Notts music's week in the spotlight

May 14 2014

NOTTINGHAM musicians have been experiencing national attention again this week, with the likes of Saint Raymond, Indiana and Jake Bugg entering the charts and being played on Radio 1.

Saint Raymond’s latest EP, Ghosts, was at No. 4 on the iTunes chart yesterday.

The 19-year-old from Bramcote, real name Callum Burrows, said: “Getting in to the Top 5 is a real honour. I had no expectations for the EP so it’s great!”

His last EP, Young Blood, peaked at No. 3, while his debut Escapade, reached No. 24. Unfortunately, EPs aren’t eligible for the Official UK Singles Chart due to the extra tracks that are included.

The musician, who played the Great Escape Festival in Brighton at the weekend, recently returned from Los Angeles, his second trip there.

“I’ve been working on my debut album out there. I’m heading back on Thursday.”

As well as playing Nottingham’s Dot To Dot Festival at the end of May, which takes place across city venues, including Rock City and the Rescue Rooms, in October he’ll be opening for Ed Sheeran’s two shows at the Capital FM Arena.

“I can’t wait,” he said. “Two shows with him in my home city is going to be a bit surreal but that’s so exciting.”

This week Callum has been in session on Radio 1 with Huw Stephens. Last night he played his biggest headline show to date at the Scala in London.

On the current iTunes chart is Jake Bugg’s latest EP, Messed Up Kids, at No. 18.

The 20-year-old has just announced his most high profile tour to date, playing the likes of Cardiff Arena, Liverpool Echo 2 and Alexandra Palace in London throughout October, before heading off to the US on a tour supporting blue rock duo the Black Keys.

The Clifton chart-topper, who has been all over the world touring in support of his second album, Shangri La, told his 400,000 Twitter followers: “What a long tour that was, went to some great places though, thank you all very much, look forward to seeing you all soon!”

In the past two weeks alone he’s played Australia, South America and Japan.

Jake is also lined up for some major summer festival appearances including Glastonbury and Reading/Leeds Festivals.

There are no new dates for his home city yet, to follow his sell-out at the Capital FM Arena in February.

Messed Up Kids is taken from Shangri La, the follow-up to his self-titled No. 1 debut, which has sold over a million copies.

Indiana, who is currently in the studio working on her debut album, recently enjoyed a Top 20 single with Solo Dancing, which is still in the Top 100 and continues to be played on Radio 1.

The 26-year-old Long Eaton mum-of-two has been confirmed for a string of summer festivals including Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Glasgow (where Saint Raymond is also to appear), Bestival and Nottingham’s newest festival, No Tomorrow, at Wollaton Park in June.

George Akins, boss of DHP Family, which organises the festival, plus Splendour and Dot To Dot and is also Indiana’s management company, said: “Both Indiana and Saint Raymond are enjoying success now which is really exciting. You’ve also got Amber Run coming through, Kagoule, Georgie Rose, Ady Suleiman... there’s more to come.

“It’s the beginning of something much bigger. The Nottingham scene will just grow and grow.”

Other recent successes include Joel Baker’s Every Vessel EP reaching No. 6 in the iTunes Singer Songwriter chart, 80s dance pop revivalist Ronika being played on Made In Chelsea and Kagoule being playlisted on Radio 1.

Sam Beeton

May 2012

HE is Nottingham born and bred and yet some in his home city think Sam Beeton is a US export. "It's true," laughs the 23-year-old, who grew up in Carlton. "Lots of people think I'm American. They stop me in the street and say: 'My God! What are you doing here?'"

Why would they think that?

"Probably because of the What You Look For video. You can tell it was filmed in the US."

The video, shot in Los Angeles, was for his debut single for SonyBMG, released four years ago. It was played on national radio and the video screened on all the key TV shows.

But up until recently, it was all there was to see of Sam Beeton.

The single, described by The Guardian as "like You're Beautiful, only not nauseating," stalled outside the UK Top 40. The record label would never release another one of his songs.

He'd finished his debut album for them and promotional copies of No Definite Answer were sent out to reviewers. But it never made it into the shops. Sam was 18 at the time.

"I have ideas in my head of what a terrible time that was," he admits. "But I watched the video recently, for the first time in a year-and-a-half and I thought it was a perfectly good pop song."

He'd signed to the label a year earlier after being spotted by a local record producer playing at an open mike night at the Old Volunteer pub in Carlton. He recorded a few songs with Sam, which made their way to the ears of an A&R scout for SonyBMG, home to Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Mariah Carey and Beyonce.

Despite just one single release, he remained on the label for the next three years and toured with the likes of Sandi Thom, James Morrison, Scouting For Girls and Paolo Nutini. He also played a show with Katy Perry.

"It was in the gossip bit of the Daily Star about Katy Perry taking a shine to me," he chuckles.

While still with the label he racked up over 100 recordings. When none of them saw the light of day Sam broke free and set up his own label, Sweet Luigi. Through that he created the Record Club, a subscription service, where over 2,000 fans around the world receive a new EP every month.

He launched Record Club: Season Two earlier this month.

