Interview with The King Blues

Technology is a marvellous thing. It has revolutionised the world on so many levels. We have super slick broadband, we have phones that can do 101 things on top of making a phone call, rocket-fuelled jet-packs for Jack Russells. However, sometimes, it can cause nothing but anguish and hassle.
I'd like to cast your mind back to late August this year. Before the leaves withered and browned, before you retrieved your mittens from the attic. Room Thirteen were at Leeds Festival and got some interviews with some amazing artists playing over the weekend. All recorded safely onto a dictaphone. How very clever. It was, until that dictaphone went AWOL. Sometimes there is no substitute for a good ol' pen and paper.
We are pleased to tell you that after much caterwauling and hair-pulling, aforementioned prodigal dictaphone has been recovered. I have learnt to become more organised. And here is the first in a trilogy of salvaged interviews captured in this Summer this year. Sit back and enjoy. Here's what happened when we spoke to The King Blues backstage at Leeds.

R13:Good afternoon chaps, it's lovely to get a chance for a chat with you. You looked like you were loving your set earlier and it went down a treat. A festival stage is a pretty good soap box for a band with something to say. How does it compare to a touring gig venue?
Itch: Its amazing I think. But for very different reasons they're both great. When you do the touring there's a lot of kids who believe in a lot of peace and love and hope, and in their own town they can feel a bit isolated. But when they come to one of the gigs they can realise that they're not the only one that feels how they do.
Then at a large festival like this, you get to speak to everyone and you get this sort of reaction, its a wonderful and empowering thing. As a band, the politics and the music are inextricably linked and the fact we get a chance to say what we want to say, its amazing.
Perkie: And on a stage like here you feel like you can speak to a lot more people at one time rather in little bits.

R13:Itch, a lot of the lyrics in The King Blues' music is about stuff that has gone on in your life... in great detail.Does it ever feel like you are reading extracts of your diary for all to see?
I:(laughs) To be honest it doesn't, I apologise if it seems that way! When I'm up there and I'm singing... say 'Let's Hang The Landlord' or something, and I'm thinking about the guy I grew up with who's in prison; while I'm singing a verse about him he comes in my mind and I'm always thinking how much he would have loved to have been there and how much he would have enjoyed it. To be able to say what's going on in your life to that many people... its a kind of therapeutic thing. It definitely doesn't feel like reading from a diary but it does feel like sharing something. Its real, and its honest, and people can relate to that.
P: People relate to it in different ways. It might not be the same situation, but they might have been through similar things. Each person will be seeing a different story in their head. Even though they can listen to what we're saying, they will have a different story in themselves. Every single person in that crowd will be going through something else.

R13:I think out of all your stuff, 'Headbutt' has to be my own personal favourite. It's an incredible song. At what point and with what song did you put your pen down and think, 'yeah...we're pretty fucking good'.?
I: We're waiting to do that yet! Any day now...! I dunno... we just keep our heads down and write and jam. Some of the best moments are just when we're just there with each other and it's not for anything else but to make good music in that moment, in that time.
Dean: You must have got a buzz though... when you wrote 'Save The World', no??
I: Yeah...but... you write it and record it and think 'Yeah this could be good, I'm onto something, this is cool' then when you record it a million times, and have heard it a million times. I hope we'll write the best song one day.

R13:If there were a Mummy and Daddy figure that spawned the sound of The King Blues, who would Mummy be and who would Daddy be?
I: Gosh! Erm... who do we reckon?
D: Yeah... who's the daddy...??
I: For me it'd be someone like... John Fashanu!
P: (laughing) John Fashanu??
D: Cilla Black, the Mum? Oh no... Cilla's the Nan.
R13: She'd make a lovely Nan. Sweets in a paper bag, crumpled old fivers in your birthday cards.
The King Blues: Yeah!
I: Who's that one on 'Loose Women'... the Northern girl, used to sing on a ship?
R13: Jane McDonald?
I: Yeah, she can be the Mum.

R13:Ska punk is a genre left all too often to the American chaps across the pond. What makes British ska different?
I:We were copying Americans for a long time. There was a really dark phase in UK ska punk where there were American accents and chef trousers... but I feel like we've come through it now. And I think bands like Capdown, The Skints and Mouthwash have really mapped out our own sound now and its become our own thing without trying to do what America do.
P: it's good being allowed to have your own accent.
I: If you go through the radio stations in London there's so many pirate stations its hard to get Radio 1... you go through a radio station then a hip hop station... it becomes our sound in a kind of way. The scene takes stuff like this from around it and becomes a melting pot to make a new sound and start to stand up on our own two feet. It's a really exciting time. Its starting to prove our own worth. UK hip hop got really good when it got given a chance, and you had artists like Chipmunk, Dizzee, Tynchy Strider, all breaking through. And I think now its time to give ska punk a chance and we could see something good happening.

R13:Imagine a ska flavoured version of 'Dirty Dancing'. What would be the skanking equivalent of 'Time of My Life'?
I: Ooh... good question.
P: I know that I've probably thought of this before.
I: I duno... maybe some Bosstones? I mean, Swayze in chef trousers would have been something.
P: Thing is, I'm gonna get home and think of something and say 'yes! That's the song.'

R13:Your music is very recognisable through the strong London dialect... so who's your favourite cockney? We can even include Dick Van Dyke in this. Possibly the most famous fake cockney.
I: i'm gonna have to say my Mum. But that's a bit of a cop out. Who's your favourite cockney, Dean?
D: Well I'm from Birmingham so I don't really like cockneys.
P: Oh who's mine... he's in an advert...
I: Bob Hoskins?
R13: 'Its good to talk'
P: No... Vinnie! Vinnie Jones! Is he cockney? I like him.

