Competition and Bickering Within Fanbases

Firstly, I feel an apology is in order. The blog has kind of been neglected as of late, and we haven't been posting as actively as we should, or would like to. There are several factors to this and most of them are boring, like having to get back to the real world with actual jobs and stuff. On top of that, I took a last minute trip to Gibraltar via Spain to see Breed 77 headline the National Day concert as it was Paul Isola's last show. On top of THAT, I broke my laptop on the way back from Gib (screen isn't working so I'm having to type this while having my computer hooked up to my TV) and Joobs' tablet is naffed. Safe to say, technology is not on Invading The Pit's side right now, but we'll manage!

There were some reviews we were supposed to get to, and I hope we can still do that eventually, but we have a lot to catch up on before that.

Today I want to talk about competition and rivalries in fan bases. Not different fan bases competing and arguing with each other, but actual drama and rivalries based within fan bases themselves. I'm not going to single any one particular fan base out, but I'm sure a lot of people reading this will be able to associate this post with one or two that they may be a part of, or have been a part of in the past.

I've never understood why people in fan bases feel the need to compete with others and try to "one-up" them. There's a lot of this "I'm –insert band name here-'s biggest fan because..." thing that goes on pretty much everywhere. It's fine for people to want to lay claim to being the single biggest fan amongst millions in the world if they want to, but when they start causing arguments and telling other people that they're not a "true fan" it starts to bother me.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as a fan of the band, isn't the main goal to support the band and their music? Bands, obviously, want to have as many fans as they can possibly get, so why do some fans try so hard to piss off other fans to the point that they don't even want to be associated with a particular fan base anymore? When did a "die hard" fan get to decide that someone isn't a true fan because they've never seen their favourite band live before? They haven't travelled 15,000 miles to see them, so they don't really love them! It's silly.

I've done a lot of crazy stuff for my favourite bands, but I wouldn't say I'm their biggest fan because of it, and I certainly wouldn't tell somebody that they're not a true fan because they haven't gone to the lengths that I've gone to. People come from different backgrounds and from all walks of life. Not everybody can afford to travel to see bands, or go to more than one show on a tour. Some people can't even get to one show because they live in an obscure area that their favourite band doesn't even come close to. Not everybody has the mental capacity to memorise the lyrics to every single song that a band has recorded. That doesn't make them any less of a fan. If they support the band, listen to their music, watch their videos and get excited about the announcement of a new release... they're a fan, and it's not up to anybody else to tell them otherwise.

The drama in some fan bases is so ridiculous that people are actually ashamed to be a part of it. Some people don't want to associate with other fans of their favourite band because the fan base is so crazy, dramatic and full of people who love to bicker and put other fans down that they're embarrassed about it. Some won't even admit to liking a band because the reputation the fan base has is so out there. Nobody should be made to feel bad for liking a band but not being able to do as much as someone else.

It's great if you can buy five copies of every album to support the band. It's fantastic that you've seen them 20 times in five different countries. It's incredible that you've been to at least one show on every tour in the last ten years. You're one of the lucky ones. You're in the minority. You're dedicated and loyal, for sure, but that doesn't mean you're the "biggest fan" in the entire world, and it doesn't give you the right to call someone a bad fan and say they should be ashamed to be a fan of a certain band (yes, I've seen that said before). It's impossible for one person to be the biggest fan. How do you even decide that someone is the number one fan out of millions worldwide that all have a different story to tell?

Not everybody can make massive sacrifices for their favourite band.

What about the single mother who can't get a babysitter on the night her favourite band is playing in her city? Is she a bad fan because her child is her priority? No.

What about the guy who barely earns enough to feed himself and pay his bills? Is he a bad fan because he's being responsible and not spending what he can't afford on concert tickets or CDs? No.

Not everybody has the freedom or bank balance to go above and beyond for their favourite band. To some people, listening to the music that they love is enough, and, guess what? They're still fans.

Fozzy Interview

Fozzy is one of the rare overseas bands that shows crazy love to the UK multiple times per year, and has done so since 2005. It's no secret why they keep coming back: the fans over here love them! If you've been following the blog through our social media accounts (Facebook/Twitter/YouTube), you'll know that we followed them around the country and attended every single show on the tour, and from the Midlands to Scotland, to the South.... the crowds ate it up every night.

Shortly before the end of their third successful UK tour on the Sin and Bones album cycle, we were fortunate enough to get a chance to sit down with vocalist, Chris Jericho, and guitarist, Rich Ward, before their penultimate gig of their headline tour in Leicester. We asked them just why the UK loves them so much, what to expect from the next album scheduled for release next year, the craziest thing they've ever done for their favourite band and more!

Joobs: So this is the 3rd tour of Sin and Bones for you guys, and from our experience the crowds are getting better and better... Were you expecting this kind of response?

Chris: Well, we've done a lot of work. I think you could say we've done a good job in building up our fanbase here. We've been coming here for 7 or 8 years, and I think the thing that we do that a lot of bands don't from what I hear, is that we don't just play London, Manchester, Nottingham and Birmingham. We're going to Rugby, Leicester, Exeter, Yeovil, Middleborough, Grimsby... we go everywhere! I think that's one of the reasons why the band has grown so much in the UK and why we have such a great fanbase; it's because we take it to the streets, so to speak. We were talking last night... You guys were at the show in Glasgow; it was a great show! A sold out show! We were talking to the promoter after and he was like, "most bands don't tour in August because it's festival season and a lot of people don't have money", yet here we are. I think we did four sell outs out of  seven on this tour, and everyone is just over the moon at how good it's been... That's because of the great fanbase that we've built. As you said, this is our third tour of the UK in the last nine months on the same record – four if you count download last year! So, I think it's a pretty cool place for us to be, and that's why we get out here so much... and because we love coming over here, we've really worked hard to cultivate this fanbase and to see it grow is really, really gratifying.

J:What are your highlights of the tour so far? This is the 7th of the 8 shows you are doing here.

