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What does it mean to be in a rock n roll band? Does it mean drugs , alcohol , girls , etc?

Yeah, it probably means that to a lot of rock n.. roll bands , and that’s fine. Is it not cool to be a sellout? , and what does selling out really mean? For us in Million Dollar Reload it has always been about being the best band we can be . Writing the best songs we can write and performing to 100% of our ability every night. We have always tried and wanted for our songs to reach as many people as possible , in as many places in the world. If this is selling out , then we are sellouts. Whats the fucking point of being in a rock n roll band if you don’t want people to hear your music and see you perform! All the vices that come along with it , e.g drugs, excess etc are for the fucking poseurs , bands who want the ideals of the 80s rock n roll lifestyle , without putting the work into their craft. But hey, if that’s what you want it to be …..more power to you. But when you pay a bit of cash in to see a rock n roll perform at a gig , you expect them at the very least to be able to perform adequately , and not be fucked up on what ever vice they are on that week ,to the point where their performance sucks!

You also need a little bit of luck along the way, right place right time, kind of luck to get any kind of break , to gain any measurable amount of success. Hard work , perseverance , and determination doesn’t always do it, but it doesn’t hurt! Million Dollar Reload had been toiling away for two years before we got any kind of ..break… This year , 2008, the pieces of the jigsaw started to fall into place . Firstly, back in January friends of ours in England made a few phone calls on our behalf to agents and managers to see if they could stir up any interest . Luckily, Factory Music agency were the first to bite. They showed real interest in us and talked a good game. A couple of us went over to Birmingham for a meeting with Factory Music , just to see what was on the table. They made an offer which included a publishing deal and tours. We politely rejected the publishing deal because we have always held the belief to own our own songs , but accepted other principles i.e tours. So, in May we started our first proper tour of the UK with Chicago band The Black Mollys. We played 10 shows on that tour including an appearance at the Clive Aid benefit in Birmingham , a gig for Clive Burr x-Iron Maiden drummer who now suffers from MS. On the bill was also Tygers of Pang Tang and Blaze Bailey. we played all over the UK .Our final show of the UK tour was at the Camden underworld in London, this was a great gig and only fuelled our appetite for touring .It also was the first time we had a record label executive come backstage for a ..chat… After a short break at home, we were off to the US for a 2 week tour in June with the Black Mollys. Life on a tour bus is great, we played to audiences in Chicago , Minnesota , Kansas City , Milwaulkee and Iowa . It felt like we had finally arrived, this is what we had always wanted to do …….tour. When we got home , we decided to change management and opted for CRM productions , a much more professional management without the dramas of a management who only wanted to use M$R for their own means. Lime records , who had been at the Camden gig, came knocking. They came over to Belfast for a meeting. In all my time in the music business, never had a label ever made the effort to come over to our turf for a meeting, so we took them seriously and didn’t just regard them as another label who talked the talk without walking the walk. After a few weeks of negotiations with lawyers etc we decided that Lime were offering a good deal and signed with them , but in reality we had already signed with them back in Belfast, after several beers we had persuaded them to sign up to a few of our…. suggestions on the back of a napkin in the Empire bar!…..very rock n.. roll!

Accordingly, our album was re-issued with new artwork on Oct 22^nd with decent marketing .Its selling fine , but with the downturn in the economy and the way the music business is going now, we cant really expect to make vast amounts of money. Downloads and touring is where its at. We next toured with Terrorvision . We played to 6000+ people in 3 nghts in the Academys in the UK …..sweet! All this was underwritten by our label , so we know they are good to their word, as far as finances go. Throughout all of this we were writing away at new material, I think we have demoed up on 17+ songs .

That took us up to the end of November. With one big gig left overseas at Hard Rock Hell in Wales alongside Black Label Society, Thin Lizzy , The Wildhearts etc everything was going along swimmingly then…………….that ..rumour..!

Classic rock , or more to the point rock journalist Geoff Barton (who never has been our greatest champion) published an article on their website citing that I was about to join Velvet Revolver ! We had been aware of this rumour for a while , through different associates in the US , but didn’t think that anyone would actually go as far as publishing it. I responded to the ..rumour in Classic rock and Geoff Barton printed it , so you can read my response if you like. Suffice to say , I wont be leaving M$R anytime soon. But hey, any publicity is good publicity. The only downside to the rumour was, the label and our manager wouldn’t allow me to do any press interviews at Hard Rock Hell , they didn’t want the press speculating any further on the VR situation , so if I didn’t speak to the press nothing could be misconstrued. Which sucked big time, the ego in me wanted to talk to the press !, but hey , it is what it is. We also have nomiated for a couple of a awards , which is cool. Its been a good year.

Million Dollar Reload have big plans for 2009. Tours in the US and Europe have already been penned. And with a release date for our album through Koch Records in the US penned for the spring , ..luck.. just could be on our side for next year.? We..ll see.

We made a lot of new friends this year both here in the UK and in the US, who outside of music, will always remain friends.

Thanks to all who have supported us in 08 , coming to shows buying albums t-shirts etc its all greatly appreciated. To all the haters ……..go fuck yourselves!!!

Phil M$R