THE FARM TEASE FIRST NEW ALBUM IN 30 YEARS | INTERVIEW WITH PETER HOOTON

“ALAN MCGHEE SAID HE USED US AS A BLUEPRINT FOR CREATION RECORDS”

When Liverpool’s The Farm released their classic debut album Spartacus back in 1991, they would be swiftly propelled to the front of the UK ‘baggy‘ music scene. With floor filling indie bangers such as ‘Groovy Train‘ and the psychedelia inspired ‘How Long’ or ‘Very Emotional’, the scousers were comfortably riding along the infamous ‘Madchester‘ hype which the likes of Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses manifested.

Inevitably though, it was their unified anthem of harmony – ‘All Together Now’ which over 30 years later, refuses to be put to bed. Being resurged many times over the years, The Farm continue to be relevant and now look forward to releasing their first album in three decades.

In September 2023, the seasoned Liverpudlians made their Spotify debut with the critically acclaimed single ‘Feel The Love’ before recently unveiling ‘Let The Music (Take Control)’ for 2024, establishing themselves back as ‘ones to watch’.

Anne caught up with The Farms legendary front man Peter Hooton and discussed everything from the ever-changing music industry, the legacy of The Farm, their new music plans and even ghosts.

Known best for your debut album Spartacus in 1991, what’s been the key to The Farms longevity?

We never fell out (laughs).

We weren’t really active for a chunk of it. After the third album we just got pretty disillusioned with it, we were starting to settle down and have families and stuff so it just got put to the back burner. We always enjoyed playing live though and I wanted to go back out and play but there was always something holding us back. Then it was Steve (Grimes)- our guitarist – who was diagnosed with bowel cancer and the one thing he said when going through treatment was that he wished he played more. So when the Happy Mondays asked us to play in, I think 2005 we decided that yeah, let’s do it.

So you didn’t really ever ‘split up’ then?

No, not officially anyway. We just stopped recording and going on tour. We became pretty disillusioned through it. We were doing everything by ourselves – we were a pure indie band. Everything we did was DIY.

In fact, Bill Drummond from The KLF was like ringing our office because we kept releasing stuff at the same time as The KLF. He was ringing the office saying like ‘who’s behind this’. There were no music moguls and no music companies. It was literally the group and some financial backers who had no experience with the music industry

Did that change when you signed to a label?

It was a proper DIY thing then when we signed to Sony Music in like ’92 it was they used ours as a blueprint. Alan McGhee said he used us as a blueprint for creation records. We signed to Sony and we became disillusioned with the music industry because we’d never experience a major company before and we couldn’t make our own decisions anymore and we couldn’t choose what records went out. The great thing about what’s happened recently is that we’re back in the DIY phase, we’re doing it ourselves and nobody is telling us what to do. Nobody’s telling us there’s no singles on the album.

Do you think that’s what killed it then?

For us it was. The music press were very important in those days. People used to take these as the bible. So when grunge came along I remember chatting to Simon Moran from SJM promotions and it was the only gig in like 3 years that we hadn’t sold out – it was Newcastle and I said to Simon “whats going on here, why havent we sold out?” and he said “Oh there’s this new band playing the university, there called Nirvana.“

So it was grunge that killed it!

Grunge was the thing to be into. In many respects it was fashion really. When a tours not happening for you it’s like an avalanche. You can see when the tides going out. Even Hullaballo, we released that in 1994 but only in America. That was on Sire Records, and this Sire guru who signed Talking Heads and Madonna loved the farm, and wanted our next album to come out in America. So that’s what we did and it was only ever available on import. That was really our last released recorded music.

But you’ve recently released a couple of singles, and while you’ve been touring for a while now, at what point were you beginning to write new material? And thinking that we could record this and release this?

Yeah, so we had always done it. We carried on writing and recording throughout the missing decades. But I don’t think we ever really had the confidence to release it until the popularity of Spotify. We all know the streaming platforms don’t pay the artist, but it’s a great platform to promote yourself. And so, when we’ve been doing festivals recently – like 10 to 15 a year. When we started introducing the new stuff, people would go away and say ‘where can I get that’ or ‘I really liked that‘. It really stands up against everything when they go away and want to hear it again. But we haven’t got a record deal, have we? But then people were telling us, just put it on streaming platforms. That’s how it started really, it was a simple as that.

People want to spend money on music again, they want to consume it?

Yeah, people want to go to concerts. But the rate of inflation is now being measured against the price of vinyl – I just read that yesterday. They’ve just put that back on after 30 years as an indication of inflation figures. I remember that we were big champions of vinyl and Spartacus was re-released as vinyl remix album with Terry Farley, which we did to to promote vinyl. But the record companies at the time were telling us we were absolutely mad, vinyl’s going to disappear in five years. It’ll be gone by the year 2000. But we were saying ‘no no, you don’t understand. People like vinyl and they want to touch it, they want the record sleeves’.

I think it did, to an extent, die out though and we’ve gone 360 on it. With so much online now, everything’s streaming services and you don’t get that same connection streaming music – you want something you can physically hold.

That’s it, and it’s the same with lots of things. You don’t want paperless concert tickets on your phone. You wanna put them in a scrapbook.

That’s one of my big pet peeves! I hate not having actual tickets.

Yeah and the argument is paper which I can understand that but in the big scheme of things, that’s not one of the biggest impacts on deforestation, is it?

I think it’s convenience as well, people have everything on their phones now.

It’s the same with football. I went to the Wembley for a cup final and our tickets were all on our phones but everybody was saying ‘I like keeping tickets’.

That’s assuming your phones working though and you can get it connected to download your tickets.

Actually, we were rehearsing last week and I had all my lyrics on my phone when I used to have them on paper – new songs they were and my phone just died. I even tried the hard reboot and nothing would work then a few hours later, it just came back on.

You don’t get that with paper!

But talking about the new singles though, are you hinting at a new album coming from that?

Yeah…we’re got six songs recorded and we’re working on 2 or 3 now. When we get to ten we’re focusing on getting an album out. Paul Weller heard ‘Feel The Love’ and ‘Let The Music’ and invited us down to his studio asking “when you gonna release the album?” but we haven’t got a record company and he’s like “do it in my place”.

This is where knowing who you known pays off!

Yeah, in the 80’s it was Madness and Paul Heaton, they were all our big champions. As well as the likes of John Peel but it’s still happening now. Like Paul’s (Heaton) doing Glastonbury, isn’t he? Just announced to today. Doing the Pyramid Stage too.

Another one you did recently – Music Feeds Live – how did you get involved in that?

That was through Keith Mullin, our guitarist. So Joe Duddell works in LIPA; which is Paul McCartney’s place in Liverpool, and so does Keith MullIn. It’s all personal connections but we were asked if we would be interested in that and we were. We’re big supporters of football fans supporting food banks. We thought because it was in Manchester, and every time teams come from Manchester come to Liverpool they always chant “feed the scousers” so we thought we’d return the favour and “feed the Mancs” (laughs) It was a political stance too – not just simply for the foodbank – it was for The Trussell Trust and hopefully it can go to other cities.

Not the first time that you’ve been involved in something charitable like this, it is?

In 2011 we did the ‘Justice Tonight Tour’ which was very significant. The first gig was September 2011 and was a ‘Don’t Buy The Sun’ gig. Mick Jones – who played on it – did 5 or 6 Clash songs at it and The Farm were the backing band for it. The only reason he done that was because he thought Joe Strummer would’ve agreed with it. So we play 5 or 6 Clash tracks. Pete Whylie played, we played – we did 4 or 5 Farm tracks and it went down unbelievably. So Mick the next day went ‘you gotta take this on tour – we’ve gotta make it about Hillsborough’. That’s how it all worked out. We took it up and down the country. So when we played Cardiff it was James Dean Bradford from Manics, Manchester it was John Squire and Ian Brown. Sheffield it was Richard Rawly and Tom McCraw, played Glasgow and it was Glasvegas then when we played London and ex-members of The Clash showed up, Primal Scream and various other people. In Liverpool it was the likes of John Bishop, Cast and Billy Bragg. It was absolutely fantastic but Mick was going to take that on tour around America but it wasn’t to be. So food poverty fits perfectly into that – the continuation of it.

Yeah, it’s a massive issue at the moment and you can’t really ignore it…

It’s so sad that we need them. Right now I’m actually in a place called Tiberstreet, which is a community facility in liverpool 8 and we’ve got a pantry here. You pay £3.50 and you get like £20 worth of food. Food banks you need to be referred to, so this is more accessible.

I’ve seen some of the footage from Music Feeds Live as Northern Exposure were covering it. I think the orchestra was the highlight of the night – have you ever worked with an orchestra before?

Yeah, so we worked with the Liverpool Phillamonic, in the 90’s and we did a a full concert with the orchestra. Unfortunately, we couldn’t record it because of the musician union regulations, but I’ve got a bootleg tape of it somewhere which was absolutely brilliant.

Would you consider recording with an orchestra like James did then?

Yeah, certainley we would but at the moment we just want to record our new stuff. We just released Feel the Love and Radio 2 picked up on it and playlisted it which we couldn’t believe. We didn’t really push it or plug it at the time but Radio 2 picked up on it and everyone was raving about it. Let the music is out now and the British Electric Foundation (B.E.F) have just done a remix which we’ll probably put out in the summer because its very balearic.

So is that the next release then?

Yeah, it might be. There’s other tracks but that might be released at the height of summer and we’ll probably release something in May/June as well.

Festival season is a very busy time for the farm though?

Yeah and we’re coming up to Scotland, aren’t we? Party in the Park – we’ve played there before a few years ago. We’ve got loads of festivals planned around the country and some we can’t mention yet.

Pretty busy though?

Yeah busy, busy and we’re just made up to the reactions to the new tracks. ‘Let the music’ – i wrote the lyrics to that because I was fed up of politicians standing on podiums saying ‘take back control…take back this and that’ and I just thought, let the music take control – and that’s where the idea came from. Nile Rodgers came to LIPA and he met Keith. They were talking about Stratocasters, you know, the guitars and Nile called his the ‘hit maker’ and then Keith said, “I wrote Groovy Train on one” and then they started talking. We went to see him that night in concert at the Echo Arena (M&S Bank Arena it is now) and he was like a prophet. He had just got over cancer himself and he was telling us about his love for The Beatles and Liverpool, and I just thought he was there as like the prophet saying ‘Let the music take control‘.

Back to festivals though, do you go watch new bands?

Yeah, yeah we do. And we also like watching old bands (laughs). We played with The Skids a couple of years ago and it was absolutely brilliant. And we played with The Undertones too, we had a 40 minute set and we played like 7 or 8 songs then The Undertones had a 35 minute set where they had like 16 song set.

That say’s a lot, doesn’t it? (laughs)

Do you find that you’re more of a new music fan or in your comfort zone mostly? Or a bit of both?

There’s some great up and coming bands that we like to check out. Carl Hunter – our bass player – works with a lot of them. He’s not an A&R person and he’s not a manager, he just loves doing it. I would say it’s pretty 50/50. I love bands like Jungle – although I wouldn’t say they are ‘new’, are they? I always go back to The Blue Nile too. That’s the music of the gods for me.

Is that your comfort zone then?

Yeah…if its Christmas and your sitting round, it’s Once Upon A Time in America soundtrack and The Blue Nile. The kids always go, ‘why we listening to this?! We want Camel Phat on’!

QUICK FIRE!

If you could choose anybody to perform a song by the farm, who would it be?

Paul Weller. Song would be Love See’s No Colour.

If you could only listen to one album for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Revolver (The Beatles

Do you believe in ghosts?

Ehhhhhh….sometimes. I was a youth worker in Liverpool and I took all the kids down to Cornwall and I’m convinced i saw The Hound of the Baskerville. A massive dog was barking and I’m trying to protect the kids – everybody saw it – then it was gone. Nobody knows where it went. A wild dog? I don’t know. But human ghosts, I’m not so sure. I’ve said to several people when they have been passing away that if they can connect with us then connect with us, and they never have (laughs).

If you were to be a farm animal, what would you be?

A horse.

Final question, Feel The Love or Let The Music Take Control?

Let The Music Take Control. I think Feel the love has a lot of soul in it but the message from Let the music take control just makes me wanna get up and dance

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