Nick: I play guitar and the other guy here is Charlie with a very loud voice and he plays drums, Darren plays bass, Paul sings and new boy Simon who plays guitar aswell. We started off as a 4-piece about two and a half years ago, we got another guitar player in a while ago but he left after we recorded the album to go to Art college and then he never went! So we've got this geezer Simon now.

HH:Is that the permanent line-up now ?

Nick: Yeah it is. I mean things have been pretty static, as we turned into a bunch of mates you know, it's like a band that's turned into...

Charlie: It's almost a dream team!!! Set the training and we'll be there!

HH:Is Mug of Mischief the first album you've released ?

Nick: Yeah, basically we recorded it very quickly on sort of quite a tight budget. But it's the first thing I've done with someone else paying which is a bit of a bonus really.

HH: Did you do any demos or anything before then ?

Nick: We did a few demos, our singer comes from Reading and we did a couple there. The last one we did was supposed to be coming out as a single - a mate of ours was going to stump up the money for it, but then all of a sudden we got a call from Golf saying that they wanted to do something with us, so it all turned out nicely.

HH: Right, even though you say that you recorded the album on a tight budget, I think it sounds really good. Were you pleased with the way it all came out ?

Nick: Yeah, oh sorry I don't know if Charlie wanted to come in there ?

Charlie: Oh No, no, no, no, no, no err... after you Nick.

Nick: Yeah, I am really I don't know if you play or anything or been in bands...

HH: Yeah.

Nick: You know that one minute you can do something that you think is the best thing you've ever done and then about a week later your sick to fucking death of it.

HH: Yeah.

Nick: And it becomes the worst thing you've ever heard I'm sure it's the same for you...

HH: Yeah, I know what you mean, but generally you're pretty pleased with it then ?

Charlie: Yeah pleased, obviously given the low budget and the fact that we were in there very quickly the engineer was very good with us and gave us a... I don't know how to describe it ?

Nick: Neutral...

Charlie: Yeah, a very neutral production. Probably with a bit more time and a bit more money it would have been nice to bring bits out and what-have-you but it's got a kind of consistency overall and given the conditions I'm quite pleased with it.

HH: The album's called Mug of Mischief, do you get up to alot of mischief then ?

Nick: I don't know, our bass player does that's Darren, Mr Mischievous. I've been waiting to stitch him up for ages.

HH: Here's your opportunity.

Nick: He's Arry Army, he's got more nicknames than anyone and one of them's alleged - he like's to get his knob out!

HH: Oh does he ?! Right, is that in public ?

Nick: Yeah it was actually, at the Garage.

HH: Very public then !

Nick: Yeah, it was Alice Donut and Snuff.

HH: Well Alice Donut are always getting their bits out anyway, aren't they!!!

Nick: Yeah. Most mischief is done by Paul and Arry I would say. They get the drunkest and take the most drugs.

HH: So you two are just quiet little boys are you ?

Charlie: Oh yes we're the quiet ones - family men! There's nothing better than on a Sunday morning going down to B&Q!

HH: Good old DIY ?!!! Oh I did a bit of work myself the other day!

Charlie: Did you ?

HH: Yes and on a Sunday of all days !! Hull is the DIY capital of the world or so we've found out.

Nick: Do you enjoy it or do you do it when you have to ?

HH: It's a bit of both really, I sort of put it off but when I actually get around to do it, at the end of day it puts a smile on your face because you think that you've really achieved something.

Charlie: Well you have, you have achieved something.

Nick: I'd just like to say that I fucking hate it, I really do.

Charlie: That's why you achieve something if you do it!!! (much laughter) working at BT for years and having all these geezers coming in and complaining about weird and wonderful things they'd converted in their houses and I was just glad to put a plug on the end of something.

HH: I do find it quite amazing the amount of people who actually go out every Sunday just to go to these places, they're absolutely full with these people completely obsessed with it, it's like they'd knock a wall down just for the sake of re-building it.

Charlie: That's my life at the weekend. I go to football and stuff but that's my little highlight sometimes.

HH: Who do you support then ?

Charlie: QPR unfortunately.

HH: Ha, ha.

Charlie: They'll be up at Grimsby, I don't know about Hull.

HH: I doubt it.

Nick: Glorious as it is...

Charlie: Yeah, sorry to introduce football, that's a poor move, very poor.

HH: You've just done a couple of dates on the Golf mini-tour, how did they go ?

Nick: Not bad, a couple of them there could have been more people there. Like we played Oxford with Funbug...

HH: Were they drunk ?

Nick: Errr, a little.

HH: That's unfortunate, they're usually faced.

Nick: I don't know but it was a pretty low turn out. But it's like Oxford is really indie, I can't imagine it being like a big punk rock town.

Charlie: And Radiohead were playing down the road.

Nick: But sometimes there can be nobody there and you can still have a good time. Worcester was alright and Bristol was alright aswell really we just wanna keep playing our arses off.

HH: How regularly have you been playing because I haven't seen you up this way - have you played Leeds at all ?

Nick: No, the thing is that we sort of got a load of gigs around Reading and Northampton through mates of mates 'cos Paul comes from Reading. So we've never actually been up north proper.

Charlie: We are hoping to, but basically were going to try to get on an agency.

HH: Yeah, I was going to say about that, something like CNL.

Nick: Yeah, that's what we want to do and play any toilet we can in the country!

HH: So basically you've booked all your own gigs up to now ?

Nick & Charlie: Yeah.

HH: It's a bit of a bind isn't it ?

Charlie: It's hard work, it's like a circle. You've got to get into to it to get publicity so that people actually turn up.

Nick: We as a band don't really know what our niche is 'cos were not a straight ahead punk or straight edge hardcore band, we're not a punk-metal band. So we got a bit of a pasting in the Metal press but I think that's because they didn't know what to make of us, do you know what I mean ?

