Distorted Tapes meets... Lady Fortune

Lady Fortune (L-R): Lyndon, Paul and Nick

Telford has never really been seen as a hot-bed of musical talent, however Lady Fortune prove there is more to the New Town than the town park maze and dimly lit shopping centre. Their latest single, I Feel So Slightly Strange, has  already gained support from BBC DJs, being played by Steve Lamacq, Chris Hawkins and Tom Robinson. I caught up with the three-piece to chat about  festivals, running their own label, and their mysterious debut album...

For those who haven’t heard your music before, how would you describe your sound in three words – one word each, no conferring?

Nick Robinson (Vocals, Guitar): Catchy
Paul Pugh (Bass, Vocals): Non-Pop
Lyndon Thompson (Drums, Vocals): DIY

How did you three originally come together?

N: Lyndon served me tea at New College in Telford. I wasn’t at New College, but I went to watch some bands play on the advice of a friend. So I met Lyndon, we had various members playing bass until Paul came along. Paul used to play in a band from Birmingham which I used to follow pretty religiously, and he told me he was looking to play bass so I thought ‘brilliant’, and as I was to find guitarists do make great bassists! That would have been around October 2006, because Paul’s first gig with us was my dad’s 50^th Birthday. Our first proper gig was in Leeds…
P: …and I was drunk.

Over the years you’ve developed a very strong local following – why do you think you have managed to hit such a note in Telford?

N: We’re normally quite friendly, but I was thinking about this the other day. A friend said he didn’t think many people would come and watch his band if they weren’t friends with them and I said ‘to be fair, we wouldn’t have met if you weren’t in an awesome band.’ I suppose you make friends because people regularly come to your shows. I’d say that probably is a factor, but they probably wouldn’t have liked our music otherwise. I think there is some relevance that people like the music in Telford because we mention the word Telford… I saw this group on Facebook that said ‘OMG, Telford is famous – it’s in a song by Lady Fortune.’ It had 63 members,  but I couldn’t quite bring myself to like it.

Would you say living in Telford has been a major influence on your music?

N: Yeah, I guess so. A lot of our friends’ bands have moved – Foreign Hands are in Manchester now, 3 of them used to live in Telford; INTL were all from Telford or Albrighton and now live in London – but we never wanted to do that really. I like living in Telford, it’s not great and we have better nights out in Manchester and London.
L: But it’s our hometown, so it does strike a chord with what we play and the people that come and see us. Plus we wanted to play at the Wrekin* once.
N: Yeah, we wrote to the person who owns the Wrekin to see if we could play. Never got a letter back. Lyndon had a generator, so we thought we could pull that one off.
L: Maybe one day…

It must be weird then that despite being a band writing songs inspired by life in small town England, your debut, 2008’s Manners Darling was only released in Japan. How did that come about?

N: We got an email from a guy called Daichi who runs a little label called Magnetic Records. He said he wanted to release an album, and we said alright. He gave us a bit of money, and we licensed it to him. We got a bit of an advance to pay for the studio time – it was all pretty budget, we literally had pennies. With that we got six days in a studio, including mixing, and we just caned it really. But I have no idea why it was just released in Japan and nowhere else.

Are there  any plans to re-release the record in the UK?

L: I like the fact it’s just in Japan!
N: I think it’s too late because we’re different now.
L: Our sound has changed a lot since Manners Darling.
N: I listened to it not so long ago and really enjoyed it, and we still play a couple of songs from it. I’m very proud of that record, but I like the songs we write now better. I do quite like the fact that if you wanted it there’s effort involved getting it and ridiculous postage costs.
L: I always worry where the stocks are kept, and if they are now floating somewhere in the Pacific…
N: Lyndon, we’re going to hell…
L: Well, I am.

Last year you got to play the holy grail of festivals – Reading and Leeds - on the BBC Introducing stage.  How did it feel having the opportunity to get your music exposed at that level?

