As Smoove & Turrell prepare to host their now annual Xmas House Party at Boiler Shop in Newcastle, Georgina Shine caught up with band member Steven Moore to speak about homecoming gigs, being forced to cancel a tour in the Netherlands and more.
How has 2021 been for you?
Not too bad, actually. We’ve really hit the ground running with it all. We had a lot of tour dates set up that got moved further down the line and put back. It seemed like, for a long time, the handbrake was on and now it’s come off, we’ve got loads of gigs and we are doing a lot of touring. For me, personally, I’d say it’s the best tour to date for a few different reasons. But one thing that has been great is that the new album was so well received. And with lockdown and restrictions, it gave people more time to digest the album. So when we play it live, everyone knows it; it’s not ‘new’ to them so it’s great.
Where did the idea for your Xmas House Party Event come from?
Many years ago we had a manager who suggested that we do a big show and we were pretty hesitant about it all with organising and people turning up. But we then got to a point where we believed in ourselves and we had a growing fanbase that was getting bigger. So we bit the bullet and organised the first one and it was fantastic. Since then, it’s built up every year and we sell-out the event now. Now when booking gigs, we book the Boiler Shop up to 3/4 years in advance to make sure we get it for the right date because it’s such an emotional gig. It’s a homecoming gig and it’s always such a pleasure to be there and it’s something we look forward to every year.
What can audiences expect from the party?
We’ve got a few surprises up our sleeve for the event. We’ve got some of the Voices of Virtues ladies coming along to do some backing vocals on some tracks; they joined us on the recent album and they’re brilliant, so it will be something special. It will mostly be a 50/50 split of new stuff and the old hits such as ‘Beggarman’.
What does the New Year hold for Smoove and Turrell?
Our diary is totally full for next year so it’s a lot of hours in the van touring and we aren’t getting any younger. But after everything that has happened, you appreciate everything more. At one point, we all thought that’s it, it’s gone; but now it’s back, it’s so good. We are still celebrating the album from 2020 so the tour is for that album. We had to shelve a 24-date tour in the Netherlands which is such a shame but luckily, we’ve got such a big UK fanbase, we’ve still been able to tour all over the UK.
Will there be anything new soon?
We’ve been sketching and writing some stuff and we are going to a studio in January to really get into making stuff. The team really enjoy some time off for a bit of quiet; it then helps get us to get ready to write and create. We were nervous about ‘Stratos Bleu’ because it was a side step but it went down so well that we want to continue on with that sound and maybe explore some new elements too and sort of write ‘Stratos part 2’. It may not see the light of day for a while though, with the whole process taking time, but we will work on it. We’ve also talked about maybe a live album and some more acoustic sessions and stuff too, potentially.
Tickets for Smoove & Turrell’s Xmas House Party, priced at £25.00, are available from boilershop.net.
