Tactician's Interview ('cause I can't get enough of them on this blog)

So, how do you think the single launch went?
We thought it went great. It was totally packed, pretty ladies in the front row and people kept shouting for more at the end. What more would you want. Very satisfying all in all.

How much were you affected by all the problems with sound?
The sound was not so much an issue during the gig. We got really stressed during sound check though. The Fly people fucked up the booking of the sound engineer. So they had to get someone in last minute. The poor fella had never worked there before and didn’t know where things were. Not really what you need when you got people cueing outside, waiting to get in. But Spiro did a great job and during the first song we knew it was going to be alright.

Going back to the beginning, how did The Tacticians come about?
The Tacticians are the songwriting partnership of me and my brother (Joe Jr.). We started writing together about 2 years ago and played gigs with ever changing line ups over this period. Al the bass player has been with us for a while now and Mark the drummer played with us on and off. We are turning more and more into a unit with this current line up. We released 2 singles on Dancing Giraffe Records and got more and more attention. Myspace features and some radio air play helped quite a bit.

You’ve become firm favourites with the likes of Jim Coulson from Kerrang Radio. How does it feel to finally be getting some media attention?
Of course it feels great to hear your songs on the radio. Jim is generally a man of great taste. It’s nice to be picked by him. It’s a bit odd at first but I feel one could easily get used to it. We work extremely hard and are totally committed to what we do. Media attention is a crucial thing and I believe we deserve it.

Do you get sick of people calling you The Tactitians? :P
Well it is more surprising to see how many people also in the music press can’t seem to write properly. We never thought it would create a problem when we picked the name. Just think of tactic and the spelling is so logical. It’s not tactit? It’s got nothing to do with mammary glands. Maybe man boobs in a few years time :-)

Do you have a favourite Tacticians song?
That’s a difficult one. We only play the songs we love. Naturally you are always more excited about the newer ones as they seem more fresh to you. Hardcore Porn is one of my all time favourites. I’m very proud of this one. It has the right amount of depth and lightness and a very commercial title.

You seem to have a lot more foreign fans than your average unsigned London band. At the launch party alone, I was surrounded by Spanish, French and German people. Any idea why the Europeans love you so much?
Have we? You know more than I do then. There’s such a high percentage of European foreigners living in London. Quite a huge chance they come to your gigs at some point. We’ve got a lot of French, German, Italian, Spanish....friends on MySpace as well as in real life but I’ve never noticed we had more at our gigs than other bands. If it’s so that’s great. Bring them on!!!

Finally, and most importantly, please tell me you have plans for an album!
Yep. We have piled up three albums worth of material by now. We are really ready to record our debut album. If everything goes to plan we should release something in spring. We are still negotiating but it looks like the album release might not be Dancing Giraffe Records anymore. :-)

THE TACTICIAN’S SINGLE LAUNCH PARTY @ THE FLY, NEW OXFORD ST., 8 NOVEMBER

Kate is (usually) busy doing hardcore porn…
…but she’s decided to take the night off to see The Tacticians, and she’s very happy that she did. The Tacticians seem to have achieved the impossible tonight; on a cold Wednesday night, they have single-handedly filled The Fly with enthusiastic young revellers to celebrate the release of their addictive double A-side single, Girls Grow Up Faster Than Boys/Get A Move On. If that wasn’t a daunting enough prospect, the sound guy has just quit. I have to congratulate Spiros Contostavlos at this point, a lovely guy who manages the sound brilliantly on his first day working at the venue, but before the gig, The Tacticians are understandably nervous.

Of course, they have nothing to worry about. Their instantly catchy tunes and charming Internet and on-stage persona have won them hordes of fans who have flocked here to enjoy a rare hour long performance, mixing our favourite Tacticians tracks with a few classic covers, including Folsom Prison Blues. Opening with the insanely danceable double bill of Respectfully Proceeding and Dance Like Nobody’s Watching, The Tacticians soon get everyone moving. Next up is London’s Alright, which has become an anthem for The Tacticians’ fans, perfectly encapsulating everything we feel about our hometown. Ollie’s confession that the Mancunians don’t share our sentiments causes someone to spend the rest of the evening shouting “FUCK MANCHESTER”, just one example of the interaction between the band and the crowd. It’s clear that the band love their fans, and the feeling is mutual. As Ollie strides through the crowd, all eyes are on him, captivated by his dance moves that are just the right side of ‘drunken dad at a disco’.

