Check out these highlights of our gig with Electric Six. They were shot on the newly patented helmet-cam(tm) as worn by Mr Majestic & Sgt. Marmaduke!
Continuing the trend of supporting international touring bands such as Electric Six and The Rubberbandits, we’re very pleased to announce that we’ll be opening for swashbuckling heroes ALESTORM as they land in Belfast on February 11th at Queen’s SU!
This is the second gig we’ll be playing at for RAGNAROCK, one of Belfast’s best rock and metal club nights. They play our tunes on a regular basis and have been very supportive of our music. A big thank you to them and to ALESTORM for requesting for us to be let out for the night to play this gig! Also joining us on the night will be Claim The Throne from Australia!
Tickets are sale from Ticketmaster and you can confirm your attendance on the Facebook Event Page!
We’re pleased to announce that we’ll be supporting Electric Six at the Spring and Airbrake, Belfast on November 25th!
Known widely known for their big hits Gay Bar and Danger! High Voltage, Electric Six have been consistently releasing albums and rocking stages across the world for the last ten years.
This gig is on a Friday and is guaranteed to be an evening of pure mayhem – get down early and help us get the party started!
Here’s what promoters CDC Leisure had to say about Electric Six:
“Detroit-based rock six-piece Electric Six, famous for banging tracks ‘Danger, High Voltage’, ‘Gay Bar’ and ‘Dance Commander’ have announced an intimate date in Belfast at The Spring & Airbrake on Friday 25th November. Tickets entitle the gig goer access to Disco A Go Go in the Limelight after the show. Tickets are on sale Wednesday 9th March.
Electric Six’s 2002 breakout single ‘Danger! High Voltage’ was an infectious dance-rock number, the single reached number 2 on the UK singles chart, and they enjoy icon status in that nation. Their second single, ‘Gay Bar’, released in 2003, became a hit as well in the UK, reaching #5 in the charts and further aided the group’s growth.
Since the release of the their debut single ‘Danger High Voltage’ Electric Six have released 7 studio albums, the latest ‘Zodiac’ was released in September 2010. Zodiac begins in a most hauntingly poppy fashion with ‘After Hours’, aesthetically borrowing more from the Martin Scorcese film of the same name than with the Velvet Underground song of the same name.
Zodiac differs from many of its predecessors in the Electric Six discography. It is largely lower-fi, not necessarily in sound, but in essence. Tracks like ‘I Am A Song!’ and ‘Table and Chairs’ see the band embracing its love of The Poppy Family, Neil Diamond and The Doors.
But Electric Six will always hold the centre with equilibrium force. Songs like ‘Jam It in the Hole’, ‘Clusterf**k!’ and ‘American Cheese’ show you that Electric Six is never done being the band that you want them, to be.”
Had enough of local flaccid rock rags? We’re playing tomorrow in the Limelight to help launch a new magazine dedicated to hard rock and metal! here’s the details from their Facebook event:
To Celebrate the Launch Of Molten Magazine we have decided to put on our first gig in order to showcase some of the islands finest talents.
As an added incentive we will be giving the first ever issue of Molten Magazine away absolutely FREE whenever you pay in to the gig.
There is also FREE admission to the Rock/Metal club RADIATION afterwards which will include a number of drink promos.
Headlining will be Dublin’s Red Enemy, with support coming from Dead Til Friday and Mental Deficiency.
A gig not to be missed.
Red Enemy ————
“Starting off in 2008 the Dublin based act Red Enemy have established themselves well amongst the Irish and UK metal audiences with they’re own unique blend of melodic metal. Following the large success of their debut self-funded EP “Outsiders”, recorded at Studio 6 in Swindon (Bring Me The Horizon, Eternal Lord), the band have enjoyed their biggest audiences to date playing countless shows across… the country. Support slots with the likes of Canada’s giants Despised Icon (Century Media Records), tours along side rising superstars Tesseract and triumphant performances as main support to Parkway Drive have pushed Red Enemy into the forefront of the Irish metal scene.
The band have recently released their second EP “What We Are Contained In, Is What We Are Worth” to critical acclaim from peers in Ireland and abroad. 2011 is poised to be a big year for Red Enemy.”
