The Coral frontman James Skelly took time out before their Saturday evening slot at Wychwood Festival to speak with Summer Festival Guide about plans for the future, or lack of, and the different challenge of selecting songs from their extensive back catalogue for a festival slot.
How do you go about putting together your festival set from over 20 years of material?
Well we had a full set for the mini tour we did in the Spring which was about an hour and twenty or whatever, so we then pretty much just knock out the ones that are hardest to play and whatever’s left becomes your festival set!
Or you know, the ones that might not translate without a soundcheck. Sometimes more acoustic ones but you’ll have toms in that you might not hear as well in a festival – so you go for the main songs and then the ones that come across in a live setting if you’re in the trenches in a way.
It’s 22 years since the self titled LP The Coral came out and since then there’s been more of a concept approach to the records. Is that a trajectory for going forward you think?
No – I think the concept is not to do anything for a little bit. But we’ve always had a loose concept to all the albums just a bit more obvious with it on these latest ones.
But not really looking, got no plans for a new album or anything. Just looking to play live and enjoy it for a bit – you don’t want to put stuff out for the sake of it.
We’ve done a lot over the last few years and I don’t think anyone’s going to be that interested if we do one now.
(with a smile) Readdress in 2030 and see where we are then, see where the landscape lies by then.
Do you feel like you’re bringing along old fans with the new music or have they struggled to warm to it?
No, no. Our fans seem to love the new stuff. We turn up we play all the sort of the quote “Hits” or whatever you want to call them, we play quite a few off the first album. We play a good selection because if you like a band like us and you’ve followed us you want a selection over the years so, it’s a fine line. You don’t wanna be a nostalgia band. With playing a festival there are people there who might never have seen you, so you want to play your best stuff over the years really.
The world’s leading Beatles tribute act took time out before their set at Wychwood Festival to talk to Summer Festival Guide
My name’s Steve White, I play Paul. My name’s Paul Canning and I play John and I’m Steven Hill and I play George. And we are The Bootleg Beatles!
The Bootleg Beatles well established tribute act and have been touring across the world for years, but how does it differ playing a festival rather than in an auditorium?
SW: From a festival point of view it’s always a scaled down show because we’ve a much more limited slot. So we kind of gloss over as best we can, it’s probably an early era set and then a late set and that’ll be it. Obviously the costume change mid way through – whereas when we’re in a theatre you get several costumes and lots more guitars and so on and so forth. So it’s definitely a scaled down version.
SH: You think it’d be easier wouldn’t you because it’s only an early and a late era show, but you’ve still got to be good! It doesn’t matter what you’re wearing if you’re not playing and singing well it’s bad!
SW: And of course at a festival people are here to see everyone, they’re not just here to see you. So you haved to sell yourselves to everyone, whereas in an auditorium when they’ve come to see your show you’ve almost won before you’ve gone on you have that to think about with a festival.
PC: You do the hits more aswell when you do festivals. In a theatre show you can afford to put some album ones in and the lesser known ones, well they’re all well known – y’know. But the ones we do at the festival are generally more the hits, the singles and the odd not single but still massive song – they’re all good…it’s a good catalogue to choose from…
How do you whittle down that kind of set when you’ve got such a breadth of material to work with?
All: It’s hard!
SH: You kind of know after doing it for so long. You’ve got the hits, the singles and you could do that and people would be happy. But you’ve only got 45 minutes or an hour at some of these festivals so you can whittle it down. As long as you’ve got those main ones, whether it’s Help, Hard Day’s Night, She Loves You – you’ve got to put those kind of songs in and Hey Jude at the end and you’re happy to do that.
It’s easier than it sounds really. And it all depends on your voices on the day as well. If you’re touring for weeks, months on end and your voice is gone you’ve got to try and work around that and sing one that’s a bit easier but still a hit.
Are there any particular highlights from a personal perspective that you really look forward to playing?
