STAMFORD PEOPLE
Andy Goodacre
Victoria Bullimore chats with Andy Goodacre, an old friend and founder member of ‘March to the Grave’ t was a balmy summer night, and ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ in Stamford was crowded, hot, and full of expectation. I was a March To The Grave virgin, drinking in the atmosphere as hard-core fans waited for the famous punk band to take the stage. I was there with family and friends of Andy Goodacre, front man and founder member. True to the philosophy of the punk and the anarchist, the band was late taking the stage, but nobody cared because they knew they would be worth it. Suddenly the lighting changed, the voices dropped, there was a shuffling of action on the tiny stage, a drumbeat, a whistle of feed back, a twang on the guitar, before – wow! Track after track of unfettered energy, thumping its way across the floor and bouncing off the walls, delivered with sweat and the confident attitude that comes with a deep-rooted belief in what you’re doing, being at one with it, and having an audience which is hanging on your every word (and sometimes each other, or Andy himself). I was a MTTG virgin no longer. I was still a teenager when I first met Andy. I thought he was dead cool and a little bit scary. I have since discovered that he is clever, funny and one of the nicest guys you could meet. Even so, when it came to the interview I was suddenly girlishly nervous again of said coolness and scariness, and saw him only as a punk, not the local, friendly farmer that is his day job. ‘So are you a punk farmer or a farming punk?’ I ask. ‘I’m a punk farmer,’ he says, ‘the music comes first.’ So if Simon Cowell came along and offered you fame and fortune with March To The Grave, would you take it and chuck in the farming life? ‘Yes,’ he says, without a flicker of hesitation, ‘I’d go this afternoon. But I’d have to do things my way, not his.’ It’s this attitude that drives his music and is carried through into the rest of his working life; if he doesn’t like you then he can’t work with you, and what you see is what you get. It’s all about ‘way of life, attitude of mind’, a phrase which the band attaches to its logo. So I ask him, are you classically trained, and who writes the songs? He reassures me that he is not classically trained but until a few years ago he was writing all the lyrics. Nowadays these are provided by Rick Simpson, guitar player, also known as Rocky Starr (‘We sometimes add a ‘t’ on the end of that’). The other band members are Sponge, on bass, and Stix (Paul MacLennan) on drums. The night I saw them the place was rocking. But all artists have a bad night sometimes, don’t they? ‘The worst gig we ever did was at ‘The Indian Queen’ in Boston. Only one guy showed up.’ But not much puts MTTG off. ‘We still rocked on, and this guy loved it. He said we were great. He told us he’d bring his mate next time, and I thought, fantastic, there’ll be two of you then.’ And the best gig?
Photo: Hannah Steiger-White
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‘When we headlined ‘Music on The Meadows’. It was the year 2000 and also our 20th anniversary.’ I ask him (blushing), has anyone ever thrown a pair of knickers at you on stage? ‘Of course,’ he says (what a stupid question), ‘we’ve got a whole collection of ladies’ underwear.’ So, what about Andy Goodacre the farmer? ‘It’s an arable farm,’ he tells me, ‘and I said arable, not ‘orrible.’ He works about 800 acres on the Lincs/Leics border around his home village of Sewstern, the mention of which prompts him to sing me a little ditty about the ‘Wall of Death’, but that’s another story. The farm produces chipping potatoes for McCain, oil seed rape (some of which goes towards the manufacturing of his own bio-diesel) and milling wheat. I’m exhausted already. He is also
a family man, with a beautiful, talented wife and two children. Too busy for me to keep him any longer I reluctantly close the interview with my quick fire round: • Do you like Marmite? Yes. I love it. It’s particularly delicious on my roast potatoes. • Bath or shower? Bath. Especially in the winter. • What are you currently reading? Keith Richards’ autobiography. • What’s your middle name? Michael • Where were you born? In Nottingham, by Caesarean section. • What was the last film you saw? The Inbetweeners.
STAMFORD LIVING NOVEMBER 2011
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