Interview - Mike Heaton: Live music in Leeds but no police this time

THE last time Mike Heaton performed at Granary Wharf in Leeds, the police were called out.

"A few years ago, Embrace used to do these secret gigs. We would leave a trail of clues for the diehard fans to follow and then we'd turn up in a World War Two army truck and play a little gig," the drummer explains.

"We played all over the place, on beaches, in a quarry, we even played in a scout hut in Huddersfield.

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"Because Leeds is kind of our home town, we decided to do one here and we came down to the old car park next to the Dark Arches and played from the back of a truck to about 500 people. Perhaps not surprisingly, the police came along and moved us on."

Fast forward a few years and Heaton is the co-owner of a new music bar, The Hop, which opens today, just yards from where the band's impromptu gig took place.

"It's funny, but when I got involved with The Hop one of the women involved in the development said to me, 'the last time you were here you got me into trouble'."

The Granary Wharf city centre development has undergone a 40m facelift in the last couple of years and The Hop, which specialises in live music and real ale, is the latest addition to the waterside renaissance here.

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Heaton became involved with the new venue through his friendship with Jamie Lawson, who runs Ossett Brewery with Mike Inman.

The award-winning Yorkshire brewery has 13 real ale pubs across the county and two years ago it opened The Hop, in Wakefield, which has proved hugely popular with real ale lovers and musos alike and is now being rolled out in Leeds.

Heaton says it will bring something different to the city's existing live music scene.

"We have places like the Cockpit, the Hi-Fi Club and the Faversham that attract a lot of up-and-coming bands and we're not trying to compete with those venues.

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"We want this to be a traditional environment where people can enjoy

some great real ales and listen to good music."

The Hop will have a modern jazz night each Thursday, with cover bands and everything from rock and pop to indie groups playing on Fridays and Saturdays.

There are also plans for an "open mic" night and Heaton says they eventually plan to have live music seven days a week.

Interestingly, it was following a gig 15 years ago at another Leeds venue – the legendary Duchess of York, now sadly no more – that Embrace were first signed up by a record company.

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Since then the indie rockers have carved out a reputation for heart-warming anthems that has garnered them a loyal following for more than a decade.

However, following the mixed reaction to World at Your Feet, which was chosen as England's official World Cup song in 2006, the

band felt they needed some time off.

"We decided to have a six month break and that stretched into two-

and-a-half years," says Heaton.

"We each had our own projects to work on and I spent time giving talks to music students to give them advice on how to avoid the pitfalls that we fell in to."

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He also opened up his own drum school, based in Squirrel Studios, in West Yorkshire, offering private drum lessons to aspiring drummers, as well as spending time mentoring a number of young bands in the region.

But Heaton says Embrace's two-and-a-half year hiatus is coming to an end. "Even though we weren't playing we stayed in contact, and it's no secret that we've got back in the recording studio recently.

"We said to each other that if we were going to make a comeback, then we wanted to produce the best record we'd ever done, that's what we

want, whether it takes six months, or another two years."