Biography
(aka The Bullsh*t
Kit)
Coming up to Our Twenty-Third
Anniversary Year - more than 4,000 Concerts
"THEY'RE FABULOUS! ONE OF BRITAIN'S VERY BEST LIVE BANDS" - Bob Harris, Radio 2
"THE HAMSTERS ARE A GREAT BLUES BAND" - Johnny Walker, Radio 2
The band's been filmed performing live, and our guitarist/singer Slim's been interviewed for a new 3-hour documentary about the Fender Stratocaster titled 'Stratmasters' - which'll be released on DVD later in 2007.
Some players featured in the film will be Ry Cooder, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, Chris Rea, Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Robert Cray, David Gilmour and Rory Gallagher, among others.
The track 'Taxi Driver' from our latest album 'Open All Hours' has been included in Classic Rock magazine's '100 Blues Anthems' in their August 2006 edition.
We were recently mentioned on BBC1's 'Bargain Hunt' programme. we thought it was weird too
Our second session for Paul Jones' Radio 2 Blues show was broadcast in September
2003.
We released a new 1-hour studio album in April 2004, titled 'Open All Hours'.
We also released a 2-hour concert film on DVD in 2004, titled 'To
Infirmity, and Beyond!'.
We performed a series of open-air shows in the summer of 2004 as special Guests to
Status Quo.
We currently receive an average exceeding 1,000 visitors a day to our website.
We've been voted the UK's best blues-rock band by the readers of Blueprint magazine.
We contributed a track for inclusion in the BBC Radio 2 series "Bright
Lights, Big City". It documents the story of British Rhythm and Blues
from the fifties to the modern day. It's presented by former Rolling
Stone Bill Wyman, and was broadcast in the Autumn of 2001.
We conducted an interview for the Sunday Express, and were also the week's
featured concert in The Times 'Play' section, December 2002.
A member of Natalie Imbruglia's band was spotted wearing one of our t-shirts
on an appearance on Graham Norton's show on Channel 4.
We performed at 2003, 2004, 2005 & 206's London Guitar Show at the Wembley entertainment
complex, attended by over 15,000 guitar players, aspiring and professional alike.
From the hinterlands of the Thames River Delta come.
The
Hamsters.
Now in their twentieth year together, having performed more than 3,750
concerts and with a national mailing list exceeding 20,000, the Hamsters are
established as the UK's premier blues-rock attraction. This has been
achieved purely by hard work with the band handling all their own affairs,
thereby disproving the popular misconception that it can't be done without
major-label "muscle".
The
Hamsters have been voted one of the UK's best unsigned bands
by Kerrang magazine. (We already have a record deal, but
it's a nice compliment, innit?) Even BBC's Top Gear magazine
recognises the band as the UK's hardest working, and featured
them in an article on in-car entertainment, the Hamsters being the
ideal people to ask as they're always travelling somewhere.
Although primarily performing their own brand of material, they are widely
regarded as leading interpreters of the music of Jimi Hendrix and more recently
ZZ Top.
Originally forming for their own amusement (and taking their name from the
Sex Pistols, who once used it as a pseudonym to outwit hostile councils), the
Hamsters enjoy the irony of being an aggressive band with a cuddly name. Although
serious about what they do, they don't take themselves too seriously.
Members have performed with artists such as Eric Clapton, Alison Moyet, Doctor
Feelgood, Walter Trout and the late, great gentleman of British Blues, Alexis
Korner.
World Champion Formula 1 driver Damon Hill is a fan, and was spotted wearing
a Hamsters tee shirt at the Hungarian Grand Prix!
Slim has been voted one of the top 100 guitarists of all time in a radio poll
on LBC.
Our version of Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" has been used in an edition
of BBC TV's Top Gear.
Slim is featured in a book called "17
Watts? The First 20 Years Of British Rock Guitar", talking about his
early musical experiences alongside Eric Clapton, Gary Moore, George Harrison
and David Gilmour.
