Shed Seven are a British five-piece rock band formed in 1990. They gathered a following after a successful show at the national ‘In The City’ unsigned band showcase. Hits such as ‘Chasing Rainbows’, ‘Disco Down’ and ‘Going for Gold’ have gained them a loyal fan base. Teesside University’s Lisa Bartos chats with frontman Rick Witter about Shedcember, social media and how he will be celebrating Christmas.
LB: You’re playing Middlesbrough Town Hall on 2 December 2019. What can fans expect from the show?
RW: We are looking forward to coming back to Middlesbrough to play. It seems an age since we were last there. I think people can expect to hear a lot of hits with a few of the newer tunes thrown in. We like to try and put a bit of a show on, so hopefully it will be a bit of a rock ‘n’ roll evening, albeit that it’s a Monday night.
LB: Shedcember has been an annual event for a number of years. What was your inspiration?
RW: It’s a great time of year to go out and play. It’s close to the Christmas holidays so people are getting a bit looser in that respect. It’s just seems to have become a thing over the last decade or so.
LB: Which song do you enjoy performing the most?
RW: That’s a difficult question as we play a lot of songs that people remember and love to hear. There is a real buzz performing songs where everyone is singing back at you and we are lucky as that seems to happen quite a lot.
LB: You recently said you enjoy touring now more than ever, why is that?
RW: The reason we picked up instruments when we were 12-13 was because we wanted to learn and write songs so we could get up onstage and show off to people and, to be honest, I don’t think that’s really changed much over the years.
LB: Is there a new generation of fans coming through?
RW: We seem to attract a mixture these days. Yes, we see a lot of fans of our age coming to reminisce about their formative years, but we also see late teens coming and singing along aswell which is a great thing.
LB: What is it like being on tour now compared to 25 years ago?
RW: In terms of touring there isn’t much difference between now and 25 years ago apart from we ain’t 21 anymore so we have to watch our step slightly more these days. But if you are in a service station at 3.30am sometime in December you may well see one of us wandering around aimlessly looking at nothing in particular, and that hasn’t changed.
LB: What was the wildest backstage incident back in the day?
RW: I couldn’t possibly comment for fear of reprisals.
LB: When you were starting out there was no social media. Do you think social media helps or hinders a band?
RW: Everything has changed in that sense over the last few years. I’d say it’s swings and roundabouts really. There are big advantages, as in being able to connect with fans a lot easier.
LB: How will you be celebrating Christmas this year?
RW: This Christmas will be spent recovering after what essentially is going to be a case of going to 23 parties in about 26 days. So the party will be at my house, although it will be a quiet party, if such a thing exists.
