Page 24 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 111

BV111 pg 20-25 Massive Wagons Interview.qxp_BV111 pg 24 09/12/2024 20:51 Page 5

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assive Wagons have been using their teach them. You can’t teach an old dog new fun, some are more serious - but all rock your
Mmusical status to try and make a differ- tricks, as they say, can you? You can get them socks off. Baz chose to speak out about the gov-
ence in other ways, too. Baz and Adam toured when they’re young and teach them respect and ernment in the infectious ‘Missing On TV’.
Lancashire primary schools to campaign against teach them to treat people kindly and, hopefully, “I, and a lot of people, feel let down by the
bullying a while ago after releasing ‘Fuck The they’ll grow up with those values, won’t they? government. So, the only thing you can do is
Haters’ as a single. They gave proceeds from Me and Adam, very recently, we’re very lucky, take matters into your own hands a little bit. And,
the single, and other merchandise, to The So- we were entered into a poll with several other if it wasn’t for Andy’s Man Club, and it wasn’t for
phie Lancaster Foundation. amazing programs to get some funding, so me all these other wonderful charities that do vari-
Baz says there were a lot of bullies when he and Adam have actually received some funding ous jobs looking after women in abusive rela-
and Adam [Thistlethwaite, guitarist] were chil- recently off the back of that, so we can do some tionships, all these wonderful organisations,
dren. “My life was a misery at school. Not sec- more schools and get some more teaching aids we’d be knackered if we solely relied on the gov-
ondary school so much, but primary school – or whatever, so, hopefully, we’ll go a bit further ernment to help us out with all these issues.
which is why we went into primary schools.
I was tiny and looked very young. I was an
easy target. I don’t know what the state of
bullying is in schools nowadays. I have a
daughter who is eight and she goes to pri-
mary school and they are a world apart from
when I was at school. The teachers are in-
credible. The strictness of the teachers I
don’t think did any good when I was a kid. I
don’t think it did the kids any good. I think
they rebelled against it. That was, maybe, a
cause of the way kids acted back then. All
the kids at my daughter’s primary school all
seem to be wonderful children and the
teachers are a younger generation. Teach-
ers at my school were the last of the gener-
ation where they could whack you with a
stick. They aren’t allowed to anymore. And it
was horrible.”
Being a similar age to (well, a bit older
than) Baz, we remember those years. A little
known fact is that, when we were at primary
school, we were told off by a teacher for not
closing our school book when she told the
class to. We were told to go to the teacher
and hold out our hands, and she hit them, as
far as we remember, with a ruler. It’s quite
shocking to think that teachers were allowed
to hit a pupil’s hands for just not closing their
school book at the same time as everyone
else. Maybe it instilled some discipline in us,
though. Who knew we were such a rebel at
the age of 7!? But, thankfully, corporal pun-
ishment was prohibited in schools in 1986,
and school life is so much better for it now,
we imagine.
“Me and Adam did a tour of the schools
where we lived and they were amazing, and
the kids all took it in. We did a talk and we
asked a lot of questions and they all an-
swered amazingly, in a very mature fashion.
I was very impressed. Blown away, really. I
like to think it’s less of a problem these days.
Some of the answers the kids were giving…
We were asking a lot of questions like, what
should you do if you’re being picked on, if
someone else is being picked on, your
friend, who should you talk to, what course
of action should you take? And they were all
giving amazing answers, so, without seeing
it for myself, I’d like to think it’s less prevalent
than it ever was. Again, it’s much like mental
health, if you can stamp it out, generation
after generation, maybe it’ll not become a
thing anymore. I think, with our band, we
have a small platform, so you’ve got to try and afield and do some somewhere else. We’d get nowhere, would we? I think we all have
use it for some good, don’t you? Try and help in We mention that, when we were at school, a duty to try and do a little bit, don’t we?”
some way or another.” it seemed to be in high school when we noticed People in the UK have lost faith in the gov-
When the band played Lancaster Music boys having fights in the playing field or on their ernment for many reasons – one being the cost
Festival, it was billed as ‘Forget The Haters, an way home after school. of living, with prices of everything skyrocketing.
Interactive Class on the importance of kindness, “I think it goes on wherever,” says Baz. “But As Baz sings in ‘Missing On TV’, ‘They got cash
respect and being yourself’. We ask if Baz thinks I ain’t going to secondary school to talk to kids for expenses, personal defences. Moolah to
people need more classes on kindness, respect about bullying!” he laughs. “I draw the line! I wipe those entitled asses’.
and being themselves at school. haven’t got the nerve for that! I’ll leave that for He talks about the cost of living.
“I think so,” he replies. “The reason we went someone else!” “It’s all well and good saying, ‘Well, people
to primary schools was because that’s where we should cut back on the luxuries in life because
experienced it, and, I think, if you teach children he album, ‘Earth To Grace’, features an they’ve got no money,’ but it’s like, well, no.
when they’re that age, that’s the best time to Tarray of subject matter; some songs are Maybe they should, but, I think, the luxuries in
MASSIVE WAGONS