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2003 BLAKEY RIDGE FESTIVAL
Four Day Hombre   24 July 2003
photos by Chris Walkden

visit the Four Day Hombre page


Interview with Four Day Hombre's Ed (keyboards) & Simon (vocals/guitar)
at The 2003 Blakey Ridge Music Festival
By Allan Jeff / Matmata Media For Blakey Music
 

AJ - I was looking at your website, I see you have put on quite an extensive tour to support the release of your "The first word is the Hardest" single, where have you been and how has it gone?

Simon - Where have we been? We've been all over the place! We've been down to London a couple of times and probably the most extreme is the Isle of Man, which was pretty good, in fact it was brilliant.

AJ - Did you see any three-legged Ladies?

Simon -We saw some strange things, might have just been the beer though. It's going really well.

Ed - It's been Fantastic! We've done some really great gigs!

AJ -What sort of numbers have you been getting at the gigs? Are they decent sized venues?

Simon - It varies massively, last night we played in Harrogate and it was totally rammed, turning people away, that was about one hundred and fifty or something. When we played in the Isle of Man, it sold out before we got there, that was two hundred and fifty kind of size, yeah they've been that kind of size.

AJ - What were your thoughts when you pulled up at Blakey and saw the stage?

Simon -My first thought was that it was very foggy, coz we arrived at, what time did we arrive at?

Ed - About half three, wasn't it?

AJ - What, this morning?

Simon - Yeah this morning!! It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be, the stage is much bigger.

Ed - Yeah, I was really impressed.

AJ - You've played here a couple of times before though, haven't you?

Ed - Three or four times I think but we've never done the festival, we've always played inside.

AJ - Have you played outdoors much at all?

Simon - Yeah we've done a few bits haven't we!

Ed - Yeah we did one a couple of weeks ago supporting "East 17"

AJ - Surreal?

Simon - It was bizarre!

Ed - In fact we played after them, so technically they supported us!

AJ - From people I've spoken to, hearing you on the radio etc, the general consensus is you are on the verge of breaking it. How do you feel about that, do you think that's true? Or do you think you've got a way to go?

Ed - It's hard to say really!

Simon - Yeah it is!

Ed - I think we're all very happy with where we are, all the right things seem to be happening, whether I would say we are on the verge, is a difficult thing. We may be getting closer.

AJ - Is it hard to quantify?

Ed & Simon - Very!

Ed - Even if everything goes right it could still be six months or a year, we've learnt not to rely on these things.

AJ - On the way up to Blakey, I was listening to Chris Moyles on Radio One, playing the single and going on about how it may chart on Sunday, what do you think about that?

Simon - Yeah we heard it, apparently it is mathematically possible, it is a limited edition single, there's only 1500 copies but I think it could just scrape in, if everything sold out and nobody else did very well this week. That's kind of not the point of it though, we never expected it to even get in the top 75 but it did on Monday, it got into the top 75.

So yeah whatever happens, it's just been really good to get something out there and to get the airplay.

AJ - Would you widen the release of it?

Simon - No, it's cut off at 1500!

AJ - Your website said that you are self-managed, is that still the case?

Simon - No we have a manager now who works with us!

AJ - Was it hard handing over the control of things?

Ed - It wasn't actually.

Simon - It was great, absolutely brilliant! He's really good at what he does, he's worked a long time in the industry, so it was just really good to be able to concentrate on what we do.

AJ - A lot of your PR, comes across as being quite cocky and self assured, who looks after that on the website?

Ed - What's that, the thoughts page on the site etc?

AJ - Well writing all the copy that's on it?

Ed - I do the diary stuff.

Simon - It just depends really.

AJ - who looks after the mailouts?

Simon - Ash the drummer!

AJ - I enjoyed the lyrics to other peoples songs included on the mailouts, who's idea was it to do that?

Simon - Yeah that's Ash's little thing, he's done some really bizarre ones as well, obscure, yeah he writes the mailouts!

AJ - What are your thoughts about playing at Blakey, especially the festival?

Ed - We absolutely love playing up here, every time we come we have a fantastic time.

AJ - What is it that you think is special about the place?

Ed - I think the most important thing is that it just is, a special place. You just walk into the pub and it feels like home and also Paul (Crossland) just looks after you so well!

Simon - Yeah, Paul's a top man.

Ed - And obviously the amount of alcohol that gets consumed helps, you can't remember whether it was good or bad!

Simon - I think it's coz it is so remote as well, people obviously come here for a reason, makes it easy to have a real good time, it's a good atmosphere.

