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Music, Living

Top British rockers swarmed to Ayia Napa for this year’s Napa Live music festival, NAOMI LEACH goes backstage and meets some of the acts

Rays of green neon light splay across the crowd. The bass guitar groans and the raucous mob pound their feet, stomping the ground rhythmically and jerking back and forwards to the pulsing heavy rift. Twisted Wheel close their deafening set and platinum selling rockers The Enemy saunter on stage. Lead singer Tom Clarke swaggers to the microphone with a guitar in one hand. He points appreciatively at the crowd and their top ten hit ‘Away From Here’ erupts. The crowd dance feverishly, chanting along. A plastic cup of beer is flung into the mosh pit at the front and splashes on the topless torsos of men, busily slamming into each other. Further back a blonde is hoisted on to her boyfriend’s shoulders. She sways enthusiastically to the music, arms outstretched to the stage. As hit tune ‘We’ll Live and Die in These Towns’ swells through the venue in Tom’s thick Coventry drawl it’s easy to forget exactly where we are.

This scene was not at this week’s Glastonbury rock festival in the UK, it was in fact at last weekend’s indie music festival in Ayia Napa. The Enemy performed live alongside Twisted Wheel on the second night of the three day Napa Live festival. Then acclaimed Birmingham indie band The Twang and northern rock legends The Charlatans completed the line up by performing at the festival the following night.

For a dose of garage, house and reggae people flock to the island’s clubbing mecca, Ayia Napa but now indie rock is an unexpected and welcome addition to the music scene. Tourists and super fans alike are embracing the burgeoning scene as the Napa Live festival flourishes in its second year. It was set up by Chris Topliss, the man behind Napa hangout the Live Lounge.

During their sound check, I grabbed a few minutes with The Enemy to find out what brought them to Ayia Napa. The first thing that strikes me about the three piece act is how young and diminutive they look, not what you’d expect when listening to their raw, contagious anthems, riling against working class oppression with humour and pathos.

Front man and songwriter Tom Clarke has a confident, self possessed interviewing style full of pithy, dry asides. Bassist Andy Hopkins is friendly and open, while drummer Liam Watts is polite but the group fall into the natural patter of allowing Tom to be the band’s voice piece.

Andy is wearing a sling, which I notice he ditches later for the gig. The injury happened at the recent Download Festival.

“I fell over drunk. It happens a lot. I fell on my face, broke a finger before a gig, in Ibiza. And broke my heel before V festival,” he admits nonchalantly. It never stops him playing though, he declares proudly.

They say they have matured since their explosive entry on to the music scene in 2007, hailed as the saviours of rock, by the music press. “Everyone’s grown up. Become a better band,” explains Tom. They are currently working on their third album which will be a return to the ‘smack you in the face’ immediacy of the first album.

Although The Enemy has had a successful whirlwind few years performing and recording, they claim to lead very normal lives. Andy says “Life isn’t the band. We still have lives in and outside of the band,” Doing what? I ask. “We still nip to Sainsbury’s to get the milk. Pay the mortgage,” replies Tom.

Much as the band try to maintain normality by still living in Coventry they lead a lifestyle many would envy.

“Yeah if you say touring the world playing gigs in beautiful places is a dream, then you could consider it a dream. There’s perks, playing live shows, gigs here, stuff like this. I was lying in the pool earlier and thinking it’s not a bad life,” Tom admits.

The boys looked pretty relaxed hours before their headlining gig but confess they do still feel the nerves sometimes.

Liam confides “My biggest worry is to go on stage and I don’t know where I’m walking. I don’t want to go on stage and get lost in front of so many people.”

“I get a bit more nervous when not gigging.” Andy confesses,

“I’m more nervous now. But it’s healthy nerves, an adrenaline rush, in the run up I’m thinking ‘where are the pedals?’ I used to turn up have a beer and just stroll on stage,” reveals Tom.

“There’s more pedals now,” smirks Andy.

“We’ve got a loyal following because of our live gigs. We always play our hearts out, we always say ‘Let’s play like it could be the last version played!’” declares Tom.

The band jumped at the opportunity to play in the new indie hot spot of the Mediterranean. “There’s a massive expat community here and in that way Cyprus is a bit of a one off. They’re trying to build a huge indie movement. There are also a lot of Scandinavians in Cyprus and they don’t know indie, it’s totally foreign to them. That should be exciting, it’s what music is about, discovering stuff you didn’t know about already”.

The following night there is a different vibe to the festival. The crowd are a little older, more rugged. These are the fans that have loved The Charlatans since the Hacienda days and still sport the Madchester indie rocker hats to prove it. Some have travelled from the UK specifically to be here tonight. As The Twang take to the stage first, the happy go lucky holidaymakers and energetic indie hipsters from the night before flood the venue.

Earlier that evening, I joined the affable Brummy lads from The Twang backstage for a beer and a chat. Matty Clinton, the mop haired drummer and youngest member of the band, is first to arrive for sound check. He is casually sipping a beer to chase away a hangover from the Napa Live gig the night before. He says he doesn’t normally do the interview chats but agrees to kick off the answers until the others arrive. He’s easy going and candid.

“Last night was great. I was surprised by how many people knew who we were. There are a load of Twang and Charlatans fans here and we didn’t think anyone would come over. It’s exciting to be here. The sun brought us over. Obviously it’s good to play everywhere and it’s not as if we play in that many countries,” he explains.

The Twang is a hard working, five piece indie rock band. They formed in 2001 with Matty joining the band when he was just 14 years old. “They father me a lot. Phil is seven years older than me, Jon is six years older. When I was 15 they tried to ‘corrupt me’ but now they’re all married with kids. Besides, drinking and taking drugs and all that is what drummers do, what drummers are known for,” Matty smiles wryly.

The Twang burst on to the UK music scene in 2007 winning a host of awards, scoring top 10 singles and were championed by NME and BBC radio. They are currently working on their new album, to be released later this year. They have their own recording studio and practice every day.

“You can get lazy if you’ve nothing to aim towards. We’re always straight back in the studio. We have no break away from each other. We love gigging and it’s such a privilege to be flown out to do something we love doing. Most people do this [Cyprus] for a holiday and we’re off doing it as a job,” explains Phil Etheridge, the band’s charismatic joint lead vocalist, songwriter and guitarist.

Phil describes the band’s journey and early success: “at the time we laughed it off, looking back now you realise the position you were in. It’s mad looking back. We don’t want to lose what we’ve got and it’s not given by right. You’ve got to earn it. We try to write for ourselves, we’re not looking for a hit, it’s about if I think it’s good. ‘Either Way’ changed our lives but for us it was just another song in the set. It was only when people were singing back the chorus that we realised it was going to be big”.

“I try not to write about myself. It’s a bit boring. I just write about emotions,” says songwriter and bassist Jon Watkins, popping in and out of the interview, brandishing his bass.

“You can’t ask, it’s just given to you. Without wanting to sound all spiritual, I do believe an idea for a song just enters the room,” adds Phil.

The guys are looking forward to joining the Napa Live line up and putting on a rowdy performance. “Tonight’s going to be pretty special a lot of people have travelled all the way from the UK to see us. It’s quite humbling to see loads of lads are willing to come over. We don’t take it for granted. We’re going to make them dance,” grins Phil.

If the indie fans, bouncing around the Chameleon Club later that night are anything to go by, then the Twang’s mission and the Napa Live festival have been a success.