12 Pubs 12 Pints

In the nine years since Shaun of the Dead took the world by surprise, the talents of Wright, Pegg, and Frost have flourished, and been rewarded with the trust of the studio, and the inherent budget that comes with it. It’s put to good use here, although the excellent and numerous special effects never overwhelm the characters.

The plot, then. The World’s End centres around Gary King (Pegg), and his insistence on reliving the greatest night of his life. One big pub crawl. The Golden Mile, back in his home town of Newton Haven. In the twenty years since they attempted the crawl, everyone except for Gary has moved on, grown up, and become a part of society. Gary, however, seems stuck in the past, seeing the world through nostalgic eyes, and an almost desperate need to get his old friends to behave in the way they always used to. The supporting cast that make up the group are a fine ensemble of British talent. Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsen, Martin Freeman, and Rosamund Pike all get the chance to flex their comic timing muscles and all are as good as you’d expect from such stellar performers. If you’ve seen the trailers, the twist may not come as a massive surprise, but they certainly take it somewhere interesting, unexpected, and in spectacular fashion, particularly where the action scenes are concerned. Edgar Wright has taken his experience on Scott Pilgrim, his natural chemistry with Pegg and Frost, English pubs, and created a whole new style of fighting. Forget the Raid, this is every bit as spectacular. This is Pub Fu. One memorable sequence involves Gary trying to fend off attackers while not dropping his pint. Hilarious, and also technically stunning to watch.

You’d definitely have a drink here…

Wright and Pegg deserve credit for not rigidly sticking to a tried and trusted formula where the characters are concerned, and giving us a subtle twist on what we’d expect. I’m not saying it’s massively different from what you’d be hoping for, but it may be a little different from what you’re used to where the Pegg/Frost dynamic is concerned. If you like SotD, HF, or Spaced, chances are you’ll like this. A lot. What you do get is a very carefully put together film, with some unexpectedly dark and tragic moments, especially where Gary’s concerned. You find yourself torn between wanting to root for him, or to smack him in the face. If there’s one thing you know by the end of this film, is that it’s pointless arguing with Gary King. Gary is one of those people that we all knew when we were younger, who peaked as school was chucking out. The high point of his life so far was the big pub crawl, and for him, life just stalled after that. He never moved on, and as the films progresses, you see a more tragic and desperate side to his character, although the childishness and male 18 year old bravado never really completely disappears. That makes for a few memorable on-liners, and ensures this film is likely to be quoted easily as often as the first two. Particular favourites of mine come from the goldmine that is a drunk man trying to talk to a woman in a pub, “I love you, and I’m not just saying that because I’ve had seven pints”.

Bilbo worried about the new quest Gandalf had sent him on

While there are some great comedic moments (naming the bad guys, and a great visual gag about chain pubs to reference just two) the themes running through the film are sometimes sombre and touch on the aspects of hitting your mid to late 30s that all of us nearly there are worried about. I’ve gone from someone in my mid twenties to someone ticking the 35-44 box on application forms since Shaun of the Dead came out. I’ve grown up with these people, and I can relate to what they’re going through. Well, to a point. I’ve seen very few zombies in real life.

The film reaches it’s conclusion, the audience in the cinema stands and applauds. It doesn’t feel like two thirty in the morning, we could watch all three films all over again, as long as the Cornettos don’t run out. But that’s exactly what’s happened, there are no more Cornettos. We’re done. These guys raise the bar on what you should be entitled to expect each time they produce anything. If this is the last time they work together, then they’ve gone out on an absolute belter. Whisper it, but I’ve got a sneaky feeling that this could be the best film out of all three.

Mine’s a pint, and maybe a mint choc chip Cornetto…

Right, there’s this bloke, with a guitar, and he’s pretty good at writing songs and singing them at your face. He’s very nice and polite about it though. In your face, but not in your face. I’m a big fan. His name’s Ben Marwood, which you’ll have no doubt noticed from the title of this post, and the big picture at the top. Good work, 10 points to Gryffindor. He writes lyrics which describe your life, even if you don’t know it yet. And lucky you, he’s not long released a new album on the highly thought of record label, Xtra Mile. And even luckier, he has been very nice and spared some bit of his time to answer a few questions for me, about the new album and how to win the lottery (that may not be entirely true, but you’ve got to read it now, just in case).

