Fresh from a tour supporting W.A.S.P, which included a last-minute set at Hard Rock Hell, the Glitterati lads are more determined than ever to get their name out there. We caught up with front man Paul Gautrey for a chat.
R13:Let’s start pretty broadly - can you give me a bit of background about what The Glitterati is all about.
PG:Yeah the name came from when I was in another band with three old members in Leeds; when we were looking for a new band name we found an old review that said that other bands came to watch us so we were referred to as glitterati. We thought it was a really strong name so it went from there really. We have quite broad influences but mainly bands like Guns n’ Roses, New York Dolls, Rolling Stones...
R13:What’s happening with the band at present? I see you’ve been touring with WASP, that must have be quite an experience..!
PG:That was great! It was the first tour we’d had since joining our new label. We’ve got a couple of new band members, it was our first tour in a while... they were great gigs and always completely packed. We’ve got a really loyal following; every night it was packed through our set. For each song the audience got more and more into it. Every night we wanted to steal fans and I think we did that; the crowd reaction was great every night.
We’ve toured with some really massive bands which were all really diverse; we supported the Killers twice, Kings of Leon and rockers like the Wildhearts, David Lee Roth & even Avril Lavigne at one stage. We’ve done a whole host of big supports over the years.
R13:How long has The Glitterati been together?
PG:We’ve been together since 2004. Our first album was released at the end of 2005 with Atlantic Records, we toured for 2 years in the UK & USA then left Atlantic and eventually moved to Demolition Global label but we recorded an album before that. Demolition was the first label we spoke to, they were really into it and we’ve been with them a couple of months now. It’s the same label as WASP, which is how we landed the tour. We didn’t know how it was going to go down as it was a different audience to normal but it’s worked out pretty well.
R13:You mentioned earlier that you have toured with a lot of big names but what has been the band’s biggest achievement so far?
PG:Lots of different things along the way, the first album was with Mike Clink who produced Appetite for Destruction by Guns n’ Roses and albums for Motley Crue. He was a hero of ours so when he wanted to work with us that was a big thing for us at the time. Also, when we had singles in the UK top 40 over here that was a big thing. At the moment though the big achievement is because we’ve been away for 2 years, we didn’t know if we’d be getting an album deal, we had no money but we got a great producer and we did the album ourselves. Keeping the band together through some really difficult times was a huge achievement and now we’re getting back to where we were.
R13:How do you see things developing over the next few years?
PG:We’re concentrating on getting a new album out: not many people have heard it yet but we’ve had good press. Our main goal is to do a lot of touring and to get out to a lot more places; the label wants us in Europe next year. We want to see as many places as we can and build the band in as many different areas rather than just the UK, which was how it was the first time round. The more places we can get out to the more successful we’ll be.
R13:You’ve just done Hard Rock Hell, how was that?
PG:Brilliant, it was the best one of the tour: we were put on last minute because of WASP so none of our fans were there as it had sold out before we were added to the bill. The crowd reaction was absolutely brilliant! A lot of people had seen us on the WASP tour so it was great to see that the work we did there was paying off. We knew on that tour that people didn’t know our band; that’s why we wanted to do it because if we play to our own fans all the time we won’t get any bigger. We wanted to build it up from there and we really saw it at Hard Rock Hell. We were on mid-afternoon and the room was absolutely packed. Similar to the WASP tour, a lot of the audience didn’t know us but by the end everybody was really into it. That’s the reaction we’re getting from label, press and people coming up to us, it was a great weekend!
R13:What were the best bits off stage at Hard Rock Hell?
PG: (laughs) we nearly lost our guitarist! It was the last gig of the WASP tour the next day [after Hard Rock Hell] in Glasgow and we couldn’t find the guitarist. We were supposed to leave at 7 in the morning to get there for sound check and he turned up at 11. We had security looking for him, we didn’t know what had happened as we didn’t see him at the end of the night but he had ended up in someone’s chalet. We really thought we’d lost him, we thought we’d have to cancel the last night of the tour but it worked out well. We had a great time but spent more time in other people’s chalets than our own!
R13:Finally, can you tell me something random about the band that not many people know?
PG:Oh I can’t even think! Random... (laughs) before I was in this band I played professional football for Bradford City; there’s probably loads more random things about the others but you caught me there!
R13: (laughs) thank you very much for your time!
PG: Thank you, appreciate you calling. Thanks very much.