PAUL: “Dan has stated that he left the band because he “wasn’t into it anymore.” What is your reaction to this?”
JOHN: “We all felt that if he didn’t want to do it anymore then there was no point in trying to force him and make him even more unhappy. We have been playing the same sort of music together since we were 14 I guess he had been listening to a bunch of different music genres and fancied doing something different.”

PAUL: “He has stated there was no animosity and you are all still friends, is this true?”
JOHN: “Yeah everythings cool. We have both learnt from past experiences that it is better to do it in a friendly way.”

PAUL: “You’ve already decided that the band will continue and are looking for a guitarist. Does this mean Ben will now sing on all of the songs?”
JOHN: “We are not to sure, we knew that we needed a new guitarist but we are considering possibly getting a singer as well. For the meantime Ben sings half the songs anyway so we can carry on with that until we work out exactly what we want to do.”

PAUL: “Will there be any kind of musical changes? Some of the new songs I’d heard you play live were quite Ataris-esque, is this a direction the band will go in or will you continue in the vein of the EP?”
JOHN: “A bit of both I guess. When we wrote those songs we didn’t think ‘hey lets write a song like Kris Roe would’. Some of the new songs are bouncy, some are more rocky and upbeat and then a couple have the Ataris feel. I guess you’ll just have to wait and make up your own minds once you’ve heard the new songs.”

PAUL: “How does Dan leaving effect the deal with Golf and are the plans to record the new album later this year still on?”
JOHN: “We are still with Golf, we are hoping to record the new album in August/September time. The new songs that have been written are sounding good and there will hopefully be a few surprises on the album too.”

PAUL: “I hear on the grapevine that a video is in the works, are there any details you can tell us about?”
JOHN: “We just finished the first day of shooting footage for it today and it is looking pretty good. We are making a video for a new track called “Don’t Give Up On Me”. We are doing it off our own backs and it’ll hopefully be on your screens soon.”

PAUL: “Looking to the future, what would your message be to all your fans?”
JOHN: “Thank you to everyone who has stuck with us and given us their support over the past few weeks, we appreciate it more than you realise. We will be back and running soon! We are playing at Nottingham Rock City on Sunday August 10th and are also booking some more dates around that time. I’d also like to big up my mate Rich’s band Steel Rules Die cos they rock.”

PAUL: “Dan has stated that he left the band because he “wasn’t into it anymore.” What is your reaction to this?”
JOHN: “We all felt that if he didn’t want to do it anymore then there was no point in trying to force him and make him even more unhappy. We have been playing the same sort of music together since we were 14 I guess he had been listening to a bunch of different music genres and fancied doing something different.”

PAUL: “He has stated there was no animosity and you are all still friends, is this true?”
JOHN: “Yeah everythings cool. We have both learnt from past experiences that it is better to do it in a friendly way.”

PAUL: “You’ve already decided that the band will continue and are looking for a guitarist. Does this mean Ben will now sing on all of the songs?”
JOHN: “We are not to sure, we knew that we needed a new guitarist but we are considering possibly getting a singer as well. For the meantime Ben sings half the songs anyway so we can carry on with that until we work out exactly what we want to do.”

PAUL: “Will there be any kind of musical changes? Some of the new songs I’d heard you play live were quite Ataris-esque, is this a direction the band will go in or will you continue in the vein of the EP?”
JOHN: “A bit of both I guess. When we wrote those songs we didn’t think ‘hey lets write a song like Kris Roe would’. Some of the new songs are bouncy, some are more rocky and upbeat and then a couple have the Ataris feel. I guess you’ll just have to wait and make up your own minds once you’ve heard the new songs.”

PAUL: “How does Dan leaving effect the deal with Golf and are the plans to record the new album later this year still on?”
JOHN: “We are still with Golf, we are hoping to record the new album in August/September time. The new songs that have been written are sounding good and there will hopefully be a few surprises on the album too.”