C: Yeah, so it's our 14th show in 15 days.  My highlight probably for Europe was Wacken. Just to be on Wacken for the first time was an amazing experience. Bloodstock was awesome, obviously! And Stourbridge and Glasgow are my two favourite shows of this tour so far, as far as crowd intensity, chants, energy... everything was just really cool. How about you, Rich?

Rich: The Glasgow crowd was definitely one of the highlights. I've never seen a crowd act like a living, breathing organism. They were all working together as one!

C: Yeah.

R: For me, the best gig of the tour was Bloodstock. I feel like we played really, well as a band. The sound was great, the crowd was great... and it's nice playing big stages. We're a very energetic band and it's nice to be able to stretch out a bit. A lot of people don't realise, when they're out in the audience, that it's a delicate balance of what we do on stage. I'm constantly watching Chris, he's watching for me, you know, we're all making sure that it looks like there's organisation to the chaos. On a big stage you don't have to worry about any of that. You can just go, and that's really cool because you are just wide open. 

Leese: You regularly say the UK is your second home and you've been coming back for 8 and a half years now. Why do you think the UK has caught on so much? A lot of bands will take a year and a half break before they come back, yet you guys are sometimes here 2 or 3 times a year.

C: Sometimes, I think maybe, we are over saturating too much, but when you're doing good numbers I guess it's kind of wrong to think that. I'm not sure exactly why the UK embraced us first, but this was definitely the first territory that really got behind Fozzy.

I still tell the story of the first show we did in Nottingham at Rock City. I still remember walking on stage and thinking "where the fuck have all these people come from?" I mean, we'd never played to that big of a crowd before! If it wasn't sold out it was close to it. That was like "holy smokes, man, this is great." Some shows are better than others and some aren't great, but as a whole, 80% of the shows we play are great crowds; loud crowds. I'm not sure exactly why... Maybe people just like more of what they like here. It's not influenced as much by radio or television or whatever it may be. I guess that’s why, when you go to Download, there's such an eclectic line up and people enjoy ALL the bands.

R: I'd probably say part of it is the unseen factors, which is that this is the music business. The business side has been very organised in the UK from day one. We've had good agents. Adam Elfin brought us in and was on fire to book us at the very beginning. We had great record companies here, whereas in the States we didn't. That's why Australia has been good for us because John Howarth (Riot Entertainment) has been a big champion for us. It's a matter of getting the doors opened for us, and in the States we've had less success until the last couple of years. It wasn't because of us; it was because we didn't have the mechanisms in place to push open those doors. I think from my perspective, a lot of it has to do with just that. We're no different of a band when we play the States from when we play here. I just think the organisation has been better here... (to Chris) Right?

C: Yeah, a little bit. That could be it....

R: Or it could just be...

C: One of those things. I remember reading Dee Snider's book a couple of months ago and he said Twisted Sister was huge in England before they had anything going on in the States.

R: Same with Hendrix.

C: Hendrix, yeah, exactly. So sometimes that's just the way it goes. We don't really question it. We go with it and make sure that we reward our loyal fanbase by coming over here as much as we can.

J: We'd like to say congratulations on the announcement of your new album!

C: Oh, cool. Thanks.

J: I understand you've already tentatively started the writing process. When are you looking for a release date?

C: We want to have it out for next summer, you know, and tie that in with coming over here for the festival season to begin.

J: (whispers) Download?

C: Yeah, hopefully Download. Every tour we do we open some more doors. As brilliant as the UK, Australia and lots of other places have been, there's still a lot of places that won't have us. They are still a little bit tentative as to... what is this Fozzy thing? So what we do best is just keep coming back, keep knocking on the fucking door! Next year we want HellFest, we want Polish Woodstock, we want to go to Japan, South America, and all those places that are too snobby for us right now. We wanna get over there and kick their fucking asses and they'll leave wondering why they waited so long, just like we always do! We really got a lot of momentum from Sin and Bones, things went above and beyond what we were expecting, and when you have momentum in this business you have to capitalise on it. We can't afford to do a Metallica and wait five years for the next record. As long as the record is good... as good or better than Sin and Bones, let's fucking put it out and do it! I think we are really focused in on what we do best as a band, and as song writers, and as players, that I have no doubt the next record will be better than Sin and Bones.

J: What kind of things can we expect from the new album? Have you got a feel for how it's going to go yet?

R: We're an organic band. We don't try to have any blueprints; we just kind of go into it and just see what happens. I think that's a much better way to construct an album. Chris has written his lyrics, but we leave the door open to continuing to work even though he's handed in 14 or 15 sets of lyrics.

C: Just as a template to start writing.

R: We always communicate. There's always, "hey, I'm working on this song here, can you write in an extra verse?" or "can we change this?"  It's very organic. It's never boardroom meetings saying we should do this, or we should do that. I feel like it works better that way. You know, as people... The reason they used to call them records is because they are a record of who this artist was at that moment in time. Like the Beatles first record, it was who those dudes were, as a group, at that moment. I think it's important to consider that to be a little contrived takes away from that.

C: I think the one plan that we have after the last two records, especially the last one.. What we do best as a band is very heavy riffs, very melodic choruses, with a lot of vocal harmonies, and guitar harmonies. We kind of strayed away from that at times, but especially with Sin and Bones, this was what we wanted to do and every song fits that mould and we want to continue to do that because that's another reason why I think we've grown as a band. We're a little bit different from what's going on right now. We have a little bit of a different sound and we like that, we really want to focus on that just like we did on Sin and Bones which really paid off for us.

J: We were saying, when we've been listening to a few albums, that we think we've been spoilt by Sin and Bones. Other albums from bands... they've been very same-y all the tracks have the same kind of riffs and things. But Sin and Bones is completely different; each song has got a different catch.

(after 6 shows and a 5.5hr drive Joobs momentarily loses her vocabulary)

C: It's very diverse

J: Yeah, that's the word I was looking for!

