Let's Talk Punk With Spitfire Bullets from the UK Interview By: Lisa/PunkrPrincess

We recently did a interview with  Lisa/PunkrPrincess for punk globe magazine! here is the article
you can also see the original article here >>> PunkGlobe Magazine

Let's Talk Punk With
Spitfire Bullets
from the UK
Interview By: Lisa/PunkrPrincess

Spitfire Bullets are an awesome band from the UK always supportive and rockin great tunes if you can see them live do and check out their sites:
http://spitfirebullets.wix.com/spitfirebulletsband
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/spitfirebulletsband/?fref=ts
Bandcamp
https://spitfirebullets.bandcamp.com/
and most other social media sites.

PUNK GLOBE: Hello guys and thanks for the interview, can you tell us the current band line up?

Spitfire Bullets: Hey Lisa thank you for interviewing us, at the moment our main line up is myself Robert on Lead Vocals and Guitar Michael on Bass Guitar and vocals And john on Drums, but he has just recently left the band.

PUNK GLOBE: How long have you been a band and are you all original members?

Spitfire Bullets: The band has been going for 4 years, and Rob and mike are the main original founding members, we have been playing together since 2010 when we first started out in a rock band together.

PUNK GLOBE: Tell us about your music scene in the UK.

Spitfire Bullets: The music scene in the UK, well in our area it varies from each year sometimes a big music scene then nothing!, but across the country its quite a big scene, with new bands forming almost every month!

PUNK GLOBE: Where are some of your favorite venues to play at?

Spitfire Bullets: we do have a few haha, our main venue we enjoy playing at is The Black Bull in Gateshead, its pretty much our version of CBGB’S! There is also the Borough pub in our hometown, where mike and me played our very first gig.

PUNK GLOBE: Who are some of the bands you have played shows with?

Spitfire Bullets: we have played with Rotunda, Logoz, TV Smith, The Ramonas, The Sex Pistols Experience, Angry Itch, Happy Spastics, that’s all I can think of.

PUNK GLOBE: Any tours in past or future?

Spitfire Bullets: we never done a tour before, but we would love to do one in the future just a mini tour round the UK, playing with the bands we previously played with.

PUNK GLOBE: What inspires you?

Spitfire Bullets: Lots really, The Ramones are a big inspiration to the music, and the writing but its mainly our lives growing up in Sunderland what inspires us more than anything else.

PUNK GLOBE: When and why did you start playing?

Spitfire Bullets - Rob: I started playing at 17 years old, I was in college doing a course to be a car mechanic, and just thought it might be fun trying out to play guitar and learn a few chords, 7 years later and am still playing so I must be good haha.

Spitfire Bullets - Mike: I took up guitar first in school during music class but I had a hard time playing cause it was too small for my hands, until my teacher gave me a bass to try and that was it. I just couldn’t put it down.

PUNK GLOBE: Which famous musicians do you admire? Why?

Spitfire Bullets - Rob: I do admire Johnny Ramone, just because of his playing, I know people say it a lot but when I first saw a video of the Ramones playing live and saw Johnny’s Guitar playing, at the time of still learning the guitar I really didn’t know you could do that on a guitar, I always thought it was up and down strumming, not strum down really hard and angry and have no guitar solos, it was perfect!

Spitfire Bullets - Mike: Cliff Burton is one of my favorite bassist, I do like Metallica, and his playing style really got me into playing bass, it just made me want to play like him and own a Rickenbacker

PUNK GLOBE: What are your fondest musical memories? In your house? In your neighborhood or town?

Spitfire Bullets - Rob: the best memory I can think of is the time I saw PIL in Sunderland playing a small festival and I stood right in front of Johnny Rotten staring at him in amazement. I was so close to him I could shake his hand.

Spitfire Bullets - Mike: Its probably the time me and rob played Houghton Feast in 2012, we were told we’d be playing in front of a crowd of 1000 people or more, but it was actually 10 or 20,000 I can’t remember, we played a cover of God Save the Queen, and Rob was very nervous that day after being told how many people we were performing in front of.

PUNK GLOBE: What are the best and worst things if any of being a musician?

