The New Cue #380 May 13: Liam Bailey
“Weller brought me up on stage in the section where he put all the bangers!"
Good morning,
Lovely weather, isn’t it? Now, what’s the best record to play in this, the first bloom of summer 2024? It’s Zero Grace by Liam Bailey: the sixth album by the Nottingham-born singer songwriter, which locates the sweetest of sweet spots somewhere between Bob Marley and Bill Withers, the perfect modern soul-reggae album, with flecks of rock’n’roll also threaded through. Open the windows and put it on…
Recorded with producer and Big Crown label boss Leon Michaels, it’s one of the most satisfying albums of the year, but it’s been a long journey to get here for Bailey: championed as a young performer and writer in the mid-00s by Amy Winehouse, he signed to Polydor, but the major label union was a disaster. It wasn’t until he extricated himself a decade later and started working mostly with Michaels that he found his place as an artist. He’s finally getting his dues, including praise from the likes of Pauls Heaton and Weller, who’s invited him on tour with him this year.
After the jump, you can read Ted’s interview with Liam. There’s no cost for this, it’s our pleasure, so feel free to share it far and wide.
Ted, Niall and Chris.
Start The Week With…Liam Bailey
Hello?
“Yeeeeeah!”
Good morning, Liam.
“Yes Teddy!!!”
How are you?
“I’m good mate. I’m gonna be real with you: I’m in a taxi.”
Are you? That’s a first for me, the taxi Zoom.
“Yeah, bruv. Money I have to make, you know what I mean?”
You’re not on tour, are you?
“No, the big one with Paul Weller is in the autumn.”
But you played with Weller in London recently, didn’t you?
“Yeah, he invited me out on to the stage for his sold-out show in Shepherd’s Bush. It was INSANE. He did Shout to The Top, with Mick Talbot, then introduced me and one of my tunes. He didn’t even want to do one of his tunes! And then when I went off, he was doing That’s Entertainment, you know…”
Incredible.
“He had me in the section where he put all the bangers. So good! Haha! I mean, all of them are bangers when it comes to Paul Weller.”
Were you a fan growing up?
“A massive fan. Anybody who knows me knows that Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher are big influences on me, as much as reggae and soul.”
Let’s talk about that, then. What was your musical awakening as a kid?
“I just always loved music. I didn’t play with toys as much as my mum’s vinyl collection. I would listen to a lot of her Motown, a lot of Michael Jackson, Dillinger [connection goes metallic and we lose a few names in traffic], Gregory Issacs…just looking at all these amazing albums covers from back in the day when you weren’t a consumer, but your parents were. Everybody that I speak to who are musicians are like that. Paul [Weller], for example, his mum was quite a young mum. So, he’d be there fascinated by the imagery just as much as his mum would be. In terms of what I was listening to, I was always into proper stuff. Then I moved out into Nottinghamshire, the countryside, where I was exposed to a lot more hits of the day. Even when she was in her 30s, my mum listened to Gold FM. So, I’m getting up to do the milk round and listening to Whiter Shade of Pale at four in the morning, wondering if this was for me or not! Obviously, that was the milkman’s radio, not hers, she was asleep at quarter to four in the morning!”
You were doing a milk round?
“Yes, mate. I did all sorts of jobs from the age of eleven. I’m a working-class boy, we didn’t get pocket money unless we worked for it. I was doing a milk-round, had two or three paper-rounds on the go. The Sunday was the big-boy one, had to have a trolley for that! Ha! But that also meant I had to have my music on a lot in my headphones and that was probably during the Britpop period in my life. I have very vivid memories of Noel Gallagher being on the radio with Zoe Ball and saying that anybody can do it, then they played Don’t Look Back in Anger, thinking it was amazing.”
When did you start thinking you could make music?
“Probably from about the age of seven or something. My teachers at school were really supportive. I went to a school called Matthew Holland School, in Selston. I had some beautiful teachers there, Mr Kealey, Mr Hall, who could see that I was struggling, but they knew I loved music. I was always doing the school plays and that. Mr Kealey started teaching me the guitar, which was amazing. Then listening to Oasis made me want to get in a band.”
Who was your first band?
“Bosco.”
What were you like?
“Alright. We used to call it a ‘Rock and Soul Riot’. A mixture of Oasis and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Hahahaha! We were 14, 15, mate, you know.”
You’ve been on a long journey haven’t you, because it’s only now you’re really getting your dues. How does that recognition for Zero Grace feel?
