The Drug You Won’t Want to Kick - Hilda, Drugdealer Cheerleader interview

Left to right - Hilda (vocals), Liam (bass), Neil (guitar) and Ringo (drums)

How many bands can you think of with a quirky name such as “Drugdealer Cheerleader”? At first glance, the name might conjure up the image of a drug tormented band of four extras from “Bring It On” - but to see them live, you’ll find that they are four (at the moment five) strapping lads who are hell bent on putting on the show of their lives at every gig. Anthemic stadium rock style. Even if it is in a small and smelly hole of a venue in the middle of the week. That’s precisely what they did at “Lark In The Park” after they were interviewed for Pure Rawk. I’d been meaning to go and check out DDCL live for a few months and finally got round to it I was not disappointed at all.

They drag a lot of influences from the sleaze, glam, cock rock and punk rock genres and fuse them together to make catchy drum beats, virtuoso guitar solos and rumbling base lines along with obscenely delightful vocals - and if you catch them live, a killer show to boot. They appeared on Classic Rock’s “Sons of Guns” CD with an exclusive version of ‘Fireworks’. The CD listed 15 bands that take the passion, energy and kick ass swagger of the legendary Guns N’ Roses and put it to use to make something new and original.

I met Hilda shortly after ordering the usual tipple. I offered him a drink but he was content with his banana. Ringo, the DDCL drummer summed it up perfectly with saying something along the lines of if he could snort potassium Hilda would do.

After being introduced to the rest of the band who were sitting around a large table in the back of the venue (which doubled as a dressing room, sound checking area, instrument storage because it really was that small) we proceeded to find somewhere to have a natter.

Nix sits in the corner on a beaten up sofa in the small surrounds of “Lark In The Park” in Islington with Hilda who is happily chomping on his second or third banana. Talking with air about the new Drugdealer Cheerleader single that’s going to be released in July, the emphatic and ‘suave’ Barnsley born front man lays out exactly what DDCL entails, Cheerleaders, sex crazed alcoholism and sticky floors.

Nix: You might have to speak up a bit
Hilda: (shouting into dictation machine) B*llocks!

Nix: How did you come up with the name?
Hilda: That’s not my fault, it’s Ringo’s fault, it’s nothing to do with me! It’s Ringo, he comes up with all sorts of b*llocks. It was literally created to have two different sides coming together which is completely opposite and also to create a kind of instant recognition for people that they could kind of hold on to as an image but also specifically not to be a rock band. Something to anybody could kind of go “ooh, that’s a cool name”. The industry hate it - f*ck them!

Nix: How did all of you guys come together?
Hilda: It’s a bit of a long story. The short version of the story is that me and Ringo went to university together, we were in a band at university and then played in a couple of different bands. We decided that the other bands weren’t going anywhere so we decided to get back together and play some music that no one else was playing. That we’d play something that we’d enjoy playing which is suddenly back in fashion again! So we were happy about that. Neil joined us a couple of years ago - him up there with the bandana (laughs pointing to) be basically joined us and we became a proper band at that stage. We went through a succession of bass players who have all been who have all been a kind of variation between ‘excellent’ or ‘s***’! (laughs) - kind of somewhere on that scale. Now we’ve settled on a guy called Liam who’s really a sweet guy, a top guy. He’s kind of a drinker and a womaniser and that’s exactly what we like about him!

Nix: A little bit about yourself?
Hilda: (laughs) Me? (laughs) I’m probably Robin Black’s younger son! He’s a f***ing sex pervert, a loud mouthed gobs**te, lunatic front man. I probably take the same kind of aspects from what a front man should be, someone like him. A little from Sebastian Bach, Freddy Mercury and Dave Lee Roth and kind of mix it all up and call it something more British! There’s no real British rockstar out there, apart from me! (points to self)

Nix: I read somewhere that two of you were in a covers band, what type of covers did you play?
Hilda: Nope, nowt to do with me! I don’t like covers bands, me! It was Neil and Ringo. It was a band called “Baggage” or “Luggage” or something! (laughs) It was f*ckin’ baggage anyway! I think they just played standard rock covers. The singer apparently got a bit up himself and started putting his own songs in there, mixing it in!

Nix: Who’s the main lyricist, or is it a joint effort?
Hilda: I think most of the lyrics nowadays, since the last bass player left have pretty much been my lyrics. We’ve always had the attitude of everybody contributing to the songs and we’d always split it equally at the end of the day. Neil comes up with stuff about girls and drinking and I’ll come up with stuff that’s rock/pop - a little bit to the left. Everyone kind of contributes and says ‘oh that’s s***’ or ‘that’s great’ but most of the time they leave me to it. Pretty much it’s mostly my effort.

