Happy Birthday Duncan Reid

A Big Headed Hearted Happy Birthday

To

Duncan Reid

Frontman for

Duncan Reid and The Big Heads

Kelly's Gone Insane (Live in Chicago)

 

77 (Live)

All Fall Down (Live)

C'est La Vie (Promo Video)

Happy Birthday Sophie K. Powers

Happy Birthday Sophie K. Powers

Guitarist of Duncan Reid and the Big Heads

This song by an old Bluesman goes out to you today 

Born to Play Guitar - Buddy Guy.

Tidy Tunes 2015: Baby Doll - Duncan Reid and the Big Heads

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUNCAN REID

Duncan Reid - The Not So Difficult Second Interview!

Duncan Reid seemed to like us so much that he decided to return for a second interview! There's also a review after the interview of the new album.


S4L: The Difficult Second Album - how difficult was it or was it a bit of a breeze having two years to work on it?

Duncan: It was a piece of cake. There's no pressure on me to put an album out at any particular time so I just write when I want to. Having Tony Barber's shed to record in makes it easy as well. There's no clock ticking with a studio charging £100 per minute. I just agree a fee with Tony and then take all the time I want! Tony gets a bit impatient with that though :). The only difficulty was when he got married to his girlfriend in the US and was told if he left the country before he got his green card they'd never let him back in again. So I had to finish it in his bedroom in New York. Again, not the hardest thing I've ever done.
He's amazing with the sound he gets out of a shed and a bedroom. Totally obsessed with sound and recording techniques. He's great at structuring a song as well, breaking it down and organising the instruments.
 
S4L: In our previous interview you said that you pretty much played everything on your debut solo album, was that the case on the new one?

Duncan: No. I had the band this time and particularly Alex Gold on guitars and backing vocals. I still ended up playing the odd bit of guitar, most of the keyboards and singing bvs. That's in addition to lead vocals and bass of course. I'm really proud of my bass playing on this one. But then I'm proud of the whole thing.
S4L: You have a great young band backing you up, how do they keep you moving forward with your music?

Duncan: They are an inspiration to play with. Being of a different generation they have different influences which is interesting and gives a different slant. It's great seeing how the songs evolve with them. When we play Boys songs they bring a youthful energy to those as well. Mind you, this old dog shows the youngsters a few tricks as well. 

S4L: In your liner notes you mentioned that Alex had played a big part in getting you back playing again after you left The Boys, how did you meet him and is he someone who helps you keep inspired?

Duncan: When I was still in The Boys we needed a drummer for when Martin HSon wasn't available. I saw Alex playing with Spizz and a few others in a Bowie tribute band. I auditioned him with Honest John Plain, he passed the audition and I promptly left the band! So we've both played with The Boys but at different times.
I didn't realise then that he only has to look at a musical instrument to be able to play it and that he played guitar as well. Before the album was recorded he asked me to play some songs from Little Big Head at an acoustic night he was putting together. I said I would if he played with me and the rest is history.
His guitar playing is like nothing I would normally play. You can hear that on tracks like Another City and Baby Doll. 

S4L: I love that you have a couple of ladies in the band and that they are pretty talented (especially Sophie on guitar). Did you set out when forming a band to have it both male and female or was it just down to folk possessing a particular musical ability that drew you to them? 

Duncan: By definition The Boys were pretty male and I wanted from the outset to have at least one women in the band to be different from that. I like having women around. When our previous drummer, Tom, left to concentrate on music management Sophie suggested her friend Ciara and, having played with her, there was no question. She's so great. So, we are 50/50 now which I love. 

S4L:  There's a number of songs on the new album that are rooted in your family, do you ever find it difficult when it comes to writing songs about them and are your experiences more often than not the things that form the basis of a good song?

