Music / Interviews
Levellers interview
You’ve got another big tour coming up – can you see a time when you won’t be touring anymore?
No! In fact we’ve made a commitment to carry on gigging til death. As long as people are interested, we’ll play.
What’s the secret to creating a successful festival a la Beautiful Days?
Vision is the main thing. Not getting greedy and just delivering the best weekend we can for the money. And for us having good people working it too is essential.
Bristol’s finest She Makes War is supporting you on tour, how do you rate her music?
We love She Makes War; especially her Butterflies EP. Think she’s gonna go down well with our crowd- as did Gaz Brookfield, another Bristolian legend!
What’s the weirdest bill you’ve ever been part of?
Haha! Too many to mention. However a goth fest in the middle summer, in raging heat on the runway of the old Munich Airport springs to mind. Think we were the only band to pull out an acoustic guitar that day- and definitely the only lot not dressed all in black!
What Levellers lyric are you most proud of?
Probably, of the ones I’ve written, I like “Why is it England, I feel like rubbish on your street” in England my Home.
And other band’s lyric?
I like McDermotts Two hours’ Todd the Ranter “The iron rod of the master melts in the forge of the rebel heart”…yeah man! But I got loads of faves….
Tell us about the documentary…
The documentry is called “A Curious Life” and it’s a look at the band going right back to the beginning. Lots of great archive footage and funny stuff goin on between the band. It took three years to film and was directed by Dunstan Bruce (ex Chumbawamba).
And your recent collaborations?
The collaborations are with friends of ours we’ve met along the way- Billy Bragg, Imelda May, Frank Turner and Bellowhead. They all chose a song of ours to do, made it their own and we acted as the backing band. All four were recorded live at our Metway Studios in Brighton and are released on the Greatest Hits album.
If you could change one thing about your music career, what would it be and why?
I prob would have “just said no”, for obvious reasons. But we live and learn!
See Levellers play live with support from She Makes War, at O2 Academy, Bristol, on November 12. More info and tickets, from £25, available at www.o2academybristol.co.uk/event/67593/levellers-tickets
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