I know it sounds clichéd, but in the midst of the current obsession with the scene, The Tacticians’ self-styled urban folk is something unique, something special. The band are genuinely fun, with songs like Ordinary People Will Always Let You Down and the ode to sex-toys & BDSM, Some Like It Odd, that would bring a smile to even the most miserable countenance. Don’t get me wrong though, they’re no novelty band, they just tell the truth, and they do it to music that begs to be danced to.

Final encore, Size, is completely riotous. The entire crowd, including people who quite clearly don’t speak much English, are united in shouting, “Don’t say size doesn’t matter!” along with the band, giggling all the while. The perfect ending to the perfect set. As Tapes ‘N’ Tapes’ Insistor begins to play, we’re left euphoric, still cheering, still revelling in the experience we’ve just shared. There’s an undeniable feeling that we’ve just witnessed the start of something big. XFM has proclaimed The Tacticians as "A band destined for greatness" and nowhere here would disagree. Bring on the album launch party!

WHY?!

Could someone please explain to me why venue owners, particularly in Camden, believe that someone 17 years, 11 months and 21 days old does not have the right to enjoy live music, while someone born just 10 days earlier does? Why they turn hardcore fans away in favour of people indifferent to the music?

For me, following my favourite unsigned bands is something I take very seriously; seeing one of them live is an incomparable experience, so it’s understandable that I’m pissed off about having to miss gigs due to strict IDing policies. After months of avoiding any gigs in Camden, today was the final straw. Plastik, my favourite unsigned band, who I’ve followed obsessively for two years now, have just adopted a new guitarist, so naturally I was brimming with excitement about seeing them. So, imagine my horror when I was greeted at the door of The Dublin Castle with “No ID, no entry”. I tried begging, I tried bribing, I tried promises of sexual favours, but nada. There were no words of consolation, no empathy of any kind, just “No ID, no entry” repeated mechanically, and angry expressions when I searched desperately for the band through the window, as if I would somehow jump through the glass, run straight to the bar, and order massive amounts of alcohol before reporting the club to the police for serving minors. Realising the futility of my actions, I was eventually persuaded by my friends to go for consolatory dough-balls, but only after shouting profanities in the bouncer’s gormless face.

How hard would it be for venues to start using a nifty stamp, along the lines of DO NOT SERVE THIS GIRL ALCOHOL, so that, if there ever were a raid (extremely unlikely anyway), there would not be the risk of them having their license revoked for serving the underage? Of course, it will never happen, no matter how much I complain. Why? Because venues makes more money from the sale of alcohol than the entrance money people pay to see bands, so encouraging the entrance of under 18s into the venue means their profit will fall. The net result is that people who just want to get pissed get to see bands they don’t even care about, while the real fans are left out in the cold.

I’ve always refused to buy a fake ID, as, thanks to a dodgy liver, I can’t actually drink alcohol. Why should I have to break the law just to be able to watch some indie scenesters strut around with guitars? Now, however, it seems like attempting to get hold of a fake passport is the only option available. Worse still, when I finally turn 18 in a few, torturously long months, there’s a possibility that some venues will start admitting over 21s only. By the time I’m eventually allowed into a gig in Camden, I’ll be too old to enjoy the music anymore!

“What’s the point of this long and rambling rant?” you ask. Well, it’s a call to arms. To repeat the old cliché, we need action and we need it now. Bands and fans have to get together to boycott these venues and promote places where under 18s are free to enjoy the music they love. Music should not be controlled by entrepreneurs who want to cash in on our collective alcohol addiction, but accessible to those willing to journey to the middle of nowhere for a glimpse of their favourite band.