Duncan: I've settled on a pattern for writing lyrics which is to be a story teller and on 10 out of the 12 tracks on the album those stories have come from my own life. That life, of course, includes my family. Sometimes I think: is this getting a bit too personal? such as on "Long, Long, Gone" and "When we were Young". But then I think: put it on anyway, it's not for you to say. Vom Ritchie encouraged me to not be afraid of being serious in my lyrics. I think there's a good balance of light and shade on the record though. There are fun songs as well like "One Night in Rio". Mind you Rio de Janeiro will not be in a rush to give me the keys to the city like Montevideo did after that song. 

S4L:  There's a line in the TV series Fraiser that always makes me laugh when Fraiser goes to hug his brother Niles and in return he offers his hand saying "a handshake is as good as a hug!" You have a song on your album called 'Not the Kind of Guy Girls Hug' - are you expecting a lot more hugs in the coming months than handshakes?

Duncan: That's another song where I thought, am I revealing a bit too much about myself here? People see me as self confident and fun loving but here's a song that talks about being cold and argumentative. It's that old adage, cut us and we all bleed.
I'm a big fan of hugs. You can never have too many! 

C'est La Vie - Live.

S4L: Are you going to be out touring in promotion of the new album? Can we expect some new videos as well, you did some real crackers for various songs for the first album?

Duncan:I have just had 2 videos back and we will probably make some more. Tonight we play in Munich as part of a South a German tour (the interview was done on the 22nd September - Doug). There will be other dates.

For More Information on Duncan Reid and the Big Heads check out:

The Official Website.

Facebook Band Page.

The Difficult Second Review!

Two years have passed since the release of the debut album 'Little Big Head' and Duncan Reid is back with his band The Big Heads to lay down some further adventures via fancy guitar licks and all in all very catchy Pop Punky songs.

It's not really a "Difficult" album at all as there was no real pressure to record a follow up (as Duncan has said above) and so what you get is 12 tracks that cover  a whole range of subject matter, a lot of it quite personal. For some that might be a turn off but any writer worth his/her salt knows that their experiences that led to the writing of a song will often find common ground in the heart and ears of the listener and that's exactly what happens on this album.

Good production, really nice guitar sounds and you'd never guess it was recorded in a shed and a bedroom! My favourites are the opening 'Just As Good As I Used To Be', 'Another City', 'Long, Long Gone', 'C'est La Vie' and 'When We Were Young'. Quite a few of them I think are going to sound really great live.

If you enjoyed the debut album then I think it's safe to say that you will not be disappointed with this new batch of songs from Duncan's heart.

One note of old man moaniness though is that whilst I love the artwork and the colour scheme it does make it a bit difficult to read the notes on the case (I was running around trying to find a magnifier in order to read the exceptionally small text!)...but it never spoiled the enjoyment of listening so I will just have to suffer alone with my poor eyesight - at least I have good hearing (though my wife says it's quite selective!)! 

Photo Note: All the black and white pics are mine, the rest of the pics are courtesy of Duncan Reid and the Big Heads.

Duncan Reid and The Big Heads - The Difficult Second Album (end of Sept 2014)

At the end of this month Duncan Reid and The Big Heads will release their second album and funnily enough it's called 'The Difficult Second Album'.

There are not many details available yet regarding the tracklisting so all the links below are live or promo tracks from the first album and some classic songs from The Boys (with the possibility that there might be a new song sneak in whilst no one is watching. Enjoy.

Long Long Gone/Brickfield Nights (Stockholm 29/07/14).

Any Old Time (Stockholm 29/07/14).

77/I Don't Care (Stockholm 29/07/14).

Thinking (The Georgian Theatre, Stockton 30/05/14).

Kelly's Gone Insane (The Georgian Theatre, Stockton 30/05/14).

C'est La Vie (The Georgian Theatre, Stockton 30/05/14).

Montevideo/TCP/The One (Freak Show, Essen 17/05/14).

First Time (The Cluny, Newcastle 17/01/14).

Box Number (Stockholm 01/07/13).

