A heavenly start for Cardiff band
There’s a real buzz around Cardiff’s Boy Azooga as their debut album hits the UK charts. Dave Owens spoke to Davey Newington from the band
IT WILL be quite some day in the Newington household today. For Davey Newington the announcement of the UK album chart should see his much talked about Cardiff band Boy Azooga and their kaleidoscopic, magical mystery tour of a debut album 1,2, Kung Fu! making its debut in the UK Top 40.
It should be something of a double celebration, as his dad Richard – a violinist with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales – appears on Gruff Rhys’ latest solo album, the orchestral pop opus, Babelsberg, also released this week.
The Super Furry Animals’ frontman enlisted the services of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales to soundtrack his sumptuous stringladen long-player, rightly regarded as his best work to date.
Now the two albums have gone head-to-head, with the midweek chart placing Boy Azooga’s debut at number 23, while Babelsberg was sat at number 19.
For the Newingtons it has caused some amusement that father and son are currently embroiled in a chart battle.
“Dad has actually played on quite a few Welsh albums,” says Davey, speaking to me down the phone line while sat on the beach at Margate, where the band were playing that night. “He played on one of the first Manics’ albums and with Catatonia as well. He also recently played on (Super Furry Animals’) Cian Ciaran’s Rhys A Meinir album as well. He’s 60 now and started with BBC National Orchestra of Wales when he was 21. He’s part of Welsh music history but it’s funny how things have turned out.
“It’s bizarre that both our album and Gruff’s were released on the same day.
“As for chart placings – I’m not really sure – that’s out of my scope of understanding. It blows my mind to be honest. Although it’s a bit odd being in a chart battle with your own dad. I’m sure he’ll send me a few infuriating texts if he beats me in the chart race.
“But I won’t mind as Gruff’s album is amazing and he is the most approachable, down-to-earth guy.”
A prodigious musical talent, Davey is a young man with a rich musical heritage. One of his grandads was a jazzer who played drums for the Royal Marines. Davey’s dad Richard (violin) and his mum Eileen (clarinet) both played, and met, in the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales. Davey himself took up drums at the age of six and also enjoyed orchestral engagement, playing in various Welsh orchestras and jazz bands as a teenager as well at latterly finding gainful employment playing drums as part of Charlotte Church’s Late Night Pop Dungeon and with the equally thrilling Houdini Dax.
Since embarking on the Boy Azooga project with producer and unsung hero of the Boy Azooga project, Eddie Al Shakarchi (aka Dr Ed Boogie) at Ed’s studio in the countryside outside Cardiff, it’s been something of an incredible ride for Davey.
Signed to Heavenly Records, Davey’s number one preference when it came to a home for his music, a little under a year ago, they’ve quickly become one of the most talked about bands in the UK.
Taking musical cues from the likes of Sly & The Family Stone, Caribou, Black Sabbath, Outkast, Van McCoy, Ty Segall and The Beastie Boys, and with arrangements which carry the wonky tunefulness of The Super Furry Animals, they nabbed their name from the 1994 film The Little Rascals.
With Davey recruiting friends Daf Davies, Dylan Morgan and Sam Barnes to form the Boy Azooga live quartet, an ensemble that swings smoothly from filmic instrumentals to a churning, rave-tinged rock that hints at both Can and their progeny, the Happy Mondays, those who witnessed their recent shows at Clwb Ifor Bach and FOCUS Wales – not so much gigs as congregational gathering of believers – will testify to their propensity for live performances of biblical proportions.
It’s easy to see then not only why Heavenly Records (also home to Welsh artists Gwenno and H Hawkline) were keen to snap them up but why there is the sort of buzz surrounding them that you only hear on heavy metal night in a hive.
In the intervening 12 months between putting pen to paper there’s been plenty of landmark moments – the band opening Davey’s favourite festival Green Man, being playlisted on Radio 1 and 6 Music, and also catching the attention of Mike D of the Beastie Boys, a personal hero of Davey’s, who interviewed the Boy Azooga frontman for his Beats 1 show.
“A moment I still can’t get my head around,” he says. “It all seems like a dream. He signed my copy of Paul’s Boutique and when I asked him to sign it to Davey, he laughed and told me ‘nah man it’s worth less on eBay if you put people’s names on it’. Although I would rather lose an arm than sell that album.”
However, it was an appearance on BBC’s Later with Jools Holland – a decidedly Welsh affair – alongside Gwenno and Manic Street Preachers and DJ Huw Stephens watching in the wings, that brought the band into the nation’s living rooms and triggered an outpouring of love among the Welsh music scene that was genuinely touching.
Davey says the appearance came about after a representative of the show came to see the band play in London.
“Our manager tricked us. We were playing in London and our manager said ‘some guy is coming to see you play’, but he didn’t specify who he was, so we were super relaxed.
“After the gig he told us ‘oh yeah that guy was from Later...,’ so I’m glad he didn’t tell us beforehand as we probably would have been shaking.”
And it was a special moment when he found out Boy Azooga would be playing the long-running music TV show, sharing the news with his pet guinea pig.
“I remember I was in my kitchen and I was about to feed my guinea pig. There was a definite increase in squeaking when he heard the news.”
Davey adds there was a lot of nerves on the day when the band rocked up to the studio location – in rather unrock ‘n’ roll surrounds of an industrial estate in Maidstone.
“Growing up I watched Later loads and it looks exactly how it looks on the TV and it was pure terror,” he laughs. “I was really nervous but the thing that got me through was knowing that there were so many people rooting for us. Knowing that friends, my girlfriend Ellie and her mates back at our flat and my parents were all watching, it was really cool.
“And it was great that there was some sort of Welsh alignment that night.”
Davey reveals that the taste of Wales was further reinforced by the presence of Welsh cakes being handed around backstage.
“Daf’s mum gave him a tin of Welsh cakes to take on the road. When we arrived they were an instant hit. We were very nervous so we thought we would go and take Welsh cakes to the Manics. It was a pretty funny moment when James Dean Bradfield returned the biscuit tin to our dressing room and had a chat. Not exactly rock ‘n’
roll but a memorable moment for us.”
For the future Davey tells me the second album is pretty much written and there’s more live shows, including two gigs in Newport this weekend, and many festival shows over the summer. They’ve also been confirmed to play Swn Festival in Cardiff in October.
Despite all the acclaim being heaped on Boy Azooga, Davey is remaining firmly grounded, realising how fickle rock ‘n’ roll can be.
“I’m fully aware of how fleeting it can be,” he agrees. “I’m always going to be writing and recording if there’s one thousand people or one person listening.
“We never set out to be the biggest band in the world or anything. It’s been amazing so far and we’ve achieved more than I ever expected, so if it all ends tomorrow we’ve had an amazing time.”
Boy Azooga play a sold out show at The Parrot in Carmarthen tonight and two shows at Le Pub in Newport tomorrow – the evening performance is sold out but there are a handful of tickets remaining for the 2pm matinee performance.