The band's album "The Jimi Hendrix Memorial
Concerts" was rated Album Of The Month in Germany's leading musicians'
magazine, "Guitar and Bass".
Having visited the USA in '91, they've worked a lot in mainland
Europe, and in November '92 performed at three sell-out Jimi Hendrix
festivals in Holland, including the most celebrated gig in Europe - the Paradiso,
Amsterdam.
Their version of Bob Dylan's 'All Along the
Watchtower' is included on an album of Dylan cover versions, featuring
such artists as Bryan Ferry, Joe Cocker, The Byrds and many others, released
throughout Europe by Polygram in '93
Slim was interviewed for the Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison editions of 'Mojo
Working', a Channel 4 (UK) TV series broadcast through summer '92, documenting
the most influential figures in popular music.
Slim
also writes for guitar magazines when he has time, and was featured talking
about his equipment(!) in the September '94 edition of Guitar Techniques
magazine. He has also been included in the "Guitarist Magazine Book of
Guitar Players", published in '94. Guitar Techniques asked Slim
to contribute a recorded lesson on how to play the Blues each month, for inclusion
on the CD which accompanies every issue.
The band have been interviewed and filmed live by MTV Europe and German national
TV, as well as being featured in session and interview on Radio One for Bob
Harris and Johnny Walker, Radio Two for Paul Jones, for GLR in London, B.F.B.S
in mainland Europe and Dutch national radio.
Early in '95, the band released Route
666 which entered the 'NME' chart
at number 7. 'The Observer' newspaper
has even pinched the idea from the CD booklet for the cover of a colour supplement!
Photographs for the album were taken by the celebrated snapper, Gered Mankowitz,
who is especially known for his seminal photographs of Hendrix and the Stones,
among many other Rock icons.
The Hamsters are: Slim - Guitar, Singer / Rev. Otis - Drums, Sings a bit /
Zsa Zsa - Bass, Sings a bit
Recordings:
Electric Hamsterland
Hendrix/Studio
'90
CD
Burnin' Vermin
Live
'91
Video
Hamster Jam
Live
'91
CD
The Hamsters
Studio
'93
CD
Route 666
Studio
'95
CD
The Jimi Hendrix Memorial Concerts
Live
'96
2 CD
Band of Gerbils
Live
'96
Video
Verminator! (The Z.Z. Top Tour)
Live
'97
Video
Pet Sounds - 10 Years Of Rodent Rock
Compilation
'98
2 CD
Rodents Rock The Reich!
Live German TV
'98
Video
Condensed Hamsters
Live Compilation
'00
CD
They Live By Night
Live
'02
CD
Open All Hours
Studio
'04
CD
To Infirmity, And Beyond!
Live
'04
Video
Curse of the Killer Hamsters!
Live
'08
Video
"THEY'RE FABULOUS! ONE OF BRITAIN'S VERY BEST LIVE BANDS" -
Bob Harris, Radio 2
Slim is one of my children - Albert Collins, blues legend
We love The Hamsters here on the show, they're one of our favourite bands.
You must see them, there's so much energy from their live performances
- Bob Harris, Radio 2
Keep on playing the Experience! -- Noel Redding, Jimi Hendrix Experience
The best little band in the country! -- Peter Green's (Fleetwood Mac)
Splinter Group
We make a great double bill --John Mayall , blues legend
The Hamsters really kick ass, Slim is one of your greatest guitar players
-Walter Trout
If there was a Grammy for being kings of the road, The Hamsters would
walk it - The Times
Nobody does the music of Jimi Hendrix and ZZ Top better (apart from ZZ
Top) - The Times
They've proved themselves to be one of the best live blues acts in the
UK - The Times
A guitar virtuoso performance you'll rarely see matched anywhere,
and the tightest rhythm section in the business -- Blueprint
Outstanding -- The Guardian
Top drawer, rough-edged R'n'B -- Time Out
These guys are awesome! -- Ents24.com
Blistering Blues-Rock -- Manchester Evening News
Content © 2006 The Hamsters
