Dub Pistols bring their Mucky Weekender back to Hampshire this month | Interview

And then…

Silence. The power cut out. Fortunately the band took it all in their stride, only half jokingly blaming it on Brexit and the Tories, and were soon up and running again.

This, after all, is a band which has a mythical documentary charting their chaotic career, several years in the making, called What Could Possibly Go Wrong? A first trailer for the film appeared in 2016, but it still has yet to properly see the light of day – which is perhaps fitting for a band whose 26-year history has been marked by multi-million pound record deals, highs, lows, drink, drugs and debauchery which would have long-since sunk a lesser band.

Over the course of eight albums and a barnstorming live show, their distinctive brand of dub, ska, drum and bass, punk guitars and whatever else takes their fancy has seen the band become firm festival favourites.

So creating their own festival was a logical step for the Londoners. Named after their floor-filling ode to a big night (or two) out, the first Mucky Weekender took place in East Sussex in 2019.

The good, the bad and the mucky

After an enforced year out due to Covid, last year it moved to Vicarage Farm, near Winchester, and is back there next weekend. The 28-acre site is previously known for being the home of award-winning boutique festival Blissfields from 2011 to 2017.

Curated by Pistols’ frontman and co-founder Barry Ashworth, the main stage has live performances from festival hosts Dub Pistols, Dreadzone, Hollie Cook, The Hempolics and Eva Lazarus to name a few.

The other stage will feature house music legend Robert Owens, X-Press 2, The Prodigy’s Leeroy Thornhill, Krafty Kuts brings his King Of The Beats project with Freestylers and Plump DJs, The Clash/BAD’s Don Letts and many more.

The Guide caught up with Barry to find out how the band have been getting on since last summer.

‘It's been really good,’ says the affable vocalist, musician and DJ. ‘Since July last year we just haven't stopped. We've recorded two albums – finally mastered the new one yesterday.’

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Barry explains how he had been hoping to release the new album, Frontline, to coincide with the festival, but it has now been put back to November to tie in with their UK autumn tour.

‘The new album’s artwork has a bit of a cowboy theme which ties in nicely with this year's Mucky Weekender theme – the good, the bad and the mucky.

‘We've been playing three or four of the new songs already – which I can't lie – have been going down a storm.

‘I'm absolutely delighted with it. You've always got to hope that every bit of work you do is your best to date, but I think I can safely say, hand on heart, not in a Boris Johnson-type way, but this is definitely our best work to date.’

Seeking redemption

Looking back over their career, Barry likes to see a positive, redemptive arc with his band ultimately emerging triumphant.

‘The last album (2020’s Addict) came out in lockdown and we'd been working on a film for a long time – the documentary, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? which is the history of the Dub Pistols. And then obviously we were supposed to celebrate the new album and the festival would be like our redemption – the Dub Pistols finally come good.

‘Obviously it didn't quite pan out that way because Covid came and everything went belly up – in true Dub Pistols fashion. So there never really was that redemption!

‘It will be nice to finally be able to get the two tied up together and get it all out in one story.’

A renowned party animal, Barry is looking forward to bringing his musical family together for the end-of-summer blow-out.

‘It will be nice, we'll have that chance, as we did last year, to put on a whole host of special guests and make our show as special as we can on the Saturday night.

‘As you can see going down the line-up, it's pretty much everyone that I work with – there is a mixture of past, present and future stars, but it is a lot of people that I've met through the years, through various different festival and shows who I know are fantastic performers and are going to deliver on the day. It's very much curated by myself and it’s me phoning up my mates and saying: “Can you play, but for not as much money as you normally do..?”’ He giggles.

Back to live

Last year, emerging from lockdown restrictions, The Weekender purposely only sold tickets for two-thirds of its capacity, but this year there’s nothing holding them back.

‘Last year we were still coming out of Covid, but this time it's all looking very good.

‘And we've got a new stage this year, we’ve got a pirate ship going in! I'm really, really looking forward to it. There's been talk about small and mid-range festivals struggling to sell but we haven't really seen that. We've got a loyal fanbase, so sales have been quite steady.

‘Lockdown didn't really end until last July, and we still weren't sure if we'd got Mucky Weekender over the line, because things were so uncertain this time last year. Things were coming out but it was still socially-distanced shows, and financially that had a huge implications on everyone, and I still don't think the industry has recovered.’

While the band have completed two tours as well as their festival appearances in the past year, they’ve noticed people have been a little slow in returning to music venues.

‘At the start there was a 50 per cent drop off in attendance, even from people with tickets, and we even had it last year at Mucky Weekender – 25 per cent of people who bought tickets didn't show up. That's not just us, that's been standard. We did one gig this week, a catch-up tour date in Southend and those tickets were three years old from when they went on sale!

‘Hopefully that side of thing is starting to peter out, but now we've got the cost-of-living crisis – it's a perfect storm!

‘And then there’s been something else that might impact festivals a bit, the fact that people could go abroad for the first time in two or three years. But that's turned into a fiasco as well with all of the flight cancellations.’

Tonic patron

Barry is also a patron of the Portsmouth-based music and mental health charity, Tonic. Back in March the band came down for the official opening of the charity’s new HQ in Prince Albert Road, Southsea.

‘What a great thing that is,’ Barry enthuses, ‘and what a fantastic location they've got themselves for their HQ, which can be used for so many different things.

‘It's been a tough year for them, financially, with all of the funding cuts and things. I'm glad the festival season has taken off again, they were at the Isle of Wight Festival, and I chose them to partner at Mucky Weekender – we've got the Tonic Ska Choir opening the festival. We really wanted to include them and make them front and centre of it. I love Steph (Langan, Tonic founder) and Dawn (West, Tonic events coordinator), the whole lot of them, and I've seen everything they do there. It's quite moving for me to see it all come together.’

The charity was founded in 2012, and Barry has now been a patron for nine years, so he has been part of what they do for most of their existence.

‘It's something I've been incredibly proud of, being able to help them to help other people, it just makes me feel good about myself too. It helped me through Covid and all of lockdown where I was really struggling to focus on anything, it helped me to focus on something else, which was fundraising for them. It gave me a purpose.’

And for the past three years he’s led Barry’s Flying Circus – an annual wing-walking fundraising day. But Barry had different plans for this July's event.

‘I wanted to be a human cannonball, that was my idea for this year, but we couldn't find a cannon that would let me fire out of it – for health and safety reasons. Nobody will let me do it! So I have had to get myself strapped on the back of a plane again.’

Mucky Weekender takes place on Friday and Saturday, September 9-10 at Vicarage Farm, near Winchester. Tickets are £135. Go to mucky-weekender.co.uk.