[ February 25, 2005 ]
Whisperin' with Dave Rotheray
Whisperin' + Hollerin'
Dave Rothery Interview
Feb 25, 2005
by Tim Peacock
Courtesy of Louise + Gina Dipper
As a rule, were you to mention DAVE ROTHERAY, you'd normally think of the musical half of one of the most successful British songwriting partnerships since Lennon & McCartney: for by day the affable and totally likeable Yorkshireman writes the melodies behind Paul Heaton's acerbic lyrical swipes in The Beautiful South.
However, what few people realise is that on the quiet, Dave is also a very accomplished lyricist, who's been (literally) writing songs in his bedroom over the past few years and in recent times has linked up with under-rated chanteuse and famous daughter of Joe, Sam Brown to form HOMESPUN. The band's two albums are gentle, bucolic singer/ songwriter affairs and the new one "Effortless Cool" is just about to see the public light of day. It's a quiet little marvel and more than reason enough for us to place a strategic call to Mr.Rotheray for a chat.
Dave, tell us a little more about the roots of Homespun. Am I correct in thinking that you were literally writing songs in your bedroom and hoarding them before Sam became involved?
"Yeah, pretty much," replies Dave, who's upbeat, thoroughly open and great fun to speak with.
"It's a compulsion to write songs with me, a sort of habit I can't drop, and for a few years I'd built up a personal stash of songs I hadn't an outlet for with The Beautiful South. I mean, I can't sing, so that's the solo album out of the window (laughs)."
"It was only when I met Sam (Brown) and became friends," he continues, "that I began to think she'd be someone I'd be very comfortable to sing my songs to without too much embarrassment (laughs) and let her interpret them properly."
How did you get to meet Sam to begin with? I read somewhere that she was your "first choice" as vocalist, but did you know her previously?
"Yeah, I'd met her backstage at "Later With Jools Holland," reveals Dave.
"And also a couple of times backstage at gigs and I just really liked her. She's very relaxed and I feel at ease around her, so she's just what I've been looking for."
Right. Actually, I remember seeing Sam live at the time of her huge hit "Stop" in 1989. I was really impressed as I was a bit derisory of her before I saw her perform. She's got quite a voice, hasn't she?
"Yeah, I think she's wonderful," Dave agrees. "I liked her when she was having those hits early on, but actually later she made some really amazing records. There's one she did called "43 Minutes" that's about the death of her Mother and obviously it's really personal because of the subject matter, not to mention her least commercially successful one....but that's an incredible record. For me, it's the one you should really go our of your way to seek out."
Point taken, Dave. But, while we're on the subject, what do you make of Jamelia's version of "Stop". Because of its' association with the "Bridget Jones" movie, the soddin' thing's been omnipresent on the radio, hasn't it?
"Yeah, I've heard it SO many times on the radio, " Dave laughs.
"When I heard it the first time, I phoned Sam and said :"Jamelia's just massacred "Stop" all the way to No.5". I mean, she's just xeroxed Sam's version, even down to the ad libs. She's a good enough singer is Jamelia, but....well, let's just say I prefer the original and leave it there," he finishes diplomatically.
I must confess at this point that I'm presently entirely ignorant of the first Homespun album (eponymously titled, as far as I know), but I'm intrigued you've cited The Grateful Dead's folkier period of the early '70s (circa "American Beauty") as an influence. On hearing "Effortless Cool" I can understand it, though: the gentle, downhome, folky beauty of the songs...
"Yes, that period of The Grateful Dead was a big thing in the creation of the sound of Homespun," Dave confirms.
"I love both "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead" and also Jerry Garcia's first solo album. I love the acoustic nakedness of those records. They sound a bit ragged, but it all just feels right. Also, instrumentally, I like the idea of playing something and just leaving it like it is without too many embellishments. Those albums don't sound processed in the way much modern music does."
Absolutely. But is Homespun the major creative force for you these days? You are still very much involved with The Beautiful South, aren't you?
"Oh yes, very much," replies Dave, "but Homespun is totally different in terms of approach."
"In the South," he continues, "Paul (Heaton) and I co-write, there aren't songs just brought in by one person, but Paul is very much the lyricist, it's almost entirely his forte. For me with Homespun it's a different motivation and being the lyricist is very different."
Is there a story behind the new album's title "Effortless Cool"?
"Well, I had the title prior to the song," divulges Dave.
"It was just a phrase I really liked, I thought it would look great on a T-shirt, y'know?" he laughs.
