The London Diehards

1. So at first can you briefly introduce your band, members and how dou you know each other?

Ciaran: Well there’s Tel on Vocals, Steve on guitar, AnneMarie on bass, Cherry on drums and me on lead guitar. I knew Steve from Retaliator and also knew Tel and Cherry from the East End Badoes. We did a few gigs with them and I also knew Tel from the pubs and clubs around London. AnneMarie answered an ad we put up for a bass player and as she was the only one who turned up she got the job (we told her she was the best bass-player we tried)
Steve: Its me, him, that bloke, cousin it and some jock bird, most of us have known each other from the scene for quite some time, the bass player contacted us on a sandal fetish website ha ha!

2. Why did you choose the name The London Diehards? I found that this is some regiment from 1st WW, are you consider yourself as a patriotic band?

Ciaran: Steve came up with the name. The Diehards was the nickname of the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment who were a long established regiment in the British Army but who perhaps saw the most action of any British Army regiment during World War One. Most of the early recruits came from London and as we’re all from London or nearby (apart from AnneMarie who’s Scottish) we thought the London Diehards was a good name. We do consider ourselves a patriotic band yes but when it comes to politics we all have our own views. One thing we have in common though is that we all hate the PC bullshit being touted around at the moment.

3. Some of your members played in Retaliator, why did the band split up? Some of you plays in East End Badoes..do you have any other experiences with other bands and do you play in any other?

Ciaran: Myself (Ciaran) and Steve played in Retaliator for two years and had a great time and met some great people. The band split up in January 2009, as Pete decided to leave, Ian’s missus had just had a baby and Mark was busy with Condemned 84. Me and Steve had already planned to start another band as a sideline and when Retaliator split we just concentrated on The London Diehards. Tel and Cherry play in the East End Badoes . As you probably know, Tel started this band back in the early 1980s and they still do gigs now. Cherry has played with he Badoes for around 3 years now. He used to also play in Code 1 and at the moment he is also filling in with Indecent Exposure – so he’s a busy bloke.

4. Your sound is more "punkier" and softer then sound of Retaliator..what are your musical influences and do you play any cover songs? Who is responsible for writing the music and lyrics?

Ciaran: It is slightly punkier a the moment (although we’ve been accused of being a heavy metal band too!!??) but I wouldn’t say its softer. If you see us live the sound is anything but “soft”. I think we’re slightly more musical than Retaliator though. We’ve got a lot of material written at the moment which we still need to record and a lot of that has a harder sound. Our influences vary greatly, we like all kinds of stuff – Oi!, punk of course, but also some metal such as Motorhead and Black Sabbath too. Some favourite bands at the moment Cocksparrer, TMF, Argy Bargy, Superyob, Condemned 84, Cockney Rejects. There’s also some great bands form Europe too, The Pride, The Wrongdoers, The Glory Boys and Headcase are well worth a listen. The bulk of the song-writing is done me( Ciaran) and Steve, I write most of the music and Steve and me come up with the lyrics together.
Steve: Ciaran scribbles stuff in Crayon and Steve refines them to make them understandable to the over fives

5. In your history is written that you had first gig in April 2009, but you have recorded several songs..how it is possible? And are you planning any official release and if yes on what label?

Ciaran: The recordings you hear on the Myspace page were all written while me and Steve were in Retaliator, in fact many of the songs we do were written for Retaliator but as they split up, we now do them. No Compromise is a prime example of one that was destined for Retaliator.
We plan to do a recording very soon and have spoken to Pete from Pure Impact about this but nothing is definite for the moment. We will let everyone know as soon as it’s finalised. As I said, we have a ton of stuff written (over 40 songs) so its just a case of getting them rehearsed and recorded.
Steve: Nothing official as yet, the previous recordings have been made with a Duvet and a great deal of cunning

6. What about the gigs in old Britain? It is difficult for non PC band to find the place for playing? With your experience from previous bands you can compare differences between UK gigs and gigs abroad...are there any?

Ciaran: Well you’re right, it is difficult for any Oi! Band to get gigs in Britain which is fucking stupid. It annoys me that some people don’t won’t give the time of day to some band because of who they know or what they’ve done in the past. We had this trouble with Retaliator too, virtually no-one in London would put them on. Certain promoter´s who shall remain nameless just have a problem with skinheads and Oi! Bands yet don’t mind taking their money off them when they come to see punk bands. Europe on the other hand is great and we all love playing in Europe. We had some great times in Europe with Retaliator and have played in Belgium (at Molokos) with the London Diehards. European skins are a fucking great bunch of people, very friendly and they love a drink too which is great. We’ve had some great times in Finland, Valencia (with the Glory Boys) and in Belgium too.I feel a bit embarrassed sometimes when European bands come over to London to play and they are virtually ignored or looked down on. It’s a fucking shame as they don’t deserve that at all. The scene over in Europe is much healthier as well, there’s a lot more young skinheads over there which is great to see.
Steve: Thus far we've managed a few UK gigs unhindered by the PC brigade, as for Europe...we love it, the audiences are far more appreciative

7. What about the new breed of British skinhead movement? Are there any young bands with younger musicians? Can you recommend us any of them?

Ciaran: The Skinhead scene in Britain at the moment is a strange one. From what I can gather you have the reggae-loving traditional skinheads and the Oi! Skinheads and a lot of the time the two don’t mix. I know traditional skinheads who would never go to an Oi! gig and vice-versa which is a shame. A lot of this boils down to politics which is a shame because the Skinhead scene is the only scene where politics matters, it doesn’t happen on any other. Personally we don’t give a fuck who turns up at our gigs as long as they are there to drink loads of beer and have a good time. As for new bands, there’s the Zero-Zeroes who are a good young band from Hertfordshire. Watch out for them.
Steve: Skinfull are the only young band here scene wise the rest of us are extremely old....and fat

8. Do you know anything about Czech scene?

Ciaran: Not a lot to be honest, there are some Cech skins over here in London but we don’t know much about it to be honest!
Steve: Book us for a gig and we'll give you an honest opinion

9. What about your stuff like CD..s, T-shirts etc..Where should we get it? And do you thing about playing abroad? What will be your requirements for that?

Ciaran: A CD will be out in the very near future and will be available from the website, same goes for T-shirts. We sell T-shirts at our gigs so come along and get one!
Steve: We have T-shirts available, for some obscure reason they still ain't advertised on our website, as for gigs abroad....get us out there, drip feed us alchohol and give us a bed...done deal

10.Plans for the future...

Ciaran: As mentioned, in the very near future we hope to record either an EP or an album. We are also looking for gigs both in Britain and abroad so if you want us to play – get in touch!
Steve: To establish ourselves without selling out

11.Words on the end....

Ciaran: Cheers for the interview and taking an interest in the band! As you can see Steve is a miserable fucker who is also king of the miserable bastards in this band.
Steve: Thanks for taking interest in us....its appreciated