PC: I like doing Come Together, that’s a good one to do as John. And I really like doing Here Comes the Sun especially when the sun comes out which ain’t often – but when it does it’s great.
SH: Well I love Help so I’m biased. I love playing Help, it’s my favourite song I think. Not just of the Beatles you know, of anything.
SW: I don’t think I have a favourite. I like them all too much to be able to choose.
PC: He likes doing Yesterday because he’s on his own!
SW: Ah, yes I do!
PC: He’s good at it actually. Gets to play with the crowd a bit and muck about, it’s really good.
Would you say with a festival crowd you’ve got a bit more of that back and forth to play around with?
SW: Oh gosh, absolutely yeah. I mean, obviously when you’re doing an autditorium it’s almost scripted you’ve got to show particular periods that you’re trying to perform. So you have to get a certain amount of information over to the crowd, so there’s key bits of dialogue that you have to say.
When you’re in a festival you have to make other people enjoy themselves and of course building them up for the next act to follow you know? That’s key, keeping the crowd up ready for the next band to take over. Nothing worse than killing an audience and the next bands got to work them up from flat so that’s what we try to do.
PC: Not actually killing them. We don’t kill the audience Steve.
SW: Well I do!
If you were to sell seeing The Bootleg Beatles to people maybe thinking about seeing another band on at the same time, what is it you’d say to bring them to you?
PC: Well you can’t be big headed and you can’t sell yourself short can you!
SH: We pride ourselves on giving 100% at all times and you’ve got to go with the reputation haven’t you?
SW: I tell you what I’d say, if you want to come and see a band where you know all the songs, come and see the Bootleg Beatles.
SH: Yeah you’re not going to be sitting there going “Whats this one? I don’t know this one!” you know? You’re gonna have a good time no matter what – but we do it well.
PC: We’re the world’s premiere Beatles tribute band and there’s a reason for it. Because they’re all great songs but you’ve got to play them well and you’ve got to care about it and the devil is in the detail and we put a lot of work into it.
SH: You’re right you know, you’re gonna have a good time no matter what.
PC: It’s been going since 1980 and people keep coming back to see it because it’s good and the standards high. So come and see it, I would. I do. I’m in it! Bye!
The legendary Mr Motivator (real name Derrick Evans) joined Summer Festival Guide after leading a high energy morning workout session for the Wychwood Festival crowd to talk about the power of movement and his top tips for beating the blues.
This morning you’ve been up on the main stage at Wychwood leading what can only be described as a fun filled, energetic performance this morning and so many people coming out of their tents to join in – how does it make you feel getting up in the morning and bringing that energy into people’s days?
You know what, movement is a wonderful medicine and if you do it in a fun safe way then everybody can participate and my whole drive, and it’s been like that since being on television 30 years ago and I started exercising 40 years ago, I know in my later years how beneficial movement is – but it’s got to be fun! And if it’s not fun I say “don’t do it!” that’s why I’m not into doing press ups, star jumps and burpees – yes I’ll do it – but at the end of the day what really gets people going is music it’s the attitude it’s the laughter it’s the stories.
During Covid you did a lot of motivational stuff on socials and you’ve talked openly here about mental health. Beyond the fitness side of things, how important is that mental health message?
About two weeks ago I spent a whole day in a studio having conversations with all these radio stations from all over the country phoning in to talk about mental health awareness.
I think it’s great that we’ve moved the goalposts, that people can feel a little bit easier to talk about it. Because we call need to talk about it. In particular men, and men don’t wear their heart enough on their sleeve. They think “if we cry that makes us weak” but no, when you cry it makes you strong and so my message is to give people little tips they can put in place if they’re feeling stressed or they can’t go on, if you’re feeling like things are really rough, there are a number of things you can think about.
