So You Wanna Be In My Gang....

"WE DIDN'T think you'd recognise us with our clothes on!" (Thanks lads, there goes my opening line - C. O'H). When it comes to blatant self-promotion, Dublin 5-piece, The Ride Or Die Gang must surely deserve the award for the most bare-faced, daring and risqué campaign of 1993.

Bringing a whole new meaning to hackneyed marketing expressions like "maximum exposure" and "promotional tool", their full page, full frontal ad currently running in this very organ (sorry!) certainly gives Benetton a run for their money, and might even give the RSPCA some cause for concern.

So what possessed a seemingly normal, well-adjusted bunch of rock and roll renegades to pose, buck-naked, strung up like freshly slaughtered carcasses, displaying their wedding tackle for all and sundry to behold?

"It's basically an attention-grabbing tactic like all promotional" gimmicks," explains Jim Meade, the group's guitarist, with nary a hint of shame in his voice. "We decided to do something a little bit more radical than the usual thing, you know, five blokes standing around in their best rock and roll gear trying to look dangerous. That particular image has been done to death and we were just fed up with it".

"The idea originally came from our bass player," adds vocalist Rory O'Connor. "We were sitting around one day, bemoaning the fact that we couldn't get any press attention and Liam said out of pure frustration `what do we have to do to get noticed in this town? Jaysus you'd have to swing by your bollocks from the fucking roof to get any reaction around here'. So we did! And that was that. And it looks like it's working so far. Promoters seem to like it, though we've had a few complaints - my mother is running out of paper bags to put over her head when she goes out, she's so mortified!

"We've also noticed people in pubs looking at us like this (turns head upside down)" adds Jim, "And there have been reports of people reading Hot Press the wrong way around on the DART! But the only person we'd really have to worry about would be someone like Larry Goodman - for bringing the meat industry into even more disrepute! (laughs).

The band are adamant that this campaign is not a one-off ploy to grab a bit of short term publicity.

"We hope to run the ads until the end of this year" says Jim, "And by then we should be able to pick up the phone, and talk to anyone in the music business in Ireland and they should know exactly who we are. Whether they'll want to have anything to do with us, is of course, another matter!"

Shock tactics

The photo itself was done in Temple Lane rehearsal studios and the band are proud of the fact that they didn't use any trick photography. "We do all our own stunts," laughs Rory, "though we had difficulty finding something to swing out of that would hold the weight of the whole band. There was this big steel girder running across the room in Temple Lane and it was ideal. It was taken on a freezing cold day in January as some of the more astute readers may have noticed!" (Hah! Some excuse! - Sam Snort)

Well, that's the image taken care of. What about the music? The Ride Or Die Gang are unequivocal in their basic, er ballsy approach to their chosen craft.

"We play rock music, nothing more nothing less," says Jim. "The kind of music you like to listen to while driving into work in the morning. Driving Rock and Roll - that's us.

"We're itching to get out of Dublin and do more gigs around the country" he continues , "Because they're far less fashion conscious down there and let's be honest the music we're doing is very unfashionable. We're not into grunge or thrash or metal, just straightforward rock. Some times we actually feel like we're doing underground music it's so untrendy, like jazz musicians in the fifties."

The irony of such a down-home rock band going to such extreme, if amusing, measures as posing stark naked to grab a few column inches is not lost on the band.

"Lets face it," laughs Jim. "If there was one band in the whole wide world that you wouldn't want to see in the nude, it's got to be the Ride Or Die Gang! We always knew we weren't pretty enough to be smiling at the little girls from the cover of Smash Hits magazine."

The band are no strangers to controversy. Earlier this year their single 'God Is Mad' was released in conjunction with UNICEF to raise cash for their Somalia fund. For some strange reason the single didn't exactly saturate the airwaves of the nation - a situation which baffles the band. "Unfortunately "God Is Mad" was duly ignored by radio, despite promises that there was no problem with the title of the song," says Rory. "We even supplied them with copies of the lyrics. We weren't trying to offend anybody - just to make a point. We were really saying that God created the world and then stupidly created humans to look after it - I mean he must have been a bit mad to make a mistake like that!".

They've now released a four-track EP which showcases their acoustic talents as well as featuring the more familiar harder-edged approach. Not limiting themselves solely to promotional shock tactics, they've also put together a video documentary, shot in the Rock Garden and featuring a couple of their songs intertwined with an interview.

"It's basically a ten minute promo of what we're about and we've sent it to record companies and promoters to give them some sort of idea of the band," says Jim. "though we're really more interested in the publishing end of things because of the emphasis on songwriting in the band. We're in no hurry to sign the dotted line and to be just another dropped Dublin band in six months time. We're prepared to take our time."

"Actually," he concludes, "Our main ambition at the moment is to get a slot on Live At Three, I really want to meet Thelma Mansfield!"