Interviews Archives - Page 8 of 16 -

February 25, 2017

INTERVIEW: Rews

Words by Ed King / Pics by Paul Reynolds

“Like a little Tequila worm that crawls in, gets drunk, and stays in there forever.”

Is that them..? No. The problem with meeting strangers is you don’t know what they look like. I’ve sifted through Rews’ website, seen promo pics, videos and alternating styles, but I still couldn’t pick them from a line up.

Rews’ music however, especially the ‘earworm’ that is their latest single ‘Miss You in the Dark’, has burrowed quickly into my head – nudging ‘Can You Feel It?’ further down the canal. I’d recognise them if they walked up the stairs. But the only thing I can identify about the two people I’m here to interview, with any certainty, is that there are two of them. Luckily they spot me. I guess one is the loneliest number.

“Rews is inspired by a Dutch surname, spelt Reus,” explains Shauna Tohill – the arguable front woman and lead vocalist in the London based two piece. “It means the tall people or the giant people. Collette (Williams, the ‘vocalising beatrocker’ and other half) and I aspire to be giants in the world of music, so why not call ourselves Rews?” Is it family name, or..? “No, I found the scribbled on the wall of a toilet at Corsica Studios.”

I talk a lot about words, and (irony withstanding) it can be an often self defeating endevour. You are heard less the louder you shout. But the verb that jumps onto the table tonight is ‘fun’; Rews are a punchy, pop punk, rock band who ‘make a lot of noise for two people’. But it’s addictive, powerhouse, ferocious and fun. The F word again. I’ve only just met them and I’m half thinking we should turn off the recorder, go outside and find something to climb.

“We’re experimenting at the minute,” explains Shauna Tohill when I ask for a self description, “it’s getting more rock”. “It’s naturally forming into a heavier sound,” continues Collette Williams, “from the instrumentation and set up, from pedals through to heavier grooves and the sound that we’re trying to create. Especially in a live environment.” Precisely why I’m here; Rews’ music videos were the siren call but I want to see this on stage. “People say we make a lot of noise for two people. But we love that.”

“After we first jammed together, we were deciding about whether to go for a bass player but then thought, you know we can cover this,” continues Tohill. “Also it’s difficult enough to arrange for more people to be in a rehearsal, especially when you’re working a lot. We love playing with other musicians but I think right now it’s good the way it is.” I’ve never understood how most bands stay together; like family board games, table wine and Christmas, the end is inevitable. “Everything’s easier with two,” adds Williams, “we can both fit in a car with all our gear, there’s one less mouth to feed. Plus there are some incredible two piece bands around, like Royal Blood, who make you want to up your game and be creative, to really utilise what you have. Because when it comes to pedals, when it comes to triggers, when it comes to duel vocals we can have this gigantic sound… so why not try and do that.”

Gigantic’s a good word. On the surface there’s nothing genre shattering about Rews, with the more accessible pop punk (itself an oxymoron) having reared its less than ugly head several times before. And like contemporary classical, I think we need a new term. But Rews are ‘really fucking good’ to quote Ceol Caint’s review of single ‘Death Yawn’. Their sound is gigantic. If they can deliver their infectious foot stamp on stage, live, tonight could be impressive. Plus there’s something brewing on the horizon that we’re only teased with at this stage, but it sounds like a game changer.*

Rews are relatively new to each other too. And whilst both Shauna Tohill and Collette Williams have been serious about their music for a while, as Rews they have only been writing and performing for a few years – finding each other after moving independently to London.

“Both of us had been in bands for years,” tells Tohill, “and I was doing my solo thing for a long time (Silhouette). Then I came across this artist retreat in Cirencester and I moved there for four months to write and decide which direction to go in and I wanted to do with music. That was my first move out of Belfast I guess. This was before I met Collette.” My toes curl at the term ‘Artist Retreat’ and the sneer that is my oldest foe sits clear on my face. I don’t even need to ask the question.

