TEENAGE KICKS

Symposium have been labelled as the band who are recreating the punk spirit of the 70s in Britain, with their explosive brand of punk, pop and hard-core lending itself easily to trashed venues and over-exuberance of a distinctly teenage nature.
Symposium have been together since 1994, having met in the school choir. We went to a Catholic school and we all met in the Schola Cantorum, which is Latin for the singing school, explains Wojtek Godzisz (21) bass player, and the oldest in the band by two years. The rest were altos and I was a tenor.
Starting out as a covers band, blasting out tracks by the likes of Rage Against The Machine and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, they soon graduated to playing their own material, penned by the band s main songwriter, Wojtek.
In fact, Wojtek once mentioned in an interview, something about being photographed in Chili Pepperesque socks on cocks pose in Ireland. What was all that about?
I used to be in another band with three other guys, and we did that photo in the Comeragh Mountains cos the Chili Peppers were great heroes of ours, he explains. We didn t think there was anyone around for miles, but at the end we noticed there was a car-park nearby and people were wandering by, who saw us.
Symposium ended up sharing a stage with their heroes during the summer, when they supported Flea & Co in Wembley Arena. In fact, in their relatively short existence, Symposium have already garnered quite a live reputation, and are infamous for accident-prone gigs.
Our singer, Ross (Cummins, 19) is a bit of a wild one, a loose cannon who tends to go off sometimes, offers Wojtek. Before we got our manager, we always used to get drunk before we played, which probably didn t help. We play every gig sober now, but there s still a lot of energy and action taking place on the stage. People get carried away with the spirit of it.
Their fan-base have also gained notoriety for wrecking venues when they play, resulting in the band being banned from four London venues.
William McGonnagle (19), guitarist, explains: A lot of the people who came to see us originally were our school friends, he admits. So they would support us vigorously, and show their support by breaking things. Most of our gigs over the last year have been too small for the size of the band, and it s been really packed. So things just go off, but it s not our fault.
At a recent headliner at Dublin Castle in Camden, a few lights were smashed and the linoleum floor was torn up, recalls Wojtek. Ross got a big piece of glass in his foot and was on crutches for about a week afterwards.
Another gig, this time at the famous 100 Club in Oxford Street, saw the crowd going wild, ripping down photographs of the many jazz legends who have graced the boards of the illustrious venue. We don t encourage it, insists Wojtek. We tell them to stop but they just carry on anyway. Anything which can be pulled down, usually is.
Their incendiary live performances soon led to a record company feeding frenzy, with all and sundry trying to make the rebel-rousers sign on the dotted line. They weren t interested in joining the corporate circus, however, and reports have been circulating of them turning down a #1 million advance from a certain major.
Going into a major company, instead of a person who likes your music talking to you about your sound, can be like going to your bank manager: a guy in a suit, behind a desk, talking about figures and things, explains Wojtek. It can be a bit boring, and we don t want to be stuck with people like that.
The end result is that Symposium are now signed to Infectious, the label responsible for the teenage genius that is Ash. That was the label that gave us the least advance, says Wojtek, but they knew exactly where we were coming from, and they gave us a really exceptional deal.
We re not stupid, explains William. People say, You ve turned down all this money , but we ve got a lot of self-confidence. If we do well, we ll make more money than anyone else, really.
Thematically, Symposium s songs tend to be about subjects very close to their heart: girls, beer and school, to name but three. We write about things we experience, agrees Wojtek, and that is what we will continue to. As our interests change, we will write about other things that become more relevant to us. But at the moment, that is all we know, and all the kids who come to see the shows know.
Symposium s debut single, Drink The Sunshine has been received very favourably, chalking up an NME Single Of The Week, and resulting in their being hailed as the latest next big thing .
At last, people are beginning to recognise us, which is really good, enthuses Wojtek, because we spent most of 94 and 95 playing to no-one. Our record company boss hates the term next big thing , but I like it. I think we can live up to it. n
Drink The Sunshine is out now on Infectious Records, and you can catch Symposium in Dublin in early January as part of the NME Brad Bus Tour.