MY TOP TEN - JOHN HOEY (ANGRY ITCH)

John Hoey

Angry Itch - guitarist and vocals.

Ok so Chris has asked me to blog about my top ten favourite albums about how it's influenced me as I've grown up, these are just my personal choices, so take it or leave it....here goes, in no particular order.....
 

Green Day – Kerplunk

First Green Day album I ever bought, Straight upstairs to my brothers stereo to record it onto cassette and fell in love, dancing round the bedroom playing air guitar and drums wanting to be my new hero, Billie Joe Armstrong, boy could he play at pace, I had no idea what I was letting myself in for…..the start of my journey into punk rock

Personal Favourite tracks - ‘2,000 light years away’, ‘80’ and of course ‘Welcome to Paradise’
 

 

Rancid – And Out Come The Wolves

Now there are some albums when you can remember exactly where you were at the time of buying, this is one of them. I bought it after seeing the video to ‘Ruby Soho’ on MTV2 and loved the hair and the song was so god-damn catchy it was unbelievable and I sang it all the way to the Virgin Mega-store in Sutton Coldfield, I paid £17.99 for the album which was expensive then, the first time I bought a Rancid album, one of the best buys ever and one of my most cherished albums

Personal Favourites – ‘Roots Radical’, ‘Timebomb’, ‘Listed M.I.A’
 

 

Blink182 – Enema of the State

When I first heard Blink182, I wasn’t very impressed, I thought ‘man this guy can’t sing and talks about wanting to hump dogs’ well, my mate Samm got his mom to buy the album when she was in America, they were the ‘new big thing’ and he always had a knack of picking up these new bands like Blink, screeching weasel, Mxpx, Nofx etc…. then saying to me and Ric (Bassist in Angry Itch) check these guys out! So we went to watch them play at the Wulfrun Hall in Wolverhampton, we paid £8 for a ticket and got dropped off outside the venue, the following week they released ‘All The Small Things’ and everyone kept sayng ‘you heard of these?’

Highlights – ‘Aliens Exist’, ‘All The Small Things’, ‘Mutt’
 

 

Oasis – Whats the story (morning glory)

Put simply, Noel Gallagher made me want to play guitar, I thought he was so cool, it was before I got into Green Day & punk music generally so circa 1994/95. I’d listen to ‘wonderwall’ and ‘don’t look back in anger’ all the time, they were my first ‘musical’ love but then my music developed harder and quicker into power chords of punkrock and I never looked back, still a cracking album tho!

Personal Favourites  – ‘Hello’, ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, ‘Wonderwall’
 

 

NoFX – So Long and Thanks For All The Shoes

We all know, Fat Mike can’t sing, but a band with so much energy and enthusiasm, they were the first band I knew that did it DIY and I love them for that, they helped educate me on punk rock, like that you can ‘make it’ with hard work and effort. ‘Its my job to keep punk rock elite’ is just a tune! The feedback from the guitar intro still gives me a tingle down the spine and the ‘secret track’ of ‘drugs are good’ from the howard stern showed that it was ok to take the mickey out of yourself and just have fun

Personal Favourites – ‘Its My Job To Keep Punk Rock Elite’, ‘Murder The Government’, ‘All Outta Angst’
 

 

Offspring – SMASH

The first Offspring track I ever remember listening to was ‘bad habit’, I was 12 years old and I thought it was so ‘cool’ to sing the middle ‘you stupid dumb s ………………………Man what a track, one of the first records I remember on MTV (when MTV actually played music videos)

Personal Favourites – ‘Bad Habit’, ‘Gotta get away’, ‘Self-Esteem
 

Drongos for Europe – Barcode Generation

‘THE’ first Birmingham punk band I ever saw, I hadn’t even watched them live when (playing in an old band about 10 yr ago) I’d asked Tommy if they fancied doing a charity gig in Brum which we’d organised, the Drongos kindly agreed and I was soooo looking forward to watching them. The first song I ever heard was ‘who the f*ck are you?’ during the soundcheck, WOW! Never heard anything like it, raw, passion, anger and catchy as hell.

Personal Favourites - ‘Spirit Bomb’, ‘Freakazoid’ and ‘Mayday’
 

 

Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American (or now – self titled)

I remember picking up a free CD with Kerrang magazine and it had a song off this album called ‘A Praise Chorus’, loved it, bought the album (it was then called ‘Bleed American’, they changed it because of 9/11) but it showed me different dimensions to music, dynamics, new guitar pedal effects like delays etc. Just a fantastic album to listen to especially when you want to chill out

Personal Favourites – ‘Salt, Sweat, Sugar’, ‘A Praise Chorus’, ‘Cautioners’
 

 

Slipknot – The Subliminal Verses Vol.3

I went to Leeds Festival in the early 2000’s (a day ticket to see NoFX and The Prodigy was the main reasons) they came on and played ‘People = Sh!t’ now, I was never a metal fan but what a great live band these are, the hair on the back of my neck  and introduced me to a lot heavier music and helped me become more open minded about metal

Personal Favourites – ‘Duality’, ‘Pulse of the Maggots’, ‘The Blister Exists’
 

 

The Distillers – Coral Fang
 

I’ve included this because I’m in love with Brody Dalle and have been since their first album, she looks ace, the songs are great and boy can she belt out a snarl or two. I just love the whole attitude of the album, its very brooding

Personal Favourites – ‘Drain the Blood’, ‘Die on a Rope’, ‘Coral Fang’