Two Big Egos in a Small Car
A passionately laid back overview of the arts and culture scene in York and Harrogate with observations on journalism. This podcast is hosted by Charles Hutchinson and Graham Chalmers and regular guests.
Two Big Egos in a Small Car
Episode 153: Interview Special - Shed Seven's Rick Witter
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Charles and Graham speak to Rick Witter of Shed Seven, discussing the story behind the York band's new album, next January's A Matter Of Time, the upcoming autumn tour, early band names for Witter and Paul Banks, and what it takes to be among the great survivors of Britpop.
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Good evening to Rick Whitter from Shed7, and good evening to Grimm who wants to start. Grime Chalmers, my co-host of two big ego in a small car, wants to start as ever Grimm with an interruption.
SPEAKER_02Uh variations, and one by the coral Sea of Mirrors, and how Sea of Mirrors is much better than Autumn variations because it's bloody edge shear and these bloody self-obsessed lyrics and he's slightly ripoffs of Sophie Jan Stevens and Elliot Smith now he's trying to be Taylor Swift and get some sort of critical kudos and how the coral is much better and how the choral don't quite get the respect to deserve. And I thought, yeah, but now do Shed Seven, Shed Seven don't quite get the respect to deserve. And it's a bit weird why they don't. Any theories?
SPEAKER_04Well, firstly, hello Graham. Hello, Crick. Nice to see you. Yes, and you too. Yes. Um well that probably is a true statement that you've just said, but to be fair, I think it might be the reason why we're still here doing it. Because we kind of we kind of always slip under these radars, and we've you know, we've yeah, I think we are very marmite, I think. You either really love us or or we're detested. Certainly in the 90s, certainly in the nineties, and certainly within the music the music press in the 90s, that's changed massively now, which is a breath of fresh air for a start. Um, but yes, we were either loved or loathed, and I think that's kind of changing. I don't know whether it's because we've got to a certain age and we don't feel like we have to prove ourselves as much anymore. We're just doing it more just because we absolutely love to do it, and maybe that kind of comes across in the songs these days. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Um and maybe there's also that misjudgment, there's there's also that misjudgment thing that's arguably there as well. Because if one thinks back to that era, there's a lot there was so much pressure to match Oasis, so much pressure to match Blur, but it actually wasn't a fair baton exchange in that scenario. And if one looks back, now people reassessed, for example, the third the third Oasis album be here now and say, Well, actually, we just wanted to like them whether the album was good or not. So there was a dishonesty that actually pervaded at the time. And I don't think you got a probably a fair hearing at that time because it was an agenda that seemed to be there for some reason.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and going back to that 90s thing, front covers were a huge thing, and and you know, we didn't really get that many of those. But if Oasis punched uh a bouncer outside a nightclub, they'd instantly be on the front cover, and it's all fodder, isn't it, at the end of the day? Um, but yes, you're right. Yeah, I mean, Oasis and Blur weren't the be-all of the 90s guitar scene at all. There's loads of really good music going on. Um, and again, I kind of answer it the same. I think the fact that we're still here doing it is testament to to us being quite canny in how we've gone about decisions that we've had to make over the way. I mean, obviously, like everybody, you make bad decisions, but I think I think um we've always we've always just wanted to do this, so we've had to be quite canny and on how to kind of maintain it really.
SPEAKER_02And it's just as a fan of the 60s, I remember the days when bands like The Birds and Small Faces and Moody Blues weren't rated at all, they were looked on as like not very important acts, and that's all changed. And in the 90s, like Shed Seven from Dolphin in 1994 to Disco Down in 1999, that's like a long run of hit singles, and there's not many bands from that era had such a long run of proper hit singles and great songs. I mean, obviously, there's Blur and Oasis and Pulp and Suede, but there's there's not many contenders, so it's it really is about time that Shed Seven had their place in the 90s reassessed, I think.
SPEAKER_012003 last hit Rick 2003, the last hit is actually even longer than 1999. That run of hits was extraordinary, the length of time for that, you know.
