One of the many joys of being a Skating Polly fan is all the bands they introduce you to when they go on tour. They always seem to tour with amazing bands – people like Starcrawler, Hands Off Gretel, Thick, She Makes War/Penpal etc.
As I’m co-promoting the Liverpool show on this tour (O2 Academy2 on Friday 10th March 2023), I was intrigued when we were told that the tour support on this tour is a band called Spaff from Sheffield.
It’s not a band we’d heard of previously, and there isn’t much about them online yet, no official studio recording videos for example.
So I sent them over a list of questions to find out a bit more about them, and they kindly answered them!
- How long has the band been going and how did you get together?Initially we started as a four piece, two guitars one bass one drums, then we lost our old drummer (he’s not dead, very much alive) and so we needed another one, we asked the man who knows all Mat Hume and he suggested getting Isaac in, he came to practise and it was love at first sight, at least on his end that is!
- With the benefit of hindsight, is there anything you’d do differently if you were starting the band today?Absolutely nothing, we love where we are at the minute and without all the trials and tribulations, I don’t think we would be the same band? Who knows!
- How would you describe your music? Jeez, er, loud, shouty, noisey. Hella riffy!
- Skating Polly hand-picked you for support on the UK leg of their tour, how did that come about? Honestly we have no idea, we did a gig with then at Greystones in Sheffield thanks to Sam Christie and effectively fell in love, they are DIY as all hell, make an enormous sound and are one of the tightest bands we’ve played with, they’re also nice as pie, we had a chat with the whole band afterwards and were taken back with how nice these humans were!
- Have you played in Liverpool or an Academy venue before? Individually we have played in Liverpool, but never as SPAFF, we are however, very, very excited!
- What can people expect at your live performance?Jordan making his signature bass face whilst tearing your face off with riffs, Jake with a vest shouting at you and Isaac with his top off making unprompted dogs at the government and The S*n newspaper whilst maybe hitting his drums too hard.
- Do you enjoy touring? This is our first tour as a band! We’ve only been going just over a year and Skating bloody Polly asked us to tour! Did we mention that yet? WE’RE GOING OUT ON TOUR, WITH SKATING FRICKEN POLLY! sorry, we’re just excited.
- 2022 has just wrapped up, what was your favourite album from it?Isaac: The Price of Life – Bob Vylan for suuuuure!Jordan: Cave World – Viagra boys for me!Jake: TV Priest – My Other People!
- What’s your take on Spotify – useful tool for getting discovered, or wholesale ripping-off artists? A bit from column A and a bit from column B. We can totally see why people want music on tap for a very low price monthly, it gives some (albeit very little) exposure to small bands, but takes away the feeling of finding a band for yourself, y’know when you first pick up that record and you fall in love and that’s your band, it takes that away somewhat not a fan of that we’re also not a fan of CEO’s taking home about 8 billion a year and only paying the people that make the service what it is a fraction of a penny, seems a bit nuts.
- What would you change about the music industry if you could?More money in grassroots venues, stop fucking closing them down, stop moving people into flat above music venues then when they complain about the loud music, closing the venue or at least threatening to, lower rents for venues. STOP FUCKING CLOSING VENUES.
Spaff, thank you – we look fwd to catching you live!
Spaff support Skating Polly on their March 2023 UK tour:
Monday 06th: Brighton, UK – The Hope & Ruin
Tuesday 07th: Norwich, UK – Waterfront Studio
Wednesday 08th: Newcastle, UK – The Cluny
Thursday 09th: Sheffield, UK – Corporation
Friday 10th: Liverpool, UK – o2 Academy2
Saturday 11th: Hull, UK – Polar Bear
Sunday 12th: London, UK – Moth Club
