More about: This FeelingThe YoungCleargreen

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”

Today we have Cleargreen and The Young stepping up to the plate and collaborating on two covers. First, Cleargreen… 

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

Cleargreen: We’ve done a cover of The Young's ‘Always Wrong’ which is a banger. Buzzed off this since we played Camden with them at the World Cup shows This Feeling put on too. Good lads and a great band.

G: How has coronavirus impacted your plans? 

C: All gigs have been cancelled for a later date, and bye bye to festivals this year. But we have the ‘phattest’ tune in our locker ready to be released called ‘Messiah’. Obviously that’s on hold until we can film a video for it. Nothing comes close to that tune so keep your eyes on us. It’s a shame really we had a lot of people dying to hear that tune. But another year in lockdown would be worth the wait for that track. Trust me it’s mega.

G: How have you adapted to the situation?

C: Some of us are looking after people during these grim times, some of us are still working as key workers, rehearsals are in the bin at the moment but we’re still sending each other songs we’ve written. Ali’s just done a class cover of ‘Some Might Say’ for the 25th anniversary, he’s covered Karen O too. Get over to IGTV for them. We’re in contact everyday like normal just haven’t seen each other in ages.

G: What’s your best This Feeling memory?

C: Best zone we’ve been involved in probably has to be This Feeling 13 at the end of last year. The line-up was mega and we went down with our scouse bros Rats in a big van. It was just an all round mental 48 hours. Isle Of Wight Festival last year was up there too.

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

C: Everyone loving it, a mega line up and a mega session.

And over to The Young…

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

The Young: We’ve covered a band called Cleargreen, we met these guys a few years back when we played with them at the Camden Monarch with This Feeling. We hit it off with them over a beer during soundcheck and have been pals ever since. We regularly chat about playing with them in the future and hopefully we can smash out a huge This Feeling gig with them upon our return to ‘normality’. We’ve also covered The Vitrines who we’ve played with a couple of times and they’re really good lads and a really solid duo, hopefully we can play with these fellas at some point down the line again too! 

G: How has coronavirus impacted your plans? 

TY: The Coronavirus has impacted our plans massively! We had a This Feeling tour this May that we have had rescheduled that we were particularly looking forward to. One of the original dates was also George’s (our bass players) 21st birthday which would’ve been heavy! We also had some studio time booked which has been postponed. This has led to a delay in the release of our new single. 

G: How have you adapted to the situation?

TY: I think the only option for everyone in this situation is to adapt and to try turn a negative into a positive. Isolating yourself can really get the creative juices flowing as there are less distractions from the outside world. There’s plenty more time to listen to your favourite albums for inspiration, You can also improve yourself physically and mentally so once everything is back to ‘normal’ you can burst back onto the scene driven. Me (Alfie, singer) and George live together so we’re practising together a lot. Tom’s been taking the time to go over loads of new stuff and improving some older bits and pieces. We do miss playing with Tom and Josh a lot though and can’t wait to get back into rehearsals. 

G: What’s your best This Feeling memory? 

TY: Our sold out Big In 2020 gig at the Fighting Cocks in Kingston. This was a local show for us so all of our mates were down at the front singing along to all the words. It really felt like we had the whole room in with us and I’ll never forget that feeling.

G: What does 'The Zone' mean to you? 

TY: To me the Zone means a group of musicians coming together as collective and making a fucking good night for any spectator who is in the building. A shared love for music driven by a passion to become the best band you can be.

More about: This FeelingThe YoungCleargreen