Rich and Dogshit Sandwich is on my first compilation and they´re doing really fine I think. Rich answered my questions in april 2001 and here we go.
History?
-Dogshit
Sandwich was formed 2 yrs ago and has had numerous line up changes, as we speak
we have yet another line up, I am the only original member, PK has been in the
band a year Andy and Wig joined recently and new guitarist Zee has yet to play
in a live situation with us. We have done about 35 gigs so far, supported bands
like GBH/Police Bastard/Contempt/Sick On The Bus etc, we also did a mini tour of
Ireland and have had out 2 demo’s, and a 7’’ single on Weird Records. Plus
we are touring Norway in August.
Please
tell me a little about every member, age, family, something bad about everyone?
-Rich
Lard aged 24, plays guitar and does vocals, moved to Birmingham from Eire 1997,
Writes Punk Shit fanzine and promotes gigs in Birmingham, lazy bastard in
general but works hard to promote the punk scene
PK
aged 24 does vocals and bass when needed, known as The Rhino due to his moshpit
antics and the octopus when he’s drunk and there is girls around, great bloke
to be in a band with.
Ardcore
Andy aged 39, plays bass and he’s the old man of the band, writes a zine
called Cross Examination and is a very devoted member of the Brum alternative
music scene, sometimes known as Angry Andy as he has a sharp temper but is a
sound chap.
Wig
aged 19, plays drums and used to play guitar in now defunct anarcho band Piss On
Authority, we were very lucky to get this guy as drummer’s are like gold dust
around here.
Zee
aged 18, plays guitar and is the first female member of Dogshit Sandwich, We
only met her about four weeks ago so little is known about her at present.
The
name is wake up reaction I think, what do people say?
-Some
like it, some hate it but they never forget it so yeah I think it was a good
idea.
Discography?
-Wormburp
demo 1999
Open
Prison demo 2000
GGYFC
7’’ 2001
How
is life in England right now, politically, musically and so on?
-Life
in England for me is great, as far as politics goes well it’s shite as always
but isn’t that always the case in a capitalist society, but what can we do
about it? I have never voted, either in Ireland or England, what’s the point
voting for fuckers who only care about the rich. One of the things that makes me
mad about the British government is the whole refugee thing, I believe people
from poorer countries do deserve a better chance in life but it’s the
hypocrisy of the government that annoys me, it’s like they wanna win favour of
the other European nations by taking in loads of refugee’s, y’know Tony
Blair standing up to the Germans and French etc and saying ‘Look how good us
Brits are, we took in 50 000 refugees, how many did you take in?’ when the
reality is that there are 1000’s of homeless British people living on the
streets and the government don’t give 2 fucks about em, but if it’s a
foreigner that needs help they jump at the chance.
Musically well mainstream music is
total wank, the underground scene is pretty good, there’s probably more punk,
hardcore bands than ever before, they just need some publicity.
Is there any good bands there?
-There a loads pf great bands in England at the moment. My favourites are Sick On the Bus, The Restarts, Contempt, Sensa Yuma, Road Rage, The Wernt.
What
get you to begin to play punk, it´s untrendy isn´t it?
-I
love punk rock and have been in love with it since I heard Sham 69’s ‘Hurry
Up Harry’ around 20 years ago, there is no music as exiting as punk rock as
far as Im concerned, I wanted to get a band together for years, since I was
around 12 but it took me till I was 22 for it to happen. I don’t think there
is any scene like it either as the big bands and small bands are very close,
unlike metal for example where you get massive American bands like Slipknot and
small bands influenced by them like PK’s other band One Hundred Plastic Cups,
there is practically no chance of those 2 bands ever sharing the same stage,
where as we are influnced a lot by GBH and we played with em twice and know them
personally, that’s the cool thing about the punk scene there aint a big gap
between big and small bands.
What
does punk mean for you?
-Punk
to me is a way of life, to me it’s like a religon cause as far as Im concerned
what passes for religon is just people telling you how to live your life etc and
it’s responsible for millions of deaths down through the centuries so I cannot
understand why anybody would be into something so evil. Punk is a way for me to
have my say and get my views on certain things out in the open, whether it be
something that pisses me off, or just a joke I want people to hear.
How
is a good gig for you?
-A
good gig for me is when the crowd are into what the band are doing, I’d rather
watch another band or play with my band in a small venue where there are 20-30
people who really like what’s happening, that’s much better than playing to
200 people who don’t give two fucks about the band.
Which
is the most peculiar which have happened on a concert with you, on stage or in
the audience?
-Watching
Iggy Pop gropeing a more than willing young lady with his penis out while on
stage was very shocking.
What
is most fun , to play live, do songs or record songs?
-That
depends really, as I said earlier if the crowd is up for it then there is
nothing better than playing live, recording is good fun too only it’s boring
when you’ve either done your parts and are waiting for the others, or if you
are a vocalist and your parts are last you gotta wait around all day.
What´s
the best and what´s the worst of being in a band?
-The
best thing is when people tell you they really like what you do as it takes a
lot of hard work and time to be in a band, especially a band that makes you no
money, we loose loads of money on this band but we do it cause we love it. The
worst thing is that it takes up a lot of your time, I lost my girlfriend of 7
years for this band and any girls I’ve been out with since have found out to
their disliking that the band comes before them, so it’s hard to keep a
girlfriend.