“It was a really amazing experience actually,” continues Tohill – mercifully sidestepping my frown. “I got free accommodation, free food, free studio space, all in exchange for working the land. So I learnt how to grow vegetables and worked on community projects with alcohol and drug abusers, elderly people. It was really such an eye opening experience.” This sounds better than my assumption, I wonder if they have a room for prose writers. Would you ever go back? “It was really amazing, a great place to go and be away from people and just focus on what you want to do creatively. Collette and I have been talking about going back there to do some writing together as well.”

Shauna Tohil’s also toured with Snow Patrol and Darwin Deez, to add some cherries on the CV, whilst Collette Williams has worked with the respected music director, Kojo Samuels. “That was with Sony,” explains Williams, “trying to find the next massive girl band type thing. I was touring the country, playing drums, and looking for ‘authentic female talent’. Which was fantatsic; I’m a massive advocate for finding inspirational females. That also led to some work with Gabrielle Aplin – appearing on one of her videos where 30 drummers get their kits lit up and everything.” Williams appears on the official video for Aplin’s ‘Sweet Nothing’ – front and centre for a while but hair colour might mislead you. “Then mainly some pop session stuff,” continues Williams, “I worked with the guys from Union J but my background has mainly been session work. Although at the time I met Shauna I was the front woman for a Surrey based band called Sonder. But that was like chalk and cheese to this.”

So jump forward, how did you physically meet? When did the Rews seed get sewn? “We were introduced by a sister of someone I went to university with,” explains Williams, “Shauna had just started going to a new church and met her there. She (Shauna) was looking for a drummer at the time and my friend’s sister, who’s an amazing drummer as well, was kind enough to mention me and thought that Shauna and I might get on.” Might be too late to ask, but do you get on? “Extraordinarily well,” answers Williams, just calm enough to be believed, “especially for two people who a lot of time together.”

“We’re like sisters now,” continues Tohill, “we are so close. We have our sister fights, but we also have our sister love time too… that sounds really weird. We love each other though.” Something going on; in under ten minutes I’ve picked up a clear sense of candor, camaraderie and media savvy. Rews are professional but personal. We began this conversation with toilet humor, jokes about citrus fruit, blue rose references and self deprecation; it’s difficult not to like this kind of company. And when I finally get to see Rews on stage later tonight this partnership manifests into something palpable and honestly endearing.

But a relentless tour schedule can go through brothers like butter, and Rews are in Birmingham for only gig five on a 15 date schedule. Although Williams assures me “even when we’re not gigging, when we’re back home, we’ll hang out and be writing. We’re so close anyway it’s kind of weird if we don’t hang out for a couple of days. It just kind of doesn’t work”. “We’ve kind of grown into each other’s pockets,” adds Tohill, before a final retort from Williams brings the interview to an appropriately tongue in cheek close. “What she means is she steals all my money.”

We take some pics by the pool table. I bitch about gender politics and almost perpetuate a conversation I’m sick of hearing in the first place. The only thing left is to see Rews live, so we drink up and go our separate ways – me to the bar and Rews to the stage.

At this point I’m rooting for them too; I often judge people by how they interview, and having been half on board before I got to The Flapper right now I want Rews to firmly succeed. The world needs credible inspiration, role models and some ‘really fucking good’ music. Plus it’s a ferocious gig and there’s potentially something truly special here.

But time, tour circuits and another festival season will tell. And as Collette Williams patiently established, “people listen to our music, come to see us live, and it speaks for itself. That’s so important.”

‘Can You Feel It?’ – Rews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMAtei5wn4I&list=RDdMAtei5wn4I#t=1

*About a week after this interview, Rews announced they had signed to Marshall Records – the newly set up label from the amp manufacturer and rock retail giants. For more on this, click here and visit our Rews feature in THE GALLERY.

To read Damien Russel’s BREVIEW of Rews at The Flapper, click here.

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For more on Rews, visit www.rewsmusic1.wordpress.com

For more from The Flapper, including full event listing and online ticket sales, visit www.theflapper.co.uk

For more from Birmingham promoters, visit www.birminghampromoters.com

December 1, 2016

INTERVIEW: Wolf People

Words by Billy Beale

As 2016 draws to a close, the future looks pretty bleak. One album chooses to look back to the past for its inspiration. That album is Ruins, the latest record from folk rock academics Wolf People, who kindly managed to squeeze us in for a chat when they came to Birmingham’s Sunflower Lounge on 24th November.

