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| Interview Gallery | | Interview for Sugarbuzz Magazine Feb 2007 | | |
| Interview at Distorted Magazine Online Nov 2006 | | |
| INTERVIEW ON ROCKDETECTOR AUG 2006 | | |
| INTERVIEW FOR SKRUTT ZINE (SWEDEN) august 2006 | | |
| LOUD FAST RULES INTERVIEW AUGUST 2006 | | |
1.What is the current vice squad line up and how long have you been together?
The current line up is Paul 'Lumpy' Rooney - Lead guitar, Mike 'Mildred' Giaquinto - Bass, and Tone Piper - Drums.
We've been together for nearly 7 years now.
2.There was quite a long lay off between the stand strong record and get a life,what made you decide to reform vice squad?
People kept asking me to play the old songs and as the back catalogue was always being re-released I couldn't escape my past. I`d stayed in music since leaving the old band and had gigged and recorded constantly since 'Stand Strong', so I'd come a long way as a singer and was a bit dubious about raking over the past.
Some of the songs on 'Get A Life' were written before I started gigging under the VS name again, so sub-conciously I must have been returning to my roots.I thought we'd just do enough shows to raise the money to fix my knackered old transit van ( we used the van to get ourselves and our back line to gigs, it was always breaking down and without the gigs I didn't eat so it was vital to get it fixed!!!). After a shakey start things sort of fell into place, and when we played in Slovenjia I just fell in love with it all over again, so I was back on the road to ruin !
3.Were you still active in the music scene during those years?I can remember hearing a bit about ligotage back in the 80s but thats about it.Were there any recordings from that band?
Oh yes, I never gave up. It was horrendously hard to keep a band together and to have to keep starting from the bottom again (like playing Monday nights in a pub for £30 to split 6 ways), but I wouldn't quit. The fact I'd been in Vice Squad was used as a reason NOT to give me a record deal and I was referred to as a 'Screaming, pissed-up punk' and generally ignored or patronised. I must have been insane to keep going, but at least it taught me to sing and write songs and survive on a pittance. And of course it meant I stayed free.
Ligotage only lasted about a year and it was a waste of time because after VS I was keen for my new band to like me and didn't dare tell them what to do. Basically I was just wasting my recording advance paying wages to people who didn't do any work. We recorded one ep, 'Crime and Passion' which was pretty good ( Pete 'Overend' Watts and Dale Griffin from Mott the Hoople produced it), but ended up doing a crap live album just so we could pay the VAT man and Inland Revenue. It was all an utter shambles, but again it taught me something, i.e don't just sign cheques without asking where your money's going!!!!
After Ligotage I had The Bombshells, and gigged under that name for years, right up to 1999.
4.There was a vice squad album called shot away back in the 80s with a different singer.Did you have any involvement with the songs on that record?How did you feel about that one?
No, I wasn't involved at all.
5.Beki,has it been difficult over the years to be the frontperson of the band?You were probably one of the first women in the punk scene to be politically outspoken.
Front person is by far the worst job in a band. No matter how tired/hungry you are, you have to put on a show, there is nowhere to hide and you can't skulk at the back of the stage. I have made my life even harder by writing songs that require a lot of effort to sing and play. Sometimes I wish I just played guitar as it requires far less effort! The front person also gets most of the criticism, eg if your rythmn section's playing the song wrong and consequently it sounds crap, people assume that you are to blame etc.
If you are politically outspoken people will always attack you, but at least it makes them think and sometimes even learn something.Personally I don't trust people who don't have a polital opinion.
6.It seems like almost all the old punk bands are reforming these days,but vice squad seems to be one of the few thats been reborn rather than just a nostalgia act.Were you instantly accepted by your fans or do you feel like youve had to prove yourselves all over again?
It took a few years of gigging for people to accept us, nothing is ever easy!
7.Youve got a lot more variety to your music than ever before,how has the response been to the fact youve got elements of ska,reggae,electronic,glam,metal etc these days?
