Since
Emma at WEA Records gave me lead singer, Dave Ryder-Prangley’s
phone number, I took the opportunity to call him up for a chat. It was
a Friday evening in September and he was at home watching Top Of The
Pops.
"If
anyone exciting comes on I’m going to go ‘Uuuh’"
he informs me! OK, but when are YOU going to be
on Top Of The Pops, David? I question "Oh, never at this rate!"
he witters.
I’d
tried calling David the evening before but was told by his flatmate,
also in a band - but not Rachel Stamp, that David was out and would
be in at varying intervals. Thus, I was quite surprised when he picked
up the telephone himself. I bet he’s one of these constant liggers
or party-goers, I thought. Always on the move, never stopping for breath,
hard to catch hold of. "Well, I do go out quite a lot. I normally
go and see bands. I just like going to see other bands and seeing what’s
going on."
One
of the bands that would merit a spot in his diary would be the London
band, Persecution Complex. "They’re not really doing that
much at the minute. I used to go and see them quite a lot. They are
a cross between Radiohead and Japan, if you can imagine that. They are
sort of strange and into a lot of eighties music but good eighties music
like Japan and David Bowie. They’re really brilliant and don’t
sound like anyone else really."
But
enough on Persecution Complex, we’re here to talk about Rachel
Stamp. How are things in the Rachel Stamp camp at the moment - hectic
or quiet?
"Fine
at the moment. We haven’t got a keyboard player at the minute.
But we’ve got two on rotation!" he laughs. "We borrow
them from other bands at the minute because our old keyboardist went
to play with Oasis... But we don’t talk about that!"
The
current line-up of Rachel Stamp is David, guitarist Will Crewdson, and
a new drummer called Robin. Cliff, drummer on ‘Bring Me The Head
of...’ "just left for one reason or another" according
to David. "He had a lot going on with his family and stuff like
that. It all got a bit much for him and he just decided to leave. He
plays for a few other people and he’s just starting his own band".
When
asked for a definition of Rachel Stamp, David comes up with "We’re
like Roxette with VD".
He
talks of the split with WEA Records. The suits who originally signed
the band apparently left the company about two months after they were
signed, moving to EMI. The band decided to stay and hope for the best,
but things didn’t quite work out. "The week we got dropped
we were supporting No Doubt and doing all these really big gigs and
Warners were there going ‘Oh, well we just don’t know how
to market you’, so we just thought we’d go."
Couldn’t
you get in with EMI then?
"Well,
by the time this had already gone around, the people who had signed
us and gone to EMI had left EMI. Yeah, the record industry works in
weird ways; It’s only when you are a part of it that you realise
how horrible it is."
So
what’s happening now?
"We’re
going to start our own label. We’re going to put our own records
out at the moment. So we’ve just done a new single. We’re
in the process of getting all the cover together and all that stuff."
The single’s called ‘My Sweet Rose’. David tells me how
the band always try to put different things on the B side of their singles.
With their first single he says he didn’t even sing on it! "We
got someone else to sing it and it was all done with drum machines and
stuff. I wanted to sound like The Flying Lizards so I got a girl to
sing on it and she sounded like The Flying Lizards! We like doing that.
We don’t like to stick to one thing."
"Whenever
we go into recording studios we don’t have any fixed rules as to
who does what. I play bass but I don’t actually like playing bass
so if I can I’ll get Will to do it or our keyboard player will
do it or sometimes we don’t even have any bass on the record. We
just have synthesizers doing it. I think it adds more variety to the
sound."
I
ask if ‘Bring Me The Head Of...’ is still available. A couple
of friends want it but can’t find it anywhere. The vocalist doesn’t
know. He said they used to sell them at their gigs after being dropped
but has none left now. "Hopefully at some point we’ll put
out a mini album with all the singles on it." he adds. "I
did find our first single in a bargain bin in Scotland for 50p so I
bought it of course because I didn’t actually have a copy myself."
Any
new exciting songs you’re itching to put out?
"Yeah,
we’re actually going into the studio on Monday to demo some. We
almost want to write a whole new album even though our first one never
came out. So we’re just going to try and write a whole lot of new
stuff."
Back
to the support with No Doubt - how was that? He replies "It was
really good fun. They were really nice to us. It was brilliant really.
It was a sold out show so it was just great. They’re one of my
favourite bands anyway. I had their album ages ago, it wasn’t just
when we were going to support them."
The
band also supported Korn, strangely enough. "Yeah, that was really
funny. You’ve heard Korn, and you’ve heard us... So just imagine!
It was brilliant - when we walked on I think people thought we were
girls! And then when the lights went up people were like ‘Oh my
God’. From the moment we went on stage to the moment we left we
just had cans thrown at us the whole time. But it was really funny.
We just thought it was hilarious. They were empty cans you know, they
don’t actually hurt. So you could actually stand there and get
hit with a can in the head and it doesn’t actually hurt. So it
was quite funny actually and we were really hard and wound the audience
up as much as we possibly could!"