Nix: What’s your main inspiration?
Hilda: That’s quite an interesting question because when you’re growing up you have all these iconic stars and you see the glamour and all that kind of stuff. But although that was good for me I had a lot of friends back home - living in Barnsley. Being kind of a miners son and not having any money and being on the dole. Me dad going and getting involved in the miners strike and all that kind of s***. I kind of come from a really deprived background almost. I came from the gutter man! (Pause) or well, from the pit!
Nix: (Makes bizarre tweet noise) You were the budgie!
Hilda: Yeah! I was the budgie in the mines. As a small child they used to take me and that’s how I learnt how to sing (winks) as the caged budgie. I had some friends that took their own life and one of them was a real inspiration to me because he was always the centre of attention - the life and soul of the party. When I moved away from Barnsley I came to London and kind of decided to reinvent myself as this lunatic who I’d left behind (and then topped himself later on). But I’m not going to top myself!
Nix: No, that’s a good thing considering you’re the front man of DDCL (laughs)
Hilda: (laughs) Unless they want to make loads of money off me.

Nix: On that note, you’ve got a single coming out haven’t you?
Hilda: (between chomps of a banana) It’s coming out in the second week of July now I believe, its been pushed back a little bit because of some problems with art work. Essentially, we’re going to have the single released as a download first of all and then a week later it comes out in the shops. It’s being distributed through Pinnacle and it’s under a label called Pebble Beach so you can download it on all of the sites like iTunes and all that. It will be available across the board and I think that the distribution of Pinnacle and the agents that we’ve got working for us now will get the record into HMV and the major record shops. So you should be able to just walk into a record shop and buy it!

Nix: The UK is going through an ‘art rock/Indie’ kind of scene, do you see that as any kind of problem for the type of music you guys play?
Hilda: (laughs) I personally think that we’re better than anybody else out there so I couldn’t give a f***! (laughs). I think a lot of stuff is a little bit out dated or taking a bit too much of an influence from older bands. I think that there are a lot of things out there that’s not really rock n’ roll anymore and you want somebody with a bit of spunk and a bit of attitude and outrageousness to come along and go ‘we’re the new boys in town’. The kids aren’t interested in George Michael or bloomin’ boring farts. They want some excitement in their lives and someone to look up to and to want to be that person. I don’t want to be George Michael!

Nix: You’ve got a few really good things over the next few months. You’ve got Trash Stock in Nottingham. How did that come about?
Hilda: (between chomps of banana, again) We basically got contacted by them through MySpace actually. MySpace has been great because we’ve had quite a few things happening through there. We got our recent Classic Rock CD thing through there (Sons Of Guns CD, Issue 92) just through one of the writers in there. He played some of our material and thought that we were excellent. Not only that, we were the only British band featured on that CD so we represented Britain! And I think that we kicked all of the other bands arses to be honest with you. (Laughs) They can challenge us to a duel if they want! We’ve had some other bands come off that, the CD. That’s an excellent CD, I think that’s a cult CD and people should get hold of a copy. I think that we might have a couple of the bands, we might play some shows with them - they’ve kind of invited us over. (Pauses) Hello darling, would you like to have sexual intercourse with me?
(Richie from Kitty Hudson who is playing with DDCL for a time pops over to the interview corner).
Richie: (extremely feminine voice) Oh! Oh! Certainly Hilda!
Hilda: Yes, that’s a Cheerleader come to have sex with me!
Nix: I see no pom poms
Richie: I have a couple of nice other pom poms
Hilda: A couple of nice pom poms, this is Richie - our kind of “Stand-in Superstar”
Richie: (laughs) I normally have my lycra outfit (rubs self)
Hilda: We’ve recently become a five piece. We’ve got Richie helping out in the band from “Kitty Hudson” - (to Richie) Look, I’ve plugged you! What do you want anyway?
Richie: Nothing, I was just gate crashing!
Hilda: You just come to check that you were going to get a plug! (Laughs) what was I talking about? The things that are coming up? (Pause) We’ve also got a tour coming to support the single in July. We’ve got a few date up until then to attract a few people. We’re going to get people from the industry down to support us. We’ve also got a festival in Huntingdon called “Secret Garden Party” which is going to be an excellent show.

Nix: Would you say that you have any vices?
Hilda: Yes, personally I’m a sex addict and if you wanted to go in there right now (hinted to pub kitchens) I would. I can’t help myself, I can’t say no I’m afraid. Apart from that, bananas and I do drink a lot. Whiskey and beer, when I’m not driving. That pretty much goes the same for the rest of the band. We’re pretty much all crazy, sex crazed alcoholics.

