1) First things first Mark, how was your recent trip to Vegas with your family? What did you get up to over there and what did you make of the place? I went in 2002. It’s fucking insane.
Went to So.Cal first for 5 days. it was amazing. did the tourist stuff..... Disney, universal and San Diego Zoo.....we only spent one day in SD but it was so cool. that zoo is awesome. went for mexican with San Diego native Rob Moran and Warrington finest export Dan Sant after.....i am never eating our shit mexican food again.....over priced and over here. its bullshit.
vegas......hmmmm.....not good with 3 kids.....couldn't gamble.......it was 110 degrees outside and our pool was 3 1/2 foot deep all over! had 1 "pool day" and we all got sun stroke! managed to go shoot a full auto MP5 and my oldest son, Connor, shot a Glock 17......if you know me that shit is better than sex.....well nearly! seriously it was cool to try to control a full auto sub machine gun and score decent shots. the range instructor was impressed with my two to the chest, 1 to the head drills i was trying when i shot the glock!
went to a bar called the hitching post that did a chillie cheese hotdog that has forever spoilt hotdogs for me it was so good.....while a band played country and western songs in a cage like in blues brothers!
2) How did you get into hardcore and what keeps you motivated?
i got into hardcore by total accident around 1994. i have never really been into metal.....i was always a hip hop head from when licence to ill came out then I got into the whole madchester thing when it kicked off.....about 1994 or so i got into biohazard. i met Gav Scose at the ritz in town cause he was wearing a biohazard shirt. we became good mates and i met Bollie and my future wife through him. after seeing Evan from biohazard wearing a sick of it all shirt we checked them out......then after reading their thanks list and my life changed. we all went to see them saw them play at rio's in january 1995. i remember the feedback to what I would latter know as through and through starting up and Rick Rodeney running across the stage and doing a back flip into the crowd and thinking "WHAT THE FUCK" i just lost my mind! some band called strife. all wearing shirts with X's on their hands. the next day i stopped drinking......i was on the verge of becoming a bit of a mess so it was defiently a life changing moment for me.
I think after that i just consumed as much hardcore as i could. as you remember it was pretty hard to even hear a band like side by side or the cro mags back then. you had to know someone older who had records they could tape for you. my main in was via live tapes and VHS videos from Mel Hughes over in Ireland when he was doing No Barcodes necessary. i remember getting a tape that had side by side live at WNYU and at the pyramid and maybe a few other shows on it. it was amazing. Not long after that I pciked up a copy of How We Rock that Nick Royles used to write and that opened my eyes to current bands that were knocking about and all those 1 in 12 festivals. i remember meeting you in rockworld with Trog and then again at the 1 in 12 and you taped me a load of stuff that was hard to get....chain, youth of today, straight ahead stuff like that.
I think I met Nate at some time around that point and he got me into all that heavier new stuff like earth crisis, blood runs black, gatekeeper, gehenna and integ!
I just snowballed from there. Every week i'd get something new or make a new friend in the mail. It was an amazing time. some of the people i met are my best friends in the world still today and there is no way we could have ever met without hardcore punk.
I don't think I'm motivated any more. I don't really go to shows because I'm either looking after the kids, trying to spend time with the wife or we have band practice! I try and do my bit but it is a very small bit these days! I just wish that kids could feel what i felt back then. i mean shit is so accessable these days. nothing is hard to find. you wanna hear Negative Approach? down load it. The FU's....no worries google it. you want a judge chung king? got £2000 get on ebay.....its yours. Everything is at your fingertips and i think thats why we have some of the problems we have in the scene these days. Kids just turn up and think they know everything. iIm not saying that they have to pay their dues or anything but sometimes it is important to learn things gradually.
3) Area effect were a band that many cite as one of the important bands of the late 90’s UKHC scene mainly down to your enthusiasm and love of hardcore and lack of egos. What are your reflections on this? Tell us what the other guys are up to? Any chance of a reunion?
