Win one of five HLAH prizes

Head Like a Hole or HLAH play Wellington's San Francisco Bath House on Friday. I've talked with Booga Beazley a couple of times before. First, I visited his house for the day and then we chatted via Facebook. But that was last year - when the band first re-formed. So I figured it was time to chat to someone else. To have a more formal chat; ask some serious questions....so, I spoke to the band's "other Nigel".

And we have five prize packs for lucky Wellington readers. Read on to find out what to do to win.

Meanwhile here's 10 questions from me - and 10 answers from HLAH guitarist Nigel Regan.

1) Take me back over the last year of HLAH's life - you've done a few shows together now. Highlights? Lowlights?

Take it back to the first years, here's a dude that dealt with all his fears...
I can't actually believe it's been a year since we got back together; firstly I owe a friend of mine a million bucks because that's what I bet him that the band would never ever, ever get back together. Ha! It's been an absolute joy for me playing all the shows over the last year, starting with Homegrown, the tour in September; but I have to say that the two small sweaty intimate shows we played in Auckland last Fri/Sat were the best with Saturday night having that special something that reminds you that sometimes with the sh*tty industry getting you down, the struggle of being a band in NZ and so on, that an hour and a half on stage makes it all worthwhile. Here's what Booga said:

One more thing - Auckland shows! It was great to see some of the old HLAH personalities coming out, Mr Regan especially. Mr Durno said when he saw Nigel take his shirt off he knew it was going to be a good one. Andrew I felt the same way. I was going to take my shirt off as well but I realised that you can have old personality traits coming out again but you can't wind back the clock so yeah "keep it on you fat bastard!" 

2) There must have been a few "what next?" conversations within the band. So, what next?

I had a swarm of flies, inside my mouth, ah one or two inside my gums twice the size they stick like gum...
We have sat down and (this is a bit grown up) pencilled out what we want to achieve in the next year, which is get a new album out, make some new crazy-ass videos; which reminds me we want to release all the videos we made either on DVD or as a bonus disc on the album; I think we've got about 23 videos at last count, most of them international quality. Get out touring to support the new album and get the f**k overseas. One of my major disappointments in the 90s was that we never got to tour the States where I think we'd go down really well with the right promo and backing. So, to put it short and sweet, World Domination.

3) New material...there's been talk of some riffs, some ideas, some songs even. Will we hear those at shows any time soon - or is the goal to record first?

Just like I knew you would, you need me like a third eye, well anyway... 
We knew without it even being said that after the initial "they're back and the gigs have been sh*t hot, it's great to have them back" that unless we cranked out a new album that there wasn't much point in continuing after a certain point and also if we hadn't been having a blast playing again we wouldn't want to record or carry on. So we're going to concentrate on getting a new album in the can which shouldn't be too hard. I've written enough songs for a double album which we've been working on and Andrew (our secret weapon - he wrote A Crying Shame) is bringing some songs to the party, which is fantastic. We have actually talked about doing a double album, one side HLAH at its rocking-est. And side two, some more experimental stuff.

4) How have the most recent shows been?

You're an Angel, you're a whore, let's get loaded, let's get stoned, let's...
To iterate further on what I said above, the shows in Auckland had that real magic HLAH thing going on. It's almost like a bit of stress goes a long way towards whether we put on a classic show. There were some concerns that we were going from a sold-out Powerstation gig to two small shows in a venue that holds about 150 people and on top of that, the fact that the Pixies were playing on the same nights. And I'm positive that 100 per cent of our fans would be Pixie fans as well.

We are a superstitious lot - well, I am anyway. We've always had this hard and fast rule that you're never, ever, ever allowed to say "we're going to have a great show tonight" or anything to that effect. And there used to be an equation which seems to have thankfully gone that went:  Great Soundcheck = Sh*t Gig, Sh*t Soundcheck = Great Gig. Some of the best gigs in ye olde times were when we'd be totally shagged, sleep deprived and the last thing we'd want to do is get up onstage and play and whadda ya know...boom, the gig would explode in a riot of shambolic, riotous, righteous rock with that perfect combination of cranking music and the band's antics leaving the audience with a sh*t-eating grin on their faces as they left.

5) What have been the best and worst things about reforming HLAH?

