Simon BOWLEY
underline © Copyright 2007 Rock Interviews dot com, Photos : Rock-Interviews.com.
manche

FrenchFrench Version


ukThis icone indicates a video

EDDIE AND THE HOT RODS - Interview - February 29th 2008
Venue SECRET PLACE (Saint-Jean de VEDAS/France)

Eddie And The Hot Rods on MySpace

  1. Where does the name Eddie & the Hot Rods come from ?

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com We had an old guitar player years ago called David Higgs and he loved the name hot rods because he picks fast cars.. which we do too... and then because we had a seperate singer, he wanted a name with it, so Eddie and the hot rods got born....He thought of it, we got stuck with it..all these years.




  2. Can you introduce Eddie & the hot rods with only 3 words ?

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com
    With only three words ? Fast, powerful and sexy...It's the next album !







  3. Barrie, what can you say after 32 years of career as the original member of the band ?

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com
    When do I get to sleep ? (laughing). No..I think it has been great....fun and I hope there are another 32 years to come.





  4. What do you prefer all of you : past - present or future ?

    Barrie MASTERS

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com Future...Yeah future definitely.

    AM : Why ?

    Barrie : It's the element of surprise. We know what happened before and what's happening at the moment. We're just doing what we normally do, getting drunk, so the future has got to be better...the future has got to be better than this...(laugh).

    Chris TAYLOR

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com Hi, I'm Chris, I'm a guitarist player of Eddie and the Hot Rods. I actually prefer the present. We are enjoying every minute of what we are doing at the moment. You never know what is around the corner with the future....Past is the past....yes and we are enjoying everything that is happening at the moment. Thank you very much !


    DIPSTER

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com Hi, I'm Dipster, I love you (laughing) and I prefer blonds. (Richard says : "and he is wearing my glasses"...Oh I'm sorry, don't worry.....he takes them off....!) 'You have got to say what you do'...Oh, I play the bass in Eddie and the hot rods.

    AM : What do you prefer ?

    Dipster : Yeh...What's coming round the corner, really (Barrie : yeh...so it's all future ?) Yeah future, it's always exciting...you don't know what it is, so take everything as it comes at the moment......it could be good or it could be bad.

    Richard HOLGARTH

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com Hi, I'm Richard, I am the guitarist of Eddie and the hot rods, one of the guitarists.... I am the oldest guitarist !

    AM : Are you ?

    Richard : Yes, I am

    AM : How old are you ?

    Richard : No I don't want to say how old I am, that's a guitarist's secret....

    AM : You don't want to tell the girls...

    Richard : Old enough to be an original member..if I wanted to......(laughing)

    AM : Do you prefer future too ?

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com Richard : I actually quite enjoy the past. It is funny what everyone says about the future...the future has a lot to look forward to, but for a band like Eddie and the Hot Rods there is an awful lot of the past to live up to - I think the two are inseparable. You can't look forward to the future with bands like Eddie and the Hot Rods unless you are in some way in touch with the past.We've got the reputation, deserved or otherwise, as a good live rock'n'roll band...and that's why we have a future.

    Simon BOWLEY

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com Hi, I'm Simon, I'm the drummer in the band and I'm obviously the sexy part of the band....really.....no one disagrees ? (laughing)

    AM : What do you prefer ? Future ?

    Simon : Future, definitely....

    AM : Why ?

    Simon : It's just exciting at the moment, there is lots of things happening for us at the moment, there is quite exciting times, there are tours, going back to America, Scandinavia, things that all happened in the past, but 20 years ago, and now we are going back there - so it's exciting.

  5. Which topic do you like to sing the most ?

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com My favourite topic is probably about real life, you know, anything real, rock'n'roll, life on the road, everything we know really. We've spent so much time on the road, that's all we really know, that and being loose and having fun, we seem to be good at that......



  6. How do you work to compose the songs ?

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com We work together, really, we all work together. We all come up with ours ideas and normally we have our annual rehearsal and we put the songs together and pick the songs from here.

