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14 september 2001
Rock and Roll.

A special treat for Gareth's fans now.

Many fans have written and asked about Gareth and Trond's band - so webmaster Marc Jones sat down with Gareth and asked him about his attempts to tear up the top 40 as much as he does the pitch...

Gareth, most footballers are known to have pretty dire taste in music, most name check either Phil Collins or at a push elect to mention garage - you however seem to be down with music, why is that? Was you always into music even as an apprentice?

Even as an apprentice I loved my music, I was brought up with the sixties sounds, my Mum and Dad are big music fans Mum especially as she used to be a professional singer - she turned down a record contract. I never got hooked into 'rave' or 'dance' music- it was always bands. The rest of the lads at back then thought my taste was a bit weird but it has stood the test of time!

I guess most people assume that footballers get obsessed with playing the game when fairly young and don't get as involved with favourite bands and 'scenes' because of the focus needed to make the grade as a player. You seem to be an exception to that rule, what music was you into when you was just leaving school?

When I left school, Guns n Roses were big and I bought most of their stuff, but I liked The Doors, Hendrix and The Who and stole my Dads cassettes which I used to play on an old "3D Superwoofer" ghetto blaster.

I know that you are a massive Doors fan - how long have they been a fave?

Got hooked on The Doors at about 16 and either bought their albums or recorded them until I had more or less everything by them. I was a little gutted when the film came out in 1991 and everyone jumped on The Doors bandwagon. Jim Morrison's life did, and still does, interest me immensely, his lyrics are genius and his life was surrounded with mystery.

So what was the first record you bought?

I think it was Feed the World by Band Aid I was about 10 or 11.

How about the best gig you've seen?

Saw Kiss 2 years ago at Wembley Arena, me and three mates dressed up in full make-up and I paid for a limo to take us there, it was the last time Kiss will play in full make up in this country and I was there. A great night. (I was Paul Stanley by the way). Despite things calming down a bit off the pitch (and the tiresome 'craziness' being laid to rest)

I know the ghetto blaster is still knocking about and believe you have a hand it what makes it on there - what sort of stuff do the team listen to?

We have to mix the tunes up, if Trond, Dave Neilsen, Par Karlsson, Blackers and myself had our way it would be Rock and Metal (Trond's fave). The rest of the lads like most stuff but there's a few hardcore garage listeners at the club.

Have you had to ban anything from it?

I Don't think we could have any ballads on there before the game, but other than that anything goes really. Even Kendo gets some Irish stuff on there!

It's widely known that you've got a band of your own, what are they called?

We haven't got a name yet but are gonna need one quick as we are planning a live gig soon. Naming a band is a lot harder than you think.

Are you the frontman or just a member?

I'm the front man in that I'm singer. I'm also learning to play keyboards, but it'll take me a few years to get good enough on that. Trond Anderson is lead guitarist and Chris Perry the training ground manager is an ex-pro drummer - and is brilliant.

So any plans to gig or record?

We have already put one song down on CD its called "Faces", a moody rock sort of tune. We have plans for a gig in the not too distant future, maybe in front of the lads.

Do you play covers or your own songs?

We cover quite a few songs from The Doors to Chris Isaak but we have about 4 or 5 of our own songs too, we just never seem to get them finished. We're always moving on to something else and then going back to them.

What are your own songs about?

All things really, Trond and Chris usually come up with the music with me saying "yeah that sounds good" then I try to fit one of the songs I've written into it. It's not always as easy as that but it seems to have worked on a couple of songs. Trond has recently penned his own lyrics and tune and it sounds great, I'm glad he shies away from singing otherwise he wouldn't need me! Sometimes I'll sit down and write a song in an hour other times I'll just write odd lines and hope things come together.

If you could have written one song by someone else, what would it be?

Very tough question. There's some amazing songs out there, but I'll stay faithful to The Doors and say "The End" which was used on the soundtrack to Apocalypse Now. It's just an epic song, really hypnotic and inspiring.

A Number one LP in the US and UK or scoring the winner in a cup final - what would you pick?

Really hard to decide, the charts don't mean a great deal to me but singing my own material in front of 100,000 people would be amazing. I would love to do that. But I have to admit scoring the winner in a cup final must be awesome so I'll go for that.