TRNSMT 2025: Shed Seven singer Rick Witter on Glasgow memories and festival sets

GlasgowWorld

Shed Seven singer Rick Witter on Glasgow memories and music ahead of TRNSMT festival

Transcript

00:00Rick Witter from Shed7, you join us just before making your way to Glasgow once again

00:07to take part in Transmit Festival.

00:11You've had a long association with this city.

00:15What do you remember about your early visits to Glasgow?

00:20We always absolutely love coming up there, genuinely.

00:24We've done so many great gigs up there.

00:26I remember the first time doing King Tut's, which was incredible.

00:31In fact, the very first time we played Glasgow or anywhere in Scotland was at King Tut's

00:36and we were supporting a band called Compulsion on a nationwide tour.

00:42So I do remember, I think Dolphin, our second single, had just come out.

00:48But we were supporting and I think most of the crowd were obviously there to see Compulsion

00:52and they were just around the corner where the bar area is in King Tut's.

00:56So there was only like a smattering of people actually watching us.

01:00And I think we played Dolphin as the first ever song on Scottish soil.

01:05And at the end of that song, there was a little bit of applause.

01:09And then somebody swore quite loudly and then wished that they had a gun.

01:15So we thought, oh my goodness me, well, this isn't going to go down too well.

01:20But ever since then, we've had such a lovely, lovely time up there.

01:23And everyone's so nice and respectful and knows good music when they hear it.

01:30Yeah.

01:31One of the benefits of still, King Tut celebrates 35 years this year.

01:36And, you know, like having a venue like that, that local bands can still start out at.

01:42And then, you know, they build themselves up and then they go for the Barrowlands.

01:46And then they go for things like Transmit.

01:48And even in the life of Transmit, there's bands that have started off in the King Tut stage

01:53and, you know, made it to the main stage or to headline like Lewis Capaldi and Jerry Cinnamon.

01:59Like, was it pretty important in terms of your journey as a band that there was those networkers

02:08that welcomed you in at first, that, you know, that you were able to build things up

02:11and then before you know it, you're on top of the pops and the world's your oyster?

02:15Yeah, totally.

02:15And I think it still is so important.

02:18But the sad thing is so many of these smaller venues are actually going.

02:23And it doesn't bode well for the future for young kids who just want to pick up a guitar

02:27or play a keyboard in front of the mates and see what happens.

02:31It's such an important part of a life's kind of tragedy.

02:37You know, it's where you learn what you do.

02:43You know, you can be in your hometown and you can be in each other's bedrooms

02:47or in a rehearsal space.

02:49But to stand on a stage says a lot about if you want to carry on doing it for a start.

02:54And then obviously with us, when we started to get a bit of a name,

02:57we were up and down the country playing all of these really small venues.

03:01And it's character building and it instills that faith if you really still want to do it

03:06after playing in certain venues.

03:08So it's really important.

03:10And as I say, it's sad that so many of these venues around the country are disappearing.

03:15And yes, certainly it's a stepping stone to getting where you really want to be, as you say.

03:21You still return to the Barrowlands.

03:24Is that a venue that you kind of like enjoy the relationship that you have with the fans there?

03:31Because, you know, like the fans are right on top of you and they're singing along.

03:34They even sing the guitar parts in Glasgow, Rick.

03:37They really do.

03:38Yeah.

03:38It's such an incredible venue.

03:40I mean, you hear this a lot by loads of different bands, but the Barrowlands is always name checked.

03:45But there's something about that room.

03:48It's kind of magical.

03:49You know, you can sense it even before you've arrived.

03:53You can just sense how great it's going to be.

03:56I mean, obviously, we play the Academy as well.

03:57And we would do that ordinarily because the promoters feel that we can sell more tickets.

04:02So obviously, it's a win-win for everybody.

04:05And that's a great venue as well.

04:06But that's more like a cavernous hall, isn't it?

04:08Whereas the Barrowlands, you can just see the whites of everyone's faces, just even the stars on the ceiling.

04:15You know, it's just, and obviously the springy dance floor.

04:19There's just something magical about that place.

04:23Everyone just looks like they're having the best time.

04:25And yeah, if you're going to start singing the guitar solos, then you can't go wrong, can you?

04:31Starting out in King Tut's and being in that situation where you're supporting,

04:36like, you'll come to a festival like Transmit and you'll be bringing your own audience.

04:40But there's an element that you have to grab people's attention.

04:44There could be someone just wandering around at the back looking for chips.

