The Feckers 2023 Video Releases

The Feckers 2023 Video Releases Currently in the works for 2023 releases are videos for "The Other Side" and "It's Not Even Funny" more details on the release dates are to be forthcoming over the next few months as work wraps on "Courage Of Conviction Part II - Live And Learn" Titles are being considered for singles/videos from the 2025 album release "Courage Of Conviction Part III - In The Face Of Adversity"

The Feckers - Videos/Single Releases for "Memories Of You" & "Hate The Hate" (2022)

2 music videos that are in production and to be released soon, "Memories Of You" will be released in July 2022. Chris Szkup is just finalising the edit. He has also neared completion of the "Hate The Hate" video, which will be the second single from the upcoming double album by The Feckers "Courage Of Conviction Part II: Live And Learn". Dennis Leeflang is currently mixing the album and Thomas "Plec" Johansson will once again be mastering the album (as he has the 2 singles), with a 2023 release scheduled for the album.

Short Films - a look back

In 2021 I had the pleasure of making a cameo appearance in a student short film, it was great fun - it reminded me much of my first time in a lead role back in 2011 for a short film called "A Dash Of Wine" which was great fun to have made. What both these productions had in common were that the crews contained young people who had a sense of vision for something brilliant in the form of telling their story. In "A Dash Of Wine" I got to act alongside 2 magnificent actresses, Jaya Robertson (who has since gone on to work on a number of productions) and Liz Odey. Hopefully 2022 will afford more time for working on such endeavors!

The Feckers - Live To Fight Another Day

1. Don't Mind If We Do ft Raphael (C.Szkup, R.Anderson, M.Szkup) (3.10)
2. Out Here In The Real World ft Raphael (C.Szkup, R.Anderson) (5.30)
3. Never Too Old To Rock ft Raphael (C.Szkup, R.Anderson) (5.13)
4. Live To Fight Another Day ft Richard, Chris & Lydia (R.Anderson, C.Szkup) (6.51)
5. Pardon Me ft Raphael (C.Szkup, R.Anderson) (6.10)
6. Devil's Lament ft Roy (R.Smith, C.Szkup, R.Anderson) (5.50)
7. Between Good & Evil ft Chris (C.Szkup, R.Anderson) (7.55)
8. This Is What We Do ft Raphael (R.Smith) (4.32)
9. Walk To Destiny ft Alexey (A.Spectre, R.Anderson, arr: C.Szkup) (4.20)
10. King A.W.O.L ft Raphael (C.Szkup, R.Anderson) (4.12)
11. In These Quiet Moments ft Richard (C.Szkup, R.Anderson) (5.54)
12. Love Them Or Hate Them ft Roy (C.Szkup, R.Anderson) (4.36)
13. So What? ft Raphael (C.Szkup, R.Anderson) (5.35)

Musical Arrangements by Chris Szkup
Vocal Arrangements by Chris Szkup & Richard Anderson

Project Co-Ordination by Richard Anderson & Chris Szkup
Produced and Arranged by Chris Szkup
Co-Produced & Mixed by Dennis Leeflang @ Livelong Productions
Mastered by Thomas "Plec" Johansson @ The Panic Room, Sweden
Artwork by Dan Verkys based upon a concept by Richard Anderson & Dan Verkys
Duplication and Printing by James Weston @ Studioq, Auckland, New Zealand
Front Cover Hands: Rob & Carol Smith

This album is dedicated in loving memory of Bysh Szkup and William Work - men of a certain breed who taught us to believe in ourselves and to go for it and not let anyone tell us no.

The Feckers:
Chris Szkup - Musical Composition/Arrangements, Guitars, Bass, Ukulele, Vocals, Backing Vocals
Richard Anderson - Lyrics & Concepts, Musical Composition/Arrangements, Vocals, Backing Vocals
Dennis Leeflang - All Drums, Keyboards on "So What?"
Mathew Szkup - Musical Composition/Rhythm Guitars on "Don't Mind If We Do", Rhythm Guitars on "So What?", Lead Guitars on "Love Them Or Hate Them"
Reese Morin - Bass on "Out Here In The Real World"/"Never Too Old To Rock"/"This Is What We Do"/"In These Quiet Moments"/"Pardon Me"
Ponch "Bugger" Satrio - Guitars Solo's on "Don't Mind If We Do"/"Between Good & Evil"/"This Is What We Do"/"Love Them Or Hate Them"/"So What?"
Rob Smith - Musical Composition/Arrangements, Vocal Session Engineering, Backing Vocals

