Enter Shikari Back On Tour - Rou Reynolds Q&A

Almost twelve months from the release of their fourth UK Top 10 album, The Mindsweep, Rou Reynolds, Rory Clewlow, Chris Batten and Rob Rolfe AKA Enter Shikari have released a new single Redshift.

The release coincides with the band’s most ambitious UK tour which brings them to Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena  on February 23. Support comes from The Wonder Years and the freshly-reformed original line-up of The King Blues.

Following the UK run, Enter Shikari head to mainland Europe for a tour that includes the band’s biggest German shows ever, and see them joined by The Qemists for the first half of the tour, and Modestep for the remainder.  Andy Howells recently caught up with Rou Reynolds .

You released your fourth album almost a year ago - have you been happy with the response you've had?
Absolutely. To be honest i think it’s been the most positive reaction to any full length album we’ve ever had. It feels like people now expect us to push the direction and sound of our music. It no longer comes to a surprise to people when we do present a track or an album which has gone completely in a different direction; this gives us such a freedom to express ourselves in so many ways. We feel very confident in our writing and even more confident when it comes to pushing our boundaries musically.

What was your highlight during 2015?
Hard to say really. I think the live highlight of 2015 for us would have to be when we headlined the 2nd stage at download festival. It was amazing being able to take all our full production into a festival, something we’d jump at the chance to do again if we were offered.

In terms of musically obviously our 4th album The Mindsweep was released in January 2015. It’s always amazing to be able to release an album, let alone one which got such high praise from the people who listen to our music. Another amazingly special thing with this album for us, was that hospital records and their artists got involved with completely remixing the album and we released The Mindsweep Hospitalised. This was an amazing experience for us. We are all huge fans of hospital records and all their artists so it was a dream come true that they’d even consider doing it with us, let alone producing something that in our opinion is fantastic, and completely original.

Enter Shikari are back out on tour

How has the band developed over the past year? Do you find Enter Shikari is constantly evolving with each new release?
Absolutely! We are always trying to develop and move forward. We wouldn’t be happy with ourselves if we didn’t feel like we’d developed. I think we take this approach to every aspect of what we do. Not only in writing and recording music, but in our live show too.

This next tour we have been working endlessly to push our live show into places we’ve never been, and more importantly put on an experience for the audience that they have never experienced. For example this upcoming tour is going to be mixed in quadraphonic sound, which is effectively live surround sound. We’ve been working hard with our lighting designer to push the boundaries in the visual production along side the audio aspects.

Have you had time to relax at all, how do you all chill out when you're not working?
Yeh we have. This is definitely the longest amount of time off we’ve had. Rory had a baby in October 2015, so we’ve been home since then. The problem is though, we can’t sit still for long, we get restless. We’ve had to focus our attention on getting ready for the next tour and making it as huge and impressive as possible. Of course it’s been nice as we’ve been doing all the programming and creativity from home. :)

What music are you currently listening to yourselves? 
All kinds of stuff. Personally I’ve been listening to a bit more local music. There’s a new band from St Albans called Franklin who I’ve been listening to a lot. I’ve also been listening to The King Blues and The Wonder Years. They are both hitting the road with us in February and they are both such great bands. Listening to each of them has been getting me really excited for the tour.

You're back out on tour - what can fans expect from the forthcoming shows?
Well they can expect a sweaty, passionate, full throttle show. Only bigger and better in every aspect. We have gone to town on production and we have been planning this for months. It’s going to be such a special tour.

Have you any projects or new recordings planned for 2016? 
We just released a brand new single, Redshift, a couple of weeks ago, but we’re constantly writing and trying to be creative. So there’s always new music which is never too far away with us.

• For further details on the bands forthcoming Cardiff date visit Enter Shikari's official website
• Andy Howells is a freelance entertainment writer

In Concert: Jools Holland and The Rhythm N Blues Orchestra, Cardiff Motorpoint Arena

The audience at Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena were literally bristling with excitement on Saturday evening as fans took their seats to witness the penultimate date in Jools Holland and His Rhythm N Blues Orchestra’s current tour.

