Many people will remember John Sergeant as one of Britain’s most popular and respected broadcasters and authors. His award-winning career as a political journalist has been as lengthy as it has been successful and seen him interview major political players like Prime Ministers, Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair.
In recent years, John has returned to his first love of light entertainment and can be seen regularly on programmes like The One Show, Have I Got News For You, QI, Room 101 and The News Quiz, and of course there were those appearances on Strictly…… Sergeant’s two left feet approach to the arts of the ballroom consistently found him at the bottom of the judges score board, but the public loved him and he retrained week after week.
John will be taking to the road to tell his stories and anecdotes, calling at The Apex on Thursday 3 July. John’s wit, keen sense of the absurd and acute powers of analysis always make an entertaining evening. What can the audience expect?
John told us: “This is a chance for people to see me as I really am, instead of being ‘someone on TV.’ I have had an extraordinarily, long and varied career, which has been both exciting and different, from covering wars and politics with the BBC and later being political editor of ITV, right through to a much talked-about appearance on Strictly Come Dancing. After surviving until the 10th week, with my dance partner, Kristina Rihanoff, I resigned because, as I said at the time, there was a real danger that i might win; and even for me that would be a joke too far.”
Over the years, what is the most important lesson John has learned?
“The most surprising conclusion I have reached is that looking back you realise you gain more from your mistakes than from your endlessly thought-out plans. It is by taking advantage of sudden changes and chances that boost your career. You win the biggest rewards when things go wrong, and you have to cope with the unexpected, When I mistakenly dropped a plateful of food in front of Margaret Thatcher on a plane going to Moscow it turned into the chance of a lifetime. To learn why, you need to come to the show.”
John has been involved in many different kinds of TV programmes, including live coverage of historic events, documentaries, quiz shows and comedies. He even made a guest appearance in ‘Casualty. But which has given him the most satisfaction?
“Well, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of them. I loved them all. But I have to admit that I really enjoy making people laugh. When I was young, people laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian. You may remember the Bob Monkhouse joke — well, they’re not laughing now – but my childhood dream is still there. And that is one of the aspects of “An Audience with.” I particularly like getting some laughs. It gives me a chance to try out some funny stories. I usually only use a few notes, so that I can alter what I am going to say every time.”
Will there be the opportunity to ask questions?
“Yes, it can sometimes take up half the show, and some people say that it’s the better half. It can be more interesting, for me and the audience. TV producers are always keen to introduce what they call ‘jeopardy’ You don’t know what you are going to be asked and that can be tricky. Often the questions are about politics – still my main interest. Some people know that I was there in Washington when Martin Luther King made his famous ‘I have a dream” speech.” Occasionally, I am asked about my war reporting – “What was your most dangerous assignment? I am also asked about the documentaries I have worked on – canal journeys, and those involving trains and aircraft. One of my favourite questions is “What is it like to fly a Spitfire?’ But I have to admit that the subject which comes up more than any other is Strictly Come Dancing!
John Sergeant is at The Apex on Thursday 3 July at 7.30pm. See www.theapex.co.ukor ring 01284 758 000 for more information, or to book tickets.
Addictive TV plan to bring an eclectic palette of musical experiences to rural Suffolk in an exciting new initiative. Hayley Clapperton talks to Addictive TV’s Graham Daniels.
HC: Graham, tell me your position/role in Addictive TV and how did you get there? What is your background?
Graham: I’m creative director and work with my fellow director Françoise Lamy on all our projects, particularly our Orchestra of Samples, where we film and record musicians for sampling, collaborating with other music producers to create all the tracks. It’s been a long and twisty road to where I am now. Believe it or not I used to produce television – mainly arts and music series, and Françoise joined along the way as she used to curate and organise events. I then fell into VJing in my spare time, which then took over my life, performing visuals alongside DJs at festivals and clubs, which became making music with others, performing that internationally and that’s brought me to where I am now.
HC: ‘Orchestra of Samples’ is an amazing album and the result of an incredible project. For those that don’t already know, are you able to briefly tell us what it is.
Graham: Thanks for the kind words. It’s a project we started 15 years ago at a time when we were constantly touring and gigging internationally. We’ve recorded and filmed hundreds of musicians improvising everywhere we’ve performed, from India to Brazil, slowly building up an enormous archive of video recordings which we then sample, both audio and video, creating new music by bringing together instruments from all over the world. You see the samples on a big screen behind us, so what you hear is what you see, along with live musicians on stage.
HC: How long did it take to research and find these amazing performers around the world?
Graham: 15 years so far! We never stop looking and recording, and so everywhere we travel, we always look for local talent who are happy to join the project. Some of the performers are introduced to us by local friends, or even by the festivals or venues where we’re playing, and it can sometimes take a couple of weeks to connect with someone before we travel. We’ve had a few artist residencies in France, which really helped, as they connected us with musicians playing unusual or rare instruments, and then in the UK we received Arts Council funding to allow us to do more research. But there have been occasions while travelling that we fortuitously meet incredible musicians, and we always take those opportunities to organise a quick pop-up recording session.
HC: It must have taken thousands of hours – was there a point where you thought you might give up?
