George Akins - 'Nottingham's Mr Music'

May 2014

IN the book on a shelf behind George Akins’ desk, the writer refers to him a “Nottingham’s Mr Music”. It’s Jake Bugg’s unofficial biography that is as much about the local music scene as it is about the rise of the kid from Clifton to international star.
“Does it really say that?” he frowns, admitting he’s not yet had time to read it.
He’s not keen on the label but it sits well with the boss of a company that dominates Nottingham’s music map.
DHP Family owns and operates Rock City, Rescue Rooms, The Social and Stealth, where everyone from U2 and Oasis to Simply Red, Nirvana, The Smiths, Iron Maiden and more have played.
It promotes gigs in all of its own venues but also around the country, putting on around 1,200 gigs every year for the likes of Ed Sheeran, James Blunt and Lana Del Ray, winning national awards in the process.
There are other venues in Bristol and London, where it has a second office.
Rock City is also home to concert ticket agency Alt-Tickets.
In more recent years they’ve added artist management to the portfolio, enjoying success with West Bridgford indie band Dog Is Dead and Long Eaton’s Indiana, who last week landed her first Top 20 single.
The 39-year-old father-of-two, the son of Nottingham entrepreneur George Akins (George junior named his son George), recently moved operations from behind Rock City to the Lace Market, taking two storeys in a Victorian building behind wrought iron gates on Plumptre Street.
It’s next to St Mary’s School House where George senior left at the age of 12 in order to start making a bob or two for himself.
It is from here that DHP Family also organises festivals. There are five in all, the most by any promoter.
The indoor variety include Everywhere, Hit The Deck and next weekend’s Dot To Dot across Manchester, Bristol and Nottingham.
“Dot To Dot is our longest-running festival at nine years and it’s all about showcasing the new bands that are the future of music.”
DHP Family has been putting on outdoor festivals, mostly at Wollaton Park, since 1997 with the first City In The Park. More followed with the Corrs, Bryan Adams, Ronan Keating and All Saints, then Green Day for Distortion.
“Although they weren’t unsuccessful, they weren’t particularly successful events,” he admits.
“It is hard to make a one day production work. They were not profitable overall and that was why we stopped doing them.
”It wasn’t until we got into a partnership with Nottingham City Council that we were able to stage the Splendour Festival in Wollaton Park as a sustainable event.
“That has been a success since it started and long may it continue. “
Splendour is now in its sixth year but they’ve added a new festival to the summer diary in early June called No Tomorrow.
“It’s like an end of term party for students,” says George, who never made it to university, thrown out of boarding school in Rugby for smoking and drinking.
“We’ve made overtures to both of the universities for a number of years about getting involved in an end of term party,” he says.
“And we’ve seen the success of Parklife in Manchester and Love Saves The Day in Bristol. They’ve now become proper festivals running over two days and attracting up to 60,000 people.”
Each started out at 10,000, which is his expectation for No Tomorrow on June 7.
“The vision is for it to become a bigger event,” he says of the one-day festival that is targeted at students but is for anyone 18 and over.
“It’s delivering a beginning of summer experience and we’re confident we can do that.”
London Grammar, who met at the University of Nottingham, will headline, with Sam Smith and Clean Bandit joining them on the main stage. All three have number one albums.
Indiana, who is managed by DHP Family, will also appear, following the success of her Top 20 single, Solo Dancing.
Opening the main stage will be a student band, chosen through a competition between both universities.
“It’s a different vibe to Splendour,” says George of the annual festival that returns on July 19.
“That’s more of a day out for family and friends.”
Hence the mix of old and new acts.
“We try to have acts that have had more than one hit. Happy Mondays have had a long and successful career. Boomtown Rats don’t play very often and they had a number of hits back in the day. Scouting For Girls sold 8,000 tickets at the Arena a couple of years ago and they’ve had several top ten hits.
“The same goes for The Beat, who will also be playing the main stage.
“The newer artists are Tom Odell. Although he’s still on his first album there are five hit singles on there. And Foxes are likely to have a Top 5 album this week .”
While No Tomorrow will have two DJ tents, Splendour’s three live music stages will return as normal, the second being the Confetti Stage with Boomtown Rats, Reverend and the Makers and The Rifles.
“It’s a mix of indie and mainstream, old and new,” he says, with expectations that the event will match the 17,000 people that saw Jake Bugg headline last year’s festival.
“The line-up isn’t as Nottingham heavy as it was last year but it couldn’t have been any more Nottingham than that with Jake Bugg, Indiana, Dog Is Dead, Saint Raymond, Georgie Rose and so many others.”
Those have all played the smallest Splendour stage in the Courtyard, which continues to be a showcase of Notts music talent.
“The Nottingham music scene is very vibrant today,” he says.
“There is this excitement because we are producing so many artists that are coming through. We’ve had Dog Is Dead and Jake Bugg, Saint Raymond and Indiana are coming through in the next wave. A lot of industry people are checking out what is going on and the talent coming out of this city.
“Everyone is talking about it. It is a small industry and if there is a enough talk, it builds.”
Nottingham’s Mr Music has never had a go at being in a band himself. He’s not really had the time. At 19, six months in to a jaunt across the Far East and Australia, he was summoned back by his dad to join the family business.
“You just learn quick,” he says of those early years.
“I started doing some of the bookings, probably made a hash of it, learning from my mistakes.”

