The Feeling on Everybody’s Talking About Jamie - plus watch their live session

Virgin Radio

10 Sep 2021, 14:00

The band joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about the soundtrack for the movie adaptation of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which was written by the their lead vocalist and guitarist, Dan Gillespie Sells. They also played a cracking live session.

The film adaptation of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie premieres on Amazon Prime Video next Friday (17th September). The movie soundtrack is out today. Dan told Chris: “It’s a true story [about] a 16-year-old boy called Jamie Campbell. We saw a documentary actually about this kid who decided to go to his prom in a dress. The school weren’t very happy about it and told him he couldn’t. He showed up anyway, quite cleverly with a camera crew, which is a great way of kind of protecting yourself. He’s from a working class community in the north of England. This has got to be ten years ago now, and he was just kind of brave. He just showed up. 

“What was brilliant about it was that, in the documentary you see that all the kids turned around and said, ‘You know what, if he’s not allowed in, we’re not going to go in either,’ and they backed him. And these were kids that used to give him a hard time, you know? So, it’s quite a nice story, not only just about a community shifting, but about a community shifting because of one specific person who is quite clever, quite a hero. He’s almost like an unusual hero, Jamie.”

The film follows on from the theatre production, which opened at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 2017, before transferring to London’s Apollo Theatre. Dan, who wrote the music for it as well, told Chris: “The West End has been running for over three years, and it’s quite extraordinary to be a little British story that has managed to survive in that crazy place that is the West End. Obviously we had a really hard time during lockdown, but we managed to get open again as soon as was legal, and we’re now touring as well.”

The stage show went on to gain five Olivier Award nominations with productions in Seoul, Japan, Los Angeles and Australia. “It’s one of those things that, you know, we didn’t think an international audience would get it. We thought it was quite niche, it’s set in Sheffield, it’s quite a simple British story, so we were surprised by the response we got from tourists that were coming to see it initially. They seemed to love it, they seemed to connect with it, they seemed to not care about how specific it was, they seemed to think that it was something that spoke to them, so I think that gave us the encouragement to make the film.”

As well as performing the title-track, the band played This Was Me from the movie. The version on the film’s soundtrack features Holly Johnson. The film is directed by Jonathan Butterell, and stars Sarah Lancashire, Lauren Patel, Shobna Gulati, Ralph Ineson, Adeel Akhtar, Samuel Bottomley, Sharon Horgan and Richard E. Grant, with newcomer Max Harwood in the title role.

Continuing to talk about the love that the Jamie story gets, Dan said: “The reason I think it makes people feel a certain way is that it takes all that stuff that we hear a lot about, about identity, and it takes all of that stuff about identity and actually beings everybody a bit closer together, as opposed to separating people, and we didn’t want our story to be banging a drum, or telling anyone off, or telling people to feel a certain way. All we do is blur those lines.”

Dan added: “What kinda gets to people is this idea that, actually, we’re all humans, we’re all fallible, we’re all a bit of a mess, and none of us get it right all the time, and to show that, I think, is quite uplifting for an audience. 

“Most importantly, we don’t really preach to anyone in this film. We just tell a story. I think people get all the feelings from it, because it’s very funny, there is a lot of wit in it. Tom’s a great writer, Tom McCrae, who’s our writer for the script and the lyrics.

“It is kind of fabulous. But also it’s very grounded. It seems to have its feet on the ground, and that’s one of the things that we really fought for, in making the movie, when we moved it from being a stage show to a movie.”  

The Feeling's next album, Loss. Hope. Love, is out May 6th 2022. It was self-produced predominantly at the band’s East London studio during lockdown. The group will also be going out on tour next year.

During their live session, as well as playing songs from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, the band also performed Love It When You Call, from their 2006 debut album, Twelve Stops From Home. They also delivered a live version of Fill My Little World from the same LP.

When talking to Chris about where The Feeling are currently at as a band, Dan said: "It’s pretty mad. Back in the heady days of The Feeling, when we were touring and life was mad and it was quite overwhelming, we weren’t so prepared. And now we’re a bit more prepared, and now with this extra wave of success with the musical and the movie, we’re able to enjoy it a bit more, and not feel so overwhelmed by it, and actually just get stuck in and make the most of it. So we’re loving it actually."

Within their set, the band also played a brilliant cover of The Beastie Boys’ 1987 hit, (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!) which appeared on the rap act’s debut album, License To Ill.

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is available on Amazon Prime Video from next Friday, 17th September. The soundtrack is out today.

The Feeling’s upcoming album, Loss. Hope. Love, is released May 6th 2022. Tickets for The Feeling's 2022 UK tour are one sale now from thefeelingofficial.com.

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.