Hugo, Hi! Lovely to meet you. Oh, wow, green tea, I see how it is, how very rock and roll of you.Yeah, I know it's not the coolest is it, but I've given up smoking, and then found that I'd switched my attention to massive amounts of coffee instead, so now I'm on the green tea as an attempted kind of remedy.
I'm a big tea fan. Do you like camomile?
Erm [clearly wondering why I'm wittering on about tea], I'm not sure if I've tried that one. Just generally sticking to the green and the herbal. I mean, I was spending a tenner a day or something ridiculous on coffee...
A tenner a day! That's pretty committed!
Yeah I know, that's taking it pretty seriously isn't it! I think I was probably better off on the fags.
Absolutely, I mean caffeine verses nicotine, it's a tough one isn't it. [Realising that I should probably start asking some proper questions as I'm clearly going to be asked to leave by management / security any minute]. Right, so, the tour! I guess the obvious question would be, how's everything going, I mean you're four days in now right?
It's just been amazing actually. The other bands we're on tour with have just been absolutely great to get along with...
(HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME)
Sorry, right, so you're getting with everyone well yeah? And how have the audiences been?
Yeah the crowds have been absolutely amazing, like the place fills up as soon as the doors open, which is brilliant because all of the bands on the bill get to play in front of a really brilliant, and knowledgeable crowd. Because it's always a worry, actually no worry isn't the right word, but on these kind of tours, it's always nice to feel that it's still our show as well, and I think this definitely strikes the right balance because the audience seems 100% up for whichever band are playing.
Yeah I came to see you guys here last October actually and I remember it being a pretty memorable show. I remember some kind of a fight broke out actually... But anyway, as a band do you have any particularly fond memories of Leeds as a city, especially considering your slot at last year's Leads Festival?
Yeah Leeds Fest was brilliant, we had a really good slot on the NME stage, and it's always so nice to catch up with the other bands. And we started off playing The Faversham in Leeds actually many moons ago when we first started touring, sort of working our way up the scale, and Leeds was always definitely a big part of that.
[Apparently finding an opportunity to talk about myself] Oh wow The Faversham, I love it there! Wednesday night and Saturday nights are still pretty mental. Girls on Tour. Right, so you've definitely come a long way! [Moving on] So, the NME tour sets a pretty relentless pace, I mean you've played three nights in a row thus far, with Leeds tonight, and then Nottingham the day after tomorrow. What do you guys do to relax when you get a day off?
Well yeah, our first day off is tomorrow. Nothing planned as of yet. We normally try and find something pretty interesting to do though. We spent quite a lot of time in Europe last year and we got into this routine of going go-karting when we had some time off. It just really shakes it out of you, you know? Like, it puts your whole body to the test. People have come away pretty battered and bruised from those sessions!
It gets quite competitive then?
Very competitive!
Is there normally one person who clinches the race?
I'm pretty fast, Rupert's really good. He just can't bear to lose, with anything like that, he will make sure that he wins, even with computer games and things like that; he will make sure that he is better than you!
(HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME)
Fair enough. So on the tour bus, has there been a particular CD that's getting played loads at the minute, any one band or person in particular that's really grabbing you in 2010?
Well just yesterday actually, do you know a band called I Am Kloot? [I nod along encouragingly] Well we actually do a cover of one of their songs, 'Because', and we managed to get Johnny the lead singer to come down and sing it with us, which was amazing. And you know they've just finished their new record, which Elbow are producing, so we're all pretty excited about that coming out in 2010. Apart from that, I'm not sure if there's one CD that we've all been listening to together... before shows we always play certain songs to really get us in the mood for the show...
What's the one songs that gets you really psyched up for a gig?
It would have to be 'Dancing in the Dark', Bruce Springsteen.
The Boss! Excellent.
(HURRY UP PLESE IT'S TIME)
The Headline NME slot you guys have been given this year is a reflection of the success of 2009's Wall Of Arms. The album had a noticeably meatier, more layered, mature sound to it compared to the first record, was this a conscious development?
Yeah well I think the maturity was quite an inevitable process. I mean, the first record, although I don't think that naive is the right word, it was perhaps more of a collection of songs that had just built up over time that were just collated together. But through the whole process of this second record, we really had to start everything from scratch. It had to be a vision I guess, that we really had to go out and create. Working with producer Markus Draus was a definite turning point. There's just so much more going on this time, like with the addition of the brass section on the live shows. And we've got little brother Will in on keyboards and doing some samples as well: it just all adds to that kind of huge atmosphere, there's nine of us on stage when we're all up there! Ten of us last night actually with Johnny [from I Am Kloot].
Yeah, you're like a little army up there. What's going to be different between this NME tour headline slot and the show I would have seen last October?
We just try to mix it up all the time, I mean, we've got a few really good covers that we love playing, different songs and a whole different set really. And much bigger lights this time!
(HURRY UP PLEASE IT'S TIME)
And this time it really was time and Hugo was sadly whisked away from me, very apologetic that he had to go. A thoroughly nice young man. And he didn't mind when I casually slipped back into embarrassing fan mode at the end and got him to sign my poster!