Well I don't want to come to you as a wanker, I'd like to see you tighten a rope
For me one of the best things has been putting the horrible, horrible way the band crashed and burned behind us. You know that horrible feeling in your gut when you break up with your partner? Well times that by about one thousand and that's the way it feels when your band breaks up in a baaaaad way. We actually like each other these days and enjoy each other's company and when I look across the stage and everyone has got a big sh*t-eating grin on their face I remember why it is that I like doing this. There hasn't been a worst thing about getting back together; at the most I would say that it's the frustration of trying to get some management happening so that we can concentrate on what we do best, which is writing and performing. Being a band in NZ will always entail having to deal with a lot of things that you wish you really wouldn't have to. Although we do enjoy the creative side of designing posters, album covers, flyers, competitions, promo which we've always tried to keep in-house to keep our special stamp on it.

6) Do you have new favourite songs this time around - to play live? Or is it the same chestnuts that really bring the crowd on? 

That's just the way the way things go on a day like today the world goes slow.
Well ironically enough, by the time of touring Double Yer Strength and Kiss It Or Shoot It we weren't playing any songs off 13 and people would be yelling for them during the shows and now we have gone back and resurrected a lot of the songs from that album which have had new life breathed into them. The classics still go over a treat though: A Crying Shame, Hootenanny, Faster Hooves.

7) Been inspired by any of the opening acts or artists you've shared the bill with this time around? Any future stars you can recommend?

Smokestacks whipping echoes rebounding, we stood a common ground.
Yes, the future of NZ music is in good hands, Rackets were apparently the sh*t. I didn't see them but the rest of the guys were raving about them and Street Chant.

I like them because they had a female guitarist/singer, bass player and a mop-headed Keith Moon-style drummer. I had, just that day, been bemoaning the fact that not enough women play guitar, seeming to opt for the bass, when up on stage walks a young woman in a Seinfeld T-shirt and starts wrestling her Fender Jag and producing sounds that looked nothing like what she was playing. They are supporting Dead Weather this weekend in Melbourne.

Oh and special mention goes to Beastwars, not the least because my best mate Matt Sweet (when we were 12) ratted me out for bringing pizzas to school and selling them to fund my Dungeons and Dragons playing. My parents ran a pizza factory and I had to take my licks for that one. I thought I was being entrepreneurial.

8) In a perfect world what would happen to HLAH after this Friday's show?

Three of these things belong together, three of these things are kinda the same, one of these things is not like the other, now it's time to play our game.
Ahh, the perfect world. Well, in a perfect world we would be off touring it and making a living from our own brand of Kiwi rock. I don't mean being rich and famous but if we could pay the bills and make a living outta playing our music I would be a happy man.

9) In reality what probably will happen to HLHA after this Friday's show?

I'm a regular guy with a regular job and a regular house and a nice shiny car, a regular guy with a regular job and regular hair....cut.
What will probably happen is that we will soldier on (and not with Codral because they've removed the ephedrine), get the new album out, tour it around the country and do our best to get some f**king vinyl out and get it released overseas and then get over there playing. I know this band has got what it takes to do it and we are determined to get out there and do it.

10) Why should people come to the SFBH show this Friday? a) Why should people who have never heard you go? And b) why should fans come to this particular show? 

Fish across face, fish in hand, and then his face pulled through, freaky little man.
People that have never heard or seen us should come to the gig because even if they are not a fan of our type of music I can guarantee that they will have a good time watching us and probably leave smiling and possibly as a new convert. The great thing about playing these shows is seeing the range of people that are coming, from the people that were fans back in the day to the new young ones that have obviously heard about us from their older siblings.

A young woman came up to Booga in Auckland and told him that she had (make that she has, sounds a little too close to a certain rival band) grown up listening to Head Like a Hole as her dad was a major fan from the beginning. Things like that are always great and give you that inspiration to give it that little extra when playing.

As for why fans should come to the show? Well apart from the fact that they are going to hear some songs that haven't been played in 15 years or more, well, I don't think I need to tell them why...

So - if you want to see HLAH this Friday and you live in Wellington or can get to Wellington by Friday then you could be in to win one of five prize-packs. Each pack contains a double-pass to the show, a T-shirt and a CD (the band's recent compilation album; pictured right).

Each of Nigel's answers starts with a lyric from a Head Like a Hole song. The first five people who can correctly name five song titles that the quoted lyrics come from (listing the answer number from this blog with the song title) will win a prize. So get in quick.

Anyone excited about this gig on Friday? Or did you go to one of last weekend's Auckland shows?

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