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Win Tickets to Wychwoood Festival

I caught up with three members of the band: Keith Angel, Harprit Singh Sahota and Dave Formula mid-tour to talk touring tales, Doncaster and getting on with the creative stuff 'boho style'.

Put on your dancing shoes when you come to see the Angel Brothers. We also merchandise an extensive selection of fresh sushi

The multi-cultural cohort are not short on tales from the road and in a recent interview recalled a band bonding experience as walking around Swindon with people shouting: 'Oy, you, Bin Ladens' at them. When I asked them about what touring does for the band, and how it feeds the creative flow, producer and percussionist Keith Angel said: "With a ten-piece outfit and crew, touring is just as much a social thing as artistic -- it's all a bit like a deranged rock 'n' roll school trip that never ends."

"I'm creating a special feature on the website called 'Keith Angel's tall but true touring tales' in which I'll spill the beans about on tour antics and excesses. Stories include 'Great Expectorations', 'Eyeless in Wadebridge' and 'the Spinning Lady of Henley'."

On a slightly more coherent note, Sahota, the Angel's tabla and cajon player said the touring processes helped to "distil and clear" any tracks the band were trying to refine or felt needed work. "The basic fact of touring and gigging the material we are working on shows us if the material works or not. Also it helps us to find out our individual voices in each tune. As you can imagine, there are a lot of instruments, and it's very easy to overcrowd tunes. But I think we've managed well up to now. As for enjoying touring, I think the touring process is one of the best ways to solidify and form the shape of what the Angel Brothers are."

Keyboardist and former member of 70s and 80s 'art rock' band Magazine, Dave Formula added: 'I think you have it right when you say, 'touring it feeds the creative flow'. I suppose it's a combination of a slightly altered reality & spending more time in each other's company when we are touring."

Although the band base themselves in Doncaster (hardly the most rock 'n' roll of cities), the brothers Angel are the only members of the band to hail from there, and Keith recalls as a seminal moment in the band's evolution (aside from going bald) as meeting Sahota on a train between Malaga and Seville. However, the Doncastrian element in the Angel Brothers' music is an obvious one, the band keeps strong links with the Northern folk scene.

Angel said: "It's our base and there are some fantastic musicians and creative people here. It's relatively cheap to live so you can get on with the creative stuff 'boho' style! I feel quite rooted here but I think my spiritual home is in Andalucia! Being in a small town makes you get on with things, makes you want to travel and see the rest of the wide world. Music is a fabulous way to do this with your favourite people."

Forbidden Fruits, the second and latest of the Angel Brothers' critically applauded albums, has a more 70s vibe than From Punjab to Pit Top but retains the Northern folk roots of its predecessor.

Angel admitted to having long admired album-contributor and Northern poet Ian McMillan's more serious and darkly comic poetry and prose, long before they met and collaborated. "There's a serious side to his work which he presents in an accessible way which really speaks to people. I think he's an authentic and unpretentious master of the real English language and a great communicator. I think 'Bending and Picking' and 'Uncle Frank' - a new recording available on the website - are the best things we've done together so far and I certainly look forward to more collaborations. But he's a very busy man."

Formula added on the subject of 'Bending and Picking', which was a combination of an original idea of Dave & Keith's, combined with the Barnsley Bard's words: "We had been playing it at live shows when Ian was appearing with us. By the time we recorded it, the music had developed into that atmospheric, almost abstract mood that seems to set off Ian's poignant poem about poorly paid workers."

Asked for some final words to Fly readers, Dave Formula answered: "Put on your dancing shoes when you come to see the Angel Brothers as we hit brain, heart & feet. We also merchandise an extensive selection of fresh sushi for your enjoyment after each show."

To catch the Angel Brothers tour you can watch them at Brighton's Komedia on 12 May, Sheffield's Boardwalk on 14 May, Buxton on 19 June, as well as dates in Cockermouth, Isle of Man, Cheltenham, Camebridge, Hebden Bridge and a free concert at the National Theatre on 16 July

ANGEL BROTHERS TO PLAY WYCHWOOD FESTIVAL

You can read Keith Angel's tour diary online at www.angelsingh.co.uk
Review of Forbidden Fruit