The Blinders - where the magic happens
Interview: The Blinders herald the dawning of unimaginable potential taking witnesses by ecstatic surprise. Away from the hip scene and herd, parallel dimension escapism graces small venues.
Left to right; Thomas, Matt, Charlie (c) Sarah Gibson
We caught up with the Yorkshire trio at the opening night of their first proper headline tour, a sold out Glasgow King Tuts. "Welcome to The Blinders in a Broom Cupboard, it’s Harry Potter all over again!" (Tom)
The Blinders have recorded their debut LP.
Dizzy; "Tell us about how the album is going?"
Thomas Haywood (guitar, vocals, word): "We’ve been in the studio for around two to three months this time."
Matt Neale (drums, backing vocals): "It was just over one month?..."
Thomas: "...It was about two months. We went in with the material, and really wrote a lot of it in there."
Charlie McGough (bass guitar): "...and we’ve adapted some of the old material slightly too."
Thomas: "We’ll be playing some of it on the tour - It was a rough three months really but we got it down, and we’re all proud of it."
Charlie, King Tuts, by Dizzy Spell
Dizzy: "Where did you record?"
T: "Wolverhampton, Magic Garden Studios, with a wizard named Gavin Monaghan who somehow translates our raw ideas into a professional sounding track. It takes real magic to do that, a bit of black magic, satanism, crucifixion..."
(behind the scenes, 2017, captured by the visual magician, Sam Crowston, Nasty Man Creations)
Talking of wizardry, The Blinders will have cast a few spells themselves by the end of February 2018. At the first date of their headline tour, this was all just a possibility.
Cardiff Globe, by Caffy St Luce
Dizzy : "What are you looking forward to most on this tour?"
Matt : "Probably Manchester you know? Hometown shows are always the one, you know?"
Charlie : "Did you just call Manchester your home town?! Oh, you’re going to get lynched in Doncaster!"
(Several seconds of weird, manly sounds directed at Matt)
Charlie : "...London should be a good one too."
Thomas : "We were really surprised actually by how well London took a shine to us, actually. We thought - we had this misconception - that Londoners were boring and don’t like to come to gigs - but London, we were severely wrong, and I apologise. We’re really looking forward to it, and it’s great that all the guys that sort of helped us get where we are, are going to be there."
(Cue TheZineUK having had The Lexington - another sold out show - in our diaries since this tour was announced, expect the continuation of pictures and words, The Blinders are one helluva story)
Johnny Dream, King Tuts, by Sarah Gibson
Dizzy : "Last time we spoke about pigeons, and the conspiracy that they were out to get us.. Any developments?"
Charlie : "I’ve had a few interactions with pigeons lately actually…"
Matt: "...And I read somewhere you never see the same pigeon twice, but that’s a complete myth, that, because I saw three pigeons gang banging when I went to the shop, and when I came back the SAME three pigeons were gang banging (unless they’d swapped?) .. But I don’t think that’s very likely. I suppose that’s why you don’t trust pigeons though, because they could have swapped… you just don’t know."
Matt, King Tuts, by Dizzy Spell
Dizzy : "What’s up next for The Blinders?"
Charlie : "We’re releasing a single after this tour, hopefully then over the next couple of months, we’ll be releasing singles, videos and all that bollocks. It’s all up in the air at the moment, it’s like someone is in a lair somewhere in Liverpool (home of their record label) just plotting our rise to stardom."
Thomas: "We’ve played our part and made the music, you know - so now we just leave in the hands of the powers that be."
Interview in King Tuts broom cupboard by Sarah Gibson
Dizzy : "How’s it feel to be signed?"
Thomas : "They’re really cool (at ModernSky), they’re quite a pragmatic label and we know the CEO really well, which I think is important - because it recalls to that true independent vibe of say Creation Records or something - it feels good to not have a ton of money thrown at you. It’s a real nice thing to actually have a relationship there, and that’s why I’m glad we didn’t go with a major or anything like that."
Dizzy : "Is there any differences between now and when you were unsigned?"
Matt : "Freedom!"
Thomas: "Yeah, now it feels like you don’t have to impress as many people, there’s less pressure. We always play every show as if it’s our last but, there’s a relief there, because there’s a safety net involved."
Charlie: "We’ve also had a chance now, to record music which I doubt we would have been able to afford without a label. "
Thomas at King Tuts, by Dizzy Spell
Which leads back to their most recent recording session.
Dizzy : "Is there a date for the album yet?"
Thomas : "No, we have rough times, but we’re looking round autumn time. (Fake American accent ...bad) IN THE FALL! Oh... ...rest in peace Mark."
D: "Tom, do you not have a Mark E Smith Story?"
T: "Oh, Mark E Smith!"
"I met Mark in Manchester Hotel, I was talking to a few of his friends at the time, and I didn’t realise. I nipped off for a drink on me own and lo and behold they return with Mark E Smith, both of them holding him up under his arms, he was fucking pissed. So he gets to the bar and he orders two double scotches, and I go up and get him to sign my copy of On The Road, as it was the only thing in my bag at that time, and he signs this fucking, like scribble, definitely not Mark E Smith."
C: "...Oh god, it wasn’t Mark E Smith..."
