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Farnborough based punk-folk-ska-popsters WHO MOVED THE GROUND? have been together for three and a half years as the present line-up. They have played over 350 gigs in the UK alone, including big venues like Hammersmith Palais, The Marquee, The Grand, Mean Fiddler and Guildford Civic Hall. They have also toured Europe. Their two singles (see Icarus Records feature for further details) have sold extremely well, especially considering they are only available at gigs and through mail-order. WHO MOVED THE GROUND? have also appeared on numerous compilations. I interviewed Sid.
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What's it like playing big venues and supporting bands like Oasis?
Well, we supported Oasis in the same week that their first single was number one in the indie charts so the venue was absolutely packed to the rafters. That was nice. We went down pretty well which was good too. We didn't actually speak to or see much of Oasis but their drummer was a bit off when our drummer asked him to move his drum kit back a bit and all he did was move it back about three inches. Cheers then! We enjoy playing large and small venues alike, the small ones for the intimacy and the large ones for the room to jump about on stage.
You got a good review in "Kerrang!" Do you have many metallers as fans?
Our fans like all kinds of music (as we do) and come from all walks of life, so we have no set following as such, just lots of different people who are into different things. We like it like that.
Do you like metal?
I personally don't like metal on the whole but I do have a soft spot for Ozzy Osbourne (God knows why). I enjoy aspects of nearly all styles but my faves are punky, power-poppy type guitar bands. Our bass player Les likes metal but he doesn't like to talk about it!
You recently took part in the Panasonic Audio Rock School competition, which was filmed by ITV. When will this be shown on TV, if it hasn't been shown already?
The company who filmed the Panasonic Audio Rock School still don't know when it's going to be shown on TV and as we've just got through the first round of the next one then I don't think they'll be showing the last one at all. It's a shame because it was a great gig. The next one should be a corker too and if we get through to the final again that'd be cool. We have, however, been on TV twice recently (on the BBC South East News) after we played up at an illegal street party in London organised by an action group called Reclaim The Streets. They blocked off a huge junction in London, they wouldn't let any cars through and we just had a big party. It was excellent. We were filmed by several TV companies and were shown on the news twice. It was a great day.
Your music is a mixture of various styles, including pop, punk, folk and ska. This shows you must have a wide range of influences. Who are you influenced by?
We are influenced by so many styles of music and varying bands individually that it would take me a whole week to try and remember them all let alone try and list them. Having all come from differing backgrounds our musical tastes are so wide ranging that when we play music it can be described as a number of things. Mostly good things, we hope! "Mad, pop, ska, punk, folk, guitar-thrash-out!" is how we sum it up.
There seems to be lots of other bands from Farnborough and the surrounding area. What do you think of them all?
Yeah, Farnborough has got a pretty good and healthy musical scene. The best bands from around this way are J C Regulator (a Buzzcocks meets Joy Division effort who toured Europe with us earlier this year), Breaker (Green Day style poppy punks), Skipper (tune laden dual guitar harmonised pop) and the excellently named Lunchbox. Look out for all of them.
When is your third single coming out? Is it going to be on Icarus Records?
Our third single has already been recorded and we're hoping to get a label with bigger distribution than Icarus to release it, but failing that, we want to get it out on Icarus before the end of the year.
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