Generally the response has been good because fans realise we are trying to give them something extra.'Rich and Famous' (our last album) has 19 tracks so we felt we had to add some different textures or it would have become boring. A few individuals didn't get it at all, one guy sent a furious email accusing us of trying to sound like 'No Doubt' whereas one girl sent another pointing out that we'd been going longer and that No Doubt were trying to sound like us! The new album (Defiant) is more 'in your face' than Rich and Famous because I've had the most control over it and I'm a noisy bastard. It's Lumpy who has the most eclectic taste. We might try a Thrash Skiffle song on the next album.
8.Do you get a lot of people coming to your gigs expecting to hear the same old songs and if so how do you deal with it?
We get a few but not many. We have a lot of younger people coming to shows and though most of them know the old stuff they're equally familiar with the new. We played a LOT of stuff from 'Defiant' at Wasted this year and got a good response, though of course we also played some old favourites as well.
9.Was the resurrection record your way of putting the old ear of vice squad to rest?
Actually we were contractually obliged to do it. The company who licensed Get A Life from us put a clause in the contract saying we had to give them a second album of re-recorded old tracks. They later claimed that it sold less than Get A Life so I don't know why they insisted on us doing it.
10.The song business as usual reminds me of a former boss of mine,is it from personal experience?
It's my little dig at A & R men who are always 'in a meeting' or 'at lunch' and have hidden agendas, i.e they are failed musicians who like rejecting other musicians. There are some good A & R people of course, but the bad ones far out weigh the good!!!
11.Your last record rich and famous was on emi.How did that come about and how was it working with them?
We`d recorded most of 'Rich and Famous' and EMI were the only company prepared to release it, so naturally we went with them. The A & R guy there has always been supportive and helpful, so he's one of the few good 'uns.
12.You have a new release coming out soon on sos records,can you give us some details on it?Will we get a tour here in the states?
The new album is called ' Defiant ', fourteen tracks, eleven of which are brand new ' Voice Of The People' ' Britain Is Still Burning' ' Fast Forward' ' Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down' ' Defiant' ' Ordianary, Decent....?' ' The Story Of My Life' ' You Can't Do That' ' Vermin' ' War Of Attrition' ' Spitfire' and three re-recordings of band favourites 'Antisocial Insecurity' 'The Great Fire Of London' and ' You Can't Buy Back The Dead '. I think it's easily our best album to date, and we have a short tour lined up in the USA for October, mainly West Coast. We hope to do a much bigger tour later on.
13.What would you say to convince people that youre more than just that last rockers band?
Listen to the new album!
14.Anything that youd like to add.?I cant thank you enough for taking the time to do this interview.
Thank you for asking me! Best wishes to everybody at LoudFastRules and to all your readers |
| Insomnia Magazine Interview March 2006. | | |
| Pogo Til I Die Zine Interview October 2003 | | |
| Anarchoi Zine (Scotland) Interview Oct 2006 | | |
Can you tell us a little of what you have been up to lately and tell us about the new album?
We've just come back from a couple of gigs in Slovakia and Austria which we really enjoyed. At the moment we're getting ready for a tour of the west Coast of the USA and recording songs for the next album.
Our new album is called 'Defiant' and I think it's the best we've done so far. We've been very pleased with the audiences' response to the new songs.
Do you keep i touch with Vice Squad's old line up at all, if so are they up to anything special?
No we don't keep in touch, they aren't involved in playing music anymore.
What have you been listening to lately then?
The new songs we've been writing for the next album!
You seem to be playing contsantly for the next 6 months or so, any plans to show face in Scotland?
Our agent's been trying to sort gigs in Scotland for ages, so I hope that he succeeds this time! It's getting harder and harder to get gigs in the UK as live music is being squeezed out by DJs and theme pubs but there is a Punk scene out there and we want to play more.
You must have done hundreds of gigs by now, what are the most memorable moments for, good or bad reasons?
I have lots of memories of being cold and hungry stuck in a van travelling hundreds of miles to the next gig, of alternators falling out of rust buckets on the autobahn and always being skint. And there were bad times as well.....!!!!!!
