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!

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!

The Rocking Magpie - Spitfire Bullets – New York City and EP

the main feature article is from The Rocking magpie you can see the original article here >>> The Rocking Magpie

The Rocking Magpie

One man's views on the world of Americana, Blues, Country, Ska, Alt. Country & Folk music

Spitfire Bullets – New York City

OCTOBER 29, 2015

Music lands on my desk from a variety of countries; yet very little from my own doorstep in the NE of England. Who knows why; possibly because I don’t belong to any of the cliques that tends to spawn musical cultures; possibly because these bands and singers don’t think I’m any good!

Which brings us the Spitfire Bullets; whose name popped up on a friend’s Twitter timeline and the name attracted me; so I got in touch even though I knew exactly nothing about them.

Before these two discs arrived I tried to research the band; but they remain mysterious and something of an enigma; although a bizarre event on my own Twitter feed unknowingly did bring them to my attention; but I wasn’t to know that at the time!

Spitfire Bullets

New York City (Single)

self-released

The Spirit of ’77 is Alive and Well.

The bands second single opens with the chorus driven New York City; instantly evoking memories of the first Damned LP and too many Toy Dolls gigs. The (unnamed) singer has a raspy voice; which is perfect for breakneck songs like this. The immediate difference between bands like Spitfire Bullets and the Punk originators is that the modern bands can play their instruments and understand the concept of production.

That last sentence gets thrown right out of the toilet window with second song Psycho Girl! Recorded ‘live’ at the CBGB’s of Wearside, Farringdon WMC this track is 110mph Stella Artois fuelled spittle enhanced Punk; with added whistles and feedback.

New York City re-enters the frey with a live version recorded at the same prestigious venue and is virtually unrecognisable as it sounds like it was recorded on a Casio Cassette Recorder just before the batteries died.

These two tracks are as awfully authentic as any Punk gig I ever attended; but not something you want to play on a first date.

Spitfire Bullets

Spitfire

self-released

Pure Fire & Brimstone Punk!

It was the cool band name Spitfire Bullets that first caught my attention; and this their debut single sounds exactly like what you would expect of a band with that moniker.

The title track Spitfire! crashes out of the speakers with some of the dirtiest guitar that I’ve heard in ages; then the singer attempts to swallow the microphone in his attempt to get his message across. The bass and drums hold the show together with gaffer tape and luck; but the end result is a doozy.

Psycho Girl starts with the traditional 1-2-3-4 and you can sense the veins popping out of the singers neck as he screams his love for two skull crushing minutes of scorching Metalic-Punk.

Head in the toilet starts with some deliberate feedback; and the tale of teenage angst wouldn’t have been out of place on a Dogs D’Amour or even those old romantics the Angelic Upstarts; but it’s unlikely to ever get played on BBC Radio2.

Then we finally arrive at the best of the bunch – She’s a Punk! The obligatory crashing guitars get the show on the road; but the produced judiciously uses his fader to allow a good song to be heard as the band get faded down when the singer sings and back up to 11 at other times.

‘Back in the day’ an observational song like this would actually have been played on Radio 1; certainly by John Peel; and possibly by the likes of Kid Jensen; but today? Highly unlikely; which is a damn shame.

So, there you have it The Spitfire Bullets keeping the Punk flag flying high in a time when the world needs more shouty music.

https://www.facebook.com/spitfirebulletsband

Spitfire Bullets new track and Whatever68 Radio.

Its been a good few months, since my last post about the corner flag but just as professor farnsworth quotes "Good News everyone" and its good news aswell!

with it soon coming to the end of 2015, the time has come for us to start slowly writing new songs for our very first album!! and to kick it all off you can check out our new song "I Don't remember" on SoundCloud just click the link >> *I Don't Remember* did i mention its also a free download too!

so with new songs coming along and plans for a album to be recorded next year, we also have a live interview on the 18th Novemeber on the Whatever68 Radio show, since this radio station is in the good 'ol US of A we will be doing the show live via Skype and chatting to punk princess lisa about the band and many many things! be sure to check out Whatever68 Radio

New York City Single

New York City Single

You may have heard this song live at one of our shows or on YouTube or even heard our demo on sound cloud, but after a year of meaning to get it recorded, we have finally recorded it ready to be released!

Though it will not be available to download off the internet, we are doing it the old-fashioned way of putting it on CD with two bonus live tracks but we aren't telling you the names of them so you gotta get this CD to hear the tracks!

Just like when a band in the 70's released a single 45rpm vinyl with a A and B side. S

Such exciting times waiting for the album to come out and playing the single over and over again.

There will be a limited number of these CDs released in June so once they are gone they are gone!

the reason why we have decided to release our single on CD instead of being available to be downloaded is because we want to keep it as a physical piece so you can hold it and look at it and not just stare at some tiny picture on the screen

it may not be a vinyl record but it does have some character to it, even looking at the cover makes it more interesting.

cover photos by Lisa Volpe