What
do you know about Sweden?
-I
know that Sweden has some extremely beautiful women, which is one reason I’d
love to visit Sweden. Also you got a brilliant footballer known as Henrik
Larson who plays for Glasgow Celtic, and the England football manager
Sven Goran Eriksen is a Swede. Also IKEA who I recently saw a program on and how
they use child labour in Asia, Capitalist bastards. Apart from that I know
little else.
Have
you heard any swedish bands worth to mention?
-The
only Swedish band I’m familiar with are The Vectors, I picked up one of their
7’’s from a distro.
When
you do songs, which is most important, is it the music, the lyrics or to have a
refrain that people remember?
-Personally
I’m more into lyrics cause that’s what gets your point across and punk for
me is about havin a say, unlike pop rubbish that sings about fuck all, then in
other cases there are bands I like where I cant work out a lot of the words but
the power of the music makes it great, eg The Restarts. That’s one of the
things I prefer about punk to metal, a lot of metal, especially extreme metal
you cant work out any lyrics because all you can hear is grunts eg Napalm Death.
Im not a big hardcore fan either, there’s loads bands in England that do stuff
like that Stampin Ground etc I much prefer streetpunk and oi cause you can hear
the angry words, where as a lot of
hardcore is angry but you cant tell exactly what they are angry about till you
read the lyrics. Runnin Riot from Belfast are a great oi band, angry fast and
you can work out the lyrics.
Please
rank your five best records, five best concerts and five most important things
in life?
-5
best records
(1)The
Casulties – Riot (2)
The Partisans – Police Story (3) Runnin Riot – Judge Jury and
Executioner (4) Anti Flag – Fuck Police Brutality (5)The Pogues – Waxys
Dargle
5
best concerts
(1)
The Casualties/Birmingham 2000 (2) David Bowie/Phoenix 1997 (3) Iggy Pop/ Dublin
1996 (4) The Exploited/Birmingham 1998 (5) Sick Of It All/Reading 1997
5
most important things in life
(1)
EQUALITY - all human beings started off equal, and race, color, wealth or
any other shite that stupid cunts use to try and put themselves above others is
just fucked up, we are all made by spunk and eggs and a black man’s blood is
red like a white mans, so racism, bigotry, homophobia, sexism and any other crap
needs stamping out.
(2)
Smashing Corporate Greed - No
single person needs more than enough money to see them comfortably through their
life time, it’s sick that people have millions of pounds sitting in bank
accounts when their fellow human beings die of starvation. Wealth must be
distributed.
(3)
Punk Rock
- is a very important part of life cause it gives people with something
to say a chance to say it, and no matter how little attention mainstreem papers
and magazines give us we continue to grow.
(4)
Children – they are the future of our race and we must protect them
from the evils of the world, all peadophiles deserve the death penalty.
(5)
Destroy Religon – It’s responsible for so much evil, even Jesus who
is supposed to be the son of God we persecuted and executed, not much hope for
the rest of us then.
First
and last record you bought, and the most expensive?
-The
Ramones first lp was my first record, the last was Dropkick Murphys new lp, the
most expensive was a yellow vinyl copy of the third Ramones lp it was £20 and I
gave it away recently to Arvid from Greenland Whale Fishers, who are a Norwegian
band who sound like The Pogues, they toured UK last March.
Any
record labels which have phoned you, mailed you etc?
-Tenderloin
Records have been following our progress since the early days, I keep them
updated regularly, of course Weird put out our 7’’ too.
is
it many interviews? Is it boring?
I
get quite a few, I’m the promo man in the band so I have to do them all,
it’s not boring just sometimes it’s hard to find the time.
Which
is the question you never get but you want to have, please ask it and answer it?
-How
big is your penis? 15 inches last time I looked.
What
do you think about the new way to communicate with email and internet and all
that stuff?
-If
it was’nt for the internet I would’nt be doing this interview now, it’s
totally fantastic especially for bands to get heard around the world. I hate to
think at what stage this band would be had it not been for email and websites
etc.
Any
favourite site yourself?
www.rip1.demon.co.uk
or www.onelist.com/subscribe/discordian
the first is the UK punk and Oi site and the second is a discussion list
which is free to join and a good laugh.
If
you could choose five band from the history to now to play with Dogshit which
bands would you choose?
-1
The Pogues
2
Joy Division
3
The Ruts
4
The Clash
5
Sex Pistols
Which is
the futureplans for the band?
-I
want the band to write loads of new songs and record regularly, I want to put
these recordings on split 7’’s and albums with bands from around the world
so we promote them and they promote us and we will all be able to tour other
countries and be well known.
Which
is the futureplans for yourself?
-I’m
starting a record label to put out some of these split singles, I wanna tour the
world with Dogshit Sandwich, hopefully that will happen in the next five years
and then I’d like to slow it down and run a label and help out bands. Maybe
try and win back my childhood sweetheart who left me over my devotion to the
punk scene.
Wisdomword?
-Together
we survive-devided we will die – PUNX UNITE
Something
more to add?
-Thanks
Pete, that was fun, sorry it took me so long to get it back to you. Hopefully we
will get to Sweden at some point. Thanx a lot
Rich
Lard (April 2000)