By Sue Lewis

 

A stoney Old Kent Road Chancer met with a Margate Spiv, they pulled a Fey Midlands Wastrel and set sail through the troubled waters of SE15 on the Peckham Privateer to conduct ungodly acts of ill-consideration on all who gazed upon their ravaged countenances.... equipped with the mighty Bow and Bugle Fabulizer they set to making music that was destined "fer the bottom 'o the charts!".... Only question being..... "Are ya with us lads 'n' lasses?"..well, are ya?”

…. or put another way….. Guy Bailey, the founding member and main songwriter in The Quireboys, got together with two compadres of old; Dale Hodgkinson who’d previously been in Bailey’s post Quireboys dark “alt-country” band Dogkennel Hill (In the days before anyone had either heard of Ryan Adams [that’s Ryan not Bri!!] or even the wank phrase “alt-country”), and Marc Eden, singer with Men and Gods and previous frontman with a little-known LA band called “The Project” that was later to morph into the world-wide phenomenom called “Velvet Revolver”….. Slash described Eden (and rightly so) as “one of the best rock’n’roll singers in the world”….. the two of them are still mates although there still exists some controversy over the writing of “Slither”…….

The Peckham Cowboys happened by mistake………!


How did u come about the name ‘The Peckham Cowboys?

Marc came up with it. The whole thing – the album and then, later, the live band - was conjured up under duress, under extreme and very strange circumstances and mostly by mistake…. it happened in Peckham and was done on a shoe-string, with a nod and a wink and with a lot of running away from people we owed money to, and on the Old Kent Road…. So, y’know it sort of fitted… a mentally hot summer, too many ragged emotions and strange chemicals …and then…... something along the lines of the bastard, unholy union between John Lydon and Aleister Crowley got cooked up…. underneath Guy’s shed……

How long have you been together?

In terms of Karma – undoubtedly, ALL of our lives… but why this vile spiritual sentence should be inflicted upon us only the Gods know….

What are your long term plans for TPC?

To get through next week without imploding in a cascade of confusion, consternation, rubbish Giraffe scarves, yesterday’s eye make-up, cider, red wine, Southwark Sin, Peckham Vim, the musings of Bukowski ‘n’ Kesey and how any of this can possibly be regarded as a functional life…….


Do you have any festival gigs planned for this coming year?

Of course. There are plans for Download, Reading, Ibiza Rocks, Sweden Rocks and a load of other festivals right across Europe…. problem is that all the promoters seem to want an established and safe band, particularly the UK idiots – and we’ve been told that “we feel that the band’s disposition doesn’t fit today’s expectations of rock entertainment”…… fucking dreadful, complacent wankers – and entirely as we’d expected – if you can’t put a band/artist into a square hole then they obviously can’t be any good….

What are your musical influences either as a band or as individuals?

As individuals it’s obviously massive and varied – essentially everything we’ve ever heard that we’ve liked…. As a band – nothing and nobody. The Peckham Cowboys started as a fun “jam” between musician mates (that came about as someone tried to calm a fight down at Guy’s house) and very quickly evolved from there…. Any band that sets out to deliberately emulate some previous band is obviously bereft of ideas and therefore a right bunch of cunts….. the only influence we’d nod to is one of spirit, rather than sound, and that is available “for those of you that can see what you hear”….

What’s the worst gig you’ve ever done as a band?

Probably the next one – who cares? Rubbish gigs are like rubbish shags – it can be analysed afterwards but nobody’s bothered at the time….. not unless there’s an non-concensual finger up the arse….and even then, that provides a buzz of “a bit o’ what ya didn’t fancy”…..

Which new bands do you like on today’s live scene?

Rock’n’roll music is in a desperate state of torpor…… there are kids still trying to emulate Oasis….. kids with even less brain regard X-Factor as the way out of their shit dead-end lives….. never going to happen….. as Andy Warhol said……

What bands would you go and see?

The Peckham Cowboys.

You recently had an interview with Steve Yarwood (106.6 North Manchester FM) how do you think that went?

Steve is a man that instantly got what we we’re all about…. There are people everywhere that are on the same ride…. and they’re all completely fed up with this sterile, apathetic view of life that inclines people to aspire to the next episode of Eastenders or the results of X-Factor as some sort of marker as to how the world functions….. It’s tiring…….

Do you have a release date for your new album ‘Flog It’?

Not yet – but soon! JCPL said they were putting the album out, and then weren’t man enough. But it IS coming out. Have a look on all the usual places: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc and you’ll see when and who with.

What’s your favourite track on the album and why?

Crackhouse Blues…. Because it is an understated slice of genius…. With a knowing nod (and a few winks) to all those “in the game”…

Marc Eden, quote: singer with Men and Gods and previous frontman with the little-known LA band called “The Project” that was later to morph into the world-wide phenomenon called “Velvet Revolver”…..and is now your singer - do you think he has a bit of a Quireboys sound about him and if so was that a deliberate choice because of Guy Baileys link to the Quireboys or was it some other reason? Or don’t you think he has?

No I don’t. The only similarities are the thread from that British blues vocal thing, gravel voiced exponents like Rod Stewart, Steve Marriot, Terry Reid, and Joe Cocker. Spike and Eden both belong to that heritage…but Eden has a lot more lyrical depth. He’s a grime, rock n roll, gutter poet. Others have previously tried to stand up defiantly like he does. But they never made it. He’s telling it how it is operating on a shoestring in South London…

Is Guy Bailey still the main songwriter in the band as he was with the Quireboys?

No. Guy’s genius is still evident by the fact that the Quireboys tour extensively and still play his songs as the majority of their set night after night…. The Cowboys has been more to do with a violently fractious (early-morning) relationship between 3 fried characters that are still inclined to use their guitars & bloody words more than their fists to describe the way they feel….. but sometimes it gets close

What is Dale Hodgkinson’s, who’d previously been in Bailey’s post Quireboys dark “alt-country” band Dogkennel Hill, background?

Ask Israel Regardie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Regardie)….. mind you that’d be tricky seen as how he’s dead

Your live shows which have been largely in London to date and have been awesome –expand the band from 3 to 6 for live gigs, including Men and Gods multi-instrumentalist Alric Guyler, Andi Emm (what’s his background?) and Squeeze drummer Simon Hanson, is this the way you plan to continue?

For the time being, there seems no reason to change the line-up… the energy on stage that is created from the noise that we make is not something that can be constructed or bought – it just happens….. And of course there is always the very real knowledge that the whole thing might just fall to pieces at any moment – that keeps things lively!


Quote from Paul Birch after he checked out the Peckham Cowboys latest MP3 – Director at Revolver World Ltd /& at Revolver Records.

“That video hasn’t been made by the Peckham tourist board has it?”

 

 

Sue