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Carpets wearing well – and back on road
They were an integral part of Madchester, but as they prepare to go back on the road will Inspiral Carpets prove they've got better with age. Tom Goodhand speaks to frontman Tom Hingley.
Back in the late Eighties through to the early Nineties, Manchester was the place for indie music.
Groups of chaps (for it was almost solely chaps) with guitars were discovering the joys of acid house. The legendary Hacienda night club was in full swing and from that scene, two of Britain's biggest bands, The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays emerged.
Out of the back end of that scene, which had a John Peel seal of approval, came the five-piece Inspiral Carpets, a self-confessed "singles band" with a passion for pop songs. They lasted eight years before being dropped by their label Mute in 1994, and splitting up in 1995.
"There was a lot of terrible pseudo-American rap bands signed at that time in London," says Inspiral Carpets' singer Tom Hingley, reminiscing about the band's formative days. "It was a bit out of kilter with what people were really listening to, which was Acid House, Latino music and obscure garage tunes. I think the North was much more in touch with what was going on than the media were at that time.
"Madchester was the biggest music scene since punk. It was pretty vibrant. We were just a really good band in the eye of the hurricane. It just happened that what we did, people liked and I think in our own way we were quite down to earth, quite funny and quite charismatic."
Despite his passion for his own band, Hingley happily admits to being a big fan of both The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays.
"The best gig I've ever seen was Happy Mondays at the Free Trade Hall in 1989," he says. "Only about half of the audience paid to get in. There was loads of dry ice on stage and you couldn't actually see the band, all you could see was a flickering on stage.
"The first time I saw them was in 1987, I used to work at the Hacienda collecting glasses. And I don't think any of us would have had a career without the Stone Roses. They weren't so good live though, I don't think. Obviously they did the occasional thing that people still talk about now, but they were a bit hit and miss live. We weren't as good looking
as them, but we were far better live."
It was a desire to have fun, and to give their Greatest Hits collection a better release that brought Inspiral Carpets back together in 2003.
"We never really gigged our greatest hits album," explains Hingley. "When the first greatest hits came out in 1996, it had a terrible cover and the running order on the back wasn't the same as on the CD. It was a bit of a mess.
"In 2003, we put a proper greatest hits out with all the early stuff and some new stuff. It was an opportunity to have a bit of fun, go around the country with our mates, make some money and put the record out properly."
It was inevitable that there would be a great deal of interest in the re-release, given Inspiral Carpets had always been a classic British singles band.
"We never sat down and thought about how to record an album, and we should have done," admits Hingley. "But I think people into prog-rock, heavy metal and dance music forget that writing a three minute-long pop song is the most difficult thing to do in the world."
While the band are currently still trading on their back catalogue, Hingley says that patient fans will be rewarded with some new material.
"It's going to take a long time because we're all really busy. We've all got our own careers doing different things now. It could take three years for the record to come out.
"Martyn (Walsh] the bass player came up with this song which was a sort of 'I love this girl, she doesn't love me' kind of song and I said to him, 'I think we need to move on from that a bit lyrically.'
"I'm 43, I've got four daughters, I'm happily married, I think I need to sing songs that are more relevant. I mean, I would sing it, but I think you have to be able to sing with honesty, and you need to sing about something that matters to you. We're not 16, complaining that we can't get a girlfriend anymore."
Most importantly, Hingley still has a passion for being in Inspiral Carpets, and having never had what most people would call a proper job,
he's not about to join the rat race now.
"I scrape along doing music and thinking, 'If I had a 9 to 5 job, I'd be much better off'. But then you get to another five years and think, 'Actually it's quite amazing that I manage to survive by writing songs, playing them and doing gigs'.
"I do teach as well, but I am primarily a musician. I look back on it and think, 'Bloody hell, isn't it amazing that you can make a living doing that?' It's a hard life though people don't think it is. It's like being in a circus; you have to really love doing it."
Some people may disagree, but with the exciting potential of hearing classic singles like This is How it Feels performed live again, we can forgive Hingley for trying the sympathy vote every now and again.
Inspiral Carpets play Sheffield's Leadmill on Mar 9. For tickets call 0114 221 2828 or online at www.leadmill.co.uk
The Inspiral Fact File
Founded by Graham Lambert, the line-up eventually included drummer Craig Gill, Clint Boon on keyboards, bassist Martyn Walsh and frontman Tom Hingley.
In 1988, their first single proper Planecrash was released on Playtime Records and the band, which later secured the services of Noel Gallagher as roadie, were tipped to make it big.
It was starting their own label Cow Records a year later which proved to be the turning point, and the band provided the staple tracks for every indie disco.
Anthems included This Is How It Feels, Caravan and Dragging me Down, but 1994's Devil Hopping was their swansong.
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