04:47But you want to try and grab their attention as much as anything else.

04:50Do you approach festivals in a bit of a, you know, combat kind of like headspace

04:59where you want to go out there and really kind of grab people's attention?

05:02Because you've got a very tight window to do your thing.

05:05Yeah, that.

05:06I mean, in the 90s, I didn't really enjoy doing festivals for that very reason.

05:10I always felt that we're here, so why aren't you watching?

05:15And it was always a little bit kind of disappointing when you can see people at the back

05:20wandering from one stage to another and not really showing any interest in what we're doing.

05:25So I never really enjoyed festivals way back in the day because of that.

05:29But now I cherish them and I look forward to doing it because of what you've just said.

05:34I want to prove it to people and I want people to stop in the tracks and go, who's that?

05:39And, you know, the best, the biggest buzz out of doing any gig, really, is people leaving,

05:44going, well, that was incredible.

05:45I'll go back and watch that again.

05:46So I find it really important to just put as much effort as possible into every show we ever do,

05:52wherever we might be.

05:53And I think we're quite lucky because we've been doing it for so long that it doesn't

05:58really matter where we are now in the sense that we could be playing somewhere on a drizzly

06:04Monday night, but the atmosphere in that room is just as good as what it could be in a huge

06:09city on a Saturday night.

06:10You know, I think people just love the fact that we're there and they're going to hear

06:14those songs.

06:14You know, it's funny because we did take a little pause for a while in the early noughties.

06:20We took about four years off.

06:23So when we kind of came back in 2007, some of the songs that we were playing are like

06:2912, 13 years old at that point.

06:31And the excitement that we were back in that room playing songs like On Standby or Going

06:37for Gold and everyone was singing every word back was quite a shock for us because we had

06:41no idea that we'd left some kind of mark on people's growing up.

06:47You know, so the fact that fast forward so many years later and they're still doing it

06:52is just absolutely amazing.

06:53So we don't take anything for granted anymore.

06:57You know, when you're in your 20s and you're swanning around thinking you're the best band

07:00in the world, you take things for granted because you think the next day is going to bring

07:04something equally as good and then suddenly it stops and it's like, well, where did all

07:09that go?

07:10So nowadays, we're enjoying all the success that's coming at us and we're remembering it

07:17a lot more than we ever would have done.

07:20Yeah.

07:20And long may that continue.

07:21But yeah, Transmit, an amazing thing to come up and do.

07:26The last time we played it a few years ago, I remember the sun was beaming down.

07:31It was a really glorious day and there was just thousands of people looking like they

07:35were having a nice time.

07:36So fingers crossed for all of that again.

07:39When you come up to Glasgow, is it a case of just being kind of shipped in and shipped

07:43out or have you ever actually had like a chance to kind of have a wander about, go to record

07:47shops or go to pubs or any of that kind of stuff?

07:49We have in the past quite a lot.

07:51You know, I do love wandering around the city and there's been plenty of times over the

08:02years where I've perhaps drank a little bit too much and become a little bit worse for

08:07wear.

08:08But, you know, hey ho, it's part of the day, isn't it?

08:10It's a rock and roll environment.

08:12I do remember going to, I think we played The Garage once in the 90s.

08:16And I remember there was a club night on after it and we all went to that and we're meeting

08:22people and dancing and having fun.

08:24And then I just seem to remember being on the floor looking up at people.

08:30So I think that was the time to think, right, I better go now.

08:34Yeah.

08:34It sounds quite cinematic though.

08:36And The Garage is where I used to dance to Disco Down pretty much every Thursday night.

08:41So you were in Home Tough at The Garage.

08:46Yeah.

08:46Brilliant.

08:47So were they doing the actual Disco Down dance off the video?

08:49Well, I was.

08:50I don't know.

08:50I can't speak for everyone.

08:53Amazing.

08:54So we did that as a bit of a tongue in cheek joke, obviously.

08:58We were kind of thinking, because this is way into our career at this point.

09:01This is 90s.

09:02We spent two days learning that dance routine and we went to Pineapple Studios in London,

09:08which is quite a big, renowned dance studio.

09:10And we had a proper dancing instructor.

09:13And I think he had a little bit more, he had better moves for us.

09:17But I think after about an hour, he realised it wasn't going to work.

09:21So that was kind of a watered down dance routine.

09:24But our kind of buzz from that was thinking, if this is going to be shown on the telly anywhere

09:28and nobody's heard of Shed 7, they might think we're a new boy band with an awful sense

09:34of dance.