Dot To Dot at Rock City, Rescue Rooms, Stealth, The Bodega, Spanky Van Dykes and other venues, is on Sunday, May 25. Tickets are £20.
No Tomorrow is at Wollaton Park on Saturday, June 7. Tickets from £20.
Splendour is on Saturday, July 19 and tickets are from £10 to £42.50.
Tickets for all events are on sale from Rock City box office, call 0845 413 4444 or go to alt-tickets.co.uk.
For more about DHP Family go to dhpfamily.com.

Indiana

April 2014

SINGING for the Queen, appearances on BBC TV, regular plays on Radio 1, Glastonbury... and now Indiana’s had a pizza named after her.
“We were on holiday in France snowboarding and I had a pizza that I haven’t been able to shut up about,” says the 26-year-old, whose boyfriend recently opened a new pizza bar in Hockley.
“He said ‘We’ll make it and call it the Indiana.’”
It’s goat’s cheese, walnuts and honey, which sounds disgusting.
“No, It’s really good!” insists the rising music star who’ll be playing the Rescue Rooms tonight.
Entrepreneur boyfriend James - Long Eaton’s Alan Sugar - opened Suede Bar in Heathcoat Street last month but he’s also heavily involved in Indiana’s career. He was the one who encouraged her to enter the Future Sound of Nottingham competition, which saw her play her debut show in the Old Market Square two years ago.
Since then she’s signed to Sony, had regular support from Radio 1, played Glastonbury and performed for the Queen with The Script.
Of late she’s been on tour with Bipolar Sunshine.
“It was great,” she says.
“There was loads of tour banter. I had my own tour van, which was useful when the venue didn’t have a dressing room.”

She shared the van with three band members, her tour manager and sound engineer.
It was an eight date jaunt around the UK.
“It was really hard,” she says of being away from her seven-month-old daughter, Etta, and five-year-old son Harvey.
“He loves that I have an interesting job but he misses me. Although he won’t miss me too much when we have a massive mansion with horses,” she laughs.
Indiana’s new single, Solo Dancing, released on April 20, has been B-listed on Radio 1.
“Every time it’s played it jumps up on the iTunes chart,” she says.
“It made it into the Top 100, which is really good for pre-orders. Most people buy singles when they’ve been released.”
Those turning out to see Bipolar Sunshine seemed to know the song.
“I had to win over the crowd every night. At the start they were all chatting and thinking ‘who is this girl?’ but by the end... especially when I played Solo Dancing, there’d be cheers; they were probably thinking ‘oh it’s that girl!’
Since the tour finished last weekend she’s been rehearsing for tonight’s home city gig.
“Next week I’ll be back in the studio working on the album and I’ll be doing a session for Radio 1.”
The album she’ll have to finish by the end of the month.
“It’s been hard deciphering which songs will go on it because I’ve got so many now.”
And the new material?
“A little bit more of the same and... I don’t want to say up-beat. You could perhaps move around to a couple of them.”
Surprisingly, she won’t be putting her first few singles on the album, such as Mess Around and Smoking Gun.
“If people have already bought them, then by putting all new material on the album means they get better value for money.”

The album is due to be released between July and September, after a string of major summer festival appearances that will be revealed next week.
As a mum of two in her mid-twenties, what was her reaction to the sudden death of Peaches Geldof?
“It broke my heart”, she says.
“I was never a fan and I thought she was quite annoying when she was younger but it seemed like having children was the making of her.
“She looked like she had a good life and on her Instagram photos she looked really happy.
“It breaks my heart that her two beautiful sons don’t have a mum.”
She adds: “It haunted me a little bit. Maybe because I had a baby recently.”

Indiana plays the Rescue Rooms tonight supported by April Towers. 7.30pm to 10pm. £10, alt-tickets.co.uk. There will be an after party at Suede Bar which, says Indiana: “Everyone’s invited to.”