One is every autumn the tress out there lose their leaves, but the tree still stands up tall. Why? Because it knows in the Spring it’s going to flower again. So whatever we’re going through that we think is really bad, it’s only a bad moment it’s not a bad life. And if we’re patient and we talk about our problems and we really deal with it in terms of taking time out or getting away from it we’re going to get the benefits of getting stronger mentally and that is the important way we’re going to deal with life going forward. To get emotionally, physically, mentally strong.
And what are the things for you that if you’re having one of those down days that help you personally?
One of the best things is movement, for me. The moment I move my body – in fact the thing I did when I did all those interviews we talked about “moving the mood”. And it does! It doesn’t mean you have to do what I do, you can be just going for a walk or a swim, riding a bike or whatever it is, that helps you release those happy hormones and make you feel better.
One thing that works for me is the old photo albums. Because if you take an old photo album it’s only ever got good times in there. We don’t put picture which are terrible. And those memories allow you to escape sometimes from the reality of life and when you come back you come back feeling so much better for it. But if you incorporate movement it actually makes you feel good not just for when you’re doing it, but for hours and days afterwards.
Sunday 3rd November was a day that I had waited to experience for a long time. I was going to see a music act that I had been excited to see perform live since I was around 10 years old! That act is nineties and noughties boy band A1.
The band originally formed as a quartet in the late nineties. Consisting of band members Mark, Ben, Christian and Paul, they had seen huge success around the world after releasing well known singles Everytime, Summertime, Like A Rose, Same Old Brand New You, Caught In The Middle and the huge hit Take On Me – a cover single of the well known classic by Aha! A1‘s version of the track actually went straight to number one in the UK music charts while Aha only reached a number two position! In that time the band had also released three albums. Sadly, around five years into their expanding career and shortly after the release of their third album ‘Make It Good’, band member Paul Marazzi had announced his departure from A1 due to personal reasons. The fan base were left feeling concerned for the future of the band since the news broke.
Thankfully, remaining band members Ben, Christian and Mark had come to a decision to keep the act going under their original band name as trio. Since then they have seen a huge increase in fans over in Norway and Asia. They have also since released a few more albums and worked on their own solo material too.
Just a short time ago, in mid 2018, former singer Paul decided to reach out to band member Christian during A1’s brief period of appearances in the UK at the time and had asked arrange to meet the guys to catch up, in which they all did. Thankfully for both original and new fans, the band decided to reunite as the original line up and hit the road once again. So A1 The Reunion Tour was announced including shows in three UK locations. The guys had purposely chosen to play at smaller venues with just a few select dates as they weren’t sure just how well the Reunion shows would be recieved in the UK as they hadn’t fully persued their careers there for a number of years. Oddly enough, due to popular demand a fourth show was added to their UK dates, which to the band’s surprise, later meant that all of their UK shows had completely sold out in just four minutes!
It’s very clear that the guys of A1 and their management team were keen to really make the reunion work, they seem happy and enthusiastic about the future of the band. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to meet and interview them before they went on stage at their second London show, the Islington 02 Academy. Honestly, all four band members seemed very comfortable with each other and quite at ease and excited about all of the reunion shows in general. It appeared like Paul had never even departed at all. Upon first meeting the band, our photographer and I were greeted by management and taken to the VIP lounge where the meet and greets were taking place before the show. And there they were, all four original members of a band that I had admired for years just standing by the bar smiling for photos.
It wasn’t long until the two of us were introduced to the band and then taken downstairs to their two small dressing rooms to conduct a full interview. Now, I have only done a handful of interviews before as I’m usually too nervous to bring myself to actually do them, let alone perform in a professional manner. And in all honesty this is the one I was most anxious about doing. However, I’ve never been made to feel so welcome, calm and relaxed at a show that I have attended and reviewed. Ever! I have never met a nicer group of people! Christian provided us with traditional Norwegian spiced Christmas biscuits and bottles of water, I had discussed parenting and the wonder of baby wipes with Paul, Mark made sure we were comfortable by moving things around to make room for us to sit down on the leather sofa within the dressing room and Ben was talking to us as casually as you would speak to your best friend while doing his hair for the upcoming show. Fortunately, I was able to record the chat I had with the band as I asked them a variety of questions about their reunion, performing again as four members on stage and the potential of new music and future tours. I have used our photographer’s photos to create a video showcasing the live show and the interview that took place. Very kindly, both management and all members of A1 were happy to allow me to publish the audio recording for all of you to hear. The audio clip video and images will be linked in with this review, but here are a segments that I have picked out to share with you!
