Interview with the Liverpool band Space

Iinterview with the Liverpool band membTommy Scott and Allan Jones

Space are back! With a reunion gig in Liverpool's O2 Academy in Liverpool in December, a new album in 2012 and a possible world tour, the band are very busy at the moment. Luckily for us Tommy Scott and new drummer Allan Jones took time out of their schedule to give us a few answers to our questions.

How does it feel, after all this time, to be back together as a band. How does the recording feel and the reunion as a whole?
Tommy: It feels dead good to all be back together again doing solo things for so long.
We’d lost touch with each other but starting talking again after Andy’s funeral.
The band is the exact same line up apart from Andy and a sax player Andy’s replacement AlLan would make Andy proud. He’s fitted in really well.

Was it an easy decision to reform?
Tommy:It wasn’t an easy decision to reform and took years for me to decide. It’s been hard for us all to do solo stuff, even Ian McUlloch found it difficult. I also felt guilty about performing Space songs in my solo sets and it didn’t feel right to be performing them without the rest of the guys. The new solo songs went down amazing at Chester Rocks and Mathew Street lapped up both new and old Space songs even enduring the rain to have a dance.

3.The new album, do you have any idea on the name as yet?
Tommy:New album’s called, “Attack of the Mutant 50ft Kebab”.We’re still singing about serial
killers, somethings will never change
Allan: I’m so excited about it all, I was never a big Space fan growing up so had to learn
everything from scratch but I’m really excited now for the coming things, especially the
new stuff.
Tommy: There will No backing tracks either, one thing I insisted on was everything was played by us. Obviously my solo material bleeds through at times but the rockabilly songs have a "Spacey" sound to them as Fran has put bleepy noises over it to give it a 50’space sound.


What was the response to you gig at this years Chester Rocks?
Tommy: The resonse was immense. A lot of good feedback from it and people really enjoyed my solo material and throwing a few Space songs in, although I felt guilty about it, felt right.

Will the gig at the O2 in December feature any of the new material?
Tommy: It will be an even balance I think. Something for everyone. I don't really like nostalgia but I think that any reunion has am aspect of that so we hope to please everyone, old and new alike.

What are you looking forward to most at the Liverpool reunion gig?
Tommy: We are looking forward to the O2 gig, it will have a balanced mix of old and new stuff but the new songs are good enough to get the people going. Hates nostalgia so doesn’t want it
from the O2 gig. That might change though as I know the fans will be nostalgic about it. There will No backing tracks either, one thing I insisted on was everything was played by us.

So how are you dealing with the media attention again and what are your plans for the near future?
Tommy: We are hoping for a full UK tour next year as long as we don’t fall out this time.(laughs) We’re all still in the honeymoon period again then in 2013 there will be a global tour including Thailand but for 2012 we’re concentrating on the UK.

 Liverpool band Space reunite for hometown Christmas show

LIVERPOOL band Space announced today they will reform to play a special hometown Christmas show, on Thursday 22 December at the 02 Academy Liverpool. Tickets are priced £12.50 and general on sale is Monday 14 November. Tickets are available from www.ticketweb.co.uk/  0844 477 2000.

The line-up will feature original band members Tommy Scott (vocals/bass), Jamie Murphy (vocals/guitar) and Franny Griffiths (keyboards). Along with Ryan Clarke (vintage keys) and drummer Allan Jones who will replace Andy Parle who sadly died in 2009.

"We can't wait to play Liverpool again as Space. I started to play the Space songs again this summer and started to get nostalgic about the band. I think a lot of it is down to timing, it just feels right to give it a go again" says Tommy Scott.

"I'm made up Space are back together because I was heading for a lengthy prison sentence the way I was going on! So once again Space have saved the day" adds Jamie Murphy.

The platinum selling band came to prominence in the mid 1990's with hit single such as Female of the Species, Neighbourhood, Avenging Angels, Me and you Verses the World and The Balllad of Tom Jones. They worked with Tom Jones in 1999 and Cerys Matthews a year earlier. The band formed in 1993 and released four studio albums, plus a number of charting singles, before disbanding in 2005.

Back in 1993, Tommy Scott and Andy Parle had been floating around their hometown of Liverpool for too long. Where the shadow of The Beatles still hung over every aspiring Liverpudlian musician, finding the personnel to translate the sound in Scott's head had proved a frustrating and fruitless task.

A teenage would-be guitarist Jamie Murphy was always around. A precocious musical talent and hive of hyperactivity, he'd always seemed too young to be involved. With a saying in mind "If you're big enough, you're old enough", the first time Scott saw him out in a local nightclub, he decided to give it a go. Murphy turned up to his first rehearsal in school uniform. Kraftwerk fanatic Franny Griffiths was the next to join the fold. The original line-up was complete. Space had been born.

