there was a silence you went nut it ain't only music they're coming back again
right is there something up with these people
go on it's something you told them i'm trying to do an
interview sarah champion backstage at the isle of wight festival you may hear
the red arrows flying fast suggs has just joined us welcome welcome back to the aisle
thank you sarah and i actually did you know for your listeners viewers they just did
fly past the first time i've ever seen the red arrows that was fantastic the best because people
thought it was a band when it was on the on the set arrows it's a good name right yeah
so listen this is the first big gig of the summer for a lot of people here today not for you because
you had your jubilation festival yes so yeah it was fantastic yeah i mean we did a little bit of
christmas but then our first big thing was we had our own festival in brookwood park in south london
and it was unbridled joy you know so fantastic i mean you know you know
yourself and anyone in this business two and a half years of doing nothing and everyone is so
up for it i mean i'm actually getting on with my own band who i hate with the lust
it won't last but at the moment they're coming back again yeah good arrows everyone
i've ever run out of um colors what's it called smoke we uh we had a chat down um and it was the
absolute height of lockdown you were on whitstable beach i seem to recall um on your daily walk
and at that point obviously we didn't know when the next gig was going to be so you're quite right
i think for us it was the white festival september and the energy was palpable it was a release of
all that tension of the last two years so that's that's what rockwell park was like i'm guessing
exactly that exactly that you know we played with a few of our pals squeeze and supergrass
and norman jay and yeah it was just relentlessly joyful yeah and i'm starting to worry that aca
pete will last like six or seven hours but they were so keen to just be in amongst
other people and listening to music that it was the fantastic event but now you're right there
in whitstable yeah i was like my wife called it a performance tourette's i was singing to people at
the bus stops you know right you see all these old grannies running away going i knocked that
bloke from madness again singing his stupid songs is desperate to to perform to anybody who knows it
but yeah it's great to be doing it again of course it's great to be back yeah yeah
yeah so you were here 2019 which obviously was a big year that all the sort of
40th anniversary um celebrations and then he went from 2019 to 2020 that was a sort of um
feast to famine um and now obviously i've just looked at your schedule it looks like you're
making up for lost time you're getting you've got a busy summer ahead what's it now it's like we've
had the red arrows twice what was that it's all the fun of the festival we got concord out now
it's not roger's arriving for a second that's what it is yeah we've got a very busy schedule
this summer yeah it's great and it's just weird because these things have been booked up for two
years that we're going to spain next week and in italy and who's this now it's the red arrows again
uh so yes it's great to be back doing it again and to um pick up on all these things i mean you
know some of these gigs two and a half years ago i was wondering whether you know after the audience
would still be alive you know to be perfectly honest i mean given myself you know but we are
still alive which is extraordinary and uh yeah to be performing again it really does make me realize
you know what you take for granted yeah and and i don't right at this minute it's probably
the best that i get out of doing gigs i can remember because i'm really appreciating it
there they go again i mean i think you know for a lot of people in the crowd today this will be
their first big gig after all the lockdown so i think that energy is going to be out there you
know i think it's it's going to be a magical thing um today we revealed the listeners favorite single
by madness this is something we do each week where we play um a track by a band leading up to what
the favorite single is i just i just wondered if you might guess what the listeners voted
in the top two the favorite single yeah i imagine it would be our house or it must be love
but if you're asking me my favorite it's embarrassment which is a slightly less sort
of a popular track but what is it then yeah you're right it was our house what about this one in the
rain but you you're right you're right that was that was a close second well that was going to
be my next follow-up question really um that might be your favorite single is that the favorite one
to perform live i mean i i mean i love them all you know and we've learned over the years we went
through periods of like i don't want to play all them old it's and then and you get to this point
where it's just like people enjoy these songs so much how can you not get pleasure out of playing
any of them and i remember um bob dylan saying one time when i seen him and he could be very
sort of like you didn't know what you were gonna get let's put it that way saying well if you don't
like this song don't worry there'll be another one along in three minutes well excellent i don't
know what accent was that it was so close it was close enough something like that by birmingham i
don't know what that was but like we've had 20 30 odd hit so it is like you see people digging
things that happen to them when them songs they're coming back again they're trying to just ruin my
interview can you just turn the packet up now it's great really fascinating the first three times
you're just burning up the planet and stop it right um was uh yeah you know like that like
what pop music does and what this country has produced i heard this great documentary on david
bowie this morning and you just think wow you know i actually lived through that giza's career
and that you know the first snog you had the first boy you met the first cigarette you
know these records because they only last don't know what was old uh 45s for about a month or so
really defined moments in your life and then that's what happens when you play these songs
even 40 years later you can see all these old farts with their kids going this is the song i met
your mum to or whatever it is that was epoch for at that time it's exactly that it's the soundtrack
it's a people's lives to your life because you know that i've done this song with paul weller
i don't know you're playing it on absolute i think you chose it as single of the week it's
called who do you think you are and i was talking to paul weller about a little while ago and um
the song we were working on wasn't going great and i said look paul at the end it's
only music right and then he went there was a silence he went nut it ain't only
music they're coming back again right is there something up with these people
go on it's if you told them i'm trying to do an
and he said no suggs it ain't only music it's what we just said it's the soundtrack to our lives
and it's easy to take for granted if you're in this business but you forget how much it means
to people when i see their faces when we perform the songs that we do it makes me realize exactly
that yeah and what a special thing that is look i'm going to let you go and watch a bit of the red
arrows have an amazing set we're broadcasting it tonight so we're going to be dancing with
the red arrows the new indie brands you must catch them they're on the new tents new tent
they're a bit noisy they're a bit loud but you know thanks darling thank you very much indeed