Brother Interview

New band ‘Brothers’ have barely had time to take in all the great reception they have been getting from the media, they have been described as “the future of music” and “saviours of rock’n’roll” before they have even realised their debut album. In little under a year they have gone from playing one of their very first gigs at Slough train station to playing Glastonbury and supporting Morrissey. When I get to catch up with them they are rehearsing for their new tour and enjoying the glorious weather but lead singer Leonard Newell takes some time to talk about their incredible year.

How did the band get together?

We have known each other for about five or six years. We started playing in local bands when we were kids and we got together about two years ago. We decided that the only way we were going to make anything of ourselves and get out of Slough was to start a band. We got together and we rented out an apartment for a couple of years and I wrote these songs. About 8 months ago we put our songs online and Zane Lowe put them on the radio and we got signed within two months of us really existing, which was pretty exciting.

We have been in bands our whole lives, we have been in local bands touring for five or six years and once they had sort of finished we started this one and it happened relatively quickly, I like to think we put in the ground work.

What was it like playing at Slough Train Station?

It was one of the first things we did with the band so it was more of a statement of us and how we are and how we wanted to do things are way and play no matter what. It was quite nerve wracking and it was a bit different. I enjoyed it though it’s basically like Hollywood.

Right Said Fred Interview

Forget what you think you know about Right Said Fred, they are not just shirt stripping, bulging muscle exposing, pop tune touting brothers. Bursting onto the music scene in 1991 with the legendary ‘I’m Too Sexy’ which reached number 1 in 32 countries, earned them the first of 2 Ivor Novello awards and made them the first UK artist since the Beatles to reach number 1 in the US with a debut single. They have gone on to sell 4 million records, played

all over the world and have just released their 8^th studio album. Ahead of their UK tour we talk to the Lead singer Richard Fairbrass to find out about the person behind the public persona.

What should people expect from the latest album ‘Stop the World’?

I think it’s more in keeping with the very first album it’s got more of an English sound to it than some of the stuff we have done previously.

What’s the tour like?

For the tour we are doing an acoustic show but we didn’t just want to do a plug in and play sort of thing. In the last couple of years we have got a new manger and we have been telling him stories. One evening he said why not do an acoustic show but tell some of the stories that are funny. It’s more like an audience with, but on the road. It’s very different to what we have done before.

Is there as much taking your shirts off?

No we did a lot of that in Europe between 2001 to 2008, but the image of the band was very party driven, very glossy and body driven. We were doing some really big festivals and that was part of what we were doing. I think we were beginning to get tired of the same routine and wanted to try something different. This show that we are currently doing wouldn’t work abroad, it’s very language driven so it has to be in a language that’s understood or we would have to learn all these different languages, by the time I had learnt all these languages I would be dead. Plus in an acoustic show it’s just not fitting to ponce about in a skin tight t-shirt, we have dressed it down, it’s classical us.