PULLING SHAPES

Last week I interviewed Johnny ‘Itch’ Fox, singer and ukulele player in The King Blues, while they were on their Big Issue benefit tour. Formerly a Big Issue seller himself, Itch and his band have played tours with Rancid and The Gaslight Anthem and been on the cover of Kerrang!, while their single ‘Save The World, Get The Girl’ charted today (22 Feb).

Below is some of what he had to say, while the full interview can be found here.

On living in squats as a teenager: “When I was younger and living on the streets this group of punks took me under their wing. They took me to a squat and let me live there with them. That really opened my eyes musically, and politically it really changed my world. I saw them going out and really getting involved in politics. I realised that we’re not as powerless as we’re made out to be.”

On Billy Bragg: “As much as I love and respect Billy Bragg, a lot of people when they think of him they think, ‘Oh, that political songwriter’, which kind of demeans him a bit. There’s a lot more depth to him and he’s a lot more real than that, in the same way that’s there’s a lot more sides to us.”

On taking action on May Day: “We’re going to go down to the Smash the EDO protest, which is an arms company based in Brighton. The last protest we went on with them was absolutely successful. We managed to get into the factory and smash the windows, which isn’t mindless vandalism like people may assume it is. We have to hurt them financially. We’ve seen that marching from A to B isn’t going to change things.”

The King Blues – ‘Let’s Hang The Landlord’