C: (laughs) It still fits that tone and that mood. A little dark, very heavy, and a lot of melodies and harmonies, which is something that Rich is really great at. We love Metallica, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Dio. We love Avenged, Bullet, Stone Sour and all those bands. But I think the difference for us is that we also really love Journey, Styx, Foreigner, Pink Floyd, Queen, The Beatles and The Stones. That kind of side of us is what makes us different. It's the same thing with Avenged; Shadows loves Queen and Pink Floyd, and you can hear those elements in their song writing. That's kind of what makes them a little different from what's going on. You need to do that because I don't like hearing records where every song is the same. It's very boring, and it puts you in a box as a band. We don't like that. We don't want that. I like bands like U2 and Zeppelin and The Beatles, who have a lot of different styles. It's still them, but they can do all these different types of songs and people fucking dug it and that's the way it should be.

J: As you guys are probably fully aware, you see us in the crowd every day, we are following the tour. A lot of people, including friends and family, have told us that we are going too far and that it's a bit obsessive.....

C: I don't think what you guys are doing is going too far or obsessive at all. I think it's cool! What a great thing to do for your summer vacation or whatever...

R: I followed Stryper on tour for a week, when I was a kid.

C: Yeah, I've done it before for two or three gigs. But, I mean, fuck, I wish there was 10,000 people like you! It would be a lot easier for us.

J: So what is the craziest thing you've ever done for your favourite bands?

C: In Winnipeg there was a hotel called the Westin where all the bands stayed, and a friend of mine knew somebody who worked there. Some chick that he was banging would tell him what floor they were on, and he would get a room on the same floor. So this one time we were on Metallica's floor, sitting in the room, door open, waiting for someone to walk by and finally Hetfield walked by. It seemed like he was 9ft tall he had his side shaved in '89 and nose piercings. I was like "Fuck, there's Hetfield!!" I said “James!" "Yeah?" "Ya wanna come in and party with us? We've got a six pack of beer man! That's TWO EACH!"

"Naaah, maybe later."

"Alright, see you later, James! ...He said maybe later!"

So we sat there for hours just waiting. He never came back. But at the time it was "fucking two beers for you, two beers for me, and two for James!" (All laugh) The other time was Maiden. I snuck onto the floor, knocked on every door until finally Adrian Smith opened the door with his towel on. He had a towel on his head... You know when someone has long hair and they do this with their hair? (picks up a towel and proceeds to wrap it round his head) I was like "Hey, can I have your picture?"

"I just got out the shower... Maybe later." 

"OK. Thanks, man." He closed the door. "See you later, dude!"

I still remember those days. I'm still a fan. So I appreciate it even more when we get here, and there's kids outside waiting to say "hi" or whatever... I mean, that was me! (to Rich) Do you remember the craziest thing you did?

R: Just waiting outside Stryper's bus at 2 o'clock in the morning. I was probably 19 or 20. I remember that it was freezing cold, it was February, and all the loyal fans were all there and as it got later and colder... less people, less people, 'til it was just me and my girlfriend, and they finally came out. I got to meet them and I said "Man, are there any tickets available for tomorrow's show? We really wanted to go to Charlotte tomorrow."

"Sure, we'll just put you on the guest list."

We showed up and they had passes for us, they invited us in, we had dinner with them and catering and.....

C: Didn't Michael Sweet also give you like cab fare or something like that?

R: Yeah! He always said "You coming tomorrow night?"

"Yeah!"

So we were with them for like five days and then on the last day he said "are you coming tomorrow night?" I said "I can't, man, I've run out of money. I don't even have gas money to get home." He said, "Oh, don't worry about it. Here.” He gave me $20 for gas to get home and he said "one day I'll probably need it so you can pay me back then." (everyone laughs) When I met him I told him the story and gave him 20 bucks.

C: Did he take it?

R: Yes.

C: He took it?!

R: Yeah!

C: That's the cool thing. Mike's a good friend of ours now, loves our band, respects us. Whenever the guys you admired when you were growing up become your friends and peers it's a pretty cool feeling. Like the anthrax gigs we did a couple of weeks ago... I took two pictures: one of the merch stand; a Fozzy shirt and an Anthrax shirt together. The other was the backstage pass that said Anthrax and Fozzy on it. In 1988 I was waiting for tickets to see them on the KISS Crazy Nights tour and here we are playing with them. Stuff like that's pretty cool. When we played Soundwave in Australia, Metallica was headlining and we were watching Slayer from side of the stage. Rich and Hetfield were standing next to each other watching it. I took a picture of it. That was pretty cool.

L: On the other side of it, is there anything crazy that fans have done for you, other than following you around the country or baking cakes? (Joobs baked a cake in April with figures of the band on)

C: Those cakes were crazy! Not just your cake. Last night in Glasgow this lady made us 10 cakes; each one a different flavour and you know we don't eat a lot of sweets on tour, if any at all! These 10 cakes came down and it was like... German chocolate cake and an orange carrot cake, a lemon cake, a banana cake, blah blah blah. We were giving them to opening bands, we were giving them to the fans.... it was just like take 'em! Just take 'em and go! I think the thing that still gets me the most is people that get Fozzy tattoos. That's serious shit! It's pretty cool to know you've had an influence, especially song lyrics, or our logos. It makes me realise we could never break up, 'cause if we do people are going to be stuck with some tattoos (laughs) but that's as real as it gets as far as being a fan.

L: So, Invading the Pit is basically a blog written by female metal fans for other female metal fans. I've travelled to see you guys, I've travelled to see Avenged Sevenfold... There's always that stigma associated with it. "You must be a groupie because you're a female fan and you're hanging around with the band."