SPEAKER_04Well, it was it was about a nine-year stretch, wasn't it? Which which I mean the Beatles only lasted about nine years, didn't they? Yeah, very good call. Comparing myself with the Beatles talking about getting better all the time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but it's interesting that thing because whether one calls it a comeback or not, because uh when so when the when the gigs first restarted, there was I thought there was a sudden realization, the actual the fandom was so very, very strong. In the site, in the I'm gonna make a maybe a strange comparison with Northern Soul, but the reason I make the comparison with that is that you had the devotees of the sheds, and for them it was actually shed seven equals shed heaven, as much as anything. And there was that connection that was strongly there. And people just thought, bloody hell, there were so many good songs, not just this one, not just that one, not just and it and as and a gig sustained around so many strong singles, and they and therefore they just became a great night to be at. And then on top of that, along came a new album six years ago, strong songs again, building again, and now a new album coming out in January next year. So it seems to me actually the strategy that you've done, if you call it if you want to call it a strategy, has been really effective.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, without really we're not the type of people to sit down and plan have a plan of action. So it's all been very natural. This right. We we're obviously quite good at judging how we go about stuff without really going into fine details with it. So, yes, you're right. We had a few years off. The only reason that we wanted to go out and do some gigs is because it's all we've ever done and all we've known, and and it's a a brilliant thing to do. So, you know, when we're 12 and 13 years old and we're picking up guitars and learning to play them, it is literally just because we're massive show-offs. And if you're gonna learn it from it, you're gonna want to go and play it. Yeah, so so after about a four-year hiatus, we were all we all just said, look, you know, why don't we just put some gigs on sale and just just for our own fun because we love playing without realizing that we had to upgrade venues, we had to add loads more gigs onto this mini tour. I think we were literally gonna do about four gigs, just get on a bus, do four gigs, and then suddenly we were doing like 24 gigs, yeah. And and in bigger venues than what we thought we could do than that because of the ticket demand. And then when we went out and started playing these old 90s songs 10, 12 years later, just everyone was singing every word, and it was a bit like it was a bit of a moment because it actually made me then think what we had done way back then actually meant something to people because we in the 90s we were so busy, so caught up doing it, and it was a job, you know, one of the best jobs in the world. But you know, you you'd you'd write an album and then you've got to go there and do that, and then you've got to go to Spain then and do that, and then you know, where's the next album? You know, so it was my dad always used to say to me, You've got to stop and smell the roses sometimes, and we never really had an opportunity to do that. So, so when we reformed in 2007 just to do a few gigs, it was kind of amazing, really. It was like, oh my god, so you know, these songs that are now quite old, people have remembered them and they actually want to come and see us doing them again. So we kind of got ourselves into a little bit of a trap of becoming a little bit of a nostalgia act for a while because we were going out every other year playing our back catalogue, and it's funny because you get to like 2013 and people start saying, Will you ever write anything new? And for a long time it wasn't it wasn't a thing for us. Uh, we all had other things going on, um, but then we accidentally started writing some new stuff, it was a total accident, and what we were coming out with, we thought was worth persevering with. Uh, and and it was really funny because all of these fans that kept pestering us to write new music, as soon as they found out that we were writing new music, they were really, really scared that it was going to be a load of rubbish. So, but because we kind of ripped a box and stuff, we knew what we'd done was really good, so it was a great feeling having something in our back pocket that no one had heard, knowing that we were really proud of it, and then when it eventually did come out in 2017, um, I think we surprised a few people, and I think we're gonna surprise more people in January because I think this album is probably one of the best albums we've ever done, and I'm loath to say that to be fair, because I through doing interviews a lot over the years, you see bands coming back with new stuff, and they always say it's the best thing we've ever done. And I I don't I don't want to say that, but it's just true.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, the new Rolling Stones album is always the best New Rolling Stones album since uh tattoo you every single time. Graeme, question from you.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, so so basically it's it's a new maximum high, the new album.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, that's it's funny you say that because there is a lot of weird comparisons with that particular album. Um, so the Maximum High album was our second album, the difficult second album, which wasn't for us at all. We found it really easy. Um, we spent probably about nine or ten months writing the Maximum High album, and then we spent the exact same amount of time last year doing this one. So it's so those two albums are probably the quickest we've ever written anything. Um the title A Matter of Time is lifted from the last track on the album, which is called Throwaways. I'm singing about it being a matter of time, and with the map with the maximum high album that's lifted off the last track parallel lines, where I'll sing about it being a maximum high. There's lots of really weird little quirky things that that coalesce between those two albums. So I think I'm I'm excited. This is a really good time for us. I I love this time when we've done something and it's ready, but nobody's heard it yet. Because I I can sit back excited that within a time period people are going to get to hear it. But as soon as it's out there, it's not ours anymore, and we're gonna have to do another one. I'm really loving this down sound.
