A long way to the top for Gimp Fist

10 albums and 20 years on the road for Gimp Fist

Gimp Fist, originally from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, has been together for 20 years with 10 albums, 4 singles, and 3 EPs. They face challenges in gaining recognition from the London-centric music press but have found a strong following at the Rebellion festival, where they’ve performed annually since 2008.

Despite their success at Rebellion, they struggle with publicity and touring due to work and family commitments. They plan to release a new album for their 20th anniversary and have upcoming tours in Germany and Holland. The band appreciates the support from European audiences, contrasting it with the lack of government support for live music in the UK.

We spoke to Johnny and Chris from Gimp Fist who were supporting US band The Drowns on their UK tour and asked them where they got their name from

Johnny ; So we’re all trying to think of a name for the band, and why we’re trying to think of stuff. Chris had a trip down London, yeah, and he saw it in a phone booth in London on a sex card. And he came back and was like, I’ve got the name for the band. And said, Gimp Fist. We said maybe. Like, Nah,

Top Dog

TotalRock; How’s it going career wise? Because, I mean, I saw you at Rebellion, when everybody had COVID that year

Chris ; We all work still, so it’s still just a hobby. We don’t play enough. So if we played more places, we’d probably be bigger.
It’s hard if you’re from the northeast, yeah,, because London is everything, the same if you’re in the punk scene and it’s very hard to get any recognition from the music press down in London. Yes, they think we don’t exist.

Rebellion will put us on every year since we started in 2008 and the more you play there, the more promoters as you say, see us.
We thank them for putting us on year after year. We can’t believe it, yeah, blows our minds when people, when we see everyone turning up, they still watch us every year.

TotalRock: That’s amazing. What’s it like on a big stage there? Because, I mean, you got, you’re playing little places like Horwich, you know, then you’re on there. Is that like a bit of a boost for you?

Chris: We get nervous with the crowd. But we never, yeah, we never take it for granted. No, every year we stand there. “Go on. Is anyone going to turn up?”. We think we’d never fill that. Because, yeah, you gotta get your feet on the ground. But we do love the little venues, they are brilliant because you can hear everything.
Rebellion’s, like, once a year on a big stage, really, to be fair. Rebellion and the Calling festivals. Yeah, they’re not, you know, people go, “Oh, sorry, Rebellion is that full now?”. It’s like, Yeah, but in a month’s time, we’ll probably play at 120 people. Yeah? Because. Rebellion is a captive audience in one weekend.

TotalRock: So what’s been the most fun at Rebellion? Because I go, like every year, virtually.

Johnny: Well, for me, it’s meeting everybody chatting. Everyone who like who comes to see us. And we made some amazing friends over the years. So that’s I only ever do the one day. I think, once I’ve done two days I have kids, so it’s more difficult.

TotalRock: What I wanted to ask you is, it’s just like, how do you keep coming up with the tunes? Because, I mean, what? 10 albums now

Johnny: It just keeps happening, and whilst it keeps happening. I’m just gonna try and ride it. And it always it does worry us that one day  it might not happen. So if I have a tune or something, I just want to, kind of like do it and get it done. And you never, ever know, you know what I mean. So the minute it’s gone, all right, there’s new songs we’re working on. Like I love doing new stuff, like and seeing how it all comes together. You know what I mean for like a tiny little, a little riff, or, like a line of a line.

TotalRock: What’s Top Dog about?

Johnny: Top Dog, I work for an ambulance service, and I drive people for appointments, and it was a patient I had on board. He was a bit of a boy in his day and that’s what, but now, obviously he’s, he’s been a boy in his day, but now he’s a little old man, So he’s been a bit of a villain in his time.

Never Let Go

TotalRock: Do you think the punk scene is now coming back a bit due to Rebellion.

Chris: I don’t think it’s ever gone away for me. But obviously there is just in like, in the charts in general, there is more like, heavier, like, guitar based bands that get in the charts and that now. So I think it’s maybe like guitar bands is more in now
In the 90s the punk scene, really disappeared, yeah, I stopped being a punk. I started following the Levellers. and that sort of band, and it wasn’t, it wasn’t until, I think Rancid and NOFX and bands like that brought it back to the UK.
Obviously people can’t afford to attend the amount of gigs they used to also because of the cost of living. You know, even I can’t afford to do half the stuff I used to do, like three, four years ago,

TotalRock: Where to now?

Johnny: Band in general, we’re working on a new album, yeah, hopefully with our 20th anniversary next year. So hopefully going to do play some places we haven’t played before.
The German record label (Sunny B*stards) say, where we are going in January. We get back to Hamburg in March. Yeah, so we always try to do like, couple of abroad ones, but yeah, which is hard when you’re working and you got family

TotalRock: Do you get different crowds there?

Chris: Yeah. I mean, you always do. The crowds are amazing in Europe compared to over here, it’s a different scene, really.
People will travel two hours on a train to come and see you. As well, because the venues and promoters over there, yeah, you get spoiled rotten. So we get four kinds of lager. They basically say “There’s a fridge there. Tell us when it’s empty”, whenever they fill it, yeah, and hot food as well.
It seems they appreciate music, not just, you know, punk music, any sort of music is appreciated. Whereas, hey, yeah, punk music is basically, well, all music, live music. Here the government’s never appreciated the live music scene and what it brings into the country, the money it generates, it’s like, whereas, you know, in Germany, it’s classed, it’s the same as opera, classical music.
All you know, all music is classed, and they give funding. So punk bands can do what they do, venues can do what they do, but it is never going to happen over here, because every government screams that they are skint, don’t they?

Here I Stand