Artsoccer - Youves

This is the first in what might become a series of interviews with people from the music world, temporarily monikered Artsoccer, here we interview Stephen Broadze, lead singer and self appointed fashion icon of the excellent Youves (nee Mirror! Mirror!).

Q. So you’re raised in the Midlands between two West Midland powerhouses (Aston Villa and Coventry) and you end up a United fan, what went wrong?

I have family from Liverpool (Everton fans), Nuneaton (Coventry fans), Leicester (Leicester fans) - to me it makes perfect sense to support United. Besides, I am from Warwickshire not the West Midlands supporting Villa or Coventry was just not an option.

Q. I know Luke (the bassist) is also a red, are there any other affiliations in the band and do they cause friction?

Alex is an Aston Villa fan, there is no friction there because Villa never take 3 points from us & are never responsible for our rare premature cup exits. Mike is a Leeds fan, remember them? HAHA!

Q. You're a wannabe rock star and a red. Do you get prawn sandwiches on your back stage rider too?

Sadly not we get cheap beer & crisps, Mike gets Humus.

Q. More than openly liking football and having song title’s like Another Djemba-Djemba you tend to end up talking quite a lot about it on stage. I’ve only ever seen a muted reaction or shrugs from indie crowds, ever thought of giving up the football banter?

Not at all, it's a massive part of us & our charm. The reaction varies according to where we are & on the particular kind of show/club. When we played at New Slang in London just after Arsenal & Spurs drew 4-4 this season I asked if there were any Spurs fans & the place erupted, in came the Arsenal jokes. If I can get just one person in the audience to react to our football banter I am delighted, even when people don't it still amuses all of us. When we played in Leeds I told everyone there was a house party at Gary McCallister's house afterwards (he was manager of Leeds United at the time) and we had people come to ask us where it was, amazing.

Q. Not sounding like The Enemy or Oasis, Youves aren't really a band that would generally be associated with football. Do people in your 'scene' look at you weird when you start talking about the beautiful game?

People look at us weird whatever we do. But yes they are quite often baffled by it but we don't care. It's always nice to meet other bands who love football as much as we do like our friends Rolo Tomassi & Lesser Panda.

Q. I've noticed you cover some pretty bizarre subjects in your lyrics. Ever tried writing a football chant? Want to give it a go here?

Never tried that but it's definitely one for the future. I doubt I could top some of the Stretford End favourites though, some classic material I wouldn't be able to compete against.

Q. You played in the Big Scary Monsters 5-a-side tournament last summer but lost in the final. What went wrong?

I hate excuses for losing other than being beaten by a better team but firstly they scored two more goals than us. Secondly it was the hottest day of the year & we were a little dehydrated. We also think it had something to do with playing away from home. We won all of our games on pitch 3, the final was on pitch 1 where Punktastic played all of their games. We'll be back next year hopefully, and we will bring the trophy home.

Q. And finally, Fergie’s lost it, Neville’s over the hill, Ferdinand’s a muppet, Vidic is a fake hard man, Berbatov's disinterested, Carrick’s not good enough, Scholes and Giggs are too old, Ronaldo’s not playing as well as last season, Park, O’Shea and Fletcher wouldn’t get into any other top four teams, Tevez is off and Rooney’s fat, so is the treble on this year?

No not the treble, the quadruple. Don't forget the charity shield & world club cup, I can see 6 trophies this season.