Eddie and the Hot Rods

This "5 and Dime" interview was conducted with Eddie and the Hot Rods drummer Simon Bowley
via a May 11 e-mail.


Simon, back in 1977, Eddie and the Hot Rods was one of my favorite bands from the UK punk scene. Tell me about the 2005 version of Eddie and the Hot Rods.

Basically, in the year 2000, Eddie and the Hot Rods were asked to take part in a 76-date tour of the U.K. The only problem was the band's original bass player didn't want to do it and quit the band, so a new bassist was found in the form of Dipster. The tour went ahead and was a great success and the band has been busy ever since. Just over a year ago we introduced Chris Taylor as our second guitarist, which has given us a much more powerful sound much like the original lineup of 1977. The band still includes original singer Barrie Masters. The lineup is as follows:

Barrie Masters (vocals)
Simon Bowley (drums)
Dipster (bass)
Richard Holgarth (guitar)
Chris Taylor (guitar).

Tell me about your band's current CD, "Better Late Then Never," including its musical direction, where we can hear it, and where we can buy it.

We decided in late 2003 to record an album, as the band hadn't recorded anything in such a long time. We were not sure if anybody would be interested but did it anyway. We recorded 11 new tracks and a cover version of Ian Hunter's "Once Bitten Twice Shy." We found that due to the fact that we all have different influences that it didn't take long to put together. It lends itself to a more mainstream garage rock sound. We spent 2004 putting it in front of as many people as possible and found a guy called Joe Sweetingburgh who was ex-EMI. He took it and is really doing a great job getting it in the right places. At the moment, it's due for release in the U.K. It was released in France last year and is selling okay. We are negotiating with a record company in Australia at the moment, and are hoping for some interest from U.S. companies soon. It will be available via download worldwide in a matter of weeks.

Tell me about your band's current tour.

We are really looking forward to coming back out to the U.S.A. in June. It's been so long since the band toured America, and we have always had e-mails from fans asking when we were gonna come back. So we were lucky to find a really great agency called Libertalia which has done a great job organizing the 12-date tour of the West Coast. All dates can be found via www.eddieandthehotrods.com.

What does your band have in store for your fans in the next 12 months?

In the next 12 months, we will have a second studio album recorded, a live album and a DVD released hopefully worldwide. We plan on coming back to the U.S.A. and do the East Coast hopefully. Tours of Europe are already planned so keep an eye on the website

Feel free to promote your website, merchandise, back catalog, and anything else you'd like that applies to your band.

We are busy encouraging people to join the RodSquad fan club, which means that they get limited edition stuff, newsletters, the usual fan club gear. Anybody interested can please get in touch via our website, www.eddieandthehotrods.com. This site has all the info you need, merchandise, photos, contacts, etc.

Please share your thoughts on Dimebag Darrell.

We were all well shocked to hear of the onstage death of ex-Pantera and Damageplan guitarist Dimebag Darrell, who was one of Chris Taylor's inspirations. It's always sad to hear of this kind of thing happening. When it happens to somebody who inspired you to play and you grew up listening to, well we were gutted.