Dead ‘Til Friday ————
Dead ‘Til Friday is 5-piece a hardcore rap metal band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Formed in 2008, the band played extensively in venues throughout the country, and gained a reputation for developing a “fresh” new sound for Irish metal.
2011 has so far been the most successful year for the band. In January DTF embarked on an Irish tour with Your Demise and Lower Than Atlantis. By February, the band finished writing their new CD, entitled ”Water”. This CD has been the most mature work to date, encompassing everything from rap, to hardcore and even djent. Dead ‘Til Friday recorded and mastered this CD themselves, in order to achieve their ideal sound. This CD was posted online on 13th March and has been received with great enthusiasm.
Mental Deficiency ————
With a live show that entertains like no other paired with pummelling rock music, Mental Deficiency have been on run from the law for the last year.
Their crime: rocking too hard.
Fuelled by a mission to rock and an unhealthy obsession with RoboCop and other 80s movies, MD have just released their debut EP, ‘Musically Challenged,’ to great acclaim from the world leaders. It is expected to end all wa…rs and conflict throughout the galaxy within five years and throughout the universe within ten years. MD are the antidote to the increasingly excessive pretensions of the local music, ‘scene.’ Musical genres such as metal and punk, once rebellious and encouraging of individual expression, have developed their own rules and limitations. MD were forced to invent an entirely new genre of music: Heavy Mental.
Entry is £5 and we’re on at 9:10!
The Belfast music scene is a funny old place. New bands rise to the top from nowhere and disappear just as quickly, the writers fall over themselves to label musicians and geniuses and it seems that everyone has had a go at being a music photographer at some point.
Despite the constant change, it is reassuring to know that for several years a Belfast rapper has been working consistently as the opposition to sappy love songs, pretentiousness, flaccid rock and flashes in the pan. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you ROYSTA.
NOTE: This interview, like the one before it, was carried out several months ago and is a tad out of date. It’s just as entertaining though!
1. What are you currently working on? This is the only chance you get to promote your current shit.
I’ve just finished my new ep/album (haven‘t decided which to do yet), it’s a stripped down electro-punk exercise in the macabre and quite a departure from last years Thundercock, which was a sample heavy elaborate kick in the balls with a hip replacement shoe. After that I’m going to put out a mixtape with unreleased songs and covers that didn’t make it on this new album or Thundercock, of which there are 30 odd of, and whatever new stuff I come up with between now and then. I’m also working on a rap project called The Lipstick Spides, that’s me and The Bangtail Cat, which is two years in the making and still only three songs long. I’d also like to get a band together for a punk project I’ve demoed called Fresh Meat which sounds like The Cramps re-enacting 2girls1cup into The Misfits’ truncated anus while The Gun Club watch from behind a velvet curtain silently masturbating with a glove made from jeggys.
2. Rate the following Northern Irish hotties on a scale of one to ten, one being a chick not even worthy of some Millie Pimpin, ten being someone whose team you’d like play for in the Venereal Olympics.
This could be difficult, as I glance down that list I only recognize a handful of the names, specifically the homosexuals/cross-dressers who may or may not have given me confused gender issues in my youth. I shall have to use the power of google image search to complete this frankly shameful task.
Rose Neil - Ah right, I know who she is now. I actually have a true memory story about Rose Neil. In my prepubescent youth, around the time of sexual awakening and awareness, but before I could actually ejaculate (when what I can only imagine was scrotal air came out of my orgasming penis), let’s say around 9 years old, I had a strange fantasy while watching her read the news. I’d imagine her blowing off under the desk and this would some how turn me on. Everyday I’d sit there watching her and get a tingle in my pubeless genitals at the thought of her farting then seductively smelling the air, putting down her news reading notes, staring straight into the camera and saying, ‘That one’s for you Lee.’ I am fully aware that makes my adolescent mind seem like it was preparing to write a follow up to ‘120 Days Of Sodom’ and I now wish you had never brought the name of Rose Neil back into my conscious as the repressed horrors of childhood have flooded back to me. I’ll have to postpone this interview until the drug abuse I’m about to partake in has masked the terror of it all…….OK, after that horrifying sequence of events I shall no longer be using google images to drag up horrendous recollections of forgotten Northern Irish news readers and such. Lets continue as planned….Rose gets a 0 by the way.
