Wednesday 24 February 2010

Interview with Felix from The Maccabees

Quite possibly the nicest man in the world.

ME: So how’s the tour been so far?

FELIX: Brilliant, we’re down to the last three gigs now so we’re almost there, but it’s been great, we’ve loved it.

ME: What have the instore gigs been like?

FELIX: We only did one, the other two got cancelled for some reason, but the one we did (in Glasgow) was good.

ME: Is it an odd experience playing in a shop?

FELIX: It is a bit strange. It can be car crash, but I suppose they’re set up as foreign experiences, things you wouldn’t normally see at a gig and a different side to a band. Some of them can be really fun; it’s a bit of bi-polar experience.

ME: Have you or the rest of the band made use of the other facilities at the venue?

FELIX: I think a lot of the boys have gone for a swim actually! We’ve played here a couple of times and I’ve never been swimming here, but yeah it’s a strange venue.

ME: Have you had a chance to look round Portsmouth much today?

FELIX: We stayed here yesterday actually as well, but I haven’t done that much. I had a walk across the beach today and it was actually really beautiful.

ME: Who would you give an NME award to?

FELIX: I think Micachu and the Shapes deserve more attention than they’ve received and Richard Hawley’s not up for anything and I think he should be.

ME: What plans have you got for summer festivals and tours?

FELIX: There will be a few, but it’s basically getting down and doing the next album really. This is kind of the last thing we’re going to do.

ME: When are you planning to release the new album?

FELIX: Hopefully this time next year, there’s a lot of work to do it all in that time but hopefully we’ll get it done.

ME: Will you be going to any festivals yourself?

FELIX: I might go and see The Strokes at Isle of Wight. Strokes and Jay-Z, that’s a pretty immense line up! They’re one of those bands I’ve been in love with since I first heard them.

ME: Are there any other festivals that you would recommend?

FELIX: Bestival is good, as long as it’s not too muddy. I always hear that Secret Garden Party is good as well but I’ve never been.

ME: After the collaboration with Roots Manuva, have you got anything similar planned?

FELIX: I think Edwyn Collins from Orange Juice is going to be joining us to do ‘Rip it Up’ at the Brixton gig.

ME: Do you have any plans to record it in future?

FELIX: No, not just yet, I think we’ll just see what happens. I think it’s nice to just keep you’re head on and do unexpected things.

ME: Do you see a different sound developing for the next album?

FELIX: Yeah. We’re doing it all individually at the moment, so I don’t quite know how it is going to develop, but it wont come out unless it’s different.

Interview with Bombay Bicycle Club

I spoke to Jamie (Guitarist) and Suren (Drummer) before the gig. Suren barely said a word.

ME: How was the instore signing today at HMV, do you find it a bit odd signing autographs?

JAMIE: It was all right, there were a lot of people there. I just don’t see why anyone would want my autograph. It’s mainly 13 or 14 year old girls, but if they want it then that’s fine!


ME: Have you had much time to look around the rest of Portsmouth today?

JAMIE: I’ve already been to the d-day museum, by myself, which is a bit sad.

ME: Did no-one else want to come along?

JAMIE: I didn’t ask.

ME: We’re attached a swimming pool at the moment, have you played in any other unusual venues?

JAMIE: We’ve played in a bowling alley before and a barber shop as well the other week; we have done some weird gigs. We played in a puppet theatre.

At this point the interview was interrupted by Ed (bassist) trying to determine which polystyrene take-away container was his. It was pork and chips.

ME: Do you know what festivals you’re going to be doing this year?

JAMIE: Just Glastonbury at the moment. We’ve got a new acoustic album coming out though; we’ll do a tour for that.

ME: What are you’re favourite festivals, to play at or just to go to?

JAMIE: Reading and Leeds, Glastonbury…actually I’m not a massive Glastonbury fan. There are too many people there and it’s too big. Too many old people. Sorry I sound like a grumpy old man! I really liked Latitude last year, that’s a good gig, and Secret Garden Party. I think it’s better to go to the little ones now. I think you’ll have more fun there.

