Greeted by Dean, their manager, with a warm handshake and being handed a pint set the mood nicely for a chilled out chat in a quiet pub across the road from the venue.
The Punk Archive: I hear you played a sold out show at Shepherds Bush Empire supporting The Rifles! How do you think it went?
The Repeat Offenders: Yeah, it went really well. We had friends and family there to support us. It was our first really big gig. It was great doing the sound check because we got our first feeling of what it was gonna be like when we play. Sound checking the mics a'cappella and filling up the whole venue, hearing it back, was like, 'Yeah. This is what we wanna do!'
The Punk Archive: The sound in Shepherds Bush is absolutely phenomenal.
The Repeat Offenders: Yeah! If we could have every venue have a monitor system like that...(laughs)
The Punk Archive: Am I right in saying you'll be playing with The Rifles again soon?
The Repeat Offenders: We are playing Liverpool Calling on the 26th of July, and really looking forward to seeing Dexters, Twisted Wheel and Jersey Budd, who are playing too.
The Punk Archive: Water Rats is a prestigious venue! Some of the acts that have played here are huge...
The Repeat Offenders: (Steve, drums) I went to Water Rats when I was a kid and saw a band called Fungus. They were signed to Food Records who also had Blur. I saw them here at the beginning of their career, then a year later they played Glastonbury, Reading and everything. We've played Water Rats before but I always have this memory of going in and seeing them. I've probably still got the plectrum they gave me!
The Punk Archive: So you've got a whole load of festivals coming up over the summer. What are you most excited about?
The Repeat Offenders: Manchester Fringe Festival is one we are looking forward to. Definitely. Flag Factory Festival as well, which is a smaller festival but our friends from States of Emotion asked us to play and we've always had a good time when we've played in Essex. They are a really friendly crowd.
The Punk Archive: I was going to ask who the rowdy one was but I reckon it's you (pointing at Steve)
The Repeat Offenders: It's not actually!
Andrew decides to fess up to this mantra and a heated discussion ensues with a few lightweight insults for good measure…I tried to prise some gossip out about rock'n'roll behaviour, but alas, for the moment the boys are well behaved and sticking to their clean cut, definitely NOT lightweight image. Time to change the subject then…
The Punk Archive: You guys are from Manchester?
The Repeat Offenders: No, we are from Aylsbury!
The Punk Archive: My bad. You have a lot of people talking about you regularly on the scene up there...
The Repeat Offenders: Yeah, it's cool. We have quite a big Northern following.
The Punk Archive: That's why I assumed you were from the area! You also have that kind of sound as well; I can hear a lot of influence from people like Oasis and The Beatles?
The Repeat Offenders: We grew up listening to Manchester music, so yeah.
The Punk Archive: That brings me nicely along to my next subject… Paul Weller likes your music and allowed you to use his studio to record and produce your latest EP!
The Repeat Offenders: Well, I am friends with The Rifles and I was sending them demos. I asked if they could pass it on to see if on the off-chance Paul would want to do something and within a week we were booking in a recording session at his studio. We did two sessions totalling five days over a couple of months which kind of worked best 'cos we demoed what we wanted very high quality then concentrated on three songs mainly. Paul came in, had a listen and was quite keen for us to get started.
Repeat Offenders are a mod rock/brit pop band with passion and heart. Their latest single is out now to download from all the usual places and the next one is due for release later in the year. If you are a lover of Brit Pop and want to see a revival, check out these guys. They are hard working and driven and on a personal note, lovely lads.
You can see them play at various festivals around the country.
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