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Dead Popes Of The Vatican
 "We're all members, or ex-members of The Gels, Blow Up Betty, Angelik and Muscle Car," states Ben Gel, guitar/vocalist for garage/punk rock outfit Dead Popes Of The Vatican. "You could say we're Adelaide's very own super-group," he adds, with obvious jest in his voice.
"We're actually Ben's backing band for his solo stuff," jibes lead guitarist, Paul {Pablo) Vainickis, inciting the immediate, semi-indignant response from Gel: "It's not like that at all, I basically wanted to start this band because with The Gels we're fucking useless in the studio and it took us two years to make an album. In that time we would've only done about ten to fifteen gigs where on average I'd prefer to play every other weekend. I also had up to ten songs in the back of my head and I needed to have a vehicle to play them live so I just put this band together with some mates after seeing if anyone was interested."
"Ben initially put it to me as just being a side project without any pressure," maintains bassist Lynda Dedrick, "so that really appealed to me, you know? No one's trying to become big and famous, this is just something to do that's fun, and that's what it still is for me and that's why I love being in this band. Although it has changed a little bit, in that it's no longer just a side project considering that three of us have since quit our main bands."
Gel picks up there - "Because I play the bass in The Gels this gave me an opportunity to ditch that and play guitar, and I knew that Lynda was a drummer that wanted to play bass and I knew Nick [Hadley] was a drummer who hadn't played in a band yet [but has since joined/left Angelik and now also plays with The Gels]." Two years since their uncertain formation, DPOTV have clocked up a healthy slate of gigs and are now set to release their debut EP, 'It's A Long Way To The Vatican If You Wanna Be The Pope'.
"I guess that's just the way it started," agrees drummer Nick Hadley. "There were no real plans or intentions to do anything in particular just to see how it went, and then because we enjoyed it we kept writing more songs and getting more gigs and that then just naturally progressed to recording."
The result is a succinct, honest sounding recording that is akin in sound to mid-eighties/early nineties local legends such as The Exploding White Mice.
"We managed to record it all in one day because we set ourselves a few ground rules," explains Gel. "Basically we just said there's going to be two guitar tracks and the vocals are all done live, the only overdubs being some backing vocals and Paul added a couple of lead guitar parts."
While the band may have worked together on the album, they're not so united when discussing their own name. "I just thought of the name after Pope John Paul II died," Gels says of their impious moniker. "First I just thought of Dead Popes and then Dead Popes Of The Vatican. I then thought that's a cool name I better gets some mates together and form a band. Lynda doesn't like it though..." "I hated it," interrupts Dedrick. "At first I was like, 'Yeah, yeah! I'll join your band', and then he told me what the name was going to be and I was like, 'Oh, okay I'll work on that one'. Then, when we first got together I was going to mention it but when Ben told everyone else the name they were all like, 'Yeah, great', so I then thought I guess I'll just have to be stuck with it," she quietly trails off.
"The title of the EP is an obvious AC/DC rip off," furthers Gel. "I don't know what Lynda thinks of that?" he jokingly adds, with an inaudible mumble from Dedrick coming from the background. "Well, it's at the printers now so we have no choice but to like it," chimes in Vainickis, with Gel ending the matter by saying: "It was either that or, 'Nice Popes Don't Play Rock And Roll'; that'll be the next one."
Steve Jones
Dead Popes Of The Vatican launch 'It's A Long Way To The Vatican If You Wanna Be The Pope' on Fri 14 Dec at Enigma Bar.
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