Mark Harrison is back at Bognor Regis's South Downs Music Festival

SussexWorld

Frequently heard on BBC Radio 2, including its Pick of the Week show, Mark Harrison is looking forward to a return trip to Bognor Regis for this year's South Downs Music Festival.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this

00:06afternoon to speak to Mark Harrison. Now Mark, you are coming back for probably the third

00:10time to the South Downs Music Festival in Bognor Regis. You're looking forward to it

00:15and you're saying so interestingly that the music you write is about the 99.9% of things

00:22that other writers don't write about. What do you mean by that?

00:27I could give you an example. The current single just about to be released now is called Them

00:34and Us and it's about what I would regard as the cult of management and how so many

00:41people with what I might regard as proper jobs have a hard time doing those jobs because

00:48of the people in charge. And I think that there's been a kind of epidemic in the last

00:55maybe 20, 30 years of a kind of management figure that it's almost like it's a religion.

01:02And the religion says that you don't have to know anything about the organisation you're

01:07running in order to run it, which strikes me as evident madness and is likely to lead

01:13you to precisely where we are now, where nothing works.

01:16But the point is, you do not dip into your inner life for your music.

01:24No, you know, that kind of subject isn't totally typical for me. But I think that what I do

01:33is I look around me and the sort of things I think about and if any of them, you know,

01:39leads to a line that I think sounds promising or, you know, an idea or a topic that I think

01:46sounds promising for a song, then I will, you know, write that song. And so there are

01:52quite a few on there on topics that are covering territory that most people don't write songs

01:58about, but that hopefully people who hear them would recognise as familiar experiences

02:03for them.

02:04Absolutely. Sounds intriguing. And for Bognor, you're playing a duo show with Charles on

02:09double bass. And you and Charles have worked for the entirety of your musical career.

02:14That's right. Charles Benfield, double bass and harmony vocals. He started with me when

02:20we did the first album, Matt, in London when we both lived there. We do a lot of duo gigs

02:25as well as the full band, which is Trio. And yeah, he was with me when we did the last

02:31one in Bognor in the theatre there. And this time we're doing one of the marquee concerts,

02:38which are on the 20th and 21st of September. Yes, we're on Friday the 20th. Yeah. Yeah,

02:48these concerts come in double form. So there's us and then I think Fred's house band after

02:53us. Yeah. And then the following night, there's two artists as well. Yeah, it should be great.

03:02Brilliant. Well, fantastic that you're coming back to Bognor and you'll be driving away

03:06from Bognor very slowly this time after speeding to get lost.

03:12Yes, I had my second speed awareness course as a direct result of being hoodwinked by

03:20an invisible camera in roadworks on the way out of Bognor, which I have never forgotten.

03:26Right. But whether the camera was invisible or not, you were still speeding, presumably?

03:32I was doing 58 miles an hour in a 50 limit. I think 55 or 56 is all right, isn't it,

03:38on the way they calculate it? Right. So you are now very fully speed aware.

03:46Well, I thought I was going to get an award for careful driving when I got the letter.

03:52Because it said you were doing 58 miles an hour. I thought, oh, good,

03:56because I thought it was 60 where I was driving, because it had been.

04:02You will know that for this time, won't you now?

04:05Well, I should keep a weather eye on it for sure. But actually, I hope there aren't any

04:09roadworks down in those parts. It was on the way out from on the M27, I think, from Bognor. It was

04:16some way out of Bognor, actually. It was on the way home. At least you know. We'll have a really

04:20happy return to Bognor and a really speed aware return to Bognor as well. Yeah, looking forward

04:27to it. And the South Downs Music Festival is a really good one. It's pretty long established.

04:32It's extremely well run. They put good people on and a lot of work and effort goes into putting

04:38these things on. And I've always enjoyed playing at this one. And definitely, if people local to

04:46it haven't got tickets, then they really must get tickets and come along to see these very

04:52good bands, including us, that will be on there. Brilliant. Well, lovely to speak to you and good

04:57to hear that you're coming back to the festival. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.

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