Interview-  Friends of the Bride

Outside Fiddlers, in a car park, Bristol

Formed down the pub in 2006, Friends of The Bride are bringing something refreshingly different to the eardrums of those interested in exploring new music.  Described by Time Out as Bugsy Malone-esque indie-soul with the silkiest vocals this side of Soho, here is a quartet attired like English gentlemen who have been dubbed as leading the nu-croon scene in the UK.    

Support from DIY staples such as Young and Lost Club and Brainlove has allowed them single releases, the most recent being ‘You can’t take him anywhere’ in March this year and they have attracted a significant amount of interest from the industry as a whole. 

Their sound has a Tin Can Alley allure combined with jazz and indie influences, which creates finger snapping, swing.  They then fuse this with intelligent lyrics, sophisticatedly delivered and reminiscent of Old Blue Eyes himself.  No, they are not the epitome of what someone has decided is “cool” this week, that is not what they are about.  They are however, polished, talented and pretty damn distinctive.  Just don’t call them retro!  

We shared a (warm) beer with Bobby (singer) and Feltham (little drums) from FoTB outside the Fiddlers in Bristol just before their show at the Dot-to-Dot festival. We were joined by Cassie and Curtis from Hub Radio who recorded the interview for their show and provided entertainment in the form of dot-to-dots for the band to complete.  Good times………  

4TR – So what has been happening lately with Friends of The Bride?

Feltham - We have been performing a lot of pop concerts because we have a fancy manager now.  We have also been put into a recording studio, a proper one, i.e. not my garage, with a guy called Gareth Parton who produced Foals, and he is also the silent half of the Go! Team.  We spent 2 days with him, so for 2 whole days we have actually been a proper group.

Bobby – It was great, he was telling us what to do and so we hope we have recorded 2 pop hits with him that can be played on radio.

4TR - Are you going to play them today for us?

Bobby - Well we will play one of them but it’s actually one of the old ones.

4TR – You released your last single, ‘You can’t take him anywhere’ in March, can we be expecting another single soon?

Feltham - Like with the last records there are some of our chums in London that put them out for us, but we would really like someone proper to put this one out and go on a proper tour. We are getting quite good now too if I do say so myself, so that is what we are hoping for next.

4TR –You played the Nottingham leg of Dot-to-Dot as well as doing the Bristol one, how has it gone?

Feltham – Yeah enjoyable! When I was a kid I bemoaned that the truly detestable summer festival had sort of gone out of fashion and now they are back and I always used to say there should be indoor festivals where you can sort of wander around different venues.

Bobby - And now you moan about them don’t you!

Feltham– Yeah actually last night I moaned like buggery.

4TR – Who are your favorite bands or artists at the moment?

Bobby - We played with a band called The Clik Clik recently who are somewhat inevitably as the name suggests like The Ting Tings.

Feltham - But they were really nice weren’t they, a really nice pair of kids from Fulham and they were really jolly and much like the Ting Tings, it was very pop.  We like them! 

4TR – Your music is also essentially pop isn’t it?

Feltham– Yeah sure, I guess we have got choruses, our music is quite tin can alley, it goes from bridge then chorus, which we like.

4TR – your attire is obviously very important to you as a band and I must say you look very dapper today.

Feltham – Thank you. Actually When I first met Bobby I found him quite disconcerting because he was really dressed up to the nines and I thought that’s great that’s much more disconcerting than, [to Bobby] what was it Bobby?

Bobby - Quote “any screaming punk gimp”.

Feltham – Much more disconcerting than any spitting punk gimp actually.  The first time we discovered that feeling of which you speak was when we did a gig in Kent and we all sort of swanned in, in all the gear and people all stared at us. It looks like we are a bunch of hard lads I think.

Bobby - When in fact we are not [laughing]

Feltham - We look like we are in ‘The small world of Sammy Lee’, we look like the gangsters in that or like Brighton Rock and its great.  We saw a group walking over the bridge earlier that had this posh folk gear on. They were posh and they play folk, but they had caps on and checked shirts and looked really scruffy and we know damn well that they are middle class as hell.  Whereas we are working class and we are aspirational, a true working class person would not want to look like they are out of the gutter.

4TR – Get paid much for this gig?

Bobby - Er no not really

Feltham- £50 is our going rate for anyone that wants to book us, oh and 6 bottles of beer, a vegan sandwich and some shoe polish.

4TR – So what are you up to for the rest of the summer?

Feltham – Well we are going to finish these recordings and then see what happens and do some more gigs, as many as possible.

Bobby - We will be playing in Scotland as well over the summer, we are doing all the Scottish festivals like Belladrum.

Feltham – And there is Rockness

Bobby - It’s not called Rockness.

Feltham - It is called Rockness, a little play on words it being in Scotland and near Lockness for obvious reasons.

4TR – You like to banter on stage will there be more of that today?

Feltham – No way we got slagged off for that massively.

Bobby - Yeah there was a review of a gig in Bristol and we got right slagged off for that, “Unfunny banter” was the quote.

Feltham – I’m not going to say a word tonight, apparently people don’t understand our kind of really old-fashioned humour.

Bobby – Yes I think its best we let the music speak for itself tonight.

Feltham - Our gags are really old, tried and tested and people don’t get them still, so yeah no more banter, its over. 

4TR – Well I guess “unfunny banter” doesn’t fit with the pretentious rule-book some people think you have to abide by to be in a band.

Feltham – Well we are pretentious, happily so!  In that I mean we are pretending to be a group aren’t we?

4TR – We thought you were a group already?

Feltham - No we’re not! We are people pretending to be a group.  When we turn pro and we put records out then we will be a group, but at the moment we are the Walter Benjamin idea of a group.

Bobby - No the Jean Baudrillard idea of a group.

Feltham- We are a group on top of a group.

Bobby – Not really recording artistes yet, we are amateurs.

Feltham- Although we are artists who record, we are not recording artistes.  We are an amateur group pretending to be a group so yeah we are pretentious; we are dressing up as though we have got money but we haven’t. We are putting the fun back into being pretentious, nothing wrong with being pretentious.  I think what you are talking about is arrogance, whereas we are talking about artistry, we are artists even though all our songs are 3 minute pop songs they are quite dense.

Bobby - I think when people start buying our records it will be very different.

4TR – Last time we interviewed you it was in a car park actually!

Bobby – Yeah we only ever do interviews in car parks

4TR – Maybe you could do a show in a car park as well?

Feltham - I think you have just hit on a great idea for a tour actually, the car park tour.  Everyone could be sitting in their cars like in a drive in movie and then they could just drive away half way through, great idea [laughing]

Bobby – Not if people leave half way through.

Feltham – Support acts would all have to be relevant to the theme so we could have The Cars, The Triumphs, Emile Ford, The Cortina’s [laughing]

Bobby - Friends of the Ride?

Interviewed by Francesca Strange with Cassie and Curtis from Hub Radio – Pic’n’Mix Fun

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