Luke Friend - Hole In My Heart Tour -
The Borderline
On Thursday 23rd April I was invited
to interview Luke Friend at his headline show at The Borderline. As I
approached the venue I was immediately met by a queue of excitable young girls
pretending they weren’t at all cold in their mini denim shorts and teeny tiny crop
tops. My interview slot was coming up fast and I decided to head straight to
the front of the queue in the hope I’d be inside the venue pretty sharpish. At
the front of the queue I was met by a Dad, his two daughters and a security
guard. A heated discussion regarding the age of his daughters was being had.
The Dad was clearly not impressed by this delay and was obviously taking ‘one
for the team’ as he seemed more like a Spandeau Ballet fan than a Friendie!
I shuffled passed the heated discussion and
managed to catch the eye of the lady on the door.
“Where’s your ticket?” she demanded.
“I don’t have one, I’m interviewing Luke in
approximately 3.5 minutes!”
There was a sudden shriek from the girls
behind me.
“OMG you’re interviewing Luke! You’re so
lucky! OMG…”
The girls’ Dad and I locked eyes and he gave me the ‘this could be a long night…’ stare.
The venue was already pretty busy and as
usual I headed straight for the toilet. This has become my pre-presenting
ritual. I take a few moments to gather my thoughts, mentally prepare for the
interview and have one last glance in the mirror before the camera starts
rolling (shiny face + camera = not ideal). I shoved a bit of powder on my nose
and off I headed to Luke’s dressing room.
This is the part when I admit I am a
genuine Luke Friend fan. No need on this occasion to be scrabbling around for
positive things to say whilst privately thinking ‘this music really isn’t my
bag’. Truth is, I downloaded Luke’s single
AND voted for him on the X Factor AND made my Mum vote for him AND re watched his
X Factor performances on loop every weekend AND I know all the words to his
single. Yup.
As I walked into his dressing room I was
immediately hit by the yummy smell of a freshly consumed take-away dinner. Luke
was sitting on a leather sofa in front of a coffee table and I mentally told
myself ‘do a good interview and don’t blurt out random stuff’…
“Oh hey Luke!! Did you have a nice Chinese?
I smell NOODLES!”
In hindsight not the coolest of things to
say (especially when it was actually Mexican) but let’s not get trivial! I
perched on the sofa next to Luke and as the camera was getting set up, him and
I chatted all things music and fashion. Comparing outfits and discussing the
trend of ripped jeans made it pretty clear I was going to have no trouble getting
great content. Luke was just as lovely as I had hoped.
The camera started rolling and we were
straight into the nitty gritty of the interview. I have interviewed various
artists from the X Factor and The Voice and I have always felt their best
content stemmed from the talent show from which they came. Not for Luke. I deliberately didn’t want to talk too much
about the X Factor, I was far more interested in his career as a credible
singer songwriter.
We discussed the success of his debut
single Hole In My Heart and how it became a UK top 40 single with very little
TV or radio support, a huge testament to his craft and loyal fan base. We also discussed Red Triangle, the talented
duo that produced his single. I’ve been lucky enough to work with them too so
it was great to be able to share stories of becoming all creative in their cosy
studio based in the New Forest, or the ‘middle of nowhere’ as Luke described
it!
After the X Factor Luke received an
incredible amount of Industry interest from both Labels and Management. I was
keen to discover the reasons behind his signing with RCA (Sony Music) and representation by
prestigious management Crown. Many artists sign to the first record label and management company that
show an interest, something very common for artists post X Factor and this is
certainly not the case for Luke.
“I’d prefer to manage myself than be
represented by the wrong people.”
After the success of Hole In My Heart and
his first sold out headline tour, it’s clear he has already made some great
decisions.
Luke has a minefield of skills from catchy
melodies, excellent guitar playing and thought provoking lyrics. It’s clear he
has a music savvy head on his shoulders, ensuring longevity in an industry
famous for breeding a sea of one hit wonders, (another post X Factor curse
which certainly won’t apply here).
As Luke continued to chat away my eyes met
his manager Martin. Aww Martin showed me the peace sign, bit random but maybe
he’s just enjoying the interview? I
smiled back.
Nope. It was actually my two-minute
warning. Bugger...
As I wrapped up the interview and thanked
Luke for a great chat there were only a few seconds to spare for a quick selfie.
My pictures turned out fuzzy and of course my face was shiny (thanks powder for
letting me down…). I gave Luke a quick hug and off he went to the stage.
Good luck Luke and Peace Out Martin.
Wanna know what I thought of the gig? Keep scolling...
Standing at the back of an intimate venue is
often deemed to be the worst place to be. You can’t see much and you inevitably
end up standing behind the 6 foot 5 man with an afro the size of a beach ball.
Luckily I meandered my body around the crowd and stood next to the merchandise
stall with a pretty good view of the stage. Being so far back gave me a great
insight to the crowd. I was just as interested in watching their reaction as I
was watching Luke. I’ll say more about them later!
