writewyattuk

After the storm and under the floodlights with Woking: from the Shay to the International, via the Humber and the Hoe

Posted on March 9, 2014 by writewyattuk

Murtagh Magic: Keiran Murtagh adds a second to finish Southport off on March 8th (Photo: David Holmes)

As renowned meteorologist Robert Plant once put it, “If it keeps on raining, the levee’s going to break”. And a couple of months ago that might well have been the case in my old neck of the woods in the Deep South.

As it turned out, Woking FC only missed out on a few games during the major flooding and storm season that rocked the South-East and South-West at the turn of the year, preventing late-2013 and early-2014 clashes at Salisbury, Dartford and a county cup tie at Chipstead plus just one match at Kingfield, unfortunately the latter when I’d made my 450-mile round-trip from Lancashire.

Last time I put finger to keyboard about the Cards in early November, I mulled over my first six matches this season, after a few close encounters with Garry H, Thommo and co, mostly during away-days in my adopted North-West. Now I’ll pick up from there, in what proved a defining sink-or-swim period amid the rising water levels.

My general thrust back then was not to panic, the gaffer previously proven capable of key decisions at critical times. Changes were surely just around the corner. And that proved to be the case. We’re still just about in the bottom end of the table, but far closer to the play-off places than the drop zone.

Besides, as I’ve stressed before, you have to experience the lows before you can fully appreciate the good times, something I’ll be trying to get over to a few Man United fans on my patch these coming months.

Those hoped for changes were indeed not far off, the first sign perhaps the loan signing of Fulham youngster Charles Banya on November 2nd. But that was just part of the build-up, for within a week a certain Jack Marriott had arrived – also initially for a month – courtesy of Ipswich Town.

I shouldn’t have to go into detail about the lift that gave everyone, but a few days later Josh Payne got his England C call-up, and there was a real spirit of optimism around Kingfield. It showed on the pitch in a 3-0 home defeat of Dartford, Ipswich boss Mick McCarthy looking on as Jack the Lad made a sparkling debut, gelling with Luton loanee Scott Rendell, the Cards goal drought soon forgotten as both strikers and Joe ‘Beast’ McNerney netted.

You could argue that the fixtures were kind to us, coming back from behind for a 3-2 home win over hapless battlers Hyde (including a Marriott double) next, maybe getting a better indication of where we were at in the 2-0 defeat at league leaders Cambridge. But then we won 3-0 at Hereford after an explosive first-half, Rendell scoring twice and Marriott again playing his part.

That set us up nicely for my first sighting of the Tractor Boy Wonder. I’d read Chris Dyke’s Surrey Ad reports and listened to Jon Howick and John Moore’s feverish Radio Surrey’s internet commentaries, now I was all set to see him for myself, taking my place at The Shay alongside similarly-impressed new club director Garry Richardson, better known for his on-air Radio 5 Live shifts, on what proved to be a nervy but ultimately victorious seven-goal thriller which showed both sides’ best sides, but a few shortcomings too.

In typical Cardinal style we were soon behind, within 90 seconds, but then came the fightback, Jack’s effect on his team-mates obvious in a performance in which Banya and Rendell also impressed, with great support from Payne, Kevin Betsy and returnee Keiran Murtagh. We were 3-1 up by the break, Betsy later setting up 19-year-old Marriott for his hat-trick.

Shay Men: Jack Marriott, Kevin Betsy and Scott Rendell celebrate at Halifax (Photo: David Holmes)

This being Woking, we almost contrived to lose that lead, the Shaymen raising their game immeasurably – backed by vocal support from the stands, not least the old boy behind us who – incensed at one Cards player’s rant at a linesman – shouted in true Yorkshire style, ‘Shut thy gob!’ But despite that home comeback, Marriott might even have scored his fourth before his late exit was greeted with wild applause.

I too could now count myself as a believer. It wasn’t just his touch and consummate finishing, but also his ability to track back and get involved all over, the kind of player who inspires those around him, not least Rendell. That could only be good news, and another win followed, Scott R emerging from the fog to settle a Kingfield clash with Kiddie, 1-0, leading to an impressive away turnout in Humberside for the FA Trophy that weekend.

It was a pig of a draw, one of those trips into the unknown that unnerve, visiting confident Conference North high-fliers North Ferriby. But I’d been to Church Road a few times in my old guise as a Northern Premier League match reporter, and was looking forward to it.

Humber Horror: Jack Marriott had a day to forget at North Ferriby (Photo: David Holmes)

While it was a pleasant enough winter’s day in this picturesque spot between the village allotments and the estuary, close to the mighty span of the Humber Bridge, the football was less eye-catching. We were only a short distance from Marriott’s Beverley birthplace, but it was a day to forget for our loan hero and his team-mates, going down 4-0 to a side that went on to reach the quarter-finals after a 4-0 home drubbing of Lincoln City. The Villagers too looked dodgy at times, but showed a desire we were missing that afternoon. Perhaps I should have gone Christmas shopping after all.

If there’s something we’ve learned this term though, it’s that now and again Woking will get a kick up the KRE (for want of a better expression) when they under-perform, and a week later second-half strikes from Marriott and Betsy secured a 2-0 win at Nuneaton.

As it turned out, we lost 3-1 at home to Salisbury City on Boxing Day in Banya, Marriott and Rendell’s last games, with yours truly just one of those hit by the January 4 call-off against Hereford United during a New Year trip to flooded Surrey. At a time when wake-boarders were using flooded multi-storey car parks in Guildford and near-neighbours Godalming Town FC went six weeks between home games, you might have expected a few more casualties, visiting officials ready to call off matches before you could say Hoe Valley flood alleviation scheme.

But a week later a gutsy display secured a 1-0 home win over Braintree Town, with the Beast on target and Giuseppe Sole impressive in his first full 90 in 18 months. It didn’t take a genius to see our shortcomings though, with genuine concerns that we couldn’t recruit the likes of Marriott and Rendell again.

We were out-fought at Welling United (3-0) that next week, and a midweek 1-0 home reverse to Chester made it abundantly clear that we needed something special to avoid slipping into that drop zone. There was a brighter outcome in a 2-2 draw at Lincoln City, and it might even have been a win but for a saved last-minute Giuseppe Sole penalty, with ‘plenty of resilience in difficult conditions’ according to Alan Barnes’ report. But we were still missing that killer touch.

That was about to change of course, and Garry H’s dalliance in the end of January transfer window led to a deal whereby Mick McCarthy allowed our Suffolk Blue back for the rest of the season, Scott Rendell (My Lord) quickly following on contractual terms, and Mansfield Town’s Murtagh too.

Payne Game: England C’s Josh Payne was on form against Hereford (Photo: David Holmes)

I was on hand for the trio’s triumphant return – all three impressing – having somehow engineered a visit for a Monday game. It wasn’t just about those players either, nor the continuing form of Payne. Many more deserved plaudits that memorable night.

There was a strange run in February, a see-saw sequence of midweek defeats and weekend wins. I was there for one of the better showings, our 2-0 win at Gateshead, with two unlikely but deserving scorers – the under-valued John Nutter and ever-improving John Goddard, our backs-to-the-Byker Wall display setting up a winning early Spring weekend on Tyneside for this reporter. You don’t tend to expect atmosphere at the International Stadium, but the home fans were in good voice, with plenty to savour on the pitch too, every Woking player proving their worth, as Mr Hill acknowledged in the post-match interviews before a mass team exodus for the train back home.

Tyne Team: John Nutter's early goal is apreciated by Scott Rendell (Photo: David Holmes)

Tyne Team: John Nutter’s early goal is appreciated by Scott Rendell (Photo: David Holmes)

We won a 3-2 home thriller with Macclesfield Town that following weekend, although I struggled to keep up with the twists and turns as I was back on Tameside, witnessing another Conference Premier battle. I was reporting on Aldershot’s 2-2 draw at Hyde, where the visitors’ line was led by ex-Cards Bradley Bubb and Brett Williams. And I learned that afternoon that we weren’t alone in committing costly errors at both ends. Let’s just say the sense of frustration from the Shots fans at missing out on three points made me feel better about my own team’s occasional misfortunes.

How far we can rise up the table from here remains to be seen, but we’ve got enough about us to at least see ourselves to half-way again, as shown in promising early-March back-to-back victories at The Hive against play-off hopefuls Barnet (3-1) and at home to struggling Southport (2-0). That included a fifth goal in five games for Rendell, with Spring definitely in the air, and much to savour as Messrs Howick and Moore positively purred on my interweb connection.

As a result, it was almost nosebleed territory for the Cards, up to 14th place and 48 points with 10 games remaining, with Garry Hill feeling ‘lovely’ and whispers about play-off form too. Last time around, I concluded that we’d seen glimpses and now needed to see a lot more. A lot of water’s flown along the Hoe Stream since, yet we’re still holding our heads above water. And I’ve every confidence we’ll do swimmingly from here.

* This article is a revised, updated version of one penned by Malcolm Wyatt for the Woking FC official programme, published on March 8th.

* With special thanks to David Holmes, as ever, for use of his match-day photographs.

Posted in Football, sport | Tagged aldershot Town, Garry Hill, Gateshead, Halifax Town, Hyde, Ipswich Town, Jack Marriott, Josh Payne, Kieran Murtagh, North Ferriby United, Scott Rendell, Woking | 1 Comment

Boycie’s Bonus – the John Challis interview

Posted on March 8, 2014 by writewyattuk

Halcyon Days: Boycie (John Challis), Trigger (Roger Lloyd-Pack) and Del Trotter (David Jason). (Photo: BBC)

Cards on the table first. Only Fools and Horses – classic comedy. Up there with the very best of British. I’ll add Dad’s Army in that bracket too. That wondrous combination of superb character acting and top-notch writing. Hats off to the late John Sullivan and Jimmy Perry for that (the latter still thankfully with us, aged 90 now). That’s not to say that formula is enough in itself, of course, but sometimes the chemistry really works.

I’ve dwelled on Dad’s Army on this blog before, and now I’ve got a great excuse to enthuse a little about ‘the nation’s favourite sitcom’, Only Fools and Horses – having caught up with John Challis barely six weeks after the passing of his great friend and on-camera colleague Roger Lloyd-Pack, Trigger to John’s Boycie.

There’s the thing, Roger’s death in mid-January at the age of 69 knocked us all for six, let alone a bloke who’d known him well for more than 30 years. It was a similar tale with John Sullivan, who died aged just 64 just under four years ago, another brave man who kept his deteriorating health to himself, not just to the public but close friends and colleagues too.

Times like that clearly knock your faith, but John, 71, has dusted himself down and got back on the road again with his one-man show, talking about Being Boycie and so much more. And here’s what he had to tell me.

What strikes you first on speaking to John Challis is that accent. Here’s an actor born in Bristol and brought up in South-East London, but … well, he’s no Boycie.

It makes sense of course, and while the role John will be forever associated with is that of a certain Terrance Aubrey Boyce that shot to fame in Only Fools and Horses, in real life they haven’t a lot in common.

If anything, John’s telephone voice is more refined Home Counties, as you might expect from the son of a civil servant who attended a boarding school outside Woking and started out as an estate agent in Ashstead and Leatherhead.

But that was never likely to be the full story for John, and soon acting paved the way forward for this amiable septuagenarian, currently doing the rounds promoting his books.

And the number of sell-outs en route suggests a continued love for ‘Boycie’ out there.

“It’s amazing so many people want it, but I think word got around as I did quite a few shows last year. I’ve got together a nice package of silly stories and general showing off.

(John adopts plummy theatrical tones) “You know us actors!

“It’s great, otherwise I wouldn’t do it. I’ve always loved a live audience, which you don’t necessarily get on the telly. Having grown up in the theatre, it’s what I enjoy and just seemed the most natural thing to do.

“As long as you’ve got some words to say. Usually they’re other people’s words, but the trouble with this is that it’s me and my words! But I seem to have got it right.

“It’s an awful long time ago since we started Only Fools and Horses, back in 1981, so it’s extraordinary how many people it’s reached, from the young to very old people like myself! You expect your contemporaries to enjoy it, but the phenomenal thing is most generations latch on.”

It’s not just the quality of acting, but the quality of writing too. I take it you’re extremely proud to have been part of the UK’s most popular sitcom of all time?

“Yes, it’s just some kind of magic chemistry between the two. Why does one show work and another doesn’t? Difficult to say. Even very well written and acted shows don’t neccesarily catch the attention. But this one seems to have struck a chord, and continues to do so.”

I bet you’ve cringed at the sound of someone shouting ‘Boycie’ at you over the years though.

