The Futureheads: “Noel Gallagher told us we were the weirdest band he’d ever heard”

You played the 2005 NME Awards Tour alongside The Killers, Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs. Which city did the first date of it take place?

“Newcastle.”

CORRECT. At Northumbria University.

“I remember because I’d been in hospital that day after having an allergic reaction to royal jelly, a health supplement from bees. It was a phenomenal tour and life-changing for us. It was the first time we’d experienced catering – we’d been used to just a bag of crisps and a Curly Wurly – so going from that to three full meals a day, the crew would joke ‘I Predict a Diet’ at us. All the bands hung out together, and there was a positive competitiveness. We were below headliners The Killers, and they changed their setlist depending on how we went down. We went down extremely well in Glasgow  – so much so that The Killers decided to start with ‘Mr Brightside’!”

“Retrospectively, it was an exciting time for British indie music, and I would love there to be a positive nostalgia trip for the Noughties.  Looking back, we were so young. Our drummer was only 16 and wasn’t even legally allowed in the venues for our first tours of America.”

Which Manchester icon once described The Futureheads as “weird” and producing “the strangest music I’ve ever heard”?

“[Laughs] Noel Gallagher.”

CORRECT.

“We were on tour supporting The Zutons. At Shepherd’s Bush Empire, we saw Noel Gallagher at the bar, and I told him my first ever gig was Oasis aged 15 at the Newcastle Arena and it was traumatising because I lost my shoes because the crowd was so insane. I left wearing only one shoe. He replied: ‘Well, don’t ask me for the money!” He was really funny. Then he told me we were the weirdest band he’d ever heard, because we had these unusual songs influenced by so-called post-punk, art-punk math-rock and new wave.”

“We later ended up supporting Oasis at Hampden Park in Glasgow [in 2005]. Me and my brother’s first ever band as teenagers was an Oasis cover band, so having Noel watching us from the side of the stage was a buzz.”

‘Hounds of Love’ was named NME’s Best Track of 2005. How many dogs are pictured on its single cover?

“Is it five?”

WRONG. Eight.

“Shame on me for not getting that right – but I’ve never counted the dogs! [Laughs]”

The Futureheads beat Arctic Monkeys’ ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’, Kanye West’s ‘Gold Digger’ and The White Stripes’ ‘My Doorbell’ to claim the top spot.

“‘Hounds of Love’ was a big moment for us. It happened randomly. We’d been touring squats in Europe with another band, and were listening to a compilation tape that our bass player made. Whenever Kate Bush’s ‘Hounds of Love’ came on, we’d ask the driver to turn it up because it became an anthem for us. I overheard the other band saying, ‘Wouldn’t this be a good song to cover?’ and thought: ‘Not if we do it first!’. As soon as we came home, I wrote a chord progression, changed the key, worked out to sing it and did a quick arrangement of it. We played it at a gig in Newcastle that week – it’s been played at every one of our gigs since.”

“When we were recording our second album, ‘News and Tributes’, at a farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales, we got wind that Kate Bush was going to ring the landline. Whenever the phone rang, everyone was too scared to answer it. It felt like getting called by the Queen. We were worried she might say: ‘You’re an absolute disgrace! You ruined one of my songs! [Laughs] She rang when we weren’t there and left us a lovely voice message – she was like a caring, loving aunty.”

Aside from Kate Bush, who have been the most unexpected fans of The Futureheads?

“Paul McCartney. [Laughs] When we did an album produced by Youth [2008’s third LP  ‘This Is Not the World’], McCartney rang up the studio asking Youth what he was doing. He said he was producing The Futureheads, and McCartney replied: ‘Oh, I like them – say hello!’. Elijah Wood wanted to release our third album on his label, and we were in talks with him. He was a big fan.”

“We almost met David Bowie. On our first night supporting Franz Ferdinand on tour, he popped in to see them and said: ‘I’m going to have to leave now, but please pass on my love to The Futureheads. I really like their [debut] album.’”.

Which two bands did you perform between at Glastonbury 2005?

“I’ve not got a bloody clue!”

WRONG. You were sandwiched between Echo & the Bunnymen and The Bravery.

“Glastonbury that year was on June 25 – my birthday. My bandmates missed the opportunity to get the Glastonbury crowd to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me. I’ve never forgiven them! [Laughs] When it was Dave [“Jaff” Craig, bassist]’s birthday on the NME Tour, all of the bands joined us onstage to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ with the crowd, including Brandon Flowers serenading him in his pink leather jacket. However, we were all so overwhelmed by the surreal size of the Glastonbury crowd.”

Any other memorably surreal moments?

