Pure Reason Revolution
Following an eight year career, three albums, much touring across Europe and the UK with bands including Oceansize, Porcupine Tree and Placebo, Pure Reason Revolution finally decided to call it a day. After an emotional final performance, I caught up with their guitarist, Jamie Willcox, to discuss highlights from the band's career and prospective plans for the future.
It seems to come as a shock to people that you're splitting up so soon after the release of Hammer and Anvil - what's it like from your perspective, was it just a natural process?
I think with the albums it was a definite natural progress. We switched labels a few times. For us, after Hammer and Anvil, we felt that it was time to maybe call it a day. We loved Hammer and Anvil - for me it was my favourite album - but at the same time I don't think that it was pushed in the right direction. As a band we all felt, 'is this going to be the same next time?', so we all just decided that, possibly, it might be good to call it a day. But we didn't want to do it without saying a big thank you and stuff and seeing some faces and having a good time - we love touring.
Was it hard during the final few gigs - did you ever have any second thoughts about splitting up?
I'm not sure - I mean, yeah, we're always going to be in two minds, but it's been a labour of love for a long time. We love what we're doing, but sometimes it's a real uphill struggle. Here [Heaven, London] it's been amazing; so many people turned up, it's been unbelievable. If we got that every night, no way would we split up! At the same time, these shows did prompt a lot of people to come out. I guess that's due to The Dark Third, because that's a lot of people's favourite album, so they come out to see that - we appreciate that.
What's your favourite gig from the past few years with Pure Reason?
My favourite ever show was in Italy - it was a festival, we were supporting Placebo. It's my favourite ever show ever that we've done - apart from this tonight, because it's sentimental, and y'know. But the highs are going around touring Europe, the UK - doing stuff like that has been amazing; it's been unbelievable. Without sounding too corny; if you guys didn't come, we wouldn't do it.
Care to list some of the favourite bands that you've played with?
Oceansize, Losers - which is really good, having Losers supporting us - I love these guys, and their new stuff is just phenomenal; it blows me away every time I hear it. Mew - amazing, Porcupine Tree - amazing, Blackfield - amazing. We haven't supported any bad bands!
That's a pretty good run - and I think it shows with your crowd, they reflect that - there are a lot of fans of all of the bands that you've just mentioned, particularly there are a lot of Porcupine Tree fans at Pure Reason gigs.
We've played a lot of shows with Porcupine Tree - you know, Steve [Wilson] he's a good mate.
So what are the members' plans for the future?
The future - I don't know. We're all doing stuff. John produces a bunch of stuff, he does, I think it's KC Blitz, with another guy - which is great, a lot of remix stuff, and I think there may be some solo-y kind of stuff coming from it. Chloe wants to do a solo record. Paul drums for Red Kite, [of whom] Dan Fisher was on stage tonight. We were going to get Tom Bellamy as well but I don't know what happened. I DJ and do production stuff and remixes, and I do another band as well. We're all going to be doing stuff - and together as a group of guys and girls we'll all do stuff together. You know, if I need a vocal I'll get Chloe involved, because she's got a great voice and she's a mate.
So we should all keep an eye out?
Keep an eye on the Pure Reason Facebook. We'll put everything up on there - and our individual ones. I'd probably say don't follow mine unless you like a lot of crap coming through as well as a lot of good.
Great Jamie, thanks a lot!
Thank you.
All images © Rob Harvey
