Bristol punk rock - Kiss me, Killer

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Kiss Me, Killer interview with The B-Side Talks at Rebellion Festival

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The band was interviewed by The B-side Talks’ IX Mendoza at Rebellion Festival 2019—and it was pretty funny.

Punk rock guitarist
David rocking his sunburst Strat-type guitar.

IX had been spending some time in the UK shooting footage and conducting interviews for his popular YouTube Channel, The B-Side Talks. He was keen to check out some of the interesting and emerging punk rock acts at the festival and bumped into singer Cat who said, ‘Yes, we’ll do an interview’.

Cat on the Pavilion Stage, Rebellion Festival 2019

It was our first on-camera interview and went well, although you could probably create a ‘cringe reel’ of some of the nonsense I came out with. AJ gave an assured media-savvy performance though, while Cat and Nat gave a good account of the lively Bristol punk scene.

IX also took some striking stage shots of the band during our set on Rebellion’s Pavilion Stage.

Anyway, check out the full interview here:

Rebellion 2019: Kiss Me, Killer hit Pavilion Stage

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The band played Rebellion Punk Festival, Blackpool for the second year running on 2 August. After a wild performance on the Introducing stage in 2018 we were invited to play a bigger space this time around.

Of course, it was a different KMK lineup this year with Cat on lead vocals after the departure of Holly and we had a bunch of all-new tunes to unlashed on the Rebellion crowd on the Pavilion stage. The Pavilion’s a great place to play, situated behind corridors teeming with stall of punk rock merchandise and near the main entrance. It’s a bit of a hub so if a band on the Pavilion stage and pull in a few random punters passing by.

The Rebellion back stage crew were first class and after brilliant Irish rockers Audible Joes left the stage after a storming set, Kiss Me, Killer were up and running in now time at all. Nerves must’ve got to us a little as I completely forgot the intro to Trash, started again, and then it was all good.

AJ Drumming at Rebellion
AJ Drumming at Rebellion

We have a pretty different sound to many bands on the punk rock circuit, with bits of straight up ’77 punk, stateside and LA Punk, b-movie soundtracks, psychobilly, spy guitar, psychedelia, the odd bit of metal riffge, so I always wonder how we’ll go down if people were hoping for a spot of street punk or hardcore. But the audience seemed to lap us up.

There were a few blunders on second song Gentrification but we still got it across and then motored through the rest of the set with growing intensity. Even throwing in our old Nuns cover, Do You Want Me on My Knees too close.

Cat on the Pavilion Stage, Rebellion 2019, Blackpool Winter Gardens

Our merch table was thronged by the time we got round there with a ‘clearance deal’ on our previous batches of tees saw use take nearly £100. If we’d had a new CD, or even vinyl, to sell we’d have flogged a fair few units and made a bunch of new fans, including two guys from France.

We had more time this year to check out some of the other bands. We enjoyed watching fellow South West outfit The Blunders tearing up the Arena stage and Bristol’s Martyrials making their debut on the Introducing stage. And, yes, we were there to see our drummer AJ’s other band, The Menstrual Cramps, tearing it up on the Pavilion Stage, which saw singer Emilia tear into nazi bands after cider was thrown after someone threw cider at guitarist Cooper.

We met a guy from Arizona called IX, who has an online channel called B-side Talk and was keen to interview us. That was a fun experience! We’ll post a link when we have it.

All told it was a great experience and we really feel like pushing on and making Kiss Me, Killer 2.0 turn a few more heads.

Kiss Me, Killer return to The Chelsea Inn

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Kiss Me, Killer returned the The Chelsea Inn, Easton on Easter Monday as part of a stellar lineup from the length and breadth of the UK hosted by Fishlock Promotions.

The half-dayer kicked off around 5pm with local punk folkers Invincible Pigs serving up a mix of politics and jigs.

We were up second with daylight still pouring through the Chelsea’s windows but fortunately people poured into the bar from outside and we welcomed a large and enthusiastic crowd.

