Nick Kemp in conversation with:
Alan Wilson, Steve De’Ath, Clive Perchard and Joe Mason

Could you tell me the name of your band?

CP The name of the band is the Coal Dust Cowboys

AW Where I live and where my studio is based, it used to all be coal mining. So after much debate we landed on the coal dust cowboys .

SD Like Alan said we bounced a few names about but that was the one that we all liked, it seemed to fit nicely with the setting and the studio.

JM The Coal Dust Cowboys was definitely the best of the bunch although ‘a shark and three swans’ was fantastic haha.

And who is in the band?

SD A shark and three swans haha.

AW It’s basically a collaboration of me and three members of Stage Frite,who are the nicest people I’m sure you know, plus a few mates guesting here and there. This is a project we have talked about for a few years and finally made it happen 

CP Three mad fools from the east and one from the west

JM Alan Wilson, Clive Perchard, Steve De’Ath and myself. As Alan said it has been talked about for a while, firstly when we recorded Revenge Of The Killer Coypu back in 2020

And how does the band differ from Stage Frite?

AW Not a swan in sight!

JM For a start you have Alan Wilson in the band plus special guests that have co written tracks and are also performing on the album. It’s a real collaborative project 

CP It’s a far more eclectic mix, rockabilly meets Psychobilly meets folk punk

SD A lot of Stage Frite tracks had a hard punk/metal edge to them where these are much more old school Psychobilly/rockin sounding and as Alan said not a swan or any water fowl for that matter in sight 

Could you describe the sound of the new band?

JM Less of the swanabilly, more of that 80’s Psychobilly 

SD Definitely a more rockin/psycho feel to it, Clive plays double bass on all the tracks and it transports you right back to the 80’s. The whole week was laughing and reminiscing and the fun we had I think comes through in the songs

AW All of us have a shared love for that old Psychobilly stuff from the early 1980’s. So we are just reliving that era a bit and very nostalgic it is too. The week long session was full of talk about Johnny Pug, Chuck Harvey, Gary Day and all the people we love from them days

CP Far less heavy than Stage Frite on most tracks

Who are your influences? 

AW Personally for me on this particular project I’d say the Clapham South Escalators, Frantic Flintstones and early Sharks(naturally)

SD There is definitely a big Sharks influence as there would be and I’m sure people will find others bands from that time that they can relate to. It’s a pretty mixed bag so hopefully something for everyone 

CP As the others have said definitely the Sharks but mostly from good people we have had around us

JM Personally I’m influenced by the other three band members. Psychobilly guitar wise I look up to Alan and also Nodger(where are you?)and Pug.

Have you been gigging?

AW Erm…no. We only wrote these songs a few months ago. Our mission was really just to successfully record them 

CP No but then we did only properly form in November 2025 haha

SD Haha no we haven’t had any gigs as although this has been a while in the making the whole process has been a long distance back and forth of demo’s,hoping and praying it all comes together in the studio(which it did)

JM No gigs, just us three in Norfolk working on our stuff and what Alan has sent over. It’s been so much fun working on these Wilson demo’s and then sending them back with us three playing them

I gather you have just recorded an album at Western Star,could you tell me about the record? 

AW The album title is ‘Beneath The Old Slag Heap’.This is a lyric from a song on the album and it’s factual too as Western Star is situated on the site of an old coal mine. I’m in the shadow of the old slag heap

SD It’s pretty much a combination of songs we both had kicking about. We would send some to Alan and likewise him to us, then in the studio we would go through them and come up with the finished article. I think we would all agree they came together very nicely 

CP As has been mentioned already it’s a project with the four of us with some input by some of our good friends on the rockin scene. It was as always a great week putting it all together 

JM Indeed, it’s like our home from home. Funnily the south west feels a bit like Norfolk in a way. As much as there are songs about true events, there is also plenty of silliness and IN jokes too

What does the future hold for the band, have you any gigs lined up?

AW Like Johnny Rotten sang… ‘no future’.

SD Don’t listen to Alan, we have British, European and world stadium tours lined up already haha. No, unfortunately, with the distance between us and work commitments it would make gigs pretty hard, but if the album goes down well it might be nice to do a second 

CP No gigs lined up but who knows what’s in the future, definitely a second album would be good

JM Not sure about gigs but would definitely love to do a follow up album 

What are your impressions about the current state of psychobilly? 

CP Not sure but the scene seems to be struggling a little at the moment, possibly due to world economy and a lack of young blood, after all none of us are getting any younger 

AW Well we all know it’s not what it once was…But I was at a psychobilly gig in Bristol a few weeks ago put on by Justin Wood and it was quite well attended.I didn’t know many of the bands though. The genre is evolving and I guess it has to to survive. But The Coal Dust Cowboys aren’t interested in survival. We just set our watches to 1981 for a week and pretended we were kids again

SD I’m not sure really, some gigs are well attended others not so. There mostly seems to be a good friendly vibe at them and there are certainly a few good young bands about to hopefully keep it going as us oldies finally run out of steam haha.

JM Seems fine to me. I was born a year before the end of the Klub Foot, so I’m probably the least qualified to comment haha.

Nick Kemp