Where are you, right now?
I am sat out in the garden. It’s rare that a day off coincides with sun. I’ve been out here most of the day. I spent a lot of time out here last Summer but then vacated in September when the spiders took over, then the shit weather meant complete neglect. A few weeks back I came out here when The Gods Of British Winter had finally buggered off, surveyed the mess and thought “yes, I am going to do the garden” and instantly with that statement I felt the last true grains of my youth fall away. Since bees are having a hard time I was going to make a great garden for bees, but only weeds seem to have thrived. Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat I have decided to dedicate this garden to the growing of weeds, have renamed it The Weed Garden and now I don’t ever have to garden ever again.

Serious Marwood is serious

So, the new album has just been released. You’ve mentioned that the recording process for this one was very different from the first one. What was the reason for that decision? Money? Sanity?
Ah, crumbs. What a question. At this level money is always an issue but the winner of this question (if there is one, and there isn’t) has to be Sanity. I went all kinds of nuts trying to squeeze this album out, and it wasn’t even the fault of the album. After the first album came out (2011), between the first headline tour in January and the Frank Turner tour support in May I wrote ten or so songs for this album. So far so good. The writing process for me has always been pretty set:

Step 1: write song. say “yay, a finished song”.
Step 2: play song through about 200 times by yourself or in front of people until the nuances and the quirks kick in and the whole thing sounds ace
Step 3: work out how you record it

In August 2011 I moved into a flat with my brother where music was all but impossible. It was like one of those grand old Victorian houses built before anyone knew what a straight line was, converted badly into five or six flats. The walls were so thin you could hear next door snoring, and the girl who lived below us in the basement was such an intolerable shitsack. Any noise she could pick up on, there goes the pounding on the ceiling – I shit you not, once I drew her ire just by ironing, and once by clinking my cutlery on my dinner plate. My room was also the point where two flats met below us and two flats met above. I had the noise of up to four neighbouring flats in my room and couldn’t make any noise. Trying to write songs was like performing with ghosts in the room; ones you couldn’t see and who had physical forms close by but still so far away that you weren’t allowed to punch them in the mouth.

After a month or so I wanted to stave my own head in and it’s thanks to a wonderful few friends that I didn’t (also, now I think about it, the whole place was so badly built that if I had decided to swing by my neck from somewhere, I’d probably have accidentally renovated the place). I put a lot of work into album one and I couldn’t duplicate it for album two because THUD of the endless THUD interference THUD when I tried. So, step two was entirely cut out, some songs didn’t even get probably finished and all of them, barely formed, were recorded at great length and expense and eventually we made an album out of it.

Now I’ve moved house, started playing gigs again and have played through the songs from Back Down about two million times, I would love the chance to go back and try it all again, but it stands as a testament to a difficult time in my life like a child from an illicit affair. And I’m quite proud of the little bastard.

And rightly so, it’s a great record. The video for Lock and Key (which you can see below) is really very good indeed. What was the process of filming that like? Also, you make quite a convincing murderous psychopath, so well done on that.
Ah man, that was such good fun. I shot it with my good friend Ben Morse who came up with the idea and the plan and did all the cool stuff, and I just had to act like a murderer. As it happens that comes pretty naturally. At first it was odd having a camera in my face – it’s not like many people do that to me – and I was a touch nervous, but by the end of the day I was well up for being a murderer. I hope the rest of my videos involve me wandering around muddy forests at dusk with some fake blood. A lot of people have commented on how convincing a psychopath I make, and now I have to pretend like it was hard work. “Oh yes, it took a lot of practicing in front of a mirror and studying of horror films and such and such”, I say, whilst thinking “I’m glad no-one asked me to act like a non-psycho. With these eyes, teeth and hair, that would take real acting”.

What is your favourite Christmas special? (this question inspired by the title to track 3, “The Soundtrack to the Trailer for Your Miserable Christmas Special”).
You know what, I’m not sure I know of many Christmas specials that I’ve seen. At Christmas, instead of watching normal TV, my family and I tend to sit around arguing, opening presents, eating lots of turkey and then watching some nonsense on a Sports channel for no other reason than “SPORTS!!”. Still, the best Christmas specials are the happy ones. Not the ones that inspired track three (grey, morbid soap nonsense), more like.. er.. can I have Muppets Christmas Carol?

I’m sure I’ve used this shot before

Do you take any inspiration from literature? What in particular do you draw on if so?
I always feel like a dimlord when I say this, but, not especially. I occasionally drop in references to books here and there, but for much better and appropriate use of literature in songs I recommend Retrospective Soundtrack Players’ new album ‘Catcher In The Rye’.