Graham: Orchestra of Samples is definitely a labour of love project, and I lost count of the thousands of hours we’ve dedicated to it long ago! And no, I’ve never wanted to give up, if anything I always want to do more… record more musicians and create more tracks! When we perform it’s always great to play new material, it’s hopefully more exciting for audiences too as many have come several times to the show now.
HC: What inspired you to kick off the project? What inspired you to continue with the project?
Graham: Partly the fact we were travelling so much and wanted to take the opportunity to meet and connect with local artists all over the world but mostly because of curiosity and our love of music. Inspiration always comes from listening to the samples and creating new tracks, it’s that goosebumps moment when you find samples that really blend. Piecing together this huge audiovisual jigsaw puzzle does it every time!
HC: From ‘Orchestra of Samples’ there have been more singles, tell me about those?
Graham: After our debut album in 2017, which took many years to craft, we decided to release a few singles on digital platforms only. They were released soon after the pandemic, as like many artists during Covid who couldn’t gig, we took the time to create and release more music. We’d like to put out more as we’re constantly creating new tracks for the live shows, but it can be a challenge to find the right team to work with in terms of releasing.
HC: What other musical projects have you been involved with?
Graham: I worked on a project for a couple of years with the amazing blind sitar player Baluji Shrivastav OBE, that combined music, dance and video called Antardrishti. The show premiered at London’s Southbank Centre for the Unlimited Festival, then we toured India along with members of his Innervision Orchestra, that was an incredible experience. And with Addictive TV, prior to concentrating on Orchestra of Samples, myself and two others toured a completely different audiovisual mash-up show for well over a decade, particularly remixing films, which took us to festivals and clubs all over the planet.
HC: Your work has received a huge amount of praise and you have performed around the world, are there any particular stand out memories? Or favourite locations?
Graham: There’s so many. We’ve played in beautiful historic buildings like the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Rome and even a 13th Century castle in rural France, but also in unusual locations, like a freezing outdoor town square in the Alps full of ski-loving holiday-makers right in front of the huge Mont Blanc mountain range! We’ve really been very fortunate to travel as much as we have, seeing the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal in India, the ancient Teotihuacan pyramids in Mexico, they all stay with you. Brazil though is always an amazing place to visit, and I remember once we were taken to cascading waterfall in a forest just outside the capital Brasilia, where there were no people, it was so peaceful and we all went for a swim, just an incredible place. Visiting the Pyramids too in Egypt, especially as we performed in Cairo during the revolution in 2011, so there were no tourists and at one point we were the only people visiting the Sphinx!
HC: From the global stage to rural Suffolk, I hear you’re taking Orchestra of Samples on the road around Suffolk, tell me how it came about and why rural Suffolk?
Graham: Now that I’ve lived in Suffolk for a few years, it seemed the right thing to do – taking the project with local guests to art centres and festivals around the county, especially as Suffolk is so spread out! Last year we began working with Creative Arts East who organise rural touring for projects across Suffolk, Norfolk and parts of Essex and Cambridgeshire, taking both music and theatre shows to communities in towns and villages that otherwise wouldn’t be able to see them.
HC: Tell me about the guest performers on the tour, how did you find them?
Graham: They’re a mixture of musicians we’ve worked with before and others we’ve since met or been introduced to in recent years. A wonderful percussionist we’re performing with is Gary Newland who’s been running the Drum Camp in Suffolk for 30 years, which is an amazing international percussion festival near Bungay! For the show in Lowestoft at The Seagull, both singer Kitty May will be joining us – she’s a fantastic artist from the area, and percussionist George Fothergill who founded the charity Status Creative supporting marginalised creatives in Suffolk. We’ll also be collaborating with virtuoso pianist Will Fergusson, which I’m particularly looking forward to! And joining me on all the tour are also our two regular musicians František Holčík on clarinet and Electronic Wind Instrument, which is a bit like a synth version of a clarinet, and Alejandro de Valera on one of his many custom-built fretless guitars!
HC: And your new project Sonic Wave, also in Suffolk, tell me more.
Graham: Since moving to rural Suffolk some time ago, we both noticed that a lot of interesting artists don’t perform here, as I’m sure they don’t in many rural areas of the country – it’s generally only the major cities. In East Anglia, some might perform in Ipswich or Norwich, but rarely in the smaller towns, so we want to try and change that, and as we live in the Waveney Valley we’ve decided to organise nights called Sonic Wave, starting in Halesworth at the fantastic venue The Cut, then in September in Bungay at The Fisher theatre, where we’ll remove all the seats to create a more gig-vibe dance floor. We’ve received funding from Arts Council England through their grassroots music scheme and this will really help kick start the project.
HC: When does it start?
Graham: June 13th with a special double bill at The Cut in Halesworth. The night will start with afro-folk singer Namvula and her very infectious grooves, followed by Sunda Arc, the brother duo from Mammal Hands, with their atmospheric and cinematic jazz electronica. Then on September 27th at The Fisher in Bungay, will be the very glamourous LatinX band Alex Etchart & Vientos with support from the amazing Irish singer-songwriter Emma O’Reilly who’s now based in Norwich.