HH: Yeah, it's like the track Black & White where you've got a horn section in and I don't know if you sampled it or what but...

Charlie: No, no it was a real horn section!

Nick: Actually that was quite a laugh...

Charlie: Don't tell him!

Nick: It was quite funny because we assumed that the engineer, Martin, knew how to play the keyboards because there was a massive keyboard in the control room gathering dust and I just naturally assumed he could play the god-damn thing. We were talking about what we wanted to do and he said "who's going to play it then ?" we all looked at each other and said "well you, I can't play it!"

HH: And so he just played it ?

Nick: Yeah, he winged it!

HH: Well I thought it sounded good. I took it that it was a step forward towards using different instruments which is how I saw you as being different from the general run of the mill bands ?

Nick: Yeah, I mean there comes a time doesn't there. I mean I love punk, metal and hardcore - to be quite honest I could listen to nothing else for the rest of my life but you know every now and then you listen to something new and you get a new angle on things.

Charlie: There's so much going on, I mean strings are just on every fucking record - on every indie record that gets into the top 40. I use to really hate strings on records but now you know I think it's good really.

Nick: You get it alot in Black Metal stuff loads of orchestrated bits.

HH: I think it adds alot of atmosphere.

Nick: Absolutely, I think that there's a tendency to think that speed is best all the time, I mean alot of that stuff is great, really good fun and exhilarating. But there's more to it than that. It's like saying " I'm gonna kill you" (in a Mickey mouse voice) and then saying "I'm gonna kill you" (in a mad axe-wielding maniac's voice) the latter is slower and has more power to it, do you know what I mean ?

HH: Yeah.

Charlie: Anyway play some of our tracks backwards!

HH: On to your lyrics, is it Paul who writes them ?

Nick & Charlie: Yes.

HH: They seem very personal orientated, do you think he just likes to write personal lyrics or do you think that the political thing has been overdone now ?

Nick: I think it's down to the way we write and Paul's experience really. I don't think that he'd be coy about saying that he's been through the mill over the last couple of years. Therefore they're the things at the forefront of his mind. The 5 of us believe that humans are political animals and more or less every decision you make has a political connotation you know, like what bananas you buy when you go shopping. I desperately try to write lyrics but they come out like crap poetry and I end up tearing them all up. Where as Paul, I believe is a good lyricist and it's where he's coming from. That's not to say that we don't think we have a political responsibility i.e. like not representing a certain type of view. I would have no hesitation in expressing my views on certain issues and I'd also be coy of being crass enough to, you know, name those views everyone knows what they are racism, sexism, etc.. but sometimes it comes across as a bit blaze were bands just go on and on, do you know what I mean ?

HH: I know what you're saying, what you find is that it's almost become cliché that you have to write political songs and I personally find that it sometimes ends up alienating people because they think "I've heard it all before". It's almost like it's been drummed home so many times now that most people know it from their own views or personal experience that it makes a nice change to read something different.

Nick: Absolutely I totally agree with you. It's almost like the cannon of a new religion and it becomes president. So there comes a time when you think well I know that, your saying the obvious.

HH: I think that's what has happened with this PC stuff, people have become so obsessed by it that they're using it as something to hide behind so they don't have to confront certain issues.

Nick: Saying that some of the stuff you get in Terrorizer is a bit near the mark: Blood, Honour and something the album cover was a muscle bound corcasian on horseback with a spear riding on corpses of his enemies.

HH: Sounds like a Skrewdriver cover!

Charlie: Skrewdriver came to my mind too.

Nick: I just thought the guy had spent a lot of time looking at war pictures in the library.

Charlie: I did but I remain fairly unscathed, in fact I'm on horseback now riding over them.

HH: Do you do alot of reading then?

Nick: Yeah, at the moment even though I've known about it for yonks but I'm reading the Armistice Moped scene you know about tales from the 60s. I like to read alot of history.

Charlie: I read Sci-Fi. What do you read?

HH: What do I read? well everything from cover-ups and conspiracies to Clive Barker and Stephen King.

Nick: Conspiracies you can't beat it.

HH: The most recent thing I read was about UFO conspiracies and theories. The biggest one of all being that we are all derived from alien species which completely flaws religion and this guy whose like 70 now who was a CIA operative for most of his life. During his time gained high top security clearance to this unit which was investigating the number of different visiting alien species coming to the earth and they'd found out that there was probably more than thirteen coming regularly. Also that they'd had an alien alive for like one year and gained alot of knowledge about the different species coming to the earth. Mind blowing stuff but kind of makes sense.

Nick: I actually know someone who was involved in a UFO incident when they were eleven in the West Country. Afterwards they were like interviewed by the Admiralty and some other people - the whole sort of X-Files bit. You know they said like "come in, take a seat, have some chocolate and tell us what happened.." and went through the whole thing. She's was in a car travelling along a road in Cornwall and this thing hovered above the car and made it stop and all the lights went out, she was dead scared and she was with her Grandad too.

HH: Yeah, interesting.

Nick: There always seems to be alot more sightings near like military complexes like Salisbury Plain and Warmington.

HH: It's the same in America like there's alot of activity in Mexico. In fact even though it's not reported globally there's something like a hundred sightings a month in Mexico the population are quite happy about this and it's become like a regular accepted occurrence. They even have footage on video tape. Also there's top secret installations scattered all over the desert leading towards Mexico.

Nick: I've always wanted to see one and I've always wanted to see a ghost but I haven't yet, maybe one day.

HH: Right well that about ties it up more or less. Any last words you'd like to say ?

Nick: Buy our record we are poor!

HH: Any philosophy you'd like to put forward before you go ?

Nick: Err... I don't know... Yes, I don't Know!!!