Pamela Ballantine – I give Pamela a 0 too as she falls into the category of people who have surnames that sound like other surnames only spelt or pronounced wrong, examples would be: Ballantine – Valentine, Walliams – Williams ect…
May McFetridge – I’m 90% sure this is the man who dresses like my granny use to and I’m 100% sure I read a review of one of my shows were I was compared to him. The only redeeming feature about May McFetridge is that the character is missing a front tooth, automatically putting her inline to join my ‘Gapped Tooth Brother and Sisterhood’. I’ll have my secretary send the application papers over shortly May, 10.
Christine Bleakley – I once described Christine Bleakley as being an empty vessel of a human being, grinning blankly into a camera while the gerbil powering her brain slowly stumbles off it’s wheel and wheezes up the last of the tumour in its already ruined lungs, I don’t think I need to say anymore. 0.
Donna Trainor – I have absolutely no idea who this is but seeing as I’ve give every female so far 0 and the only male/cross dresser 10, I’ll award Donna 10 just so I don’t seem to be a women hating misogynist and all round prostrate deny-er.
Gloria Hunniford – I think she sometimes hosts ‘Cash In The Attic’, which is on before ‘Bargin Hunt’ on a weekday afternoon. It is common knowledge that I hold Tim Wonnacot, the host of Bargin Hunt, in god like admiration and he is vice president of ‘The Gapped Tooth Brother and Sisterhood’ meaning Gloria gets a 5 by way of association.
Una McKeever – Who? 0 for not having penetrated my consciousness yet, thou no one wants to hang around in there. It’s like Josef Fritzl’s basement, the Jordache’s patio from Brookside and Albert Fish’s lower colon all rounded into one.
Mary Peters – The fact she has a running track named after her, and the fact that I hated P.E. at school and had to feign a knee injury for 4 years just to get out of having to shower naked with a class full of pubeless spides and closest rapists in the making means she gets a big fat 0. Looking back at P.E. with adult eyes, our teacher was definitely a homosexual, whose apparent marriage was a sham or at least a beard, and he may or may not have helped me wash my sweaty genitals at one time and shaped a lifetime of sexual issues.
Linda Bryans – Dunno who this and can’t even think of anything witty or even slightly controversial to say! 10 to Linda, 0 for me.
Titty Von Tramp – When not in drag, I am well informed, that Titty Von Tramp is a member of ‘The Bald Headed Brotherhood’, of which I am grand master and all round leader of the Bald Revolution, so by default he automatically gets a 10. He is also well aware of the fact that real men wear heels! I actually once woke up after a very heavy few days on the booze, in a bedroom unknown to me. Thru sleep stuck eyes and with the cloak of a hangover slowly descending on me, I surveyed the room well aware their was someone still asleep beside me. I saw they had the most fabulous
collection of shoes lined up on the floor, stilettos, leopard print heels, platform boots, the lot. It then dawned on me that these shoes looked like they would fit me and that the person beside me must be a very tall girl or a transvestite. I’ll leave it to you to decide which it was…
Julian Simmons – 10, no questions asked. His skin tone is the exact same colour as his hair. Looking at him is like having a spotlight shined in your face at some kind of paramilitary knee capping inquisition. A beaming lighthouse of true Northern Irish celebrity.
3. At a time you had a hardcore posse of dirtcore rappers helping you out on the vocals during your live shows. At your last few shows you’ve been going solo. Why is this?
Basically my ego has dangerously inflated to the size of a small zeppelin and the mere thought of anyone else basking in the glory of my achievements makes me dry retch until I vomit into my handbag, but latest reports suggest this:
The Bangtail Cat was last seen living in a Ukrainian fishing village were he spends his time dressed as a schoolgirl and was last spotted eating handfuls of mephadrone from a sawn off dolphins beak.
Kano has been captured by a paedophile ring, were he regularly has his mouth offered up to the highest bidder from a panel of known and wanted sex criminals, and spends the rest of the time crying into his mutilated genitals.
The Dirty Camel is recovering from a botched gender reversal operation which left his vagina resembling a Tescos value pasta bake which has exploded in the microwave.