PAUL: “I hear on the grapevine that a video is in the works, are there any details you can tell us about?”
JOHN: “We just finished the first day of shooting footage for it today and it is looking pretty good. We are making a video for a new track called “Don’t Give Up On Me”. We are doing it off our own backs and it’ll hopefully be on your screens soon.”

PAUL: “Looking to the future, what would your message be to all your fans?”
JOHN: “Thank you to everyone who has stuck with us and given us their support over the past few weeks, we appreciate it more than you realise. We will be back and running soon! We are playing at Nottingham Rock City on Sunday August 10th and are also booking some more dates around that time. I’d also like to big up my mate Rich’s band Steel Rules Die cos they rock.”

Scunthorpe isn’t really known for being a punk rock town. The usual suspects come through on big tours with 4ft Fingers and NoComply recently passing through. But most gigs are filled with the under 16s, some of whom are more bothered about snogging the nearest member of the opposite sex than any band who may be in attendance. And with the clobber of some of the kids in attendance when Uncle Brian hit the stage (ie a mix of Slipknot hoodies, t-shirts and ties and even some scantly clad teens – and yes Timmy, you know who I mean…) it’s pretty indicative of the scene as a whole. Still, Uncle Brian are here for one thing and that’s to rock, and rock they sure do.

The kids are almost impossible to win over. It could have been the most earth shattering amazing band in the world and still some of them would have sat on their arse cradling their Slush Puppies, but for those who venture to the front they are treated to a highly entertaining set. Uncle Brian certainly have a good stage presence, they’re funny guys and there’s interaction galore. Oh, and the songs aren’t bad either. Having ditched the vast majority of the old songs in favour of the new stuff (and that’s because the new stuff is better before anyone suggests any links to that ‘other’ band), the set is mainly based on the power-pop songs that scatter through their latest EP, ‘It Just Seems Right’.

Opening with ’53’ before jumping into the pogotastic ‘Cindy Lou’, the band bounce off each other with Dan and Ben’s vocals working nicely. The sound is tight and well worked as you’d expect it to from a months worth of sharing stages with Bowling For Soup and Simple Plan and John and Steve (“the rythmn section” according to the drummer) are tighter than the arse of a constipated elephant. The more considered ‘Dead To Me‘ is one of my favourite UB songs and tonight it sounds top notch, but obviously single ‘Postcards’ gets the best reaction and slowly but surely the crowd starts to get into it. The track is easily Uncle Brian‘s best moment to date, a song with a shiny, happy chorus that with any luck with be a summer anthem. With a riff and melody that will stick in your head for hours and hours, it has that annoyingly addictive quality all good pop-punk anthems should.

Three new songs are also aired tonight; the more rock influenced ‘Don’t Give Up On Me’ has an awesome opening riff, but it’s ‘Nevermind Today’ which sticks out by a mile. A surefire single, by the end of the first listen it hooks you in with a Ataris style chorus. Cracking stuff. A 40-foot long conga follows the obligatory cover of ‘We’re Going To Ibiza’ and as the song belts out of the PA the kids snake across the venue. From being static during the opening few moments, in the space of 20 minutes the band have 100 kids eating out of the palm of their hand. After half an hour things end with Steve’s bass ringing out the intro to ‘On The Jazz’ and some of the kids go off for one last time.

Uncle Brian won’t be to everyone’s tastes and there’s nothing startlingly new, but what they do they do very, very well indeed. Shedding the ska slightly, they’ve become a lean, mean pop-punk fighting machine and if the new songs are anything to go by their Golf Records debut could propel them into the UK big leagues. Although Scunthorpe wasn’t completely sold, they went from having nobody moving to have a throng of sweaty bodies skanking away in unison. Impressive stuff indeed. (8)

Paul.

