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Hi Brad, It’s been a pretty relentless touring schedule for Massive so far, to say the least! “Haha! Yep that’s one way of describing it! It’s show number nineteen… I think… in twenty two days. Those three days off, two of them were ten hour drives, so… yeah, it’s been pretty hectic!” So how are you feeling then? “Ah a couple of beers and I’m flying! That’s the way I live, especially the last few days. It’s been drive-play-sleep-drive-play-sleep. My phone is dead, I haven’t even had time to charge it, we’ve got a day off in four days, and I’m looking forward to it!” You’ll be able to charge your phone that day then! “Yeah, I’ll get around to it” The tour started with Massive leaving London and playing in Barcelona the next day, wasn’t it? “Overnight, yeah, fifteen hours straight. We rehearsed in London, gig in Barcelona, then eleven shows straight before a day off… and that day off was needed! We did have to drive on that day, but just not loading in was a relief.” With all this in mind, it must piss you off when you announce a tour, and straight away someone moans about Massive not playing their backyard? “Yeah, you always get it. You can’t impress everyone. We try to tell people “we’ve travelled 10,000 miles to be here, you can travel 25 miles up the road, and we meet in the middle”. We’ve done well this tour, hitting places all over. Two shows in Scotland.” You also run Wrecking Crew Touring, so logistically, how much of a strain was planning this tour? “I’ve had a bit of practice with it now. I’ve done it for a few bands. It wasn’t meant to be this long, but at the last minute we were offered Hard Rock Hell, and you can’t turn down that. We love that place. So we had an extra two weeks to fill, I put my thinking cap on and we booked an Eastern European tour. So, after we do the UK, we have a few shows in Germany and France then we’re off to bloody Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, and all these places! It’s gonna be an experience.” God, those places won’t know what’s hit them! You guys will love it. The beer is practically cheaper than a soft drink in some of those countries! “Great! Wish us luck! I’ve been googling some of the places. We’re going to be playing in Transylvania! Some of these places are so foreign to us. The gigs will be in dingy, dirty rock bars… but yeah, it will be a whole different world to us” Massive have just released a new single ‘Roses’. Bit of a banger isn’t it? “I’m happy with it! The album is finished, so we had time to pick a single, and ‘Roses’ was our favourite. The response has been great, and everyone has really liked it so far.” The album ‘Rebuild Destroy’ is due early next year. Any hidden meaning behind the title? There have been a few line-up changes… a bit of turmoil in the Massive camp? “Exactly yeah, it’s the rebuild, and we’re coming back to destroy shit! That’s what it is. There’s not much hidden meaning to it. We’ve had our troubles, and the whole “destroy” thing stemmed from our 2016 tour when everything went wrong. We rocked up in Berlin to find out that the first five shows had been cancelled, so we had to sit around for a week with no money. Then we finally got our tour van and it broke down. We ended up spending more money on that tour van than it would have cost to hire one for the two months. It was thing after thing. We had problems with the label, we cleaned out our management and booking agent, and it was back to square one, so that was the rebuild. Actually, some of the songs on the new album were written on that tour… sitting in a Manchester hotel before Hard Rock Hell, actually. I had gone to a little charity junk shop and they had a £15 guitar in the window. I bought it, grabbed a bottle of wine, went back to the hotel, and sat and wrote songs. It’s all out in public. it’s not got any hidden meanings, nothing cryptic about it.” Are you playing much of the new album on this tour? “Quite a few, yeah. We’re road-testing them. Mixing them in with the older stuff. We’ve actually got a video shoot for the next single coming up in the next few days. Not sure what song it’s going to be yet! We’ll see what everyone likes and then we’ll make a clip for it!” How is new Massive drummer Andrew Greentree fitting in? “He’s great. We’ve known him for years, playing in other bands. He’s fitting in really well. He’s never been to Europe! He didn’t have a beard when the tour started, but now he has, and I like it!” So he’s aged considerably in the last few weeks then? “We all have! We’re not getting younger, that’s for sure!” Massive are about to play Rockingham Festival. We have a saying in Scotland, ”Sticks out like a spare prick at a whore’s wedding”, and Massive do “stick out like a… ”. You have all these hair/glam metal bands like Warrant and Vixen, then you have Massive. I can only imagine the look on the faces of the bands that have to follow you! “It’s very old-school, and then there are some new bands. There’s nothing in-between. It’s very niche. I don’t want to say “has-beens”, “nostalgia” acts is better, but there are some up and coming bands on first which is cool. Rockingham has a great reputation. They get all these bands coming over just for that show, which is cool. We’re happy to be there. We’re going on early and we’re going to smash them all…” Then get to the bar? “Actually, we’ve got to get to France the next morning. We’ve got a festival in France the next day!” Hard Rock Hell will be carnage! “We’ve actually got to drive from Croatia to Hard Rock Hell! We’ve got forty hours to do it, and thirty of them will be driving. It’s a big drive. But we’re from Australia, man. These kind of drives we’ve done at least a dozen times.” What bands at HRH are you looking forward to? “So many great bands… The Wild! from Canada are amazing. I like them so much that I’ve actually booked some of their shows around HRH. Saxon are always great”. Fellow Aussies Smoking Martha are making their UK debut, I believe? “Smoking Martha yeah, from Brisbane. I’ve booked some of their shows as well. They are a very, very good band. We’ve played with them a few times and they are so powerful. Tasha’s voice is so big. They are so entertaining that I kind of don’t wanna go play with them as they kick our arses! They’ll do great over here. Their debut album is getting released over here. Great band. That’s what great about HRH, you have the headliners, loads of established bands, then all these new guys for you to check out” Lastly, we’ve recently had National Album Day. I’m not going to ask you what your favourite album is, but what is the best album to stick on if you are planning to get jiggy wit’ it? “Aw, Jesus Christ, man!” Shit, forgot to say congratulations on the new baby! “Yeah, we got jiggy wit’ it!” So, before that, what would you put on? “Probably Aerosmith ‘Pump’” Yeah? Two trucks humping?! “Yeah, it’s just a sleazy, dirty classic rock album. It’s, y’know… a bit sexual. It’s a good album too! So there you go!”. There you go, indeed. All current Massive tour dates can be found here, and you can also find out about what bands Brad has booked with Wrecking Crew Touring here. Interview: Dave S Live pics: Dave J ]]>