(Ed’s… To read Billy’s BREVIEW of Wolf People at The Sunflower Lounge, click here)

Ruins marks a philosophical departure for the band. “Our last record [Fain from 2013] was more of a folk rock record. We made the arrangements more complex and, when you’re tired, had a couple of drinks to calm the nerves, the stuff from Fain is really hard to play live. We just wanted to have a bit of fun with this one and do some obvious, bigger riffs; shorter songs and simpler arrangements,” says guitarist Joe Hollick. He’s selling Ruins and the current live set very short, it’s a far cry from the ‘big, dumb riffs’ typical of boneheaded, testosterone-fulled, Spinal Tap hard rock. Theirs is a far more studied and sensitive approach.

Speaking of study, one gets the impression from Ruins that Wolf People are a group of clever musicians making smart music, but Hollick says this is them taking it easy. “Having played together so long, there’s stuff that we take for granted that might seem complex to other people. A lot of it has become second nature. ‘When The Fire Is Dead In The Grate’ off Fain is like ‘oh my god, this is like three songs in one with loads of quick changes and stuff’ Once you’ve learned how to do that, it’s fun to unlearn it and try different things. We’ve been listening to a lot of Iron Claw and it’s made us realise that, while we’re still young enough to make big fuzzy rock music, let’s try and just enjoy the power of simple riffs.”

Wolf People have an almost archivist approach to their many and varied influences. “We listen to a lot of gangsta rap in the van,” says Hollick with an expression that acknowledges how little it befits a folk rock band to be trundling down the motorway with a van full of vintage guitar gear, bobbing along to rap. “‘Ninth Night’ was influenced by a hip hop track by Pusha T called ‘Numbers On The Board’. Jack wrote the initial arrangement for that and was trying to copy the kind of pushed rhythm.”

Besides rap, there are some less surprising sources of inspiration for Wolf People’s sound. “Turkish stuff has always loomed large for this band, even going way back to ‘Tiny Circle’,” says bassist Dan Davies. Hollick expands: “Obviously, we’re influenced a lot by UK folk rock bands like Mighty Baby, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span but also – we don’t mention this enough – we’re into a lot of Turkish music. When we initially started, we were on a Finders Keepers offshoot and we got exposed to a lot of Anatolian music [Turkish psych rock from 1960s-70s] and guitarists.

“In particular, Erkin Koray and his fuzz sound and riffs are quite influential for our tracks like ‘Not Me Sir’, ‘Belong’ and ‘All Returns’ off the last record. It’s just the production quality of those records and the way they structure things. They’ll have this little vignette at the start that never really appears that often in the main song. There’s a beautiful melody, it’ll drop into a riff and it’ll break down again. Rather than verse/chorus, it’s a more interesting way to structure stuff.”

Hollick and Davies are very much at home discussing the arcane artists that have left their mark on Wolf People. Davies continues “Similarly, some of the other psych scenes like the Polish band Breakout, Hungarian Band Illés.” This love for the less popular side of 60s/70s psychedelic music is at the very core of the group, says Davies: “I heard that stuff through joining this band, Jack [Sharp, vocals and guitar] and Tom [Watt, drums] were already on the record collector scene from doing the Hip-Hop and sampling thing. Jack sent me this mix in the post that had all the artists we’ve talked about, plus stuff like Captain Beefheart, and I straight away knew this was a band I wanted to be in. Nobody was doing stuff like that. I was a bit jaded about music and then suddenly there was this whole new world out there.”

That was a long time ago, Wolf People in its current form has been going for 10 years so the new album and tour is something of a celebration for the band. Have their attitudes changed during that time? “The new record took three years to make, which is another way it feels different to Fain. We sort of worked at it and crafted it and it became its own thing. We’re proud of the previous albums but they were done with a sense of urgency. We’re all a bit older now, we wanted to get it right,” says Davies.