Nix: Do you have any odd fans?
Hilda: Odd fans? (Pause) yeah! (Laughs) They’re only about as odd as us. I think you have to be a little bit odd if you’re interesting. Personally, straight people bore me. I can’t hold a conversation with somebody who is not a ‘bit’ mad or a bit odd. I think that comes across that you have to be a bit odd to be into this band! Straight faced people can f*** off (laughs). Boring people won’t like us, so it’s not worth their time.

Nix: Do you have a favourite gig that you’ve played so far?
Hilda: Our last one, because I think that they’re just getting better and better. You’re only as good as your last gig. The Barfly in Camden was our last show. Quite frankly, we were pretty awesome. We did like a video for a DVD so we might put some footage on MySpace as well. The sound track from it came out really well so we might even put some live songs on our MySpace.
Nix: The worst place about that venue is that you stick to the floor, everywhere you go.
Hilda: (laughs) That’s because of me spunking all over it. I can’t help myself. There was so many gorgeous girls there that night! It’s a bit like the old clubs that I used to go to in London - the Hellfire club, that had a sticky floor as well! Just because of all the sex that went on there!

Nix: Do you have a crap gig that you’d like to erase from your memory?
Hilda: Yeah, our last gig with our previous bass player. It was at the Archway Tavern in February I think. Basically, our bass player played like a c**t - he’d just not learnt the songs properly, hadn’t put the effort in, was more interested in shagging one of our Cheerleaders on the night than anything else which is cool, but you’ve got to play as well.
Nix: Isn’t it a thing of folklore that the bass is one of the easier instruments to play?
Hilda: (laughs) Well, I think so! But I can’t play anyway. He was just awful and it was unfortunate because there was a few people that came along to that show who had not seen us before and probably were going to go away thinking that we were s*** because we were really, really awful that night. We couldn’t hold it together, it was just a mess.

Nix: Do you have an ultimate gig?
Hilda: I wouldn’t have minded being on the Bon Jovi support! Being the main support, or even headlining over Bon Jovi! (Laughs) Maybe we’re not quite up to that just yet! Playing with somebody in Hyde Park or somewhere like that. One of the big places like Milton Keynes Bowl or one of the major festivals. You can’t really beat that. I suppose if you were saying a dream, it would be to sell a lot of albums - the first album we release and play Wembley Stadium or something like that. It would just be amazing.

Nix: You like to use a lot of women in your music, on the web site and at live shows. How did the Cheerleader concept come about?
Hilda: Well basically, we have a lot of really good looking girls coming to our shows and we said well, why not apart from ‘abusing’ them (laughs) why don’t we use them as well. We asked around a few of the girls and they said that they’d be interested in featuring on the web site and doing a favour. What they do is go around during the show and speak to people and get their email addresses for their mailing list and sell our merchandise and things like that. They look sexy, they get people into the shows and its just basically a fun extra bit. The guys like them and the girls also like them as well!

Nix: What’s your favourite song in your repertoire?
Hilda: At the moment, we’ve got a song called “Out Of Time” which is a brand new song and its about people who are complete f*** up drug users. So although we’re called Drugdealer Cheerleader we’re not complete f*** up drug users! We’re sex crazed alcoholics -
Nix: A drug can be anything addictive I guess
Hilda: Exactly, I think some drug use is cool only in moderation, you can’t be an idiot. The people like Whitney Houston and Pete Doherty are all mentioned in the song, they’re the kind of extremes and they’re t**ts basically. They don’t command respect from my point of view so we make a comment in that song and it sounds a little like an AC/DC song so it’s cool!

Nix: Anything you’d like to confess to that we’ve not chatted about already?
Hilda: I don’t hold anything back, I’m very open as a person. If someone asks me a question, I’ll answer them honestly. I’ve confessed everything I think! If you go on our website there’s a thing called Hilda’s Asylum. There’s a lot of stuff on there from my ‘dirty past’ and things that are happening now.

Check out the official Drugdealer Cheerleader web site for gig listings so you can catch their wild and ‘cock’ rockin’ crazy antics, look at pictures of them doing strange things, lyrics, forum etc etc. Also, they’re on MySpace as Hilda mentioned - www.myspace.com/drugdealercheerleader. So be sure to check both of those out under the orders of Pure Rawk!

- Words by Nicola (Nix) Crichton. Live images by Nix, promo images kindly supplied by Alex Blair.

© Pure Rawk 2006