Interview: Editors [Part III: Birmingham and Other Hometowns]

by Mick Lewis
24 May 2006

[Continued from Part II]

JR: So, Tom, where is Stroud?

TOM SMITH: It’s in Gloucestershire, about half an hours drive from Bristol. [Southwestern England near Wales -JR.].

JR: Wow, way the heck over there! So you four really are from all over the place! I’ve heard of Ipswich [way in the Southeast, near the English Channel] and Nottingham [well north of London], but Russell, where the hell is Solihull?

RUSSELL LEETCH: Solihull is just below Birmingham, about 10 minutes away.

JR: You’re a satellite at least—you were orbiting! Any of you know much about the history of Birmingham rock?

CHRIS URBANOWICZ: We know it’s sh*t!

RUSSELL: BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN, UB40.

TOM: DURAN DURAN.

RUSSELL: THE BEAT [Known in the U.S. as THE ENGLISH BEAT. -ed.]

ML: THE MOVE, THE IDLE RACE, E.L.O. – all of the JEFF LYNNE groups. STEPHEN DUFFY, who was the original lead singer of Duran Duran.

JR: The Move put Birmingham on the map!

RUSSELL: They did?

JR: Yes they did!

CHRIS: Is it on the map? (laughter)

ML: [The Move was led by] ROY WOOD, they had Top 10 hits, “Blackberry Way”...

CHRIS: Roy Wood? Didn’t he do that Christmas song?

JR: That was as a solo artist—much later.

ED LAY: WIZZARD?

JR: Aw, for godsakes! It would be a pity if that’s all Wood is known for in today’s generation after all the great old Top 5 hits he had there in the ‘60s and ‘70s! That’s like the plot to that NICK HORNBY book, About a Boy, where the guy’s dad was a serious classical composer for many years or something, and then he wrote some stupid song about a Christmas moose and made a ton of money from it when it became a massive seasonal hit, and thus the son hated the song! That’s how I feel when I mention the Move and someone mentions the Christmas song. Like if I mentioned PAUL MCCARTNEY and you said “Didn’t he write ‘Wonderful Christmas Time’”!

ML: Or “Ebony and Ivory”!

JR: Fair enough. I have you down Chris as the only one who came from a town that was much of a tourist stop, Nottingham. You were going to [legendary old night club] Rock City a lot?

CHRIS: Yeah I used to go to Rock City when I was a kid, like 18 or 19. They had a cool scene, not so much bands… lots of rock ‘n’ roll clubs, and dance music as well, which I got into before I came to university.

JR: I actually saw GENE play at Rock City once.

CHRIS: The “big” Rock City? Because there are two rooms at Rock City…

JR: It was the big one, yeah; I thought it was a remarkable audience, actually.

CHRIS: It’s a cool place. It’s quite renowned, but we’ve never played there. We’re thinking about booking a date in May, do a Midlands show.

JR: Ed, are you going to play at Ipswich anytime? (general laughter)

ED: I don’t know!

JR: Was there somewhere to play there to which you used to go?

ED: In fact, there was this little place called Cool Exchange, when Brit pop ended—when I was 14-15, the latter days of Britpop, bands like ELASTICA, and BLUR—LONGPIGS—they were all coming through.

JR: We’ve interviewed every one of these bands.

ML: Have you heard [former Longpigs’ guitarist] RICHARD HAWLEY’s new album, Coles Corner?

All: Yeah!

TOM: We got him supporting us at our London show.

ML: Bring him over here, he never plays over here. [He’s since played a New York show at Sin-é back in March, and is scheduled to play for free (yes!) at South Street Seaport on Friday, July 28. -ed.]

TOM: I’ve never seen him live, so we have to get him on our bill. (laughs)

ML: The record is fantastic; I liked his last one, also.

CHRIS: It seems to be anyway that we get to watch bands by asking them to tour with us. We always miss people. (laughs)

ML: So which bands are you trying to…?

TOM: We’re trying to get THE NATIONAL, desperately, for our May tour.

ML: I’ve seen The National, they are very good live.

CHRIS: And a band called THE CONSTANTINES.

RUSSELL: They get played on the radio as well.

JR: When are you going to tour with ELBOW?

TOM: That would be nice!

JR: They’re big fans of yours, clearly.

ED: We’re big fans of theirs!

TOM: That was one of the records, that when we meet at university, that we really bonded over.

JR: Their first one?

TOM: Yeah, we listened to that inside and out, that’s a beautiful record. They never cease to inspire us and surprise us with their music. And to have GUY GARVEY and CRAIG POTTER want to hang out with us and do a song together initially, then to become friends with them and have such a great time with them, and record a song that we are very proud of [that was great]. It was a great couple of days. But yeah, a tour with Elbow—that would be fun.

CHRIS: They hardly have a tour though, do they? Lazy bastards! (laughs) They’ve all got kids now, and…

JR: Well, they’ve been at it 10 years! What do you expect?

ED: They’re been out having kids. (laughter)

JR: When I interviewed them, I told Guy that he was way too nice a guy to be in a rock ‘n’ roll band. Where’s the mystique? Too friendly!

CHRIS: Ha!

TOM: He’s a great speaker—he has amazing wit and charm.

CHRIS: Yeah, one of the funniest men I know!

[Parts IV, V, and VI to follow]

Filed under britpop post-punk