Honestly, I don’t read very much. I definitely can, I’m just a really, really tough critic regarding books and there are very few I make it past the halfway mark of without screaming “THIS MAKES NO SENSE!” at its unfeeling paperback cover of a face. I recommend House Of Leaves though, that’s probably the only book I’ve read in the last ten years which I would like to read again.

Finally, as a proud Welshman, I am intrigued by the final track on the album, Lake Wales. Any clues as to what that’s about?
Ah man, I feel like I’m disappointing you for two questions in a row! Lake Wales is not to do with Wales, but we can pretend if you like. Lake Wales is, like Yeehaw Junction which is also referenced on the album, a place in Florida. The song references a trip I took through there. My girlfriend, her parents and I took a road trip from Tampa for a few hours, past Lake Wales and into the middle of Florida where they bought her a puppy from a lady who looked for all the world like a pirate due to an eye injury she’d sustained previously. There was a dirt track, there were puppies all over the place, we saw a man nearby stood on his gatepost with a shotgun. It’s everything you know you want from an American road trip from the things you’ve seen on TV. I was terrified.

Actually, the song is not about any of that interesting stuff. But the dog is great. In the end we named her Tina after Tina Fey. Did you know Tina Fey is allergic to dogs? I did not. That means if I ever meet her I can’t say “HEY I know a dog named after you that you cannot meet. Hey, come back!”.

An imaginary Tina Fey runs off into the distance…

As Tina Fey disappears from view, either escaping from a mad dog or an Englishman, I’d like to thank Ben for giving up his time. The album is currently on rotation both in my car, and my brain, where it’s replaced Tape Deck Heart by Frank Turner, which is no mean feat. As Ben mentions in one of the tracks, there are no gimmicks left for album two. It’s just good songwriting. If you want to discover some new music this year, give Ben Marwood a listen.

Ben is on tour in June at the following venues, and I’d really recommend getting to a show if you can, it’s a lot of fun.

• Jun 01 LEICESTER Cookie Jar/Crumblin’ Cookie (14+)
• Jun 02 BIRMINGHAM The Railway (18+)
• Jun 03 YORK Black Swan (18+)
• Jun 04 DUNDEE Cerberus Bar (18+)
• Jun 05 EDINBURGH Pivo (18+)
• Jun 06 MANCHESTER Bay Horse (18+)
• Jun 07 CHELTENHAM Frog and Fiddle (18+)
• Jun 08 BRISTOL The Louisiana (16+)

You can buy Back Down from the usual outlets by clicking the links below.
Ben’s also on Twitter @benmarwoodmusic, and has a load of stuff you can download here.

Back Down – iTunes

Next week sees the release of Tape Deck Heart, the 5th studio album by punk/folk singer Frank Turner. You may not have heard of him. Despite him playing a headline gig to 12,000 people at Wembley last year, and being part of the Olympic opening ceremony, he has remained under the radar of the mainstream, but to be honest, I don’t think he (or his fans) really care about that. After all, if you’ve been part of one of his live shows (and if you’ve been to one, you were part of it, make no mistake), you’ll realise that approval and validation aren’t very important things to worry about at all.

Very much an artist who wears his heart on his fretboard, Frank Turner is honest in his lyrics, painfully so in some cases. Tape Deck Heart looks to be an album that doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects either. I think the sentiment behind his songs are evident, and you can draw your own conclusions to what lyrics mean, so I’m not going to try and analyse what I know of the album so far. What I do know is that the lead single from Tape Deck Heart is called Recovery, and the excellent video for it is just below. Watch, listen, and enjoy. You’ll be singing along the second time…

Also located somewhere on this page (probably down near the end of the post) is a great documentary, “Frank Turner, The Way I Tend To Be”, made by long time Frank-collaborator Greg Nolan.

If you’re keen to catch up with his back catalogue, pretty much everything’s available on Spotify, and there’s loads of stuff on YouTube as well. I know all music fans tend to think the same about acts they like, but there really is a feeling of being a part of something special at every one of Frank’s shows. There’s much less a feeling of “us” idolising “him” on stage, it’s more a case of “one of us” has made it up on stage. Seriously, it’s the most inclusive gig experience I’ve ever had, and the most fun.

Frank has very kindly taken some time out to answer a few questions I’d sent him. Brilliantly, considering he’s got a new album out next week, I didn’t even mention it once. My interviewing skills are really top notch.