"It still takes me two weeks out of every month to package, sign and post the CDs. The only difference this time is that we're paying a company to print the sleeves."

Doing it his way has worked. Two of his songs, Under The Fence and The Storyteller, were played on Radio 2. And he performed the latter on BBC 2's The Review Show.

"They're not supposed to clap," he says. "It's supposed to end with silence, so that was a bit surreal. But they clapped. Eventually."

It wasn't his first time on TV. Back when What You Look For was released, he appeared on ITV's This Morning, then presented by Eamonn Holmes and wife Ruth Langsford.

"It's good to see how, over time, those videos of my early TV appearances are slowly fading away in terms of views on YouTube. And the views for the new videos are growing."

The new videos are self-made for his Record Club but they include a few filmed for Burberry, the fashion label he's modelled for.

The first photo session, seen in the likes of GQ, was shot by Mario Testino, A-list photographer famed for his pics of Princess Di.

"The guy in charge at Burberry had see the What You Look For video and wanted me to get involved in this campaign. And I thought 'why not?'"

He adds: "The guy who runs Burberry is a member of the Record Club and mentioned me in Rolling Stone in the US, saying that my song My Doll inspired him to create the latest collection. Which is just madness.

"I get invited to a lot of Burberry events and I go when I can. It's a red carpet job with the press taking your photo... the whole thing. At one I was sat between Paul Weller and Kanye West. It's a strange experience."

On the back of the Burberry shoots, Sam has had offers from other labels like Ralph Lauren. One jeans company in New York asked him to do a photo shoot with a topless Jade Jagger.

"I thought, 'well, that's nice' but it doesn't really fit in with the music. I've been offered a few things recently but they've been straight modelling and nothing to do with music. I'm lucky enough to be able to turn them down."

Sam recently toured the UK opening for Charlie Simpson, best known for being the frontman of boy band Busted, then rock band Fightstar. He's someone keen to forget his past.

"Oh man, he really does," says Sam.

"Someone came up to him with a Busted album and asked him to sign it and he said 'no'. And it wasn't for a joke, he was a genuine Busted fan."

He adds: "When we played Exeter, Joss Stone turned up and she invited us to her bar, Mama Stone's. And we had a little dance with her. No, not a cuddling dance."

In recent weeks he's been writing with Judie Tzuke, the Seventies singer behind the hit single Stay With Me Till Dawn and the Top 10 album Sportscar.

"She was signed to Elton John's own label and she's got some really interesting stories. She lives in this huge house in Surrey, where she has a studio. Paul Carrack was there to record a Beatles covers album. And Peter Cox from Go West turned up. It was a bit weird."

How did that happen?

"She got in touch with my producer because her daughter had seen one of my videos and told her that we should work together."

With all these connections and the exposure on TV and radio, isn't there another major label deal on the table?

"There has been interest. I've been for meetings. There's one label in particular that keeps getting in touch."

So what's the problem?

"I don't want a repeat of what happened five years ago. I don't want to fall into that trap of signing and then they don't do what was promised."

There's another reason many may not realise that Sam Beeton is a Nottingham musician and that's because he's not part of the local scene.

But he's making friends with his headline show at the Glee Club tomorrow, where he'll be joined by two well-known Notts artists.

"I've seen Kagoule a few times," he says of the young guitar band. "And I saw Nina Smith play at Rock City when we did Concert For Life for the Julie Cotton Foundation. Although that was a few years ago. She'll be doing her set with beatboxer Mota Mouf, who I've seen quite a few times at the Plainsman in Mapperley."

He adds: "I'm looking forward to it. I've not played a headline show in Nottingham for years. And I am from Nottingham, you know..."

Sam Beeton & Friends: Nina Smith and Kagoule, The Glee Club, Nottingham, Saturday May 12 2012, 7pm, £6 on the door.

Dog Is Dead

December 2011

IT has been quite a year for Nottingham music with major label deals, a Top 5 single, national radio airplay, major festival slots, support slots on big name UK tours, coverage in the national music press and even an appearance in a teen soap.

Leading the charge are Dog Is Dead, a five-piece from West Bridgford, who will round off their impressive year of success with a headline show on the main stage at Rock City this weekend.

The indie band have been steadily gaining momentum in 2011, beginning the year by signing to Atlantic Records.

Since then they’ve supported Bombay Bicycle Club on a UK tour, played major festivals such as Latitude, Bestival and Leeds and Reading, had airplay on and played sessions for Radio 1 and BBC 6Music, and appeared on the Channel 4 soap Skins.

We meet in the boardroom at DHP’s offices in Talbot Street. DHP is the company which owns and runs Rock City, the Rescue Rooms, Stealth and The Bodega, books bands for Splendour and promotes numerous UK tours. Three years ago they turned to music management and signed up Dog Is Dead.

At the time they’d been together just a year.

Rob Milton, Joss Van Wilder and Lawrence ‘Trev’ Cole had met at West Bridgford School.

“Me and Rob were in our first band when we were 13,” says Joss, their keyboard player.

“Then me and Trev were in probably the greatest band ever, doing Kings of Leon and White Stripes covers that were better than the originals.”