Jake Bugg

February 2013

AFTER playing the biggest show by a Nottingham artist last night, with a sell-out gig at Rock City, Jake Bugg will top that in July by becoming the first homegrown musician to headline the Splendour festival.
The 18-year-old from Clifton will follow in the footsteps of Madness, Pet Shops, the Scissor Sisters, Blondie and Dizzee Rascal by topping the bill at the sixth annual music bash in Wollaton Park.
“I just hope that everyone who goes along has a good time, that’s more important than anything,” he said with typical modesty about his latest achievement.
“It’ll be my biggest crowd to date. It’s hard to believe I was playing the courtyard stage two years ago. Going from the bottom to the top is great.”
Others confirmed for Splendour on Saturday, July 20 are Maximo Park, Squeeze and KT Tunstall.
George Akins, chairman of the DHP Group which organises the festival with Nottingham City Council, said: “It will be the biggest show by a Nottingham artist. It’s really exciting seeing him grow from playing the smallest stage just two years to the main stage last year and now headlining.
“He also has the Brit Award nominee, the No. 1 album... the stars really are aligned for Jake and Nottingham.”
He added: “And of course he’s the first Nottingham artist to sell-out Rock City.”
That was last night and was attended by his mum, dad and BAFTA-winning actress Vicky McClure, who appeared in his video for the single, Two Fingers.
Said Jake yesterday: “There will be a lot of people coming tonight who I know so it’ll be a mad hometown gig.”
It’s part of a sell-out tour, his first major outing since topping the chart in October with his self-titled debut album.
Last night was his first opportunity to party afterwards with friends and family.
“It’s a long tour so I have to look after my voice. It’s quite weird playing these big shows with 2000 people going mad, then afterwards I stick the kettle on and have a cup of tea.
“But tonight is a different matter because I have a day off tomorrow, so it’s going to be one of them.”
The tour will end on his 19th birthday on February 28.
But he won’t be back home in Clifton until April.
He calls his mum, Leeysa Kennedy, an IT worker, every few days but struggles to stay in touch with all of his friends and family.
He said: “I’m just so busy. I try to speak to people as much as I can. I remember who my friends are. They and my family are really important to me.”
Jake’s dad, David Bugg, a care home worker, also lives in Clifton. It was his brother who gave Jake his first guitar when he was 12.
At 16 he appeared on the Post’s online music show, This Is Live, where he was spotted by Nottingham musician Jason Hart.
“I thought he was the best thing I’d seen in 20 years; the most amazing voice and the most amazing songs,” said Jason, who now co-manages Jake.
“I took him into the studio we have in Colwick and worked on some songs. That was it.”
Aside form the No. 1 album and Brit Award nomination, Jake has toured the US and Europe with Noel Gallagher, opened a secret show by the Stone Roses and appeared on national television in the UK and US.
“I’m not surprised at the success but I am by how fast it’s been,” said Jason.
“I thought he would do well anyway because he’s real and I think that transmits. People buy into that. But I’ve never seen anyone have success like this so quickly.”
And it’s had a knock on effect with London record labels showing more interest in the Nottingham music scene than ever before.
Said George: “We are getting calls all the time, which is exciting. And I think that other musicians now feel that real success is actually within reach.”
Splendour will again showcase the best of Nottingham’s band and musicians across its three stages.
“We are moving some of them who have played before to a more prominent position on the bill.”
The opening act on the main stage will be a local artist chosen through a competition organised by Nusic.
Last week Jake made it in to the gossip columns when The Sun speculated about his relationship with model Cara Delevingne.
Said Jake: “You do have moments when you think ‘so, this is my life now’. But I knew that if I wanted to do this as a career there would be a few things that I’d have to deal with.”
When asked about Delevingne he said with a grin: “No comment.”
He’s not the first member of his family to have a taste of fame as his grandmother, who left Clifton to run a guest house in Mablethorpe, boasted to him that she was once asked out on a date by Buddy Holly.
“That’s what she says and I hope it is true because it’s a great story. It was when he was on tour and she was working in a theatre in Manchester. She said that he asked her out on a date. So I could be sat here speaking to you in a nice big pair of specs.”

Tickets for Splendour, priced from £15 to £37.50, go on sale at 9am on Friday, February 22. For more information go to www.splendourfestival.com.

Jake Bugg

March 2012

IT all started with an interview for EG’s online music show, This Is Live when he was just 16. That was 18-months ago and Jake Bugg told interviewer Zoe Kirk how he was: “currently recording an EP for a small label.”

Within a year he had been signed to a major record label, Mercury Records and next week releases his debut single for them, Trouble Town.

“Yes, it started with This Is Live,” says Jake, who has just turned 18.

“My manager Jay (Hart, a local musician) saw it and got in touch. He invited me to his studio and we got on really well.

Then he knew a guy who knew a guy... it went from there really.”

In the past six months, since signing to the home of Rihanna, Kanye West and Maria Carey, Jake has been busy writing his debut album, which is due out by the end of the year .

“I’m quite close to finishing writing it. It’s taken me about six months which I’m really pleased about because it takes some about a year or two years to finish an album.”

Then admits: “Although some of the songs I already had. They were the ones that helped me get the deal.”

The first single from the album is Trouble Town, a raw slice of classic folk that recalls sixties Bob Dylan.

Or rather Donovan...

Says Jake: “People have been comparing me to Bob Dylan and he is amazing, don’t get me wrong, but maybe a lot of people say that because they don’t really know Donovan.

“My mum always played Catch The Wind. Some of the songs he wrote are just phenomenal; so gorgeous; just really mellow and nice to listen to.”

He adds: “I started writing at 14 and I didn’t really notice that my voice was developing in a particular way. At first, to be honest, I couldn’t sing a note. But I worked and worked at it.

“I’m not deliberately trying to sound like anyone else.”

The song is about his desire to escape from Clifton, where he grew up.

“It’s also about any other council estate because people do want to get out of those places.”

He adds: “I love Nottingham, actually. But when you’re growing up, you want to get away, don’t you? I think that’s a feeling that everyone’s experienced as a teenager.

“You want to go out, travel the world, see things for yourself. And luckily, I’m doing that through my music.”

Although not every stop on his current tour is to his taste.

“We went to John O’Groats the other day and that was awful. There’s nothing to see. There’s only the sign and that’s not there any more because someone had pinched it.”

He recorded the song the very day he wrote it, with former Snow Patrol songwriter Iain Ar cher.

“I thought it was just a demo but it turned out to be the one the (record label) wanted to use,” says Jake, who played for Nottingham City Boys, the cream of schoolboy football talent.

Zane Lowe made Trouble Town his Record of the Week on Radio 1 and it earned praise from Mick Smith, head of Columbia Records and DJ Jo Whiley when it was reviewed on BBC Radio 6 Music’s Roundtable.