“When we played Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2005, the legendary actor Dennis Hopper knocked on our dressing room and came in and hung out with us – mainly so that his young son, who was a fan of ours, could meet us. He was being a good dad. The whole time, I was a bit scared of him because he often plays psychopaths. Experiences like flying from Scandinavia to Scotland on the Foo Fighters’ private jet and sitting next to Taylor Hawkins eating smoked salmon make you think, ‘What is going on in our lives?!’.

A tricky one: in 2004, The Futureheads sang on two Top 40 singles. Name them.

“Well, one of them must be ‘Decent Days and Nights’ and then… ‘Hounds of Love’?”

WRONG. ‘Hounds of Love’ reached Number 11 in 2005. ‘Decent Days and Nights’ peaked at Number 26, but you missed your singing on a  B-side remix of The Streets’ ‘Fit but You Know It’ which reached Number 4.

“Agggggh! You got me!  We were on the same record label, 679, as The Streets and were asked to do a remix. We took Mike Skinner’s vocal, turned the track into a dub-influenced, rapid, post-punk version, and added our own chorus to it. I’d forgotten about that!”

The Futureheads’ debut TV appearance was on Later… with Jools Holland in 2004. Can you remember any other two acts who appeared on the same episode?

“I’d probably be able to name them all! KT Tunstall, Embrace, Jackson Browne, and The Cure?”

CORRECT. You only missed Anita Baker!

“As a young musician, I fantasised about playing guitar in the jam session at the beginning of Later…with Jools Holland. On the day we played, the band before us in the jam were Embrace, and their drummer played a completely different tempo and time signature, and it put me off. [Laughs] He ruined my life! Performing our singles ‘Decent Days and Nights’ and ‘Meantime’ in the same room as The Cure’s Robert Smith was amazing. We also performed ‘Skip to the End’ on Top of the Pops in 2006, and all I remember was that Jamie Cullum turned to Tom Jones afterwards and went ‘It’s a nice little song, that’ [Laughs].”

The Futureheads once headlined a Stars in Their Eyes-themed charity gig at Newcastle University as which group?

“Queen.”

CORRECT.

“Jaff was Freddie Mercury. We called him Eddie Mercury, and I’m Brian Maybe. Frankie & The Heartstrings were David Bowie, and [fellow Sunderland band] Field Music called themselves Fleetwood Mackems. We’re doing it again in Sunderland for an amazing local charity called Love, Amelia. I’m looking forward to getting my wig back on!”

The Futureheads’ 2008 track ‘The Beginning of the Twist’ used to be played before every home game as Sunderland ACF’s players walked out onto the pitch. What are the team’s mascots called?

“Samson and Delilah.”

CORRECT. Both are black cats.

“I had a terrifying semi-embarrassing moment in 2004 when we played on the centre circle of the Stadium of Light. Sunderland had been promoted that year, it was the last day of the season, and we were just playing through the Tannoy so couldn’t hear a thing. It was chaotic. Halfway through our set, two gigantic black cat mascots start slowly walking towards us, like a fever dream. While I’m trying to sing, one of them puts their arm around me and knocked my guitar out of tune. I was preparing to kick him hard before realising that attacking the mascot wouldn’t go down well with the crowd!

“Sunderland used to run out to ‘The Beginning of the Twist’ for several years. When they changed it, everything went downhill! But they’ve started playing it again before they run out, and they’re back at the top of the league now! [Laughs]”

In 2005, the Channel 4 broadcast of the NME Awards culminated with tour footage from Brixton Academy of The Killers performing ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’ with The Futureheads, Bloc Party, and Kaiser Chiefs. Who hosted the ceremony that year?

“Erm…wasn’t that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost?”

CORRECT.

“That was a heavy-duty Noughties night! I was gutted because I went up to Simon Pegg at the bar and told him how much I loved his sitcom Spaced, and he wasn’t very friendly. I ended up winning the award that nobody wants – when NME gave me The Drunkest Person of the Night award!”

A deep cut: in 2010, who was the fan in the crowd who replaced you on vocals for ‘Hounds of Love’ at a gig at New York’s Bowery Ballroom when your voice gave way?

“He’d come to see us before at a gig in New Jersey, and I had to tell him off because he was really disruptive, though I can’t remember his name! [Laughs] Is it Tiernan?”

CORRECT. Impressive recall! Tiernan Browne.

“I lost my voice, and he got up and did the business, which is quite the redemption because he had almost ruined the gig a few nights’ previously! [Laughs]”

 

The verdict 7/10

“That’s an alright score, isn’t it?”

The Futureheads release ‘Decent Days & Nights: The Singles’, a collection of their most iconic tracks, on November 29 via Cherry Red Records. The band are touring in 2025.

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