They’ve achieved a lot in their time together. One of Hollick’s standout moments was when they made it over to Europe for the first time. “We played a café in Brussels on our first European gig and all these people coming to shake your hand, really emotional, thanking you for coming over and we had no idea there was that reach, even in the age of the Internet. It was incredible.”

They’ve also filled some very prestigious support slots, including Tame Impala and Dungen. Davies recalls their first time supporting a major act: “We’d been in the studio for a couple of weeks when we got the call, it was not long after we’d been signed and Dinosaur Jr were on the same label. We pitched up at Koko in Camden after being away in the woods for a few weeks and it was a weird contrast.” Davies recalls it being a nerve-wracking gig that almost went very wrong. “It was quite shambolic, our little band setting up at a gig like that. When you’ve been in the countryside for a few weeks and suddenly you’re in that, it was a big step up for us. We had a terrible soundcheck and fucked up one of the songs we were supposed to be doing. We went backstage and had a sort of conference and we played really well after that and people liked it. It could so easily have gone the other way.”

One final achievement comes to mind for Hollick. “The other thing is that we’ve managed to keep it going. We’ve all got jobs and families and other lives. The fact that we’re still doing it.” So often do broken relationships, external influences and boring old practicality kill off bands but Wolf People have kept it up and are arguably one of the best live acts around today.

Ruins is a part of 2016’s musical landscape and it shares that space with everything else to come out this year. Some of Hollick’s favourite releases from this year include House in the Tall Grass from Kikagaku Moyo, Spagat der Liebe by Germany’s Klaus Johann Grobe and Dungen’s latest release Haxan. The ever-modest Hollick adds “I would say these bands share similar influences to Wolf People, but I would feel insecure regarding them as contemporaries as I think they are better than us.”

We are in the room next to a soundcheck that has just started in full force, so I thank Joe Hollick and Dan Davies for speaking with me and let them prepare for their performance. At this point, I am unaware as to just how good the live set is.

For more on Wolf People, visit www.wolfpeople.co.uk

For more from The Sunflower Lounge, including full event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.thesunflowerlounge.com

October 28, 2016

INTERVIEW: Bob Jackson – Badfinger

Badfinger play at The Core Theatre in Solihull on Friday 28^th October. For direct info & ticket sales, click here.

Words by Michelle Martin

I’m hooked on a feeling. No, not ‘Blue Swede’. An emotion that dreams of a different life. What would the planet be like had we chosen an altered path, made alternative decisions? Would our future be any different? These philosophical questions come to mind when listening to In a Different World, from Badfinger’s singer songwriter Bob Jackson.

“Well, there are a lot of horrible conflicts and events going on in the world and so I was inspired to write about them,” explains Jackson. “If you listen to the lyrics, it has a deep universal meaning that everyone can relate to. Bob Geldof had done similar work and I wanted to continue his legacy.”

A turbulent (and that’s putting it lightly) 40 year plus career that features personal traumas, countless lawsuits and numerous line up alterations, renewed rock band Badfinger are back on the rise with a fresh tour of the UK. Following a successful theatre run in 2015, Jackson & Co are heading back on the road to Cardiff, Manchester and many more to present their latest work and showcase their extensive back catalogue of hits dating back to the early days of Badfinger.

Interwoven with various artists, in a decades spanning career, Jackson has assembled a new team of musical superheroes to continue the legacy of Badfinger’s comprehensive record. This time around he is joined by guitarists Andy Nixon and Mike Healy, and drummer Ted Duggan. “A friend last year suggested reforming the band and it kick started from there. I thought it would be respectable to continue the legacy of Badfinger.”

Emerging from the depth of Swansea in 1961, originally known as The Iveys, the band’s original line-up consisted of Pete Ham, Ron Griffiths and David Jenkins. They were the first act signed to The Beatles’ Apple Records. Soon after, The Iveys rebranded themselves as Badfinger, with the principal roster being of Ham, Jenkins, Tom Evans and Mike Gibbins.

Badfinger successfully released five studio albums, a string of hits including ‘Come & Get It’, and toured extensively. Their second album, No Dice, was released in 1970 and consisted of worldwide hit ‘No Matter What’.