R13:You successfully snatched a record breaking title from Status Quo after performing seven to their four gigs in a twenty-four hour period. Was dedication what you really needed to be a record breaker?
I: Haha I got that... I used to write into record breakers all the time! But I'm not going to open those doors... ah, Akabusi. 'Awooga!' Oh no, that's Fashanu...
D: Back to Fashanu again...
I: Erm...what was the question?! Oh yes, yeah it did take a lot of dedication! Twenty-four hours... it was kind of okay. We played Reading a couple of years ago and Status Quo were there and we kind of blocked them in while we were parking... so we actually we got two up on them. Francis Rossi is pretty pissed.
R13: What is Francis Rossi's angry face like?
I: I didn't see it... but we smashed the Quo! It was a hard day. It took them about three months to plan, they had helicopters... we did it in a battered old ambulance from the 1980's. We played wherever they played- they played Wembley. So we played the car park at Wembley. They played the SECC in Glasgow, so we played outside it. Where's that place in Birmingham? (to our present Brummie, Dean)
D: The NEC.
I: Yeah we played to the queue outside the NEC. They were queuing up for The Stones.

R13:So you've saved the world, got the girl and you've whipped your shoes off and settled down with a cuppa. What gets watched on the telly?
I: I'm liking Ultimate Big Brother right now. A lot. I want Sam Pepper to come back in and win it.

R13:Is there a question you're never asked in interviews that you wish you were?
I: 'Do you want a big bag of money?'
R13: Do you want a big bag of money?
I: Yes please.
R13: Oh, sorry, I don't have a big bag of money.
I:You liar!
R13:We'll get you some Monopoly money we've got MB Games on speed dial.

R13:You and your music has been wonderfully described as 'A shiny coin in an ever-expanding pile of shit' by RockSound Magazine. This links on nicely to the legend of last year's Leeds 'poo girl'. Have you heard about this? And do you have any words of comfort you'd like to extend to her?
I: YES!! Yes, I have heard of this... hang on don't tell me... it happened last year didn't it. Right, so there was a girl... she was in a toilet, and it got tipped upside down? And she got trapped in there?
R13: A little embellished but sort of right yeah...
I: And they do t-shirts and everything!
D: Uuuugh...
R13: Yes it was a girl that dropped her handbag into the pit below and went to go grab it and managed to get completely stuck. They had to come and get the firs services to get her out of there.
D: Oh, Poo Girl.
R13: So would you like to extend any words of comfort to anyone that might find themselves headfirst in shit at this year's festival?
I: (Laughs) We've all been there.
D: Nothing's worth that! You just wouldn't do that though would you, even if your handbag had the latest smart phone in it, who cares! Just leave it. And get on with it. Borrow some money from your friends....
I: (to Perkie) You'd pop your head down there wouldn't you! If you dropped your phone, it's ringing... you'd pop your head down there....
P: No I wouldn't!
D: She'd do it if she dropped 20p!
P: Maybe if the bag was so close I thought I could quickly pop my arm down and pick it out...

R13:Elvis Presley. King Henry VIII. Both were Kings that were a bit blue for one reason or another. But which one's your favourite and why?
I: Ah! I get it... Hmm, I don't really like Presley.
D: He's a bit overrated isn't he.
I: I think I prefer Costello to Presley. He's my favourite Elvis...
R13: So it's gone from tenuous to extra tenuous... who's your favourite Henry then?! There's a lack of Henry's...
P:Lenny Henry...?
I: Oh no. Not him.
D: Thierry Henry?!
I: No... Horrible Henry. (laughs)

R13:The new album 'Punk and Poetry' is a highly anticipated release this year... does it do what it says on the tin? What can we expect from it?
I: Yeah, it really is some punk and some poetry. We've got to the point where we've been given the privilege of a much larger platform that we ever had before. Our first record, 'Under The Fog', there was a feeling very much like if we got enough people out on the streets to mobilise and actually make a difference and actually change things. So that first record is about getting people out on the streets and mobilise a minuscule tiny part of a much larger movement. Our second record, we were listened to. When 100,000 marched and they still didn't listen to us [referring to anti-war protests] we went back to a much more cynical approach. 'Save The World' was a result of that.
With 'Punk and Poetry' we're going now into a phase where we've got a government who have to make cuts to make back money somehow but the only way they're doing that is by targeting the poor and the vulnerable. 'Punk and Poetry' is trying to be a voice of the voiceless... it's trying to unite the poor people, the little people, the people who are being shat on, the people who this situation has really affected. The people who were protesting against the war since day one- they spent so much money there and now they've got to pull it back.
'Punk and Poetry' will hopefully be a record that speaks for the small people and will be in a world full of 'celebrity'... we want to be part of the people and a voice for the people. We hope this record can help people hold their heads up high and say 'yeah that's me' when they listen to it...'that's me they're talking about'. Although there are cuts and things are being taken away from us, people are losing their jobs, people haven't forgotten about us. There's a fight and a struggle there and they're not alone.

Huge thankyou to The King Blues for taking time to talk to us. Try and catch one of their live shows on their UK Tour in Spring 2011, and don't forget to have a listen to 'Save The World, Get The Girl'. If you really want to get transported back to the Summertime track down their last single, 'Holiday'. It's a cracking little song.