Interview with Doddy - Total Bloody Choas

Could you give a brief history of the band?

Basically TOTAL BLOODY CHAOS was a reincarnation of a band called MEXICAN OVERDRIVE consisting of me on vocals, Picky and Andy on guitar, Cheryl on drums and Mick on bass.
It was decided on my 40th birthday bash between myself, Andy and Mick we would get back together and after recruiting Graham at Nice and Sleazy we had our first practice in June of 2007 where Cardiff Jo joined me on vocals. Our first gig was in November of that year supporting ENGLISH DOGS in Blackburn and apart from a few line up changes we have been at it ever since.

Who makes up the band?

Me – vocals Jodie – vocals Graham – drums Andy – guitar Nick -- bass

What is your discography?

We have released everything ourselves (up to now that is) and we have done-
CHAV CENTRAL EP
VIGILANTE EP
WHAT CANT SPEAK CAN’T LIE EP
TOUCHED BY NAUSEA / TOTAL BLOODY CHAOS SPLIT EP
FUCK THE ROYAL WEDDING CDR (given out at a gig on the day of the wedding)
WORK TOGETHER/RIGHT WING DISEASE CDR (given out at an Anti-Fash gig in Derby)

We did record an album in Stoke early 2011 but the quality was that shit we could only use two tracks off it, just.

The first four of these are available on a free download at punx.co.uk

How would you describe your sound?

I find it hard to describe to be honest, but would probably say 80’s anarcho.

Who was originally your influences and do they still influence the band’s sound now?

There are so many different influences with each member that it’s hard to say who actually influenced the band, I know Graham and I have pretty similar tastes but as an individual I would say CONFLICT / OI POLLOI / SUBHUMANS the usual stuff, the 80’s obviously was a big influence for me. You could throw DOOM / NAPALM DEATH / CONCRETE SOX / TOXIK EPHEX / DAN ……..the list is endless.

What other bands have you all played in?

Jodie was a band virgin but I have been in GROSS INJUSTICE, INIQUITY and MEXICAN OVERDRIVE, all based in and around Accrington / Blackburn. We have a couple of band slags in TBC as well, Graham drums with THE SYSTEM and was also in THE CHANGING WAY in the 80’s and more recently THE FILTHY LOOKERS and CONFRONTATION whilst Andy is also playing guitar in THE SYSTEM and bass in PEDAGREE SKUM, he was also in FAT BARREL HEADS, PARIOT SAINTS and MEXICAN OVERDRIVE. Nick was in a few metal bands before he joined BORN UGLY (pretty apt name for him actually) and now he plays guitar in COSMIC FINGERS, an acoustic duo from Lancaster.

Almost forgot we had an acoustic spin off with Andy and Jodie called TOTAL BLOODY ACOUSTIC (Jodie and the Little Twat).

How is your local scene at present and how do healthy do you think the national scene is?

Our local scene (Blackburn) is not for from death to be honest, there is not a lot of us and out of them not everybody goes to the local gigs that myself and Bob (PMT PROMOTIONS) put on , some folk would rather go to Manchester to see the likes of Rancid and Rebellion once a year than support ,the local scene , really fucking riles me up , we try our best to bring bands to Blackburn but when you see a shit turnout it makes you think is it actually worth the hassle?

Ps- the answer is yes, it is worth it, we are not giving up!!

Graham and Nick on the other had live in Lancaster which seems to have a healthy scene going on , there is always a few gigs going on between Lancaster and Morecambe.

Is you song ‘Chav Central’ about a particular place or is it just generally about the state of the country?

Bit of both really, at the time I lived on a council estate in Blackburn that was full of Chavs that would hang around outside the off licenses giving folk grief every fucking night. So it was Shadsworth that inspired the lyrics but it was a refection of the U.K. as a whole. I have to point out that not all of them were dickheads, the majority were but there were the odd one or two sounds lads.

You did a split with touched By Nausea in the not too distant past which I enjoyed, how did that come about and are you happy with the results?

