PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
I spoke to James Toseland just before his gig at Manchester Academy. Find out what it’s like touring with an old pro like Sebastian Bach, how he met wife Katie Melua and what’s in store: –
I saw you earlier this year at this same venue supporting Sebastien Bach. How was it touring with an old pro like Sebastian?
It was crazy. He was a bit too tall for the stage really. Did you see him (me – yes) he had that pillar above the stage and he was nearly headbutting it all night but what an incredible performer. There’s no half measures with him and Skid Row were massive. To see someone like him in a small venue like this was cool.
I know he likes to swing his microphone round a bit and he managed to do it which was a surprise.
Yeah – he was complaining a bit wasn’t he. The problem is when you get artists like that who have played on such big stages and have a stage craft which they’re done and worked on such big stages then they come to places like this and he can’t swing his mic, or flash his hair all about. It’s a bit frustrating for him but he was still a good showman wasn’t he?
Yep, he certainly was. It was very good. Is he really a diva?
I didn’t get to talk to him and I was never on the brunt of it but he’s a proper rock ‘n’ roller I think.
Have you toured with anyone else as well as Sebastian?
Yes. We did a few (gigs) with Michael Monroe in Italy. He was incredible as well, a great performer. We were on the road with Status Quo with the original line up, which was great. We toured with Reef last year, that was cool. Little Angels, with Toby (Jepson) who I wrote with, really memorable. The Darkness in the Isle of Man, it’s been busy. Aerosmith at Calling, which is more of a festival but they were headlining. Calling was fantastic for us. We did The Steelhouse Festival in Wales. The Looe Festival down in Cornwall last week. We’ve had a really good year and been able to play in front of a lot of people which has really helped us.
Is this your first headline tour?
No, this is the third now.
Wow, that’s good. I hadn’t actually heard of you before I came to see Sebastian and you were supporting.
It was a tight old night on the stage, I could only just get behind the keyboard.
Now you’re here headlining the same venue.
Yeah but we’ve got the full stage this time so it should be a bit easier.
You’ve had a few sold out shows, how many have sold out?
We had Nottingham for the first time, Cambridge just last night, we’re getting pretty close here and I think Northampton’s going to be pretty rammed. I think we’re only ten or twenty away from selling that one out. It’s been really nice, and other than the Scottish gigs because that was the first time I went to Scotland, the Glasgow and Aberdeen gigs had only about one hundred people there but they were fantastic crowds. Even though only one hundred they made just as much noise as anywhere else so they were great gigs for us.
You mentioned Little Angels earlier and I was going to ask how you came to collaborate with Tony Jepson on your début album Renegade?
I met Toby through a vocal coach in London, a friend of mine. I’d just retired from my old job and he asked what I was up to now, he knew I’d retired and I said ‘I want to write a rock album’ He said ‘Are you going to write your own?’ so I said ‘I’d love to collaborate with someboby’ and he said he knew just the guy. He was a friend of Toby’s himself. He took me up to Scarborough and we met and we pretty much hit it off straight away and it was a great experience. I was up in Scarborough for about eight months in a hotel, solidly just writing with him. It was cool.
Are they still playing? I saw them about a year ago.
They came back in 2012 for Download and they did a reunion tour, which we supported them on which was great.
I must have been to the reunion tour. Did you play at The Ritz (Manchester)
We played at Cambridge and Cardiff
That’s good becasue I’d have been embarrassed if you’d played Manchester and I didn’t remember!
No, No (laughs)
What’s been the reaction to the album Renegade?
Amazing! To say I’ve released it by myself, independently and got the band and really digging in deep. Driving the vans and booking the hotels, with the boys all mucking in and helping, we’ve sold over ten thousand copies of the album in six months.
That’s good.
Yeah, just doing it independently. I was really proud of that. The numbers have really trebled from the last run. We were probably doing about one hundred and fifty on the last run and we just did four hundred and fifteen in the Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton so in six months it’s been building great.
You were in the band Crash are they still going?
No, Crash was just a hobby for me and for them. The lead singer of Crash he did a Robbie Williams tribute and a Michael Buble tribute. We got together and did the corporate stuff and it was good fun but I knew when I wanted to write my own material that I needed a young talented band that were ready to go and had no commitments. My old friends from Crash, they had proper jobs, kids. I knew that it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do to try and sacrifice their jobs because it’s such a risk these days to put all your eggs in one basket with the music business. These lads are all ready to go.
So who is in the band band Toseland who will be playing tonight?
I’ve got Roger Davis on bass, Matthew Eldridge on drums, Ed Bramford on guitars, Zurab Melua on guitars and Craig Leach on sound.
Are they permanent with the band Toseland?
The line-ups changed since recording the album but this has been the permanent line-up for a good year now and I’m really chuffed with the boys I’ve got in now.
I’m actually from Yorkshire myself. I believe you were born in Doncaster, brought up in Rotherham?
I was, yes.
I’m from Barnsley, Do you get back to Yorkshire much?
My family are all there. I live in London at the moment. I lived on the Isle of Man for eight years but my family are all in Sheffield. My brother’s got three children so I’m back there visiting my nephews quite often. I still class it as home.
