Sent from Coventry
They may be Britrock’s hottest property, but The Enemy have a surprising amount in common with Boyzone.
Stuart Clark, 18 Sep 2007
He didn’t get to bed Angelina Jolie or score a hat-trick for his beloved Coventry City, but otherwise Tom Clarke has just enjoyed the perfect August Bank Holiday Weekend.
“We played Reading on Friday; Leeds on Saturday; what used to be the Millennium Dome on Sunday with the Rolling Stones; and Pentonville nick yesterday, which I can honestly say was the most rewarding gig I’ve ever done.”
And they say rock ‘n’ roll kids nowadays are lazy! That little lot needs teasing out, so let’s start with Tom and his band The Enemy’s festival shenanigans.
“Believe it or not, the first festival I ever went to was Reading last year,” he divulges. “We drove down from Cov in Andy our bass-player’s knackered Ford Fiesta and couldn’t afford a parking space, so to come back 12 months later and ram one of the tents was pretty mind-blowing.”
How does it compare to supporting Mick and the chaps?
“Only slightly less fucking fantastic!” enthuses the 19-year-old singer, guitarist and – judging by the reaction of my female friends – complete “give it to me now, big boy” ride.
“It was like being at a gig in America,” he says skillfully sidestepping that final observation, “because everyone working for them is from there and ultra-efficient, which you have to be at that level or you’ll get killed. It’s easy to make old age pensioner jokes about the Stones, but they’re lovely people and still passionate about new music – hence us getting the gig.
“It meant a lot to me because my parents playing ‘Honky Tonk Women’ on full volume in the kitchen is what got me into rock ‘n’ roll. To be side-of-stage when they played it the other night genuinely brought a tear to the eye.”
There was more manly moistness the following morning when The Enemy played to their most captive audience yet.
“Yeah, we went from the Rolling Stones to prison,” Tom laughs. “Part of you’s buzzing off it and part of you’s concerned because you’ve never been in prison before – honest! – and don’t know what to expect. Normally you judge the success of a gig by the amount of fists in the air and crowd surfing, but the payback this time was the smiles on people’s faces.”
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