Frank Turner

Frank, you’re notoriously hard working, you rarely seem to have a day when you’re not playing somewhere. Do you get out to many gigs? If so, who’ve been recent stand outs for you?
I do go to gigs when I can, it’s something I love doing, though as you say, I spend a lot of time on the road, and if I only have one day off sometimes I don’t want to spend it at a gig venue! Recently I saw Joey Cape and Jon Snodgrass play, that was great, and I also saw Murder By Death and Man Man in Boston, which was amazing.

You’ve introduced me to a fair few new acts, who are now established favourites of mine (Ben Marwood and Jim Lockey being two examples). Have you got any more acts up your sleeve to unleash on the gig going public?
Yeah I always try and spread the word about new bands that I like, and I use the support slots on my tours for that too. So right now I have George Frakes and Larry & His Flask on the road with me, I’m excited for more people to see and hear them.

Last year was, I think it’s fair to say, more than moderately successful for you, with Wembley and the Olympics proving particularly grand scale highlights. What are your hopes for 2013?
I hope the album does well, that people like it and sing along with the new songs at shows – that’s my focus for the time being.

You don’t come across like someone hell bent on world domination. Did you ever had a career path in mind when you set out to do what you do? Have you got any particular milestones you definitely want to achieve?
My “career” (that word makes me feel a bit weird, haha) hasn’t really been planned – I keep my head down and play the best shows, write the best songs, that I can. I guess right now I’m kind of curious to see where things can go. I don’t want to get bored or repeat myself, and I have the opportunity now to push on some doors that I haven’t been through before, so we’ll see. But yeah, I’m not really frothingly ambitious as a person.

Does your mum still want you to get a proper job? Or is she now touring with you on harmonica duty?
Haha, I don’t think my ma would like touring much. But she is pretty happy about how things are going for now, though not so keen on my tattoos.

Do you plan any of your tattoos in advance, or are they all spur of the moment affairs?
Speak of the devil..! Most of my ink is planned for a long while, though there’s always room for some spontaneous stuff too.

You’ve done a few covers over the years. Are there any songs you’d love to cover, but wouldn’t dare go near, in case you didn’t like the result?
A wise man once told me never to try and cover Tom Petty songs – they’re too perfect. I have actually done a cover of one of his numbers, American Girl, at shows, but it’s still pretty sound advice.

Tape Deck Heart is released on Monday 22nd April. Click the banner below to go to the Frank Turner store where the album and a load of cool merch is available.

They’re not even trying any more. I had an email this morning, purporting to be from Barclays Bank, which closed with the line:

Honestly, BARCLAYS Security Department.

At least they stopped shot of “Honest guv”, and nudging me with their elbow.

Pic by Ben Morse

If you’ve followed me on Twitter at all, or seen some of my music related blog posts, you’ll know I’m a big fan of introverted singalong troubadour, Ben Marwood. After a 2012 spent very much hard at work, touring (as well as making an appearance at a certain Olympic opening ceremony with Frank Turner), and putting all his free time into new material, we’re all about to reap the benefits. You can listen to one of the new songs for free on that little widgety thing just underneath this text.

The trusty six string

In addition to the forthcoming second album, just to get us all warmed up, Ben’s releasing two brand new EPs, as well as a download of demo stuff. The demo stuff was originally a little release on Bandcamp, which much to Ben’s (but none of his fans) surprise, went ballistic pretty quickly, and for good reason. It showcases the natural songwriting gifts that hopefully a much wider audience will hear this year. So, if you like this, or any of the other free stuff Ben provides, then it’s worth getting hold of his first album (still on duty in my car, like a belligerent relative that I keep thinking should have outstayed it’s welcome by now, but hasn’t), which is still for sale at all the usual outlets. I’d recommend a shop, but by the time I’ve finished typing, who knows how many will be left…

Ok, so I’ve rewritten this post approximately one gazillion times, and tried to put into words the effect the Olympics and Paralympics have had on me (and also hopefully the nation). But every time, I’ve drifted off into trite words that sounds insincere.
So what I’m going to do instead is say a massive thanks to everyone involved. I’ve put together a slideshow of some of the pictures I took on the day that me and my wife managed to get tickets, and added a bit of music. It’s just above. That thing you skipped past to get to what you expected to be witty prose. I’m sure I’ll try and do a write up at some point, but for now, I hope the pictures suffice.

You can see the images in better clarity and without the music here.