C: I think some of the best fans we've ever had are female fans, for whatever reason. If you're female, male, hermaphrodite... who gives a shit?! A fan's a fan. (everyone laughs) Like you said, if you're a girl going to see a bunch of guys, you must be a groupie, but that's not the case. In fact that is rarely the case; it just means that you like our band. We appreciate it and love it. It's always great to have girls at your show, too. When we toured with Drowning Pool and Revoker in April, at the end of the tour Revoker were like "fuck, you guys get all the chicks!" I was like "fuck, you guys are the 25 year old dudes, why aren't you pulling the chicks? Why aren't you drawing in the girls?" We have a great fanbase with a lot of girls which is good, 'cause if there's girls at your show, guys will come to the show. I used to go to see Mötley Crüe and there'd be 10,000 chicks and it was like "this is the best night of my life!" If you can do that you are doing something right.

L: The other day... Was it Newcastle? Joobs went into the pit and everybody stopped, 'cause there was a girl in the pit

J: So I just started pushing and jumping around!

C: Haha!

L: Do you think it should be that way or do you think, you know, she knows what she's doing going into, she knows there's a chance she could get hurt and just wants to enjoy it like the rest of them?

C: I think, you know, when you go into the pit, everybody takes care of everybody anyway. It's not like you start beating the shit out of anybody. You push each other and have fun, and if someone falls down, I've seen it many times, you help the guy up. So if you're a girl in there, I wouldn't look at it that way. If you didn’t wanna get hurt, you wouldn't be in there in the first place. You could be a 5" 2', hundred pound guy and go into the pit and be in more danger than you are, so I think that if you're in the pit you know what you are getting into.

R: Through nature, guys are encoded to protect women. It's like... as far back. So when a girl gets in the pit, it's not that anyone's looking down, we're just wired that way. It's instinctual. It doesn't even matter if it's the human race... It's just, in the animal species we're encoded to protect women so, you shouldn't look at it as that men are looking at you differently, it's just we're built that way. For better or for worse... Unfortunately we're expected to work harder (all laugh).

L: We asked for fan questions and they were mostly stupid ones, like my dad asking if one of you would take me away with you and keep me for longer than a week.

(all laugh)

R: Thanks, Dad!

L: We had a couple though. One was if you were a beer, what beer would you be and why?

C: A beer or a bear?

L: Beer, drink!
J: Alcohol!

C: If I was a bear I’d be a black bear, mainly because they're cool! Beer... I haven't drank a beer in about three years. They just gave us the Trooper beer, so I would probably maybe say that one just because it's Maiden beer. I haven't drank beer in so long. It's funny, the other day we were in Switzerland, and the crowd didn't know who we were at the start, some guy was like "hey!" and gave me his beer, so I took a sip of fucking beer errgh the taste! I realised how much I hate beer now! Jericho hates beer. That's your headline!

R:  DOT COM!

C: Dot com. Dot org.

J: One more fan question... If you weren't doing the careers you are doing now what would you do?

C: (doing an impression of David from This Is Spinal Tap) Be a full time dreamer!

R: (to Chris) I was gonna say, you already have a stack of them. (Impersonating Chris) If I wasn't being a rockstar, I would be a professional wrestler, or an actor, or an author, or a father...

(all laugh)

R: Me, it's like... erm, serial killer.

C: (to Rich) animal rescuer!

R: I play the guitar and make music. It's not very exciting.

J: And dance awesomely!

R: Yes, that's true. I have patented many moves.

C: You created dancing!

J: We're actually going to petition to get a new DDR game: Duke Dance Revolution.

C: HAHAHA

R: It cannot be replicated by any other guitar player. Many have tried, many have failed!

(No t-shirts for this pic... If you saw the last video we posted on Facebook and Twitter, you'll know why!)

If you're in the United States, you can catch Fozzy on their tour with Saxon this Fall. For more information about Fozzy and to see the upcoming tour dates, visit the official website at FozzyRock.com. Also make sure to check them out on Facebook and Twitter!

Voodoo Vegas Interview

Voodoo Vegas, hailing from Bournemouth in the United Kingdom, have been around for a while, but have been making big waves over the last few years especially. These guys (and girl!) are a rocking, high-energy, feel good band that never fail to get the crowd moving. Their debut album - The Rise of Jimmy Silver - was released in March of this year and has been very well received. We sat down with some of the band backstage at the Cathouse in Glasgow during their second time touring as support for Fozzy to find out what it is that makes them special, what it was like recording at one of the biggest recording studios in the world, what they have planned for the future and more.

Leese: For anyone that's new to Voodoo Vegas, can you describe the band and the kind of music that you make?

Lawrence: Classic rock... bluesy classic rock. I think we've got classic rock with a modern twist from what a lot of the reviews have said, so it's kind of like that. It's not like... Zeppelin-ey or really old stuff. We were all inspired by those dudes, but it's kind of our own thing as well.

Matt: I dunno... classic rock with a blues twist. Upbeat music at the end of the day.

Law: Fun rock... stuff! Gets everyone moving and having a good time. It gets stuck in your head like an... infection.

L: Who are your particular musical influences?

Law: For me it's Aerosmith, Bon Jovi... all those bands like that really. Guns N' Roses... That's for all of us, really. We're all inspired by those bands. I like the whole front person thing. The great frontmen. I think Jon Bon Jovi's a great frontman... Getting everyone to sing along and having a good time.

Matt: Skunk Anansie was a big part of my music taste growing up, but I've got loads really. Punk, funk... everything. Just anything with a beat and a groove.

Joobs: My first opinion when I first saw you come on stage, Lawrence, was that you're like the Russell Brand of rock n' roll, without the bad hair.

Law: Really? That's quite cool. I know I've got better hair than Russell Brand. What makes me the Russell Brand of rock n' roll though?

J: It's just your whole persona on stage. How you act and how you sort of prance around a lot.

Matt: It's quite comical.

J: It's the hand movements!

Law: I was telling the guys... I do that when I talk.

Matt: I've never noticed this.

J: You will now!

Law: I don't even know I'm doing it. Sometimes halfway through I'll be going "Why am I doing this with my hand?!"

J: Just turn slightly so Matt can see it from the drums. It's brilliant. It's fantastic. It gets the crowd going.

Law: It does, yeah.

L: Your debut album, The Rise of Jimmy Silver, was released in March. What has the feedback been like on that?

