Page 22 - Black Velvet Magazine Issue 99

BV99 pg22-25 massive wagons_BV99 pg22 17/11/2018 17:36 Page 1

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t is the dream and fantasy of every musi-
Ician and band to be massive. Some meas-
ure this by the amount of records they sell or
the number of tickets shifted for a live show.
Others take a different route and simply make
themselves known as massive by their name

and this is exactly what northern born-and-
bred classic rockers Massive Wagons have
done. But don’t be fooled into thinking they
have taken an easy route to achieving stardom
as this is far from the truth. They are doing it
the old-fashioned, hard way and with their
stunning new album ‘Full Nelson’ setting
records for their home town, they have all the
tools and talent required to truly strike it big.

t’s a long way to the top if powerful riffs which are quite su-
‘Iyou wanna rock and roll,’ fa- perb on record but live they are just
mously sang Bon Scott of AC/DC majestic. Massive Wagons simply
fame all those years ago and it’s are a band who need to be seen live
still true today. Making it in the to be fully appreciated and this will
music biz is a tough nut to crack likely prove critical on their path to
and some would say especially so greatness. The second ingredient
when it comes to rock music given in the brilliance that is ‘Full Nelson’
the limited impact the genre typi- are the themes and the lyrics of the
cally has on the music charts and songs. Wonderfully honest and
mainstream radio play. But highly humorous as well, they do a
nonetheless, there are those still grand job of both telling you how
willing to put in the graft, the late they see the world in a way many
nights and the long miles for a shot will likely agree with but also suc-
at stardom and to enjoy their time ceed in putting a big fat smile on
in the spotlight regardless of how your face. And at the end of the day,
big that spotlight may be. isn’t that what we all want?
One of the many examples of And a big fat smile is already on
the UK bands doing just this is Baz’s face when he meets Black
Massive Wagons, spearheaded by Velvet to sit and talk to us, although
charismatic frontman Baz Mills and he is clearly a little surprised by our
backed by long-time bandmate gui- revelation of the underlying theme
tarist Adam Thistlethwaite, who he of our planned discussion which is
played with in covers band Ace of inspirational characters, al-
Face prior to the formation of the though when our motives are fully
Wagons in 2009, alongside Adam’s explained the smile not only returns
brother Alex on drums, rhythm gui- but becomes even larger. You see
tarist Stevie Holl and bassist Adam it’s obvious, and even easy, to hone
Bouskill and, after nearly a decade in on certain themes contained in
of perseverance, they are now start- ‘Full Nelson’. Things like how peo-
ing to see the fruits of their labour. ple behave on social media in the
The catalyst for this success is quite hysterical ‘China Plates’, the
their fourth LP ‘Full Nelson’ which way people behave towards each
was released earlier this year and other in tracks like ‘Billy Balloon
became an instant hit with existing Head’ and ‘Last On The List’ and the
fans but, more significantly, intro- aforementioned difficulty of making
duced the band to a legion of new it in the rock world in songs like
admirers and, with their support, ‘Under No Illusion’ and ‘Tokyo’.
they are now starting to enjoy per- But if you dig a little deeper,
forming on the kinds of stages and there is much more to be found and
bills they were born to play. one of those treasures are people
There are a number of factors who have inspired the band and the
as to why ‘Full Nelson’ is such a songs on the album. One that im-
good record but there are two mediately jumps to mind is their
which stick out from the rest. The parents, a subject covered in great
first is the riffs. The album is detail in ‘Northern Boy’, one of the
packed full of big, memorable and more stripped-back and less heavy
MASSIVE WAGONS