Tell you what – we love hearing from artists when things go right. We equally love hearing from artists when things go dreadfully wrong. A song that was a piece of piss, written in 20 minutes? Or years in the making and a bastard to write?
Whether it’s a song that came together through great duress or one that was smashed out in a short amount of time, we’re getting the lowdown from some of our favourites on the one song that they can’t stop thinking about – in their own words.
Something different this time around, as Adam Sykes talks us through the latest Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs single – a collaborative cover with The Lovely Eggs! ‘Hot Stuff’ – the natural single choice – sees all proceeds going towards Sunderland record store Pop Recs in memory of the late Dave Harper. Tour dates below (tickets here). Take it away, Adam…
Words: Andy Hughes (Artwork: Drew Millward)
“It feels important to start this by saying we didn’t write this song. Not only did we not write the song but we barely changed the arrangement. There was little need to, it has everything in all of the right places.
During the height of the pandemic I was shielding, it meant we weren’t able to get together as we’d have liked or, once restrictions allowed, use the free time as we’d have liked. With that in mind, a cover seemed like a sensible prospect. Something to keep us distracted from the news. The track was already written, all we had to do was play it a little slower and with a lot more distortion. Once the bones of the track were down, restrictions were lifted and shielding was a memory; it became apparent we needed some other vocals and The Lovely Eggs sat at the top of our list. For some reason, they said yes.
Shortly before that, Dave Harper of Frankie and the Heartstrings tragically passed away. He was a very popular figure in the North East, especially amongst musicians. Having set up Pop Recs, a record shop and venue in Sunderland, that was an awful lot more than that. We were meant to play the reopening of Pop Recs. It would have been our first show back after… you know. A grander version of the venue, we kept hearing how excited Dave was to have it finally be finished. Those gigs weren’t able to happen but with Hot Stuff nearly there it was a no-brainer to use it to raise money for Pop Recs. As a mutual friend kindly said, “He’d probably have pretended to hate it but secretly really liked it”.
Like I say, we didn’t write this song so there’s only so much I can say about it. I’m sure Pete Bellotte and Donna Summer have done an interview about it somewhere but y’know, it’s for a good cause so just buy it.“
Nov 12 / Norwich / The Waterfront
Nov 13 / Swansea / Sin City
Nov 17 / Belfast / The Empire Music Hall
Nov 18 / Limerick / Dolans
Nov 19 / Cork / Kino
Nov 20 / Dublin / Whelan’s
Nov 23 / Manchester / Albert Hall
Nov 24 / Bristol / Motion
Nov 25 / Birmingham / The Mill
Nov 27 / Brighton / Concorde 2 (sold out)
Nov 29 / Southampton / Engine Rooms
Nov 30 / London / Electric Ballroom (sold out)
Dec 1 / London / Electric Ballroom
Dec 2 / Leeds / Stylus
Dec 8 / Nottingham / Rock City
Dec 9 / Edinburgh / Summerhall
Dec 10 / Glasgow / St Luke’s
Dec 11 / Aberdeen / The Lemon Tree
Dec 17 / Newcastle Upon-Tyne / The Cluny (sold out)
Dec 18 / Newcastle Upon-Tyne / The Cluny (sold out)
Dec 19 / Newcastle Upon-Tyne / The Cluny
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