I’m primed and ready to speak with Lee, singer from Sentinel Daily favourites The Gypsy Pistoleros but although we’re apparently both in the ‘Zoom Room’…nothing! After a little shuffling around we can finally see each other and I’m pleasantly surprised to have not one, not two – but three Pistoleros with me.

‘I’m sorry bro, we’re in some strange seventies holiday complex in Bournemouth and the WiFi’s all over the place! It’s just bizarre’, says Lee, shaking his head and laughing.

OK, and hello there Kerry (Pistolero White, bass) and Shane (Pistolero Sparks, guitar). So…Bournemouth?
Kerry: ‘Yeah we are! In sunny Bournemouth!’
Lee: ‘Yeah we’ve just got a new drummer, Pip (Pistolero Sampson), ex South of Salem, and it’s big, Madness, we’ve had two weeks to get it together before the UK tour, so he’s learning fifteen tracks and we’ve been down here, and just rehearsed last night, about six ’til twelve at the Anvil Rock Bar which is great. They allow us to use the venue so that’s cool yeah. It’s gone a bit mad, so we’re not relaxin’ before the tour it’s… Saturday is the first show and it’s like ‘oh’…(shaking head)…it’s gone a bit mad!’

Better than sitting around waiting for shit to happen though eh?
Kerry: ‘Well yeah!’
Lee: ‘Well… you say that!’ (All laugh)

Congratulations on the album by the way, it’s great!
All: ‘Thank you!’
Lee: And thanks to Sentinel for the great review!
Kerry: (Nodding and smiling) that was such an amazing review! Summed it up perfectly!

Well deserved!

Now, I’m familiar with previous incarnations of Gypsy Pistoleros and that the band’s history goes back quite a long way- to 1993? And it was quite different to what the band is about now. Tell us a little about that.

Lee: ‘Well…you can probably remember more about the oldMotörhead Pistoleros than I can. Because I was a mess during those years. I mean, we were touring with Faster Pussycat, LA Guns. We did Rocklahoma with all the glam metal bands and whatever but… I was in a bad way during those times. I mean I can’t remember… somebody told me ‘Oh, I saw you in Budapest’ and I said ‘I’ve never been to Budapest!’ And I checked on past concerts and… yeah we played Budapest with LA Guns (shaking his head) I didn’t even remember it. I mean, I’ve been now six years sober and clean and now its the band that I always wanted it to be. And its different. Its not just a sleaze glam rock thing anymore-but hey, that was then. And now we’re way above any of that’.

I’d be disappointed if you said you could remember a lot of it.
(All laughing) ‘Yes, its a different life now. Especially when people are really drunk and they come and talk to you for the third time with the same story. I used to be able to get away from them, now I just stand there like, transfixed!’ (Laughs)
Kerry: ‘Its still fun though isn’t it’.
Lee: ‘Yeah its great! Different life but… the music! We didn’t care about the music back in the day. I mean… we supported the Ramones way back and we just wrote I think three, just for the tour, three sort of Ramones style tracks so we’d fit in (shaking head). I mean it was like that. Madness. From ’93, when we started I was living in Spain, where I first came up with the sort of Flamenco rock type idea. We went on tour with the Ramones. We went on tour with Motörhead, Sepultura, UFO, Nazareth. Dio. So we supported some real big bands. But it wasn’t until 2005 that we went over to the US and toured with like, LA Guns, Faster Pussycat, Bang Tango, Europe. And then we did Rocklahoma five years running! Everybody was playing! Guns n’Roses, Mötley Crüe, the lot. But we were very much an LA Guns type band during that time. Then I buggered off from music for about ten years. I wanted to become an actor. I thought ‘that’s easy’… (shakes head)’.

And? (Smiling) ”I appeared in various ‘B’ grade horror movies. Fuckin’ awful but incredibly brilliant because they were so bad. If anybody wants to see one, just look up Jurassic Predator‘.
Kerry: ‘Its on Youtube’…
Lee: ‘Yeah. I play a psychopathic mercenary. Which is… fuck its…(the other two straining not to laugh) and the Dinosaur was ten foot (tall) so all the camera angles… to make it look massive (all laughing now)… its hilarious’.

So back to music then…
Lee: ‘Then I sort of came back to this’.
Kerry: ‘No, you did Mescalitos first’.
Lee: ‘Oh yeah, Mescalitos first. And then I wanted to put together a proper band so… I think now is the first time that I’ve got a proper band and, this IS the Gypsy Pistoleros and it’s very different like you say, to the first incarnation’.

