(Morning Star, Saturday 24 September 2005)
Interview: GRANDMASTER GARETH of Misty's Big Adventure talks to KIRSTIE MAY about life in Birmingham's most eccentric band.
Misty's Big Adventure are a band apart from the herd. Hailing from Birmingham, the nine-piece multi-instrumental outfit are something approaching a religion for their fans, crazed swathes of whom have been packing out the shows on Misty's latest tour across Britain.
But it wasn't always this hectic. In the beginning, there was only Grandmaster Gareth - and his was the word.
"It started as three of us when we were 15, in 1996. The songwriting's always been a friendly dictatorship," Gareth smiles.
"When you've got a lot of people in a band, if everyone was writing and contributing, it would just be a mess. You need someone to cement it all together."
And who better to keep the whole unruly batch in check than the man with the plan?
"We got to nine members. We have an occasional DJ, but he has a baby, so there's an eight-piece band that does the regular tour.
"Everyone has their own input as I write, thinking of how they'd play it and their style of playing and what kind of music they're into because obviously everyone has their own individual tastes."
Now that the band's second album The Black Hole has hit the shops, Gareth's messianic routine is gaining momentum.
But, if this is their first proper record documenting life in King's Heath, will that make their next work the archetypally difficult second album?
"No, I try to work an album ahead, so I'm on the third album at the moment," he laughs.
With the band spending so much of their formative years steeped in the Birmingham scene, they have, inevitably, adopted some local heroes from the Midlands.
"We don't get to see as much as I'd like nowadays as we're often off on tour, but I still get to see some. Pram are my favourite. There's an amazing one-man band spectacular called Bom and his Magic Drumstick.
"He's very political but very surreal at the same time and he's a spectacle to be seen."
And a spectacle is precisely what Misty's are to their converts, with reviews from their past raving about them being "an utterly eccentric dollop of smile-inducing fun." So, naturally, the musical support of such an inventive lot would have to be pretty special. Any stand-out mentions?
"My favourite's been Jeff Lewis. He's from New York, he's a comic book artist but he's also involved in a genre called anti-folk," Gareth enthuses, referring to a style of music that's been popularised by ex-Moldy Peach Adam Green.
But Gareth's in no doubt as to the real star of the scene.
"In my opinion, Jeff's a better Adam Green. His lyrics are totally amazing, he's the best lyricist around, really."
So who else pads out his listening pleasures? "Locally, we met up with the Retro Spankies from Northampton - they've been supporting us on a few dates. They're just fun, they couldn't be more fun," he gushes.
"My influences are pretty much all over the shop. My taste goes right back. I like 1930s jazz, there's a lot of jazz that I listen to, a lot of '60s guitar pop and weird psychedelic music and then there's hip hop, so it is just a hotch potch of stuff."
A pick'n'mix indeed - but these figures pale into insignificance when talk turns to Gareth's true musical icon.
"I'd love to work with Julian Cope, because I got into him when I was about 10 and I've been a fan ever since."
Can Gareth report any response to these professional advances?
"I did actually meet him last year. I got to have a cup of tea with him, so that was really cool.
"But I haven't broached the subject of collaboration with him. I'm gonna send him the album and see if he likes it."
With such eclectic tastes, will Misty's ever be able to play in rock's big league? Could they ever tour with someone really boring, like Coldplay?
"Maybe if the rider was good." Couple of beers and you're anyone's?
"Well, more like a sausage sandwich," he corrects with a grin.
"The food more than the drink, probably."
Misty's Big Adventure may give the rock'n'roll lifestyle a miss, but, with their Cope fan worship and oversubscribed tourbus, they're truly one of a kind.