“It happens every day of my life. I was down my local post office this morning and someone stepped back and his mouth fell open. He said, ‘Are you who I think you are?’ I said (adopting Boycie’s accent) ‘I’m afraid I am. It’s a terrible disappointment, isn’t it?’ But he’s coming to see me in Ledbury now!”

“A lot of people get terribly uptight getting called by a character’s name. It depends on the context. If you’re having a quiet drink and someone’s had a bit too much to drink and lurches up, it can be a nuisance. But generally it makes people happy.”

Green Shoot: Boycie (John Challis) and Marlene (Sue Holderness) with d fellow cast members in The Green, Green Grass (Photo: Shazam Productions)

Green Shoot: Boycie (John Challis) and Marlene (Sue Holderness) with fellow cast members in The Green, Green Grass (Photo: Shazam Productions)

It’s been such a huge period of your life – 20-plus years, then Boycie’s four-series The Green, Green Grass spin-off, also penned by John Sullivan.

“Extraordinary. I thought it was the end of it all, then John came to a birthday party I had when I had moved out of London to the Shropshire/Herefordshire border, and saw me completely out of context. He wondered what would have happened to my character if he’d done the same, and wondered why he’d have wanted to leave London. It took him about two years to find a reason.

“Both Sue Holderness, who plays Marlene, and myself were very excited, but also terrified. How do you follow a series like that? But we had four or five very good years, and you found out quite a bit more about the characters and their relationship.”

Was it nice to do a show on your own patch?

“I couldn’t believe that. The location people couldn’t find a place for ages, but wanted to film it here because it’s such a photogenic part of the world. Eventually they said, ‘We’ve found exactly the right place, and it’s a really spooky, tumbledown, neglected old grange’. I asked where, and they said, ‘Your place!’ It was a terrific bonus and involved the whole community, shops and pubs. Very convenient – I just had to get out of bed, walk out the back door, and there was the make-up truck.”

I let on to John that I have a cousin in Canada called Marlene, and how it’s taken me a long time to say her name without reverting into a Boycie voice. I get the same reaction from everyone when I mention her name, and hold him responsible.

“When I’m signing copies of my books and doing the show, very often someone will come up, introduce the wife and say, ‘This is Marlene’, and you have to go through all that. But most people are quite humourous about it … (and he can’t stop himself now) Marlene!”

Sadly Missed: Roger Lloyd-Pack as Trigger in Only Fools and Horses (Photo: BBC)

On a sadder note, you were very close to Roger Lloyd-Pack. Did his recent death hit you hard?

“A terrible shock. I knew he wasn’t well, as he hadn’t shown up at a couple of conventions and signings, and I phoned him just two days before. He wasn’t feeling great. He said he’d phone back and did, but it wasn’t the right time, so he said he’d phone back the next day. But he never did. I left a message, and the next day he’d gone.

“It just knocked me sideways. I had no idea about the extent of it. Quite rightly he kept it very secret. He didn’t want people to know, didn’t want the fuss and having to field calls every five minutes if it had got in the press. That would have been quite difficult for him and the family.

“But we were all at the memorial service in Covent Garden, and it was very moving. It was full of laughter as well. Some there had known him since childhood really, some got up to give a eulogy, and there were lots of poems read. He loved poetry. There was so much to him, and you learned so much at that service. Greatly missed. Thirty years of your life, working together, doing charity work together, all sorts of things.”

I believe you’re an Arsenal fan, and he was Spurs. Does that prove we can all get on if we try?

“A lot of joshing went on, as you can imagine, but I think he just appreciated good football, like I do.”

The death of John Sullivan must have been a very sad loss too.

“A terrible loss to the nation. Again, it was a shock. He’d been very ill with viral pneumonia but was out of intensive care and looking forward to getting back in the swing of things, laughing and joking. When I got the call from our producers saying he’d passed away I couldn’t believe it, and still can’t get my head around John or Roger going. They were both such a part of my life, for over 30 years.

“John was going to write a special for us in 2011, for the 30^th anniversary, and we were all up for that, but he never got there. But you just have to get on with it. “

Young Boycie: Stephen Lloyd stepped into John’s role in Rock & Chips

What did you make of Stephen Lloyd as the younger you in the Rock & Chips prequel? Was there any advice for him from the older, wiser Boycie?

“I didn’t dare! He was understandably nervous about the whole thing. They all were. But he did a good job. I quite enjoyed it. It had legs and there was going to be more of it, I understand. John had this idea that eventually we’d all play our own dads, which Nicholas Lyndhurst was already doing.”

Did you base Boycie on anyone in particular?

“Yes, a regular in this South-West London pub, the St Margaret’s Hotel in East Twickenham. He fascinated me, with such a self-inflated idea of his importance. He got sent up something rotten. But it all bounced off him – he had the thickest skin of anyone I’ve ever met. A real Walter Mitty, with (adopts Boycie’s voice again) this curious, pedantic way of talking. I always remembered it.

“I’d always impersonated people, ever since I was six years old. And he was in the back of my mind. I played a policeman in John’s first hit series, Citizen Smith, and he came up to me afterwards and said he really liked what I’d done with that character. I played a lot of policemen, and just decided to invest in him a few of the characteristics of this guy from the pub.”

Looking at your earlier career, you did play a lot of coppers or loveable rogues, and sometimes characters somewhere in between, from Z Cars and The Sweeney through to Juliet Bravo and Heartbeat, and even a charming fake jewel thief in Last of the Summer Wine.

“Well, I suppose because I was tall, with this physical presence, and dark face. I played a lot of villains, policemen or henchmen.”

Ultimate Spiv: James Beck as Private Joe Walker in Dad’s Army, with trademark fag in hand (Photo: BBC)

Getting back to my earlier Dad’s Army comparison, I suppose there was a bit of James Beck (the ultimate spiv, Private Joe Walker) in there.

“Yes, I suppose so. I met him, and he was a great character. I liked the way he smoked his cigarette too. He was brilliant.”

Would you ever have been happy as an estate agent?

“No. I was hopeless. Everyone put me off being an actor because it was so insecure. I became articled to an estate agency in Ashstead and then Leatherhead, because I thought that was what I had to do. But I just couldn’t bear it. Eventually they sacked me, quite rightly.

“But I remember going out one lunchtime in Leatherhead and seeing Sir Donald Wolfit walking up the high street, with his astrakhan coat, homburg hat and silver cane. He was appearing at Leatherhead Theatre. I thought ‘wow, I’d love to do that’. I went to see the show and he knocked the theatre sideways with the power of his performance. It was the most fantastic thing I’d ever seen. That put me on the road really.”

Who’s That: John Challis as Scorby in the Doctor Who serial The Seeds of Doom in 1976 (Photo: BBC)

Your CV as an actor is mightily impressive, and substantial. You were in Dr Who in Tom Baker’s time.

“I was, and Tom’s a lot of people’s favourite Doctor. He loved a laugh. We had some great times, that was one of the happiest jobs I ever did.”

And you came close to being on The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour bus in 1967 too.

“I should have been. It was one of the biggest disappointments of my life. I met John, Paul and Ringo, who were looking for someone to be on the coach tour. The world and his wife were going up for it, but for some reason we hit it off, despite the fact I said I preferred the Rolling Stones! I was very cheeky in those days.

“John said (adopts deep Liverpudlian tone) ‘I think you’re right. I prefer them sometimes as well’. They said ‘Come on, let’s get you on the coach and have a blast. We start on Monday. We haven’t got a script or anything like that, but we’re looking for ideas’. It was chaos, but it was with The Beatles, so you can imagine! But I was contracted to do something else with the BBC, and they wouldn’t release me.”

Fab Four: And John Challis was so close to joining The Beatles on the set of Magical Mystery Tour

I understand you also sunk the odd drink with footballing legend George Best and hell-raising actor Oliver Reed too.

“The first film I ever did was with Oliver. Well, he was the star of the show and I was playing a relatively minor part. I remember the first night in the hotel on location. Traditionally, you’d have quite a lot to drink, to wet the film’s head. On this occasion there was a Chinese king fu artist involved, and quite late that night Oliver decided he wasn’t a king fu artist at all, but an imposter. This guy, quite famous at the time, proved himself by chopping a table in half with his hand. Oliver said, ‘Anyone can do that!’ and he had a go. Well, it just descended into chaos, with the hotel looking very sorry for itself. He was a notoriously eccentric character and always looked as if he knew something you didn’t! He was always laughing and not taking anything too seriously.

“I always liked a drink, but I was a follower really, not an instigator. Besides, I couldn’t really drink that much, whereas people like Oliver Reed and George Best could drink for Africa, all day and all night, doing a job of work at the same time. If I had a few too many drinks I couldn’t work properly the next day, So I always took care of myself. I was saved by the fact that I wasn’t very good at it!”

In Character: John Challis as Boycie

You’re 71 now. Do you feel it?

“Touch wood, I’ve still got most of my health. It just gets a bit creakier, and you haven’t quite got the energy you used to. I’ve got quite a big garden I try to look after, and find it increasingly difficult to get around it all when the Spring comes.

“But I’m also kept busy doing the shows and writing the books now. I’m busier than I’ve ever been. I was supposed to have retired six years ago!”

And you’ve got no children to do that garden for you?

“No. It just didn’t happen. I’m torn about that. Part of me would have loved to have kids, but the other part thought ‘Thank God, I don’t’. I would have felt a bit more secure thinking my kids would have looked after me, but (getting all theatrical again) I’ve got nobody … nobody! Still, maybe the state will look after me.”

With no disrespect to your previous three wives, have you saved the best times until last? And has Carol (with whom he has been together for around 25 years now) got a better John Challis for all that experience?

“I’m a very lucky man really. I met Carol in 1990 and we’ve been together ever since, having been around the block a few times and through quite a lot.

“I wouldn’t be without her and wouldn’t be here without her, after a particularly difficult time in my life.”

To find out about tickets for John’s tour and how to get a book dedication if you can’t get to one of his shows, head to his publishing company’s webpages via http://www.wigmorebooks.com/events.php.

The same links will take you to details about John’s two autobiographical books, Being Boycie and Boycie & Beyond.

This is a revised, enlarged edition of a Malcolm Wyatt feature for the Lancashire Evening Post.

Posted in Books Films, TV & Radio, Comedy & Theatre | Tagged Boycie, Dad's Army, Dr Who, James Beck, John Challis, John Sullivan, Oliver Reed, Only Fools and Horses, Roger Lloyd Pack, Sir Donald Wolfit, Sue Holderness, The Beatles | 1 Comment

Harle and Almond’s essence to fore in The Tyburn Tree

Posted on March 3, 2014 by writewyattuk

Grave Expectations: John Harle and Marc Almond have joined forces for The Tyburn Tree

I know I’m getting older, I don’t really need reminding. But can it really be 33 years this coming summer since I first heard Soft Cell tackling Northern Soul classic Tainted Love?

It was a while before I properly took in Gloria Jones’ 1964 original, I have to admit, but Marc Almond and Dave Ball had certainly pulled off what not so few have managed – crafting a truly individual cover version and making it more or less your own song.

There’s no point doing karaoke chart fodder. You need to bring something else to the party. And you can’t ever accuse Marc Almond of going with the flow in his career.

Soft Cell pulled off a similar trick with the accompanying Where Did Our Love Go? Again, I love the Supremes original (also 1964), but covet the cover version too. And then there was his brave attempt at Judy Street’s Northern Soul classic What in ’82, another song I only ‘properly’ discovered in retrospect.

The Almond/Ball pairing certainly supplied some great material of their own over the following years, with Say Hello, Wave Goodbye plus Torch and the rollercoaster that is Soul Inside standing out for me, all standing the test of time.

Furthermore, sat proudly (and not so unlikely as that combination might at first suggest) between the Manic Street Preachers and Marc Bolan and T-Rex in my collection (again, with a Gloria Jones link) is Marc’s 1988 solo album, The Stars We Are.

That arrived four years after Soft Cell, and for me was perhaps affirmation that this Southport-born and bred performer could do it on his own, although there’s clearly a major inspiration from La Magia, namely his co-writers Annie Hogan and Billy McGee.

From the artist who gave us Soul Inside, we had something of a follow-up in Tears Run Ring, on an album about so much more than camp classic cover Something’s Gotten Hold of my Heart, which led to that hit duet with the man who first took it to the top of the charts, Gene Pitney.

There’s a Scott Walker quality to some of the tracks, alongside all those other influences that made Marc the artist he is, as continued with his next album, Jacques, featuring the songs of huge influence Jacques Brel.

That was 25 years ago now and for sake of space if nothing else, rather than dwell on the intervening years, I’ll bring us right up to speed with his latest offering, in the company of acclaimed saxophonist, composer, conductor and producer John Harle.

It’s clearly an Almond quality to bounce ideas off others as well as keep it all fresh, and his current project certainly involves that. And again, it seems tailor-made for Marc.

