McBusted is the hot ticket in
town. The supergroup combining the musical forces of Busted and McFly is
currently taking over Manchester’s Phones 4 U Arena for a 3 day sold out stint.
And tasked with the job of warming up the crowd? Midlands pop rockers EofE. We caught up with the four-piece
ahead of the show to chat about playing to over 380,000 people, the new single and their dream supergroups.
Click below to read the interview and live review…
You’ve been in music and in other bands for a few years and
have toured before, but I guess for you all the McBusted tour is the big one
DAN [Bremner, guitar]- I can’t really describe it really, it’s been immense from the
start
NICKY [Waters, drums]- It doesn’t feel real to be honest, it’s crazy. We have
a videographer with us and we’re doing tour diaries every week. It’s only when
we watch them back that we’re like, "oh we did that". It’ quite surreal.
You're playing to over 380,000 fans- is that hard to even comprehend
that number?
TOM [Harris, vocals]- You sometimes forget just how many people are there and then
you see all the flashing lights taking photos.
DAN- It’s such an adrenalin rush and knowing that you’re going down with other
people’s fans too, so that’s great.
TOM- We try not to just stand there with our jaws wide open thinking this is
cool.
The new single ‘Lust’ out end of May. Your stuff seems more
on the rockier side, but still with the catchy pop choruses which is perfect
for the McBusted support- what bands
inspire your sound?
DAN- We all grew up listening to different thing really; different, but the
same. It’s all rock but we have different tastes really.
LUKE [Bradley, bass]- I think that reflects in the music really, heavy guitars but
what we listened to did have poppy choruses regardless of what genre.
You're from Birmingham- does the music scene their influence
the sound?
TOM- I think we can all agree that growing up in the Dudley area and Nicky in
the North-East that there wasn’t very music to do; you either liked football or
roamed around the streets, so we thought let’s form a band.
DAN- You start playing an instrument and looking up to bands like Led Zeppelin and then you find out that
they’re from here and you’re like “what?” and then it just clicks.
LUKE- We all started it as a hobby, so to go from that to playing arenas is incredible.
It’s the best job.
Birmingham arena was the home town show- was that one particularly special?
DAN- Yeah, that was great and we get to back to play again next week so that
will be special.
TOM- It was quite sentimental really…
Any tears shed on stage?
[All laughing]
DAN- It wasn’t that sentimental, just sweat. And it was great with friends
messaging us saying they were coming down.
TOM- And people texting afterwards saying, “I didn’t know you were supporting McBusted”.
Although we hear that Luke loves Leeds Utd?
LUKE- Yeah I do, which probably isn’t going to go down well in Manchester
[laughing]. We’ve already played Leeds so I was wearing my Leeds Utd shirt in
sound check- representing.
The name EofE- it comes from the James Dean movie East of Eden, right?
DAN- James Dean is a massive icon and we do like the film.
LUKE- It’s quite funny; we’re called EofE
from the James Dean film, the other support band I called Young Brando after Marlon Brando so it
was meant to be.
If you could form a supergroup with one other band who would it be?
TOM- Just for cool reference I think You
Me At Six.
DAN- Yeah, we could be called, You MEofE
[laughing]. And we have a similar sound to them.
Busted and McFly first began their careers over a decade ago-
where do you guys want to be in 10 years time?
ALL- Still doing this.
TOM- Hopefully we will be doing our own arena or stadium tours, which would be
immense. This tour has whet our appetite.
NICKY- More music, more playing, just more.
You do some covers on tour- if you could cover one Busted or
McFly song- which?
DAN-We all have different favourites but for me it would be ‘Five Colours in
Her Hair’; it’s such a good tune and has a great riff. Or ‘You Said No’ by Busted.
TOM- It would be ‘Sleeping With The Light On’ for me by Busted. And ‘Transylvania’ by McFly.
LUKE- My favourite is Busted’s ‘What
I Go To School For’.
NIKCY- I like McFly’s ‘Shine A Light’,
it’s got such a great chorus.
And finally, what’s next for EofE?
TOM- We have loads of stuff coming up; a festival in Germany and in America
and some new material when we come back and our own headline tour at some point.
We’ll go wherever anyone wants us to play.
Thanks guys. Good luck with the rest of the tour.
And here’s what happened when EofE
took to the stage…
Manchester Phones 4 U Arena is
bursting with screaming girls, or should that be screaming mid-20 year olds.
The crowd that McBusted attracts is
varied, yet nevertheless enthusiastic as EofE take to the
stage. They may have only formed little more than a year ago and they
may be relatively young in comparison to their touring counterparts, however
the quartet know how to work the crowd.
Opening with Michael Jackson’s iconic ‘Billie Jean’ and Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ they mashed the two up into a
high octane, forceful start to their set, and had the audience on board
immediately. Although the opener may not have been an original penned track,
the rest of the set proved to be just as enjoyable. ‘Kiss Me Like You Mean It’,
an EofE original, is an upbeat pop
rock anthem with an infectious chorus that echoes throughout the arena. Slightly
on the rocker side than McBusted, EofE
deliver big rock riffs set alongside pop infused choruses that cry out to be
sung along to.
They are confident and not in the
least daunted by playing to the 20,00 strong crowd, and frontman Tom Harris
bounds up and down the stage, the screaming girls tracking his every move. Highlight
of the evening comes in the form of latest single ‘Lust’ (released 26th
May). ‘Lust’ is the final track in the set and sees EofE go out with a bang. The verses build to“She Knows” – the
anthemic refrain in the chorus. Rock riffs and percussion dominate and with a
striking guitar solo it is a gutsy close. Both vocally and musically EofE are on point- it really is hard to
fault them. Tom delivers an impressive final note sealing their fate; it is
clear that most of the McBusted crowd
hadn’t heard of EofE before tonight,
however they are going away new fans, and with the chorus to ‘Lust’ embedded in
their brain. Warming up the crowd? Job well done boys. 7.5/10