Beerface can be seen, on the 6th hour of the 6th night every other month, flying high above the streets of Belfast on a giant swan‘s back shooting lazer beams from his urethra and screaming, ‘How’d you like me now, eh!!’
4. Pick between the following two options and explain your decision. You MUST choose only one. It’s life or death. If you don’t pick, you get killed horribly.
Option A – You kidnap someone and lock them in a basement for a week. They have plenty of food and water, a toilet to use and they aren’t physically harmed. However at periodic intervals you make loud screaming noises outside the door and wave a chainsaw about. After a week you release them. They never know where they have been and have no idea of your involvement, so you’ll definitely get away with it.
Option B – You are at a family reunion in a hotel and everyone is there, even distant cousins and the weird uncle nobody talks about. The waiters bring out what is supposed to be a roast pig. Everyone is excited to see the pig with the little apple in it’s mouth and they can’t wait to eat him. To your entire family’s surprise, the waiters wheel out you. You are butt naked, tied up and you are gagged with a butt plug. After the initial shock, your family understand that you had to do it or you would be killed.
This is difficult as I have actually been in both of them situations. I’m lying of course, but I do suggest whoever wrote the first option should seek immediate psychological treatment for the goodness of society and the progression of mankind as a species! This reminds me of a game I use to play with friends, I named it ’Would You Rather!’. You’d give someone two options of things they had to pick and if they didn’t pick one they were made to commit a sex crime. A typical game would go like this: Would you rather lie under a glass table while your mother squats above it defecating out live chicklets, you inserted in her rectum, at knife point, earlier in the day. Then cramming the faeces into her mouth while crying and pleading for your father to stop rimming you off while you insert a bee-sting-butt plug into his bleeding and ruptured anus. All the while a pack of stray dogs take turns in wanking themselves off into your tear filled eyes. OR Be raped. I’m starting to think you stole this idea from me and have hastily contacted my lawyers. I am in the process of making this into a game show to be shown on UTV and presented by Rose Neil.
5. If the following legends of hip hop had a Rap Battle, who would win and why?
Chuck D vs Melle Mel: Chuck D definitely, he’s done a song with Anthrax! When Melle Mel steps up the challenge and collaborates with Pig Destroyer, then maybe I my mind could be changed.
Snoop Dog vs Eazy E (If he were alive): Snoop would be far too stoned to see the AIDS infected needle Eazy E was sliding into his jugular to even spit his first punch line, Easy E wins by straight up cold blooded murder.
Kool Moe Dee vs Tupac (if he were alive): I thought Tupac was still alive, I could have swore I seen him working in Tescos on the Lisburn Road, packing bags and grooming his ‘tash in the wing mirror of a ‘92 Ford Fiesta.
Dr. Dre vs Biggie Smalls (if he were alive): Biggie would ‘fist fuck ‘em, dump ‘em in the trunk’, plus Dre would need to be wearing an ear piece so his ghost writers could feed him lines, aint that right hip hop pundits.
Vanilla Ice vs Marky Mark: These two are masters of their craft, the battle would never end, an infinite war of lyrical ingenuity. Between them they have written some of the most complicated metaphors and smartest similes the rap world has ever heard. The winner would be the one who died of old age first. Legends.
6. Tell us about your experiences playing at the following Belfast venues:
Laverys: This is my spiritual home! I’ve been drinking in Laverys since I was sixteen and most definitely hold it responsible for the ongoing migration of my liver to the outside world. All my early gigs there were extensive displays of debauchery which I hold dearly in the clogged up of arteries of my deteriorating heart.
The Pavilion: I played probably my favourite gig ever there this year with a pack of degenerates called Mental Deficiency, I doubt that gig will ever be topped and if it is I promise to kill myself live on stage the same way GG Allin lied about doing…
Kelly’s Cellars: The first time I played here was one of the only times I’ve ever considered cancelling a gig. See I made the mistake of going out drinking the night before. It came to around 5 in the morning and I foolishly thought it would be a good idea to carrying partying instead of going home and getting some sleep before the gig. By the time at came to go the venue I had possibly aged 25 years over the course of one and a half days. I think I even wept a little at the thought of playing. By some miracle I actually made it to the gig and found the ability to perform and it turned out to be a class night. The wonders of the promise of heroin, eh?
