DISNEY SONGS ARE A HIT FOR PUNK ROCKERS
THEY’RE the punk rock group who’ve clocked up more than five million likes on TikTok after deciding to do their own distinctive versions of Disney hits. Unsigned four-piece Punk Rock Factory first formed in 2014 and spent years “just messing about, gigging and putting videos of their music up on YouTube”.
But then Covid kicked in and brought the global music scene to a standstill along with virtually everything else. However the Cwmbran-based band realised they now had a captive audience in all those people who where stuck at home thanks to the coronavirus restrictions.
So they asked their fans what they wanted to hear and the result spawned a series of high-octane takes on such family favourites as Beauty and The Beast, Let It Go from the film Frozen, and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins after which they suddenly found themselves social media superstars.
“Things just went mad, we couldn’t believe it,” said lead singer Peter Edwards, 37, who goes by the name Peej.
“We uploaded a version of Just Can’t Wait To Be King from The Lion King and it got like a million views in 24 hours.
“I ended up thinking: ‘We could be onto something here’. So we recorded a whole album of Disney stuff remotely during lockdown called A Whole New Wurst – ‘wurst’ as in the traditional German sausage.”
Featuring the likes of Jarret from US band Bowling For Soup, the album was later finished after restrictions eased.
“We did it in the purpose-built studio our drummer Kob set up in his back garden,” said Peej, adding that a second Disney album and one made up of popular TV themes would follow.
“The TV one was full of the stuff we used to watch growing up like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Thundercats etc. Most recently though we asked our fans what else they wanted to hear and the response was unanimous – Broadway show tunes.”
He added that an album called It’s Just A Stage We’re Going Through came out this month.
“On it we’ve tackled Hamilton, The Greatest Showman, Jersey Boys, Les Miserables and Wicked. There’s also a few tracks from screen musicals such as Grease and Sister Act. In addition we’ve just completed a sold-out UK tour and have another one planned for October.
“It’s all gone so well we’ve been able to give up the office day jobs and concentrate on making music 100%, which is something we never thought would happen. It’s crazy how many people seem to like our stuff. And I’m really glad that they do.”