"The actual song "Effortless Cool" (one of the record's highlights - Ed) is about fashion and the idea of beauty being on the inside rather than the outside, in the way it always seems to be perceived. I thought it would look very ironically funny to see someone like myself wearing a T-shirt saying "Effortlessly Cool"."
To go back to lyric writing again, your press release states you weren't : "interested in writing about themes or issues, but just my state of mind at the exact moment each song was written." You were saying that Paul Heaton was exclusively the lyricist in The Beautiful South, so did you have to teach yourself to become a lyric writer? Was it something that sat awkwardly with you?
"Actually no," replies Dave. "Because I've actually always thought of myself as a lyricist, funnily enough. Though my style of writing is totally different to Paul's. I have to be in a certain mood to write and I can't do abstract stuff or character stuff, the way Paul can write in the third person. That's genius in itself, but it's not natural for me to write that way. It wouldn't convince anyone."
Right. But personally I still think you write some witty observations regardless. Like on "Whistlestop Blues" on the new album, which opens wth the lines: "I'm in the buffet car at King's Cross, imagining sex with you/ Is a bad first line for a song, perhaps, but it happened to be true."
"Yeah, right," laughs Dave. "I like that song myself. As you've probably gathered, that song's about a train journey from King's Cross up to Hull and it's just describing my thoughts as they were. It's really short...only about a minute, like "If We're So Happy How Come We're Drinking So Much"....that's another one I like. It says the title a couple of times and disappears. I love stuff like that."
Cool. But finally on that theme, I recently checked out a review of your "Homespun" on Amazon.com where the reviewer described you as sounding "like The Beautiful South without the cynicism." How does that line of thinking sit with you?
"It's probably quite accurate," says Dave, matter-of-factly. "People like the cynicism in the South's songs, it appeals to most of us, I think. But it's not for me with my own songs. I mean, I do find cynicism funny and when it's allied to a writer with Paul's talents, the end results are often brilliant. But yeah, I can totally concur with that review. "Like The Beautiful South, without the cynicism - and drums!" That's Homespun!"
Marvellous. But talking of the Homespun line-up, we ought be be aware that it's more than just you and Sam, isn't it? You've got people like Claire McTaggart, Tony Robinson and Melvin Duffy on board, who are famous for playing with the likes of Super Furry Animals and Portishead to name but two. How did you recruit all these names? You must have quite an address book, Dave?
"Ha ha, no it just came together quite naturally," Dave laughs.
"Tony had done sessions with The Beautiful South. He knew Melvin Duffy and they knew the others through friends of friends. That's the main thing, friendship. I couldn't work any other way than with people I'm friendly with on a friendship basis."
He pauses and concludes beautifully:
"After all, virtuosity's all very well, but not if the guy's a dick, right?"
Amen to that Dave.
Delores / Link to Here
[ January 13, 2005 ]
This is Hull: Exton's Beautiful Game
This is Hull
Why Exton Enjoys the Beautiful Game
13 January 2005
Courtesy of Gina Dipper
What makes a man stay 44 years with one club?
Ask Tony Exton why he has spent that length of time with local amateur football team Sculcoates Amateurs and he has to think deeply.
"It just happened," he smiles. "I played for Scullys for 10 years - although not very well - and then the secretary Albert Emson died.
"So I was given the job - and 34 years on I'm still here.
"It's a job you either love doing - or you just don't do it," says the 65-year-old retired sales representative from north Hull.
"It's now a major part of my life, I've loved nearly every minute of it and I'll stay here until they kick me out.
"Winning trophies has always been my major plus - and we've won our fair share."
Scullys won the County League championship five seasons in a row from 1991 to 1996, along with the League Cup, the HE Dean Cup and the East Riding Senior Cup two seasons running.
They've also won the Humber Cup and the Dave Whitton champion of champions trophy.
Scullys also made headlines of a different type when they signed Paul Heaton, lead singer with pop group The Housemartins.
"This was in 1986 and caused a fair amount of media attention," remembers Exton.
"He was playing Sunday League football with Grafton and a few of the Sculcoates players were in the same team.
"They recommended Paul to me so we signed him at virtually the same time as The Housemartins released 'Caravan of Love' which went straight to number one in the charts."
"The funny thing was he turned up on his bike, chained it to the changing rooms, and played the game as though he was any other player. That was Paul, he was so down to earth, there was absolutely no edge to him.
"In a following game we had to play in the village of Bainton and we couldn't believe it when they told us to change in a caravan.
"Caravan of Love was the country's number one and the sound coming from that caravan was something else."
Despite his worldwide fame, Heaton still insisted on playing.
