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	Interview with Alistair Griffin recorded 19th June 2004 in Castleton, North York Moors, prior to his gig at Jumpin' Jax, Middlesbrough, with Riccardi. (page 3)
----	AG: Memorable ... it's been hilarious, so many funny things. When I first came out, I had to go and do PAs, they booked a load of PAs. And I didn't actually know what they were. I thought, "Oh great, a little guitar playing, it's on in a club." It was to backing tracks. I thought, "Oh, fine, I'll just go and sing a couple of songs." But it was in these like ... how to describe them ... Zanzibar. Zanzibar nightclubs. I was like, "…kin' hell". Looking out - there was like …loads of blokes, and when you come on stage they all boo you. (laughs). And they're goin' like …. "Aah, Go on, f…. off", (laughs). But a lot of my fans came to these things, and people ... again, I always have a good rapport with the audience, and people just kind of... sort of …. identify. I always got the impression I was kind of "people's champion". There's a man digging the road going (hoarse shout) "Oh, Bring it on … yeah!…. Still playing? Good!" A man driving a lorry or something, tooting the horn ….. "Bring it on! …..all right, mate?" Honestly, it's weird, a weird thing. And then I go to this club, and initially these guys are ... (laughs and gestures) And then after you've played "Bring It On" and I've got on to a real rock song, "Oblivion", they're on each other's shoulders going "Ah, fuckin' good!" And some of them are very memorable ….. I've turned a lot of crowds. PB: They're tough ones to crack. AG: Really tough, and that is the hardest thing to do. I've done some universities, I've done York University, my old college, last week, St John's, and it's packed, it was mad, you can't lose. It's my old college going, "Aah!" The most memorable one probably is, we did the Clapham Grand, the first gig we did with the band, Clapham Grand. That was brilliant, the sound was spot on, it sounded great, it was just a great feeling to be stood on there with a band playing the songs. And they sound right with a band. It was a proper gig, and it just sounded good, and we were happy, and when we come off we were, like, chuffed. PB: Nice. AG: There was another one in a place called the Zoo Bar in Swindon. The PA broke down ….. oh no, I got there and there were these tiny little speakers on the walls, it was like in our kitchen, about that big. So I couldn't hear anything. I was behind the track. Again, it was a backing track. Anyway, they had this dance cage in the middle, and I said, "Bollocks, I'll just go and stand in there." So I did it, performed in this cage. Literally. You know, where the girls go to dance. I went and stood in there. I was a bit drunk, I went a bit mad, and I was ….trying to get me clothes off and stuff. (laughs) That's my thing ….. I was never really given the opportunity to show what I can do as a performer on Fame Academy ... always given these ballads. PB: You've got that ahead. (Yeah). And you've got ongoing serious exposure. You're doing a lot of, how to say it, charity work, and you're obviously ... The Children's Ward at James Cook Hospital is a beneficiary of this gig this evening, isn't it. You've done stuff for National Missing Persons, Cancer Research ... has this been by chance, or is it something you've thought, "No, I'll do something …..?" AG: Well, some of it's by chance. A lot of the charity things you get invited to …… it's kind of weird, I think. They get you there because you're famous, and you've got a bit of notoriety. But I think, "God, what am I doing here?" I don't think of myself as a celebrity at all. And you do those things because it's a good thing to do, it's helping someone, and it's quite a lot of fun. The football was great. You got to meet Bobby Robson…. PB: Venables. AG: And Venables, yeah. It's nuts, really. Bobby Robson told me off for not paying attention. Crazy. But the Missing Miles thing is the only thing I've consciously gone and said, "I want to help", ……a friend of mine went missing…. And .. --------------------------------- PB: I think there's other things, a sense of responsibility. On your website, there's a pop-up which is to do with internet safety. Very rare to see that sort of thing. AG: The people who run the site are great, they run that website very well and they're very conscious of things like that, making sure .…. I agree. It's a funny old world….. PB: Danby Show, tell us what's going to happen there? What can we expect? AG: They haven't told me, I don't know what they want. (laughs) Turn off the recorder! I honestly don't know what the plan is, I mean ….will I do an acoustic set? The band won't be able to come, there'll be no band. I'm not sure. I'm thinking now, I'll have to do something a bit more earthy. PB: Pull a few local guys together. AG: Yeah, maybe we'll do that. In all honesty ... I don't know ….. how am I going to do it. The thing is if you do it with a track then you lose the kind of beefiness of the whole thing, the spectacle of it, for the sound ... but I've a feeling that's what people will want for the Danby Show. They'll want to see me go and do "Bring It On", on a couple of bales of hay. (laughs). I am judging the lemon curd contest. PB: You are? AG: Yeah. I'll be entering it as well, so that's maybe cheating. PB: You've got some history at the show haven't you ….. AG: I came third once. I won 50p. Still got it …. PB: You've entered into it have you, seriously? AG: Yeah, I entered a lot one year. I got the piss took out of me by the cricket team. I had loads of ... I once entered the flower arrangement as well. For a laugh. Oh no. It was a flower arrangement, it was a pyramid of flour, bags of Be-Ro. Some liked it, some objected (laughs). I'll probably get thrown out of the show this year! No, I'm not sure …. In all honesty I don't know what to do. I'll certainly be doing some stuff …. I'll play a couple of acoustic tracks. I might get a couple of local guys, I'll try and get Stuart, a few people to come and play. PB: Well, If you want a rhythm section let us know ... It's like playing stuff for your neighbours, for your community. Just coming back ... I think it's great you can do that, as you've just said "I don't really know …." which means you've got to sort that out appropriately, which is a knockout. AG: Absolutely. That's what I do. One thing I do …. me and James, we've