The Stadium at the Olympic Park

I look slightly happy for some reason

THHN DSQCK RTHNTHY

A seemingly incoherent string of letters. In actuality, a well known phrase with the vowels removed. Bear it in mind as you read this, it’s a string of letters that I’ve had in my mind for about 5 months now, ever since the recording of our Only Connect episode back in March. My team, consisting of fellow Join Me members Rachel Burns and Sean Gleeson, had auditioned and been lucky enough to make the main show.

If you’ve not seen Only Connect (or read my previous post about the auditions), I’ll try to describe it for you. It’s a quiz show, hosted by Victoria Coren, where the contestants try to make connections between seemingly unconnected things. It’s become a bit of a cult hit on BBC 4, and is now into it’s sixth series. A lot of the charm of the show is down to the wry, acerbic, but ultimately warm and self effacing wit of Victoria. She really sets the tone for the show, aimed at those of us with so much obscure knowledge in our heads, it needs an outlet to stop us annoying our colleagues and loved ones. Only Connect is that outlet.

Discussing tactics

I did not sleep well. I barely slept at all. Nerves had taken hold, and with my room being directly in the flight path of some wedding guests, I didn’t really manage to rest my weary, yet over active brain. After what seems like days of waiting, my completely redundant alarm goes off, and I drag myself up and out of bed, and off to breakfast.

Some taxis have been arranged to pick us up and take us to the studio. We’re all packed, ready to go home. One team will return to the hotel for another night, and to film the following round. The other team will go straight home, not passing Go, not collecting £100, but heading to Cardiff Central, possibly via a number of drinking establishments. We pull up at the studio, a large, blocky grey building, a joyless exterior giving no clue as to the glamorous proceedings soon to be contained within. We are greeted at the door by the lovely production team, led by Jenny and Rachel. I think it’s worth at this point taking a moment to mention just how nice the production team are on Only Connect. I’ve never done any form of TV at all, but I’d struggle to see how any other production team could be nicer, and were happy to help put us all at ease. I’ve heard from other contestants who’ve been on other TV quiz shows that the Only Connect family are head and shoulders above the others, and it’s easy to see why.

Relaxing before the recording

Before Victoria arrived, there was a run through of each round, with Jenny performing the hosting duties. This helped us get used to the buzzers, and make sure we could see the screens properly. I seem to recall we did fairly well at answering the questions, trying to provide amusing connections when we were completely stabbing in the dark. And then, before we knew it, Victoria had arrived, the run through was over, and we were ready to begin.

Watching it back now, I don’t remember round one being quite as one sided as it obviously was. We’d managed to get a couple of answers correct, even stealing the first one, but we were already four points down, and worrying that we were going to really struggle. The second round saw our confidence raise as we settled down a bit, we had raised our game, and managed to claw back a couple of points. Only two behind, and time for the wall round.

There must be some groups in here

Before the round started, Victoria announced the scores, The Draughtsmen had also scored the maximum, and so we had a couple of points to make up if we were to win the contest. Before the show, and even up until the end of the second round, I genuinely wasn’t that bothered about winning. I just wanted us to give a good account of ourselves, and not let down the people who’d supported us and encouraged us to even get this far. We’d already completed a difficult application and had a filmed audition to even make the show. Now though, heading into the last round, we’d had a taste, and we wanted victory.

Taking direction – “Stare at Vicky”

And so, back to those letters.

THHN DSQCK RTHNTHY

They appear on the screen. My mind instantly conjures up an option for what it could be, but it doesn’t fit the letters. Now that’s all I can think of. Stupid brain. I can feel my team mates tense beside me, they know the answer, but are powerless to help.

The buzzer sounds. It’s not me… I hear the phrase “The hand is quicker than the eye”, and suddenly it’s over. We’d come close, but in the end had fallen short by a single answer. We’d been beaten by a great team, and I wish them all the best for the rest of the competition. I can’t help but think that had we come up against a different team in the first round, we’d maybe have made the quarter finals. It was not to be.

As it was, I’d managed to get on my favourite quiz show, met one of my favourite writers/tv presenters, and had one hell of a great day. Not a bad return, all told. Watching it on screen last Monday was far worse than the actual recording, much more nerve wracking. It’s a very strange thing to see yourself on TV if you’re not used to it, particularly when you know how it’s going to end.

If you want to try your hand at the connecting wall round, you can do so here. Our episode is also on the BBC iPlayer for a little while, you can find that here.