Paul Golder writes for the Brentwood Gazette
We may be a small radio station compared to BBC and commercial heavyweights but we can still pack a punch when it comes to interviews. I was delighted to get an exclusive chat with Britpop legends Echobelly this week.
Championed by the likes of Chris Evans, the band were constantly on TV and in the music press in the mid 1990s. While they didn’t enjoy the chart success of bands like Blur and Oasis they still had some chart success, with two top ten albums and five top 40 singles.
The band were massively influential too; Madonna was a big fan and tried to sign the band to her Maverick label. The band’s debut EP Bellyache also influenced REM, who changed their guitar sound after hearing it, immediately before recording their biggest selling album.
Singer Sonya Aurora Madan and guitarist Glenn Johanson never really stopped doing their thing – they have been writing together for over 30 years. We were lucky enough to get them in the Phoenix FM studio back in 2013 for an acoustic session.
They’re currently rehearsing for a UK tour but I managed to catch up with them to talk about their forthcoming UK tour and some exclusive news on their new album, which will hopefully be hitting record shop shelves soon.
You can hear the interview again at phoenixfm.com and you can also catch the band live when they play Chinnery’s in Southend on Monday 27 May – I may see you there!