Rhythm and Blues Orchestra guitarist Mark Flanagan  provided opening duties playing a brief set comprising of Americana and acoustic stylised music. Flanagan drew the crowds to their seats very quickly having to send them back for their refreshments before Holland’s orchestra took to the stage.

“Thank you! Goodnight!” joked Holland as he opened his arms to greet the audience when arriving on stage. Holland’s Goodnight would ultimately evolve into a very good night for all in attendance.

Ever the showman, its clear Holland has a love for music and musicians and wasted no time in introducing the percussion, brass and string sections of his orchestra giving each member a chance to display their individual talent on several occasions. Highlights included a rocked up version of Flight of the Bumble Bee (reminiscent in tempo to B Bumble and The Stingers Bumble Boogie) and an R&B slant on the traditional standard, When the Saints Go Marching In.

Holland also celebrated long term collaborator Gilson Lavis, of who, he observed, had met 40 years to the day. Holland stated that Lavis had given the best drum solo he or the audience were ever likely to see. A big statement, yes, but not one that anyone was denying.

There were fabulous vocal contributions from Louise Marshall and Mabel Ray as they lead individually on a blues soaked rendition of My Favourite Game and a Ska rendition of Secret Love.

Singer/songwriter KT Tunstall changed the pace into fast gear with an up-tempo performance of Suddenly I See, while there was also a spectacular nod to Sinatra of a rendition of Night and Day.

Holland’s final guest, the legendary Ruby Turner provided the icing on the musical cake with several songs from the new Jools & Ruby album. The audience by now were also in full swing, out of their seats and dancing to renditions of Ray Charles’ Jumpin' in the Morning and a rousing version of Peace in The Valley.

An encore including Enjoy Yourself and a duet of I'll Be Seeing You  featuring Holland and Turner brought a very diverse and memorable night of music to a close and yes, it was clear, everyone had enjoyed themselves!

Wet Wet Wet Get The Big Picture - Tommy Cunningham Interview

To coincide with the 20th anniversary of their Picture This album, Wet Wet Wet will bring their Big Picture Tour to Cardiff Motorpoint Arena on March 9, 2016.

The Wets, Marti Pellow, Graeme Clark, Neil Mitchell and Tommy Cunningham have sold over 15 million records worldwide whilst notching up over thirty UK chart hits including three number 1’s.

Alongside their incredible success, performing amazing live shows has always been at the heart of what the band do. having played to over 5 million people across the globe since 1987. “Our business is taking care of the legacy we've managed to build up over the years,” the bands drummer Tommy Cunningham tells Andy Howells, “ we've got to make sure that we don't destroy that and we treat it with respect. We’re always taking care of the back catalogue but at the same time we're pushing forward and trying to do new songs.”

Tommy confirms that fans will get to hear many of The Wets hits on the new tour, “There are certain songs we have to do including Love Is all Around and Goodnight Girl. We also like to bring out songs we've not touched in a while, songs like Angel Eyes from our first album.  It was a top 10 hit but we don’t play it at every gig or songs like Sweet Surrender.”

The Picture This album, originally released in 1996 has cause to be celebrated highlighting a peak in Wet Wet Wet’s chart success including the hits Julia Says, Don’t Want to Forgive Me Now, Somewhere Somehow, She’s All On My Mind, Morning and Love is all Around. The album has recently been remastered for special anniversary releases.

There is still a lot of excitement for the bands live shows not just from the Wets huge fan base but also the band themselves, “They can digitise your music, they can digitise your image but they can’t digitise the live experience!” continues Tommy, “People who come along to our concerts want to be entertained and it’s our job to do that.”

• Catch Wet Wet Wet at Cardiff Motorpoint Arena on March 9, 2016. Tickets available from available from: Ticketline.co.uk / Seetickets.com / Ticketmaster.co.uk and WetWetWet.co.uk
• A version of this interview by Andy Howells appeared in The South Wales Argus entertainment supplement The Guide on July 31, 2015

On Stage: Disney on Ice Presents Magical Ice Festival, Cardiff Motorpoint Arena

Summer might be around the corner but there’s still plenty of opportunity to stay cool and enjoy an ice show as Disney on Ice proved as it returned to Cardiff Motorpoint Arena on Wednesday evening hosted by eternal favourites Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Donald Duck and Goofy.

