Glory Boys

Glory Boys are a superb Oi! band from Valencia, Spain. With their old school sound and menacing vocals, they were one of my first choices for a band to interview. After weeks of going back an forth through e-mail the interview is finally complete for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!


1.How did "Glory Boys" get started, and what do you do in the band?
- Glory Boys started somewhere in 2005, in the beginning we were a 4 piece band. When our former singer left the band. Due to lack of responsibility it was me (Nèstor) who took on the vocals while playing guitar too. We kept it 3 members in the line up until late 2009 when Santi entered the band as a second guitarist. So nowadays the line up is the following:
Nèstor (Vocals & Guitar)
Vega (Bass)
Santi (Guitar)
Pablo (Drums)

2.How would you explain "Glory Boys" sound and message?
- Our sound is mainly influenced from the 80’s English and French oi! bands. We have strong vocals, sometimes compared to Condemned 84 , and a rhythm bass like french bands (Skinkorps, Brutal Combat,...) and try to make an overall “re verb” ambiance. We try to make and atmosphere of aggression and menace that fills you with energy.
-Our message deals with empowering yourself, being proud of what you are and where you come from, being sick of today’s society and the lies of the corrupt elite ruling the world. Anyway we still try to have fun in the middle of this mess.

3.You haven't released any new music in quite some time. When can we expect a new album?
- Until now, we’ve released our debut 12” Glory Nights EP on DIM records and a 7” with Crowbar Records/Glory Boys records, which has 2 songs from our upcoming new LP/CD, that would be out very soon again on DIM. We also are going to put one song in the future 30th Anniversary Oi! the Album, compiled by Garry Bushell and released with Contra Records. We are also working in the future release of a new 7”. So now it seems that things are starting to speed up.

Glory Nights EP (DIM Records)

1 - glory nigths
2 - payback
3 - memories
4 - cheated

My Land/Natural Born Drinkers 7"(Crowbar Records)

1 - natural born drinkers
2 - my land

Skinhead Resistance (Dim Records)

1.Out Tonight
2.My Land
3.Trendy Punks
4.Dressed In Black And White
5.Police State
6.Your Choice
7.Natural Born Drinkers
8.Skinhead Resistance
9.Living In A Lie
10.Wrong Time, Wrong Place
11.Ready, Steady, Go!

5.Have any of the members in "Glory Boys" played in other bands, or have other project on the side?
- When we started, no one had played in any other bands. While starting with Glory boys we had a side project called “Gol Nord” which was a hooligan rock band for the Levante UD team from our city Valencia, since at that time we were involved in a firm called “Força Llevant”. We released a CD “Llevant UE Rock’n’Oi!” which was later released in vinyl on DIM Records.
-Besides that I played a few gigs with an old oi! band from Valencia, “Last Warning” when they made a reunion show, and was later involved in the oi! band “Shaved Dogs” first as a guitarist and then as a drummer. Our new guitarist had played in a HxC band called “Linea de Fuego” and nowadays plays in an oi! band called “Join the Rejects”. I also have a new band called “Mercancias”, we’ve just released a 12” with 4 songs on Shout Proud Records.




6.What are your top 5 favorite bands?
- That’s a difficult question. I would say that Cockney Rejects were one of my main favourites for years. I like many bands and couldn’t give you 4 more. I can say that from Spain my all time favorites have been Decibelios, Zakarrak and Ruin bois (you shouldn’t miss any of them), later on Ultimo Asalto, Suburban Rebels and Pilseners kicked hard for me too. Retaliator was one of the bands that I really liked in the last years, I think that “When duty calls” has been the last good album that I’ve heard in the past 3-4 years. I used to like Discipline and some of the stuff from Böhse Onkelz too. Apart from that most of the oi! bands from England and France from the 80’s, there were many to name a few.
-Besides that I did like some metal bands from when I was a metalhead in my early teens haha.

9.Are there any bands you think never got enough credit for their sound while they were around?
- As I said before, I think that not many people out of Spain know bands like Decibelios, Zakarrak, Ruin Bois or Ultimo Asalto; maybe because they do not sing in english. There were also many 80’s punk bands in Spain that deserve a listening. I think english speaking people sometimes don’t even have a listen to bands that do not sing in english and they are missing great bands. I do not have problems listening to bands in any language. For instance I love bands from East Europe like Direktori, Orlík, Egészséges Fejbor, Surowa Generacja,... and believe me they have very strange languages haha. So language is a great barrier for some people to give credit to some bands.
-Then about bands that were around at the time and weren’t so much known... I can think about The Blood, ABH, in England, I think they were superb bands but didn’t get the name that they deserved. There may be many cases that I don’t remember right now.

