Lee Love – The Hip Priests – Interview Exclusive
Written by Johnny H
Sunday, 26 February 2012 04:45
When a band’s bio lands on your desk describing its accompanying album to be the product of the bastard sons of Iggy P, Johnny T, Lemmy & Handsome Dick, you can bet your bottom dollar that when you actually get around to giving it a spin it’s normally fucking shit.
One of only a few exceptions to this harsh but oh so true rule was when a CD entitled ‘Tight ‘N’ Exciting’ passed through our sweaty palms a good few years back, it contained a glorious mess of rampantly sexual, fucked up, hot assed & anthemic (s)punk rock ‘n’ roll to make the little girls weep and big girls wet, and what was best was the fact the crazy cunts making this fantastic racket were British…Not Swedish…for once!!!!! As the guys themselves would describe their sounds, it is basically “a sweet ‘n’ sweaty sonic tonic to accompany your recreational drinkin’, druggin’ and fuckin'”.
Of course that band can only be the Breakneck Babylon Babies, The spleen exploding sermonisers of the sacred sexual-sonic psalms, the crazed messiahs of deep-fried bone rattling rock ‘n’ roll! The righteous king rockers of in your face rock ‘n’ roll bukkake. So ladies and gentlemen, hot girls and pretty boys… Uber Rock is proud to present on the eve of their second album ‘Full Tilt Bullshit’ hitting the shops, the biggest dicks in rock ‘n’ roll… The sonic reproducers themselves….The Hip Priests.
Hey Lee firstly many thanks for taking the time to talk with us at Uber Rock it’s really appreciated, I guess you already know that Uber Rock are big fans of you guys so it’s actually a real privilege to get this chance to talk with you.
Okay let’s start at the beginning then, and for someone who has yet to hear The Hip Priests introduce yourself and tell us what the band’s mission is?
Well I’m brother Lee Love; I do random squeals masquerading as vocals and supply the filthy bottom end (that’s bass guitar to the uninitiated). We’ve got resident sex lord Austin Rocket, who supplies the groans, licks and furious guitar or lady fingering, Skintight Tim on barking, beating, boozing ‘n’ banging (that drums to some people) and out front on pint sized predator duties is the boy Cruz, yelling and moaning. We really are rather good and have more songs about the horizontal action, doing the do, or fucking, than any other band you’ve ever heard – even more than the Dwarves (perhaps). Our rather rude lyrics are absolute genius and our sexual drive is so dangerous that the world should be aware of us in order so that they may be safe from our filthy charms. We can’t be trusted with your mothers, sisters or even your daddies and brothers for that matter. It rocks it rolls…
2012 is going to be all about your second studio album ‘Full Tilt Bullshit’ what’s the story behind the album and what can the fans expect?
Well, we had an album all done with the old shouter Gaz X-Ray then he suffered a fatal mid-life crisis, poor old bastard, and then the dumb studio lost the whole fuckin’ album we’d finished. Anyway, rather than sit about wanking each other off, we knew there was just one thing to do – we dragged in the boy Cruz from sparring down Brownies sex sauna, persuading him to join us with offers of sparkling wine, Haribos and women. We wrote a few more new super-sexed tunes then went and recorded the whole album again in one day live, lewd, direct at piss bag bursting super heavy volume. Job. Fuckin. Done. Guess it’s worked out quite well really.
What can you expect? Mmm – well the same old fuckin shit really – i.e.: eleven untouchable tunes of knicker wetting, straight men turning, anthemic garage punk monsters… Ha ha!
Making the little girls scream ‘n’ the big girls wet since 2006.
And when and where can we expect to be able purchase this fine piece of porno punk?
We should have vinyl any day and the CD’s too very soon. You can get from the labels involved (No Balls in Germany and Ghost Highway in Spain) or direct from us.
Having seen you guys recently with Nathan (Or the boy Cruz as you call him) he is an altogether different animal to your old one Gary X-Ray on the live front. Gone is the camp dancing (although there was nothing wrong with that) and in its place is the lovechild of the Tasmanian devil and Glenn Danzig. How does it feel to be in a band with this madman? Plus how did you guys hook up with him?
Oz knew him from Nottingham and we’d all known him for a while. When Gaz took his pension credit we knew there was only be one person we wanted to do it – and who could do it justice or improve it further, the pint sized porno kickboxing king Von Cruz. The garage rock rain man of Nottingham! Had it not sounded so perfect from the off we woulda just knocked it on the head. He’s proper mental – apart from when he’s asleep, which is thankfully often. Oddly enough, I wasn’t aware of how much the band had changed until seeing some live footage, he’s helped us become the tightly tuned overdriven rock n roll sexdozer we’d always meant it to be.