This new album, Welcome to the Church of the Pistoleros, on first listen, you don’t sound like them, but it reminded me of the vibe of the first Manic Street Preachers album, Generation Terrorists. Was that due to (producer) Dave Draper’s involvement?
Kerry: ‘Oh Dave likes them!’
Lee: ‘Thanks! Yeah, yeah Dave Draper loves them. He just did the new Mike Monroe album too. And he did I think, the last eight Ginger and Wildhearts albums. He’s like the fifth member. We co wrote with him. And we sort of have one rule – that there are no rules. Whatever a song needs we go with. Shadow Walker is really heavy, Killing Joke-ish. Then we go sort of Phil Spector, almost a punky The Damned type of second half, which is great as a band to have that freedom. It’s nice to have formulas but I’d hate to be a band, you know what I mean, that, we have to make it sound like the last album thing and so on. But y’know, each to their own’.

With the almost non existence of a music industry as such, do you find yourself more liberated to do what you want, rather than being under that pressure to come up with music that fits a radio format?
Lee: ‘Yeah, a lot of bands even now seem to be pushed by their labels towards a rock, radio vibe, southern rock and so on… I mean what the fuck does a UK band know about southern rock? You’ve got somebody from the midlands singing about whiskey distilleries and the swamps. It’s like, dude you’re from Walsall!’

And of course you don’t have the thirty to forty thousand pound budget any more. ‘And being rammed down everybody’s throats in, like, Classic Rock magazine. Which can burn in hell for all I care’.

They don’t cover you guys?
Lee: (Laughs) ‘I don’t ever wanna be in Classic Rock! Once you’ve been in Classic Rock you’re dead! Dead! If you sound like Whitesnake…noooo!’

But the available exposure these days is so limited though?
Lee: ‘Its when we play live. When we play live its nice to see there are some young kids that come to see us as well, you know, rather than everybody being my age, you know what I mean, older, ‘cause you don’t wanna be playin’ to just the converted. If theres no new blood comin’ through rock music, pop music, any music is gonna die and just be frikkin’ elevator music’.

So Classic Rock can burn in hell then.
(All nodding enthusiastically) Lee: ‘Yes, yes, they won’t feature us (laughing) so they can fuck off!’

Its good to hear the punk attitude is still alive!
Kerry: ‘The punk attitude is alive and well with Lee!’

How long has this line up been together now?
Kerry: ‘I’ve been in about three and a half years’.
Shane: ‘I’ve been in just over two years’.
Lee: ‘Shane roadied for us as well before’.

And Pip’s just joined?
Kerry: ‘Two weeks ago’ .
Lee: ‘Yeah two weeks ago. I’ve been tryin’ to get him for… years, really. But he wasn’t sure he was gonna drum again after he broke his hip but he recently started again and as soon as he did we just moved in! And that’s why we’re in Bournemouth, coz thats where he lives so we’re down here doin’ really intensive rehearsals for the tour which starts on Saturday (which at the time of writing was three days away). So its a bit pressurised. Life’s never dull!’

That tour is running right through until August. Starting on the 12th?
Kerry: ‘Yeah, April 12th in Sheffield’.
Lee: ‘Yeah-there are some great venues-like the Blackheart in Camden. But I think I’m still banned from (London Club) the Underworld ‘.

Kerry, what’s your story, how did you end up being a part of this lot? ‘Well, I’ve been friends with Lee for about, twenty years? And I used to go watch the Pistoleros- and we live ‘round the corner from each other. I’ve just played in various bands, I teach music, and then I just bumped into Lee- on a dog walk- and he’d lost his bass player (he was a drunkard) and he was like ‘Do you wanna do it Kez?’ And went, yeah, and there we are!’
And how long has it been now? ‘About three and a half years I’ve been in’.

What about you Shane? ‘Just over two years now. I had started off as their roadie- I roadied a gig, they got rid of their guitarist and I just naturally stepped up then. I was gonna cover a couple of gigs but it worked so I stayed’.

Lee: ‘Its sort of nice ‘cause its… I mean bands, they’re weird. Its a weird family isn’t it? Dysfunctional. A fucked up family. And you have to have people that fit. I mean that’s why we’ve had such pain with a drummer (shaking his head)… god. And somebody said ‘can you make sure to staple Pip to the frikkin’ drums and stick him in the back of the van’, because hopefully this is it. So once we’ve got this together and we’ve done this tour it’ll be easy. Its just this intense two weeks we’ve had to get through the fifteen tracks’.
Shane: ‘I think the main thing is we all get on really well. Which is what makes it fun’.
Lee: ‘And you know what its like, touring with people- all the little things. Its like a strange marriage isn’t it, of four or five people’.
Kerry: ‘Yeah!’

