Frank Turner Jonathan Jones As we approach the main entrance to Unity Works we are greeted by a small group sitting on the step, a couple of whom are covered by a flag emblazoned with the logo for the man they are desperate to be as close to as possible during his performance. They’ve been there since 11 in the morning and have a mere 8 hours to wait before the doors are opened. This is the devotion some people have for the man taking the stage that evening. The man in question is Frank Turner, a Wessex boy who has cultivated an ever increasing army of fans since his hardcore beginnings with former band Million Dead. Now a folk-punk artist wielding an arsenal of acoustic anthems backed by his band Sleeping Souls, he brings his latest show (number 1,623 to be exact) to Wakefield. This in itself is the mark of a man who holds smaller venues close to his heart. He doesn’t have to play in places like this anymore. This is a man who has sold out Wembley Arena on more than one occasion, not to mention playing to a global audience of millions as the opening act - not the warm up, as he would humbly have us believe - of the Olympics in 2012. I make my way to the stage door, and after a bizarre conversation outside with Turner’s crew about the viability of creating a Sunday dinner on a stick for the man on the go, we are led into a pristine whitewashed room, empty but for the chairs we have taken in with us and a huge iron safe on the wall. After a few minutes our interviewee strolls
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in, dressed in a black 9:30 Club tee and grey shorts, not that what a “celebrity” wears is of any consequence - a fact that I later realise isn’t lost on Turner, a man who owns eight pairs of the same jeans because he found some he liked. So we begin, and I hope my opening line pays off, “Frank Turner, musician, defender of live music venues and celebrity genius”. The tall tattooed man sat in front of me laughs with a genuine friendliness that relaxes me immediately, “Ha ha, yes. They re-showed the Mastermind thing yesterday didn’t they?” Turner is extremely proud to have taken part in a TV show that he grew up with and always had a desire to appear on. “I was very stoked when they asked me to be on the show. I was a nerd as a kid and that was on my bucket list. Getting on the celebrity version was kind of cheating but I was glad to be on it and to win it was great, plus it raised a lot of money for Shelter”. Not one to draw attention to his charity work, it was through his ambassadorship of the homelessness charity that he got the opportunity to realise this particular ambition. I guess that’s just karma and a lesson for us all. If you give something good, maybe you’ll get something good back. I try for a little cheek in my next question, “Your specialist subject on the show was Iron Maiden, yet you actually did better in the general knowledge round.” Deep breath. I’d heard Frank could be a prickly
Photo Credit: Frank Turner on stage at Wakefield Unity Works by The First 45 ©2014
interviewee, but again I was presented with a heartfelt chuckle, “I know, and I’m hideously ashamed of that. I did tons of research, but somebody had done Maiden before so they covered later period stuff, and I’m more into Maiden prior to 1990. I did celebrate with a new tattoo though which hurt like Billy-O!” He lifts his right leg to reveal one of his many impressive inks. Tattoos are a big part of Turner’s character. He famously had one done before the encore during one of his Wembley gigs. It is with this gig in mind that I ask which of his particularly significant performances made him most nervous - Mastermind, Wembley Arena or The Olympics? “Probably the Olympic thing. I was a little out of my comfort zone. It was more like a video shoot, an odd vibe. Just before we went on a guy told me how many people were watching worldwide. I wish he’d waited until after the performance to tell me that.” I ask whether it makes a difference to him how many people he plays to, “Yes, but not as you’d imagine. Sometimes a small crowd can be more nerve-wracking. Larger crowds sometimes conglomerate in your head and make it easier to handle.” A swig of water is consumed and we move on to a topic that has caused Frank to take to the Internet to campaign for a change in the law to protect small music venues. “I love small venues. When I’m not playing gigs I go to gigs. I love it. It’s my culture. A rash of small venues have come under threat as gentrification increases. I’m all for cities being made nicer places