ORCHESTRA OF SAMPLES ON TOUR:
Felixstowe, May 25 at Two Sisters Arts Centre
Aldeburgh, July 11 at Jubilee Hall
Lowestoft, July 17 at The Seagull
Maui Festival, August 23
Bungay Folk Festival, September 7
Glemsford Sudbury, September 20 at Glemsford Village Hall
Jason Donovan is making a much anticipated return to one of his most famous roles: playing Frank-N-Furter in Richard O’Brien’s anarchic musical, The Rocky Horror Show. So, the question has to be: why?
“In a nutshell,” he says, “I’m a fan. I love the show; I love the music; I love the character. I was touring my own show about five years ago and included ‘Sweet Transvestite’ from Rocky as a key moment in my musical career. It went down a storm.”
He subsequently emailed producer Howard Panter saying that he’d read there was to be a 50th anniversary production of Rocky Horror and he’d love to be involved. And so it came to pass: first in Sydney and Melbourne and now via an extensive UK tour.
The Rocky Horror Show is a musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O’Brien. A humorous tribute to various B movies associated with the science fiction and horror genres from the 1930s to the early 1960s, the musical tells the story of a newly engaged, clean-cut couple getting caught in a storm and coming to the home of a mad transvestite scientist, Dr Frank-N-Furter, unveiling his new creation, Rocky, a Frankenstein-style monster in the form of an artificially-made, fully-grown, physically perfect muscle man complete with blond hair and a tan.
The show was produced and directed by Jim Sharman. The original London production premièred at the Royal Court Theatre (Upstairs) on 19 June 1973. It later moved to several other locations in London and closed on 13 September 1980. The show ran for a total of 2,960 performances. On the 50th anniversary of the musical in 2023, it is said the production had been performed in 20 different languages and seen by 30 million people globally.
He’s the same performer but how does Jason feel about tackling the role over 25 years later? “I don’t feel uncomfortable, playing Frank at 56 – and, of course, I have personal reasons for being grateful to the show.”
The stage manager on that late 90s touring production was a young woman called Angela Malloch. “I’d be backstage waiting to go on,” recalls Jason, “and I’d get chatting to Ange.” The blossoming friendship turned into romance but the relationship hit the buffers.
Shortly afterwards, Angela found out she was pregnant. It was ultimatum time. “If the relationship had any chance of working, she told me, and if I was going to have any involvement in the life of our child, I would have to give up the self-indulgent hedonistic lifestyle of the 90s and take greater control of my life. And I did.
It’s something that happened gradually rather than immediately. “You either seize your opportunities or you don’t”. But, in the end, he says, you’ve got to want to change. “Elton John said it and it’s true: nobody can do it for you.”
It was a major turning point in his life and the beginning of a relationship – the couple finally married in 2008 – that has stood him in good stead from that day to this. The couple have three children: Jemma is 25 and an actress; 24-year-old Zac is a TV producer in Australia and Molly, 14, is still at school.
In the meantime, their father has graduated from small-screen fame as Scott in the long-running Australian soap, Neighbours, to chart-topping pop stardom and now, among much else, as a stalwart of musical and straight theatre in a diverse number of productions.
He played Joseph in the original production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (returning as Pharaoh in the 2019 revival and subsequently on tour). He was in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts, has had two stabs at playing drag artist Mitzi in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, he also played music mogul Sam Phillips in Million Dollar Quartet, the demon barber of Fleet Street himself in Sweeney Todd and Lionel Logue in The King’s Speech.
But it is Dr Frank-N-Furter who occupies a special place in his heart. “One of the reasons I love Rocky is because it’s a short show.” And nor is he joking. “It says everything it needs to say and nothing more. There’s no unnecessary padding. It means nobody gets bored and you leave them wanting more.”
Fine but, hand on heart, what’s it like climbing into those fishnet stockings and high heels seven times a week? “In many ways, very easy, I put on the costume and there’s Frank all over again. I’m in touch with my feminine side but I come from a masculine sensibility. The character embraces both sides of me: a strength and a vulnerability as well as danger and denial.
“Look, I come to the role as an actor. I always dreamed of fronting a rock band and this is about as close as I’ve got. When I put on those high heels, I become that rock ‘n’ roll star. It makes me feel powerful, tall, in charge.
“And audiences love it. As I look out from the stage, I see a beautiful landscape of people wearing outrageous costumes. It’s not hard to see why: in many ways, Rocky is panto for adults. The costumes are just as much a part of the show as the characters and the music.”
All right but what about the wear and tear on his back? He laughs. “I spend a lot more time in physio these days, something I’ve put in as an appendix in my contract! I’m in my mid-50s. I’m aware of having to look after myself.”
With regular exercise? “Yes, but not obsessively so. Mental health and physical fitness go hand-in-hand for me. This life is a long journey, you hope. My dad gave me the tool of a good work ethic linked to physical activity.
“I don’t go to the gym: I’m not interested in lifting weights. But I swim. I ride my bike. I stretch. I steam. I do those things more or less on a daily basis. In fact, they’ve become a borderline addiction. And, of course, doing the show is a work-out in itself: I put a lot of energy into my performance.”
He’s also sensible about his eating regime. “Within reason but then I’m lucky. I seem to burn a lot of fat naturally. Trouble is, you get to my age and you’re in sniper’s alley: increasingly, you’re dodging a lot of bullets. There’s a bit of arthritis here, deteriorating eyesight there. If I take off my glasses, I can’t see whether the bottle contains shampoo or conditioner!” he laughs.
