Interview: The Jack Fletcher Band: ‘The song that gets the best reaction at gigs is normally ‘Has It All Gone Wrong?’ I think it’s the best one that Jack’s written’

Fresh from the release of their song ‘Carousel’ earlier this year, Wolverhampton-based The Jack Fletcher Band is gearing up to release their next single, ‘The Phoenix’, according to the group’s lead guitarist, George Hadley.

The band consists of Jack Fletcher (vocals), George Hadley (lead guitar) and Henry Bradley (bass) and Tom Robinson (drums). The Indie-rock four piece are what can only be described as real, with their stripped back guitar music, Midlands twang and their live for the moment attitude.

‘The single is fully-recorded and just waiting to be mastered and will probably be released around February next year,’ Hadley said. ‘We’ve already played it at a few gigs. We were just one date into our first ever tour – in Blackpool that night – and then lockdown started. We’ve re-arranged dates in Liverpool and Sheffield for November and Nottingham in December. There’ll also be a gig in the Midlands.’

Hadley is relieved to be coming out of lockdown: ‘It was even more miserable than I expected it to be when we couldn’t meet up. It was horrible. We’ve recently started playing again – we did a charity gig last Saturday.’

Frontman Jack Fletcher – whose voice is often compared to that of Stereophonics’ Kelly Jones – typically write the lyrics, Hadley said. ‘Sometimes, they’re based on his own experiences, sometimes they’re a guy telling a story. It’s not easy to know which of the two it is in a given song!

He acknowledges that Jack gets the comparison to Kelly Jones a lot: ‘You should hear him sing Stereophonics songs! He’s done a couple online (Dakota is one of them).’

‘Carousel’ is about two family members who kept arguing about the same subject, according to Fletcher. A lot of the time, Jack will have the majority of the lyrics before they start working on the medley, Hadley said. ‘Tom and Henry then get the drum and bass parts first and I’ll have the lead guitar at the end. It’s very collaborative, though. We’ve got a lot of creative freedom. My brother was once in a band and was told what to play, he had no choice. I wouldn’t want that.’

Some songs are based directly on people they know, as is the case with their song, ‘The Assassin’, with lines such as ‘she’s like a hitman, head to toe…she’s got you where she wants you’.

‘Yeah, ‘The Assassin’ is definitely about a particular woman [laughs]! I think I know who she is! It was the first one we released as a single (in July 2019). It seemed like the next step for us. Jack has a real talent for writing catchy choruses.’

The group’s songs have also evolved since they started out in 2014. ‘When we were younger, we were angrier, we wanted to rock out more, party and go out on the beers. Now, we write ballads!’

The appeal of the band, according to Hadley, is hopefully its mass appeal: ‘It’s always hard to describe your music but I’d like think that anyone would like ours, that we have something for everyone, you know, slower songs, faster songs with rockier bits but also something that your nana would like. We’ve all got difference influences, which really helps. I like blues guitarists like Stevie Ray Vaughn and rockier stuff, such as heavier Oasis stuff. Tom loves Led Zeppelin and The Who. Henry loves Jamiroquai and Jack’s a big fan of songwriters like Richard Ashcroft and David Gray.’

Of their songs, Hadley likes to differentiate between the ones he thinks are best to play live and those he prefers to listen to: ‘I like playing ’10 Reasons’ best because you can really rock out to it! I really like my solo in that one. The song that gets the best reaction at gigs is normally ‘Has It All Gone Wrong?’ I think it’s the best one that Jack’s written, it always gets people dancing. It’s usually the last but one we play in a set.’

Hadley is a huge Beatles fan and cites Abbey Road and Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Club Band as his two favourite albums of all time. ‘If I had to pick just one, I’d say Abbey Road because of the diversity of the songs. I can’t think of anything better. It’s funny because I was brought up on The Beatles but the others in the band aren’t very bothered! I have tried educating them [laughs] but what can you do?!’