Mr. Ratboy
Mr. Ratboy
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About Mr. Ratboy
Mr. Ratboy is Swiss-born musician Gilbert Avondet. Bio from the old Ratboy/Sour Jazz website: I was born in 1963 in Switzerland . I've always wanted to be an cosmonaut. I've always been really bad at sports. I played a little piano when I was 6. My uncle bought me my first acoustic guitar around 75-76. My parents didn't think I would play it. They thought it was just another phase I was going through. They were wrong. That guitar probably fucked my whole life up but I'm not entirely sure. My first "rock concert" was GENTLE GIANT . No, it wasn't IGGY,THE DOLLS or not even the STONES... I loved it . GENTLE GIANT is still one of my favorite bands. I was into"progressive" music until "punk" hit Switzerland. "Punk" seemed a lot easier to play so I was sold . I liked the imagery better too. It seemed like it was forbidden for me to like both "punk" and "progressive" so I opted for "punk" and forgot about VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR for a while. I don't like "punk" as it is understood today. In 76-77 high energy rock music was called "punk" to differentiate it from other types of "rock", but it was just 50's or 60's "Rock'n'Roll" with a new attitude.I got "Never mind the bollocks" the day it came out. My first IGGY was "TV Eye-live 77". My first THUNDERS was "L.A.M.F." My first SAINTS was "Stranded". My first LOU REED was "Live-Take no prisoners". These records changed my life. I started playing in bands around 79. Most of them weren't good at all but it was fun . That's all that mattered . It still is all that matters. I played my first show in 81. I lived in London in 83-84. I learned english. I saw tons of bands too. I went to as many LORDS OF THE NEW CHURCH and THUNDERS shows as I could . Back in Switzerland I Formed my own little rock band and put out my own little album on my own little label. I had to teach my bandmates everything. They didn't really have a clue. Neither did I. The record wasn't really good but again, it was fun. I really got sick of my hometown and left for Hollywood in 1988. I goofed around for a few month not knowing if anybody would want to hire me as a guitar player. Every guitar player played really fast on a Charvel through a Marshall stack. I played my Les Paul Jr. through a tiny Fender combo and I wasn't fast at all.After a few month MOTORCYCLE BOY found me . The audition lasted a month and was more like a drinking contest. I was in the band for 3 years. I had a lot of good times. I had some bad times too. We played mostly around L.A. to a pretty large number of admirators. We drank a lot. Sometimes too much . People loved when we did. Fortune can't lie I met a lot of people and we played with a lot of cool bands, like the DOGS D'AMOUR, L7, THE FUZZTONES and THE NYMPHS. I was nicknamed "RATBOY" because everyboby thought that I looked like a rat and that Gilbert Avondet wasn't "rock" enough. I agreed. I could have picked "Gilby" but it was already taken. I don't think I couldn't have picked anyway. You don't choose nicknames, usually they are given to you. So I became one of these "one word" individuals like "FLEA" or "SLASH". People loved it. I thought it was funny. Nobody will remember a "George" but most will remember a "Ratboy". It worked for me. Later ,when I got older ,I decided to add the Mr. because I thought I deserved respect. Like JAMES BROWN, he likes to be called Mr.BROWN. He's older,he deserves respect. Same thing for me. It's a respect thing. So it's Mr.RATBOY to you, punk. We recorded an album in 1990. It took a very long time to come out. I was getting sick of L.A. and some members of the band were getting increasingly fucked up so I quit and moved to NYC. I always wanted to live in NEW YORK. I don't even know why I moved to California in the first place. I formed PILLBOX and In 1993 we put out an album and played some shows with THE RAMONES. It was fun again. I also Did an album and a tour with JEFF DAHL. We went to Europe and Japan. In 1995 PILLBOX changed singer and recorded another record. Our bass player decided that he wanted to be a cop so we broke up. The chemistry of the band was so perfect that we didn't feel like replacing him. So that was it. He didn't become a cop after all. Good for him. I didn't do anything for a while. I started to listen to a lot of the music I liked when I was a kid. I got more heavily into jazz too. I saw FRANK SINATRA in Atlantic city. In 96 after the RAMONES break-up, MARKY, their drummer, asked me to join his new band THE INTRUDERS. I did, for a few months. We went to Brazil and played huge festivals with THE SEX PISTOLS. When we came back we had a band meeting. Beware of band meetings,they are evil. Someone didn't like the shirt I was wearing at one of the brazilian shows. Not "ramonesy" enough... I quit. Early 1997 I recorded "Diary of a lover" for a Thunder's tribute record. I sang and it sounded good. My friend Price, who had put out some of the PILLBOX records, offered to do a solo record on his label and I recorded "A gift fom Mr.RATBOY". That was real fun. I did exactly what I wanted to do: I sang, I did one of my favorites LOU REED songs and even some electronic songs. It was a varied album. After satisfying my ego with a solo project , I was ready to collaborate with other people again. So in January 1998, I decided to form SOUR JAZZ.
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