Jackson joined the band in 1974 ahead of their tour, after Ham’s departure and return, and has remained a presence since. “We’ve had ups and downs.” Jackson comments plainly. “We were once signed to The Beatles label Apple Records, which was fantastic at the time.” Ups and downs is describing it gently.

After The Beatles disbanded in 1970, Apple Records fell into financial chaos and legal disputes. Badfinger moved to Warner Bros Records and released two albums almost simultaneously, a mere few months apart, both of which charted poorly.

The in late 1974, band management and personal issues plagued Badfinger, resulting in Pete Ham leaving the band suddenly before their rehearsals of their UK tour and re-joining before it commenced. Ham committed suicide in 1975 after being embroiled in financial and managerial arguments.

After his death, Badfinger disbanded and Bob Jackson joined The Dodgers, and later The Searchers. In 1983, Tom Evans committed suicide; family members implied he never fully recovered from the loss of Pete Ham several years prior.

In 2013, Pete Ham was honoured with a Blue Plaque in his hometown Swansea, overseen by original Iveys members Griffiths and Jenkins. Jackson commemorated the unveiling with a tribute concert shortly after. “Pete was such a lovely guy. He was a fantastic instrumentalist, writer and singer.”

Bob Jackson continues to commemorate his friend’s legacy by showcasing Badfinger’s works to fresh audiences. “There’ll be a diverse collection being performed at the shows,” tells Jackson – talking about Badfinger’s upcoming autumn tour. “Retrospective hits like ‘No Matter What’ and ‘Baby Blue’ as well as our recent works.” ‘Day After Day’ features a beautiful piano section and powerful drunk guitars, alongside the soft vocals from original singer Peter Ham.

Another massive hit from Badfinger, which some people may not have realised, was ‘Without You’, from their 1970 album No Dice, which is arguably one of the most popular compositions of that golden rock era.

Nowadays, people may better remember Mariah Carey covering the single over two decades later. ‘’I’d have to say very upbeat,” says Jackson, “short and snappy songs would be putting it simply.’’ Badfinger’s original version, penned by Ham and Evans, felt husky and evoked stronger, emotional feelings in the vocals, compared to numerous covers since its release in 1970.

Badfinger are a band with a turbulent back story, one arguably made for the silver screen. Not something for your light entertainment, but perhaps more to educate an audience on the chaotic, and sometime tragic, life in the music industry. But outside of a possible Oliver Stone Hollywood homage, what is next for Badfinger?

“Honestly – I don’t know,” admits Bob Jackson – ahead of Badgfinger’s October gig at The Core Theatre in Solihull, “It all depends on how well we will be from the upcoming shows. I have an extensive back catalogue of singles written during the 70/80’s that, and with a good market place, could be released as singles or EP’s. But it really depends on how we’ll be received.”

Badfinger play at The Core Theatre in Solihull on Friday 28^th October. For direct info & ticket sales, click here.

For more on Badfinger, including full UK tour dates, visit www.badfingeruk.com

For more from The Core Theatre, visit www.thecoretheatresolihull.co.uk

August 12, 2016

INTERVIEW: Ghosts of Dead Airplanes / Die Das Der – Yr Welcome 3 @ Wagon & Horses 13-14.08

Words by Tony Appleby / Gig pis by Rob Hadley (Indie Images)

Yr Welcome 3 takes place on 13^th & 14^th August at the Wagon & Horses in Digbeth. Tickets are £10 for the weekend or £7.50 for a day pass. For direct event info, including online ticket sales, click here.

Greg Smith, guitarist from Ghosts Of Dead Airplanes, exits the Haygate stage front trailing a cacophonous barrage of white noise and sweat, grabs at an innocent chair, and with anarchic disregard for the conventions of furniture proceeds to use one of its legs as a slide against the neck of his Fender Jag.

Despite, or maybe because of, the skull splitting sonics spilling from the speaker stack my face breaks into a wide grin and I think to myself, ‘yeah this a guy I’d like to know.’

