Tunbridge Wells punks Ugly Love have had a busy 2014 so far, what with embarking on their first ever proper tour in February, losing their old bassist and gaining a new one, and releasing their newest single ‘No Model’ along with an accompanying music video. On top of all of that they managed to put on one of the most entertaining and possibly most bonkers shows of Takedown Festival 2014, a show which featured several inflatable animals, one inflatable penis and partial nudity from some more excitable crowd members. The Edge caught up with singer Tom Adolph and new bassist Josh Price after their Takedown set for a quick chat about what happened to their old bassist, (for the record, I’m pretty sure he’s actually fine) how they ended up with an inflatable unicorn in their set and what acts they wanted to see at Takedown.
Where’d you get the idea to throw out inflatable animals in your show? And where are they from?
Tom: I can’t remember where we got them from, but we first used inflatable animals in our music video and we weren’t sure what to do with them afterwards! After that we used them in our London show and they just went down so well, we thought we’d buy up a load for this show as well.
Josh: However, they’ve all been adopted by our fans now; we didn’t get any of them back! Our shark, our pink unicorns and our inflatable penis have been round to all the other performances today, we’ve just seen people wandering around with them!
What happened to you guys since I last caught up with you?
Tom: We gained Josh, and lost our old bass player. He’s gone. He died! There was a freak lawnmower accident; it was a little bit like Spinal Tap! [laughs]
Josh: Yeah, he was on his lawnmower and he bent down to tie his shoelaces and his beard got caught, and that was that!
Tom: It was horrible! Oh, and we released a music video for ‘No Model’ as well, so there’s that.
Nice segue! What on earth was going on in that music video?
Josh: It was brilliant, it had everything! There were dogs in little outfits, jelly fights and everything. That’s just a typical Sunday night for us really, and we filmed it. [laughs]
Tom: It would not be the Ugly Love way to do a video with a big storyline with lots of dramatic things happening! Fuck that, it’s stupid and it’s just not Ugly Love! That wasn’t a dig at bands who do make big story-driven videos, but it’s just not us. We just got a load of our friends together in a room with some random crap, saw what happened and filmed it.
Why’d you decide to make your first new release in ages a song about how ugly you all are?
Tom: Why the fuck not? We’re all ugly bastards and instead of whining about it we might as well take the piss out of ourselves a bit!
Josh: For me personally, it’s all about embracing my webbed feet. I can swim really fast!
Are you enjoying Takedown so far? What other bands have you seen?
Tom: It’s awesome! We just saw The Hell and they were amazing. They’re the best new band in the UK, well, apart from us, obviously! We’ve got a load of friends here as well, like DEAD, Ashestoangels and Fearless Vampire Killers. I’m most excited to see Jamie Lenman though. He’s the singer of one of the most legendary, iconic, UK rock bands ever!
Josh: Status Quo?
Tom: No! He was in Reuben! I’m so excited, when I see him I’m probably going to lose my shit!
What else have you got planned?
Tom: Well, we’re writing an album at the moment. No idea when it’s coming out though! Oh and we’ve got another tour going on in April as well, so everyone should come and say hi!
Ugly Love are on tour throughout the UK in April; tickets are available here.
