The Scumbrians Are Set To Do Battle
The best in the West are battling it out once again as Battle of the Bands returns to Workington.
Monroe’s Bar on the town’s Finkle Street will be playing host to five fantastic nights of live music. The first heat will take place on Saturday 24 September and will be followed by three more heats before culminating in the Grand Final on January 20.
Bands will be battling out for the chance to win £1000 in prize money and the chance to play at next year’s Aspatria Festival. Ahead of the battles, we spoke to one quarter of The Scumbrians, bassist Kristie Mason.
Scumbrians Interview
One of Whitehaven’s hottest musical prospects are punk rock band The Scumbrians, with tracks such as I Want More Drugs, The Jimmy Saville Song and S*** In My Eye they are definitely not a band for the feint hearted but the band are causing quite a stir in the local music scene.
With a new album on the horizon and challenging for this year’s Battle of the Bands at Monroe’s in Workington The Guide tried to find out about West Cumbria’s most controversial new band. Made up of: Luke Norman, Jake McAllister, Kristie Mason and Ryan Hodgson we spoke to bassist Kristie about their self described brand of “no messing punk”.
So who ARE the Scumbrian’s?
We’re a punk rock band from Whitehaven.
How did you come about?
I started the band so I got some of my mates involved and it just kind of went from there. We came about through the music charity Soundwave; they supported us and gave us a place to play before we got anywhere ourselves. I didn’t even know how to place bass before I went there and I just picked it up.
Where did the name come from?
It is a play on the word Cumbria, because we’re scummy people from Cumbria.
What’s your sound, what makes you unique?
We’re a punk band, we’ve been compared to a lot of different hardcore 80’s punk bands in the past but our sound is punk not really hardcore punk rock.
You’re in the battle of the bands, are you going to win it?
We hope too yeah. We applied and were selected. We’d use the prize money to get some new gear for the band and to help us get further afield. It would do us the world of good to win.
What have you got coming up in the future? What’s next for the Scumbrians?
We’ve got an album coming out soon. We’re currently in the process of finishing that off in the studio, it’s all our own stuff on it and it should be out soon.
Some of your song titles have some pretty out there names, where do you draw the line?
We don’t draw the line.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Through what is going on in the world or what we’re pissed off about. We’re not inspired by other bands we just do our own stuff.
It is 40 years since the punk movement kicked off and it has taken a sideline role in the music industry, what do the Scumbrians bring that’s new to the genre?
Well we’re talking about what’s going on now not 40 years ago, it’s more relevant current stuff.
Heat 2 – Friday October 21
- The Scumbrians
- Stand Up Arcade
- Fighting Bears
Heat 3 – Friday November 11
- The Glass Poppies
- Cobolt Collision
- Skinwalker
Heat 4 – Friday December 9
- Heartbreak Remedy
- Stormcrowe
- Audioclub
- Note Joker
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