SPEAKER_01That choice of throwaways, two questions on throwaways. One, the position that it sits on the album, like the maximum high being the last track, and then the corollary to that is a certain guest's uh co-vocalist Rick on that album, uh Mr. Peter Doherty. So the significance of throwaways being that last track, and also the decision, because you wanted to work with with Pete, having met him at uh well, you can tell us how you met Pete and how it came to be that that was the track that he was on.
SPEAKER_04So um Throwaways kind of does what it says on the tin, really. It's basically a song about being outsiders, not being included. And I kind of I kind of always thought we were a little bit like that, and I think the Liberty Team had a little bit of that going on with them as well. So it just seemed like the perfect kind of choice song off the album for him to come on to. Um and it was quite an amazing thing, really, because I'd I I've met Peter now and I found out that he's quite a big fan of Shed Seven. Um, so we we we I met him for the first time at the Bingley Festival a couple of years ago where we were playing and Libertines were headlining it. And as we were doing our hour set, I kind of I was just looking at the side of the stage where most of my family was stood watching, and there's Peter Peter Dockett, he's singing every word of all my songs. So that kind of pricked my ears up a little bit. Um so after the after the gig, I just went over and introduced myself, and he was telling me that when he was a youth, he would learn, shed seven songs on his guitar in his bedroom and and sing along to our stuff. So that just totally opened up the invitation, right? Peter, if you're a big fan, would do you want to be part of one of our songs? And he said, I'd love to. So he I mean he hadn't even heard the song and he said he'd love to do it. So it was a right interesting way of of um seeing how other people work. I mean, we he he did do it remotely, they've got a studio in Margate, the Libertines, so he did it there. So all we did is sent him the song with my vocals on it and said, if you want to try and recreate that or just just play around with it, see what you want to do. So he comes in in the he I did I sing the first verse, he sings the second verse, and but really interesting to see how he's taken my melody and my words and spun it and made it very, very Peter Docketty. So it's it's it was a really interesting thing to see and hear. So I'm now gonna have to sing it like he does if he's not.
SPEAKER_01Graham, question from you.
SPEAKER_02Well, I was gonna say that I first met Rick backstage when Chad Seven played a gig and Harrigate in 1994, and uh I I think a jazz cigarette was involved, although I've got no idea where it came from. And then I went to see uh the Stone Roses playing at Billington Spa, and I looked across the bar and there was Rick at the bar. So I had a quick chat, and Rick was as nice as always and very tolerant of my argumentative egotistical ways. And then I thought I thought, while this it doesn't get any more glamour than this, the Stone Roses, Billington Spa, Rick Whitter of Shadow Seven. I thought this is like the peak of like Rick. And so I was gonna ask Rick about what he felt of the glamour of the time because I've looked at videos of Shad Seven at the top of the pop-ops in the 90s and Big Brother. And Rick and the band look totally right, they've got that swagger and that working class authenticity and that confidence, and they're cool as hell, and yet they're also very, very popular. And I thought, how often in life does that all come together at the same time where you look good, you sound good, you got the right ideas, and it works. I was thinking like Rick must have felt great at that point, surely.
SPEAKER_04Uh to be fair, I didn't really give that any thought, really. I mean, I've always liked to feel like I'm I look alright and I dress well. Uh you know, I mean uh this goes back to the point where we started this conversation on with the music press in the 90s because they'd be the first to tell us that we were the most uncool band in the world, you know. Not not everybody, I'm I'm not tying everyone with the same brush, but yeah, certainly we you know if you look at the videos now and top of the pop appearances by the band, you look good.
