The Remains Of The Fray

“Asparagus before you go out, asparagus the next day and you’re laughing.”

A miracle hangover cure as recommended by Morrissey? Not the worst way to start an afternoon.
“I swear to god,” Liam Fray raves, “I don’t have to say this – Courteeners? We like a drink. We cane it. We caned it in America literally non-stop for seven weeks. Asparagus keeps your head above water.”
Aside from the haute cuisine, does the fellow Mancunian have any particularly fond memories of touring the States with Moz last year?
“Even if I did, there’s no way I could possibly tell you. We could never go to print,” he says, in all seriousness. “He’s a legend. He’s his own man, he doesn’t really care what other people think. He’s very true to his own ideals.”
Liam Fray could very well be talking about himself. While the British press have written him off as foul-mouthed, arrogant and overall a pretty unpleasant character, the man I’m speaking to is, quite frankly, a pussycat.
If I were so inclined, I might even say that Liam Fray is a top bloke.
Whatever he is, he’s extremely chirpy for someone who’s been playing shows nearly every night for the past month. He quickly shakes off any suggestion of fatigue; “Born to do it!” he grins.
Amid cries of “the new Smiths” and “successors to Oasis’”, debut album
St. Jude earned The Courteeners a sizeable fan base back in 2008. Alas, they never quite become the rock giants we were all expecting. Needless to say, the pressure’s on for sophomore record Falcon, of which I’ve yet to read an average review: people seem to either love it or loathe it. Does it surprise Fray that for every rave, it gets an absolute stinker of a write-up?
“Yeah, it does,” he admits. “Because I think everyone should love it. People have a thing for people that are great, you either don’t like them or you love them. We are the Marmite of bands.’
“I think people who like The Courteeners vote with their feet. The size of the UK tour we’re doing speaks for itself. There’s not a lot of bands doing these size tours at the minute. Times are hard and you only get a certain amount of pocket money to spend, so it’s nice that we’re on top of a lot of people’s lists.”
You’d be forgiven for assuming the 24-year-old thinks a lot of himself. On new tune ‘Forget The Weight Of The World’ he even croons,‘I’m not Jesus/I’m definitely not Barack.’ Does this lyric have anything to do with the ‘Liam Fray Is God’ Facebook group I stumbled upon this week? “No!” he laughs, “but that’s hilarious! I’ll be joining that!”
Does he have a lot of fun with his lyrics? “Yes,” he beams, “I’m glad you noticed that. A lot of the time people are like ‘What do you mean you’re not Jesus? Do you think you’re Jesus?’ No! I’m taking the piss!... But I think that’s half the fun. Even though the lyrics are kitchen sink drama and very real, there has to be some air of mystery.”
Ego or no ego, Fray’s not above admitting his weaknesses, “I tell you what, I was absolutely shitting it,” he says of being asked to present an NME Award this year. “I can sing and I play guitar. 10,000 people, Manchester – could have done it with me eyes closed standing on me head, but that was something outside of the comfort zone.”
Fray adds that covering rock Daddies Oasis was another near pants-soiling moment; “We’ve only ever covered ‘There Is A Light…’,” he explains, “and that’s because I know we’ve got Morrissey’s blessing to do whatever we like. For ‘D’Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman?’… we totally folked it up. We thought ‘Let’s fucking do that, Noel might hate it but at least we’ve given it our own spin.’”
Seeing as the man himself has invited the foursome to support his solo show at the Royal Albert Hall later this month, I’m guessing Noel doesn’t hate it.
“I’m not gonna take words out of the chief’s mouth,” Fray laughs, “but to be personally requested by him at his first proper solo gig is pretty fucking amazing. It’s a dream come true. He’s pretty much the reason I picked up a guitar when I was 12, 13 years old.”