Category Archives: the band

posts about the band itself, and its members

Man down!

Hey gang, Randy here.

I see that the rumour mill has been buzzing in recent weeks, so I guess it is time to put the record into some sort of official order.

Those of you who saw us on the recent tour would have noticed the line-up change that happened in mid-April when Jesus Smith stepped down for the tour citing ill-health.

Well last weekend we were all supposed to have convened at my house to discuss the plans for the up-coming recording sessions. Jesus was a no-show, and after some frantic calls and a personal visit to his home, it became apparent that Jesus was no-longer happy with remaining in the band. Whilst I can’t say I was surprised (as Jesus had been unhappy since bringing Nancy on-board), I am nether-the-less sad to have to announce the news of his departure.

Jesus has been with us for almost 10 years, and has provided an extra dimension to our distinctive sound, and even as recently as the writing sessions we had at the beginning of the year he was making some valuable contributions.

I made a personal plea to him to join us for one last time in the studio, especially as there was at least one of his songs in the mix to record, but unfortunately he did not wish to prolong his membership of the band any longer.

All I can say now is that I am very sorry that he has decided to go. He will be missed by all those involved with Voodoo Salami, and I am sure that he will be missed too by the fans world-over.

I speak on behalf of the entire band to say that we wish you well Jesus Smith, and hope you find happiness and success in whatever you chose to do next.

Regards

Randy

While the cat’s away

Greetings!

Chuck has entrusted the keys to the blog to me whilst he goes into rehab away for a short break. As he alluded to in his last missive we have indeed gone ahead and provisionally booked some studio time in May and June to try and exorcise the demons of the current project.

From a personal perspective, I found our writing sessions to be quite intense. Normally I like to bounce my song ideas off of Leroy, and between us we have usually been fairly close to having a finished article before we share with the wider group. So this “all hands together” approach has been a refreshing challenge to one-and-all.

Having Nancy on-board as a full-time band member has changed the dynamic a bit; hopefully for the better. She has always been driven by her own standards of perfection in her song writing and music, and the rest of us have enjoyed the different perspective she brought into the writing sessions. I won’t say that I had been chasing her to join us for a while, but found her very approachable during our last tour and maybe the closeness of the smaller venues meant she got to see us working in a different light. I’m so very glad that she did decide to say Yes.

I’ll reserve judgement on whether things will stay the same with her on-board – I’m not 100% convinced that Jesus has totally taken to us having a 3rd guitar in the line-up. Watch this space I guess!

Well that is enough rambling from me. I’m not such a fluent gossip as Chuck is, so can see why he enjoys keeping this blog going when others don’t show that much interest.
You all have fun, and keep your ears and eyes peeled for more news (and gossip) soon.

Regards

Randy.

Hello from Nancy

Hi gang.

So Chuck has kindly lent me the keys to the blog to say a few words.

I’m very excited to have been invited into the inner sanctum of Voodoo Salami. Sure I’ve known the boys for many years now, and we seemed to have some good times when out on tour, but I was gobsmacked when, after the closing gig of last winter’s tour, they asked whether I’d like to join them.

I had to take a few days out to think it over. I guess I have been so focused on my own stuff, and especially having gone to great lengths to put together my own band to help me on tour, so it wasn’t an easy decision to make and I needed time to seriously think about it.

I guess the clincher came on New Year’s Eve; I was at the same party as Randy and we got coaxed (goaded more like) into doing a duet on karaoke (don’t ask, it had been a long night and lots of booze!). We just hit it off and had a riot. Afterwards, as the New Year rang in, I went up to Randy and told him I’d be happy to join the band.

I still plan to keep my solo stuff going, and hopefully will still be able to take my band out on tour when time permits, so it won’t be an end to “Nancy Killjoy” as a band.

Anyway, time to say bye-bye. I’m off to join the boys for the writing sessions next week. Should be fun.

Love X

Nancy

Happy New Year

Hello all.

Well with New Year over and Christmas just a fragmented memory (like some nightmarish hangover), and most of our new-year resolutions just about hanging in (except maybe for Dave), we thought it was time to break cover with some kick-ass news to kick-start 2015.

First up is the news that we are planning to convene early in Feb to start song-writing sessions, with a view to heading back into the studio to churn out a new LP sometime later in the year. Why is this news I hear you ask (you did ask, didn’t you?). Well this time around we thought it would be fun to get everyone together in one place and have a real good thrash and jam to see what fell out. Whilst our previous sessions working in our regular writing pairs/groups (and in Will’s case on his own) have worked well, we somehow ended up churning out stuff that not everybody agreed on. This led some of our followers and fans to accuse us of “padding out” albums. So this time we have decided to break with tradition and see where it takes us. We have booked ourselves a “retreat” (and no, it’s not the Priory!) somewhere far far away to aid the creative process.

This leads us onto the next (and arguably the most important) piece of breaking news…

Following our (reasonably) successful Winter Tour, we decided that we got on so well with Nancy Killjoy as a support act that we simply had to bring her into the family full-time. So as of today we can happily announce that Nancy is joining Voodoo Salami. She brings with her that epic female vocal range that we know so well, and also her fiendishly demonic axe-wielding prowess.

Nancy still plans to keep her own band ticking over in the background (see her post over on her own blog for more details), and hopefully we can get her to scribble some prose for us over here too in due course.

Well that’s all for now. I don’t know about you, but I need a stiff drink and a sit down after all that news.

Keep smiling.

Chuck.