Rafferty's Rules

An Interview with Rafferty's Rules

They’ve played at the famous Cavern in Liverpool, tackled Fight for the Night at 53 Degrees, Preston and are beginning to get quite a loyal fan base. Rafferty’s Rules may just be the next up and coming band exploding out of the Lancashire new music scene.

The five-piece band consisting of, Amie Dolan (vocals), Will Thompson (guitar), Leigh Harrison (guitar), Matt Weston (bass) and Mark Penman (drums) formed around 18 months ago when they all met at University of Central Lancashire.

The band began from a jamming session between Leigh and Will in the pub. A random night out found them drummer Mark and a bassist was found in Matt, a friend of Leigh’s. A few months in with no singer, Matt asked fellow flat mate Amie to do vocals and then they were Rafferty’s Rules.

When asked on the origin of their name, ‘Rafferty’s Rules’ the reply was, ‘we found it really hard to come up with a name so this one came straight out of the dictionary. Rafferty's Rules means, no rules/no holds barred.’

All their individual influences have made up their no rules/no holds barred name. With Will liking Aerosmith, Leigh with his blues rock, Amie admiring Tom Waits, Mark a big Modest Mouse fan and Matt, Rage Against the Machine for their political views couldn’t allow them to get much different. They show that they’re not afraid to mix it up.

With their influences producing a Funk rock, blues edge with injections of dance and indie, just shows how they don’t conform to one genre or style.

Bassist Matt says: ‘I guess not following what is in the charts and us writing the music that we feel comfortable doing and enjoy is what we feel makes us unique to the other bands out at the minute.’

The band has played many great venues, especially over the past year. Their biggest yet was at the Cavern in Liverpool, famous for The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks and many more. Their most recent gig was on home soil in Preston when they battled against other bands in, Hyper-Wire’s, Fight for the Night where many critics have said, although they did not win Rafferty’s Rules were the true winners, as they showed the most talent.

The best memories however, seem to come from gigs in Amie’s hometown of Warrington. Matt explains: ‘when we do the gigs in Warrington we always spend the whole night out drinking and partying before crashing out in Amie’s mums living room.’

But most of all Rafferty’s Rules say: ‘we love having this experience, it’s not something we will get every day so we are taking it as it comes because we are doing something we love.’

Their university years are coming to an end, so what is left in store for the Preston formed band?

‘We are certain that the end of our uni life is only going to make us stronger as a band and bigger on the music front.’ With a demo already produced that will hopefully be flying into local shops very soon and more recording on the way this may just be true.

By the time October hits they are hoping nothing will be able to stop them!

www.myspace.com/raffertysrules

www.cavernclub.org

www.53degrees.net/

http://www.hyper-wire.com/index.php