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Midway through what is turning out to be a triumphant reunion tour Gigwise managed to catch up with the seminal rockers on a terrible mobile line while they were in a car somewhere between London and Birmingham.
Gigwise: Dave, how’s it going?
Dave: Great thanks – we’re all pretty happy. Looking forward to tonight. We’ve never been particularly popular in Birmingham so we aren’t sure what to expect; the Leeds and Manchester dates were amazing though, so we’ve high hopes.
G: There’s been a lot of surprise at the size of the venues you’ve been playing. Did you always plan to play the Carling Academies, or was that an adjustment to meet with demand?
D: Yeah, it’s been to do with demand really. Obviously the tour has been long planned, since the summer last year, so the management have been able to assess the situation for a while.
G: Why now?
D: Lots of reasons really. We’ve wanted to do it before, but we haven’t been able to get it together, partly for geographical reasons. I live in Portland (Oregon, USA), Hugo lives in Massachusetts, and Jon and Andy live in London.
G: Was there any question of the tour happening without the original line up?
D: Never. No, it was always going to be the four of us. It’s just we hadn’t been able to do it, despite the pressure from the promoters and the agents to do it. This time though we’ve had some good management behind us, which has made all the difference, made us feel happier about it, and that helped it happen.
G: Was there a sense that musically it was the right time to do it?
D: Well I’m not as down as I should be with the modern music scene, but I have heard that a lot of acts on the up cite us as influences. I heard Franz Ferdinand when they came through the US I can sort of see the resemblance in the angular guitars and the spikes, though it’s not exactly Gang of Four. Others that I have seen, and I don’t want to name names, are nowhere near us, frankly. The main difference is the lack of intensity in the live shows. What’s surprised me about this tour is the number of young people in the audience; the old fans are there to, but they are at the back by the bar!! Ha Ha! No, but all these kids are down there and they’ve clearly gone out and bought Shrinkwrapped and the others, but because they are new to us live, they are taken aback by the intensity of our performance. That’s what we’ve got that nobody else has at the moment I think.
G: Check out Geisha.
D: As in Japanese? Ok I will.
G: Was rediscovering that intensity a concern for you?
D: Oh, absolutely. It was one of the major things we discussed before agreeing to the tour. We spent two weeks rehearsing at the beginning of the year – we actually started on New Year’s Day. We’re pretty pleased the results!
G: So what’s happening next?
D: Well I’m always the last to know, but we are off to the states next to play the Coachella Festival and some other dates, then we are looking at the summer in Europe on the Festival circuit.
G: Which ones?
D: Well I don’t know – everyone was kind of holding back to see how the tour was received before booking more dates. We’ll see.
G: And an album?
D: Give us a chance!!
G: Alright – have a good gig!
D: will do, cheers!