Spitfire Bullets: The best things, is being able to write your own music and express yourself in your own way, the other best thing is you get to meet some awesome bands and hang out with them! the worst things, is just trying to find the same like minded members or even work round your day job to play and perform in a band.

PUNK GLOBE: Do you get nervous before a performance?

Spitfire Bullets - Rob: Yep but it depends on the gig, like when we supported the Ramonas I couldn’t sleep the night before, and on stage I stuttered a lot during breaks between songs But if its just a plain old local punk band supporting punk band gig and its mainly friends at the show, my nervousness just goes and I end up very calm.

PUNK GLOBE: What advice would you give a new band starting out?

Spitfire Bullets: Practice hard no matter how bad you think you are, just practice hard write terrible songs if you have to or play covers and play any gig you get offered, even if its an open mic, “A GIGS A GIG” as we always say start from the bottom and work to the top.

PUNK GLOBE: Describe your music making process.

Spitfire Bullets: This is a tricky one, usually its Rob who comes up with the lyrics and guitar parts, he would come up with a song idea from either reading a book, watching a film or just having conversations with friends. Then he would play about with it, write down the lyrics and try and work a guitar style round it, sometimes he would listen to a certain band to get the drum beat idea or even how the guitars would go in his song. Mike comes up with any bass lines that can fit on either instrumental parts of the song, or what would fit round the vocals. And John would record our little jam and come up with a beat at home on his drum kit, then we would practice it until its perfected.

PUNK GLOBE: Any upcoming shows or news you would like to announce?

Spitfire Bullets: We haven’t got any shows booked just yet, but we would like to announce we do have two demo tracks of our newest original songs on Soundcloud and we have recently released our EP and single for Download on Bandcamp! We also have T shirts!!! And patches on sale at the bandcamp site too!!

PUNK GLOBE: Any shout-outs you would like to give?

Spitfire Bullets: I wanna give a shout out to Richie Ramone, Charlie Harper, Lisa PunkrPrincess, Punk Globe Magazine Readers, our good friends Logoz and all of our friends who support Spitfire Bullets and our Music!

PUNK GLOBE: Thanks for the interview and your continued support You Rock!

Spitfire Bullets: Thank you PunkrPrincess and Punk rock globe for interviewing us!!! It was fun!

The Black Bull - Supporting The Band for Disease Control and Prevention 28-05-2016

It was another one of those last minute decisions that we had on a late Friday night!
with all the guys having a free Saturday and nothing to do we needed to play a gig for the night
and behold there was an opening at our favourite punk pub the world famous Black Bull!


The Band for Disease Control and Prevention we're playing and there was no support bands confirmed for the show, until a quick phone call to shev soon sorted that out right away!!

Down at the Bull nice and early to set up our gear, we had the usual hiccups with equipment, since our good 'ol drummer hopped in the car with us, saving the journey in two cars, we could only bring what would fit in a tiny Nissan Micra, which is amazing in the list of items we actually fitted in the car. p.s google Nissan micra to see what i mean, its a 5 door one

3 Guitars in cases
1 Marshall amp
2 pedal board cases
1 merch case
1 bag of drum cymbals
1 snare
1 bass drum pedal
1 bass player
1 drummer
1 guitarist/ the driver

eventually we got sorted and kicked off a very intense 45 min long set, of blood sweat and snapping strings, kicking off with our favroite song CID by uk Subs we blasted through the set list and enjoying the view from the stage, and we could see T,B,F,D,C & P watching us perfrom and i spotted lead vocalist Marcia dancing along to our tunes! always great to see that during a show!!

coming close to the end of our set, we we're running out of songs and during the song R.A.M.O.N.E.S pop goes the string on my trusty SG, looks like my heavy strumming did it again!!
so quick guitar swap during the song and carried on, ending on the clash's White Riot!!!

old black strat had to take over for the end of the set

With our set over and sweat dripping down the side of my face, it was a good time to get off the stage and make way for the headliners T,B,F,D,C & P! which i've been wanting to see for a very long time!

they kicked off the set with a very loud track! but i missed a few of the songs during the set as there was a little issue involving a car sitting very very close to my dad's and spent most of the time looking for the owner to see if he could move it....but anyway back to the band.

