Who are you heroes?
The Simpsons 

Who are your all time favorite bands? 
I've never really had any particular favourite style of music, never mind bands! Mainly good old British bands -  anything with 'The' in front of it...Stones, Beatles, Faces, Who, Jam, Pretenders...you get the idea. 

Who rocks your world today?
Still sticking with the same formula. The Wildhearts, The Killers... 

What annoys you at the moment?
The Music Business

What makes you happy?
The business of making music

Will we be able to catch the Rods live in 10 years time?
Fingers crossed. We already have a crash cart on our rider, so we are planning ahead... 

Formed in Spring 1975 in the Southend/Canvey Island area of Essex/England (also the birthplace of Dr Feelgood) The Hot Rods started life as the musical entertainment between old ladies bingo sessions. Quite what the old "dears" thought of five young ruffians playing rhythm and blues covers, at breakneck speed through battered old Vox AC30s is anybodys guess! This first line-up featured Barrie Masters (vocals), Dave Higgs (guitar), Pete Wall (guitar), Rob Steel (bass) and Steve Nichol (drums). Unfortunately Pete Wall and Rob Steel had not wanted to go pro and The Rods, setting their sights firmly on the big city lights of London, placed an advert in the Southend Evening Echo for a new (and more relieable!) bassist to make up a quartett. Fifteen-year-old Paul Gray, still at school at the time, answered the ad. "Can you play fast?" asked Dave Higgs. "Yes!" replied Paul, without really knowing - he had never been in a band before! "Then you have got the gig"!! Of such stuff dreams are made! . BARRIE - DAVE - STEVE - PAUL With Paul and the deraged harmonica player Lew Lewis The Hot Rods went straight forward to bring their own songs plus R&B-covers from the Thames-delta onto the stages of London for six weeks and obtain their first big break, a Saturday Night residency at The Kensington. By the way, Lew Lewis (who for some reason is also known as Lew Davis!), after several pints of lager, was renowned for relieving himself out of the van door on motorways after the gigs! In October The Rods, together with The 101s (including a young pre-Clash Joe Strummer) played at The Nashville in London and received favourable reviews in Sounds, being described as looking like one of those before-they-were-famous pics you get of The Rolling Stones! It is true to say that The Rods were really a six-piece, with manager Ed Hollis. Ed was a friend of Dr Feelgood and also a disc jockey at The Top Alex. Ed became driving force of the band, turning them on to the likes of The MC5 and The Stooges, together with some of the most obscure "nuggets" of Rhythm&Blues music. Their special highspeed live-appearances gave them the stamp of Punk - unjustified I think because they never had been satisfied with just strumming around the whole gig on three chords like f.e. the Sex Pistols. There are too many differences in the quality of many Hot Rods-songs to the usual Punk-stuff at that time. Listen to them to find it out easily on your own. Nevertheless, their tempo led to a contract with Island Records in November 1975 and they released the first single 1976: "Writing on the Wall/Cruisin in the Lincoln" co-written by Dave Higgs and Rods-manager Ed Hollis. The Rods spent the early part of 1976 establishing a following throughout the UK and France, collecting rave press reviews along the way. The constant gigging was to take its toll and in March 1976 Lew Lewis was asked to leave after jumping off the stage at Reading University and pelting the band with pint pots! (This is just ONE of the many stories about Lew to tell... maybe one day someone writes a book about "The Mad & Lunatic Canvey Son".) . BARRIE MASTERS - Vocals PAUL GRAY - Bass DAVE HIGGS- Guitar STEVE NIC(h)OL(s) - Drums . Along with Dr Feelgood, The Hot Rods became one of the leading bands in the "Pub Rock" boom sweeping the nation just prior to the coming of Punk. The Rods were actually outselling The Stones at The Paris Olympia, appearing Top Of The Pops performing "Get out of Denver" (live) and broke the house record at The Marquee Club in London, playing five nights in a row - a record that stands to this day! At a memorable gig at The Marquee (12/2/1976) The Sex Pistols played their first "proper" gig as the support to The Hot Rods. The Pistols proceeded to trash the stage, including The Rods gear! The Rods had been astonished that their support act indulged in such behaviour and promptly had thrown The Pistols off the tour after this one show, thus started open war in the music press between the darlings of Punk and the champions of Pub Rock.The cold wind of Punk Blowing through Britain in 1979 was probably the single biggest reason The Rods never achieved the "superstardom" their talent deserved. Not to be daunted though, The Rods debut album "Teenage Depression" became released on 10/12/1979 and reached the dizzy heights of 35 in the UK Top 100 LP charts and much critical appeal from the music press. Early 1977 saw Eddie & The Hot Rods recruiting a second guitarist, perhaps to harden up the sound in the face of intense competition of the up and coming aggressive Punk groups. Ex-Kursaal Flyer Graeme Douglas joined in. With new blood in the band