Following Marc Almond’s guest appearance on Harle’s Art Music, the two Ivor Novello 2013 winning artists have collaborated to look at London and its darkest stories for The Tyburn Tree.

From the infamous Tyburn Tree gallows to legends of London ghosts such as Spring Heeled Jack and The Vampire of Highgate, the chronicled horror of Jack the Ripper and the Ratcliffe Highway murders, the pair have created a haunted history of the capital’s streets of fear – from two ‘outsiders’.

Almond is the tour guide, that incomparable voice combining with Harle’s score to offer a powerful musical experience. Marc’s lyrics form the backbone of the album, drawing on his fascination with London’s anti-history, alongside texts from visionary Londoner William Blake (Fortress and Jerusalem), poet Tom Pickard (reworking London Bridge is Falling Down) and Elizabethan magus John Dee (Dark Angel).

And while the lyrics stalk the darkest passageways of London’s history, Harle looks to offer a contemporary backing, drawing on his own song-writing, electronic and ambient music, from an artist whose successes include O Mistress Mine, written for Elvis Costello, and the theme to BBC1’s Silent Witness.

Soprano Sarah Leonard and London poet and author Iain Sinclair also feature, but it’s Marc and John that drive the project, with the duo currently showcasing The Tyburn Tree at five live shows too, starting at London’s Barbican Hall (March 2), then heading on to Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall (March 3), Cambridge Corn Exchange (March 4), Brighton Dome (March 5) and Bristol Colston Hall (March 6).

To explain the project, here’s a few responses from Marc (MA) and John (JH). I did ask my own questions, but time was exceptionally tight by the time I got the chance to deliver mine, and I think both artists dozed off before they were handed them.

So, what inspired the project?

MA: “Both John and I share an interest in British and particularly London history. John had already had an idea in doing a project called Dark London and after hearing some of my music on an album called Feasting With Panthers and of my work in Mark Ravenhill’s and Conor Mitchell’s song cycle Ten Plagues, thought I would be perfect voice to collaborate with on this project.”

What came first, the music or the lyrics?

MA: “The words came first, some of the words are written by me and a co collaborator, some by William Blake, others by Iain Sinclair.”

What should audiences expect when they see The Tyburn Tree live?

JH: “An exciting show full of rhythm, energy and Marc singing at his best! We have an incredible band including Ian Thomas on drums (Seal/George Michael/Eric Clapton/Mark Knopfler) and Sarah Leonard, who I have worked with for years and is the voice of my theme for Silent Witness.”

MA: “The concert will be a live performance of the album with a little added theatricality. John may extend a couple of the pieces for live. Even I’m not too sure what to expect at this point, the piece is quite powerful.”

Have you collaborated before?

JH: “Marc sang on my Album Art Music last year, but we’ve been planning The Tyburn Tree for longer than that. It seemed that we’d both been planning this album independently of each other, because when we met around two years ago, we described the same album to each other!”

MA: “I sang on a couple of tracks on Art Music, inspired by the paintings of David Hockney. We both share a love of British history, particularly London’s dark history.

What was it that particularly drew you to the subject matter of London’s dark history? Why did it resonate so much for you?

JH: “We are both from the North of England, but spent most of our working lives in London. Northerners see and think about London differently to Londoners. They see the roots of power in the streets and the romance of the history in a different way. This is a love affair with a mythological and the dark history of London.”

MA: “London’s colourful and dark history has always held a deep fascination for me and I’ve collected and read many books on it. My favourite is Peter Ackroyd’s London: A Biography. London is a place of myth and legend, none more so than those surrounding Jack The Ripper and the area of London where the murders happened and the speculation of who did it.

“My favourite periods of London history are Georgian and Victorian and even though London is currently under going a lot of new building work, sometimes sadly losing some of its history, you can still see many places of historical note and link them with the stories of things that happened there.

“I also think that Jack the Ripper is the utmost mythical figure of London, but we’ve referred to some of the many myths surrounding him like it was thought in a report at the time that the murderer was more likely some kind of creature than a man, maybe a kind of minotaur because of the labyrinth of streets around Whitechapel and Limehouse at the time.

“Spring Heeled Jack is my favourite London urban myth. There were also press reports of a vampire who’d been seen in Highgate Cemetery, unsurprising as the cemetery is like a scene from a Hammer Horror film, with Gothic crypts that were frequently broken into.”

Can you describe the music, both on the album and the live show?

JH: “Progressive music, heavily influenced by rock, electronica and classical together. Fun and quirky – but with a solid beat!

MA: “The music actually covers quite a few genres from folk to techno ambient and classical. There’s some very tribal drums in a couple of songs, brass and voices. Quite apocalyptic. I joke with John that it’s very progressive rock.”

What has been the most technically or artistically-challenging aspect of this project?

JH: “Having the ideas for the songs is the easy bit! Bringing all the disparate elements together and creating a sound world that holds all the musical elements without being schizophrenic has been the biggest challenge.”

MA: “Vocally its been a challenge to sing a couple of the pieces, some of the words are delivered quite fast, especially the William Blake words, and it stretches my vocal range. But I love a challenge.”

What’s been the most rewarding or exciting aspect?

JH: “Watching the songs come together gradually through Marc’s lyrics and beginning to hear how all that fits together into an album and show is really exciting – but I think that we’ll eventually find that the live shows are the most rewarding aspect.”

MA: “The whole experience of developing and recording the album has been exciting. When John played me the finished mixes I was knocked out. The hard bit is learning the songs, but I think live they’ll breath a bit more.”

Who are your musical influences/gurus and why?

JH: “That’s a big question for someone like me. Here’s a list – make of it what you will! Pink Floyd, Pentangle, Harrison Birtwistle, Brain Eno, Peter Maxwell Davies, Duke Ellington, Soft Machine, King Crimson, Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire, Steve Reich, Pat Metheny, old-fashioned test-card music, Quincy Jones, Raymond Scott, Joe Meek, Herbie Hancock, John Zorn, Viv Stanshall, Manfred Mann, Laurie Johnson, Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars and Rudy Wiedoeft.”

MA: “I love Jacques Brel, the way he delivered a song with such emotion and energy, David Bowie with his re-inventions and covering musical genres but not afraid to take risks, Peter Hammill (Van Der Graaf Generator) for his powerful vocal delivery and how he’s so inventive and prolific, and Marc Bolan for his pop glamour – to name just a diverse few.”

The music from The Tyburn Tree is dfifuclt probably impossible to categorise, but can you explain to readers what sort of mood or ambience it creates and how it will make them feel?

JH “It should feel like a dream – surreal – subconscious elements vying for dominance – surprising and ultimately both fun and uplifting.

MA “I hope it will excite them and give them goosebumps.”

Who do you think will particularly enjoy seeing the live tour and listening to the album?

JH: “The music is for everybody – despite being dark, there’s no ‘explicit content’ warning on the show! Anybody who’s heard of at least two of the musicians on my list in the influences question should love it! And of course people who love the emotional and theatrical voice of Marc Almond!”

What musical/artistic plans do you have for the future?

JH: “I’m going straight from The Tyburn Tree tour onto writing the score for a feature film about David Hockney, and then some performances at the Royal Festival Hall and in Italy. Marc and I have a long-term plan that I don’t think I’m allowed to talk about … yet.

“This year is also the bicentenary of the birth of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone. I’m curating a series of concerts and events at St John’s Smith Square called SAX-200, including a big birthday concert on 6th November this year with Branford Marsalis and I together with an orchestra.”

MA: “I have part two of a pop-style mini-album The Dancing Marquis out, with songs produced by Tony Visconti and written by Jarvis Cocker and Carl Barat of The Libertines and Dirty Pretty Things fame. I’m also touring with Jools Holland all year.”

What’s the most important lesson life has taught you?

JH: “Try to work at what you love. It doesn’t always work out, but be tenacious!”

MA: “That life is not about the past or the future its only about the ride.”

Marc did answer a few more questions on his own. Again, there was a lot more I wanted to ask about, but maybe I’ll get a chance when he’s doing the rounds with Jools Holland this year. In the meantime, here’s a few replies to others:

How do you feel about fame, and how have your thoughts on the subject changed over the years?

MA: “Fame was something I found hard to adjust to at first but its become part of my life so I live with and most of the time don’t even think about it. I get recognised everywhere but my friends who I’m with notice it more than me. I try to avoid the whole celebrity thing as much as possible and not get too caught in its trap.”

Something you mention in interviews is the idea that suffering can be a spur to creativity. Is that something you’ve felt in your own life?

MA: “They say happiness is the enemy of work and creativity. Certainly some of my best songs and performances have come from bad times. When I’m writing songs and feeling happy I just think back to bad times and tell myself the happiness won’t last. It rarely does.”

The Soft Cell song Frustration dealt with the perils of being ordinary. Is it any consolation that, despite everything you’ve been through, you’ve at least managed to evade ordinariness?

MA: “I’ve had a very interesting life so far and it keeps being interesting, projects like The Tyburn Tree for example which I find challenging. Those are the things I like to find now, challenges. My saying is ‘its not about the future or about the past, its all about the ride’ and so far the ride has been quite exciting.”

What’s John like to work with?

MA: “Fantastic, and fun. He pushes me but that’s great because I can take my vocal to other places. He knows what he want’s and has a clear vision of what his music should sound like and how he wants my vocal to sound. I go from quite low range to high on Tyburn.”

You got you into music by listening to John Peel as a schoolboy – can you share some of your memories of how that made you feel?

MA: “I think John Peel was many young persons’ education in music. I used to love his live sessions and record them and years later did sessions of my own for him. I first heard Marc Bolan on John Peel and became a lifelong fan.”

Which were your favourite bands back then?

MA: “When I first listened to John Peel I loved progressive rock and blues rock, but listened to him throughout the years. I loved punk rock and he played the cream of British and American punk. There’s never been anyone like him.”

What was that the moment you knew you wanted to be a singer?

MA: “I stood up in the class and sang She’s Leaving Home by The Beatles for a subject we were doing in English class. I must have been mad. I was in the choir, the usual things but when I was singer in a local band at 17 I got the bug. I never dreamed of being successful.”

Now with more than 30 years to look back with a fresh perspective, How do you feel about Tainted Love?

MA: “I have a great fondness for Tainted Love and I’ll always be happy to sing it, it gets such a great reaction for people. When I tour with Jools Holland and his band, which I’m doing all this year, we do a big band version with brass, which works so well. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint its continuous success, it’s very infectious and its timeless simple mix of synthesizer and vocal still gives it a modern sound. It’s been sampled by so many artists and it’s in people’s DNA now. It’s also a big part of people’s treasured memories.

“Both Dave Ball and I were both fans of ’60s and ’70s Northern Soul records, but it was Dave who bought the record to my attention, and Gloria was Marc Bolan’s wife. That made me notice it above other tracks, that and the great title.”

Finally, here’s John Harle’s verdict on Marc Almond and The Tyburn Tree project: “For the last few years Marc has been thrilling audiences with renditions of familiar songs sung in an unfamiliar way, but his singing always seems edgier, more dangerous and riskier than other singers.

“This is what I heard in his masterful, shattering performance of Mark Ravenhill and Conor Mitchell’s Ten Plagues at Wilton’s Music Hall this year, where he channeled the emotional kaleidoscope of love and death into a performance that surpassed the greatest opera singers I have heard.

“Marc and I are both from the North of England, but both grew up musically and artistically in London in the ’70s and ’80s – in different worlds, but with London as the focus for our dreams and ambitions.

“As ‘outsiders’, our perception of London was probably different to London natives – and the eyes of the outsider see both the light and the dark sides easily and quickly.

“I personally wanted to find the roots of Englishness, to investigate my fear of the unknown and the unpredictable but above all, to experience it with intensity.

“After teenage years spent listening obsessively in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Soft Machine and Pentangle, I was ready for London.

“And for me, London became all about its secrets – the mysteries, the masonic, the anti-history and the Gothic. Always looking below the surface for things not being what they seem.

“Marc’s lyrics for the album have been taking shape over the last year or so, and these lyrics form the backbone of the songs.

“From these lyrics we see his own breadth of experience and inner, personal knowledge of Dark London.

“In working with Marc over the last year or so, I’ve heard how he transforms the ordinary to the meaningful by the vocal colours his rich emotional palate creates.

“His voice has a quality that makes much of what he sings seem heroic – without being bombastic.

“In The Tyburn Tree, that heroism has been turned to darker subjects and darker purposes, and the tension of his heroic voice applied to shadowy subject-matter is what makes his performances authentic, thrilling and eerie.

“That natural heroism is all about the frame it’s put in. It supports both the dark and light sides.