Whiley described it as: “a little bit genius... I can’t believe he’s 17.”

6 Music presenter Tom Robinson was also on the show and complained that when he’d found Jake “moody” when he’d played Glastonbury last summer on the BBC Introducing Stage.

Robinson said: “You can take moody a bit too far. The only one who scowled all the way through, didn’t exchange a friendly word with anybody was Jake Bugg. Good luck to him with his music but you can at least be nice to people, for goodness sake!”

Laughs Jake: “He said how I was being the moody one and didn’t come and say ‘hi’ to him but he was the one looking like he was the Don. I didn’t want to go say hello to him because he looked like he wouldn’t appreciate it.

“If anyone speaks to me I’m sound with them.”

He then adds: “If there’s one person who is going to dislike you, I’d rather it be Tom Robinson than someone like Zane Lowe.”

The Glastonbury experience wasn’t a good one, he says.

“I hated it because there was so much mud and I didn’t take any wellies.

“But it was fantastic to play there. I’d auditioned for this event called Glastonbudget, which is a tribute festival to Glastonbury, and they turned me down. Then the next day Radio 1 rang and asked me to play the actual thing. It was mad.”

He performed Trouble Town BBC 2’s Review Show last month. Who else was on there?

He has to ask Jay, who is more than twice is age, because Jake had never heard of fellow guests Maureen Lipman and David Morrissey.

He also needs help when I ask what his mum, who he still lives with in Clifton, does for a living.

“She works in an office,” he says.

“I can’t even think where. I think she sells things.

“Oh, she works in IT,” he adds when prompted by a voice in the background.

“That’s my drummer. How do you know what she does? What’s going on?”

He has an XFM session lined up this week, plans to release a new EP in May and plays the Main Stage at Splendour in July.

“That was a shock. I wasn’t expecting that at all. It shows that the town is getting behind you.”

Trouble Town is out March 26.

Nina Smith

August 2011

WHEN friends asked Nina Smith to break into song at school, she’d lock herself in a toilet cubicle and let them listen outside.

“It’s true,” laughs the 25-year-old from Bakersfield.

“I was too shy. I’d recorded music at home on my computer and put it on mini-discs but I didn’t have the confidence to actually stand in front of anyone and do it.”

Despite that she is now among the most talked about musicians on Nottingham’s music scene and expected to follow Liam Bailey, Dog Is Dead and Jake Bugg by signing a deal with a major record label.

She has supported everyone from Finley Quaye to Alicia Dixon and appeared on Radio 1. Strange then that Nina never harboured ambitions to be a singer as a child.

“No-one in my family is really musical at all,” she says.

“My dad was a lorry driver and he also worked on the canals. My mum worked in retail. But she did play a lot of music in the house, like Tina Turner, Simply Red and Robert Palmer and I used to mimic them. I’d try really hard to get it exactly the same.

“I didn’t think ‘I want to be a singer’ I just enjoyed it. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been good at.”

She wasn’t a particularly big fan of music either.

“The first song I ever bought was Mr Blobby on a cassette,” she laughs.

“I liked Destiny’s Child, Justin Timberlake and the Spice Girls but I didn’t really go to gigs. I was more into clubbing.”

Her first conscious move towards a singing career came at 17 when she dropped out of college to work on her music at CRS, the community recording studios in St Ann’s.

“They took me under their wing and developed me. It was where my confidence as a performer grew. I dropped out of college to concentrate on that.”

Her soulful pop style was in contrast to the studio’s largely hip-hop stable.

“There were people there who were getting played on Radio 1, like Scorzayzee, C-Mone and Shifty Spirit. They were mostly rappers. But I’d start to sing on their tracks, feature choruses.”

It was a session with Scorzayzee at Maida Vale that gave Nina her Radio 1 and 1Xtra debut 18 months ago.

Soon after she as supporting Finley Quaye in London.

“I walked in on him on the toilet,” she laughs.

“This was before I’d even met him. And foolishly when he came out I asked for a photo. It was all a bit uncomfortable to say the least.”

Earlier this year she opened for Alicia Dixon at the opening of Best Buy at Castle Retail Park.

“It was the strangest gig I’ve ever done. The first day I was performing on the Best Buy bus in Birmingham. Then the second day was outside the shop in Nottingham with Alicia Dixon and there were hundreds of people there. I gained some mega fans from that gig but it was strange.”

There have been offers from record labels but not the right ones as yet.

“I think one label wanted to shove me out on stage in a short outfit with a dance act and I wasn’t ready for that.

I wanted to see what I could do first.”

Which is why she will be releasing her debut EP, Lonely Heart Club, later this month.

“It’s very exciting in Nottingham at the moment. There are a lot of artists getting recognition like Liam Bailey, Ronika, Dog Is Dead and Jake Bugg. And there are others on the way like Royal Gala, Natalie Duncan, Cecile Grey and Harleighblu.

“And everyone is supporting each other.”

Liam Bailey, who is signed to Polydor and hit the Top 5 with the Chase & Status single Blind Faith, is a friend.

“Liam has the potential to go all the way,” says Nina. “Although he can be embarrassing sometimes.

“When we were at the Bodega once we met Mat Horne from Gavin And Stacey. I introduced myself properly but Liam grabbed him in a headlock and started messing his hair up. He just doesn’t care.”