ME: As this is the NME awards tour, who would you give an award to, and what for?

JAMIE: Nicest band goes to The Maccabees definitely, this tour’s definitely re-enforced my love for The Maccabees. I can’t think of any other awards. I really like The Big Pink after this tour actually, I wasn’t that sure at the start.

ME: How do you think this year’s line-up compares to some of the previous NME Awards tours?

JAMIE: Well I went to The Killers, The Futureheads, Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs one, that was great. You can’t really tell because bands tend to get big after the tour. Looking back, the line up this year doesn’t look nearly as good, but then last year I’m sure no one was there for Florence and the Machine opening it. If we’re in the position Friendly Fires are in this time next year that’ll be great!

NME Awards Tour 2010

On seeing this year’s tour line-up I was a little confused. The Maccabees deserve to be there after two great albums, Bombay Bicycle Club fit in well too, it was the other two I couldn’t work out.

From The Drums I had previously heard a lot of hype and not much music, and from The Big Pink I’d heard that song about dominoes. After listening to both beforehand I wasn’t exactly enthralled. Unfortunately after now having seen them both live, my opinion is much the same. Openers, The Drums are clearly aware that their music is nothing special. When playing live they had the fundamental issue of not being able to play it all themselves. To make up for this deficit they play along to a backing track and dance around like lunatics in an attempt to distract us from the lack of live music. Regrettably, their dance of choice looks like a cross between the locomotion and a slow motion Ian Curtis, both of which are unadvisable.

The Big Pink initially seemed more promising, through a complex combination of pedals and effects, they filled the Pyramid Centre electronic bleeps and feedback. However after that, the band didn’t appear to have hooks, choruses, or anything of interest. Obviously people enjoyed Dominoes but other than it just sound like a bad version of Placebo being brutally arse-raped by a gang of daleks

After a fairly static start to the evening, the running order of the bands began to make sense. Bombay Bicycle Club immediately had a bigger impact on the crowd, despite barely saying a word for the whole set. The band seemed a lot more accomplished than their support acts despite only one full-length album and they provided a much more balanced set with intricate riffs as well as noisy choruses.



As the night drew on it was clear that the majority of people were here for the headliners. The Maccabees looked quietly confident, with the recent addition of a well deserved (and well utilised) brass-section. They showcased a faultless set of old and new material, but they’re attitude on stage makes them a great live band. In contrast to The Drums arrogant arsing around, The Maccabees seem genuinely happy to play and grateful to the crowd. Frontman Orlando ended the night by thanking pretty much everyone in the world. You’re very welcome Orlando.

Funnily enough, NME gave it a glittering review.

Sunday 21 February 2010

The Winter Olympics, rewarding obscurity, insanity and then maybe talent.

At the time of writing I am watching speed skating.

It's ridiculous. Five men -some with moustaches- line up,
then for some reason they attempt to complete 'NINE LAPS OF THE TRACK!'. The track, incidentally, is a tiny oval within which these men spend a couple of minutes skating like morons. Apparently, these men just travelled 1500 metres, on ice, in a circle, to win a bit of gold. Obviously, it's prestigious, without a doubt, it's the Olympics, I'd take a medal if I could. Yet it seems ridiculous to train to the extent these people do, to dedicate their lives, as these people to, just to get a medal. What the hell is a medal?! No-one deals in medals any-more! It's like a horse getting a rosette, what on earth do they mean?

I suppose that, maybe, over the years (about 2000 of them) the Olympic Games have earned themselves a fair bit of attention, and rightly so. Nothing else has lasted that long. Jesus supposedly turned up at a similar time (i.e. 'the beginning of time') and look what happened to him. It's impressive that an event that is essentially a display of fairly unnecessary talents has stood the test of time, and anyone that comes out as victor in such an event in modern times deserves some credit for it. Even if just to be part of a colossal legacy. I suppose it's just the winter bit that gets to me.

