DEVIL’S ISLAND featuring Thirteen Stars

April 6, 2020 therazorsedge Devil's Island Comments Off on DEVIL’S ISLAND featuring Thirteen Stars

DEVIL'S ISLAND featuring Thirteen Stars.

Welcome to this weeks edition of Devil's Island! Every week we maroon a band or artist on the island and see what they get up to, how they cope with being all alone on a small island in the middle of the ocean. It's not your average desert island and we'll see just how each person copes with the extreme conditions.

This week when we arrived at Devil's Island we found rockers Thirteen Stars sat on the beach.

How did they cope with life on Devil's Island? Find out now...

Welcome to The Razors'e Edge and our somewhat lovely, warm desert island. Don't worry about it's name I'm sure it's not as bad as that would suggest.

So you're marooned here on this island, but before you ended up shipwrecked you chose one album that you couldn't live without. Which album did you each chose and why?

Hoss: Wildflowers by Tom Petty. It’s an amazing record, from out and out barn burning rockers (Honey bee, you wreck me etc) to slow burning lilting songs like the eponymous Wildflowers, to find a friend and don’t fade on me. It features all of the Heartbreakers (aside from Stan Lynch) playing at the top of their game and has strings arranged and scored by Michael Kamen, Ringo plays drums on one song and Carl Wilson sings backing vocals on one song. I mean it’s a truly class act from start to finish, perfectly produced by Rick Rubin, Tom Petty and Mike Campbell.
Mike: Probably something by someone I hate - Oasis or U2, as I’d have no qualms in smashing the bitch up to fashion crude tools for butchering my fellow survivors in their sleep to harvest their skin, fat and delicious meats.
Or if it’s to listen to on repeat for eternity, then Grace by Jeff Buckley. That album is the tits.
Jax: Nine Lives/Aerosmith, this album has so many different textures to it that every time I listen to it I find new hooks. It’s always been one of my top favourite albums.
Andy: Now Thats What I call Disney! Because it will make the whole experience more enjoyable!

Just behind that palm tree is a shack for each of you to stay in, with enough space for you to put up a poster on the wall of one album cover. What album cover do you each chose?

Hoss: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen. I love the Boss and it’s between this and Asbury Park which my favourite album is by him. I inherited a copy of it in my early teens and have loved it ever since. It’s such an iconic image as well, Bruce looking bad ass with that beat up mongrel 50’s Telecaster body with an esquire neck leant up against Clarence like two musical notes played together in perfect harmony. It also shows his blue collar, working man nature, his understanding of the misery’s of the downtrodden, his empathy with the common man and his plight in the face of global recessions and post industrialisation. Honesty, pathos and True Grit writ large in one image!
Mike: Anything with Debbie Harry on, you know, for the fappage.
Jax: Vertical Smiles/Blackfoot if I’m going to be stuck on an island with three hairy blokes then I need to see some tang material.
Andy: The Beatles - Yellow Submarine. Hoping it will come rescue us!

There's also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to chose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What's your tipple of choice?

Hoss: Coffee with milk. I can’t live without coffee so this is an easy one. If you don’t have a coffee first thing when you wake up then I pretty much think you’ve given up on the day before it’s even begun! But, it has to be proper coffee, none of your instant crap. Be it cafetière, espresso or filter I don’t mind but it has to be ground coffee!
Mike: Fizzy vimto (full fat, none of this sugar free bullshit). Unless you mean alcoholic drink, in which case mines a White Russian.
Jax: Mojito
Andy: Strongbow Dark Fruit. or if it's a non alocoholic option American Style 80% sugar pineapple Fanta.

Your suitcases were lost when your ship sank, but you each managed to salvage one item of band merch. Whats the merch and for what band?

Hoss: My Raconteurs T-shirt that I bought when I saw them in Edinburgh Corn Exchange 14 years ago. Still my favourite gig ever. It would remind me of happier times and it’s kinda trippy as it has a scene from Alice in Wonderland illustrated by John Tenniel in 1865. He and Arthur Rackham are my favourite illustrators.
Mike: REO Speedo’s
Jax: Taylor made me do it t-shift. Taylor swift”
Andy: A pair of drumsticks for the coconut drum kit I'm building

You're sat on the island thinking "I'm stuck here on this island with my bandmates for eternity"... who would you rather have been shipwrecked with?