    Richard : I think what's unusual for this band in terms of other bands, being round a long while like Eddie and the Hot Rods is that we are still making new records. In the last five years we released three LPs of new songs, so we do like to write as well as just sitting back and playing the old songs, which is great to play, but one of the problems we increasingly have is trying to find room in the set for new songs, whilst at the same time playing the ones that people like to hear from the old days. But no, we still write quite a lot, you know, not many bands from our era (Richard saying to Dipster : stop staring at me like this) not many bands do, a lot of them are prepaid, I think, mentioning no names, to just play the same old songs, time and time again (Dipster : you're very serious, it's serious business).

    AM : So you all write songs ?

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com

    Richard : Yeah.

    AM : Where do you find the inspiration ?

    Again, because it's the life on the road, the real life, it's that. Everyone's the same, it's very difficult to write about something you've never done. In the 60's and 70's you had a lot of people writing on acid, for instance...That was just for something to write that sounded different, 95% of the songs are about love, and just to find another subject that's worth writing about is very difficult, and I always think that unless you take some form of weird drug, you're not going to find a new thing to write about, so you write about what you know, so this is why people buy our album and listen to them and these are the things we obviously think about...it's a fun thing.

  7. Do you have some hobbies apart from the music ?

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com

    Barrie : Women and motorbikes.

    AM : And you ?


    Simon : The gym. Going down the gym, that's all I do.....

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com

    Simon to Dipster : Do anything outside playing drums...You just look at pornography.

    Dipster : Yeah, I surf the internet for classic sort of type of pornography....like boys, whatever, I can find...weird stuff with bestiality, everyone get fucked, bums, boobs....I have it all.

    Richard : Football..come on you Spurs.

    Chris : Football, socializing really.

    Dipster : Maybe he is a clapped out...

    Chris : Absolutely.

  8. Do you like to tour in France ?

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com All of them : Yes...great...we love it !

    AM : Why ?

    Richard : Because it's very friendly.

    Barrie : There are very friendly people, the food is excellent.

    Richard : And the roads are bloody brilliant.

    Barrie : Yes, but the roads are a bit long...if you could move all the towns together, we'd all be very happy !

    Richard : It's got to be said actually, compared to what it's like to drive around England..France is so much easier...it probably takes less time to drive from Calais to Paris, than it does to drive around to the shops in England.

    Barrie : It's a lovely country to tour, everything is different, the different parts of the country, it's nice, we really enjoy it.

  9. What do you think of the major record companies ?

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com Ha..now we are talking...it has really changed over the last 30 years as I have known it. It used to be a business where people took chances, and nowadays it's a 100 % certain business. They will not work for a band. They are not there to help the band. It could be washing machines, or floor tiles or car parts that they are selling...it doesn't matter to them. There's no music business anymore, they are selling units - it's a shame really, it's a real shame.

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com

    AM : What do you think of internet ?

    Barrie : Oh it's brilliant, it's the future, you know, it's going to take a few years for people to sort out how to use it really to get the best benefit from it.

    Richard : I think internet is a great tool for getting your music out, unfortunately the downside of that it's just as easy for someone who is crap to put their music out to everybody, as it is for someone who is good. Whereas in the old days I think the fact that most of the time the only way you were going to get your music out to the public was being picked up by a record company, who actually served as a kind of filter so that only the potentially good stuff got through, whereas now the downside of internet is that anybody with an internet connection can put any all crap on there, there is so much of it, and it's very hard to find the good stuff.

    Didier PASQUIER (tour manager) : It's true, yes it's true...

    (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com

    AM : What you say is very interesting...Yes, Barrie...

    Barrie : It's a shame that the record companies, they always are.......because it's run by very rich old people, they have always been slow to pick up...I mean the music business really dying the day they brought out cassette and VHS, as soon as people could copy and use it, that was it, that was the end because then the money is not coming through it becomes free, and as soon as something becomes free, there is no interest in business for it. So this is why it's gone the way it has. If they employed, you know, 30-40 years ago, younger people, people a bit more on the ball, on then they (c) Copyright Rock-Interviews.com could have saved the industry, but unfortunately they never managed it, it's too easy and sit back and say we are doing alright, right now, thank you very much, but they need to think of the future.

    Richard : I think record companies are spending more money at the moment on security, they're spending more money on trying to find ways of stopping people from copying and bootlegging. and getting free stuff on the internet... they spend more money on that rather than looking for the new talents, like Barrie says, a lot of their business these days is basically protecting the business they already have, rather than looking for new talents.

    • And here is a Bonus.......