Nina Smith plays The Waterfront Festival tomorrow.

Lonely Heart Club EP is released on CD and through iTunes on Monday August 29.

THePETEBOX

July 2011

THE Sampson family is among the leading players in Nottingham’s music scene. Brothers Pete and John play in Swimming – who The Times described as “an indie hovercraft powered by amphetamine guitar” – and are in talks with labels to release their second album but already have a US deal for their next single, Sun In The Island.
John’s wife Ronika is hotly tipped by the NME and The Guardian to take her retro eighties pop to the masses.
Meanwhile, Pete also performs as a solo artist, beatboxer The Petebox.
“My mum used to make me play the piano when I was a kid but then I picked up a guitar and discovered Nirvana,” says the 35-year-old, who played in bands with his brother while at school.
“I started playing the drums because he kept being in bands that couldn’t do it properly,” he laughs.
“Beatboxing come much later on. Initially I was fascinated by the mechanics of it. You’d hear someone do a particular sound and you’d obsess over it until you’d learned how to do it.”
The idea came from his cousin.
“He was doing this, shall we say, rudimentary beatboxing but I didn’t think much of it until I heard Rahzel. That was when I realised it could be deeply skilful and musical.”
He adds: “I was quite obsessive about it, I was compelled to do it all the time.”
Which meant annoying the family by walking around the house making odd noises?
“Yes,” he laughs. “An awful lot.”
Pete won a Channel 4 Talent Award, then the title of Radio 1 Beatboxing Champion.
At the time he was running workshops for Notts County Council, teaching young people beatboxing skills in schools and youth clubs, but for the past two years he’s been too busy performing around the world, including Europe, Africa and Mexico.
As we speak he’s at Birmingham Airport boarding a flight to Aya Napa.
From the initial beatboxing tricks, he developed his performance to create a full show using loop pedals and guitars.
“Making sounds wasn’t enough,” says Pete, who has another musical brother, Ross, who composes film scores.
“I wanted to turn what I was doing into music. So I’d do a 50 Cent tune or, for example, Drop It Like It’s Hot and that would get an instant reaction from a crowd. That was very satisfying at first but eventually became unfulfilling – as a musician, I suppose.
“That’s when I got the loop pedal. That saved my relationship with beatboxing because I was getting bored with it.”
He had a taste of how popular the mix of beatboxing and guitar could be when his cover of the Pixies’ Where Is My Mind? topped more than one million views on YouTube.
Earlier this year he toured the UK with Diversity, the dance group from Britain’s Got Talent, beatboxing as part of their arena show.
“On the last tour I actually danced as well. Well, it was a series of moves rather than actual dancing,” he laughs.
He’s appeared at all the major UK festivals such as Glastonbury, Bestival and V but Splendour is a special one.
“There’s something about playing your home city. The first time I played Splendour it turned into a mega show. The whole Courtyard was full. I didn’t realise anyone knew who I was.”

Tastebuds

July 2011

IT was close. One per cent was all that divided The Money and Tastebuds in the Future Sound of Nottingham competition at Rock City earlier this month. While The Money went on to enjoy their prize at Splendour – opening the main stage in front of thousands last weekend – runners-up Tastebuds were licking their wounds back in Sutton-in-Ashfield.
“It was quite upsetting,” says singer and guitarist Simon Broomhead.
“In a way it would have been easier to handle it if we’d lost by a big margin. But to know it was just one per cent... it tormented me for about a week. That said, it was a mind-blowing gig. To play on the main stage at Rock City and do a really good job, that was an incredible feeling.”
To snap out of the gloom, last weekend Tastebuds played their first show in London, at the legendary Hope & Anchor in Islington.
“It was amazing,” says Simon. “It’s a tiny place but the rock ’n’ roll heritage is quite humbling.
“There were posters on the walls of all the bands that have played there over the years: The Who, U2, Joy Division...
“The gig started off a bit dodgy because the first band didn’t turn up, so we went on earlier than we’d planned. And when we started there was one guy in there.
“We thought we’d made all this effort to play for one bloke. But then halfway the first song all these people appeared and it was rammed.”
They have a strong following around the Mansfield area but the Hope & Anchor crowd were all locals.
“There were girls screaming, so we definitely hit a nerve.
“We all agreed the next morning how much we loved it and that we’d have to do it again.”
He adds: “We also all agreed that coming back to Sutton was quite depressing.”
The band formed three years ago when keyboard player Anna Kerr was asked to live in a 52-room disused nursing home to deter vandals.
“It became the perfect base for the five friends, who had all played in various covers bands around the area, to write and rehearse.
“We had a room set up where we could leave all the equipment and if we had an idea we could walk into the room and just play.”
That lasted for 18 months before the place was reopened as a nursing home.
“It’s quite surreal driving past it now,” says Simon. “We’ve wondered what it would be like if all five of us ended up in there in 50 years’ time, still playing the same tunes.”
Since getting together as Tastebuds they’ve won Battle of the Bands competitions, played the Ashfield Show with Sugababes and appeared on bills with Ade Edmondson’s The Bad Shepherds, Alvin Stardust, James and The Holloways.
Says Simon: “We’ve got a friend who works in the music industry in London and her advice after the gig at the Hope & Anchor was to get a following around Nottingham.
“Bands that make a noise in their home cities are more likely to attract the attention of record companies. So we’re planning to do that.
“In a way that’s why we were gutted not to have won the Splendour gig because that would have made our name in Nottingham.
“Then again, before we did the Future Sound of Nottingham competition, few people in Nottingham knew who we were. We’ve had a lot of coverage since then so we’re on the way.”


