麻豆社

Siblings Gemma and Rich Upton, write O' Lovely Lie's songs together. Their tracks can be quite diverse, Rich says:

"We've tried to put some link between them... [However] we've accepted now that they're not going to sound the same but through the influence of the drums, the keys and bass, it all seems to come together quite well."

Rich adds how the band's songs develop.

"We have a very embarrassing ten minutes where one of us stands there and plays the song and hopes for good feedback!"

They're about to release an album titled 'No In, No Out, No Echo'. For details about how to get a copy, check out their website:

Find out more about O' Lovely Lie:

Who are your influences?

The Cure, Joy Division, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Sonic Youth, Chameleons, Velvet Underground, Smashing Pumpkins and Prince.

We sound a bit like...

Sometimes sadistic with brooding ballads, building up into an abrasive whirling melodic wall of sound, sometimes manic and at times settled and calming, but always retaining a pop element.

Plus, textured guitars, beautiful harmonies, uplifting keyboards, heavy bass lines and pounding drums.

Could a Nottinghamshire band or artist ever be big?

Yes. Of course. But it depends on what you view as 'big'. You can always be successful at what you do听- it depends on how you measure your success.

In my eyes, there have already been a lot of successful Nottingham bands. There is a massive amount of talent around here.

Do you think Nottinghamshire is a good place for music?

Yes, obviously there are about a million bands and I wouldn't want to watch every one of them. I can safely say that all of my friend's bands from Nottingham are brilliant and I find I can listen to their EPs/albums as if I didn't know them personally.

O Lovely Lie in a tunnel

What was your best gig?

Probably Glasgow Barfly, it was great to have a full day out. Although we did spend most of the night outside due to the no smoking policy!

Any examples of 'rock 'n' roll' misbehaviour?

Rock and Roll misbehaviour? We are very well behaved, polite and intelligent individuals. We drink tea at band practice.听 Does this mean we won't get featured on the website? Erm... hmm... make something up... sorry, I can't. We have no stories. Not to do with being in the band together anyway and we aren't about to go into personal stories!

How did the band get together?

Richard Upton and Gemma Upton are brother and sister, so they met when Gemma was born, six years after he was. They were in a couple of bands together before for about three years.

The band parted, so we decided to carry on and get a new band together. Gemma met bassist Ruth Cottam at work. They were both Librarians. Gemma persuaded Ruth to join the band to play bass, through buying her lots of pints.

Gemma also decided to persuade long time friend Anna Robinson to join on keyboard... Ben Hallam was introduced through a friend to play drums and that's it really! We all get on very well and enjoy making music and drinking tea together.

Which Notts figure should have a statue?

Ideally we should have a statue of the whole band wearing Victorian costumes, riding Penny Farthings, but I guess, realistically, it would have to be someone like D H Lawrence - but I guess he probably already has one somewhere.