Liverpool manager Mark Cowley has been with the band since their first gig and recorded the band’s first single If it’s Real on his own label Hug Records, with The Farm's Carl Hunter designing the Artwork. It was from this that Gut Records first discovered the band and started a sub label under the same name. "It’s exciting working with the boys again....it was crazy back then and it will crazier again next year" says Mark.

An initial low key single Money/Kill Me was released in November 1995, it left the shops as quickly as it had entered. They cut their live teeth around this time too, but it was the release of their first proper single Neighbourhood that really kicked things off for the band. It told the tale of Tommy's childhood street in Liverpool, but with serial killers and transvestites in starring role. This was pop music with a dark and sharp edge, a taste of things to come.

The second single Female of the Species was a bolt from the blue. Scott wrote this song for his late father, who had always hated his music. He wanted it to sound like a Burt Bacharach tune sung by Frank Sinatra. The results were wonderful. Female of the Species was an instant classic, staying in the UK top 40 for an amazing 3 months. It was this song that catapulted Space to a whole new audience. The debut album Spiders was a resounding critical success. Three sold out tours, three further Top 20 singles, Dark Clouds, a re-released Neighbourhood and the Top 10 hit Me and You Versus The World and some triumphant festival appearances followed.

Old acquaintance Dave Palmer, better known as Yorkie, joined the band in late 1997. After helping out with the album, Yorkie was asked to become the bands' full time bassist, allowing Tommy to concentrate on vocals.

Internationally, things began to happen for the band; already a massive hit in the UK Female of the Species also gained moderate airplay on college radio and MTV in America as well. With success comes touring, with touring comes stress. A tour of the US followed in mid-1997. Jamie, the youngest member of the band at only 21, found it all too much. He took a break, missing some live shows and TV appearances. The death of Palmer's mother, legendary Liverpool singer Gladys Palmer, also devastated the band.

Jamie returned for the recording of Space's second album Tin Planet. This was a darker, more song-led album than their debut. Scott's voice was at the fore, as the band mixed the classicism of his songs with Griffiths' keyboard backdrops, Murphy's energy and Parles' solid rhythms.

Tommy described Tin Planet as, "More darkness, but the songs were pure love songs. Our first songs used to be trying to be like Speedy Gonzales or Peter Lorre. Then it became more Marlene Dietrich."

In early 1998 after finishing Space's second album Tin Planet, drummer Andy Parle left. He was immediately replaced by Leon Caffrey.

In 2001, Space parted ways with Gut following certain issues with the label, including the constant postponing of their third album Love you More Than Football .  Jamie  Murphy decided to quit the band in early 2002. After a three year break from public attention, Space returned in 2004 to release Surburban  Rock  'N' Roll,  their first proper release of new material since Tin Planet.  
In 2005 Space announced their decision to go their separate ways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1NBpVKWh_c&ob=av2e

Pink Floyd reunion thwarted by David Gilmour, claims Roger Waters

David Gilmour is "not interested" in a Pink Floyd reunion, Roger Waters said this week, making it clear that the band have no plans to tour. Although Waters has announced his own solo tour, he is also preparing a stage musical based on The Wall.

"David is completely uninterested," Waters told the Associated Press. "After [Pink Floyd's reunion at] Live 8, I could have probably gone for doing some more stuff, but he's not interested." Instead, Waters has been working "on and off" for the last year with Ian Hall, an English playwright best known for the screenplay (and, later, libretto) for Billy Elliot. "Lee's become a close friend of mine, and I'm touching wood but we think we've finally found a director [who] we want to work with, so that's another project that's in the pipeline. We're on the fourth or fifth version of the book."

In adapting The Wall for the stage, the biggest challenge is apparently the lack of jokes. "My one disappointment with the original rock'n'roll show that we did, and to some extent with the movie as well, there weren't many laughs in it," Waters said. "Humour is a very important part of my life, so part of the reason for wanting to do a production on Broadway is to express the funny side of the characters."

Meanwhile, Waters is celebrating The Wall's 30th anniversary by performing the album himself. A North American tour has been booked for this autumn, with worldwide dates to follow next year. Although it has been 18 years since his last studio album, Waters is also writing new music. "I have a ton of songs," he said. "Some of them are recorded, and some of them are half-recorded, and I keep promising myself that I'm gonna find a collaborator and put them together in some kind of coherent form ... It's strange how time keeps clicking away. And each page turns faster then the last, in my experience."