“In Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’ – a hint of optimism at the end of an otherwise dark album, the words are supported by what we perceive as a natural optimism in the heroic voice, as the converse works equally well where that optimism is turned on it’s head and the voice heroically supports Marc’s transformation into Jack the Ripper in The Labyrinth of Limehouse.

“Jack the Ripper as hero or anti-hero? It’s up to the listener to decide.

“Marc is a true artist and true performer – showing total openness and vulnerability alongside an experimental, non-judgemental view of art.

“And in The Tyburn Tree, London has found its anti-hero.”

For ticket details about the remaining shows on the Marc Almond and John Harle mini-tour for The Tyburn Tree, head to www.tyburntree.com.

Posted in Music | Tagged Annie Hogan, Billy McGee, Dave Ball, Gloria Jones, John Harle, John Peel, London, Marc Almond, Marc Bolan, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Soft Cell, Southport, Tainted Love, The Tyburn Tree | Leave a comment

Reverend and the Makers / Liberty Ship – Preston 53 Degrees

Posted on March 1, 2014 by writewyattuk

Fresh Faced: Sheffield’s Liberty Ship appear to have a bright future ahead of them

While we seem to have a surfeit of young pretenders to the throne when it comes to junior troubadours, I’ll gladly add a writewyattuk thumbs-up to Sheffield’s Liberty Ship.

If you’re off to see Reverend and the Makers promoting new album 32, I advise you to get in early enough to check out their Yorkshire town-mates.

They’re easy enough to spot, a bunch of teenage wannabes with plenty of of hair and a moon-faced singer out front.

If that sounds bitter from this ageing hack, it could well be, because this quartet -Lewis, Jack, James and Kierran – have not only got youth but plenty of talent on their side too, judging by this showing.

The lad out front, a true luminary judging by my previous description, supplies sublime vocals, reminiscent of Liverpool’s The La’s and Cast and maybe Dundee’s The View, with great harmonies from his band-mates too.

I can’t add much about the drummer – tucked away to the left, out of my sight-line – but here’s an outfit proving there’s a promising future for jangly guitar bands after all.

And with some delicious hooks and proper song-craft to boot, I’m pretty sure the Reverend himself would readily agree with that verdict.

Shaker Makers: The Reverend and his band in action in Hull recently

While this sell-out 53 Degrees crowd were largely appreciative of the support act, they were on a higher plain by the time Reverend and The Makers stepped out on stage.

This was Friday night fever from the moment Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man announced the Rev’s arrival, starting as they meant to go on with the new album’s opener, Detonator.

That got the whole place moving, to a point where you wondered about the floor strength, the energy levels further raised by the pumping dance groove of Bassline.

It was the songs from debut LP The State of Things causing the biggest stir, starting with the title track, and at times it was more a warehouse rave than a uni gig.

Latest single The Only One further proved the Makers remain on something of a creative high, although Jon gave a tongue-in-cheek ‘six out of 10’ rating to his audience, but suggested there was still time to change that.

It’s fair to say that proved they gave it a good go, the reaction to the anthemic Shine The Light and old favourite What the Milkman Saw helping.

A singalong Devil’s Radio positively showcased the new record, but the early albums continued to inspire the biggest reaction.

A poignant No Soap in a Dirty War and rousing Open Your Window, putting us in spring-like mood, were followed by Hard Time for Dreamers, again showing proper strength in depth.

Between songs, the home crowd raised the roof, singing Sir Tom Finney’s praises in a difficult week for Preston, leading to Jon’s timely dedication to the North End legend on mighty breakthrough hit Heavyweight Champion of the World.

The joint was jumping again, I Spy adding a Two Tone dimension to a Happy Mondays meets Ian Brown feel, while the audience joined in with The Wrestler and Bandits, Laura McClure swapping keyboards for trumpet.

Different Trains helped Jon’s pitch for more sales of the new long player, requesting a chart battle with Lorde, and Out of The Shadows ensured the tempo was high for a big finish, continued by fave rave He Said He Loved Me.

And where else from there but through the trumpet-led Silence Is Talking, Sheffield’s visiting love crowd’s War-inspired hit proving paramount in suggesting the first shoots of Spring are just around the corner.

This being the Reverend though, that wasn’t the end, Jon returning 10 minutes later outside the venue, armed only with a guitar.

His hangers-on sang heartily along to acoustic renditions of Miss Brown and Dandy Livingstone’s Specials-covered classic A Message To You, Rudy.

And with Laura safely inside, it was left to his adoring audience to supply the obligatory brass accompaniment.

For more about Liberty Ship, head to their facebook page here.

And for an interview with Reverend and The Makers frontman Jon McClure from just before the 53 Degrees gig, click here.

Posted in Music | Tagged 32, 53 Degrees, Heavyweight Champion of the World, Jon McClure, Liberty Ship, Lisa McClure, Preston, Reverend and The Makers, Sheffield, Silence is Talking, The State of Things | 1 Comment

The Age of Chance resonates with the Reverend – the Jon McClure interview

Posted on March 1, 2014 by writewyattuk

Remember Adele’s first multi-million selling LPs, 19 and 21? Well, Jon McClure has just recorded 32, confirming not just his current age but also a sense of pride at his band’s comparative longevity in a fickle industry.

It’s about more than that, not least his band Reverend and the Makers’ intention to stay afloat amid major music business sea changes.

And as Jon points out: “When Adele gets to 32 she’s got nowhere to go, has she! She’ll have to either go with 31 or 33.”

That sums him up quite nicely really, this likeable Sheffield-based singer-songwriter far too honest and down to earth to get uptight about it all for too long.

Besides, he quickly adds about the album title: “Actually, it’s also my Dad’s lucky number on the Lottery. He has it every bloody week … but it never comes in.”

Rev Radio: Jon McClure at Radio 6 recently (Photo: Reverend & The Makers)

Jon started out as part of the Steel City movement that cast Arctic Monkeys into the national limelight.

And although taking a very different path from Monkeys main-man Alex Turner since, the Makers are doing very well for themselves, and wouldn’t change a thing about their own journey.

Initial success with The State of Things in 2007 and singles like Heavyweight Champion of the World led to headline-grabbing guest slots with Oasis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Noel Gallagher’s Flying Birds.

Impressive sales continued for A French Kiss in the Chaos (2009) and @reverend_makers (2012). Despite a few ups and downs, the band’s fan-base remains as strong as Jon’s continued resolve to make great music.

And if the single The Only One is anything to go by, the band has another winner on their hands, as Jon confirms.

“Oh yes, it’s smashing. We’re not hiding us light under a bushel! It’s pretty slamming, if I’m honest. It’s all good, man.

“We seem to have had a renaissance of late. It’s been very pleasant to experience, having not been played on the radio or mentioned by the mainstream media for such a long time.

“It gives you a freedom to do music you actually like, rather than trying to make cheesy stuff to fit in with what’s supposed to be in fashion.”

It’s the band’s fourth album, and Jon suggests that’s his response to the London-based music industry for previously shunning the Makers.

“Yeah, because we’re still around and doing really well. We’re like a cross between classic Sheffield electro like Cabaret Voltaire, Heaven 17 and The Human League, with the witty lyricism thing Jarvis (Cocker, Pulp) and Alex (Turner, Arctic Monkeys) do so well.

“But people hear us and label us a Manchester-sounding band, which is a bit lazy for my liking. There’s a big world out there once you get outside the M25.

Mr & Mrs: Jon and Laura McClure at Wembley (Photo: The FA)

“The other thing is that Laura (McClure, Jon’s wife and fellow bandmate) plays four instruments and is from London, but we still get labelled a lad band, which is a bit weird. So it’s just good to confound what they think.

“I don’t think three people in a marketing meeting in London should decide to end someone’s career. And the social media thing has been a big part of stopping that.”

2005 seemed like the music industry was looking for the next Arctic Monkeys, but Jon’s band clearly wanted to steer clear of that typecasting, despite the postcode.

I think of The Charlatans in that respect, arguably signed because the A&R men were looking for another Stone Roses. Yet in time they proved their worth. Was that the case with Reverend and the Makers to an extent?

“Yes, and if you look at Tim Burgess now he’s gone on to have a wonderfully diverse career. I loved the Stone Roses, don’t get me wrong, but in a lot of ways the Charlatans superceded that.

“If you’d offered Tim that career at the start, he’d have snapped your hand off. And they’re still playing big gigs to lots of people. He still makes interesting records and I’d like to emulate that and think I’m well on the way.

“Besides, I’ve been in this business going on for 10 years, and I’m still doing alright.”

So have the Makers and the Monkeys got much in common these days?

“We’ve taken very divergent paths. They’re influenced by American rock music and things like Queens of the Stone Age, which has never really held any sway with me. It’s not something I dig. I’m more inclined towards British music.

Big Influence: The Specials, during their heyday

“One of the fellas from The Specials tweeted and said ‘I want to come and watch you in Coventry’, and last year I was going round singing Clash songs with Mick Jones. I’m a lot more in deference to them sort of bands.

“When it comes to rocking out, the Brits do it a lot better. I guess that’s not really in fashion, but I think it’s timelessly brilliant music.”

Famously, you supported Oasis on their final tour. So – I have to ask this – what were Liam and Noel like to be around?

“I don’t know Liam so well, but I had a weird moment with him where he got me in the corner and asked ‘what’s your favourite kind of peas?’ I replied, ‘err … garden’. He said ‘Don’t you like mushy?’ and I was like ‘No, I like garden, they’re better’, and he said ‘You’re alright, you’. Basically, if I’d changed my opinion to fit in with him he would have thought I was a wanker!

“I know Noel a lot better and he was the one who asked us to support Oasis, and subsequently his High Flying Birds. He’s just a wonderful human being, that fella, and living proof that you don’t have to be a wanker if you’re a successful rock star.”

Poetic Icon: John Cooper Clarke

I believe you’re a big John Cooper Clarke fan too, and maybe you can see that in your lyrical style of writing sometimes.

“Absolutely, and it’s funny with John Cooper Clarke because he couldn’t get arrested 10 years ago. We did a poem together and then I started playing gigs with him, and then everyone decided he was this forgotten national treasure, and made this documentary about him.

“There were all the people saying how much they loved him, and I didn’t even get asked. But we love Johnny Clarke, although he’s a lot more celebrated now than he was a few years ago.

I mention how I loved his early albums with a backing band, and suggest that perhaps he could do some gigs with Jon’s band.

“Yeah, but he hates his own recordings, and hates Martin Hannett’s production, And I’m inclined to agree. I like his poetry, and although I think Martin’s a genius, I thought the Johnny Clarke stuff was too austere and industrial. I prefer him more like a stand-up, delivering it.”

The production duties on 32 are from the acclaimed James Welsh and Youth, the latter’s past successes including work with everyone from Crowded House on their splendid Together Alone album through to The Verve’s Urban Hymns.

I mention Crowded House because I remember hearing how he liked to take Neil Finn and his band out of their comfort zone – something that worked a treat in that case.

Youth Project: The Verve’s Urban Hymns, from 1997

“He’s amazing, Youth. He’s a total hippie and had me painting and this, that and the other. But you only have to look at Urban Hymns to see what he can do.

“Even as a songwriter, he’s written about four number ones, and he’s in a band with Paul McCartney (The Fireman).

“When I met Paul McCartney (another artist involved in the Hillsborough Justice Collective benefit project), I was in awe and thought ‘what have I got in common with him apart from the fact that we both play guitar and come from up north?’. But then I thought, ‘oh yeah’ and said ‘I know Youth’. And he were like ‘oh yeah, we like him!’

“Jimmy (Welsh) is a very current deep house producer and gets all those electronic sounds spot on, but Youth’s the one who brings what we do and what Jimmy does and galvanises it into something that’s 3D.”

The album’s called 32, but you’re in a business where teenagers like Jake Bugg, John Lennon McCullagh and The Strypes are breathing down your neck. Ever think you might be getting too old for this game?

Even Older: Richard Hawley

Jon laughs. “No, I think I’m alright. I’m a big collaborator with Richard Hawley (another leading light from his home city). He’s 48 but going from strength to strength, getting more popular with every album.

“That’s the whole point of calling the album 32. As long as you’re not trying to be a 21-year-old, it’s ok.

“Actually, I think John Lennon McCullagh’s quite something. Unlike a lot of his contemporaries, he writes his own stuff, whereas some of these kids giving it big about being troubadours have people writing songs for them, which I find a little bit fraudulent. Yes, Lennon McCullagh is awesome.

“There’s also band on our tour, Liberty Ship. They’re 18 and say they grew up listening to our music – so I’m settling into being a veteran quite comfortably.

“People in the generation of musicians above have always shown a lot of love for us. We supported Ian Brown, The Verve, Noel Gallagher and Oasis, and people like Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers bigged us up.