Rewind five years, transport yourself into the Sunflower Lounge during a gig of Greg’s previous band, Black Heart Generator, and you’ll find Steve Bridgeman in the audience – recently arrived in Birmingham from Manchester, staring at the stage and thinking exactly the same thing.

Together with Ben Humphrey, the double-snared drummer from Ghosts of Dead Airplanes, Greg and Steve make up part of a Birmingham collective of musicians, photographers, filmmakers and artists known as Die Das Der. On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the day after the Haygate show, I sit down with the three of them to find out more about who they are and how things are going with the preparations for Yr Welcome 3 – Die Das Der‘s two day showcase of 29 bands across two stages at Digbeth’s Wagon & Horses that takes place on Saturday 13^th and Sunday 14^th August.

“The first time I met Greg I thought he was a bit of a cunt,” says Ben, “and now that I’ve been playing with him for a few years I’m positive about it!”

Ha. So he doesn’t have a mesmerising effect on everyone then. Ben’s previous band, Magic Bullet Theory, had played a couple of shows on the same bill as Black Heart Generator – so the two were known to each other when Greg asked Ben to record drums on some tracks he was putting together. At the time Greg was living in a lock-up in the Jewellery Quarter that had 24-hour access and low rent.

These initial sessions formed the genesis of Ghosts of Dead Airplanes (named after the parting album of Leicester indie/punk act Prolapse). Add one keyboard player (firstly Julia, latterly Leanne) and bassist Jonny, take to the road playing a finely blended mixture of Wire and Pulp, with Television hooks, Pixies structure and MBV overdrive, and then – attack chairs!

“I grew up playing trombone actually – got to grade 8, was planning to study music at university, but then I got hit by a car and lost my teeth,” says Greg, popping out an incisor to make his point. “There’s not much chance of making it as a trombonist after that.” Whilst recovering from this misfortune Greg’s uncle gave him a cheap Hofner guitar and a small Selmar Truvox amp, “which you could turn right up to get distortion.” Not being the sort of person to sit around and cry over spilt teeth, he poured his musical urges into a new instrument.

“I was into classical music and jazz,” explains Greg, “but usually on the dissonant side of things – John Cage, John Cale… I was into Cale first and got led backwards into The Velvet Undergound.” His musical tastes came about, like most of us, as a reaction to the Billy Joel records in his parents’ collection, and he put his first bands together in sixth-form whilst listening to Britpop with a Grunge hangover.

Meanwhile in Surrey, Ben was displaying similar determination by deciding to go all out and buy a full drum kit for £600, despite having never picked up a drumstick. “All I knew was, whenever I listened to music I was listening to the drums.” He came to Birmingham, to study, in 1996 and began playing in bands. After Magic Bullet Theory, Ben started experimenting with a second snare sound for an alt-Country band. The country project dissolved (thank god) but the additional drum came with him into Ghosts of Dead Airplanes.

Steve moved down from Manchester, “where the scene was basically everyone wanting to sound like Oasis”, and became a perennial face on the Birmingham gig circuit – introducing himself to Greg at the aforementioned Black Heart Generator gig and frequenting The Flapper, “where for some reason there always seemed to be a pile of shit just to one side of the toilet!” When I ask Greg how he remembers getting into the music he still loves today, he recalls Saturday detentions at school, “staring out of the window and listening to my cassette copy of Appetite For Destruction over and over and over.”

The three of them aren’t original founders of Die Das Der. The idea was born in the minds of Dave Duell and Dan Sheridan, of bands Bombers and Melting Wings respectively, who were fed up with Birmingham promoters putting on gigs by seemingly plucking bands out of a hat at random. Gig bills like this would comprise of a bunch of totally unconnected, dissimilar acts. The audiences for these shows – equally disconnected from each other – would turn up, watch their one band, and then vanish.

“It might be my Yorkshire meanness,” says Steve, “but if I’ve paid five quid to see a bunch of bands I want to enjoy ALL the bands and get my money’s worth, not fuck off after one of them.”

