Norfolk based rockers Bad Touch have been touring relentlessly this year in support of their sophomore album Truth Be Told.
Following a string of festival appearances and tours alongside the likes of King King and Broken Witt Rebels, Bad Touch will round out an incredibly successful 2017 by hitting the road with southern rockers The Kentucky Headhunters and their first full headline tour, which will also feature special guest Mollie Marriott.
National Rock Review recently caught up with the band’s front man Stevie Westwood just before he took to the stage at Ramblin’ Man Fair in Maidstone to talk about their latest album, their touring plans and what they’ve got planned for the future.
NRR: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us here at National Rock Review, we really appreciate it. We are here at Ramblin Man Fair and you are about to perform very shortly, I was just wondering are there any other bands here that you actually want to see this weekend – I know you’ve been wandering around the festival today?
Stevie: Oh man, the whole weekend. My best friends bought me the Sunday ticket because I wanted to come because literally, everyone who is anyone, old and new is here this weekend. It’s such a great lineup, I’ve had a great time. I love doing these interviews, but I’ve been going – I haven’t been able to see The Picturebooks, British Lion, Xander and the Peace Pirates – everyone is here it’s great.
NRR: I’ve been fortunate enough to see you guys a few times recently out on the road with the likes of King King and on the Planet Rock Roadstars tour. It seems that every time I see you play you are getting a bigger response. Do you feel like the momentum is building with every tour?
Stevie: I wouldn’t like to jinx it, but I hope so. I hope that the trends that you are seeing continues and that people keep coming out and supporting us and supporting live music.
NRR: Obviously, you’ve got a couple of tours coming up. You are going out on the road with The Kentucky Headhunters. I know about this time last year you were with those guys, you even jammed out together with Black Stone Cherry at Ramblin Man’ I believe?
Stevie: Oh no, we just dive bombed their stage, it was a PR stunt.
NRR: So you must have a really good connection with those guys?
Stevie: It’s great, I mean I couldn’t believe after like six shows, we only played six shows, so about a week’s worth of shows, we had formed such a close connection. There were tears when we had to leave, it was all really cool. So to think that they have asked for us to be their support again is a really nice touch. So no, we can’t wait to go back out on the road with them.
NRR: Like we just mentioned you are going to be touring with Mollie Marriott in November. Therefore, you are going to be playing in my home town at The Cluny in Newcastle twice over the coming months. Do you enjoy performing in the North East of England?
Stevie: I love it, yeah they are an amazing breed of people the North Easterners, they are kind of like very passionate – they will tell you if they don’t like you, but 9 times out of 10 they will love you because they are up for a good time, which is just like me (laughing).
NRR: Obviously, you released your second album Truth Be Told at the end of last year. I was just wondering what’s your favourite track from that album to perform live and why?
Stevie: It’s hard man, I mean they are all fun. I love the opening track, the track we are going to be opening with today “My Mother Told Me” because it’s a song I wrote all the lyrics to. It means a lot to me because my mum has always supported me and stuff like that. So it’s just a song about how you know never doubt your kids, whatever they want to be they will be – if you give them all the right support. So it’s a song that means a lot to me.
NRR: One of my favourite tracks on the album is actually “Mountain”, it’s just such an epic tune.
Stevie: Glad you like it.
NRR: I was just wondering, could you tell us a little bit about that song and the inspiration behind it?
Stevie: Yeah, I mean I don’t write all of the lyrics by any chance, everything is 20% each way, we all input. When I was going through a bit of a hippy phase, I think I had seen something about like deforestation or something.
It’s just about how I think as the human race we are just taking the earth for a bit of a free ride. I think we all just need to have a bit more forethought. If everyone does a little a thing we would all be fine. It’s just about how mother nature will bite back if we don’t respect her a little bit more. We can’t keep chucking things in the ground and forgetting about it.
NRR: I’ve seen you perform a few times and I’ve noticed you tend to include maybe one or two covers. You sometimes play “Hard To Handle” or even a little bit of “Moby Dick”. If you could choose any band to cover one of your songs, which song and artist would you choose?
Stevie: I’ve never even thought of another band doing one of our songs because we try and stay grounded. I love Black Stone, if they could …actually I don’t want any of those bands to do one because they would do it eight times better than us. Yeah, I mean Black Stone would be great.
I just love it anytime I see …because we are getting to that point now where there are a couple of people coming up on Facebook and they are doing acoustic covers in their bedrooms, people like that it just means the world to us. It’s just like what? Our music has affected you so much that you’ve wanted to pick up your guitar and try and work it out because that’s what other bands did to us. So it’s just a really amazing thing.
NRR: What are your plans going forward?
Stevie: Well you’ve summed it all up mate. We’ve got today, and we’ve got a couple of more festivals coming up. We’ve got the October Kentucky Headhunters tour, which I can’t wait for. We’ve got our own headlining tour in November/December with Mollie Marriott as a special guest, which we can’t for. It’s scary times because this is our first headline tour, so yeah if anyone can come that would be brilliant. Then if we get some music out at some point this year in between everything else. Then forward into next year, we are talking about a new album, that’s our plan.
NRR: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us.
Stevie: You are more than welcome my friend.
Bad Touch will be touring the UK throughout October with Kentucky Headhunters before embarking upon their first full UK headline tour in November alongside special guest Mollie Marriott.
Bad Touch UK Tour Dates with Special Guest Mollie Marriott
TICKETS: www.thegigcartel.com
9/11 Sheffield, Plug
10/11 Leek, Foxlowe Arts Centre
11/11 Hard Rock Hell Festival *Bad Touch Only
16/11 Bristol, Tunnels
17/11 Manchester, Ruby Lounge
18/11 Newcastle, Cluny
19/11 Nottingham, Bodega
23/11 Glasgow, Stereo
24/11 Leeds, Brudenell
25/11 Coventry, Empire
26/11 London, Islington Academy
1/12 Norwich, Waterfront Studio
2/12 Southampton, Talking Heads
3/12 Planet Rockstock