++ Hi Stan! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

Hey Roque. I’m very good, thanks. I’m still involved in music insomuch as I’m writing and recording with The Seaside. I spent over 15 years as a guitar tech. and tour manager for many different bands, but I stopped doing that a few years ago.

++ Definitely the news is that you are releasing an album this October! It is called “Coastal Walks” and the first thing I wonder is if these are new songs? Or these are older songs that have been finally recorded? Can you tell me a bit about the record?

It’s a mixture of both old and new. When we decided to reform The Seaside we had a bunch of old songs we thought were very good, and confident they had stood the test of time. But, thinking that an album needed about 10 tracks, we were a few short so wrote some new songs, which we’re very happy with. Clix’s wife, Kaye, heard the first new song and said it ‘sounds like The Seaside’, and we were very happy with that too.

++ Tell me where people can find it. I’ve seen it on Bandcamp. Will it be available in any other formats?

Yeah, it’s on Bandcamp so people can listen to it for free and, if they decide it’s worth the money, can buy it. We’ve had some vinyl cut, but only a few. If people keep asking us for a vinyl copy, we can print up some more. We’ve yet to have the discussion about Spotify or Apple Music, so it might end up on those platforms in the future.

++ Where was it recorded? Did you work with a producer?

Clix and Steve did their parts at Granny Annex Studios in Sheffield, England, I added my parts at Honey Creek Studios which is near Málaga in Spain because that’s where I live these days. We didn’t have a producer because we didn’t think we needed one. A producer’s main job is to shape the song, and we’ve all spent decades listening to songs and writing our own songs. We felt we didn’t need anyone to tell us how to write and arrange a song. And I’ve learned how to record and mix, so we did the album pretty much ourselves.

++ And how did the album come together? What made you get back and make music again? Are you planning to play live perhaps? 

The album came together because we felt we had unfinished business. In 2023, a mutual friend organised an afternoon in the pub with me and Clix and it was the first time we’d spoken for over 20 years. We hadn’t fallen out, it just happened that way. As we got more and more drunk the plan came together to reform the band and finally get those songs we loved so much into shape, record them and release them.

We’ve actually already done a show at a pub in Sheffield. It was a very low-key affair and we didn’t do ourselves justice for one reason and another. So, yes, we’ve organised another for the 16th January 2026, again in Sheffield,. This time we’ll do it properly, and show people how good we still are as a live band.

++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?

My first music memories were Sunday mornings with my mum, helping her cook Sunday dinner. She listened to a lot of easy listening stuff like Andy Williams, Jack Jones and Vicki Carr. I think that gave me a taste for classic songwriting. Verse, chorius, verse, chorus type songs.

My first instrument was a Rickenbacker 4001 bass copy. By then, I was about 13 years old, I was heavily into a band called The Jam, and they played Rickenbacker guitars. I thought, stupidly, that the bass would be easier than the guitar so I asked for a bass for Christmas. I learned how to play The Jam’s third album, ‘All Mod Cons’, just by listening to it and working it out. I spent a lot of time in my bedroom.

++ Had you been in other bands before The Seaside? What about the other band members? If so, how did all of these bands sound? Are there any recordings?

I had been in four or five bands prior to The Seaside. By this time I’d switched to guitar and it was the 80s. It’s important to say the bands I played in didn’t play Duran Duran 80s, it was Orange Juice, Smiths 80s. Very indie. I’m pretty sure that none of the original members of The Seaside had played in bands before. But I’m two or three years older than the rest, so I had a head start. I have a lot of recordings from my old bands. I listen to them occasionally and steal from myself for riffs for The Seaside.

++ Where were you from originally?

I was born and bred in Sheffield. All The Seaside were.

++ How was Sheffield at the time of The Seaside? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Sheffield was pretty cool at the time. Warp records was the coolest record shop in town and Steve, our bass player, worked there, which is how we met. There were also some good second hand shops like Jack’s, Forever Changes and Record Collector. As for venues, there was the Hallamshire Hotel (actually a pub, not a hotel) which is where The Seaside played their first gig. The Leadmill was the big gig though. It had ‘proper’ bands every Saturday, and every Sheffield band’s ambition was to play the Leadmill on Saturday night. We finally made it, and headlined on the 5th January 1991. We thought, ‘This is it, we’re on our way.’

Were there any bands I liked? The Subterraneans were good. A three-piece who played some cracking songs, and didn’t take themselves as seriously as everyone else did.

++ During those early 90s there were many great indiepop bands from the UK. Would you recommend some obscure bands I might have missed?

Hhmm, difficult to say. There was a band called 5:30, who me and Steve loved. They only released a few singles and an album. We supported them in Liverpool and played to very few people. But me and Steve didn’t care because we loved them. The rest, you’ve probably heard of. Bands like Teenage Fanclub and The Boo Radleys.
++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?