T,B,F,D,C & P blasted through a great set of originals, and of course their very own version of blondie's 11:59 track which is something you must hear yourself!!

be sure to check out  The Band for Disease Control and Prevention on facebook >>> T,B,F,D,C & P

North East Unity At Graft Night @ The Black Bull 22-04-2016.

Well this was a very exciting night, for myself and Spitfire Bullets, our main drummer boy was unavailable to play the gig as such short notice due to his work schedule so i asked a young lad i know very well called Elliot to hop on the drums and learn our full set within 3 days for the gig, and he didn't disappoint us!

We got to the Black Bull nice and early to load in, have a quick game of pool and an adventure to burger king for something to eat.

poor lad was in the back seat with all the gear

once we got back, Anord were busy setting up and sound checking, soon it would be us to set up sound check and kick off the night of Punk Rock!!

8:30 soon arrived, we hopped on stage, did a quick check on sound tuning, making sure Elliot remembered the set and kicked it off with our opening track CID! taking things slow for this gig we blasted our way through our usual set list of covers and originals within our 30 min set finishing off with a high tempo of Beat On The Brat!!

Anord took to the stage with their Anarchy hardcore angry screams and grunts about David Cameron, being stuck on the dole and Katie Hopkins with a back line of screaming feed backing guitars and awesome Mowhawks. 

Keyside Strike took to the stage as the main headliners blasting out some wall of sound hardcore punk, with snarling vocals wah wah wailing guitars, heavy bass lines and good laughs even covering a few very very short songs such as "You Suffer" By Napalm death

All in all it was a great night as such short notice, its amazing when a group of punk bands can come together and instantly get a gig sorted within a week!!

Spitfire Bullets would like to thank the Black bull, Anord and Keyside strike for having us and a big thank you to Elliot for jumping on the drums for us at last min to play a great set list!!

Be sure to check out Anord and keyside strike on facebook and buy their merch!!!!

  

Black Bull 06-02-2016 All day punk event!

This was a huge show for Spitfire Bullets to kick off 2016 for us.
with the booking already sorted back in 2015 we didn't expect so many bands to start joining the
line up! Rotunda the main headliners of the night from Birmingham we're already planning a mini tour to Scotland sharing the stage with Happy Spastics and Angry Itch, soon Panic Attack, Criti kill and Anord joined in the set, from being just a night of a few big bands soon turned into a all day event!

So the 6th Febuary came, we were ready for it, with a rehearsed set list, two new songs added to the set and a fully planned out military style strategy for the stage everything was planned to go clock work.
we arrived about 4pm with the car overloaded with guitars amps and people. we eventually got all sorted and said a few hi's and hellos to the bands and chatted about punk, beer and amp lending.

soon 5:15pm came around and Panic Attack was ready to unleash their full on paranoid anger, with the crowd coming in wondering what the hell the sound was. tonight was going to be a blast. Panic Attack even had a wonderful song dedicated to Maggie Thatcher, i'm sure if she heard it she would throw herself into a furnace.

Soon Critikill took to the stage releasing a blast of Anarcho Punk Rock, with the lead singer giving it all he got and working up a sweat, with Guitars screaming and drums thundering, you could tell this band has been dying to take to the stage all day!

Anord took to the stage at 6:15 giving it all they got, loud proud and Angry, pulling in the crowds at the same time. these local lads we're obviously enjoying themselves a lot.

soon through the line up it was us *Spitfire Bullets* to take to the stage, of course not in the right was of stage presence, with myself going to the Left and Gilley the bassist going to the Right, which felt rather odd to us, as we are used to the opposite sides. but it didn't put us off one bit, we kicked off with our set of covers and originals, with UK SUBS  CID then keeping the feedback screaming we darted in to "Spitfire" ending on the final note Shouting out "1234!!!" playing our call to war Ramones Classic Blitzkreig Bop i'm pretty sure the crowd was stunned, this was the tightest we had ever been after a lot of line up changes and one good rehearsal the night before, we nailed the full set. announcing our new Songs "I Don't Remember" and "Flying Fortress" and blasting them out for the first time, they sounded better live than they did on the demos. we ended the set on a special track. Since Lemmy had passed away last year we dedicated the song R-A-M-O-N-E-S to the man himself!