Who
would possibly arrange for a band like Rachel Stamp, with their glam
pop rock campiness to support a band like Korn? "We just got it
through our agent. I’d never even heard them before we played with
them. Our guitarist had their CD and he rang me up the day before and
went ‘Er... I’ve just listened to the CD... I don’t think
we’re going to go down very well.’ But it was good because
the singer from Korn wanted a band like us to support them because he
didn’t want a band who sounded like Korn".
Oh...
I think there was no chance of that!
"There
was a band on before us called Above All, just like that heavy metal
hardcore kind of thing and they kind of went on and went down well and
whatever, and they walked off and no-one would remember who they are,
y’know. With us, we kind of went on and by the time we left, everybody
knew who we were! It was probably the best thing we could have done
because we got a lot of respect from all the real hardcore metal kids
in London. A lot of them turn up to our shows now. At the time they
were like ‘What the f**k’s going on? What is this?’ y’know,
but by the end of it I think they thought that we had a lot of nerve
to do it. I think they quite liked that."
Rachel
Stamp were lucky enough to perform at the Phoenix festival in July.
How was that?
"It
was good. The festival was a bit weak because we’re so used to
playing clubs where people literally fall over onto the stage. When
you do festivals they’re just so big and really scary! It’s
weird, kind of like being a bit lost, really.
"We
did T In The Park before that. The tent at the Phoenix was actually
smaller because at T In The Park we played the NME stage, which was
quite a big tent. We were on at midday which was quite bizarre.
"It’s
good playing out of London. In London audiences are a bit cool sometimes.
Everyone’s just stood there really trying to look cool. When you
do festivals people get really, really into it. The last couple of things
we did were two festivals in Wales. You know I’m from Wales. And
they were brilliant. They had to bring extra security to the front of
the stage. People were stage-diving and crowd-surfing and all that stuff!
It was really good fun doing that."
Have
you got a big following in Wales?
"We
didn’t up until then but I think people kind of read about us in
Kerrang! and Melody Maker, and came to see us out of curiosity. That
was probably the best thing we’ve done - those two festivals, one
in Cardiff, one in Swansea."
Did
you get around to watching any of the other bands on the bill?
"Yeah,
in Swansea Tampasm were playing so I went to see them because I really
like them. I saw a bit of Terrorvision but Terrorvision’s not really
my thing. We were supposed to do a gig with Tampasm ages ago but we
didn’t. They cancelled it because the guitarist had to go to hospital.
I think we’re doing a gig with them in London in King’s College
in November. That’s the plan anyway."
Living
in London, the band obviously do quite a lot of gigs there...
"Yeah,
but we’re stopping. The next one is that November 12th one. Basically
we can’t afford to tour because we haven’t got a record company
to give us the money to afford to do it. But as soon as we can do something
we will."
I
guess you must see the same old faces at your gigs in London.
"Yeah,
it’s getting to that now, but we do get more and more people every
time we play, which is good.
David
says that if he could pick a celebrity to attend a Rachel Stamp gig
it would be Joan Jett. A self-proclaimed massive Joan Jett fan, he met
her when he was 14 and she has remained his idol ever since. "She’s
just brilliant" he declares with an awe-inspired gasp.
Talking
of female icons, a silly question now...Who’s best - Barbie or
Sindy?
"Barbie
of course" he answers nonchalantly. "Sindy’s head is
too big! Barbie’s fantastic. I’ve got a Barbie poster on my
wall - Hollywood Barbie!"
We
then chatter on about Barbie for a while before I tell David I saw his
face in Kerrang! from the Kerrang! Awards. He explodes "Oh God,
I was so drunk!" ...With Jo Guest and whatsername from Gladiators.
"I really regret having that photo taken! It’s a Page 3 girl,
that’s awful! And I didn’t know the other was a Gladiator.
I didn’t know who she was but I was quite pleased she was a Gladiator
because that’s quite funny isn’t it? Of all the pictures they
printed they had to print that one!"
You
must have been chuffed to have been nominated though. "Yeah, that
was amazing" he replies, "because we were the only unsigned
band to be nominated for anything really. So that was really good.
"From
what I remember the Awards were really good. I remember spilling a drink
over someone from Marilyn Manson by accident which was quite amusing!
It was quite funny really because we’re quite known in clubs and
fanzines and stuff like that, and a lot of these big bands would walk
in and think ‘Who the f**k are these people who are being really
drunk and falling over?’ and it was us! A lot of the bands were
from London that we know, bands like Feeder and 3 Colours Red, bands
like that. It was really good fun from what I can remember."
Future
plans for Rachel Stamp include putting an album out or preferably getting
a new deal "because we’re completely broke" says David.
"We’re starving artists, it’s awful! Well, I dunno about
the artist bit but we’re starving".
My
advice is to try and get hold of some Rachel Stamp material and go and
see them play live. Apparently someone once handcuffed themself to David
during a gig! She (I assume it was a she!) must have been very impressed
then! I’m sure you will too!!!
Visit www.rachelstamp.co.uk for
more info.
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