RGG December 2016 - p.35
In 2006 they launched the Gypsy Hotel Club in
the then-unfashionable part of London's East
End, Dalston, a monthly Bourbon Soaked
Snake Charmin' Rock'n'Roll Cabaret night for
likeminded misfits, movers and shakers. Time
Out Magazine wrote, "If you have 12 hours to
live, spend it at Gypsy Hotel!"
Magazines and newspapers have lauded them
for their “mariachi-influenced blues, whiskey-
soaked country rags and punkabilly-style
rave-ups” (The Washington Post) and noted
that they’re “drawing deep from a dirty well
where Tom Waits, Nick Cave and Dick Dale are
enjoying a burlesque all-nighter with Ennio
Morricone" (Classic Rock). They became one of
the few bands that could appear on Clive
Anderson’s Loose Ends on BBC Radio 4 and
Britain’s biggest heavy metal festival Download
in the same year and win at both.
In 2014, when Paul-Ronney named their third
album Love, Drink & Death! he had no idea
what the year had in store. In October, fiddle-
player Rob Skipper died of an accidental heroin
overdose, aged just 28. Guitarist Nick Marsh
(formerly frontman of Flesh For Lulu) fought
throat cancer throughout that year. He died in
June 2015, aged 53. The Voodoo Machine
transformed themselves into a New Orleans-
style marching band for his funeral. The Urban
Voodoo Machine Marching Band also played
the Classic Rock Awards that year - the only
band to do so without electricity.
And that brings us to new album Hellhound
Hymns. Marsh plays on eight of its 13 songs.
(Angel: "He was really putting the hours in when
he knew the cancer had come back. He was
like, 'Right, these might be my last recordings
with this band, so let's roll the tape and make it
a good one!") To borrow one of the song titles,
it’s all mixed-up. It’s part wake, part protest, part
valediction – a party at the gates of hell –
because the greatest tribute you can pay the
dead is to live life to the full: “We will sing and
we will dance/We will drink and we will
laugh/We will not forget the past and our fallen
brothers…”
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gypsy music without losing the spirit and attitude
of punk."
His lyrics – part Lemmy, part Bob
Dylan – made other, more acclaimed
songwriters sound totally. Fucking. Boring.
"We're not Americana and were definitely not
'retro',"
says Angel.
"I write songs about living in
London right now. Although having a shit time,
no money, heartbreak, mental illness, addiction
and suppression from the big guy is kinda
universal and timeless, I guess…"
“Yeah-yeah,” you’re thinking, “but can they cut
it live?” Well, there’s a reason why they’ve
played Glastonbury, Download, Latitude,
Bestival, Hard Rock Calling and toured with The
Pogues and New York Dolls. With an act honed
alongside the burlesque dancers, snake-
charmers and fire-eaters they call friends, The
UVM have become one of the greatest acts in
the country – terrifyingly bizarre, hysterically
funny; a riot for the eyes and sensation for the
ears: a sing-a-long, drink-a-long affair.
