DEVIL'S ISLAND featuring Faded Shades
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 find Faded Shades sat on the beach. The island is far from the bands home, so how did they end up here and 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.
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?
Floating in the debris of the flooded hull we saw a CD wallet which was sure to keep us entertained so we scrambled to save some music from it. Inside were only three CD’s unfortunately, Joe quickly snatched up Definitely Maybe, Charlie dipped in and grabbed Who’s Next but poor Liam was left with Blur’s Greatest Hits! So when we got ashore we snapped the CD up to use for arrow heads and used the wallet to start a fire. There was only half hour battery life left on a water damaged Sony Walkman so we took it turns listening to Rock n' Roll Star.
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?
It got lonely quickly on the island so we opted for Sheryl Crow to keep us company. The eye contact and loving gaze of a women staved off the hunger pangs and gave us something to aspire to surviving for rather than eyeing up each other as easy food. The things that happened in the shack will live with me forever, sometimes it felt like it really was Sheryl, but mostly it was just wrong…
There's also a bar on this here island. But alas each of you only get to choose one drink for the entirety of your stay. What's your tipple of choice?
Oh thank god we’re saved! With a bar we never have to leave. Joe went for a scotch and dry (ginger ale), Charlie punted for a Thatchers Gold and Liam ordered a pink gin and lemonade until the barman told him they only serve real drinks, then he went for rum and coke to stay in the spirit of the island. The barman’s choice was a banana daiquiri and we must've been good company as there were shots of raki on the house. We passed the night telling stories of the mainland and our aspirations as a band.
Your suitcases were lost when your ship sank, but you each managed to salvage one item of band merch. What’s the merch and for what band?
It was a vinyl copy of our second album! Simply because at this stage it feels so far fetched we will ever release it that I’d treasure the moment to see it in the flesh. It’s a running joke in the band that our second album will be the death of us because we close to finished it a while ago but never released it for obvious global reasons… It would be typical to finally have it pressed and then be shipwrecked with the only copies.
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?
I’d rather have been shipwrecked with Bear Grylls and the Wright Brothers. Bear could keep us all well fed and watered with some decent shelter to kip in, whilst me and the other lads could crack on with crafting a cheeky plane to get us home. The build could take years so I’d also bring Emma Watson along to get busy repopulating the island together. Why she was in her Hogwarts uniform on that boat I’ll never know!?
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?
There is a live acoustic version of Shower Your Love from Kula Shaker and thats the tape inside the walkman along with the rest of the gig. Its a real travesty this boat sank with so many gems onboard!
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 most suitable for a rescue attempt. Who is it?
We would write to Sting, he knows a few things about messages in bottles. Failing that we would send a back up bottle to Bono, he has the money and resources to send a search party miles across the sea to our rescue. Once the army of gas guzzling helicopters and planes had scowled the oceans wide his carbon footprint would be so big he would never be able to preach about climate change again so we’d be saving hundreds of people the pain of listening to such hypocrisy! Two birds one stone baby.
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?
We would sacrifice the barman! He clearly knows something we don’t in order to stay open and stocked. Once dead and eaten his wallet would reveal the secret of his supply chain and we could be saved on the next shipment in. Either that or take the bar over and start a Faded Shades open mic night there for the locals, if there are any then thats sure to bring them out!
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?
I saved Crispian Mills! He was drowning inside one of those metal elevators scrabbling to pull the doors free, blonde hair waving in the murky depths and eyes fading as he took on more water. Once I had pulled him out and swam ashore I told him what an inspiration he had been. He said he was flattered but was more concerned with coughing up water and getting warm. With a fire and some fresh crab inside him he finally opened up and we had a decent chat about life and our dreams. I said make sure you go and follow Faded Shades social media accounts when we get home @fadedshadesband!