Area effect was one of the best times I have ever had. we weren't a great band and we were never gonna change the world but to us and our mates it felt like we fucking tried! We'd all pile in a van and drive to some show somewhere and go mental for 2 hours. jump back in and drive home then off to work the next day! it was amazing!
We always tried to be full of energy and just act like normal dudes. we'd take kids from manchester and even wigan and sheffield under or wing and take them to shows all over the country. when i look around and see what some of the kids went on to do its pretty fucking cool. ian did dead and gone records, marios booked shows for years and does sound at shows for a living, lou brown runs terrorizer mag....things like that blow my mind.
The rest of the dudes are no longer involved in hardcore. I haven't seen Graham since he moved to london about 10 years ago. i caught up with him on facebook and he is a camera man and recently filmed the new series of Jack Osborne's show where he takes people base jumping and all that. i saw Andi for the first time in years a few months back at a Sick of it All show. he's doing good working in graphic design and stuff. our kid has just had a baby girl. he runs his own MMA gym in manchester that is doing really well. he's got a great team of fighters and he recently went to Brasil and got his purple belt in BJJ at Brazillian Top Team.
I don't think anyone would be interested in seeing a reunion!
4) Still on an Area effect tip, tell us about your inclusion in Ian Glasper’s upcoming book on 90’s UKHC. That’s one book I’m really looking forward to. His book on 80’s hardcore (‘Trapped in a scene’) was awesome.
Yeah its gonna be a cracker that. i hope Nate bothers to answer Ian back though. i think his inclusion is pretty crucial as instigator, spoiler and general naysayer!!
I have slowly been working through ian's stuff. Andi originally asked if he could answer the questions and i had no problem with that but then he passed it over to me when his memory failed him! its cool to be asked to be included. they were great times for that whole new scene that i think we helped build. there was never really a place for bands like us, knuckledust, public disturbance and stampin ground within what was the existing hardcore scene in england at the time. We had no interest in sitting down and talking about the right of women to not be objectified and the recycling of paper pants. I always felt that those dudes in "the other scene" always looked down on us as stupid kids who liked american music and "moshed".....so we did what hardcore had taught us to do.....we did it ourselves. we set up our own shows at our own venues and booked our own tours with other like minded bands. we'd hire a van and pile in with a ton of kids. you'd see London klids at a show in Manchester and Manchester kids in Wales. it was cool. I think it kind of set the blue print for whats going on today. we set up our own distro's and sold the records we were listening too....labels like thrid party, in my blood and bridge 9.....stuff that no one else at the time sold.
I think the only band that ever managed to cross over into the other scene was imbalance. Man they were so fucking good. Andy is a great fella.
i remember years later reading an interview with Nick Royles where he gave us props for doing our own thing and doing it totally DIY. man that was fucking cool to read that by a dude who you totally look up to.
5) I know you were a wrestling fan in your youth, tell me your 5 top grapplers and why? What do you think of today’s WWE and overall wrestling product?
Wow. wrastlin'......man we used to sit up for hours talking about that!
Top 5 are probably
1) Jimmy Snuka......such a cool dude.....just hanging ten
2) The Heart Foundation......timeless match of brawn and grappling
3) The Stieners (WCW time)....rick and scott......high energy team
4) Big Van Vader....ITS TIME! ITS VADER TIME. dude was 300 plus pounds and would do moonsaults.....nobody ever did moonsaults back then!
5) Legion of Doom.....the fucking road warriors. so hard. so powerful.
honerably mention to KoKo beware because he had a massive arse and a fucking parrot......yeah a fucking parrot!
I always loved tag teams. they were my shit. some of the moves thought up were mind blowing at the time. i could never get into the slug fest 30 minute matches of Hogan, Andre et al. i wanted wam bam action. then when ECW came along.....oh wow. that shit was insane. but i was older by then and it didn't grab me the same.
then when you had the WWF/WCW shit where they started trying to up the ante with tits and rappers and all that i just lost interest. vince won out and bought everything up and it became something i couldn't watch anymore.
