NEW SINGLE: UKRAINIAN CELTIC-PUNKS O’HAMSTERS ‘September’56’

Not even full-scale Russian invasion can stop Celtic-Punk!. Check out the absolutely brilliant new Celtic-Punk release from O’Hamsters out of war torn Kyiv.

O’Hamsters are back. Perhaps surprisingly considering that their country is the middle of a war having been invaded. Fresh from last years fantastic album From Green Hills to Raging Sea. An album that would feature in the London Celtic Punks Top 30 albums of 2022. Songs about Ireland, women, alcohol, football hooligans, pirates and genitalia, reflections on the war and the brotherhood and unity of the Celtic-Punk scene all play out on this great album. You can stream or download the album for just $7 with all money raised going to HMV.UA – the team of volunteers headed by the band’s friend Alex Sedov helping the army of Ukraine.

We chatted briefly to Anton from O’Hamsters (their is no ‘The’) who said the track grew out of a rehearsal jam and all it took was about fifteen minutes. At first, at first it wasn’t even considered worthy enough to be included on From Green Hills To Raging Sea but time is a great healer and now the guys reckon it’s one of the best songs they’ve ever written… and they are not wrong! The final part of the track is a stoner riff – quite atypical for O’Hamsters.

The plot of the song is based on a real incident that happened in a soviet forced labour camp in the 1950’s. Three prisoners escape from a prison located in the desert, they walk for miles and miles through the desert without food and water and then two of the fugitives turn on the third and decide to kill him with the aim to drink his blood. However, when they kill their accomplice, his blood immediately coagulates due to the heat, dehydration and hunger and so the murder turns out to be meaningless. In a real-life case that took place in what is now Kazakhstan, two fugitives who were experienced criminals stabbed a Ukrainian accomplice to death, even though he had promised them that they would find a water source very soon. The killers then reached the source just a few minutes later. In addition to frontman Anton’s voice you can also hear the vocals of the well-known Eugene Tymchyk from Ukrainian bands Septa and The Nietzsche. O’Hamsters were looking for someone to record this track for a very long time, and Eugene helped us a lot, and asked to send their gratitude to him via our pages.

O’Hamsters from left to right: Anton Skvortsov – Vocals / Acoustic Guitar * Ruslan Viter (down) – Guitars * Andriy Ganzevych (up) – Mandolin / Tin-Whistle * Volodymyr Mazur – Accordion * Denys Zhukowsky – Drums * Maksym Sokolov – Bass *

As for our plans – they’re kinda blurry right now because of russian invasion and war which tends to exterminate any plans at all; the only thing that helps musicians and bands to do anything in Ukraine is the bravery of out Armed Forces. We’re having a Saint Patrick’s Day gig in Kyiv in a couple of weeks, that’s all we know now.