Yeah, the carry on camping humour has gone but I don’t miss it. We’ve grown even more balls and tits.
And of course this new album marks Von Cruz’s recording debut with you guys, what was it like working with Nathan and how does it differ from the Gary days?
It’s very different in a way, Gaz was great fun but working with the Cruz is so fucking fast, as quick as we can write shit ‘n’ rehearse it once or twice he’s got it, and he’s flying around our porno covered pissy rehearsal room yelling obscenities. We seem to just work loads quicker – and play way faster! The boys just fucking wired with energy, just keep him away from the Haribos or booze, fuckin hell man.
Plus he’s up for anything.
And what songs on ‘Full Tilt’ are you guys best pleased with? I mean which ones will give us boners here at URHQ?
You loons!
With your immaculate taste you’ll likely be tossing each other silly to all of ’em we hope. Haha. It’s all great.
Stand outs for me? It’s all amazing in my fucked up book…Hmm, probably ‘Sonic Reproducer’, which is one of the best songs written by any rock ‘n’ roll band ever, let alone us losers, ‘Terminal Lust’ which makes me wanna dance like Iggy in his see thru knob trowsers and ‘Outta My Head (Into Your Pants)’ which I love coz it always just makes the girls juice up ‘n’ shake their asses.
‘DNA Dynamo’ is a corker too…Oh yeah… It’s all superb.
Talking of porno punk you’re going to releasing it in a different sleeve per format available, which is a bit special, isn’t it?
Yes, we’re just flash cunts like that. We just think proper rock ‘n’ roll’s meant to be like that. It’s an event…we’ve got differing covers done by two of our fave artists and the vinyl’s gonna be on limited red with black splatter vinyl ‘n’ even more limited pink with black splatter vinyl. We’re lucky that we get to work with the kind of labels that are cool enough to be as obsessed with this kinda shit as we (and you) are, and believe in it. They realise it’s meant to be special too.
Somehow you’ve already managed to get a review of the album in Big Cheese magazine – how come they get a copy to review and we don’t? (Laughing)
Leak! Yeah – you mentalists were promised the first copy too! We should have got all U2 ‘n’ sued the bastards! Ha ha!
I think they got it from Vive Le Rock as we were on one of their cover mount CD’s.
When you formed the band back in 2006 did you ever think you would last this long? I mean two albums, numerous singles, a Japanese compilation album and a split album is a pretty extensive back catalogue for a band that gets little press coverage here in the UK?
No, not at all. I’m surprised I’ve lasted this long let alone the fuckin’ band!
It was a genuine case of just doing something for a knockabout coz I was bored since leaving London. Just goes to show that once you do something whereby you don’t give a flying fuck then other people do. The first album being picked up by Bootleg Booze was a total fluke and that was that, we’ve just been lucky to hook up with some good people, labels and promoters that have loved the shit we do and so have helped us out. We’ve just trundled along having a great time. We don’t really go looking for gigs as we only wanna play gigs that will be a crack and not any old shit on a pissing Tuesday to two men a rabid dog. Well, the dog would be okay but fuck the two men.
So I guess once ‘Full Tilt’ hits the shelves its gonna be tour, tour and more tour, any idea of what that might entail at this early stage? Countries involved and who with etc?
Tour, tour and more tour?
No, we’ll just carry on as we do now. Sit around confidently smug in our own crazed genius and playing the gigs that we want to and that we know will be cool, for promoter friends and clubs etc and then just plan the occasional boys, drugs ‘n’ sex stag holiday, oops, I mean tour.
We are planning to hook up with our mates in Sweden, the Sonic Negroes, this year and another trip for some gigs/parties in Germany in the summer too.
One gig you guys really should get on this year is Rebellion in Blackpool, I’ve seen you there a few times as paying punters but now bands like Cyanide Pills and The Adjusters are getting on the bill surely Darren and Co must want to see the band we who make the young girls weep and the older girls wet on their bill?
Fuckin’ right, you’d think so wouldn’t you, although I’m not sure how we’d go down with the middle-aged ‘punx not dead’ crowd, especially when all we pull all their birds. Oh well, think they’d been emailed once but no response; their doubtless loss is Slugfest’s gain eh! Ha ha. Bothered? No, not really. We’ve no game plan or pretence to get anywhere other than where we are.