I go to see bands in Sheffield now and again. It’s a pretty good scene round there.
Yeah, we’ve played the O2 Academy a couple of times, which used to be the old Roxy. Remember the old Roxy?
I do remember The Roxy, I went about twenty years ago. Probably before your time!
Ha Ha – I don’t know about that!
If you hadn’t been forced to retire from biking due to injury would you have carried on or were you perhaps thinking of a move towards music anyway?
No, I was still very successful when I retired really, because I did really well at it and it was a fantastic career for me to have thought, at that moment in time, I’m going to go and be a professional musician would have been a little bit too adventurous I think. I always loved my piano playing and loved my music enough to keep it up to a decent level and I’m lucky that I did because when I was forced to retire I was able to have a good shot at it, but the time and dedication it took to keep the motorcycling up at that level I had to do one thing really good, not two things just good. As soon as it retired me I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
I read that you were going to attempt to break the world motorcycle land speed world record this month (September 2014) so what happened?
That’s next September now.
So it’s been put back and how easy is it to juggle all your commitments?
Like anything you just have to prioritise, that’s the main thing. My priority is the band and the album and increasing the band’s awareness because it’s so expensive to tour that any young band who wants to start out and increase the numbers, it’s really difficult. The better it does, the more commitment it takes from everybody and to have five guys all on the same page and willing and able to put that amount into increasing the band is a massive, massive commitment. With the motorcycle racing it was just me so it was easy, I didn’t have to rely on anybody but with the band it’s five. It’s a different concept. At the moment everybody’s fully, one hundred percent behind it. It’s everybody’s priority and I’m blessed with that.
Apart from the motorcycling and music do you have any other talents or ambitions?
Other than the land speed record which I’m training for, we start testing next month in the UK just to make sure the bike’s ready with electronics and all the rest of it. I’m looking forward to getting into that so it’s on my mind a little bit but other than that it’s fully endorsed into the band. We’re hoping to support somebody in November/December, we’re not sure who yet but we’re trying to get onto another support slot because the supports have really done us favours. It gives an opportunity to play in front of a lot of people. (Status) Quo was great for us so hopefully November/December we can get one of them but if not then I’ll just crack on writing the second album with Toby.
You’re married to talented singer song-writer Katie (Melua). Do you get to see each other’s shows much?
I see quite a few of her shows actually. Luckily because the genre’s so different our tours and gigs don’t clash too much. I’ve been to most of her gigs over the last three years and supported her. She was at Wolverhampton, Slade Rooms with us to see our biggest gig yet, which was nice. She’s really proud, she had no involvement in the album but with her experience in the music industry she’s really, really proud of seeing someone who got a band together, did their own music and doing it the grass-roots way. For her to come and see over four hundred people the other night, she was made up.
Do you jam together to get some music ideas?
She’s a guitar player, she plays a little bit of keys but she’s mainly a guitar player and obviously my instrument’s the keys so when she’s jamming through a new song and she wants to get some ideas on the keys to see where the song can develop to, we do a bit of that but we do it very separately. I think that she’s … erm you know when you’re a kid and you’re doing a painting (me – yep) and you don’t want anyone to see it until you’ve finished it? Katie’s very much like that, she doesn’t want anybody’s help or influence until it’s finished so she can present it with icing on the cake.
Did you meet through music?
I took my Mum to a concert and unbeknown to me they had a piano player who was one of the biggest motorcycle fans on the planet. He spotted me in the crowd and emailed me and invited me to the next gig so that’s how we got together, a bit of a strange way of meeting.
As good a way as any. Cool.
My Mum was a massive fan of Katie’s, she still is, so she nearly fell to the floor when I said she was my girlfriend so for it to pass with your mother you know you’ve done alright because they’re weren’t many of my girlfriends that my Mum said yes to! (laughs)
What have Toseland got planned after this tour?
Like I said, we’re hoping to get on support, so fingers crossed we can get on a support in November/December. If not I’ll be with Toby, we’ve got about ten ideas we’re working on at the moment. We’ve introduced two new songs for this tour which have been going down really well. Those two are likely to be on the next album so I’ll keep on writing that and I’m not sure of the release date but I’ll certainly have it finished by next year.
Thank you very much for talking to us. Have you got any final message for the fans out there?
I just want to thank everybody for accepting me and seeing me because the cliche of being a sportsman and musician, I feel that that’s in the past now, and to see over four hundred people at the gigs, it’s just amazing to think that my career started as something else.
PlanetMosh Review of the gig: http://planetmosh.com/toseland-manchester-academy-3-30th-september-2014/
Toseland are:
James Toseland- Vocals/Keyboard
Ed Bramford – Guitar
Zurab Melua – Guitar
Roger Davis – Bass Guitar
Matthew Eldridge – Drums
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialJamesToseland
Review of the gig: http://planetmosh.com/toseland-manchester-academy-3-30th-september-2014/
Review of Sebastian Bach with support from Toseland: http://planetmosh.com/sebastian-bach-manchester-academy-7th-july-2014/