“Although my vocals were never my strongest point back in the day, since Joseph, I have worked really hard and through 30 years of strengthening my vocal cords – they’re a muscle like anything else – I’ve become a better singer. Rocky now plays to my strengths, less musical theatre, more edgy, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll. More me really!”
Touring at any age is demanding and Jason is about to embark on a fairly punishing schedule. He’ll be performing in Manchester, Leeds, Swansea, Wimbledon, Norwich, Nottingham and Dublin.
He makes light of it. “On tour, I wake up a little later; there are no domestic chores to tackle – no trimming the ivy or doing the washing. And I’m a seasoned professional when it comes to locating any M&S or Waitrose.
“I do try and get home at weekends, though, and not agree to more than three or four weeks away at a stretch. But if I want to play Frank – and I do – I’ve got to travel. It comes with the territory.
What else are you doing? “I’ve got my Doin’ Fine 25 tour – across the UK and Ireland until early April. It’s a greatest hits show, a celebration of 35 years of work.”
Then his focus will be bringing Frank-N-Furter back to life, both for his own satisfaction and that of his inexhaustible audience. “I’ve reached a point of great contentment,” says Jason. “As long as I have my family and my health, as long as I have a good life/work balance, I’m happy. I like to think I work to live, not the other way around.”The Rocky Horror Show is at Norwich Theatre Royal between 28 Jul – 2 Aug. For more information or to book, visit norwichtheatre.org or call the Box Office on 01603 630 000.
Eliza Delf & The Wilderness have released their new single ‘Don’t Love Me Lightly’ ahead of their second album release ‘Feast’. Eliza was kind enough to take a phone interview with Hayley Clapperton:
HC: How did getting involved in a band come about?
Eliza: The way the band started was slightly unusual because of COVID. The order of my getting going with music was a bit strange as I recorded the album before I had a band and I did it with the producer John Looms who’s based in Yorkshire and it was largely done remotely. I’d written the songs, I sent him demos and he work on some ideas and then we e-mail about it but it’s quite an unusual way of getting your first album out there.
HC: Have you always wanted to be in a band?
Eliza: I’ve always loved singing and then I started writing songs, not really with a big plan I just enjoyed writing and then I started to think ‘Oh you know I’m pretty much I’m writing an album’, and then because of COVID the only option was to record as we couldn’t play live. It was only when the songs were recorded I started to think I would like to share these songs and anyone who’s heard my songs would agree, they don’t suit being just me and maybe a piano I think they really work well with a band so it just was the natural next step.
HC: Where did the name ‘Wilderness’ come from?
Eliza: One of the songs on the first album is called ‘Into the Wilderness’ and it was written partly about lockdown. I really struggled with lockdown, I became very inward and struggled with leaving the house but then when you were supposed to get out, I still was really struggling with it. The song was a little bit about the idea of trying to reclaim the outside as a space I wanted to be in. Those themes were cropping up in the other songs I thought it would be a good title track for the album. When we were talking about the band we liked the idea of having my name to start and it came from that song and just like the image of it.
HC: Tell me who’s in the band and how did you find them?
Eliza: Tim Skinner is my percussionist I found him on the website for connecting musicians and we’re lucky we’re both local, went for coffee got on really well and he just loves the music which is the main thing! My celloist is Eva Wright, we went to university together. The guitarist Jacob Browne is actually my partner. He had previously been on bass in the band but is now on guitar.
HC: I do love the inclusion of the cello it adds such a different layer to the music
Eliza: It does have its classical roots and because I was classically trained the two sounds just marry really well together.
HC: What is your classical training?
Eliza: Classical singing. I started when I was about 11 years old, my piano teacher told me I should probably do singing instead and I was much happy doing that. I then got to the crossroads of did I want to continue with classical singing or my own music and I decided that I wanted to sing my own songs.
HC: Do you play any other instruments?
Eliza: A little bit of piano but I definitely don’t claim to be amazing at it, I can get by enough to do demos for sharing with the band. I think a lot of people actually feel more comfortable on stage with an instrument but for me I want to be focusing on my myself and my body and what I’m doing and not having to worry about an instrument as well.
HC: Your website describes your sound as “indie music with gothic folk noir in its veins and art rock in its heart” which is a wonderful description, but what does that mean to you?
Eliza: The question of genre comes up a lot. Those words are very carefully chosen because we really struggled to know how to describe our music. We’ve been described a lot as a bit genre-less so it’s not just us failing to think of something.
It is a long phrase and I think it has to be to do it justice. We do get a lot of comments that our music does stand out as not having a clear definition or clear genre. There’s the classical elements in my voice and there’s also a slightly folky tone to my voice at times but I’m definitely not a folk singer. The music has hints of pop, I do listen to pop music and I enjoy catchy music.
The noir side, the gothic is because the music and lyrics can get quite dark. There is a new song we’ve got coming out and there is a line that says ‘the skin and sinew from my skull’, it’s about your skin being ripped off your body. When people listen they at first think ‘that sounds nice’ and when they hear what I’m singing there like ‘oh’. I drew a lot on writer called Angela Carter who has quite colourful language but quite dark and I definitely have taken that influence on.
