With the news that a new album is on the way from Gypsy’s Kiss and the official release today of their new single We’ve Come To Play, thoughts turn towards The Cart & Horses on 27 April 2024. With former Iron Maiden members guesting, the 50th Anniversary show will be a night of Heavy Metal history at The Cart & Horses. It’s not just a celebration. It’s a gathering of the clan.
For David Smith, in the last 50 years, there has been a natural progression and shift in his songwriting. “When I was writing the songs, which we still play but have developed enormously by these guys, I was a young lad writing post-punk songs with appalling lyrics and three chords. We try to develop that a bit now. I think we’re up to five chords in some of our best songs.”
“Six, if you’re lucky,” corrects Jonathan Morley.
“When you write, as a young person, you pour out your soul more in three chords,” David said. “In 2024, we try to do it a little bit more artistically and a little bit more thoughtfully. But ultimately, we sit in a room and thrash out a few songs and think, yeah, this might work.
“Covid was quite an interesting era for the world. But for us, we wrote and recorded remotely and sent each other stuff from each of our studios. It’s an interesting discipline that we sort of still do. We exchanged lots of writing and music ideas using technology that’s available to us in our home studios. It’s changed their writing approach hugely.”
“These two guys have been working away in creating what I think is really great music,” Fraser Marr says of David and Jonathan. “I can say that because I wasn’t part of the writing process. I think I only took one song for the last album. But I was amazed when the songs were finished. Some of these things you play live, and you think this is real quality. I’m now playing catch-up because I’ve learned the process, and hopefully, the next album will build on me. I think the songs that these two have written are improving and generating that electricity and power.”
One interesting element is with the three guitars and keyboard, they have to leave room for Ross Hunter. It gives it a whole different dynamic to most bands, though. “I think these guys, too, came from twin guitars, three guitars harmonies. Wishbone Ash. Thin Lizzy and those great bands. We try to intertwine guitars, do harmonies, do all of that within it. We’ve added keyboards as a texture that wraps around the guitars. We hope it doesn’t clash. It’s never our intention to do that.”
“You need a good sound man on stage,” Jonathan says, “to make sure that all those instruments come through. We have a few fights occasionally about who plays what as well, that’s musicians.”
And being in a band.
“For the older viewers who might be watching this,” David says, “Iron Maiden and Steve would identify that his roots were in progressive rock, where there were massive keyboard players and guitars playing intricate parts. I think we’ve just tried to take that. It’s very much in our soul and in what we do.”
“Iron Maiden have got three guitarists now,” Jonathan says, “but for most of the time, they only had two. If you listen to the record, there’s going to be a rhythm guitar and two leads. We can actually do that on stage, whereas most of them can’t. If the two guitars come off the rhythm and start playing harmony, it can be a bit empty. So, actually, it’s an advantage.”
“We are the sum of our roots, good or bad,” David says. “Since these guys joined Gypsy’s Kiss six years ago, they brought so much to the sound without changing it, if that doesn’t sound odd. They added so much to the writing and the performance. But you can still hear the roots of ’70s classic rock within it. Modernised, I hope. The band have been very lucky with the lineup. We’ve got great musicians individually, but collectively, we do our thing. That’s the plan.”
The collective plan for Gypsy’s Kiss is to release the new single We’ve Come To Play and prepare for the showcase of their new album. Then, get ready for The Cart & Horses Anniversary show on 27 April 2024. There will be a host of former Iron Maiden members there, too, adding to the excitement of the event.
There are also plans to play in Europe. “European audiences are very kind to us,” David says. “The classic raw Heavy Metal, particularly of a British orientation, is really, really popular in Europe. British bands are welcomed in Europe, and we love that.”
From Switzerland and Italy to Germany to France, it promises to the Gypsy’s Kiss Wine Tour next year. You heard it here first.
Tickets for 27 April at The Cart & Horses are available from here. You can read more about The Cart & Horses here.
