an interview with corinthian casuals

We are sitting in the Two Pigs, one of Corsham's most popular pubs, famed for its live blues music nights and preferred haunt of the town's most popular and successful bands of the last couple of years, Corinthian Casuals.

The Casuals have often attributed their unique blend of blues, mainly coming in the form of twelve barre walkabouts but often delving into the singular rhythm and delta blues preferred by Muddy Waters and Son House, and cranium crunching rock, to the bands they began to watch in this very dark and mysterious drinker at the tender age of 17 in 2006.

We are sat at the table closest to the window, and each member of the band has a different drink in front of them. Due to the pub's strict rotation policy at the taps, the beer changes every couple of weeks with the only one constant being a brew dubbed “Swill”, a beer brewed especially to the Two Pigs specifications. Lead singer and rhythm guitarist Stu Joslin prefers this beer, whilst bass player Max Goff prefers the peculiar “Green Stuff”. Lead guitarist Alex Mitchell, known as “Munch” to his band mates, has a pint of cider, and drummer Tom Page, the youngest of the four, orange and lemonade.

When you started out in your first school band (all the Casuals went to the Corsham School), which I believe is over five years ago now, did you ever envisage being in this position so soon afterwards?

Stu Joslin: I couldn't say I did, no. Most school bands start up with visions of world tours and record deals, and houses made of gold, but, more often than not, these bands never get past the practice room. While we were at school, we saw so many bands go south and in our heads I suppose we thought the same would happen to us in the end. So we just tried to keep going as long as possible, and here we are!

And you were all in different bands in the first place?

Max Goff: Yes, although us three (Max gestures to himself, Alex and Stu, who were in the same year) were really close friends, myself and Munch were in a different band to Stu. Our band was called Small Gods and we were really bitter rivals with Stu's band, Sweeter Than Brazil.

SJ: Indeed, it was a really petty thing, you know the kind of thing you go through when you're fourteen or fifteen. It was me and Phil (Greenland, who was a member of the Casuals until late last year), and we had a couple of sixth formers in with us because none of us could really play properly at the time, and Tom came in on drums when he was eleven, just starting at the school, I think.

Tom Page: Yeah, I did. We practised in the music rooms after school and played our first few gigs at school concerts and at our local football club, who used to let us play gigs after the matches for the players. It was a real small town way of getting started. Actually, after about a year we got quite good and played a few gigs elsewhere, we did a wedding or two and played at a golf club, they really didn't like us there!

And what was happening to Small Gods?

Alex Mitchell: Not much! Like the other band did we played a few school shows but that was it really. I don't suppose we were into it as much.

So how did the rival factions come together in the end?

AM: It was for our last assembly at school, they wanted a band made up of year elevens, and out of the two bands it was only me, Max, Stu and Phil that were up for it. Stu had to play drums that day aswell as sing! We called ourselves “The Plebs”.

SJ: Yes...(looks to heavens)...I wasn't very good that day. Although we did have the song about or tutor that we wrote, didn't we?

MG: Ah yeah, the Taylor Beasley song...quality...

AM: And afterwards we decided to keep it going. We'd all got together in Max's garage to practice and it was so much fun, and both our other bands were beginning to come to an end anyway.

SJ: I stayed on drums because we didn't get many gigs, we were still only really doing the odd school show even though we were all in the sixth form by this time. Then a local club gave us a full show, our first, and we went there and played for about three hours I think! It was all nervous energy and youthfulness. That was my last on the drums though.

TP: Stu had asked me to come down to the show and see if I'd like to take over from him so that he could move up the front with the others. Sweeter Than Brazil had just finished, so I thought what the hell and went along...by the end I knew I had to get involved. I said yes there and then and we began rehearsing.

MG: It took us about a month to teach Thomas all the songs, but by the time we got our next gig we were cooking with gas.

And your direction changed once you began to come to the Two Pigs regularly?

Max Goff: Well actually it was Stu who came here first with his dad, and I can remember him coming into school the next day saying “you guys have to come next week, it's a revelation!”

SJ: Yeah, I came up here in 2006 for the first time and I saw a guy called Scott McKeon playing who was only 19 at the time. He was an excellent blues guitarist and it was massive for us because I knew that if he could achieve it then so could we. I've been lucky enough to keep in contact with Scott ever since and he's always been very supportive of us, as we are of him. He's going to be huge one day.

MG: I came up the next week with him and saw a band called Flash Harry, they were a bit more country but they did a smashing cover of “Minority” by Green Day. After that, I think I knew as well that we had to do some blues because we wanted to be like the bands we saw there. A couple of weeks afterwards we changed the name to Corinthian Casuals, after a football team Stu came across on the Internet. It just sounded better for a blues band than The Plebs!

