Middle FInger Salute Interview

29/08/2006

Middle Finger Salute is, Calum Sutton (16) Vocals/Guitar, Danny Wareing (16) guitar, Ryan Mcdermott (18) Bass/Vocals, Adam Marsden (14) Drums/Vocals. It started in September 2005 with a guy called Jak Hargreaves on Bass. It started because 3 of us were in a different band at the time and couldnt stand it and started up Middle Finger Salute, just needed a drummer. Then in March Jak quit and Raz joined.

The high points have been playing Easter Punk Feast 4 (two dates on the tour) and playing at Wasted Festival which has been the highest point of all!! I think the lowest part was supporting The Vibrators because at the time we were pretty terrible, and had only been going for 9 weeks.

I don't think we would be doing anything different, because we all enjoy what were doing and playing so much!

That all came about mainly through playing on Easter Punk Feast 4, we played at King Georges Hall a few times before april when we were playing on the punk fest, and got invited back. King Georges Hall Blackburn was the first night of the "easter punk feast 4 extras" tour with Glen Matlock as the headline act. After we played we were invited to play the Leeds Met Uni date of the tour, so obviously we had to accept, because playing with Goldblade, Uk Subs and Glen Matlock twice in a week is probably never going to happen again.

I think we would love to tour with The Bouncing Souls or Goldblade because they are bands we all really like.

We do a cover of Steps-5678 but we sped it up a bit and made it a little different. We play it because its a song that everyone has heard once or twice before, and the words are so simple its just catchy!

We all are proud of different songs, but collectively "Sense Of Direction" is our favourite. It was written in May when we had just left school or college and had our GCSEs infront of us and moving to college or going to work, and its about choosing what to do and making the right decision for yourself to be happy and not to make anyone else happy.

We all got into punk through our parents listening to it, or other friends listening to it, so our friends don't reallt mind. And if they are so bothered they aren't really friends anyway.

Calums first ever CD was "Madness - Greatest Hits"
Adams was "The Spice Girls" haha
Dannys was "Nofx - War on errorism"
Ryans was " Bad Religion -Against The Grain"

In Blackburn theres a lot going on for younger punk bands, such as NoizeAnoize. Many younger bands are also playing in the area too such as The Guilty Pleasures, Ambush UK, Kamikaze Sperm and there was one band called The Excuses.

In general though, there's quite a lot for the younger bands because bands such as Outl4w and Guns on the roof have gigged a lot and helped it become more easy for other young bands to get a name for themselves.

So far we haven't got too much planned for the rest of the year, we have a gig on wednesday 30th August at Manchester Retro Bar, one at Cleethorpes Winter Gardens on the 7th September and one at King Georges Hall on 29th September, but we are looking for more gigs for October/November and December.

Thanks a lot for the interview! If you want to listen to us visit www.middlefingersalute.co.uk