JULY 2007: Profile – The Gekko

Who: Bon-Jovi supporting rockers, The Gekko

When you’ve played with Bon Jovi and Nickleback, released your debut album and are in talks with movie producers to feature your songs on an upcoming big budget film, it could be all too easy to become over-confident and arrogant.

Thankfully, local outfit The Gekko are neither.

Chatting to the band on a miserable Saturday afternoon, we get the feeling that the level of success they are enjoying right now still hasn’t really sunk in.

Yet they’re undoubtedly proud of their achievements and understandably so; for founder members Mark Rowlinson [vocals] and Andrew ‘Heapy’ Heap [drums], it’s taken them almost ten years to take The Gekko to such a plateau.

“There have certainly been times when we’ve thought about calling it a day,” explains Heapy. “Most bands experience that a point when it feels like you just can’t go any further, but you’ve just got to keep going and hang on.”

And they did.

After first forming at Winstanley College in 1998, Mark and Heapy kept the band going as best they could, but it was the arrival of Adam Stewart [guitars] in 2003, followed by a second guitarist, Craig Benyon in 2005 and bassist Tom McCooey in 2006, that finally saw things heading in the right direction.

“I wouldn’t say that it was the finished product when I joined the band”, says Tom. “But it definitely felt like it at the time. The chemistry was there and it just felt right.”

Sentiments of things ‘feeling right’ are echoed throughout our chat, especially on the subject of writing music.

“The good thing is that when we write songs there are never any arguments,” says Mark. “Anyone can contribute anything to the song writing so we’re never short of ideas and we’ve managed to come up with some really good songs.”

Yet remaining modest, he adds: “We do occasionally produce some rubbish too. We’re not one of these bands who think that everything we do is God-like. If something’s rubbish, we just don’t use it.”

With the ‘rubbish’ discarded, what you’re left with are the kind of seriously fun, energetic rockers (such as the blistering Apology or the buoyant 12.15) that ultimately led to The Gekko playing their biggest gig to date in front of 60,000 people at the City of Manchester Stadium.

The band supported iconic rockers Bon Jovi after winning a battle of the bands contest run by radio station Key 103.

“We were nervous waiting for the judges’ decision. It was like the X-Factor, standing around whilst they read the results.”

Less than a week later, the band temporarily transformed into stadium rockers, a position which admittedly didn’t immediately feel right.

“I remember standing at the side of the stage talking to Bon Jovi’s tour manager. He said to me ‘Are you nervous? There’s nothing to worry about!’ I just looked at him and went “Er, yeah there is!’”

“But we just had to put all that to the back of our minds and play the way we normally do and some people seemed to like what we were doing.”

In fact, a lot of people seem to like what they’re doing. A quick look online reveals an ever-growing army of loyal and passionate Gekko fans who support the band as their star continues to rise.

And what do the next ten years have in store for The Gekko?

“We’ll just keep knocking doors down and driving forward,” says Mark. “It’s great to see some progress after all these years, but we won’t stop until we can do this every day for a living. That’s what’s right for us.”
By Chris Skoyles 

MARCH 2007: Live Review – Without Motive (w/ Testosterone)

Who: Without Motive, Rise to Ruin, Testosterone
Where: The Venue, Preston
When: March 16th, 2007

A few weeks back, we bumped into Wigan band Testosterone who confessed to being somewhat nervous about their upcoming gig.

Naturally, this got us curious. After all, the band have played countless gigs over the last year or so, why would they possibly be nervous about one more?

Turns out that the band were set to take their Blink 182 inspired pop-punk to do battle with two of Preston’s most popular metal bands, and they were set to do it on the Prestonians’ home turf. Certainly an interesting situation then, and one which we just had to see for ourselves.

Rise to Ruin are up first for what we later find out is their last ever gig, and on first glance, they’re certainly an imposing sight. Taking over the entire stage, they seem to be a twenty strong army, though in the sober light of day we’re inclined to believe that we’ve made this up, and there’s probably only five of them.

Either way, the point is that the metal militia currently making their presence felt on the stage look like they mean business, and sound that way too.