Lead Vocals:
Raphael Gazal - "Don't Mind If We Do"/"Out Here In The Real World"/"Never Too Old To Rock"/"Pardon Me"/"This Is What We Do"/"King A.W.O.L"/"So What?"
Roy Bratbakken - "Devil's Lament"/"Love Them Or Hate Them"
Richard Anderson - "Live To Fight Another Day"/"In These Quiet Moments"
Chris Szkup - "Live To Fight Another Day"/"Between Good & Evil"
Lydia Salnikova - "Live To Fight Another Day"
Alexey Spectre - "Walk To Destiny"

Backing Vocals:
Chris Szkup - "Don't Mind If We Do"/"Never Too Old To Rock"/"Live To Fight Another Day"/"Devil's Lament"/"Between Good & Evil"/"In These Quiet Moments"/"Love Them Or Hate Them"/"So What?"
Richard Anderson - "Don't Mind If We Do"/"Never Too Old To Rock"/"Live To Fight Another Day"/"Devil's Lament"/"Between Good & Evil"/"This Is What We Do"/"King A.W.O.L"/"Love Them Or Hate Them"/"So What?"
Roy Bratbakken - "Devil's Lament"/"Love Them Or Hate Them"
Rob Smith - "Live To Fight Another Day"/"Devil's Lament"/"Between Good & Evil"/"This Is What We Do"/"King A.W.O.L"/"Love Them Or Hate Them"
Jordayne “Jordy” Gibson - "Devil's Lament"
Mark "Chopper" Smith - "Devil's Lament"
Stephen "Titman" Titter - "So What?"

Special Guest Appearances by... Paul Jolley - Piano, Organ, Keyboards on "Out Here In The Real World", "Live To Fight Another Day", "Between Good & Evil", "Walk To Destiny", "King A.W.O.L"
Sudev "Nockas" Bangah - Rhythm Guitars on "Out Here In The Real World"
Pat Valley - Guitar Solo's on "Never Too Old To Rock"
Neil Murray - Bass on "Live To Fight Another Day"
Edo Van Der Kolk - Guitar Solo's on "Pardon Me"
Tony Franklin - Bass on "Devil's Lament"/"Walk To Destiny"/"Love Them Or Hate Them"/"So What?"
Tommy Denander - Guitar Solo's on "Devil's Lament"
Jonathon Noyce - Bass on "Between Good & Evil"
Joey Huffman - Hammond Organ on "Between Good & Evil"
Matteo Bucca - Bass on "King A.W.O.L"
Trent Williamson - Harmonica on "In These Quiet Moments"

for more information or to order your copy of "Live To Fight Another Day" please visit

Current Projects

At the moment I have a couple of music projects in the works - with others in the planning/pipeline.

The Feckers
At the moment we are at the point where we have enough quality songs for the 2nd album, it is just a matter of picking which songs we will work on, and with whom - the talent usually dictates what songs make the cut, it's all down to the artistic merit rather than any moneymaking bullshit. Fortunately we are able to self-produce the new material as we had with our debut album - the mixing and mastering team we are yet to decide upon, as of this moment we have no definitive release plans, this is all subject to the decision making process (which usually will involve either beer or bourbon :)

RPJ
Rob, Paul and Jeff have been busy the last few years with their RPJ collaboration, in fact they have just about completed another new album. I felt very fortunate that they included a tribute to Gary Moore that I co-wrote with Rob on their "Wonderful World" album.

Genealogy/DNA Testing

It's been a while since I posted anything as I have been quite intently busy with my genealogy research, back in 2015 I had my dna tested via Ancestry DNA which in itself proved rather interesting.

My results were:
Great Britain 45%
Ireland 30%
Europe East 14%
Scandinavia 6%
Finland/Northwest Russia 1%
Europe West < 1%
Italy/Greece < 1%
Asia Central < 1%
Mali < 1%

The Irish was a bit higher than I expected, and then all those minor % proved to be rather interesting, I have even been able to work out who the Italian culprit's were.

I was then able to check out My Heritage DNA and they were able to break things down further:

Irish, Scottish, and Welsh 41.4%
Scandinavian 19.0%
English 18.7%
East European 13.8%
Italian 3.1%
West Asia 2.3%
Iberian 1.7%

No surprises there with the Iberian, research tells me that people who can trace their roots to Cornwall are very likely to be have traces of Iberian dna - and that I am able to do with Cornish roots from both my parents. Given that these dna tests are done over different periods of time and with different formula's one can expect the results to be different.

