The Stingrays Interview!!!!!!! English

Interviewed Mokuo / Translated Jun Nakamura

◆Q1　Please introduce your band members.
I’m Russ I’ve been with band through all its changes.
I’m the main songwriter and vocalist, Rich is on drums, Paul is on bass but played rhythm guitar on Sound on Avon Calling.

◆Q2　What kind of music did you listen when you were a child.
The first album I had when I was a child was the soundtrack to Beatles film Hard Days Night given to me by my godmother who, after that, used to give me all her Beatles singles.
She also gave me Gerry and the Pacemakers, "How Do You Do What You Do to Me" which I used to love singing at the top of my voice, I still do!.
From that time The Who’s "I can See for Miles" was the song that put the seed in my mind that a song can be more than just a pop record, its like a time machine that song, I’ve just got to hear it and I’m transported back to being a young child with the undiscovered world around me.

◆Q3　Tell me bands or artists you had influences on.
Duane Eddy… the production on Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues... Pub Rockers like Ducks Deluxe and Dr Feelgood... The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.. Mick Ronson, when I heard how the bass and guitar fitted together on Suffragette city, I thought, that’s what I want to do.. the beautiful simplicity of T-rex’s Jeepster, its like watching the inside of a wind up clock that song..

Aerial Bender of Mott The Hoople’s solo on the Golden Age of Rock n Roll was an influence on the solo I did on Countdown, not technique so much as effect, I took it a couple of stages farther than him though!.. The song writing and song structure on the first Clash album.. Wire.Dot Dash..The Rich Kids Ghosts of Princes in Towers.. live, The Boys.. New Guitar in Town, John Plain of the Boys collaboration with The Lurkers

The British Movie That’ll Be the Day.. seeing the final moment of the film when David Essex goes and buys a guitar and the shop owner says, "can you handle it" felt like the beginning of Punk Rock for me, the costumes for the film were created by Malcolm Maclaclaren And Viviene Westwood as well, look at the mohair jumpers that they wear, that got taken on as punk fashion.
There are moments in Clint Eastwood’s film The Unforgiven which seems to have echoes of what we’re doing at the moment as well..

◆Q4　How and why did you come to start Stingrays?
The Stingrays were formed in May 1977 when original bassist, Bill "The Bass" Stair, came over to my place with some rough ideas for songs.
We seemed to hit it off musically right from the start and I remember five or six songs coming together that first afternoon.
We were joined by my school friend Dean Sidney on Drums (Dean is still involved with band, his house is our base when we rehearse and record in Bristol) and then by Pete Thelke on vocals who added his lyrics.

This version of the band had its first gig at the Bristol’s famous Dugout club in September and its last gig on New Years Eve of that year.
The Stingrays in the musical style that its exists now came together in Spring of 1978 when Dean and I were joined by Chris Bostock on bass, this line up recorded the demo for Sound.
Although Sean Mcluskey played on the recording of Sound its very much Deans influence on drumming on this song, he’s got a quirky edgy style.
Why did I start the Stingrays?- Eric Clapton’s 461 Ocean Boulevard pretty much sums up a lot of what was going on..pre New Wave.. its very well played but it sounds like a well mown lawn, it was completely boring,

◆Q5　Tell me the music scene in Bristol at that time.
Many venues, although not all, didn’t want New Wave bands playing so we ended up playing at a strange mixture of folk venues, such as the Stonehouse and reggae clubs like The Bamboo Club.
There is a line in the Generation X song, Your Generation, "Might make your friends enemies" which sums up what happened at the time people who you'd been playing music with just didn’t want to know you...once you became involved in New Wave music Also some dance hallslike Tiffany’s put on gigs.
In the late seventies Trinity, an old church was opened that had a lot of atmosphere.




◆Q6　Also please tell me what bands do you used to play with or hang out with.
When Dean left the band Chris and I had some rehearsals with John Joe and his brother who went on to form Various Artists… I think that Dan who later joined Essential Bop had a try out with us but said he, "didn’t want to join a heavy metal band", we’ve always been a bit noisy!…

I seem to remember the guitarist who formed the Glaxo Babies tagging along with us after a gig at a Church Hall in Westbury Park…. Pete Thelk had been the original singer in Social Security before joining the first Stingrays line up…
Dean had been in a band called The Boyfriends with John Waddington before he formed the Pop Group.. Original bassist Bill the Bass"Stair went on to form the Art Objects..

The Crystal theatre rehearsal room an amazing wedge shaped building that looked like a brick bilt block of cheese, now demolished, also used to put on some gigs.
That was where most of the Fried Egg bands used to rehearse so that was the meeting place really.

