Music: Brakes
Brighton legends Brakes are reforming. Frontman Eamon Hamilton took time out from bringing up kids
to talk to us
How’s it going? Are you in New York or elsewhere?
I am living in Ulster County in upstate New York, which is glorious. It is pretty rural around here, everyone is on a well and septic system, we get drinking water from a pipe out of a mountain in the village in five gallon jugs. Sometimes there’s a queue and we talk about how our garlic and tomatoes are doing.
What are your memories of pre-Brakes band Brighter Lunch, and how did it shape Brakes?
Brighter Lunch were great! We formed in Stroud over a summer and moved to Brighton because our bassist, Jonny Gray, was studying here, and me, Matt Eaton and Johnny Farmer had nothing better to do. I got a job at Waitrose in Burgess Hill, giving out wine and food samples, Matt and Farmer got temping jobs at Reeds. We rented a flat on Denmark Villas in Hove, then we moved to Kemp Town, just down from The Levellers’ studio, who are really the best neighbours you can have when you’re in a band.
We were good, but looking back, we were a bit unfocused. We were trying to blend classic rock, indie pop and free party deep house, which kind of split the audiences. Our last gig was supporting Electric Soft Parade at the Pavillion Theatre, we’d spent three years trying to make it and we’d run out of energy. After that, I was a bit lost and pissed off and took it out on my guitar and wrote a bunch of tunes that became the first Brakes record.
Is it true that the brothers White (Alex and Tom of the aforementioned Electric Soft Parade) saw you play solo and suggested forming a band?
I was opening for The Lonesome Organist at what was Palmers Bar (just down from the old ice skating rink), and Tom and Alex had come along for support. They came up afterwards and said that the tunes needed a band. I think they rang Marc Beatty (bassist) after I’d finished (he was working at Mockingbird Studios) and after the gig we went there and jammed…
Brakes… why that name?
My friend Matt Eaton had seen a guy on a bike, tearing down Trafalgar Street, screaming: “I’ve got no brakes!” I thought, ‘well everyone needs some brakes every now and then’, and there it was.
Three albums, all great, why did the band end?
I wish I had pronounced my Ts and Ps better on the second record, but you can’t go back, can you. We never ended, I just had three kids in four years and my life went a little bit doolally.
Why are your doing this now?
That’s fucking deep, man. Honestly, I don’t know.
Do you miss Brighton!?
Of course. “Kemptown mother’s smiles, we walked for miles, ooh I’ve got a crush on you.”
Concorde 2, Fri 19 June, 7pm, £14
