How did you decide to get the Yo-Yo's back together after all these years?
Danny: It was 2001 when the band disintegrated. Over the years, Tom and I spoke on the phone several times, and it seemed like a good idea, but we never had the opportunity to get together. Then last year we started talking about it more seriously and we started recording "Given up giving up" at my home on an eight track recorder. I remember that Tom looked at me and said, "Fuck, it sounds like the Yo-Yo's!", "Tom... it's because it IS the Yo-Yo's!". Was the right time, and the excitement was back too.
Tom: Then they asked us to do a tour with the Dogs D'Amour, and we had a chance to be back on the same tour bus together. We had the opportunity to play together, become friends again and meet promoters to organize gigs for the Yo-Yo's for the afterwards. At this point, we only had to replace Neil and Bladz. Danny: I remember the first time I met Tom I thought, "I want to be in a band with him", and here we are. When I first saw Rich, was the time when he was really popular with Black Halos, I thought "Fuck, I want him in the band!"; so when I met him again and we were looking for a replacement for Neil I told him I had been trying to get hold of him and asked if he was interested in playing guitar with the Yo-Yo's: he said yes straight away.
Tom: I used to meet Rich everywhere around the world: Seattle, LA, New York, "hi Tom", "hi Rich" and that was it, then the first time we actually have a proper talk... here we are! And then there's Craig...
Danny: I found Craig on the floor. No, really! I went to see this band, Cherrykicks, I woke up and he was there on the floor....

General laughs, we never thought this would be a totally serious interview at the end of the day (thank God!). However, for the few serious Slam! readers, let's see where they did actually find Craig...
Rich: I was good friend with Dave from Cherrykicks, one day he said, "I think I know the right drummer for you". I only saw him playing a couple of years earlier. I told the others "I've got a drummer, Craig"... We had no idea if he was any good, but he had booked some gigs in Germany, and although we never heard him before, we said, "Shit, hope he's good!"
Danny: I had to book the flights to Berlin, we had two names on our list and we hadn't made up our mind, until Neil, from the old Yo-Yo's, called us saying, "You've got Craig? He's great! He gets drunk and then wets himself!" And at that point, I knew he was our drummer!
Rich: At the end of that tour, it was as if we had known him for five years... And it was just five weeks! Danny: You know, it's like with friendships, some people you get along with straight away, some you think, "well, actually I'm not so sure".

After playing with Dogs D'Amour, you finally embarked in your own tour. How was the impact live after all these years?
Danny: It was a wonderful feeling, I think the Yo-Yo's exist to play live! They make much more sense on stage, that's where everything kicks in, when you really become a band and the excitement starts, not in a studio.
Tom: We were a bit nervous at first because half of the original line up was missing. Neil and Bladz were the right people the first time around, and we didn't know how it would have been without them. We tested on a couple of gigs and it worked out well, even the audience reception seemed really good.
Danny: Neil was important for the band because his voice could hit the high notes, and Bladz was important for the drums.
Tom: We did the first tour with a friend of mine, Billy Joe, he was good but wasn't the right one for us, had a different style.

Where did the name "Yo-Yo's" come from?
Danny: It's a frame of mind. I know it sounds like a cartoon, but a yo-yo represents life with its ups and downs.
Tom: You had the idea in Japan, didn't you?
Danny: Yes. We were coming back from Japan with the Wildhearts, who had split for the fuckin' fiftieth time! At some point, Ginger turns to me and says: "What do you want to do then?" "I want to be in a band called The Yo-Yo's, yes, actually I'm going to make a fuckin' band called the Yo-Yo's!"; like the extremes in life, with its good days and its bad days. I thought it was a good name for a band. I know it sounds a bit cartoonist, but...
Rich: Sounds like the band dude! Doesn't it??

Everybody is laughing again, in some sort of sweet-sour approval, thinking about years of rumours, reunions that didn't happen, ups and downs, yo-yos and, finally, Yo-Yo's...
Tom: The title of the first album "Uppers & downers" follows the same concept.

