11. MogwaiMogwai Young Team
We got a demo tape from Mogwai and we loved it. We wanted to sign them, but so did everybody. We gave them their first ever tour support, doing half the dates of Urusei Yatsura’s tour. We ordered all their singles for mail order and sold 100 each easily. There seemed to be a correlation between what we were selling and what they were playing on the radio.
Even though we didn’t sign them in the end, we became very close. They stayed at my house, they did the ‘Honey’ track for the Spacemen 3 tribute, and we did a split single on Ché with them. I even saw them play in India once. They soundtracked my life for a long, long time.
Kiko, a tour manager who passed away recently, tour managed Mogwai a lot. Him, Mogwai – we were all part of a little gang. We really did feel for each other when things went wrong. We were there for each other. The band all went on stage in my pyjamas once! We used to have colourful hair clips, toy guns and lightsabres – we were acting like big kids!
Mogwai blew me away live. They were so talented and so humble. They still don’t have egos. They’re really sweet people. To have released a number one album [with 2021’s As The Love Continues] – it was so deserved.
