News

We called up Richard to find out the latest news from The Feeling following a busy run of Bon Jovi support dates and the band's debut Glastonbury appearance. If you have any questions for Paul next time, email them to feedback@thefeeling.com. 

Hi Rich, how are you?
Very good, thanks. We're all very refreshed after our holidays. It's been ages since we've been able to take a proper break with our famiies. In fact, I think it was three years. I had an amazing time on mine.

And then it was straight back to the Bon Jovi support dates.
Yes, which was a lot of fun. It's great playing to a big crowd like that. We've already noticed new fans appearing on the website and Dan's had some letters from some Jovi fans who've converted to The Feeling!

Did you meet the Bon Jovi chaps?
No, we didn't, actually. I guess they've been touring for 25 years and they drive in with separate cars, do the gig and then drive out again. They don't soundcheck. They're just there for a few minutes before and after the gig. But at the same time, when we went to see Paul McCartney, we met him, and we've met Elton John. I guess some people do it and some people don't. But last weekend we went from doing the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury to Twickenham Stadium the following day. It was a pretty great weekend.

Ah yes, how was Glastonbury?
It was amazing. A real career highlight. It's up there with Isle of Wight last year and when we first did V Festival. Everyone knows that Dan used to go to Glastonbury when he was very young, but I went as a teenager as well and it was always a dream of mine to play there. But the idea of actually playing on the Pyramid Stage was beyond a dream - it was like playing Wembley Stadium. And it totally lived up to it. People had their hands in the air, clapping above their heads, right to the band of the field. It was an amazing sight.

Grey skies, great gig

Were you nervous?
Well that was the thing, it was a big dream to do it, but we've felt slightly snubbed by that kind of trendy crowd that maybe fits with Glastonbury or the Jools Holland thing and all that. So we weren't really sure how it would go. But as soon as we got on stage and looked at the audience, they just looked the same as at our gigs. In fact, we recognised the front row - there were a lot of our regular fans in there, which was great to see. It was definitely a moment.

So, the 'Turn It Up' digital EP is out now, with you and your wife's Me & Mrs Jones remix on it. It got 7 out of 10 from Popjustice.
Really? That's pretty good for something knocked up on a laptop.

How did you come to do it?
Well, it started off as something that was just a bit of fun to do. Obviously we produced the album ourselves, so we have all the parts. Then we just thought it would be fun to do remixes as an extension of the Me & Mrs Jones DJing partnership, cos then we could play them out when we DJ, which we did. It'd be a bit cheesy to play the normal versions of our own songs, but playing a remix fits in a bit better. We played this remix at Circus when we DJ'd there a few weeks back and it went down really well. And apparently it's done pretty well on the club circuit as well, which is cool. Club music isn't something I'm very knowledgeable about, so it's all very instinctive, but it just came out as a weird electro thing.

How did you make it?
I did it in Logic, mainly on the laptop. Sophie helped out and Dan played the crazy guitar bit in the middle as well. It was all a bit of a giggle.

The band have had a busy schedule this week.
Yeah, really busy. We did GMTV on Monday morning, then the IndigO2 gig, which was really enjoyable. It's been nice getting back to gigs after a few weeks without really doing any. Then we did with Sunday Night Project with David Hasselhoff, which was a lot of fun.

Did you have to pretend it was Sunday night?
We did indeed.

So you have to look a bit tired?
Yeah, and a bit worried about Monday morning! And then we've got the iTunes gig at Koko tonight, which should be cool too.

The UK tour has gone on sale since we last spoke. That all looks quite exciting.
Totally. We've got lots of ideas. We actually want to gather people's YouTube videos of their versions of our songs, to use at the shows. We'll be making an announcement about that soon. People might remember we did a similar thing on the last tour of 'Twelve Stops And Home'. It's people covering our songs or miming to our songs, that sort of thing.

Have you seen any that are up there already?
Actually, yeah, there's one of this teenage heavy metaler with long hair playing a black electric guitar along to 'Turn It Up'. We're definitely gonna try to use that one.

So, next week you're playing at the swanky Chiswick House festival.
Oh, I can't wait for that. That was the one where we had all the champagne, lobster and oysters last year. Tickets are quite pricey, but once you're in everything is free. It's amazing. Goldfrapp, the Kooks and Sophie are playing too. It should be fun. Then we've got T in the Park and Oxegen next weekend.

Did Glastonbury get you in the mood for a festival summer?
Definitely. And Glastonbury was the one we were feeling a bit of pressure about, so it's nice to have done it. We've done the others before and we feel like we've got a good set worked out. I'm particularly looking forward to T in the Park and Oxegen because we're on the same stage as Rage Against The Machine again, like we were at Coachella in 2006. That was one of the best gigs I've seen in my life. It was amazing.

How Glastonbury looked from the stage

Right, readers questions. Tim asks if you've enjoyed seeing yourself in the car adverts?
Actually, while I was on holiday in Italy, they were showing Euro2008 in the piazzas and they kept playing the ad in the advert breaks. So I'd be wandering around feeling detached from the UK and the band and everything, and then see a little tiny me playing in a car. It was quite surreal.

Offy would like to know who sings the really high bit in 'Turn It Up' and what was being squeezed at the time.
I think that was Dan. He did make a very, very funny face when he was doing it. His whole body convulsed.

Finally, Chris would like to know if Me & Mrs Jones have any DJ slots coming up?
I think we've actually got our own club night coming up this month in London. That should be fun. We're just putting together the final details. So look out for that!