Please give a brief history of the band, including current line up.
Criss-the band started in the early '80's with Ant Thomas,
who was into punk at the time & his cousin Mark Phillips who liked '50's & '60's
Garage rock 'n' roll.. Mark was actually the drummer at 1st with Ant singing!!
That soon changed and by the mid '80's Demented were up and running
With a couple of l.ps behind them... After moving from Cardiff to London things
went from strength to strength.. Mark is the only original member left altough
lex luther has been in & out of DAG for for over 15 years!! Thier popularity
and exposure on the "Klub Foot" l.p's helped firmly establish
DAG as one of the most original sounding psychobilly bands...but the band always
stay true to thier roots...no bullshit rock 'n' roll...Many bands came & went
in the psycho-boom of the 80's but just didn't have the same edge as us...
I think it's because us guy's in the band just can't do
Anything else..this is what we live 4!!
The current line up is;
S sparky, Lex, Criss Damage (drums) & Kelvin Klump (upright bass)....
I hear Demented Are Go! Toured America recently without anyone getting arressted
or banned like last time. Is this true?
Criss-yep..although we did have a few brushes with your
boys in blue.. Particularly in the desert when Spike Baller and Ryan (Hairball8
Records) our tour manager had a blow out and spun off the road at over 90mph!!
The local Sherriff was cool as fuck..even took a t-shirt off us which I had
to put in his car because he couldn't accept any "gifts" from us..
We also had a quick photo call with him as well! Anyway a highway patrolman
turned up and wasn't so friendly and really gave Spike a
hard time even trying to arrest him for ilegally leaving the highway!! We got
away with it though but got busted for speeding further down the Road, $500
fine if Iremember rightly.. Poor old Spike was driving again!! The morale of
That story-don't ride with the Ballers!!
Didn't you guys like barely arrive in time for your headlining
set Friday night at the West Coast Wreckers Ball?
Criss-we only knew our flight details the day before we
flew!! I must thank Mike, Ryan & The Galaxy for finally getting us over..
The original promoter overstretched his budget I think but I don't want to
get involved with politics! Yes we did arrive in LA at 3pm your time after
catching a plane in the morning UK time.. I think by the time we hit the
stage at midnight we'd been up some staggering amount of time 30 hours or
something. About 8 hours of it boozing on the plane as well!!
When I was at the Wreckers Ball, I don't want to name names,
but several people were talking about how they couldn't believe you guys
were allowed back in America. A couple people were insisting that Demented
wouldn't make it past one or two dates on the tour. I guess you showed the
nay sayers ay?
Criss- I can well imagine people thinking that we'd self
destruct on the road. Demented aren't called Demented for nothing.. We all
have our mad moments on the road.. It's what happens when a bunch of social
lepers like us get together..because Demented are talked about a lot there
are always rumours going around about this and that most of them are shit..
Some people just like to put us down. As for getting into the US .no worries.
We checked with the embassy 1st. Do you think people would pay for airline
tickets and take a chance on us getting deported? We were always ok to come
over.
This one is for Mark. Your set at the Wreckers Ball was the
first time I had ever seen Demented Are Go! Mark: when you came out in the
latex cop outfit with a foot-long quiff and the melted face makeup, I admit
that I was riveted. And how you move around on stage like a spider having
a temper tantrum; it's fun to watch. What in the hell is going on in your
head when you're on stage?
Mark-you really wanna know?.....poking out peoples eyes
with pencils!!!
So on the second night of Kicked Out of Purgatory tour, DAG played a sold out
show at the Troubadour in Hollywood. Didn't you guys get kicked out of the
Troubadour a few nights earlier at the Nekromantix gig?
Criss- like Isaid when a bunch of retards like us get
away from home anything goes. We had a few days off after the wreckers ball
so we thought we'd go to some of the afterflow shows. Nekromantix were playing
so we thought we'd go. We found a box of old clothes in Gators house and
before you know it Kev had become Kelvin Klump! dressed in red long-johns
(fart flap included). Mark had fond a grannies dress and stockings, Lux a
little train drivers hat and dungarees, myself, I had to slut it up in my
own dress that I bought from home! Gator & Steff looked great as uncle
Ted & "cousin" Steff! Complete with make up, black eyes bloody
noses we drove to the show. The doormen were a bit shocked but we got in
on the guest list so what could they do? Mark & I were obvious targets
because of the dresses and after a few hard looks our way it happened!i just
left to go to the bar when mark came storming up to me saying that he'd nutted
a guy for calling him a fag!! Sure enough a guy appeared with a swollen head
and still called us faggots!!Now where i come from it takes a real man to
wear a dress! !Anyway the doormen got us out quietly as the kid wanted to
press charges. Luckily one of the doormen was a fan who knew who we were..guess
that kid must be pissed at getting knocked out by a faggot eh?
