Issue 149

The Paddingtons: The Interview

20th November 2006

"Unofficially, we finished in London, but we're here today," says bassist Lloyd Dobbs, whilst the other members of The Paddingtons gather round a laptop showing photos of their latest tour. "We haven't played Wales for like a year. We used to play Cardiff every tour. Swansea's new, is it any better?"

Having been sold the virtues of Swansea adequately (surely it helps to be fashionably modest?), Dobbs looks satisfied. At least, he appears to be. But The Paddingtons are in good spirits after a successful tour, and are clearly a band that enjoys getting out on the road. "Thing is we must've done 200 gigs and this year we've done two tours. One in Great Britain and another in Germany. We're a live band so this tour was pretty exciting."

A year on from debut album, First Comes First, the time has inevitably come for the band to look towards their second release. This tour has seen a number of brand spanking new tracks on the setlist. When asked about whether the new material has gone down well, Dobbs seems fairly confident. "I think so, yeah. Some of it's already available on MySpace and stuff like that, so people already know some stuff. I think at the beginning of the tour we got a good response, but as the tour went along we got quite confident, especially in London. It went down well."

After the delicious slice of anarchic youth-punk that was First Comes First, the anticipation that surrounds the band's second album is immense. But are The Paddingtons looking to take a new direction this time round? Apparently not. "There is some stuff that could probably fit on First Comes First but some that wouldn't fit on First Comes First that shows we've changed. It's still colours of The Paddingtons but we've pushed it a bit."

Hopefully the new album can match the critical acclaim that greeted First Comes First. But you can't have it your own way, as Dobbs explains. "There were a couple of shitty reviews. Q didn't like us. But then you think Q don't like you, Mojo's going to hate you, but Mojo f**king loved it which I found f**king hilarious. We got a good one off the NME, but f**k NME." Well, quite!

That said, Dobbs is positive about the new album, but at the same time is also realistic. "We want to sell more. We sold just short of 50,000 [of First Comes First] which is enough for me. We've not got pop songs and we're not that radio friendly. If it got top 10 then they'd have to play it."

One tool The Paddingtons are particularly fussed about is MySpace. "We're just starting to pick up that it exists," claims Dobbs. "I mean some bands totally rely on it. Is it Fallout Boy that has five million friends or something like that, and they were the first ever MySpace band. The first British one was the Arctic Monkeys. We've never really gone for that. Some bands get signed off the back of MySpace and probably done like 10 gigs and it takes away from the idea of touring and earning a trade as a band."

The Paddingtons themselves hail from the fair city of Kingston-upon- Hull. With the amount of bands that have come from northern England over the last 18 months, London no longer seems to be the be all and end all for new music. Dobbs sees it differently, however. "I don't think the music scene has ever been London-orientated. I think the business has been. There's always been bands from all over the f**king place. We've had our fair share. Even Wales has had a fair share. Maybe Yorkshire now has its fair share. I think they've been across the board. But the industry's moved from London and the A& R men are going to go further afield."

On the topic of new bands, Dobbs hasn't been won over by many this year. "Last year was quite exciting wasn't it? We had The Cribs releasing their second record. Acts like The Rakes, they were a good band. This year I don't know. It's all been f**king emo stuff, and this new rave thing is f**king hilarious. Dayglo dickheads!"

Whilst Tom Atkins, the lead vocalist, wails out an impromptu version of The Killers' When You Were Young, focus turns onto The Paddingtons' history. The origin of the band's name is fairly simple. "The bear," is Dobbs response, and the reason is equally as simple. "My brother [Grant Dobbs, drummer] had a jacket, a big dufFEL coat."

"Being in a band, it was our aspiration to get signed up," reveals Dobbs. "We were doing gigs before we even had our own songs just for a laugh." Before the band, however, there were no childhood ambitions of being a train driver. "Before that I don't know. I went to college. But who knows what they want to do?"

When it comes to musical influences, the band are united by a love of one band in particular. "We were all obsessed with The Clash," admits Dobbs. There are obviously other influences on the band. "The Libertines were a big thing for us. It's like five years ago! And The Strokes were a big deal for every band post-Strokes with guitars."

Asides from working on their own material, The Paddingtons recently lent their name to a Babyshamblesled cover of Janie Jones in order to raise money for Strummerville, a charity set up by the late Joe Strummer. Surely the prospect of being involved with such a project would be an honour for such huge Clash fans.

"Yeah!" enthuses Dobbs. "We've been playing it live actually just to promote the single. We've been involved in the actual charity anyway years before he died. Musically, our name was put to it but Tom [Atkins] sung on it. Basically Babyshambles did the song, and they got 20-odd people on it. I think we were always going to be involved on it with the connections." Dobbs does have his reservations about the single though. "There's some questionable f**kers on it though. What were Kooks doing on there for? F**king knobheads! It's a charity thing though isn't it? It's like a cool Band Aid."

The connections that Dobbs speak of are impressive. The Paddingtons, after all, are a band who can count both Pete Doherty and Carl Barat as personal friends. On the subject of Doherty, Dobbs is full of praise. "He's a cool man, done a lot for us." And then there's Barat, the man who recruited Paddingtons' guitarist Josh Hubbard to fill the Dirty Pretty Things void when Barat broke his collarbone on the US tour. "Before we didn't really know Carl, because we met Pete through being Libertines fans, but we didn't really get to know Carl. The friendship with Carl on a personal level is barely a year old."

Despite Doherty and Barat both being friends, Dobbs has no qualms about which band he prefers. "Musically, Babyshambles! I think Dirty Pretty Things is just too close to the Libertines. Babyshambles have done a bit of a bolder move. I mean, I do like Dirty Pretty Things. The album was brilliant. It just sounds like a more coherent Libertines. Babyshambes are totally different."

One thing you may not know about The Paddingtons is their recent collaboration with Hedi Slimane, a fashion designer with Dior. Dobbs, however, wasn't a fan of it. "I wasn't really into it. I can't really knock it because I got some really cool f**king stuff. A couple of cool photo shoots which we really liked, and free champagne. Basically it did my head in." Fashion is clearly not being considered as a career here.

So what happens next for The Paddingtons? "Get ready for the album," says Dobbs. "There are a few Christmas gigs but there always are." One of those Christmas gigs is in their native Hull, and Dobbs is looking forward to it. "I like going back to Hull anyway because my girlfriend and my little daughter are there."

With Christmas coming, Dobbs knows exactly what he would like Santa to bring him. With a straight face, he decisively declares: "A year's supplies of nappies!" But this is a man who has taken to fatherhood and loves it. "First month I was petrified, now it's a piece of piss. Well not quite, but it's a lot more fun when you know what you're doing. It's good, I'd advise it. But only have one!"

With such good advice from a man who clearly knows what he's talking about, I don't see how I can go wrong in later life. But then again, I'm not the bassist for one of the coolest bands in Britain right now.

Pete Hayman