HC: Which leads very nicely to the next question: who were your influences growing up and have they changed today?
Eliza: Musically, I learned the lesson quite quickly that you might like your influences but don’t be consumed by them because when you first start writing songs it’s very easy to copycat and you have to stop yourself doing it.
We do get a lot of people mentioning Kate Bush, partly because I sing quite high and it’s slightly flamboyant, but it’s not necessarily someone I think I’ve been influenced by and then I’m like ‘Oh yeah I probably have been’. On a more personal level I’m massively influenced by feedback from people around me particularly my dad, he also manages the band, he’s the first person I send it to.
HC: With your father also your manager, how is that for you and are there other family members involved?
Eliza: I love working with him, we’re so in sync and because there’s that personal element to it, no one else will ever promote my music in the way he does.
Anyone that’s ever spoken to him knows his commitment to the band is incredible but I’m very lucky that he enjoys it and is happy to do it for free because I don’t have anything to give anyone so it’s amazing plus he’s one of my best friends.
Anyone who works in music knows it’s such a DIY thing unless you’re super super famous you’re getting by by the skin of your teeth. My brother is really good at photography so he does a great job taking photographs of the band and my mum is an accountant which is actually very useful, it’s been fantastic and she’s also comes along to the gigs and do the door and the tickets if the venue is not doing it.
HC: Was it a musical household growing up?
Eliza: There’s definitely musical roots that go back on both sides. My mum’s family is from Wales, a big singing culture, and my Nanna sung when she was younger and performed in a duo.
On my dad side again, very musical and they all loved to play instruments. My dad has a slightly different style, he loves punky music and was a big fan of The Damned. He was in a band when he was younger, he recently found some demos he made and put them on SoundCloud which I really enjoyed so I’m threatening him with doing a cover of one of them.
HC: What challenges do you currently face in the music industry?
Eliza: I’ve touched on it a bit but being really transparent the financial side is really difficult. Currently I’m doing a couple of jobs part-time but then I’m also self-employed as a musician, it’s full on. I think I’m making peace with the fact that it’s not really an industry I’m expecting to ever feel financially stable in, it’s not that kind of industry but if you love it you do anyway.
It’s not easy we we’re really lucky that we’ve had some amazing people who support us and buy CDs, because merch and CDs actually is where you make some money, you don’t make it from places like Spotify at all.
Also the organisation, there is a lot of us making the music and you have to really be organised because you definitely don’t want to be flaky and make a bad impression with a venue or an artist you’re supporting, for example. Luckily I’m quite organised but it’s a lot of plates to keep spinning.
HC: You’re about to release your second album and we will talk about that, but I saw that you used crowdfunding for your album? How did that come about?
Eliza: We did a Kickstarter for the first album and people were really generous and wanted to get involved so when it came to the second album I thought we’d do it again. What’s great about Kickstarter is that in some ways for some people it’s a show of faith, they can make a donation but I’ll give them a CD or maybe like a T-shirt or something when it comes out. It is people helping me make a commitment to making music and giving me the confidence to commit to it, which is fantastic. People are so generous at a time when no one’s feeling super flush right now. It’s really lovely the way people will support us.
HC: How do you enjoy working and recording within a studio?
Eliza: I love it. I mean I love being in the studio, I feel so at home there. We recorded the second album with Adam Bowers who’s based in Ipswich at the Boathouse Studio which is by the edge of the water, it is beautiful. We spent a week there, when you’re in a studio it does become this little microcosm and you are all completely obsessed with the music and you get to spend a week just being creative and trying things. I enjoyed it so much.
HC: Tell me about the song writing process?
Eliza: I will write a song, lyrics, chords and structure so it’ll be a song but there is a lot of potential left with it. I’ll essentially have a rough demo and then I’ll bring it to my band and I’ll show it to them or play it on the piano and I’ll say ‘OK what do you think?’
They’ll come up with ideas for their instrument, make suggestions and it is such a collaborative process which we really enjoy.
Obviously with the first album it was more me just saying here are the songs, but with this album the songs were much more raw, there was so much space for them to come up with ideas for their instruments. It makes it very exciting when I get to bring a song to them as I know it’s going to be a much better song by the time we’ve all worked on it, so that’s always really fun.
HC: One of your strengths is conveying the emotion in a song and the lyrics, I have seen you perform live and you really bring the songs to life. It seems such an emotive experience for us the audience, is it for you?
Eliza: It’s obviously really great to hear that because with performing, there is an element where it does come more naturally to some people and the fact that I enjoy it is great. I’ve worked hard to be better at it and there was a point last Christmas where we reached the end of the year and I’d done quite a few gigs but I realised there’s definitely room for improvement.
We did a gig in February and a lot of people commented that there was a switch in the way I was performing as it was a lot more wild. I made that commitment, I know what I want to be doing on stage and I have to let go of some of the inhibitions that stop you from just being a bit crazy on stage.
