At The Eleventh Hour with No Favors

No Favors are a testament to classic rock’s relentless spirit. The band was formed in the ’80s by a group of local musicians, which included current guitarist Carl Ogden, who has maintained a strong and constant influence on the band since its inception.  The band recently unleashed The Eleventh Hour, their first album for Pride & Joy music, featuring 10 raging songs destined to rock an entire world!  Music runs in the family, as Carl Ogden’s brother Neil is a member of the legendary Demon and his nephew Sam is within the ranks of Static Dress!  Highwire Daze recently interviewed Carl Ogden and vocalist Dani J Rankin to find out more about No Favors and their amazing The Eleventh Hour endeavor!  Read on…

Introduce yourselves and tell me what you do in the No Favor, first of all?
Carl Ogden: I’m Carl Ogden. I’m founder member of No Favors about 42 years ago. I play guitar and come up with generally the riffs and stuff for the songs. Probably a chorus, and then I take it to the boys and we work it from there.

Dani: Yeah. I’m Dani. I’m vocals. I’ve been in the band for 3-4 years.

Where’s your band based out of, and what is the local music scene like there?
Carl: It’s based in a place called Stoke on Trent, which is known as the Potteries because it was very famous for making all pottery wear, plates and cups, and all that kind of thing. Music-wise, we were really lucky all the way from, say, the fifties and sixties, seventies, eighties. There was a really good music scene around the area. You could go out most nights of the week to what we call the pubs and clubs, and there’d be some really good bands on. We were lucky to have the Victoria Hall in Hanley. There, from the seventies, eighties, nineties… Unfortunately, it’s not so busy there now, but we saw bands from ZZ Top, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, one of my favorite bands, Y&T in 1983, which I’ve still got my ticket from that gig, Twisted Sister. All the way through we got to all these great bands there. Compared to a lot of places, it’s a vibrant music area, so we’re lucky.

How did you wind up on Pride and Joy music? They’ve been really, really hitting it out of the ballpark with cool releases this year.
Carl: Yeah. The band has had some small label deals, a local one called Scarecrow Records. In the eighties, we toured and played with a lot of bands and nearly got signed a couple of times, but as you know, it’s so tough to just break through. My brother Neil is in a band called Demon. My nephew, Neil’s lad (Sam Ogden), is on tour in America at the minute doing a three-month tour. He is in a band called Static Dress. He’s only 24 and they’re doing a three-month tour of America. We’re all a big musical family.

Pride and Joy, what happened was we sent them some stuff, and then Covid hit, and so everything after two years lockdown. We did a couple of more tracks, sent them out to them, and they were just over, like straight away, straight back to us. They loved the stuff. It went from there. We did the whole album, which features a couple of old songs revamped, and then obviously all the new stuff. We were over the moon with it.  I think it’s a bit of fresh air sort of thing.

The Eleventh Hour, is there any overall story or concept behind that title?
Dani: It was quite a battle to get it done in time. So when we finally came to it, we were like we need something that kind of rolls off the tongue, but it is got a bit of this kind of solid meaning. So looking at the band’s history and this being like… you’re 68, are you now, Carl?

Carl: I’m coming up to 68. Yeah.

Dani: Out here releasing the first major release with No Favors since the band started. So The Eleventh hour just seemed to fit that ballpark.

Congratulations on this release. It sounds tremendous.
Carl: We appreciate that. Yeah, thank you very much for that. It means a real lot to me. That does, all the years and keeping the band ticking over in one way or another. You’re probably wondering why there’s quite a lot of members. It’s one of those things. My brother was in the band. He is in Demon now. He was in and out of the band. And then people want to go and do other things. Dave was one of the guitarists. He’s now with Sad Café and Leo Sayer, if you heard of Leo Sayer, He’s a session guitarist for them. Steve Johnson, who was in the band, unfortunately no longer with us, he passed away, but he worked with Phil Lynott and Lizzie. We’ve been lucky to always work with real good musicians. I’ve got my son in the band now, Danny, who’s 33. It’s great to work along with my son. We got Danny in, and he’s been another great addition to the band.

The Monkeys Are In Charge of The Zoo is an absolutely awesome song. Probably one of my 10 favorite songs of the year, and it’s so true.
Carl: I had the riff and I took it to the boys and I’d got the idea as well of what’s going on in the world with politicians and just all over the world then. It’d be nice to do a bit of a video with maybe monkeys and suits running around and causing chaos in the zoo type of thing. I’m glad you like it. It actually goes down really well live. It’s one of the tracks off the album that we’re playing live actually before we recorded it.

You guys opened for the Pat McManus group for Mama’s Boys. What was that experience like, and did you get to meet or hang out with Pat at all?
Carl: I’ve supported Mama’s Boys in the day when we toured with them and we played in Manchester with them when it was the three brothers as well before the drummer passed away. In Between No Favors, what I’ve done as well, why it disappeared for a while, I was in a band called Hope and Glory with my brother again, and Dave Day with Sad Café and a guy named Russ North who was in a band called Cloven Hoof. It was between him and Bruce Dickinson for the Iron Maiden job. Russ is a fantastic frontman vocalist. Looks a bit like Paul Stanley, actually.

Pat was doing a few dates and we did on support with him up at a local club tour, which is a really good club called 11. Nothing to do with The 11th Hour. And then he got some other dates at KK’s Steel Mill which is in Wolverhampton near Birmingham. He asked us to do that date with him as well. Real nice guy, Pat. I love the early Mama’s Boys stuff. KK’s Steel Mill is owned by the guitarist for Judas Priest, KK Downing. Fantastic music venue. It’s actually an old car factory that shut down and they’ve turned it into a music venue. I was there the other night when Y&T were playing on their 50th anniversary tour and we went to watch them there. But no, Pat’s a great guy.

Dani and Carl of No Favors via Zoom!

Dani, what were you doing prior to joining No Favors? What other bands or projects were you in?
Dani: Before I joined No Favors, I was in a band called the Circus Junkie Rebels. We were together for about seven or eight years. We were doing all right. We’d done a few various gigs.  But things just weren’t working out, so we just split up. That’s when I went seeking out and found No Favors. Before that, I spent a year with a band called the Gypsy Pistoleros, in which we did quite a lot of decent shows and then did some touring around the UK, played with Love/Hate on a couple of their dates when they were over here. And I did some death metal when I was a lot younger.

What’s up in the New Year for No Favors?
Dani: We’re just looking to get out there now. It’s like we’ll have got the album out on the 22nd of November, and we’re just looking to get some decent shows now. A strong aspect for us is our live shows and how we perform. I think that’s what has got us to where we are. Now, looking back at the Demon gig, we were really on form that night, and it’s that thing that we want to get more out there. We’ve done all our recordings now, but it’s securing those bigger shows. We’re chasing down some agencies and stuff at the moment and just trying to get onto these bigger tours, bigger shows, and get out there.

Do you have any messages for US music fans who are reading this right now and who want to discover No Favors?
Carl: Just check us out, have a listen, and if you like it, then just give us a thumbs up and be nice if they buy a CD as well.

Dani: Yeah, if you like British bands, here we are…

No Favors are:
Dani J Rankin – lead vocals and keyboards
Carl Ogden – rhythm guitar
Dan Ogden – Lead guitar
Pete Challinor – bass and backing vocals
Tom Bevan – drums

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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