Posted on Aug 20, 2007 by DevotedToMusic

Since 2004 London and Croydon based Punkrockers Kitty Hudson have been rocking out in all their glory.

Last year they played the Download Festival alongside Metallica and Guns and Roses and ledgends like Billy Joe have bigged them up...

I Alexandra McLoughlin was lucky catch up with Richie for a quick chat about the band and it's new members.

Hi Richie, How are you today?

Ahh yeah wicked! Quite knackered now, I just walked off stage but all good. Nice and sweaty.

I don’t know much about Kitty Hudson. Can you tell me abit about the history of Kitty Hudson?

Um..Pretty much it all came together. I was playing in a band called Glitter Bug and we did pretty well our Kitty Hudson bass player used to tour manage us and I wanted to something that was a bit more dirty and bit more gritty and bit more f**king Punk Rock ‘N’ Roll then Glitter Bug so I said to Al ‘come on lets just do something that sounds like Social Distortion meets Heartbreakers so we started a band a little while ago. It kinda came from there. It took over from the whole Glitter Bug thing.

So this whole thing with Glitter Bug, Would you ever want to do it again?

Well um..it’s a bit weird because myself and the singer from Glitter Bug, Leighton We’ve just got a deal with V2 records so we’re gonna be together writing quite a bit, which will be quite fun because we haven’t done for like 4 years.

Are you looking forward to it?

Yeah! Yeah! It’s gonna be f**king great but I don’t know whether….maybe it’ll happen maybe it won’t.

Tell me a bit about your musical influences.

With Kitty it’s…Al’s a real hardcore, old school Punk rocker and he’s really into his kind of Old English Punk. I’m into my sorta Cowpunk, Supersuckers, Social Distortion…That sorta thing. We thought we’d try writing together. We just wanted some killer tunes man! We kinda met between The Clash and Social Distortion and it kinda works pretty well. It’s alright man!

You played tonight. How have you been preparing for tonight?

Um..(Laughs) How have I been preparing??? I jumped on the train with my guitar, got to the gig, walked on stage, plugged in and f**king rocked out! We don’t really prepare for it. We don’t have blue M&M’s before we go on stage or anything like that. We get on, plug in, do the f**king s**t and then get the hell out the dodge.

We’re you nervous?

No, not at all. Our drummer was a bit nervous because he’s only been in the band for 2 rehearsals such as Keef our guitar player for tonight. He’s in a band called the Dead Identities an amazing Punk Rock band and we’ve only had 2 rehearsals.

Have you ever played this venue before?

Not as Kitty Hudson no. I’ve played it in another couple of bands. With Kitty it’s our first time down here.

What would you say is the best thing about being in a band?

(Laughs) I better say some of the legal stuff eh? I think it’s probably just getting up there and doing it. People can spend their whole life going to work, going home, watching TV, going to bed that kinda s**t and the best thing is just getting up on stage rocking out and meeting some nice people afterwards.

Have you had any experiences with Groupie girls?

Yeah we have. We’ve had quite a lot but I kinda abstain because I’ve got a long-term girlfriend and so I leave that to the rest of the guys and they can be dirty motherf**kers.

Does your girlfriend ever get worried about you with groupies?

It’s pretty cool because my girlfriend and I have been together for years and years and she rocks man. She knows that I am a total flirt and a total tart and I am very lucky.

What happened to the Blond drummer you used to have?

We had a girl called Louisa on the drums and she was wicked. I won’t say a band word about her but it just didn’t work out because of personality differences and myself and Al’s number 1 priority was the band and just rocking out but her number 1 priority was not the band so we had to part company.

Who’s you’re new guitarist? Tell me a bit about him…

His name is Keef. That’s spelt K-E-E-F and he plays in a band called the Dead Identities and I just saw him on stage about 2 months ago with the D.I’s and I just thought they were f**king brilliant. I nudged Al, we were both watching them and I said to Al ‘We’ve gotta have that dude in the band he’s f**king brilliant’ and we went upto him at the end of the gig and just said ‘Dude, do you fancy playing with Tiger Army?’ because we had a Tiger Army show lined up and Tiger Army was luckily one of his favourite bands so he was like ‘Damn straight!’ so yeah he plays with us whenever he is not doing his stuff.

How long has he been with you now?

2 Rehearsals. But about 3 months. We’ve probably played about 10 gigs and he’s only ever had 2 rehearsals now.

Does he enjoy being in the band?

I dunno. You’ll have to ask him. I think so. We enjoy having him in the band.

Have you ever done a show with Patchwork Grace before?

I’ve played them when I was helping out another band called the Dodge and the Cheerleaders and we played with Patchwork Grace then and I thought Patchwork Grace we’re f**king amazing! Kitty managed to play with them up in Nottingham a few months ago. They are brilliant. Crip helped me with my Guitar amp tonight. My Guitar amp went down and Crip was just there, plugged into my Guitar booth. He’s such a nice guy. The guys are really, really cool in the band.

My final question for you is, Is there any chance of a Kitty Hudson/Patchwork Grace collaboration?

I’d love to. That would be f**king brilliant! I was talking to Crip a while ago him being big Johnny Thunders. I’m a big Johnny Thunders fan. I’d love to get together with those guys. Definitely do some tours. Whatever it takes man.

Thank you for allowing me to interview you.

My Pleasure.

Taken At:

The Bull and Gate Pub in Kentish Town

Taken On:

August 15th, 2007

Interviewees:

Richie- Lead Vocals/Guitar

Related Links:

• www.kittyhudson.co.uk

Interviews

Aug 15, 2007 The Bull and Gate Pub in...