All: It was the best couple of days ever.         
N: I smiled for about a week afterwards. We played Leeds first; you walk out and you just see a few hundred people and you think ‘okay… that’s cool’ but then you think ‘I don’t know any of these people!’ and then you see a couple of friendly faces waving at you, which is cool. And then your lead breaks, you start sweating profusely, and start playing a song which isn’t on the setlist! But we ran with it, and it was fine. Leeds was really good fun and a good experience. By the end of the set we probably had about six hundred people watching, and then Reading was just…
L: Reading was the best.
N: At Reading we walked out to about six hundred people and you just think ‘oh shit! This is going to be a good day’ and by the end of the set it was mental, the crowd had probably doubled. It was pretty rad!
L: It was good. Nerve-wracking, but good.

How did the festival experience compare to the more intimate setting of club shows?

P: To be honest I don’t think I noticed much difference. It felt the same - there was just more people and blue sky rather than a grubby club roof!
N: It was weird, I remember at one point looking out and feeling wind on my face and thinking ‘ahh, that’s lovely.’ I could get used to that.
L: We’re usually sweating on a cramped stage.
N: It was awesome. I do like the intimacy of a club show, but on the stage we played at Reading there was only a couple of foot between the stage and the crowd so we were still quite close and didn’t quite lose the vibe of everyone going mental.
P: That’s the only thing I was worried about, the sound, because you don’t get a sound check so I was worried about just going on and the sound being lost in the air, but it was spot on.
N: When you play a normal gig or smaller festival, you go on and put the microphone where you want it, but at Reading everything is done for you ; our manager said they had sent a plan over for where we put our amps, where we wanted the microphones, so when we walked out everything was just there – they know what they’re doing!  

You also are heavily involved with your own club night, Facts of Life, which puts on semi-regular shows at The Haygate in Telford. Why did you decide to start putting on your own gigs?

N: Before Paul was in the band, me and Lyndon used to put on a night called Viva la Fortune and Paul’s old band played there, it was just something we thought well there’s no indie clubs in Telford anymore – Reach Out & Fuck Somebody [legendary Telford indie night] that had gone and they were always good nights – so we thought we would see what we could do, and if anything we just get to listen to the bands we like, book who we feel like and go from there.

Are there any plans afoot for future Facts of Life?

N: We are putting on an all-dayer in August: Thursday Night Facts of Life presents Saturday Night and Day All-Dayer of Life. We’ll be playing, plus Foreign Hands, God Damn, Arcade Parade, Fever Fever and hopefully some more.

You’ve also released you last few singles on your own label, Moorhouse Records. Why did you decide to release your records yourselves rather than through someone else?

N: At first it was just to see if it was feasible and if it was something we could easily do. We researched it, it was me and my housemate at the time Ross, who does all the artwork for Lady Fortune, and we just thought we could try it, and now we are at a point where we are planning to release other bands too, but at first it was to see what happened. The singles got played on the radio, people bought them, and we realised that it was pretty easy! It’s pretty stressful at times, there are a lot of envelopes and emails but it’s fun to have your own thing. I’m just terrified that no-one is going to like the next single, but hopefully we’ll be alright!

Do you have any tips for bands worth checking check out, in the Midlands or beyond?

N: Arcade Parade – a fantastic Telford band, the best Telford band ever? God Damn – they’re heavy, I’ve never really been into heavy music but I’m into them. Cajole Cajole were awesome but I think they’re on hiatus. I like Foreign Hands, but they moved to Manchester so can’t class them as a Midlands band anymore. AMiTY is fantastic too, she’s amazing.

What’s next on the agenda for Lady Fortune?

N: More of the same really, just carry on gigging. We’re working on some new songs, so we’ll work on them and then record, repeat process.

And finally, have you ever considered in how many record collections your record sits next to Lady Gaga?

N: On my iPod we’re next to La Roux which is bad, so Lady Gaga is probably better? You wouldn’t have La Roux on yours would you Paul?
P: No, mine would be The Lambrettas or Lostprophets I think.
N: That’s way cooler than La Roux.
L: I haven’t even got anything that would play anything like that so, no, it’s next to
nothing!

Lady Fortune’s latest single I Feel So Slightly Strange is available now on Moorhouse Records via http://ladyfortuneshop.bigcartel.com

Lady Fortune - I Feel So Slightly Strange by Lady Fortune


*The Wrekin is a hill in east Shropshire (OS 52.769322 -2.450601)