I
ndependent record label owner, Jamie Oborne is used to taking a gamble – All On Red, it’s the name of his music management firm. After hearing Benjamin Francis Leftwich
at the tender age of 16, he threw all his chips in and started Dirty Hit Records to give Benjamin an avenue to release. Now 22, Ben is delivering good odds; Jamie Oborne doesn’t have to shout his name out anymore when Jo Whiley, Dermot O’Leary and Zane Lowe are doing it for him. We caught up with Benjamin, who remains humble and excited…
You’ve got a big tour coming up – lots of UK dates; is this something you’re mentally prepared for? Haha, probably not, but it’s something I’m looking forward to. I’ve toured a lot before and it’s gonna be really nice to get back out touring with this band. We did 24 festivals over the course of the summer, so I’ve just had a couple of weeks off now getting ready for tour, so yeah, it’s gonna be awesome. I can’t wait to get on it.
You came to Norwich earlier this year and you played in a pub called Te Marquee – - Yes I did!
It’s a venue that’s since shut down and it’s indicative of the hard time
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that venues are having. Have you got a message for people that should be supporting live music? I just think venues should be eclectic and they should have lots of stuff on and cater for lots of different people, you know, have loads of cool bands come in and do their thing. Tere’s a lot of students in Norwich too, so when we came to play that venue it was really weird because the rest of the tour was really busy and it was kinda like a bit empty! Everyone was really nice, and it was a good show, but I think it was very much a metal venue, like a rock venue and so the bar staff were like, ‘who the fuck is this guy?!’
You will absolutely love Norwich Arts Centre –
- Yeah, I know, I can’t wait; everyone’s been saying how nice it is.
Now I want to take you back, back, back to a time where – if you can untwine the two – tell us what came first, the voice or the guitar? Erm, good question. Probably guitar; I’ve been playing guitar a lot longer than I’ve been singing and that’s what I started on. I didn’t really think I could sing, so I didn’t bother for a while and then I kind of tried it a little bit, so yeah, I’m gonna say guitar.
Was it a tentative moment, opening your mouth to see what would come out? Yeah, I guess I did it in private, in the shower and stuff for a while… but in
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