Little Man Tate happy to play live

Aug 26 2008 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

Sheffield band, Little Man Tate _320

RISING Sheffield indie band Little Man Tate are on a roll. Their second album, Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy, is released on September 15, and they come to Liverpool two days later one on of the first dates of an extensive UK tour.

Lead singer Jon Windle takes over the scheduled interview from guitarist Maz, who found himself up the creek after blowing his amplifier just before the call.

"He’s soldering or something. He doesn’t know what he’s doing," Jon laughs.

An affable bunch with big ambitions, the band, completed by bassist Ben Surtees and drummer Dan Fields, are lifelong friends who started playing music together in 2005.

The new album comes not long after last year’s debut, About What You Know. It is testament to the band’s determination that it has even seen the light of day, after they were inexplicably dropped from their former label, V2, despite sell- out concerts and every copy of their first single The Agent on pre-order alone.

They were so engrossed in the music they were making, they recorded it without any guarantee of further label interest or distribution.

"We decided to do it because we believed in the songs," Jon says.

"We recorded it even before we were signed to our new label Skint Records, because we thought the songs were good enough and someone was bound to want to sign it.

"Before, on our first album, we didn’t want anyone to teach us or give us advice, but this time I think we’ve been a lot more open-minded and wanted to hear what people have got to say about our work."

Despite the self-assurance, they’re a down-to-earth lot, the band’s everyman credentials dripping from Jon’s Yorkshire twang on singles including Sexy in Latin, Man I Hate Your Band, What Your Boyfriend Said, and the forthcoming Hey Little Sweetie (out on September 8).

What’s more, they’re enjoying it all immensely.

"It’s always fun, we’re in a privileged position to be able to earn a living playing guitar.

"When we go to festivals – we just played V – we have a right good time watching bands, we’re no different except for the half an hour we have people watching us.

"We love playing live and no-one who would ever come to see us would say we can’t be bothered because we’re not like that.

"We just play and have a right good night with a party atmosphere." We’re well happy."

* LITTLE Man Tate play the Carling Academy on September 17.

vickyanderson@dailypost.co.uk