When I heard that 90’s Britpop darlings ‘Sleeper’ were playing a bunch of UK live dates to commemorate the 25th anniversary of their sophomore album ‘The It Girl’ which was delivered back in 1996, I was excited. I love Sleeper and when I was approached by the band’s PR company to ask if I wanted to speak to Louise Wener about the forthcoming tour and the album, naturally, I dropped everything and started drafting questions for our chat.
We talked for a good 25 minutes about the 90’s, the album, overseas promotional events including a stint on a prime-time Japanese TV show where they were repeatedly beaten with an inflatable pugil stick by a dwarf (as one does)…. For all of this and much more, read on!
Louise, it’s been 25 years since the release of ‘The It Girl’ in 1996, that’s quarter of a century….. when you look back, does it seem that long ago?
Yes….. It does , it seems like a lifetime ago! We have all gone off and done different things but when we all get back together and start playing the songs it all comes flooding back to you. Once you start playing them again, it’s as if they’re not old at all and I think that’s why people love going to the gigs. Back in the mid 90’s when you bought the record and listened to the songs, it was a long time ago but when you’re all in the same room listening to the songs being played 25 years later, they don’t feel old at all!
The album spawned 4 singles, ‘What Do I Do Now’, ‘Sale of the Century’, ‘Nice Guy Eddie’ and ‘Statuesque’, 2 reached the top 10 and 2 the top 20, which of these do you most enjoy performing live?
I think I’d have to say ‘Sale of the Century’ as it really has taken on a life of its own, the song has demonstrated that music can cover so many different meanings, especially the line ‘It’s never gonna be this good’. When you look out from the stage and see the entire room singing it back to you, it makes you feel very special and it’s a song that we’ve been using to close the shows, it’s very uplifting and powerful in a different way than it was received back in the 90’s, it always leaves everyone on such a high!
I watched a video of you performing in London in 2019 and your walk on music was ‘You Only Live Twice’ by Nancy Sinatra – was this to represent the fact that you are back for the second time after reforming?
It’s a BOND song so it’s awesome to walk out to! But yes, you’re right, it’s our way of saying that we are back or the second time around and that you really have to enjoy that moment which we are doing!
I was watching some videos of Sleeper the other night and I swear that was Dale Winton in the ‘Inbetweener’ video, how did that happen?
I think it was someone at the record company who arranged that….. At the time of the song coming out, Dale had just started doing Supermarket Sweep which was fast becoming a cult TV show for students (alongside Blockbusters!) and because students were our demographic, it just made sense to us. I think we liked to merge the Britpop scene with more of a kitsch thing and that was the result. Dale was really up for it and I think we did each other a favour as it helped to put him on the map and enticed more students to tune into his show! He was a lovely man to work with though and he is greatly missed.
I tried to research which countries you played in with Sleeper and rather than spend hours pouring over websites, I thought it would be quicker to ask the singer of the band….
There are quite a few! America, Japan, all over Europe, Singapore, we played a very strange in-store in Tower Records in Bangkok where we all got mobbed which was actually great fun!
What are your favourite memories from around the time of The It Girl?
The luck of it I would say! I mean for me, touring across America was amazing! It was like a dream you’d have as a kid, being a rockstar, turning up at different venues day after day and playing across America would be a pipe dream for many and most people would think that you’re a lunatic for suggesting it in the first place. There were definitely some occasions where you had to stop and pinch yourself to make sure that you weren’t dreaming it all. I remember turning up to New York one weekend to do press and making a video in Los Angeles, but what is strange is how used to it you became. Sometimes you just endure the bad times but when the good times come, it’s as if that’s the new normal and you just ride it, I think looking back that I didn’t enjoy it quite enough, I wish I took more time to soak it all up but we were busy. As you get older and your life becomes a lot more prosaic, you talk about what you’ve done in the past and it’s incredible to recall the memories!
I guess there were many firsts too, like your first trip to Japan?
Indeed and this was a great way to see the country as you get the feeling that you’re really getting under its skin rather than being a tourist and seeing what they want to show you. We were invited to appear on a prime time Japanese TV show, it was very strange as it was a light entertainment show and we went on and the idea was that we had to learn a number of Japanese phrases and they would then make us say them really fast. Us being stupid English people, we weren’t able to pronounce them properly and every time we got them wrong, a dwarf would come running over and hit us with a large inflatable pugil stick (like they used to have on Gladiators) this happened whilst the studio full of Japanese people were pissing themselves laughing at us – Quite odd….
God, that sounds horrendous, like a cross between Takeshi’s Castle and ‘Lorraine’
Yes, it was like we were back in the 80’s on TISWAS! One minute you were looking all mysterious and moody in dark leather jackets being interviewed on a roof top skyscraper in New York City and the next getting hit by a giant inflatable by a dwarf on Japanese television! Very random!
Can we expect a 25th anniversary re-issue of the album similar to what you did for SMART?
We did try and organise this but with vinyl taking a LONG time to order owing to massive backlogs at pressing plants, we have had to take a step back. It’s also quite difficult for bands to actually make much money from re-issues as the labels own the rights to the music, it’s not a simple process and the band are quite resistant to it so we’re just trying to find a way to make that work.
I was half expecting to see it amongst the exclusives available on Record Store Day?
