Tom Hunt kindly agreed to be interviewed for my ANWL 'fan site'. The following interviewed was conducted by myself (Barry Hutchinson) via email. Thanks again to Tom for his informative and detailed answers.

1.)    Please could give us a bit of background info on yourself (where you were born/raised/education)

 I was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 1986. The hometown of the League! Attended local St Johns primary, then secondary was 5 years at Sandown Court/Tunbridge Wells High School. It has been said that Sid Vicious briefly attended this school, although I’ve never looked in to the facts! I left school with 8 GCSE’s, did a year of A levels. It wasn’t what I’d been told it would be so I dropped out to get a job to fund my music.
 

2.)    Did you have music lessons as a child, and was the guitar your first choice of instrument?

 I’ve never had guitar lessons, no. I did have a great music teacher at school who let me practice playing during luchtimes in the music room. It was all I wanted to do. Guitar was my first choice. I knew at the age of 8 that I wanted to play guitar. After much saving and asking relatives for a few quid instead of birthday presents, I got my first guitar on my 9th birthday. I had a chord book and a song book, and learnt the basics whilst playing along with bands I was in to.
 

3.)    What music were you into whilst growing up, and what were your influences?

 My first tape was a compilation of 50s rock and roll. Eddie Cochran, Bill Haley, Del Shannon etc. Still love my 50s rock n roll. I loved the music my parents always played. Stones, T-Rex, The Sweet, Beatles, Elton John, Gary Moore, Queen, Kinks, Sensation Alex Harvey Band, Pink Floyd, Joe Satriani, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Guns n Roses. Then I found an AC/DC tape aged 11 and that changed my life. AC/DC along with Guns opened my eyes to heavier, faster, more aggressive rock n roll. Done with a swagger. After that I got in to progressively heavier stuff, from Deep Purple, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Rush, on to Metallica, Pantera, Slayer, Lamb Of God. At the same time I was starting to discover punk in all it’s forms. The Damned, The U.K. Subs, The Stooges, and new stuff like early Green Day, Offspring, NOFX, Rancid, Blink 182, The Distillers, and hardcore bands like Hatebreed, Bleeding Through, Converge. I’ve always been really in to the grunge/alt scene. Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam. I just listened to everything I could get my hands on. Still do. And I’ve still got all my tapes, cd’s, and records.
 

4.)    You worked as a roadie for the League before joining - when and why did you decide to join as guitarist?

 Yeah, I was with the for 4 years as road crew. Amp tech, drum tech, merch sales, everything. They knew I could play, but it wasn’t until around the time Johnny Skullknuckles was joining that they’d really seen me play properly. I was filling in for Johnny at a couple of gigs abroad that he couldn’t do. After my first rehearsal on the Tuesday night, the guys said “what are ya up to this Friday? We’ve got a gig in London. You up for it?”. Of couse I said yeah, why not. It was at the Bridgehouse 2 in Canning Town. I think it was St Georges day 2009? Around then. Turned out Johnny  was stuck in the u.s. because of the dust cloud coming over from Iceland. So I went and did it, and it went fuckin great! So basically, after Johnny and them parted ways in 2010, they asked me to do it permanently, and again I said yes.
 

5.)    Why did the previous guitarists Johnny, and before him Jez, leave the band? Johnny's time in the band was particularly short lived it would seem (although he did play on the Skull and Bones single)?

 The band parted company with Jez for a number of reasons. I won’t go into too much detail, but being in a band, touring with a band, it can be stressful, living together, under each others feet all the time, and you’ve all got to be a team, in it together, or it doesn’t work. Some people just aren’t ‘team players’ in that respect, and just make things more difficult for everyone else. With Johnny I think it just wasn’t a very good fit. Johnny’s a great player, great showman, lovely bloke, but I think he just didn’t suit the band quite right. I saw him for the first time since his departure at rebellion last year. Had a nice chat and a beer. He’s a good dude.
 

6.)    It would seem that Jez left just after Road To Rampton was recorded - did he record all of the guitars on that album, or did you contribute also?

 The original version of Rampton is all Jez. It was reissued with added tracks, one of which was Skull and Bones with Johnny playing,  and one was This Is War, which is me.

 

7.)    Were you ever a fan of ANWL before you joined?

 Yeah! I grew up knowing of the band. My dad rode bikes with Magoo’s brother back in the day, and knew the guys just from being around town. I had league stickers on my toy box as a kid! Haha. I didn’t hear the music until I was about 13 and thought it was brilliant. So much attitude. First saw them at the Tunbridge Wells Forum when I was 17.