SPEAKER_02You actually you genuinely look good. So I th I think the critics just totally got it wrong at the time.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, I think we we had a bit of a stain. I I don't I think because we didn't really play play their ball game with them, we didn't move to London. We we chose to stay living in York, we didn't move down there, and we weren't seen stroking Peter Springfellow's hair, you know. I mean, it was we just wanted to. We're at the Great Show Club, yeah. All of that, we weren't part of the scene, we didn't play the game, so I think that kind of annoyed them.
SPEAKER_01I'm I'm guessing really, but you know, I mean I remember Rick at the time that you were encouraged to say you were a Leeds band, not a York band. That was pushed at you as an idea that you should say you're a Leeds band, not a York band. And that seemed totally ridiculous. And I always think, great, stick with the fact that you're a York band. And and I mean it would have in many ways it would have been a betrayal to have done that, and yet the pressure was there to say you were from Leeds.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, I mean, why would we do that when we're not from Leeds? Yeah, I love Leeds, it's a great city, but we're not from there, so you know you just yeah, you just gotta stick to your guns. So, you know, I mean, I did get told in the 90s that certain publications they have charts on their walls saying build them up this week, knock them down that week. And and this is this people's careers, you know what I mean? It's like it's it's madness. So we managed to somehow navigate ourselves around that, you know. I mean, I mean, I'm not trying to make this conversational negative, but you know, we'd have we'd have single reviews and it wouldn't mention the song once, it would just mention it, it would just mention how bad my haircut was at that point, or you know, like but the the good the great thing with us, and and this is why I'm always so kind of thankful to our fan base, because they really are you know they they didn't they could see that that was just a load of tosh in it doesn't matter, and we're still gonna buy the song because we like it, regardless of what you think about his hair, you know what I mean? So so they've we have been carried through by a really loyal fan base, but then on saying that, we are a really good band, so it works both ways.
SPEAKER_01Um two two connected thoughts on on youth youth. Uh two elements of youth. One working again in Andalusia with youth as the producer, the other, which Paul talked about, Paul Banks guitarist talked about um in the initial press release to announce the album, was a reconnection with your youths of age 12 and whatever. And the bands that you were listening to at that time, REM, The Smiths, The Cure, even Jiran Jiran. And that this album actually, in some ways, reconnects with that youth. Just talk me through those two things, working with youth, and also, if you like, reconnecting with your own youth.
SPEAKER_04Well, we for a long time, when we were thinking of album titles, we did want to have the word youth in there because of this, but then we just thought that the producer youth will think it's about him, so we need to get away from that right away. Um, but yeah, I mean, yes, it's right, really. I mean, me and Paul started writing songs when we were probably about 13 or 14 years old. I I remember either being sat in his bedroom or he'd be in my bedroom and we'd be drawing album covers to songs that we'd yet to write, you know, down to actually drawing the butt bloody barcode on it and everything. So we've always just had that thing. So, yes, at that point he was well into the simple minds. I was I was more of a U2 man.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So, you know, but yeah, that we'd be listening to Duran Jiran. We used to love listening to Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Remember loads of times in my kitchen air guitaring with Paul Banks to that to that uh Welcome to the Pleasure album. Oh, yes. So, yeah, so I think I think we kind of subconsciously, because obviously we have two new band members, one lives in Manchester, one lives in London. So this uh this album is mine and Paul's baby, really, to an extent. It's it's it's mine and him, and we we must have hit some type of really good purple patch throughout last year because everything was just it felt so easy to do, and everything, any idea we were coming up with was immediately just quite good. So we've it's a I think it's a subconscious thing to an extent, but there's little nods at a lot of kind of our youth. Um and it's nice really, it's almost like we've come full circle, so God knows what's gonna happen next.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the two new members you mentioned, um Rob Maxy uh Maxfield on on the drums and Tim Winnis uh on the keyboards, um they uh are on the album. They're also going to be playing on the upcoming tour, uh opening on October 19, and that tour's gonna be taking in Cardiff, London, Nottingham, Stoke, Wolverhampton, Glasgow, Middlesbrough, and Manchester. Um, so there'll be some who've yet to see the new members playing. I mean, they've been with you for a little while now, but how are they settling into the boundary?
