Saturday 16th July 05 - Doing Hull a Favour - Silhouette Club (5/5) By Joe Hakim Photo Gallery By Mo

(1/5), (2/5), (3/5), (4/5), (5/5).

Photograph Gallery   Hollywood Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    The Shine Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    The Favours Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    Gallery 3,

I'm really impressed by the band so I try to have a quick chat with Sara, but I have to wait while she lugs her amps and guitars away. How rock n roll is that? Finally I get to go in the tiny green room - one of the only green rooms I've been in that is actually green - and have a quick word. I was saying to Andy earlier that I didn't realise that you had been on the go for as long as you have...

Well, The Favours have been around in some shape or form for the past three years. A couple of the other members had family problems and things like that, so they had to leave.

So how and when did the new incarnation of the band come about? Andy and I started writing songs and practising together last October/November, around that time. Someone recommended Dave (Meihan, drums and former member of the Raywells), so I e-mailed him and he got back to us. When you were having line up changes, did you ever think: 'Sod this, it's not working'? I mean, what kept you going?

Self-belief mainly. We know that we write good songs, and we all have passion for it. And not only that, we love playing live. There seems to be a real explosion of local bands at the minute. Has this helped in any way - is there more of a creative climate in Hull at the moment? There does seem to be more going on. We've played at Adelphi, and places like Linnet and Lark and the Ringside are gaining really strong reputations for live music, and then you have things like Raw Talent.

The mainstream press in Hull seems to be really slow at picking up things that are happening. Why do you think that this is? Because it's still very much an independent scene, and I don't think that enough of the general public in Hull get it just yet, so they don't support it - it's just a small segment that do.

It's very much a bloke oriented scene at the minute. Do you cop much shit because you're a female in the traditionally testosterone soaked world of loud guitars? If you'd asked me that a year ago I would have said no, but within the industry there does seem to be a proven formula that they are sticking to. If you look at the charts, there's not many female fronted bands around right now, and sometimes you can feel a bit discriminated against. I've been to gigs where we're playing on the night and the security on the door has asked me, 'Are you the girlfriend of one of the band?' things like that. So what's next for The Favours?

We've just signed a management deal with Lomax, the company that does the PR for bands like Garbage. It's all new to us, so we're just thinking about it and playing gigs, writing songs. We're not rushing into anything. So you're not gonna take any shit and let them mould you into something you're not... It's possible they might want to influence us a bit for marketing and things like that, but they won't be able to change us as a band. I'm a bit mystified by it all; if someone said to a bloke that they couldn't be in a band unless they played keyboards because male frontmen weren't in fashion, they'd be mortified.

But I'd just like to say that I don't necessarily relate to female icons - in fact, most of my heroes are men, people like Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan from the Smashing Pumpkins. And so I leave them with the glamourous task of packing their gear away, and I'm left with the knowledge that Hull women are getting involved in all this shit that's kicking off as well, and they aren't gonna let the blokes run away with all the glory. You have been warned.

Check the thisisUll.com Gallery Photographs courtesy and Copyright ©  Mo 2005

Photograph Gallery   Hollywood Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    The Shine Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    The Favours Gallery 1,    Gallery 2,    Gallery 3,

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