If you can get a line up of people together who can be honest with each other and clicks-thats half the battle won.
Lee: ‘Yeah, yeah, it has to be that way. And we had a load of t-shirts printed, with a sort of Ramones logo rip off, and we’ve had to change the drummers name twice! (Laughter) I’ve been tryin’ to get Pip for years but like I said, he was maybe never gonna drum again when he left South of Salem, but… he’s back and he’s great. It’s been brilliant the last two weeks, I mean intense, but its been fun. And we’re so tight now’.

Quite the trial by fire, starting out with a pretty long tour.
Lee: ‘Exactly. If we don’t break him along the way!

Well, the enthusiasm in you all is pretty evident!
(All) ‘Oh yeah!’.
Lee: There’s a song I’ve been doing since 1993, that we do, I haven’t listened to it for years, and now we’re breakin’ it down and it’s like, ‘I can do that bit better!’ It changes things and its weird!’
Kerry: ‘Its feeling really positive at the moment’.

As you’re clean and sober now, have you noticed a difference when you’re doing gigs night after night?
Lee: ‘Oh yeah. We were at Rocklahoma 2010, and we always closed the night on the big second stage which is massive, after the headliners, and it was Triumph (Canadian power trio) that were playin’ that year and they were fuckin’ awful (all laugh)- so all the crowd, there’s ten thousand people in front of the stage, and I’d partied for about the last three days prior, I hadn’t slept for about thirty six hours, and I had no voice at all. And I look ‘round to the side of stage and there are ZZ Top, Tracii Guns and loads of others, Davy Vain, who I love, and all I could do, was croak! So I croaked my way through the frikkin’ set with all these people…(buries face in hands as they all crack up) oooh myyyyy… So yeah. Now at least I can sing. So thats good. That’s an improvement’.

While we’re on the wild old days… tell me a bit about what else you got up to then?
Kerry: ‘Lees got quite a few stories…’
Lee: ‘Hmmm yes… lets see… when I was VERY drunk, completely off my head, I used to go out with Jane Dickinson, who’d just split up with Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden and we went over to LA… can’t remember loads of it, but we went to this party, the Guns n’ Roses Use Your Illusion listening party. And we walked in and its all there, all the drinks are there, drugs et cetera and a security guard came up to me and he says, excuse me, could you come with me? And I said, dude, I’m not even pissed, I haven’t done anything! He says no no no, its alright- so he took me upstairs, and there was Axl. And he had all screens around, to see peoples’ reactions to Use Your Illusion. And he’s really nice, and he knew everybody at the party and he wanted an honest opinion about the album. And so I sat and listened to the whole Use Your Illusion, 1 and 2, with cognac and various drugs brought in and at the end of it, he was really nice, he said what did you think of it? (Laughing) and I said, honestly, ‘you got one really good album’. And he went fuckin’ berserk! Shouting ‘I fuckin’ knew it man!’ and carrying on and so I left, having created a riot up there. And Jane asks, ‘where have you been for the last hour and a half?’ and I’m ‘Oh, just with Axl…and he’s freakin’ out’ and everybody’s being scattered out the door’…

I’ve gotta ask. Lemmy? Ever?
Lee: ‘Oh Lemmy. Lemmy was fuckin’ great. Well he saved me from a fight with Slash. We were in the (Legendary LA rock hangout) Rainbow, they used to have those weird tables there, you used to have Iron Maiden over there, Def Leppard, the Mötley Crüe table, the Poison table, you know… We (Jane Dickinson and I) were on the Iron Maiden table, and some of Guns N Roses walk in, Adler, Slash, armed security guys et cetera and Jane says hello- they knew her as Bruce Dickinson’s missus and she says to Slash, who is from the UK being born in Stoke on Trent, there’s someone from the UK here- Lee. And he sort of shook my hand without lookin’ at me and I said, dude, you don’t have to shake my hand I’m not bothered. And he went, who the fuck are you? And I went, who the fuck are you? Cher? And we got into a bit of a scuffle, I got him over a table, pullin’ his hair, dirty fighting, and suddenly during all this, I see security reaching for their guns and you suddenly hear above it all (in loud gruff voice) Oi! BEHAVE! And we look up and Lemmy walks over, makes us shake hands and just walks off. He was fucking brilliant. Really down to earth and I suppose you learn that. He always had time for his fans. I’ve always found the legends you met were brilliant and you could see why they’d become that and it was usually the newer, sort of one hit album wonders that were dicks, you know?’

I hear you!

