Page 10 - ION Indie Magazine JanFeb 2018

PL: It's not about who gets the last word. My first public musical experiences were playing with my dad when I
was about six. We would do cabaret at the Mason’s Hall and the Moose Club, day-care centres, hospital day-
rooms, you know. He would do his Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra and I would play the guitar. We were doing a
gig back at the Moose Hall in Basingstoke for Basingstoke police constabulary. It’s occurred to me that it is fifty
years since I played in the Moose Hall with my dad and it came back as one big flood of memories. There was
always music in the house, guitars in the house, but the last thing you want is a pushy parent going, ‘You must
practice the piano. You must do this.’ He (Matt) did pick it up and quickly it became clear that he was serious
about it. So then, of course, you do encourage. I was busy in my other band, 'The Riotous Brothers,' at the time,
so this was the other band that was going to do things now and then -- and that has turned right on its head now.
As soon as you start playing, it is not father-and-son anymore…it's just two musicians. It's probably father-and-
son when I am trying to get us to leave the house and load the car and ‘Why is nobody ready?’ But once you got
past all that bit, the playing music is just musicians playing. I have a respect for what Matthew can do when he
plays the guitar like nobody I have seen in a long time. I can say this because I am a professional looking at it
dispassionately.

ML: Yeah, there's also no cameras as well.

PL: The thing that I like most about it, is that he means it's never phoney, it is never half-hearted. It's all-or-
nothing. The audience can see that it's real. That was the thing that spurred me on with it. And then the band
itself started to gel in a way, which I wasn't expecting either. As the gig's got slightly bigger, I thought, ‘This is
getting quite serious.’ I have been blessed in the bands I have been in for the last twenty years -- to play with two
great guitar players, so much so, that I have actually given up playing the guitar myself. I don't see the need to
get it out of the case too often.

ML: I play all his guitars now. I just love playing with Paul -- with my dad. He always gets mad whenever I am on
stage and I call him 'dad’. "This is a not professional..." The amount of times I have been asked, ‘It must be weird
playing in a band with your dad all the time.’ It's not, it's a lot of fun! If you take away the fact that he is my
dad…he is a very intelligent human being, a brilliant musician, and he's just a really fun guy to work with. That is
just a great band member, if you ask me. As far as the dynamic of who says what the last word is, it is very much
a group thing. We always try and think of what’s best for each other. Most bands you play in, there is always one
person who is like, ‘This is about
me and everything must be
about me.’ There are a lot of
guitar solos, but at the same
time, it's always songs which
we have all collaborated on
together. There is no big-
headedness about it; there are
no egos -- it's all just a bunch of
guys having fun and writing
some songs. At the end of the
day, what more can you ask
for?

Pictured: Kevin Yates