“In the same spirit, it’s important for me to duplicate that to a younger generation. There is a lot of rubbish music around, man.

“You’ve got to represent the good music. I can live my entire life without hearing another David Guetta.”

The new album is being backed by a Pledge Music pre-sale campaign, with the band’s label Cooking Vinyl’s backing, and that fan-based initiative is right up Jon’s street.

“It suits me down to the ground. A lot of bands of my generation have died out because they can’t adapt to the new realities in the industry. It’s a new dawn, people aren’t buying records or concert tickets, and you’ve got to keep interesting as well as produce good music.”

Part of that approach was seen in their recent ‘house gig’ tour, staying at the homes of 32 competition winners while spreading the word about the new album.

“It’s been amazing. People under-estimate word of mouth. If I play a gig in Preston and everyone goes and tells their mates, that’s more powerful than a recommendation from Nick Grimshaw, who’s just played a One Direction mix.

“It’s been very eventful. We’ve had smashed windows, riot vans, all sorts.

“In Stoke I played in a flat to a geezer and his girlfriend, and asked flippantly, ‘Are you married?’ He said no, so I said ‘well, I’ll have to play your wedding if you do’, totally joking.

“Next thing, he gets down on one knee and proposes. And she accepted!”

The band have also been known to play for fans for free in venue car parks, and I’ve always loved the way some acts are more fan-friendly.

I give him the example of David Gedge at Cinerama and Wedding Present gigs, having often shuffled my way out at the end only to find him already working behind the t-shirt stall.

“Yeah! Why have mystique in the days of social media, when everyone knows everything about everyone anyway?

“During the resurgence of guitar bands, there were bands that sold millions but couldn’t sell one nowadays, but I feel like we’re able to carry on through being able to tap into people’s hearts a bit … and hopefully through not being an arsehole.”

Another Reverend and the Makers idea – staying at fans’ houses while on the road – takes old hacks like me back to the days of The Housemartins.

Rover’s Return: Paul Heaton displaying his pedal power

“Well, I’m a big fan of Paul Heaton. He’s a wonderful fella. I met him through doing the Hillsborough Justice Collective single, when we got that No.1.

“I met him on the day we did the recording and he asked to have a photograph of me with him, which I thought was so self-deprecating, him being an absolute legend!

“He does similar things now, like biking between gigs, which is wonderful. The reason I like him is that he’s never been fashionable, yet he’s been really successful at writing music that is loved by the working classes.

“There are other bands like Madness and people like that, who also manage to tap into what ordinary people like. That’s why those people’s music will live on forever.”

And what can we expect from you on this tour?

“You can expect to go away very sweaty, you can expect a sing-along in the car park after, and to thoroughly enjoy yourself and hopefully have your faith in live music restored.”

You seem very grounded in a lot of respects. Is that a Northern quality? Did Sheffield make you what you are?

“Definitely. I still live there and I’m very much informed by what happens there. That’s why we can still make good music, because we’ve not allowed ourselves to be distracted by rubbish.

“Sheffield’s such a creative place and I’m able to travel the world while still returning home. I can take on new influences but still keep a grounded perspective on it.

“The other thing is I hang around with my brother, who runs a pub, and my cousin, who’s a binman, and play them my music. And their opinion is very valid.

“A lot of others want to please the trend-setters, but by virtue of the fact it is a trend, it will pass. I like to do my own thing, and like to think it’s working.”

You said at one point you’d quit, and didn’t gig for the next two years. What changed?

“I stopped trying to please Radio One and the NME, when it quickly dawned on me I could have a career and they would be an irrelevance to that.

“The moment I stopped worrying about what they thought, I started doing well again. There’s a freedom that lies in not trying to appease people.”

Sheffield Hoodlum: Jon McClure giving it large

What do you listen to on the road between gigs, or when you’re cosied up at home with Laura?

“I’ve been listening to a lot of Kwaito, which is a South African type of music, almost like deep house but with African rhythms and course rude-boy gangsters chatting over it. It’s absolutely wonderful.

“A wonderful example is Fingerprints by Professor. I’d love it to blow up in this country, but I doubt it will.

“Then there’s the band from Sheffield I mentioned before, Liberty Ship. And there’s a lot of good music out there which doesn’t necessarily get heard because it doesn’t show up on all these demographic surveys.”

So (with Laura not too far away as we speak), is it wrong to marry a band member?

“It’s certainly not wrong to marry a band member. I would advise it. It’s wonderful. It’s a beautiful thing actually.

“Actually, this band’s like a family, because my best friend’s the guitarist, Ed (Cosens). It’s like Bob and the Wailers really!”

“We went to Jamaica and met Rita Marley, and I was saying ‘I’m in a band with Laura, and we’re just like you and Bob!’ And she was like (dismissive), ‘yeah, alright dickhead.”

Jon’s also known for his Lies project – a series of short films based on his stories and poems. So what does the future hold for the Reverend? A film-maker? A novelist? A screen-writer? A man of the cloth? Or the front man of a band?

“Novelist! I’m writing a novel, and I’m very excited about this. I won’t give away the concept, because it’s so good that if I was to give it away … well, I’m keeping it close to my chest. But I’m a third of the way through and it’s going really well.

“So look out for Jon McClure, novelist, in the near future.”

Is it music-related?

“It’s nothing to do with music. I did a history degree and it’s history–based, but fiction. I feel like it’s not far off, but I could just do with a month in a warm climate to finish it off.”

For more details about the new album and tour, head here.

This is a revised version of a feature penned for the Lancashire Evening Post, with a link to the the original article here.

And for a Reverend and the Makers’ live review from Preston’s 53 Degrees, head here.

Posted in Music | Tagged Adele, Arctic Monkeys, Charlatans, John Cooper Clarke, Jon McClure, Lisa McClure, Oasis, Paul Heaton, Reverend and The Makers, Sheffield, Specials | 2 Comments

Face Time approaches for comedy’s Wonder Woman – the Kerry Godliman interview

Posted on February 24, 2014 by writewyattuk

Face Time: Kerry Godliman (Photo: http://www.kerrygodliman.com/)

With her latest stand-up show, Face Time, set for a 20-date tour from early March until mid-April, actor and comic Kerry Godliman will soon be juggling domestic goddess duties with life as a gigging performer.

And there’s no doubting that this Londoner is going places, a steadily-increasing public profile over the last couple of years leading to recognition in her own right now.

She might not quite be a household name yet, but it’s only a matter of time. And the fact that she fits her career around being a working mum endears us to her all the more – not least as it plays such a key part in her material.

Bingo Babe: Kerry is a WriteWyattUK HQ favourite when it comes to IMDb bingo

You’ll probably know Kerry. Even if you don’t think you do, after a few years as an actor alongside her stand-up shows.

Seek out her IMDb profile for starters, and play ‘jobbing actor bingo’ as you tick off all the shows on her CV – starting with appearances on The Bill, Casualty, Doctors, Holby City …

“I have done quite a few. I’ve never done EastEnders or any of the big soaps, mind.”

Do all those shows count as medical first-aid qualifications?

“Yeah. I feel like I’m in the Brownies with all the badges up my arm. And I’ve certainly got my medical and police-based drama badges.

“But it’s just the equivalent of being a circuit comic. In the old days, actors worked in rep and these TV shows are the same, really – it’s regular cyclical work for jobbing actors.”

I’ll carry on with that CV. Her other TV credits include Extras, Miranda and slots on Live at the Apollo and Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow.

Apollo Heaven: Kerry on stage in Hammersmith, as captured by BBC 1’s Live at the Apollo

Furthermore, she’s just shot a second series of Ricky Gervais’ Channel 4 series Derek, where she plays Hannah, and has her own BBC Radio 4 show, Kerry’s List. But I’m guessing this didn’t all happen overnight.

“I’ve been on the circuit for more than 10 years, and left drama school in 1997. I’ve been doing all this a while, But don’t ask my age, because it’s not relevant at all.”

Kerry, a Babycham Funny Women competition finalist, trained at the Rose Bruford College in South London, and has since been in numerous theatre productions since, alongside TV, radio and live work.

So did drama school for this West London born and bred comic and actor – who admitted to always being a bit of an extrovert – open a few doors?

“Not necessarily. It’s all the luck of the draw. It was lovely and I had a really nice time, but I don’t think there’s many people from my year still in the business.

“You all start with the same launch-pad, but some people get agents, some don’t, some do really well quickly, for some it takes a bit longer. You can never guarantee anything.”

Kerry’s performed regularly on the UK comedy circuit over the years, despite a little quality time at home with her young children in recent times.

And while Derek will be back on our screens in May, she’s going back out on the road again, with a new show, the follow-up to her last jaunt, Wonder Woman.

Super Hero: Kerry packs plenty of punch

“Doing a tour is a bit different to my usual routine, and I’ve only really done the one before.”

Kerry seems to be all over the place at the moment, and only the other night I saw her on Live at the Apollo, then caught my first listen via the BBC iPlayer of the superb Kerry’s List.

“By the nature of the TV appearances and my radio show being repeated, it’s just good timing, really. It looks like I’m super-busy, but both of those were quite a long time ago.”

The televised stand-up slots and radio show paint a vivid portrayal of her domestic life as a mum of two, and that’s her husband, Ben Abell, in Kerry’s List.

On the radio show, as with parts of her live set, she draws on a number of everyday home experiences that certainly ring bells with plenty of us.

That might include her love/hate relationship with internet auction sites seeking shabby chic products that don’t always live up to the description, or those annoying radio adverts where they tell you all the good stuff then list unintelligible terms and conditions in super-quick time.

Sitting Room: Wonder Woman shares her special power

If you saw her last live set, you’ll know how she equates that to real-life situations with potential suitors, just one great example of her ready wit and perfect comic timing.

So is her radio show’s chaotic view of her and Ben at home with the kids a bit too near the knuckle sometimes?

“I think any working parent in any career feels that. If you’re working and you’ve got young kids it can be full on.

“But the nature of my job means I can mould my time around family life. If I’m gigging, it’s in the evening so they’re asleep and my husband is around, and might even allow me a lie-in the next morning.

“Occasionally it can all get a bit too much, and I suppose Kerry’s List captures that. Although that is exaggerated for comic effect.”

I’m guessing those aren’t really your and Ben’s children in the radio show?

“Oh no, they’re not my children. It would have been a nightmare doing it with my kids.”

Can it all get a bit too personal sometimes?

“Maybe, but I try not to censor anything. You try it out on stage then gauge the response. I don’t think I say anything too personal on stage.

Celeb Pal: Bridget Christie

“Actually, there aren’t that many working mums on the circuit, other than Bridget Christie (also involved with Kerry’s List) and Shappi Khorsandi. So if you’re talking about something like that, it’s not being talked about that much on stage.

“When I first started talking about my life on stage, I was worried it might be too domestic, a bit twee, or safe.

“It’s not like young boys talking about their sexual exploits, it’s not rock’n’roll and I’m not talking drug-addled anecdotes about staying up until four in the morning.

“I was worried people wouldn’t want to hear about that, but then realised people having the equivalent of my life want their lives represented, and comedy should be a broad church.”

The radio show is built around lists that she writes to get through her day. So, like Kerry in the series, is she a serial lister?

“Yes. At moments of heightened stress when I’ve too many things to do, it works if you write it all down and feel that sensation of moving through it, ticking it off. It feels achievable.

“I also find lists inherently funny, especially comics’ set-lists. They use just bullet points, and I always think they’re hilarious to look at, with no meaning or sense to anyone but that comedian. And they’re always incongruous.”

There was a time when lists were done to death, particularly after the success of Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’ Diary and Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch and High Fidelity.

“Actually, High Fidelity was one of my favourite books and films.”

I quite agree with that. High Fidelity‘s my favourite Hornby moment, and although some way removed from the book, the film is a winner too.

Anyway, where were we, Kerry?

“You can boil a list right down to things you need to get done, like a bucket list, and some use it as a dating strategy, like favourite films and records.

“If someone comes up with things you can’t bear, you might think, ‘well, this relationship’s not going anywhere’.

“I do like lists. In this world of too much information, they can boil it all down to a more digestible size.”

Another of the winning items on Kerry’s live list is her frustration at being asked to submit online reviews of the most mundane of purchased internet items.

“Yes. I’m slightly obsessed with that. Reviews of washing machines, and that. I find it all so banal. I get irritated that you’re pestered to write reviews for every single transaction you make. It’s just absurd.”

We had Wonder Woman last time, about juggling her personal and public life, and now we have Face Time. So what’s all that about?

“I just want to get out there, meet my audience and see who wants to see me, spending a little face-to-face time doing that through live performance.