Mickey and co's presence may have been there to pacify older members of the audience however, as it soon became apparent that the real pull of this latest ice spectacular are the colorful characters of The Little Mermaid, Tangled, Beauty and The Beast and Disney’s latest box-office smash Frozen. Served up in 25 minute segments colorfully choreographed sequences re stage to popular songs and dialogue from the films.

For The Little Mermaid Sebastian the crab is accompanied with a dazzling array of sea life friends including starfish, seahorses, Ariel, Flounder and wicked Ursula the Sea Witch.

Beauty and The Beast revisits the tale of Belle and The Beast while bringing to life the characters Lumiere the candlestick, Cogsworth the clock and good old Mrs Potts the Teapot and her son chip.

Tangled tells the familiar tale of Rapunzel and features a comic ice dance routine with the characters brandishing frying pans to the song I've Got a Dream. This sequence particularly stands out as the skaters portraying Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder really get into their roles while the addition of Maximus the Horse adds a certain comic value to the set.

The real pull of the show has to be Frozen, not only because of the tales wintry setting which lends itself to the ice show format but also for the wonderful performances of the skaters filling the roles of the already iconic Elsa and Ana. The real gasps of amazement from the audience came when both Sven The Reindeer and Olaf the Snowman skated into view.

• A must for Disney fans of all ages Disney on Ice presents Magical Ice Festival is continues at the Motorpoint Arena Cardiff until May 3 2015. Tickets available from the Box Office 029 20 22 44 88.
• A version of this review appeared in The South Wales Argus entertainment section The Guide on May 1, 2015. Read the e-edition here.
• Andy Howells interview with Disney On Ice skater Sophia Adams.

Frozen's Elsa Comes To Life For Disney Ice Show - Sophia Adams Interview

“Its actually like a whole different chapter in my life, I never saw myself doing this, its been a very interesting year,” says former competitive skater Sophia Adams as she tells me about her magical role as Frozen’s Elsa which comes to Cardiff Motorpoint Arena this week as part of the UK leg of Disney On Ice’s Magical Ice Festival.

“When you're competing its just you out there,” says the 21-year-old skater who hails from Anaheim, California, “ whereas now I'm somebody else and giving these kids something that they love, its really rewarding, there’s always lots of Elsa's in the audience and its nice to do it for them.”

The show is a new twist on fairy-tale fun featuring four magical tales including Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, The Little Mermaid and Frozen. Each segment took two weeks to rehearse before going on tour and Sophia has been enjoying the challenge of her new role in the show. “Frozen is by far my favourite,” she says, “it features a really good ensemble number with all the princesses and the princes. It has a lot of interesting effects, not just the skating there’s all the technical effects that go into it which are very creative.”

Sophia tells me that the ice spectacular will have appeal to older Disney fans too, “Beauty and the Beast is something I grew up with, so for someone as old as me who went through that phase in our childhood, we get to revisit it again.”

I wonder if the show will have appeal to both girls and boys, Sophia thinks so, as she reveals that the princess skaters aren't necessarily the most popular characters from Frozen. “Sven the reindeer and Olaf (Frozen’s Snowman star) get more applause,” she laughs,” he’s definitely the favourite of the whole ice show!”

Sophia will continue in her role as Elsa until the end of May. Then she will be exchanging Elsa’s Frozen world for her own Californian home, “I’m going to go home and lie on a beach for a couple of weeks,” she laughs ,”We've had amazing weather (on the UK Tour) which was very unexpected but I'm now ready for hot weather!”

• Disney on Ice presents Magical Ice Festival is appearing at the Motorpoint Arena Cardiff 29 April – 3rd May 2015. Tickets available from the Box Office 029 20 22 44 88 or visit Ticketmaster.
• A version of this interview by Andy Howells appeared in The South Wales Argus entertainment supplement The Guide on April 24, 2015