What bands influence your sound

      On the way to a gig the typical compilation tape would contain a bit of 
      U.S garage, plenty of English Beat - Animal, Kinks, Who, etc - some 
      Motown, Easy Listening & of course Elvis. In the Hornets music people have 
      picked out many likenesses to the Medway stuff - Milkshakes/Prisoners - as 
      well as The Sonics. We grew up on the Medway stuff and I guess always 
      wanted to follow in the footsteps of the bands I used to see in the 80's.

      What have you been up to the past year?

      Last year we released two 7" singles - "Dig The Fuzz" & "The Crazy 60's 
      Kid's" E.P - as well as a CD compilation of all our E.P's from '92-'98 
      called "Sounds From The Dansette". We spent a lot of time touring abroad 
      (France, Belgium, Holland & Germany) and made many new contacts. One led 
      to the recent release of a split 7" with The Rippers, from Lille in 
      France. The year closed with a sell out gig here in Portsmouth, with a 
      space theme! It was the last gig for our drummer, and we are currently 
      beginning rehearsals with a new one!

      How did Mark Lamar come to write the sleeve notes for get the buzz?

      We originally met him at the comedy club in Portsmouth where I was playing 
      in the cabaret band. He later played our E.P regularly on the Mark 
      Radcliffe show and when we approached him about the sleeve notes he was 
      quite happy to do it. He's well into garage, rock 'n' roll, etc.. and 
      often turns up to gigs in London.

      Are you strictly 'garage' only, or are you more open minded?

      Although I personally have a large collection of garage stuff - both 60's 
      & 80's/90's - I'm not blinkered from modern music and there's good stuff 
      around, such as Beck and The Lily's, who are mainstream yet far from 
      ordinary. At the moment I'm catching up on old soul singles I never 
      managed to get before, also 70's Elvis and 60's beat such as The Equals 
      'Softly Softly' and Dave Dee Dozy Mitch and Tich 'He's A Raver'. I guess 
      the bottom line has to be that I'll never part with my Milkshakes LP's. 
      Good old ordinary mainstream garage punk!!!

      What do you think of the garage scene in the UK at the moment?

      It's quite alive as we speak. We've just had the first 'Wild Weekend' 
      which was a success, giving us a chance to see some great bands from the 
      U.S, etc. The Green Hornets have no problems finding a string of venues 
      around the U.K catering for 60's bands with good promotion, D.J's, etc. We 
      ourselves run '5 bands for a fiver' nights, catering for this in 
      Portsmouth. There's also the labels such as Alopocia and Dig The Fuzz, 
      putting stuff out for the bands.

      How do you think the bands around at the moment (including yourselves!) 
      compare to 60's garage bands, both in outlook and musical style?

      Well I guess young American bands in the 60's used to get out in the 
      garage and have a laugh bashing out 2/3 chord songs. Well we hardly 
      confess to being particularly young but the ideas the same........songs 
      like 'Gloria' and stuff by the Sonics. As far as musical styles concerned, 
      well there's no rules in this band. If we all agree on doing a cover 
      version, whether it be Elvis, Small Faces or whatever, then we will. As 
      Billy Childish once said "basic simple music for basic simple people"! 

      The garage scene is really taking off in the UK at the moment, are you 
      worried the media are going to get hold of it and exploit it all?

      Does it worry me.....No Way! I worry about who's buying my next beer. We 
      spent six years in The Hornets earning next to sod all, so if somebody 
      wants to expose us that's fine, send us the cash! As far as being 
      exploited is concerned, everybody’s got the right to say no, you don't 
      have to sign contracts if you don't like the sound of it. I'm currently 
      sitting in a dead boring factory writing this, where do you think I'd 
      rather be? We don't envisage being exploited in the near future, but 
      there's a good chance one or two of us might be exposing ourselves away on 
      tour this year!

      highlight of your illustrious pop career?

      Ooooh.....let me think.....having Bruce Brand (Milkshakes) produce and 
      play drums on our first session, hearing our first 7" on the John Peel 
      Radio 1 show, hearing subsequent singles played on the Mark & Lard evening 
      show. It's difficult to say, but as a band I think a lot of our 'golden 
      moments' would be from some of the low key gigs abroad where we have the 
      most laughs and the most free booze.

      what's in store for the green hornets?

      New Years Eve 1998 was Craig (our drummers) last gig, so the early part of 
      '99 will be spent rehearsing and updating our set with the new drummer. We 
      already have gigs booked for April in Belgium & Holland and plan to 
      promote the split 7" in France sometime in the summer. There's talk of 
      further recording, but as yet no offers of a release from anyone 
      (inquiries welcome!).