Simon RushworthIn the latest of our exclusive rushonrock interviews we catch up with It Bites drummer Bob Dalton ahead of the band’s Newcastle show this week. Check out the prog rock heroes at the Academy on Wednesday and if you live further afield then the Cumbrian kings move on to Nottingham, Manchester, Bilston, Brighton and Gloucestershire later this month.
rushonrock: What can we expect from It Bites in 2008?
Bob Dalton: Well first off Leeds (Rios) on Saturday night was the first time at a gig since we signed with Virgin that we didn’t play Calling All The Heroes. So the first time in more than 20 years that we haven’t included that song in our set.
rushonrock: Leaving out a top 10 hit and crowd favourite is either brave or foolhardy..
BD: We do want to move on. There’s an element of us being pig sick of that song but we just don’t think it’s really relevant anymore. We want to push the new stuff from Tall Ships and we just decided to drop Calling...One or two people came up to us after the gig and said they were disappointed but there are already songs from the new album which people are picking out at shows and singing along to. There’s one called Great Disasters which is proving really popular.
rushonrock: You’re obviously confident Tall Ships will float a few boats then?
BD: If you look at the history of the band we’ve done one pop album, one progressive album and one rock album. We’ve never been the sort of band to say that’s what we do and we’re sticking to it. U2 are the same. They’ve always moved with the times and done what’s felt right for them. If you try and buy into one thing then the odds are that you won’t be around for too long. But if you pursue what appeals to you at any particular time you’ll always be current even if you’re not always popular. We’re not people who follow trends musically.
rushonrock: Some of the ‘new’ music is a couple of years old. What’s the story?
BD: We started writing new material two years ago but then we sat back for a while to see how [new singer] John Mitchell would fit in and be accepted. Franc [original IB frontman Francis Dunnery] was such a big part of It Bites that we decided it would be best to get out on the road and see how the punters responded to John. So two songs have been around for a couple of years but the rest of the album was written in the last 18 months.
rushonrock: And how’s John Mitchell working out?
BD: The first six months was a learning curve for John Mitchell and John Beck as they got to grips with each other’s writing styles. From my point of view John M feeds John B with ideas just like Franc was John’s ideas man all those years ago. It still works the same way now – John B gets an idea and goes away to work on it. They quickly found their feet and we enjoyed a pretty prolific 12-month songwriting period when everybody was firing on all cylinders.
rushonrock: So was John the catalyst for the It Bites comeback?
BD: I put out a live DVD a couple of years back and it was suggested I put the band back together. That was never really my intention but I called Franc to discuss it and it was clear that wasn’t going to work. He’s living in the US and we’re all in the UK so, first and foremost, it just wasn’t going to be cost-effective. I’d decided to knock it on the head but then I was told about John Mitchell, who I ended up playing with in a band called Kino. He sang a couple of It Bites songs at Kino’s shows and is a huge fan of the band. He turned out to be a perfect fit.
rushonrock: It looks like you were pretty fortunate finding the right frontman…
BD: A lot of things in the music business are down to fate and I suppose, with John M, it was just a case of him being in the right place at the right time. We’re just extremely lucky we chanced upon someone like him when we did. He’s a great songwriter and plays fantastic guitar. He’s just slotted in.
rushonrock: So how has Franc taken to the It Bites revival?
BD: Originally Franc sent me an email saying he didn’t want to commit to It Bites because it was going to be too time-consuming for him with the travel and everything. That was fine and I still talked to him occasionally via email after that.
rushonrock: And you’re still on good terms now then?
BD: Not really. I told him we’d found a new guy and he sent me a few emails back that were not so nice. Now it’s fair to say I don’t speak to him. If I bumped into him in the street I’d say hello but that’s it. I think he just felt a bit pushed out in the end and I suppose he was. But Franc had this idea that we could all stay on opposite sides of the Atlantic and write songs by sending individual parts via the internet. As far as I’m concerned that’s not how you make music – even in this day and age you have to get in a room with people and write stuff.
rushonrock: Was geography the real sticking point or is there something deeper?
BD: I just don’t think It Bites is or was Franc’s main concern anymore. He has other things in his life and we needed someone with the same urge to do it as Franc did in the early days. He had a real desire to do It Bites back then and I don’t think that’s in him anymore. After the first album it was great but then Franc got an attitude. He would probably call it confidence but I’d call it a real rock star attitude. With John there’s much more of a closeness with the fans when he’s on stage. And Franc never had that.”