TP: We still do some of the songs we started out doing, though. At different places you have to play different stuff because of the type of venue. At blues clubs and the like we do our Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, all that kind of thing – and at the normal pubs you have to put a bit of popular stuff in. Sometimes it can be a very delicate balance between the two.

So when you were first starting out on the pub circuit, was there anybody helping you along?

SJ: Yes, my dad Glyn and Tom's dad Steve began to get involved a lot. My dad was in a band when he was younger and he loves being part of it. When we were beginning, he handled all of the gig booking for us, something he still does today. He was great at getting the pubs to give us a chance, because normally they wouldn't look twice at a group of sixteen, seventeen year olds who'd only done a couple of gigs. He also drives our van.

TP: My dad handles all of the lighting and front of house sound for us. He's also great at running repairs which is vital sometimes, if he hadn't been there when it mattered I don't know how many gigs would have gone tits up!

AM: In the early days, without them around we wouldn't have known our arses from a hole in the ground.

And you gradually began to get more experienced?

MG: I'd say so. When you gig as often as we did as early on in our careers as we were, playing in front of a packed pub, you grow in confidence with every gig and you begin to enjoy it instead of being nervous. I wouldn't say any of us suffer from stage fright any more. Luckily though, I think most of the audiences that we played for in those early days weren't expecting too much from us because of our age. It was really nice to surprise them all!

On the other end of the scale, how do you deal with the situation when you turn up at a venue to play and there's nobody there to watch you?

TP: Well, normally we arrive at shows about an hour and a half before we start, and usually at that time there's nobody in the pub anyway. Stu's usually the one who gets worried the earliest (Stu looks into his beer in shame) but at 95% of the gigs we do, normally by 9pm there's a good sized crowd there to see you. On the rare occasions when at 9pm there's as many people in there as there were when you arrived, you just have to get on with the show. After all, the pub's booked you and you're providing a service to them. Anyway, even if there were no people to watch us at all our shows, we'll still do it, just because we love playing so much!

AM: Also sometimes you get a room full of people who seem to pretend you're not there. One time we played a gig on the same night as an England rugby match, and there was nobody in the room for our first set because they were all in the other bar watching the rugby! Luckily enough it finished while we were on our interval and the second half was a lot better.

You actually played here at the Two Pigs two times last year, but haven't been back since last August. What happened?

AM: “The second time we played there word got around at the school about it, we had just left, so a lot of our friends, Thomas's in particular, turned up to watch for a kind of last stand. Add to that the fact its the summer holidays by this time and you've got a problem. There was a bit of trouble outside afterwards, with kids staying out in the street long after we had all gone home, so we've never been asked back and that's a real bummer, because it's our local and the two gigs we did were really good. We love entertaining the people of our hometown when we can and we still get asked about those gigs now.

MG: The Two Pigs was the first proper music pub that gave us a chance, and we will always be grateful for that. To get the opportunity to play on the same stage as (ex Dr Feelgood member) Pete Gage, Chris Scott, Jamie Thyer – it just blew our minds.

And Jamie Thyer played with you that night?

AM: Yes, Dickie at the Two Pigs arranged that for us. He came up to us in here a couple of weeks before the gig and asked us whether we'd like it to happen, we said of course, and didn't expect it to happen, because Jamie has a very tough gig schedule which sees him all over the country most weeks. Then, when we were setting up on the night, someone came in and told us they'd just seen Jamie's Jaguar pull up outside. Next thing, he comes in with his massive cab in tow! We played “My Generation” with him, it was ace.

Are you aiming to return to the Two Pigs in the near future?

TP: We never say never. It would be absolutely brilliant to return.

Earlier on you mentioned (former rhythm guitarist) Phil Greenland, who was in the band as late as October last year but left you just before one of your biggest gigs to date, at Corsham Community Centre. How did you deal with his departure?

SJ: He told me he was leaving on the Friday, I think we were in here actually. This was the Friday the week before the gig. Anyway, I had a chat with the lads a couple of days afterwards and we decided not to advertise for a replacement but I would do it instead. So I went and bought myself a new guitar the morning before the gig, and the rest is history.

MG: We decided it would be too much hassle to teach a new guitarist all of our songs, and Stu already knew them anyway, so it was the easier and better choice really.

Plans for the future, guys?

AM: Stay healthy, keep playing and gigging as long as possible.

TP: Get to as high a level as possible with the band.

MG: To become as good at bass guitar as Richie Blake!

SJ: Another pint before last orders. Your round, Thomas...

Corinthian Casuals were talking to Sir Pumpkin Longshanks.