There's No Business Like Show Buisness

Rip It Up, Issue 235, 1 March 1997, Page 12

There's No Business Like Show Buisness

There's this bloke I know, he's become a good friend in a very short time, and last month we met up at Rocket From the Crypt's Auckland concert at the Powerstation. For no reason, he ignored me as though I was a leprosy-infested goat molester. Vaguely puzzled, it soon dawned on me. In a few minutes time, he was going to see his favourite band live for the first time, and with a heart threatening to burst through over excitement, it was all he could do to remember to breathe. And who could blame him. for Rocket were thorouahlv sensational - and then some.

There's this bloke I know, he's become a good friend in a very short time, and last month we met up at Rocket From the Crypt's Auckland concert at the Powerstation. For no reason, he ignored me as though I was a leprosy-infested goat molester. Vaguely puzzled, it soon dawned on me. In a few minutes time, he was going to see his favourite band live for the first time, and with a heart threatening to burst through over excitement, it was all he could do to remember to breathe. And who could blame him, for Rocket were thoroughly sensational - and then some. .X*J—- - - _ _ .

"To me, to be o rock 'n' roll bond in this day and age, there's been so many good ones before you, there's gonna be a lot of good ones in the future, you really gotta do something'torise above that and raise tae standard."

Arriving dressed in identical blue and black rhinestone shirts, Rocket played that rare and unique kind of

With beliefs like that, it’s a crime Rocket aren’t the most popular band around. Since they formed in San Diego in 1989,

image of a head banging, long-haired guitarist, striking a pose, Flying V in hand with his foot on the speaker, while deliver-

individually or stand back to take in the whole picture, Rocket From the Crypt are clearly doing what provides them with their biggest thrill. They exhibit an unbridled love and lust for life, and the sheer joy on display is infectious, it burrows into your core, until you can feel yourself smiling from the inside out.

Tonight, they play the majority of their latest record, Scream, Dracula, Scream!, plus a few oldies. “You only got one life to live, and you gotta live it!,” hollers Speedo, before they blast off into ‘Young Livers’, an explosive party anthem that flings your heart and mind to the heavens. If it feels this good down here, what is it like up on stage?

The day after the show, Speedo is sitting in the boardroom at Universal Records in Ponsonby, Auckland. He looks like Elvis impersonating Joe Strummer, and speaks with the accent of a hospitable Southern hillbilly. “What does it feel like? It feels like, ‘Yee Ha!’ Oh yeah, it doesn’t get any better than that. One of the most important parts of the band, is a basic desire to have a good time, a desire to rock ’n’ roll, a desire to bring people together. It’s great to communicate to people, and it’s basically mission accomplished for us. It’s like, we came, we had a good time, people came, they had a good time, they got their money’s worth, they saw a good show. And that’s how we’re going to make the world a better place to live in.”

to certain kinds of people, although I wish it wasn’t — and I’m not saying I want to

be very popular — I wish we lived in a world where our music could be enjoyed by more, but the way this planet is at the moment, the mainstream public just can’t relate to what we’re doing.”

And that is a grand shame, for John ‘Speedo’ Reis is exactly the type of character the world of rock ’n’ roll needs to rescue it from an endless stream of mediocre personalities. He cherishes old school values, and his philosophy is simple; “We know for sure we only have one life, everything, else is complete speculation, so use your life wisely.” Speedo is the consumate entertainer. He is, as he likes to remind people, “in show business!” Need proof? Witness Rocket’s performance in Christchurch the day before the Auckland show, when they headlined the Burning in the Lights concert at Lancaster Park.