Tastebuds play in the bar at Mansfield Town FC tonight, from 8pm with Funksaw, then the Wire & Wool Min-Fest at The Alley Cafe, Canon Court, Long Row West, Nottingham on Thursday with Just James, The Afterdark Movement, Nightmare Arcade and others.

Nina Smith

July 2011

I’LL be performing at an event in Leicestershire tonight where there’ll be acrobats, planes, fireworks and all sorts. I’m opening for a Pink Floyd tribute band. I don’t sound very Pink Floyd. My music is more soul pop.

And I’m performing again tomorrow at Nottinghamshire Pride with a beatboxer called Motormouf.

I normally play with my band, who are Robert Harris (guitar), Dick Fontain (bass) and Phil McGough (Cahon box drum) but this time it’ll just me, my guitar and Motormouf. It’ll be stripped down, more raw than usual. We’ll be playing I Won’t Forget You, which is the lead track on my new EP, Lonely Heart Club.

I don’t just perform at weekends. It can be during the week. In the past month I’ve done shows around the country, supporting (Nottingham beatboxer) The Petebox.

I work a lot at the weekend. I’m a service centre assistant, responding to people trapped in lifts. We cover the whole country. If you’re stuck in a lift and you press the service button for help it will come through to us. I’d say 90 per cent of them are distressed. To calm them we keep them talking, ask them what they do for a living, their family...

I’m actually scared of lifts.

And airplanes. Which is why I only go abroad every ten years. I’m also scared of bees and spiders... everything really.

If I’m not at work then I’ll be working on my music, either writing or rehearsing with my band. So I get very little free time.

Last weekend I was at Splendour, which I love because it’s very family orientated and they support a lot of Nottinghamshire music there. I have played it before but this time I was just there to enjoy the music, all the Nottingham acts like Harleighblu, Royal Gala, Swimming and Jake Bugg.

The only thing I’ve watched on the TV recently is Sirens, which is a black comedy about paramedics.

It’s the same with the cinema. The last film I saw was Inception. In fact, I saw it twice. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I don’t read a great deal. If I do it’ll be music biographies.

And I don’t make any effort to keep fit. I stay in shape because I’m busy. I’m always on the move. And I eat a lot of fruit. I do eat junk food the more excited I am. If I’ve had a really good gig I’ll go to the chippy without even thinking about it.

The sort of music I listen to at home is a lot like the music I write: Zero 7, George Michael, Justin Timberlake, Lewis Taylor... and I like the Spice Girls.

On a perfect weekend, for starters I wouldn’t be at work. There’s nothing special I’d want to do, it would just be a case of spending time with friends and playing music.

Nina Smith appears at Nottinghamshire Pride at the Forest Recreation Ground tomorrow on the Acoustic Stage at 5pm – see page 7.

Her debut EP, Lonely Heart Club, is available at gigs, from Mimm Clothes Shop in Hockley and from iTunes.

Suggs

July 2010

I LOVE football. And I must say I’m rather bereft at this particular time, in this very small window between the World Cup and the Premier League starting again.

I am a Chelsea fan and I do go. Not like I used to - I used to go every game -- because in the last two years I’ve been busy with the band.

I thought the World Cup was dreary on the whole. It never really sparked in to life. There were brief moments from Argentina and the Germans. Obviously we were shambolic, an absolute disgrace.

My missus has gone away this week and I’m just watching any old (rubbish) on the television. I keep turning to Sky Sports in the full knowledge that there’s no football on but I’m still doing it, hoping there’s going to be something on. It’s like being a drug addict. I’m sweating on the sofa, watching Come Dine With Me.

I’ve been asked to go on Come Dine With Me, of course I have. I’ve been asked to go on every crappy reality TV show. The last one was I’m A Celebrity Traffic Warden. Yeah, that’d be something really lovely to spend the afternoon doing.

On a Saturday morning I’ll work out what football’s going to be on the telly and have a big fry up. Then me and the missus will go for a walk on Hampstead Heath or Primrose Hill.

I am one for DVD box sets but they just sit there. I never watch the things. I’ve got The Wire, the last part of The Sopranos still to go and Alfred Hitchcock. The Wire’s the one that’s really bugging me because everyone says it’s a must watch and I’ve 25 hours of the thing. I’m halfway through series two and it’s got me for sure but it’s finding the time.

We eat out quite a lot. One of the great things about London is its cultural diversity and you can eat anything, any day of the week, from Vietnamese to... the other lot.

I’m very fond of Dim Sum, which is like a Chinese luncheon thing. There’s a big place in Soho called the Chuen Cheng Ku and it’s about the size of Wembley Arena. They come around with all these trollies and you’re not sure what’s on any of them, you just point at stuff.

I go to the gym now and again, when I can. I do like it but my discipline is all over the gaff.

When we’re on tour, that’s about two hours of aerobic exercise every night and that does keep you fit. I’m very happy with the state of my health, given the pounding my body’s had.