It would have been great timing but we just weren’t able to arrange it in time
You, alongside Justine Frischmann, Brett Anderson, Damon Albarn and Jarvis Cocker were the pinups of the Britpop scene, did that put any strain on the band with you being the centre of attention?
I think it’s a mixture of things, everyone always wants to focus on the lead singer and being a female front-person in a band in the mid 90’s, you were analysed a lot more than our male counterparts, I felt under the spotlight in a different way than maybe the male front-people did.
Tell me about the ‘Sleeper Bloke’ phrase and the T-Shirts that you had made….
That was a great idea and we actually made good money out of it! It was basically a fundamental reverse sexism thing, as in, there are many male fronted bands that I just couldn’t tell you what the bass player or the drummer looked like, put them in a line up parade and I really would struggle to identify the other members of Coldplay for example as all you normally see is Chris Martin dancing about on stage. The term ‘sleeper bloke’ was a tongue in cheek way of belittling a band member as they had a woman up front calling the shots and telling them what to do, I guess it sort of meant that somehow, you were a lesser person, it was really a poke in the eye when it comes to the sexism that was so prevalent back in the mid 90’s.
I watched interviews that you did back in the 90’s and I admit that I was sat there, squirming as the interviewer was asking you some quite personal questions, to the point that it was inappropriate….
I agree but we were still finding our way, experimenting and you had to play things quite carefully and almost play along whilst still trying to work out the best way to approach things.
I read an interesting feature recently about gender inequality in the music industry and something really caught my eye and I want to read it out to you now – “if we want to achieve gender equality in the music industry, underrepresented parties need to take up space not only behind the microphone but in all aspects of performance and creative development. First and foremost, female producers would create space for many female artists who might have otherwise been deterred from pursuing music” – Is this a statement you agree with?
Absolutely, the numbers are incredible! I did some research recently about the number of female producers and also songwriters and the numbers are so skewed, there is STILL a massive gender inequality. Just look at any line-up for festivals and you can see what I mean, it feels strange to me that we are so far along the journey but it feels like very little has changed.
I want you to step inside our musical time machine back to your 29th birthday, I have 4 questions for you to answer about that day. The date by the way is 30th July 1995
1. What were you doing on that day? We were supporting REM at Milton Keynes Bowl (correct)
2. Which other bands were on the bill? The Cranberries and Radiohead (correct)
3. Who sang Happy Birthday to you? Michael Stipe from REM and about 65k fans (correct)
4. What was the song that R.E.M. played straight after ‘Happy Birthday’ – ‘Sweet Sixteen’? It was actually ‘Strange Currencies’ from their 95 album Monster (incorrect)
That’s 3 out of 4 so no chocolate for you and the band I’m afraid!
I won’t tell the band so they’ll be none the wiser!
Staying on the topic of live shows, Sleeper are playing 8 live dates in April and May this year to celebrate the anniversary of the album and you’ll be stopping off in Leeds, Glasgow, Bristol, Coventry, Manchester, Newcastle, London, Cambridge (in that order), which of these shows are you particularly excited about playing? (Tickets available for all shows HERE)
I don’t really have any favourites, the shows that you think are going to be the best sometimes aren’t and it really just falls to how the night progresses and how the audience are reacting to you. Each show will be different but I have really have no favourite places or venues.
You’re performing ‘The IT Girl’ in full, will you be playing the tracks in the order they are on the album?
Most definitely, that’s what we did with SMART, it’s nice to do that as fans will know what’s coming and this helps to build a real sense of anticipation, with a normal show, they don’t know what’s coming next and I think it is a different experience altogether.
The reason I ask is because when I used to listen to music in the 90’s, we never had skip buttons and had to play the cassette or the record as it was meant to be heard so to hear you say that is quite literally music to my ears!
It definitely means something to hear the record from start to finish as it was meant to be heard!
Have you had to do much rehearsing for the tour or are you on pretty good form already?
We have had to rehearse as we’ve had different people playing with us from time to time, this means that we have to go through the set with each person and make sure they are familiar with the songs, we’ll be working together a lot closer over the next few weeks leading up to the shows. You have to remember that there are some songs that we haven’t played since the mid 90’s and we’re going to be a little rusty! You don’t just want the gigs to be a nostalgia trip so you almost have to tune yourself back into the tracks and it may be that what you get from them 25 years after they were written is different so it will take time but we’ll get there!
What three things can you not live without whilst on tour?
1. Tea Bags as the ones you get in hotel rooms are disgusting!
2. Phone – can’t live without it!
3. A comfortable pillow – need my sleep!
God, what have I become? the rider would have looked a little bit different back in the 90’s!
I was thinking a bottle of Jack Daniels and other ‘commodities’….?
There are much less ‘commodities’ these days! Herbal tea and honey & lemon drinks maybe!
Are you planning to play any festivals this year? If so, which ones?
We are waiting for confirmation on some so it’s probably best to keep an eye on our socials as we’ll be announcing them as they are confirmed
Louise, I could talk to you all day about Sleeper and the 90’s but I appreciate that you have a life and have far better things to do than speak to journalists about the ‘good old days’! Thank you so much for sparing the time to chat with me today, I wish you and Sleeper every success for the UK tour and we’re going to be covering the Bristol gig so we’ll see you on stage soon!
Looking forward to it!
So there you have it folks, lots of information about SLEEPER and their forthcoming tour of the UK to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their sophomore album ‘The it Girl’. For more info, click on the socials below.
Interview by Steve Muscutt
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