Vangoffey On Going Solo, Touring With Babyshambles And His Love Of Spurs
Danny Goffey spent 17 years behind the drums for Supergrass. The band’s debut album, ‘I Should Coco’, went straight to number one and they would go on to release five more albums before their subsequent split in 2009. Since then, Goffey has toured with Babyshambles and written and released his first solo record, ‘Take Off Your Jacket & Get Into It’, under the pseudonym Vangoffey.
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You released a few songs under the name Vangoffey while still with Supergrass, was a solo career something you always wanted to pursue?
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It was around the time MySpace was coming out, I first came up with Vangoffey then and I did some sort of really crap acoustic songs and I put it on MySpace and that was like 2005, and I’m so crap with computers I didn’t know how to take it all off again so I was sort of stuck with these really terrible songs. But, it was something I did want to do from that time, it’s just I didn’t want to upset anyone, I was quite loyal to Supergrass and I just sort of played that out for the last album and then we all split up and Gaz (Coombes) starting producing and doing his own thing and I thought ‘f*ck it, I’ll do it aswell.’åÊ
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Drew McConnell plays with Vangoffey, did you know him before you joined Babyshambles a few years ago and how did that come about?
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Yeah, I know Drew from around Camden and Soho and he asked me to play with them (Babyshambles) on a European tour, which was around 2011, and it was really good. We’ve been pretty good mates ever since. The guitarist, Louis Eliot, I’ve known him for a long while around 15 years, and I’ve known Marley Mackey since he was born, he’s 19 and plays guitar aswell.åÊ
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On the new record, ‘Take Off Your Jacket & Get Into It’, what influenced the sound and what music were you listening to at the time of writing?åÊ
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Bands like Squeeze, Magazine, mostly late 1970s, 80s bands. Not really for the songs, more for the sound. I didn’t want it to sound too 60s or too old sounding. I guess the record, lyrically, is more influenced by stuff I was busy with and going through and the music came a bit second, I suppose.
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Spurs
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Does Tottenham run in the family?
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Yeah, my brother is a Spurs fan. Most of the band are, actually. Marley Mackey, his dad was in Pulp, he’s quite a young lad and he’s my son Alfie’s best friend and Alfie’s a Spurs fan too. All of my in-laws are too, so that was kind of a beautiful little accident.åÊ
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Do you have any memories of your first game?
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I remember the first time seeing Spurs at Wembley against Liverpool in 1982. I remember things like taking Alfie for the first time when he was little, stuff like that. I remember going to see the Carling Cup Final win against Chelsea in 2008, but I live in Somerset now and I’ve been down here for 10 years so its a bit harder, if I can get up to a few games a season it’s great.åÊ
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Do you think moving into the new stadium is a necessary step for the club and are you sad to be leaving White Hart Lane?
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Well its had so many problems, its taken quite a few years. Loads of people I speak to, when they go and see their team at White Hart Lane as an away fan they always really love the vibe, so I just really hope it’ll be similar when we move. I’ve looked at some of the plans though and it looks amazing.åÊ
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How impressed have you been with the club’s start to the season?
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It’s been great, yeah. I had a å£20 bet at 100/1 for Spurs to win the title earlier in the season, and since then they’ve started to talk about the top four quite heavily. It’s quite a mad one, the fact that they’ve only lost once too, it’s probably the best start for ages, the most solid start in terms of potential aswell.
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New album: ‘Take Off Your Jacket & Get Into It’ out nowåÊhttp://www.vangoffey.com/