Peddling frenetic, glam-infused garage-punk forged in the darkened corners of a town centre Spoons, Mock Tudors are here to engage you with heady tales of bin day antics, canine-led pub crawls and tricky tax return forms. Exposed’s Joe Food located a comfy snug with two of the trio, Ben Hall and Richard Birkin, to discuss the band’s latest release and their upcoming album, Good Drinkin’ Times.
How did it all begin?
BH: I think the genesis of it was in this very room. Our friends had a gig booked at Sidney & Matilda and the headline band dropped out, so the room was free all evening. We’d been drinking all day and decided that we couldn’t let this evening go on without some kind of gig happening.
RB: We were called Screaming Bastards. That was the on-the-spot, six-pints-in name we came up with.
BH: We rang Tufty up at the venue, hired the room and improvised music on the night.
RB: And that is the only time I’ve seen someone slutdrop at a gig.
When did Screaming Bastards become Mock Tudors?
BH: In January 2023, me and Tom were sat in the pub jamming to a song called ‘Mock Tudor’. That’s where it came from. With the name sorted, we then rang Rich up and asked if he was up for making some music in Delicious Clam, just the three of us in a rehearsal room making silly songs.
How does the dynamic work as a trio?
BH: We’re all good drinkin’ times characters. I also think it’s quite democratic in a way, which is really nice. It’s really liberating to be able to share all the duties.
RB: It’s very easy, almost too easy. I remember walking through Sheffield Bus Station on the way to our first practice, guitars in plastic bags, and it felt like being 16 again. It’s more of a laugh now, though, because you’re not worried about what people think and can just enjoy it.
BH: Yeah, I think we try not to set too much expectation for the writing side of things, even though we do take it seriously in some respects. We like it to be quite spontaneous; we’ll put a phone in the corner of the room and listen back to what we were making a few days later.
“We’re all good drinkin’ times characters.”
There seems to be a thread of writing songs about the everyday humdrum of life – ‘Bin Day’, which is self-explanatory; ‘Hair of the Dog’, again something many could relate to; and ‘Self Assessment’, which kicks off an EP about filing your tax returns. Is this a conscious decision or part of the spontaneity?
BH: I think Tom is interested in kitchen sink imagery, but we also all share the same sense of humour. We’re all freelance, kind of dossers in a way, and I feel like we’re interested in romanticising quite mundane stuff.
Making fun, upbeat punk rock tracks out of the everyday.
BH: Yeah, I suppose that’s the juxtaposition.
RB: Everyone’s got a bin, you know?
Everyone thinks about bin day.
RB: And you’d suspect a lot of people would think about self-assessment tax returns, but not in Birmingham. Before playing ‘Self Assessment’, we asked if anyone in the crowd was self-employed and … silence. We had to reassure them that we weren’t the taxman.
‘Hair of the Dog’ is the latest release. I like to think that came about on one of those post-big-night pub meetings, where the third pint hits and everything’s okay again for a bit.
RB: That song was written in our ‘writing booth’ in the back of the Banker’s Draft. We do the lyrics there and go back to [Delicious] Clam to rehearse.
BH: That song was originally called ‘Man from the Bog’, and we were trying to write a song about a man … from the bog. He basically gets reincarnated and goes around town getting pissed. But we realised it didn’t quite roll off the tongue, so “man from the bog” was replaced with “hair of the dog”.
RB: It must’ve been like watching a really bad episode of Get Back.
That single will feature on the upcoming album, Good Drinkin’ Times, out at the end of August. What can you tell us about the record and how things have moved on since your last release, Bozo?
BH: There are a few songs that we wrote a year ago which didn’t really fit with the last set of songs we put out, and then the remainder have been written in the last two months or so. I’d say there’s a similar vein to the last album running through this one, but there’s slightly more junk shop glam in Good Drinkin’ Times, a bit more punk, too, and I’d say it’s a bit more honed.
“I’d say there’s a similar vein to the last album running through this one, but there’s slightly more junk shop glam in Good Drinkin’ Times.”
Some daft ones to finish off. If Mock Tudors had a spirit animal, what would it be and why?
BH: I was gonna say a big bulldog. Or a shaggy little mutt.
RB: If not that, a squirrel.
Why squirrel?
RB: One night a squirrel saved my life.
Fair do’s. If hair of the dog isn’t an option, what’s the best hangover cure?
BH: Mine is a packet of Snaps crisps and a Lucozade Sport.
RB: Agree on Lucozade Sport, but don’t try to drink it like a sportsperson as I did, squirting it into your mouth. It doesn’t end well.
If you could resurrect someone from the Tudor era to join the band, who would it be and why?
BH: Oh, I don’t know. Maybe we’d resurrect Richard III and he’d just dance around and go mental, a bit like Bez.
Sound. And finally, if you had to persuade someone to pop along to your gig at Sidney & Matilda in September, how would you go about that?
RB: What is it – 11 pounds a ticket? I guarantee you’ll not be disappointed with spending that. We’ve got enough in the tank to take you on a journey throughout the set, with stuff coming out that’ll probably even surprise us.
Good Drinkin’ Times is out on 30 Aug. Tickets for Mock Tudors’ Sheffield gig at Sidney & Matilda on 18 Sept available here.