Auntie Annies: I fear playing Auntie Annie every time, it’s not because the venue intimidates me or I’m nervous. It’s because the stage is so small and each time I play there my ego has grown so much that it’ll get to the point were I wont fit onto that little stage anymore.
The Empire: I was probably at my most soberest ever playing there as my ol’ mucker, local behemoth of the dance scene and main geezer from Endless Music, Spencer had put it on and I didn’t want to let him down with my drunken idiocy. I think most of the crowd were there to see David Holmes but I didn’t let that put I dent in my ever inflated self-worth. The Bangtail Cat, who was too sick to rap that night instead took control of the music behind the decks for me. We didn’t believe he was really sick until we witnessed him vomiting on David Holmes record bag. Oh the shame of it all…
7. Now it’s time for complete the sentence. We start it it, you finish it.
To relax after a gig I… Run the streets barefoot, punching pigeons and kicking homeless dogs to death.
My favourite type of female clothing to dress in is…Anything freshly soiled or stolen from a washing line/playschool.
The government should legalize…Murder.
My favourite bands are…The Cramps, Danzig, The Misfits, The Locust, The Gun Club and a whole array of generic punk/hardcore/metal bands.
My favourite film is…Eraserhead, Pink Flamingos and Hedwig And the Angry Inch.
If I were a burglar with HIV I would…Rape Roysta, violently.
I like a night out in Belfast because…It’s good to see that knife crime has taken over from glue sniffin’.
I hate a night out in Belfast because…A kicking from a bunch of vicious spides is always a bad way to know you’re still alive.
My favourite sub-genre of porn is…Snuff.
If I were gay I would…The boundaries of sexuality do not apply to me, I am a gender outlaw and gender terrorist and the more my libido withers away the more life as a eunuch becomes a reality! To be fair I’ve taken part in more homosexual activities than I have straight ones. That filthy little line called sexuality is as redundant as my hairline!
8. Would you ever start using musical instruments in your performances?
Probably not, after years of playing in an array failed bands and having to transport a 9 piece drum kit and various amps up dangerously steep stairs, breaking skins, strings, being out of tune and committing near manslaughter on fellow bandmates, it’s nice to just turn up with an mp3 player, plug it in and go.
9. Apart from your music, what other activities take up most of your time?
I’ve got a collection of short stories I’m working on at the moment, but who in their right mind would want to read them is the question at hand. I’ll probably get them out there sometime when I’ve some money and motivation. The title of it is, ‘My Urethra As The Rabbit Hole And Other Compulsive Lies I Accept As the Truth.’I also paint so if anyone wants an original Roysta piece, send out the messenger pigeons with your request and we’ll take it from there. To be honest the majority of my time is spent trying not to get burnt out of my house and hiding in said house with the blinds closed.
10. The last of Roysta. Tell us a bit about
The last album you listened to: Cage – Depart From Me, a glorious boxcutter in the decaying corpse of hip hop and the perfect album to open you wrists too while lying in the bath drinking neat vodka from your fathers freshly decapitated skull.
The last good film you saw: Machete! Beautiful, just beautiful. And A Serbian Film. After years of watching the most disturbing cinema I could get my hands on I finally met my match. That baby sounded to me like it was loving it, they were cries of joy not utter agony and despair! Also Inside and Martyrs were fabulous pieces of work.
The last bad film you saw: I had the displeasure of watching Rambo last night, I don’t know what on earth I was thinking but I spent the entire film working out the 9X table in my head, forwards and backwards.
The last TV show you watched: Columbo, always Columbo.
The last gig you played: That’d be in Aberdeen. Four days of total destruction and not a solid bowel movement since. Up the punx!!
The last venereal disease you had: Just getting over a particularly stubborn cold sore there, messy times.
The last time you were blocked: I think I’m still drunk from last night to be honest.
The last tattoo you got: A bucket full of severed heathens heads. Me and Jesus are best muckers don’t cha know.
The last painting you made: Probably some generic skull/zombie thing which took longer to made it look like a blind child done it than actually paint it.
The last song you wrote: I’m working on a song called ‘Hanging ‘Round Schools’. It about a case of mistaken identity and the hilarious consequences of innocently hanging round schools.
A big thanks to Roysta for taking the time to share the madness! What a legend!
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