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Interviews and reviews including a few of The Tenderfoot (Marc from Brakes other band) Great Escape Festival Interviews from MTV2 including a few clips of Eamon & Tom. 20 May: It was the turn of home-grown talent Electric Soft Parade to take over at the Great Escape festival last night. Speaking to 6 Music after ESP's packed gig at the Freebutt, frontman Tom told us what he made of the new event on his home turf. He said: "The only worry for me is that either you're out of your face or the audience is too industry heavy and I've come to realise that it's not really that kind of thing. The Great Escape has kind of borrowed the South By South West format in a way, but it's basically just for punters and the craic of it and the bands" However, the guest lists at the industry showcase event do read like a Who's Who of the music business, as record chiefs attend to check out up and coming music. Tom explained that the sheer volume of fresh bands is what keeps groups on their toes. "I got excited when I was watching Misty's Big Adventure 'cos I'd seen British Sea Power last night and it dawned on me there is actually all these gigs going on all evening for three days and everyone knows about it and it's kind of like where you choose to go. You can't help but feel like you wanna go to an exciting show you might be missing this or missing that and I think that's what eggs the bands on to make their bit a bit special" Due to our aforementioned wait, there's only one more band on the agenda tonight. Brighton's own Electric Soft Parade. Having recently released 'The Human Body' EP, brothers Alex and Tom White seem to be getting back on their feet again. Balancing their duties in Brakes with recording a new album 'No Need To Be Downhearted' (due later this year), the Freebutt gives them a chance to play some new material to a partisan audience. Fittingly, folk poet-hero Ivor Cutler's 'I'm Walking To A Farm' is playing on the PA, which brings a wry smile to our - and many of the audience's faces. Joined by Matt Twaites and Matt Priest (he used to be in Dodgy, fact fans!) they treat us to a mix of old favourites ('Biting The Soles Of My Feet') and newer offerings ('Cold World'). With no rigid set list to speak of, Alex and Tom have some good banter in deciding what to actually play, though the best song of the evening is an un-requestable new tune. 'If That's The Case' has one of those instant hooks, the kind that twists its way inside your head, unconsciously staying there to only find yourself humming days later. In forty short minutes, they finish off with 'Things I've Done Before', and look to pack up. With a crowd baying for more, a deal is struck whereby if Eamon (Brakes' frontman) is in the house, they'll play 'Cheney'. Eamon duly fights his way to the front, and after a quick band re-shuffle, the ten second outburst against the American Vice-President really does bring proceedings to a satisfactory close. Today's band is only from a choice of three full sets, so Electric Soft Parade, in proving that they've not lost what won them a Mercury Music Prize nomination ride off with the bag of penny sweets. Of the three bands whose members coalesced into Brakes, The Tenderfoot must be the most unlikely. Theirs is a world of friendly, warm pastoral indie-folk; a world which would run screaming indoors at the first sign of a ten-second spiky punk racket. They'd have fitted quite well with the New Acoustic Movement of a few years back... in these post-punk-electro-punk-funk days their wilful standing against the tide is inspiring - and their tunes are rather nice too. Electric Soft Parade are on at the Freebutt, but that's another bloody long walk almost back where I came from with no guarantee of getting in there either. Fuck fuck fuck. I really don't know what to do... I know precisely three other people who live in Brighton. And then... two of them are standing in front of me! It's Eamon and Marc from Brakes, and they're heading up to the Freebutt themselves and offering me a lift. I'm so happy to be in the warm, dry Transit van that I don't stop to consider that the man currently driving me through a hectic city centre is best known for banging a big drum with a pigeon and/or shrieking "Spikey spikey!" I've never really been that interested in Electric Soft Parade. Their brief period of being quite big sort of passed me by, and it was only as a Brakes fan that I backtracked and listened to them - they didn't do a lot for me... Tonight, however, they are on spectacular form. The most encouraging and exciting thing about their set however is the fact that the four songs introduced as "new ones" (largely from their recent but low-key Human Body EP) were the four high points of the set. From roots in fairly average post-Britpop they seem to have taken on board all manner of space-rock influences. It's as impressive as it is surprising. And I do get to see Brakes for ten seconds anyway, as Eamon gets up onstage to do "Cheney" towards the end. Lots more bands reviewed at ianchambers.blogspot.com Saturday 20th: Brighton supergroup, Brighton supergroup blah blah blah. It's time for headliners Brakes to finish the night off in their very own country-punk style, as only they know how. We know what to expect from them by now, but it never fails to be anything short of brilliant. Frontman Eamon, relieved from his role in British Sea Power and now a full time Brake, snarls his way through the songs in his own unique way - sly digs at people irritating you at gigs (‘Hi How Are You’, ‘Heard About Your Band’), dancing monkeys (‘Ring a Ding Ding’) as well a great cover of ‘Shut Us Down’ by Americans Camper Van Beethoven. Marc Beattys throbbing bass on past single ‘All Night Disco Party’ gets the crowd dancing all over the place, while the band are joined on-stage by Phil Sumner of fellow Brighton band Actress Hands to play cornet on ‘You're So Pretty’. Plus, not one, but all 3 of the lovely Pipettes are welcomed to sing their duet with Eamon on their cover of Jesus & Mary Chains ‘Sometimes Always’. Recent b-side ‘If I Should Die Tonight’ proves to be a beautiful countrified ballad, and no doubt many a person goes away into the