“And it’s been such a long time since I’ve been around the country.”

Kerry’s domestic situation and acting may have cut down her time on the stand-up circuit, but she has played a lot of big festivals in the past.

“A lot of comics are exclusively that, but I don’t have a set pattern of work.

“There were some years when I did Edinburgh, then others when I did more acting so stand-up had to take more of a back seat. There is no set pattern for me.

“Some comics do the international circuit, and go to Melbourne, Montreal and so on, and I’ve never had the chance to do it that way.”

Where does she see herself five years down the line – touring as a stand-up comic, established as a mainstream actor, or maybe as a writer?

“I’d love to still be able to do all of it. I’m quite lucky I can afford to have quite an eclectic CV. Sometimes you can do too much of one thing.

“A few years ago I couldn’t have predicted I’d be on Derek, have my own radio show or be doing Live at the Apollo. So I don’t really know what to pre-empt about the next five years.

“Actually, somebody approached the production company for Kerry’s List about turning it into an animation. I’d really love that, if we could somehow make that work.

“I see it quite visually, and like the idea of animation being involved.”

I put it to Kerry that maybe it could be like a grown-up version of hit children’s animation Charlie and Lola (from Lauren Child’s genius picture book series, one that resonates as much with us grown-ups, I might add). She seems surprised.

“Do you know, that’s really weird, because I said Charlie and Lola in the pitch meeting. I said it to my producer, but he hasn’t got kids, so he said ‘what?’

“It would be like the film Amelie mixed with that, where things spin off into weird little visual segues.”

Sounds perfect to me.

Now you have all these celeb mates through appearances alongside Alan Carr, Miranda Hart and more recently Ricky Gervais and so on, do you tend to pick up the phone and talk to them when you’re not working?

“Well, with Derek we’re all pretty good mates, because we know each other off the circuit. Me, David (Earl) and Brett (Goldstein) are all comics, so I knew them all before.”

(Actually, it might not be David Earl and Brett Goldstein that she meant. I only guessed that by looking at the cast list later. To be honest, I thought she said David Brent at the time. But we’ll keep that to ourselves, shall we?)

Co Star: Ricky Gervais as Derek

“It’s a lovely little gang, and I’d never done a second series before, so you come in with a kind of shorthand. You get on, and you know how to work with each other.

“The world of comedy is like a village, mentally, where your paths cross, with comics you meet at clubs, on the circuit or at festivals, through radio or pilots, getting to know each other.

“But I feel my comedy life, my stand-up life and my being a mum life are quite different really. They don’t really have much overlap.

“The only person I chat to where there is an overlap is Bridget Christie. We speak on the phone and she has kids the same age as mine, so our lives are not enormously dissimilar.”

So what can punters expect from you if we turn up at a Face Time gig somewhere between Norwich Playhouse Theatre (March 8) and Fareham Ashcroft Arts Centre (April 12)?

“If they’re familiar with what I do, they’ll know they’ll get more of that. I won’t be pulling anything unpredictable out of the hat. I won’t be doing back-flips.”

Nothing inspired by the Winter Olympics then?

“I haven’t watched any of that, I think I’ve unwittingly boycotted it without my knowledge. I’d like to think that was motivated by politics, but it’s actually utter indifference to sport.

“I had to get involved when we were hosting the Olympics, but found it incredibly hard to pretend that I gave a shit.”

Fair enough, and with that I let Kerry go, no doubt so she could power-walk her way to the off-licence – her lone concession to sport, apparently.

* For more about Kerry and where you can catch her on tour, check out the official website here.

* This interview was adapted from one by Malcolm Wyatt for the Lancashire Evening Post on February 20, 2014. The original’s here.

Posted in Books Films, TV & Radio, Comedy & Theatre | Tagged Ben Abell, Bridget Christie, comedy, Derek, Kerry Godliman, Kerry's List, Lauren Child, Live at the Apollo, Miranda, ose Bruford College, Ricky Gervais, Shappi Khorsandi | Leave a comment

Scotch and water, claret and blues – The Spin Doctors at Burnley Mechanics

Posted on February 21, 2014 by writewyattuk

Barron's Night: Spin Doctors' vocalist Chris Barrow stretches out (Photo: spindoctors.com)

Barron’s Night: Spin Doctors’ vocalist Chris Barrow stretches out on a previous date (Photo: spindoctors.com)

I remember a lad from Detroit that I met on my travels who genuinely seemed to think Monty Python’s Flying Circus was a documentary, believing all Brits wore bowler hats and probably had ludicrous walks to match.

In no way am I suggesting Chris Barron falls into that category, but his recollections of an Australian childhood before he relocated to New Jersey included lots of UK television.

That became something of a talking point at Burnley Mechanics, Chris first measuring his appreciation of Tom Baker as the ultimate Dr Who against his daughter’s love for David Tennant in that role.

Then he admitted to this East Lancs audience he’d been saying ‘ecky thump’ all day, since tackling a black pudding for his breakfast, inspired by early memories of The Goodies.

Claret Date: Eric, Aaron, Mark and Chris take in the delights of Burnley (Photo: spindoctors.com)

But he wasn’t patronising his flat-capped audience, just engaging a little humour and all-round good-blokeness.

And the same went for the rest of the band, as illustrated by the amount of time they spent answering questions and signing all manner of merchandise and more after a hectic and thoroughly entertaining, impassioned set.

It was The Spin Doctors’ only date in Northern England this time around, a precursor for shows at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls (Friday, February 21) and Islington The Garage (Saturday, February 22).

Chris and his band-mates – ‘the original Spin Doctors’, he told us proudly between songs on at least a couple of occasions – are touring their most recent long player, If The River Was Whiskey, a riotous return to their blues roots.

And 20-plus years after stealing British hearts with Pocket Full of Kryptonite, there was proof – if needed – that this was far more than a retro band still dining out on the success of a few early ‘90s hits.

True enough that the joint was jumping when they treated us to Jimmy Olsen’s Blues, Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong, What Time Is It? and Two Princes, but there was a rightful reverence for the newer material too.

That included runs through many of the latest album’s highlights, not least Some Other Man Instead, If The River Was Whiskey, Traction Blues, About a Train and The Drop, when the band seemed at their most inspired.

What’s more, this four-piece are intrinsically likeable – as proved by the way they mingled with the fans afterwards. No rock star stand-off here.

It was a perfect-sized venue. The only problem was that the gig was pretty poorly attended. It was far from empty, but the band deserved a sell-out.

All the better for those of us who made the effort though, and this New York City outfit certainly didn’t give anything less than their best.

Sublime Canadian guitarist Eric Schenkman’s fingers were a blur at times, this dead-ringer for Barcelona star Carles Puyol chopping out those chords and solos, with Chris regularly at his side pulling the faces that went with the shapes.

Aaron Comess, behind his drum kit, and Mark White, effortlessly cool on bass, drove the show perfectly, and had their own starring spots under the lights too.

Then there were those splendid vocals from Chris, a livewire with a doctorate in yoga and the kind of leg elasticity that suggests he could be on ice and snow in Sochi this week.

When I got home I reminded myself how they looked back in ’91, watching a few old videos. Yeah, they’re a little older now, but no less youthful and inspired, and their brand of raunchy rhythm and blues never really ages.

Between songs, Chris charmed us with his dodgy English accent – not least remarking on one young admirer down the front being ‘a nice bit of crumpet’ – and a few more stories.

There were a few other surprises too, not least the band’s assured version of The Beatles’ I Want You (She’s So Heavy).

Drum Cam: Aaron’s view at the Burnley Mechanics (Photo: https://www.facebook.com/spindoctorsband)

Someone passed up a Norwegian-style woolly ski hat so Chris could roll back the years for Two Princes, and he still looked the part.

That was followed by a mighty jam as the band flexed their musical muscles, before their return for a show-stopping Scotch and Water Blues and a stonking Yo Mama’s A Pajama.

And hopefully next time they return to the North-West, the audience will be jostling for space, whatever the venue.

For an illuminating writewyattuk interview with Chris Barron, head here.

To find out more about the UK tour and all the latest from the band, head to www.spindoctors.com

And to get a taste of the Spin Doctors in 2014, try this video link to the title track of their latest album.

Posted in Music | Tagged Aaron Comess, Burnley, Chris Barron, Dr Who, Eric Schenkman, If The River Was Whiskey, Mark White, Pocket Full of Kryptonite, Spin Doctors, The Goodies, Two Princes | Leave a comment

Flying above the clouds with Neil Finn

Posted on February 18, 2014 by writewyattuk

In which writewyattuk goes to work on Dizzy Heights, the new album by Neil Finn.

I’m not one for snap judgements on albums. I often feel the more immediate ones are those you tire of, while the harder-to-realise stay with you.

So I saw it as a good sign that I had to work hard to get to grips with Dizzy Heights (Lester Records, 2014), the latest assured offering from Neil Finn.

You know Neil, the office junior who added youthful energy to brother Tim’s band, Split Enz, back in the day, going on to be the driving force behind Crowded House and so many other winning projects, not least teaming up with big bro again in Finn and The Finn Brothers, his two previous solo albums, and Pajama Club, to all intents the nucleus of his current band.

It’s difficult to pigeonhole where this latest offering fits in that canon, amid the wealth of fantastic material Neil has put our way since his initial Finn collaboration in 1995.

I’m certainly not sure if I can measure this succinctly against Try Whistling This (1998) and One Nil (2001). But if I remember correctly, it took both albums a while to make their impression on me. I love them now, and Dizzy Heights has similar qualities.

Live Act: Neil Finn (Photo: http://neilfinn.com/)

Like all those albums from the past two decades, Neil has never been known to take the easy route. As with other great songwriters like Elvis Costello, you get the feeling he could write winning pop at the drop of a hat and be forever in demand from every unworthy pop act on all those unseemly talent shows – a Smokey Robinson for his generation, slaving away at the Hit Factory.

Yet while Neil’s about far more than that, there are commercial nuggets hidden away here – key moments when the turn of a phrase, an unexpected chord sequence or irrepressible hook leaves you marvelling. That doesn’t say any less about the moments in between either. It’s all part of the package, and this is a beautifully crafted if not obvious product.

Let’s take it from the beginning, and other-worldly slow-burning lead track Impressions, which I’d even go so far to say has a little Pink Floyd about it as well as a more likely Paul McCartney feel.

Talking Points: Neil Finn shares a joke with Zane Lowe (Photo: http://neilfinn.com/)

Whatever your initial impression (sorry), it’s the perfect lead into second track Dizzy Heights, the first sign that we have a New Zealand twist on Prefab Sprout at their most potent here. Neil and his backing vocalists – including wife Sharon and eldest son Liam – and their falsetto tones bring to mind blue-eyed 70s soul, laid-back and reminiscent of gorgeous summer days – perfect fuel to get you through a British winter. And this is pure hit 45 material.

There are at least a couple of songs here – not least because of the vocal style – you might expect on a Prince album, not least with Flying in the Face of Love’s subtle funky guitar and Sharon’s driving bass. Maybe that’s down to the influence of former Finn co-writers Wendy and Lisa over the years, and there’s certainly the feel of the little squiggled-one’s Cream, with fellow recent collaborator Paul Kelly and Split Enz overtones. To take that ‘80s influence further, think Fleetwood Mac in their big-bucks commercial unit-shifting era too. And it’s only really obviously Finn-ish when we reach the middle eight.

As hinted at already, this album appears to be a contraction throughout, and nowhere is that better defined than with the haunting, off-the-wall cloud-busting imagery of Dive Bomber, again reminiscent of McCartney at his most winningly-experimental – not least when the orchestrations take hold and I expect the Liverpool Oratorio. It’s a curio for sure, but just the right side of experimentation, saved by Finn’s voice and the production. Where David Bowie caught us all out with Where Are We Now? last year, Neil has his own kamikaze attack here.

We need a chance to breathe after that sensory assault, and get it with Better Than TV, perhaps the last tune here you’d knowingly whistle along to (obviously a recurring Finn theme), yet a vital pathway to the next track. Maybe this is the closest link we have yet to Finn’s band past, albeit not the charting variety. More to the point, we have an inspirational lyrical message.

I mentioned Bowie before, and Pony Ride certainly has the mark of the man. If you can’t see that, just imagine him covering this. There’s more here too, that buzzing bass reminding me of recent Paul Weller output. There are elements too of Finn’s harder face, but rather than guitar-driven, it offers a more subtle, lower-in-the-mix approach, in keeping with the spirit of the whole album.

Three-quarters of the way in I detect another influence too, as Finn’s voice grows more rough and ready. Then I realise it could be Crowded House. And that takes us nicely – via a Weller-esque instrumental link – to White Lies and Alibis, which could even be an out-take from my favourite Crowdies album, Together Alone, with Finn in more characteristic voice, the main act harmonising with himself and the bass, guitars and piano, successfully fusing a political message and brooding melody with more saccharine qualities.