◆Q7　Tell me about a story when you released "Count Down".
Countdown was originally recorded by us to be released on our own label but was released on Fried Egg records when the engineer,Ken Wheeler of Sound Conception Studios, where we had recorded all our demos, played the tracks to Andy Leighton of Fried Egg.
In between the time of recording the single and the offer to release it on Fried Egg Chris Bostock decided to leave the band he was replaced by Tim who can be seen on the promotional photos and poster for Countdown.

The feedback solo which is one of the features of Countdown was not recorded until at least six weeks after the rest of the recording was finished It was added following a talk with Ken Wheeler that the song might need a little something extra.
I had one run-through, getting a feel of how I was going to improvise it and I think it was done second take.
I used my Jedson Les Paul copy I think on it, not an expensive guitar but great pick-ups

◆Q8　Tell me a story Bristol Compilation Album, "Avon calling".
Avon Calling was recorded in Bath which although not far from Bristol was away from Sounds Conception Studios where we’d done all our other recording.
The main-man from the Korgis was there when we were recording Sound and I remember him being very helpful. But strangely the thing I remember most about the day is being very happy when we’d finished, going to the children’s play-park near to the studios and us all playing on the swings

◆Q9　Did you release 2nd 7inch, "Never Do" in 1981?
Yes, Never Do was released on Circus Records. Paul Johnson worked as a studio assistant at the studio so they asked us to do a demo and it developed from there.
We got our first TV from that appearing on the 6.00 o’clock news. The single launch was held at the Granary another famous Bristol venue, which just about every up and coming UK band who came to Bristol in the seventies would have played at, and I remember it being a great night.

◆Q10　Tell me about after 1981.
1981 could have been a very good year I’d given a copy Never Do and the demos which we recently released as Back Across the Rubicon to Chris Seivey of the Freshies and he wanted to get us signed to MCA Records.

But by the time he contacted me about this another lot of band members, Paul Johnson and Mark Paignton, had decided to leave I was on my own and rather unhappy with the course of events!.. so I decided to go and live in Paris.

In Paris I walked to every Studio in the city but never really got an opening. I married a French girl and through the clothes I’d made for the band I got involved in the fashion industry.
By the time I returned three and a half years later everybody I knew and all my musical associates seemed to have disappeared, I didn’t see many of them again for another 25 years.
Although the band is inextricably linked with the Bristol music scene I am Welsh and I returned to live on the West Wales coast in 1984 where I still live.

The rise of dance music meant that my style didn’t really fit in the 1980’s and it wasn’t until the early nineties that the Nirvana came along and Welsh bands that had come out of the Welsh Language music scene like Catatonia that I became involved in music again. I started my own record shop Siop yn Llawn o Stwr (Shop Full of Noise) in the early nineties.

In 2007 as I was collecting together the tracks that would form Back Across the Rubicon I was contacted by Paul Matthews and the possibility of new Stingrays gigs came about.
I decided to send out tracks anonymously to see if they stood the test of time this resulted in two songs from Back Across the Rubicon being played on the BBC, Perfect on BBC Radio Wales by Adam Walton And Thinking on BBC Radio 6 by Tom Robinson and things have gathered momentum since then

◆Q11　Tell me about your Japan tour last year.
I had been told that copies of Countdown were changing hands in Japan but I had no idea that Countdown had been re-released on 1977 Records in Japan in 2002 , I think.
Through contact with Ian Martin of Call and Response Records the idea of the tour developed, we certainly wouldn’t have got over without Ian’s help.
We didn’t know quite to expect but it was a hugely enjoyable experience. I was amazed at how many copies of Countdown there are in Japan, I signed copies of it wherever we went.

◆Q12　We want you to play in Japan after next year too.
Is it possible?
We’d very much like to come back in 2012, its very much in our plans.
In fact, I received feedback from venues that weren’t available when we are coming over this time who would like us to play when we come over next.

If people would like to see us I think we’ll be over every year! We love the country.
People have been very friendly and I felt very much at home in Japan.
I really enjoyed the music I listened to as well.

I like the livehouse system and nearly every venue seems to have my favourite amp, the Marshall JCM 900, (although some are the 50 watt not my preferred 100watt!) .
Ian has helped us get some gigs in Kyushu this year maybe we can get to other parts of the Japan 2012. If anyone would like to contact us for further information they can at stingraysgigs@hotmail.com or look out for what we’re up to at myspace.com/stingraysstingrays.



Saga-young