The Big Reunion is back in full swing on ITV2 as more popbands of yester-year reunite to tell their story and perform for their fans once again.
One of the headline bands of this series is A1 ā Mark Read, Ben Adams and Christian Ingebrigsten ā who have actually been quietly enjoying success away from the UK since they reformed in 2009. Now the band have set their sights back on the UK and weāve been chatting to all three of them this week.
First up is Mark Read. We gave him a call to talk about The Big Reunion experience, discuss the changes to the music industry since A1ās heyday and find out what he got up to in the years after the band first split.
How are you today?
Iām not too bad. Iām just in the car off to another full day of rehearsals and shenanigans.
The Hammersmith show is this week. How have the rehearsals been going?
Really good. Better than expected because weāve had to spend a lot of time doing dance moves and things like that which initially we thought weād said goodbye to a long time ago. They were really keen for us to do them so we were game and up for it. Itās turned out pretty good.
Has it been hard to get back into the groove with the dancing?
We kind of have to learn how to learn routines again. You have to train your body and muscles to do several things at the same time. Iām a musician and I play drums so Iām used to doing one thing with one foot and one thing with the other. Itās the same with the piano as well. With dancing itās still completely different. Youāre literally moving you head, your shoulders and all of your muscles in a different way so it is a bit of a challenge.
What does it feel like to be part of The Big Reunion and have another chance?
To be honest with you we never felt liked we needed another chance with what weāre doing because weāve actually been very active in other parts of the world. Weāve spent a lot of time in Scandinavia and a lot of time in South East Asia. Of course weāve been very absent from the UK for a number of years so weāve looked at it as a step back into the UK territory. Itās been great to be a part of it.
Has it been a bit of an adjustment being back on the radar of your UK fans?
Thanks to things like Twitter and Facebook once they find you, you hear from your fans all the time. Itās been great but itās been another level how many messages weāve been getting from our fans online since the show aired last week. Itās been phenomenal. I think I got 1,000 followers in a couple of hours so it wasnāt bad.
Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook just werenāt around when A1 first came out were they?
They werenāt around at all. Facebook started around 2006 and we were finished around 2003. I donāt even think there was YouTube in the way that itās established now breaking artists and as a place where people can find out what bands are up to. It was a very different time. I actually think with it comes some really good things and some really bad things. There are certainly pros and cons to fans being able to see everything that bands do nowadays.
Thereās a huge amount of expectation now that bands should be on TV all the time, have cameras with them 24/7, be tweeting and constantly taking selfies. Do you feel that pressure or are you just trying to do your own thing?
I donāt get too caught up in that. Thereās only so many pictures and selfies you can put out there before people get very bored of it. I think people are actually really desensitised to all of it. We see so much of that all the time that actually itās like wallpaper now. I think the problem with that is that the music industry has lost a lot of its mystery. Once upon a time you had huge stars and icons that you didnāt really know much about, now you get to hear what they have for breakfast, what theyāre wearing, what theyāre doing for lunch and that theyāve just walked past a shop. Itās great on one hand that it put the fans much more in touch with the bands. I do think itās lost a certain element of magic that it used to have when popstars really were like megastars.
All of the platforms like CD:UK and Top of the Pops that were around a decade or so ago just donāt exist anymore. Thereās nowhere for a band like A1 to perform on TV really anymore is there?
Absolutely not. As great as it is I think that MTV has a lot to answer for that in terms of turning all their show programming into reality shows. I know thereās room for that of course but it went from music television to reality TV. Video budgets have gone down massively and there are just not the shows where bands can perform anymore. Thereās so many bands, even more now weāre in the YouTube generation, but thereās only a handful of shows so bands have to fight for that spot. It ends up being The Graham Norton Show or The Jonathan Ross Show.
Weāre keen for The Big Reunion to really kickstart the return of proper pop as the charts are so full of ācoolā artistsā¦
Even the pop bands are trying to be so cool. Iāve got to be honest that this yearās BRITs was a bit of a telling sign. Everybody seems to be so jaded and blasĆ© about everything. When One Direction were going āwhat have we won?ā and not knowing exactly what was going on. The whole thing has become a bit of a chance for a jolly. I guess in the industry a lot of the bands and artists see the BRITs as the chance for a night out, not really caring if theyāve won or not. I think thereās always been a divide between the industry and the bands because people donāt want to seem too corporate or moulded in that way. I found it a bit sad that only a handful of people went up and seemed grateful and happy to be winning an award. Everybody else just seemed bored and āwhat have we won? Oh great!ā
There was also the irony at this yearās BRITs that most of the performers werenāt Britishā¦
Yeah! There is that. I thought Katy Perry would have been an amazing opener for the show because her performance was awesome, and I know the Arctic Monkeys had all the flames and everything which was cool, but I guess you have to open the BRITs with a phenomenal British band really. When it comes to awards ā Iām not knocking anything about the British music industry because itās still the best in the world ā but the Americans really know how to do it. When it comes to award ceremonies they are so slick and polished. They always tend to put on the best performances. I loved Bruno Marsā performance at the BRITs.
Letās talk about the years when A1 disbanded. What were you doing during that time?
Initially when the band first went our separate ways, the first thing I stepped back into was songwriting because it seemed the most natural thing to do. I wanted to develop my writing so I did wrote with a lot of artists. I wrote songs for various X Factor artists, Charlotte Churchā¦so many different people that I got the chance to work with and have songs on their albums. Even nowā¦Iāve got a song on the last Boyzone album. Iāve been very fortunate to have Michael Bolton sing one of my songs, Robin Gibb, Paul Carrack, Paul Rodgers, right down to British rock royalty like The Hollies who recorded some of my songs. Songwriting has been a really, really good thing for me. As a performer and a singer youāre used to being on a stage and performing in front of an audience so Iām quite happy to be getting back out there and doing it.
Sounds like youāve been very busy and enjoyed a lot of success ābehind-the-cameraā as people would say?
Yeah! Thereās nothing wrong with that. I think everyone knows that when youāre in front of the camera thereās a window of opportunity and youāve just got to go for it. That kind of thing doesnāt last and you really need to look at setting up something long-term. For me the songwriting and producing has been a much better long-term thing for me.
A1 are going to continue regardless of the outcome of The Big Reunion. What are you hoping that the show can do for you?
Itās kind of already happened and Iām very grateful for that. That was to reignite a fanbase in the UK that perhaps didnāt really know what weāve been up to. Itās mission accomplished from that point of view.
Itās a case of enjoy the ride and see what happens then?
Yeah, weāve got the show in Hammersmith and Iām personally hoping that a lot of A1 fans have bought tickets and will be there. When you do a show with several bands you donāt really know how the audience is going to be split up. Iām really hoping that the A1 fans will be coming out in full-force for that.
The Big Reunion Eventim Hammersmith Apollo show takes place tonight. The show continues Thursdays at 9pm on ITV2 and the album The Big Reunion 2014 is released on 3rd March. Watch the video for A1’s classic Summertime of Our Lives: