Young, Liverpool guitar band Sugarmen are one of the most exciting, new live acts I’ve seen in ages. Think early Arctic Monkeys, but with a Scouse charm and the thrill of The Libertines. And if that isn’t sweet enough, they’ve got cocky songs about scene queens and eating dirty kebabs.  I spoke to their 19-year-old lead guitarist – and Roddy Frame/Edywn Collins look-a-like – Chay Heney to find out more…

It was great to see you play live at Alan McGee’s 359 Music show at the District club in Liverpool recently. You were the best band of the night – you blew me away…

Chay Heney:  It was great. We have been together for about nine months, but in the last few weeks we seem to have settled into ourselves. When we started, we had so many ideas and they were all floating around, giving us a sort of identity crisis, but it’s all glued together into one thing now. As a band we’re surer of our sound and a lot tighter live. I’m sure our sound will continue to develop, but it’s a lot easier to take control of it now. At the 359 gig, it just all seemed to come together for us. We were all buzzing after it.

What was it like to play for Alan McGee [ex-Creation Records head honcho]? Is he someone you admire?

CH: Yeah, completely. I think out of all the bands he has been involved with – signing or managing – we all love a few each. I’m a big fan of Creation. For me, Primal Scream are a band that really changed what I thought you could do with music – and I’m not even of the same generation. Screamadelica is genius. I know our bassist Ali is a huge My Bloody Valentine fan. It was really nice [at the District gig] because I could see Alan nodding along to the songs when I was on stage and he came and said hello after we played.

Can you tell me how the band formed?

CH: We’re all from Liverpool, except our token Southern member, Ali, who is from Hammersmith. Before we formed Sugarmen, me and Luke, who was my dad’s friend’s son, had been hanging round for a while. We both had a bunch of songs, so we started recording them in my house and working on each other’s.

The guys who now run District [Milk] had these nights in the top floor of a building on Bold Street – it was packed and sweaty and it had a kind of anything goes vibe. It was brilliant. They would have bands on – they put Alt-J on long before anyone else did.

We started hanging round with Ali there and we would stay until the early morning and get on the instruments together, playing The Clash and The Stooges after everyone had left. I bumped into him in The Grapes one day  – not the one on Mathew Street – told him about starting a new band and he was in… A few weeks later at another Milk party, Luke introduced me to Sam, who he had met a few times at Milk, and then we had a band…

We found this really cheap, huge room above a computer shop and below a private kebab shop, where these guys would just sit around playing backgammon and occasionally rowing and breaking each other’s noses! But they were pretty good landlords overall… I nailed up loads of old sheets and fabric and then we had a place to practice and eat Pot Noodles.

When I saw you play live, I was struck by the amount of great songs that you already have. Dirt was a highlight for me – I think it would make a great single. It’s a killer pop tune. Can you tell me more about that song?

CH: I’d been humming a melody that I thought could be played on trumpets – maybe on another song – and then it just seemed to make its own song.  I guess you can take what you want from it, but it’s half about doing something you shouldn’t and getting in a bit of shit for it – or going in search of a bit of trouble maybe – and half about good and bad and things not being black and white.

Circuit Queen is another good tune. Is it about anyone in particular, or can’t you tell me?

CH: Ha ha! Aye. Well, you would have to ask Luke about that one. I’m not saying I know if it is or it isn’t … but if it is, you would have to ask him… There’s something a bit glam about it, I think.

Who writes the songs?

CH: Well, when we started, we had a set of songs that me and Luke had written, but, over time, we have started playing some of Ali’s songs and I know that Sam has a few, too. We all contribute our own thing to each other’s songs anyway. We’re in the middle of writing a load of new songs.

You’ve just been doing some recording, haven’t you? How did that go? Can we expect a single or an album soon?

CH: We have something on Soundcloud that we did when we hadn’t been together for too long and we did a demo in London, too. I think the session you’re talking about was for a single – yeah. We have just had a few days working with Steve Levine [The Beachboys, Culture Club]. That was great.

Who are your musical influence and heroes?

CH: We have thousands. Everything – The Clash, Dylan, My Bloody Valentine, Orange Juice, Bowie, Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground, Phoenix, The Kinks, The Beatles, Arctic Monkeys, Aztec Camera, Mott The Hoople, Rodriguez, Foals, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Nirvana. My heroes are The Clash, man. I was lucky enough to get to play with Mick Jones and hang out with him a few times. The Clash made me want to be in a band.

Looks-wise, Chay, you remind me of a young Roddy Frame (Aztec Camera) or Edwyn Collins (Orange Juice)…

CH: Well, they are two of my favourite bands, so maybe I’ve pinched something from then….  I love that whole look. The way Edwyn Collins came back after what happened to him was amazing [He had two strokes, which left him unable to walk, talk or sing].

What’s the music scene like in Liverpool at the moment? Is it a good city for new, young bands?

CH: It’s really good at the moment. It feels as if there is a bit of a scene building up. Liverpool has had quiet periods in its musical history, but every now and then we catch the attention of everyone. I can feel something bubbling up. It shows something that Alan McGee has decided to start a night here and with the development of the Baltic Triangle housing; there are plenty of creative, arty farty types, including ourselves. It’s all good news for Liverpool. All the bands seem to know each other and we’re all doing slightly different things, too. No one is treading on anyone’s toes. It’s a good time to be in a band here.

Sugarmen are:

Luke Fenlon – Lead vocals & guitar

Ali Horn – Bass & vocals 

Sam McVann – Drums

Chay Heney – Lead guitar & vocals

For more information, visit: https://soundcloud.com/sugarmenuk

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Once described by Uncut magazine as the Tony Hancock of pop music, Manchester singer-songwriter and poet Vinny Peculiar has a new retrospective album – The Root Mull Affect –  out early next year. It comes hot on the heels of his recent project Parlour Flames, a collaboration with ex-Oasis guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs. I spoke to him about troubling issues including a phobia of hairdressers, the death of the mail order catalogue and which is more important – pop music, football or girls?

Can you tell me more about your new album The Root Mull Affect, which is out on Cherry Red in February 2014? What can we expect?

Vinny Peculiar: It’s effectively a compilation record with remixes and a couple of unreleased tracks. It seemed like a good way to introduce people to the songs, as there’s quite a big back catalogue out there. Cherry Red also released the Parlour Flames album earlier this year. David Marsden mastered the album and did several of the remixes. It was a tough job picking the tracks to include. Ultimately it was determined by which songs we still had audio masters for, as these things tend to get lost in the vaults of studio time. I’m also mid-way through recording a new album proper, which I hope to have finished in time for a summer release. So, busy times ahead…

I’m intrigued by the title. Can you please shed some light on it?

VP: The title comes from a song of mine called Root Mull [from the album Growing Up with Vinny Peculiar ] – it’s a story song about a graffiti artist who sprayed havoc in the village I grew up in. Nobody knows his or her identity. It was my first ‘art can change the world’ – or at least upset your parents – moment – and it seemed appropriate. Of course, the track didn’t make the compilation…

Sometimes I Feel Like A King, from the new album, is a beautiful, acoustic song, which celebrates the simple, everyday pleasures of life. Can you tell me more about it?

VP: It’s the title track of an album I did at Analogue Catalogue Studios in 2009 – I just recorded the acoustic version for the new album. The verses are lists of things, simple pleasures celebrated in spite of everything: listening to music, taking the kids to the park, reading a book – little joys. The chorus is sing–a-long simplicity. It’s a celebration of life, in spite of the darkness that lurks within. The title came from the Bukowski poem Fire Station. I love his work.

The Hairdressers – also from the new record – is a sinister song about the perils of going for a haircut. Do you have a phobia of hairdressers?

VP: I did have a bit of a fear. Trichophobia – I think that’s the word for it. Now I have someone who’s comes to the house, but I still get all picky and paranoid. The hairstyle I really want never seems to materialise and the more I think about it, the less changes I make. I do the poem live at smaller gigs – it’s become something of a comedy ice breaker.

Your song A Vision also features a haircut reference – albeit copying Terry Hall’s style in ’84. Maybe you should do a concept album about haircuts/ hairdressers.?

VP: Yeah, perfect. I also have a poem called Grooming Products Divide the Generations. I like the concept album approach.

So what can we expect from your new studio album that’s out next year? How’s the recording going?

VP: I recorded the bass and drums with Che and Ollie from Parlour Flames last month. I’ve just moved my studio gear, which has taken forever to set up again, but over the next few weeks I’ll be recording the vocals and guitars. Rob Steadman, who I’ve been doing solo shows, with, also plays on it. Lyrically the album seems to be harking back to the Growing Up with Vinny Peculiar days, with songs about the decline of the mail order catalogue (Catalogue Trousers) and coming from a little place in the middle of nowhere [English Village]. There’s a tribute to Michael Jackson and a piss take of Antony Gormley.

Earlier this year, you released the fantastic Parlour Flames debut album – one of my favourite records of 2013. Can you tell me more about how you and Paul Arthurs – Bonehead from Oasis – came to work together and form Parlour Flames? What’s it like being in a band with him?

VP: We were friends for a while before starting Parlour Flames. I met him through Mike Joyce [ex-The Smiths], who was drumming with me at the time. Bonehead joined my band for a European tour. Before that he managed the Vinny Peculiar band. Mostly it’s business as usual being in a band with him – recording, rehearsing, playing gigs and organising stuff – but every once in a while there are reminders of his previous band and how much they meant to people. I tend to forget just how huge they were…

Pop Music, Football and Girls by Parlour Flames is a great pop song, outlining most men’s passions in life. I love pop music and girls, but I never got into football… Have you got any advice for me?

VP: I grew up being taken to Villa Park for all the home games and I was an OK footballer at school, so football culture came early…That said, I stopped going to games and I lost interest for a good 20 years, before finally getting back into it through a shared interest in Aston Villa football club with my daughter. Now I’m back in the supporters’ zone and I’m going to games when I can and sharing the highs and lows… If you didn’t grow up supporting a team I’d suggest you shop around and, even better, go local. I used to go and watch Bromsgrove Rovers years ago and that was a strangely rewarding time – they don’t come any more unknown than that!

Which is the most important: pop music, football or girls?

VP: Hmm, yes – the holy trinity of hurt. You can feel let down, thrilled, elated and abandoned by them all at any given time. If I had to prioritise I’d say girls, but only because my girl is likely to read this. Hah!

Is Lonely Girls and Horses – one of my favourite songs on the Parlour Flames album – based on anyone in particular? I think it could be the only pop song to mention ‘gilet’. The half-rhyme of ‘maggots and ‘foreign language’ is a stroke of genius and always makes me laugh…

VP: I’ve had that song for a while, and it’s funny you should mention gilet – it comes up as ‘gullet’ on the spell checker, which always tickles me. When I was playing the song a few years back with the English Crumpet [Amy Smith – before Parlour Flames] we laughed long and hard at that… It’s a song about teenage shyness and fear, lost in the mists of time. The shy girl in question is now happily married and living in Stourbridge, so my mother tells me. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be…

Too Soon The Darkness (from the Parlour Flames album) is one of the most poignant, affecting songs about death that I’ve ever heard…

VP: Again, I’d had this song for a while, I played it to Bonehead and he loved it. It was one of the first songs we recorded for the album. It’s a tribute to my late uncle, the jazz musician Jim Wilkes, who was a big influence on me – he died in 2006. He was always taking us on adventures as kids, and was really supportive of my musical endeavours. He was an inspiration, for sure.

Who are your main influences and songwriting heroes? At times, the Parlour Flames album reminds me of  The Go Betweens. Is that a fair comparison?

VP: Well, I have their Liberty Belle record [Liberty Belle & The Black Diamond Express] so I’m aware of them. I see what you mean – they are quite lyrical, they jangle pretty well and I used a Rickenbacker a lot on the Parlour Flames album. My songwriting heroes change from week to week – Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Ray Davies, Luke Haines, Bowie, Bolan and Slade. I love John Cooper Clarke, Leonard Cohen, Mark Linkous, Paddy McAloon, Tom Verlaine and The Velvet Underground.

Were you upset by the recent death of Lou Reed?

VP: I am a big fan of the Velvets. I love the almost childlike quality of the songs. Nico is kind of otherworldly – Sunday Morning and Femme Fatale. And Transformer, of course, is a classic. Some of the more latter day Lou stuff left me a bit cold, but I still enjoy the Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal record – the live one. Those are proper rock guitar heroics on Sweet Jane. It’s one of the best things to cover if you ever find yourself in a rock covers band, as I have, intermittently, over the years.

Have you read Morrissey’s autobiography yet? Will you? Is it the talk of Manchester?

VP: I’m about 140 pages in – he’s up to The Smiths and carping about contracts. I’m enjoying it – no one should expect the truth and nothing but. It’s a creative process and he’s nothing if not entertaining. The start of the book might as well be set in the 1870s as the 1970s. He does a mean old line in Victorian melodrama and the hardships of his early life are presented as Dickensian melodrama. In short, I’m liking it, and, yes, almost everyone I know has bought it.

I first met you at The Luminaire, in Kilburn, a few years ago, supporting Luke Haines. It was a great night. Mike Joyce and Craig Gannon [from The Smiths] were in your band and Bonehead was managing you, if I recall correctly….

VP: Oh, yes – that was a great little gig. It seems a while since that band. I love Luke Haines’ work, I did a support tour with him a few years ago. He was very nice – the perfect gent.

You’ve worked with lots of people in your career – several of whom have been in big bands. Have you ever fancied being a famous rock star, or are you happy with being more of a cult artist? 

VP: I think most people in the writing/performing/recording industry fancy reaching wider audiences and I’m no different. As for rock stardom, well a few more record sales would be a start and we’ll take it from there…

What’s the most rock and roll thing you’ve ever done?

VP: I’m not very rock and roll. I’ve been known to pass out after three pints of home brew. Reefers – I love that word – give me a migraine! I’ve tried hard over the years to emulate the great writers, by drinking to excess and drugging like there’s no tomorrow, but all to no avail…

For more information, please visit www.vinnypeculiar.com