 

8.)    How easy was it to learn the setlist/back catalogue?

 After 4 years of being road crew, and hearing the set lists over and over, I think I spent an hour playing through the first set Animal gave me. Then a two hour rehearsal with them, then my first gig 3 days later! Since then obviously I’ve learnt way more of the back catalogue. It’s great because it all sounds like simple stuff, but there’s ways to play it, and there’s sometimes more than one recorded guitar, so I try and do the bits that really drive the songs and really give them power. So it can be easy to play the songs, but harder to really perform the songs, if that makes sense.

 

9.)    Which ANWL songs do you enjoy playing the most?

 I find that this changes quite often. Sometimes you can start a run of gigs loving a tune, and be sick of it by the end! I love Burn ‘Em All, Pig Iron, Landlord, The Great Unwashed, Branded (which I used to play in an old band!), Fucked Up And Wasted, and Animal. Out of the new ones my favourites are God Bless Alcohol and Last Cowboys. I’m very proud of those two in particular and they’re so fuckin fun to play.

 

10.) One of the highlights of the live shows, is your vocal performance on As Good As It Gets - why did you choose to sing that one? Do you plan on providing lead vocals on any other songs in the future? (A lot of the Crime album/era songs featured shared vocal duties between Nick and Mark Gilham - I think this arrangement would work really well now, with you and Nick if those songs were played once again)

 Highlights!? Haha, glad ya like it. That started because I was already doing a solo version of it on acoustic guitar before I joined the League. I opened for them at the xmas bash in Tunbridge Wells in 2009, and Animal loved my version of it, so we started doing it in the set. There’s been talk of doing a newer one soon. Hopefully get one ready for the u.k. tour this year. Not sure if we’ll record anything that way like they did on crime, but these things usually happen organically, so who knows what will happen!

 

11.) Can you tell us your memories of your first show playing with ANWL ?

 Canning Town Bridgehouse 2, st Georges weekend 2009. Mainly skinhead gig. I was fairly nervous that a group of east-end skinheads might not like seeing a bloke with a beard and long hair playing with the band! I just thought, fuck it, punk’s not about the uniform, is it? I wear contact lenses and didn’t have any for that show, so was getting my mate/roadie Tommy Gun to shout out the set list for me as I couldn’t see a thing! The show was fuckin great, everyone was jumping and the atmosphere was electric. Loved it. When I was packing up an American bloke came over and said “Thanks for filling in so the League could play I’ve travelled from the west coast just to see you guys!”. Fucking mind blowing. Loved it.

12.) This Is War - is a great tune. Is that the first song you recorded with the band?

 Thanks! Yeah ‘War’ is the first song that I co-wrote with Animal and recorded with the band.

 

13.) Would you say that playing in the ANWL is a fultime job that 'pays the bills' or do each of the band members have 'day jobs'?

 We’ve all got jobs to support ourselves. Sammy runs a heating firm. Shady’s a master carpenter. Barnzy’s a builder. Animals a roofer by trade. I’ve had loads of jobs. I get restless when I’m not touring. Labouring the past couple of years, but just come back to JB’s music shop. Owned by JB who drummed for the band in the 80s/90s. Sammy and I play in other bands too for beer money here and there.

 

14.) Whats it like playing in the band, and how do you get along with Nick and the others?

 One of the reasons the guys asked me to join is because we all get on so well. They knew that from the years I was road crew. Like I said in a previous question, it’s got to be a team, a gang, a family. When we’re home we hang out. Meet for beers. Go to bike shows etc. I’ve known Sammy since I was 13/14. He’s one of my best mates so it’s fuckin great to have him in the band. We’re all good mates. Couldn’t do it together otherwise.

 

15.) In recent months the League have (along with other bands) seen its fair share of backlash from the PC-brigade, over certain songs and their lyrics, with certain people trying to ban or prevent you from playing some venues - what are your/the band's thoughts on all of this?

 The way I see it, there’s two different arguments happening. One is ‘you’ve used these words so I presume you believe them’, which is bollocks. The second is ‘I don’t believe that anyone should use these words because it hurts peoples feelings’, which is also bollocks. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. The fact is people nowadays, and it really is nowadays (I’m 30 and it makes me feel old!) don’t understand that if you don’t like something, you just turn around and ignore it. You don’t have to attack it online just because you don’t like it, or don’t understand it due to lack of research. Anyone who has seen the tirade of abuse that we’ve received has a choice to make. Do the research and go “oh, this band’s always written offensive songs and told stories and commented on the world around them, big deal”, or jump straight in, repost a statement with no understanding of it and declare how great you are for ‘supporting a cause’ when all you’ve done is copy a post online. It feels like people are starting to get fed up with it though. This whole thing about the Dickies has blown it open. It’s all bullshit. Political Correctness is bullshit. Say whatever the fuck you want, to whoever the fuck you want, about whatever the fuck you want. As long as people do good in their actions, none of it should matter.