Setlist:

53
Cindy Lou
Superpowered
Dead To Me
Postcards
Don’t Give Up On Me
Nevermind Today
We’re Going To Ibiza
Count 210
On The Jazz

Anyway, on with the show as they say. Myself and my buddy Ste came armed with three more tickets than we had bodies, and so ended up getting shafted by the touts outside, shifting all three for just £7. Still, a sold-out show of 2,100 people makes this gig the biggest of the whole tour. We arrive in the venue to catch my buddies in Uncle Brian hit the stage, dressed impeccably in a matching white shirt/black tie combo. But that is definitely where the comparisons to The Hives end. Coming across like any good pop-punk/ska band should do, my favourite Uncles hog the big stage like they were born to play the larger shows. With vocalists Dan and Ben trading jokes with the crowd and drummer John complete in Spiderman attire, the kids time and time again go off to a mix of old and new tracks. Their cover of ‘We’re Going To Ibiza’ goes down better than ever and the new songs show enough promise to prove that Uncle Brian are certainly back with a bang and are well worthy of your attention if they come near your town. On the downside the vocals were quite low in the mix and drummer John admitted that the monitors were ‘a bit shit’, but hey, you sounded good guys… (7)

I don’t really care for Jesse James. Recently signed to Golf Records (alongside another 4562835 UK bands who signed for the label at the same time), only ‘Shoes’ is a song that stands out among an average set of tunes that I feel the band possess. I saw them supporting Lit earlier in the year and was not impressed at all, and tonight the band are equally dull. There’s nothing new or interesting on offer and what Jesse James do, they do without much flair. It certainly does not grab my attention at all, so I spend my time laughing at Uncles John and Dan get mugged by the aforementioned 12-year-old girls. Dan is even asked to sign somebody’s birth certificate! Their new found fame is completely deserved and they prove so popular that they don’t have any t-shirts left in large at all… But wait, isn’t this supposed to be a Jesse James review? Yep…sorry I got bored of speaking about them…(5)

You don’t go to a Bowling For Soup show to see the most technical of pop-punk bands. You go to be entertained, and boy, do BFS put on a fantastic live show. The songs are either fantastic (see ‘Suckerpunch’ as a fine example) or rather dull and generic, but for a band that haven’t really been in the limelight all that long they have perfected the art of having fun and getting the crowd all hot and bothered. Songs like new single ‘Emily’ and ‘Surf Colorado’ start mayhem in the pit, and ‘Suckerpunch’ and ‘Out The Window’ are fantastic slices of pop-punk perfection. Chris and Erik are the perfect foil for lead singer Jaret, who admittedly does sound fantastic tonight, dispelling any myths that the band are far from perfect in the live department. The humour flows all night, especially of the toilet variety, and numerous references to having sex with mums is mentioned – but then would you really expect anything different from this lot? A pop medley, featuring the likes of Avril Lavigne, Nelly, Shaggy, Eminem and Nelly Furtado is a masterstroke and the cover of the Ramones anthem ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’ is fantastic, even if it probably does go above the heads of many of the younger members of the audience. Winding up with ‘Running From Your Dad’ and the anthemic ‘Bitch Song’, the kids maintain their energy, copying the bands on-stage presence and making for one sweaty night. The presence of a couple of ‘young’ girls demonstrating their breasts was also enjoyed by the band and pre-pubescent boys alike, but c’mon, underage girls are wrong… Last single ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’ goes down as you would expect it to and the night ends with a rampant version of the Bryan Adams tune ‘Summer Of ’69’. (8)

Bowling For Soup will never be the greatest band on Planet Punk, but what they lack in quality songs, they make up for in entertainment. Their newest album may well be no more than average, but their live show is well worth checking out – if only for Jaret’s comical Avril Lavigne and Shaggy impressions. How far the band go in this country depends on how well they maintain this momentum that they have built up. I suspect that in a years time BFS may well be old news – but let’s enjoy it now while its here. Hop aboard and enjoy the BFS ride.

