Sadie and The Hotheads bassist Ron Knights is hoping for more luck weather-wise when the band open for Mike and The Mechanics at the Ipswich Corn Exchange Monday night.
“The first night we were in Rhyl in Wales and got caught in this horrid hurricane, we could barely drive the van because it was swaying in the wind and we got stranded overnight,” he laughs when I caught up with him at home in Colchester on his day off.
The tour’s been going well and he’s enjoying being on the bill with the headliners.
“Mike Rutherford, Genesis... all those influences I’ve grown up with, for me it’s a great privilege have a cup of tea backstage with those guys,” says Ron, whose grandfather and father were brought up in Pin Mill.
“The Regent is the most local [gig] for me on this tour, which is nice. It’s a great venue; I’ve been to quite a lot of things there myself, so it’ll be great to play there.”
Sadie and The Hotheads, fronted by stage and screen star Elizabeth McGovern - aka Downton Abbey’s Countess of Grantham - have been together a while. Does she make the rest of the eclectic seven-piece call her countess now?
“Only if we’re teasing [her],” laughs Ron.
The band have recorded three albums; expect to hear tracks from the latest, Still Waiting, Monday night.
“It’s a collection of quite personal songs. The writing is quite an organic process, we all chip in and songs evolve. Putting it [their style] into a genre is slightly difficult - it’s very folk acoustic, there are jazz and Americana influences as well. It’s a project that represents all the different members of the band’s influences, it’s all found its way in somehow,” he laughs.
Audiences can expect a lively time.
“We’ve only half-an-hour to open the show, so we’ll do more of the high-energy songs, grab the audience a bit - people aren’t there to see us so we need to try to impress them,” he laughs again.
Mike and The Mechanics have sold more than 10million records worldwide, not bad for a side project formed by formed by Genesis’ Mike Rutherford.
Known for hits like Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground), The Living Years and Over My Shoulder, the line-up has changed over the years.
Sharing vocals duties these days are RnB star Andrew Roachford, who co-wrote latest album The Road, and stage star and singer Tim Howar.
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