I’m from Nuneaton; it’s not as bad as it sounds - all my friends are wildly good looking super-models who all work as fashion photographers, and everybody walks around whistling and smiling to themselves. It’s sort of like that village out of Hollyoaks.
The thing that bothers me is that people from near-by Coventry always look down on you for being from Nuneaton, like their better than you or something. I used to think they were a bunch of misguided fools until I met The Ripps, a bunch of impossibly good looking Cov kids who play fast paced punk-rock to crowds of screaming girls and crusty looking guys. I caught up with them before a typically excitable show in front of a venue full of UCE art students.
So you guys are from Coventry, how’s that working out?
Rach (drums): Cov’s the city of dreams!
Raul (bass): We’ve always been proud to promote where we’re from and our scene. I mean when we’re on stage we always make a point of telling people about where we’re from and that.
So that’s why you sort of get lumped in with the whole Birmingham scene?
Rach: Yeah, we’d all been in bands before and just played to our friends really: from the start we said ‘we want to play to strangers’ so pretty quickly we were playing gigs in Brum.
Patch (guitar): Saying that, there are some good bands from Cov coming through at the moment.
Raul: Yeah, there’s a really good scene developing, it’s a real cool place to be right now actually.
What possessed you guys to start a band in the first place?
Patch: To get chicks! Why else?
Has it helped?
Rach: No! Being in a band is massive hard work and commitment, you have to practice every night and drive hundreds of miles to play a gig - the reason why we started this band was not only to have fun, but also to just have the journey, if you get what I mean.
Raul: Yeah, it’s about the adventure, the experience of touring and the buzz you get from going on stage: I suppose it really about doing something you love.
It’s paying off too! I had to battle the NME for this interview.
Raul: Oh yeah, they got a bunch of bands from Birmingham for this photo-shoot, and we sort of came along with it, we’re quite fortunate right now to be involved with it, the whole shoot was rad because we knew all the other guys in it.
Rach: It was a bit of a love in really.
Patch: We definitely had the best props though.
Rach: Yeah, some of the bands brought a drum or something but then we turned up with shop dummies, cider, a bike, lamps and everything.
Raul: That’s always been the idea behind the band to be a little tongue in cheek. I mean we have to do this day-in and day-out, so we have to make it something we can live with so we can carry on loving what we do!
Patch: The shows sort of revolve around us taking the piss out of each other and the audience!
I’ve heard that you guys have a new single coming out?
Raul: Yeah, I’m so excited about it, when it came through the post I was like ‘this is it, this is out there and we can’t take it back. It’s a part of history.
Rach: The whole idea is to kind of test the water for the new album coming out in February.
Wow, a new album!
Rach: Yeah it’s going to be called ‘Long Live the Ripps’.
Patch: It’s probably going to be the best album you’ll ever hear.
What! Better than Bat out of Hell 2?
Rach: Yeah, definitely.
So there you have it, The Ripps, young, attractive, energetic, I still can’t figure out how they’re not from Nuneaton?
Dominic Haley