The Mad Sin guys came down to the tour stop in San Diego at the Casbah. Kofte
got up on stage and sang with the band. I like seeing that kind of comeradery
because there are some bands in the psychobilly scene who simply just don't
get along. Are DAG and Mad Sin pretty good friends?
Criss- Mad Sin & Demented go way back and are good
friends. They are an awesome live band to have to play with as are alot of
other bands so I know there is rivalry. But I'm from a mainly punk background
where there are a million fucking bands all playing the same songs. Psychobilly
has a much smaller and much better music than ever before so bands should
be helping each other out. Can Iborrow a drum kit please!! Ha ha!as for Kofte
singing with us, he got up and drummed on be bop-a-lula new years eve (I
played with a freshly broken hand!) So maybe he'll do the rounds and give
us a slap bass solo next!!
Lars and Matt from Rancid came out to the San Francisco tour stop.I guess they're
pretty big fans of Demented?
Criss- yeah that's quite funny really because I didn't
know Lars or Matt and Iwent to talk to Lars because like me he's a big ugly
tattooed punk so i thought I'd say hi. It turns out that Lars is a big fan
of Demented and was really pleased that we'd made it to San Francisco. He
also knew some of the other bands I'd been in so we all had a good old fashoined
name-dropping session!! Are the pretence of it all, Ilove it! Lars also paid
complement to lux on his guitaring saying "Satan's Rejects was one of
the hardest riffs he'd ever tried to learn!" praise indeed.
Criss, this one's for you. A lot of people I have talked to
are into the other bands you've been in. How did it come about that you began
playing with Demented?
I've always seemed to be a stand-in drummer since I started
(about 1989). I roadied for a few decent bands so I met the right people
and a drummer can always find a band no matter how crap they are (drummer
or band!). I was lucky enough to play for one of the original second wave
punk bands.. External Menace, who formed in 1979 and were on of G.B.H's main
influences.. John Sneddon was the main man and a brilliant songwriter.. Sparky
will tell you that External Menace's song are so strong that they stand up
to anything about these days. Check out "pure punk rock" on Captain
Oi Records. A must for any 30 something punk!! The band split up in 1998
but play now and then in the Manchester area where John is based. I would
love to play with them again someday. Ahuge influnce on me!..I also spent
2 years in zero tolerance where I teamed up with old friends Simon & Clara..we
wrote an l.p & e.p in our time together as well as over 50 gig's.. unfortunatly
we split earlier this year due to us having other band commitments.. As for
Demented.. I'd been a fan since I was a lad..big fan in the early days..
so when Mark wanted to get a band together he asked me if i wanted to drum..he
was a fan of Zero Tolerance..so i said yo!!
I also hear that DAG's new upright bass player Kelvin Klump
had to learn over 30 Demented songs in like a week or something, before coming
over here to tour?
Criss- Kelvin is a trooper, true professional, too good
for the likes of us!! No..it was a hell of a feat..he was nervous but when
he relaxed we rocked..actually is was 32 songs!!
Demented Are Go!'s following certainly has increased in America
now that you've toured here more than once. And the fact that the American
psychobilly scene is finally establishing itself certainly doesn't hurt.
But what do you attribute to your growing appreciation from American music
fans?
Criss- wanting to see a band that's been there from the
early day's and still believes in what it's doing. Americans like the Germans
have a great passion for music cults.. Japan too.. Also I suppose Demented
do have a reputation so people are always gonna want to see us play just
to see what happens or see if the singer relly does suck himself off with
a vacuum cleaner.
So you guys are back in London. What is on the horizon for
Demented Are Go!?
We've got shows in France, Holland and UK in Oct/Nov then
we play Germany end of Nov.. We're working on new stuff at the moment that
will hopefully come out 2003.. We're also working on a tour of US west coast
again in Feb 2003.. We're also playing halloween at the Fusilier & Furkin,
Camden Town, London under the name HIV & the Festering Sores!! Also keep
your eyes peeled for our live video & c.d from our last u.s tour..out
xmas hopefully.
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