"I’ve been playing guitar for about 26 years, playing in various bands, from Punk to funk and everything in between...... I have spent many a year playing in small sweaty pubs & clubs and midnight hours spend head down over a mixing desk in the studio, but great hands on experience.... priceless!
I got a lot of playing influences from the early days of Pink Floyd, David Bowie and then the punk movement, which was a fantastic time with so many new and diverse bands all, with something to say, The Jam, Stranglers, Dead Kennedy’s, Eddy & The Hot Rods, Buzzcocks, The Clash, NY Dolls, The Undertones, just to mention a few, and some great modern day bands such as The Fratellis and The Kooks are still an influence....
My playing style, I think is a mixture of these influences from punk chordal arrangements and very improvised lead moments, to at times subtle and laidback emotive expression, but always generated by the mood of the moment.... if something buzzes me up then it come out in my playing....... I’m not into hours of practice or one who can stand musicians with ego’s bigger than their balls.... It’s all the performance, that’s what I try to achieve, energy, mood and fun...."
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Bass/Backing vocals:
Owen Wilson
Here's what Owen has to say about himself:
"I learnt to play bass in the early 80's, so was influenced by much of the music at that time whether it was synth based, such as Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Ultravox etc or guitar based music such as AC/DC, Rainbow ,Motorhead, to name but a few!! U2 were also another major influence. I think today’s music industry is the best its been in a long time with such bands as the Kaiser Chiefs, The Automatic, Foo Fighters, Green Day...the list is endless!
I formed my first band when I was at Hazelwick School, with some lads in the same class as me. We used to put on gigs after school with other bands; it all came to an end when we left school. After that I played in a couple of The Cure influenced bands, then in winter 1987 I got a reply from an ad I put in a Reigate music shop wondering whether I would be interested in playing bass for this band called "Eleanor Rigby" who were just about to embark on a European tour...naturally I said..Err yess!!
During the 90's I have played in various original bands, in 1994 started playing covers for the first time in a band called "The Hot Dogs Comedy Rock Band" which lasted until 1996, in early 1997 I formed another rock covers band with ex Hot Dogs drummer Alan Moore by the name of "Twister" we did few gigs around the Crawley area, then due to other commitments we called it a day at the end of 1998.
Due to a change of circumstance in 2006 I was able to look into getting into another band, I found out about this band called “Kindred” who were looking for a bass player. I e-mailed this bloke by the name of Raman, he replied by saying that he was looking into getting another band together and asked: wanna play bass?....."
Drums:
Neil (Nelson) Sendall
Here's what Neil has to say about himself:
" I was about 14 when I first started tub thumping and grew up on staple diet of Zepplin, The Who, Deep Purple, The Beat Merchants and many other genres of music, this along with my Dad inspired me to be a drummer. At school I started up a band with some mates and played covers, 12 bar blues mainly and generally murdered many timeless classics in front of friends and family or one man and his dog.
In the early 90’s the first serious band came about The Circle, doing original tunes struck out in a bid to “Make It” we won the Mercury FM battle of the bands and gigged extensively over the life of the band from London to Brighton and anywhere in between. We were support for Woody’s band FAT(Madness Drummer) and played some pretty good gigs, and while I’m name dropping I also sat on Steve Cradock’s (OCS) ham sarnies, he was well chuffed with that...Not!!.
Since then I’ve been hanging out with musicians in many different original and cover bands and have played in France and Farnborough!! My playing style is generally sitting down at the back pulling those strange drummer faces and sweating.
Now chilling with Chinchilla Zilla, see you at the next gig!"
Guitars/Backing vocals:
Ed Van Hayes
Here's what Ed has to say about himself:
"I met Raman and Co. through my band, Uncovered's ex-drummer Pete Wilkinson. After playing bands side by side at Rock Copthorne I had come to the conclusion that this group of fellas were pumped up with ROCKSoul.
A few months later I get an e-mail from Raman asking me to play back up for Si whilst he has his sprog. I could not say no.
Starting songs wrong, not remembering chords and being mostly appealing to the over 70s is how I rock, apparently. But that is what rock is all about or at least, what it should be about.
I picked up my first guitar at the end of 2000, I was 13. In January I started lessons at school, and eventually bought my own guitar which has been treated not very well and now only half works. Dropping lessons with the shoddy teacher from the school after he "buggered" off on a cruise (unstated what kind) I picked up lessons with local gigger Bob Falloon Jr. Being mainly jazz orientated, he managed to help me develop a lot more on my technique, but managed to hand my ROCKSoul. Learning all sorts of scale patterns and little tweaks my playing started to get more and more natural. Parting ways with my guitar guru at about seventeen, I was left to improve myself alone. G n R came to me and I had started jamming with my school friends more often, but this all fell apart when they "buggered" off to universities (unstated what kind). However, my alter-ego "Eddie Van Hayes" was hovering just over the horizon...
