The Futureheads play charity acoustic gig at Independent

“Any chance of making it a little bit later mate? I’m running late” admits The Futureheads bass player and founder member, David ‘Jaff’ Craig when I ring him on Saturday afternoon. He is busy preparing for his bands acoustic charity gig which is to take place later in the evening at Sunderland’s Independent Nightclub.

When I arrive there are plenty of people completing sound-checks and frantic last minute preparations to ensure the club’s ready, but still no Jaff.

A couple of solitary beers later and in strolls the towering bassist, instrument and suit jacket in hand. “Sorry mate, I’ll be with you in a minute,” he says in his ever friendly Mackem brogue before we retreat to the band’s dressing room.

As we sit down I am the one answering the questions on what sort of day I’ve had and what part-time work I do. “Me and Baz (Barry Hyde) used to work at Kwik-Save for a few years” he tells me. “Then I got a job being a brick layer’s labourer. It was pretty hard,” he adds with modesty.

As our conversation turns to his true vocation in music, he depicts the transitional period the band have undergone in the past year having been dropped by their record label and releasing This Is Not The World on their own label.

“Warner brothers basically paid about nine hundred grand for us to get a fan base of a certain amount of people. The first two albums they lost about a million quid on us” he explains. “We can go out on our own and these people know who we are so that was nine hundred grand’s worth of free promotion.”

As the lads take to the stage to a rapturous home town welcome we are treated to a set of stripped-down versions of singles spanning all three albums, opening with the post-punk stomping, The Begining Of The Twist. The gigs intimate feel is reinforced by inter-band banter and crowd interaction between songs, including Barry’s self styled  Bob Geldolf appeal for donations.

The capacity crowd are treated to hits, Skip To The End and Hounds Of Love, alongside fan favorites First Day and Carnival Kids, all of which induce a mass audience sing-a-long throughout.

A full acoustic set has become a rarity for the local lads who can command venues ten times the size of this evenings setting. But Jaff enlightened me on how they got involved:

“The guy who’s organizing it all, Dave Harper. He come to us and said ‘look I know this girl who’s brother’s just died of Marfan Syndrome” he begins passionately, “Its hard to diagnose and it doesn’t get much funding. Anyway, he said ‘will you play?’ “

However, as fans and the band alike expect such a high standard for an electric live show, which requires roadies and guitar techs, “You can’t be arsed to tune your own guitars” he shrugs, the band decided to play unplugged.

After tonight’s performance attention turns to the groups fourth album. “We have 12 songs up and running now. Barry says he’s got another five. Ross says he’s got five. So we should have about 25 songs to pick from. We are going to go a bit DIY, get it raw sounding.”

Its is these kinds of ethics that have endeared the band to fans locally, nationally and globally and with the band still clearly as hungry as ever, the future looks bright for The ‘Heads.

Catch my full interview with The Futureheads, here.