 

16.) The Cage is one of the best ANWL albums in a long time - its certainly one of my personal favourites.  Can you explain to us the song writing process - Does Nick write all of the lyrics and music, or do you/the band contribute in anyway?

Nick writes the lyrics, I write the music. We each suggest ideas to each other though. We’ve got a little digital 8 track portastudio at Nicks in a room above his garage. So I’ll go round there will my phone full of riffs, song ideas etc. I’ll record the guitar and bass onto the portastudio with a drum machine, burn a cd of 6 or so song ideas on to cd for Nick to listen to over the next couple of weeks. Then he’ll start putting lyrics to the tunes and coming up with other ideas and themes. We get together and go through them, add lyrics, rearrange the structures of the songs and get them to demo form. Once they’re at demo stage we’ll give the cds to the other guys in the band to go over and learn, add their own style, then go in to the studio for 1 or two weeks. Once it’s all recorded we get a rough mix on cd, if anything needs changing it goes back to be mixed proper, this continues until we’re happy with it, and there it is!

 

17.) The latest League album is of course the League Style/Loosen up collection of reggae tunes. Is this a brand new album with the current lineup performing, or is this an old recording from the 80s, with original lineup? Are you planning on including any of these Reggae covers into the live act?

     This album is the current line up, doing old reggae favourites of Nicks and Winstons. The concept came about in the 80s, but they never did it. Winston wrote the liner notes for us. It’s a great selection of songs. There’s talk of doing one song in the set, but it’ll be more ‘League’ than reggae if we do. It’s not too serious, It was all just a bit of fun really.
 

18.) When I messaged Nick last year he said that he had finished the ANWL biography, and was looking to Cleopatra to release it – is there an update on this?

 Last I heard it had gone through a few ghost writers but Nick wasn’t happy with what they did to it. They took all the ‘Animal’ out of it. So he’s just trying to find the right person to do it really. It’s ridiculous how much has gone in to that book already. Hopefully the right person to handle it will turn up soon!
 

19.) Whats the chances of a live DVD release in the future?

 I said to the guys the other week that we should do a live DVD. I think it’s time. It’s all down to money thoug, which we don’t have. Hopefully we’ll be able to do something next year.
 

20.) The League are playing once again at this years Rebellion festival, before some European dates and a UK tour - what is the purpose for this tour, are you still promoting The Cage? There has been talk of reintroducing some old classics, such as Crime era material, into the setlist - how likely is this to happen?

 Yeah back to Rebellion. Love that festival. Such a great event. Get to catch up with everyone and see loads of bands play that we normally miss! Fellow Tunbridge Wellsians Slaves are playing this year so we’ll all be there to watch them. They’re fuckin great. The purpose for the tour is to go out and play for our fans, and do what bands are meant to do, play live! And to stop us from going insane back home of course! Yeah there’s been a bit of talk behind the scenes of playing some stuff from ‘Crime’ It seems to have had a resurgence recently. For years it seemed that everyone hated it, now we’re getting asked to play it! There’s at least two songs off it that I’d like to play. There’s also some demos still hidden away from around 82 that we may do something with. Nick said it’s the album that should have come after ‘We Are The League’, so we’ll see what comes of that.

 

21.) Finally – what are ANWL plans for the end of year/2018?

I think just to do the best shows we can. Put some new tunes in the set. Barnzy’s playing bass for us at the moment as Shadys been ill. He’s on the mend but we don’t know where it all sits at the moment. We’ll see what the future brings! There’s a song being released on a Halloween compilation album later this year that we’ve just recorded. It’s called ‘Dance Of The Dead’. It’s sounding good. It’s hard to do a punk Halloween song without sounding like the Damned or The Misfits, but I think it’s come out great. I believe there’s a documentary in the works too, but I don’t know when that’s due to be out. As for next year, fuck knows. It’d be great to get back out to the U.S. again and play the shows we had to cancel last time. Other than that, more of the same. Keep on doing what we do. Maybe see if there’s anyone else we’ve not offended yet and go for them. Hahahaha.