Fairground Attraction - Patrick Wolf

It hasn’t been an easy journey from troubled child prodigy through to the release of third album ‘The Magic Position’ but Patrick Wolf has come through it to produce his finest work to date. Ducking darts and struggling to be heard over the bellowing Arsenal 97-98 Champions DVD in the typical north London boozer, Gigwise meets up with the man who could probably master the bag pipes in under ten minutes if challenged.

 “Where’s your red nose?” asks one of the pot bellied ‘The Power’ wannabees to Patrick as we change tables to avoid any unwanted new body piercings. Standing at 6’4” with bright red hair, yellow shirt with gold bow tie, tartan waist coat, too short tight jeans and pale blue platforms it is easy to see what the fellow is getting at. “What like a reindeer? It’s not Christmas now” comes the reply leaving the man dumbfounded. You just know that Patrick has had to deal with these kinds of taunts all his life and as a result has developed a quick wit that leaves his assailant unsure whether to feel put out or not long enough for him to make his departure.

You see Patrick Wolf has always felt the bullies’ wrath; so much so it forced him to change school several times. But this was also the force that drove him on. “That destruction in your life makes you want to create something.” He candidly admits. “When you are given a minus I want to make a positive to prove myself and be the best I could be. For me that wasn’t playing rugby or being good at maths, it was writing music. So from being somebody who just played other peoples music, be it on the violin, as a choirboy or on the piano I decided that I wanted to make my own.”

Leaving home at 15 to go on a weird and wonderful music adventure Wolf  was spotted in Paris by electronic maestro Kristian Robinson who went on to produce his first record. It has been nearly five years since debut album ‘Lycanthropy’ was released to critical acclaim but failed to reflect this through commercial sales. Patrick says “back then I had really thrown my whole life up for it., I sacrificed family, money, anything just to get the record out. Then I thought I was gonna be this huge star, which was never the intention for making the music, but because I had a great confidence in what I did as an eighteen year old. I then had the initial disappointment after getting critical acclaim. That disappointment, and I was disappointed with success of Lycanthropy, made me immediately think ‘well what am I gonna do?’ So I went out on the road for three or four years and I slowly built up, in a very traditional way, a fan base so that now when I release a song it is received by enough people that I feel really happy with.”