Gotta Call Simone (Promo).

Rolling On (Promo).

Aren't Women Wonderful (Promo).

Montevideo (Promo).

Kelly's Gone Insane (Promo).

Interview with Duncan Reid from October 2012 for Soundtrack4Life.

Tidy Tune #17: Thinking - Duncan Reid and the Big Heads

Duncan Reid - From The Boys to The Little Big Head

It give me great pleasure to be able to bring you this interview with none other than Duncan "Kid" Reid...though I'm sure he's grown up enough now to no longer warrent the "Kid" part! 

For many years Duncan was bassist and sometime vocalist for one of the most underrated Pop/Punk bands on the planet called The Boys and last year stepped out on his lonesome to begin a new journey in his life. His first album 'Little Big Head' has just recently been released.

S4L: So, you have a new album out called 'Little Big Head', is this your first as a solo artist?

DR: Yes. I never imagined that I would make a solo record. I was always committed to The Boys and never had the confidence to say "I'm going to make a record of my own". It was only because other people said to me "you should make a solo record" that I did it, people like ex Boys drummer Vom Ritchie and Honest John Plain.

S4L: It appears that various members of The Boys have been putting music out under their own names for many years now, how come it's taken you so long to do finally get an album out of your own material?

DR: I didn't have any songs for a start! I was never a major songwriter for The Boys. I tried to write songs when I was younger but found it really hard. It never entered my head to try until John Plain, who was making a solo record which eventually became The Mattless Boys album, asked me to write a few songs.

I loved the writing so much and found it so easy that, after that album, I just kept on going. 

S4L: After so many years in the business do you still find joy when it comes to having to sit down and write a bunch of new songs and then go into the studio to record them? What songs in particular from the new album are you particularly proud of?

DR: I love it. When a new song comes together and I get it recorded for the first time I can't stop listening to it. It's like having a new baby that you can't stop staring at. Drives my wife and daughter mad!

I'm so proud of the whole album that its hard to pick one song out. The song which closes the album, Rolling On, is special because its about my whole life in 3 minutes. It's also one of the songs I play piano on which I'm still amazed I can do.

S4L: Listening to the album there is still a bit of a Boys feel to it, was that a concious thing or is that just the sound you enjoy the most, that kind of poppy punk type sound?

DR: I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons I suddenly found it easy to write songs is that I stopped worrying about what is fashionable or what other people might think. In other words I started writing just for myself and writing the kind of music I like, about subjects I wanted to write about. And the music I like most are songs with a good tune, rocking guitars and plenty of backing vocals and harmonies. I've tried to go for a different sound to The Boys on the album but there's bound to be a big Boys influence because I think The Boys are great and I love the records.

S4L: Did you get a band together for the album and is that the same crowd who are going out to a few live dates with you next month?

DR: I wanted to make the album very personal and so took the decision to play most of it myself. I play just about everything: guitar, bass, keyboards, lead vocal, backing vocals. Vom Ritchie plays drums and there are the odd guest appearances from James Stevenson (Chelsea, Generation X, Gene Loves Jezebel etc) who plays some great guitar on a couple of tracks, Big Nigel Banks who adds some slide guitar and the producer Tony Barber who put a little bit of guitar on a couple of tracks when I wasn't looking ;).

I've put a band, The Big Heads, together since and that's who are playing live with me now.

S4L: Do you feel anxious at all about how your solo material will be received and about how those live dates will go? Also, do you still get a kick out of playing live? You've been doing it for many years now, does it every get stale for you or is every show an adventure you look forward to?

DR: Before the record came out I was really anxious but now I'm not at all because the reaction has just been so overwhelmingly good. It's so great getting everyone's feedback from all over the world and really exciting to see the cds going out and the number of video hits going up on You Tube. (Check out the video for 'Montevideo' by clicking this link")

I love playing live as well. It's something I've always found easy to do. I become a different person on stage. This big headed show off comes out from goodness knows where and I have no idea what I'm doing or any control over it. At its best, when they know the songs, it's almost as if I can play the audience like a musical instrument. It's all I want really, just the ability and wherewithal to play.