Hoss: Hayley Atwell, she always comes across as a lovely, intelligent and beautiful person. Plus having been stuck on an island with three other blokes I think I’d be absolutely desperate for some female company!
Mike: That guy with the bald head off Lost.
Jax: The entire cast of Almost Famous
Andy: Jack Sparrow cause he'd lead us to the secret stash of rum, then show me how to strap a couple of sea turtles together to get off the island.

There's a walkman in your pocket, on the tape inside is the recording of the one live show that stands out for you. It could be any show, from any band, anywhere in the world. What show is on that walkman?

Hoss: Queen live at the Rainbow 1974. It’s a stunning live show, featuring a banquet of the early Queen albums biggest songs. It shows their playful side, their serious side, their heartbreaking side as songwriters and as musicians it shows how much of an absolute powerhouse unit they were. Every band member delivers and delivers again and again. The vocal harmonies are consistently on point and everything just works in a really beautiful way. It really rocks and you’d be hard pressed not to nod your head saying yes to every beat and every note!
Mike: June 9th 1973 - Grateful Dead & The Allman Brothers Band at the RFK Stadium.
Jax: Blackberry Smoke/Leave A Scar live in Atlanta
Andy: Led Zeppelin Live at Madison Square Garden from 1973

You're getting desperate, you decide the only course of action is to put a message in a bottle and hope someone finds it. Your message could be to any member of any band, but should be the one musician most suitable for a rescue attempt. Who is it?

Hoss: I’d send a message to Keef Richards, he’d be able to get a helicopter out, we spend a week or so drinking and smoking too much writing acoustic songs in an exile on main street vibe and then helicopter back. Job done!
Mike: Glenn Miller
Jax: Well I would have to write a letter to Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden as he is a pilot and a nice guy.
Andy: Sting.

You've been stuck here for a while and food supplies are running low. There's only one thing for it... which fellow band member gets sacrificed to help the others survive?

Hoss: As I’m the oldest I think I would sacrifice myself. I’ve a bit of meat on the bones and should keep the lads in food for at least a week!
Mike: Seeing as I panicked and I’d killed them immediately, it looks like I’m pretty much screwed now doesn’t it....
Jax: Hoss, gonna get me some of that white meat”
Andy: I'd sacrifice myself knowing that I could rely on the gorilla thats been helping me build my coconut drum kit could take my place in the band.

Finally, when the ship sank you each managed to save one person from the wreckage. That person is the one musician that has influenced your career the most, shaped your way of thinking and your outlook on life. Who did you save?

Hoss: Neil Young, I love him. He’s an amazing songwriter, superb and really unique guitarist and has such an incredible voice that can bounce from vulnerable/desperation to furious vitriol in seconds. I also love his work ethic. It’s all about the music, not the money, not the fame, not the bullshit obligations, not about friends and colleagues. It’s just about the music full stop! He amongst others showed me that your music has to be your music, no-one else’s and it doesn’t matter about genre or window dressing or any of that bollocks that makes a band easier to market it’s just about YOUR MUSIC!
Mike: Townes Van Zandt - He was the first artist I felt rather than listened to. His music taught me that beauty doesn’t have to be beautiful and that fragility doesn’t have to be weak. At low points his songs spoke as if to say you’re not alone and helped me through many hard years. He’s the sole reason I became a musician.
Jax: Slash
Andy: Mike Portnoy, although he's known for his time in Dream Theater and various other prog bands, his creative style and ability to adapt/adjust to most drumming styles has influenced the way I approach the drums and life.

Thanks for your time. We hope you get back to dry land before you're next due out on tour!

Hoss: Thanks y’all! If not I’ll build a raft that will disintegrate somewhere in the middle of the North Sea and recreate the opening to Monty Pythons flying circus on Scarborough beach!

As we sailed away from the island, Andy and his new found gorilla friend were setting up the coconut drum kit for another jam session. We can't wait to hear the output from that session, hopefully real soon!

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