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Enter
the Dragons
Of course, great names don't make great music. But no fear, the Dragons deliver with rampaging covers of songs that you thought you knew. We've all sat through bands that butcher tunes we like or make songs we hated that much worse. But The Dragons skillfully hand pick choice numbers and then put their own spin on them. When I listened to their version of "Nightrain", I found myself confused over who actually wrote the song the first time around. In any case, the covers don't tell the full story....read the interview and get the full fact file. These chaps have not only done their homework, they're clearly motivated by a love of the music itself, which is something that seems to be increasingly rare these days. I found the Dragon's lair while knocking around the internet (www.myspace.com/molotovdragons), trying to dig up some dirt on past Newcastle punk acts. It was one of those loopily great discoveries that honestly make you feel that something in the Universe finally synched up in your favor. I felt like this was a band that either I had been waiting for, or had actually known all my life. Hyperbole aside, this band is just what the doctor ordered for those nights that follow the long workday. No nonsense ordinary guys who just happen to crank out rock TOTALNESS with the ease that my daughter flings creamed carrot from her high chair. (And they're dads as well, how cool is that?). Naturally, an interrogation was in order. Both vocalist Michael Micky Luv" Lavery and bassist Nick "Nick Shaw" Shaw were willing to sit on the firing line. And I have to say, in my decade or so career of freelance music writing, I've never met more amenable, affable, and humble guys than these two. Nobody has ever actually said they would be "honored" to do an interview for Sleazegrinder before Mick and Nick. It didn't hurt that these sleaze hounds seemed to be linked with numerous smokin' babes. In the ultra democratic world of cyberspace, that usually means nothing. But as I checked out these links (as always, strictly in the name of research) I noticed that almost all these chicks actually were from the same area as the Dragons, and knew them. A picture is worth a thousand words, so submitted for your approval is Dragoness Tara, who along with her photog-snapping sister Terri, spearhead what I like to think of as The Molotov Dragons all girl army. That's a good three thousand words worth of picture so I'll stop writing now.... I like The Dragons. They like Sleazegrinder. Let's rock! |
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First of all, who came up with the bitchin' sounding name? (My favorite over the last few years), also give me the full current line up etcetera..... We really struggled with the name. We all have a fairly depraved and sick sense of humour so there were some very random and unprintable names which would activate every political correctness firewall on the net (but lapped up on Sleazegrinder I bet what a lovely, mucky website this is). We spent weeks at the end of each rehearsal trying to be serious about deciding on a name but would end up going off at the most inappropriate tangents and the conversation usually closed when Rico crossed the line with some homo-erotic moniker! |
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Names which made the shortlist included DragonFly (too girly), LoveHunter (too Whitesnake) and Velvet Riders (too lesbian) An unhealthy, drink-fuelled obsession with barbarians meant that dragons was a common element, and we wanted to get across our explosive sound and so MOLOTOV DRAGONS was born and the UK rock-scene had given birth to a monster. In terms of the line-up it's a five-piece, twin-guitar supergroup: Michael Lavery (MickyLuv) Frontman, lead vox, master of bullshit future solo-artist Graeme Richardson (Rico/Mono) One-eared founding father and guitarist. Peter-Pan. Lee Dobson Happy-snapping, EVH-lovin lead guitarist and photographer. Pervert. Nick Shaw Reformed skinhead/topless-drummer now bass-player, composer and sensei Paul Anthony Hicks (Hicka) Part-man, part-gorilla all drummer slack as piss How did the band come together and how long