Hostiles: touring Europe
Posted by jamie on Jun 20, 2011
The Hostiles are off on tour. Dead exciting, this, because most of their live dates are in Scotland.
See the dates in full here:
Hostiles: UK tour
Posted by chips on Jun 4, 2010
The Hostiles will be on tour during the World Cup. Full dates on the facebook event here, but it DOES come to the south of England, in case, like us, you’ve been pining for this day. Joy to the world, etc, etc..
Kippertronix
Posted by chips on Apr 26, 2010
A is for Ape, the Hostiles, Truebeat and the Steady Boys are all among the bazillions of cool bands at May Day Kippertronix fest this weekend. See the full line-up here.
The Hostiles
Posted by jamie on Jan 27, 2010
The Hostiles
Jamie
27th January, 2010
It’s getting on for a year since The Hostiles first detonated all over the UK, when Always Looking Forward came out on SYWP and the guys backed up with a storming tour all over the UK. Since then they’ve played with everybody from Neville Staple to the King Blues and they’ll be all over their native Scotland and the north once again from the 29th (I wish they’d come here). If you’re new to the band, they play fairly contemporary take on the ska / ska-punk thing: comparisons with Fandangle don’t end with the fact that they’re from the UK and have an American singer. That said, though, their sound is pretty different. Actually, it’s pretty different from a lot of bands out there at the moment: sexy, feel-good horn lines mashed up with some giddying, good-time singalongs but at the same time with enough references to more old-school stuff and plenty of upstrokes and super-skankable melodies in there too. It all adds up to mean they can play at any show, and they pretty much have: from Chase Long Beach and Jaya the Cat to Random Hand and even Leftover Crack [eh? I had to check that one. But it’s true. J] the Hostiles get on every bill they can, and generally storm it. As they’re readying themselves to do it all again in 2010, Bananatown collared Josh (guitar, vocals) and Lynsey (alto sax) and got the lowdown on what’s new in The Hostiles’ world.
BT: Hey. How are things?
Josh - Good! New year, new plans, new shoes, its all good.
Lynsey – Things are ace thanks, life is pretty top notch at the moment.
Cool. So, just to get started, 2009 sounds like it was a big year for you guys. You must be pleased with how much you managed to get done?
Josh - Of course, we worked really hard this year. We released an album, cleared 85 shows and got to play with some of our favourite bands. You know when a wine connoisseur takes a drink from his glass and says “ahhh that was a good year”? That’s what 2009 was like for us!!!
Lynsey – Haha… Hostiles vintage 2009 could be said to be very full-bodied, packed with edgy kick but shame about the smell! We’re well chuffed about what we’ve achieved this year, its been very busy. I’m the newbie and only joined a year ago and it’s been non stop ever since.
You must feel like you’re really on the map now? I mean, we’re only just north of Watford, even we’ve been converted (admittedly the word came from our northern comrades at Bomb Ibiza). How does that feel?
Josh - Awesome! There is no better feeling than turning up to a place you have never been to and have people you never met excited to see you.
Lynsey – Yeah I spotted a few Hostiles t-shirts at Leeds this year - and I didn’t even know the person wearing them! Big Cheese gave our album a great review, and along with gigging as much as possible and word of mouth, especially thanks to all the folks in Manchester and the north of England, TNS, Ska Mutiny and the like, we’re pushing south, east and west!
Ha ha, cool. But you have been together for quite a while now, so how did it all start? Josh - My little bro (the 6′4 bass player known as Chris) and I moved over here in 2001. I’d been in a band in the US and still wanted to be a part of one. We met some friends at school, jammed out a bit, some vile cocktails made from random things from my mom’s kitchen were consumed, and BAM you have a band. Admittedly we were quite lazy the first half of career….we didn’t really take it seriously until a few years ago.
And your first love, you’ve said, is playing live. Is that what it’s all about with you guys?
Josh - Hell yeah! It’s up there with that big fat paycheck we get for playing! [note: he is joking here, alas, though the Hostiles would be richer than Beyoncé were there any justice]! Ha ha, but seriously I envy the bands that get to gig 200 times a year and I would love to get to that stage.
Lynsey – Playing live is what it’s all about for us; Random Hand had a wee sleeve note in their first album which totally rings true for me. It was along the lines of: you can stare at tarmac for 5 hours on the way to a gig and play to 10 people, but if those 10 people are all having a kick-ass time its defiantly worth it. And if they don’t at least you got another practice!
True words, I guess. Ah, the pen of Robin Leitch. So, does that mean it’ll be a while until we see a follow-up to Always Looking Forward? Because that’s fine too: ALF is supreme, but we’d love to get hold of another.
Josh - We have been quite busy the last few months with writing new material. Now we are in the process of recording demos for a second release so it might not be as long as you think [he says, with a cheeky wink. Watch this space!]
We’re used to describing you guys as a sextet (or sometimes a six-piece). Is there any news on a new trumpet player? Am I badly out of date? It does happen sometimes. Josh - I prefer sextet as it contains the word “sex”. According to a national poll “sex” is good and we want to be involved as much as we can with said goodness. But getting back on point, we’ve been talking to a guy from our hometown for a few weeks now about getting him on trumpet, but we’ve been sooo busy lately that bringing someone else in and then getting them up to scratch has just been impossible. Hopefully soon we will bringing the “sex” back to the people.
Lynsey – Sadly, with Josh as our frontman, the sexy aspect is always going to be limited!
Josh - Yeah limited to awesomeness!
Lynsey (ignoring Josh) – ..having a trumpet does make such a difference to our sound, though, so we’re keen to get it sorted ASAP. I’m a fan of bands like Streetlight Manifesto that have a big horn section, and we miss that full sound and the sweet harmonies when we’ve only sax and trombone.
Yeah, and then the tour is coming up soon..
Josh - We will just carry on as a…pent-tet? As a band with 5 members, anyway!
Lynsey – Yeah, we’ll just have to skank on and rock on regardless!
And when will we see you in the South? Shall we start pestering promoters for you?
Josh - We will be down your way in early March. Sadly, it’s quite hard getting down that far.
I see. Because you guys do have “real” jobs as well, right?
Josh - Unfortunately so. Well, I don’t, I go to uni but the rest of the band have proper jobs which we have to work around.
Lynsey – Yeah as with a lot of other bands at our level, we have to supplement our income which is a pain in the ass. But we’re a multitalented bunch: we’ve got a trainee chemist, an optometrist, a joiner and a finance expert in our ranks!
Josh - You said bunch…like bananas
So what can we do to get you down here?
Josh - Tell our story….let people know we exist and that we are the kinda people you would lend your car to.
Lynsey – Yup spread The Hostiles word! We’re trying to sort out a tour for later in the year that’ll include the south of England and Northen Ireland so keep your peepers peeled. Thanks Banana Town!
Josh - Haha you said peeled….like a banana
The Hostiles’ record Always Looking Forward is available direct from their myspace page (for the actual cd) or as a download from amazon, play, spotify and itunes - all links on the myspace. Their tour begins on 29th January, 2010.
