Spoilers – interview

I saw spoilers play a couple of years ago and their punk pop blast caught my attention straight away.  Their stay afloat album is a gem, capturing that punk rock community feel down to a tee.  Their singer Dan keeps looking to try and get the band over to Dublin to play a gig and hopefully one day we can them here.  I sent him on some questions and here are the results.

1) spoilers were a punk band in California in 1978, they are a punky band from London and are a band of diy punks from Canterbury
Which one are? do you ever get confused?

We are Spoilers from Canterbury, Kent. We sometimes get accidently tagged on Facebook events and confused for the London based Spoilers. So from time to time I get an email from one of the boy’s freaking out ‘Have we got a gig tonight!!!??’ Also I’m told the singer uses the same Gordon Smith Guitar that I do. Maybe we should do a gig together.

But no, generally people know who we are. The other Spoilers are much better looking.

2) Who is in the band these days. ?

Dan Goatham – Guitar + Vocals
Leon Packer – Drums
Stu Randall – Bass + Shouts
Ben Davis – Guitar + Vocals

Occasionally Stew ‘ The Gusher’ Gush fills in on guitar if Ben is away working.

3) When you started it all off did you consciously say this is the way it’s going to sound or did it evolve over a few rehearsals?

It evolved really. Some of the songs existed from a previous project and demo from a few years back. We kind of wanted to carry that on from where it left off. I always liked the idea that we would have melodic punk songs and then also throw in some hardcore.

Who are you listening to these days?

The Kimberely Steaks, Face To Face, Slade, Leatherface, Consumed, T-rex, Lifetime, Kid Dynamite, Snuff, Medictation, Tiltwheel, The GetGone, The Foamers, Pizza Tramp, The Sainte Catherines, Iron Chic, Midway Still, Senseless Things, The No Marks, Billy No Mates, Dealing With Damage.

4) I have a split record and an album. Is that all your releases?

So far yes. We’re currently working on an album and possibly another split.

You work with some cool record labels, how did the relationships with these develop?

Aston and I have known each other for quite a few years now. I’ve been buying Boss Tuneage Records stuff for many years. I used to run into him a lot in Cambridge at DS Wilsher’s gigs. He has put out many of my favourite records. It was actually Dec Kelly (Southport) that suggested we send stuff over to Aston. He’s been great to work with and I hope we keep on working with him.

We sent stuff to Scott mclauchlan at Brassneck records on a suggestion from Mark Murphy (No Marks, Crocodile God). I’d never met him before. He came back to us immediately to say that he was over budget for his releases that year but that he would give it a listen and maybe some suggestions. I awoke the next morning to an email from him saying ‘I’m in, what’s the plan?’ Scott has become a good friend of ours. He likes a beer and a chip barm, so we get on well.

Have I heard a rumour of a new record coming out?

We are working on it at the moment. We started recording at the beginning of the year and we’re booked in the studio in November to finish up. Fingers crossed that it will be released spring 2018.

5) So Canterbury votes for Brexit, what did you make of it? I know it was close, why do think people of Canterbury wish to the UK to leave the EU?

It was very close. I don’t think people took it seriously enough at the time. I’ll include myself in that. I never thought that would be the result.

They then elect a labour mp? Will Canterbury be leading the way in the revolution

I voted for Rosie Duffield (labour MP) and was very glad to see the back of Julien Brazier. I was shocked when I read how long Canterbury had been Tory. I’m actually originally from Sittingbourne which is a few towns away. That was and is sadly still Tory. Our bass player Stu is actually banned from Gordon Henderson’s (Local Tory MP) facebook page, but that’s a whole other story. The election 2017 was also close and Rosie only won by 187 votes, she seemed more shocked than anyone that she actually won.

If you had been at Canterbury pride the weekend following her victory then you would’ve thought the revolution had started.

6) What’s it really like being in a band, leaving work and having to travel long distances to play 30 minutes to a few people.

Sometimes those gigs you do to a few people can be the best ones. No real feeling of pressure and if you have people in the room that are up for a good laugh then it can keep you laughing all the way home. I remember a gig in Basingstoke (I think!?) that we had the whole room singing the theme to Only Fools And Horses at the tops of their voices between every song.

After a long day at work (as I’m in the car working all day working) it can be hard to get going I guess but I think we all just enjoy playing together. The long drive can be irrelevant.

7) I know you’ve been asked before but can you tell me a bit about punks don’t die. I love the way I can associate it with friends I knew from punk rock. Did you mean it that way

That song was written with a friend in mind that had very recently passed away. My closest and certainly my oldest friend. Davee Wild grew up around the corner from me in Sittingbourne and we both got into punk rock around the same time. We used to show each other a lot of bands and lend each other new releases. We would go to local gigs around Swale and Medway in Kent. Davee was a bit older than me and when he started college in Canterbury he stumbled across this amazing venue called ‘The Cardinals Cap’. I think for around the next year we spent every Friday and Saturday night there and saw some incredible bands. It sadly closed in 2001, but it was soon after this Davee Realised the only way all the bands that played there would ever come back to Kent was by us all getting together and putting them on at any venue we could find. He promoted shows at the Oast House in Rainham, and later found a regular venue at The Maidens Head in Canterbury. DIY shows that somehow he managed to keep free entry.

I just wrote and thought about all the memories of going to gigs together, putting on shows in our local scene, lending each other records and the fact that we basically wouldn’t have a music scene in and around Canterbury if it wasn’t for Davee. I miss him a lot.

8) What does punk rock mean to you?

Being yourself.

9) You seem to play a fair few gigs, how do you get on so many bills?

If I’m honest I feel we are very lucky. We have no booking agent and most of the gigs that we do we are invited to play. Myself and Ben have been playing in bands for around 20 years and toured the UK many times as well as Europe. We’re lucky that we have made a lot of friends along the way that put us on when we first started out. Over the last couple of years this has grown and we’ve been invited to play a lot more shows and made a lot of new friends. The punk scene in England is the best it has ever been at the moment and I hope this continues. Bands are finding it easier to stay DIY

niallhope