Paul

PAUL: “The early Uncle Brian stuff is obviously influenced by ska as well as pop-punk. What bands have collectively influenced UB?”
DAN: “To be honest I don’t think there’s one band that we can all say we like apart from our good friends Bowling For Soup. We have nightmares in the van deciding what to listen to. Collectively the only stuff we can listen to as a band is 80/90’s rock stuff like Guns ‘n’ Roses, Metallica, Bon Jovi…”

PAUL: “Uncle Brian recently broke away from Moon Ska Europe, what can you tell us about the split and where does this leave you now? Is there other label interest or are you happy to play the waiting game?”
DAN: “At the end of our contract with Moon we didn’t actually discuss the direction of our next move, but in the back of our minds we knew we didn’t want to work with Moon again. At the time when they offered another album deal, turning it down seemed like the obvious thing to do. Don’t get me wrong, Moonska are a good label and they have done a lot for us, we wouldn’t have got on tour and released an album if it wasn’t for them. We don’t hate each other, it’s just not the label for us anymore. We’ve had loads of interest from other labels since it’s been known that we left Moon. We haven’t signed anything yet, there’s a lot of people coming out to see us on our tour… we’re not going to chase any labels, if they want us, they come and see us and tell us. We just going to get on with covering this country like a rash!”

PAUL: “I also hear that the new stuff you have been writing is more pop-punk than ska. Why have you decided to change direction?”
DAN: “It kind of is I suppose, there’s still bits of ska in songs we’ve written since ‘BBQ music’ that have been used on various punk comps but now I feel we’re changing. And don’t get me wrong we’re still Uncle Brian and people that like us will still like us. I personally haven’t really made a conscious effort to not write ska anymore, however, I don’t really listen to ska anymore and haven’t in the last year or so which would probably have a lot to do with it. I guess it’s something that happens, you can’t stay the same forever – it’s like cutting you hair. I bet Jon Bon Jovi get’s shit from the die-hard Jovi fans for cutting the poodle but at the time he cut it, he probably thought it was no big thing and didn’t think about it. It’s just a progression.”

PAUL: “But do you not think that in jettisoning the ska you are going to get a lot of criticism for selling out, bearing in mind that the poppier side of punk seems to be selling by the bucketload? I mean I personally don’t think it is but there is always the odd idiot who’ll slag off a band because their next CD isn’t a carbon copy of the first…”
DAN: “For us, people have to expect a little change from our first record because we have two different band members. And I haven’t just stopped wanting to play ska because it’s not as popular, it’s just ska isn’t as popular with me anymore. And if I felt myself re-writing another ‘BBQ music’ then I think I’d have to quit. Everyone complains about the musical change bands make from their first record, but their just doing what comes naturally. I’d have to make more of an effort to stay the same.”

PAUL: “Have any of the new songs been given names? Are there any plans to release anything this year?”
DAN: “We are going to release a little two track promo CD for our tour only. It’ll be about £1. We want to release another record ASAP but also want to make sure that the people that are releasing have us in their best interests before anything is done. The songs on the tour will be ‘Southern Hood’ and ‘Another Night’.”

PAUL: “Gig wise you have a pretty big UK tour coming up, what can we expect from the Uncle Brian live experience in 2002?”
DAN: “Nice things. (*laughs*) Um, us playing some new songs and rocking out in the best way we know.”

PAUL: “Any plans for any gigs up north as there aren’t too many dates that venture up here?”
DAN: “Yeah, the tour was meant to hit Manchester but the promoters up there don’t want to do it untill September. We will probably have a date in Leeds on tour which should be booked in the next few days!”

PAUL: “Going back to the ‘old-skool’ Uncle Brian, what is the story behind the song ‘Better Off Gay’? Are you telling us that girls are fucking evil…”
DAN: “I can’t really remember, just bad past experiences with the brighter sex really. I always write about past experiences cos everything in my love-life is cool, I have a wicked relationship with my girlfriend Jess. It’s been 4 years and 1 month now!”

