It is my distinct pleasure today to present the driving force behind “Hot Rails To Hull.” From his home in Liverpool, long time fan and band follower “Ralph,” documents the prolific touring career of Blue Oyster Cult (Current count: 3,682), as well as other aspects of the band past and present.
Ralph answered these questions about his website and the band.
Q: How did you become a BOC fan?
Well, growing up, I was never much of a fan of UK bands - my school was like a massive vinyl swap-shop - the fact was, you could borrow pretty much ANY LPS by Sabbath, Zeppelin, Purple, Wishbone Ash, Yes, ELP, Bowie, Heep, Genesis etc etc because everyone seemed to have them - so I got to hear all that stuff, but it didn't really do anything for me...
However, one or two rogue souls had more interesting music to loan me by way of American imports like Zappa, Velvets, Doors etc and I always found these to be much more interesting and gradually my musical tastes began to become almost exclusively transatlantic.
During 1972-74 my favourite band was the Alice Cooper group, as well as some (then) lesser known bands such as The Stooges and The MC5, whose records I had to buy myself as no other bugger had them to lend to me - I also remember valiantly trying to like The Amboy Dukes as they were from Detroit too, but that was a struggle as they were a bit hit and miss...
But I think I liked being in my own little cult of one listening to all these American imports - I always hated conforming, so sometimes I'd find myself in the record shop buying something like "Happy Trails" probably for all the wrong reasons...
Anyway, I remember mooching around the record shop one enchanted afternoon when suddenly I saw Bill Gawlik's 1st BOC LP cover in the import racks "across the crowded room" and felt drawn to it instantly.
I wandered over to it and remember thinking "WTF is THIS?" as I stood looking at those song titles - "I'm on the Lamb But I ain't No Sheep" - Blimey!"
I took it straight over to the counter where you could listen to records before you bought them by putting on a massive pair of headphones which promptly cut off the blood supply to your brain, but at least you could hear a few seconds of music before you passed out... my request to the guy was to play the 2nd track on side 2 - I just HAD to hear what "She's as Beautiful as a Foot" sounded like... so my first aural taste of the Cult was actually Albert Bouchard's magnificent rolling drum intro and I've been hooked ever since...
The only problem was - after that - I was the only person in my class with any BOC records, so I was continually having to lend those first two LPs out to all and sundry - I was pretty glad when others started buying their own Cult records to take the pressure off me and my by now heavily scratched and dog-eared copies...
Q: When and how did you get started with your project?
I started the site in 2002 - initially, as a small tribute page after seeing the band play in Sheffield in the summer of that year. I'd enjoyed catching up with them again after such a long time, and felt an urge to express my appreciation for the years of enjoyment their music had given me. Because my "day job" involved website production, it was natural that this was the form in which that appreciation manifested itself.
For the best part of the first year, the site was purely a celebration of BOC in the UK only - such an undertaking was clearly - albeit narrowly - defined and straightforward to implement as the UK giglist was finite and easily quantifiable. As for the rest of the band's massive thirty-year concert history, that was taken care of by the giglist on the official blueoystercult.com site...
However, I kept getting sent details of non-UK gigs - including a number of shows NOT listed on boc.com - but as they were outside my "remit", I couldn't include them.
Then, one day, on closer inspection of those official lists, I myself noticed some discrepancies surrounding a couple of the UK shows they had listed on there, so I sent along some corrections in hope of setting the record straight, but the errors remained uncorrected.
This began to nag away at me - I hated the idea of there being wrong info available so I decided I'd widen the scope of the Hot Rails site to include ANY BOC gig EVER.
My method of kick starting this augmentation was, perhaps, a wee bit cheeky - I simply "grafted" the entire giglist from the official site onto the Hot Rails site!!
I do know they were rather unhappy about me doing this - it was thought I was trying to claim some sort of "credit" for passing off their giglist as my own but that was honestly never the idea at all...
Since I obviously couldn't influence the accuracy of the giglists on boc.com, simply by copying and pasting them onto my own site and using these lists as a starting point, I was able to wreak my own brand of havoc upon them, twisting them and shaping them, even throwing some of them in the bin whilst adding many more new shows, as well as inviting fans to confirm/deny these gigs with tales of their own experiences and/or images of ticket stubs, handbills etc.
The aim was two-fold: first - obviously - was a striving towards accuracy. That was the initial driver - like I said, I hate the propagation of inaccurate info, but for the second reason, I have to go back to the reason why I posted my original tribute page in the first place.