done this great variety of gigs. James is from bloody Redcar, and worked on cruise ships…. I think you always have a bunch of songs, a bit like tonight. ( A gig with Riccardi at Jumpin' Jax, Middlesbrough) You think, what's going to work? What do we want to get across? I think I'm good at tailoring what I do to the audience. I'm not going to go and prostitute myself, "Let's go and do a lot of covers, happy clappy stuff", but I'm certainly always good at making it work. You do such a variety of stuff, you go and play to students, then you go to play in a club, then you go and play in the Bedford in Balham, an acoustic. I think that's my strength, versatility, in a nutshell. PB: The other things must have been a gas. Doing the Man U game. Did you enjoy that? The Riverside. AG: Yeah, it was a massive thing. It was brilliant. Quite nerve-wracking, because, you know …. a football crowd … you expect to hear "Yer shit and you know you are ..." (laughs) I've seen them do that. I've been there, and sang that to a little group of folk singers.... It was a great response, it was brilliant. A great thing to do ..... but I always think, if they boo you, God, I'll feel gutted. It never happens, though. PB: It sort of brings us round ... I'm leaping ahead, because I'm aware of your thing tonight ... how much of showbiz ... do you have any regrets at not following the indie, do-it-yourself route? Is showbiz a bit of an infringement? AG: Yeah, it is a bit, I suppose. It's like everything, a double-edged sword. I've done it the hard way, in more ways than one. It's hard anyway. It's hard doing it on Fame Academy, it's hard not doing it on Fame Academy. But I'd already done that, and spent years trying, and you regret ... it slightly hinders. It gives you a chance, but it also takes it away because of where you came from. Showbiz and all that. It's just that element of …. you're in magazines and stuff. Yeah, it would have been great to go purely from the credible indie route, working your way up, but I already was doing that, and maybe I'd have never made it, I'd have never had a chance, and not done anything. And quite possibly I wouldn't. -------------------------------- PB: Are you writing right now? Do you stay writing? AG: Yeah, I've written three or four guitar …. I don't write a hundred songs, like a lot of people do. I try to keep quality as a premium. I'm writing stuff for another album. Whether I do it myself, or for a record company, or what, I don't know. Probably with a record company. PB: How do you discipline yourself? Do you work to a discipline, or ….. how does it work? AG: Sometimes ... it's a bit like "Bring It On". When I wrote "Bring It On", I knew that one day it would be a hit, whether for me or someone else. There's a hook in it, a prominent turn of phrase, everyone was saying "Bring it on". I know when something's good, and I like to work on something until I know it's going to be right. I've got a couple of things at the minute which I'm really confident about. As far as discipline goes, I'm terrible. (laughs) PB: So you're not a nine to five writer? AG: Not really. I don't like that. PB: Some people work like that. AG: Yeah, they do. I don't know how they do it. PB: It was always the way down Tin Pan Alley. People like Lou Reed when he was at the Hit Factory, even. AG: Yeah. I'm not very good at that. I'm best sort of … inspired, a bit more inspiration, just doing stuff off the top off my head. PB: What inspires you at present? Talking about writing. Is there anything that provides serious inspiration? AG: I think a lot of what inspires me is …... Like struggling along in the music industry and all the crap you have to put up with. But probably less so …. I like to write slightly cheerful, thoughtful songs. I think doing gigs, actually. Doing these gigs ... like the one tonight. You see I wrote a lot of songs when I was at university, or just after university, and I was going through a period of going out a lot, drinking a lot. And I wrote a song called "Oblivion" which is purely about that, about this cyclical, every week going out and doing the same bloody thing. PB: How would you advise young musicians, or any musicians come to that, who want to make a career? What would you advise? AG: Danby Show. (laughs) Go to Danby Show. See how I do it. And don't follow that route. Make lemon curd. Make lemon curd! You've got to absolutely 150 per cent believe in yourself, I suppose. There are a lot of people with a lot of talent, and there's lots of bits of advice you can give people, but it happens in so many different ways these days. Don't necessarily go down the conventional route - don't necessarily make a demo, get a manager in, try and get a record deal. Don't necessarily do that. Use the internet, play lots of gigs. I think what's important is getting out there and playing. That's the obvious thing, it's what people have always done. But a lot of people won't do that. I meet people all the time who have got bloody deals, and they're like, "I've only played three gigs in me life!" "What?" You have to be absolutely tenacious, and, classical phrase …. who said it …. possibly Engelbert Humperdinck, (laughs), "The people who make it are the people who never gave up". Is that a good attitude? I don't know. But you have to be willing to…. probably make a lot of sacrifices as well. If you want to get a record deal, and you want to really make it big, then you've got to be willing to put in the work. Believe in what you've got….. aah, I don't know. PB: Very last one then. What questions would you ask of yourself in this situation? If you were interviewing yourself, what would you ask? AG: Erm ……What would I ask myself? Bloody hell! That's a philosophical ….. PB: What have we missed out? AG: I'm often asked the same questions in interviews …… "Where do you see yourself in five years?" PB: Hopefully we've avoided asking too many ... AG: No, no, you were brilliant. Very good. I can't think. Ask myself ……... Yes, that's good. I like that. "Should I enter the cheese scone section this year?" (laughs) Terrible. That's a bloody awful question. (laughs) I can't think of anything. I can't think of anything to ask myself.... PB: We covered it have we? (Yeah, I think so). That's great, Alistair. Thank you very much. AG: No worries.
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	Danby Show Wednesday 11.08.04
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