THE BAND
Budokan are a rock and roll band from Victoria,
B.C., Canada. They play hook-filled songs with loud guitars that they
want people to love and remember. They draw inspiration from all the
greats but feel particularly indebted to the likes of Cheap Trick (yes,
the band name is a tribute to the Trick classic "Live at Budokan"), the
Ramones, Redd Kross, the Stones, the Buzzcocks-y'know, the greats.
Andrew Molloy plays guitar, sings
and writes most of the songs
Craig Vishek plays guitar, sings and
writes some of the songs.
Kent Bendall plays bass and grins.
Graham Watson bangs the
hell out of the drums (since he left
the womb, we suspect.)
Andrew's been obsessed with popular music since
he bought Elton John's "Caribou" album from Angus Wagnell for $1 at the
age of 10. It was quite a while ago. He's played in a number of bands
over the years, most notably BUM. The band with the really stupid name
existed from '90 to '95, put out a slew of singles, one full-length
epic, a couple mini-albs and a live album and toured Spain twice to
throngs of screaming (or at least chanting) fans (seriously). After the
breakup of BUM, he formed the Power Failures in Vancouver with Stephen
Hamm and Terry Russell (from the amazing Slow and Tankhog). After that
ran out of steam, he returned to Victoria and started up Budokan with
original bassist Kent Bendall (Pingu), original drummer John London
(Mission of Christ, Pigment Vehicle) and Craig
Vishek.