A year-and-a-half since we last spoke to them, it all seems to be falling into place for East London’s The Skints, as Faye caught up with Josh Waters Rudge [vocals/guitar] ahead of their recent Newcastle show, with a whole lot to talk about, including: the band’s highlights of 2010, finishing their second album, the story behind leaving Rebel Alliance, feeling like a ‘proper’ band, and much more!
Faye: You’re touring with your friends, Random Hand and Dirty Revolution, has it been fun so far?
Josh: Yeah, the tour’s been great, the city shows like London and Leeds absolutely blew us away by how many people came out. It’s just been real fun, good to tour with Random Hand again and hang with the Dirty Revolution guys and stuff. It’s been wicked, yeah.
Faye: So, what have you been up to this year? Can you give me a rundown?
Josh: Wow, so we started the year with the Rebel Alliance Tour, we done a lot of UK touring, we re-released our album ourselves, we done our first proper run festival season, we did our first European tour with The Slackers, we went to a bunch of other countries we’d never been before, we done Reading and Leeds festival, we got to play with Sublime, started selling out shows for the first time and we partied real hard. It’s been a really good year.
Faye: What were your highlights of 2010?
Josh: I’d say, this year as a whole has been wicked. There’s bee so many good gigs and tours. I think we’ve done nearly 150 gigs this year. The Sublime gigs were very special to me and recently did a couple of gigs with Gogol Bordello, who’re really cool, and obviously Reading and Leeds Festival. I really enjoyed Slam Dunk this year, that was fun to do. And we got to go on tour for a week with Bedouin Soundclash, which was amazing, because we love that band, I think that’s quite apparent in our music and they were like the nicest, nicest guys. They’re probably like the nicest band we’ve ever played underneath that didn’t know who we were at all, they completely too us under our wing.
Faye: Can I ask, what happened with the whole Rebel Alliance thing and you leaving?
Josh: You know what it is? There’s no bad blood at all between Sonic Boom Six and The Skints or anything, it’s just that the business end of it got a little bit sticky and we thought it’d be best just to keep doing it ourselves. The situation’s blown over by now, but we thought at that time when things weren’t going too great with the label that it’d be easier on everyone if we just stepped out and did it ourselves, because, unfortunately, within the music game, money does fall into a lot of things and can mess up a lot of things as well, so we thought it’d just be easier if we kept doing our own thing, but we’re still tight with the Sonic Boom Six guys and stuff, it ended well.
Posted by changetherecord 
Check out our photos from the last date of the Boom or Bust Tour in Newcastle, featuring Sonic Boom Six and The Skints, along with support from Random Hand and The Difference Engine, an emotional night as the Boom say goodbye to long-time member Ben Childs. Expect an interview with Sonic Boom Six to follow soon.
We recently had the opportunity to chat to a band bringing a much-needed breath of fresh air to the current UK scene, The Skints, before the final date of their two-week stint on the road with Random Hand, in Newcastle. We got talking about: their upcoming debut album, touring as a young band, their recent signing to Rebel Alliance Recordings, the state of UK punk, and Reggae Reggae Sauce.
As the crowd still gathers down in the dingy but somewhat homely depths of Trillians rock bar tonight, it’s almost impossible to tell just how many people might show for this one. There are no more than a handful of disinterested punters half-an-hour after doors, but this sharpishly picks up – after all, it should do, the collective is to witness a real treat tonight in the form of Yorkshire quartet Random Hand.
Well, 20 degrees outside and not a cloud in the sky, this sunny afternoon in Leeds promised to be quite the event. Meeting many bands beforehand and soaking in the excitement of the fans lying in wait, it is plain to see that the sweltering heat isn’t going to dampen today’s exploits. 5000 people are piled into the university today, and although breathing space was at a minimum, the atmosphere was undeniable.
