Give it some stick!
The Basin Kid grabbed his Hanna Barbera annuals and travelled to Swansea to meet the trainee pop star who looks like Shaggy from Scooby Doo and makes a habit of hanging around with a bunch of stiffs!
In the history of rock ’n’ roll could there ever have been a band with such a crazy array of influences as Swansea’s self-styled, 70s cartoon cut-out, pop heroes, The Pooh Sticks?
We, that’s me, Pooh Sticks singer Hue Williams, and Kylie Minogue t-shirt wearing manager Fierce, are seated in Coops Corner, Swansea’s legendary and diviest eaterie, with three cheese rolls and three piping hot teas set beautifully in front of us discussing the merits of The Bay City Rollers, Peter Frampton, The Banana Splits and The Archies.
“Why?”, you may be asking yourselves are we discussing such notorious pop, rock and cartoon luminaries. Well because they’re among the much loved and totally seminal influenaces of these colourful 70s guitar pop eccentrics.
“Other bands lift things from obvious reference points like The Byrds and The velvet underground” explains the well affable Hue, “We’re more likely to filch from Neil Young, Meatloaf, Tom Petty and Peter Frampton. We don’t sit down for hours thinking it would be cool to nick this or that, a lot of these professed ‘hip’ indie bands are so unoriginal and boring, they don’t have any personality and no show in what they do, we’re totally opposite to that!”
And just to prove the point Hue produces a boxed tape, “Little White Wonder” that was available free with The Sticks’ recent superb album, “Great White Wonder”.
“Basically, the tape features some of our favourite songs”, says Hue explaining the meaning behind this little collection, “They’re things that have influenced us recorded straight from our record collection.”
They include Procul Harum, Bon Jovi, The Hollies, The Four Seasons and the unforgettable Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Show me a band with influences as diverse and as unhip as these and I’ll give you a plausible excuse for corn circles!
Such fabulously knowledgable rock ‘n’ roll b uffs are Hue and fierce that they spend most of our cosy chat pointing out just what seat Annie Lennox rested her bot on when she had the misfortune to visit Coops Corner in the early eighties. And if you’d like to know just what those groovy late sixties wig-out rockers, MC5 chomped on when visiting this legendary mecca shrine to rock ‘n’ roll food then Hue and Fierce, “Did you know?” rock trivia kings extraordinaire will enlighten you with their stunning answers!
Literally formed in 1987, The Pooh Sticks have risen phoenix-like from the ashes of the anorak shambling brigade of the C86 revolution they were always associated with.
“Back then we had an idea what a tune was but now there’s a lot more variety, now we’ve learned how to do things properly, it’s great we can play fourteen minute guitar solos (see the anthemic romp of, “I’m in You” for evidence of this).
“I haven’t been in any other bands before”, says Hue nattily dressed in kitsch 70s Radio 1 Roadshow t-shirt. “We’re all really young (average age a frightening 23!), it’s taken time but now I really believe we’re on the way to making it big. Listen to someone like Primal Scream and they’ve taken longer to get where they are now and don’t seem to know what style of music they’re playing from one minute to the next!”
“Our sound is as far away from being baggy as you can get. Lots of groups who started at the same time as us went into the baggy thing but we’ve always wanted to be leaders rather than followers. We’ve stuck to our own thing because we weren’t interest in doing that dance thing and the 70s pop stuff we’re doing now is getting a lot of attention.”
So they’re not exactly fans of the ever so floppy be-fringed baggy brigade but what of their fellow Welsh hype-sters and professional motor-mouths, The Manic Street Preachers? (Interviewer dons protective gear and hard hat, takes cover as part-time tennis coach Hue lets loose with this fierce-some verbal volley).
“They haven’t got any good songs, most of their stuff is really second hand. I think they could be popular but I think they have to get into a rocky metal Guns ‘n’ Roses kind of vein before they could be good.
“The thing that’s frustrates me about the Preachers is that they’ve said in interviews that they’ve only played about two gigs in Wales which is rubbish, they’ve played in Swansea about three times. They used to play anywhere, they’re non-selective, real brown nosers!
“The band used to ring up Fierce all the time asking him for advice. To last, they’ve got to make good records. I thought Richey cutting his arm was really good except you only things like that when you haven’t got any decent songs.
“The hype is brilliant”, says Hue obviously wishing he’d thought of some of their revolutionary ruses, “but as yet they have no substance.”
“Great White Wonder”, incredibly the Pooh Sticks sixth album, was part recorded in Los Angeles where The Sticks had top fun mixing with all manner of celebs including Lenny Kravitz. The band got on so well with the sixties-influenced, dreadlocked funster that he invited Hue to appear on one of the tracks on his forth-coming album, so who was Hue to disagree with him!
“LA was wild”, enthuses The Pooh Sticks main man, “One non-stop ligging party, it’s like a playground. We met Julian Lennon, Brian May who we discussed harmony guitar solos with (as you do!) and Pia Zadoroa was always popping in and out.” But in what sense I’m still unsure!
The Pooh Sticks
The Sticks also met bluesy rock critters The Black Crowes who thought they were good, mouthy American comedian Andrew Dice Clay, famous for his racist, ‘Get the fuck out’ jibes (It’s just an act, he’s a pussy cat really.” Reckons Hue), and LL Cool J who thought the Poohs were a bunch of talentless homos!
America is the opus magnificus for the band at the moment. They appear on the cover of music magazines country wide and are minor celebrities. The band’s American record company, the brilliantly named Sympathy for the Record Industry label has backed them up all the way, and even in Britiain The Pooh Sticks are causing a stir. Not only are they attaining top ten indie chart status but the Pooh’s gigs are notorious and far from being straight forward affairs.
As well as including cartoon cut-outs of themselves on stage, Hue usually finds time to host competitions where the crowd can win bit of his record collection. Pray tell Hue, why?!
“Well I wasn’t giving away old stuff, none of my good records any way, it’s just a bit of fun. It’s usually old Kenny and Rubettes stuff. Because we don’t play often we tend to present a totally over the top show, which is the way we like it.
Excess and the Pooh Sticks are somehow related we think……that, that, that’s all folks!
Interview by The Basin Kid