What have you been up to post-Rose Tattoo, Kingy?
Not long after The Tatts, I hooked up with Engine room partner in crime Mick O’Shea and Slide player Mick Arnold (another Tatts’ stalwart), and we teamed up with our good friend Fester from Fester Fanatics. Unfortunately he fell ill and we never did get to play or finish the recording we were working on.
I then went onto join Head Inc. Some of the guys were Melbourne-based and apart from our own shows, we also toured here with The Almighty, and did a four week stint in Europe. With a sizeable stint on the sidelines and dilly-dallying around, I decided to get together some mates and people I wanted to play with to create and play great pub rock music, that is now Stand Alone.
What’s your sound about?
As just mentioned, Stand Alone is a bunch of guys I have played with on and off, and also guys that I thought would be good to play with. Pretty much no nonsense, in your face pub rock with a punkish flavour to it. Although it’s early days as far as the band is concerned, obviously we have all been around the block a few times, and at this early stage are gaining momentum. We are only some six gigs old and already headlining our own shows here in Sydney, and having a lot of fun. We take our music seriously, but have our feet firmly planted on the ground.
You’ve put together a who’s who of tough pub rockers in Stand Alone. People want to know. Tell us a bit about each member:
Mick “Shady” O’Shea – Drums/vocals. Mick has played with most of the who’s who of the Australian Music Industry. One of the biggest hitters around, has hit with Rose Tattoo, Billy Thorpe, Dragon, Choir Boy’s, Judge Mercy, Kevin Borich, Swanee and many more!
Mick Arnold – Guitar/slide guitar/vocals. Mick is from the steel town south of Sydney and cut his teeth on many a band, Played in MotorHead concept band and also had a stint in Rose Tattoo. Pretty much says it all!
Anthony “The Hoff” Hoffman – Guitar/vocals. Anthony is one hell of a player, again he has done the rounds in many a band. One of the most musical guitar shredders around. He last played with Mortal Sin before their demise.
Damo – Vocals. Damo is an ex Canberra boy where he fronted many a punk band before moving to Sydney, and again played with some of Sydney’s best hard core punk bands. Hence the Punk Flavour that we have.
Given the size of the band (every member is over 6’2″), does size matter?
I suppose the band gets its big sound from our overall stature. The shortest guy is 6′ 2” in the old scale and the biggest around 6′ 5” and he is almost that across the shoulders as well! A venue here in Sydney requested us to play and once we saw the specs on the room and stage, we had to decline as our stature alone would fill the room beyond its capacity! This will be our first trip on a plane together, and we will have to be strategically placed on the plane to ensure the plane can level out properly!
What can people expect from the band live at Cherry Bar?
Pretty much from the first note it’s a wild rockin’ ride that is infectious and has everybody foot stompin’, headbangin’ and singing along and generally having a great time. It’s back to the old days of quality pub rock – just relentless!