I think seeing UFC 1 for the first time kinda destroyed it all for me. that shit was so much more insane and intense beyond the thunder dome type shit.
Its weird because my kids never really got into WWE but they would watch my old wrasslin' tapes and loved them!
6) Do the same
with UFC which I know that you follow now.
I think i saw the first 3 UFC's one night in early 1995 on a fifth generation vhs video dub! it was an immense night. i have been a fan ever since. its crazy to see how far it has come and changed into the sport of MMA that we see today.
Top 5 fighters:
1) Royce Gracie....the first who showed that with a good set of skills, tenacity and a brain you could pretty much beat anyone.....as long as his mates didn't stomp on your head!
2) BJ Penn - at his weight i think he is amazing. great jits.
3) Vitor Belfort - seeing him blast onto the scene at 19 back in UFC 12 and then destroy that cock end tank about at UFC 13 was mind blowing. he has had his problems since then but those early years will always stick with me.
4) Rickson Gracie - an animal. his choke documentary is amazing.
5) Clay Guida....guy just doesn't give a fuck and leaves everything in the cage.....plus he looks fucking cool!
I think my fave fight was the Diaz vs Sanches fight at The Ultimate Fighter 2 finale. that shit was insane......flips and rolls and all sorts of reversals.....blood everywhere.....so cool!
7) You now play bass in Rot in Hell. How did that come about and tell us what the band have been up to since you joined in late 2008. Any funny stories? Is Nate still a nutter?
Yeah i've been playing in Rot in hell for a few years now. its so cool to play in a band with your best mates but its hard work for me cause I'm not exactly flea on bass! some of the shit we play blows my mind! watching Sean just real off riff after riff and mike and Atko pick it up and craft it into a song is amazing. i'm kind of a third wheel really!! mainly their for the tshirts and jumps!
I don't really know why but nate said that mike was leaving and they wondered if i fancied giving it a bash. i said I'd have a try and see how I got on and it worked out okay. we spent the first few months solid getting ready to record the LP thats coming out on deathwish. and we spent 2 days in a fog bound Huddersfield hiding out in a fall out shelter come studio located in the middle of what looked like Hamsterdam in the wire. we lived on pot noodles and peperamies. it was intense. Atko wasn't in the band at the time but RiH have always recorded with him so he was like a sixth member anyway.
As both me and Sean have kids and we all work full time we don't play out to often. We went to France to play with Integrity recently and that was amazing. we were treated like rock stars with a full meal at the venue and a hotel and shit. it was great. me and Nate had a set too in the night after me and frye (RiH's new 6th member who does stand in duties on guitar or bass as required) got back from seeing the effiel tower. he was alseep in his room when we came in and me and Frye were chatting. he lost his rag and told us to shut the fuck up. Frye said that i just went stone quiet, got up and switched of the light. i sat on my bed for 20 minutes thinking of all the ways i was gonna batter Nate in the morning if he said anything. when i woke him up he was cool and didn't say owt. he later asked me what i did when he shouted at me and i said "i was gonna come in a batter you to bits".......he went "oh......erm you would have proper battered me wouldn't you?"
"yes"
"oh......sorry"
i think like all bands we have a laugh but its not something that people could understand outside the band. its all pretty insular.
We've just moved into Atko's studio in an old mill in bradfuck and that place is haunted to shit. First time we practiced I went for a piss and i couldn't turn my back to the door because I knew someone was watching me.....out of the corner of my eye i could see an old fella looking at me. it was mad. then we were playing and i could feel him stood behind me looking over my shoulder. it was pretty weird.
Nate has chilled out a lot these days. he is married and has dogs and rabbits and lizards. his wild days are over! if i keep him out to late he has to sleep on the couch. is quite sweet really.