That process has been so worthwhile because you’re right I think the gigs we do now are more of a show, it’s very intense. It’s intense for me performing as there are some songs that are very personal even if it’s not obvious to the audience how personal they are. On stage you’re making yourself quite emotionally vulnerable. It’s quite emotional for me, that’s what I love, I love getting on stage and just really letting loose and enjoying it and I think it makes it a much better show.
HC: Your new song that’s is out now ‘Don’t Love Me Lightly’ what is that back story to it?
Eliza: It’s actually about the fear of death, I wrote it about feeling quite overwhelmed by the thought of dying and the people around me dying. The idea of the song was that when I feel like that, the thing that does make me feel better is thinking about people in love and the connections you have in life. It’s easy to spiral and you have to ground yourself, not go down a rabbit hole in your head. A line in the song ‘don’t hold back because I can deal with the weight’ it’s saying I want you to love me with your whole being.
HC: ‘Don’t Love Me Lightly’ is the third track release off your second album, which is going to be released on 23rd May – are there going to be more singles coming out?
Eliza: No, this is the last single before the album comes out. It’s slightly DIY with a release date, it’s not guaranteed because of the streaming platforms.
HC: The album is called ‘Feast’ can you tell me about it as a whole?
Eliza: There was definitely a little bit of a shift in sound with this album because it was recorded in a more live way so it was real people playing instruments pretty much in its entirety and there’s an energy to recording in that way which was captured really well by Adam.
The songs themselves do range so much, I’m not one for really confessional song writing so even when a song is about me I don’t want it to be, so it’s quite layered up with imagery and metaphor to keep people guessing.
HC: What are your musical plans for this year?
Eliza: We’re really quite busy now with gigs for the next couple of months
The Portland Arms, Cambridge – May 29th
Norwich Arts Centre – June 25th – official album launch
And plenty of exciting stuff, lots of festivals and I think we will just come to the end of the year and hopefully we’ve had an amazing summer playing loads and loads of live music which is really what I wanted from this year.
HC: What do you enjoy most about being a musician?
Eliza: It’s the performing, I love recording but there’s something, that energy you get from being on stage. You do you get a real high afterwards but actually for me it’s when you get to the end of the middle bit while having a really great time. People are enjoying themselves in front of you, you’re having a great time on stage and I look around the band are looking happy and then I can just relax and enjoy it.
HC: How would you describe your fans>
Eliza: I would describe them as dedicated because we’re not a massive band (yet) but the people who come across the music I’m always so blown away by how much they love it. It just gives me such a boost because it’s not easy, it’s a bit relentless sometimes trying to get your music out there and when people give feedback it’s nice to have a little bit of a boost.
HC: What hobbies do you enjoy?
Eliza: I love reading. I spend a lot of time with my partner, going for walks and he’s really good at cooking so my hobby is eating.
HC: Do you have any special skill outside of music that we don’t know about?
Eliza: I really love history. I’ve got a surprising amount of knowledge about Queen Victoria.
Thank you for your time, it’s been a great interview.
‘Don’t Love Me Lightly’ is out now and can be found on YouTube:
ABC’s Martin Fry: It’s been a wild ride – and I’m just getting started!
ABC were the band that redefined glamour and cool. Led by the charismatic Martin Fry, they scaled the heights of pop stardom with hits such as ‘Poison Arrow’, ‘All Of My Heart’, ‘The Look Of Love’ and’ When Smokey Sings’, and enjoyed Transatlantic success with ‘The Lexicon of Love’ – a brilliantly distinctive debut album, fizzing with bright ideas and unapologetically flamboyant.
At the forefront of the early 1980s New Romantic scene, which included Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Japan and The Human League, Martin Fry, with his gold lamé suit, harked back to an era of sophistication.
At the peak of his success, Martin survived a brush with Hodgkin lymphoma, an uncommon cancer, while going on to hang out with such luminaries as Andy Warhol and Robbie Williams. A family man, he received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the University of Sheffield the day before his daughter Nancy received her degree from the same university. And now, with the publication of his autobiography ‘A Lexicon of Life’, he’s hitting the road to share his remarkable stories and sing acoustic versions of his greatest hits.
Martin grew up in the north of England, getting into bands and starting a fanzine: “I vividly remember that magical moment when I first went to see a rock show. Even before the act came on, I was looking at the roadies on an empty stage and admiring the size of the PA system, totally entertained by that mind-boggling spectacle. My first gig was Cockney Rebel and opening up for them were Sailor. There was something totally comforting about watching a band on stage.”
The gig that changed his life was The Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade, in Manchester. “John Lydon just crouched and clutched his can of lager. He was very vulnerable, but he had complete and utter disdain for the audience. He wasn’t going to fight them; he was just beyond that. There was just something brilliant about them, artistically. It wasn’t the safety pins and Kings Road fashion that attracted me to Punk, I felt that was a bit of a Fleet Street invention really. It was something much deeper. They were great.”
Band mates came and went as ABC became a fixture of the charts, hitting the number one spot and earning a platinum disc for ‘Lexicon of Love’, and enjoying gold discs for ‘Beauty Stab’ and ‘Alphabet City’.
The band hit the road, playing to audiences around the world and hanging out with famous people. “After we played New York, we met Andy Warhol. We got this call to the hotel on a Tuesday morning, asking if we’d like to go and meet Andy at the Factory. Andy was there and he was the most down-to-earth guy you could meet. He was talking to me about acne products because his skin wasn’t great, and neither was mine. He was drinking a cup of coffee and people would constantly come in and ask him to sign paintings and prints.”