Dave Draper produced this album for you, was that a difficult thing to achieve? How did you get together with him?
Lee: ‘Kerry’s known him for years’.
Kerry: ‘He’s my best friend. He’s amazing’.
Lee: ‘He’s just mixed the new Mike Monroe album. He co-writes with us, rips the songs apart. The funny thing was that when Kerry first asked him to produce us he said, ‘I don’t fucking work with cock rock bands!’ (Laughter) So we had to play him the new demos and be like -no we’re different now! We’ve changed!’
Kerry: ‘He was like, ‘well…all right then…’ He grudgingly gave in then he’s been won over and he’s like ‘I love it!”
Lee: ‘He loves it now. I mean, he’s done some amazing albums and for him to say Church (Pistoleros’ latest) is one of the best albums he’s ever done is just… well, amazing. Its just a shame we haven’t got a mega promo budget behind us. Still seems to be that you’ve gotta ram it down peoples throats before it crosses onto that next level. You have to have the big support tours and you have to have the press et cetera. But we are where we are at the moment’.
Kerry: ‘Poor’!

Got everything sorted for the tour soon then? ‘Yeah, we’ve got all of our own backline, we’ve got the new ego risers, which we‘re not sure we can get in the van yet’…
Kerry: ‘I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get on and off it ‘coz I’m too short…so I’ve gotta practise!’
Lee: ‘And we’ve got all the merch in the van as well’.

Lee, are you playing any guitar on this tour?
(All shaking heads together) ‘Nooooo!’ You all have looks of horror on your faces!
Kerry: ‘No he doesn’t play guitar anymore!’
Lee: ‘Yeah. I was banned from playing guitar. I have like my five favourite chords, but I don’t even know how to tune the fucker’.

So just concentrate on shaking arse?
Lee: ‘Exactly! And if there,s a mic I just sort of tap it to see if its on…’
Kerry: ‘And he will destroy every mic stand he gets near’.
Lee: ‘Yes. Mic stands are fucking…no’

Is The US on the cards?
Lee: (Lighting up ciggie) ‘Not America!’

Pretty tough situation over there right now.
Lee: ‘No, any thoughts of going over and touring in America are just gone at the moment (shaking head)’.

Well, you’re welcome here In Australia and I’m sure you can stop in Japan on the way too.
Kerry: ‘We’d love to!’
Lee: ‘We’d love to come to Australia yeah, we’ve got the album released on Golden Robot records in Australia, a special limited Edition CD, with a couple of extra tracks. So if everyone can get onto Golden Robot and say ‘The Pistoleros wanna come over can you sort it out please?’
Everyone just get onto Mark (Alexander Erber, Golden Robot boss) and pressure him (laughing) that would be really nice. Don’t threaten him with weapons, but like , y’know…’ (all laughing).
(Affects serious expression) ‘Please, everybody petition Golden Robot’ (cracks up)…

OK-we’ll make sure Mark sees this! With the writing, are you constantly working up material or is it once the album is finished, that’s it for a while?
Lee: ‘Well we’ve already got another new album on the go. Its almost mixed. Recorded with Dave Draper again- I’ll give you an exclusive- its called Dark Fairytales. We did it in January, fourteen days of recording’.

Thats prolific. I like that.
Lee: ‘Yeah I always loved it when there were bands like Queen that used to make sure they did an album every year. I mean, you’re a band. Get in and write stuff you know? I don’t get the classic acts that just tour without having released anything new for like thirty years’.

Yeah, but for example here in Australia, radio will play a classic act’s records from thirty years ago but ignore any new music they put out. So some just give up. And some continue to be creative despite that’.

Lee: ‘Right yeah its true, that was the thing about Motörhead- Lemmy was releasing albums right up until the end, but you’d only ever hear Overkill or Ace Of Spades. And there was some good stuff on the last few albums. But yeah, you just become a tribute to yourself. Thats just weird’.

There’s still time to catch Gypsy Pistoleros at the following fine venues:
25/04/25 – Bannermans, Edinburgh
26/04/25 – The Dreadnought, Bathgate
01/05/25 – The Waterloo, Blackpool
02/05/25 – The Marrs Bar, Worcester (Hometown Album Release Party)
03/05/25 – The Junction, Plymouth
04/05/25 – Electric Banana, Weston Super Mare
09/05/25 – Melbourn Rock Club, Cambridge
10/05/25 – The Black Heart, London
16/05/25 – The Castle and Falcon, Birmingham
17/05/25 – The Underground, Bradford
11/07/25 – The Tivoli, Buckley
12/07/25 – The Holy Diver, Stockport
19/07/25 – The Anvil, Bournemout
7-10/08 2025 – Rebellion Festival, Winter Gardens, Blackpool

Read our review of Church of the Pistoleros HERE and see if you agree with the band – LEAVE A COMMENT EITHER WAY!