The Hoodlums

The Hoodlums a 4 piece rock band from Ballymahon, Co.Longford. They began practising in late 2001 with Gordan Reilly on vocals instead of Colm. They called themselves The Spuds at this stage and they practised for a few months in their garages before in Feb 2002 they played a late night gig to a few friends(including Colm) outside Gordans' house. In their own words "At this stage we were mainly playing Muse,Nirvana and Strokes covers with a few simple songs of our own aswell. In March we got one of these originals put on a tape of local bands being sold in the area (a no ego compilation). After this we played twice more - once at a friends' sisters' 21st party and once more outside Gordans' house. The second time at Gordans' didn't go quite to plan with the police been called by a neighbour (full and exagerated report in Gigs&Reviews on the Hoodlums.com). Soon afterwards Gordan and The Spuds parted by mutual agreement and The Hoodlums were formed -albeit as a 3 piece. Gareth took up singing duties now with Diarmaid and Paddy helping out aswell. We played our first proper gig in May in Paddy Ward's,Ballymahon. We played once more in Paddy's and once in Eamon Kiernan's,Longford before deciding to get a new singer. After practising with Colm a few times we decided that he would be ideal with Gareth on backing vocals and The Hoodlums were completed. We have played a few gigs in Paddy Ward's since which have got progressively better. With Colm now on vocals we decided to do the covers we really wanted to do such as Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins and Strokes which we couldn't do as a three piece. We began to write more originals aswell. These we feel show influences of Chilli Peppers, Nirvana and Britpop with some catchy vocals a la Strokes. On 6th January 2003 we recorded 4 tracks for our first demo titled 'Death of the moustache' in Roseland Studios, Moate. This is available now on no ego records. We have since gone on to support many varying bands from Mickey Harte to Polish reggae band 'Paprika Korps' and also Big Generator just recently. Plans are in progress for another trip to the studio in late June/early July to record our second EP. Stay tuned." Keep up to date with all the hoodlums goings on on their hilarious website http://www.thehoodlums.com/