Interview Rikki, Kev and Seamus from The East Town Pirates
East Town Pirates are:
Rikki Rumoldew – Vocals
Rayna Terra – Drums
Drew Blood – Guitar and backing vocals
Kutthroat Kev – Guitar and backing vocals
Shameless Seamus – Bass and backing vocals
Hailing from around the east coast town of Ipswich the ETP have been going since 2010.
Now three albums in, East Town Pirates 2011, Seven Seas Of Sin 2013 and Ship Of Fools 2018 with more on the horizon. ETP are a dynamite mix of rock, punk, sleaze with tongue in cheek humour and huge sing-a-long anthems, the pirates are an fearsome live band! Many songs are based on historical events or characters but not all are about piracy, there is much more to the ETP than ale swigging and wench chasing. "Adam Ant meets Tenpole Tudor via The Pogues" or maybe "Suffolk’s answer to the Dropkick Murphys” you decide!
1 – First Punk Rock band you saw live, where and when?
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Rikki Rumoldew - First Punk gig was by surprise, in the little Suffolk village I lived in, 1979, and a local punk girl and her boyfriend bust into the little village hall and had got bands coming for a birthday squat gig, so that was a real eye opener to a young lad who had just started getting aware of punk in the last year and didn't yet know what ACAB meant as that was chanted a lot when the cops turned up.
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So yeah my little village invaded by punks when I was about 11,
I knew who all the bands were but they were not really known
outside of a 30 mile radius lol, but The Retarded gained the most local kudos, second to The Adicts.
First actual gig was "Flintlock", a the guy from TV's Tomorrow People was a member.
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First big Punk gigs in the big local Ipswich Gaumont Venuewere SLF & Stranglers (separately), I lied to go to them as I had
not been allowed to see The Clash when they were there in 1980 (a major regret, lesson learnt...don't ask the parents, just go !). My kids were lucky when they wanted to go to gigs because of that.
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DrewBlood – The New Smell at the local legion club, they were just a singer and guitarist.
They did a great cover of No Entry by Sham 69 and they blew
the headline band off the stage and came back on at the end of the night with a mate on drums who proceeded to smash seven bells out of their kit!
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Shameless Seamus – Probably the Damned in Germany around ’86 I think. To be honest I didn’t really know much about them at the time, we were spending our time going to psychobilly gigs (Guana Batz, Torment, Skitzo etc) but when The Damned played locally in an old warehouse we all went. It was a huge gig in comparison and incredibly loud.
2 – First punk rock record?
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Rikki Rumoldew - I first became aware of punk in 1978 when I was 10 and you were getting Damned/Subs/Sham etc on Top of the Pops, all with songs to draw a young kid in with the anthems - Love Song, Stranglehold, If The Kids Are United et al and so many classics I still love today. Someone having a tape of Never Mind The Bollocks and us all being amazed at the swearing! Playing footie with older lads introduced me to New Rose and earlier stuff and being lucky enough to swap some early Pistols singles off Fat Phil for a Liverpool Subbuteo team! But I really remember buying Rat Trap from Andy's Records in Bury St Edmunds, it was 69p. Also Spiral Scratch reissue (1980 ?) as it was the first single that was over a £1 to my horror!
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Drew Blood – I can’t remember exactly but it was either C’mon Everybody by the Pistols, Jilted John (does that count?) or If The Kids Are United – by Sham 69
Shameless Seamus – Definitely a Sham 69 single but I can’t remember which one. First album was Boomtown Rats Tonic For The Troops. I think I lost them both playing pontoon for records with my mates.
3 – Favourite Venue?
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Rikki Rumoldew - I would have to say The Steamboat in Ipswich, it's just always been our home to play locally and where I put on gigs occasionally, a bit off the beaten track from town centre and always a lovely atmosphere. We've enjoyed a lot of other venues, but we've had great fun at Glastonwick on a farm in Sussex and should give a shout out to the John Peel Centre in Stowmarket for being great and we had our last album launch there.
Shameless Seamus – As Rikki said, The Steamboat and the John Peel Centre for local venues. Both treat us really well and we have good gigs there. We have played Glastonwick twice and they are both definitely in my top five ETP gigs. Also Le Galion in Lorient, France. Again the crowd has always been fantastic and the venue really looks after travelling bands.
