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Interviewing Dan and Julian, the guitar-playing two-fifths of toploader, is a bit like talking to a couple of early 80s TV funnymen. Maybe it's the axe-connection, or simply the fact that they've been touring on and off for most of this year, but they finish each other's sentences with…
… uncanny, almost-scripted ease. Example: we're talking about the band's fat and full rock 'n' roll live sound. 'It's quite mad really,' says Dan, 'because you'd think that with keyboards we'd only need one guitar player…'
'… but we're no good so we share it out!' finishes Julian.
Set-up/punchline, set-up/punchline. This is the 'loader on tour in a nutshell – five lads living in a coach, cracking jokes, farting and playing 'shit-hot' good times music. Not unlike Spinal Tap, maybe? 'It's just stupid,' laughs Julian from beneath his tour-bus duvet. 'Every single thing on tour becomes the same as the Tap.'
'I was watching Straw [support band] from the side and I thought I was Nigel come to re-join the band. I really did, until I thought: "I've got to go from here because I'm feeling weird."'
But unlike the Tap's succession of cancelled gigs toploader keep getting upgraded to bigger and better venues. 'We seem to always do these huge things before we're ready for the level before that,' says Julian. Like their debut tour supporting Paul Weller , or this summer's jaunt with Bon Jovi around the stadiums of Europe.
'We've been fucking lucky – loads of other bands would kill to do what we've done. I mean they're all fun things to do,' adds Dan. 'People laugh at the Bon Jovi bit, but 14 stadiums in a month? Come off it, man.'
Singer, songwriter and keyboardist Joe joins us at the back of the bus, with his trademark corkscrew hair tied tight behind his head. Like Dan and Julian, he's a little worse for wear after a night on the sauce in Manchester, but still manages to pinpoint why their nationwide jaunt's going so well.
'The tunes are perfect for touring live, probably even better than it is on record, truth be told. It's because there's no gloss live,' he says. 'And we're a great live band.'
A great live band, and polished to boot. Matt the bass player puts down his Playstation controller to ask what time soundcheck is, only to be moaned at by Julian. 'I don't want to do one – it's the same as every night,' he whines. 'And we're hungover as fuck,' says Dan, timing the setup/punchline to a T.
Four hours later toploader bound on to the Leeds stage. It's a good crowd for a Sunday night gig (Julian: 'They should be fucking banned') and tunes like Dancing In The Moonlight and Just Hold On go down a bomb. They might not win any awards for originality – Joe admits they 'definitely draw on things, not doing anything ground-breakingly new' – but they know how to deliver the classic rock 'n' roll gag.
And then they come on for the encore. The opening bars of the sweeping Achilles Heel blast over the arms-aloft crowd and you realise toploader might be a bit more than a joke band. As Dan says: 'We leave the best 'til last'. It's a brilliant punchline.
— Tom Morgan 20.10.00
Check out the official toploader website.
Buy the album 'Onka's Big Moka' at CD Paradise.
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