SPEAKER_04I think they've settled in really, really well. Um, Maxie has drummed for Ian Brown for quite a long time, Ian Brown's solo stuff, and he's also he was also in Audio Web in the 90s. Um, and he was telling me not so long ago that since he was about 16, all he's ever wanted to do is be the drummer in a really cool indie guitar band, and it's taken him to be 50 years old for that to happen. Yeah, um, so he's uh he's absolutely in his element, and he's an absolutely great drummer. So, you know, we've got past that everyone being on their best behaviour thing because there's we're all new. Um Tim's a great multi-instrumentalist, he can put his hand to anything. So the the gig's theirs for as long as they want it, to be honest with you. Um I think it's probably given us a kick up the backside as well, to be honest with you. So all of this is kind of coalesced at this at the right time. Um and because of that, as I say, this this album it's it's got a lot going for it, and I think it's one of these albums where it might stick around for quite a long time.
SPEAKER_01Not just a matter of time, but a matter of time in it.
SPEAKER_04A matter of a very long time.
SPEAKER_02Graham, your question, please. Well, I mean, I was gonna put the clock back to the early days, and I I believe that your first band, Rick, was called Broccoli Haven, which sounds like a Haldycamp. Is that true?
SPEAKER_04So, yes, the first school band. Well, me well, I'll take you back before then. So me and Paul started our first band when we were about twelve. Uh we wrote we we only had a couple of songs, and one of those songs I think one of us had a Casio keyboard, and you know you can get the demonstration button on the Casio keyboard, so it will just start playing something randomly. That was the music. And then I just put some lyrics over the top of it called the creature of dreams. Um I think we've still got that somewhere, ridiculously. Um we were called E Nam, and this was Paul's idea because he was massively into Vietnam War films at the time. So he said, Why don't we call ourselves E Nam? Good grief. Um yes, I know we were 12. Come on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, supposed to be.
SPEAKER_04Um so we did a we did one gig um in Paul's living room when we were about twelve or thirteen. It just so happened Paul's older sister had a German exchange student staying. Um so so me and Paul told his sister to invite seven or eight German girls into uh I think they must have been about 15 uh to his house so that we could do a gig. So we we pressed the demonstration button on the Casio keyboard in his front room and uh and reach our dreams. But yes, Broccoli Haven. Um so that name came about, if I'm right. I think Paul was Paul had gone on holiday to Milford Haven. Ah um and we were thinking, trying to think of a band name. He'd gone on holiday, he'd met this girl in Milford Haven, I think. Um so we liked the Haven side of it, and I think it's as random as just getting a map of England and putting a pin in just with our eyes closed, put a pin in, and the nearest place was somewhere called Broccoli. So we became Brock Haven. Uh but we were actually quite good for a school band, we were very House Martinsy. Um we did a lot of House Martins covers actually. We used to put gigs on Scotted Cow and the winning post when we were 14 and 15, and we'd we'd get told off at school for putting posters up advertising it down the school corridors. The teachers would be going, What are you doing advertising, telling children to go to pubs?
SPEAKER_02But yeah, the the the York scene was quite important, wasn't it? I mean, I used to go to Fibers a lot, usually with Charles in the 90s, and there'd be Stuart Fletcher hanging around at Chris Helm, and Tim Hornsby, the owner, would be uh so like throwing his wit around to make sure people behave themselves. And it felt like a really vibrant live music scene York in the 90s. Did you think it was a really great era for York music?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I think it it really was, and it and I think it continues to be. Um I uh I think because York is so oldy worldly, there's an awful lot of you know, you could go into a pub with a raging open fire and listen to some ple somebody on on a cello, or you can go into more of an indie kind of place and get that vibe. You know, we we did Fibber's Battle of the Bands twice before we signed our record deal, and I think the first time we came second, and the third time the the first time we came second, and the second time we came third, and then we signed the sixth album record deal. That's right, that's how it went.
SPEAKER_02Winning a battle of the bands is the kiss of death for any band, so you did well not to win it.
SPEAKER_04Yes, that m very, very much so.