I (David) felt a bit all over the place fluffing solos left right and centre on the early songs but luckily the rest of the band were on point, underpinned by the rock-solid beats of AJ (sporting flaming orange hair and channeling Animal) and Nat’s propulsive basslines. Holly’s crowd interaction gets better and better and you could tell the audience really warmed to her. Cat’s vocals too were sounding perfect and this time her Telecaster was plugged into my big Orange amp giving it a new beefiness – you’d never have guessed she’d flown back from Switzerland that afternoon. Commitment!

Photography from KMK’s set by Cheri:

By the last few songs I felt warmed up and the uptempo psychedelia of Snooker really came across, my Gordon Smith GS2 guitar howling away nicely, while From the Inside seemed to posses all the punch it needs. Cat’s always well-recieved song, Och Aye!, meanwhile, was imbued with a fresh level of meaning — I shall say no more.

Our friend Ina kindly held our Zoom digital recorder during the set. Here’s a quick clip of Snooker:

There was a huge amount of love from a varied Chelsea crowd. We befriended a Swiss tourist, a punk fan for 40+ years, who had wisely strayed off the beaten track of Cathedrals and ‘Spenshun Bridges to seek out proper DIY punk rock in the backstreets of BS5. The only disappointment for him was that we didn’t have any Kiss Me, Killer records to sell him (on vinyl!), although I helpfully suggested a few options around Bristol where he could go crate-digging for rare material.

We seemed to get rid of some stickers and bin badges on the merch table and the Chelsea manager Sali purchased one of our tees.

We all stayed to the end to see the rest of the acts including acoustic punk including The Tragically Mystery tour, who offered thoughtful songs on various philosophical and political matters, some storming punk rock from Derry’s Last Avenue, frenetic Yorkshire garage from Nosebleed who used the entire Chelsea to good effect, Edinburgh’s Billy Liar played some acoustic tunes, and raging Scottish pop punks The Murderburgers wrapped things up with a storming set.

Images by David:

St Punk Rock’s Day, Stag and Hounds

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17 March (St Patrick’s Day) saw Kiss Me, Killer make their Stag and Hounds debut. The gig, dubbed ‘St Punk’s Day’, saw the band playing their gnarly primal sounds alongside local pop punk exponents Lesser Known Character and Running From Zombies.

Punters who had escaped hoards of plastic Paddies in the town centre were treated to a cracking show. Lesser Known Character really tore it up with the band’s guitarist Nick wasting no time in customising his axe with a KMK sticker.

Our song Radical Notions seemed to get ’em going, as did Cat’s celtic-flavoured stomper Ock Aye!, which was making its live debut. Do You Want Me on Your Knees?, the only cover in the set just now, sounded really massive.

Sadly, due to the usual financial bollocks, the legendary Stag and Hounds, Old Market will be closing under its current management at the end of May. So our debut’s also our last show there. Perhaps the Stag will continue as a live music venue but much more likely some sort of gentrified hipster hangout will be its fate.

Cheri, a top local embroidery artist and honorary band member, was on hand to document the show with some winning photos. Cheri also captured us bashing out Do you want me on my knees? on her phone.

If you missed it, don’t worry, there are more gigs coming up. Like us on Facebook for the latest.

KMK’s Holly takes the stage at Bristol’s O2

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Kiss Me, Killer’s lead vocalist Holly surprised crowds at Bristol’s O2 venue when she got onstage with Masked Intruder (who?–David).

When the band started looking for someone in the audience to join them to sing along with one of their popular tunes, Holly’s mates all pointed at her shrieking: ‘She’s in a band! She’s a singer in a band!’

Masked Intruder Bristol

Like the champ she is Holly rose to the occasion, got waved through by the security heavies, and grabbed the microphone like a star:

“I was abolsutely… absolutely blown away!’ said Hols. “Loved being on a big stage, albeit it improvised, nerve racking and I froze for a whole verse (tit 🙄).”

Bristol’s O2 venue is known for hosting some of the bigger touring acts and for the muffled, dismal sound that makes you feel like you’re listening to the band from the next room.