V
Mark / Leon / Antony / Aaron / KevinYou've all been there before. Watching your favourite new boy band on TV tweaking each others nips, blowing kisses to each other in the air and playing with each others hair before it suddenly dawns on you that you haven't chosen your favourite member. After a process of imaginary V Top Trumps we decided on Kevin on the basis that Leon looks as if he could turn into Keith Barrett in old age, Antony looks like Donnie Walhberg instead of Mark Wahlberg and well Aaron probably takes far too long on his hair. If you're wondering why Mark lost out it was because he kissed Tom from Mcfly on CD:UK instead of Dougie (which would have been hilarious because we don't think Dougie actually speaks, never mind kisses).
With that in mind we arranged an interview with Kevin from V and waited for the phone to ring. You can imagine our surprise when in fact we didn't get Kevin, but all 5 members of V for our money. After the mind cogs worked over we realized that this was in fact better as we had five times as much V for our interviewing pleasure (sadly this equation doesn't always work as Michelle McManus is not 5 times better than Girls Aloud and Sam And Mark aren't twice as good as Gareth Gates, but 5 Kevin's is no bad thing). So here's our very random interview with the whole of V.
Q: According to your biog you wanted to get back to the basics like the Beatles and Take That. Explain to us why V are the new Beatles
Antony: When we first started the band we didn't want to get too bogged down worrying about production and image and stuff like that. We kinda just wanted to be ourselves, go out there and have a laugh really and let the music speak for itself. Just having good songs and good singing - that's been the sort of format from the beginning.
Q: When you guys met Kevin and Mark came together on the Newcastle pop scene. It must have been like Lennon and McCartney meeting for the first time. How was it?
Mark: It was very exciting. There's on a lot going on down there you know, but very few legends
Q: So if you guys are the new Beatles. Who are the new Rolling Stones?
Aaron: Probably the band Pop! - they're rock n roll aren't they!!!
Q: You had the first single "Blood, Sweat And Tears" out and now you're so famous you've had your own internet jigsaw made. How is it to be immortalized in an internet jigsaw?
Leon: I don't think it ever crossed any of our minds and we're just really really chuffed about it.Antony: We want our own dolls. We want our dolls in Toys'R'us and stuff....
Kevin: ...we want em like the action men ones. That's what i'm waiting for.
Aaron: Or we want spaghetti shapes in the shape of V. That would be good (Ed: Don't they already do these called Alphabety spaghetti - maybe they could have it on their rider for someone to pick out all the V's from a tin)
Q: So apart from Alphabety Spaghetti and action men for Kevin what other V merchandise do you want?
Kevin: V condoms. I've always wanted V Condoms, me. One day it will happen!!!
Q: From condoms to the new double a-side single "Hip To Hip" and "Can You Feel It?". Sell it to us boys
Mark: They're both really different songs. "Hip To Hip" is quite summery and upbeat and got that little latin vibe going on. Then you've got "Can You Feel It?" which is for the oldies I suppose for the kids as well. It's an old Jackson 5 cover.Aaron: The formats that we're putting out there are really strong. We've got an acoustic version of "Hip To Hip" and we've also done a medley of our favourite boy band songs of the last 5 or 6 years. It's got Take That "Pray", "Quit Playing Games With My Heart" by the Backstreet Boys", "Keep On Movin" by 5ive and then "Relight My Fire" by Take That.
Q: On CD2 you've got "Chills In The Evening" with Tom and Danny from Mcfly
Antony: Yeah that's right. It's the showcase that we did with Shepherds bush. On the Busted Summer Tour we do our set and then Mcfly come on and they invite us back on-stage to do "Chills In The Evening". We're doing Manchester, Glasgow and London on the forthcoming Mcfly tour so we'll be doing it again then.
Q: Going back to "Can You Feel It?" when was the last time you said "Can You Feel It?" to anyone and who was it to?
Aaron: I had a small lump on my arm and I asked my mum if she could feel itKevin: I keep saying it all the time, but not meaning it to do with the song and then realizing that it sounds really cheesy doesn't it
Q: In the video you all get to do a normal days work like be an ice cream man and milk man. Who decided which job you had and we're there any fights?
Leon: It was the guy who came up with the video idea really. We knew him from before as we'd done a couple of videos with him and he knows our characters and personalities.Kevin: I didn't want to be an ice cream man at first. I wasn't confident about the idea, but it all worked out in the end.
Q: What did your careers advisors say you should be at school?
Antony: I really wanted to be a police man personallyKevin: I was going to be vet or an architect
Mark: I was going to be a drummer.
Leon: I was going to go in the army and I still might do if this doesn't last
Q: I bet your careers advisors would be proud of you. Every time you see you on TV you can't keep your hands off each - is there ever a time when you just wanna shout keep your hands off my nips?
Mark: We're just very very touchy feely as a band I suppose and we get on with each other so much and there's such a spark on stage that we can't keep our hands off each other. We love each other.
Q: Have you ever heard the phrase a 5 Man version of Tatu?
Kevin: If we all wanted to start snogging like Tatu do...Mark: ...there's so many pictures of me kissing other guys on the net (Ed: see FM Forums for most of them). Me kissing Aaron and me kissing Tom from Mcfly. I don't think we'll go as far as Tatu just yet. We'll just stick with the nipple tweaking for the moment.
Antony: We might do it (Ed: do a Tatu) for charity or something
Q: Busted have McFly as their juniors. After the first V album are we gonna get V Juniors?
Aaron (we think): My little brothers going to be in.... (Ed: At this point the rest of the band started laughing which could potentially signal a cover up of Aaron's little brother future plans in pop - anyone care to enlighten us)
Q: Finally, what in V's plans for the rest of the year?
Kevin: We've got this single out today (August 9th). It's pretty scary that it's our second single cos it seems like yesterday we moved in and started recording. As long as we kick ass we don't mind, but it's only our second single - we could end up like D-Side or Phixx!!!Mark: The first thing we did when we formed the band was just record, record, record so the albums already sorted. Before "Blood Sweat And Tears" was released we had about 80 songs that we recorded. We've only shown a little bit of what we can do so far, but there is a sound running through the album.
And there we have it. Our time with V is up and off they scuttle for an afternoon of choreography. We're still none the wiser if V are the best band since the Beatles or set to go the same way as Phixx, but we do know that V plan to combat teenage pregnancy by introducing a range of condoms. We also know that one of the bands younger brother is currently planning his future career in pop, yet the rest of V covered it up quicker than you can say the Hutton Report. V - a pop band that leave us with many more questions than are strictly necessary.
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"Hip To Hip" / "Can You Feel It?" is out now on Island / Universal
The band play selected dates on the Mcfly tour in October
For more info
www.vofficial.com
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Are V the best boy band since The Beatles?
Will V curb the teenage pregnancy rates?
Which charity would you like to see V snog each other for?
Which mystery younger brother of V's is launching a pop career?
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