night shouting “SPIKEY SPIKEY!” after the awesome punk racket of ‘Porcupine or Pineapple’. Funny, slightly off the wall, extremely entertaining and the best band of the whole weekend damn it! Oh and if there’s a better way to end a set than the six second shout-a-thon of ‘Comma Comma Comma Full Stop’ then answers on a postcard please. As is said here in Brighton…that was lush! Friday 19th: Onto the main reason why we’re here…to once again see the brilliant Electric Soft Parade And before you ask, no they haven’t split up - and those in the know will tell you they have bags full of new songs, a new found confidence and generally seem a lot happier now they’re free from any major record label pressures. Oh yes and their drummer Matt Priest used to be in Dodgy - fact. The whole band seem in good spirits and are on fine form - the White brothers Tom and Alex fresh from mammoth tours with Brakes while bassist Matt Twaites has been busy playing and recording with his other band Restlesslist - so this probably explains the total lack of a setlist - it's literally play what you remember. The set's scattered with mainly new songs - the best being the dark, chugging psychedelic opener ‘The Captain’, and the sublime dual guitar / vocal catchiness of ‘If That’s the Case Then I Don’t Know’, the latter being the sort of tune that deserves to be released as a future single (yes please!!) A great reception is always given to their older songs, and it was no different when they break into old number ‘Biting the Soles of My Feet’ - which brought about a classic moment of the like has surely never before been seen in the Brighton music scene. As the song gets going, a slightly over enthusiastic, beer fuelled fan promptly opens an umbrella and proceeds to jump around for the duration of the song (was this a Crudge?). Nothing like a bit of fist pumping umbrella action to get the crowd going eh?! Back to the songs and ‘Human Body’ EP tracks ‘A Beating Heart’ and the six-minute space orchestration of ‘Everybody Wants’ are given an outing, and despite one heckler shouting for ‘There’s a Silence’; he’s left disappointed as they play ‘Things I’ve Done Before’. Despite no plans for an encore the crowd are insistent, and eventually the band give in, as Eamon Hamilton (yes, he of Brakes) is called on stage to add his vocals to the 6-second madness of Brakes tune ‘Cheney’. Short but sweet – it’s all that’s needed! Seeing the Soft Parade in a venue the size of The Freebutt again is truly brilliant - and although the band themselves may be playing smaller venues now, their sound and songwriting has grown to something much much bigger. All together now “and there’s a silence when you walk…” ok maybe not. Thursday 18th: Next up is what I’ve personally been looking forward to the most - the return of Brighton’s own The Tenderfoot Unfortunately, record label troubles caused the band to take a break from music, so tonight is somewhat of a comeback gig for them - being their first live performance in nearly a year. Cut down to a more trim four piece, they’ve clearly lost none of their old charm and warmth as they open with oldie ‘Save the Year’ - and it's brilliant to hear their off beat indie-folk once again. Pretty much all of their set is made up of new songs - proving the band hasn’t been slacking during their time off. It's as if they’ve found a new zest for music once again, as the new songs come across as more upbeat and cheery - the best of an impressive bunch being the brilliantly titled ‘No Smoking on the Forecourt’. Has someone been listening to ‘Radiator’ by the Super Furry Animals I wonder? In a world where too many of today’s new bands seem to bash out what’s popular, and crave to have the right image, it's refreshing and inspiring to see a band like The Tenderfoot doing just what the hell they like – and if people happen to like it as well, then great! All that’s left to do is nod our heads in approval and utter the words “welcome back”, before heading cheerily to the bar. You were at Great Escape because it's on home turf for you. This was the 3 day festival in Brighton which took place over the weekend. Eamon: We were invaded by bands and kids, it was superb. It must've been so busy though, it seemed like every train was full of people arriving for this event. Eamon: Also it coincided with The Brighton festival, Brighton's invaded anyway during May. Where did you play? Did all your bands play? Eamon: Brakes played at The Zap, we had a superb one, kind of finished it off didn't we. Marc: Tenderfoot played at The Zap as well... Tom: ...with British Sea Power and then Electric Soft Parade played The Freebutt, the old stomping ground for most of us. Now I've worn out my copy of Give Blood... Marc: Buy another one. I don't think it's sold enough copies, this record, everyone listening to this, just phone up someone tomorrow morning and say "look I've got one it's really good" and just get a friend to buy a copy. Alex (I think) Cheers Steve, here's that £20 we were talking about. Are you going to do some more recording though? Marc: We're starting in 2 weeks. Eamon: We're going to Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville doesn't know what it's about to be hit with. So why are you going all that way, it'll only take about half an hour to record it. Marc: It's cheap. Eamon: And it's warm. It's not raining. Thankyou so much for coming in, it is Brakes playing live on Radio 1. Eamon asks when Sonia's turning up (she's late for the show) Marc says they've been driving around all day moving gear and listening to Radio 2, then he admits they listened to Juice. Eamon says they stopped touring 2 weeks ago, first time in a year, they're going to Nashville in 2 weeks to record their 2nd album at the House Of David studio - Roy Orbison, Elvis and Yo La Tengo recorded there. It's really cheap 'cos of the strength of the pound. They talk about their gig tomorrow. Playing with a "mystery guest" - because they're not sure who they're playing with (3 good bands) DJ asks for a sneak preview. Marc says it's a "summer hit for a rainy day". They play NY Pie. DJ says thankyou. A while later: Sonia's there - "Brakes just went to pieces in the hallway, bang goes any indie credibility"  |