“I remember later in Tokyo, the four of us were sitting eating in a restaurant, and a crowd gathered outside. People were literally trying to smash the window to get in. We had to go out the back door as the front window splintered and we were ushered into a speeding car. That kind of fame and recognition I can live without.”
Talking of his tour with Robbie Williams, playing to tens of thousands of fans each night, Martin says: “Playing to something approaching 200,000 people at Milton Keynes Bowl for three nights was something I never thought would happen. But it did. Robbie’s tour felt like being part of a Medieval Kingdom. It must have been like that when they took Henry VIII to Agincourt.”
More tours followed, including a set of shows with Meatloaf. “About midway through the tour after a Sunday matinee in Leipzig, I could hear Meatloaf smashing up his dressing room, and for a while, and I was the only other artist who dared go in there. I didn’t try to restrain him; he was too big to restrain. But I did tell him to calm down and I warned him that if he carried on smashing up his room, he’d end up having a heart attack.”
Fry survived the crazy journey of pop stardom, eventually getting sober after his rock’n’roll lifestyle had taken its toll.
“Things changed dramatically for me. I just entered a new and very different world of being sober. I wanted to be present, for my family. Prior to that I’d always been off somewhere – off to a show, off to a bar, or just drifting off if I was in the room. That reality check had a profound effect on me. Sitting in AA I’d be looking down at my cup of coffee, thinking: ‘What am I doing here? My whole future is in this polystyrene cup.’
“Obviously, there’s a big part of me that identifies with the man in the gold lamé suit. That’s who I became. There are 40,000 people dancing in a field, singing my words back at me. But that that’s just one part of who you are and what you do. That’s just one small facet of your life.
Fry created a brilliant new record: The Lexicon Of Love II, which took him back into the top five of the UK album charts and he enjoyed a successful theatre tour in early 2024, accompanied by an orchestra and Anne Dudley while playing The Lexicon of Love.
And now he’s sharing his stories during an intimate theatre tour, in which he’ll play acoustic versions of songs with two trusted bandmates, while remembering the remarkable journey he’s been on.
“It’s been a wild ride,” he says. “And the incredible thing is that as I hit the road with The Lexicon of Life, I feel as though I’m just getting started.”
ABC – An Intimate Evening With Martin Fry is at The Apex on Saturday 14 June at 7.30pm, see www.theapex.co.uk or ring 01284 758 000 for more information or to book tickets.
Cast’s John Power: It’s a Finetime for Britpop’s renaissance
It was supposed to be one of the main events of the year. John Power, founder and frontman of Cast, had planned a run of solo gigs in 2025. There was talk of a new record, plans for his first book, and talk of more shows.
Rock’n’roll had other plans, however, and Cast has enjoyed a renaissance like no other. It was sparked by their brilliant 2024 record, Love Is The Call, a virtuoso of classy songwriting and playing, under the tutelage of super-producer Youth. That led to sell-out tours, an impending new album, and, of course, the invitation to join Oasis on this summer’s stadium tour of the UK and Ireland.
It’s not the first time. Cast famously supported Oasis at their record-breaking 1996 Knebworth show, which for many marked the zenith of Britpop.
And so, remarkably, fans who’ll this summer be paying a princely sum for the return the nation’s best Britpop bands, can see Power in intimate theatres and arts centres across the UK. Danke schoen, fate. You’ve played a blinder.
Power is looking forward to hitting the road, while probably also wondering when he’ll next get a day off. Such is the life of a bona fide rock star. In February, he’ll be in Spain recording Cast’s new record. In April and May he’ll be playing solo dates in intimate theatres and clubs. In late spring he’ll be rehearsing for the colossal gigs-of-the-year with Oasis, and only a fool would bet against there being a headline Cast tour once all that’s done.
“We’re pleased with the way things have gone,” says Power, ever the master of understatement, and the acme of humility. “We seem to have caught a wave, particularly since Love Is The Call. A lot of people thought that was a creative peak for the band. That’s certainly something we wanted to achieve. I think at this stage of our career, it was the album we needed to make. We wanted to capture the energy and the vibe of what I was intending.”
But we’ve skipped ahead and ought to look back – just as Power’s solo shows will. For when he hits the road with Cast, The La’s, and Me, John Power will be going back to the source: Liverpool. He grew up in a city where music was in the DNA of everyone.
“Whether it was hearing The Beatles on the radio or The Bunnymen, Liverpool was a remarkable place to grow up. Music’s in our blood, and that’s really how it all started for me.”
His solo show will start there, as Power tells stories about growing up in Britain’s most musical city. He was drawn to bass guitar, and Wild Thing was his first bass line. By 1986, he was on a course for unemployed musicians, where he met Mike Badger, an important mentor. Powers, Badger, and Lee Mavers became the core trio of The La’s, one of Britain’s greatest bands, and the rest, as they say…
“I was just a young kid and I was in a band with the greatest songwriter of his generation, Lee Mavers. Being around him was inspiring. I don’t think we had a fractious relationship. If you look at the people who came and went in The La’s, our relationship was pretty solid. I don’t know if Lee will like me saying this, but he was like a mentor. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have been writing songs or singing backing vocals – it was his idea. Lee was a master, his songs were lifechanging.”
