Them:Youth - The Beesotted interview.

Beesotted met up with brothers Mark and Paul Buckle (not the Torquay manager) from hotly tipped West London band Them:Youth to chat over a pint or two about all things music and Brentford related.

Guitarist Ilan Hartogh joined the fray later on in the evening just incase anyone is wondering why he remained mute for the first few questions…oh and he is crouching in the photo and is actually quite tall…

So you grew up watching Brentford ?

Mark - Yes, with our family. We used to be in the family stand - that tiny little bit with the mural behind it. When I was really little - Paul was too young to go - we did the FA Cup run - we went to the Blackburn game, missed the Man City one but then went up to Anfield for the Liverpool match against that class Liverpool team with Barnes and Beardsley.

Do you remember much about the games?

Mark - I remember the players from that time. Some really stand out to this day - Richard Cadette was something else. Me and me cousin were mad about him. Neil Smillie was another quality player. I was very young though - I was so small that I remember being quite upset the day Steve Perryman was booed off the pitch.

If you had had a Bees shirt at that time whose name would you have had printed on the back?

Mark - Probably Cadette. Actually, hold on, I did have a shirt and it had Andy Sinton on the back.

Paul - I was going regularly until I was about 16 and was a season ticket holder. Nicky Forster was always one of my favourites but if I had to pick one person it would be Terry Evans. He was just immense. When we were little we met my namesake Paul Buckle on holiday as well in a bar.

Do you miss going as regularly due to your music commitments?

Mark - Yeah we do. One thing you notice is that you see the same people there, in the same places, every week. And you miss that. It`s a football club - with the club being the important bit.

How did you meet as a band?

Mark - We`re all mates from school and college and we`d all played together before and we then just got our shit together at the end of last year.

Did anything spark that?

Mark - Bringing keyboards in more, and the electronica sound. When I say electronica I don`t mean that we are going to be the new Pet Shop Boys! I`ve really started listening over the last two years to things like Joy Division and New Order.

Paul - We started at the arse end of Oasis really - they were the people who first made us think "this is what we want to do."

I can hear other influences in there too - people like The Charlatans and James and the Stone Roses...

Mark - Yes there`s that - but my mum`s music has had an influence - from her motown 45s I then got into northern soul and found myself at northern soul all-nighters. It`s where I learnt about mixing dance influence into things. The others get bored of me talking about northern soul and playing it on the tour bus

Favourite track?

Mark - 'Emperor of my Baby's Heart' by Kurt Harris

How about you Paul - what did you grow up listening to?

Paul - Growing up I`d listen to stuff that Mark played but it was "What`s the Story Morning Glory ?" by Oasis that really got me into music properly. And then we found out they`d had an album before and we got to hear Definitely Maybe. It was, like, "there`s another album of this already!"

And you are trying to work on an album now?

Mark - Yeah. We`ve had a couple of single deals for "Bow and Arrows" and "Halo" but we really want to get the chance to record the album. If we get to do it, we know it will be awesome. We`ve written the songs already and we know it`s better than some stuff already out there.

Are you gigging much at the moment?

Paul - Next gig is at the end of the month at Punk and we`ve got one in Wimbledon just after that. We`ve just been on a UK tour - you`ve got to get onto our myspace page and see some of the videos of what went on.

Stand out memories of the tour?

Mark - The first was getting on the tour bus, all excited, and then eventually finding out it had a 50 mile per hour limiter. It took us 13 hours to get to Glasgow ! It was not comfortable. I remember sitting in the front with the driver for the first 15 minutes thinking "why isn`t he putting his foot down ? "

Paul - Single best moment for me was the first night when we played at Koko in Camden, there were 2000 people there and it just went off.

Have you met many famous people yet?

Not many through the band - though Richard Mcnamara from Embrace produced some of our songs. We met Amy Winehouse backstage briefly as well, and Tim Lovejoy has been in touch through twitter asking how one of our gigs went.

So when you were kids what was the dream?

Both - It was always playing football.

Who do you reckon will play Wembley first - you or Brentford (and you are not allowed to include the conference centre)?

Mark - It`ll be us I reckon. Actually we`d love to play a gig at Griffin Park. We were on the pitch at the Bristol Rovers match and it was great. We got a little cheer and signed a couple of autographs afterwards.

Autographs for attractive girls or five year old kids?

Ilan - Five year old kids.

When you go to Griffin Park now where do you stand now?

Paul - Normally in the Ealing Road now behind the goal to the right. There`s a bit more noise there and some of my mates stand there. Pretty well the opposite corner of the ground to where we used to stand when we were little.

You probably used to do rude little hand gestures towards that area…!

Mark - Yeah (laughs). I remember when we were in the family stand the ball went off the pitch and one of the opposition players booted the ball into the ground and it went into the face of an old girl. The crowd went mental.

OK - let`s play "Desert Island Tannoy". You`ve got three songs to fill the gaps around Peter Gilham`s half time centre circle game that are suitable for a football ground. What do you pick?

Paul - "Whats the Story Morning Glory?" by Oasis.

Ilan - This no way reflects our own interests of course but there`s got to be some Queen. Maybe "We are the Champions" - if it works on Gladiators it should work at football.

One more - you can pick one of you own if you want.

Matt - It would have to be 'Halo' from our songs.

Ilan - I remember seeing footage of Anfield on youtube with the whole kop singing 'She Loves You'. It`s an amazing piece of film

Mark - Actually "You`ll never walk alone" is a great football song. I know it`s linked with Liverpool and that but it`s still a great track.

And if you make it as music superstars will you come in as mysterious benefactors and plough lots of money into Brentford (you won`t be legally bound by this)?

Mark - Yeah, if we made a fortune I`d love to give some back

Ilan - I`d buy my guitar shaped swimming pool first though "

Finally, your hopes for the rest of the season?

Mark - Brentford stay up and maybe have a cup run and our album gets recorded sooner rather than later and sounds as great as we think it will!


Beesotted would like to thank the boys for their time and for standing their round in a good display of pub etiquette. Over our chat they showed they`ve got a real passion for music, interrupted only briefly by a sneezing pub drunk who was later escorted from the premises. The single Halo is out now for download on itunes and you can stay in touch with the band at ThemYouth.com

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