In 2003 Shed Seven split up after releasing 4 albums and
being an integral part of the Britpop scene in the 90’s. Although they were
never as widely acknowledged as Oasis or Blur, they did collect an army of fans
so when they reformed for a tour in 2007 they had to add more dates and sold
out everywhere. The tour that had just been “for our own amusement” went so
well that in 2009 they decided to do it again, getting into a routine of
touring every 2 years. This time round they are celebrating 15 years since
their most popular album ‘A Maximum High’ and 27 years since Shed Seven formed,
a thought that front man Rick Witter finds quite crazy. We get to spend some
time with him about looking like an idiot and how we will all be listening to
music in the future.
Do you expect the
same kind if turn out that you got when you toured in 2009?
We obviously question it ourselves, there is only so long
you can keep going out and playing your old stuff. Right now I think a lot of
the people who like Shed Seven just like coming down and hearing us playing the
old stuff. For them I think it’s a bit of a party night out which is why we
like to do things at Christmas time because people are finishing work and
Christmas is a nice time of year.
We have found ourselves a bit like The Pogues who seem to
tour every Christmas, we decided to do it every other year because we don’t
want to do too much. We love playing live so much that we don’t want to ruin it
for people and be everywhere; we still want it to feel special. It’s really
nice to know we have a strong set of fans that really love to hear our old
stuff its quite mental really.
Have you changed as a
front man since you formed in 1990?
I have definitely changed over that space of time. I don’t
know whether it’s more since we reformed and came back in the mid noughties,
but I think there is suddenly no pressure on us anymore. We get to decide on
what we are going to do, how long we are going to play for and what we are
going to play. We always did have that but we always had a record company
behind us suggesting other options. These days it’s entirely our call and
because of that all of us as musicians have just relaxed. It shows when we play
live because we are just more into it. It’s less pressure and more fun.
Certainly myself I find I am having more of a joke with the crowd and putting
more into it without feeling like I am looking stupid, it’s a bit of a strange
thing explain. Without making myself look like a complete idiot, I can make
myself look like a complete idiot.