have you been around? For anyone who has seen our myspace site you'll know that we met in a dormant volcano where we took a blood covenant to leave our families and to educate the civilised world with our own (fire)brand of 'molten rock'. Another story, which is a bit far-fetched in comparison to be honest, is that some of the guys had been in bands or worked together and we met up for a few pints in the pub to revel in the re-popularisation(?) of cock-rock and talk about setting up a band. I think that one's a bit of an urban myth though Sascha, to be honest mate. Between us we'd been in bands knocking out punk, blues, heavy rock and acoustic pub-pleasers covers and originals, good, bad and ugly. This was a meeting of minds, something beautiful and natural. Fate. Destiny. Shared vision. We're like brothers and rock music is our blood. Actually that's bollocks. I'm just using them to launch my solo career. You play a lot of covers...how do you pick which songs to do? Are you going to start doing originals? Good covers seem to be the way to open doors and build profile especially on the live scene, with the big rock clubs and bikers' festivals keen to be entertained with some familiar song choices. A few of us have penned some of our own classics but we tend to keep them under wraps and for wooing our lady friends only because we're not sure the world is ready for our talents. (Rico has recently dipped into his repressed dominatrix fantasies to write what I'm sure will be a feature on many rock ballad albums of the future. Entitled 'Cellar Love' it really is quite moving especially if you're a serial kidnapper.) When it comes to picking covers this is where our collective influences come into play Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, ACDC, Queen, Whitesnake, Kiss, Aerosmith, Def Leppard but we also bring some of own preferences to the table The Damned (Rico), Jimi Hendrix Experience (MickyLuv), Led Zeppelin (Hicka), Van Halen (Lee) The Who/Maiden (Nick). It's a balance trying to play what people want to hear and songs that make you stand out from other bands. For example we play Nightrain from GnR's Appetite for Destruction album when so many bands would play Sweet Child of Mine. We also like to do our own versions and arrangements of classics we do acoustic versions of Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar and Whitesnake's Here I Go Again without a synthesiser or poodle perm in sight. Nobody wants to hear the same old cheese but personally I'm unmoved when a band plays some random prog rock album track we try to craft our setlist to suit the gig and the vibe. That's when we'll start to drop the original stuff in too. Any song that you would not play under ANY circumstances whatsoever? Anything by Status Quo (Rico's guilty pleasure we think he might have a private denim fetish) Summer of 69. Anything by Nickleback or any skater-rock crap. What has been the best musical export from the UK in the last decade? The worst? I assume you mean 'pre' this interview now that we're telling everyone (our mams) that we've broken the U.S? Best UK export? The designer of the iPod is from our part of the world NE England. He seems a clever bastard. Bet his crib is boring though all white with rounded edges. As for bands I think MUSE have got a good thing going on. A modern sound but with lots of nods to classic rock, some great guitar work and falsetto vocals plus they are awesome live performers. Not sure they've broken the U.S. yet but THE WILDHEARTS are big favourites of Rico and me in particular punk, rock, great harmonies, fantastic melodies, genius lyrics and they're amazing live too. They're touring US clubs in autumn of 07 so you should look them up. We all liked THE DARKNESS' first album and tongue-in-cheek cock-rock style but they disappeared up their own arse and turned into a bit of a novelty act. Shame. Permission to Land was a natural successor to Appetite for Destruction, Day at the Races and several other classic rock albums. The Worst UK export? COLDPLAY whining, pretentious bilge especially all that middle-class social-justice crap. Simon Cowell father of the prime-time karaoke shortcut to a career in a lazy music industry.