S4L: The poster for your up and coming tour says "former frontman of UK punk legends The Boys" - am I reading too much into that or have you set yourself apart from The Boys and now focusing on your solo career?

DR: I left The Boys a year ago just before I started recording the album. The last concert was in Osaka, Japan so, yes, it's all about spreading the word for Little Big Head now.

S4L: You recently played in Germany? How did that go? You seem to be well liked over there? Does it excite you that people still come out to see you?

DR: We've played two tours of Germany, a couple of London shows including the 100 Club and Leafest. The reaction has been great. The new songs have gone down so well, I've played a couple of Mattless Boys songs and, of course, it's always great playing some old Boys classics.

I'm really lucky that The Boys' name gives me the ability to play live but I sense that it's really going to build with a new following in the future. I'm really, really grateful to everyone who comes along.

S4L: The Boys released some brilliant singles and albums back in the late 70's, why on earth do you think that the band were not bigger and more known? You always seemed to hit some bad luck with your record companies, did that dishearten you or did that just spur you on to do the best that you could do when you had the opporunity to play live?

DR: I think there were a number of reasons why The Boys were not as big as they should have been. There was certainly bad luck involved like Elvis Presley dying when we had the same distributor and our album had just been released. Part of it was down to ourselves though. Drinking and the search for a good time was always high on the list of priorities for The Boys.

S4L: Are you amazed at how the music of The Boys has stood the test of time and is being discovered by younger audiences and spoken of as being an influence of some of the bands who are currently in the limelight? Did you ever imagine when you first put out 'I Don't Care/Sick on You' that people would still be listening 35 years later?

DR: When we recorded our first album I imagined that we would be bigger than The Rolling Stones so I'm not at all surprised that those early records are still being listened to. 

When The Boys got back together in 1999 after an 18 year break, though, I was amazed that there was this following all around the world, From Japan to South America, Germany, Italy, Spain, the USA etc.

I really like hearing the bands, big and small, all over the world covering the songs. It's flattering to hear groups like Green Day using riffs and chord changes taken directly from Boys songs. There's nothing wrong with borrowing musically. Anyone who's any good has done it from year dot.

S4L:Do you have a favourite moment/record/gig from those early days of The Boys?

DR: It's quite hazy to be honest. Touring with The Ramones was great because they meant so much to me. I remember a festival at Mont de Marsan in France where The Clash, Damned, Jam, Police, Dr Feelgood and we were playing. Heady days. Captain Sensible fell off the stage and was carried off on a stretcher. He sat up halfway to the ambulance, jumped off and ran away from the chasing ambulance men.

S4L: Do you have a favourite artist and album/song that has been part of your soundtrack4life down through the years?

DR: If there was just one record to take to a desert island it would be The Ramones second album 'Leave Home'. Hard choice between that and The Beatles 'White Album' though.

S4L: After years in the music business if you were given the opportunity to share three things with up and coming bands that will help them in their journey what would those three things be?

DR: Don't crap on people. Good manners and consideration are free. It's easy to get bigheaded when everyone's saying you're great.

Try to be as good as you can be.

Try to enjoy it.

S4L: Lastly, if Duncan Reid of 2012 managed to find a time machine and went back to 1977, what would he say to Duncan Reid as he is just starting out his recording career as a piece of sound advice?

DR: Don't sign to NEMS record label because Polydor are going to come along in a few weeks wanting to sign you and when they can't they will sign The Jam instead! Other than that there's nothing I could change so I wouldn't bother.

CHECK OUT DUNCAN'S WEBSITE FOR MORE NEWS AND TOUR DATES AND INFORMATION ABOUT OBTAINING THE ALBUM 

photos courtesy of Duncan Reid