The lads from TOUCHED BY NAUSEA (South Africa) got in touch to ask us if we would do a split with them which obviously we did and you have to give them guys bucket loads of credit for the work they put into it. The covers were screen printed and hand sewn into pouches, they did all the artwork, printing etc, it was a very painless exercise (for us at least) those guys were fucking amazing!

Have you got anymore releases in the pipeline?

As of February we are waiting on the release of our debut 7” single (Embarrassed To be Human), it was supposed to be a split with KISMET HC but that fell through so we decided to go ahead on our own, its gonna be out hopefully early March on URINAL VINYL and we have our debut album (Vicious Intent) coming out soon once the artwork ahs been tweaked.

Having duel female and male vocals makes you stand out from the crowd, was this intentional and if so what was the idea behind it?

It was far from intentional, Cardiff Jo came with us to our first practice just to take some photos but we asked her to do a bit of backing vocals to see what she was like and the rest is history as they say. When she left to go and live on the dark side (Yorkshire) we drafted in the services of our friend Jodie and as I mentioned earlier this was her first time in a band but she really took to it and obviously she’s still with us. It has to be said though how much the band has progressed with the male/female vocals, we found out that she could actually sing so now instead of shouting / screaming and snarling through our songs she does a little singing as well, which you can hear on our upcoming releases

What do you think it means to be punk in 2014 and what can it offer today’s youth?

It can offer today’s youth an escape , as it did me all those years ago , somewhere were you are accepted for who you are (unless you’re a bit of a cunt),somewhere where you can voice your anger and frustrations at the shit that goes on day in day out, a community, a network of friends who you may not yet know that will put you up if you’re in their town for a gig , a community that looks out for each other (the majority of the time anyway), somewhere to go and see hard working decent bands for the price of a pint or two where you’re not going to get ripped off by some corporate promotion company, an escape away from the herds of sheep that are rounded up daily by the media, the church , the whole fucking institution and force fed bullshit to keep the little fuckers in line.
And the music’s pretty fucking good as well.

Punk means a million different things to a million different people, but what does it mean to you?

See above answer I think, pretty much answers it.

Following on from this, what do you think is the best thing about being in the punk rock community?

The way the community works is what stands out for me, as I mentioned earlier if you’re going to gig in Birmingham, for example, we could get somewhere to crash over either at someone we know or a friend of a friend, it works wherever you want to go. Again I think this question has been answered earlier

What do you think when you see pop stars wearing studded leather jackets, punk band t-shirts etc?

Don’t get me started, it’s fucking embarrassing, these fucking idiots think they’re cool because they have a studded leather on with band names you just know they have never heard of, never mind heard the music!! Did David Beckham not have a sparkly CRASS logo on a shirt? Fucking pratt!! Just give me a fucking big stick and let me at them, just for a minute, please!!!!AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What gigs have you got coming up?

Bit sparse this year to be honest but we have…
PUNK FOR PAM in Edinburgh, 22ND March
IN YER FACE in Bury 5th July
BLACKBURN LIVE LOUNGE 26th April (tbc)
PUNK AGAINST CANCER in Derby 13TH July
How do you see the future for TBC unfolding?
Hopefully carry on the way we have been, get the album and single out there, carry on gigging and at some point this year I will buy a passport so we can hopefully get across the channel, if someone will have us. We are very cheap_

What bands should we keep an eye out for?

I have seen some bloody good bands recently 1000 SCARS are fucking great , INTERNAL ROT were very good as well but a local band called BRACE FOR IMPACT are relatively new on the scene (full of old cunts , except Jimi) with a good pedigree , ex TOTAL BLOODY CHAOS and POTENTIAL THREAT amongst others. VICTIMS OF RADIATION from Rochdale/Oldham have recently reformed they’re pretty damn good as well and I suppose I will have to mention our six fingered inbred friends from Burnley, WARSAW PAKT. Also look out for a band called SCARED from Darwen, local lads, if you do see them, give them abuse!!!!

Any final comments?

Buy our fucking cd and single you cunts!
Please