YUSU events are synonymous with several things: college dining rooms becoming gig venues; some quasi successful artist from the last decade being booked as a headliner and, not least, the campus band. At some point in your time at University, you will ,no doubt, stand in a cafeteria come sold-out arena, sway to the sounds of student made music and hold a plastic receptacle whilst stomping on parquet floor. Although wheeled out as minor celebrities at YUSU events these bands live concealed existences, mingling amongst the rest of us as normal students: sleeping, reading and being late for seminars. However I managed to track down Josh Savage from TAMING THE SAVAGE, Tom English from THE KINGS PARADE and Rory Jones from CHUCK JAEGER to grill them about the ins and outs and diva fits that entail being in a band at University.
HOW WERE THE BANDS SET UP?
Josh: Set-up by myself and two other students when we met at University. We got a drummer and the rest is history.
Tom: An evolution over a year and half period from when Sam and Olly, formally the Poubelle Booms, collected myself on bass, a drummer and then a horn section.
Rory: We were all History Students from Goodricke but we expanded from being just a campus band, as we got a drummer and guitarist from outside of the University.
BIGGEST PERSONALITY IN THE BAND?
J: Our new guitarist, Harry, because of his ‘I-dont-care-about-where-my-guitar-is-swung” stage antics.
T: Because of my inability to close my mouth: myself.
R: Chris, our guitarist, has an authority which he wields when their are arguments, to get us to kiss and make-up.
BEST BAND MOMENT?
J: Woodstock 2011! Oh, and we supported the Rizzle Kicks at Live and Loud, with our own dressing room with free food and drink!
T: The Summer Ball last year as we shared a dressing room with Nero and Darwin Deez. Then Dionne Bromfield joined us on stage! Warming up for the Pigeon Detectives at Live and Loud was also really cool.
R: Woodstock and playing the original Hard Rock Cafe in Green Park, London.
WORST BAND MOMENT?
J: Playing York Carnival, where hundreds of small children were about, I swore into my microphone about my misplaced cappo.
T: Getting ready for a gig in Newcastle, we misplaced our cars keys so I had to borrow my girlfriend’s small Nissan, fill it with all our gear and push it to it’s limit. We then slept in the car after the gig.
R: Big Bang last year, playing infront of about 15people with a completely dead atmosphere.
MOST LIKELY TO BE FOUND ON CAMPUS?
J: Music Department.
T: Courtyard
R: Borthwick Reading Room.
BIGGEST DIVA FIT?
J: Never had one!
T: Sam is a bloody perfectionist, we end up having to practise riffs hundreds of times.
R: Last year at Woodstock i asked someone from Bandsoc to get me gaffer-tape for my pedals. They said that none of the other bands had gaffer-tape and told him specifically that we were not like other bands.
BAND SOUNDS LIKE?
J: Savage!
T: Nu-Town/Motown.
R: We try and get energetic, high octane, foot tapping indie; taking our fans on a roller-coaster ride of a show.
IF I WASN’T IN A CAMPUS BAND I WOULD BE?
J: Dedicating myself to drama society.
T: Indulging in myself.
R: Writing music and trying to live the life of an alcoholic, country singer like Nashville.
WHEN IM OLDER I WANT TO BE?
J: A Musician.
T: Getting paid for making the music i love.
R: Getting paid for making music or being an inspirational history teacher.
You can check out the sounds of all these bands, as well as new campus bands PANDA CUBS and AMBULANCE, on Facebook and Soundcloud.
If you needed gaffer tape you should have brought your own, and in reality you are exactly like other ‘campus bands’ in that noone outside of campus are particularly interested. York Universities ‘Music Scene’ is atrocious.
WHOZ DIZ WASTEMAN ALAN MCGEE GIVIN IT THE BIGGUN ON MA FRED.
PUSSYOLE.
Panda Cubs are the only campus band that stand out for me. New and not perfect (yet) but they’re way ahead of the normal drove of indie campus bands you just know will never make it in the real world.