Power stayed longer than anyone other than Mavers, including group founder. Recording The La’s debut album – a record the public loved but Mavers hated – was key. While the record remains a seminal 1990s album, it spelled the end of the band and Power moved on around 1992. He’d started to write – songs like Alright and Follow Me Down – and had switched from bass to rhythm guitar. He was living at Brucklay House, a near derelict squat in Mossley Hill, and began jamming with ex-Shack bassist Peter Wilkinson, before hooking up with drummer Keith O’Neill and guitarist Liam ‘Skin’ Tyson. The band secured support slots with Elvis Costello and Oasis.
“It was all still ahead of us when we formed Cast. There were no hang-ups. It was a very free and inspiring time. There were no hang-ups. All of a sudden, the dreams started to take care of themselves.
“Meeting Liam and Noel was a really important moment, and we’ve maintained those relationships. It was incredible to support Liam on his tour and we’re blown away to have been invited to support them this summer.
“It kind of reaffirms our legacy and authenticates the road and journey that we’ve been on as a band. And now us, Richard Ashcroft and Oasis – talk about Northern Soul! That’s some line-up. We’re about to play the biggest tour of our lives.
“We all go back years. The first time we met was when I’d just left The La’s and decided to go see them at this little club in Manchester, to show there were no bad feelings. That’s when I first met Liam. This young lad came up to me and asked me for a ciggy; it was a 16-year-old Liam.
“Then later, me and Cast were recording some demos. ‘Supersonic’ was really happening and Oasis were on this little club tour. I blagged my way into this little venue in Liverpool and I was talking to this NME journalist at the bar who recognised me from The La’s. Then Liam comes in, and this was a few days after the band had been on The Word, and tells me about me not giving him a ciggy!
“We’re backstage and I’m playing him and Noel the demos, and you could feel that there was something afoot. They gave us a show at The Venue in New Cross. That was really important for us, as the Polydor head of A&R was in the audience and he’d go on and sign us.”
Cast’s debut album followed, All Change, in 1995. The album shot to No. 7 in the UK charts, reaching double platinum and went on to become the fastest selling debut album in the history of the Polydor label, outselling the likes of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who and The Jam.
Their sophomore record, Mother Nature Calls, repeated the trick, reaching No. 3 on the chart and again securing a platinum disc.
“Britpop was a fine time,” says Power. “It was like being in the eye of the hurricane. When Cast had the success that they had, I kind of missed it all. Maybe I was too intense, so some of my time in that so-called successful era wasn’t very enjoyable. But it taught me a lot. I know how quick it’s gone, and I know that if you don’t take notice of what’s happening in the now, it may as well not have happened at all.
“I think with time, like most things, the legends and myths grow – but it was certainly a great time to be in a band and to be a fan of music. There was also an optimism in the air after so long of Tory neglect, but you know, it’s all cycles and I wouldn’t want to spend my time looking back. We have to make today and tomorrow the place to be; the here and now has to be where it’s at.
“When you’re young and immortal, you think it’s going to last forever. But like everything in life, it’s a seasonal occupation.”
Cast were wilfully experimental and their 2001 record, Beetroot, was ahead of its time. It was Cast’s most adventurous work, though afterwards Cast split. Through the 2000s, Power released his three solo records: Happening For Love, Willow She Weeps, and Stormbreaker. After performing a Cast Acoustic Show, he decided to reform the band and start work on a new record, Cast’s fifth studio album, Trouble Times. By the middle of the decade- around 2016 – Cast had signed with Alan McGee, Britpop’s don and the man who founded Creation Records and signed Oasis.
Kicking Up The Dust followed in 2017 before last year’s remarkable return to form, with Love Is The Call.
Power says: “It felt like a debut album. I got that same energy from that that I’d had from All Change.
“I kept getting this feeling of a space that existed somewhere between the end of The La’s and the beginning of Cast – a space I hadn’t really explored – so Love Is The Call was that space. It had a vibe, a kind of psychedelic pop album, with a rock ‘n’ roll, punky beats and a bouncing bass, jumping acoustics and some blistering electrics.
“A lot of the songs were kicking but there was also a melancholy underside to some of the tracks. I also played bass again after all these years. The last album I played bass on was The La’s.”
And now it’s 2025 – a full 30 years on from such hits as Finetime and Alright, the tunes that announced Cast as major players in Britpop. It feels remarkable that Power still has the same energy, the same drive, the same determination to make timeless, iconic tunes.
And his new show – now crammed in between the recording of Cast’s next record and their dates with destiny, alongside Oasis, this summer – will showcase those.
“I’m looking forward to telling a few of the stories, to looking back and to looking forward, and to playing some of the songs that people know and love.”
And so are we, John. So are we.
Tickets for Cast, The La’s and Me – An Intimate Evening with John Power, are available at: http://www.castband.co.uk/tour
John Power will be at The Apex on Thursday 20 March at 7.30pm.See www.theapex.co.ukor ring 01284 758 000 for more information, or to book tickets.