“It’s been recognition that I’ve wanted for a long time. But I’ve always had a real sense of being an underdog. I always knew that I’d have to work harder than everybody else. That became very palpable when I moved to London. I knew it was going to be a big slog then, because there’s so much money around some people, people who didn’t have to work two jobs to get a record deal. It’s even worse now. Knew that my talent surpassed most people’s around. Because I looked up to Paul Weller, Paul McCartney, Jeff Buckley, Bob Marley, Gregory Issacs, Dennis Brown, Bob Andy…songwriters, bro, if you want to go there, we can do John Martyn, heavily, heavily. Because I was into guys like that I was waiting for everyone to catch up and accept me for who I was. Yeah, I’m mixed-race but I’m not a SBTV guy! But then maybe I’m not an indie-guy either. I knew someone would have to come round at some point because I’m not going anywhere. If I wasn’t doing music, I don’t know what I’d be doing.”
You were signed to Polydor over ten years ago, though.
“A bad decision. A bad fit. I signed to a junior A&R person at a company when I could have signed to senior people at another company. [Connection goes at this crucial part of story]. Hello? Can you hear me? As I was at Polydor it became clear that it wasn’t right, they were trying to shelve me. They signed me at Christmas 2007, but later I found out they signed a load of brown soul boys around the same time, Michael Kiwanuku and that, throwing us against the wall to see which stuck. They didn’t even throw me though, the c***s. But at least I had one of the biggest hit singles of the decade with Chase & Status [Blind Faith], which I wrote. “
Chase & Status ft. Liam Bailey - Blind Faith
“Then kept in with Shy FX.”
Shy FX feat Liam Bailey - Soon Come
“And Amy [Winehouse] always had my back, so I just gave them the middle-finger. They asked me to go in with Fraser T Smith. I didn’t want to do it, but I did it. I didn’t like it. Asked them to pull the video. We pulled the EP, done. Gone! We went on strike. I sold out the Union Chapel and signed to Salaam Remi [at Sony], but it didn’t go that well. I came back in 2015. Signed with Big Crown in 2017, because I’d been friends with Leon Michaels since 2007, before any of this had happened. I did the Ekundayo album with Leon, that was amazing.”
“And now we’ve done Zero Grace together and I am fucking having it! This is who I am!”
You’ve found who you are.
“Well, I’ve just been able to finally put it on. Leon needed pushing as well. [Massive drop in connection just as Liam explains why Leon Michaels and he clicked for Zero Grace]. That’s why the album is so good, because it’s not just one thing: it’s rock and roll, it’s singer-songwriter ballads – never done that before with Leon – and it’s all the stuff we always do. There’s a lot of growth on both our parts. Me and Leon back in the day we were like diamonds in the rough, now we’re like diamonds finely cut and ethically sourced.”
I guess it tastes sweeter for that all the difficulties of your journey.
“Yes, and you don’t get many opportunities in the music business. It takes a long time. You have a lot of people who hog space. By not going away but instead working hard, getting better that’s an example to anybody who wants to be in the industry and wants to commit themselves it can be done. You just gotta be realistic about your talent, stay in the ring and work hard.”
What’s Leon Michaels’ part of the equation?
“His production style. We write the songs together, or I bring them to him, and then we cut it live. Put on backing vocals overdubs, harmony overdubs, flute, saxophone. It’s all real-deal Upstate New York Woodstock gear – wooo! I’ve made music in Laurel Canyon and Woodstock! You get me? Mad. All real deal bad boy players.”
Where are you off to now?
“Rehearsal in Brixton. I need to get the guys on point for this Cerys Matthews session [which will be aired on May 19: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001z3h6].”
Are you writing a Zero Grace follow-up now?
“Mate, if I stopped writing I might as well kill myself. That’s a silly question. I’m not gonna quit after doing one of the best albums of the year, am I? The playlist is fifteen songs deep, the inspo, but as far as starting it probably won’t be until December.”
Was that gig with Weller the first time you’d met him?
“We’d been chatting on text and that. He told me that my song Stun Me he wished he’d written, from my album Definitely Now. And I had a dream that he played it in his set.”
Liam Bailey - Stun Me
You should suggest he does that.
“No, I’d look weird. I’d look like a psycho. You’ve got to play it cool with Weller, bro. I’m not dashing this opportunity.”
Well, good luck with your rehearsal. Looks like you’ve arrived. We all love your record, so more of those please.
“Mate, thank you so much. Thanks for keeping tabs on me, my G.”
No worries, have a good day.
“Yes, mate. And you.”
TK