As I’ve mentioned, me and Steve met at Warp Records. We talked about being in a band and we were guitar and bass, which left us needing another guitarist, a drummer and a singer. Clix, Mark B. and Danny were looking for a bass player and a second guitar player. I seem to remember that at some point there was an ad in the paper for ‘the next JOhnny Marr’, but I don’t know who wrote it, nor who it was intended for. I lived in a flat opposite Clix, and he’d seen one of the band’s I was in, Johnny Seven, a few times and we became nodding acquaintances as all the Sheffield band people went to the same pubs. I’m pretty sure it was Mark B. who was the catalyst for us to join forces. Steve used to get dropped off at rehearsals by his mate Mark M., who used to hang around listening to us rehearse for a couple of hours. It didn’t seem right that he just sat there so we invited him to join the band. He couldn’t play anything particularly, so he went and bought some congas and other percussion instruments and became the sixth member. There was no ‘process’, it was very organic.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Me and Clix quickly became the songwriters. He would bring in fully formed songs, I would have a bunch of words and chords and we would shape them into a song before presenting it to the band at rehearsals. Me and Clix were ‘straight’ songwriters being big Beatles fans and, as I’ve said, I grew up with ‘traditional’ songwriting, But Steve and the two Marks were into 70s funky stuff, hip-hop and a bit of rave. Somehow, between the six of us, it worked. Later, Steve started writing songs too. One of his, ‘Mrs. Clean’, is on the album.

We practised in all sorts of terrible places. There were no rehearsal spaces like there are these days; all soundproofed with backline you can hire and snacks sold at the reception desk. They were just ramshackle empty rooms in run down factories.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?

We were all Sheffield lads, and Sheffield is an industrial city in the north, miles away from the sea. It seemed obvious to us that a band from Sheffield should be called The Seaside.

++ You only released the “Idolise” single back in 1991. It came out on Vlaw Records. Who were they? Was it yourselves doing a self-release?

Vlaw records was created by our managers. It stands for ‘Very Like A Whale’, which is a quote from Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’. None of us knew that at the time. We didn’t care, we were going to release a record, who cared what the label was?

++ I am curious if the three songs on this record were your first ever recordings or you had previous experience at recording studios?

This was the first time The Seaside had been in ‘proper’ studio, as opposed to tiny studios that had been put together by enthusiastic amateurs.

++ The record was recorded at Axis Studios with John Avery. How was this experience? How long did it take to put together the songs?

The experience I remember as being very good. We were a tight band, and it didn’t take long to record. But the production team were used to doing theatre soundtracks, which tend to be smooth and have few rough edges. The recording lacks the rough edges that we had as a live band. In that respect, it’s not very representative of what we were like.

++ I have always been curious about the title “Wild C. Wilder”. What does it mean?

When we rehearsed we’d write the order of a song down on giant pieces of paper (no idea where they came from) so it might run, V1 (verse), V2, C (chorus) solo, V3, Cx2, end. For Wild C. Wilder there was an instrumental bit that was supposed to be a bit rough, then into another chorus, then another instrumental bit which was rougher than the first instrumental bit. So, ‘Wild C. Wilder’.

++ Was there any interest from labels to sign you, to release your music?

A bit of interest. A&M had a sniff at one point after seeing us play at ULU (University of London Union) but obviously nothing came of it. There was another offer where the label manager joined us in the studio and did handclaps on a track, then we went to the pub with him and everything looked very positive. The label was started by Alex Patterson of the Orb and Youth from Killing Joke. The way I remember it was the label had a singer called Zöe, and she had a massive hit with a track called ‘Sunshine On A Rainy Day’, so the label poured all their money and attention into her and that was it for us.

++ And were there demo tapes put together by the band? If so, how many were they? Do you remember what songs were on them?

There are a few songs recorded by The Seaside out there. In fact, there are tapes with three different singers. Danny, a chap called Chris, and finally Clix become the lead singer. I remember ‘Chocolate Accident’ and ‘Ambulance Man’, which are pretty good songs, you might even call them groovy. There was a song called ‘Sail’, which Chris sang originally, and that’s made it onto ‘Coastal Walks’.

++ My favourite song of yours is “Idolise”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

This is one of mine and honestly, Roque, I can’t remember. Normally, I know where the songs come from, but this is lost in the mists of time. It’s a cracking riff though.

++ If you were to choose your favorite The Seaside song, which one would that be and why?

