Music mag tip Phantom Band as one to watch

Jan 8 2009 by Carla Callaghan, Hamilton Advertiser

A BAND featuring a Hamilton man have been tipped for the top by a leading music magazine.

Mojo included The Phantom Band in their ‘9 for 2009 feature’ and say the lads - singer Rick Antony, lead guitarist Duncan Marquiss, guitarist Greg Sinclair, bass player Gerry Hart, keyboards player Andy Wake and drummer Damian Tonner - are a band to look out for this year.

Formed six years ago, the band, whose members hail from Hamilton in the south to Aberdeen in the north, can’t easily be pigeon-holed into one musical genre.

The Phantom Band’s long-awaited debut album, Checkmate Savage, is out on January 26 and the guys plan to tour from Brighton to Wick this year.

Gerry Hart (33), a former pupil of Hamilton’s Holy Cross High School, said: “I think the new album is quite poppy. I must admit I am a total pop fan.

“Everyone who listens to it thinks it is quite dark and foreboding in places but generally we try to make pop music with a bit of an off-centre angle. My favourite song on the album is definitely The Howling. It’s got a nice wee rhythm to it and it’s a bit of a groover and I think it’s one of our most poppy efforts.”

Gerry added: “There are six of us in the band, so there are loads of mixed influences, but personally I’m a big fan of Neil Young, Super Furry Animals and a lot of soul and funk.

“One of the boys in the band listens primarily to bluegrass. He plays the banjo so he is obsessed with bluegrass.”

Speaking about his highlight of 2008, Gerry says: “We were asked to play a music and literature festival in The Hague. That was the first gig we had played abroad and it was an amazing weekend.”

He adds: “It was a brilliant venue with a really responsive crowd and afterwards we got asked to dj at the after-show party.

“Our manager, Steven McCann, who is also from Hamilton, was hanging out with the author of his favourite book, DBC Pierre, so we all ended up hanging about with him. It was a great laugh and a good old party.”

What sets The Phantom Band apart from the rest of the new talent out there?

Gerry says: “There are probably not a lot of bands with a varying degree of different sounds, veering from one style of music to the next, with an Aberdeen accent over the top of it!

“I’m still working at the moment, but our manager Steven is very hopeful that we will be able to give up our jobs within the next few months, so fingers crossed.

“My boss at work is married to the manager of the band and she’s got me down as leaving in the next few months also, so hopefully they are both right!”

The band have a busy 2009 ahead with a British tour planned and a European tour in the pipeline, in addition to some festivals.

Gerry said: “We have been put forward to play a festival in the Arctic Circle, which sounds pretty exciting.

“We have also been asked to play a festival in Norway too so hopefully we will just be out and about playing as many different places as possible and seeing a bit of the world and having a bit of a laugh.”

To hear the band for yourself and to check out when they are coming to a venue near you, go to www.myspace.com/thephantombandpage.