8) What releases have you coming up and what’s going on with the long awaited and anticipated album that’s due on Deathwish?
We have so much stuff coming out its crazy. a split with Integrity on thirty days of night that comes with a story book written by nate and illustrated by Dwid.....a split with Pale Creation.....a split with Horders.....a split with wayfayrer about Ragnorac and that......there is more too!
the deathwish record is called "....as pearls before swine" and is due for release on halloween. we're just waiting for Stephen Kasner to finish the artwork. i think people will like it. it has violins and piano and shit on it. its pretty mournful in places and has a bit more of a my dying bride vibe at times......i'd say its almost a concept album. i'm really proud to have been part of it.
9) Name your top 5 favourite records and why?
1) The Stone Roses - Self titled. the single greatest thing ever recorded. I have listened to it everyday since i was 14 and I don't think that will change any time soon. i think the best track changes every day but most of the time its either shoot you down or made of stone.
2) Side by Side - S/T. my favourite hardcore record. flawless from start to finish. seriously backfire.......i'm killing people.
3) De La Soul - Three Feet High....and rising. the LP that really got me properly into music. while these days i may well skip the skits i could listen to potholes in my lawn, buddy and tread water on loop for ever.
4) Youth Of Today - We're not in this alone. We're Back! I'm losing my shit. enough said.
5) Cro Mags - Before the quarrel. could be AOQ but i think the mix on this is maybe harder......more desperate....i dunno....maybe it is age of quarell?? arghh.......its a MAAAALFUNCTION!
10) Ok cheers for the interview. Here’s your chance to say the fuck whatever you like. Keep it unclean.
Cheers Mark for the support over the years. It’s the friendship of people like you that have kept me involved in hardcore for all these years.
Here's hoping that that little hobbit cunt Malcom Glazer fucking snuffs it and the red knights finally take the greatest football club in the world back to the people. FCUMUFC (sorry for football talk mate!)
I hope everyone gives the new Rot in hell stuff a listen.
Check out the following bands if they play near you:
Broken teeth, Hang the bastard, Cold snap, Neverxagain, Breakingxpoint, wayfayrer and Hammers.
I think i saw the first 3 UFC's one night in early 1995 on a fifth generation vhs video dub! it was an immense night. i have been a fan ever since. its crazy to see how far it has come and changed into the sport of MMA that we see today.
Top 5 fighters:
1) Royce Gracie....the first who showed that with a good set of skills, tenacity and a brain you could pretty much beat anyone.....as long as his mates didn't stomp on your head!
2) BJ Penn - at his weight i think he is amazing. great jits.
3) Vitor Belfort - seeing him blast onto the scene at 19 back in UFC 12 and then destroy that cock end tank about at UFC 13 was mind blowing. he has had his problems since then but those early years will always stick with me.
4) Rickson Gracie - an animal. his choke documentary is amazing.
5) Clay Guida....guy just doesn't give a fuck and leaves everything in the cage.....plus he looks fucking cool!
I think my fave fight was the Diaz vs Sanches fight at The Ultimate Fighter 2 finale. that shit was insane......flips and rolls and all sorts of reversals.....blood everywhere.....so cool!
7) You now play bass in Rot in Hell. How did that come about and tell us what the band have been up to since you joined in late 2008. Any funny stories? Is Nate still a nutter?
Yeah i've been playing in Rot in hell for a few years now. its so cool to play in a band with your best mates but its hard work for me cause I'm not exactly flea on bass! some of the shit we play blows my mind! watching Sean just real off riff after riff and mike and Atko pick it up and craft it into a song is amazing. i'm kind of a third wheel really!! mainly their for the tshirts and jumps!
