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The Feeling head to Manchester this weekend
ASDA Be Live Interview: Dan Gillespie Sells (The Feeling) The Feeling headline the forthcoming ASDA Be Live event at Manchester Academy (Academy 2) on Sunday 5th October, with support from Attic Lights & The Days. For more information visit www.asdabelive.co.uk
We caught up with The Feeling's frontman Dan Gillespie Sells ahead of their ASDA Be Live gig at Manchester Academy (Academy 2) on Sunday 5th October.
Q: It's been an amazing few years for The Feeling - your debut album has sold well over 1.5million copies, the follow-up 'Join With Us' went to No. 1 and you've travelled the world playing literally hundreds of gigs in the process! How does it feel?
Dan: Things are good, we've just released 'Join With Us', the fourth single off the second album, and it is the last one. Once we have done this single we are maybe going to take a little bit of time off for Christmas, and I mean like a couple of days, then we are going to go straight into working on album number three. We have a big tour coming up in October and November which is going to keep us busy until then. So yeah, much more to come, we're just glad that we're here doing it.
Q: How good does it feel to have had such success with the supposedly 'difficult second album'?
Dan: I think they'll now be saying the 'difficult third album' - it's just the way things always go! We are really lucky because the album went straight in at number one and people seemed to still remember who we were and stuff. The challenge for any act with the second album is that you need to turn it around very quickly. You really don't get that much time to record it and make it. I think when we make our third album, we'll get a bit more time, especially if we go straight into the studio. We will have loads of time to get it right and spend a bit more time with it. The second album is always such a rush and it is to do with the recording cycle and how quickly they need to start promoting it. It was a challenge but we enjoyed the whole process. I am ready to take my time with this next record.
Q: So have you started writing for the third album?
Dan: I've started writing, I mean I say started but I never really stop writing, I am always writing material. We are about to go into rehearsals for the October/November tour and will probably start playing some of the new songs then, just because it will be fun. If they sound good enough, we might even start playing some of the new material when we go out on the road and see how it goes.
Q: As you mentioned, the new single 'Join With Us' has just been released, can you tell us a bit about the track and the story behind it?
Dan: This is a song that we were supposed to put on our first album and we had so many songs to choose from, we kind of forgot about it and never recorded it properly. We used to play it live and we continued to play it live even though it wasn't on the first album. For the whole of 2006/07 we have been playing that song live, so we were dying to record it. It has always been a kind of favourite one for the fans, they have always loved that song and it was really great we got to put it on the record.
Q: You're headlining our ASDA Be Live show in Manchester on 5th October. There's a huge buzz around this gig - you've obviously got a VERY dedicated following in Greater Manchester! How do you find performing to Manchester crowds?
Dan: I love it! I was going to say Manchester is my favourite crowd, but I don't want to upset everyone else in the country! Manchester is where my brother went to University and I spent a lot of time hanging around there when I was a teenager, I love it there. The Manchester tour show tickets are close to sell-out already, but we're also doing shows in Preston and other places we don't usually go to and I am really looking forward to seeing how they do. I'm really looking forward to visiting all these places. We go back to the same venues quite regularly now, back to the same theatres and stuff, and it is great but it is always exciting to go to a town that we have never been to before.
Q: It sounds like your times in Manchester are interesting. Any stories to be told?
Dan: Too many Abdul kebabs, that's all I can really tell you. Hanging around and ending up in Abdul's at around four o'clock in the morning.
Q: Attic Lights and The Days are supporting you at the ASDA Be Live show. After years of hard work, dedicating yourself to music and the band, it must feel good to be headlining shows these days.
Dan: Oh it is great, we spent 10 years playing in bars and clubs up and down the country, to get your own headline in a tiny little club was always exciting. Now we are doing it in theatres and arenas and it is mind-blowing really. It takes a while to get used to it but we are enjoying it, yeah.
Q: You talked about going on tour at the end of October. It's going to be your biggest UK tour to date, what challenges come with that?
Dan: You have to be in good shape actually. Are shows are hectic and energetic, with quite a lot of running around! We get over excited when we play live and always end up jumping about and doing quite theatrical stuff every night. Night after night you just get fitter and fitter, and your voice gets stronger. Normally by the end of the tour, I feel quite invincible, but the hard bit is when you have done about three or four gigs in and you start to feel tired. You just have to keep in training and that is why I am so glad that we spent all those years doing those pub gigs when we were 16 and 17 years old. We started then and we have not stopped doing gigs ever since, so it is useful to stay in shape.
Q: Do you do any other training when you're on the road? A mini gym on the tour bus, maybe!
Dan: No, a bottle of whiskey that's all! A bottle of whiskey and lots of gigs is the way we go.
Q: What's the funniest or strangest thing that's happened when you've been on the road?
Dan: You are talking about thirteen years I have been working with these guys now, so there are a lot of stories. Anything from Richard falling off the stage in Japan and all kinds of technical stuff going wrong which was a bit of a disaster, but if you can laugh your way through it then you are OK. The worst is if you just do something really stupid, like when I ended up with 6 weeks in physio after I trashed myself up jumping off an amp at a gig last summer, it was just embarrassing. I did bust my trousers open at a gig and didn't have any underwear on, it was unpleasant and definitely the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened! I turned around and mooned the audience which wouldn't have been a pleasant sight!
Q: Around 900 fans from across Greater Manchester will be lucky enough to win tickets to your ASDA Be Live show. What can they expect from The Feeling, I hear that you're planning a special semi-acoustic performance?
Dan: That's right yeah, we are doing a stripped down version of the normal show. It's as lively as a normal gig, people will still be rocking out, getting up to dance and jump around, but it's just a little bit different. It's going to be fun, I think a lot of people will like it as it is a smaller venue and it is really nice to do something intimate. We have done a few stripped down gigs throughout the summer and I have really enjoyed them.
Q: Does a semi-acoustic show bring any extra challenges? I imagine vocally it's quite different for you, is this the case?
Dan: Yeah in some ways. You have to be a good musician to be able to do it because you're more exposed, but we have always done those kinds of gigs as well as the full live gigs. If you grew up like we did as a bunch of musicians playing guitar at parties and doing acoustic gigs in the corners of caf and bars, it's part of your upbringing as a band. We're really looking forward to the show.
Q: Thanks Dan, Manchester is looking forward to having you – see you on Sunday 5th October for ASDA Be Live!
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