09:35You've had an extraordinary couple of years, you know, like you're probably as an exciting

09:44point of the Shed 7 journey as it's ever been, you know, like with the reaction to the last

09:52album, the shows that you're doing, the size of the crowds that you're getting.

09:56And does it give you guys like a new kind of renewed sense of purpose?

10:01Yeah, massively so.

10:02I think we probably are now bigger than we've ever been, weirdly.

10:06I mean, it's taken a long time.

10:08I think Shed 7 should be added to school curriculums just for self-belief, never giving up, you know.

10:14But yeah, I think to be fair, a lot of people will probably think that's just come from

10:20nowhere, but it hasn't.

10:22We've built this up over probably about 15 years, you know, we've been touring and touring

10:27and then eventually decided to release some new music, which we were a kind of a little

10:31bit, will people like this?

10:34But, you know, we'd never dream of releasing any new material unless we were 100% into what

10:39we were doing.

10:40And we kind of knew with the Instant Pleasures album in 2017, which was the first new material

10:44for like 16 years or something, you know, with songs like Better Days and Room in My House,

10:50we knew that we'd kind of would, we'd win over our existing fan base.

10:55And then the idea is to try and spread the word far and wide.

10:58And then fast forward to the last album last year, A Matter of Time.

11:02It's all culminated, but it's taken a long time and a lot of hard work to get there.

11:08So we all feel really proud of what we've done.

11:10But equally, to start breaking records is quite unbelievable, really.

11:15So, you know, after being around for so long.

11:17So I just wonder what it's going to be like in another 30 years.

11:21God knows how big we'll be.

11:22What do you do for a festival show?

11:28I mean, like, obviously, because you've got like a body of hits that people will be expecting,

11:32but obviously you want to kind of drop in kind of interesting things and stuff that you've

11:36been working on.

11:37Yeah, well, we do do that.

11:39I mean, I don't really want to give too much away about what we've been doing this summer,

11:42but equally that's difficult because somebody films everything these days online.

11:47But yes, we like to throw in the odd cover version, something slightly off the wall.

11:52Um, we add little bits to certain existing songs, but people will see this if they come

11:58to transmit.

11:59But at the end of the day, if you've got an hour, it's very difficult.

12:03We're in, I call it our happy problem.

12:06If you've only got an hour to play, I mean, what do you not play is our problem.

12:10So we sit and argue for half an hour about which songs to drop from the set.

12:15Um, and then we all kind of come to some kind of agreement, but there's certain songs that

12:21we couldn't not play, you know, and we're very lucky that that's about at least 10 songs

12:28that we just would have to play ordinarily because people would be really disappointed.

12:32I mean, you can never please everyone.

12:34I mean, loads of people always say, why don't you play that very early B-side?

12:38But you cater a crowd of about 20 people there out of about 4,000 watching you.

12:43So it's a difficult one.

12:45Maybe, um, maybe we should do like an early B-sides tour just to cater for those fans.

12:50But perhaps only 50 people.

12:53You could go back to King Tut's and you might still be people standing at the bar.

12:57We could do that.

12:58Yeah.

13:00So I was watching Glastonbury at the weekend and Franz Ferdinand brought out Peter Capaldi

13:07as their guest.

13:08Yes.

13:08If you were to bring out any Glasgow musician or band to guest with Shed 7, who do you think

13:15it would be?

13:16Well, do you know what?

13:18I was, when I was about 17, I was a huge Soup Dragons fan.

13:23And I'm talking Soup Dragons before they kind of went baggy and did the I'm Free song.

13:28I'm talking their debut album, This Is Our Art.

13:31And before that, when they were really kind of buzz cocky, you know, songs like Hang 10.

13:38I've got a great compilation, actually, of their first few singles.

13:42I can't quite remember what it's called.

13:44But even the look of them, I even had their logo paint drawn, hand drawn onto the back of

13:48my denim jacket at school.

13:50And I do follow Sean on Twitter and he follows me.

13:54But that would be pretty cool to get a couple of Soup Dragons up with us.

13:58For me, personally, anyway.

14:00Yeah.

14:00Nice one.

14:01Well, look, I'm hoping for good weather and good vibes and look forward to seeing you in

14:06Glasgow, Rick.

14:06Thank you very much for the time.

14:08Thank you, Paul.

14:09Cheers, mate.

14:10Bye now.

14:12Bye now.

14:14Bye now.

14:16Bye now.

14:20Bye now.

14:22Bye now.

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