All day the venue’s electronic scoreboard had been flashing a computer-generated

ty!’ I tell ya, you all are a crazy buncha boweevils. We are Rocket From the Crypt

from San Diego, California, ladies and gentlemen, it is truly a pleasure to be here.” The crowd loved it. “That was fun,” recalls Speedo. “Sometimes those things kind of confuse people, sometimes they’re like, ‘ls he for real?,’ or, ‘He isn’t for real.’ But it’s everything — it’s sincere and it’s totally sarcastic. It’s not designed to confuse people, we’re just trying to get the people into it. I think what we’re doing is totally positive, so maybe that’s a little bit of it as well. We want to project a positive lifestyle, which for me just means good living, treating yourself the way you want to be treated.” As a kid, Speedo grew up in San Diego on a diet of the Rolling Stones, ELO, the Beatles, and ABBA — “just whatever was on the radio”. By the time Rocket From the Crypt got going, he’d plundered through all of rock ’n’ roll’s rich history, and borrowed where it made sense.

‘Tm definitely inspired by early rock and rollers, whether it be Elvis, or James Brown, or Otis Redding. Their attitude was, the show must go on. They had the work ethic that nothing reigned supreme over the show and giving people their money’s worth, and I’m totally influenced by that aesthetic, and by that sincere approach to touring and being a kick ass rock ’n’ roll band.”

Is there anyone from that era you’d like to play a show with? “I would love to see James Brown in 73, when he was doing the hard-core funk stuff, but I don’t want to see him now because I like what I have in my head from the videos I’ve seen — I don’t need to see him doing ‘Living in America’. I’d like to meet some of those people. I met Jerry Lee Lewis once, he took a gun out on me, he didn’t point it but he set it on the table, he wanted to make sure I wasn’t fucking with him — that was kinda cool.”

Do you believe there is a King of rock ’n’ roll?

“No, I think Elvis was the King, I don’t necessarily think he’s the King of rock ’n’ roll. As much as I revere rock ’n’ roll and I use the phrase a million times in a day, you can’t really say what it is, it can be everything from what sickens you in music to what liberates you, it encompasses so much. There are things that are so rock ’n’ roll, like drinking and doing cocaine in a jacuzzi with naked ladies till the sun comes up, and that’s a totally disgusting image in my head, but immediatly you go, ‘How fucking rock ’n’ roll.’ At the same time, the things that gravitate me towards rock ’n’ roll are so refreshing, and liberating, and over the top, and out of control.”

Speedo is clearly a man possessed, and he made Rocket From the Crypt’s rock ’n’ roll mission perfectly clear from the Powerstation stage; “Ladies and gentlemen, we have got to stamp out mediocrity. The state of the art is on fire, and we gotta put it out with our dancin’ shoes.” “I mean mediocrity in everything,” explains Speedo later, “mediocrity in mucuA- •'j/tv* . in oil tkn o r+o _ onrl the sun comes up, and that’s a totally disgusting image in my head, but immediatly you go, ‘How fucking rock ’n’ roll.’ At the same time, the things that gravitate me towards rock ’n’ roll are so refreshing, and liberating, and over the top, and out of control.”

Speedo is clearly a man possessed, and he made Rocket From the Crypt’s rock ’n’ roll mission perfectly clear from the Powerstation stage; “Ladies and gentlemen, we have got to stamp out medi-

ones in the future, you really gotta do something to rise above that and raise the standard.”

It’s been a few years now since Speedo gave of himself in the manner he asked of his Christchurch audience; “Give it up ladies and gentlemen, give your soul to the spirit of rock ’n’ roll”. But when Rocket began, he wasn’t down with the beast. “No, for starters being in a band, it was just a pulpit for me to make an ass out of myself, it wasn’t this at all, it was like, ‘Let’s get a band together and play some parties,’ and that was it. Gradually, I just expanded my way of thinking, and figured out who I was and what I really wanted to do, and what was important to me, and we just evolved into what we are today. And we’ll keep changing, so it’ll be exciting to watch and see where we go from here.”

Over the years Rocket From the Crypt have worked themselves into life’s ultimate position, where every day they do what they love the most. If you can think of something better, then you’re probably too clever for your own good.

“The band has so far exceeded all we wanted it to be, everything now is just a total bonus, we just want to prolong this existence for as long as possible until we can’t do it anymore. Right at the moment, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing.”

JOHN RUSSELL