Page 22 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 111

BV111 pg 20-25 Massive Wagons Interview.qxp_BV111 pg 22 14/12/2024 23:54 Page 3

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t was when we first listened to ‘Night Skies’ from ‘Earth “Blokes like to appear tough. ‘I’ll carry it on my s
ITo Grace’ that the impact of Massive Wagons’ message
hit us. The touching song begins with frontman Barry ‘Baz’ Mills it.’ It’s breaking that down. And, I think it’s an olde
singing ‘It’s a struggle waking up in the morning, I’m sick of giv- keep hammering away at it until the younger gene
ing over my time, I’m always thinking I’m going nowhere, that’s
life’. The powerful video, featuring comedian Nick Helm, further perience that stigma.” - Baz Mills, Massive Wagons
emphasised the meaning, showing a man on his own, dealing
with disaster after disaster, from the moment he got up in the
morning, and throughout the day, while always keeping a brave
face. It shows that you never know what someone may be
going through. The text at the end of the song urges, ‘If you are
struggling with your mental health, please reach out. #ItsOk-
ToTalk’ – closely following with ‘You Are Never Alone’.
Along with the release of the single, the band chose to take
Andy’s Man Club, a men’s suicide prevention charity, out on
tour with them. Andy’s Man Club was formed in 2016 by Luke
Ambler and his mother-in-law Elaine Roberts after his brother-
in-law Andy committed suicide. They set up the organisation to
provide weekly peer-to-peer support groups for men in the UK.
The charity’s slogan is ‘It’s Okay To Talk’, which is where the
hashtag at the end of the ‘Night Skies’ video came from. The
club is free to attend, with free brew and biscuits. There are
now over 200 support groups around the country, with more
planned. They run every Monday at 7pm, except bank holi-
days. In the groups, men can talk in a safe space about the
storms affecting their lives. There is no obligation for men to
speak – just going and listening can help.

he silence of my sky will keep me safe’, Baz sings in
‘T‘Night Skies’. Black Velvet begins by asking if he
thinks men find safety in silence. “I think so,” Baz replies. “The
line is definitely that. I think you’ve nailed it, really. It’s also
about feeling like you want to go to bed all the time, because
that’s a time when you switch off. Something that is commonly
associated with depression or being depressed is wanting to
sleep a lot, because it’s a safe space, isn’t it? Everybody’s
switched off and you’re just in silence. It’s a comfortable place,
but it does leave you open to your thoughts a lot. But yeah, I
think guys do use silence as a way to escape their problems,
which isn’t really the answer, is it? It’s a quick fix to a larger
problem, isn’t it? I think. Andy’s Man Club are the guys address-
ing that.”
While females are known to be more open with their feel-
ings, having deep conversations with their friends, revealing
emotions like it’s second nature, men can find this much harder.
As in the video, men can go about life, putting on a brave face,
keeping everything inside, not letting anyone know what they
are dealing with. And, even if a colleague or friend asks them
how they are, they may just say ‘Okay,’ keeping schtum about
their problems or concerns.
When we ask Baz how we can get men to open up in
everyday life, he refers back to Andy’s Man Club.
“It’s a tough one, isn’t it? It’s a tough one. I was watching
an interview on TikTok with one of the Andy’s Man Club guys
and it was an interview by Richard Hammond, oddly enough.
It was the first time I’d heard about things called Sweepers. At
the headquarters and a lot of the clubs, I think, when they’re
on, they have guys that walk up and down the street outside
and if they see blokes sat in cars, they approach them and
knock on the window and say, ‘Are you here for Andy’s Man
Club?’ and he said they go, ‘Uh oh, err, yeah,’ and they get
them inside. The hardest part is that tiny step, the going
through the door, getting someone to speak. Once they get in-
side, they tend to be fine. They talk. They’re in the environment
then. The hardest thing is to make yourself walk through the
door. They’re finding they would speak to guys and they’d say,
‘Oh, you don’t know how many times I’ve been sat outside and
I’ve driven away. I haven’t got the courage to come in.’ So,
they’ve got these guys to sort of give them the confidence to
come in, and that leads them to opening up and getting them
to talk. Once they’re in the environment… I’ve never been to
one myself. I should go and experience it myself, just to have
the experience so I can talk about it with a bit more confidence,
but I’ve spoken to people who’ve been and it’s about creating
a comfortable environment for blokes to talk amongst them-
selves, maybe like the pub environment. A lot of pubs are clos-
ing down nowadays, I don’t know if that’s a thing. They can’t
talk to their mates. Maybe they don’t see their mates a lot any-
more. Money constraints. They’re stuck at home. They haven’t
got the money to go out and see their friends. It’s all about cre-
MASSIVE WAGONS