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Things happen but, more specifically, things happen when Kingskin get on stage.
Absolutely, laughs vocalist Chris Lamb. The night we played at the Academy Of Contemporary Music graduation ball and our bassist, Trev Lynes, did the whole set stark naked. They wouldnt let us sell our merchandise in the hall, so we all got off our heads and trashed the stage. It ended with Trev jumping into Russells drumkit, and the security guys had to come and drag us off but the crowd loved it.
Kingskin is a band that didnt just happen. It evolved. As near as anyone can remember, it started back in 2003 with Chris, a veteran of previous Dover bands, jamming on piano with his mate Trev on trumpet. Somehow, at this point, they imagined they were going to be a grunge band. When Trev decided to buy a bass guitar, a new direction started to evolve and they brought in classically trained acoustic guitarist Jak Chantler, still convinced that grunge was the way ahead.
I was very inspired by bands like Nirvana and Alice In Chains, remembers Chris, but I didnt see it as a bleak, dark thing. It was just exciting, powerful pop music to me.
Ecstatic audience responses to their local gigs made them the hottest thing in the South East, but Kingskin realized that the way ahead lay in conquering the world outside, so they upped sticks and moved to urban buzz of London.
And the day we moved into our place in London, our drummer quit, says Chris. It felt like the end. There we were, first day in the big city and no drummer.
It felt like the end but it turned out to be the new beginning they needed. From the start, Kingskin had gone through several drummers, all of them way too flashy. Jak, however, knew of Russell through contacts at music college and a hastily arranged audition was all it took to slot the final piece of the definitive Kingskin into place.
Halfway through that first rehearsal, remembers Russell, Trev started humping the bass amp. Hes screaming, Yeah! and staring at me! Suitably impressed by this immediate rapport between Trev and Russ, the rest of the band decided there and then that Russ was in.
Since that shining moment, Kingskin have never looked back. The gigs flowed thick and fast, and the grunge band that started in Dover had evolved into something infinitely more exciting, more distinctive and more unusual. Well, points out Chris, because we were thinking of ourselves as grunge-inspired, we tended to get mis-matched on some bills with very heavy death-metals bands. Youd go into a room with 600 grim-looking mothers, standing in a huge circle in front of the stage, and none of them dancing because theyre too busy punching each other.
For Kingskin, if the crowd isnt dancing, then the gig isnt happening. And they like their gigs to happen. Chris, never the shy, retiring type, decided to take on these intimidating audiences face-to-face. I remember him telling a load of neanderthals in one venue that for a bunch of punks they were the biggest lot of pussies hed ever seen, grins Russell.
At another gig, Chris pointed out to the crowd that maybe the girls would get a chance to dance if the guys werent so busy punching each other. It was amazing, he says. The girls came forward, and the whole atmosphere changed. Everybody was dancing and having a great time. And thats what were about.
None of this, of course, would work if the bands music wasnt so damn powerful. This is music that you just dont argue with, because Kingskins frenzied passion for what they do carries you right along with them.
By Johny Black Q/MOJO Magazine
Further info from: www.kingskin.com Email: band@kingskin.com
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