SPEAKER_01I totally agree with that. Yes, it was a definitely a badge of honour. Rick on the new album. Um, I think three tracks feature the words let's go. So well, let's say why let's go, and that's got a kind of sense of urgency about it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so the first track on the album, it's like a two and a half minute kind of thing. Um, I think it's an overspill of what we've all been through in recent times. I don't really want to say that this is a coverty album because it isn't, but there's an awful lot of talking about travel, um, which is something that nobody was allowed to do for a while. So, for example, for example, Kissing California that's already come out, that's basically about just going out with someone that someone that you're really into, and having the best night you could possibly have, you know, it's as simple as that. Let's go mentions an awful lot of places from around the world. Uh, there's a little tongue-in-cheek dig at the fact that we were barred from Oslo in the 90s.
SPEAKER_02Um barred from Oslo.
SPEAKER_04No go, why? Um go Oslo. We were a bit naughty to be honest with you. I mean, looking back now, it's it's disgraceful behaviour looking back as an older man. Um, we'd we'd we'd been on a really long European tour, and this is pre pre-Euros, so you know, you'd you'd be in Spain for two days, and then suddenly you'd find yourself in France with loads of Persetas, and you're trying to work out what you know. We were away for an awful long time, and we ended up being playing a gig in Oslo. Um, and I think we weren't very well looked after. I don't think the promoter was that bothered, he didn't seem to be that bothered. The sound was terrible on the stage. There's probably about 30 people there watching us. Um, so I think I think a big old three or four-week tsunami had built up that much within us that we kind of we took it out on their dressing room, which wasn't the the best thing to do, really.
SPEAKER_01Very rock and roll, though, Rick. I mean it's in the tradition.
SPEAKER_04Well, I know, I know. And you you know, it's like that classic throwing a telly out of the window. Unfortunately, never managed to do that. I was very, very close once. Um we'd gone again, we were abroad somewhere, and um I think we had a night off, and I was sharing a room with one of our road crew, one of our friends called Brad. Um, and I think we literally went into our hotel room, dumped our bags on the beds, and I said to it, right, we were going out for a few drinks, and I said to him, Right, I'm gonna get drunk tonight, and when I come back, that telly's going out of that window. So we went out and got really drunk. Um, and I just uh I was told the next day by Brad that when we got back to the hotel room, I was looking around the room and I just couldn't find the telly. And he was laughing at me. He was laughing at me because I'm stood up and it's actually on the wall behind me. I just I couldn't find it anywhere, but I knew there was a telly because it was a remote control, so the best I could do with air was just throw the remote control out.
SPEAKER_02So that's as far as that's feeble, feeble.
SPEAKER_01So that's one let's go. Two more songs have let's go in them. Why?
SPEAKER_04Right. So so the other let's go again in brackets is like a little bit of a reprise of the other songs, so it's as simple as that, it's just a slowed-down, nice, different version, just to break up the album in the middle, yeah. Um, and then let's go dancing. I thought was quite clever because I thought of that around about the same time as when I was writing Let's Go. Um, and I just thought it it looked quite good on an album to have Let's Go and Let's Go Dancing. Uh, and then even better when we thought of doing this reprise, Let's Go again. So, yeah, it's all about movement, travel. There's, I mean, if the key words for this album for me are probably life, love, sex, death, stalking, recreation, ornithology, and uh ornithology. Yeah, there's lots and lots of birds, yes, there's this nearly in every song is a reference to some type of bird, yeah. Which I thought I inadvertently it after about the fifth song that I've written lyrics for, I noticed that there was birds mentioned. Are you a secret twitcher? No, I'm not, but I do like the idea of birds. I'm not a twitcher. For example, is a there's a a line in um a line in one of the songs where it says one swallow doesn't make a summer. So it's it's that kind of thing. It's all a reference to some type of bird um and and travel, and there's an awful lot of cities named in this album and and uh and the wall.
SPEAKER_01Does York get mentioned?
SPEAKER_04Uh that's a very good question. Um does it get mentioned in Let's Go? Can't think off the top of my head now. Um I know I mentioned Soho and Oslo, that's you can quite rightly see what a what a great poet I am.