Greg and Ben got involved in Die Das Der fairly early on. Steve came on board this year. Other members include Graham Reynolds from Wax Futures, Stuart Tovey, Craig Bainton and Paul Broome. It has shifting personnel, but revolves around a coherent and stable ethos – to put on a line-up of bands who might all appeal to a singular audience. The idea might sound simple but can arguably escape a lot of other promoters in the city (they respectfully mention no names). Yr Welcome, which is Die Das Der‘s two day mini-fest, aims to put out acts that the whole crowd can enjoy.

”The bands we put on don’t necessarily all sound the same. What they do have in common is their approach to music,” says Greg. By this he’s talking about their desire to push the boundaries of the music they make. Call it leftfield, or punk (as an attitude not a style), experimental noise or underground. It’s a conscious desire to not just ignore mainstream music, but laugh at it, set it on fire and then piss on it.

Aside from genre, another element to Die Das Der is the DIY ethos. They finance the venture themselves, reasoning that it’s pointless seeking funding from organisations like the Arts Council, who are only going to want to see boxes ticked, specific audiences engaged, full documentation and accountability. Funding like that is a choke chain. Besides which, it’s not needed. “We spread the cost of the festival out amongst us,” says Ben. “If we all come out of it thirty or forty quid down then it’s not a loss, it’s the type of fucking good weekend we’re happy to pay for.”

So profit is certainly no motive (if you haven’t got that by now) it’s about the music and the community. They put on bands they like – usually who they like personally, and often people they’ve played with over the years. The first meeting of each Yr Welcome project involves everyone in Die Das Der sitting down and championing all the great bands they’ve been getting into. It’s a night of listening to music, watching You Tube videos and interviews, the odd debate, maybe a vote or two, but by the end of the day they’ve picked out maybe 40 bands they want.

“It’s an exciting process,” says Steve, wearing his Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam T-shirt (one of this year’s headlining acts) “and it feels really great to bring bands to the table who we’ve seen and met at gigs ourselves.”

YR Welcome is not an event for prima donnas either. The bands all muck in and are happy to take care of themselves, handling their own merch and helping out the Wagon & Horses‘ sound technician, ‘Wagon Greg’, with set-ups and sound checks. It’s probably a good job too, especially for Ben, who got so twisted during the first Yr Welcome he passed out under some stairs an hour before he was due to get on stage.

“I remember being woken up and helped to the stage… “ tells Ben, “I just had to concentrate really, really hard… a couple of times I thought I was just gonna fall off my stool.”

Stools be fools and chairs beware, when you share a stage with Ghosts Of Dead Airplanes.

Check out Yr Welcome 3 event updates and line-up information click here. Or to tap into the social media for Die Das Der, visit www.facebook.com/wearediedasder

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For more on Ghosts of Dead Airplanes, visit www.facebook.com/GhostsOfDeadAirplanes

For more from the Wagon & Horses, visit www.wagonandhorsesdigbeth.com

August 10, 2016

INTERVIEW: Soweto Kinch

Words by Helen Knott

“It’s about preserving ideas and versions of Britishness that aren’t often celebrated, which should be celebrated.”

The Flyover Show is back on Saturday 20th August, returning to its old home beneath the Hockley Flyover.

But if you’re relatively new to Birmingham, you might not have been to The Flyover Show before – after running annually for five years from 2008 it has been on hiatus since 2012.

The Flyover Show’s founder and curator (and a MOBO-award-winning jazz star in his own right) Soweto Kinch admits to some initial trepidation that people may have forgotten about the event. But he has been relieved by the positive reaction, “people have been saying this is exactly what we need. It has been missed, especially in the realm of Black British Brummie expression.”

Indeed, in a year when The Drum has closed and Simmer Down Festival has been cancelled, Soweto Kinch believes this ‘one-day festival of music, art and dance’ is more important than ever to Birmingham’s inner-city communities. “I think that whilst there’s great, new opportunities opening up in some venues across the city there’s a real absence of stuff happening in Ladywood, Hockley and Handsworth. It seems like resources are being pulled away from places that need it.” Kinch is keen for The Flyover Show to counteract this and to celebrate the “rude health of Birmingham’s arts scene”.

