Cast have been on a rollercoaster journey over the past 12 months, with arguably the most famous world tour of the past 20 years taking place with Oasis and now announcing a new album Yeah Yeah Yeah arriving in January.
Leeds Living sat down with lead singer John Power as they were about to perform the final two shows of the tour. They will be playing Leeds O2 Academy on November 15th with the last remaining tickets here – https://www.academymusicgroup.com/o2academyleeds/events/cast-tickets-ae125766
I think we have to start off with the obvious question: how’s the tour gone? I know you’ve been asked this question more times than ever recently, right?
At the moment, it’s difficult to sum up, you know. I’ve said the basic things, like I’ve already said it’s beyond a gig; it’s been this wide vista; it’s been a mega happening! All of that is true. There are no words; none.
You have to remember that we jumped on this in June, when it was the start of summer, and now it’s late September; the seasons have changed. The summer’s, well, the whole time has just been so immense and intense!
The run of the bands, I think the lineup of Richard (Ashcroft) and Oasis, I think that has worked amazingly well. I believe there is a fine line that runs through all of us. Where we are from, this northern soul, this rock and roll sage we are in, combined with being from the same era, makes perfect sense.
These Oasis shows have been beyond anything I could tell you. What they evoke within the crowds is even overwhelming for me, if I’m honest. I’ve watched them nearly every night, and I’ve been standing there, hands in the air, singing my head off just like the crowds, and as for Liam and Noel, to Bonehead and all the band, the whole thing has no real words!
To everyone who has been, it’s about the best thing they have ever experienced in life. It’s that there was a lot of shit out there about the unification; that beef about Oasis getting back together that kind of started the momentum rolling. It piqued everybody’s interest, and it has grown into a gigantic tour that has stunned everyone. I really don’t think that this moment can ever happen again.
I truly think there’s something special going on, and I also think that it started from the moment we went on stage that first night. We all knew that, to be fair. I have no idea what the future holds, but I’m sure Oasis will do some more shows because they are on a roll.
There was a static in the air for the whole event, and I know we picked up on it, and I’m sure Richard picked up on it because we’ve spoken about it; even Liam and Noel knew, the band and Bonehead picked up on it. Everyone has felt that it was the most momentous occasion, but also the energy – you can’t explain it; it’s just been amazing. It’s probably been the best time of my life.
That’s amazing. Did you get time to hang around with the lads much, or did they stay in their own bubble?
Yeah, we all seemed to be, like you know, but Liam is doing his own thing because he’s the singer of the band, so he’s had to, and he is protecting his voice. Whatever he’s doing, he’s doing the right thing, because his voice sounds immense. To be honest, it’s the best I’ve ever heard him sing in many a long year, to be fair. Liam has always been a great singer. So yeah, we see the band and we see Richard, and we’ve had a bit of a break now for about, what, 10 days or something? I can’t really remember. It feels that we didn’t stop until we all reached our peak; it was like a week or two before these last two Wembley gigs, so it feels strangely like that intense summer has flown by. We’ll do it again by the weekend. You know, we’ve been in the dressing room next to Richard and his band, and we’ve been getting on smashing. There’s been a real ‘pass the baton’ type vibe going on. When we hit the stage, we really f..king nailed it. In a totally different way from how Richard is going to go on, and he knows his spot, boy does he!
What I am saying is that each band has given all their energy, and that is something each member of the band has known. You know, when we walk off and Richard says, ‘Wow, okay,’ then his band will be like, ‘Cast has just pumped up the energy, so we’ve got to go on and turn it up too.’
That’s how it works in a very positive way between respective artists. So, by the time it gets to Oasis, it’s not like the crowd would need any encouragement, mind you. The crowd has already witnessed something special, so it’s only going to get better for them.
There is total respect between the bands. Gem and Andy we have seen a bit more because they’re knocking around more than the others. Noel’s head is in a great space, and Liam, well, you just have to hear his voice to know he’s in the place he needs to be and wants to be. It’s exactly the same for Richard too. I’ve watched Richard putting a lot of energy into these shows, and I know that when we come off, those energy levels have been right up there throughout all the shows.
It’s been a special, special happening. I don’t think I can put it into words, or even want to at the moment, because I’ve got a couple more shows to do, and then that will be all 23 shows for Cast and everybody else. Then it’s going to hit you: we were there, we played the stage, just waiting for a reaction, dude, we were there! In fact, I struck the first chord on the first night of this epic tour, you know!
So, what do you think younger musicians should take from this, because getting into the band genre, you know, it’s now a lot tougher? It’s so hard for the younger bands now. Do you think this will give them a bit of a boost, see how things can happen?
I think that, looking at any younger artist, or band for that matter, anyone with a dream of being part of this experience can’t help but be inspired by what they have witnessed on that stage. Because they have got a quite unique and broad vista of rock ‘n’ roll, northern soul, and soul music, and it’s all sung with meaning, straight from the heart.
We are all very different artists, but there is something very common that we all share. Jesus, it’s inspiring for me! So I can just about imagine what it’s going to be like for a kid who is thinking about getting a band together, or a young, up-and-coming band who are watching us all. You’d be blown away, because I don’t think there’s anything, ever, on the scale of what these shows have been. I mean, there are big bands, selling out big arenas, but they haven’t evoked what I’ve seen and felt over this summer, no doubt about it. There is no other band since the Beatles who could’ve done what Oasis have done this summer. You know there are good gigs, and the crowd will go wild, but this is something more, and all I know is that we’ve been a part of that, and as yet I haven’t quite taken it in. It’s more than impressive or inspiring, I mean, if you were a young kid now with a guitar, that is exactly what you’d want to accomplish, you couldn’t help but want to be part of what we are doing. And this notion about the 90s has now undoubtedly evolved into a legendary, almost mystical, period of British music, largely due to the wide variety of genres represented. I’ve said this before, and I’m probably repeating myself verbatim, but the way our age group looked at the 60s and things like that… as this unimaginable land where all this great music came from, which changed the music world, I honestly think that’s exactly how young generations to come will look at the 90s.
When you think of all the bands and the music and the charts, you’d wanna piece of that, wouldn’t you? So, each generation generally reinterprets a feeling from the past, making it their own, and thus it becomes newly interpreted. So yeah, I’m guessing it’s going to blow young kids’ heads. We’ve all been blown away. The whole experience has been beyond anything anyone was expecting. It’s affected everyone, from industry folks to the roots level, and everything in between. Everyone I’ve spoken to has just been like, I think that’s been the best night of my life.
I would love to talk to you about your new album, which is coming out in January, I believe. You must be excited. What can you tell me a little about that?
Firstly, everybody tells me the title!
Yeah, yeah, yeah! Ha! Must be exciting. You’ve been working with Youth, is that right?
I’m really excited, but you know, it’s weird because we have to do this Oasis tour, our 30th anniversary tour, and then I think, right, okay, because normally releasing an album would be the biggest thing, so I’m just dead excited because we’ve recorded quite a majestic record.
It’s got some seriously big anthems on it, and it’s also got the tracks of PP Arnold. It’s a really great-sounding record.
It’s one of those records of this specific moment; it’s only now I think the Cast ‘Love is the Call’ kick started it all up and rejuvenated us, but this is one big majestic record with serious songs on it. I’m really looking forward to everybody hearing it, I can’t wait; there’s a couple of songs on it, one called Free Love, which is going to be a single. It’s a real anthem, and the chorus is one that you can imagine everybody singing along to as the lyrics are more like a call, so I’m really interested in how people hear it.
Cast are flying, but not because we’ve been doing all of these things, it’s as though everything we’ve been doing is creating a swell, so there’s a lot of momentum. Add to that we seem to be connecting with a lot of new people, too, so yeah, I’m desperately looking forward, and I’m excited about hearing the new material, because I’m looking forward to playing it next year and I’m going to enjoy playing a few of them on the 30th anniversary tour.
Poison Vine was on the radio, so that was the first for many years. It’s strange because, as I say, I’ve got to get these two Wembley shows out of the way, and then I can go, like, right, okay, what’s going on?
Luckily, we’ve got another tour to bring us down softly from this amazing episode. I mean, we recorded this album in February. It feels so long ago now. For me, it’s the right thing at the right time. We’ll just have to see how it goes, but that said, it’s really exciting, and it’s a really exciting-sounding record too; also, the songwriting and the performances are so broad, they’ve got real depth.
And it’s got some serious shit, I’d say. I don’t know if you know Love is the Call, but Tomorrow Call My Name was the last track on that album, and I think that song was the most emotional record. I play it live now, and it goes down well with the crowd, it hits them really strongly, and I don’t even know why, because it’s one of the most emotional anthems! I think I kind of thought to myself, if I could just write a few more like that for the next record, and that was my intention. There are also three or four quite big academic sort of songs on there as well. Hopefully, it’s exciting times on the horizon!
Your tour is coming up. You’ve talked to us about that, so it’s 30 years of All Change. It must be great to have an album that stood the test of time. Not many albums come and go, but this one stands out?
It’s weird, I don’t know what time it is anymore. I don’t know, when you say 30 years, I know it is, but if I played you Sandstorm, Fine Time, Alright, and Walkaway from off that album right now, the songs are still of the present — still as fresh as a daisy. That’s what’s so beautiful about that type of record. They stand the test of time. Indeed, the best thing about where I’m at at the moment is when I go and sing those songs, wow, I’m singing them better than I ever have, and I’m playing them better than they ever have, and they feel just as good and fresh as the new stuff I’m writing, so that says something about it. They are ageless, and I’m wowed by their singing. I feel ageless too, that’s what they do to you. So I can only hope that people who are listening feel the same way.
I mean, someone who hears Sandstorm or Alright, or any of the songs from All Change, for instance, who is my age and whose first time around was 1995, I think they’ll feel something more than a young lad who has never heard Sandstorm or Alright before. I don’t know! Perhaps because I think the strength of those songs is in the melody and their performance and the musicality. I think that, you know, they are still as good. If I played them to you now in the acoustic form, you’d still get the feeling you got when they were written. They have something magical, like a skeleton key to a timeless place.
I bet anyone who has just got into Cast for the first time, the lyrics of Alright and Walkaway and Sandstorm, and the rest — will feel as raw and as powerful to them as it did back in the day. In fact, it may be more inspirational, as it would be like a fresh thing to them. Because, you know, as I sing them, they are brand-new songs.
Obviously, I have to talk to you about playing Leeds as you’ve played here many times before. Can I ask you what your memories of Leeds are like over the years?
Leeds, as you know, is a vocal City. It’s a passionate City, a northern City with grit, and we always seem to connect well with that sort of audience. I have no doubts whatsoever that the Leeds crowd will be there for us — they were always massive for us. It feels like we’re back. It feels like the people are into Cast again. It’s like, “Oh God, yeah, I love this band.”
It seems to me that, regardless of the reasons, the grassroots level is always changing the record collection. You know, most bands are not doing that, so we are very active in the present. But I have no doubts whatsoever when we walk onto the Leeds stage that it’s going to be a wild night. The crowd will be right behind us, and we will be right there for them. We are really looking forward to it. I know Leeds is one of those cities that if they like you, they let you know — and we are really looking forward to that.
Last question, then I know you’ve got a busy day: Liverpool for the title?
Look, you know I’m wise enough to know that football can go anywhere. Just look at that Liverpool & Barcelona game, I was in Istanbul when we were three-nil down. I’ve been to many games which have turned out to be last-minute winners, and Liverpool seem to be making a habit of that now. So, do I think they will win the league? Well, only an idiot will crow at the beginning of the season. But it’s looking good when you can score these last-minute goals. What that does is it gives you confidence so that you can carry that on when you’re losing, and it also puts the doubts in other teams’ minds when you are winning with five minutes to go, so it’s looking very good. It’s been a great start, and I think we’re already putting pressure on other teams, but it’s very early days.
You know what a couple of losses can do to any team, but if we can get another couple of games before the international break, then it’s looking good to me. We are the strongest team so far, but it’s very early in the season. If we can do it, then I think we’ll have a team that’s gonna dominate for the next three or four years.
Thanks again John.
Thanks Rob. See you down the front, mate.
Images provided by Fear PR.
