Inspirations.
TWISTED WHEEL
This Oldham three-piece have been hailed as the next big thing, with their raw, punk-tinged rock. What inspired them to set the Wheel in motion?
Record that changed your life..
Rick The Beatles' Abbey Road for me. My dad introduced me to it when I was about 12 or 13. The band seemed to be doing whatever they wanted, and it worked perfectly.
Adam Happy Mondays, Pills n' Thrills and Bellyaches. It hedonistic music and it made me want to be in a band myself. It's one of those albums that you can put on again and again. I was about 14 when I heard it, and I felt I could connect with the band - it fitted in with what me and my mates were up to.
Jonny Oasis (Whats the Story) Morning Glory? Before that I was into The Beatles and Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and Led Zeppelin, y'know, stuff that I found in my dad's cupboards. Whats The Story was the first album that made me feel like I could do it myself. I'd go out into the fields near where I live and write songs. I never kept any of those tunes. I should have done... we could be using them now!
Best gig you've ever been to...
Rick The first time I saw Oasis, at Lancashire County Cricket Club. I was about 15 and it was the biggest gig I'd ever been to. It was amazing - their setlist had about 20 of the best tunes Id ever heard and had grown up with.
Adam Not exactly a gig, but when I was 13 or 14 I went to Ozzfest in Milton Keynes. It was madness. Black Sabbath were headlining - that was pretty good. Being that old and going to something like that just blew your head off.
Jonny Ive seen loads of great gigs, and Ive seen Oasis about 20 times. The best Ive ever been to was the Buena Vista Social Club at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. This isnt like a normal gig venue, it's more like a theatre. There was all this Cuban music playing and everyone got up off their seats and started dancing. There was a real rebelliousness about it.
Favourite album cover...
Adam Ian Dury, New Boots and Panties!! I love the feel of it, and the inner sleeve with all the photos of Ian and the other band members. I was about 12 when I first started listening to it, and my mum would always shout at my dad for playing it because there's loads of swearing on it.
Rick I think the best one ever is The Clash's London Calling with Pennie Smith's iconic cover picture of Paul Simonon smashing his bass on stage.
Musical era you'd most like to visit...
Adam the mid 70s when punk was kicking off. It would have been great to have been there, and better that the hippie thing that went before it, which dragged on and then fizzled out. Punk has left a solid legacy.
Jonny I agree - its the sould of the thing, that whole sense of not giving a damn, going off and making it in a band. You didnt have to be a technically gifted musician, as long as you could express yourself. It was more about passion than anything else.
Favourite place to write music...
Jonny If I'm on my own then its in my bedroom, shut off from everyone. I wrote some good stuff when i was on holiday - I find if you go away you can look back and get a different perspective on what's been happening. I went to Majorca on my own and it rained for the whole two weeks. I was in this little room next to the reception area, and having to play quietly brough something out in the music.
Music Idol...
Rick Paul Simonon. I read somewhere that he dressed The Clash. I dont know whether that's true but if he did, he pulled it off, and his basslines were pretty dubby, too.
Adam Ian Dury again, because he was so unorthodox and wrote some mad lyrics.
Jonny Joe Strummer. He played with more passion than anyone and he got his political message across - it's hard to do that. When he was singing he'd just throw things in, a bit like
Bowie going off into his own world. Joe would go into 'Strummer World'!!
Song you fell in love to...
Adam Not sure.. 'English Rose' by the Jam.
Jonny You can interpret it as being about going back to your roots - I dont necessarily see it as a love song.
Adam It could be about a woman or it could be about your country or about a soldier away at war. Its what you want to make of it, like all good music.
interview by Tim Southwell
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