SPOTLIGHT ON. . . THE STRIKES

The band Jep – lead vocals BSD – bass and vocals Dom – guitar/keyboards and vocals Tom – guitar and vocals Rick – drums

Music genre(s) Mod, ska, indie, punk, rock (covers)

A quick one with Jep How long have The Strikes been going? “About six years now, I was in another band for years before. There’s five of us, I’m the vocalist and frontman and do like to give a real performance. For example one of the first times The Strikes played it was in Halifax for Yorkshire Scooter Alliance, during the first song I climbed up on top of the speaker stacks!"

How do The Strikes decide on what songs to perform live? “It’s a really mixed bag, we tailor what we play to suit each gig, with a few surprises thrown in too. We’ve got a repertoire of 70 to 80 songs we can do, and do well. The Strikes have a reputation for performing with energy and building an electric atmosphere every time we gig. We get a lot of bookings for scooterist inclined events, including National rallies, plenty of Mod, ska, indie and punk favourites, all given The Strikes treatment. We even sometimes put in our version of Ace of Spades, and the odd Darkness song, Kasabian, and even The Monkees among other more rock type of numbers.”

What have been the highlights for The Strikes so far? “I could say the bigger the gig the bigger the buzz, but I won’t, they’re all good, we have a great time every time we play live. As a scooterist for many many years, playing a National Rally is always special. We’ve done Cleggy three or four times, Skeggy too, Bridlington last year, there was a write up about it in December (2016) Scootering, with a brilliant picture of The Strikes on stage with me caught in mid-air. That was a real highlight for me.” Sarge