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Cold Ones interview

20.02.08
Photos by Zac

Liverpool’s punk and hardcore scene has been infected with Cold Ones, a relatively new project that sees Heroin Skateboards pro skater Howard Cooke swap axes and find some new band mates after the demise of Walk The Plank.

Mouthy singer Russell Longmire shared some words with Zac following their London show at The Macbeth.

Firstly, how did this fine mess manage to come together?

Right time, right place, probably started off with lots of drunken claim, let’s do a band blah, blah, we all knew each other anyhow and a had a vague idea of what we didn’t want to sound like.

I personally felt there wasn’t a band out there who was playing punk how I liked it. We were like ‘let’s play some straight forward punk but deliver it with personality and humour, keep it intense but cut out all the tough guy HxC shit. That’s what we do, that’s the essence of the Fifth Dimension of rock music! That’s D5!!! It’s like when you got a bunch of bead eggs – best thing to do it scamble them or just throw them at people!

So, you have ex-members of Walk the Plank, Hammer Attack and Second Guess, do you feel as though you guys are ready to take it to the big time – you know, get onto X Factor and shit?

X factor? Yeah we’ve played with Xstraight-edgeX bands, we even got offered to play a D.A.R.E benefit once! We have felt the X-factor.

Liverpool’s Hardcore scene has had a good bit of action over the last few years. How do you see it progressing, are there more younger kids coming to the shows and getting in to it?

Theres a bit of a venue draught at the moment but the when gigs happens kids are still sneaking beers and boards in the backdoor, hurling abuse, bro-ing off, spewing up, pushing each other over. It’s very Liverpool. Hopefully in time they will realise they too can do exactly the same but on a stage and get paid!! We will testify it’s not about skills and keeping up with modern technology its about having a laugh with a bunch mates, using what tools you have to the best of your ability and putting on a good show. Fuck what people are going to think of you, just be confident and let loose. Spin people out a bit, leave an impression. We don’t need more pretentious Liverpool indie/pop bullshit. The Beatles are dead and The Wombats look like roller bladers!!!

So, it’s a 5 piece, all blokes. You all skate?

We’ve not done a gig without five boards in the back. If were leaving town they make good self defense weapons!

So Howard (Cooke) is now playing guitar, how come he switched from bass that he played in Walk The Plank?

Never really picked up a bass until Walk The Plank and rarely did when I was in them but I’d always have a guitar to wank on in the house.

Is a warm beer completely out of the question for all band members?

If you pay for its gotta be COLD, if you steal it you can’t be fussy.

I take it from your live show at The Macbeth that you enjoyed annilhilating skateboard industry bods and Hoxton mongaloids – not really like Liverpool down here is it?

Lot of turds in the industry, and when you see that side of it, you loose grasp off whats best about skating, but people who are in the know are out there and all the swamps will get weeded out eventually. As for the Hipsters……they’re just easy targets.

What other bands influence you?

FEAR, GENTLEMANS PISTOL, FANG, DISCHARGE, TURBONEGRO, BL’AST, QUEEN, SABBATH, DANZIG…..we all listen different shit. Along as its rips and gets ya in the frame of mind for alternative intelligence. Music to get weird too!

Do you reckon you can pay the rest of the band to move at the next gig?

The Romans built they Empire with powerful statues, now we’ll build ours.

Having Foxy as a roadie must be like having Fozzie bear on the road, does he come in handy or is he a miserable git like when fronts SSS?

When he’s not wearing his headset playing Xbox he has his moments of comedy genius, but he does scare off of the ladies. Instead he attracts loads of smelly bearded Metal Hammer readers!

If you had to steal another bands cold rider of your choice from a dressing room whose would it be?

Amy Winehouse’s! Ha! Someone left a tin of red paint in the back room and Josephs well in Leeds once….Opppps bad mixer!

Did you guys play Livi in 2007?

Took 7 hours to get there, pissed down with rain, stage was soaked and deemed too unsafe to play. Saw Div and this maniac dude named Haggis walking round covered in their own blood after defending their skatepark from invading council estate smack children. A statement of solidarity that all locals should have for there home turf! It was pretty ugly, so we went to Edinburgh, crashed a yuppie party, stole a bottle of JD and fizzled into the Scottish void.

Trouble seems to follow you then?

Yeah, it seems that way. The shadow of misbeheaviour is never too far away though. It just comes out when exposed to certain light conditions. We live in the D5 and speak in terms of Testiculation! If people can’t get down with that, then they gotta leave.

True or False – football fans in Sheffield wanted to get you after a show?

They did chase one us down an alley, we survived.

True or False – you sprayed your band name on a wall outside a gig in London and got thrown out?

No comment, but Inepsy have very bad English but amazing songs!

You fell on your head and almost died at a recent show?

Head stands on stages with monitors after abusing Municipal Waste’s rider is not advisable. G.G wanted to explode on stage too though.

True or False – all of the band are carded members of the original Blue Oyster Bar?

Not all of us but our drummer did contribute the cowbell to the song ‘don’t fear the reaper’.

True or False – 2 birds from Hollyoaks were spotted at a gig of yours fingering themselves?

Soon to be seen on an episode of late night Hollyoaks XXX, we’re the house band, like Circle Jerks in Repo man or TSOL in Suburbia.

What’s coming up?

Pimpin our 7” which is out now on GHOST CITY Records and available of our myspace, writing new stuff for a new record and planning a bunch of mini tours this summer. We’re going all over! STAY THIRSTY

Find Cold Ones at www.myspace.com/coldonesinyergut