You are now signed on SOS records,i knew they originally wanted 'Rich and Famous' under their name but you just wrote the new album instead. It may be too early to ask this but are you considering any more releases with SOS,maybe even re-releasing some old material?
So far SOS have been really good to us, so we are happy to work with them in the future. We may well re-record some older stuff and re-release it. 'Defiant' sounds so much better than the old recordings that we'd have to re-record as once you raise the standard you have to keep up to it. However, we are always writing new songs so we may end up releasing new material.
You were getting a little criticism for running Vice Squad street teams, this zine supports DIY punk, do yourselves keep involved in promoting the band?
We didn't get any serious criticism for running street teams, it was our agent who was running them anyway. He thought it was a good idea to try to get people to come to gigs so that the scene stayed healthy. We're not very good at promoting ourselves so it's just as well that we have an agent who thinks of things like street teams. We are the most DIY band of all as we record at home and produce ourselves and rarely use commercial studios.
On that note do you get annoyed by some bands (i'll keep a certain Scottish band unnamed) that are using the likes of myspace to pressure people into liking them by constantly Spamming users of the site, i agree that bands should promote themselves but don't you think there should be a limit?
I don't take any notice of Spam personally, I don't blame people for trying but I just delete it! You can't run a band on no money at all so bands have to somehow get people to come and see them live and buy cds etc, and they are competing with very rich and powerful companies who spend zillions promoting their latest talentless puppets, so personally I'd rather get spammed by a struggling punk band. You either like a band's music or you don't, if you think it's shite it doesn't matter how much they advertise because you won't be buying!
Have you realised a younger audience becoming interested in the band, if so do you think enough of these are girls? Would you like to see more female fronted bands in the scene?
I'd say that the majority of our young fans are female, which is very gratifying for me. I think there are less girls in rock because girls are generally more intelligent than boys so would not aspire to a life of ear ache, rusty transit vans and having no money. However, a small percentage (including me) are rockist bastards who live for making noize and having a pop at the system. The girl bands that are on the scene at the moment may be fewer than the boys but they are mostly really good, and quality is more important than quantity.
So what would you like to you see for the future of Vice Squad?
A rust-free van and loads more gigs and a new album that I'll like more than 'Defiant'
Would you like to add anything, thanks, rants, subliminal messages or what not?
I won't rant as I've done a lot of that on the album. All I'll say is that we would love to play in Scotland as we really enjoyed the Wickerman festival and we have some really loyal supporters there who we'd like to share a jar or two with.
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| Hairstyles of the rich and famous Zine ( Australia) Feb 2007 | | |
Your newest release 'Defiant' has, in my opinion, more of a 'pop/lighter'
sound than some previous releases (musically that is. The lyrics are
anything but!), you've had many lineup changes and reformations over th
better part of 30 years, is this change of sound a testament to
collaboration between yourself and band members, or more of a natural
transition over time?
I'm surprised that you think it sounds pop as I think it's the heaviest sounding album we've done. I always think of Rich and Famous as
being quite pop in places,but not Defiant.I think if you compare it to Stand Strong and all the albums after that up to Defiant it sounds much heavier!
'Britain is still Burning' refers to mainstream 'punk rock', but cheers on
the "true punk rockers" that still follow the rebellious ideas of punk rock.
What was the reason to write a song like this, and do you see a newer
'better' generation of punks coming up?
When Lumpy (guitarist) first played the riff to that song the title and lyric idea came to me instantly.
It's celebrating new and old punk, I'm glad there is a new generation of punks, but I don't think they are better or worse
than the previous one, I'm just glad there are loads of punks!!!
In his review of 'Defiant', Ryan Cooper from About.com said:'It's nice to
hear that time hasn't mellowed Beki Bondage, but has made her a better
singer teamed up with better musicians', and I'd have to agree, on your
earlier releases there appears to be a lot of 'layering' (don't know the
technical term.) of your vocals, which gives the impression your voice
wasn't such a strong one. There's a bare minimum of that on the songs I've
heard from 'Defiant' which is great.