AJ - Can you tell me a bit about the single, who wrote it, how it was written, when you wrote it and the story behind it?

Simon - We write all of our stuff together, all five of us, we wrote that about a year and a half ago and we recorded it ourselves, last year. It's one of the first things we recorded. We decided to buy a load of recording gear and kind of do it ourselves.

We've been to studios loads of times but with time pressures, and the atmosphere was never right for us, so we decided we'd get some money together. We decided we could buy all the gear and do it ourselves, for the same amount we could kind of pay to spend two weeks in a studio. So we've got that gear forever now.

So yeah recorded it ourselves and the outcome, was pretty good really!

Lyrically, it's a song that's kind of aimed at someone who's finding life very difficult, they're finding it hard to get up in the morning, so if you allow yourself to speak about your problems, they become easier, it's a helping hand song.

AJ - Four Day Hombre, where did the name come from?

Ed - It's just a rubbish name!

Simon - it's a good name, it means nothing, I've got absolutely no idea where it came from.

AJ - So you're going back into the studio to do some recording, can we expect an album or will it be more like singles?

Ed - Think we are provisionally thinking about the possibility of doing a second limited edition single because to do an album, we'd be more interested in playing live, to keep the profile going. It's such a time consuming thing, that at this point we don't want to have to take three or four months out, because basically we are a live band.

Anything we do that's recorded, in our opinion is never going to be as good as when we're live, it's never going to be able to capture that yet!

AJ - What are your plans for the next six to twelve months?

Simon - Time off in August, do some more recording, possibly another single, then we're touring again in September and October, doing a whole load of dates, then we'll see really, everything's changing every day, new offers come in and new ideas. Things have changed a lot over the last six months.

AJ - It's hard to quantify your sound but if your music was a night out, what sort of night out would it be?

Ed - It would be a night that started off in the pub

Simon - Yeah it would!!!

Ed - Then you'd go somewhere else that was a bit louder, then there would be a point where you would have a really intense, miserable conversation but then it would finish while watching the sunrise.

AJ - What's the best thing you have heard said about the band so far?

Ed - When we played in the Isle of Man, the gig we did on the Friday night was at the British Legion club, because they have got no real venues and that held about 250 people. I was talking to the chairman of the committee the night after. He was saying that when he was a kid, he used to nick off school with his brother-in-law and go and watch the Beatles down at the Cavern. He said he was stood watching us and turned to his brother-in-law and said "Do they remind you of anything?" and he'd replied "The Beatles at the Cavern" and that was pretty cool.

He said it wasn't the sound or anything, he said it was just the energy and it felt exciting and he was sixty-five!!!

AJ - So if that's the best thing, what's the worst thing?

Simon - We had a review in a fanzine, that said, "Four Day Hombre have been penetrated by the double dildo of mediocrity".

Which I thought was fantastic.

Ed - Yeah, which we all loved! To be honest you don't pay attention anymore. It's nice to be told good things but you can't take it on board, if you believe everything people tell you, it's pleasing coz it means they've really enjoyed it but it's never for the same reasons that you think that it's good. It's always for their personal reasons and it's the same for the bad things as well.

AJ - If you could put together a "Supergroup" who'd be in it?

Ed - It would just be Kylie!

Simon - Just Kylie!! Just doing stuff, wandering around the house, my house, but that's a tricky one.

Ed -That is hard, we've all got such a varied taste in music, and it's so hard to answer that question.

Simon - If you had Ash here, he'd just say Led Zeppelin.

Ed - Aretha Franklin and a piano

Simon - Elvis for the image

AJ - So how big do you think you're going to be?

Simon - No idea!

Ed - To be honest, it never was a consideration and it's become less of a consideration and without sounding dull, it's just about playing better and better music and that's it. Just be a better band and whatever happens, our main goal at the moment is to be able to do it full time. If we can do it full time and pay our bills I'd be thrilled.

AJ - Is that time far away or near?

Ed- It's miles away and it's just around the corner!

AJ - Who else on the bill, are you most looking forward to seeing?

Ed - We want to see Dave Keegan

AJ - What's your message to the crowd at Blakey, who have come to see you at the festival?

Ed - Cheers!

Simon - Just have a great time, it's such an ideal place, such a brilliant setting, great music, they serve great beer, you can't fault it, I just hope we add to that!

Four Day Hombre (Jason, Si, Rich, Ed, Ash) & Becky Roberts - Blakey Jan '03

visit the Four Day Hombre page

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