It’s time to start getting excited, Dear Reader. We’re just a few months out from the unofficial start of our summer festival season. That May Day Bank Holiday weekend means one thing – Live At Leeds. Packed with (literally) hundreds of the best new bands on the planet, it sees one of the country’s most vibrant creative cities turned into a mecca of buzz, hype and awesome live music.
To celebrate, we’re holding a special Live At Leeds takeover. Over the course of the day (28th January 2020, in case you’re coming to this late – Ed), we’ll be bringing you all kinds of stuff from and about the acts playing this year’s event. If you’re going, it’ll help you plan out those all-important spreadsheets. If you’ve not yet picked up your tickets – well, what are you waiting for? You can grab ’em here, right now.
Following a year in which they released their debut album ‘What’s Inside Is More Than Just Ham’, and featured on Dork’s pages getting tattoos to celebrate very own record label, Feet are continuing their adventures with more shows, more festivals, and (probably) lots more fun. Singer George Haverson gives us a band update, and lets us in on their secret ingredient for Yorkshire puddings…
Hello George! How’s it going? How are those new tattoos looking?
All is good. Tattoos have settled in pretty well, we’ve tried to only wear sleeveless clothes to show people we are in a band and, in fact, have tattoos.
Any post-tattoo regrets?
No tattoo regrets here; if anything, we’ve got tattoo fever.
What have you guys been up to since we last spoke around the album? You’ve just done a Christmassy thing with a food truck, right?
We went on our album release tour in the UK with a few European dates too. We also managed to put out a Christmas single touching on all the cheesy 80s Christmas song cliches. It’s titled ‘Vegetarian Christmas’, and it’s about the idea of a meat-free Christmas dinner (cheers Linda). It managed to trigger middle-aged Brexiteers who love pigs in blankets a little too much. We drove a food truck around London handing out vegetarian food and blasting out ‘Vegetarian Christmas’, we really have sold out.
How have you found the reception for ‘What’s Inside Is More Than Just Ham’? Do you feel like people ‘got’ it?
I think releasing a vegetarian Christmas song after a ham-themed album title was a heavy dose of irony for people to swallow. I’m happy with the album reception though. Hopefully, it’ll be a springboard for all the new stuff we’ve been cooking up. In retrospect, ‘WIIMTJH’ is our entry into the crease pop world, whether it made a splash or not isn’t too problematic. Rest assured there’s a big ol’ crease wave coming, and you can bet we’ll be riding it.
Are you going to be taking the album on the road a lot this year? Do you have much in the diary?
We have some bigger shows in the works coming up this year, but album two is the current priority. We’ve settled into our lids now, so it was only a matter of time before we started writing new music. We’ll be debuting some new songs supporting Inhaler on their upcoming tour this Feb.
You’re playing Live At Leeds soon, is that one you’ve been to before?
I haven’t any recollection of playing Live at Leeds before, but then again I’ve walked out of the house before with no shoes on.
How would you rate your Yorkshire pudding making skills out of ten?
Our drummer Ben’s culinary skills have earned him the nickname ‘Ramsay’ in the kitchen, and that praise only continues when he pulls out all the stops to whip up a roast. Those magical Yorkshire puddings, wow. The secret ingredient is friendship. Don’t get on the wrong side of him, though.
Are you going to hang around and check out the other bands playing while there?
Ezra Furman and Working Men’s Club we’re keen to see, and we’ll offer them a can or two if we bump into them.
Do you have a favourite venue or spot to play in Leeds?
The Wardrobe, because you can’t beat a good ol’ pit.
Anything else we should know?
New music is inbound, an exotic blend of crease pop and crease rock. We’ve been rinsing the likes of T. Rex, The Modern Lovers, The Stooges, ZZ Top etc. It’s a big year for our label Clapped Records, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for our Clapped Night shows and potential releases from our musical pals…
Feet tour the UK with Inhaler from 12th February. Live At Leeds will take place on 2nd May, visit liveatleeds.com for more info.