Law: It's fantastic. All of it. All the reviews have been great for it. So it's good to know that people... Well, I knew that it was going to down quite well because all of the songs we play live, as you've seen from the tour, everyone's into the songs, so as long as we recorded them the best they could be, I knew they would go down really well.

J: Well you recorded them in the best place possible as well.

Law: Yeah, one of the best recording studios in the world at Rockfield, with one of the best rock producers in the UK. He's Portuguese, but based in the UK – Pedro Ferreira – so it was gonna sound great. He changed the songs around a bit and it was just... it was fantastic. I listen to that now, you know, a year after recording it and there's not one part of me that thinks, "Oh, I wish we'd changed it there," or, "I'm not happy with that bit." I listen to it and I love it. I always say that if you don't like your own songs, you must write shit songs.

L: It's true. If it's not something that you'd want to listen to yourself, how do you expect other people to want to listen to it?

Law: Yeah. I love Voodoo Vegas' music. I think it's good.

L: What was it like recording at Rockfield? Obviously, it's one of the best studios in the world and bands like Black Sabbath, Queen, Rush, Coldplay have all recorded there.

Law: Hectic.

Matt: Fun, but hectic, yeah. Take after take after take... 'cause it had to be perfect.

Law: But the vibe there, as well... It was amazing. Of course, we only got there because everybody pledged towards our album. That's how we could afford to do it. For me it was something that I'll always remember for the rest of my life. There's like a combination area, of a house on top of a hill and I was walking down the hill to the studio on the first morning with Ash and I was just like, "How are we here, dude? How are we at Rockfield?" I'll tell you what, if you go there you can honestly feel the vibe. You can feel that these people were there. We were sitting in the control room and we were playing... I can't remember what Sabbath album with Pedro, just playing it through the big speakers and you think... "This was recorded here. There's every chance they were all sitting here doing the same thing we are." Just listening to music, you know, when you're not recording.

Matt: And the grand piano that Freddie Mercury played on Bohemian Rhapsody and stuff like that.

J: Wow. Did you just rub it to get some creative juices off it?

Law: You can honestly feel it there. There's a vibe there. I know there's all this home recording, and people can record at home and record in their attics or wherever it may be, but unless you're in somewhere like that... I'm so happy we did it for our first CD. We released a live album and a few other things we'd done, like a demo and different recordings of some kind and that sort of stuff, that was all done in little studios or at home, but to do our first proper recording in a place like Rockfield is an amazing thing to do, I think. For me, it's just... I never thought I'd ever get to do like that. I'd highly recommend that any band going to do that. Your first recording should be the best that you can get out of it.

(Meryl arrives)

L: You were recently voted as Best New British Band in the Classic Rock Magazine poll...

Law: On their website, but now they've got another one going. It was great to win it. We've got great fans and they all went balls out to get us the votes, so it was fantastic to win and we're very happy that we won, obviously, and we can say that we won that in May this year, but they didn't write about us in the magazine at all.

L: Oh, it was just an online thing?

Law: It wasn't published. It should have been, because a lot of the other bands were written about who were in that poll with us, but they didn't pick up on us at all and I don't understand why.

L: We should write to them and complain.

Law: There's obviously something going on there but, you know, we won it and we can say we won it and that's what it says on their website, so I'm happy with that. I just wanted to get into the magazine, and we were in it and we got two songs on their cover CDs, so I'm happy with that.

J: What's next for you guys now?

Matt: Work on a second album, hopefully.

Law: In the next three weeks we're going to Holland to play some shows, and then France. We've got a big festival down in Switzerland to play in September. That'll be good.

Matt: With Skindred.

Law: Yeah, Skindred are playing, so that's gonna be a good thing and we've got a few other shows... odd shows like at the Borderline in London, and hopefully we can get another big tour like this Fozzy tour. That's kind of the plan to promote the album. It works well. You can see it online, on Twitter and Facebook, and everyone just goes nuts don't they? I think it's great.

J: We're just over halfway through the Fozzy tour now. This is your second time with these guys. What are your highlights so far?

Matt: Well it's my first time so, I'm over the moon. I'm happy.

J: Have you got any favourite moments from the four gigs so far?

Matt: I've been drinking quite a lot after the shows so I don't really remember much. Last night was awesome, and Stourbridge kicking off the tour was just crazy. They really did Stourbridge proud I think, to be honest. I'm really looking forward to tonight. The biker bar (Yardbirds in Grimsby) was awesome, as well.

Law: Last night was great. I enjoyed getting up on stage and singing with Fozzy last night. That was good fun. I think I'm doing it tonight as well. It's my favourite song (She's My Addiction) off their album so it's really great to go up and sing it with them.

L: This tour is seven straight shows with no off days in between... We've worked out it's over a thousand miles, we're starting to struggle already, and we're not the ones playing shows every night. You have two shows tomorrow... You've got the festival in Hull, and then down to Leicester for the show with Fozzy. How are you handling it and do you have any survival tips for life on the road?

Law: You guys are probably doing better than me because I don't eat before I play. We've gotta play at... What time is it now? Half-past five... So we're on in less than two hours, because it's early doors and we have a curfew, so I probably won't eat now until after we play, and then you get all wrapped up in having to do the merchandise so... I eat hardly anything.

Matt: Or if we do it's late, late on at night.

Law: Yeah, and then I've gotta get up and sing with Fozzy so I'm not gonna eat before I do that either, so... I dunno. Just try and get as much sleep as you can, really. Travelling kills you, even though you're just sitting on your ass doing nothing, it still kills you. It's really weird.

Matt: I can't seem to stay awake in the van, so...

Meryl: No, I can't either. I just drink loads of water and eat as healthy as I can.

J: Who does the driving then?
Law: Me and Nick. We swap it. When I'm not driving I just chill out and don't have to worry about it, go on the tablet and do whatever.

J: All the travelling gives us a really good appreciation of what bands go through, especially the support acts that don't have the tour bus and the driver.
Meryl: Or the roadies.
L: Yeah. The bigger bands can sleep as they're travelling and sleep through load in...

