Interviews

The Gresham Flyers

‘Everyday is like Sunday’, Morrissey sang. And the people sitting in the comfy sofas in the relaxed atmosphere of the Defector’s Weld pub would like to think the same. If Morrissey spoke of ‘silence’ and ‘gloom’, this does not apply to the mood in which I find The Gresham Flyers – Thom Allott (Bass, keyboards, guitars, percussion and vocals), John Waring (vocals, keyboard, glockenspiel and guitar), Martin Hall (guitar and bass), Andrew Newman (Synths, drums, guitar and bass), Dan Morton (drums, tambourine and synths) and Sharon Leach (Casiotone, glockenspiel, percussion and vocals) - for this interview. They are cheerful, chatty and willing to share jokes while discussing music. As I find out, Sunday is the day when the band meets in the pub before heading to their practice room in Shepard’s Bush. Nice funk and Sixties psychedelic music is played in the background to provide the perfect soundtrack to the interview.

The Gresham Flyers are one of the many new bands who have been springing up like mushrooms in recent years all around the country. Word of mouth may still be regarded as a valuable means for spreading the message, but in similar fashion to bands like The Arctic Monkeys – who developed a great following on the net first – The Gresham Flyers owe their birth to the Internet.

Martin: "I was the instigator. I put an ad on Bowlie – a music forum – and John and Thom replied. The others knew already each other. Everything started from there more or less."

John: "The band has been together for about a year, but the idea to form a band came in October 2004."

If the first spark in this chain reaction was the Internet, the second was a common love for music, some bands in particular.

John: "We enjoy a mix of indie pop music. I like bands such as The Arcade Fire and New Order."

Thom: "There is a lots music some of us love and others hate. I like New Order but I think they are a bit overrated."

The band has been gigging extensively round London and even bagged a support slot to Lucky Luke during their two date Scottish tour. So what is coming next in 2006?

Thom: "a new drummer (Dan is going travelling)."

Andrew: "our first single, ‘Shiftwork’, is coming out in two weeks time."

A single is usually the prelude to an album. So, any plans to release one?

Andrew: "We only have three songs recorded properly, so not for now. It is a possibility for later in the year but first we want to concentrate on the single, see whether people like it, and then go from there."

Thom: "If people like the first single, we will sit down and take it from there. We would need to take advantage of the benefits of recording the album properly."

And what would it sound like?

John: "A classic pop album, very spiritual (laughs)."

Thom: "It will have to sound right, something that is going to last in time, something we are proud of."

Dan: "We would not want the album to have one single style, it would have to be diverse, it would have to reflect the different personalities and tastes of the band members. A concept album."


Any more gigs at the horizon? What has been your favourite Gresham Flyer’s gig so far?

John: "We are playing at The Pleasure Unit next week and we have a few more gigs in the pipeline but that’s about it for the moment. We need to concentrate on finding a replacement drummer for Dan."

Dan: "We all enjoyed the experience in Scotland, seeing people we don’t know coming to our shows."

Sharon: "The gig at the Orange club in West Kensington was quite interesting. I’ll never forget it. We ended up headlining after all the other bands pulled out. We were given 3 hours to play and we even had requests."


For some bands, many years of struggled have turned into an overnight success – see The Kaiser Chief, for example. Would you leave your job behind to become professional musicians if you were offered a record deal tomorrow?

John: "Look at some of our favourite bands. They held on to their daytime jobs for quite a while into their music career. I quite like the romance of appearing on TV and doing shows and then go back to your job."

Thom: "We have spoken to some people about selling the single under their label but for a combination of things nothing happened. I think it’s best at the moment to sort out our career and not rely on other people to take decisions for us."

What do you think of the current music scene?

Sharon: "There are a lot of bands are out there playing and this is good. The Kaiser Chief are funny but then I can’t stand a band of 17 year olds trying to be taken seriously when talking about prostitutes for example. They probably have not even seen one in their lives."

Thom: "I think a lot of the music scene at the moment is shit. There are not many innovative and interesting bands out there. Bands like Bloc Party, The Bravery, Kasabian and Babyshambles might have been influenced by Britpop but if you listen to their music is like listening to a B-Side of an Audioweb single in 1997 about being on the dole and not being able to get out of bed. It’s Brit Pop all over again. Also, the way the music industry is going about trying to stop illegal downloading, is basically killing the music and it’s not good. It’s a dilemma, everything which is an advancement in technology is seen as a bad thing.
Nobody stopped copying music back in the 1980s and nobody will be able to stop people from downloading music illegally."

With this final question still lingering in the air, the band finish their drinks and off they go to practise. It might be Sunday but somebody, in a corner of Shepard’s Bush, has got work to do.

Liz