Joined the Fastbacks as a drummer in: 1979 End of Drum 'Internship': Switched over to lead guitar CH-ores at the end of 1980. Other bands: The Cheaters, The Young Fresh Fellows, Wild Betty, Sick Man of Europe Current band(s): The Fastbacks, The Young Fresh Fellows
Songs: 2
Time: 7:56
Rank: 8
SONGS
Don't Eat That It's Poison
Marionette
Interview by Mike LaVella from Gearhead #3
GH: I guess the big question is, why were you the first Fastbacks drummer?
K: Cuz I wanted to learn how to play drums. One of the original Cheaters drummers, which was the first band I was ever in along with my brother Al, had left his drums in our parents basement. And I thought, "wow that's cool, I want to be a drummer! That's the rockinest thing to be." Then Lulu, Kim and Lulu's cousin Shannon came over and started playing with me. I think Kim already was playing bass, Lulu had figured out a couple of Beatles songs on guitar, and Lulu's cousin Shannon wanted to be the singer.
GH: You're going way back now.
K: This is before day one. So, I figured that they were pretty terrible so they wouldn't mind having a terrible drummer! We practiced for a couple of months then we got the opportunity to play a show and Shannon was too scared to do it. So we kinda made that an ultimatum: "Do you want to do this show or not?" and so she quit.
GH: She's sort of the Pete Best of the Fastbacks.
K: (Laughs) I guess. Anyway she quit and I think Lulu sang all of the songs at first.
GH: So you played shows with you on drums?
K: Oh yeah! I played drums from the first show which was February 1980, to probably the end of that year.
GH: What was the very first show like?
K: It was the debut show of three bands. The Fastbacks, Psycho Pop, which was Popdefect except with Tom Price on bass, and the Vains, which was Duff's band. All 3 piece bands too.
GH: So you went to guitar when?
K: One day Duff came over and said "why don't you try playing guitar and I'll drum." We did it just for fun one afternoon and we never went back.
