‘It’s how we survive’: Wolf Alice on playing live and their hopes for getting back on stage
Virtual Glastonbury, a new album, and a slot at England’s first full festival in nearly two years – it’s been a busy few weeks for Wolf Alice.
Before heading to Suffolk to play Latitude Festival in front of 40,000 fans, the band of the moment spoke to Sky News and reflected on the recent months and the impact of the pandemic on their lives.
“It’s been very difficult not playing for the last 18 months – it’s such a huge part of our job and a huge part of our income stream and business. It’s how we survive,” guitarist Joff Oddie said.
Wolf Alice won the Mercury Prize in 2018. Pic: Reuters
“And it’s what we’ve done for the last eight years of our adult life, so it’s a huge, huge deficit of all kinds of things.”
Bassist Theo Ellis said that despite playing Glastonbury’s virtual Live At Worthy Farm, it was gigs that the group missed.
“We grew up playing gigs, we love playing gigs, it’s what we are 75% in this for, because we do so much of it, or we used to. So, yeah, it’s been weird and we’re looking forward to doing a proper one. And I’m also very scared.”
Talking about hitting the stage at Latitude this weekend, Ellis added: “We’re looking forward to going to a festival first and foremost, and being with people, because it’s going to be momentous, just because it’s happening.
“And I think we’ve got bits and moments in the set that we’ve kind of had a lot of time to spend playing, that we really hope will kind of connect with people the way that we’ve crafted it a little bit to – and then backstage bars, or the one backstage bar there is.”
Their latest release, Blue Weekend, hit streaming services and record shops last month, and reached number one in the album charts.
Drummer Joel Amey says the response to the album has blown them away, adding: “I feel very, very grateful to have that kind of reaction to something that you put so much of yourself into.”
On the timing of the album and being able to perform it live, singer Ellie Rowsell said it was “taking… quite a long time” for them to record.
“I think I felt really grateful for all the bands and other artists that put out music, regardless of not being able to do any shows just because it was something to look forward to and it was really important and I felt grateful for them.
“So I didn’t want to delay things, but we were kind of lucky because it was taking us quite long anyway. Our timeline kind of worked out.”
Although the band did not know when they spoke to Sky News, earlier in the week, the album was nominated for the highly-coveted Mercury Prize – their third nomination in as many albums.
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Ellis says their win in 2018 seems to bypass them, adding that they were “surprised” it happened.
“I think fame would really overwhelm the four of us. We’re not ready for that.”
But it cannot be denied that they have star quality, spending the summer of that year touring with the likes of Foo Fighters, Queens Of The Stone Age and even supporting Liam Gallagher at his massive Finsbury Park gig.
However, touring the world now has become increasingly difficult – with Brexit adding red-tape and financial hurdles to artists’ headaches.
The new rules are largely untested, with no artists touring since the signing of a Brexit deal late last year, but Rowsell says it will be “devastating” for smaller acts.
“We’ve been lucky, we’ve toured Europe a little bit, in the times when it was a little bit more straightforward, still hard, but now it seems like almost unattainable in some ways,” she said.
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Festivals are back: ‘It’s a bit surreal’
Ellis added: “It’s the experience that goes with it, the festivals, those kind of things are a massive kind of financial injection for a lot of bands to help them survive the rest of the year.
“It’s been a system where people have been getting paid for festivals and then using that money to fund what they do for six months, seven months, eight months after that. I think if we hadn’t had the freedom to do that the way we did do, it would have affected us.
“It’s never beneficial to not get to go somewhere and play a gig in my opinion, if you’re a band or an artist or whatever.”
Going forward, the band want to “go and play one hundred million gigs”, because it’s what they love doing.
Ellis concluded: “If it happens without things going back and getting worse, it would be amazing to go out and do what we used to do, because it feels like it’s been a long time now.”
Wolf Alice’s third album Blue Weekend is available to buy or stream now.
Entertainment
Bob Vylan on ‘death, death to the IDF’ chant: ‘I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays’
Bob Vylan’s frontman has said he does not regret chanting “death, death to the IDF” at Glastonbury – and would do it again.
The outspoken punk duo sparked controversy with their performance at the festival in June, with the broadcast also leading to fierce criticism of the BBC.
But speaking on The Louis Theroux podcast, Bobby Vylan said he stood by the chant, adding: “I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays.”
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BBC bosses grilled over Masterchef, Bob Vylan and Gaza documentary
The US condemned the act’s “hateful tirade” and revoked their visas, with several festivals cancelling their upcoming appearances.
Vylan claimed this backlash is “minimal” compared with what the people of Palestine are going through – with many losing members of their family or forced to flee their homes.
He said: “If I have their support, they’re the people that I’m doing it for, they’re the people that I’m being vocal for, then what is there to regret. Oh, because I’ve upset some right-wing politician or some right-wing media?”
The musician revealed he was taken aback by the uproar caused by the chant, which was described by the prime minister as “appalling hate speech”.
Vylan added: “It wasn’t like we came off stage, and everybody was like (gasps). It’s just normal. We come off stage. It’s normal. Nobody thought anything. Nobody. Even staff at the BBC were like: ‘That was fantastic! We loved that!'”