Happy Spastics took to the stage and blew everyone away with their Hardcore thrash style Punk. if this was the 02 Academy, there would have been pits left right and centre! 

Angry Itch stepped up to the Black bull's stage of punk with their Birmingham style Punk, i just managed to catch these guys as i was caught up talking with a guy about another potential gig and ended up playing pool to cool off from the heat in the next room. but they kicked ass, only a 3 piece but with a very big sound.

And Finally the band everyone waited for Rotunda! taking to the stage with a lead guitarist who looked very crazy in the eyes jumping about, they got the crowd on stage for a sing along and had everyone shouting for more. 

at the end of this brilliant night. i was able to do a CD swap with Rotunda's lead singer Louis and have a few chats with almost everyone in the bar before the long and sober drive home to Sunderland.

Be sure to check out these bands and drop them a like!!

Rotunda

Angry Itch

Happy Spastics

Anord

Critikill

Panic Attack

Rock Skool wall of fame, and the Black Bull

Happy new year to you all!
and i hope you all got a hangover aswell.

To kick off my first blog of 2016 a few exciting things have came up!

Firstly Rock Skool in Herrington, where i started going when i first picked up the guitar back in 2009. This has been pretty much my second home of music, i've never stopped going after learning guitar and still getting lessons on how to play the dam thing! but after all those years i got my name on the wall along with Spitfire Bullets it is quite an honour aswell its just like being inducted in to the Rock and Roll hall of fame but with out the speeches or the snobby people in the front row wearing Tuxedos, (watch iggy pop performing at the RNRHOF to understand what i mean, like just go watch it now here is the link to it too >>iggy pop did you watch it?? see told you all them suited up people just sitting there not understanding what is going on lol) anyway back to the blog

So on to the Black bull for our first gig of 2016!!

and what a corker of a gig! it only started off with Rotunda offering us a support slot for their mini uk and Scotland tour but it has now turned in to a huge all day punk fest! i guess you could call it celebrating 40 years of punk mini all dayer gig! with a great line up too!

Did we mention we may have some new songs out too! two in fact we hope to be playing them live for the very first time aswell!

Black Bull Supporting TV Smith 4-12-2015

It was a last minuet decision and gamble, the Black Bull we're after a support band, and i'd thought id pop our name down for it, and asked the guys if they were free on the night.

Turns out everything went our way for that gig, the guys were free and wanted to play and no other band came forward wanting to perform!

After battling the horrible wind storm from Sunderland getting through a traffic jam in Gateshead we arrived after 7pm, cold and wind swept, we grabbed the gear and loaded in while trying to keep away from the wind as long as possible.

while setting up our gear on stage, the man him self Tim (TV Smith) spotted us and we had a good chat, last time and first time i saw him was at the Toy Dolls gig in Sunderland, at that time i really did not expect i would be supporting him at a gig or even standing there in front of him having a full conversation. the first time i saw him on tv was on the Top of the pops 1977 re runs on BBC 4 singing "Gary Gilmore's eyes"

so our time had come to get on the stage and play, the punters were coming in and we kicked off with CID, and with those spot lights pointing at us we started to get a bit too hot, shooting through the set going through Spitfire then hitting in to high gear with psycho girl, and crashing into Pretty vacant, the sweat pouring down my back and my fingers slipping on the neck of the guitar, we were almost home free but it wasn't long before i came to misread the set list and played havana affair instead of head in the toilet then as we were going through alternative ulster, the worst happened, guitar string snapped on the faithful SG, probably from my heavy strumming during the songs chorus i gave in and swapped guitars coming in just in time to sing the bridge of alternative ulster, we ended the set with Beat on the brat and house of the rising sun, and at the final verse of the final song and out of breath i forgot the lyrics, well that's rock n roll!!!

after the show, we had a few drinks and chatted to Tim before saying goodbye and facing the wind battle home!!