Hip Parade: Blue Monday, Bands and Tommy Reilly

Exclusive Interview with Glasweigan Orange Unsigned Act Finalists

Jan 25, 2009

Suite 101 catches up with Hip Parade's Rob ahead of today's long awaited Orange Unisgned Act final, who talks about the challenges of being a band in the competition

Hip Parade are surely the most exciting band left in the Orange Unsigned Act competition. They can stir up a crowd like their lives depended on it, and they bounce around like things possessed on stage.

They’ve diligently worked their way from thousands of acts to just the last three following increasingly positive comments from judges Lauren Laverne, Alex James and Simon Gavin. Now they face The Scarlet Harlots and fellow Glasweigan Tommy Reilly in what is sure to be a dramatic final show.

Suite 101 caught up with the band’s charismatic frontman, Rob Shah, backstage at the live TV show ahead of the final.

September Start and Intense One Song Focus

Suite 101: The competition has been going on for ages now hasn’t it? It started way back in September and that’s a long time to keep performing and delivering the goods.

Rob: I watched last year and I didn’t think it looked like anything much because they only had to play one song a week. That’s no big deal. But now were here it’s really intense, because the song’s not part of a set so you really have to focus on it. You have to make sure the intro’s right, the chorus is right, the ending’s right. That’s something we’ve never done before. Usually you get a set, or half an hour and you just go play it, so this way is really intense.

Difficulties for Bands, Blue Monday

Suite 101: You must get the opportunity to really get to know every song that you do, inside out and back to front since you’ve been asked to strip things down, or to vamp them up a bit.

Rob: Yeh there was one point where we were the only band left in the competition, and that was pretty scary as well, because the bands have got the hardest job. The singer songwriters, in covers week, they could just get the chords off the internet and play their covers and make it sound a little bit different. But for a band it’s really difficult because you literally have to build a new song around someone else’s lyrics. That’s pretty intense. We did ‘Blue Monday’ by New Order, which was just a completely different song for us. Acoustically it was a nightmare because we’d never done that before. The singer songwriters just turned up and did what they did before. But we had to go and learn to play acoustic guitars, that’s a different game altogether.

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

Suite 101: So you think that this competition is maybe more challenging for you as a band?

Rob: Aye. It’s very challenging, it’s been really hard. We’ve all got full time jobs as well, because we’ve all got houses and flats and stuff and we can’t quit our jobs, we have to work at the same time. Honestly it’s been horrible. The best time of my life and the worst time of my life at the exact same time.

Rob: I work for a broadband company. Very boring! Very boring real life that I wouldn’t mind saying goodbye to!

Tommy Reilly and the Race for Second Place

Suite 101: Last week when we spoke to Tommy and asked him who would he like to win apart from himself, straight away he said you guys. So now I’m going to ask you the same question.

Rob: Exactly the same – Tommy. Without a doubt. I’ve said Tommy to win since the start. I haven’t ever seen ourselves winning it, since the minute I heard Tommy’s song in a hotel room, before the acoustic round. We were sitting in the hotel room, and he said “do you want to hear my song?” and we said “aye go for it”. And he played it and we thought “this guy is absolutely brilliant”. All we can hope for is second place.