Artist description Fast, heavy yet happy punk/rock from the south east of england.

Music Style Punk/rock

Musical Influences Pennywise, Good Riddance, Abba

Similar Artists Bad Religeon mixed with G'N'R

Artist History Okay, the coming together of this band is a bit of an Epic. So get yourself a nice long beer, sit down and read........ In February 2000 Local Crock Rock group Rapeseed split up due to one too many conflicts of opinion (or something like that). This left Chaz Rolph and Patrick Redford bandless. Nothing happened. 6 months Later Chaz started Jamming with a guitarist called Mark Legg, they decided to ask Patrick if he was interested in playing Guitar with them, Patrick Said no because he had got tendonitus from a sprained wrist but would sing for them. Things didn't work out though, and Patrick went off to loose his life to Tesco (Please, don't shop there!). During all this time Chaz kept hassling Patrick to form a new band, eventually in June 2001, they started Jamming again. For some reason the Chemistry was there. An add was put up and a Bass player called Matt was found! Once again it was all rather short lived and Matt decided his interests lied else where. Rather depressingly Patrick trudged back to life at Tesco and kind of forgot the whole thing, and Chaz went off to buy a new drum kit. And then it was Reading. Everyone knows Reading rules. Full stop. So many like minded people all chillingout, smoking, drinking, watching bands, meeting new people and talking. Parick and Chaz met up at Reading having not seen each other since the beginning of July and immediately started talking bands. Through an alcohol induced haze, they recalled hearing that the band Frutbat had split-up leaving a rather good bass player, Adrian, bandless. Immediately seeking the guy out for he too was at the festival, the idea of forming a new band was put to him. Adrian decided he would be willing to give the whole thing ago, so plans were made, songs were thought up and Patrick left Tesco to take up a life as a guitar teacher (with loads of spare time on his hands). And a new band was born. The name was thought up on two separate occasions, one a drunk night out in Canterbury and the other a relaxed jam at Adrian's. Islander (a fish tank) and Sidekick (vodka) was put together and the name Islander Sidekick was taken.

Group Members Chaz Rolph Adrian Milton Patrick Redford

Instruments Guitar / Bass/ Drums.

Albums The Mr I.S.Sqiushy EP

Press Reviews Taken from Steve the lady promotions. Artist of the month winners for April 2002. ISLANDER SIDEKICK! This month I have the pleasure of reviewing MR I.S. SQUISHY EP by ISLANDER SIDEKICK. It's great this month because I have had the pleasure of seeing these guys live on a couple of occasions. The first time was back in December when they were just starting out. I thought then that they was good and a band with a lot of potential. Now, after seeing them a couple of weeks back, I can see how far they have come in a few short months. The band are tighter than a fishes ass and rock greater than Alcatraz. (By the way, thanks for doing the STLP show for us). Now, this EP is a compact 5 songs with varying styles. The first track "ME, ME, ME" (which is featured on the STLP compilation), is a summer singalong kind of song. You know the sort, get drunk with your mates and sing it for as long as you can remember the words!. It is the catchiest tune I have heard in a long while. You absolutely have to jump up and down to this and it makes me want to scream with joy! It is a cracker of an opener and has great use of vocal harmony. This is a punk/pop classic! The next song shows a slightly moodier side to the band. "THE TROUBLE WITH PEOPLE TODAY" has a fat rock riff and comes with a hard punching tune. This is a song that is great live as it changes the atmosphere of the band completely. This shows that the band don't have to stick to one style to please the crowd. "TASTE FOR LIFE" is another rock type number with a set of great, meaningful lyrics. Like all of the songs on this EP, if you listen to the words alone, you can tell that time is taken with the words. Alot of bands nowadays tend to concentrate on the music but here we can see thought for every section of the band. "NO!" sees a return to the jolly form of the opening track and has a great fast rhythm with powerful drums and bass steaming along together. What makes this song as good as it is, I feel, is the way the song is rapid in every sense apart from the vocals which are very relaxed. The clean and sustained notes of the singing are a change from many songs around at the moment with too many vocals. "DOWN" is the last track and could almost have been plucked straight from a metal bands repetoir. It has a cool, pumping riff to start with and then breaks down into a blissful ambient verse. The bass work on the verses is top notch and adds to the spacey feel of this part of the song. The reverb fueled snare links in with the bass with ease to give a great effect of dreamyness (is that a real word?). Overall I would recommend seeing this band live. Whether they like these comparisons or not I do not know but on listening to the demo I felt hints of Sex Pistols, Guns N' Roses and Black Sabbath. In my eyes, this a band to look out for. Islander Sidekick is their name, but they certainly don't have to be anyones sidekick.

Location Maidstone, Kent - United Kingdom

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