ben marwood - interview/review
Sitting out the front of the Edge of the Wedge venue in Portsmouth reading a horror novel and small talking about how the Paranormal Activity trilogy “really is tosh”, it’s easy to tell that Ben Marwood’s not your egotistic rock star type. This date is the ninth of Ben’s ‘weekends’ tour, an idea simply thought up because he “can’t get time off work and want to get my songs out to as many people as possible”. He’s travelled the country for 2 to 3 shows per weekend, playing people’s front rooms, pubs, wherever will take him and his hearty folk tunes. “I used up all my paid leave from work touring with Frank (Turner) earlier in the year, so now I’m only able to do shows on weekends”. As soon as you hear Ben’s songs or talk to him, it’s crystal clear that this is about nothing but the music. Marwood released his debut album ‘Outside There’s A Curse’ on Xtra Mile Recordings (Dave Hause, Frank Turner) in January of this year to critical acclaim, and is already working on a follow up. “I have some studio time booked up in December, and some more in January, so hopefully by the spring I’ll have some new material out”.
As Ben sets up a number of makeshift CDs in plastic wallets, provided to him by his label Xtra Mile to sell at his gigs, talk turns to the devastating PIAS warehouse fire during the London Riots earlier this year. It destroyed 3 millions units in total. “I only have 15 albums left, and they’re all in my cupboard at home for sentimentality” says Ben, “but Xtra Mile have kindly made up some temporary ones for me to sell at shows until it hopefully gets repressed”! This situation really highlights the difficulties that independent record labels go through every day, even without crushing hammer blows such as this. There just isn’t the money to repress every record that was destroyed, but as Ben explains, there is a pledging website being established wherein people can state which albums they would like to be remade, and if the demand is there, they will do so. It just shows the resilience and the community feel of the label and others like it.
As show time approaches, talk turns to the next working week for Ben. “I’m actually getting a lift home from my Mum back to Reading tonight, as I wouldn’t make the last train! Not the most rock’n’roll thing ever…”. Maybe not, but it certainly shows Ben’s commitment to the shows and to broadcasting his music. “I was convinced when I was booking the shows that this was an amazing idea and that it would be great, but when you rock up to a pub in Manchester on a Friday evening after a long working week, you just think ‘I wish I was asleep right now’”.
Ben arrives onstage at 10.20pm, following (rather wonderful) support slots from local lad The Boy I Used To Be (18 yo Edward Perry), comedy songster Mynameisian (real name Ian) and Kyle D. Evans from The Dawn Chorus and The Retrospective Soundtrack Players fame, to a warm applause. Before the show, Ben talked of the rowdy audience he had played to in Camden, London the week before, but it was clear from the outset that this would be a calmer, more attentive affair. This air of dulled enthusiasm certainly didn’t have an effect on Ben’s songs. Starting with ‘Question Marks’ off his debut EP ‘This Is Not What You Had Planned (released in 2008), a song about “how Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly stole my sound”, Ben had the audience encapsulated with his personal tales of joy and of woe. His lyrics are a mix of wit and painful honesty, which really translated to the sizeable audience. Quips about Patrick Swayze and Whoopi Goldberg in first album song ‘JJ Abrams’ are mixed with honest takes on life which cannot be feigned, such as the line “It may not be much/but at least we’re not waiting to die” from first single ‘Singalong’, which produced the biggest, err, singalong of the evening.
As he finishes up the set with his now much acclaimed cover of The Postal Service’s classic ‘The District Sleeps Alone Tonight’, it’s back to work for Ben, and for the crowd members too. A unity is shown in Ben’s interaction with fans, before after and during his shows that is rarely seen on the touring circuit. It’s not very often that after having a pint with one of your favourite musicians after their headline show, you go home thinking that they’re not very different from yourself after all. It’s back home for Ben courtesy of his mother, but despite the forthcoming working week, it’s clear he’s living for the weekends.
stay lucky x
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