Following a storming set at On Blackheath festival which we reviewed here, Matt Tarr caught up with The Levellers front man Mark Chadwick to discuss their set at the inaugural South East London festival, their upcoming greatest hits release and how it feels having been in the music industry for twenty five years…
MT: You’ve obviously played numerous festivals over the years, but, as this is the first time it’s been held, how did On Blackheath compare to where you’ve played before?
MC: Well it was a Sunday lunchtime affair to be honest. Do you know what though, I love the venue; I love it round here, the area’s great. I know Greenwich and I know Deptford and all that but I’ve never been here [Blackheath]. I’m here for the first time in my life which is weird but then London is massive! I’ve driven through here but I’ve never once stopped and had a look at it; it’s very Georgian. I love that pub down the road, The Hare & Billet; it’s great. I was like “can we just go there and then after we have to go and do the pop concert can we just get a taxi back down there”.
MT: From what I’ve seen, it seems as though the festival has been a success in it’s first year.
MC: Well it’s a very corporate event being sponsored by John Lewis and I think they lost a lot of money as it’s not sold well. It’s unwisely done in my opinion because you’ve got a Radio 2 weekend in Hyde Park, you’ve got ELO on tonight and I’m not being funny but I’d go and see ELO, I’m sorry but I would.
MT: I guess they [the festival organisers] were relying on the core fan base of acts like you guys, Imelda May and Frank Turner to boost ticket sales.
MC: And there’s enough for that but to be honest you could do with another five thousand people out there. Also tickets were pricey but I’m not slagging it off, I’m just saying what I see. But as a venue and having access to the whole of the south east of England, it’s perfect! It actually does feel like you’re not in London; it’s kind of rural and it’s really green. It’s actually tickled my fancy as a potential venue to do something should a venture arise. But it’s a nice part of the world.
MT: Of all the festivals you’ve played over the years, you must have some good festival stories. Have you got any that stand out?
MC: They’re all pretty much on principal. The whole point of a festival is that you go there to forget about everything else that you’re doing and a good festival will do that, create that illusion perfectly and get people out of their nine to five bubble. At the proper festivals all the lines are blurred and you’re in a mess; it’s a cultural experience. It’s about losing your socks, losing everything, losing the f*cking plot; that is a great festival and it can happen anywhere. There’s no particular festival and no particular day at a festival that you can name, it just happens. You know I’ve been at a festival sitting around a campfire playing a guitar and there’s f*cking Joe Strummer, “oh alright Joe, can you play this”, “no I can’t play this I’m f*cking off my tits”, you know! Tell you what, last week I was at a festival with Segs from The Ruts and he can sing every song by David Bowie, word for word, from beginning to f*cking end like a machine. He was at our festival and he did that. He’s going “name a David Bowie song” and there were quite a few people around and I was going “alright, Laughing Gnome” and he did it, f*cking all of it. So I went “ok Bewlay Brothers” and he did it straight out, f*cking ‘Hunky Dory’, the lot. He’s the biggest Bowie fan in the world and has a great repository of memory. I was blown away. I can’t do it, it’s a skill beyond me. I can only just about remember my own songs. That’s what a festival is about.
MT: So putting festivals behind us, let’s talk about the new CD that is coming out, the greatest hits. You’ve released one before, a number of years ago now.
MC: Yeah we did but that was kind of forced upon us by the record label which was quite disgusting really. We were like “yeah whatever, we won’t support it so you can release it yourselves”. But this time it’s had our full backing because we’ve had full artistic direction of it.
MT: And I see that you’ve got some new tracks on there too with people like Billy Bragg and Imelda May.
MC: Yeah just to give something a bit extra with it rather than “here’s the same record, you’ve heard it before but buy it again”. We’re not gonna do that. We have to mark periods in time and this is twenty five years, so were doing it with honor and respect and putting some effort into it, down to the track listing and everything.
MT: Twenty five years is a long time to be in the music industry and be successful enough to maintain that group of core fans who will go and buy a greatest hits. There aren’t many people or groups that can do that these days.
MC: You’re right and people seem to be interested in it because we’ve actually put the effort into it and we actually genuinely care about it. It’s as much our release as the record companies. All the old record companies are thinking “are they taking this seriously” and yes we f*cking are because this is proper, you don’t f*ck about with this sh*t. And it’s inspired us by doing it because we get to listen to all our old material and put ourselves in context cos we listen to it and its like “that’s what we were thinking then was it” and it gives us fire in the belly to make new music.
MT: So when it came to picking the track listing for the greatest hits, did you all agree on what you wanted to be on there?
MC: It was kind of obvious because it’s a greatest hits so it’s pretty much ‘the hits’, but it’s more than that because there’s some f*cking great album tracks that we know people love so we’re gonna sneak them in there and make it run as an actual album should and a track listing should, so if you listen to the whole thing, which I have, it actually works very well as a record should. The tracks need to flow one after the other and we all put our effort into that as well and we’re all pretty happy with it; we’ve got a democracy!
MT: So when can we expect to see something new from you guys following the greatest hits release?
MC: We will be writing and recording it next year but as to when it’s released, who f*cking knows. But we haven’t got a record company breathing down our necks to make it. We’ve got a film out, we’ve got the greatest hits out and I’ve got a solo album out so it doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, we’re not in that bracket that every new band has got where we need to release an album every year because we need to stay current; we did that and we survived it and we’re still here!
MT: The set list that you played during the festival today featured a lot of your classic tracks from across the life of the band but have you got a personal favourite that you really enjoy playing?
MC: I just enjoy playing them all. I know that sounds naff though doesn’t it, but I’m happy playing all of them. Sometimes we’ll find some obscure track that we haven’t played for a while and we play it and it really buzzes me up. Thinking what we felt back then when we wrote it can lead to all sorts of emotions because music’s very emotional. But then we’ll chuck in a new one, which is always terrifying, cos it’s always like someone p*ssed in the punchbowl with everyone going “Do I know this? Have I heard this?” and that’s the challenge. Getting the right balance is f*cking hard. I reckon in any pop concert, you can only really do five to seven percent new material if you want to entertain. We’re not up there to go “oh I’m a f*cking artist, love me”; that’s not us. It’s entertainment; music is entertainment on so many levels. When I do solo stuff it’s very much like “I’m an artist love me” but that’s different. When it’s with the guys it’s different and that’s the nature of the beast.
MT: Is your solo stuff something you continue to work on whilst you’re also working with the band?
MC: Yeah it works in parallel as much as possible. The other guys play and do stuff. I can’t sit around on my arse for too long. The Levellers is always the main project, it’s our mother, it’s the beast, it has been for a long time and we contemplate that on a regular basis. Sometimes we get very scared of it but we’re not a massive band. When you see a massive band get back together and they’re like “I’ve had a nervous breakdown, what’ve you had?”, “I’ve had three divorces and a heroin addiction”, that’s what happens in bands, they’re a collection of beings. When you get together again, everyone’s scared to throw the first hat into the ring and say “this is my material”, it’s really funny.
You can pre order your copy of The Levellers Greatest Hits box set here and keep up with all the tour dates and other news here.
Matt Tarr
@MattTarrJourno
Matt Tarr
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