Talking about Slugfest – I’m pretty sure you are aware by now that you acquired the nickname of The Hip Hop Priests via one of Dom’s mates at last year’s festival of mentalness, what other memories do you have of that night?
Ha ha that day ‘n’ night. Fuck me. ‘Apocalypse Now’ crossed with ‘Shameless’ set in a Welsh pub car park. Fuckin mental…Top slot in the loco gigs list of 2011. Ludicrous! Gallons of warm lager ‘n’ rum and Dave Lee Travis rebounding off a Ketamine Jesus (the mad cunt painted green who we’d been fighting off all day) in the moshpit in the early hours and Oz getting wanked at by the legendary Pig. Roll on 2012 – I think? Only disappointment was that, surprisingly enough, considering he was staring at Austin, he didn’t fully climax. Hopefully if we’re on earlier this year he will.
True story – I got into you guys through a CD you did with The Dwarves (Drink Fight and Fuck Volume 1) – they actually sent me a copy. And then I first saw you live with Dave Prince providing the soundtrack to the night with that horrible hybrid mash up of disco and metal he used to play up at the Rhondda Hotel? Is that usually how you get people hooked into The Priests? Word of mouth referrals from punk rock legends and then seduce your prey at a gay disco?
Ha! Yeah, seems to be the way – those or random sexy messages on bog doors.
That’s a pretty fucked up seven degrees of Dave Prince association I’ve revealed right there. But what else is fucked up in the music industry, or the world right now that you’d like to sort out? And what would be your answer be to the problem that grinds the Priest’s gears?
The music industry? Christ now what would we know about that? Course it’s shit but does anyone really care anymore? Nah, not really. As long as there’s some decent labels and promoters about there and some decent rockin’ bands then lets just leave the great washed majority to it.
The biggest problem is the public and ‘the kids’ today themselves. Most of ’em listen to bed wetting anaemic shit like Bumford And Sons and Cuntplay and wear their shit clothes and are none the wiser. Very sad… I don’t blame the music industry for that. I probably just sound like Mark E Smith or the sad old fuck I am, but it seems as if everything’s increasingly bland. I’ve got more respect for teenage fuck up chav junkies than I have most of these anodyne kids. Ha ha.
The world? Too much. The UK could be way improved by the death of every Tory voter overnight but let’s not go there, this is a Hip Priests interview, therefore we must only talk about druggin’, boozin’ ‘n’ screwin’, agreed?
I’m still awaiting the call from David Dimbleby. I wont hold my breath.
Oh before I forget going back to The Dwarves you played a few shows with Blag and Co as well recently didn’t you? What was that like? Anything out of the norm happen?
Nah, we only ended up doing one gig with ’em, which was a shame. They loved it tho – Blag was milking in his Dwarves knickers.
We featured a band recently (The Spittin’ Cobras) that you messaged me about saying “Wow these fuckers rock”, as music is all about the spirit of giving. Who can do guys recommend we check out?
Ahhh, That’s tough, The Ricky C Quartet, Johnny Throttle, Our Swedish mates the Sonic Negroes and the Giesagöebbels, our wives the Sick Livers of course, Our Dutch friends Loud Squirt.
As we start to wind down this interview, on a little lighter note if we were to do the random five tracks on Lee Love’s I Pod/I Phone MP3 player right now what would come up?
Ooops.. Okay.. I’m scared too…Let’s see.
‘Anaconda’ – The Sisters Of Mercy (blimey)
‘I’m A Concrete Wall’ – The Makers
‘Talking Snake’ – Iggy
‘Did You No Wrong’ – Sex Pistols,
‘Born Broke’ – The Hellacopters.
Hey, that’s not bad; I thought Katie Perry or Abba would inevitably pop up! Ha ha. I seem pretty cool now yeah? Ha ha
And just to finish things off as I do with most interviews tell us an interesting fact about the Hip Priests that no one else knows right now that you would like to share with your fans worldwide right now?
We’re actually all virgins – but are hopeful to change that soon. See you at the next gig.
And with that we’d like to thank you for taking the time to speak with us at Uber Rock, the review of ‘Full Tilt Bullshit will be up on Uber Rock soon.
People of planet Uber Rock – life really is too short for you to miss out on bands like The Hip Priests, click on the links below and tell the muthafuckers Uber Rock sent you, better still buy their albums or go and see them live on one of their upcoming “selective” dates, because they really are fucking excellent!
https://www.facebook.com/thehippriests
