Ricky Wilson and Nick "Peanut" Baines looks back at being young musicians in Leeds, longing for the capital, and stardom ahead of their biggest Leeds gig ever at Temple Newsam in May 2025.
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00:00Hello, this is Peanuts and I'm Ricky and we are in the
00:0520 years of employment our debut record and literally
00:10Employment. Yeah. Yeah being employed in the music industry. Yeah before that we were in music industry for a long time, but not employed
00:17Yeah, mainly listening to music and drinking. Yeah, and then that album happened and it changed all our lives
00:24forever
00:25Where and we could never go back and at the time. Yeah, we were ambitious, but we
00:30What we achieved totally outstripped anything. Yeah. So now
00:35next year, we're gonna have a
00:37Temple news in the big sort of celebration of 20 years of the record
00:41Lots of our friends bands and the time, you know, there's a light we have scientists the cribs coral all coming to join us
00:48It's gonna be a big day. It's weird to think that you know at the time when we were going to gigs before
00:552004
00:572005 and we were like
00:59The biggest thing you could ever think was possible for a band to achieve was the TNC. Oh, yeah
01:04That was like that. Yeah, the thing that imagine headlining for the young people now, it's a Leeds Academy
01:11Okay, but that was the biggest thing you could ever change. Yeah now and then doing this 20 years later. It just seems
01:18At the time it was probably quite frustrating for us because it was but so far away from London
01:24The money and the pens were to the signing record deals it felt like oh, we've got to keep going out to London
01:30Yeah, and also the fact that Leeds music scene never really and still doesn't have like a sound
01:37No, both those things was kind of like, how do you get people to come to Lisa's thing?
01:42But then looking back on that both those things were great for us because a it made it made us we could get good without
01:50People saying it definitely feel yes or like it hit away didn't they? Yeah, I'm ready
01:53So you're ready also the people came to us almost it was like we had we got a couple of good demos going and then
01:59It's like actually they come to us now. Yeah, that's how it that's kind of how we sort of did kind of chiefs way
02:05Wasn't it?
02:05Yeah
02:05And also the fact that you know
02:07We're all going old bands and artists will go to the same pubs and clubs and bars
02:12we know everyone but no one was like copying each other or trying to like have a sound that was like
02:18I
02:20Want to say specific to the area but more like generic today
02:23So it's like it's really good that we all sounded different
02:25We're all doing different things and that I think helped you
02:27Become a better person because you'd see other things and you go. I like what they're doing
02:32and then you go
02:34Should we be doing now? We do what we do. Yes. It's what who we are and it was actually
02:39Between a previous band and this one with this one. We were like, what do we want to be influenced by it?
02:46Let's just be influenced by ourselves and what noise we can make and not think
02:49Well, if we sounded more like that, we might be looking with a chance
02:52Which is what a lot of bands fall into that we were always chasing bandwagons in the moment
02:56We stopped people started chasing us, which was me from one place. Can't you? Yeah
03:02Bringing is your upbringing?
03:03so a lot of the album is about leads about getting sort of the aspiration to get out of Leeds not because it's such a
03:09bad place but because
03:12It's london was where the record labels are stuff and things sort of start from there and so it's
03:18it's kind of important to keep that leads identity and sing about leads in the songs and
03:23Yeah influence our also
03:24It's really weird because if you go into any kind of writing thinking I want the whole world to like this
03:31And you try and be i'm going to use that word again
03:33If you try and be generic and go right the whole world will like this because i'm not saying anything specific
03:38As soon as you actually start being creative in a specific way that's very personal to you
03:43I think it becomes it weirdly more universal. Yeah, and even though you see
03:47Yeah, even if you're talking about specific things in your life people hook onto that better than if they do when they go
03:54Um, you know if you're just being wishy-washy about it, you know, I we would you know
03:59At one point we even mentioned
04:01Smeaton Smeaton
04:04How many south america knows who smeaton is no, he's a lighthouse designer from reeds and you know that and that's in I predict a
04:09Riot nowadays even now and you know looking back at the album. I just think
04:14You know, it was kind of madness because I probably wouldn't do that anymore
04:17Because it would I think this is a little bit too specific. But then I always go back to the plant and go
04:23That's what I should be doing and it wasn't weird, but it worked still lives here, don't they? Yeah apart from me. Yeah
04:31Rick links on the radio. Oh, yeah
04:35It's part like, you know, like ricky was saying about the singing about the things around us to be it's still in our identity
04:41So like yeah, the default is let me split leads here. She's got a speak sweeper there. Um
04:48So it's home, you know, so you can't
04:51You can make a new home if you go somewhere else or something
04:54That's fine
04:54But it's like I think when you look
04:56Back into that. So I was like naive days of like the early days of the band. That's how our naivety is hearing leads
05:02Yeah, it's hidden in the clubs and leaves and the cockpit or at the underground something or a hi-fi club
05:07um
05:08That's you only get one upbringing
05:09you only get you only get that one chance from like 16 to like early 20s where you discover music and
05:14People and friends and the cultures that you're into and not into so like it. Yeah, it's it's in our music
05:20It's not brains. I sometimes get waves and it's like a weird you probably know i'm talking about that
05:26i'm not gonna
05:27Say it well enough to explain to you guys, you know, when you're somewhere a wave of nostalgia that you can almost taste what it was
05:33Like like you feel that feeling and it's like whoa. Yeah, right and you go. Oh, this is what it was. It was crazy
05:40like the speed with which we went from
05:43Going about 10 miles an hour for 10 years to 100 miles an hour. Yeah, it's so quickly
05:47It was took it out of stride as well sort of did it and then like we had each other so it really helped
05:51Yeah, and the girls also moved and we just sold
05:54Um, we set our target our sights on the on the next target the next time it's like we started off 2005
06:00Playing at judge as well, you know, like a little bit there by summer. We're playing with
06:05U2 in the new camp and opening live in philadelphia and by winter we're supporting the foo fighters and lisa
06:12So like it's like and all that just seemed normal
06:15Ambitions always always outside. I think I say this in the song on stay together where I go
06:20It's like we know when you're walking through fog and you go like it's dead foggy over there
06:24And then you get there and it's foggy over there and I think we were just constantly like chasing the fog
06:28Yeah, it never felt like we were in it
06:30I guess it's kind of like it's down to us really is what we're gonna do for that day because it's gonna be
06:35It's gonna feel special. It's gonna feel slightly different to a normal gig, but the minute we walk on stage
06:39We're still gonna treat it like a like a normal gig. That's what we do. Um
06:43yeah, it's gonna be exciting for us because we we always write a set list that is like
06:48We want the best for the audience, that's what we're always the best
06:51so like we'll go well, we can't play that because it's a little bit of a
06:55Like I don't want to take them away. Yeah
06:58But playing the album full
07:00I think will be all for the audience and a little bit for us because we'll get to play things that we don't usually play
07:04Because we kind of think what if people haven't heard that record, but people come into this gig
07:08Hopefully we'll listen to that record
07:11There's a few there's a few million copies out there
07:14There are yeah
07:17Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, so it's a challenge it'll be like a challenge for us
07:19But also like there's definitely a reward of kind of like this is us doing employment in full with all the other hits as well
07:24And you're like great. Let's that that's that seems like a special enough thing for a special occasion