I’m
Rob the wise-cracking bass guitarist. Matt's the scallywag vocalist, the George
Harrison look-alike on guitar is Ian and Gary Lee's the Star that hits the drums.
How
did The Mighty Stars burst into existence?
Matt and I met at a party, we’d actually seen each other around way before that but had never got talking. At this party we ended up ignoring our respective dates and spent the whole night yabbering about music. It wasn’t too long before we started a band, Ian was a good friend who we roped in as we knew he was pretty hot on guitar and Gary Lee was chosen for his rock ‘n roll name.
For those of us with
little grey matter, how would you describe your sound?
With the Mighty
Stars there’s something for everybody! Our sound consists of a bit of 1960s
beat, several servings of youthful punky exuberance and a truckload of pop nous!
None of our songs outstay their welcome and we work to a strict policy of keeping
everything under the three minute mark!
Who are the bands that have influenced you?
Early
Who, the Small Faces and lots of other British Beat like the Eyes and the Creation.
Mostly everything Billy Childish has done. Spotty pus-filled anxious teens who
knocked out their stuff in garages all across America in the 60s. We also like
melodies and harmony - we’re all big fans of Teenage Fanclub and the Beach
Boys and I love Big Star and Badfinger. As for newer stuff I’m really digging
a lot of things like the Sights and the Hentchmen. I loved 60ft Dolls too, their
songs of small town frustration really meant a lot to me when I was growing up.
Bands like the Smiths and the Jam have also influenced us in that they were great
singles bands, that’s something we really aspire too – writing every
single song as if it was a killer 45!
What are your thoughts on ‘image’ in this age of mass media? Is it an important ingredient to The Might Stars menu, or don’t you give a shit?
We can’t stand bands who go onstage wearing grotty oversized band t-shirts and then proceed to spend the entirety of their set staring at their feet.
Whether we’re onstage or just out and about we like to make an effort with the gear we wear. I remember years ago reading an old Rolling Stones book where Jagger said when you’re onstage you have to be the best dressed people in that room and that’s something that’s always stuck with me.
Talking about mass media, are there any other influences coming from films, books, extremely violent console games, pornography etc?
A few years ago we had a Mighty Stars video club! I think we were all pretty skint so we used to spend our time watching lot’s of 60s stuff like The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, Blow Up and Billy Liar. As for books, Matt’s into his Beat authors, I like music books and loadsa 60s stuff – Billy Liar, Alan Sillitoe, Absolute Beginners and trashy crap too like the Richard Allen Skinhead books and comics which is anything by Peter Bagge (Hate), Daniel Clowes (Eightball) and Mike Aldred (Madman). Ian likes his lengthy history tomes and as for Gary Lee he’s the one with the Playstation!
Any other bands that you feel a kinship with or can recommend, signed or unsigned?
Bucky are a fantastic Bristol band! They’re a hyperactive two piece who sing songs about dreamy girls, horses, libraries and dogs. They’re best described as Jonathan Richman fronting the Sonics. Their gigs are hilarious, people go just as much for the bits in between the songs as the songs themselves!! They’ve just released a new album which is really quite wonderful. I’d have to say that they’re the Mighty Stars’ most favorite ever band! Check em out for yourself at http://www.buckytheband.com/
Thee Exciters are another brilliant band who’re always playing this great 60s trash/garage night here in Bristol called Club Shake. They’re from Southampton/London, they play really great knuckle-draggin’ primitive R&B garage. Paul their singer is a right card, he’s like a cross between Iggy and Jagger, they have to get Lee the bass player to do all the chat between songs because Paul’s always completely wasted!
From digging your sounds, you have a joyful approach to, music with catchy, nicely structured tunes. Do you work on keeping your tunes concise, to get them drilled into one brain, but without overcooking it? What are your approaches to song writing?
Matt and I come up with the initial ideas, either on our own or together, we then take these to everybody else in the band and it’s then a case of us all working on them together. We all have short attention spans, I for one can’t stand songs with half-baked intros that last 40 odd seconds! We believe a lot in the art of brevity and conciseness, there’s no point in boring your audience to tears!
Would it be true that you boys dig chicks, booze and a good time?
There’s not much else is there?!
How many releases does the band have?
We’ve put out a few self-released CDRs and there’s also a five track EP that was released by Avebury Records who’re an American Indie label. They were on holiday and caught us strutting our stuff at a Track and Field show in London and were so impressed that afterwards they demanded there and then that we give them something to put out.
Where can your music be purchased?
You buy our records from us at gigs or you can email us at hammondconnection@yahoo.co.uk
Do The Mighty Stars have a website?
http://www.themightystars.com/
Are there plans for
getting more recordings out?
We’re going to be heading into the studio
soon and there are a couple of people interested in putting something out so hopefully
it won’t be long before the new Mighty Stars disc is out!
You
seem to have gone down very well in the USA, with a release over there and Kim
Fowley a big fan. How can you account for this interest from the USA?
The
internet is a great way of spreading the word far and wide and getting in touch
with like-minded people.
How
has your reaction been in the UK in comparison?
We like to get out of Bristol
as often as we can. We like winning people over and we especially like playing
to anybody especially when they’ve not heard us before! We’ve played
London a few times and have also been out to Liverpool, Manchester and Cardiff
but the best places are the ones in the middle of nowhere! The audiences there
are a lot more appreciative and they don’t seem to have so many hang-ups
about being seen to enjoy themselves!!
How did rapport with
Kim Fowley come about?
I was at work, bored and messing around on the internet
when I stumbled across a link to Kim Fowley's homepage. My brain retains the most
useless music trivia, so I was already aware of the legendary Kim Fowley and his
unique place in music history. I thought he might dig our schtick so I sent him
a CD and the next thing I knew he was telephoning me at two in the morning!
We ended up doing a couple of shows with him and spent a fair amount of time hanging out with him. He’s a bit of a nutter and he’s always going on about chasing “dirty bitches”! We got into a fair number of scrapes with him but despite all this he’s quite a nice guy, a lot of it is for show, he’s a great entertainer and a true legend. We still keep in touch, one of the last times I spoke to him he was trying to persuade me to get the band kitted out in camouflage and Kiss-style make-up!
For the full lowdown on this tale which involves dwarfs, girl-on-girl action, mutant goth rockers, a boyband and the corpse of Jim Morrison please check out http://www.themightystars.com/fowley.htm
What are your plans
for the near future?
A legendary debut album that clocks in at 30 minutes
followed by a Monkees-style TV show, Mighty Stars action figures and Mighty Stars
sandwich boxes, a guitar-shaped swimming pool, a disappointing second album, one
member of the band drowning in the aforementioned swimming pool, alcoholism, drug
addiction, a few more patchy albums including one where the only original member
of the band is the drummer, one member of the band to find religion and maybe
one or two ill-advised solo albums! We’d also like to get to the point where
we have several of those Greatest Hits collections that are only available at
petrol stations.
Describe The Mighty Stars in three words…
Girl-fuelled Garage Beatpunk.
