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NO MORE HEROES INTERVIEW

Stubble Interview by Ken Zebbyn

Of all the luck I hooked up with Ashley of the Stranglers tribute band NO MORE HEROES on line and with their 1st CD coming this summer I asked to document our chat. Here it is…..

Ken: To us here in the USA a Stranglers tribute act would not be very commercialy successful, How are you guys doing ?

ASH: We are doing OK. We've played quite a wide area of the UK from Milton Keynes to Glasgow Manchester, Darlington, Nottingham, Derby, Shrewsbury but we haven't played London yet. We are playing with Stiff Little Fingers in July at the Holidays in the Sun Festival which should be fun. Every gig we have done has resulted in us being re-booked, so we must be doing something right.

Ken: How did you all hook up for this gig ?

ASH: Rob our bassist, Sprock our keyboard player and me (Ash) on drums had played in some bands together before and started No More Heroes with a blues guitarist. Anyway, the blues guitarist didn't look or sound the part and we got approached by Dave at one of our gigs, so we sacked the blues guy. Dave had heard about us through Adrian Liggins's (SIS on-line) brother who lives in the UK.

Ken: Are their other tribute band ? Or were there ?

ASH: There are other Stranglers tribute bands but they haven't played as extensively or haven't been up to it. We get people travelling from all over the UK to see us. The web site has helped too, we have subscribers in 17 countries.

Ken: Do punk rockers still spit at shows or you ?

ASH: Not at our gigs, we've had a bottle though.

Ken: Are there any Stranglers tunes you feel you do better ? Any you feel you could not do ?

ASH: I think we could do most of the Stranglers songs, the only problem is the newer Stranglers songs with John and Paul. Paul's voice is more wide ranging than Hugh's was and John's playing is much more technical. The older songs really kick though.

Ken: Besides The Stranglers what else might we find on you CD player ?

ASH: I listen to lots of other types of music from Bowie, Echo & the Bunnymen, some New Order / Joy Division, Stone Roses, the Smiths, and lots more.

Ken: Are you friends with THE STRANGLERS ? Do they care about what you are doing at all?

ASH: We've all met the Stranglers but not all at the same time. A guy who travels from London knows JJ quite well (he's on the cover of Friday 13th, the guy with his hands in the air). He was chatting to JJ about us and JJ's comment was that we would soon have more people at ours gigs than the Stranglers do at theirs. I think they are quite interested in us. John Ellis was interested in us too, when we met him last year.

Ken: Any interesting band stories that might be good for a laugh ?

ASH: We played in Glasgow last year and the promoter was trying to pull a fast one. Anyway we hijacked some of the promoters gear until he paid us. We sometimes get strippers at our gigs (when we do sleazy usually) but they are always men unfortunately.

Ken: Final Comment or words to live by ?

ASH: Buy the album.