The Pigeon Detectives
By Charlotte OxnardThe Pigeon Detectives have been on a UK wide tour enjoying sold out shows and performing their new songs. Charlotte Oxnard caught up with the band at Leeds Metropolitan University for the home leg of their tour.
When asked if they ever expected to get this far Matt answers, "Ollie did. He always told us we would get this far- he actually expects us to be further than we are right now... we never believed him though. Ages ago we were meant to be playing Futuresound and we never got on but Ollie said 'don't worry we will be playing Leeds Festival next year'... and we did!"
Ollie adds, "I just knew we were better than everyone else!"
I question what has made them get this far and they explain, "a lot of bands keep songs just so they have enough, but with us if a song is shit we scrap it straight away and move on. We are pretty good live too... on the Dirty Pretty Things tour we just nicked all their fans really. That was the biggest leg up we had, that led onto all the festivals and being on the radio".
The Pigeon Detectives have come off a tour supporting Kaiser Chiefs in Europe and when asked if they aspire to be like them they had a lot to say. "We carry all our cases and lug everything around but they have people to do that for them so we would like to get to that stage where we don't have to do that!"
Would you want to be as big as them? "We would want to be as big as them but not do what they've done to get that far. Like we would never present Blue Peter and be sponsored by Pepsi. They've done us loads of favours though, promoting and producing us. They came out and endorsed us to their fans."
"I'm sure there's stuff that they didn't want to do but they were kinda forced into to sell more records... like go on stupid programmes. But if someone asked you to present Nevermind The Buzzcocks you'd do it."
"Yeah 'cos Nevermind the Buzzcocks is cool, Popworld isn't."
"Their image has been marketed as squeaky clean and we don't want to be the boys next door, we have that other edge to us. But Kaiser Chiefs know they're not cool; Ricky even said to us, 'you can come on tour with us, if we're cool enough for you'!"
As for their fans I wonder if it can get annoying, everybody wanting guestlist and to be associated with them? "Some people just don't know where the line is between being complimentary and just talking your ear off. It's hard to have a conversation with anyone you don't know 'cos all they talk about is you and the band. You can't meet anyone if they know you're in The Pigeon Detectives, 'cos they're like 'when is your next gig?' etc. When we play a gig in Leeds, although it's much better as we are more comfortable and the crowd is more rowdy, the guestlist is balls!"
Without any prompt in the interview Matt suddenly switches from fans to bands; "A lot of Leeds bands are quite bitchy actually. Cos we played with [unnamed Leeds band] at Joseph's Well and the Cockpit every week and then we took that little step up and they were still playing the Mixing Tin whereas we were on tour with Dirty Pretty Things and Milburn. Then we got this massive bitchy backlash from [unnamed Leeds band] so we were like 'well fuck you - we don't need you'"
"Then we took a step up again and some of these same bands are being all friendly to us and asking if we need support bands and stuff."
They didn't want to drop names but assured me that the bands "know who they are." After a few guesses I had worked out that it wasn't The Hair, Duels or Black Wire but I'm still guessing...
The Pigeon Detectives went out and performed a great set to a massive Leeds audience and then did several European shows including Milan and Amsterdam. With another headlining set at the Faversham on New Years Eve and an album coming out in February, what else does the band want to achieve?
"We want our album to go really really well and for the Kaiser Chiefs to support us on tour!"
But only if you're cool enough...