A spokesperson at Mindhouse Productions – which was founded by Theroux and produces The Louis Theroux podcast – told Sky News: “Louis is a journalist with a long history of speaking to controversial figures who may divide opinion. We would suggest people watch or listen to the interview in its entirety to get the full context of the conversation.”
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Calls for Bob Vylan concert to be cancelled
‘The response was disproportionate’
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit has since found that the broadcast of Bob Vylan’s set breached editorial standards related to harm and offence.
Theroux asked Vylan what he meant by chanting “death to the IDF” – with the musician replying: “It’s so unimportant, and the response to it was so disproportionate.
“What is important is the conditions that exist to allow that chant to even take place on that stage. And I mean, the conditions that exist in Palestine. Where the Palestinian people are being killed at an alarming rate.”
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Pic: PA
He said he wanted an end to the oppression that the Palestinian people are facing – but argued chanting “end, end the IDF” wouldn’t have caught on because it doesn’t rhyme.
“We are there to entertain, we are there to play music,” Vylan added. “I am a lyricist. ‘Death, death to IDF’ rhymes. Perfect chant.”
He went on to reject claims that their set had contributed to a spike in antisemitic incidents that were reported a couple of days later.
“I don’t think I have created an unsafe atmosphere for the Jewish community. If there were large numbers of people going out and going like ‘Bob Vylan made me do this’. I might go, ‘oof, I’ve had a negative impact here’.”
Vylan’s conversation with Theroux was recorded on 1 October – before the Manchester synagogue attack, and prior to the ceasefire in Gaza coming into effect.
Entertainment
Gavin Plumb: Man jailed for plotting to rape and murder Holly Willoughby loses appeal against life sentence
A security guard jailed for plotting to kidnap, rape and murder TV star Holly Willoughby has lost an appeal against his life sentence.
Gavin Plumb was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years last year after being convicted of soliciting murder and encouraging or assisting others to rape and kidnap.
A trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard that police found bottles of chloroform and an “abduction kit” with cable ties when officers raided the 38-year-old’s flat in Harlow, Essex.
Plumb’s kidnap plan involved attempting to “ambush” Willoughby at her family home, jurors heard.
Plumb argued in his defence that it was just online chat and fantasy.
Police believed Plumb was an ‘imminent threat’ to Holly Willoughby. Pic: PA
He was caught after an undercover police officer in the US infiltrated an online group called Abduct Lovers.
He told the officer, who used the pseudonym David Nelson, that he was “definitely serious” about his plot to kidnap the former This Morning host, leaving him with the impression that there was an “imminent threat” to Willoughby.
Due to the officer’s concern over Plumb’s post, evidence was passed to the FBI, who then contacted police in the UK.
Willoughby, who asked for her victim personal statement to be private, waived her right to anonymity in connection with the charge against Plumb of assisting or encouraging rape.
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is appealing the conviction handed down to him earlier this year over prostitution charges relating to his former girlfriends and male sex workers.
The music mogul was given a 50-month sentence and a $500,000 fine for flying people around the US and abroad for sexual encounters, including his then-girlfriend and male sex workers, in violation of prostitution laws.
He was cleared of more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking that could have put him in jail for life.
The two-page formal notice of appeal, seen by Sky News, was filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday, confirming he will be challenging both his conviction and his sentence.
It lists Combs’s defence council as Alexandra A E Shapiro, and shows a $605 (£450) docketing fee was paid to lodge the formal notice.
More detailed filings are expected to follow.
On the day of sentencing in early October the rapper’s lawyers had signalled they intended to appeal.
Combs, 55, has been in custody since his arrest last year.
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Diddy jailed for more than four years
His seven-week trial earlier this year included four days of testimony from Cassie, now Cassie Ventura Fine, who told the court she was coerced and sometimes blackmailed into sexual encounters with male sex workers, referred to as “freak offs”.
Jurors were also shown video clips of Combs dragging and beating her in a Los Angeles hotel hallway after one of those sessions in 2016.
Ahead of the sentencing, Cassie also submitted a letter to the judge, calling Combs a “manipulator” and saying she would fear for her safety should he be immediately released.
Diddy and Cassie at the premiere for a film she starred in, just days after the 2016 hotel incident. Pic: zz/Galaxy/STAR MAX/IPx/ AP
Ahead of his sentencing, Combs told the court he admitted his past behaviour was “disgusting, shameful and sick”, and apologised personally to Cassie Ventura and “Jane”, another former girlfriend who testified anonymously during the trial.
He told the court he’d got “lost in my excess and lost in my ego”, but since his time in prison he has been “humbled and broken to my core,” adding “I hate myself right now… I am truly sorry for it all.”
Judge Arun Subramanian, who had rejected bail for the rapper several times before sentencing, told him that he would get through his time in prison and would still “have a life afterwards,” calling it “a chance for renewal and redemption”.
He was facing a maximum of 20 years in prison for the prostitution-related charges, so the sentence was towards the lower end of the scale.
Prosecutors had argued he should spend at least 11 years behind bars, while Combs’s lawyers had called for him to be freed almost immediately due to time already served since his arrest just over a year ago.
Sky News has contacted Combs’s lawyers for comment.
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