Rogue Are:

Matt Ellis- Guitar and Vocals
Gray- Bass
Rusty - Drums

So, what happened? How did we hatch, you may well ask yourself?
For those of you interested (and you must be or you wouldn't be on this page), here is our story.

Hailing form the greatest town in England, Luton, Rogue as it stands today was not always thus. From the latter part of 2001 to early 2002 (the exact dates are lost knowledge...ask an Angel!), drummer Rusty (ex of Blakkout) and guitarist Gene Vint were jamming together at the (then still open) 33 Arts centre. After a few months of this, they discovered that they had a rapport, and decided to seek a bass-player. Rusty approached one Matt Ellis (ex of Bleak), a guitarist/vocalist, to play bass and write a few songs. Unfortunately, Matt can no more play bass than he can ride a unicycle, so after a few frustrating rehearsals, he and Gene decided to swap and drop all of Gene's songs to concentrate on Matt's material. It was at this point that they named themselves Stay Crazy, a name which, thankfully, has now changed (It was Rusty's idea).

Gigs were few and far between. Matt was writing songs and performing them acoustically at the Two Brewers pub as part of a local musicians "get-together and play what you like" night ever week. The first gig was as a support for Drive Like Casey (then known as Leon) at the Saddlers bar in Luton. It was here that the punk ethics and sound of the band were announced with clear intention by frontman Matt. "We're the worst band you will ever hear", he told mystified punters. The few supporters who had turned up, including DLC, loved it and the band were asked back to support them.

Matt moved to Cambridge in april of 2003. From that point until october 2004, the band became known as Rogue (again, Rusty's idea). During this period, the band rehearsed for about 100 hours (not a lot, really!) and played half a dozen support slots for DLC (Saddlers; The Well; Letchworth).
By october, with a combination of a new family member on the way and disenchantment with the band in general, bass player Gene left.

This proved to be a watershed for the band. After trying out a new bass player (Dave "Coop" Cooper of Dead Girl On Pavement) without much success, the band began to die, until Rusty started jamming with a covers band called Rokard. The bass player G (ex of Nothing But Trouble) was asked along to a rehearsal in april of this year. G's addition to the band injected a new lease of life into the band, coinciding with Matt's moving back to Luton and the birth of the Vandalism Begins @ Home project. Since then, Rogue have played at The George II, Speed the Plough (Barton), The Exchange, The Well (as part of VB@H), to growing acclaim, and are trying to forge a reputation as Luton's number one Punk band.

Punk is what Rogue are. They have been compared to Motorhead, Queens of the Stone Age, The Buzzcocks, The Undertones...They certainly have the pedigree, as Rusty used to rehearse with The Clash (you read that right!) and was in a 70s punk band called Charge. What is definitely true about Rogue's sound is that it is abrasive, hard-hitting, lyrically explicit and challenges modern ideas about music, politics, censorship and mass-media. It has been said of Rogue that they conjour the spirit of '76. Go and see them and make your own minds up...

You can email rogue at roguetrooper@mail2psycho.com
or phone 01582 537507 and leave a message.

 

Website © Berg Productions, all content © Rogue, 2005.