I then checked in with Family Tree DNA their basic results told me:

British Isles 41%
West and Central Europe 25%
East Europe 22%
Scandinavia 12%
South Central Asia < 2%

I then decided to check out their ancient origins results for myself and this is what it gave me:

Hunter-Gatherer 44%
Farmer 41%
Metal Age Invader 15%

All rather resourceful people, which is pretty much what I have discovered in my research - I come from people who were survivors and definitely resourceful people - some of them too much for their own good!

I have had fun connecting up with cousins of varying degrees from places that I didn't dream of having cousins, and in some cases locations that I never dreamed I had ancestors

I definitely recommed to any of those people out there that are stuck with their research to invest in a dna test and link yourself up to people who may just be sitting their hoping for the same breakthrus that you are.....and who knows? like myself and my mother (yes I managed to convince her into testing as well) you may get some rather interesting surprising (and close) dna matches :)

More Film

Hi Folks, it's been a busy couple of years and I have been working on not only various musical projects but have also taken on a wee bit more acting. When it comes to the acting, I have been involved with some pretty small roles but they have been fun and afforded me the chance to sit and watch and see how others who have been around the traps longer do it, this should set me up for when I do more lead roles - I like to learn and to enjoy the processes of seeing things coming together.

Here's a few thoughts about some of those film projects I have worked on:

The Cure (2014)
Director: Alex Gould
Role: Security Officer (Extra)

I feel very privileged to have worked with a chap named Ray Florenz Goldstein, sadly he passed away from cancer before our feature film work in The Cure was released. I hope that my future work will be things that I think he would approve of. One thing struck me is that he was a very giving person, giving of his time and advice - definitely one of those people who made an impact and gave me the confidence to keep moving forward. People in Wellington, New Zealand knew him as an extra actor - to me he was a superstar. It was very moving to see he made it into the promo for The Cure.

I decided to take my mother to the premier of The Cure, it had taken until I had reached 40 before my first film came out. I didn't know if or when I would do any other feature film acting, so I figured that if it took another 40 years for something to come to bare that my Mum wouldn't be alive to see it. She really enjoyed the experience and loved the film. I was particularly pleased with how it turned out, getting to act alongside John Bach was definitely something I will never forget.

Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story (2014) Director: Robert Sarkies
Role: Reporter (Extra)

This was a film that needed to be made, I particularly enjoyed working with cast and crew on this film. Although my role was very minor, I played the part of a reporter who had to hassle a couple of the lead actors. It amazed me how very into their roles the lead actors were, they were very intense and hard to make laugh, of course I tried to make them laugh and break from character but it didn't work.

Always The Bridesmaid (2014, Short)
Director: Stephen Riddell
Role: Erik Lindstrom (Lead)

Working on this short film was great fun, we had a young crew. In fact I was the old man on set. I really liked the dynamic between Lee (played by Frederick Pokai) and Erik, my role. We were able to throw in our own ideas and basically riff off one another. I have a lot of respect for Frederick as an actor, he made me think less selfishly about how I was to play my role. I decided early on that seeing as he was playing his role rather dramatically that I would subscribe to the less is more theory.

Erik I think says more with his facials than he does with words even, he is a misunderstood character. Essentially he has a good heart, but his wealth of experience has taught him that he has to watch how emotionally invested he is with things in life. I can relate to that. Originally when I auditioned, I didn't think I would get the job, I had a feeling that I was going to be told I was too young or that someone else I knew had got the job, but thought I would give it a crack anyway as I really liked the premise, the script was great too. I based my character partly on Russell Crowe and Clint Eastwood, although I would never put myself in their league as an actor. There's a subtle nod to Clint in the bathroom scene that I hope makes the final cut.

The Great Maiden's Blush (2015)
Director: Shane Loader
Role: Opera Patron

I just had a very small extra's role in this film, all I did was sit in the audience while this chap performed an opera, it was a lovely piece of music, very soothing. I knew a few of the other extras and we had a great time hanging out on. it was a privilege to be involved. I really liked the premise of the film and indeed could very much relate to it. In fact we shot this scene in the afternoon and then I had to leave and go and start work on "Always The Bridesmaid" that evening, so I literally left one shoot to head straight to the next one.