My main influences are Hard Rock and Metal, as can be seen in some of my performances. Weapon of choice is the typically the Fender Strat, either my new baby Laurella or Patricia my EVH inspired beast of wood covered in PVC (like all the sexiest ones are!) When not jammin' with the Zilla lads or rocking hard with Uncovered I tend to sit in my room imitating Eddie Van Halen as much as my fingers will let me, (which is not a great amount) One of my main aspirations is to start my own Van Halen tribute band, however, finding someone who wants to sing like David Lee Roth and do his foot to ear "Lee Roth Kicks" is almost impossible. This plan has been put on the back burner for now.
I am Eddie Zilla Van Halen (EZVH)…
Influences
The Kinks
The Who
The Specials
The Rolling Stones
Blur
The Kaiser Chiefs
Ian Drury & The Blockheads
The Buzzcocks
The Police
The Killers
And many...many...more...
CHINCHILLA ZILLA are an ESTABLISHED, ENERGETIC & FUN alternative four piece covers band in the Sussex area that have come to ROCK, PARTY, and have a GREAT TIME!
Comprising of members from some of the best previously established local bands, Chinchilla Zilla took on the music world with a gig at Piries Bar, Horsham on Dec 21st, 2006 and played classic tracks such as Parklife (Blur), Teenage Kicks (The Undertones), and I Predict A Riot (Kaiser Chiefs). GUARANTEED to help you all get on your dancing shoes, with a beer in each hand, and boogie the night away! Of course there's more than just three songs, (in fact the total easily hits forty plus rocking covers), but you'll need to see them LIVE to find out what musical delicacies Chinchilla Zilla perform and how they are making their own...ROLL ON 2009!
CHAT/ADD/EMAIL US @ chinchillazilla@hotmail.co.uk
If you are having a wedding, divorce, house party, pet's birthday, good day, bad day, Bar Mitzvah, any other social function and need a FUN band..You have found US...If you are after something a little more subtle we can offer you an ACOUSTIC session too! GET IN TOUCH! ALL OUR EQUIPMENT IS FULLY CERTIFIED AND PAT TESTED! OUR DEMO TRACKS ON HERE ARE ON FREE VEND! SO PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD THEM
THE CHIPPENZILLAS! (Ladies...see what you are missing at our gigs!)
Have a go at ZILLAOKE!(TM) With our first track BBC!
We are also on FACEBOOK! JOIN our new band page @ www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6331685212
JOIN our mailing list for all the latest info!
Check out our latest band promo video! Don't forget to stop the music player!
ALL THE SMALL THINGS LIVE @ OUR GIG @ THE GREEN DRAGON ON THE 24TH AUGUST, 2007..SPECIAL THANK YOU TO LYDIA & CHERYL OUR GUEST BACKING SINGERS! (Thank you Cheryl for the video! ;)
SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK HERE!
GIG REVIEW @ Pires Bar, Horsham 21st December 2006 ZouZou’s Petals - 2006-12-29 20:11:21
"Kindred are dead! Long live Chinchilla Zilla! (Where did they get that name??) Anyone present at Pirie’s Bar last Thursday was privileged to witness the debut performance of this rockin’ covers band! They rocked the joint - there was pole dancing, an exploding amp and plenty of good old unpretentious fun, followed up by at least four encores - these boys looked like they could have played all night! This band play an eclectic mix of classic and new tunes - something to suit all tastes...highlights included perennial favourites the Stones and T-Rex, alongside fab versions of the Killers, Hives and an awesome Word Up! The only thing missing from this one was the red cod-piece...next time maybe?? Get yourself down to Branigan’s for their next gig...these guys are gonna go from strength to strength! PS - the singer is hot too!"
Yo guys Thx for letting us Hijack your set on saturday, and letting us showcase in the swan :) Nice recordings too do you hire session musicians... only joking.. !! sounding good till next time we meet :)
Thanks for the add to friends, Please do leave is a comment sometime. I've herd about you guys from doing Bad Medicine gigs at the Gatwick Inn / Horley.
Hi how you doing? Thanks for the add. If you get a moment please check out Voodoo Vegas who I play guitar in. Hope all is well and have a rocking week xx
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