9FoldPunch have played at the very first Rockinbeerfest back in 2004, as well as a festival fundraiser gig in November 2004.
They are from the Up-there school of guitar based Rock N' Roll , being initially influenced by guitar led AC/DC and retro rockers The Ramones , particularly when they were in their surf-punk era. They quickly learnt that they needed to step backwards before they could progress forwards and needed to discover not only first generation Ramones but what had also pointed Da Bruddas in the right direction in the first place. Which in this increasingly sterile bland pop boy-band era is easier said than done. but having a friendly local second hand record store owner helped their task a little as slowly but surely he encouraged them to have a listen to suburb (but largely forgotten) tracks like 'The Witch' by The Rattles / Another girl ,Another Planet by The Only Ones , some of which said something some of which didn't mean anything,
.. but who said Rock & Roll had to be intelligent enough pass it's 'A' levels??!!
What they found these songs had in common was simplicity, often with hook that could tame the most fierce pike in the river and a song duration that meant although you could roll your cigarette and light it ,but you couldn't necessarily finish it and stub it out before they were on to the next song , they leant their lesson well and now have an arsenal of self composed songs with enough hooks in them to join a Japanese whaling fleet.
Another thing they realised they were proud of was their British ness and as easy as it was in this increasingly Americanised world to attach yet another faux Mid-Atlantic drawl to the vocal inflection there has been a conscious decision to 'keep it real' , they aint from the Bronx , the aint from LA , and most of them couldn't even spell Wyoming ! .. so why the hell should they pretend to be ? They celebrate their Englishness by being English , a novel concept nowadays , but a historical winning formula proved time and again if you listen to the Scouse undertones of many of the Beatles tunes or the Irish ness of Fergal Sharkey's vocals in the Undertones and even, God forbid, could you imagine Sir Johnny of Rotten singing 'Anarchy In the UK' as if he lived in Idaho!
They are...
Simon Dartford
Lead Vox / Guitar
Ricky Hudson... Guitar / Backing Vox
Stuart "Boner" Gill... Bass
Oran Sim Drums / Backing Vox
