - I've never been in a band before, but I love singing. I've done the usual karaoke in pubs thing and even won the odd talent competition or two... This environment is totally different though, and I'm learning a lot at the moment.

Dave - I'm the bass player although my preferred instrument is acoustic guitar. When I had a bar in Spain I used to frequently get up on the stage with a local singer or whatever and do a few numbers... great fun.

I came back to the UK about two years ago and bumped into Craig at an 'Acoustic Night' in a local pub. It wasn't long after that he approached me to join Strangetown, and the rest is history as they say.

Veg

Veg - As you've probably noticed I'm the granddad of the band, and I've been playing drums for years now. In fact I had lessons from the same bloke that taught Carl Palmer from Emmerson, Lake and Palmer...

I've played on cruise ships and for several bands, I was even the drummer in 'The Commandments' for a while. This band is great though, there's no boss to order us around so we just get on and do it. It works really well.

Have you always wanted to be a rock star?

Stu - Well, put simply, I'm in the band because I like meeting new people and its great fun. Not much else I can say really...

Dave - I'd be fibbing if I said I'd never done the "tennis racket in front of the mirror" thing but realistically I never had, and still don't, have any illusions. For me, it's just the buzz of playing to a live audience and seeing them enjoying it.

Veg - Yes I agree, I don't really do it for money or to try and be famous. It's my hobby - I think we all feel the same about this - and it can really be a lot of fun and it will probably take years to pay for all the equipment we've bought but we don't do it for that, we're just a bunch of mates really.

Jase

Jase - For me, musical integrity is important. I just wouldn't feel happy doing a gig - however big or small - if I thought we weren't doing it right. I'm happy with the way things are going at the moment and this is the first band I've been in where we can just go for a drink together or maybe watch another band. I have to say though, I'm pretty ambitious and maybe one day I'll get the chance to move up the ladder.

Veg - Yeah but you are younger than some of us...

Craig - I sort of had a chance about 15 years ago. It was in the originals band called 'Think in Thoughts' ..

Nikki - Sounds like Wet Wet Wet or something.

Craig - Well, it was the eighties! Anyway, we were going for several years, building up a fan base blah blah. Then suddenly a management company got interested, we all thought WOW this is it lads.

One of the first things they said was that we'd have to give up our day jobs and do the band full time. Well I was about to go to university so I had to make a difficult decision, band or degree - I left the band. Call me chicken, but I still think I made the right choice, I'll just do it as a hobby thanks.

Why a covers band?

Stu - We do covers because people enjoy sitting and having a drink singing/dancing along to their favourite songs not listening to stuff they don't know.

Dave

Dave - There is certainly the talent within the band to write our own material and over a period of time I imagine that we'll start to introduce the occasional original song. However, many venues, agents and even audiences just aren't interested in "originals" bands.

Craig - Well I've heard original stuff from Stu and Jase and I think it is possible for us to come up with our own stuff. I've written songs in the past and I think Dave has as well. So between us we aught to be able to come up with something, it might not be any good though?

Nikki - I've never had a go at writing music but I'd be keen to try some lyrics. I don't mind the idea of doing our own songs at all.

Veg - Yeah, but we don't want to bore the audience. They've just come out on a Saturday night to have a good time, not to listen to something they've never heard of.

Stu - We'd have to bring in our own stuff pretty gradually if that's the way we wanted to go. Maybe one or two songs - that's all.

Isn't it difficult to balance the band with a full time job?

Stu

Stu - It's not too much of a problem for me having a full time job and being in a band as we mostly gig on Saturday nights (with the odd Friday), so I rarely have to rush back from work and head straight to a gig. My day job involves fitting double glazing windows, this pays the bills but is hardly thrilling so I think the band adds a bit of excitement!

Dave - We decided quite early on about exactly how often we wanted to play live and so we spend only as much time on band activities as we can all manage. Several band members are also involved in other musical projects as well.

Craig - For me it can sometimes be a bit of a hassle doing my day job and being in the band. I agree, it's not really the gigs that are a problem, it's more difficult if we have to rehearse or discuss something on a weekday evening.

On Mondays and Tuesdays I lecture in Recording Studio Technology at Kidderminster College and these nights can easily be filled up with studio projects or even just marking homework!

The rest of the week I write software in Stroud (Gloucestershire), which is quite a journey I can tell you, so I don't get back home 'till quite late. Still you gotta have a hobby, and this beats the hell out of stamp collecting!

Do you have any ambitions for the future?

Dave - I think "Top of the Pops" might be pushing it a bit, but it would be nice to play to bigger and bigger audiences, eventually introducing more of our own material and putting together an album of more unusual covers. It might also be nice to share a dressing room with Beyonce & Britney.

Nikki

Nikki - My ambitions really involve my career, I'm in the band to enjoy it. I think that if it got too serious the fun would go out of it and we'd probably just argue with each other. It's better like this, maybe with a few of our own songs, just to prove we can do it.

Veg - I've got no ambitions whatsoever. I just like playing music to a live audience. We're all mates in this band, something I've never had before, and I don't want to spoil it.

Jase - As I said earlier, you never know what the future holds. Speaking from my own point of view, I just want to get better and better. There's always a skill level above you that you need to work at reaching. I'm not saying I'll ever be the next Eddie Van Halen or Steve Vai, but these people are there to learn from. All you can do is keep improving. The rest really isn't up to me.

Strangetown play TC's on Coronation Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham on the 25th March 2004.

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