SPEAKER_00That's the trouble with the York.
SPEAKER_02If unless you call it York, you can't you can't use it what rangs with York, virtually nothing. Pork. Pork.
SPEAKER_04Bjork. So yes, I'm not sure I'm not so sure. I'm not so sure whether York gets mentioned, but to be fair, it doesn't need to because it's York through and through on this album. It's me and Paul now and our youth and growing up in this lovely city. So York is kind of interlaced into all of these songs, anyway.
SPEAKER_01Graham, I feel it's time for one of your questions.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, I'm just thinking that of all the bands from the 90s that have reformed and come back and tour and put records out, there's not many really made a big impact except just through sheer nostalgia. Probably Blur and Swede are the only other ones, and and the other ones Shed Seven. So once again, you're you're sort of like higher up all that picking order than uh anybody who gives you credit because you're doing it properly. But you've always reminded me of the who, you're sort of like direct in punchy, and in big hearted and no flimflap. And so when you talked about your behaviour in the dressing room, I thought that's typical because they sound a bit like the Who to me, do shed the Civil without being any way copyist. So there's that same sort of atmosphere to your your music that the Who have got as well. Do you sort of feel you've got any links to that?
SPEAKER_04Well, yeah, I guess without really giving it too much thought. Yeah, I guess there yeah. Um, you know, I mean uh I've just grown up loving those classic kind of bands anyway, so it's gonna steep in somehow, isn't it? But yeah, I think I think I think you're right in the sense that yes, we are one of the only kind of remaining 90s kind of bands that that's that are relevant. I mean, this is another great thing for us is the fact that when I was saying earlier about we were we were getting trapped into some type of nostalgia kind of act, that changed when we released instant pleasures, and it's totally changed it. Now we've done another one, so we are actually now a relevant current thing, which is quite crazy, really. I thought I'm I'm sure if if some people were told in 1995 that Shed Seven will still be going and selling quite well in 2023, they'd fall over.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you're right, you're right. That's quite amazing, really.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, last question from me. And thankfully, thankfully, we're we've all still got our health, you know, and we're all in our 50s now, but yeah, show no sign of taking children to IKEA, Rick.
SPEAKER_01I mean, that's really rock and roll.
SPEAKER_04Well, well, this is the thing. This is uh apologies for that, yes, but yes, it's Charles.
SPEAKER_02Charles, have you watched the the the video or the film of Shed Seven playing at T in the park in 2016?
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_02Which I what which I watched the other day. It's absolutely phenomenal. They're such a brilliant live band, Abba's gobsmacked.
SPEAKER_04Well, I think it's really important, and I think certainly this in this day and age, with with the the this stupid living crisis thing, I think it's really important. If people are gonna put their hand in the pocket and spend their hard-earned money, they deserve a show, and I think we're we're quite good at doing that. I you know, I still don't really understand it. I know it became a thing, a shoegaze, it became its own thing, but if I go and watch a band, I don't want to see them looking like they're not bothered that they're even there. I want I want to show you, I want to be entertained. So the best the best thing in the world is when you you finished and you can perhaps hear people discussing what's just happened, but they're leaving the gig and it and oh god, do you remember when that happened? And you know, I mean I I I always used to be terrible, certainly in the 90s. If one of us made a mistake at a gig, I'd be the first one giving evils and looking like I'm really annoyed that we've just made a mistake. And now I'd dying out on it. I I love it when something goes slightly wrong at the gig. I do though, because it means it means you're human and it means you can have a laugh about it and and and and engage the audience into that wrongness, and everyone's just on the same page, and it's amazing. So I I actively encourage the guys to cock up every now and again.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's the last word for for from both of us. Uh we're into the last minute. Thank you so much, Rick. Thank you, Graham, as ever. And uh next time we'll engage for a chat if we may, the 30th anniversary. That's the next time we'd love to do a podcast with you next year as well, Rick, to talk about the 30th anniversary.
SPEAKER_04Brilliant. I shall love to do that.
SPEAKER_01If you've been listening to the podcast to big eagles in a small cast, you'll have to go in, which I'll let's find out because I just was hypocrites of production.