Q – We were lucky enough to open for you in your recent visit to Barcelona. I felt honored as I’ve been a fan since 1985 or so, and just hope we were an appropriate support act. I read somewhere that organisers have to request your approval before any support act is given green light. I imagine however that this can be difficult sometimes, as most small bands are, well, small, and thus not well known. How do you feel about supporting acts? Are you sometimes afraid that an inappropriate opening can harm your own concert?
A – It is a worry, because if the act is inappropriate for the concert, it can spoil the night, even if the act is good in it’s own right. So sometimes I do insist upon having veto rights, so to speak.
In my solo show I usually play 2 sets, so I have no support, which is simpler.
Another thing that can be frustrating with support acts, from the POV of the main act is – I, personally can’t spend too much time listening to them, otherwise it is possible that I’ll lose the focus that I need to perform my show. So there’s a double edged sword – the better the support, the more frustrating for me.
Here’s a funny thing – I must admit that I didn’t see your set in Barcelona because I was upstairs waiting to see Juliette and the Licks, who I love! They were late going on, naturally, so I only saw one song before I had to come down to our cellar, and ‘focus’… the one song was great, though.