"One night I got a call from Milan, it was Paul telling me he was just coming off stage and was catching the next plane home and would be back for tomorrow's game." Heaton, though, was only made substitute when he eventually arrived.
Exton adds: "When Paul formed the South and became more famous, his appearances for Sculcoates were limited.
"He still keeps in touch and has been to many of our club events and presentations."
Sculcoates are currently joint top of the Humber Premier League while Exton's own jobs now include being a County League vice president.
He's been on the league committee since 1973, on the East Riding County FA since 1976 and now organises the British Legion Inter-League Cup and the Dave Whitton Cup.
His own playing days may be a thing of the past, but he remembers playing for Blundell Rovers, White Star, Greenwood, Redifusion, Sculcoates and Southcoates.
"Don't make it sound as though it's a one-man job being secretary of Sculcoates Amateurs, I've had tremendous support from people like Pete Naylor, George Quinn, Trevor Jones, Harry Dobbs, Mark Petch, Darren Lever, Steve Burlock and Pete Smurthwaite.
"Football is a team game and you have to have a good back-room team. I've been very lucky, they've made my life a pleasure."
Delores / Link to Here
[ January 5, 2005 ]
Word: Enters the Greatest Pop Quiz Ever ...
Word
WORD Enters the Greatest Pop Quiz Ever ... and Comes Second
January 5, 2005
Courtesy of Julia Grant
Now we know how Beckham, Stuart Pearce and Gareth Southgate feel. Destiny in our hands, only for us to balloon it over the bar. The Word team was one tie-breaker question away from certainly the greatest pub quiz we'd ever seen: an expenses-paid weak in Las Vegas for the team of six, plus two spouses and partners, all on The Beautiful South's tab. Better, you'll agree, than scampy for two upstairs at your local. We'd already bested thirty rival outfits from the music industry and gone toe-to-toe over five tie-breakers with the players who came joint top - a crack team of trainspotters and CD-alphabetisers from music retailer MVC.
The finale was an epic clash of meaningless trivia. "MVC, when was Madonna's Papa Don't Preach a hit?" 1986? Pah, too easy. "Word, which country act covered Dr Dre's Gin And Juice?" The Gourds! Oh, it was going so well. We could almost hear the rattle of the roulette wheel and smell the complimentary chicken wings. And then...
"Word Magazine, which British solo artist covered Al Green's Let's Stay Together on his debut album last year?"
We got it wrong.
Ah well, we reflected as we made the Walk of Shame back to our table, it had been a good night. The Beautiful South organised without doubt the most lavish pub quiz ever in support of their new album, Goldiggas, Head Noddaz And Pholk Songs. The venue, Porchester Hall in Paddington, resembled a swanked-up working men's club - all dark wood and murals. There had been free beer and free gourmet Square Pies. The badn themselves competed, under the disarmingly honest name Will Suck Cock For Airplay, and at half time gave a short performance. Bon mot of the evening came from Paul Heaton. "It's a nice change for us to be able to sing 'Who ate all the pies?' at the audience instead of vice versa."
Our team - Word Up! - consisted of encyclopaedically-minded writer Dorian Lynskey, Art Director Keith Drummond, Jude and me plus two ringers, Word subscriber Kathryn Hudson and her chap Rupert Cook, who admitted they take the Guinness Book Of Hit Singles on holiday. Spirits rose when we saw the quizmaster was our own Stuart Maconie, who proved unbribable but accepted the commission for this issue's Tom Wolfe feature by text message while onstage and actually reading a question. That's multi-tasking.
It started well. We stormed the intros round, spotted that the writer of Girlfriend on The Beautiful South's debut album was lost Prince protege Pebbles and nailed both the original and hit performers of Summer Breeze - Seals & Crofts and The Isley Brothers. But as ever, it's the schoolboy errors you remember. Who produced Lou Reed's Transformer? David Bowie and Mick Ronson, not the Dame and Tony Visconti. Who had a recent hit with Stephen Stills's Love The One You're With? Damn you, Will Young! Days later you should have heard the scream of agony that went round the office when the original version of Yazz's The Only Way Is Up came on. If we'd said Otis Clay, I'd be dictating this from a Jacuzzi in Caesar's Palace now.
In the end, MVC whooped in triumph but we had our consolations. A night at a London Casino on the South's dime, when we intend to win enough to buy MVC outright and fire everybody. the warm feeling of having beaten every other music mag in Britain. And we might not be going to Vegas, but we're proud that we didn't know who murdered Al Green's Let's Stay Together. It was Lemar from Fame Academy.
Delores / Link to Here
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