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If you want a blog that’s all about music, this isn’t the place for you. Sure, I want to share the music I enjoy with a wider audience, but that’s just a pretext for me to learn about the people who make that music (and ask them about things like punctuation and politics.)
Who are The Hussy’s (and why is your name written with an apostrophe?)
Fili – vocals
James – backing vocals / guitar
Steph – bass
Ronnie – guitar
Gordo – drums
Greg – keys / backing vocals
The apostrophe thing… We are all controlled by The Hussy from her oversized armchair in the drawing room of her large castle by the shores of a small Loch somewhere in the North of Scotland.
Why do you create?
Cause it’s fun!
You invest real artistry in your MySpace blog. One line that I particularly enjoyed:
I couldn’t quite get the leaves under their (the rest of the band) door. Gordy made a little pagan circle of salad leaves, giggling uncontrollably. He then knocked the door, and ran off, leaving me holding the salad bag.
In addition to music and writing, how else do you express your creativity?
James is responsible for the blog, it’s a good way of documenting the band’s career. We all express our creativity in different ways, some with humour, how we dress & how we perform on & off stage. The different personalities of the band come through in various ways.
You are based in Glasgow, Scotland, where Islamic extremists recently crashed a fuel-laden SUV through the front doors of the Glasgow International Airport. How would you describe the zeitgeist in your hometown?
I received a poem via email recently that kinda sums up the attitude around these parts. It’s an Ode to John Smeaton, he was the airport worker who was first on the scene and confronted the terrorists. You have to read it with a Glasgow accent & I hope the author (whoever he / she is) doesn’t mind me reproducing it here:-
Ode to John Smeaton
Twas doon by the inch o’ Abbots
Oor Johnny walked one day
When he saw a sicht that troubled him
Far more that he could say
A fanatic muslim bastard
Wiz doin what he’d planned
And intae Glesga’s departure hall
A Cherokee he’d rammed.A big Glaswegian polis
Came forward tae assist
He thocht “a wumman driver”
Or at least someone half-pissed
But to his shock nae drunken Jock
Emerged to grasp his hand
But a flamin Arab loony
Frae Al Qaeda’s bandThe mad Islamist nut-case
Had set hissel’ on fire
And swung oot at the polis
GBH his clear desire
Now that’s no richt wur Johnny cried
And sallied tae the fray
A left hook and a heid butt
Required tae save the day.Now listen up Bin Laden
Yir sort’s nae wanted here
For imported English radicals
Us Scoatsman huv nae fear
Oor hame grown Glesga Asians
Will have nae bluidy truck
So tak yer worldwide jihad
An get yersel tae F***.
The chorus of your song is, “We expected great things from you, but you let us down.” That’s a sentiment I sometimes direct at myself, and I think it’s a common one for young adults today. What motivated you to write a verse like that?
James wrote the song, here’s his take on it:
This song lyrically is about broken promises and being left behind. The girl in the song is still working in a petrol station while her ex boyfriend has moved on to Cambridge University and he now ignores her. She sees his ghost when she is shutting the pumps at night. The song uses the expression Michelmas which is the old expression for one of the seasons at University- and part of the dig of the song is that the girl is just as clever as the guy but she’s not ambitious.
Originally James had a demo of the song and it sounded very punk- like The Cars/ Ramones. When we got into the studio Gordy started doing his Stewart Copeland (Police drummer) impersonation and we went with the kind of reggae verses. The song sounded powerful with very little overdubs and it suited Fili’s voice perfectly. It has a good spur of the moment feel. The sound of the guitar is an Ibanez destroyer through a Fender Twin amplifier- really works.
We have a mini-album released in Japan on Quince Records on 1st August & a new 4-track EP will be released on Weekender Records in the UK on 24 September. Plenty gigs coming up too, check out myspace.com/thehussys for the latest.
Thanks to The Hussy’s for sharing We Expected here on Required Listening. You can purchase music by The Hussy’s on 
2 Comments
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Support Barack Obama
Uuuuhhh. Huh. Greg is a friend of mine : )
Small world.
Hi there.
Ode to John Smeaton was written by
Stuart McGuinness. Like everyone else, I received the ode by email. He went on to my site and left a message. He said he took it from The Seven Men of Knoydart. I googled it and sure enough, there it wss. The tune they used to the original was a variant of
Johnson’s Motor Car - although not the one I’m familiar with. I gave it the tune - The Foggy Dew. I love the Ode!!
slainte