PAUL: “You have already recorded a cover on your first record, how did that come about? Are we likely to see any other covers, either live or recorded, in the near future?”
DAN: “We’d love to record another cover, but we really can’t think of one to do! If anyone reading this can think of one that would be cool, then email me! We recorded the Vengaboys song on our album because it went down so well at gigs. At first it was just a joke, but when we opened for Millencolin about 2 years ago at the London Astoria people loved it, we were shocked and everone wrote to me saying “is that song on your new album?” So we had to…”

PAUL: “In the late summer you have a US tour booked with Bowling For Soup…how have you come to be mates with the guys? Any funny tales about them that have happened on the road with you?”
DAN: “Well, one day I just decided to email Bowling For Soup and see if they had any plans to tour Europe as I’d love for my band to support them. I got an email back from Eric first saying “yeah we do have plans but nothing is confirmed,” however they had plans to play Reading that year. So I asked for their manager’s email and offered to book the band a tour around their Reading and Leeds performances. However, Reading and Leeds ended up not happening for them that year so they just ended up staying at my house and doing a two week low-key UK tour with us. There are some real funny stories from that tour, but I was too drunk to remember them haha! I remember some things like Chris (Bfs) nearly falling through the roof of a venue, me and Gary (BFS ) having a beer fight in the middle of a hotel bar throwing the empty glasses out the window. Loads of things, it was our best tour as a band. So much fun! Basically the America tour with them (which has now been moved to September/October) came about by them returning a favour. They made the offer of us going to Texas staying at their places and supporting them for two weeks. Basically the exact same thing we did for them, but theirs is on a bigger scale. Also when we go we’ll hopefully be doing some recording with Jaret (bfs singer) in the producer chair. He’s done loads of producing work in the past and he’s very very good at it!”

PAUL: “www.uncle-brian.com is currently going through a bit of a refit. How important do you think the internet is for a band such as yourself?”
DAN: “Very! It’s done us a lot of favours. People can listen to our stuff, check what’s going on and even get in contact with us without waiting a week for the crap postal service.”

PAUL: “Fat Wreck have recently created a bit of a furore about downloading cds…what is your stance on MP3’s and the burning of home made cds fresh from the internet?”
DAN: “Well, I think Mp3’s are an amazing idea, but ripping off bands isn’t. If I download a song from the net and like what I hear, I go out and buy the record. But sometimes for a band the size of Uncle Brian this doesn’t work as records are harder to find in the shops, then I can kind of understand people burning their own CD from downloaded Mp3’s..cos it’s better to have people listening to your music that not ..right?!”

PAUL: “If you were marooned on a desert island which five cds would you take and why?”
DAN: “Elvis Costello – Greatest Hits because in my opinion Elvis Costello is one of the best song writers ever. Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet because it would convince me to ‘hold on, ready or not, it wouldn’t make a difference if I made it or not.’ Weezer – Weezer because eventually I’m going to grow a beard on a desert island and I would need to be convinced that beards can be cool. Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American because it’s my favourite album of this year. Green Day – Dookie because it’s probably the best pop-punk album in the world ever.”

PAUL: “I’ve heard a rumour that you are a bit of an Ataris fan…what did you think of End Is Forever? I’m a fan myself and quite like it, but it was never going to beat Blue Skies… is it?”
DAN: “I am a massive Ataris fan! You see, I think End is forever is a better album on the whole than Blue Skies but the better songs on Blue Skies are better than the better songs on End is forever. I find End Is forever more consistent though-out.”

PAUL: “Final question. Where do you see Uncle Brian this time next year and again in five years time?”
DAN: “Probably getting stuck on a Punktastic interview question like ‘Did you ever see yourself where you are now a year ago or five years a go?’

PAUL: “Cheers Dan, thanks for your time mate.”
DAN: “Thanks. Check out www.uncle-brian.com but the chances are if you’re reading this interview you probably (hopefully) like Uncle Brian and already check our website….Well go do it again! And keep looking at Punktastic!”

Link: www.uncle-brian.com