I expressed how excited that fans (including myself) were to see the original line up back together and once again performing live too. So of course I had to ask them how they felt about the big reunion.
Q: So how are you feeling about it being back as four? Ben: “It feels great! It’s a bit like riding a bike, it was a bit strange at first, Christian, myself and Mark had continued on for ages and ages and it had been about fifteen years since you joined (looking at Paul), initially it was a bit like oh, ok it feels a bit familiar and a bit weird, but like no time had passed really.”
Q: How are you feeling about all of your reunion shows? Mark: “Really good!”
Ben: “Really Great! The fans have been frickin brilliant because we’ve been tryingto work out what to do with the set, it’s funny, we’ve had big songs that were different in different countries so one song has been number 1 in the Phillappenes and over here (UK), they’ve never heard of it. So we just thought lets do everything! Everybody knows the words to pretty much every single song and that’s the beauty of Spotify and things like that now.”
Paul: “We knew it was going to be big as it sold out so quick.”
So now over twenty years on since the beginning of A1, of course I was curious to know how being in the band differs now compared to back in the day. Christian: “One of the biggest differences is that before, we would literally wake up to a sheet coming in under the door of our hotel rooms saying what we are going to do that day, starting at like 6am! Then we’d have dinner while doing other interviews getting ready for another gig and then fly to the next country. Now we are much more in control of our day. Generally we now have more control over our lives and what we say. We also have a better attitude this time around as there was a lot of pressure and money invested in us, so there was a lot expected from us.”
Ben: “Now, no one expects anything”
Christian: “Everything is just a bonus now and we are having a lot more fun. We are better songwriters now and better musicians than we were twenty years ago.” Just like any other A1 fan, I of course have my favourite tracks. I expressed to the band that I remember spending a lot of time in my bedroom during my early teen years playing ‘Caught In The Middle’ on my acoustic guitar, but there is one song of theirs in particular that will always have a special place in my heart, their ballad ‘Like A Rose’. So I was intruigued to see if the band members themselves had any preferences of their own.
Christian: “To me, it’s always ‘Everytime’. It was one of the first songs that broke us internationally, I remember so clearly when we wrote it and the thoughts that we had. I remember this dream I had in my head thinking wouldn’t it be so awesome if one day this melody and these lyrics that started in our little heads, if someone on the other side of the planet knew them, and that’s what happened! We had the biggest dream come true moment!”
Q: What else have we got to expect from A1? Ben: “The Boys Are Back tour next year, a new album, then booking in more and more concerts and we love doing the full hour and a half concerts with all the songs that fans want to hear. They don’t just wanna hear the hits, they wanna hear all the album tracks, all the B sides and everything like that.”
Christian: “It’s quite mind blowing that people still want to hear us all over the world. Over the years A1 has become a bit of a side project for us, but now it’s taken over as the main project for all of us.”
So there you have it, it’s official. There’s still plenty more of A1 to come!
The Reunion Show As the gig was completely sold out, this meant the venue at the London o2 Islington Academy was completely jam packed with excited fans! Both newcomers (including partners that had clearly been dragged along to the event, admit it you know you had a great time!) and original fans from all twenty years ago. Originally, a support act was planned to get the crowds ready for the main event! However due to unforseen circumstances there was a cancellation of their appearance. However many didn’t mind as this meant that A1 were due to come on stage earlier in the evening.
