Interview

Interview Various Cruelties

Dan O'Dell talks to recent Leeds émigré Liam O’Donnell on his transition from playing in the back rooms of local bars to appearing on the most influential music programme in the country

We met up with Liam O’Donnell, frontman of Various Cruelties, on an acoustic night at Sandinista and agreed that it seems a strangely appropriate place to talk about his music as, up until two years ago, Liam had being playing his own solo material around these exact same acoustic nights across Leeds city centre.

However, life has changed a lot for him since those evenings, and when we met up it was only a week since the bands’ TV debut on Later With Jools Holland, playing alongside the likes of Metallica and Lou Reed. He recalls it as, “a…

Read more... | See all articles in Music

Interview Jim Albertosa and Danny Savage, The Warehouse

Leeds’ legendary nightspot The Warehouse reopened in September and we speak to owner Jim Albertose and Promotions Manager Danny Savage about the venue’s reemergence into the city’s nightlife scene

What is your outlook when booking guests and securing regular promotions? What gap do you see The Warehouse filling?

The Warehouse is all about quality house music. Every weekend you will see guest DJs from around the world playing alongside the cream of local Leeds talent. We have a strong experienced team of promotions and staff spanning back 20 years in the industry. The Warehouse is 33 years young this year, so I wouldn’t say we’re filling a gap, we’re just taking back our rightful place at the forefront of the music scene.

What’s been the highlight of…

Read more... | See all articles in Nightlife

Interview Phill Jupitus

Simon O'Hare meets the Never Mind The Buzzcocks star as he takes a break in rehearsals for Big Society! A Music Hall Comedy

It’s not every day you find yourself sitting in a canteen chatting with Phill Jupitus and members of Leeds alternative rockers Chumbawamba. They’re taking a well earned short break in the middle of their rehearsals at the Yorkshire Dance HQ as they put the finishing touches to Big Society! A Music Hall Comedy, the new show written by the band’s frontman Boff Whalley and with the TV comic in the lead part.

I ask Jupitus how he came to be involved in the show. "It’s weird, I think the best jobs you take are the ones that are a…

Read more... | See all articles in Theatre

Interview The Wedding Present

The final concert of the year at the O2 Academy sees The Wedding Present making a welcome return to the city – we caught up with David Gedge to chat about the new album and the upcoming show.

The Wedding Present have had a quiet year so far, but Gedge outlines that they have been busy behind the scenes. “We just recorded a new album, which is not totally finished yet. The people who have heard it say it has a kind of rockier sound. The good thing for me was that we had a couple of line-up changes. We had our bass player Terry leave and got a new bass player. Our drummer became the guitarist, because he was a drummer as well. So it is a fairly major shift in personnel, which all kind of added…

Read more... | See all articles in Music

Interview Dave Spikey

As he gets ready to call into the City Varieties, the Bolton comic tells Simon O'Hare how his frustration and amusement with the English language inspired his new show

Dave Spikey‘s new tour, which comes to the City Varieties this month, is called Words Don’t Come Easy. "Yeah. It’s not a great title for a comedy show is it really," he says. "Go on for two hours and stumble and mutter."

Nothing could be further from the truth, of course, Spikey being one of those seasoned stand-ups who makes things look so deceptively easy. Not only that, but he clearly puts a hell of a lot of thought into the peculiarities of the English language when he writes his material. The new show actually evolved from a segment…

Read more... | See all articles in Comedy

Interview Mark Newton, Trilogy

We chat to the promoter of Metropolis and new massive drum'n'bass and dubstep collaborative night Trilogy.

Why have promoters Wax On and Metropolis decided to team up for these events?

We have been working together on shows for a number of years now, first starting out on NYE 2008/2008 when we did a live broadcast on Radio 1 from Leeds University. This sold out well in advance and then we started working on more projects together, eventually merging as a company just over a year ago. We still do events that are independent from each other as well, but for the big shows we do them jointly as we can put together bigger line ups, production and…

Read more... | See all articles in Nightlife