Maximo Park Wax Poetic on Riders

Posted on Sep 14th 2007 11:00AM by Jolie Lash

British indie-rockers Maximo Park hope to head back Stateside for a slew of dates before the year is up. Judging by what Spinner saw backstage at last month's Leeds festival, promoters might want to get their thinking caps ready. The five piece, who have a major U.K. hit on their hands with their second album 'Our Earthly Pleasures,' have some unusual rider requests.

"Is that really a Vivienne Westwood tie? Has somebody really given us our rider request" Paul asked a girl who carried said item into his dressing room, at the late-August event. As it turns out, it was, with a receipt included in the bag in case it wasn't to the band's liking.

While Smith admits the extravagant item was "kind of a joke," one thing definitely on Maximo's proper rider, if venue staff are so inclined, is a good work of literature. "We always say, whoever gets the rider, if someone wants to recommend a book or buy a book by their favorite author -- 'cause it's quite fun as well, when you've gotta go out and buy loads of stuff for people, 12-pack of Fosters [beer] or whatever, [buying a book would] be nice," he explained.

Though he didn't get any new offerings when Spinner last caught up with him, Smith didn't seem to mind. He revealed he has a stack of novels ready to go including Peter Guralnick's 'Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley,' and the follow-up, 'Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis.'

In fact, as Spinner discovered, the suit wearing, English frontman is quite fond of America's king. "I went through a real big phase. I did a masters degree at university and I was studying pop music and I always sort of liked [Elvis]," Smith admits. "Then I started getting into the Sun recordings and just the sound of them and feel of them and [you think about] this guy in a room, feeling like it's the first day of the rest of his life and this pure, unbridled attack on the kind of music that he was making. It's still very formative. It's not punk rock, but it's got that spirit -- it's the spirit of rock n' roll if you like."

Quite deep thoughts for an English rocker in 2007. So what gives with his leanings toward Elvis literature and books in general over a big bottle of JD? To hear Smith tell it, he's got a new set of priorities. "We're calming it down. I think you can only do something for so long before it gets a little bit boring," he said. "[We did all the rock n' roll stuff] for a few tours and I've kind of taken a bit more of a refined look at being a touring band."