Features

The New Royal Family - THE NEW ROYAL FAMILY GO MENTAL!

Bill Cummings 11/06/2007

The New Royal Family (the notorious indie supergroup featuring various past, present and future members of Gay Dad, Luxembourg, The Boyfriends, Jack, Linus, Scarlet's Well, Spy 51, the Low Edges, Salad and many more too embarrassing to mention) have unveiled the rather tongue in cheek video to their forthcoming debut single, "Anyone Fancy A Chocolate Digestive":
















Directed by Caroline Richards, who has previously worked with Suede and The Parkinsons, and featuring an all-star supporting cast including Dickon Edwards, the legendary north London fop and sometime member of Spearmint and Orlando, the video is fast on its way to becoming what is known these days as an internet phenomenon.


Meanwhile, the single has already received plays on Radio 1 and Xfm Scotland and has been described by legendary poet John Hegley as "a joyous record" if "a bit limited in its lyrical reach" and the band are currently weighing up a deluge of record company offer.


To celebrate, the New Royal Family return to the live arena for the first time in six months with a show at Club Mental at Islington's Lark in the Park on Saturday 30th June. The New Royal Family share the bill with TV's Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra.We caught up with the New Royal Family's main man David Barnett(he of the Suede Biog/Boyfriends+Luxembourg fame) for a little verbal jousting:

When did the New Royal family form?


Two weeks before our first gig, back in October. I offered to do it because the other band I was in at the time pulled out at the last minute so I called up some of my showbiz chums and amazingly they all said yes.

Why the New Royal family, whats wrong with the old one?

I remember reading an interview with Johnny Rotten where he explained that the other names he had in mind for Public Image Ltd were the Carnivorous Buttock Flies or The Royal Family and thinking that the latter was a great name for a band. However, since Paul Young stole that for his backing band I stuck the New in front of it ... which also obviously has Adam Ant connotations.

Whats it like being part of a super group?

It's a great honour to work with all of them. I remember seeing Charley on Top of the Pops and thinking she was the coolest lady in rock and, you know, Jen is in a band with Bid out of the Monochrome Set who are one of my favourite bands ever. They're all proper hugely talented musicians and I'm a complete amateur so it really is like Jim'll Fix It to have them playing my tunes.


Apart from (The New Royal Family)What are your other favourite musical super groups?


I quite liked Me Me Me. Alex James is a bit of a hero of mine to be honest. So Wigwam too! I'm also partial to a bit of Cream.

Whats so suggestive about a chocolate digestive?


It rhymes. Anyone Fancy A Choklate Digestive was the name of my first proper band, spelt pretentiously with a K. A friend of ours offered to record some demos and it was only when we got there that we realised we only had one song of our own so we decided to make up a kind of theme tune on the spot, using the chords D and A which were just about the only ones I could manage. Then, 20 years later when the New Royal Family got together we needed songs that were easy to learn very quickly so I dug that one out. It's virtually an exact replica of the original demo with a bit of Beethoven thrown in.


How long did your new video take to make?


Most of the filming was done in one day. Caroline Richards, the director, has done an amazing job. I think she will go on to great things, she's like a cross between Tim Pope, Mike Mansfield and Derek Jarman!