What young artists did you listen to recently?
Danny: Nine Black Alps, have you ever heard of them? They are quite good. And Tats are great! (showing a flyer on the table) They work behind the bar here and give us drinks for free!
Tom: Have you ever heard of a band called Johnny and the Poor Boys? I really like them!
Danny: There are plenty of good young bands around, but none of them is in the mainstream!
Rich (laughing): The Ramonies! (Spanish Ramones cover band)
Danny: I tend to listen mainly to old stuff anyway.
Tom: I still listen to Johnny Cash!
Danny: Anyway, I can't think of any band on top of my head that really blew me away.
Tom: Actually, there's a very good band called the Holloways, I think they're great! They're really young, and I went to see them at first because I am friend with some of the musicians, but they really blew me away: there's a bit of punk, a bit of ska, a bit of everything! The new single just came out, they played it last night on Radio One. They remind me of the Clash, not only for the music or their look but also because of the scene that is hanging around them.

How do you decides who sings what?
Danny: We were so sick of being in bands with a lead singer that we decided to write a song called

"The singer is a cunt". At that point, the problem was: who's going to sing it?
Tom: Instrumental!! (Again, everybody is laughing, then back to serious mode). Everybody in the Yo-Yo's has an input in every song, but the one who starts is the one who feels personally closer to that song, then everyone joins in
Danny: Tom is the best one 'cause he remembers the words and can sing them in tune, I more the sensible bloke in the band!
Tom: Every song needs all the ingredients, and even now that Neil and Bladz have gone, we follow the same recipe, because Rich and Craig also write and sing. We didn't let Craig sing yet because we preferred he learnt the drums first and there wasn't much time, ma this gig is going to be his initiation as a singer! Come on Craig, show them!!

Craig gives us a taste of his high tone skills with a piercing solo, while between applauses Danny and Tom realise they may be out of the job soon...
Rich, you got into the singing role soon, congratulations for your execution of "Head over Heels"!
Rich: Nobody wants to do it, the high notes were Neil's job!

Who writes the songs?
Tom: We all do. When one has an idea, he submits it to the rest of us and it becomes a Yo-Yo's song. We don't make up songs out of nowhere, we start with an idea and spend a couple of days to put the pieces together.

Rich, you played with Amen for the last three years, how did you cope with Chasey Chaos?
Rich: He's awful! One day we were in Oxford Street for a signing session and it ended up in a fistfight. He's great, I mean, creativity wise I think he's a genius, but he's a fuckin' real prick. These three years have been great as an experience, but I couldn't take it anymore.

Did you leave Black Halos to join Amen, and if yes, do you have any regrets?
Rich: I left Black Halos because it had been going on for too long, and it seemed the right thing to do at the time, but I have no regrets, it was overall a great experience, and if I hadn't done what I had done, I wouldn't be here now!

How was the tour with Three Colours Red?
Tom: Wonderful, a ten days' party! We had so much fun, we all got along great, us, Three Colours Red, Smash Up from America and Along Came Man.
Rich: Neil came to see us to on that tour.
Tom: And we were kicked out of a tour bus for the first time! In Nottingham, the driver left us in the middle of the car park with all our stuff.
Danny: He said we treated his bus like shit, drank vodka all day and that he knew there were drugs on board...
Rich: “The Yo-Yo's are animals!!” (Mimicking the driver)
Tom: He had a problem in the head! I mean, you hire a tour bus to have a party bus, or you would use the hotel van!
Rich: He was dead jealous!!
Danny: Not only he left us on a street, but he started telling to all the other bus drivers not to take us on 'cause we were animals, "They destroyed my bus, they have sex, snort cocaine, drink vodka and they slashed my seats!"... We did not slash his seats!
Tom: Yeah, he must have some problem with his life, he saw we were having fun and got jealous, maybe he should drive a bus for old people... But he would go mad anyway if they stain his seats!
Anyway, we left him a present: a very smelly Danny's sock and other little things in the bus toilet to say goodbye...
Danny: I have a very very, very bad smelly foot, just one...
Rich: a cabbage foot! (Expression translatable in Rome as "cheese foot")
Danny: we took this sock that had been worn for days and left it in his pillow cover!

In the general laughing, we notice that Danny is so into the story that he's actually trying to illustrate it taking a shoe (Misfits logo, good taste) off. Before he gets to the sock, we'd better change subject...
Tell us about the upcoming tour with Antiproduct.
Tom: We'll be headlining this time, which is important, but we're very good friends with Antiproduct and will be like two group of friends playing together.
Danny: Yeah, we're very good friends with them, they were also involved in the new EP.

