They were made in Blackpool and its music scene in the back rooms of pubs, but Boston Manor haven’t played here to a live audience since they were signed in 2015. Frontman Henry Cox talks to Beth Barker about hometown pride, creative catharsis and the band’s long-awaited homecoming gig
“I’ve always felt that Blackpool just has this immense potential, but that it’s never really had the support it needs. There’s so much going on here beneath the surface, it’s always had this artistic energy and underground culture that makes it completely unique.”
Henry Cox’s frustrations are familiar to most Blackpool natives. The band he fronts, Boston Manor, formed on the Fylde Coast in 2013 when its five members were just teenagers, all of them having grown up here. A string of EPs followed and since signing to Pure Noise records in 2015 they have risen to fame, sharing their distinctive sound and hard-hitting lyrics to audiences across the globe. With ‘90s grunge and heavy metal influences, the genre-bending quintet stands out with atmospheric, synth-driven and energetic music like no other recording artists today. Now, almost a decade after their emergence, the five piece return to Blackpool on tour in celebration of their latest studio album.
While Boston Manor already made their debut hometown headliner during the pandemic at the town’s infamous Tower Ballroom, the event was streamed virtually to fans across the world as a result of strict event guidelines at the time. And while the show was a hit for global fans and the band themselves, they’re looking forward to playing for a live audience in the town they grew up in.
“We can’t wait to perform where it all started, especially after being away for so long,” says 28-year-old Cox, dressed in a casual tee and gold-rimmed specs, leaning forward in his seat as he shares his excitement. “The fact that we haven’t really played a real gig in Blackpool since we were putting the band together makes it feel even more exciting.”
But why has it taken so long?
“It’s a real shame, and I do feel a bit guilty about it. I’m always preaching about how great Blackpool’s music scene is and that more bands should come through, but it is hard when it’s so off the beaten track.”
Cox is right to praise the town’s music scene – something the band also attribute to their formation and their eventual success. The group first met as teenagers while playing in different bands, circulating in Blackpool’s burgeoning underground music community. After some years spent figuring out their own identities as musicians, the five-piece came together to form Boston Manor. Made up of Henry Cox (lead vocals), Mike Cunniff (lead guitar), Ash Wilson (rhythm guitar and backing vocals), Dan Cunniff (bass) and Jordan Pugh (drums), they’re now thriving at the forefront of the alternative rock scene.
“Back when we were starting, it sort of went like that – you play in a band and you can play a gig. They were hosted anywhere and everywhere, and once someone found a venue (usually the backroom of some landlord’s pub), there’d be a pile on for all these different bands to play. A lot of metal, indie and a whole hodgepodge of genres. It was a really fun time, and we met pretty organically because of it.
“I’d be getting on buses all over the Fylde Coast to try and start a band with this guy, or take photographs for another indie band, or go to another gig. You’d get all over the place, and everyone sort of knew everyone.”
The band are proud of their Blackpool roots and the music community they were shaped by. Once the capital of entertainment in the North, the town has spent the last 30 years being battered by underfunding, a decline in tourism and a wave of social problems – the latter arguably caused by the former. For many young people growing up in noughties Blackpool, the alternative music scene became an outlet, an escape from having little to do and nowhere to do it.
When you’re a musician, you’re kind of infantilised, stuck in a semi-childlike state without many responsibilities.
Despite Blackpool’s surface reputation in the mainstream press, Boston Manor maintain their passion for the coastal resort, citing the significance of independent venues and grassroots groups driving it forward. Growing up in the surrounding suburbs including Thornton-Cleveleys, Bispham and St Annes, Blackpool was the centre-point of their youth and the place where everything began for the band. But Cox acknowledges their early struggles in the music business as a band from here, and explains why they’re eager to see power and funding across the London-centric music industry redistributed.
“Venues like Bootleg and the Waterloo Pub, and publications like BSC are so important. I think they’re really doing a good job of showing there is so much culture here. It’s always been an artistic town, going back to the f**king Beatles playing here! Then there’s Rebellion Festival that’s been going as long as I’ve been alive.
“It’s going from strength to strength, despite the lack of funding and government support. Blackpool and so many other parts of the North just get completely forgotten about and it’s a real shame.” Quite rightly, there’s a strong sense that he could speak on this subject for a good couple of hours.
Boston Manor’s Blackpool headline show at Bootleg comes as a welcome surprise for many of their fans in the town – proven when the show sold out within hours of tickets being released. Initially designed to be a standalone gig in celebration of the band’s fourth studio album, Datura, they’ll now play in five other cities Cox also describes as “off the beaten track” (Leicester, Bournemouth, Tunbridge Wells, Huddersfield and Stoke) prior to the show and before heading to tour Australia in March.
A concept album in which a narrative unfolds over the course of one night, Datura offers a fresh sound while remaining distinctly recognisable as belonging to the rock quintet. While previous albums have been defined by a grit, longing and reflections on the world around them, Cox’s new lyrics are as vulnerable as they are poetic.
With his captivating whippet, Wallace, sat in his lap behind his computer screen as he chats on Zoom, Cox reflects tentatively on the creative process.
“Writing is a kind of catharsis, isn’t it? And I’m one of those people who learns by doing. I often process thoughts out loud, so this album is sort of me getting those things out on paper.”
For many musicians, life on tour takes its toll, and the Boston Manor frontman admits the last few years have been tough for him especially. Datura is the manifestation of those battles and his journey to understanding them, something Cox says he “hadn’t really given himself chance” to work out until the pandemic hit.
“We’ve been touring constantly since we were teenagers, and then we were in lockdown. I think everyone did a bit of a stocktake and, for me, that was when I realised a lot of things I hadn’t been dealing with.”
“When you’re a musician, you’re kind of infantilised, stuck in a semi-childlike state without many responsibilities. You get fed, you go on stage and repeat. I’ve struggled with drinking and not really taking care of myself, and my wife just said: ‘Why don’t you write about it?’”
That’s what he did – and the album is certainly an accomplishment. Dubbed as “equal parts cinematic, catchy and cool” by Kerrang!, Datura feels like a natural evolution for a band on track for greatness.
As Boston Manor prepare for their return to Blackpool’s music scene on Bootleg’s revered basement stage in December, they’re contributing to that change in their own way. At each gig they play, the band will be accepting cash and toy donations on behalf of local women’s shelters, supporting those spending the holiday season in refuge centres.
When asked if he thinks his Blackpool roots have any part to play in his struggles with alcohol and mental health, Cox is keen to make clear that he didn’t grow up on the mean streets. However, he does recognise that early life on the Fylde Coast made an impact on him and his outlook.
“You know, I’m very privileged, I grew up in a nice street and my parents are great. But growing up in this town and seeing friends lose homes or have their lives deeply affected by the problems here, it makes a mark.”
Speaking passionately, he adds: “Obviously these problems aren’t limited to Blackpool, but it is one of the poorest places in the country, and that’s where it stems from. I hope that changes in the future.”
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