More about: This FeelingPlanetRats

Walking into a This Feeling club night, you know exactly what to expect. But aside from energetic live shows and the whiff of Red Stripe, the solidarity that unites everyone involved is perhaps the most poignant piece of the This Feeling puzzle.

With no live shows this Spring due to COVID-19, Gigwise is bringing you a collection of covers from the bands who were meant to be performing for TF over the coming months. 

Harnessing their sense of community spirit, founder Mikey Jonns says of the collaborative project: “All these bands were due to play for us this Spring in grassroots venues and whilst clearly that's not happened, it hasn't stopped This Feeling band’s sense of community and spirit, as well as supporting the venues they were due to play (almost all are under threat). Stay at home, get in the zone and if you can please help save the UK's grassroots circuit by chipping in whatever you can. Mikey X”

First up it's Planet, who have covered ‘Figure It Out’ by Rats. Watch the video first on Gigwise below and find out a little bit more about how lockdown has impacted the band. 

Gigwise: Tell us a bit about the band you're covering…

Planet: We first played with Rats at our first headline show in Manchester - which was promoted by This Feeling. During our tours we always give the support bands a big listen on the drive and flight there. I remember playing ‘Figure It Out’ in our Mercedes Vito hire car and liking it instantly. Their live show was great that night with the vocals way on point and they all turned out to be a nice bunch of guys!

GW: How has coronavirus impacted your plans? 

P: Pre-virus we were scheduled to drop our EP Maybe Someday and start touring. We still dropped our EP as we didn’t feel the need to delay it as some bands have. We planned to kick off the tour on the release day (17 April), then play four shows in Australia and fly over to UK to play 14 shows. We had to reschedule this all for later in the year - September now for UK and November for Australia (fingers cross they don’t change again). Rebooking, rescheduling and getting refunds have been a bit of a nightmare so far.

GW: How have you adapted to the situation?

P: Writing a lot more because we have the time and we’ve been getting the shortlist for the album sorted. Did a listening party for the EP via Facebook which was pretty cool. I've been learning how to do live streaming and trying to perfect it using all my good microphones and interface. Very ‘tech-y’ but all it’s all on YouTube - it wouldn’t of even crossed my mind if we weren’t put into this situation. No rehearsing at the moment either because we have no shows soon. 

GW: What’s your best This Feeling memory?

P: Y Not Festival in a packed out tent in the mud was pretty crazy - loved that show and was surprised how good the turn out it was.

GW: What does 'The Zone' mean to you?

P: Basically like ‘the mindset’. For example, when you are tracking a new song and you turn on autopilot.

And Rats return the sentiment with their cover of Planet’s ‘Aching Dream’…

Gigwise: Tell us a bit about the band you're covering…

Rats: We met Planet in Jimmy's about a year ago and they were pure class. Been watching them ever since and honestly one of our favourite bands around so honestly it's been a bit mad watching them cover our tune.

GW: How has coronavirus impacted your plans? 

R: This old thing hasn't impacted us massively aside from the live gigs. It’s just changed how we approach different tasks, we're still recording demos and writing so things are still moving forward in a good way.

GW: How have you adapted to the situation?

R: We’re not letting it get in the way, we’re not going to stop ever. Joe’s been doing a lot of Instagram live streams and we’ve also put out a few cover videos so actually we're now just substituting the live shows for way more behind the scenes work. 

GW: What’s your best This Feeling memory?

R: C’mon now... Isle Of Wight is up there, Truck is up there too. Headlining the birthday party for This Feeling too, mad night. Overall though definitely our sold out Invisible Wind Factory headline to 1250 people, that was special.

GW: What does 'The Zone' mean to you?

R: Biffs, beers, buds, and great live music.

More about: This FeelingPlanetRats