Interviews index.

With Dins from the bands.

Why did you call the band G Men  ?

 I wanted a short name, something easy to handle, and this seemed to fit the bill quite admirably. It also had connotations of old gangster movies which was god, plus I had never heard of any band using the name before, so it was the one for us.

What are the bands main influences ?

I can’t really speak for the rest of the band, but the main musical influences on me came from the 2-tone bands. The Specials were my favourite group, although Madness has probably a greater effect on my song writing. My favourite bands at present is definitely The Toasters closely followed by Capone & The bullets and the write offs.

One of your demos is going to be released can you tell us about that, when its from, how and where people can get hold of it ?

 It is an old demo track from our first visit to the studio way back in 1991, called The Chosen few. It is all about being a skinhead, one of the few, the chosen few! Being part of a small group who know what Ska & Reggae is all about. Its a great feeling you know ! It will be on a compilation album to be released by “pie & Peas Records” at 27 Nickleby Road, Leeds, LS9 7QX, but I don’t know what the release date is, they haven't decided yet, but  it should be out quite soon.

You are currently recording a 10 track album for North Sea Recordings, how is that going and what is it going to sound like ?

Things are going quite well at the moment, Joel and Peter from North sea Recordings are great guys, we are really lucky they want to work with us.
I think that it will sound something like Madness meets The Potato 5 in style, although it probably won’t sound quite that good.

Are you pleases with the songs/production of the recording so far ?

I am happy enough with the production at present, but I am a bit of a perfectionist and would love to spend much more time on everything. The songs are a mix of originals and brand new ones all of which I am quite happy with. They may not be mega hit material but I think that they are all quite decent tunes.
 

What do you guys do outside the band, i.e. Job Wise ?

We all work full time, so the band has to fit in when we have spare time. Mark Guitar is a joiner, Nick is in engineering, John tells people where to dig holes in the road (blame him for all those traffic hams), Ian is a computer teacher (underpaid and not appreciated enough), I am working in a Laboratory at present (growing deadly bacteria) and Mark bass hasn’t really made his mind up yet, flitting about from training courses to job to training again.

Have you any gigs lined up after the Darlingotn date with Mustard Plug on the 27th of July ?

We have a couple more soon but no too many as we really want to spend some more time learning more new songs.

You’ve played with Bad Manners, The International Beat, Bim Skala Bim, The Trojans and the Selecter but which have been your best gigs so far and the best bands you’ve played with ?

Most of the bands were great, I love meeting other Ska bands and Ska fans, that’s what it is all about. Laurel Aitken and Judge Dread were the friendliest, they seemed to enjoy talking to people as much as I do. We had a great audience when we supported The Selecter on one occasion, quite a storming show. Other favourite moments include chatting to Winston Barzoomies for ages while he laid on a corridor floor (surreal), getting a round of applause from The Selecter for playing our song freedom train during a sound check and being stopped from  playing in an upstairs venue after only 5 songs because the crowd were going wild and jumping about so much there , damaging the kitchen ceiling some great times but still many more to come.

What bands would you want to play with at your fantasy all day festival ?

Bands for my fantasy festival would include The Specials (original line up), Prince Buster, The Toasters, The Skatalites, Laurel Aitken & The Potato 5, Capone & The Bullets, The Trojans, 100 men, Dave & Ansel Collins, The Maytalls, The Pioneers, The Heptones, Mr Review, Bim Skala Bim. I could go on forever but it would be a very long festival so I will stop there.

Do you play any covers in your live set if so what ?

Yeh, we usually play too many covers. We Know loads and loads of covers, especially the 2-Tone standards, but since starting this album we have decided to go on much more for original material, in fact over the next few months we will be changing half our set.

Can you tell us what the Channel 4 documentary you were filmed for was all about ?

It was the world of Skinhead documentary, which as the name suggests was all about skinheads. We were playing at a skinhead night in Redcar and George Marshall turned up with a film crew, loads of us got interviewed, it was a great laugh.

Thanks for interviewing us, interest in the band is always welcome and I will always try to help fellow Ska fans.