Law: Yeah, we're doing all our own merch too. Literally as soon as we finish playing I run to the merch stand and stay there all night. We're kind of on the clock as soon as we get here. There's "hurry up and wait" gigging... The Stereophonics song "Hurry Up and Wait"... I know what it means now. You hurry up; you rush to get to the gig and as soon as you get there you wait around for a couple of hours and then it's all go.

L: Our blog, Invading the Pit, is written by female fans of mainly hard rock and metal music for other female fans. We travel to see bands a lot, obviously, and we've had all the stigmas thrown at us, you know, people thinking that we're groupies, because we get to talk to bands and hang out with them... And yesterday Joobs went into the pit during Fozzy's set and everybody stopped because there was a girl in the pit...
J: I was well up for it! I went in there and started pushing people and they all stopped. So, you do get a lot of stigmas about it and you are treated differently. Meryl, with you being a girl in a rock band, have you had any sort of negative experiences?

Meryl: Playing wise, in a band, I've had none. It's all been super positive. A lot of people have come up to me after shows loads of times and said "Oh it's great to see a girl who isn't just doing rhythm guitar and standing all still like a little mouse, or doing bass guitar, or singing... you're actually doing lead rock guitar, and I can see you're enjoying it and it's rare..." So that's been good.

Matt: And you shred as well.

L: You don't really get all that many mixed gender bands around; they seem to be either all guys or all girls.

Meryl: Yeah, there is that.

Matt: We've got Lawrence for the ladies and Meryl for the blokes...

Law: And you for the in-betweens.

Meryl: I did have a lot of negativity in teaching, because I teach guitar, and when a student would come to the music school I used to teach at and realise they were gonna be taught by a girl, they wouldn't give me a chance sometimes. They'd instantly say, before they'd even heard me play a note, "I'm not having a lesson. I'm not interested. I don't want a lesson." But anyone who's given me a chance... they're positive about stuff and everything's fine.

L: From a fan side of things, it seems to be if you're a guy and you're travelling to gigs and getting to hang out with rockstars, it's a cool thing... When we do it it's like "oh, you're groupies! You're this, you're that..."

J: "You just wanna sleep with the band!"
Meryl: Yeah, that's the trouble when you're a girl. You get judged wrongly. But it's good you have morals. I'm the same.

J: It's about the music.

Law: Exactly.

Matt: Yeah, definitely.

L: A lot of bands now, especially ones that tour with bands like Fozzy, it's all about who can play the fastest and make the most noise, and they kind of lose the groove and melody which is what you guys are all about. Do you think there should be more of the classic rock sound coming back up in the British scene again?

Meryl: If it was up to me there would be.

Matt: Everything seems to have gone towards hardcore/thrash and, you know as you said, quick and brutal but... you look at the older bands and how much groove was there and, you know, it's still rock n' roll. It's good old rock n' roll but you get to dance!

L: That's what I think's great about you. It's not about watching someone play as fast as they can or hit the drum as hard as they can... It's a nice change.

Law: That's not songwriting though, is it? It's just... brutality.

Meryl: I like a song that I can hum.

Law: Yeah, something that gets stuck in your head.

Matt: I do love thrash and all that, but it's all about the groove with us.

(Ash walks in)

Matt: When you've got Ash playing bass you've gotta have a dance.

L: Ash, you missed it all.

Ash: Oh, have I? Excellent!

J: One more question... Finally... who rocks hardest girls or boys?

Matt: That's a hard question.

Law: Me!

Voodoo Vegas' rocking debut album The Rise of Jimmy Silver is available to purchase now. To keep up with the band and find out when they are coming to a place near you, check out their official website at voodoovegas.com, and their Facebook and Twitter pages.

Breed 77 Interview

Breed 77 is a band that is best described as "Flamenco metal" to most. Hailing from Gibraltar, Spain and Portugal, the quintet blends a nice fusion of classic heavy metal and traditional Spanish flamenco music to bring a rather unique sound and style to the genre of heavy metal.

Thanks to their incredible live shows and captivating stage performance, Breed 77 has gained a strong and loyal following over the years, enabling them to perform throughout the UK and Europe frequently.

Earlier this year, their sixth studio record - The Evil Inside - was released, and ever since they've been busy gigging to support it. This time, they supported Fozzy on their UK tour for the second time, and on August 14^th, in a comfortable seating area around the back of the Yardbirds venue in Grimsby, we had the opportunity to sit down and chat to three of the five band members. Here's what happened...

Leese : For people that are new to Breed 77, how would you describe your music?

Andre: Flamenco metal, basically heavy metal, traditional - between heavy rock and heavy metal with obviously the flamenco fusion to it. We all have different influences; our inputs work in a different way. I'm more of a metal guy... Some of the guys are a bit more rock, old school... a fusion of all that. I'll say classic heavy metal.

Joobs: What influences do you have as a band, main influences?

A: As a band, that's kind of hard to answer.

J: Or as an individual... say yourself, personally?

A: Personally, Metallica when I was younger, then later Machine Head, Slipknot, and so on...

(Pedro enters)

A: Pedro, obviously, really different influences. It's different for every single one of us.

J: (to pedro) Who influences yourself as a musician?

Pedro: Who or what band?

J: Bands... artists...

P: Yeah from classics... definitely Led Zeppelin to non-metal at all like Paco de Lucia. Some crazy progressive 70's like Camel and shit like that. Then, more metal like Metallica, all the way up to, I don't know, Opeth... I really like, by the way, Ghost I know someone is going to kill me for that but I really love the band.

J: Haha, you like it but no one else does?

P: I do, I do.

J: Cool. You have The Evil Inside out, which is your 6^th album now. That was out in March... How has it been received?