Trev, as he became known to save confusion with original drummer Lawrence Libor, nods in agreement.

Continues Joss: “We played a Tollerton event and had to stop half-way through because we were drowning out the steel band.”

“And when we came back on and played two songs, I realised by the end of the second song that I hadn’t plugged my bass in,” laughs Trev.

The band were called Oh Henry! - which is very West Bridgford.

“No,” insists Joss, “it’s taken from the Canadian chocolate bar.”

Eventually Trev, Joss and Rob started playing together and played an end of year show at school.

“But our first proper gig as Dog Is Dead was when our friend had a mini-festival in his back garden for his 16th<” says Joss.

“That was a great gig because it was packed out with all out friends. After that we experienced the real world of gigging playing to two people.”

By now Trev’s ability with a saxophone had meant Rob was now playing bass. Trev had learned the piano from the age of six but the sax became his primary instrument at the age of 10.

“When I realised that the piano and cornet weren’t very cool,” he says.

Adds Joss: “And when they realised I couldn’t play guitar they got Paul in.”

“I knew Trev from a play we did when we were both 15,” says Paul Roberts, who lives in Stapleford.

“He was with the Playhouse Youth Theatre and I was with the Arts Theatre.”

Paul appeared in ModCrop at the Theatre Royal when he was 16 but under his real name of Rob White. Like Trev he changed it for Dog Is Dead in order that there be only one Rob in the band.

They have been together properly as a band for four years. After finishing their A levels, they decided to take a year out to see how things developed.

Not that they were really giving up university places...

Joss admits: “We weren’t really concentrating. We were more intent on trying to become rock ‘n’ roll stars. So we didn’t really do very well.”

Adds Trev: “I definitely flunked my A Levels.”

Within the year they were playing Splendour and DHP came on board.

Eventually they’d all work at DHP venues.

“It was so we could get time off whenever we needed it,” says Joss.

“It made doing the band a lot easier.”

Naturally Dog Is Dead were given prime slots at Splendour, opening the main stage two years running. This year they were higher up the bill on the second stage.

They were all able to quit the day jobs once they signed to Atlantic in March.

Say Paul: “Before that we’d do the odd London show and support slots were at DHP venues. But since Atlantic, we’ve toured with Bombay Bicycle Club.

“We were playing 2000 to 3500 capacity venues on that tour,” says Rob, Dog Is Dead’s singer, bassist and chief songwriter, who rolls in late, complaining of a dodgy eye.

“That was my first real set of gigs,” says Daniel Harvey, who joined the line-up in August when their original drummer   quit to study drama at university.

At 19 he is the youngest (the rest are all 20) and the only outsider (he’s from Doncaster).

“It was through a mutual girlfriend I had with Paul,” he says of the connection.

“Not a shared girlfriend. Our girlfriends are friends so it happened that way. I’d just finished my first year at Leeds uni where I was doing maths. I left uni to do this.”

Quips Trev: “And moved to the university of rock n roll.”

“We thought we’d break him in nice and easy,” laughs Rob.

Says Daniel: “Actually my first proper gig was at Fashion Week in Milan.”

Milan?

“We played a set for Burberry,” says Trev, “and they said we could pick two items of clothing from their exclusive range. Together they were probably worth £500 or £1000 and we still felt underdressed. The place was just full of beautiful.”

Laughs Joss: “The girls could tell we didn’t belong there. I wear my shirt all the time but the trousers... I can’t get into the pockets.”

“You can always trust Joss,” sighs Rob. “No matter what he gets given he’s the first with a list of complaints.”

As if to prove a point he proceeds to moan about his bobbly designer jumper. We all agree it’s supposed to be that way.

Dog Is Dead don’t really fit in with fashion weeks or swanky private parties

“It was a laugh because it was so flashy,” says Trev, about a record label do in the summer.

Agrees Paul: “It was this big posh building with a swimming pool on the roof. It was free beer and free wine but we all wanted Jägerbombs and they were like a tenner each!”

They are more at home messing around amongst themselves, posing with imaginary washboards for publicity photos and TV interviews.

“It’s from the Fast Show with the bloke ‘Where’s me washboard?’,” says Trev, by way of explanation.

Following last month’s debut single for Atlantic, Hands Down, they’ve just put out a Christmas single as a free download, a cover of The Waitresses Christmas Wrapping.

On New Year’s Eve they play Club NME in London, then go back to recording their debut album with producer David Kosten (Everything Everything, Bat For Lashes)

In February Dog Is Dead will embark on a 24-date national UK tour but the immediate focus is on tomorrow’s gig at Rock City, their biggest hometown show and the biggest ever by a Nottingham band at the venue.

“Anyone who grows up in Nottingham and is in a band hopes to one day play the main stage at Rock City,” says Rob.

“It’s our biggest headline show here by a long way and there’s a lot more pressure on us to make it special. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Dog Is Dead play Rock City December 17 supported by Kagoule and Kappa Gamma. Doors 7pm. Tickets are £7.50, www.gigantic.com/nottinghampost