Throttling guitars and bass rampage over head-stomping drums, sealed with vigorous vocals that unfortunately find themselves lost amongst the onslaught of bludgeoning riffs scraping across the packed out venue.

Whilst not particularly unique, it more or less sounds good, and could easily whet the appetite of anyone with a fondness for the harshest moments of Slayer, Down, and Lamb of God.

Which many people here tonight seem to have, and whilst there’s nothing about Rise to Ruin that makes us get really excited, it seems their fans have had a pretty good time and the band themselves have played a decent farewell show. Ah, Rise to Ruin, we barely knew ye.

Testosterone appear to be heading into uncharted domain as of late, not just because they’ve agreed to be sandwiched in between two metal bands tonight but also because they’re starting to sound like a band unleashed from the shackles of the pop-punk genre by which they’re usually defined and morphing naturally into an unrestrained, pure rock band.

Taking the stage next, the band confirm such hype with new track Dirty Rock ‘n’ Roll. Arguably their best to date, the song is a whirlwind of energy; a cyclonic lead riff whipping its way into a clobbering thunderstorm of drums and bass and yet still giving those inclined to cut a rug a good excuse to hit the dancefloor. It’s a new direction for Testosterone, and one which we’re eager to see them follow.

However, the band aren’t likely to turn their back’s on what made us, and many others, fans in the first place, and follow this up with two tracks entitled The Lesbian Song and Beer; a reminder that, at the end of the day, they’re still as foolish as ever.

By now the band seem to have to done away with any nerves they had preceding tonight’s show, going so far as to joke with the metal fans in attendance and dedicate a cover of Nerf Herder’s Pantera Fans in Love to, well, Pantera fans.

This isn’t the only time the band will make light of their situation, with frontman Dave Costello later slipping in a sly dig at power metal outfit Dragonforce during a run through of old favourite Punk Rock Rebel. This might seem like a brave move, but it’s made all the less scary by the fact the crowd appear to be enjoying the show, and as the show comes to an end, it’s apparent that the band have enjoyed it too.

Finally, it’s up to headliners Without Motive to take the stage, and damn are they impressive. OK, so their rough ‘n’ tumble brand of metal takes a few songs to digest, but when it does, you know know about it and presented as it is here, in such an off-the-scale live show, it’s near impossible to complain.

With soaring vocals like sirens that signal the oncoming juggernaut of riffs hurtling at high speeds towards the crowd, Without Motive make the kind of heavy metal specifically designed to get heads banging, horns flying and the whole place rocking, which by and large, they do well.

Backed by machine gun beats coming from a drummer out of our view, the band command the stage with an intense presence, which is always nice in an age when many bands seem more concerned with pouting and looking cool than just rocking the hell out like they’re supposed to.

Fronted by a bassist/vocalist who devotes equal effort to slamming his four-stringed weapon of choice with aplomb and roaring down the mic with gusto, Without Motive round out their sound with a dual guitar attack consisting of one snake-like chap who coils round his axe, sending sinuous licks out into the madness and one clearly unfettered rhythm man who seems incapable of standing still for more than two notes.

One minute he’s climbing all over the back of the stage, the next he’s up on the speakers to the front of it, guiding someone’s hand in playing a few chords for him before kissing a girl on the front row and generally going mental, not once taking his hands from his axe or loosing the wild look in his eye and putting on such a show that, swept up in the enthusiastic atmosphere of it all, a certain member of our team hunts him down after the gig to pester him with an unhealthy amount of hero worship.

But this is no one man show, and Without Motive combine their efforts in blasting out swooping scapes of panoptic rock, whipping up an animated air of energy that, whether we like it or not, we all succumb too and find ourselves riveted by such a captivating show.

The band bring their set to a close, and it seems that everyone has had a good time, and as we take our leave, we reflect on Testosterone’s earlier anxiety.

There was no reason for them to be nervous, was there? It doesn’t matter whether a band play pop-punk, metal or post-grunge-disco-grind-tellytubbycore, great music is great music and as long as they’ve got killer tunes and an awesome stage show, people will enjoy it.

At least two of tonight’s acts had exactly those two things, and we absolutely loved it.
By Chris Skoyles