Vegastones

Vegastones are one of those bands you either love or hate, its a simple as that. The Australian born / England based 3 piece sound not dis-similar to American acts the Dandy Warhols and FLC. We caught up with Tim, Svet & Damon in a seedy hotel, prior to the bands support slot with 80's popstars Duran Duran and talked about sleaze, faded glamour and the lack of any real rockstars in the 21st Century. The Vegastones excepted of course.

Q: Is the new single "Drag Queen Eyes" written from a personal experience?
Tim: No, I wish I could say it was because that would be a little more glamorous. Its just a story, an urban love song. Just a sleazy song about a suburban girl who moves to the city and gets sucked in. She can't leave, gets stuck there and all the assorted seediness she is involved with.

We've been called some interest things in the past, but were rock stars at the end of the day. The first name that stood out in the press was "glam-country-punk".

Damon: I don't think were rock stars yet. Were not stars of any sort. Were pretty much a bunch of twats!!!!

Tim: Someone's already taken the front end of "Drag Queen Eyes" and is using that in his set.
 

Q: The album's been recorded for about 2 years. When will we finally get to hear it?
Tim: We actually started recording it this time last year. On the album we've used stuff from the original demo's so on some tracks its actually 3 years old. We officially started recording in December of last year (1999), we've done lots of touring and finished it the middle of last year.

Q: How's the tour with the Duran Duran guys going?
Tim: We didn't expect anything. We just thought we'd get up, play, do our thing and if people like it then great. I was there when the band were big first time round an they seem like cool people. Our tour manager, Simon, used to work with them at the height of their hedonism so we've heard all the tales.

They've done it all so I'm not at liberty to divulge any of the secrets that have been passed onto us, but were in training. They've left their legacy for us to continue.

Svet: Its been on the up all year and with playing Wembley Arena just before Christmas, we couldn't ask for a better present.
 

Q: Is there enough rock stars around at the moment or has rock music just become too boring?
Damon: I mean Stereophonics got on TOTP's. If you go and see them at a sweaty gig you'll think great band, but you could never picture them on TOTP's. It goes in waves - you get you're waves of nice guys, the sort of people who don't seem as if they want to be stars. And then the real rock stars come back in waves.

Tim: I miss people like John Lydon who had something to say, was an interesting person and was totally out there. I think when you're in a band you make music because you have to. If you're doing it just to become famous then that really reeks of insincerity.

Damon: When I first came into this country I had to work in a factory which was hell. I couldn't ever go back to that again.
 

Q: What will you be doing in 20 years time if the band split up?
Tim: I'd like to open a ladies hairdresser but I think we'll end up in producing. We just love working in the studio and you always get 3 good meals a day when you're in there. Vegastones Studio.

Damon: I'd love to produce the Webb Brothers but they don't really need us, they know exactly what they're doing. There's this band called Arkane that opened up for us on the first gig in Colchester - just a bunch of kids in Pokemon T-shirts but they were really good.
 
 

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