Interview - Bel's Boys

Oh look it's a cheery boy band. Completely wrong demographic I think, but it was a nice short phone interview and they sounded a bit like a Northern Irish McFly. And we very nicely got to speak to the lead singer, as opposed to third Stormtrooper on the left, so that's always an additional bonus. Not heard of them since...

Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in April 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd

BEL'S BOYS

Graham McKee - lead vocals, bass
Luke O'Reilly - lead guitar, vocals
Eoin Logan - drums, vocals

Bel’s Boys are three Northern Ireland lads called Graham McKee (lead vocals, bass), Luke O’Reilly (lead guitar, vocals) and Eoin Logan (drums, vocals). They’re a pop-punk band in the McFly/Busted/Monkees vein. Like PJ & Duncan AKA, they started in TV and have their own children’s show called, believe it or not, Bel’s Boys. Unlike PJ & Duncan AKA they don’t sing about rhumbling or wear baseball caps back to front. Thank goodness for that.

Native gave 21-year-old Graham a call to intelligently discuss Bel's Boys' debut album, the weather, and ice cream. Oh hang on, he's not answering...

Hello. Is that Graham?
Yes, it is indeed. Sorry I didn’t answer the last one, I was on the phone to my dad.

I though you were avoiding me.
I was hanging up on purpose. (laughs) Only joking.

Cheeky. I expect you’re busy, I won’t keep you too long.
We’re just in the car travelling on the way to Sheffield.

You’re on the schools tour at the moment aren’t you?
Yeah, should be cool. It went well today, then we’ve got the rest of the week to go.

What’s the school you’re playing at today?
We did Parklands in Leeds and – what was the other one called? – Cottingley. They were both grand. We went down a storm!

What other cities are you going to?
Leeds, Stoke, Sheffield, Stafford and Liverpool.

What’s the weather like at the moment up North?
It’s a bit grim actually. It’s a bit overcast and stuff, It looks like it’s going to rain.

It’s boiling here. We’ve got loads of sun and it’s brilliant.
Ahh, you’re laughing then. We were in London a few weeks back and it was absolutely beaut. It’s not the best up here.

Can you tell me a bit about your TV programme? I’ve not seen it before. Sorry.
You’re probably not up early enough on a Saturday morning. I haven’t seen a Saturday morning in a long time. It’s called Bel’s Boys and it was on CITV on Saturday mornings at half 9, and it’s pretty much about us as a band being managed by a nine year old girl called Bel.

We sent a CD off to her dad, who’s an agent in Belfast; he doesn’t like it, throws it in the bin, she takes it out of the bin, loves it and then comes round to us and asks if she can be our manager. We say yes because she’s the daughter of who we want as our manager so we sort of use her as a stepping stone to get to her dad and we find out that she’s actually good enough for us. So it’s a story of her being our manager and the trials and tribulations, if you like.

How long’s that been going for now?
It’s been going for donkeys’, it started in October I think. It’s played every day on CITV during the day at quarter past four and now it’s on a digital channel and it’s on every Saturday morning, so it’s still going!

You play Vince in it, don’t you?
I do indeed (laughs)

I was getting very confused looking at everyone’s names, your real ones and your character ones…
I know. It’s been a nightmare like. We’ve decided to go for our real names.

Graham’s better than Vince I reckon.
Yeah, I’d say so as well. Vincent – nahhh! Bit old fashioned like.

What’s your favourite episode that you’ve done of that so far?
My favourite episode’s probably the one where Eoin gets hypnotised, and turns into like a rock god sort of person.

So it’s based on real life.
Oh, clearly. Eoin’s the diva of the group. No I’m only messing. But yeah it was really good fun doing that one.

The little girl, that’s Alannah isn’t it?
Yeah Alannah’s really good, she’s really spot on. She’s actually really like Bel in real life. She’s dead bossy and she knows what she wants. She’s a brilliant wee actress and she’s spot on as well, she played her part brilliantly.

More professional than you guys?
Oh yeah definitely! I mean, she knew her lines when she came in every day and we were like frantically going through our scripts trying to find the lines and stuff. But yeah, she was far more professional than us.

Are you much like Vince in real life?
Er, no. I’m not. Well I get grumpy when I’m tired – that’s what the boys tell me anyway – but he gets sceptical and pessimistic whereas I tend to be more optimistic. I’m a lot more optimistic I would say.

Can you tell me much about Luke and Eoin?
Luke would be the cheeky one I’d say of the group. Eoin is probably the most intelligent one of the bunch. Luke’s blowing raspberries in the background! Eoin can be a bit dozy sometimes, he’s always leaving his phone and he leaves things everywhere, he’s a bit dozy in that way but yeah he is the most intelligent as well. Strange combination.

How did you guys meet?
We met during the audition process. Well Luke and I didn’t even realise until about 4 months into filming. I was like ‘I know your face!’ and Luke was like ‘I know your face!’ We worked out we did a TV show years ago, and then Eoin we met at the audition. We all get on really well.

Big happy family.
Indeed it is. I mean there’s always wee arguments, you know what I mean. It’s like best mates now, like brothers or something. You know, when you like niggle over the smallest things but then they’re like sorted out. It’s like that, it’s brilliant, like we always get on so well.

