28 Costumes Give Us A Spanking

• 23rd Nov 2003

It’s been a whirlwind year for the happy chap’s from 28 Costumes and to cap it off they release their debut single this month. We had some chat with Tony…….

What have you done this year apart from getting signed to the dirty boys from Spank Records?
Well, we've been working long and hard into the night making songs out of anything we could find lying around the house or that we could find in the street. Oh, and we spent months recording in the home studio of Mr Ken Easy. That and driving around late at night looking for injured or talented badgers.

Badgers? I feel badgers may become a running theme here. How did you find playing at ITC this year?
Paul had a vague idea where it was so once we got off the M62 we followed signs to central Manchester and sort of stumbled across Dale Street. Which is where it was.

So how long have you been a band for then? It’s not very long in fact your debut single/ep is aptly names Hurricane. How come you have done so much so quickly? Some people wait years for what you are doing.
It hasn't happened quickly really, we spent the best part of two years working hard on every side of the band before we decided to start playing live in May this year. I think a lot of people seem to think we just rode into town thinking we were the dangly's, but that’s just not the case.

Two years? So were you in other bands prior to 28 Costumes? What did/do you do to earn the dollar?
Bits and Bobs, you know. Nothing of major interest.

Why the name 28 Costumes?
28 is the number of pies we force fed a badger before it exploded, and 'costumes', because we dressed the badger in a ballerina’s costume while he ate them.

Badgers again, lets talk about something constructive – tell us about your launch party gig. You have played a few invitation only gigs haven’t you (or is it me getting the same e-mail over and over)? What’s been your favorite gig?

We haven’t done any invite only gigs before this, you Wally! We just wanna keep nasty riff-raff from drifting in purely to steal the luxury pies that will available for all to eat, with no real interest in the music being offered on the night, which will be supplied by us, Voo and Automation, as well as dj sets from Klaus(frat), Pete Bentham, us and Voo. It’s just a big ol' party for everyone to help us celebrate our very first record with Spank. If anyone does wanna come, we’d love you to (providing you're not a pie-thief) and you can grab your invite from our site link it's on Sat 29th November at The Heebie Jeebies.

Did you say pies? I’ll be there then. Where are 28 Costumes going to be in:
a 12 months – In the bathroom
b Five years – Upstairs
c 20 years- In the ground.

So deep man. There are some guest appearances on the tracks on your forthcoming album. Who are they and how did they get into the studio session?
We were recording 'Hurricane' and it was Rob Whiteley, who produced the recordings, who said we should ask The Cordettes if they would be up for doing some backing vocals, which they were. So they came down, and done them in an afternoon!! They were boss!! Their new stuff sounds quite brilliant too! We also grabbed Joe Shooman, Jon Hall, Pete Bentham and even Rob too, to do some screaming and shouting and howlin and Elvis impersonating! It was just dead funny!

Shooman? Hope you turned his tracks down. An insider tells me you play faster live than on CD. Is that on purpose or do you just get carried away, you all clearly love playing live.
We gorge ourselves with Magical Energy Fruit just seconds before we get on. As well as that, we spend three hours each day alone in a box, bouncing on a helium filled stomach of bouncy cows in a special farm.

I think you may belong on a funny farm.

Coke or Pepsi? – Rola-Cola
Liverpool or Everton? Liverpool
Pasty or Pie? Pie

'Hurricane' will be released via spank records (spankcds04) on Saturday 29th November 2003
www.28costumes.com

See them at the following dates:
Sat 29th Nov – Launch do
Mon 3rd Dec – The Garage, Highbury, London
Sat 6th Dec – Me Mums party in me mums house
Tue 9th Dec – Night and Day, Manchester
Sat 13th Dec – Gigwise awards @ Heebie Jeebies
Wed 17th Dec – Xmas Party Monkey @ The Brewery, Liverpool