Andrew muckles
Andrew Muckles is the singer in North East cover band 'The Brit Pack'. The Brit Pack cover 90s pop, indie and rock and roll music. Andrew also use to work for a local music station in the North East.
While studying media at Sunderland University, through work I was able to get press access to gigs and festivals. I would go to events and interview the artists for the radio; the best of which was 2010’s Evolution festival which, if you remember, was held in and around Spiller’s Wharf in Newcastle.
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I’d already managed to grab a few minutes of time with local legends like Frankie & The Heartstrings, Field Music, The Futureheads, Ellie Goulding and Paulo Nutini – all perfect for a local North East radio station.
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Meeting Example is an experience I’ll never forget.
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At the time he had only released one major single so was still on the cusp of being considered a successful artist. As a result, he wasn’t swamped with press. In fact, I couldn’t find him anywhere!
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Somebody told me he was in the arists tent napping, but no press were allowed.
Undeterred I snuck in. He was the only person in the place, snoring away on the sofa. I wasn’t going to miss my chance so I woke him up, hoping I wouldn’t get a barrage of abuse when he found out I was just pestering him for an interview.
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As it happened, when he came to his senses, we got talking and it was superb!
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We ended up nattering on for about half an hour about football. I was a Sunderland fan and he was a Fulham Fan, at the time our teams were in the Premiere League so we had a lot of common ground.
We kept in touch for a while afterwards, I went down to Craven Cottage and met him for the Fulham vs Sunderland match and we met again at one of his gigs in Swindon. One of the proper nice, down to earth people who I met around the time who deserved all the success he has since achieved.
For more about Andy and The Brit Pack follow their social media page!