Mark Harrison is back at Bognor Regis's South Downs Music Festival
Frequently heard on BBC Radio 2, including its Pick of the Week show, Mark Harrison is looking forward to a return trip to Bognor Regis for this year's South Downs Music Festival.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely this
00:06afternoon to speak to Mark Harrison. Now Mark, you are coming back for probably the third
00:10time to the South Downs Music Festival in Bognor Regis. You're looking forward to it
00:15and you're saying so interestingly that the music you write is about the 99.9% of things
00:22that other writers don't write about. What do you mean by that?
00:27I could give you an example. The current single just about to be released now is called Them
00:34and Us and it's about what I would regard as the cult of management and how so many
00:41people with what I might regard as proper jobs have a hard time doing those jobs because
00:48of the people in charge. And I think that there's been a kind of epidemic in the last
00:55maybe 20, 30 years of a kind of management figure that it's almost like it's a religion.
01:02And the religion says that you don't have to know anything about the organisation you're
01:07running in order to run it, which strikes me as evident madness and is likely to lead
01:13you to precisely where we are now, where nothing works.
01:16But the point is, you do not dip into your inner life for your music.
01:24No, you know, that kind of subject isn't totally typical for me. But I think that what I do
01:33is I look around me and the sort of things I think about and if any of them, you know,
01:39leads to a line that I think sounds promising or, you know, an idea or a topic that I think
01:46sounds promising for a song, then I will, you know, write that song. And so there are
01:52quite a few on there on topics that are covering territory that most people don't write songs
01:58about, but that hopefully people who hear them would recognise as familiar experiences
02:03for them.
02:04Absolutely. Sounds intriguing. And for Bognor, you're playing a duo show with Charles on
02:09double bass. And you and Charles have worked for the entirety of your musical career.
02:14That's right. Charles Benfield, double bass and harmony vocals. He started with me when
02:20we did the first album, Matt, in London when we both lived there. We do a lot of duo gigs
02:25as well as the full band, which is Trio. And yeah, he was with me when we did the last
02:31one in Bognor in the theatre there. And this time we're doing one of the marquee concerts,
02:38which are on the 20th and 21st of September. Yes, we're on Friday the 20th. Yeah. Yeah,
02:48these concerts come in double form. So there's us and then I think Fred's house band after
02:53us. Yeah. And then the following night, there's two artists as well. Yeah, it should be great.
03:02Brilliant. Well, fantastic that you're coming back to Bognor and you'll be driving away
03:06from Bognor very slowly this time after speeding to get lost.
03:12Yes, I had my second speed awareness course as a direct result of being hoodwinked by
03:20an invisible camera in roadworks on the way out of Bognor, which I have never forgotten.
03:26Right. But whether the camera was invisible or not, you were still speeding, presumably?
03:32I was doing 58 miles an hour in a 50 limit. I think 55 or 56 is all right, isn't it,
03:38on the way they calculate it? Right. So you are now very fully speed aware.
03:46Well, I thought I was going to get an award for careful driving when I got the letter.
03:52Because it said you were doing 58 miles an hour. I thought, oh, good,
03:56because I thought it was 60 where I was driving, because it had been.
04:02You will know that for this time, won't you now?
04:05Well, I should keep a weather eye on it for sure. But actually, I hope there aren't any
04:09roadworks down in those parts. It was on the way out from on the M27, I think, from Bognor. It was
04:16some way out of Bognor, actually. It was on the way home. At least you know. We'll have a really
04:20happy return to Bognor and a really speed aware return to Bognor as well. Yeah, looking forward
04:27to it. And the South Downs Music Festival is a really good one. It's pretty long established.
04:32It's extremely well run. They put good people on and a lot of work and effort goes into putting
04:38these things on. And I've always enjoyed playing at this one. And definitely, if people local to
04:46it haven't got tickets, then they really must get tickets and come along to see these very
04:52good bands, including us, that will be on there. Brilliant. Well, lovely to speak to you and good
04:57to hear that you're coming back to the festival. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.