Oh, what a question! I really like ‘I Don’t Have The Time’, which is on the album, ‘Coastal Walks’. It starts very gently, a nice jangly guitar riff played by Clix, Steve plays a lovely, mellow insistent bass line that pushes the song along, and I do what I usually do, which is put overdriven guitar riffs on it. When we were recording the song I thought that Clix, great singer though he is, wasn’t doing what I had in my mind in the second verse. I sort of knew a singer in the US, Molli3, and sent her an email asking if she’d be interested in collaborating with us. She said yes, I sent her the song, and she sent back her version of the second verse. And it blew us all away. A completely different version of the verse than we expected, but it’s great. Then Clix added some mouth harp, I put a glockenspiel on it and more overdriven guitar. What starts as a mellow ballad ends as a full on noise attack. Just my sort of thing.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

We played a lot more than I remember. When we were recording the album I’d stay at Clix’s house and he was reeling off all the shows we’d done and I was saying, ‘Really? We played there, and there, and there?’

++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

The best gig was the first Leadmill headliner. We had a stage invasion at the end. I was bent over trying to protect my pedal board from people jumping on it. It was chaos. The security didn’t know what to do, so they just left everyone on stage.

I remember one show in London. We had nowhere to stay so Danny announced from the stage that if anyone could put us up for the night, we’d be most grateful. Some students said they could put a couple of us up so me and Danny jumped in. We got back to their house and there was one very small sofa and one chair. I jumped on the sofa thinking it was the best option, even though my legs were dangling over the edge. Then Danny pulled a handle on the chair and it slid out into a full size single bed. I remember waking up the next morning with a cat sitting on my head.

++ And were there any bad ones?

Oh yeah. There were bad ones.

++ When and why did The Seaside stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

As I’ve said, The Seaside just sort of petered out. I think when we made the decision to call it a day it was a bit of a relief. The thing is, me and Clix thought we could still write really good songs so we decided to stay  together and put another band together. By this time, Steve had left The Seaside, but he came back, we found another drummer, Craig, and singer, Paul, and called ourselves Six Stone Six. We released a three song CD called ‘Baby’s First Wind’, which I think is better than ‘Idolise’ from a recording and production point of view.

++ Prior to the reunion to make the album, had there been any other The Seaside reunions?

No. As I said, I hadn’t seen Clix, or Steve, for more than two decades.

++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?

Local radio played us a lot. And I’m a member of PRS, and I used to get royalty cheques fairly regularly, so someone somewhere was playing us. No TV though.

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

Again, the local press were pretty kind to us and featured us a few times with interviews and photos. ‘Idolise’ was reviewed in the NME, which was an influential paper back then. The writer, David Quantick, ended his review with ‘talent present’. Which I’m proud of to this day. We were also featured on the ‘On’ page of the NME. Every week they’d pick three bands that they thought had something; that was satisfying. And we had very good live reviews in the NME and Melody Maker.

++ What about fanzines?

There was one fanzine who loved us, Epicurean’s Answer. Thomas, the bloke who wrote it, saw us play in London supporting a Sheffield band called The Dylans. He prefered us to them and wrote about us. He lived in the south, but would come up to Sheffield to watch us play. He, and his sister, Susannah, became friends of the band. We lost touch but the release of ‘Coastal Walks’ has brought us together again. That in itself is reason enough for us to have made the album.

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say has been the biggest highlight for the band?

I think just making friends, writing songs, recording songs and playing a few shows. And picking some fans up along the way. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s actually a very big thing. For us, at least.

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

My hobbies are pretty mundane. I like reading (is that a hobby?) and doing crosswords. Anything that keeps my brain from stagnating.. I recorded and mixed the album which was challenging. I used to have a four-track recorder back in the 80s, but new technology is far more complicated. And, of course, far better. That was quite engaging. I’m also a pretty good cook. Oh, and TV, but that’s rarely engaging.

++ Do you follow football? What’s your team? Sheffield United? Sheffield Wednesday?

Sheffield Wednesday. Me and Clix are Wednesday fans. Steve’s not really interested in football, which is probably a good thing because being a Wednesday fan is 10% joy and 90% heartache.

++ Never been to Sheffield, would love to visit some day. So I’d love to ask you what would you suggest checking out in your town, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

I’ve not lived in Sheffield for 25 years. I moved to Newcastle in the north-east to look after the gigs for Newcastle University. That’s when I became a backline tech. and tour manager, which kept me travelling, then to Leeds to live with my girlfriend and now I’m in Spain. But I worked at Sheffield City Hall for five years from 2015, and of course recording ‘Coastal Walks’ has taken me back a lot recently. Sheffield’s had its rough times, but it’s on its way back now, and the independent live music scene is as strong as it ever was.

I don’t think Sheffield has ‘sights’, it’s just a nice place. Henderson’s Relish, or ‘Hendoes’, is a Sheffield institution. It’s been made in the city since 1885. It’s a secret recipe that only two or three of the Henderson family know. I love the stuff, it’s in my blood. And Yorkshire puddings. Sheffield’s in the county of Yorkshire, and Yorkshire puddings are a staple of Sunday dinners. Not just in Yorkshire, but the whole country.

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

Buy ‘Coastal Walks’. It’s really good.

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Listen
The Seaside – Idolise