The Rods headed off to become a live-attraction in the USA (58 gigs in 56 days!) and Europe with sold out gigs, lots of work and lots of fun. "Do anything you wanna do" secured their biggest hit, reached No.9 in the UK pop charts, and also was their philosophy of life. This Hot Rods -"Evergreen" was written by Ed Hollis and Graeme Douglas, an anthem for a generation also proved the band are more than an R&B unit and their ability to hold their own with the -at that time- new Punk movement. For a while The Hot Rods became "big news" in the music press, perhaps they had been more musical and less "threatening" than their Punk contemporaries. Television appearances (The Old Grey Whistle Test), a sell-out UK tour with Squeeze and The Radio Stars as support, the second album "Life on the Line" -yet again gatecrashed the UK album charts, this time peaking at a very respectable 27 and again received universal acclaim from all quarters- , a Europe tour with The Ramones and Talking Heads as support - 1977 was definately the Year of the Rods, even whilst The Sex Pistols developed their own brand of publicity by not playing anywhere and having most of their records banned! By the way, when The Hot Rods played The CBGBs they did not get payed after the show because the bill of their drinks was three times higher as their payment! Also it is no lie, The Rods had been "asked to go" for having too much fun at a Rolling Stones backstage party... And it is fact, in Oulu/Finland The Rods had been attacked with teargas, thrown into jail and straight sent back home with the next airoplane just for enjoing themselves too much(?) after a "MidSun"-festival. They had been banned from Finland! 1978 The Rods returned to a visit to the USA, this time themselves as support to Talking Heads and The Ramones, plus more tours of Europe and the prestigious headline slot at The Reading Festival. The summer saw the recording of demos for a new LP. "Thriller" was the title chosen for this last opus, a title that had been shamelessly "stolen" by one Michael "Wacko" Jackson some four years later! The recording of "Thriller" saw the priceless addition of Linda McCartney as backing singer, who for reasons best not to go into spent more time with The Rods than her husband! "Thriller" was released in February 1979 and managed to reach a modest 50 in the UK album chart. Through the constant pressure of touring and recording and its associated lifestyle, all too happiliy embraced by The Rods, cracks had begun to show. One particular disastrous gig at The Lyceum saw Graeme Douglas handing his guitar to a journalist in the photo-pit and proceeding to attempt to bite Steve Nichol on the ancles in mid-song! Graeme had been suitably shown the door shortly after by the surviving members of the band! By this time, Ed Hollis, having succumbed to the excesses of practically everything, was no longer on the scene and was replaced by Harry Maloney as manager. Not really understanding the band, his management was of a different style and The Rods found themselves without a record company and performing a very low-key and ill attended UK tour. The press too, so long supportive of the group began to turn against them and the camaraderie and fun of old had disappeared. After the recording of new demos -with Graeme at that time still present in the group- the band signed a record-deal with EMI on 28th of August, hopeful of better times to come. 1980 saw Paul Gray frustrated - probably from all problems coming and going to come back again - and having received phone messages all through 1979 from Rat Scabies and Captain Sensible of The Damned saying "join our band, you bastard!" So Paul decided to plug his bass into an amp of The Damned to do some demos for Chiswick with them at Wessex Studios. Paul remained in The Damned for over three years before he got himself a "proper" job with rock giants UFO in 1983, though he has been an occasional visitor over the years at various Damned reunion gigs. single from the 1979 session "At night" did escape on vinyl by EMI, but failed miserably to dent the charts. With Paul Grays departure (and of course Graeme left) The Rods recruited Tony Cranney, who had worked previously with Canvey-born Alison Moyet, and recorded a couple of singles and the "Fish n Chips" album, released in April 1981 by EMI. The album failed to rekindle past glories and sold miserably. A shame as all these years later it does not actually sound that bad! The fact was that it just did not sounded like The Hot Rods without Paul Gray and with Barrie Masters going to The Inmates (they made two albums together) and Steve Nichol joining (and recording one LP) with One the Juggler, The Rods ceased to be. Around 1984 "The New Hot Rods" Line-up: Barrie Masters/Vocals, Steve Nichol/Drums, Warren Kennedy/Guitar, Tony Cranney/Bass recorded the live album "One Story Town" at a gig in France and released a single "Fought for you", all recorded for Waterfront Records, a small Southend based independent label. But it was doomed to failure with once again the band breaking up. 1985 Line-up: Barrie Masters/ Vocals, Steve Nichol/ Drums, Warren Kennedy/ Guitar, Russell Strutter/ Bass By the way: This line up played at the first show of the 1st Lee Brilleaux Memorial in