Luke bounced onto the stage straight into
an original up-tempo number Take On The World. Within the first minute of the song he launched into an
incredibly catchy chorus, my feet were tapping and I could see an array of
heads nodding in front of me. I immediately thought this was a great opening
song for tonight’s show.
Some music junkies love a song that goes
against all standard songwriting formation, quirky hooks with no real
difference between a verse and a chorus, (which just seems like one blob of
music to me) ‘blob’ clearly being a very technical word! In my opinion nothing
beats a great pop song where I can clearly locate the verse, pre chorus and
chorus. It follows a structure that has seen great success in the pop world and
it’s these songs that after hearing just once you’ve got the melody looping
round your head all day and you’re longing to hear it on the radio in the
future. These are the songs Luke writes. Not the type of songwriting where the
artist subtly makes out they wrote the song when in fact you personally know
the published songwriter that wrote it and you conclude the artist is a big fat
fibber.
After showcasing some excellent original
material his trusty sidekicks (Mr keyboard and Mr drums) left the stage for
Luke to stand solo. Many artists look lost without their band behind them and
‘rabbit caught in headlights’ often springs to mind. Not this time! Luke
swapped his electric guitar for his acoustic and serenaded the crowd with a
mash up of contemporary songs from the current chart. The crowd started singing
along to ‘Four Five Seconds’ by Rihanna and I loved hearing Luke put his own
unique stamp on some very famous songs.
I’m a huge fan of Radio One’s Live Lounge
and could certainly envisage Luke smashing a Live Lounge cover in the future. Covers
in a set list are often used to reignite the crowds attention and participation.
There is no doubt the crowd adored Luke’s covers but he had them in the palm of
his hand throughout the entire gig regardless of what he sang. One or two
covers sprinkled throughout the entire performance would serve a purpose and
show off his artistic interpretation, but in my opinion Luke’s original
material is so strong and well received, covers aren’t as crucial to him as
they are to other artists. Big compliment right there.
The highlight of the gig for me was when
Luke sang Medicine. During the interview he warned me about an emotional part
of the set where he would pour his heart into a song he wrote about his Grandad
passing away. Even with a pre warning
like that I still wasn’t expecting my reaction. My lip started trembling and
something got ‘stuck in my eye’. The crowd
was behind him every step of the way as the lyrics created a ripple of emotion
throughout the venue. Not only were the lyrics to Medicine impressive the
chorus really showed off his vocal ability. The range in which Luke could push his
powerful chest voice was very impressive.
“I’ll make you better soon
If love was
medicine...”
Luke bounced back by performing another toe
tapping original song and I took this opportunity to blot my teary face with a
tissue and focus on the crowd. Although his fan base are primarily young girls
they seemed different to other young girl fan bases I have seen before. In the
past I have seen young girls watch their favourite artist/band and during an unfamiliar
song they’d busy themselves with selfies, whisper to one another, tweet, run to
the toilet, scream ridiculously cringe comments out to the stage and fill in
the time until their favourite top 40 single was performed. This crowd were
completely different and totally the opposite of my first impressions when I
was outside the venue before the show started.
Luke’s fan base listened to every song,
focused on him throughout the entire show and engaged with every lyric. Yes
they adored him, screamed at him and made banners for him but I just wasn’t
finding them remotely ‘cringe’. In my opinion this is another great testament
to his artistry. His fans loved the stories he was telling, they weren’t just
interested in kissing his poster on their bedroom wall - although I’m sure
there was some of that going on too!
Luke closed the show with Hole In My Heart
of course! Every lyric was sung back to him and it was clear why this single
was such a success.
As the final cheer for Luke roared through
the venue my eyes met that Dad! You know, the Spandeu Ballet fan that clearly
didn’t want to be there! To my satisfaction he had ventured from the back of
the venue to join the crowd. His daughters weren’t in sight as I have no doubt
they pushed their way to the front of the stage AND standing by your Dad is
totally not remotely cool. I watched him applaud Luke with a huge grin on his
face, and he cheered that type of cheer where your hands clap ABOVE your head,(big deal). Looks like he experienced a night of having “low expectations and very pleasant
surprises!”
As the venue lights turned on and a
stampede of bright red faces headed in my direction towards the merchandise
stall, I went in the opposite direction for fear of getting squashed.
On my way to the door I stopped and chatted
to a few familiar faces. I thanked Luke’s manager Martin and before I knew it I
was back in the dressing room congratulating Luke on an outstanding show after he humbly asked me if I had enjoyed it!
Before I end this blog post I’d like to
make the point that I am incredibly fussy when it comes to music. For every
handful of artists I truly get excited about there are hundreds where I think,
“How have you made it?” Not ever in a horrible way but I guess I know what I
like!
I truly think Luke has a long career ahead
of him in the music industry and I’m looking forward to more people hearing
about Luke Friend the recording artist and not just ‘the boy with dreadlocks
from the X Factor.’
Photo credit - Irena Dragic
Interview coming soon - Pop Scoop
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