P: The Evil Inside had a really good reception from the beginning. I think we accomplished what we were trying to do, which is not repeating ourselves in any album. I mean, if you hear our back catalogue you will notice an obvious difference between albums, and I think we accomplished what we wanted. It's definitely not as metal as our previous work with Insects... It's like more hard rock; rock with an edge, and it's definitely going to have nothing to do with the next one. But, so far so good, especially in Europe. I mean our new label has done an impressive job there. We've just been touring in Germany, and very well attended gigs for our headline shows as well as our supporting stuff for DevilDriver. Yeah, so far we're very happy.

J: This is your second time with Fozzy, isn't it? The first time round...

A: First time was December...

J: Personally, I've been to shows on both tours and I've found that the fans are a lot more receptive now than the previous tour.

L: Now that you're playing more from The Evil Inside.

P: Yeah... Actually, our last video, "Bring on the Rain", is escalating... I can see that from the likes on YouTube. It is nice to see people are singing along to the words...

J: Even if they have written them on their arm.

(Note: We both had lyrics written on our arms at one of the shows so that we'd be able to sing along with the choruses to "Drown" and "Fear".)

L: The catchy choruses!

P: Haha! Down, down, down, down. Round, round, round, round.

J: We've washed it off now. We know the words now.

L: We have four or five songs that we know.

J: It is quite nice to think that you've got some catchy choruses that people can pick up on right away...

(Danny arrives with food)

J: Come in and sit down! You can eat at the same time.

Danny: You ask me some questions, I'll answer from here. I haven't eaten all day.

J: Okay. I've already asked the guys who their influences are... who are yours?

D: Maiden, King Diamond, Black Sabbath... pretty much classic metal.

J: Fantastic. I'll let you finish your food.

D: I haven't eaten all day!!

J: Neither have we. I might come over and help you in a minute.

D: Notice there's no shops here.

J: Nothing at all.

L: What's the music scene like back home? Do you play many shows in and around Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar?

P: Yes we do. Actually we're about to--

A: We're just about to go to Gibraltar and Portugal.

P: Yeah. Obviously, gigs are crazy, you know, and very well attended.

L: We don't hear of a lot of bands coming out of Gibraltar. Is there a big metal scene there?

A: He's the man to tell you the story! (points at Danny)

D: There's not really a metal scene; it's very small, but there's many bands there. Everybody's a musician, so we get a lot of pop bands... they're not very heavy.

J: So you're quite unique over there?

D: There's only one venue, called the Rock on the Rock, and that's it. Apart from that, just little bars where people play covers, but once in a while they do a big gig there in the town centre and there's like 10,000 people... like a stadium thing, and that's what we're doing on the 10^th September, which is National Day.

J: It's a big change from here, where you're playing to 100's to go to like 10,000.

D: Yeah, it's fun.

J: So you have the gig coming up... What's next?

P: We have the gig in Gibraltar... We still have a run of four gigs at the end of this month, then we're going to Portugal, back to the UK, then start writing songs for the new album which we want to release as soon as possible. Also, we are trying to squeeze another last run... another tour starting in the UK, most likely, and heading to Europe at the very end of the year.

L: Will it be a headline tour?

P: Yes. We're looking at that. We don't have any confirmation but we're strongly pushing for that. It's going to be the end of the year for us, hopefully the beginning of the next one too. It's going to be a fun year.

J: You said the next album is looking to be completely different, so do you have an idea of how it's going to go?

P: Simply because, as I mentioned before, none of our albums kind of repeat themselves so, we definitely wanna have something you know, very different. I think it's gonna be better but... you know. Edgier, heavier and punchier, definitely.

L: Our blog is called Invading the Pit, and basically it's written by female metal fans, for female metal fans. Obviously, as you can see from this tour, we like to travel to see bands. We're very dedicated. Because of that, and because we get to talk to and hang out with guys from bands, we get a lot of people that think "Oh, you must be groupies"...

A: What's wrong about that? (laughs)

L: Well, nothing if that's what people wanna do, but it's not for us! Also, we have friends who go to shows and they enjoy getting in the mosh pit, and they have guys that are like "oh, you shouldn't be here".

A: I don't like it. It's not a girly thing.

L: There's split opinions on it. People know what they're going into when they get in a pit. They know they can get hurt.

A: Yeah, but if you're a guy and you're in a mosh pit, and there's a girl there... It's no fun anymore. No one's gonna be hitting and pushing each other because there's a girl there. We've got to be careful.

J: I give as good as I get. I tell you what... the bruises I got from Download...

A: Guys don't want to hit girls... At least not me.

L: We've noticed at these shows there's kind of a split in the audience between male and female. Is there a divide overall in your fan base?

P: To be honest, our fan base, I would say it's 50/50. We have a lot of females.

D: Trannies too.

J: Come on then, explain that one.

D: We are equally at ease with everybody.

P: We have a wide spread fan base.

D: Anyone can like Breed, we don't care... even if it's dogs and pigs. There's nothing wrong with that.

J: So I can bring my cat along to a show?

D: If it buys records we're happy.

L: Come on, then... Who rocks the hardest... Men or women?

P: Both. I dunno, to be honest.

L: We've already established the girls like it... "Love you, Paul!"

J: Yeah, we've heard a few Paul chants.

P: The guys I think, mosh pit wise, they're like RAAAAAAAAAAH!

D: You can't say that, Pedro. Every guy's not exactly the same, every girl's not exactly the same.

P: Yeah, but I meant in general...

D: It doesn't matter the person, or what they are. Everybody is an individual person.

A: The craziest I've seen at a gig was a girl... It was a DevilDriver show when we were on tour with them two years ago... This was in France and she was wearing a massive hat, you know like those hats you wear at football matches or something? She was wearing one of those hats and was in the circle pit the whole time until Dez pointed at her and said "You! Come on stage!" and she was jumping, like FLIPPING, off the stage onto the crowd and she did that six or seven times in a row and even Dez said "You're the fucking craziest bird I've ever seen."

L: A lot of the time with things like that there's a lot of alcohol involved.

P: When alcohol's involved everyone gets crazy.

L: At the end of the day, as long as people are responding to what you're playing, it's all good, right?