Around 9pm, the lights dimmed, a screen at the back of the stage displayed a variety of graphics and a gentle accapella tone could be heard, Yep! This was it! Time for Ben, Paul, Mark and Christian to open their long awaited reunion show! The band opened their show by performing before even appearing on stage with their beautiful ballad ‘Forever In Love’. As the track faded out they appeared on stage with lots of enthusiasm as they continued on to perform one of their biggest hits ‘Same Old, Brand New You’ with original chorepgraphy while under bright flashing lights, which was quite something to see!
The band went on to perform ‘Be The First To Believe’ and ‘Summertime’ before taking a moment out to talk to the audience and welcome back Paul to the line up. He proved to be very popular with the audience and all were glad to see him return. He was applauded and met with screams and a lot of appreciation. Marazzi then introduced a song of his choice that he was really looking forward to perform back with the rest of the band. And he made a good choice (yes, slight pun there), he chose the title track from their third studio album ‘Make It Good’. All four members interacted with the fans with such ease, continuously checking in with everyone there, asking where fans had travelled from, encouraging interaction through choreography, the works!
Of course we got to hear all of the hits as expected which included ‘No More’, ‘Everytime’ (which was met with a room of swaying lights from torches on mobile phones), ‘Ready Or Not’ and many more, but when the band had told me in their interview before the show that they had tried to fit in everything, they weren’t joking around. I’ve never been to a live show for a band where they have managed to perform as many tracks as A1 did there that evening. One clever way to fit in so many of their songs was to perform a medley, but no ordinary medley. They titled this selection of tracks ‘The Songs We Never Did’ a play on words referring to their track ‘The Things We Never Did’. This medley included ‘Here Comes The Rain’, ‘Tomorrow’, ‘Make It Through The Night’ (which was brought to an abrupt, yet amusing end as singer Ben decided he “didn’t like that one much”), ‘Learn To Fly’, ‘Living The Dream’, When I’m Missing You’ as well as a the more upbeat songs ‘Hey You’ and a snippet of a personal favourite album track of mine ‘Scared’. You see? They really did put in a lot of effort to get everything in, which of course went down very well with the audience there that evening.
For the majority of the medley,the four members were sat on stools, and one band member decided to share what we were all thinking during this segment of their set. Yes, Ben Adams made that very obvious musical link to Irish based band Westlife. In his own words he announced “I can see why Westlife like to do this!”. This simple and amusing statement was met with a huge roar of laughter from the crowds stood before him.
What was great to see was that the band performed the songs that the UK fans know very well and love too, however to show how they have progressed as musicians they also showcased some of their material that was released in other parts of the world which included their singles ‘Don’t Wanna Lose You Again’, ‘In Love And I Hate It’, their latest release – the beautifully written ‘Armour’ and also a brand new track which was exclusive to their UK reunion shows. The new song ‘Can We Go Back’ is very personal to all of the band members as it is a song about looking back on past fond memories. This composition was so exclusive that we were politely asked not to film or record them while performing it.
In an attempt to round off the night’s performance A1 performed one of their biggest hits to date, ‘Caught In The Middle’ before then exiting to the right side of the stage. I say an attempt to bring the evening to a close, as everyone there that evening had realised that there were a couple more very well known A1 hits that hadn’t yet been mentioned. The entire audience were very much in demand of hearing more music as the room was taken over by fans chanting “We want more!” and “three more songs!” As we had anticipated Paul, Mark, Christian and Ben returned to the stage once more to perform an encore segment of their set. This segment included the stunning ‘Like A Rose’ and most likely their biggest hit to date ‘Take On Me’ which brought the show to an actual close.
This show had everything that I had expected it would, great music at a huge variety, fantastic lighting and graphics on stage, amazing audience interaction, nostalgia for many and most importantly four happy, energetic and very talented band members that fans clearly still adore twenty years on! All A1 band members, management and their families should feel incredibly proud of these reunion shows, not just in the UK but all around the world. And I for one am so excited to hear new material from them in the future! Thank you A1 for being “The Same Old, Brand New You”.