The vocal on the old recordings was usually double tracked, which tends to give the
voice a poppier sound. I was only a teenager and therefore had nowhere near the vocal power
you get through years of gigging. Also, I was the last one to be recorded so had no time to re-do
my part if it didn't work first time. There's only so much you can do vocally with any particular
song, if you're lucky and the song suits your voice you get a good sound, and if your unlucky and
the song doesn't suit your voice it won't sound very good. I think that if the song's good it'll be happening
on the first take, you can just feel that it's right.
I take it this means you have more creative contol now than in the past over
your recordings?
Yes, I have a lot of control now. I realised that if I'm the one singing the song then I have to mean it, so
you have to be involved in the writing and recording every step of the way. This invoves a lot of hard work,
arguments and frustration but you have to do it if you want to be happpy with the end result.
How long have you been signed to SOS Records, tell me a bit about how that
came about, and who are some of your labelmates? How many record labels has
Vice Squad (and even you personally, with The Bombshells etc) been on over
time, and what have some of your good and bad experiences been with the
music 'Industry'.
We signed to SOS about 9 months ago, we wanted an American release for the album so it seemed like a good idea.
We are label mates with the Addicts, Toy Dolls, GBH, Conflict etc etc. So far SOS have been great.
Our longest relationship with a label was with EMI, who have been the most considerate about releasing old material.
The indies we were with just release whatever they can get their hands on. I have been with various labels over the years
and have learned to only license our material as opposed to signing it away to someone else.
What 'solo' (that is, material of yours, in a band or otherwise, NOT under
the V.S moniker) material are you most (and least) proud of and why,
eg.,Ligotage, Bombshells, Cold Turkey??
I thought 'Vanity' and 'Crime and Passion' by Ligotage were pretty good, I thought most of 'Cold Turkey' sucked because I didn't get to
sing the songs I wanted to.The unreleased material I am most proud of is the songs I wrote with Lumpy in the late 90's.
We've just written some new songs for the next VS album which I'm really pleased with.
You recently toured the USA, was this your first time over there, how did it
go (a huge huge success by all accounts), where did you go, who did you
enjoy playing with the most and who were pricks?
It wasn't my first time in the States, I've toured there lots of times. It was only a short tour this time and was none the less knackering but
worth it to meet our American supporters. We played mainly on the West Coast with two bands on SOS 'So Unloved' and 'Ryan Mudd and
the Stuff'. We didn't meet any pricks (except each other!!!!) everyone was great and we have a return visit being planned for March.
On your website (lastrockers.com) the discography page only lists releases
from 1998 to today, and the bio only from 1998 too. Why is this? Is it to
encourage fans to focus on the band today, and not just on the past 'hits'
like Stand Strong Stand Proud etc.? - I can't say I blame you, you have
recorded more material, stuck together with a single lineup longer, and
toured more heavily than any other incarnation under the Vice Squad name.
We thought that if we included a biography right from the beginning it would be far too long, bearing in mind that I never gave up music
so would have had to include everything I did from the end of VS in the 80's up to the 2nd VS in the 90's. Someone set up a 'Beki' site
a few years ago and that had loads of stuff about the Bombshells etc on it. Like you say we wanted people to concentrate on the new as opposed
to the old. I'm not ashamed of what I did in the old days but I signed away my rights to songs etc as a naive kid so I have issues with certain people
who live in comparative luxury off the backs of struggling bands.
Do you play many of the old Vice Squad songs from the Lia era of the band?
What is your opinion on the work done by Vice Squad at that time?
We only play stuff I originally wrote and/or sang on.
Do Vice Squad have any plans, vague or otherwise, to come to Australia?
We'd love to come to Australia, but have nothing planned as yet.
What is in store for the band and fans in 2007? Tours, more recording etc.?
More gigs and more writing and recording, it's important to keep going.
Thanks for the interview,hopefully this year we can sort out an Aussie label to release the album,and a good tour booking company for shows,for now though you can visit any of our sites for information and merch etc.
www.lastrockers.com
www.stutaylorpromotions.co.uk
www.stores.ebay.co.uk/vicesquadshop
www.sosrecords.us
www.impactmerch.com
www.myspace.com/vicesquad
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