Consequently, the theme of this year’s Flyover Show is Birmingham artists – with all but headliners Eska and Ernest Ranglin coming from Birmingham. Soweto Kinch is full of enthusiasm for the acts that the festival will showcase. “Ruben James is a pianist and features on my latest album. He plays with Sam Smith too, so watch this space… Amerah Saleh, I think she’s a really exciting poet, you should be looking out for her… Truemendous – if you don’t know her music check it out. She’s a very industrious woman, I don’t know anybody who’s released three independent albums and got all the videos she’s got online. She’s got more Youtube videos than me.”

But an appearance by the 82-year-old headliner – the legendary jazz/reggae guitarist Ernest Ranglin, should be very special too. And it’s a bit of a coup for Soweto Kinch, “bringing him (Ernest Ranglin) to Birmingham feels like a real privilege. He’s normally doing big ticketed events and charging huge fees, but I think that the opportunity to play in front of a diverse audience, and certainly a community with a strong Jamaican and West Indian heritage, was music to his ears.”

Kinch is currently playing on Ranglin’s farewell tour, appearing at high profile gigs in places like Glastonbury Festival, The Barbican, Montreal Jazz Festival, Istanbul Jazz Festival and Philharmonie De Paris.

Ensuring that The Flyover Show is a community event is also clearly important to Soweto Kinch. Of course the jazz and hip hop fans are welcome, but he’s also keen to reach out to more diverse communities – including the audience that attracted Ernest Ranglin to the event. Kinch has formed a Community Interest Company (CIC) called UPRIZE to run the festival and to take forward other projects and ideas, “so it’s not just a flash-in-the-pan festival but an entire philosophy of how work is created, of how ‘diversity’ is promoted and what the arts ecology of Birmingham really looks like.”

The fact that The Flyover Show remains a free event is also key. “It’s very important,” explains Kinch, “because as well as attracting the jazz acolytes and the hip hop heads who already know these artists, there are so many people in communities such as Ladywood, Hockley and Handsworth that will never know that they like classical music, for example, until they have the chance to hear it.”

In the years since the last Flyover Show in 2012, where over 6,000 came to see a line up with Maxi Priest at the top, Soweto Kinch has further developed a successful broadcasting career – presenting a weekly jazz show on BBC Radio 3 and a TV show on Big Centre TV (“I’m Mr Media now” ). And alongside preparations for The Flyover Show 2016 he’s currently putting the finishing touches to new album Nomagram, his first since 2013’s The Legend of Mike Smith.

Nomagram is due for release in October and is “based on principles of sacred geometry, numbers, and healing – that sound can give us visions of the best versions of ourselves and can literally psychologically and physically make us feel better.” You’ll be able to hear tracks from the new album at The Flyover Show on Sat 20^th August.

So a fair amount in the diary. And Soweto Kinch admits to feeling busy, but it’s a good busy. “It’s all consuming so I’m not sleeping very much,” admits Kinch, “but I had an epiphany a couple of days ago, you know, I’m doing a lot, I’m really tired but it’s a great job! I was at a friend’s birthday party on Wednesday and Rodney P just walked through, gave me a high five and there was a little bit of ‘Rodney P just said hi to me! I’m living the dream.’”

But there’s little let up in sight; having taken a four year break from the festival, Soweto Kinch has big plans for its future.

“The idea is for it (The Flyover Show) to grow, to move to different cities,” tells Kinch. “We’re starting to speak to Hull about doing a Flyover Show next year there, as well as Coventry, London and Manchester. We’re keen to keep exporting this model of creating work in unconventional spaces and celebrating the things that people normally dismiss.”

The Flyover Show returns to Birmingham on Saturday 20^th August, running from 12:30-9pm – taking place at the same event site, underneath the Hockley Flyover in-between Great Hampton Street and Soho Road.

Entrance to The Flyover Show 2016 is free, welcoming all ages all day – but to ensure your place at the front of the crowd, and on the mailing list, visit www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-flyover-show-2016-tickets-26326530361

For more on The Flyover Show, visit www.facebook.com/TheFlyoverShow

For more on Soweto Kinch, visit www.soweto-kinch.com

For more on UPRIZE CIC, visit www.uprize-cic.com