Do you mind being called a boy band? Or is that something that winds you up?
We’re a band, and we’re boys. You know what I mean? So it doesn’t really… I mean I have a picture of boy bands as Westlife or something like that.

You sound nothing like Westlife though, which is good.
I mean don’t get me wrong, if we have the same success as Westlife we’ll be laughing. But yeah we get compared to the Monkees, stuff like that as well. Yeah boy band’s fine. I don’t know what else you could describe it as, what genre.

Pop/rock really, isn’t it?
Aye, pop/rock, something like that.

Your new single – that’s out today, isn’t it? ‘Today’s The Day’.
(laughs) Today is the day. It’s a bit nervewracking. We get the midweek results tomorrow, and then we’ll see where we’ll chart at on Sunday. It’s all a bit freaky-like.

Getting excited?
Yeeeeah! It’s excitement and apprehension as well, we don’t know where we’re gonna be.

Got your mums to go out and buy a few copies?
Aye, I think my mum went out to get a few copies. I think she bought Woolies out in Belfast. I’m only joking like, I don’t know how many she’s bought, but she probably has bought quite a few. Just try and get my mates to buy as many as they can. They’ll all be skint at the end of it.

It’s all for a good cause though, isn’t it.
Exactly. Exactly.

And your new album is ‘People Let’s Go’. What’s your favourite track on that?
Er… my favourite track would have to be probably ‘Just Wanna Rock N Roll’. It’s like a punkier tune, rocky and it’s got a really good riff going through it so I think it’s one of our best tunes on the album. We’ve got 12 tracks on there. There’s something for everyone really, there’s ‘Today’s The Day’ which is like a 60s sort of happy-clappy summer tune, we’ve got ‘Just Wanna Rock N Roll’ which is a bit punkier, and we’ve got some slower stuff, a bit more acoustic stuff and stuff like that.

You’ve got a few covers on there as well, haven’t you?
Yeah we do, we’ve got ‘She’s Not There’ which is a Zombies cover –

I love that one.
It’s a good track, originally a cracking track as well. We got ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ by Tiffany, I really like the cover actually, I think we’ve done it quite well.

I think Girls Aloud did that just recently…?
They did yeah, but we had it done before them apparently! Then they released it so we couldn’t really do anything. (He shouts around the tour bus for another cover they’ve done) ‘Hold Me Close’ by David Essex as well. We put a wee rock and roll twist on those as well.

What was the last CD you bought yourself?
The last CD I bought was… The View ‘Hats Off To The Buskers’. It’s a really good album. You haven’t heard it? I recommend it. It’s a really good album, loads of cracking tracks on there.

Have you seen many bands live recently?
Yeah, yeah, loads of live bands. Oasis, Snow Patrol, Razorlight, the Tennant’s Vital Festival in Belfast. I’m going to the Leeds Festival this year so [weird loud noise] should be good [weird loud noise] Excuse me.

That’s all right. Was that a sneeze or a cough?
That was a cough. Did it sound like I was sneezing?

I just got a load of noise down the phone. I didn’t know what it was. I thought you were exploding.
[laughs loudly] I should have moved the phone away!

Almost done, just a couple of random questions for you now (well if Graham's all right with 'boy band', we’re going down the Smash Hits route).
Hit me with the randoms.

What have you got in your pockets today?
My lucky pebble. I got it from Worthing beach. Just saw it and it’s been in my pocket ever since, and that was two weeks ago. And I’ve got a lucky 50p as well, it’s like a 1969 old-school 50p. And I’ve got my mobile phone.

Is that a lucky one as well?
No, it’s just a mobile phone. I haven’t actually got it in my pocket, I’m lying, it’s to my ear. So that was a complete lie. I’ve got a couple of plectrums as well. I think that’s about it.

What was the last thing you bought?
Oh, that’s really rubbish. A bottle of water. It’s really boring.

It is a bit boring.
Isn’t it? A bottle of water. Oh, a pair of shoes actually. I bought a pair of shoes in TopMan last week. That’s the last significant thing I bought. Winklepicker shoes. Black.

One last cheesy question. What is your favourite flavour of ice cream?
That’s a cracker. That’s a cracker question.

It’s all the important stuff we need to know, you know.
Yeah exactly. (There’s talking in the background as Bel's Boys suggest flavours) Oh no, you can’t help me with this. No, I don’t like chocolate ice cream! Honeycomb. Pooh Bear. Do you call it Pooh Bear? Hello?

Hello.
Do you call it Pooh Bear ice cream, no?

I don’t know. What is that?
It’s like honeycomb ice cream. Do you not get honeycomb ice cream? [he asks the tour manager, who is English. I think she says no] You know, like the inside of a Crunchie? All mixed up with ice cream.

It sounds gorgeous.
It’s amazing! Everyone eats it in Northern Ireland. I can’t believe it… you have to put that in now!

I will do. I’m sat here in the sun talking about ice cream, and it’s brilliant.

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And with that, we let Graham, Luke and Eoin drive off into the sun (well, into the drizzle) to play a few shows and sign a few CDs.

Bel's Boys 'Today's The Day' single was released through Universal on April 16th. Album 'People Let's Go' is released April 23rd.

Bel’s Boys website
Bel’s Boys MySpace