James Blunt - I'm
sure that rhymes with something. |
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What type of crowds do you draw? Is there a good live music scene in your area? If the venue is right and works as hard as we do to promote the gig then we can draw a crowd of about 250. The smallest crowd was about 60 but we still gigged like we were playing a stadium! We're headlining some rock nightclubs next year which are always packed so that will be a 1-2000 strong audience. The big bikers' festivals in the North of England can draw up to 6-7000 too so we're keen to get back in that scene after flirting with it in our previous bands/lives. The music scene is pretty good in so far as there seems to be some really strong bands and great young talent in the area. This isn't always matched by some of the venues though who don't seem prepared to work hard to establish a reputation for live music or know how to plug into the market of music lovers. There's definitely a thirst for live rock and metal out there though and more venues, underground parties, rock societies or 'RockSocs' (at the North East's 4 universities) are springing up. Websites/magazines like www.riffsonline.co.uk are massively important. This will give you a good overview of the rock scene in NE England. |
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The key for MOLOTOV DRAGONS when it comes to gigs is to go for quality rather than quantity. Mick-what was your initial inspiration to get into music? Has it always been about the ROCK or did/do you like other styles? I'm the baby of the band but I guess I must have mature tastes cos these guys are certainly on my wavelength when it comes to music. I was a subscriber to Kerrang and Raw magazines at school and covered anything that moved in rock graffiti and stickers. I started out as a rather shy guitarist and was into Queen, Def Leppard, Aerosmith, Poison, Kiss, Wasp, Thunder from an early age. My early teenage years saw flirtations with GnR, Metallica, Maiden, Megadeth, Faith no More, through to RATM, NiN, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains with a deviation into Carcass, Sepultura and Pantera along the way too. I do however have some serious vices and wider tastes. I get a lot out of all kinds of music and listen for different things: the guitar work (Extreme, Satriani, SRV), vocals (misc. 80s new romantic vocalists, Otis Redding), soul/funk (Stevie Wonder, Parliament). My uncle and guitar teacher introduced me to the legends Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix - and in recent years I've been going back to that era and been inspired by the innovative work of Thin Lizzy and Deep Purple. I've done a lot of acoustic stuff recording and gigging - so James Taylor, The Kinks and even artists like Eva Cassidy are still on my iPod. No boybands, ballads with key changes or techno crap allowed though. These days I listen to as much from the 70s as I do from the 00s but current favourites would be Velvet Revolver, BuckCherry, WhitesStarr, Tokyo Dragons and The Wildhearts. King's X's Dogman is the song in my head at the moment. Nick-you've played in Oi bands and ska bands, how did you get into a self-described "Cock Rock" band? Ah shit man the lads give me so much stick for this. 'Nick the Nazi' they call me from time to time and they know I hate it. Skullhead was an Oi/Political band but we/I never signed up for the nazi bullshit. I was only a kid 16 years old and we were pressing vinyl and touring Europe! When the violence started at the gigs I was out of there. Good experience and some decent people but too many idiots spoil what was, for me, just a passionate music scene for young people disillusioned with pop music. Ska was a natural progression for me and I was far more comfortable with that. I was still drumming at this point and the music of The Specials and co was great fun to play. I've always listened to punk and rock too from The Damned, Pistols and SLF to The Who and it was the re-birth of cock-rock in 2002 with bands like The Darkness and Kings of Leon that I got together with the guys and picked up the bass with a licence to go back to Queen & Co and have some great fun with some really ambitious and challenging music to play. Does the spirit of Brian Johnson loom large over the Newcastle area rock scene? I guess so, although many of the 'DC purists will tell you that they still favour Bon Scott. People of the NE are hard-working folk and don't like 'big-shots' especially when they are quick to abandon or lose their roots other musicians from the North East of England are similarly held at arms length by the people of the region Sting and Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) to name but two. BJ (?) is actually from the very town where 4 of the lads live Consett a former steel-mining town in the County of Durham. We used to rehearse at a recording studio up there and Brian, on one of his infrequent trips home from the US did some charity recording thing at the studio and was appalled at the shite freeze-dried coffee on offer as is the norm in England. So, legend has it, he popped to Consett High Street to the Argos Catalogue Shop to buy a filter coffee machine. I couldn't help but do a BJ squeal when switching the thing on. Back in Black (Coffee) anyone? P.S. I'm better than Brian and I look better in a flat cap. I noticed your myspace site seems to have lots of links to local dancers. (Ahem). Is this the beginning of the Molotov Dragon All Girl Army?