I just love to read other people's experiences of seeing the band live. A simple list of gigs is no more than that - and dare I say it - a bit dry and boring - but tack on some personal memories and testimonies and maybe a photo or two - and the gigs start to come alive and then, for me, it all starts to become much more interesting.
I'd looked around at other bands' sites and couldn't really see anyone else doing what I wanted to do - there were plenty of "gig-list" sites of course, and plenty of forum-type sites where fans posted their memories, but these were never in a structured chronological format - they always seemed somewhat ad-hoc, and I knew that wouldn't do for me as I appreciate order - in short, I crave a timeline. It's probably something psychological, I dunno...
I do have to give credit to a few people though - first of all, Bolle, Gary & Melne's hard work in putting the initial lists together on boc.com was very important in getting me started, then crucially ex-roadie Sam Judd got involved in helping me flesh out a large part of the structural skeleton, and along the way, other road crew members have helped me out with info, such as George Geranios, Mike Singleton, Ken Welch, Rick Reyer, Rick Downey etc etc, as well as the many hundreds of fans who have made contributions (over 1500 last time I counted)...
Q: What's the biggest challenge with your site?
Getting people interested enough to bother to send me info/corrections. The problem is - my site isn't "immediate" - you can't post something and see it instantly appear (like you do with Facebook) - you have to email it to me and, when I get a spare few minutes, I add it to the relevant page.
Talking of Facebook...
I HATE Facebook - I HAD vowed never to set a digital foot across their miserably vacuous threshold but I kept coming across links to tickets stubs etc on there that I didn't have as well as mentions of various shows I needed more info on, so I had to backtrack on that resolution and start to try and get some of those Facebook posters to cough up some of their memories for documenting on the site...
Trouble is - most of them don't seem to be interested - they're happy enough to mention this or that BOC gig in a Facebook post, but when I try to get more info, I always seem to come up empty.
So my biggest challenge is to try and interest enough of these social media devotees to document their experiences on the Hot Rails site. There are thousands of people out there holding little pieces of the BOC jigsaw and my aim is to try and slot them as much as possible into the bigger picture...
Q: What's the site's future?
I can't say for sure - I don't trust "the future" and never seem to plan for it beyond the immediately imminent. The site is somewhat tied in with the active status of BOC themselves as a going concern, of course, and I did notice that site visits dropped off considerably when the band were off the road for 7 months due to Buck's shoulder injury during 2008-2009.
BOC have only a limited time left from a being "on tour forever" point of view - Buck Dharma has said in the past that he'd pack it in when he's 65 so if that's true we have maybe a year or so left of seeing the band live. BOC as a creative and performing force are definitely on a gently-descending parabolic curve, and it's obviously just a matter of time until they come to a graceful halt.
So once this sad day has arrived, I'm sure it would still be my intention to continue with the site in memoriam. Health and finances permitting, of course.
And of course, there are also Joe and Albert Bouchard sections on the site, and those guys don't show any signs of calling it a day anytime soon...
Q: "Hull" is obviously a play on Hell. What does "Hull" mean and where did you get the inspiration?
Everyone seems to think I come from Hull - but I don't, I'm from Liverpool. Hull is a grim, now depressed but once thriving, port on the North EAST coast of England whereas Liverpool (where I live) is a grim, now depressed but once thriving, port on the North WEST coast of England - see? - VERY different places...
Whenever I've travelled by rail to the North East, my experiences have almost always been less than positive due to the creaking state (and age) of the trains and tracks... For that reason, the juxtaposition of "Hot Rails" and "Hull" seemed amusing to me when I was trying to think of a title for the original (UK-based) tribute page...
Anyway - now that the site is no-longer just UK-related, the "Hull" part is less relevant and I generally just refer to it as "Hot Rails"...
I mentioned that many people seem to think I come from Hull - people also seem to think my name is "Kirth" just because my site hotmail address is "kirthgersen" (Kirth Gersen is actually the main protagonist in a series of Jack Vance novels). Anyway, as Kirth is currently "off-planet", he lets me use his email whilst he's away...
Q: Their current gig total is 3,682. Do we know of any other bands with that many?
I've nothing to compare it to - I've not seen any totals given for other bands - BOC in one form or another have been gigging pretty solidly since 1967, so they're bound to rack up some high appearance numbers - and don't forget - I've only been able to scratch the surface of the 1967-1971 gig schedule - there's MANY more from that period I don't YET know about...
