J- What’s your relationship like with Troubleman Unlimited? (New Jersey label, who put out their records during and after the demise of Slampt)
R- Very good relationship.
M- Mike (Simonetti- Troubleman founder/head guy) has done loads of work for us. Particularly our second tour of the US, where he drove us around for two months.
R- And he never tours.
M- Basically, he’s a friend who’s worked hard for us for a long time. And we trust him.
R- Our relationship with Mike started because he wanted to put out Pussycat Trash stuff (early-to-mid 90s Slampt band featuring Rachel and Pete) and then Pussycat Trash split up. So he said he’d put out stuff by our next band. And luckily, he liked us!
P- I’ve known him for years before Red Monkey started. One of the things I really like about him is he’ll put out anything he thinks is good and he will try and allow the bands to do whatever they want to do. With ‘Gunpowder, Treason and Plot’ he asked if we’d want to do it just on cd. Cos we normally only sell 2,000 albums which are all on vinyl. But we really wanted to do it on vinyl, and that wasn’t a problem for him.
R- We hate cds as well because a certain percentage of all manufacturing costs go to Sony. That’s something we’ve been very principled about in the past.
P- So yeah, he’s a cool guy and very easy to work with.
M- If you look at the things he puts out, it’s of quite a wide variety. And he likes to put out side-projects by bigger bands.
P- Like Sea Tiger. They’re excellent.

J- Are there any records you’re into at the moment?
M- Well, not to be too predictable, the last Fugazi album. And some hip hop…
P- I really liked the last Karate 12”.

(At this point my RUBBISH RUBBISH dictaphone breaks AGAIN and I’m left with a load of fuzz for about 30 seconds. I think they listed a host of bands they liked that I’d never heard of).

J- Would you say that there are any short or long term plans for Red Monkey, now that you’re all tied up with family and job commitments? (Pete has a young daughter and is training to become a teacher while Rachel has just a
few weeks ago given birth to her’s and Marc’s first child.)
R- In the short term, I’d probably say no. But in the long term…well, if any of you want to come on tour with us and baby-sit, that’d be good!
P- I think we’ll definitely play together whatever. But this year with everyone doing stuff it might be a bit much.
R- Also with Joe Mask (Leeds DIY scenester legend. Also in Bilge Pump, Polaris and a billion other bands. Famed for his extraordinary inability to stay sober) joining the band we’re gonna need more time to interface properly.
J- (laughs) That might be quite tough from the state I saw him in last week!
(Big laughs from the band)
R- Where was he?
J- We were down at Joseph’s Well watching Le Tigre. He definitely seemed to be enjoying himself.
M- He does like to enjoy himself!
R- I wouldn’t like to see his liver.
P- Originally, Joe used to just come on tour with us and drive us around.
A- You let Joe drive?!
R- Oh, he’s an excellent driver. He won’t drink when he has to drive.
P- And he can fix guitar strings in about 10 seconds. And he’s got a great knowledge of amps, so he’s a really excellent person to have on tour to help you out. Because he was such a good guitar player he started playing with us.
R- Really good.
P- But as a band it’s gonna be a while before get ourselves sorted.

M- What is quite mad is that we’re really tied up now but a load more bands are offering us shows and support tours. Fugazi….
R- Q And Not U, Nomeansno. A lot of American bands.
P- Erase Errata.
J- They’re on Troubleman Unlimited as well, aren’t they?
R- Yeah, we toured with them in America.
P- They had a lot of interest from other labels. I know Kill Rock Stars were interested, but they chose to go with Troubleman. Which says a lot about Mark’s reputation. But anyway, when we started, from about summer ‘96 to
probably summer ‘99 we were playing and practising once or twice every week, doing every gig we could get our hand s on.
R- Didn’t we play 5 months out of every year?
M- We were playing a lot for a small band.
P- ‘98, ‘99 we toured three months out of the year while holding down part-time jobs. And some people have implied that we’ve never bothered to try and get more popular in Britain, but it’s not true. Y’know, we’ve played London three times, Leeds a million times, we’ve gone to Ireland, we’ve played in Manchester twice, Glasgow twice…
R- We’ve played loads. Everywhere. We should play with you!
J and A- YES!
M- I mean, we’ve played in fucking York.
J- York?! Where can you play in York?! (sorry to anyone from York. But you know what I mean.)
M- And Sunderland. Although Sunderland is the happening place to be right now. It actually has good bands.
(one or two sniggers can be heard)
A- Sunderland is not happening!
M- I mean, you can have your opinion but Sunderland has never had good bands.
J- The Toy Dolls? (crap faux-punkers who did ‘Nelly the Elephant’)
M- I don’t wanna get bitchy, but there are certain Sunderland bands that have been revered, that I’ve not really understood.
P- The Angelic Upstarts?
(more laughing)
M- My lips are sealed.
J- Leatherface?
A- Leatherface?
M- I’m saying nothing! But anyway though, when we played Sunderland we always got antagonistic audiences.

