Evening Press, 31 October 2003 The one and only, Big Ian After filling the Grand Opera House a record seven times, York party band HUGE needed a new challenge.
They decided to take on the Barbican Centre: the venue where Robbie Williams did not sell out; nor did Criag David; but these cheesy chancers have done so now. HUGE play their fromage-heavy brand of brassy nonsense at a brimful Barbican tomorrow (1st) in a 7.30pm charity show.
Singer Big Ian says: "We've supported the likes of Atomic Kitten, Liberty X and Mis-Teeq this year but this show is the biggest thing we've taken on. We've formed a 20-piece band specially for the evening to play anything from Sinatra and Andy Williams to James Brown and Robbie Williams."
The Barbican Centre will be "totally transformed" for the night thanks to event sponsors KitKat Chunky and the Evening Press, with free chocolate for the audience. "The gig is a tribute to Brian Wilkinson - the father of our trombone player Stu - who died earlier this month. His love of big bands inspired us to use a big band line-up at the Barbican," says Big Ian. Donations at tomorrow's show will go to leukaemia charities. Evening Press, 1 September 2003 HUGE effort raises cash for two charities By Richard Edwards. Picture: David Harrison Party band HUGE rocked York city centre with a special gig - and helped raise cash for two charity causes.
The gig, in aid of the Lifesaver appeal to pay for a St John's Ambulance Crusader ambulance and Nestlé charity Sweet Charity, saw HUGE belt out favourites such as 'King Of The Swingers' and 'Mary's Prayer'. Shoppers and shop staff stopped to enjoy the Saturday lunchtime fun - and joined in the choruses. HUGE frontman Big Ian said: "It was a great atmosphere. People from shops were coming out, bringing us cups of tea. There was a lot of audience banter, which is just the way we like it." Evening Press, 10 July 2003 The big brand sound Chunky York band HUGE have finally discovered a chocolate bar that can live up to their big appetites. The party group has teamed up with Nestlé Rowntree, which is sponsoring HUGE's November 1 show at the Barbican.
The show, which is also being sponsored by the Evening Press, will mean those who turn up will be able to get their hands on the KitKat Chunky confectionery in a giant tasting session. Lead singer Big Ian said: "There's one member of the band, I won't say who, who eats KitKats like other people drink water. We are delighted that Nestlé are helping us raise money for charity with our gigs." Graham Walker, Nestlé Rowntree sales communications manager, said: "We are delighted to be a co-sponsor of this great local band, and we look forward to supporting them in 2003." YO1 Magazine, December 2002
Natalya Wilson talks to Big Ian, frontman of York party band HUGE about how the band came to be, the importance of having fun, their most bizarre gig and their biggest moment of fame so far. So Ian, how did the phenomenon that is HUGE come to be?
We originally started out as The Untouchables around 1980 when myself and Phil Hardly got together and asked the question 'Shall we form a band?' and decided it would be a good idea. Our first gig was for Comic Relief and we went from there. The line-up has changed over the years to the fine set of musical athletes we have now. The name HUGE came about because there was already a band called The Untouchables out there - so I named it after one of my favourite films - which fitted the size of the band and, unfortunately, the size of me!
Hence why you are known as Big Ian! So why did you decide to be a party band? Well, we all have our little ambitions when we're younger and I thought I was too big and not a good enough singer to do the whole star thing. Besides, many musicians take themselves too seriously and don't seem to have a lot of fun. People want to have a good time - we do music for our own enjoyment and the audience's enjoyment too. All our gigs are purely audience based - I often imagine how I would like to see us if I was in the audience and so we play according to whether we would like it.
So have you ever fancied hitting the big time? No - we're either small small time or small big time, depending on how you want to look at it! You see, you can be small big time or big small time for a long time, but you only tend to be big for a short time - and we'd prefer to be around for a long time, having lots of fun! Describe a typical HUGE gig to me.
It's absolutely mad - a gig like those we do at the Opera House, for example, will have an audience ranging from very young children to OAPs, all there to have fun. And that's what we do. People come to our gigs to have a good time - and we do exactly what it says on the tin! Our gigs are all about humour, fun, music, lots of hefty brassiness - and having a good time, of course.
So what’s the most bizarre gig you’ve ever done? Our maddest gig was at Lancaster University, a few years ago. The organiser booked us into a place called The Sugar House in Lancaster, which has capacity for 1,200 people. Except the entertainment guy at the university organised the gig right in the middle of the exams… and three people turned up! We did a two hour gig, because we thought it was so funny and we had a job to do – even though he begged us to go! It was hilarious – it was just mad, me and the brass section were on the dance-floor, having a laugh with the three people, who were basically the bar staff, playing stuff we wouldn’t normally play live, it was fab - and about the nearest I ever got to seeing ourselves!
That sounds like it was good fun! So what has been your biggest moment of fame so far? Well, we have played above Atomic Kitten, Rolf Harris and Hot Chocolate before, to name a few, but my biggest thrill… there are two. One was when we played at Headingly when Leeds Rhinos won the Challenge Cup in 1999 – it was terrifying, we entertained 15,000 rugby league fans for two hours – and they seemed to like it, so we must have been okay! The other was when we were booked to do BBC Music Live. We were playing in Coney Street and expected a few to turn up, but it ended up that Coney Street looked like Glastonbury when thousands and thousands of people came along – it absolutely blew us away!
So how do you manage to juggle the band and your day job? I teach in a mainstream school. I run an Inclusion Unit, I’m head of Year 9 and teach special needs. I really enjoy teaching and I really enjoy the music and the secret is that I work very hard at both jobs, don’t sleep and look dreadful!
I know that you do a lot of gigs raising money for various charities – why is that? We don’t do charity gigs as a rule, but when we play in town, as in out in the open, we do raise money for charity because they’re big events and it’s easy to make a lot of money quickly – the charities can make a fortune while everyone has fun. It’s no big deal – we have a high profile and it’s more fun than a sponsored walk! We’re there anyway so we might as well give a positive message.
We attracted a huge number of people last time we played in Parliament Street and raised £1,700 for Macmillan nurses – we’ve also supported St Leonard’s Hospice and the NSPCC. So when you’re not playing, what music do you like listening to? I like a lot of varied stuff.. I’m trying to think what I have in the car… souly stuff and more up-to-date music too. What have I bought recently?.. I’ll listen to anything from Kylie to indie. I like Paul Weller a lot, I used to like George Michael when he still wrote good songs… Bill Withers, he’s fantastic. I adore Lenny Kravitz, he’s just the man – Lenny and Bill Withers are two very underrated artists. And does what you listen to reflect what you play? Not really. If it’s fun and goes down well, then we’ll play it! We do all manner of nonsense and we occasionally do some self-indulgent stuff, like Mary’s Prayer by Danny Wilson, that goes down a storm!
So why do you think HUGE is such a popular band? Because we work so hard and it shows. We’re always thinking about pushing ourselves to become more entertaining, more polished. We’ve got some great sponsors – the Evening Press