Together Alone: A cover shot from the 1993 Crowded House album

Even when he’s at his most quirky, Neil can’t stop composing perfect hooks and crafting classic songs, and we have that in the wondrous, multi-stranded Recluse, a clever and witty yet seemingly-simplistic five-minute grower which should have ‘hit’ written all over it. And the Finn family work their way to a inspiring crescendo, in a stand-out moment packed with quality moments.

Those who enjoyed Liam’s I’ll Be Lightning will dig younger brother Elroy’s percussion on Strangest Friends, the background guitar wail putting meat on the bones in another slow-building highlight, Sharon’s chugging bass making me think Bowie again, as well as further Antipodean favourites The Go-Betweens.

Flying Again: Neil Finn (Photo: http://neilfinn.com/)

The throbbing heart of the song leads nicely to In My Blood, another highpoint for me, the song that first bore its way into my sub-conscious and arguably the crux of everything we’ve been leading to. And that mix of contradiction and other-worldly feel is to the fore again. A contemplative introduction more reminiscent of 1995’s Finn leads to a rousing, emotionally-powerful chorus.

The wonderful harmonies are competing yet complementary – a triumphant embodiment of Neil’s various on-the-record projects over the decades – from off-the wall to commercial and back again. And the strings and Neil’s vocals in the latter stages expertly complete the puzzle. There’s even a bit of China Crisis at their best in there for this reviewer, adding to that ‘80s feel hinted at throughout.

And then we’re away, Lights of New York taking us back to cloud nine and that ‘altered state’ amid dreamy, summer vibes, with Paddy McAloon in mind for this reviewer again. This piano-led master-piece also appears to be a fitting partner for Dive Bomber, yet all the sweeter and more pensive, and all over too soon.

What the wider world makes of Dizzy Heights remains to be seen, and I’m still unsure where I’d place this among Neil’s past product. I prefer One Nil in some respects, and it would take something pretty extraordinary to shift Everything is Here in my affections. But I’m just pleased he’s proved he can still make great music all these years on. And there are at least half a dozen tracks here that stand up to his best-ever compositions.

I’ve never had any doubts about his song-writing, which I value among the finest ever, and Neil Finn in 2014 is clearly still on a creative high, as the title might somehow suggest.

To find out more about Neil Finn and to track down a copy of Dizzy Heights, try this link to his official website here.

And for a webcast review of Neil’s Sydney Opera House appearance alongside Paul Kelly last March, head here

Posted in Music | Tagged Crowded House, Dizzy Heights, Finn, Finn Brothers, Neil Finn, Pajama Club, Tim Finn | 8 Comments

A life in denim, leather and spandex – the Biff Byford interview

Posted on February 14, 2014 by writewyattuk

Light Show: Saxon, live in Hamburg in 2011 (Photo: Kai Swillus)

With heavy metal survivors Saxon’s wheels of steel set to grind to a temporary halt at Preston’s 53 Degrees on Saturday, February 15, I managed to lure lead singer Biff Byford away from the studio to talk heavy metal.

Quite something in itself, really. You only have to talk to a few of my old schoolmates to understand how unlikely that would have seemed 30 years back. And yes, it is that long ago.

Back then, I was a lone voice espousing great new wave acts like Blondie, Buzzcocks, The Blockheads, The Clash, The Jam, Squeeze, The Stranglers and The Undertones, while they were dancing to a different tune.

If you can call head-banging dancing.

We seldom agreed on music, other than maybe Motorhead, Thin Lizzy, or another band re-inventing themselves as a heavy metal outfit at the time, the mighty Slade. And I don’t think I even appreciated AC/DC until I realised they couldn’t possibly have been taking themselves seriously … finally getting the joke.

All my metal mates had their favourite bands. For some it was Kiss, for others Motorhead, or Iron Maiden. One lad was big on Saxon, right down to a pride of place patch on his denim jacket. And three decades later, his favourites have certainly proved their staying power.

Saxon never really went away of course, although it took cult backing from the likes of BBC 6 DJ Mark Radcliffe and Bristolian comic Justin Lee Collins to bring them back into vogue of late.

What probably helped even more was the public show of respect for Saxon meted out by the next generation of metal bands, like Megadeth and Metallica.

When I recently interviewed Chumbawamba guitarist-turned-playwright Boff Whalley, I must have subconsciously started thinking about Biff Byford, and asked – jokingly, I might add – one music promoter if he had Saxon on his books when talking about potential interviewees. He said he didn’t, but we agreed we’d both enjoy a word with Biff, with the inevitable Spinal Tap type musings following.

A week or so later, I thought I was being wound up when the Lancashire Evening Post told me Saxon were coming to Preston, asking if I fancied speaking to their lead singer. Was this some bizarre expression of karma?

The band had been due to visit last November, supporting historic tour-mates Motorhead, but a major health scare for the gruff legend that is Lemmy Kilmister caused a few flutters in the heavy metal world, and the subsequent cancellation of that tour.

While 68-year-old Lemmy tried to get a handle on his diabetes woes, Peter ‘Biff’ Byford and his band-mates decided to carry on with their own warm-up gigs for the dual tour, including that rearranged date at 53 Degrees.

Biff said: “We put some warm-up dates in before the Motorhead package. When they cancelled before Christmas, we cancelled these, but then thought we’d keep them in.

“They’re not large venues, but they’re good fun. We’re doing it for the fans, so we’re not disappointing them.

“We like playing smaller venues. We’re not ego-trippers. We like to mix it up a bit. It makes it more interesting.”

When I caught up with Biff, he was writing songs in the studio back in Yorkshire, the White Rose county having proved a key fixture for this 63-year-old rock legend.

Born near Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, his band formed in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and he’s now based in Whitby, North Yorkshire, a dad of four, his eldest daughter having just started university.

He has a soft spot for Lancashire too, although the band estimate it’s been nearly 30 years since their last Guild City visit.

You’ll forgive Biff for not being too clear on the details, his band playing a fair few gigs since, while amassing millions of album sales worldwide.

Point Made: Biff Byford in live action in Hamburg (Photo: Kai Swillus)

Besides, the current line-up – Biff (vocals) and fellow founder member Paul Quinn (guitar), Nigel Glockler (drums), Nibbs Carter (bass) and Doug Scarratt (guitar) – have amassed 146 years’ service between them.

Watching him on stage, you’d think he was a darn sight younger, mind. So does Biff feel his age? And how does he keep fit?

“When you’re hill climbing, you tend to feel it a bit. It’s good going down, but not going up! I also do a bit of weight training. But I’m alright, touch wood. Time marches on.”

Has he ever tallied up the number of gigs over the years?

“Must be thousands. Perhaps I should probably try and do it one day, when I’m bored.”

A mate of mine, Dave Seddon, tells me the band last passed through his home city in 1986, playing the Guild Hall with an ominous sounding Japanese band called Loudness in tow. I kid you not.

But at the time of their first Preston show at the turn of the ’80s, Saxon were truly on the crest of a wave, in fact the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM), alongside bands like Def Leppard, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, carrying on Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin’s legacy.

His autobiography, Never Surrender, published in 2002, suggests Biff was a shy lad in his schooldays. So what was he listening to then – was he already a heavy rock fan?

“No. Pop really – stuff like The Kinks, a bit of Beatles, but more Rolling Stones. I was more of a long-hair and a biker in those days. I didn’t get into the harder bands until the ‘70s, Zeppelin and all that.”

Biff took an interesting path to the big time, including spells experiencing heavy metal of another variety on the textiles factory floor and surface work in a coal mine.

Saxon’s roots go back to 1976 in South Yorkshire, initially as Son of a Bitch, the name thankfully changed in time for an eponymous LP on French label Carrere in 1979, building a fan-base with supports to Motorhead and other established acts.

They went on to enjoy eight UK top 40 albums in the ‘80s, four reaching the top 10, and quickly asserted themselves among Europe’s top metal acts, with further success in Japan and the USA.

Their second LP, Wheels of Steel, led to two hit singles – the title track and 747 (Strangers in the Night) – being featured on Top of the Pops.

“It took some getting used to, that kind of stardom. In fact, I don’t think you ever get used to it. It’s all a bit Las Vegas. It was great though. You became more of a household name.

“It was the first time rock music ever got played on mainstream TV. Us, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Whitesnake – we were all on there. It just shows how popular our music was.”

Did it help that there were just three TV channels at the time?

“Definitely. Top of the Pops on Thursday night was watched by absolute millions. If you went on you could sell 100,000 records that week. It was silly, really.”

But it was their appearances at the first two Monsters of Rock festivals at Donington Park in 1980 and 1981 that secured their reputation for metal fans.

“Yes, and we still play that circuit. The first Donington was probably the gig that sealed our success. We were riding a bullet then. They were great times.

“They’re still great times. We’ve seen a great resurgence in ‘80s rock music, and we’re still making albums that people buy every year and a half.”

The hit albums and worldwide success continued, Strong Arm of the Law and Denim and Leather released amid hectic schedules, and despite personnel changes a series of UK headlining tours and a sold-out European tour with Ozzy Osbourne as support helped elevate their profile.

By the time they returned to Donington in 1982, they were charting with The Eagle Has Landed, the following year’s Power & The Glory also proving a huge hit.

As the NWOBHM faded, Saxon broke new ground through a major US arena tour, and in 1984 the album Crusader sold another two million records on EMI, backed by successful tours both sides of the Atlantic.

In time they took more of a back seat at home, but continued success in Europe led to a switch to Virgin Records, recording their 10^th LP in Hamburg in 1991.

Did Germany understand Saxon more during that wilderness period?

“A lot of our organisation came through there, and we recorded Solid Ball of Rock there. But sometimes you just have hits in some countries for no reason … other than it was a great album.”

A legal battle followed with two former band members over name rights, but the fans remained loyal, and the albums continued to stack up.

Then came involvement in Harvey Goldsmith’s 2007 documentary Get Your Act Together and a major comeback, and by 2012 they’d enjoyed three more Donington gigs, for the Download Festival, well and truly regaining their status on the scene.

Last year they released a 20th studio album, Sacrifice, and documentary Heavy Metal Thunder – The Movie brought further international success, as did the afore-mentioned endorsements from Megadeth and Metallica.

“It’s great when bands come out and say you’ve influenced them. We’re friends with Metallica and all those bands. It’s good that they support us and talk about us in the press. All good for the profile.”

You may also have seen Biff and his band appear on a Channel 4 advert, with celebrities asked what luxury item they would save from a burning house.

In the ad, with a link here, Justin chooses Saxon, ‘the greatest rock band ever’, even though ‘they’re behind with the rent’, before an explosion rocks the set, with Biff and co. seen staggering from the wreckage. Well worth a watch … or seven. So, has Biff seen his landlord lately?

“I don’t know where Justin’s gone, actually. We haven’t seen him around for ages. It was good fun, that. He’s a good ‘un, and a big rock fan.”

What kind of set will Saxon, who head off to Luxembourg the following week, be playing at 53 Degrees?

“A mixture really. All the big hits, a few songs from Crusader, 30 years on, and a few tracks we might not play again in that order. Should be a good night.”

Biff and Paul have been in the band since the beginning, with the other members not far off. They obviously still like each other.

“We get on quite well. We see each other a lot on tour and while writing. We talk quite a bit on the phone too, and we’re into the same things.

“There’s not some sort of no hidden agenda. We’re all on the same wavelength.”

You’ve obviously kept in touch with Motorhead, but do you meet socially with all the other bands from that original scene?

“We meet Judas Priest quite a lot when they’re out and about, and get asked to play with a few bands. It is quite a bit of a family.

“I probably see Rod Smallwood (incidentally, another 63-year-old West Yorkshireman) than Iron Maiden (Rod co-manages the band), although I do occasionally see Bruce (Dickinson) down in London, for a drink.”

Iron First: Biff Byford leads the crowd in Hamburg in 2011 (Photo: Kai Swillus)

When I was thinking up questions for this interview, I couldn’t help but try a few of my old metal-heads for their suggestions (having ruled out straight away anything involving amps that went up to 11).

A couple came up with the goods, including Oxfordshire-based fellow Donington veteran Paul Gellatly, who wanted to know if the band had suffered any long-term effects from wearing spandex, denim and leather for so many years.

Biff replied: “Nothing yet … but you never know.”

Meanwhile, Sydney-based TV production maestro Nick Hopkin suggested ways for the band to re-engage with a younger audience, not least through renaming a few hits to make them more relevant today, coming up with Wheels of Toughened Polycarbonate, A380 (Strangers in the Night) and Suede and Synthetic Leather for starters.