4 – Influences?
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Rikki Rumoldew - I suppose it's Rock n Roll innit. First stuff I liked were my mum’s records of Elvis, Chuck Berry & Jerry Lee Lewis, brilliant! Punk was our generations version and I loved what I called story songs when I was young, which was country and western stuff like El Paso, Boy Named Sue, Don't Take Your Guns To Town. And I love The Pogues.
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Shameless Seamus – It must have been around ’75 when I heard Nazareth Hair Of The Dog and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, the better selection of my Dad’s cassettes amongst The Carpenters and James Last. Then at 12 or 13 I was exposed more to rock bands such as AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest etc. Some older lad was giving me cassette recordings of all the latest albums. It wasn’t until I was 17 that I got really into the psychobilly scene in Germany,
loads of good touring bands and a constant stream of great gigs and festivals. Regarding the punk scene, I’m a bit of a latecomer to the party.
5 – Any new bands out there impress you?
Rikki Rumoldew - No, they’re all rubbish, not really! Great local pop punk band to mention is Back To The Point, with young Sam who stepped in on guitar with us for about a year. An Essex band called Pet Needs are very interesting and another Essex duo The Meffs have some attitude. Blue Carpet Band are super, and another local band Casual Nausea have an album out on TNS, that's well worth checking out. Not new, but Cyanide Pills are very good too.
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Shameless Seamus – As Rikki said, locally Back To The Point and Casual Nausea both seem to get better each time I see them.
6 – What’s the future look like for ETP?
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Rikki Rumoldew - Fuckin quiet at the moment. We have a couple of things booked for next year with big question marks, so just wait and see I guess, hopefully we'll remember how to do it when we get back out there!!!
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Shameless Seamus – Lockdown killed off practices for us
(as for many other bands). We have got a few things that are “work in progress” regarding new songs.
We’ll definitely be out there again after all this craziness so get in touch if you want us.
7 – Where does the name come from?
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Rikki Rumoldew - My tiny little mind! We all lived in/or come from different towns in Suffolk and we like our smuggling heritage along our wonderful Suffolk coast and towns.
8 – What’s the craziest thing that happened on tour?
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Rikki Rumoldew – I can't say in case my mum/wife/children/pets or probation officer see my answer!
Sorry, but Shameless Seamus traditionally falls over a lot
to keep us entertained, Kev doesn't drink or take substances and manages to lose everything and anything.
Rayna can't go to the toilet anywhere like normal men and
Drew Blood is new and hasn't had the chance to do anything other
than one gig thus far (and he was bloody brilliant for a heavington)
9 – Horror movies or science fiction?
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Rikki Rumoldew - Horror
10 – What do you dislike?
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Rikki Rumoldew - Myself sometimes if I've been naughty; the sound of breaking glass if you've knocked a table of drinks over; Monty Don as my wife likes him so I like slagging him off for my own amusement. And I dislike fucking swearing.
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​Drew Blood – I always regret missing the Adicts
playing at Felixstowe youth club when I was a nipper. My Grandad regretted it for different reason. He woke up to a perfectly sprayed Adicts logo on his garage door in the morning!
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Shameless Seamus – Rikki when he does his knocking a table of drinks over thing.
11 – Guilty pleasure?
Rikki Rumoldew - oooohhhh, erm The Carpenters,
Naked Attraction on telly, sneaking off to Norfolk (scum territory in footie terms, beautiful coast and broadlands to visit in reality) maybe a crafty tug for my birthday treat and the odd sit down wee.
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Shameless Seamus – Paramore and Strictly, not at the same time.
12 – Is punk rock dead?
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Rikki Rumldew - Nah, but it is very much like the Teds we saw who seemed old when we were young in all the old teddy boy gear and now seeing all the zips/studs/tartan punk rock on show at the big parade, but I don't care, I love seeing all that, I'm just pleased that generally people get on better at gigs and you don’t get much trouble, as some of those first ones I went to in some places there was always rucks and sub cultures/different towns fought each other. There's a bit of Punk Rock mafia everywhere you go!
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Drew Blood – I’ve never thought punk was dead, it just takes a bit of a holiday now and then.
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Shameless Seamus – I hope not, I’ve only been really getting into it for the last 10 years or so, it can’t die now.
Interviewed November 2020