I live on the outskirts of Camden Town, I’ve been there for the past 35 years, and there are lots of fantastic venues, where you get lots of new bands. But I don’t think for a man approaching 50 it’s my role to be in every nook and cranny of modern culture. But I like to hear new things. I’ve a couple of daughters in their twenties and they’ll say ‘dad, there are a couple of great bands on’ and I’ll go and have a look.

My perfect weekend would be a fry-up, then rowing on the boating lake at Regent’s Park, with a bottle of white wine on a piece of string. Then I’d watch Chelsea at Stamford Bridge beat Man United 10-0. I’d come back and we’d go and see a show or a band or the pictures. On Sunday I’d play football in the morning with some of my mates. I’d score a hat-trick and be carried shoulder high down Camden High Street. I’d have three jugs of beer, go home and my wife will have cooked a feast of a Sunday dinner. Everyone in the street would be in my house and we’d carry on until four in the morning.

It’s happened before - but not all in the same weekend.

Madness have announced a date at Rock City on Tuesday December 7, with Paul Heaton as their special guest. Tickets are £35, call 0871 310 0000.

Splendour 2009

July 19 2009

Madness

July 2009


Daniel 'Woody' Woodgate is sitting at home, a five-bed townhouse in Beckenham, Kent, looking out on a fine day of sunshine but is concerned about the dismal forecast for the weekend ahead. Madness have three shows, back to back, starting tonight in London with their annual Madstock bash and ending on Sunday in Nottingham topping the Splendour bill.
Not many bands can command such big audiences after 30 years. And it's not just in the UK.
In the past two months the seven strong Nutty Boys have played Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Serbia, Portugal, France, Holland and Spain.
"They react very much like the rest of the world," he says.
"Jumping up and down and having a jolly good time."


The latest album The Liberty Of Norton Folgate is your first new album in a decade. Were you nervous about doing it?
Not at all. Rather the opposite. We were itching to get on with it in fact. We had loads of new material that we needed to get off our chests.
We booked ourselves into a tiny little studio in north London and started the process of recording on an eight-track machine with old cranky equipment. And it was really good fun. That was just Suggs, Mike (Barson), myself and a bass player called Graham Bush. Lee Thompson used to come in. Then when the rest of the band got to hear what we were up to one by one they all came back.

It doesn't sound like a rough recording. It's quite polished.
It is. We took a lot of those ideas and recordings into a more upstream studio.
But by starting off with basic equipment there was more emphasis on getting the song right in terms of melody.
And the vibe. It was recording tracks like we used to. Memorising them, playing them a lot. Because these days you can literally play a couple of bars then paste them together on a computer. That just hasn't got the same feeling.

It's had both great reviews and chart success.
It's very nice that people have said that this is the masterpiece. It's wonderful but to be honest we just do what we do.

How much of the new album will you be playing at Splendour?
Well, instead of presenting the thing in one big dollop which I think would put people off, we've slowly integrated the new songs into the set. At the moment we have up to about four songs. So when we come up north, like...

We're not that far north.
North of the river (Thames) is north to me. You should get at least four new songs. Probably Dust Devil, Forever Young, Clarkenwell Polka and NW5.

Madness are well-versed in playing the festival circuit. Have you any advice for other bands on how to fill the stage? A lot of running around perhaps?
There is a bit of that. But there is a danger of what we call ego-ramps where the singer will disappear for a good five minutes as he goes and basks in the splendour of the audience. Suggs is very good. He's very much a man who is part of the band. Lee Thompson, our sax player, loves to run around. He likes to climb lighting rigs and fly in the air. He needs a lot of attention.

When you played Rock City in 2005 he dived off a speaker stack and flattened a few members of the audience.
Yes, he recently broke his ribs by some antics where he was on a human pyramid at Glastonbury and fell off. Or they collapsed under his weight. I don't know which one is true (laughs). He landed on a bottle and has broken a rib.

Do you miss the opportunity to mess about like that, having to stay behind your kit?
I never miss any of that. I like being behind my kit. I'm happy to stay there, thank you very much.

Have you worked with any other Splendour bands before?
We've come across Kid British. They're a nice bunch of lads. Bless them they do come from Manchester but that's not their fault. Suggs and I met them on Soccer:AM. They did a cover of Our House. It's nice to have such young fans. The Pogues are brilliant. I don't think we've ever been on the same bill. They're old favourites of ours. They have the ability to get a crowd going which is the idea of it all.

What memories have you of gigs in Nottingham?
We've always gone down very well in Nottingham. Rock City was always fantastic. I remember once playing the Royal Concert Hall and not being allowed to leave the stage because we had to do about four or five encores. So we've always gone down very well in Nottingham. It's fantastic. I do like it. I'm not just saying that.

You are just saying that.
No. I'm quite fond of Sheffield as well. Nottingham and Sheffield. They're two cracking places up north.

Do you all still live in the London area?
We do apart from Carl - Chas Smash. He now lives in Ibiza. He's in the hills, not where all the banging raves happen.

Suggs has said his favourite Madness song to still perform is Embarrassment. Which is yours?
I'm enjoying the new ones. We do a really cracking version of I Chase The Devil aka Ironshirt which is an old reggae song we did on The Dangermen Sessions album. People think that we're covering Prodigy's version but we took it from the original. I know it's a cover but It Must Be Love is a cover as well and I love doing that one.

