This is a wee postal interview with sound guy Keef from booze busters Leadbelly. Check out some of their stuff on the comps listed, well on with the show.
First off, can you give us an insight into the band; Who’s who, who does what and when you first started out ?
First off I’m suffering from a cold right now so I apologise if my answers are short and boring! Right then Leadbelly are or were 4 drunken bums called: Paul - Vox, Jim -Guitar, Neg - Bass and Keef - Drums. Paul has now left the band don’t ask why as he never really said. Leadbelly have been playing this sound 6 years and we came together after the band I used to play in split up. We’ve all been close friends for many years so we thought it would be good to form a band together seeing as we all knew how each other works and what we liked in punk rock, plus we all had a good taste for beer, so we had to be onto a good thing.
You’ve had a couple of demos out and a string of tracks on the British Punk Invasion comp what reaction have you had to these releases and has the comp CD given you the opportunity to get more gigs and be heard by more people ?
To date we’ve recorded 4 demos (not a lot in 6 years) the first 2 demos were pretty shit and we didn’t really sell them just gave them away to friends etc. The other 2 were a lot better and we managed to sell a few, which was nice. You would have thought that having some trax on a comp CD would bring in more gigs and a decent reaction but it didn’t. We’ve not really had much response from the "British Punk Invasion" comp - don’t know why this is, maybe the kids think we suck! But I’m sure it’s given more punkers the chance to hear us but the question is do they really give a shit, over to you ________ (place your name here).
You’ve got a new CD coming out soon (now) so tell us all about that ?
Errrm, we were gonna release a CD single but it’s been put on hold until we find a new singer, but we do have 3 trax on the forthcoming "It’s not funny anymore" comp CD. This will be here within the next few weeks, it should have been released in December (1997) but they were some problems with the pressing, so I was told. The whole CD should be a killer it’s got some real cool bands on it - so if you see it, buy it! (Please!)
You’re a bunch of drunk punks (allegedly) and as one drunk to another there’s always a tale to tell about inebriation. So tell us your worst (best ?!) pissed up tale of embarrassment or sheer stupidity ?
Arrgh, shit man we’ve done so many dumb things while in a drunken stupor. The only problem is bleeding trying to remember them! We were once going to a gig in Peterborough and our driver which was Paul, decided to drive down the wrong side of a dual carriageway. Shit, loads of cars were flashing their headlights and honking their horns, I thought Paul was the devil and he was trying to kill us. There was this one gig where Neg played the whole set then realised that he’d forgotten to turn his amp on and none of us even noticed! At another gig Jim was sure that his amp had blown up as he couldn’t get any sound out of it, so we took the amp to bits but couldn’t find anything wrong with it then Jim realised he’d turned down the volumns knob on his guitar and I’d forgotten to turn it up - major embarrassment. The punkers must have thought we were real dim!
What does Leadbelly relate to, is it to do with drinking ?
Oh this is strange man, most zines seem to think we relate to eating shit loads of junk food. I think the name points them in that direction, but we have a strong bond with beer. We don’t sing about beer infact we’ve only got one song about beer and that’s a song about the dangers of it and it’s called Stupor. Most of our songs are about relationships with girls, we sing about sour relationships. I’m sure everyone has had a relationships that’s gone sour, you know one minute you’re all lovey dovey then the next you want to kill each other. Each member of Leadbelly has had a fair few sour ones so we think we’re experts on the subject. Maybe that’s why we drink so much!
What was, and be truthful now you get extra points for honesty, the first ever record you bought and how old were you ?
Would you believe me if I said I can’t remember… thought not! Will you believe me if I can’t remember the name of the singer (maybe - Ed). I know it was a woman and I think the song was called Yes Sir or Boogie I can remember one line from the song which went like "…Yes Sir I Can Boogie, Boogie, Boogie all night long…". Maybe some old punks out there remember it (Yes Sir I Can Boogie by Baccara). Oh yeah, I was around 10 years old when I bought it, well my Mum paid for it and I’m sure I used to dance my little feet off to it, hey they don’t write lyrics like that anymore pure class - Ha!
Would you ever consider doing that song as a cover version in Leadbelly ?
Yeah, sure would. I can just see all the punkers singing that super cool line - "Yes Sir I Can Boogie, Boogie, Boogie All Night Long". Shit it’s beginning to bug me now I’ve got to find out who sang it, if anyone knows please tell me - Ha.
What are Leadbelly hoping to do in 1998 ?
Find a new singer I’ll just plug it: If there’s anyone within the Yorkshire area that would like to sing for us then please get in touch. We don’t care if you don’t have vocal chords like Fat Mike, as long as you’re into it then that’s fine with us - you don’t even have to be a drinker!!! But it would help - Ha, Ha! (That was a joke, a bad one but still a joke) We’ve just been offered a split EP so we need a singer real fast so we can record the trax for it, we’ve had offers for other EPs but until we find a singer we’ll just have to put things on hold.
A hypothetical question now, if you had to join either Chumbawamba or Green Day which band would you rather join and why ?
Do I really have to say, okay… after a long thought I’ve decided to go for Green Day just so I can go over to Yankee land and see my fave Yankee bands. Once I’ve seen the bands I’d leave them . Yep a shit answer I know, but that’s because I’m not a big fan of them, now if you would have said Propaghandhi or Leatherface then that would’ve been better!!!
Anything you’d like to add, Keef ?
Yeah, thanks to you Rick for giving me the chance to shoot my mouth off. The questions were toppin’ just hope I’ve goven them justice. I’d also like to wish you and Sam the best in Motherhood and Fatherhood. I hear the modern day dipers are real easy to use not that I’d know - I have problems putting my shoes on. If anyone is interested I still have the odd copy of the British Punk Invasion comp CD at £5 post paid. I also have copies of the It’s Not Funny Anymore comp CD with Travis Cut, Annalise, Leadbelly, Steeky, Crank, etc.
14 bands, 30 trax a real bargain at £7 postpaid, but hurry as I’ve only have limited to sell. Thanks again Rick, if anyone wants to write for any reason, then please feel free the address is:Keef, 430 Carlton Road, Carlton, Barnsley, S Yorks, S71 3HX, UK.
Phone 01226 724363.