Biff liked the idea, and added (with a throaty Yorkshire chuckle), “Yeah, if I need something else to do, definitely.”

But I reckon the chances of Saxon celebrating 40 years in the business in 2016 are pretty good already. And you can’t really argue with 13 million albums sold worldwide.

Biff added: “It is a lot of albums, but I suppose if you’ve got 20 studio albums, lots of live albums and tons of compilations, they will all add up.”

Tickets for Saturday’s Saxon show at 53 Degrees are priced £22.50 and a booking fee, with doors open at 7.30pm and more details from www.53degrees.net/

And for all the latest news from Saxon, head to their website here.

This is a revised and expanded interview/feature of one that appeared in the Lancashire Evening Post on February 13, 2014, with a link here.

Posted in Music | Tagged 53 Degrees, 747 (Strangers in the Night), Barnsley, Biff Byford, Doug Scarratt, Heavy Metal Thunder, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Justin Lee Collins, Lemmy, Motorhead, New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Nibbs Carter, Nigel Glockler, Paul Quinn, Preston, Saxon, Wheels of Steel | 1 Comment

Spin (and) the bottle – the Chris Barron interview

Posted on February 7, 2014 by writewyattuk

AMID a harsh stateside winter, MALCOLM WYATT spoke to a housebound Chris Barron to talk about the Spin Doctors’ past and present, ahead of a three-date UK visit which includes a brief trip to Lancashire.

If you reckon the Spin Doctors were something of a two-hit wonder, think again.

Admittedly, this early ‘90s hip US outfit were best known for Two Princes, Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong and the album that spawned those breakthrough hits, multi-million selling debut LP Pocket Full Of Kryptonite.

But while they never quite reached that commercial high again, Chris Barron and his band-mates never really went away.

And the New York quartet’s latest blues-driven album, If The River Was Whiskey, their sixth album, certainly proves their lasting musical worth.

Chris (vocals), Aaron Comess (drums), Eric Schenkman (guitar) and Mark White (bass) play Burnley Mechanics on February 20th, one of just three UK gigs this time, following that with shows at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls (February 21st) and alongside Dodgy at Thre Garage in Islington (February 22nd).

That small scale ethic sits nicely with the band’s philosophy, and it’s worth noting that when they hit the back time, the Spin Doctors were just four guys in their 20s having a whale of a time playing the Big Apple blues circuit and NYC downtown bars.

Then came the hits, hysteria and mega-stardom, selling 50,000 records a week. As Chris said, “I’d walk into a shopping mall to buy underwear and 300 kids would surround me.”

Fast forward a few years, and I’m pleased to say they’re back to their roots, the band feeling If The River Was Whiskey is the deep-blues album they almost made before fame called.

Yet this is no retro LP, but fresh, honest blues from a band clearly on their game after all those years honing their craft.

Some of the songs are rooted in late ‘80s sessions, a European tour to mark 20 years since Kryptonite leading to a re-visit, the results unfolding with ‘an effortless magic’.

Chris added: “It’d be awesome if it sold millions of copies, but honest to God, I just want to keep making a living playing music.

“We get up onstage and we turn it on, sing and play our hearts out. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

I was playing Pocket Full of Kryptonite as well as the new album as I sculpted a few questions for Chris. And I’m pleased to say, 22 years after its release, Kryptonite is as fresh as ever. Great rock’n’roll is clearly ageless. So is Chris still (rightly) proud of that sparkling debut?

“We got lucky with that record, I suppose. It really seems to have held up nicely. We didn’t put a lot of effects on that would pigeonhole the sound in a certain era.”

Is it also something of an albatross, the first album you always had to live up to? Do you find yourself having to say, ‘actually, we’ve made six albums’?

“I don’t know. I tend to focus on how lucky we are to have made something that people still care about 20 years later.”

It must have been a bit mad in those days – the fame and all that followed.

“Lots of good memories. Parties, travel, romance… We had a hell of a time.”

Fame can be a fickle mistress, but you’ve always had that hardcore of fans that have stood by you and enjoyed all you’ve done over the years (the band LPs as well as the solo projects), haven’t you?

“We have some of the best fans a band could ask for.”

Was that album a reflection of that New Jersey/New York blues circuit at the time, with with yourselves, Blues Traveler, and so on?

“It was our version of the music coming along at that time. We had our own novel style, but were all pushing against the boy band, cheesy pop thing and hair bands – who I actually kind of love now!”

You were known for the on-stage jams and lengthy shows. Was that all part of your musical education?

“Indeed it was. Learning to carry off songs no one in the audience knew was crucial. We’ve always been conscious that we’re entertaining people so try to keep that stuff really focused and dangerous so it doesn’t turn into boring finger gymnastics.”

Is that bond/brotherhood still intact with those other bands and band members from that scene?

“Oh, yeah. We all lived through a special time.”

Listening back to those early songs and the words behind them, how do you feel you’ve changed these past couple of decades? And what – if anything – would you change now, given the chance?

“I don’t know what I’d change. I always get worried answering that question. Like, what if I wish I could have changed something and it’s like The Twilight Zone and the wish comes true but I’m a robot stuck in the same week playing over and over for all eternity.

“We’ve had a great time and we still are. I’m a lucky guy. I’m gonna leave it at that. As to the other part of your question, I’ve worked hard on my singing and writing skills over the years and I think I’m better at those things.”

Are you a family man these days, or an early-hours hard-drinking musician?

“A little of both. I have a lovely wife and daughter and a couple of cats. I do a lot of cooking at home. I’m a little obsessed with Downton Abbey but like to drink my scotch straight.”

How do you compare NYC and its political and social scene then to now?

“The upside is it’s a lot safer but it’s not as crazy as it was. I love NYC. I wouldn’t live anywhere else, except maybe the south of Spain in January and February.

Live Doctors: The band in action during their 2013 US tour (Photo: www.spindoctors.com)

Live Doctors: The band in action during their 2013 US tour (Photo: http://www.spindoctors.com)

(When I interviewed Chris, New York City was in the midst of a cold snap, to say the least, its wintry conditions making worldwide news. So I couldn’t resist asking him – in a very British way – what the weather was like there.)

On Some Other Man Instead he speaks of some heavy weather – I guess you didn’t have this current spell of winter in mind? Talk us through it. Where are you these days, and just what it takes to nip out for a bite to eat at present?

“It’s been brutally, brutally cold these last couple of weeks. I have some wool long underwear that I picked up in Norway and it’s come in handy.”

Tell me about If The River Was Whiskey. It came out last May in the UK. How’s the public reaction been (both sides of the water)? And how do you feel about it a few months down the line?

“We’ve had the best reviews we ever received. It’s been very nice to go out on a limb and make a blues record and get all this great feedback. We’re on a lot of ‘best of 2013’ lists so I guess the record is holding up well.”

Stars & Stripes: The band performing on their US Whiskey tour (Photo: www.spindoctors.com)

Stars & Stripes: The band performing on their US Whiskey tour (Photo: http://www.spindoctors.com)

The line-up’s changed over the years, and you’ve clearly seen more than your fair share of upheavals. Is it good to be back in tow with Aaron, Eric and Mark again, and are you in a better place as a unit these days? Is it as good or perhaps even better, now you’re not living in each other’s kryptonite-filled pockets (sorry, couldn’t resist!)?

“Yes. We’re getting along well these days. It’s nice considering we were at each other’s throats for a lot on the time. Water under the bridge. We all have kids and really, we’re the only guys who we know who have been through what we’ve been through.”

Whiskey is a very bluesy album. Do you think it’s opened you up to a new audience?

“For sure we plan to stay with the blues direction. Really, just because it’s always been a big part of our music. The next record is going to turn back a bit in the rock direction. Sort of Exile on Main Street meets Houses of the Holy.”

Some of those songs have been around with you a long time? Is this perhaps a reflection of your musical DNA?

“For sure.”

Cheers Boys: The band raise their respective glasses (Photo: www.spindoctors.com)

Cheers Boys: The band raise their respective glasses (Photo: http://www.spindoctors.com)

‘Deep blues’ is a pretty good description, and supposedly this is the album the Spin Doctors almost made before mega-stardom came knocking. Is that right?

“Yes. We were a blues band first. Kind of like Fleetwood Mac.”

And yet – around 25 years after you first formed – your material still sounds as relevant and fresh for today’s audience as it would have been back then. I’m guessing you enjoyed making the record? It certainly sounds like it.

“We truly did. We thought we were making a demo so just cut loose and enjoyed ourselves. In the outtakes there’s a lot of joking around. I was speaking in a Canadian accent pretty much the whole session.”

I believe the recording all happened in a matter of days. There’s definitely a raw feel – and it’s perhaps all the better for that. Was this a new way of recording for you?

“We did this record in three days. We’ve always been better when we didn’t allow ourselves to get to precious. Like I said, it was supposed to be a demo so we were really sort of fooling around. When we listened back we realized we were never going to beat that vibe.”

You had to cancel a short tour last year, because of a vocal cord problem, not for the first time either. I’m guessing you saw the signs this time?

“Yeah. I just blew my voice out. The band tried to do too much in too little time and I was trying to be a hero. Dumb. All you singers out there! No matter how tough the rest of you is, your voice is more delicate than your eye lids. You got to rest. No way around it.

“You can’t do a million gigs in a row and fly across the water nonstop and think you’re not going to lose your voice. I’m now a hundred per cent. I just didn’t talk for a month.”

Two Princes: Back in the day

That must be a little worrying – not least the first time you suffered with your voice? Do things like that make you re-evaluate what you have?

“I always try to stay in touch with how lucky I am.”

And did your (blues) doctor prescribe a little whiskey?

“Always.”

Your date at Burnley Mechanics is followed by others to the north and south of London then in Paris and Amsterdam. Why did you choose those three UK venues?

“Hey. I just get out of the van and sing my heart out. No matter where it’s parked. That said, I love going to a small town where they don’t get a lot going on. I wish more rock’n’roll came to the little town I grew up in.”

When were you last in the UK? Was it the Kryptonite anniversary tour? Have you good memories of gigs over here and previous visits?

“We’ve always loved playing the UK. I lived in Australia as a kid so grew up with the BBC. Classic Doctor Who (Tom Baker) and Are You Being Served? I can’t wait to get on the outside of a few English breakfasts.”

We famously stole the blues from your side of the pond and gave it back in a way that made you sit up and notice – via the Rolling Stones etc. Is this some kind of payback for you now – reminding us all about the blues and how relevant they remain?

“You’re welcome.”

As well as a few blues artists, I can hear on the new album a few bands that took on that influence too – from The Eagles right through to erm… Primal Scream, perhaps?

“Haha. The Rolling Stones mostly..”

So what of the future? Are you still writing a lot of songs? Will there be another Spin Doctors album coming our way soon? Or is it back to the solo work?

“Definitely another Spins record. I’m also working on a record with my Norwegian supergroup, The Canoes, and a solo record. I’ve been writing my brains out. What’s left of them, anyway.”

And what can we expect at the Mechanics, the Fairfield Halls and The Garage? Explain if you can what the Spin Doctors are like as a live phenomenon, circa 2014.

“If you only know our hits you’re in for a surprise. We’re more a blues band than a pop band, a power trio with a front man, who I hope isn’t annoying.

“We work very hard on our songs so you don’t have to listen to a bunch of crap then finally get Two Princes.

“And if you come out and don’t think we played our guts out, I’ll buy you a pint.”

For more details about the UK tour and all the latest from the band, head to www.spindoctors.com

And to get a taste of the Spin Doctors in 2014, try this video link to the title track of their latest album.

A version of this interview first appeared in the Lancashire Evening Post. To find that, try here

Posted in Music | Tagged Blues Traveler, Burnley Mechanics, Chris Barron, Croydon, If The River Was Whiskey, Islington, New York City, Pocket Full of Kryptonite, Spin Doctors, Two Princes | 1 Comment

writewyattuk

After the storm and under the floodlights with Woking: from the Shay to the International, via the Humber and the Hoe

Boycie’s Bonus – the John Challis interview

Harle and Almond’s essence to fore in The Tyburn Tree

Reverend and the Makers / Liberty Ship – Preston 53 Degrees

The Age of Chance resonates with the Reverend – the Jon McClure interview

Face Time approaches for comedy’s Wonder Woman – the Kerry Godliman interview

Scotch and water, claret and blues – The Spin Doctors at Burnley Mechanics

Flying above the clouds with Neil Finn

A life in denim, leather and spandex – the Biff Byford interview

Spin (and) the bottle – the Chris Barron interview

Recent Posts

Archives

Categories

Meta

WriteWyattUK on Facebook

Blog Stats

Blog Stats