In ancient times, when there was no abundance of fairly useless modern distraction tools, a competition to see who could run really fast in a straight line, or who could throw a rock the furthest would have presumably been a fantastic way to while away the time. Making it a competition is just a natural progression.

Although it's the 'winter' aspect of it that is currently affecting me, (mainly because that's what's on telly at the moment) even that makes sense. Most of the sports are essentially insane. The basis of the majority of the events is putting something on your feet, or putting yourself on something, and then just sliding down a hill. Skiing, snowboarding, luge, skeleton, bob-sleigh, they're all fundamentally the same, but in an environment where there are a lot of hills, and where it snows quite a bit -as you'd expect- it is literally the winter equivalent of the summer games. Running is just a way of getting around, so is skiing. Why not make it a competition every now and then? The part that baffles me is the UK's involvement in it, and the extent to which we attempt to compete.

There aren't that many hills in the Great Britain. We have a few, but they're nothing special. Most of them very rarely accommodate snow. If they do, it's so rare, that no-one owns the skis to utilise it. Luge, skeleton and bob-sleigh tracks don't even rely solely on the weather. You can make ice, but we've barely got the hills to make doing that worthwhile. Yet still, every four years, the BBC is commandeered by coverage of the UK being distinctly below average at winter sports, because as a country with a temperate climate, we can never quite reach the peak of that domain.

Everyone knows we're not going to win, a couple of days ago the commentators were ecstatic when we got eighth place in some form of snowboarding, they must have gone insane when we actually won our first gold medal in eight years. Obviously it's great if we can excel in some aspects of the games but it seems like there's a little too much excitement and anticipation. Can we not just set our standards a little bit lower? That's clearly a horribly pessimistic suggestion. We'd never achieve anything if we adopted that attitude. I'm not quite sure if there is a solution, or even a problem. We probably all just need to calm down a bit.

Thursday 18 February 2010

Liam Gallagher. Definitely A Knobhead.

Peter Kay, a man who's entire career is based on simple observations (and that the fact that those observations were made in the north of England), stuck to his guns at the Brits by making another one.


The real news from the 30th anniversary of the Brit Awards however, is that nothing has changed. Noddy Holder still exists and somehow managed to find an opportunity to work 'FEEL THE NOISE' into his few seconds of stage-time. Peter Kay is still simply telling us what he sees, and Liam Gallagher is, without a doubt, still a 'knobhead'. He accepted the award for 'Best British Album of the Last 30 Years' for '(What's the Story?) Morning Glory', which is a great album, by far the best from the shortlist (sorry Dido), but that doesn't make Liam any less of a dick.

For a start, the album is written by Noel, Liam's only credits on the album are vocals and tambourine. Even if Noel didn't want to go and get the award, Liam should have at least mentioned him rather than just thanking 'Bonehead' and 'Quiggs'. However the thing that ultimately confirms his status as a knobhead is his 'rock and roll' attitude to the whole thing.


Wow. What a rocker. His twitter account (the epitome of rebellion) has added to the whole story after he posted this yesterday;


Where to start? He's called Peter Kay a 'fat fuck', which is a bit playground. He's used '2' instead of 'to' which is just wrong, and he's felt the need to sign it off with his initials despite it coming from his own Twitter account. This post is quite knobhead-ish but if you scroll down the page a bit it gets worse. Apparently he had a little go at promoting the bands Brit nomination on Twitter, because that's just as rock and roll and nonchalant as his interview. 'If we're going to fucking get invited then I'm gonna turn up and 'ave it.' Slightly different attitude to his 'VOTE FOR ME I'M DESPERATE' posts on Twitter.

His band's struggling I guess, (in that it no longer exists) he might as well have a go at milking that old whining cow as much as he can till it ultimately commits suicide out of a combination of boredom and anger. Following this little escapade he's obviously reinforced his status as an absolutely uncontrollable rock-star nutter. 'Let's all go and take some class A drugs... and be complete arseholes.' Knobhead.




I honestly do really like What's the Story.