I don't really know why but nate said that mike was leaving and they wondered if i fancied giving it a bash. i said I'd have a try and see how I got on and it worked out okay. we spent the first few months solid getting ready to record the LP thats coming out on deathwish. and we spent 2 days in a fog bound Huddersfield hiding out in a fall out shelter come studio located in the middle of what looked like Hamsterdam in the wire. we lived on pot noodles and peperamies. it was intense. Atko wasn't in the band at the time but RiH have always recorded with him so he was like a sixth member anyway.
As both me and Sean have kids and we all work full time we don't play out to often. We went to France to play with Integrity recently and that was amazing. we were treated like rock stars with a full meal at the venue and a hotel and shit. it was great. me and Nate had a set too in the night after me and frye (RiH's new 6th member who does stand in duties on guitar or bass as required) got back from seeing the effiel tower. he was alseep in his room when we came in and me and Frye were chatting. he lost his rag and told us to shut the fuck up. Frye said that i just went stone quiet, got up and switched of the light. i sat on my bed for 20 minutes thinking of all the ways i was gonna batter Nate in the morning if he said anything. when i woke him up he was cool and didn't say owt. he later asked me what i did when he shouted at me and i said "i was gonna come in a batter you to bits".......he went "oh......erm you would have proper battered me wouldn't you?"
"yes"
"oh......sorry"
i think like all bands we have a laugh but its not something that people could understand outside the band. its all pretty insular.
We've just moved into Atko's studio in an old mill in bradfuck and that place is haunted to shit. First time we practiced I went for a piss and i couldn't turn my back to the door because I knew someone was watching me.....out of the corner of my eye i could see an old fella looking at me. it was mad. then we were playing and i could feel him stood behind me looking over my shoulder. it was pretty weird.
Nate has chilled out a lot these days. he is married and has dogs and rabbits and lizards. his wild days are over! if i keep him out to late he has to sleep on the couch. is quite sweet really.
8) What releases have you coming up and what’s going on with the long awaited and anticipated album that’s due on Deathwish?
We have so much stuff coming out its crazy. a split with Integrity on thirty days of night that comes with a story book written by nate and illustrated by Dwid.....a split with Pale Creation.....a split with Horders.....a split with wayfayrer about Ragnorac and that......there is more too!
the deathwish record is called "....as pearls before swine" and is due for release on halloween. we're just waiting for Stephen Kasner to finish the artwork. i think people will like it. it has violins and piano and shit on it. its pretty mournful in places and has a bit more of a my dying bride vibe at times......i'd say its almost a concept album. i'm really proud to have been part of it.
9) Name your top 5 favourite records and why?
1) The Stone Roses - Self titled. the single greatest thing ever recorded. I have listened to it everyday since i was 14 and I don't think that will change any time soon. i think the best track changes every day but most of the time its either shoot you down or made of stone.
2) Side by Side - S/T. my favourite hardcore record. flawless from start to finish. seriously backfire.......i'm killing people.
3) De La Soul - Three Feet High....and rising. the LP that really got me properly into music. while these days i may well skip the skits i could listen to potholes in my lawn, buddy and tread water on loop for ever.
4) Youth Of Today - We're not in this alone. We're Back! I'm losing my shit. enough said.
5) Cro Mags - Before the quarrel. could be AOQ but i think the mix on this is maybe harder......more desperate....i dunno....maybe it is age of quarell?? arghh.......its a MAAAALFUNCTION!
10) Ok cheers for the interview. Here’s your chance to say the fuck whatever you like. Keep it unclean.
Cheers Mark for the support over the years. It’s the friendship of people like you that have kept me involved in hardcore for all these years.
Here's hoping that that little hobbit cunt Malcom Glazer fucking snuffs it and the red knights finally take the greatest football club in the world back to the people. FCUMUFC (sorry for football talk mate!)
I hope everyone gives the new Rot in hell stuff a listen.
Check out the following bands if they play near you:
Broken teeth, Hang the bastard, Cold snap, Neverxagain, Breakingxpoint, wayfayrer and Hammers.
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