P: Yeah, we feed off each other.

J: Thanks for your time, I think we can wrap this up now unless you have anything else to add or any more stories...

D: I think we've covered pretty much everything... illness, death on the road.

L: Yeah, like jumping over fences?

A: Yeah, I need to be sensible on tour. Crazy behaviour (grins)
(Note: There was no jumping over fences. The rumour was something we overheard from Matt from Voodoo Vegas. In actuality, Andre had surgery under his arm after contracting an infection on Saturday, and played a show every day from the Sunday. Trooper!)

J: Well done for motoring on, and going through each night. Obviously, we've been to all the shows... three so far. Each night you've gone longer before you've got the wince of pain like "ARGH! I can't go on!" How are you getting through that?

A: Painkillers, antibiotics, marijuana (smiles)

P: That's why he's smiling so sweetly!

(L to R: Paul, Danny, Leese, Pedro, Joobs, Stuart, Andre and tech/friend of the band, Rui)

Breed 77's album The Evil Inside is available to purchase now. For all updates and information on the band, check out their official website at breed77.com, and their Facebook and Twitter pages.

One Down....!

The first show of seven Fozzy/Breed 77/Voodoo Vegas shows is done, and we're already starting to get a feel for how painful and tough this tour is going to be! Leese has lost her voice already (after 5 days of Bloodstock madness beforehand), but Joobs is still going strong.

We'll be leaving for Leeds shortly and we're crazy excited. Leeds crowds are always great, and it's going to be fun to see the bands play a venue we've never been to before. Stourbridge really set the bar high for the rest of the tour... The crowd last night was loud, rowdy, insane and everything a metal show should be, but we're confident that Leeds has what it takes to top that.

If you're heading to the show tonight and you see us, come over and say hi. We'll be wearing our Invading The Pit t-shirts, which are pretty hard to miss and have our names on them. We're going to be looking for fans to interview or just hang with us for a bit, so if you don't come find us, we'll come find you!

Today will also be Leese's 40th Fozzy show since 2005, so we're trying to find a way to appropriately celebrate the big 4-0! So far, plans include a kebab...

Tomorrow in Grimsby we'll be interviewing Breed 77, so if you have any questions you want to put to the guys, let us know in a comment here, on Facebook, Twitter or by email and we'll make sure to ask it for you. Also, it would be cool if people could send their love to the drummer, Andrej, who underwent surgery on Saturday, and is battling through the pain and stitches to bring a great show to the fans.

On Friday in Glasgow we'll be interviewing Voodoo Vegas, and the same goes! Any question you want asked, let us know and we'll get it to them.

We'll try to keep you updated as often as we can (definitely helps when hotels have wifi), but for now... we'll leave you with this "before the madness" photo from Stourbridge.

Hope to see you on the road!

Just a quick update...

SO Sunday sees us start our "Great Adventure" following Fozzy, Breed 77 and Voodoo Vegas around the country. As we have previously mentioned we will be bringing you interviews, photos and much more whilst we are on the road. Now normally we are pretty damn easy to spot in a crowd, most people tend to hear us way before they see us BUT just in case you are going to any of the gigs and you are unable to identify us, we have made it a teensy bit easier:

Yep! We'll be wearing these to the gigs, so come find us and say hello! hint: during the gig we'll be rocking out near the front but before and after the show you are more than likely going to see us chilling outside. Seriously - COME FIND US!

And if you haven't got your tickets yet, all is not lost there is still time, hey you can even go VIP too! All the details are on www.fozzyrock.com

See you in the pit!

Hitting the Road!

Next week sees us hit the road for an awesome adventure. We will be following Fozzy on their UK tour with Breed 77 and Voodoo Vegas... Yep, that's right. We are going to EVERY show.

We've already had stick from friends who don't understand why we want to see the same show 8 times, spend hours stuck in traffic jams, spend hundreds on fuel, sleep in crappy hotels, eat junk and probably get ill? Sad times when even your family are calling you groupies! But it's not like that!

We see it slightly differently...

Yes, 8 shows is a lot... and maybe a little repetitive, but it's not just the music! We will be meeting up with fans and friends that we've made over the years that we rarely get the chance to see normally, along with no doubt meeting new ones. While the fun and excitement of a badass rock show is still going to be there each night, our favourite part of these crazy trips is the socialising!

As for the car journeys... imagine loud, heavy music blaring, lots of laughing, joking and having fun... oh, and terrible singing along to aforementioned music . Okay, we'll give you the shitty hotels part. There's not much we can do about that, but it's only a place to sleep and we're not picky. All in all, it's an adventure. The kind you rarely get to do in your adult life. A chance to meet new people all with the same interest, share stories and experiences and most of all create some awesome memories.

Don't get us wrong, this isn't going to be something we want to do every tour, but everyone needs to experience this once, right? If you haven't already, you should! All the traveling from city to city, lack of sleep and wondering how bad your next "meal" will be makes you feel like some kind of rockstar yourself. (Leese speaking from experience here... She's done this before!)

So, no... We're not following the bus around waiting for an opportunity to sleep with the band members. It's about being passionate about the music you love and sharing that with fellow fans and friends.

Plus, we get to document everything here. The highs and the lows, the things that will inevitably go wrong, the endless torture of a poor boy that is going to be stuck between the two of us for the entire week.

We'll be sure to share our stories... I'm sure there will be a few. We never seem to be able to do anything without some kind of farce, so spending 8 nights on the road is sure to bring farcical moments of epic proportions. There'll probably lots of pictures and maybe some videos.

Oh, we've got a few surprises in store, too. So make sure you keep up with us on Facebook and Twitter where we'll be announcing things shortly. It's exciting!

If you happen to be at any of the Fozzy shows, come say hello and share your stories with us. We'll be armed with a dictaphone and stuff. Food donations will also be welcome!

Check the poster below to find out if we're gonna be anywhere near you (click it if you wanna be a VIP!) and let us know if you're up for being featured on our blog!