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The Murderburgers Interview
Interview by Music Vice contributor Danny Crombie - September 17, 2009
Fraser Bladez is lead singer of Glasgow’s fastest and snottiest pop-punk band The Murderburgers who remind me of The Queers with a thick Weegie [Glaswegian] accent, the guys have just come out with their second album entitled Semi-Erect, Semi-Retarded, Semi-Detached and have already embarked on their first European tour this past summer.
As a Murderburger I’m guessing you guys don’t have much time for fine cuisine in your very busy touring schedule, do you have a favourite fast food or even better favourite type of burger?
Fraser - Right now I am diggin’ beans on toast again, it really is the meal of kings. Kings that have very little money that is, as soon as payday comes I’m going to start eating veal wrapped in salmon that’s been kissed by an angel. When we are on the road we mainly eat kettle chips and wash it down with Relentless energy drink. Some bands have a beer and speed combo but we have obviously gone for a more dangerous cocktail. I’m not really that into eating burgers to be honest, I’ve been trying to eat a bit healthier these days. I’ve had 6 bananas so far today! How good is me!
Every band has one of those stories, my one involves Perth, Crust punks and punching a girl in the face after mistaking her for a fellow band member– tell us your best Murderburger or past band story.
Fraser - Well Danny Boy, as you know the ol’ UK Death Charge have far too many stories to list! We really were the drunkest and most annoying people in the world for a few years. I’ll give you a couple burger stories though.
Recently we were asked to play in Bolton with The Sex Pistols Experience, not too keen on the headlining act but we were playing down in Derby the next day so thought it would be a good idea, and it would also break up the journey a bit.
We were told to be there at 8pm, so for the first time in months we were actually at the venue early. We loaded our stuff in and spoke to the promoter. “You’ll be on at half 10, just before The Sex Pistols Experience” he said. Good stuff we thought, gives us time to chill out a bit and get a pint and whatnot. Once the first band had finished we realized that the drum kit had been taken away so we went to speak to the first band, as far as they were the only other band playing. We spoke to the promoter and he said it was the house kit so we could go set up and play at half 10 as planned. Just as we were going to get our stuff together we noticed that The Sex Pistols Experience were actually about to start playing. The promoter then told us that we would be playing after them and that they weren’t playing for long, so we thought fuck it, we are here and may as well stick around. The Sex Pistols Experience managed to play for about an hour and half, seeing as that's all the material they had worthy of playing live. We were pretty pissed off and were thinking about just leaving, we asked the promoter if he thought there was any point in us playing after the headlining act, and brought up that we weren’t on any of the posters. He assured us that people would be sticking around and that we should play. So, we went to set up or stuff. However, the other bands had to leave and we were told we were using their gear. We were given an apology and £20, drove down to Derby feeling slightly dejected. A couple of weeks ago we gave Bolton another chance, we got to play but not until 4:30am and the guy putting on the gig didn’t even want us to go on.
On our first UK tour we were chased by a guy with a metal pole when we were in the ol’ Burgermobile around Leeds, that was pretty insane! Our luck hasn’t been too bad though so far!
We all know how hard it is for bands to struggle by and make cash, what do you guys do when not playing shows?
Fraser - When we aren’t playing shows we are dreaming about playing shows! I work in a dusty warehouse filled with boxes, Tom (bassist) is a groundskeeper and Cock (drummer) used to work in a warehouse filled with pipe valves but recently got paid off. If we could we would just tour all the time, but it’s not that simple. Boohoo!
Who’s the best live band out there apart from yourselves and Fleetwood Mac? Actually, more to the point who should we interview next?
Fraser - We played with Teenage Bottlerocket one time and they were amazing live, so tight! Zatopeks put on a helluva show, most energetic set I’ve seen in a while. We recently toured Europe with The Priceduifkes from Belgium; they are definitely one of my favorite live bands and was great to see them play every night for 2 weeks. Wonk Unit from London are a must see live band! Punk and poetry done in the most fun way possible! Teenage Gluesniffers from Italy are a really fun live band too. There are a lot of other good amazing live bands but too many to list.
Here’s your time to plug - what’s next for the Inglorious Burgers?
Fraser - Our second album 'Semi-Erect, Semi-Retarded, Semi-Detached' is out now on Monster Zero Records, while Voodoo Doll Records just released a 4-way split CD featuring us with Flamingo Nosebleed, Kill Time and The Kinkies too. We are currently booking dates for a 3 week Euro tour with The Dangerfields in March 2010 as well.
Thanks for the interview my good friend! Viva European Punkrock!
© Danny Crombie
Check out The Murderburgers online on MySpace.
