"THEY'RE FABULOUS! ONE OF BRITAIN'S VERY BEST LIVE BANDS" - Bob Harris, Radio 2

"THE HAMSTERS ARE A GREAT BLUES BAND" - Johnny Walker, Radio 2

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The band's been filmed performing live, and our guitarist/singer Slim's been interviewed for a new 3-hour documentary about the Fender Stratocaster titled 'Stratmasters' - which'll be released on DVD later in 2007.

Some players featured in the film will be Ry Cooder, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, Chris Rea, Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Robert Cray, David Gilmour and Rory Gallagher, among others.

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The track 'Taxi Driver' from our latest album 'Open All Hours' has been included in Classic Rock magazine's '100 Blues Anthems' in their August 2006 edition.

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We were recently mentioned on BBC1's 'Bargain Hunt' programme...  we thought it was weird too....

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Our second session for Paul Jones' Radio 2 Blues show was broadcast in September 2003.

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We released a new 1-hour studio album in April 2004, titled 'Open All Hours'.

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We also released a 2-hour concert film on DVD in 2004, titled 'To Infirmity, and Beyond!'.

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We performed a series of open-air shows in the summer of 2004 as special Guests to Status Quo.

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We currently receive an average exceeding 1,000 visitors a day to our website.

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We've been voted the UK's best blues-rock band by the readers of Blueprint magazine.

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We contributed a track for inclusion in the BBC Radio 2 series "Bright Lights, Big City". It documents the story of British Rhythm and Blues from the fifties to the modern day. It's presented by former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman, and was broadcast in the Autumn of 2001.

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We conducted an interview for the Sunday Express, and were also the week's featured concert in The Times 'Play' section, December 2002.

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A member of Natalie Imbruglia's band was spotted wearing one of our t-shirts on an appearance on Graham Norton's show on Channel 4.

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We performed at 2003, 2004, 2005 & 206's London Guitar Show at the Wembley entertainment complex, attended by over 15,000 guitar players, aspiring and professional alike.

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From the hinterlands of the Thames River Delta come... The Hamsters...

Now in their twentieth year together, having performed more than 3,750 concerts and with a national mailing list exceeding 20,000, the Hamsters are established as the UK's premier blues-rock attraction. This has been achieved purely by hard work with the band handling all their own affairs, thereby disproving the popular misconception that it can't be done without major-label "muscle".

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The Hamsters have been voted one of the UK's best unsigned bands by Kerrang magazine. (We already have a record deal, but it's a nice compliment, innit?) Even BBC's Top Gear magazine recognises the band as the UK's hardest working, and featured them in an article on in-car entertainment, the Hamsters being the ideal people to ask as they're always travelling somewhere.

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Although primarily performing their own brand of material, they are widely regarded as leading interpreters of the music of Jimi Hendrix and more recently ZZ Top.

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Originally forming for their own amusement (and taking their name from the Sex Pistols, who once used it as a pseudonym to outwit hostile councils), the Hamsters enjoy the irony of being an aggressive band with a cuddly name. Although serious about what they do, they don't take themselves too seriously.

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Members have performed with artists such as Eric Clapton, Alison Moyet, Doctor Feelgood, Walter Trout and the late, great gentleman of British Blues, Alexis Korner.

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World Champion Formula 1 driver Damon Hill is a fan, and was spotted wearing a Hamsters tee shirt at the Hungarian Grand Prix!

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Slim has been voted one of the top 100 guitarists of all time in a radio poll on LBC.

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Our version of Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" has been used in an edition of BBC TV's Top Gear.

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Slim is featured in a book called "17 Watts? The First 20 Years Of British Rock Guitar", talking about his early musical experiences alongside Eric Clapton, Gary Moore, George Harrison and David Gilmour.

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The band's album "The Jimi Hendrix Memorial Concerts" was rated Album Of The Month in Germany's leading musicians' magazine, "Guitar and Bass".

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Having visited the USA in '91, they've worked a lot in mainland Europe, and in November '92 performed at three sell-out Jimi Hendrix festivals in Holland, including the most celebrated gig in Europe - the Paradiso, Amsterdam.

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Their version of Bob Dylan's 'All Along the Watchtower' is included on an album of Dylan cover versions, featuring such artists as Bryan Ferry, Joe Cocker, The Byrds and many others, released throughout Europe by Polygram in '93

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Slim was interviewed for the Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison editions of 'Mojo Working', a Channel 4 (UK) TV series broadcast through summer '92, documenting the most influential figures in popular music.

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Slim also writes for guitar magazines when he has time, and was featured talking about his equipment(!) in the September '94 edition of Guitar Techniques magazine. He has also been included in the "Guitarist Magazine Book of Guitar Players", published in '94. Guitar Techniques asked Slim to contribute a recorded lesson on how to play the Blues each month, for inclusion on the CD which accompanies every issue.

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The band have been interviewed and filmed live by MTV Europe and German national TV, as well as being featured in session and interview on Radio One for Bob Harris and Johnny Walker, Radio Two for Paul Jones, for GLR in London, B.F.B.S in mainland Europe and Dutch national radio.

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Early in '95, the band released Route 666 which entered the 'NME' chart at number 7. 'The Observer' newspaper has even pinched the idea from the CD booklet for the cover of a colour supplement! Photographs for the album were taken by the celebrated snapper, Gered Mankowitz, who is especially known for his seminal photographs of Hendrix and the Stones, among many other Rock icons.

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The Hamsters are: Slim - Guitar, Singer / Rev. Otis - Drums, Sings a bit / Zsa Zsa - Bass, Sings a bit

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Recordings:

Electric Hamsterland	Hendrix/Studio	'90	CD
Burnin' Vermin	Live	'91	Video
Hamster Jam	Live	'91	CD
The Hamsters	Studio	'93	CD
Route 666	Studio	'95	CD
The Jimi Hendrix Memorial Concerts	Live	'96	2 CD
Band of Gerbils	Live	'96	Video
Verminator! (The Z.Z. Top Tour)	Live	'97	Video
Pet Sounds - 10 Years Of Rodent Rock	Compilation	'98	2 CD
Rodents Rock The Reich!	Live German TV	'98	Video
Condensed Hamsters	Live Compilation	'00	CD
They Live By Night	Live	'02	CD
Open All Hours	Studio	'04	CD
To Infirmity, And Beyond!	Live	'04	Video
Curse of the Killer Hamsters!	Live	'08	Video

"THEY'RE FABULOUS! ONE OF BRITAIN'S VERY BEST LIVE BANDS" - Bob Harris, Radio 2

• Slim is one of my children - Albert Collins, blues legend
• We love The Hamsters here on the show, they're one of our favourite bands. You must see them, there's so much energy from their live performances - Bob Harris, Radio 2
• Keep on playing the Experience! -- Noel Redding, Jimi Hendrix Experience
• The best little band in the country! -- Peter Green's (Fleetwood Mac) Splinter Group
• We make a great double bill --John Mayall , blues legend
• The Hamsters really kick ass, Slim is one of your greatest guitar players -Walter Trout
• If there was a Grammy for being kings of the road, The Hamsters would walk it - The Times
• Nobody does the music of Jimi Hendrix and ZZ Top better (apart from ZZ Top) - The Times
• They've proved themselves to be one of the best live blues acts in the UK - The Times
• A guitar virtuoso performance you'll rarely see matched anywhere, and the tightest rhythm section in the business -- Blueprint
• Outstanding -- The Guardian
• Top drawer, rough-edged R'n'B -- Time Out
• These guys are awesome! -- Ents24.com
• Blistering Blues-Rock -- Manchester Evening News

 

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