First
off you better give us a run down of the band, the who, what, why
and where..
I
formed Loyalty in 1999.
After
a couple of years of struggle we had some success in the years
2001-2003 but then decided to call it a day. I reformed the band with
a new line-up in 2006 with myself on vocals and bass, Wantage Steve
on guitar, while Andy and Rich share the drums.
For
those who haven't heard Loyalty yet how would you describe the sound?
Very
simply, basic eighties style British Oi. Hard and fast music, and
lyrics to the point. And we don’t mix Oi with other styles.
You
have a few tracks on some compilations, a couple of demos and one
EP, are there plans for a full length album at any point? If not
- why not?
We’ve
wanted to record a full length album but it’s always been out of
our reach. England is not exactly full of Oi musicians these days and
we’ve always had band members that live a long way apart so regular
rehearsals have been difficult to organise, and preparing 12 songs
for the studio a bit of a mountain to climb. With the new line-up we
took a step forward by recording the 6 song ‘Take No Prisoners’
CD so we are getting nearer!
Rumour
has it that Wantage Steve is pushing to do a cover of the Neighbours
theme song, will we be seeing this on a future album?
Wantage
Steve should stop watching children’s television programmes and
focus on more grown up stuff like Coronation Street, Emmerdale,
Hollyoaks, and Eastenders! Not to mention all those great ‘reality’
programmes we get on British TV these days…celebrity wife swap
mother-in-laws on ice, has-beens in the jungle etc. I wonder how much
of our crap TV we export to Australia these days?
What
are some of the major influences, bands or other stuff, that come
into the songwriting process?
Condemned
84 were a big influence on Loyalty in the early days, also two lesser
known British bands The Betrayed and The Guttersnipe Army who I was
listening to alot around the time when the first songs were being
written. Our lyrics are sometimes political but they tend to be my
own take on things rather than just repeating the same old slogans of
this or that political group. We also have a strong patriotic theme
running through the lyrics, but rather than just general flag waving
stuff I go for more specific subjects, songs about English sporting
heroes, songs about English history
Whats
Loyalty's touring schedule like? Do you play many gigs? And with the
likes of which bands?
Again
the distance between band members holds us back. The previous line-up
managed 11 gigs in 3 years, and this line-up has managed 4 so far. So
Loyalty gigs are few and far between. We’ve played in England of
course but also France, Belgium, Italy, and Spain. We’ve supported
Condemned 84 a couple of times, and also played with all the other
British Oi bands who started around the same time as us, Retaliator,
Scum, Bakers Dozen, On File. At the Brittany Oi festival last year
we supported Cockney Rejects, probably the biggest band we have
played with so far.
Knowing
how intense Pom's are about their sport and noticing that you all
follow different football clubs, does this make for heated debate
and tension amongst the band when their respective teams are
losing?I
support Sheffield United and Andy supports West Ham. Anyone who
follows the Premiership and knows a bit about ‘The Tevez affair’
might understand how this has caused a bit of tension recently! But
generally we all get on okay and we are all united behind the England
national team of course.
And
on the topic of sport, have you fully recovered from your Ashes
defeat yet? Or is that still a sore point which should be left
well enough alone?
We
can take it. England were brilliant in the 2005 series but Australia
got their revenge last time out, fair enough. But don’t forget that
we did win the Commonwealth Bank one day series that followed the
Test matches so you haven’t had it all your own way!
Have
you heard many bands from Australia? Any that stand out to you?
I
don’t really know many Aussie bands. Wantage Steve’s favourites
are Marching Orders and Bulldog Spirit.
Any
desire to come to Aus for a holiday and a few gigs?
You
must be joking! I’ve seen ‘Wolf Creek’ and know what happens to
British people out there! Plus I’m a bit of a ‘Bergkamp’. I’d
like to travel more but I can’t stand flying.
Some
favourites:
Band:
Loyalty,
Condemned 84, Retaliator, Bakers Dozen, Guttersnipe Army, Betrayed,
Major Accident, 4-Skins.
Website:
Aussie
Skins of course, and our very own Punk and Oi in the UK
Fanzine:
Don’t
see a lot of paper fanzines these days.
We have
however recently appeared in two, Violence (Germany) and Oi Warning
(England)
Shoes: Cherry
Red DMs
Pastime
(other than music): Football,
Cricket, Boxing, speed drinking with Wantage Steve.
Local
Band: Student
and the Wankers (local punk covers band)
And
some Least favourites:
Band:
Dropkick
Murphys, Cock Sparrer
Website:
My
Space
Fanzine:
Anything
badly photocopied or in a foreign language!
Shoes:
Winkle
Pickers and Cherry Red DM shoes that have dog shit on them
Pastime
(other than music): spending
hours trying to explain to half wit local punks that we are not a
fascist band… yawn!
Local
Band: The
half wit local punks have their own bands of course!
Thanks
for the questions and cheers to everyone in the Australian scene.
Steve,
Loyalty 2008