How different are you to say 20 years ago on tour? Do you still travel together?
We do. There is a slight split in the band between people who smoke and people who don't. The people who smoke are getting fewer and fewer. So Suggs and Carl are on their own quite a lot (laughs). I gave up cigarettes 17 years ago. I'm one of the worst type of ex-smokers. I'm a pain in the a***. I'm unbearable. I snub people who smoke. We have a good bus and a naughty bus. And I can't even tell you what goes on in the naughty bus.

At what point has it felt like a job being in Madness?
When you begin to repeat the same things over and over again. When you've done the same set night after night. When the crowd start looking the same. This year is the 30th year of the band and we've done more gigs than ever before. There has been times when you go 'I'm not feeling it now'. Because it's just repetition. If you do the same thing, no matter how wonderful it is, night after night, you do begin to lose it a bit. But we are very aware of that so we tend to not overdo it. We try and maintain a freshness by simply not playing that much and it seems to work.

What plans do you have for the rest of the year?
We go to Moscow in August, then Ireland and we're doing a gig in Paris. I'm sure there will be something at Christmas as well. But we don't want to spread ourselves too thinly. People can think 'oh Madness, they're always around, we can catch them later.' Well, there might not be a later. We might just knock it on the head.

Everyone knows you as Woody but who still calls you Daniel?
Only my ex-wife. And that's why she's my ex-wife.

Madness play Splendour July 19 2009.




July 2010 Interview with Suggs

Fun Lovin' Criminals

July 2009

Huey Morgan (right)


Am I right in thinking you're living in Britain these days?
Yeah. I've been coming back and forth for almost 15 years now but I only got my residency here just a little while ago. My wife is British. I've been living here coming up on a year now. But we have a place in New York so we go back and forth.

How tough was it getting the residency?
Well, you have to make sure you can afford to live here and not go on the dole. And that your wife is who she says she is. It's not that hard.

You've had a pretty good relationship with Nottingham – with regular shows at Rock City.
Yeah, we played Rock City back in the day and continue to play Rock City. It's a great town for people who like to enjoy music. It's a rock town too so we get to play a little more of our rockier stuff.

Is Frank still part of the band – the guy you met at Rock City in 1996?
He's an integral part of the wheel.

Have you been out in the city to the bars and clubs?
Yeah but don't ask me to remember where. I have trouble remembering who I am in a morning.

It's good to have the Fun Lovin' Criminals playing in Robin Hood's hometown -- as he's the original fun lovin' criminal.
Yeah, exactly. We did play the forest (Sherwood Pines Forest Park, 2004) which was very ironic I thought. Hundreds of years later and here come the Fun Lovin' Criminals paying homage to the great Robin Hood. It was very funny because it was part of the National Forest and it was very civilised. 'You can jump up and down while the band's on but after that act accordingly'. The park rangers get a little excited while the band's playing then everyone calms down. They don't want another rebellion.

Have you played on the bill with Madness, The Pogues or Ash before?
We haven't played with them but I know the guys in The Pogues, I know the guys in Ash and I know the guys in Madness so I'm sure there's going to be a lot of dressing room hopping. It should be cool.

How often do you play with the band these days?
Well, we've been recording this year, getting an album together, so we're not doing as many festivals as we'd like this summer. We're doing it ourselves so there's a lot more administrative stuff to deal with. But in this day and age you really need to be on top of your stuff and not succumb to the whims of a label. We have the album coming out in January and we'll be playing a new track from it at the show in Nottingham. We tried it out at Oxygen in front of 30,000 people and it went really well.

Which is the track?
It's a song called Mars. Fast and I came up with it when we first started living together maybe 15 years ago. We were sitting there watching Total Recall and Arnold Schwarzenegger says: 'Get your ass to Mars.' And we thought that'd make a great dance tune. (Sings) 'Get your ass to Mars, where the party at, Mars, where the girlies at...' We were in the studio about six months ago and that movie was on. I was like 'let's just do it.' It's about the planet Mars and how we need to colonise it. It's Fun Lovin'. That's how we do most of our stuff.

How did the BBC6Music show (Sundays 2pm-3.30pm) come about?
They just asked me once I got a bit more settled here. And I got a Sony Award for it. It's like the third best music programme in the country. And I programme it myself so that's pretty good. I've had Mick Jones on the show, Bat For Lashes, you name it, I've had 'em on the show. Because I'm a musician they know I'm not going to ask them what their favourite colour is.

What is your favourite colour?
(Laughs) Exactly. You talk music with them and gigs you've played and different styles and key changes and what makes you want to write something. Because of that they want to come on the show and they're a little bit more open. It's what people want to hear really.

Last time we spoke you said we must "get that autistic kid out of the White House."
Oh yeah and we finally did. I was surprised as hell. All my life I haven't seen anything like that. A lot have equated it to John F Kennedy. Everything's different now. When I travel... there was this dude in Holland. He stamped my passport and went "O-ba-ma!". I thought 'this is great, after eight years of George W Bush poisoning the world'.

So you feel more positive about Obama and the US?
Yes, this is like a big event for everybody. Desperate times call for desperate measures is what a lot of Republicans were saying. That's why they had to vote for Obama. And we've got a new guy in there who's an attorney and knows what he's doing. He's not some Texas knucklehead

Fun Lovin' Criminals play Splendour, July 19 2009.