Red & The Hogweeds! : Meet The Artists - P4MH Swansea Alternative Big Weekend!
Punks 4 MH Swansea Big Alternative Weekend 25th to 27th May ! This bank holiday weekend Creature Sound, Swansea, welcomes an action packed weekend of live musical talent in the P4MH event which was organised by Damian Harris drummer of World Vs World & Fat Wreck. The event in association with Death Monkey Records and Welsh Connections kicks off on a Friday 25th May at 7pm. This is a family friendly event and costs £4.50 for adults for the entire weekend and kids are free. Proceeds go to Matt’s café which is a homeless project based on Swansea High Street. Attendees are also asked to kindly bring food or practical donations to help the homeless members of the community who depend on Matt’s café. Performing on Saturday at the Swansea Big Alternative Weekend are Red & The Hogweeds . Gavin from the band kindly answered some questions ahead of this weekends gig. Tell me about your band and long you have been together!
Red & The Hogweeds was originally founded in 2012 in Cardigan in South West Wales by singer/guitarist Red Pryse and drummer Nigel Martin (a.k.a. Mr Hogweed), who together with Jill Milligan on bass clarinet played a handful of local gigs before disbanding. In 2016 Red spoke to Nigel about reforming the band. Nigel insisted that they get a "proper bass" (with no disrespect to Jill who is a good friend and a supporter of the band to this day) so Red approached Yours Truly (i.e. me, local bassist Gavin Lloyd Wilson), which was a coincidence as I was wanting to talk to Red about the possibility of forming a punky garage band. Rehearsals began, initially in a toilet block on a campsite near Poppit Sands, and it soon became apparent that this line-up had the right chemistry. Red wrote a large number of the band's earlier songs while busking his way around Europe for a couple of years armed with just a nylon-strung acoustic guitar. Now armed with an electric guitar, Red has made the move from the street to the stage as a charismatic front man. Nigel’s biggest claim to fame was working as part of the team aboard ship for Radio Caroline in its latter years at the end of its heyday. He has also been an active participant in the UK grass roots festival scene, organising sound systems, etc. I also contribute to the songwriting with songs like "Wiggly Woo", "Blue Suede Moon" and "Bubblecar". Outside of The Hogweeds I have recorded and gigged with my own avant garde/psychedelically-inclined project Spurious Transients, plus with Paul Williams in experimental duo The Spookers, in addition to performing bass playing gigs with singer songwriter Steve Kelly, renowned spacerockers Sendelica and their offshoot The Sendelica Drone Band. In late 2017, guitarist Gunner Gi joined the band bringing an extra dimension to the band's sound and allowing Red to concentrate more on the vocals. UK-born Gunner had spent over a decade rocking the psychedelic frontiers of Northern New South Wales, Australia. On return he worked with UK artist Jon Byrne and more recently in Moscow with Russian chanteuse White Bird. The band have continued playing gigs and festivals both locally in South West Wales and further afield including appearances at The Cellar, Cardigan, The Masons Arms in Llanelli, The Garage in Swansea, The Parrot in Carmarthen, and several festivals including Landed Festival, near Llandrindod Wells. In July 2017, having spent much of the summer recording at The Jam Shack in Llandboidy, Carmarthen, Red & The Hogweeds simultaneously made available TWO debut releases. These were the 5-track EP, "A Slice Of The Hogweeds" released on CD and download, and also a very limited edition lathe cut 5" vinyl single, a double-A-side featuring a pair of sub-2 minute songs, "Wiggly Woo" and "Mind Like An Ocean". Red & The Hogweeds are currently rehearsing a bunch of new songs before taking them into the studio to record for a forthcoming release, which will be their first with Gunner Gi on guitar.
Who are your musical influences? Each of the members has their own musical tastes and influences which manifest themselves in the music that the band makes together. Broadly speaking, both Red and Gunner are fans of rootsy music, Americana, blues, etc, by way of punk, Motorhead, The Who, etc, while Nigel and Gavin's tastes both include spacerock, prog rock, krautrock, reggae, dub and electronica.
How would you describe your music ?
Pop punk fun! Although we use the label "punk", that is more in keeping with the attitude of the band. The music itself takes influences not only from punk but from blues, reggae, calypso, rock'n'roll, bluegrass, disco, folk, psychedelia, etc.
Are there any of the bands who are playing Swansea’s Alternative weekend that you are looking forward to seeing?
We're very open-minded and love seeing live music, particularly when bands are doing their own thing and not just pointlessly churning out cover versions. We've already played gigs with many of the bands on the bill including Windshake, 100,000 Bodybags, The Fens and of course we know Bloody Frights who are a band local to us. Great bands all of them, we really enjoy what they do.
Punks 4 Mental Health is about challenging stigma around mental ill health . What does it mean to your band to be playing this event? I think we've all been affected by mental health issues, either directly or indirectly, at some point in our lives. I know I have. There is still a stigma around mental health that is, gradually, being eroded away through the promotion of awareness thanks to events such as the Punks 4 Mental Health weekend. Thankfuly the mainstream media has caught on too, and are actually doing something useful in promoting awareness (when they are not doing the Tory party's bidding, that is). But anyway, we've all got to keep on chipping away! It's a worthy cause and we're happy to be part of this event.
What can people expect from your band ,if they come out to see you? Whoah! What can people expect from the band if they come to see us? Well... a bit of organised chaos, perhaps! But with some good danceable bouncy tunes, some between song banter, interesting stage costumes, and 4 guys having fun playing their instruments and enjoying themselves.
Anything else you want to add? 😎 Anything else? Check out and like our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Hogweeds / and check us out on YouTube - there's loads of our stuff on there.
Find out more about Swansea’s Alternative weekend and the timings of the event on the Creature Sound or Punks 4 MentalHealth Facebook pages! Thank you Gavin (on behalf of Red & The Hogweeds)
