Issue 9. January 2001
Welcome to the true millennium. The first issue from the 21st century boys. Here is issue 9, all the words that matter in music.
Bookmark this page so that you can enjoy a SCARY on-line experience at a click of your hand rodent.
Here we are back stage at Glen Studios, post-New Year. Roj is haggard and drawn, shaken by a recent hit-and-run sledging incident.
BBE So what did you get up to at Christmas?
Roj Christmas was pretty quiet. The band have recently taken a break from our heavy gigging schedule. We are both shattered after the pressures of 2000. I took some time out to be with family, although I also hung with some music pals. For example, just after Christmas I could be seen in Sainsbury's with Chris 'Seahorse' Helme. And for New Years Eve I was at Fibbers watching Breathe and Lo Beams.
BBE So what happened to the debut album "MM"?
Roj Sore point. We had to pull the album after a bitter dispute with the management of Muse. Apparently there is a possibility that their new album title with consist of a string of M's. Although they haven't decided how many yet.
BBE So what were your musical highlights for 2000?
Roj Well for me Coldplay "Parachutes", Eiminem "The Marshall Mathers LP", Sigur Ros "Agaetis Byrjun", JJ72, Muse "Showbiz" and Foo Fighters "Nothing Left To Lose".
BBE And who do you think is going to be big in 2001?
Roj At the moment I am very impressed with new bands like Linkin Park, Papa Roach, JJ72 and Wheatus.
BBE Thanks for your time. I know that SCARY don't like publicity, but I hope you will be big in 2001 as well.
SCARY is a rock band based in York, England. The band currently consists of two full-time members; lead guitarist Paul "Noodler" Martin and rhythm guitarist Roger "Sorry" Butler-Ellis. They both double up on vocals.
No band can exist in isolation, and even musical minimalists such as SCARY need a back-up team to provide vital assistance. So here are the folks that help make us rock:-
SCARY start the new year with a need to find new rehearsal rooms due to complaints from near-deaf residents. The band are set to take on a bass player and possibly a drummer to compliment their line up.
Recent measurements by sound engineers have rated the rock monster at 180 decibels. Something akin to the rocket engine on a Saturn V at lift off.
The NME Carling Awards tour was thrown into disarray when SCARY announced that they were not available this year. Their punishing schedule in the last quarter of 2000 has left the band wrung out and physically exhausted.
Following the success of free entry to three SCARY micro-gigs, the band have decided to extend the offer indefinitely. Scary-bloke Paul comments:
"We have been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of our fans. As you are aware, we are an anti-commercial band and we were never happy with the notion of charging fans to come to our shows. We will continue to operate on a no-charge basis for as long as we can financially sustain it."
When SCARY get upset you won't find them sulking in their bedrooms. They're more likely to hijack an articulated lorry, wedge a breeze block on the accelerator pedal and aim it for a glass factory, just to hear what it sounds like. It's doubtful that they will find it loud enough. See SCARY need to hear some sounds that recognise the pain in them and with their guitars they recreate the necessary noises of shattering glass and tortured metal.
If you ever thought that the sight of a Jumbo jet crashing might be rather beautiful then you'll understand the immense energy and disturbing hollowness of tonight's opener 'White Room'. And as if to prove his recent statement that SCARY "Play like people about to die", Scary-bloke Roj is bent double as if holding his entrails in, hanging on for dear life, rather than performing in York.
Sometimes mirroring Green Day and R.E.M., it's almost a greatest hits set tonight. Lack of a bass guitarist seems to have little effect tonight. In fact it makes SCARY's sound sharper and higher and ever more desperate. This band is only ever going to get stronger.
The music made by this incredible group tunes into those same twin emotions experienced when snarling at Saturday shoppers grazing on the trash glowing in shop windows, and the cold emptiness that follows the realisation that you are alone in your angers and fears. SCARY love and suffocate in equal measure. A lot like life, really.
Neil Onnachair