10.What current skinhead bands do you like now a days?
- In my opinion there’s a lot of crap being released nowadays and there are not many bands that I like. Good surprises lately to me have been Bootprint from Quebeq, Crucial Change , Hammer & The Nails, Mercancias (even that I shouldn’t name it haha), Close Combat, Brassic, Youth Voices, Offensive Weapon, The Cliches, On the Job, Wrongdoers, Control, East End Badoes, ...

11.What do you and the other members of the band do for a living?
- Well, nowadays Pablo and Santi are on the dole, unemployment is hitting hard in Spain these days and the situation doesn’t look as if it’s going to improve soon. I used to work in a bank through a Temporary Work Agency while studying at University; it was easy some years ago to get that job when things were “artificially” well in the country. Since summer 2008 I haven’t been called back to work in the bank and I was unemployed since I could find a part time job working as dinning room aide at a school, and I’m still finishing my studies.
-Vega works has been working in a family business for some years.

12.Are you a fan of the the R.A.C. band División 250, who was also from Valencia?
- Division 250 and Klan have been the biggest RAC bands from Valencia and they are also considered within the top ones from Spain. We like them but I think we don’t agree with the message and with being so much politicized. Even D250 left the skinhead look behind and were still making music only to spread their political message.

13.What are your thoughts on, Manuel Canduela and his political party, Democracia Nacional?
- First thing to say is that I don’t follow any political party nor ideology, I use to say that my only ideology is truth; I’ve got my own opinion on everything that I know and don’t talk about things that I don’t have a clue. Current political parties and ideologies are a waste of time for me. I think people must put aside differences in ideologies and parties and unite against the same own enemy which is the ruling elite.
-Having made that clear, I can say about Manuel Canduela that he looks like an intelligent man and a good speaker, but gets trapped (willingly or not) in the same bullshit and divisions that I was talking before. For what I’ve seen one of his main themes is the fight against Islam, which I believe is a pre-fabricated problem (and you don’t have to be so smart to see who benefits from that and could have created that problem and debate in western society); he also doesn’t point out the reality behind “muslim” terrorism, Al-qaeda and all that stuff (which is fabricated from within government, intelligence agencies and the same ruling elite we were talking before). So for me his speech is blind, wrong and inaccurate; the same for his party.
-Besides that, I must point out that it’s at least funny that you sang against Democracy and nowadays you have a party named “National Democracy” and you are playing within the system rules.

15.Spain is known world wide for their delicious ham. What are your favorite foods and drinks/beer native to your country?
- Well food is one of my main passions haha, I am opened to foods from all over the world, but it’s true that Spain has a strong and long tradition, far larger than only ham, paella and sangría. It varies a lot depending on where in Spain you are (north or south , coastal zones or country side... ). Valencia is famous for all kind of rices (different ways of making paella but also different dishes who have rice as the main ingredient). We get angry when we see that some restaurants sell “paella” to the tourists and it’s not a good paella at all; also when they cook it in other places of Spain who are not Valencia; just because they want the tourist’s money. You must know where to go to take a good paella and it must be in our region. What is also typical in some places in Spain is “tapas” who are like small dishes of food that they give you when you ask for a beer or wine, it’s great cause you can end being drunk and on a full stomach at the same time spending not so much money haha. But as I said, there are way different dishes depending on the part of Spain that you are.

16.What have been some memorable show that "Glory Boys" have played?
- I can say that our gig in Chicago was one of the best gigs we’ve ever played and enjoyed outside Spain, and we were lucky that it was recorded (maybe we can put some songs in future releases). Also we have good memories of the first and only time that we played in England, cause it’s difficult for non english or American bands to play there and it was like a challenge for us. The last time we played in Valencia was quite funny and people were very drunk and excited so it was great too. We also have a bad memory of a gig where we could hardly play cause we were too drunk, it was quite embarrassing haha.



17.What are you looking forward to in 2010?
- First of all we want to see our CD/LP finally released, cause it was recorded in summer 2008 and it has been a pain in the ass seeing the months go by and the record still unreleased; but know looks like everything is going right and we would be able to see it on the streets in a matter of weeks. It will be called “Skinhead Resistance”. Then we have some gigs ahead, some of them in Sweden, where we’ve never been before and we are excited about that.
-Besides that, we are going to keep writing new songs and will work on that future 7” that we hope can be out in a few moths.

18. Thanks for doing this interview. Any last words, thanks, or shout outs would like to make?
- Thank you for having us in mind and for giving us a chance to appear on your blog. Just keep up the good work! Hope we can meet us some day and have a beer together, be it on the States or here in Valencia , where you are welcomed.

For more information about Glory Boys, check out:
http://www.myspace.com/gloryboysband

Live at Cafe Lura in Chicago on October 9, 2008