the Dr Feelgood Music Bar at May 10, 1994. Drummer at the second show the same day was Eddie Edwards (The Inmates, The Vibrators) Following info was sent in at February 20, 1998 by Geoff Ginsberg/UK: I was just looking at the page and the band history and something stood out. The 1990 reunion that I saw is not mentioned! It was the original line up plus Graeme Douglas and a 3rd guitarist (Warren Kennedy?). It was a killer 55 minute show at the 1/2 Moon in Putney. They would have played longer, but Steve Nichol's girlfriend's band (a horrible Quarterflash wannabee) took way more than their allotted time.BACK AGAIN 1992 the classic line-up from 1977 reformed for a one-off European tour after which Barrie, Paul and Steve decided to carry on working together. With Dave Higgs no longer interested in playing and Graeme Douglas behaviour being best described as "erratic", the band recruited firstly Steve Walwyn of Dr Feelgood. The Feelgoods had stopped touring when singer Lee Brilleaux started his brave fight against lymphoma. Steve was brilliant on stage but I am sure it was the worry about his good friend Lee which made Steve unable to become "one of the Hot Rods family". Gordon Russell, who was in Dr Feelgood a few years ago, joined in for guitar duties. With Gordon living in Paris this line-up was short-lived however, and on being offered a one-off album deal by Japanese based Creative Man Records, the band linked up with Manfred Mann Earthband guitarist Mick Rodgers. After the recording of "Gasoline Days" in May 1995 (the first studio album since 16 years!) The Rods with Mick Rodgers on guitar could be seen at various European Rock Festivals that year. However Mick was only on loan from The Earthband and early in 1996 he left The Rods to resume his work with them. Paul Gray - Steve Nichol - Barrie Masters - Madman Keyo Bassguitar - Drums - Vocals - Guitar The Rods looked around for a permanent guitarist, settling for the small but perfectly formed "Welsh Wizard of the Fretboard" - Keyo! He luckily filled more than just the hole Mick Rogers left open. With Keyo on board The Rods began a mammoth 40-days-UK-tour in April/May -their first proper one for seventeen years!-, played at important British biker-festivals as well as Summer-festivals in Europe. The UK saw the Rods back on stage in October, though sadly without drummer Steve Nichol, who had an accident with required surgery. Till he is back with drumsticks in his hands Jess Phillips from The Heavy Quartet/South Wales will keep the drum stool warm. The album "GASOLINE DAYS" was released in the UK on 29th April 1996 and in Japan in Autumn/Winter 1996. 10 of 11 songs are new material written by Paul Gray. The cd has got very good reviews in many magazines. Who wonders? To hear and see a band from the glory days of Punk and "all that" celebrating the 20th Anniversary on stage today with brandnew songs but the same raw might and strength like in their early days had fixed the memories of my youth which had been broken from watching mummies with make-up who only ride old horses to death on several festivals. 1997 should see EDDIE & THE HOT RODS on many stages in several countries. A 14-dates-Germany-tour in January was followed by touring Middle-Europe, Skandinavia. Naturally UK gigs and festival dates all through the year. How long do the fans in Japan have to wait (and they do!)? . THE HOT RODS in the year 2000 Gary Loker (g) - Barrie Masters (v) - Dipster (b) - Simon Bowley (d) Around the Milenium (2000) EDDIE & THE HOT RODS original member Barrie Masters recruited a bunch of new musicians (fresh blood - fresh air, right folks?!). With original Rods' drummer Steve Nichols nephew Simon Bowley (drums), Gary Loker (guitar) and Dipster (bass). In 2001 they released the album ''Luvly Ol' Job'', which unfortunately never made the records shops (so very quickly became an collectors item). Meanwhile Gary made headlines in the newspapers, breaking his leg (three times!!) during the Rods' appearance at the 8th Lee Brilleaux Memorial on Thursday May 10, 2001. In 2002/2003 another man joined the quartett, Richard Holgarth (guitar), well knows as John Otways 'partner in crime', mainly to 'step in' for Gary, who still suffered health problems. 2004 saw the launch of a new official website at www.eddieandthehotrods.com (http://hotrods.nacnud.info), so no idea at the moment what I will do with this one now. Maybe I keep it as an archive, it would be strange and sad to put 8 years work to grave (or dump), wouldn't it? What shall I do??? In any case I will continue to highly recommend a visit to Nick Clarke's excellent Hot Rods site at www.eddie-hotrods.com. It is a collectors paradise! On 4th March 2004 the Hot Rods officially announced: ''Sadly, Gary Loker is no longer with the band, due to a combination of personal reasons and his recent ill health. We would like to thank him and wish him all the best. With a desire to carry on working as a 5-piece, and with the new album, 'Better Late Than Never', released shortly, a replacement needed to be found quickly. The fearless Chris Taylor (ex Receeders) is our man, and he will make his debut supporting Dr Feelgood, on March 12th at Belvedere Park, Burton-upon-Trent.

www.myspace.com/eddieandthehotrods
www.eddieandthehotrods.com