If they are Sascha, then let me tell you mate that these are just young girls who admire our music and add a touch of glamour to our website and our gigs. We think of them as 'sisters' If this is WAG-free then the idea is that we get as many gorgeous/dirty rock-lovin girls to follow us around to create this Motley Crue air of sex about the band. Our brand of classic/cock rock seems to attract spandex-clad, big haired and big breasted individuals (and that's just the guys). Of course it's all very tongue-in-cheek. 4 of the band are dedicated fathers so we're more likely to smell of milkybar buttons than sex. Obviously. Nick mentioned "foxy chicks" in his email...which Dragon has the most pulling power? I mentioned earlier that EVH-style axeman Lee is a photographer by day but it's Nick that is the band tripod and easily boasts the biggest lens. He's also recently divorced so is the most popular/desperate. Rico has a twinkle in his eye and has boy-next-door good looks, while Hicka is the muscle bound, Amazonian cheeky boy who lives on the edge and he's started to show more flesh at recent gigs with open-necked shirts and v-neck t-shirts slashed to his hairy navel. Lee & me are the blond-haired, blue-eyed natural beauties in the band but are too wholesome for the filthy girls who come to our gigs. The mothers seem to like us though. (Even though I look like one of the kids from Hanson when my hair is long). Lee and I want to look like He-Man and Golden Axe we've just got to shift our round faces and work on the muscle definition. Your thoughts on the following: Thin Lizzy? Twin guitar pioneers without them there'd be no Metallica or Pantera. Emerald and Don't believe a Word might make our setlist one day. Drugs? Don't work, they just make you worse Who needs them? We're high on our music and our shared love for the band. Oh yeah and beer, vodka, jack, irish cider, guiness, green ginger wine, cough linctus etc. No illegals/mind-benders. The Rave Scene that I associate with Northern England? It used to be a vibrant scene of escapism, passion and original music which was a fusion of ska, dance and the best of Manchester's 'brit' scene Happy Mondays, Stone Roses etc. These days it's all over-produced, home-computing techno music shite, kids in 1-litre cars with big exhausts and rims and girls in tracksuits. Rock (classic and modern) has to be the antidote to this faceless, drug-addled, socially-disconnected scene. Axl Rose? A bit of a knobhead by all accounts and not the best rock vocalist (Cherone, Lee Roth, Page, Mercury, Coverdale get my vote), but a great frontman and a good attitude. GnR were at their best with Axl and Izzy alongside Slash & Duff. Not sure about the shorts and bandanas but loved his Spaghetti Incident stuff, his leather cap, the vunerability on tracks like November Rain and kick ass vox on It's so Easy, You Could be Mine etc. His reformed GnR band is a shower of shit though. I think he wants to just live on the memories/royalties. A ginger legend of old. Finish this sentence. "The Molotov Dragons are to rock what... Silicone is to Sagging Breasts" almost as good as the real thing, attractive, amusing and symptomatic of a mid-life crisis. Intrigues women and makes men of all ages excited. Tender, firm but forgiving and perfectly formed. A bit dirty. 14) Closing shout outs or comments, furthermore what can we expect from the band in the future? We'd love some more fans (and feedback) from our rock brethren in the US - check out our website www.myspace.com/molotovdragons. Get in touch if you're a sugar daddy or oil magnate that would like to fly us out to play a rock gig at your playboy party or daughter's prom ball. We have no morals/standards and are cheap. Guaranteed to entertain and lots of English charm like Hugh Grant only not so much of a twat. Any rock chicks out there? We'd love to see what you can do for the band to raise our "profiles" Final shout-out to rock fans everywhere. Keep it real and become a disciple of MOLOTOV DRAGONS championing classic rock in the modern age. We hope to have some new audio tracks and videos up on the site soon and we're constantly adding photos and textual nonsense so keep checking the site. God bless all at Sleazegrinder what a fabulously depraved and hard-rockin site. We love it. Peace Out Molotov Dragons (MickyLuv) PICS: 0. New band line-up shot 1 Nov 07 - black and white (L to R: Nick, Lee, Hicka (centre), Rico, MickyLuv)
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Tara-Lee-Shield Glamour Model/MD fan (photos by Terri-Lee-Shield
- 0. Molotov Dragons Logo 0. Over-developed neon-toned live pics (credit to Terri-Lee-Shield please) |
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The
Molotov Dragons...sounds like a name lifted straight from a Richard
Price book. (Can't you just picture them squaring off against The Wanderers
or The Fordham Baldies?). But they aren't a 1960's Bronx street gang,
they're a tribe of rock and roll barbarians hailing--once again--from the
begrimed streets of Newcastle, England. Surely the best monikered band since
the heyday of Little Caesar. Just saying it makes me feel like testosterone
is squirting out of my ears.
It
depends if the band's Wives and Girlfriends (WAGs) are reading this!