J- Musically, what’s your opinion of Newcastle at the moment?
R- Quite nice! Little, young bands!
P- Yeah, I think there’s a load of really good bands around at the moment.
R- What I really like is that bands are doing things for themselves. When we started Slampt, people didn’t want to do things for themselves very much. A lot of people were like “oh, let’s get a manager, let’s go to London, let’s
get signed”. Weird.
P- But the bands around here are great. Skip Day Toner, even though they’ve split, This Ain’t Vegas, The Futureheads. All absolutely brilliant.
M- I think it’s good that another generation are coming through, organising gigs themselves, creating a lot of energy, trying to make things happen. Making contacts and assocations with different bands, scenes and
organisations.
P- If the bands that are around now in the North-East had been around three years ago when we stopped Slampt, we’d have carried on. Just at that time, there was nothing I wanted to release locally.
R- Can’t flog a dead horse, can you?
P- Exactly.
J- Before I left for university I wasn’t that taken with the place.
P- Are you from Newcastle originally?
J- Just down the road a bit, yeah. I studied for three years and when I came back I was really surprised. Maybe, I wasn’t going to the right places before I left but now I’m finding it all quite exciting.
M- Yeah, there was a quiet phase during that time.
R- We were just waiting for you to come back!
M- Yeah, everybody. He’s here now!
J- (tongue firmly in cheek) That’s what I thought. So then, Newcastle for European Capital of Culture 2004? (Newcastle has put in a bid. Ha.)
Everybody- 2008!!!
J- Sorry.

M- Hmmm. Well, it really is important that there’s stuff happening out there. I mean, we’ve all been going for years now and I’m seeing different bands starting up, different people coming to gigs. And I’d say that we’ve now come to the point where we’re appreciated by…
R- Young’uns.
M- Definitely, it was getting to the point where we were playing mostly to our friends.
R- Yeah, and our friends were getting bored of us!
M- It was just getting worse and worse. And all of a sudden, people started to take an interest.
P- That’s why I think we can always keep going and we’d always play together anyway. I get the feeling that there’d always be a handful enough of people at our shows to make it worthwhile for us. Which is the important thing. Even if we find it impossible to go on tour much we’ll always carry on playing Newcastle.
R- I think we’ll always keep going, just because we all know each other so well.
M- And I’d say a real reason for why we’d keep going is that it’s actually fun.
(Rachel starts laughing at him)
M- No, but when we started we were a political band who was so earnest, with so many links to different organisations. And now you’ve come to realise the main reason to play in a band is that you enjoy doing it. If it’s just about the politics, why be in a band? Why not go and organise something else?
P- Yeah, I think that ties in with the changes we were talking about with the new album. Lyrically, it’s more…(to Rachel) well, your lyrics are always more interesting, to be honest!
R- Yes, I’m superior.
P- Ha, but anyway, all the lyrics on the new album are more introspective. We’re less likely to shout “pro-choice” or “fuck cynical corporations” or what have you. It’s more interesting really. That’s why I’d like to keep recording and writing. If it always interests you and stimulates you, you have to keep going, don’t you?

It seems fitting to round off the interview here. Pete has to nip back upstairs to look after his daughter, Marc and Rachel have to do baby stuff, and my dictaphone’s about to explode. And just as ‘goodbyes’ are being said, the lovely Red Monkey folks each hand me a load of old Slampt releases that have apparently been “knocking about the place”. What a band.

interview by John Coburn
photo from Yelvy's Red Monkey fansite
Slampt Underground Organisation