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Interview: Keith Top Of The Pops

Keith Top Of The Pops & His Minor UK Indie Celebrity All-Star Backing Band (to give them their full name) are just back from touring with The Blood Arm, so we decided to get in touch with the only full time member of the band, the man himself, Keith TOTP, and ask him some pressing questions that have been rattling around ABoF HQ for the last few months.

Your official band name is quite impressively long. How did it come about?

The Top Of The Pops bit comes from a song I recorded for Art Brut called "Top Of The Pops". It's on an Angular Records Rip Off Your Labels compilation. It was every band on the compilation shouting their band name followed by "Top Of The Pops". I also used to use it a lot as a general exclamation "I've just found a tenner, Top Of The Pops!"

The rest of it comes from an idea for a television programme my friend James Rocks had called "I'm A Minor Indie Celebrity Let Me In Here" where we would go to clubs and pubs and pretend to be the bass player from Shed Seven or The Crescent or something and see if we could get in for free. So yeah, I think he came up with that and I nicked it.

You've quite a unique approach to songwriting and recording - what prompted you to sack off rehearsals and soundchecks?

Rehearsals I decided against because of the impossibility of getting everyone together, plus bands fight in rehearsal rooms. The band is meant to be the most stress free band that any of the members, who are all in bands of their own, have ever been in. So no rehearsals.

Plus I hear bands all the time who go "That rehearsal was great!" and then play a gig and say "That was rubbish!" If they had skipped the rehearsal the gig would have been great. It's logic. Everyone in the band is someone I think is great, so I can trust them to come up with good stuff.

Same for soundchecks really. In the size of venues we play we don't need to mic up the guitar amps so there's not much to be done, and not doing them means the band members can turn up whenever they like. Just before, or even halfway through a gig and just get up and join in.

What's the most amount of people you've had on stage at one time, and where was it?

Both the album launch gig at the Monarch in Camden, and a gig at The Lexington last year had over 20 people. I think we hold the record for the most people on stage at the Windmill in Brixton with 17.

Who would you say has had the most influence on you as a musician?

I don't know really. I'm influenced by a lot of stuff. Oasis were the band that made me want to be in a band. People like Jeffrey Lewis, and The Television Personalities are probably where I get the whole "Go in, get it done, don't over think it" approach from. The Velvet Underground obviously, I think it was Lou Reed that said "Two Chords is Rock N Roll, Three Chords is Jazz" or something like that. I steal stuff from all over the place.

Is there anybody you'd like to work with?

I'll work with anybody I think is great. I've worked with a lot of amazing bands already, both new ones and people who's records I used to buy when I was younger. If you'd have told the fifteen year old me he'd be in a band with all of Carter USM, Black Box Recorder, or David Devant & His Spirit Wife, I'd have thought you were mental.

Your album Fuck You! I'm Keith Top Of The Pops is picking up some excellent reviews. Are there plans for a follow up?

There is. I've already written most of it, and started playing some of it live so the rest of the band can come up with their bits. I usually just tell them the chords and they come up with something live, then that's how the song goes. It takes a couple of gigs for it to settle down usually, but as I said up there they're all pretty great at playing so it works out.

What's the worst piece of advice you've ever been given?

I've no idea. I tend not to remember bad advice. I can't remember ever being given any actually.

You've got 30 minutes before a meteorite hits the planet. How would you spend it?

Hmm, not long is it. Meteorites hit the planet all the time though don't they? If you mean a big planet smashing meteorite then if Hollywood has taught me anything I imagine there's all sort of weird weather and fireballs, and explosions going on if there's only 30 minutes left. I'd probably just watch that. Or sit in a corner gently rocking and crying, which is probably what most people would do to be honest.

Fuck You! I'm Keith Top Of The Pops is available to buy on CD, Vinyl and digitally from Corporate Records.