Q: Have you ever thought about contacting the band and/or management to ask if they have a list of shows, especially for the early years?
Long story short - the lists they know about, they published on the official site. Their focus - understandably - is the FUTURE, not the past, whereas mine is pretty much diametrically opposite to that.
Q: Have you ever met or talked with the band?
I got my cover of "Secret Treaties" signed when they played Liverpool in 1975 and I've stood outside a number of stage doors to take photos etc over the years... same as any fan, really...
Q: What concerts have you seen?
BOC gigs? My first was the aforementioned Liverpool Empire gig in 1975 and my last was Manchester Academy 2008 - and a number of gigs in between. I saw a bunch of shows (about 8) on the 1978 "laser" tour of the UK that were probably the greatest gigs I've EVER seen... and yet that initial gig in 75 was without question the BEST single show I've ever attended.
Q: What is your favorite BOC album and song?
Any of the first three LPs could top my list on any given day, but if you averaged out the results of my playlists, then "Secret Treaties" would come out on top.
Favourite song? Blimey...
If we're talking studio recordings then it would be "Astronomy" off "Secret Treaties". If we're talking live LPs, then it is without doubt "Subhuman" off "On your Feet" - every member gets to shine in a fantastic augmentation of what is an excellent track to start with, but they take this version off somewhere new and very forlornly special...
If you're looking for the best example of what Buck Dharma can do on his own, then obviously you need to look no further than "Veteran" off "ETL" - I feel a bit of a traitor for recommending this as it's from a BOC Mk2 gig (with Rick Downey instead of Albert), but there's no disguising Buck's mastery on this track...
Q: BOC has not released a studio record since "Curse of the Hidden Mirror" in 2001. Any chance they are working on a new one? Why have they not done so?
I have no particular insights into the band/management's thinking on this - of course, like other fans, I often speculate as to why BOC always seem to be content to wait for someone to offer them a deal, with advances and stuff like that - just like in the old days... Maybe they didn't get the memo that things are done differently these days. Plenty of bands are making new music and using the Internet to help promote their endeavours - look at the Bouchard Brothers, for example - not just with Blue Coupe, but also with Joe, who does a lot of great solo stuff etc.
The Bouchards just LOVE to play and produce new music - an artist HAS to create, after all. That's why I think it's such a waste that a band like BOC (OK, Eric and Buck) seem content to sit on their creative hands and simply tread water in the cultural backwater of the casino/county fair "classic rock" circuit where they continue to play the same standard 8 or 9 song set list featuring, of course, their "big three" hits, (including bass and drum solos, despite the fact that it's now 2012)... What's next? Their own Reaper Theatre showcase in Branson Missouri, with 3 shows daily?
I think BOC could release new material if they wanted - I'm just stumped as to WHY they don't seem to WANT to...
Of course, the purists argue that "Heaven Forbid" and "Curse" aren't REALLY BOC albums, no matter WHAT it says on the cover... there might be some decent songs contained within, but if there's no Bouchard involvement, then it's just BOC Lite...
And that's always the big what "might have been" with BOC - the big question: what would have happened if they hadn't have sacked Albert Bouchard in August 1981? After all, they'd put "Mirrors" behind them and released "Cultosaurus" and "Fire of Unknown Origin" just prior to this - who knows what they could have come up with if the creative heart of the band had remained in operation.
Not "Revolution by Night" and bloody "Club Ninja", that's for sure...
And "Imaginos" would have been the 6-sided grand epic it was always intended to be...
Q: Finally, let's talk about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Eddie Trunk has done a good job of touting the case for certain bands. I think his top three are Kiss, Deep Purple and Rush. I would put BOC right there. Anyway, make the case for the band.
Ah well, now see I wouldn't bother trying to make a case for the band. Maybe it's because I come from the UK where the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a pretty meaningless concept, I dunno... But it's a constant refrain I hear: "Why aren't BOC in the Rock and Roll HoF?" - so I looked into it a bit more to see who exactly IS and who isn't in the bleedin thing and why does it matter, anyway...
The results of my cursory investigations indicated to me that there's nothing "Rock and Roll" about any of it!! The list of inductees is an ad-hoc and arbitrary bunch, following no logical pattern or consistency of choice, and seemingly generated at random by the capricious whim of whatever strange entity brought it into being...
I think the better, certainly more honourable, place to be is NOT in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at all in the first place.
Like Groucho once said: "I wouldn't want to join any club that'd have me as a member..."
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