T: "...And then he tried to put this full glass of whiskey in my bag, because he thought he was just putting the glass in my bag… His mates were like trying to stop him. So eventually he looks at me and goes (decent Mark E Smith impression) ‘Right if yer not gonna put it in yer bag, then fucking drink it, then fuck off!’ So I necked it, bowed low and slowly backed away. That was the first time I was ever star struck, I rang every fucker in my contacts list to tell them..."
C: "All three of them..."
T: "...Yeah, all three contacts, and my brother.. but anyway I digress."
Charlie, Cardiff Globe Theatre, by Dizzy Spell
Is there any other experiences you’ve had with your idols?
M: "I met myself. That was great. There were a lot of pigeons.. "
T: "You know how Arthur Brown has that album ‘The Weird and wonderful world of Arthur Brown? We need an album The Weird and Wonderful World of Mathew Neale."
M: " I did meet Stephen Hawkins."
T: "That’s a lie..."
C: "...You did meet The Hoff though."
M: "No I didn’t, me mum was pregnant with me at the time!"
C: "Still counts, you were there…"
T: "Well, if that counts, I’ve played the Royal Albert Hall, my mother played it, when I was in utero."
C: "No, don’t start."
T: "I’ve played the fucking Albert Hall man!"
C: "I was on stage with Nick Cave though..."
T: "...He maintains that he single handedly made that gig."
D: "What happened?"
Charlie, by Dizzy Spell
C: "I was on stage with Nick Cave, and I just sort of - patted him on the shoulder."
D : "So much for a serious interview…"
T: "Ah man, there’s no chance of that now we know you, If we didn’t know you, then yeah, but it’s never serious with you guys that’s why we love you …"
(The feeling from TheZineUK for The Blinders, is mutual)
D : "So what next would you like to happen?"
T: "The tour is the main priority, then after that hopefully a couple of days sleep."
M: "I’d like to see me dad after."
D: What about Uni?
M: "Me and Tom have left uni now."
T: "University is just a scam if you’re not going to a high level university.
Charlie is still there because he’s in a position by which he’s an intelligent guy and he’s going to a PROPER university.
If you don’t go to one of the high level ones, you’ve fucked it.
I went to Met, and after a year - I was feeling pretty fucking down really and they had this counsellor. I went in and said I’m really struggling here - and she looked at me and said ‘Well you don’t show any signs of depression!’
So I said to her ‘Have you ever read on the road?’ And she said ‘no’ so I said I’m fucking out of here then man. That was it."
C: "He was like (American accent) You don’t get it man, you don’t understand maaaan!"
T: "Yeah exactly!"
C: "I quite enjoy uni to be fair, it’s something to keep my brain focused on really. It’s a balance but it’s good."
Cardiff Globe by Dizzy Spell
D: "How’s the songwriting process?"
T: "It’s always going to be a group thing, we don’t like to individually cast songs, or anything like that. Then you’d get attached to them, and it wouldn’t be as authentic."
C: "The studio was the first time we tried that actually."
T: "We’re still very organic and raw and there’s this togetherness. It’ll ruin the style of the band if one person as the lyricist or whatever."
Backstage supporting The View, Summer 2017, by Sam Crowston
D "How was the tour with Cabbage then?" ('Healing Brexit Towns Experiment', Autumn 2017)
T: "Oh, it was amazing. It's so nice to be around like minded people for two weeks, you know? It did fry a few braincells but it was good fun. I think we learned how to write a chorus from Cabbage - we looked at their songs and realised that every one had a really cool chorus so that's where 'Brave New World' came from. I think it's important to acknowledge that, because nothings original - it's such a lie if they say it is. Everything is nit picked from other places."
M: "Like magpies, not pigeons."
T: "Not pigeons, fuck the pigeons. We're pro magpie, Anti Pigeon."
M: "No fuck off, I'm pro-pigeon! The pigeon is the most adapted bird of all time."
T: "You carry this on Chaz, me and Matt will finish this."
M: "You're gonna have to hold me back..."
Glasgow King Tuts, by Sarah Gibson
D : "Do you have a manifesto?"
M: "We have a great idea actually...."
T: "No! Not like that! We should save that. Charlie's probably best suited to describing a manifesto."
C: "We don't have a manifesto, as so much as personal ethos, really. We try to be relevant and we sort of carry that into the songs. The songs are important to us because they're about what we care about. "
T: "We read the news paper and we share it you know, or there's personal shit that causes a stream of consciousness on paper.
We lived in Manchester for a month and we see the homelessness getting worse every day. It must feel very patronising for them to sleep right outside a sign saying Manchester Against Homelessness and all these suits just continue to walk by. It impacts us really. "
Cardiff Globe by Dizzy Spell
D : "Any last words?"
Matt : "Pigeon!"
Thomas: "Just, DIG YOURSELF. "
TheZineUK : We'll see you in London. Another long sold out in advance show. Luckily new gigs and festivals are announced and brand new recordings are being released soon; facebook.com/TheBlindersband
The interview ended there, but our team, scattered around the country, can't get enough. We are also not the only documentary, writers or photographers going to more than one of these dates. The following night, some were at the (also sold out) Manchester show recently reported. We had a great Megabus adventure to Cardiff where "The Blinders Effect" truly earned new friends. Again.
The people powered jungle telegraph of twitteratti's feedback for "@theblindersband" is inciting the remaining tour tickets to be few and far between... oh, and we will have to investigate that great idea in the near future. In the mean time, we've found some #stagestyle to wear to the next show...
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