Danny, you actually played live with Antiproduct before, at the Marquee, when you got on stage with them for a song last year...
Danny: Yeah, you're right!! What did I play? Oh yeah, was a Ramones cover... Was "Blitzkrieg Bop"! Was a good laugh that night!

So, about this new EP "Given up giving up" (at the end of the day interviews are made to sell...), anything else you would like to tell us? Any favourite track?
Danny: No one is favourite, we like them all! “Around the world” is about being somewhere else, a better place, with someone you love, then it depends on what you want to read in it, for me is coming back from a tour and being down, can't wait to go again, so let's go... "AA Holiday" is about rehab, you turn the telly on to see what's been going on in the world and you realise this planet is fucked up, which is the principle why you're sent in rehab, because you're fucked up, but it's reality that is fucked up!
Tom: “Tattoos don’t last forever” is about Danny Fry. He died two years ago at 30, and it's not the first time someone I know dies, but it was a really weird experience. I've been a tattoo artist after the Yo-Yo's and I tattooed Danny Fry's neck. That day I had heard a rumour that he was dead, so I went on the internet to see if it was true and I found an email he sent me the day he died. It was so full of life, saying that we should meet up, asking if he could come and play guitar with us. And the fact that he sent this email the day he died was a very strong feeling
Danny: E “Rock’n’Roll Commandments”... is the Law!!

How did you involve Vince Ray?
Tom: I used to play bass in his band in the gap of the Yo-Yo's as part of my comeback into music, we became friends and I had the opportunity to have an artist of his calibre to do the artwork for "Given up giving up", of course I took it straight away and the artwork is brilliant.

And now the painful notes: why did it end, why did you leave us listening to the same (wonderful) album for the last four years?
Danny: It all went shit, nobody had any money, I was into drugs and we all had shit girlfriends!
Tom: Another problem is, when you tour at this level, which is when you still haven't made it and you're expected to survive only on free beer, it sounds ok, but you go on tour for a month and a half, you're in each other's company in the van, in the room, 24/7, and when you have all this to deal with the pressure mounts. One of the things we decided when we decided to put the band back together is that we don't talk about the past...
Danny: …until some fans bring it up! (laughing)
Tom: I think the best way to move on is to start fresh; we have new people, the same energy we had when we first started the Yo-Yo's, and this is what we decided to do, start fresh.

And do you believe it is going to last this time?
Tom: Sure, of course.
Rich: It will be fun this time, we'll have a good laugh, we'll take it seriously but it also has to be enjoyable, we have to live it well, we're really convinced and we're happy.
Danny: I'm having lot more fun this time around!

How is it going with the new label Undergroove?
Rich: We still didn't have a chance to sit down with them properly, but they were there at the right time, we wanted to publish the EP and they did it for us. They did their job.

I explain Danny that the last two questions are for him, but I'll turn the recorder off, and he has the right not to answer. I'm not sure what he expects, however he looks curious rather than worried. How's the drug stuff going?
Danny (smiling, relieved): Wonderful!

He's clean, you can read it on his face and on his bandmates. And I think about someone that didn't have the same strength, or luck, or would surely be here tonight.
We have a friend in common Geoff Starr...
Danny: Looks down with a sad smile, “thanks for this cheering up thought before going on stage!... I miss Geoff, a lot, we were very good friends. I want to go to his tribute gig, get on stage and play something, hope I can make it. I really miss him, was more than just a friend"
Time to let him go. There are still many things I'd like to ask him, without a recorder, two pints of lager on the table. Maybe one day. For now, he thanks me for switching off and gives me a big hug.

Four years, but it was well worth the wait. Danny McCormack and the Yo-Yo's are just like I expected, or better, how I hoped they would be: down-to-earth, real people, full of life and enthusiasm. Music that can reach a heart can only come from the heart...
I would like to thank our Japanese colleagues Sayuri and MaZ (www.rockcityrampage.jp) for the video of this unforgettable half hour; thanks to Julia for the physical cooperation and moral support; thanks to Rich and Tom for making this possible, and to Moreno for publishing it; most of all, thanks to the Yo-Yo's for every song and every show past and future, thanks for making London a bit less grey and cold, and for being by my side, going from my ears straight to my heart, in all the ups and downs of my life since the lucky day I discovered them.